The Irrawaddy

Dr. Pe Nyan, a renowned astrologer and monk who once served as state adviser under former junta chief Senior General Than Shwe and ex‑President Thein Sein, was found stabbed to death at his monastery in Yangon on Thursday morning. He was 75, and had been a monk for 15 years. Authorities said the body of the scholar-monk, who was also known as U Pyinya Wuntha, was discovered with fatal stab wounds inside his hermitage at Sandaku Monastery in Hmawbi Township.

Myanmar has been engulfed in relentless battles since the 2021 coup, decimating a military comprised mainly of recruits from impoverished backgrounds supplemented by conscripted youth. Soldiers from frontline battalions and support units alike are being killed or maimed in unprecedented numbers, while the families of missing personnel are routinely denied salaries and entitlements. They struggle to survive in silence.

Myanmar regime insists Myitsone Dam’s benefits outweigh risks People protest against the Myitsone Dam in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina in 2019.

Heavy fighting has broken out in Nabar Village, Sagaing Region, a strategic junction linking road and rail routes between the region and Kachin State, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded, according to resistance sources. Nabar lies at the intersection of the Mandalay-Myitkyina and Shwebo-Myitkyina highways, with a rail spur to Katha to the east, making it a vital transport hub and military flashpoint.

The military regime and its propaganda outlets have unleashed a series of personal attacks on UN Special Envoy for Myanmar Julie Bishop after she criticized worsening conditions in the country since the junta’s staged election. State media branded her an “unpleasant diplomat” and accused her of lacking integrity, reflecting the regime’s anger at her remarks. On June 19, Bishop highlighted the junta’s abuses during a briefing for UN member states.

An estimated 150,000 villagers displaced by fighting in Pakokku District in Myanmar’s heartland are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter, according to local aid workers. One aid worker helping refugees from the district’s Myaing Township told the Irrawaddy that their need for shelter, medicines and basic foodstuffs such as rice and cooking oil is growing more urgent around one month into their ordeal. “They just randomly ran to the nearest safe place,” he said.

Yangon’s new regional speaker and mayor both have bloody histories, having risen through the ranks by serving the interests of the Myanmar military rather than the public. Their records are marked by loyalty to authoritarian power and involvement in episodes of repression that left deep scars on Myanmar’s political history.

NAYPYITAW—Where is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi? Myanmar’s deposed leader is under house arrest in the capital Naypyitaw, according to her captors, but exactly where is hard to say in a city experts describe as purpose-built to guard its closed-ranks rulers’ secrets. With a population of just one million and a landmass nine times that of New York, Naypyitaw is a labyrinth of anonymous compounds connected by deserted 20-lane highways through tracts of jungle and paddy.

Myanmar’s junta is pressing ahead with the revival of the long‑suspended Myitsone Dam in Kachin State, portraying the China-backed project as the key to solving the country’s crippling power crisis. At a press briefing on Tuesday, President’s Office spokeswoman Khaing Khaing Soe confirmed that the dam’s resumption was discussed during Min Aung Hlaing’s trip to Beijing.

YANGON—More than 100,000 people have been killed across all sides in in Myanmar since a military coup five years ago triggered civil war, a conflict monitor said on Wednesday. The military ousted the elected government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, detaining the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and ending Myanmar’s decade-long experiment with democracy.