KIA Disrupts Myanmar Rare Earth Flow To China

           (Devjyot Ghoshal’s post from the REUTERS NEWS on 17 September 2025.)

BANGKOK, March 28 (Reuters) - When armed rebels seized northern Myanmar's rare-earths mining belt in October, they dealt a blow to the country's embattled military junta - and wrested control of a key global resource.

By capturing sites that produce roughly half of the world's heavy rare earths, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) rebels have been able to throttle the supply of minerals used in wind turbines and electric vehicles, sending prices of one key element skyward.

The KIA is seeking leverage against neighbouring China, which supports the junta and has invested heavily in rare earths mining in Myanmar's Kachin state, according to two people familiar with the matter.

India Working with KIA for Rare Earth Minerals

       (Staff posts from the ECONOMIC TIMES INDIA on 10 September 2025.)

India explores rare-earth deal with Myanmar rebels after Chinese curbs: India is working to obtain rare-earth samples from Myanmar with the assistance of a powerful rebel group, according to four people familiar with the matter, as it seeks alternative supplies of a strategic resource tightly controlled by China.

India's Ministry of Mines asked state-owned and private firms to explore collecting and transporting samples from mines in northeastern Myanmar that are under the control of the Kachin Independence Army, three of the people said.

State-owned miner IREL (India Rare Earth Limited) and private firm Midwest Advanced Materials - which received government funding last year for the commercial manufacturing of rare-earth magnets - were among those involved in the discussions, the sources said.

Last Days of Sean Connery (1930-2020)

                (Nisha’s post from her FACE BOOK on 11 September 2025.)

In 2016, Sean Connery had quietly stepped away from the public eye, living a serene life in the Bahamas. The man once known for his commanding presence and iconic voice now preferred early mornings with the sound of ocean waves instead of red carpets.

He spent much of his time in his Lyford Cay home, walking slowly through the garden with his wife, Micheline Roquebrune, sometimes stopping to sit under the shade of a palm tree where they would sip tea and talk about art, travel, and the quiet beauty of growing old together.

By 2017, Connery had become more reclusive, though still sharp in moments of clarity. Friends who visited recalled how his eyes still held the same intensity that once defined characters like James Bond and Jim Malone. But his memory began to falter. He often forgot names, struggled to follow conversations, and occasionally seemed lost in his own house.

Charlie Kirk Assassinated by a Sniper in Utah!

                 (Editorial post from the NEW YORKER on 11 September2025.)

Charlie Kirk, the conservative media figure and influential supporter of Donald Trump, was shot and killed today while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University. Graphic videos captured by those in attendance appear to show Kirk being struck in the neck by a bullet. He was thirty-one.

The President announced Kirk’s death on social media, and requested flags across the country be flown at half-staff. Other major political figures from across the ideological spectrum, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris, condemned the shooting and political violence.

Kirk founded Turning Point USA, a youth-focussed right-wing nonprofit, in 2012, when he was just eighteen. “It’s impossible to overstate his role in MAGA and Republican politics,” Antonia Hitchens, a New Yorker staff writer who covers politics, told us over e-mail from Washington, D.C.

Mexico’s Molar City Could Transform Your Smile.

              (Burkhard Bilger’s post from THE NEWYORKER on 28 July 2025.)

Mexico’s Molar City Could Transform My Smile. Did I Want It To? More than a thousand dentists have set up shop in Los Algodones. Their patients are mostly Americans who can’t afford the U.S.’s dental care.

Los Algodones was built on leaps of faith. A short walk from the United States, it’s a place for the poor, the afflicted, the huddled masses without dental insurance. On weekday mornings in late winter, they start to arrive before dawn. They drive in from Arizona or California, catch a shuttle from Yuma, or park their car in a lot in the Sonoran Desert and cross the border on foot.

The path for pedestrians follows State Route 186, past a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses offering free Bible courses, along a twisting corridor of razor wire and chain-link fence, through passport control, and into Los Algodones.

Trafficking of Young Men and Boys in Myanmar

               (Based on the Burmese post from the FACE BOOK in August 2025.)

A destitute family of three in the hellhole called war-ravaged Myanmar. Old mother made and sold Burmese snacks under the big kokeko tree next to their tiny hut on the tiny piece of land they owned. The old father formerly was a carpenter but had a severe stroke and paralysed and ended up permanently in bed.

They have one young son who worked as a bricklayer and, being a good boy, he gave his daily wages to his old parents. Even though they were poor they had a reasonable life together. Then one day the tragedy struck.

On his way back home from work that day the boy was forcefully grabbed by the drafters from Mynamar Army and Myanmar Police, the hellish brutes, universally hated by their own people of Myanmar. They put him in jail and then went to his old parents and tried to haggle for his release.

Give us 10,000,000 Myanmar kyats (about US$ 2,500) if they want their son back, demanded they. Othewise he would be sent to a boot camp for two months and then be fighting the ethnic insurgents at the faraway front lines by the Chinese border.