Ma Aye,  whose husband left the Myanmar military after the 2021 coup and who herself grew up as a soldier’s daughter, gives an insider’s view of  life, exploitation and discrimination, in the armed forces.

Doing news work in Myanmar comes with high risk to life and safety, in a profession with uncertain prospects for the future. Since 2021 the coup, the junta has been using legal persecution as a weapon against journalism and journalists.

It has been 20 years since Myanmar’s intelligence agents detained the writer, who was a university student at the time. Yet far too little has really changed in Burma since then.

As refugees, asylum seekers, exiles or people waiting it out in other countries after Myanmar’s 2021 coup, the newest additions to the country’s huge diaspora are grappling with anxiety while away, taking up junior jobs, sending financial aid home and to the anti-coup resistance – and hoping their time away is temporary .

The country is plummeting into the gravest political, economic and humanitarian crises in its modern history. But  I see a bright future ahead, beyond the darkness.

The pandemic in Myanmar is an emergency that is unfolding swiftly, and is much, much worse than what we know at the moment. Reporting ASEAN speaks to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to get a better picture of the situation.

Asean has been pooh-poohed by many, but it is still the most pragmatic bet for talking  to Myanmar’s military. But can it convene a coordinated international response, with the west as bad cop and it as the negotiator, under heightened expectations about its doing ‘the right thing’ in our digitally connected world?