Neelum Valley in northern Pakistan attracts some 300,000 tourists each summer who marvel at its natural beauty.

At noon on Sundays in Worthington, Minnesota, an overflow crowd is still swaying to the Guatemalan band at Spanish-language Catholic Mass, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are wrapping up their six-hour-long service, and at town’s edge among the cornfields, refugees from Southeast Asia gather to pray and sing in Karen at the Baptist church founded by Swedish farmers.

The main group coordinating opposition to military rule in Myanmar has rejected a surprise offer from the ruling generals to hold talks on a political solution to the country’s nationwide armed conflict.

Guerrilla fighters from the main ethnic Karen fighting force battling Myanmar’s military government have withdrawn from the eastern border town of Myawaddy two weeks after forcing the army to give up its defense.

Officials in Thailand say about 1,300 people have fled from eastern Myanmar into Thailand as fresh fighting erupted at a border town that has recently been captured by ethnic guerillas.

Thailand’s foreign minister says he has urged Myanmar’s military authorities not to violently respond to its army’s loss of an important border trading town to its opponents.

Guerrilla fighters from Myanmar’s Karen ethnic minority are claiming to be close to seizing control of a major trading town bordering Thailand.

WORKING OUT THE DETAILS OF THE MORNING COMMUTE TO WORK IN THE BOZMAN HOUSE IS SIMPLE. IN THE MORNINGS, KAREN AND BRYAN BOZMAN GET INTO THE SAME CAR AND HEAD TO BRIDGE CITY HIGH SCHOOL.

On this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Karen and Brian about the energy among Texas conservatives around abortion and schools.

In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Mitchell, James and Karen about the status of the power grid and the pandemic heading into winter.

Myanmar’s military government says rockets were fired at two of its air bases, causing minor damage and no injuries.

Ethnic guerrillas say they captured a Myanmar army base near the border with Thailand.

Protesters in Myanmar are marking two months since the military seized power by again defying the threat of lethal violence and demonstrating against its toppling of the country's democratically elected government.

Anti-coup protesters run to avoid military forces during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar on Wednesday March 31, 2021. (AP Photo)YANGON – Opponents of Myanmar’s military government declared the country’s 2008 constitution void and put forward an interim replacement charter late Wednesday in a major political challenge to the ruling junta. The moves, while more symbolic than practical, could help woo the country's armed ethnic militias to ally themselves with the mass protest movement against the military's seizure of power in February. The ceasefire announcement came after a flurry of combat with at least two armed ethnic minority organizations that operate on the country's borders. Ceasefires between the ethnic militias and central government forces have always been fragile, and the ethnic minority forces had no immediate reaction to the announcement.

(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)MAE SAM LAEP – The military launched more airstrikes Tuesday in eastern Myanmar after earlier attacks forced thousands of ethnic Karen to flee into Thailand and further escalating violence two months after the junta seized power. The U.S. earlier suspended a trade deal and imposed sanctions on junta leaders as well as restricted business with military holding companies. Tuesday's air raids in eastern Myanmar killed six civilians and wounded 11, said Saw Taw Nee, head of the KNU's foreign affairs department. AdProtests against the junta continued in several Myanmar cities Tuesday despite its lethal crackdown that killed more than 100 people on Saturday alone. They said on Monday, however, that Thai soldiers had begun to force people to return to Myanmar.

(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)YANGON – Thai soldiers began sending back some of the thousands of people who have fled a series of airstrikes by the military in neighboring Myanmar, people familiar with the matter said Monday. But Thai officials denied that as the insecurity on the border added a new dimension to an already volatile crisis set off by a coup in Myanmar. But later, three people with knowledge of the matter said Thai soldiers had begun to force people to return to Myanmar. In one border area, Thai soldiers refused to let journalists or curious locals approach or speak to those who had fled. Video shot Sunday showed a group of villagers, including many young children, resting in a forest clearing inside Myanmar after fleeing their homes.

In this photo released by the Free Burma Rangers, members of the humanitarian group Free Burma Rangers carry out medical checkups on villagers in the northern Karen State, Myanmar Feb. 25, 2021. (Free Burma Rangers via AP)BANGKOK – In the jungles of southeast Myanmar, the army was shooting and otherwise oppressing civilians long before last month’s military coup. In the country’s remote southeast, an army offensive has driven as many as 8,000 ethnic Karen people to flee their homes in what aid groups say is the worst upheaval there for nearly 10 years. But it also is a reminder of the brutal force Myanmar's army has long used against civilians, and in particular the country's ethnic minorities. The Karen long ago learned the brutal nature of the military, independent analyst David Mathieson told The Associated Press.

The Texas Tribune Tribcast for Feb. 12, 2021. Credit: Laura Buckman for The Texas Tribune(Audio unavailable. Click here to listen on texastribune.org.) On this week's TribCast, Matthew speaks with Kate, Karen and Mitchell about Attorney General Ken Paxton's latest legal problems, the vaccine rollout and the politics of energy in Biden-era Texas.

Holly Ainsworth, a nursing intern at the University of Texas, administered a COVID-19 vaccine to Nurse Stephanie Vasquez on Dec 15, 2020. Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune(Audio unavailable. Click here to listen on texastribune.org.) In this weeks' podcast, Matthew speaks with Karen, Ross and Alex about the coronavirus vaccine and the Electoral College vote in Texas.