Author: AFP
A powerful earthquake has killed more than 1,700 people in war-torn Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand and caused widespread damage. Here is what we know about relief efforts: – China – China sent an 82-person team of rescuers to Myanmar on Saturday, Beijing said. On Sunday, state-run Xinhua news agency said a 118-member search and rescue team had also arrived. A separate rescue team arrived in Myanmar’s commercial hub Yangon on Saturday, state media said. The Chinese government will also provide Myanmar with 100 million yuan ($13.8 million) in emergency humanitarian assistance, with shipments to begin Monday, its international aid agency…
Residents scrambled desperately through collapsed buildings Sunday searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay, two days after a massive earthquake killed more than 1,600 people in Myanmar and at least 11 in neighbouring Thailand. The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock. The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people. As dawn broke Sunday, tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed…
Demonstrators descended on Tesla dealerships across the United States and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top advisor to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages like “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Teslas in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as “terrorism.” Hundreds rallied Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in New York’s Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his so-called Department…
France’s trade ministry condemned “unacceptable” US interference Saturday after the American embassy in Paris sent several French firms letters warning against using the diversity programmes known as “DEI”, a frequent Donald Trump target. The letters, sent to French companies currently doing or looking to do business with the United States, included an attached questionnaire asking firms to certify that they “do not practice programmes to promote diversity, equity and inclusion”, or DEI. The questionnaire, which was shared with AFP, added that such programmes “infringe on applicable federal anti-discrimination laws” in the United States, where Trump signed an order banning federal…
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday urged Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire” in a phone call between the two leaders. Macron’s intervention comes at a time when Israel has resumed its bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory following the collapse of a fragile truce with the Islamist group Hamas. “I called on the Israeli prime minister to put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire, which Hamas must accept. I underlined that humanitarian aid must be delivered again immediately,” the French…
A Russian drone attack killed at least four people and wounded 21 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, damaging high-rise buildings and triggering fires in a hotel, service stations and homes, an official said Saturday. Both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up their aerial attacks even as US President Donald Trump pushes the Kremlin and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire after more than three years of costly fighting. Late Friday, Russia sent “more than two dozen drones” to Dnipro, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region Sergiy Lysak wrote on his official Telegram account. Lysak said four people were killed, and…
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has sent condolences to Myanmar and Thailand, offering help to the archipelago’s Southeast Asian neighbours after a powerful earthquake killed more than 150 people. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of both countries during this difficult time,” he wrote on X late Friday. “Indonesia stands ready to provide all necessary support for recovery efforts in the affected areas.” The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake hit northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar on Friday, and was followed minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock. While the full extent of the catastrophe is yet to emerge,…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russia had given no adequate response to US efforts to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine and needed to be pressured into a peace deal. “For too long now, America’s proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table without an adequate response from Russia,” Zelensky said in his evening address. “There could already be a ceasefire if there was real pressure on Russia,” he added.
Israel said on Friday it will enforce a ceasefire in Lebanon everywhere in the country, after rocket fire prompted it to bomb Beirut for the first time during the fragile four-month-old truce with Hezbollah. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam described the strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs as “a dangerous escalation” and French President Emmanuel Macron called it an “unacceptable” truce violation. The health ministry reported no casualties from the Beirut attack but said Israeli strikes in the south killed five people. It was the second time rockets had been launched at Israel from Lebanon since the November ceasefire — the…
A US judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to preserve messages from a Signal chat group used by President Donald Trump’s top national security officials to discuss plans for an attack on Yemen. US District Judge James Boasberg said he will order the government to “preserve all Signal communication between March 11 and March 15,” referring to the commercial messaging app.