World Briefing: March 31, 2025
The smell of death ‘fills the air’ near the epicentre of the Myanmar earthquake, local residents say. Bodies trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Sagaing and Mandalay cities are said to be decomposing in Myanmar’s stifling heat “Now with every gust of wind, the smell of dead bodies fills the air,” says Thar Nge, a resident of Sagaing – the city closest to the epicentre of the devastating magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on Friday. “At this point, more bodies are being recovered than survivors,” Thar Nge told Al Jazeera on Sunday, explaining how rescue workers from nearby Mandalay had just arrived in Sagaing earlier in the day, after the Yadanabon Bridge, spanning the Irrawaddy River, reopened.
Foreign rescue teams and aid supplies are arriving in Myanmar, as the country copes with the aftermath of a massive earthquake that killed at least 1,700 people. The 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay last Friday afternoon (Mar 28), followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock. Rescue workers are now racing against time, as the so-called 72-hour “golden window” for finding survivors buried under rubble is closing. The CNA team on the ground has observed that despite a lack of equipment and training, locals have rushed to help, digging through rubble with their bare hands to search for survivors - Channel News Asia
The Thai government has launched an investigation to determine the cause of the collapse of the 30-storey building at the centre of city rescue efforts following Friday's quake. Critics have questioned the standards of a Chinese contractor involved, and raised concerns over the quality of steel and building materials used. An investigation team from the Ministry of Industry has collected samples of construction materials from the site of the collapsed State Audit Office (SAO) building in Chatuchak district, said Pongpol Yodmuangcharoen, secretary to Industry Minister Akanat Promphan, on Sunday. The team is focusing on the quality of steel bars used in fortifying concrete polls, beams and foundation structures in particular, as substandard steel bars could have led to the collapse, said Mr Pongpol. - Bangkok Post
Several buildings in Bangkok were evacuated late Monday morning amid reports of vibrations and cracks appearing in the buildings. The evacuations occurred about 10am. Affected premises included Building A of the Government Complex on Chaeng Watthana Rd, the Ministry of Labour in Din Daeng district and court buildings on Ratchadaphisek Road. People were also cleared from the headquarters of Government Housing Bank in Huai Khwang district, the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek and the Social Security Office in Din Daeng.
Republican President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was not joking about seeking a third presidential term, which is barred by the U.S. Constitution, but that it was too early to think about doing so. Trump, who took office on January 20 for his second, non-consecutive White House term, has made allusions to seeking a third one but addressed it directly in a telephone interview with NBC News. "No, I'm not joking. I’m not joking," Trump said, but "it is far too early to think about it…There are methods which you could do it, as you know," he said, declining to elaborate on specific methods. U.S. presidents are limited to two four-year terms, consecutive or not, according to the 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A proposal to overturn a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress and ratification by the legislatures of three-fourths of the 50 U.S. states. Some Trump allies have floated the idea of keeping Trump in the White House beyond 2028, and the president has also brought up the idea on a number of occasions in a manner that seemed to poke at his political opponents. Trump, who at 78 was the oldest U.S. president at the time of his inauguration, would be 82 if he took on another four-year term following the November 2028 election - Reuters
Donald Trump said that he will impose secondary tariffs of 25 percent to 50 percent on all Russian oil if he feels Moscow is blocking his efforts to end the war in Ukraine. During a March 30 phone interview with NBC news, US President Donald Trump said that he was “very angry” and “pissed off” when Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a transitional government to be put in place in Ukraine, which could effectively push out Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault -- which it might not be -- but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump said.
