Politics
Myanmar earthquake death toll exceeds 2,700, but survivors still being found – National TenX News
Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Myanmar’s capital on Tuesday, but hope was fading of finding many more survivors of the violent earthquake that killed more than 2,700 people, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war.
The fire department in Naypyitaw said the woman was successfully pulled from the rubble 91 hours after being buried when the building collapsed in the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit midday Friday. Experts say the likelihood of finding survivors drops dramatically after 72 hours.
Death toll numbers forecast to increase
The head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, told a forum for relief donations in Naypyitaw that 2,719 people have now been found dead, with 4,521 others injured and 441 missing, Myanmar’s state MRTV television reported.
He said Friday’s earthquake was the second most powerful in the country’s recorded history after a magnitude 8 quake east of Mandalay in May 1912.
The casualty figures are widely expected to rise. The earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, making the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.
Most of the reports so far have come from Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake, and Naypyitaw, the capital.
“The needs are massive, and they are rising by the hour,” said Julia Rees, UNICEF’s deputy representative for Myanmar.
Myanmar’s fire department said 403 people have been rescued in Mandalay and 259 bodies have been found so far. In one incident, 50 Buddhist monks who were taking a religious exam in a monastery were killed when the building collapsed, and 150 more are thought to be buried in the rubble.
Structural damage is extensive
The World Health Organization said more than 10,000 buildings overall are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged by the quake.
The earthquake also rocked neighboring Thailand, causing a high-rise building under construction to collapse and burying many workers.
Two bodies were pulled from the rubble Monday and another was recovered Tuesday, but dozens were still missing. Overall, there were 21 people killed and 34 injured in Bangkok, primarily at the construction site.
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In Myanmar, search and rescue efforts across the affected area paused briefly at midday Tuesday as people stood for a minute in silent tribute to the dead.
Relief efforts moving at a sluggish pace
Foreign aid workers have been arriving slowly to help in the rescue efforts, but progress lagged due to a lack of heavy machinery in many places.
In one site in Naypyitaw on Tuesday, workers formed a human chain, passing chunks of brick and concrete out hand-by-hand from the ruins of a collapsed building.
The state Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported Tuesday that a team of Chinese rescuers saved four people the day before from the ruins of an apartment complex. They included a 5-year-old and a pregnant woman who had been trapped for more than 60 hours.
It also reported that two teenagers were able to crawl out of the rubble of the same building using their cellphone flashlights to help guide them. Rescue workers were then able to use details from what they told them to locate their grandmother and sibling.
International rescue teams from several countries are on the scene, including from Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates and several Southeast Asian countries.
A small U.S. Agency for International Development disaster assessment team arrived Tuesday to determine how best to respond given limited U.S. resources due to the slashing of the foreign aid budget and dismantling of the agency as an independent operation.
A U.S. official said the three-person team had waited for visas before making the trip from neighboring Thailand following a weekend decision to provide $2 million in emergency assistance to Myanmar. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the team’s arrival has not yet been publicly announced.
Aid pledges pouring in as officials warn of disease risk
Meantime, multiple countries have pledged millions in assistance to help Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead.
Even before the earthquake, more than 3 million people had been displaced from their homes by Myanmar’s brutal civil war, and nearly 20 million were in need, according to the U.N.
Many were already lacking in basic medical care and standard vaccinations, and the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure by the earthquake and the movement of people into overcrowded shelters raises the risk of disease outbreaks, warned the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“Vulnerability to respiratory infections, skin diseases, vector-borne illnesses such as dengue fever, and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles is escalating,” OCHA said in its latest report.
The onset of monsoon season also a worry
Shelter is also a major problem, especially with the monsoon season looming.
Since the earthquake, many people have been sleeping outside, either because homes were destroyed or out of fear of aftershocks.
Civil war complicates disaster relief
Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into significant armed resistance and a brutal civil war.
Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places were dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach even before the quake.
Military attacks and those from some anti-military groups have not stopped in the aftermath of the earthquake, though the shadow opposition National Unity Government has called a unilateral ceasefire for its forces.
The NUG, established by elected lawmakers who were ousted in 2021, called for the international community to ensure humanitarian aid is delivered directly to the earthquake victims, urging “vigilance against any attempts by the military junta to divert or obstruct humanitarian assistance,” saying that could have “devastating consequences.”
The ceasefire plan for the armed wing of the NUG, called the People’s Defense Force, would have little effect on the battlefield, but could draw more international condemnation of continuing operations by the military, including air attacks reported by independent media.
A second armed opposition group, a coalition of three powerful ethnic minority guerrilla armies called the Three Brotherhood Alliance, announced Tuesday that it would also implement a monthlong unilateral ceasefire.
However, Min Aung Hlaing seemed to reject implementing a ceasefire, saying in his speech on Tuesday that the military will continue to take necessary defensive measures against some ethnic armed groups that were currently not carrying out combat operations, but were conducting military training, which he said amounted to hostile action.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the military has been impeding humanitarian aid. In the past, it initially refused to allow in foreign rescue teams or many emergency supplies after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, which resulted in well more than 100,000 deaths. Even once it did allow foreign assistance, it was with severe restrictions.
In this case, however, Min Aung Hlaing pointedly said on the day of the earthquake that the country would accept outside help.
Tom Andrews, a monitor on rights in Myanmar commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, said on X that to facilitate aid, military attacks must stop.
“The focus in Myanmar must be on saving lives, not taking them,” he said.
–Associated Press reporters Grant Peck and Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok, Matthew Lee in Washington and Jamey Keaten in Geneva, contributed to this story.
Politics
A 6.0 magnitude earthquake shakes eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border – National TenX News
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border late Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake’s epicenter was near Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, and it had a depth of 8 kilometers, the USGS said. It struck at 11:47 p.m. local time Sunday.
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Naqibullah Rahimi, a spokesman for the Nangarhar Public Health Department, said 15 people were injured and taken to the local hospital for treatment.
There was a second quake some 20 minutes later in the same province, with a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 10 kilometers.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2023, followed by strong aftershocks. The Taliban government estimated that at least 4,000 people perished.
The U.N. gave a far lower death toll of about 1,500. It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Politics
Pakistan’s Punjab province battered by its biggest flood with 2 million people at risk – National TenX News
Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province is dealing with the biggest flood in its history, a senior official said Sunday, as water levels of rivers rise to all-time highs.
Global warming has worsened monsoon rains this year in Pakistan, one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to a new study. Downpours and cloudbursts have triggered flash floods and landslides across the mountainous north and northwest in recent months.
Residents in eastern Punjab have also experienced abnormal amounts of rain, as well as cross-border flooding after India released water from swollen rivers and its overflowing dams into Pakistan’s low-lying regions.
“This is the biggest flood in the history of the Punjab. The flood has affected 2 million people. It’s the first time that the three rivers — Sutlej, Chenab, and Ravi — have carried such high levels of water,” the senior minister for the province, Maryam Aurangzeb, told a press conference on Sunday.
Local authorities were evacuating people and using educational institutions, police and security facilities as rescue camps, she said. Pakistani TV channels showed people clambering into rescue boats and sailing across fully submerged farmland to safety. Others loaded belongings into boats, salvaging what remained from damaged homes, now abandoned.
“The Foreign Ministry is collecting data regarding India’s deliberate release of water into Pakistan,” Aurangzeb said. There was no immediate comment from India.
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India had alerted Pakistan to the possibility of cross-border flooding last week, the first public diplomatic contact between the rivals since a crisis brought them close to war in May.
Punjab, home to some 150 million people, is a vital part of the country’s agricultural sector and is Pakistan’s main wheat producer. Ferocious flooding in 2022 wiped out huge swathes of crops in the east and south of the country, leading Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to warn that the country faced food shortages.
Figures from Pakistan’s national weather center show that Punjab received 26.5% more monsoon rain between July 1 and Aug. 27, compared to the same period last year.
‘We cannot fight the water or stop it’
In Multan, authorities installed explosives at five key embankments to divert water away from the city, if needed, ahead of a massive wave on its way from the Chenab River.
Multan Commissioner Amir Kareem Khan said drones were used to monitor low-lying areas while teams tried to persuade residents who had not yet evacuated to do so.
“The water is coming in large quantities — we cannot fight it, we cannot stop it,” Deputy Commissioner Wasim Hamad Sindhu said, appealing on people to seek shelter in government-run camps.
Resident Emaan Fatima went to a camp after water surrounded her home.
“Our animals are starving, and we are also not getting food anywhere else,” she said. “We are not sitting here by choice. Our houses are in danger. We are very worried.”
Pakistan’s disaster management authority said 849 people have been killed and 1,130 injured nationwide in rain-related incidents since June 26.
The chief minister of southern Sindh province, Murad Ali Shah, said he had instructed the Irrigation Department to get ready for a “super flood” at barrages.
“We call it a super flood when the water level exceeds 900,000 cusec (cubic foot per second),” Shah told reporters. “We hope that the water will not reach the 900,000 level, but we still have to be prepared. The most important thing for us is that we save human lives and livestock.”
Pakistan’s monsoon season usually runs to the end of September.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Politics
Flotilla leaves Barcelona in biggest attempt yet to break Israeli blockade of Gaza – National TenX News
A flotilla of ships departed from Barcelona to the Gaza Strip Sunday with humanitarian aid and activists on board in the largest attempt yet to break the long Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory by sea.
This comes as Israel has stepped up its offensive on Gaza City, limiting the deliveries of food and basic supplies in the north of the Palestinian territory. Food experts warned earlier this month that the city was in famine and that half a million people across the strip were facing catastrophic levels of hunger.
The Global Sumud Flotilla is carrying food, water and medicine. Activists on board demanded safe passage to deliver the much-needed aid and the opening of a humanitarian sea corridor, according to a statement. The almost 23-month conflict has killed more than 63,000 people, with at least 332 Palestinians dying of malnutrition, including 124 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The maritime convoy of about 20 boats and delegations from 44 countries is claimed to be the largest attempt to date to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip by sea, which has now lasted 18 years. They will be joined by more ships from ports in Italy and Tunisia in the coming days, on the route from the western end of the Mediterranean to the Gaza Strip, organizers said.
Thousands of supporters flocked to the Barcelona pier, some of them wearing kaffiyehs and chanting “Free Palestine!” and “Boycott Israel!” to send off a wide variety of boats, flying Palestinian flags, from rundown old luxury yachts to tiny wooden sailboats and industrial-looking vessels. One of them, the Sirus, is more than 100 years old.
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Around 70 boats are expected to take part in the final leg of the journey, flotilla spokesperson Saif Abukeshek told Spanish public television after the departure. The fleet could reach Gaza around Sept. 14 or 15, he added.
“The story here is about Palestine. The story here is how people are being deliberately deprived of the very basic means to survive,” said Swedish activist Greta Thunberg at a news conference. She is one of the most recognizable figures on the expedition, formed by hundreds of activists, politicians such as the former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and journalists.
Ships carrying tons of humanitarian aid departed from the Italian city of Genoa and will join the expedition in the coming days.
It is not the first time Thunberg has attempted to reach Gaza waters this year. She was deported by Israel in June when the ship she was traveling on with 11 other people, the Madleen, was stopped by the Israeli military.
“It has been very clear that Israel has been continuously violating international law by either attacking, unlawfully intercepting the boats in international waters, and continuously preventing the humanitarian aid from coming in,” said Thunberg in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday.
The Global Sumud Flotilla will be the fourth attempt to break the maritime blockade so far this year. The Conscience first tried in May, but was attacked by drones after setting sail from Malta.
After the Madleen, the Israeli military stopped another aid ship, the Handala, in late July, detained 21 international activists and reporters and seized its cargo, including baby formula, food and medicine, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
In a news conference before the departure in Barcelona, actor Liam Cunningham played a video showing a girl singing while planning her own funeral. The girl, Fatima, died four days ago, he said.
“What sort of world have we slid into where children are making their own funeral arrangements?” Cunningham told reporters.
An Israeli official said Saturday that the country will soon halt or slow humanitarian aid into parts of northern Gaza, as it expands its military offensive against Hamas, a day after the city was declared a combat zone.
The conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, when an attack by Hamas militants inside Israel claimed the lives of 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 people hostage.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
A 6.0 magnitude earthquake shakes eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border – National TenX News
Pakistan’s Punjab province battered by its biggest flood with 2 million people at risk – National TenX News
Flotilla leaves Barcelona in biggest attempt yet to break Israeli blockade of Gaza – National TenX News
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