INTERNACIONAL
Death toll in Burma, Thailand earthquake rises to more than 1,600 victims
The death toll from the devastating earthquake that rocked Burma and Thailand on Friday has risen sharply to more than 1,650 victims.
The earthquake’s epicenter was in central Burma, where 1,644 have been confirmed dead with nearly 140 people still missing, the nation’s ruling military said Saturday.
The 7.7 magnitude quake knocked down scores of buildings as well as destroyed bridges and highways in what was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the impoverished, war-torn country in years. Burma is also known as Myanmar.
Survivors in Mandalay, Burma’s second-biggest city, dug with their bare hands on Friday in desperate attempts to save those still trapped, lacking heavy machinery and with authorities absent. Burma’s military rulers let in hundreds of foreign rescue personnel on Saturday.
Rescue personnel work at the site of a building that collapsed, following a strong earthquake, in Mandalay, Burma on March 29, 2025. (REUTERS/Stringer)
AMERICA’S MOST EXPENSIVE NATURAL DISASTERS IN RECENT DECADES
The quake struck during Friday prayers across the country, causing the collapse of at least 50 mosques across the country, killing nearly 300 people, the Yangon Khit Thit News Agency reported.
An initial assessment by Burma’s opposition National Unity Government said at least 2,900 buildings, 30 roads and seven bridges had been damaged by the quake.
The quake comes amid a raging civil war that has wrecked the economy and displaced millions. It makes movement around the country both difficult and dangerous, complicating relief efforts and raising fears that the death toll could still rise precipitously.
People drive on a motorbike past a collapsed building in Mandalay on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Burma. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Airports too have been damaged, further hindering rescue efforts. For instance, satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC show the earthquake toppled the air traffic control tower at Naypyitaw International Airport as if sheered from its base, according to The Associated Press.
The country sits on the Sagaing Fault, a major north-south fault that separates the India plate and the Sunda plate.
WATCH: First responders clear leveled apartment building in Thailand after powerful earthquake
IS THE EAST COAST ON THE BRINK OF A MAJOR EARTHQUAKE — AND ARE WE PREPARED?
President Donald Trump said the earthquake was «terrible» on Friday and assured that the United States would assist in relief efforts.
«It’s a real bad one, and we will be helping. We’ve already spoken with the country,» Trump said.
In neighboring Thailand, where the quake shook buildings and brought down a skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, at least ten people were killed.
Dramatic footage captured in Bangkok midday Friday showed a 33-story apartment building that was under construction falling down, scattering dust and debris throughout the city’s streets. Bangkok city authorities said earlier Friday that 10 people were killed, 16 were injured.
Water from a separate high-rise building with rooftop pools in Bangkok spilled over the side as they shook and debris fell from many buildings.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the country has now «returned to normalcy.»
Aftershocks were reportedly felt in India and China.
WATCH: Skyscraper in Bangkok collapses after 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocks Burma, Thailand
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Photos and video from Burma showed two hard-hit cities with extensive damage.
In Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city and close to the epicenter, the earthquake damaged part of the former royal palace and buildings, according to videos and photos released on Facebook social media.
In the Sagaing region just southwest of Mandalay, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and the city of Yangon were also damaged.
In the capital Naypyitaw, the quake damaged religious shrines, sending parts toppling to the ground and some homes.
Christina Shaw, Greg Norman, Bradford Betz Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Trump administration is warning of «serious consequences» over Russia’s plans to open a naval base in war-torn Sudan. News of the development of the base has triggered an unusual warning from the State Department, Fox News Digital was told.
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, «We encourage all countries, including Sudan, to avoid any transactions with Russia’s defense sector.»
The Kremlin appears to be desperate to join the Horn of Africa global powers «naval club,» with its approved plans for a base for warships and nuclear-powered submarines at Port Sudan. This is not far down the Indian Ocean coast from Djibouti, where there are U.S. and Chinese bases. With the new Syrian government likely to kick the Russians out of their base in Tartus, Port Sudan would be Russia’s only foreign naval base.
«Moscow views Sudan, because of its strategic location, as a logical place to expand Russia’s footprint into Africa, which Putin views as a key place of geopolitical confrontation with the United States and China,» Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst, told Fox News Digital.
WORLD FORGETS ‘CATASTROPHIC’ WAR IN SUDAN AS RUSSIA, IRAN, OTHERS REPORTEDLY FEED FIGHTING WITH ARMS
This picture taken on Feb. 28, 2021, shows a view of the Russian Navy frigate RFS Admiral Grigorovich (494), anchored in Port Sudan. (Ibrahim Ishaq/AFP via Getty Images)
«Russia views the U.S. and China as its top adversaries, with whom Moscow may in the long-term have a kinetic conflict. Hence, Putin wants intelligence and military capabilities stationed close to the U.S. Djibouti base and Chinese facilities,» she said.
«Given that the U.S. and China already have [a] naval presence off of the Horn of Africa,» Koffler added, «Russia is looking at Port Sudan as a logistics hub for weapons transfers, storage of military hardware ammunition, all sorts of war-fighting capabilities.»
«The potential Russian naval logistics facility in Sudan would support Russian power projection in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean,» John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told Fox News Digital. He added that «this issue has gained greater importance for Moscow, given the uncertainty over the future of its Tartus naval logistics facility.»
A Russian naval base in the Indian Ocean has strategic military implications — it’s a relatively short sailing distance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, a choke point through which an estimated 12% of the world’s shipping passes, while 61% of global oil tanker traffic is also said to use the canal. Koffler said this poses a significant security threat.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, and his Sudanese counterpart Ali Yousuf Al-Sharif shake hands during a press conference in Moscow on Feb. 12. (Maxim Shemetov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
«If Russia perceives an impending escalation against Russia, let’s say in Ukraine — such as an impending deployment of NATO forces or draconian economic measures designed to tank [the] Russian economy — I would not rule out the possibility that Putin could authorize something disruptive to exploit the choke point and destabilize or disrupt global shipping, as a way of deterring Western actions threatening Russia.»
The deal permitting Moscow to build a military base has been given the green light, although there are serious logistical challenges involved. «The agreement between Sudan and Russia was finalized in February, following a meeting between Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Yusef Sharif and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow,» Koffler explained.
US TROOPS IN STANDOFF IN AFRICAN NATIONS AS COLD WAR-LIKE TENSIONS TAKE HOLD ON CONTINENT
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov at the Naval Base of the Black Sea Fleet in Novorossiysk, Russia, on Sept. 23, 2014. (Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)
Hence the strongly worded comments to Fox News Digital from the State Department that «the United States is aware of the reported deal between Russia and the SAF [Sudanese Armed Forces] on establishing a Russian naval facility on Sudan’s coast. We encourage all countries, including Sudan, to avoid any transactions with Russia’s defense sector, which could trigger serious consequences, potentially including sanctions on entities or individuals associated with those transactions.
«Moving forward with such a facility or any other form of security cooperation with Russia would further isolate Sudan, deepen the current conflict, and risk further regional destabilization. «
On the (very) dry land that is Sudan, the situation Monday around the city of Al Fasher and the neighboring massive Zamzam refugee camp in the Darfur region is «horrifying,» U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Tom Fletcher posted.
Maxar satellite imagery of the ground at the Main Market Zamzam IDP civilian camp in Al Fasher on Feb. 13. (Satellite image (c) 2022 Maxar Technologies via Getty images)
The civil war in Sudan, between the government’s SAF and the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has just passed its grisly second anniversary. Tens of thousands have been killed, and an estimated 13 million people have been uprooted from their homes. The U.N. describes it as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and UNICEF calls it «hell on earth.»
«There can be no overstating the brutality and destructiveness of the RSF assault on Zamzam (refugee camp),» Sudan researcher Eric Reeves told Fox News Digital this week. «The camp that has existed since 2004 is no longer, even as it had grown to more than 500,000 people.»
Ominously, Reeves added that «the real dying has only just begun. Nearly the entire population of Zamzam has fled, and in all directions the threat of RSF violence remains. This creates insecurity of a sort that prevents humanitarians from reaching these scattered people. Tremendous numbers will die either from RSF violence or the lack of food, water and shelter.»
Fighters of the Sudan Liberation Movement, a Sudanese rebel group active in Sudan’s Darfur State, which supports army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, attend a graduation ceremony in the southeastern Gedaref state on March 28, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)
Another 30 were reported killed on Tuesday in a fresh RSF attack on Al Fasher. And just this past week, the RSF rebels announced they are setting up their own government. The State Department told Fox News Digital, «The United States is deeply concerned about the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and aligned actors’ declaration of a parallel government in Sudan. This attempt to establish a parallel government is unhelpful for the cause of peace and security and risks a de facto partition of the country.»
«It will only further destabilize the country, threaten Sudan’s territorial integrity, and spread wider instability throughout the region. The United States has made clear that our interest is in the restoration of peace and an end to the threats the conflict in Sudan pose to regional stability. The best path to peace and stability is an immediate and durable cessation of hostilities so that the processes of establishing a civilian government and rebuilding the country can begin,» the spokesperson said.
Sudanese displaced people gather at the Zamzam refugee camp outside the town of El-Fashir in the Darfour region of Sudan on July 1, 2004. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo, File)
Caleb Weiss, editor of the FDD’s Long War Journal and also a Defections Program Manager at the Bridgeway Foundation, put some of the blame for not ending the Sudanese war on the Biden administration. He told Fox News Digital that it «stopped short of seriously facilitating any sort of meaningful peace talks/mediation/or being tough on outside backers of various groups to really get them to be serious in previous negotiation attempts. This is where the Biden administration failed.»
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Weiss continued, «President Trump should continue to be aggressive on sanctioning those committing acts of violence, but also sponsor and back serious peace talks that include both parties, offer financial incentives or even threaten financial penalties, and seriously hold international backers accountable for exacerbating the conflict.»
INTERNACIONAL
La hija del primer ministro francés causó conmoción al revelar que fue víctima de abusos en su adolescencia
François Bayrou será interrogado
Obispos de Francia, durante una conferencia centrada en abusos a fieles, en el santuario de Nuestra Señora, en Lourdes, en noviembre de 2021. Foto: AFP Heléne, una víctima
La reacción del primer ministro
Abusos atroces y «omertá»
INTERNACIONAL
Soros prosecutor ripped for failing to charge Walz staffer over Tesla vandalism: ‘Two-tiered justice system’
A Minnesota state employee avoided criminal charges after vandalizing at least six Tesla vehicles, the local district attorney announced this week, prompting outrage from local leaders who spoke to Fox News Digital.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) said it would seek «diversion» over charges against Minnesota Department of Human Services data analyst Dylan Bryan Adams after causing $20,000 in damages. The diversion approach «helps to ensure the individual keeps their job and can pay restitution,» according HCAO.
When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, the Minnesota Department of Human Services did not clarify Adams’ employment status, but said: «We are reviewing the matter at this time. State employees are expected to follow our code of conduct and hold themselves to the highest ethical standards through their words and actions.»
Republicans across the North Star State have condemned County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s decision, as President Donald Trump’s administration has identified Tesla vandalism as «domestic terrorism» and led a nationwide effort alongside the Justice Department to hold vandals accountable.
WALZ STAFFER ACCUSED OF VANDALIZING TESLAS MIGHT NOT FACE CHARGES: REPORT
Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., did not respond to Fox News Digital request for clarity on Dylan Bryan Adams’ employment status at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. (Getty Images | Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
«In Tim Walz’s Minnesota, there is a two-tiered justice system that does everything possible to protect Democrats. As the victim of a domestic terrorism attack in Minnesota myself, I know first-hand that Minnesota’s justice system does not work for me nor Conservatives in our state. If Dylan Adams was a police officer and not part of Walz’s Minnesota state government, Mary Moriarty would have tried to charge him with a felony,» Kendall Qualls, Founder of TakeCharge and former Minnesota gubernatorial candidate, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
DEMS WHO RAILED AGAINST DOMESTIC TERRORISM SILENT AS TRUMP FLOATS 20-YEAR JAIL SENTENCE FOR TESLA VANDALS
Qualls was targeted in a suspected arson case that left three conservative group offices heavily damaged in Minnesota in 2024. Qualls said on Wednesday that authorities never found the arsonist.
«Minnesota is again bucking the national trend: While the Justice Department and FBI are investigating the nationwide vandalism and attacks against Tesla as acts of domestic terrorism, Minnesota Progressives are giving them a free pass,» Matthew RJ Brodsky, President of Red Ax Strategies and Board Chair of the American Center for Counter Extremism, told Fox News Digital.
Adam Schwarze, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, told Fox News Digital that Minnesota vandals «get a free pass if they have the approved political philosophy.»
«This would have been an obvious opportunity for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to make clear that the right to political protest doesn’t include the right to destroy personal property. We must reaffirm that our commitment to justice means ensuring all individuals, regardless of their political affiliations or employment status, are held to the same legal standards,» Adam Schwarze said.
A Washington Tesla supercharging station was damaged earlier this month, according to authorities. The Trump administration has called Tesla vandalism «domestic terrorism.» (Lacey Police Department)
Republicans told Fox News Digital that Moriarty refusing to criminally charge a Minnesota state employee, following a string of targeted violence, could invoke domestic terrorism.
«This is a dangerous precedent that tells every Minnesotan that political violence is acceptable here. After Gov. Tim Walz cheered on the loss of Tesla’s stock to the detriment of his own pension. Now we have one of his employees damaging a Tesla and a Democrat country attorney letting him get away with it. It’s a Democrat double-whammy: They insult the professional law enforcement officers of our state by ignoring their work, and then let their political allies and supporters off the hook for breaking the law,» Minnesota Sen. Mark Koran said.
John Nagel, a retired police lieutenant in Minnesota and former candidate for the Minnesota state legislature, said diversion can be a «great tool for someone who is younger and dumber, but this individual had a responsible job and was old enough to know better.»
WISCONSINITES KICKED OUT AND DENIED ENTRY TO THIS DEMOCRAT’S ‘FAKE TOWN HALL’
«This sends a bad message to an already hostile group of politically charged individuals,» Nagel said. «As a police officer, I have had several people tell me that if they had spent even a few nights in jail, they wouldn’t have committed a crime the second and third time.
Brodsky added that Moriarty’s latest legal blunder is consistent with her legacy in Walz’s home state. Moriarty, who handed Adams a «pre-charge diversion» on Monday, has been backed by groups tied to money from megadonor George Soros, one of the most prominent backers of progressive issues in the United States.
«It would be an understatement to say that Progressive County Attorney Mary Moriarty has been soft on crime since she took office in 2023. She has consistently shown undue leniency for violent criminal suspects charged with sexual assault and even murder. It is one of the many reasons the Minneapolis Police Department has been at loggerheads with the county attorney’s office, to say nothing of the outrage among the victims’ families,» Brodsky said.
Five Tesla vehicles were set on fire and shot at in what police investigated as a «targeted attack» at a local repair center in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 18, 2025. This is one of several Tesla vandalism cases across the United States. (Hal Sparks via Storyful)
Nagel questioned how many tax dollars were invested in finding Adams «only to have their efforts wiped out by a progressive prosecutor» and leaving Minnesota dealerships on alert «knowing someone can come into their lot and damage cars.»
As Republicans ripped the state’s «soft on crime» practices, they tied Walz’s own anti-Telsa rhetoric to the string of violence against Elon Musk’s multi-billionaire electric vehicle business. Amid the string of attacks on Tesla as its stock was taking a tumble, Walz told a Wisconsin town hall that he checks Tesla’s stock when he wants to feel better.
«Gov. Walz’s rhetoric on Tesla stock, Democrats all over the country spewing,’We need to rise up and take it to the streets’ is all fueling the fire. Angry elected Democrats are encouraging this kind of behavior. Refusing to hold adults accountable for attacks based on their political hatred is bound to end badly for regular folks,» Nagel added.
Hungarian-born US investor and philanthropist George Soros smiles after delivering a speech on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 24, 2022. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
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Brodsky said each Tesla vandalized is a felony, adding: «These crimes didn’t take place in a vacuum either, with progressives focusing their anger at Elon Musk and DOGE’s effort to shrink the bloated federal workforce.»
«It’s likely not a coincidence that the suspect in this case is a State of Minnesota employee with the Department of Human Services. Moreover, these attacks began the same day that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made controversial remarks where he cheered the decline of Tesla stocks and disparaged Elon Musk at a Wisconsin event on March 18. The double-standards here speak for themselves. Political violence appears to be acceptable if carried out by progressives. Needless to say, this will undoubtedly embolden pProgressive activists to engage in further attacks,» Brodsky said.
Gov. Walz, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Minneapolis Police Department and Hennepin County Attorney’s Office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Politics,Tim Walz,Terrorism,Minnesota
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