INTERNACIONAL
Survivors still being found from Burma earthquake, but hopes begin to fade as deaths exceed 2,700
- A 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Burma on Friday, killing more than 2,700 people, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war.
- The death toll is expected to rise, but the earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, leaving the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.
- The World Health Organization said more than 10,000 buildings are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in Burma. The earthquake also hit neighboring Thailand, causing a high-rise building under construction to collapse and burying many workers.
Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Burma’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 Burma’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, told a forum in Naypyitaw, that 2,719 people have now been found dead, with 4,521 others injured and 441 missing, Myanmar’s Western News online portal reported.
BURMA-THAILAND EARTHQUAKE: PATRICK SCHWARZENEGGER, ‘WHITE LOTUS’ CAST SEND PRAYERS AS DEATH TOLL PASSES 1,000
Those figures are widely expected to rise, but the earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, leaving the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.
Most of the reports so far have come from Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake, and Naypyitaw.
«The needs are massive, and they are rising by the hour,» said Julia Rees, UNICEF’s deputy representative for Burma.
Burma’s rescuers work through rubble of a collapsed building following Friday’s earthquake in Naypyitaw, Burma, on April 1, 2025. (AP Photo)
«The window for lifesaving response is closing. Across the affected areas, families are facing acute shortages of clean water, food, and medical supplies.»
Burma’s fire department said that 403 people have been rescued in Mandalay and 259 bodies have been found so far. In one incident alone, 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 that more than 10,000 buildings overall are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Burma.
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 on 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.
In Burma, search and rescue efforts across the affected area paused briefly at midday on Tuesday as people stood for a minute in silent tribute to the dead.
MASSIVE 7.7 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE ROCKS THAILAND, BURMA, COLLAPSING BUILDINGS AND KILLING MORE THAN 1,000
Relief efforts moving at a sluggish pace
Foreign aid workers have been arriving slowly to help in the rescue efforts, but progress was still slow with 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 Burma military government’s official Global New Light of Burma reported Tuesday that a team of Chinese rescuers saved four people the day before from the ruins of the Sky Villa, a large apartment complex that collapsed during the quake. They included a 5-year-old and a pregnant woman who had been trapped for more than 60 hours.
The same publication also reported two teenagers were able to crawl out of the rubble of the same building to where rescue crews were working, using their cellphone flashlights to help guide them. The 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. The U.S. Embassy said an American team had been sent but hadn’t yet arrived.
Aid pledges pouring in as officials warn of disease outbreak risk
Meantime, multiple countries have pledged millions in aid to assist Burma 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 Burma’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 raises the risk of disease outbreaks, warned the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
«The displacement of thousands into overcrowded shelters, coupled with the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, has significantly heightened the risk of communicable disease outbreaks,» OCHA said in its latest report.
«Vulnerability to respiratory infections, skin diseases, vector-borne illnesses such as dengue fever, and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles is escalating,» it added.
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
Burma’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 Burma, 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.
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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.»
«We are in a race against time to save lives,» the NUG said in a statement.
«Any obstruction to these efforts will have devastating consequences, not only due to the impact of the earthquake but also because of the junta’s continued brutality, which actively hinders the delivery of lifesaving assistance.»
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.
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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 Burma commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, said on X that to facilitate aid, military attacks must stop.
«The focus in Burma must be on saving lives, not taking them,» he said.
INTERNACIONAL
El fundador de Telegram afirmó que 65 millones de rusos acceden a la app con VPN pese a la censura impuesta por Putin
La campaña de bloqueo y censura impulsada por el gobierno de Vladimir Putin contra Telegram -y otras plataformas- provocó una interrupción bancaria nacional y no logró frenar el uso de la aplicación, según su fundador Pavel Durov, quien afirmó que 65 millones de rusos siguen conectados a diario mediante VPN.
Las restricciones impuestas por las autoridades rusas a Telegram y a las redes privadas virtuales, conocidas como VPN, tuvieron efectos de alcance inesperado. De acuerdo con The Moscow Times y otros medios internacionales, el intento de bloqueo derivó en fallas masivas en el sistema bancario nacional, afectando pagos con tarjeta, cajeros automáticos y transferencias. Las entidades Sberbank, VTB y T-Bank notificaron fallos el 3 de abril, coincidiendo con la fase más intensa de la ofensiva digital.
En este contexto, Pavel Durov, fundador de Telegram, utilizó su propio canal en la plataforma para asegurar que más de 65 millones de personas en Rusia acceden cada día a la aplicación, pese al bloqueo, y que más de 50 millones envían mensajes diariamente. Durov calificó el fenómeno como una “Resistencia Digital”, en la que decenas de millones de usuarios emplean VPN y servidores proxy para sortear la censura.
Durov recordó que una estrategia similar en Irán solo generó un uso masivo de herramientas de evasión. “El gobierno esperaba migraciones hacia apps de vigilancia, pero solo consiguió que millones adoptaran VPN”, afirmó el empresario, quien prometió adaptar el tráfico de Telegram para dificultar su detección y bloqueo por parte de los sistemas de inspección rusos.
La ofensiva regulatoria fue liderada por Roskomnadzor, el regulador de internet de Rusia, que en febrero pasado comenzó a ralentizar el acceso y, a partir del 1 de abril, activó un bloqueo nacional. El objetivo oficial era redirigir a los usuarios hacia plataformas de mensajería alineadas con el Estado, como Max, una aplicación obligatoria en nuevos dispositivos desde 2025.
Especialistas en ciberseguridad, como Fyodor Muzalevsky de RTM Group, explicaron a The Moscow Times que el bloqueo de direcciones IP vinculadas a servicios financieros contribuyó a la caída bancaria. El incidente dejó fuera de servicio terminales de pago, cajeros y aplicaciones de banca móvil en todo el país. El metro de Moscú incluso permitió el acceso gratuito y comercios de la capital solo aceptaron efectivo durante horas.
La presión estatal crece sobre los servicios de mensajería y las VPN. El Ministerio de Desarrollo Digital ruso ordenó a las plataformas restringir el acceso a usuarios de VPN antes del 15 de abril, y analiza multas de hasta 30.000 rublos para quienes utilicen herramientas no autorizadas. Reuters destacó que Roskomnadzor ya bloqueó más de 400 servicios de VPN desde mayo de 2025, un aumento del 70% en comparación con el año anterior.
La respuesta social, según datos de Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, se refleja en cifras de uso: Telegram sumó cerca de 96 millones de usuarios en enero de 2026 antes de las restricciones. Aunque la cifra descendió tras el bloqueo, el mantenimiento de 65 millones de usuarios diarios ilustra la persistencia de la plataforma incluso bajo prohibición.
El conflicto digital abarca también otros servicios. Las autoridades intensificaron restricciones sobre aplicaciones extranjeras, como WhatsApp, luego de que su matriz, Meta, supuestamente incumpliera la legislación nacional. El portavoz del Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, instó a la población a migrar a servicios estatales.
Los apagones de internet móvil se suman a la estrategia de control. Desde mayo de 2025, en 83 regiones rusas se han reportado cortes selectivos de conectividad, que solo permiten acceso a sitios aprobados por el gobierno. Este modelo incrementa la dependencia de herramientas de evasión para acceder a información y servicios básicos.
Telegram, además de mensajería, se consolidó como fuente principal de noticias y coordinación social, llegando incluso a ser utilizada por militares rusos en el conflicto de Ucrania, según The Moscow Times. El bloqueo de la plataforma tiene así consecuencias que trascienden lo tecnológico y afectan la operatividad social y política en el país.
De esta manera, el gobierno de Putin enfrenta la disyuntiva de endurecer el control sobre VPN y plataformas digitales, o ajustar su estrategia para evitar nuevos daños colaterales. Mientras tanto, la “Resistencia Digital” de millones de usuarios persiste, desafiando las restricciones y adaptando sus métodos para permanecer conectados.
Business,Corporate Events,Europe
INTERNACIONAL
A de facto pro forma: Why Washington fixated these sessions as the DHS shutdown dragged on through recess
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Carpe diem. If you’ve wondered why all of Washington buzzed so much this week about «pro forma» sessions in the House and Senate, here’s your chance to find out why.
Come on now. Tempus fugit. There’s no time like the present. Hopefully, when you finish reading this, you can declare veni, vidi, vici when it comes to your understanding of pro forma sessions in the House and Senate.
Let’s start with what pro forma means and why it holds application in Congress.
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In Latin, «pro forma» refers to «a matter of form.» In other words, something appears real, but it’s just perfunctory. For decades, the House and Senate have used the parliamentary artifice of a «pro forma» session to adhere to the Constitutional requirement of meeting every three days.
Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution states that «Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.» That means the House and Senate must convene at three-day intervals — unless both bodies approved the same «adjournment resolution» to allow one another to depart Washington for an extended period of time. In other words, the House and Senate must vote and agree to be out at the same time. And if there’s no consensus on an adjournment resolution, the House and Senate technically must «meet» every three days.
The House and Senate often fail to sync up on an adjournment resolution because the party opposite the President wants to block him from using his power to install cabinet officials or other figures via a «recess appointment» — thus circumnavigating the Senate confirmation process. That makes it challenging to approve an adjournment resolution. But that’s another matter.
Sunrise light hits the U.S. Capitol dome on Thursday, January 2, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Back to pro forma sessions.
Sans an adjournment resolution, the House and Senate simply gavel in and gavel out every three days. There is (usually) no legislative business. These are pro forma sessions. The House and Senate meet «in form.» But don’t accomplish anything. There’s often only one lawmaker on hand — the person who presides. House pro forma sessions usually run two or three minutes. Senate sessions are even more abbreviated — usually lasting 25 to 35 seconds.
What constitutes a Congressional meeting? Just those few seconds of session time suffices.
Some years ago, senators actually held an informal competition, racing through pro formas in an attempt to see who could conduct the meeting the fastest. The quickest pro forma session clocked in at a blistering 21 seconds.
Here’s the parliamentary posture of the House and Senate last week:
The Senate adjourned for the day in the wee hours on Friday, March 28. The House followed suit just before midnight the same night. Without an adjournment resolution, both would meet the next Tuesday. Therefore, if the House or Senate wouldn’t have to meet again until Tuesday.
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There’s nothing written prohibiting the House or Senate from conducting legislative business during a pro forma session. In other words, either body just has to conduct some legislative business to convert a pro forma session into a de facto session. So that’s why it was though that the Senate’s pro forma session on Tuesday was ripe for activity as the DHS shutdown continued.
Some House Republicans demanded that the Senate align with what the House passed Friday night: a bill which funded all of the Department of Homeland Security for two months.
The Senate gaveled to order on Tuesday morning around 10:33 am et (a couple of moments late). Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., presided. But after 31 seconds, Hoeven adjourned the Senate without any business. Hoeven himself — or any senator — could have tried to pass the House bill with the skeleton crew on hand. Sen. Chris Coons, D-D.E., was the only other senator in the chamber. Coons or anyone else could have sought recognition to speak. But none of that happened.
Amid the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has not had his immigration reform demands met while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., passed rival DHS funding proposals. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images; Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
And then the Senate adjourned, only to meet again Thursday morning (note the three-day interlude) at 7 a.m. for another pro forma session.
Pro forma sessions are customarily one of the most dull exercises in Congress. A skeleton crew of floor staff are there. Those asked to preside over the sessions are lawmakers who need to be in Washington for some reason over a recess or those who don’t go home often. Depending on which party has the majority, lawmakers from Maryland, Virginia or West Virginia frequently preside — simply because they are nearby. A limited number of reporters surface. They’re all thirsty for a quote or soundbite — simply because so few other lawmakers are available thanks to the recess. The whole enterprise starts and wraps up within minutes and everyone goes back home.
But that was not the case with last Tuesday’s Senate session. Everyone wanted to see if Republicans might try to approve the House-passed DHS bill. Or for that matter, if the House may attempt to align with the Senate and pass its bill. Neither happened. Even though a flood of reporters descended on the Capitol.
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But the drama was higher this past Thursday morning. On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., dramatically reversed himself and consented to the Senate-passed bill to fund all the Department of Homeland Security through Oct. 1 — except the Border Patrol and ICE. Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., published a joint statement endorsing the Senate’s strategy. And so around dawn on Thursday, Thune himself showed up to pass the Senate package again.
The presence of the Majority or Minority Leader on the floor during a pro forma session is nearly unprecedented. It’s a magna momemti when it comes to a pro forma meeting.
A Transportation Security Administration agent watches as passengers queue for security screening at LaGuardia Airport in New York City on March 22. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
This was not an ordinary pro forma. And even though nothing happened on Tuesday, neither of those sessions were far from the customary pro formas Congress usually sees during a recess.
It was presumed that the House would align in its pro forma session later Thursday morning. But consternation gripped the House Republican Conference. How was Johnson suddenly endorsing the Senate deal which he just characterized as a «joke» a few days earlier? That’s to say nothing of Johnson twisting himself in multiple knots and aggravating all wings of the GOP Conference.
So the House took no action. Which is why DHS remains shut down since the House and Senate have magnified the scope and potential for all four pro forma sessions held in recent days.
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It turns out that all of these high-profile pro forma sessions were just bona fide pro forma sessions.
Nil actum est. Congress didn’t accomplish anything. Again.
house of representatives politics, senate, government shutdown, politics, john thune, chuck schumer
INTERNACIONAL
El piloto desaparecido en Irán reaviva el fantasma de la crisis de los rehenes de 1979 y deja a Estados Unidos en alerta máxima
El derribo de un avión de combate estadounidense sobre territorio iraní y la intensa búsqueda de uno de sus tripulantes han generado preocupación de que pueda ser capturado y proporcionar a Irán un valioso recurso que podría utilizar para presionar a Estados Unidos.
La operación de rescate se encontraba en su segundo día este sábado, con tropas estadounidenses realizando una búsqueda exhaustiva y el ejército iraní también intentando encontrar al tripulante.
Como muestra del afán del régimen por atrapar al aviador, un presentador de una filial local de la cadena estatal iraní leyó el viernes en televisión un comunicado en el que instaba a los residentes a capturar al «piloto o pilotos enemigos» y entregarlos vivos a las fuerzas de seguridad a cambio de una recompensa.
La posibilidad de que Irán capture al aviador evoca el temor a una repetición de la crisis de rehenes de Irán de 1979, un suceso traumático en la historia estadounidense que sentó las bases de casi cinco décadas de relaciones hostiles entre Estados Unidos e Irán.
La crisis, en la que estudiantes militantes tomaron la embajada estadounidense en Teherán y mantuvieron cautivos a 52 estadounidenses durante 444 días, sentó un precedente para Irán que perfeccionaría en las décadas siguientes como forma de acaparar titulares internacionales, infligir daño a sus adversarios y obtener concesiones.
Desde 1979, el gobierno iraní ha utilizado repetidamente la toma de rehenes como táctica contra sus adversarios. Ha detenido a estadounidenses, europeos y otros ciudadanos extranjeros, a veces manteniéndolos encarcelados durante años antes de liberarlos, a menudo a cambio de dinero o la liberación de sus propios ciudadanos encarcelados en el extranjero. Ha utilizado a los rehenes como herramientas de propaganda y para obtener influencia.
La crisis de 1979 marcó el último año de la presidencia de Jimmy Carter y, para muchos, se convirtió en un símbolo de sus fracasos.
Donald Trump ha criticado repetidamente la gestión de la crisis de rehenes por parte del Carter, calificándola de «patética». En 1980, declaró a un periodista: «Que este país se quede de brazos cruzados y permita que un país como Irán retenga a nuestros rehenes, a mi parecer, es un horror, y no creo que lo harían con otros países».
Hamidreza Azizi, experto en seguridad iraní del Instituto Alemán de Asuntos Internacionales y de Seguridad, una organización de investigación, afirmó que Irán podría adoptar dos estrategias si logra capturar al aviador.
Si la captura se mantiene en secreto, los iraníes podrían contactar a Estados Unidos en privado y llegar a un acuerdo secreto, exigiendo concesiones a cambio de la liberación del tripulante. O bien, Irán podría exhibir al aviador ante las cámaras como propaganda.
Según él, esa era la estrategia más probable. «Realmente quieren proyectar esta imagen de victoria y, además, humillar a Trump», afirmó Azizi.
Ali Alfoneh, investigador principal del Instituto de los Estados Árabes del Golfo, con sede en Washington, mencionó un incidente de 2007 en el que Irán capturó a marineros británicos, alegando que sus embarcaciones habían entrado ilegalmente en aguas iraníes. Los marineros fueron vendados, amenazados y sometidos a presión psicológica antes de prestar declaración en vídeo, en la que parecían disculparse. Sin embargo, no se reportó que sufrieran daños físicos, señaló Alfoneh.
“El entonces presidente Mahmoud Ahmadinejad aprovechó al máximo la cobertura mediática internacional al anunciar su liberación y les estrechó la mano personalmente”, declaró el Alfoneh en un correo electrónico. Añadió que el trato al aviador estadounidense probablemente sería diferente, dado que Estados Unidos e Irán están en guerra.
Incluso si el tripulante desaparecido es rescatado, el incidente subraya los riesgos de realizar misiones sobre territorio hostil contra un adversario con capacidad de represalia. Las operaciones de rescate son intrínsecamente peligrosas porque ponen en riesgo a otros miembros del servicio estadounidense.
Fuente: The New York Times
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