Category World News

Hundreds of Muslim worshippers are feared to be among the more than 1, 600 people who died in a powerful earthquake which struck central Myanmar when they had gathered at mosques for prayers during Ramadan.

According to the shadow National Unity Government, more than 50 mosques across the country also sustained damage when the magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck on Friday.

Htet Min Oo was performing ritual ablutions before Ramadan prayers at a mosque next to his house in Mandalay.

His home collapsed along with part of the mosque, trapping half his body with the rubble of a wall that buried two of his aunts. Residents raced to pull them out, he said, but only one survived.

The 25-year-old told the Reuters news agency, that his two uncles and his grandmother were also trapped under piles of concrete. With no heavy equipment available, he tried desperately to clear the rubble with his hands but could not shift it.

“I don’t know if they are still alive under the debris. After so long, I don’t think there’s any hope”, he said on Friday.

“There’s too much rubble and no rescue teams have come for us”, he added, his voice shaking as he broke into tears.

A 39-year-old resident of the Mandalay region described harrowing scenes as he tried to save a man trapped under the debris of a collapsed mosque in Sule Kone village but had to flee because of strong aftershocks.

“I had to leave him behind … I went in a second time to try to save him”, he told Reuters, declining to be identified. “I retrieved four people with my own hands. But unfortunately, three were already dead, and one died in my arms”.

The resident said 10 people had been killed there, and they were among 23 who died at three mosques that were destroyed in the village. Government restrictions had prevented them from being upgraded, he said.

Muslims are a minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar and have been repressed and marginalised by successive governments, while ultranationalist groups have in recent years incited violence.

The Rohingya, a large Muslim minority, have been among the most persecuted groups by the Myanmar authorities, suffering mass deaths and expulsion.

Myanmar authorities have for decades also made it difficult for Muslims to obtain permission to repair or build mosques, according to a 2017 report by the US Department of State, which said historic mosques have deteriorated because routine maintenance was denied.

One man, Julian Kyle, appealed on social media for heavy equipment to lift concrete pillars after the quake destroyed another Mandalay mosque.

“Underneath the rubble, my family members and others were crushed and lost their lives”, he posted. “We desperately want to recover their bodies”.

A resident from the town of Taungnoo, about 370km (230 miles) away, said he was praying when one side of the Kandaw mosque caved in on two rows of men seated before him.

“I saw so many people carried out from the mosque, some of them died right before my eyes”, he said. “It was truly heartbreaking”.

Citing a local newspaper, Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency said that the collapse of mosques on Friday also increased fears of more buildings falling, especially older ones that are more than 150 years old and have not received the necessary permits for renewal, according to government regulations.

Buddhist buildings were also badly hit by the earthquake, with 670 monasteries and 290 pagodas damaged, according to the military government. It did not mention any mosques in its damage report.

So far, the quake has also destroyed other buildings, bridges and roads across swaths of Myanmar.

But many believe the true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge due to patchy communications in remote areas.

Harry Roberts, a Bangkok-based volunteer, said the situation in Myanmar was likely to be “very complex” and “really serious” considering the government’s rare appeal for international help.

“That request must trickle down to immigration and customs, so nongovernmental organisations like ourselves can get the immediate aid in there”, Roberts said.

Denmark’s foreign minister has chided United States President Donald Trump’s administration for its “tone” in criticising Denmark over its role in Greenland, saying his country is already investing more into Arctic security and remains open to further cooperation with the US.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen made the sharp remarks in a video posted to social media on Saturday, after US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to the strategic island.

“Many accusations and many allegations have been made. And of course we are open to criticism”, Rasmussen said, speaking in English.

“But let me be completely honest: we do not appreciate the tone in which it is being delivered. This is not how you speak to your close allies. And I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies”.

On Friday, Vance, on a fleeting visit, accused Denmark of failing to keep Greenland protected and projected that the US would better protect the semi-autonomous Danish territory that Trump covets and has pressed to take over.

“Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland”, Vance said on Friday. “You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change”.

The US has suggested that both Russia and China have strategic designs on Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also pushed back on Vance’s claim that Denmark is not doing enough for defence in the Arctic, calling her country “a good and strong ally”.

“For many years, we have stood by the Americans in very difficult situations”, she said, referring to Danish combat deployments alongside US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, where dozens of Danes were killed.

“The Vice President’s reference to Denmark is not accurate”, she added.

Vance was accompanied by his wife Usha, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and his wife, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Utah Senator Mike Lee and former Homeland Security Advisor Julia Nesheiwat, who is Waltz’s wife.

The vice president stressed that the US has “no option” but to take a significant position to ensure the security of the island as he encouraged a push in Greenland for independence from Denmark.

“I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States”, Vance said. “We could make them much more secure. We could do a lot more protection. And I think they’d fare a lot better economically as well”.

Greenland has its say

The reaction by members of Greenland’s parliament and its residents to Trump’s push to annex the island has been a furious one.

Greenlandic legislators on Thursday agreed to form a new government, banding together to resist Trump’s overtures. Four of the five parties elected to Greenland’s parliament earlier this month have agreed to form a coalition that will have 23 of 31 seats in the legislature.

Incoming Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference on Friday that the territory needed unity at this time.

“It is very important that we put aside our disagreements and differences … because only in this way will we be able to cope with the heavy pressure we are exposed to from outside”, he said.

The Danish foreign minister, in his remarks, was at pains to note that his country has increased its own investment into Arctic defence.

In January, Denmark announced 14.6 billion Danish kroner ($2.1bn) in financial commitments for Arctic security covering three new naval vessels, long-range drones and satellites.

1951 US-Denmark defence agreement

In his video, Rasmussen also cited the 1951 defence agreement between Denmark and the US. Since 1945, the US military presence in Greenland has decreased from thousands of soldiers over 17 bases and installations on the island, he said, to the remote Pituffik Space Base in the northwest with some 200 soldiers.

The 1951 agreement “offers ample opportunity for the United States to have a much stronger military presence in Greenland”, the foreign minister said. “If that is what you wish, then let us discuss it”.

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated on Saturday outside the US embassy in the Danish capital Copenhagen, with some lifting signs saying “back off, USA”, Danish broadcaster TV2 reported.

Trump argues that the US needs the vast Arctic island for national and international security and has not ruled out the use of force to secure it.

“We are not talking about peace for the United States. We are talking about world peace. We are talking about international security”, Trump claimed to reporters at the White House on Friday.

We unpack the Turkiye protests with voices from both sides of a split political and media landscape.

For months now, US President Donald Trump’s administration has been leading a well-publicised crackdown on migration. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have turned deportations into media spectacles, posting videos of chained deportees and releasing their names to spread fear.

Within the past few weeks, the Trump administration has expanded its deportation surge to include even foreign nationals with legal status in the country, including academics. The president has pledged to deport 11 million people –&nbsp, doubling the number removed under President Joe Biden and even surpassing President Barack Obama’s two terms, during which 5.3 million people were deported.

While the world’s attention is focusing on Trump’s anti-migration spectacle, the European Union is quietly carrying out its own crackdown. Its policies are far less visible, yet they are just as ruthless.

In the first nine months of 2024, EU states issued 327, 880 expulsion orders, with 27, 740 people forcibly removed between July and September. Deportations have intensified, as EU states have begun implementing the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which was passed in December 2023 and entered into force in June 2024.

Under its provisions, EU members are fast-tracking removals, expanding detention centres, and strengthening cooperation with third countries to facilitate deportations. However, it is not only member states that will be part of this.

Balkan countries that have to fulfill certain criteria to become part of the EU, through the EU accession process, are effectively being turned into a border zone for the EU. Unlike EU member states, Balkan candidate states had no say in shaping this pact, yet they are forced to implement it and abide by what can only be described as colonial blackmail.

Most recently, the EU made its expectations clear at the December EU-Western Balkans Summit, declaring that, “We need to strengthen our cooperation and strategic partnerships in migration management, which is a shared challenge and responsibility and a key priority”.

This is part of the EU’s broader strategy to externalise migration control and fortify its borders, but also to move away from any responsibility and accountability for violations of human rights and transfer them on to third countries.

A key part of this strategy is the creation of “return hubs” close to and outside the EU’s borders – places where unwanted people can be warehoused. This model, championed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is already in motion. People are being sent to the Balkans, Turkey and North Africa. Frontex, the EU’s border agency, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) play key roles in enforcing these removals.

In practice, we can see what that looks like in Croatia, the EU member state bordering two Balkan non-member states – Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Croatia has played an important role in maintaining the EU border regime by normalising pushbacks, which over the years caused numerous deaths and injuries and represented a massive violation of fundamental human rights. Instead of establishing responsibility for this, the EU rewarded Croatia – along with Bulgaria and Romania – by allowing them to join the Schengen Agreement, which abolishes border control between member states.

The EU has also strengthened readmission agreements – bilateral deals that allow EU states to send people back to their country of origin or country of transit, pushing them to the edge of the EU or outside its borders, basically to offload migrants. As a result, the Balkans have become a dumping ground for people the EU wants to expel.

Croatian authorities have not published any reports on migration control since 2020, but Minister of Interior Davor Bozinovic said in January that border police prevented 71, 000 “illegal entries” in 2024. The Bosnian Office for Foreigners reported that in 2023, Croatian authorities returned 4, 265 people into Bosnian territory. Bosnia, with financial aid from the EU, removed 893 people to their countries of origin or countries that accepted them through interstate agreements, while 96 migrants left through the IOM’s controversial “voluntary return” programme, which scholar Jean-Pierre Gauci has described as “disguised deportation”.

Currently, Croatia has four detention and return hubs located in Ježevo (near Zagreb), Tovarnik (by the Croatian-Serbian border), Dugi Dol (along the Croatian-Bosnian border) and Trilj (along the Croatian-Bosnian border).

NGOs and journalists have documented widespread rights violations inside these centres, including, inhumane living conditions and indefinite detention. It has also been a consistent practice of the local authorities to send foreign nationals to these centres for a few days and then to take them out and push them across the border with Serbia or Bosnia. There have also been cases of children and single women being detained in overcrowded men’s facilities.

Since the beginning of this year, Croatian police have intensified their activities along the eastern border. Their officers will be joined by colleagues from Slovenia and Italy under a newly signed agreement for joint patrols of the Croatian border. At the same time, border police have received more surveillance cameras and police vehicles equipped with surveillance technology.

After an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels earlier this month, Bozinovic declared that deportations are no longer a “taboo” topic in the EU and that the European Commission was looking into legislative proposals to speed them up.

Croatia’s non-EU borders are already dotted with unmarked graves of people who have perished while on the move to seek safety and security. The new pact will only intensify the brutality asylum seekers face at Croatia’s borders and in non-member states like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia and elsewhere.

The new pact is allocating millions of euros for policies and technologies that will directly feed into the global politics of dehumanisation of people on the move. It is also empowering Frontex, which has long been accused of complicity in illegal pushbacks and human rights violations, to play an even bigger role in border control and deportations. Its annual budget for deportation-related expenses alone is 18 million euros ($19.5m).

As we write this, alarm bells are ringing across the EU. In Germany, solidarity groups are trying to stop the deportations of Palestinians. In Italy, the government is still looking for ways to send unwanted migrants to centres built for that purpose in Albania. Austria has temporarily halted family reunions for asylum claimants. France has introduced more strict immigration policies and started to deport more people, which led to a row with Algeria due to a high number of deportees.

It is now increasingly clear that Western countries, led by the EU and the US, are using migrants as scapegoats to justify militarised border control. The EU’s collaboration with Israel in developing advanced surveillance and AI technology is central to this strategy. The very systems used to track and control migrants today – drones, biometric databases and predictive policing – were tested in occupied Palestine before being deployed at European borders. Asylum seekers, Palestinians, and those in solidarity with them are the first targets, but they will not be the last.

If we fail to challenge these policies, this machinery of control will continue expanding, ensnaring more and more people in its grip. The only way forward is to build transnational solidarity networks that resist these injustices and hold those in power accountable while exposing the flawed political and economic systems that allow for the global dehumanisation of disadvantaged communities. The alternative is to remain silent and allow a future where no one is safe.