Myanmar was shook by two earthquakes, causing extensive damage and the deaths of at least ten people. In Bangkok, Thailand, a tower block collapsed, trapping dozens of construction workers, and the earthquake, which was 7.7 magnitude, was felt as well.
While a court fight is raging, the Trump administration has requested that the Supreme Court grant permission for Venezuelan migrants to return to El Salvador in response to a law from the 18th century that prohibited their deportation.
While Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to justify the deportations is being litigated, the Department of Justice requested in a filing that US District Judge James Boasberg’s March 15 order, which was issued in Washington, DC, temporarily halt the removals of the Venezuelans, be overturned. The law from the 18th century has historically only been used during conflicts.
The president or the judiciary decides how to conduct sensitive national security-related operations, according to the Justice Department’s filing on Friday. The department wrote that “the Constitution provides a clear answer: the President.” A different choice cannot be made by the republic.
In a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to justify the deportation of hundreds of people.
In the court filing, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote, “Here, the district court’s orders have rebuffed the President’s judgments regarding how to protect the Nation against foreign terrorist organizations and risk debilitating effects for delicate foreign negotiations.”
Five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas were represented by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union shortly after the announcement was made public.
The ACLU’s response was set for Tuesday, according to the court.
In response to the White House’s and the federal courts’ growing tension, the case has turned into a flashpoint.
Trump’s administration has argued that the temporary ban violated the president’s authority to decide matters of national security.
Trump received a rebuke from US Chief Justice John Roberts on March 18 when he demanded that Congress impeach Boasberg, which would have allowed him to leave the bench. Trump called Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic” and a “troublemaker and agitator,” according to Trump on social media. He was confirmed by the US Senate in 2011 with a bipartisan re-election in a 96-0 vote.
Following a contentious hearing that involved heated language, the DC Circuit upheld Boasberg’s order. Judge Patricia Millett told Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign that “Nazis received better treatment than this has happened here,” according to Judge Millett. We certainly disagree with the Nazi analogy, Ensign said.
Many of the deported Venezuelan migrants’ families dispute the alleged gang connections. According to one of the deportees’ lawyers, US officials incorrectly identified him as a gang member because of his tattoo of a crown in honor of his favorite team, Real Madrid. The Venezuelan professional football player and youth coach.
Without a hearing before an immigration or federal court judge, the Alien Enemies Act allows noncitizens to be deported under the law.
The US president reportedly sounded diplomatic toward Canada in a social media post describing the call on Friday. After months calling Carney’s successor Justin Trudeau “governor,” it should be noted that Trump now refers to the Canadian leader as his proper title as prime minister.
Trump emailed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to say, “I just spoke with him.”
We came to a meeting immediately following Canada’s upcoming election to work on issues in politics, business, and other areas that will benefit both the United States of America and Canada, and it was a very productive call.
The statement was unspecific, but it did a different from Trump’s threats and hostile language toward Canada, which included repeated requests for the US to annex the nation and create its 51st state.
The two leaders’ first discussions on Friday since Carney’s takeover two weeks ago were those of Carney.
Less than 24 hours after Carney vehemently criticised Trump for putting more tariffs on Canadian goods, the call was made. Beginning on Wednesday, the US president had made 25-percent sales tax on imported vehicles.
The call on Friday was described as a “very constructive conversation,” according to Carney’s office.
The leaders “agreed to begin comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship right after the election,” the statement read.
However, Carney added that in response to the announcement of additional US trade actions on April 2 that his government would “put in place retaliatory tariffs to protect Canadian workers and our economy.”
Carney reaffirmed his opposition to “any attempts to weaken Canada, wear us down, or break us so that America can control us,” as he stated a day earlier.
He added that Trump’s influence on US-Canada relations has had a significant impact.
The Canadian prime minister declared to reporters on Thursday that the “old relationship we had with the United States is over,” citing “prolonged integration of our economies, tight security, and military cooperation.”
After taking office, Carney traveled to France and the United Kingdom. He has not yet arrived in the US, where he has traditionally been a close ally and trade partner for Ottawa.
He emphasized on Thursday that Canada should “pivot” its trade relationships away from the US.
Trump issued a warning earlier this week to Ottawa and the European Union against collaborating with Washington and threatening “far larger” tariffs.
Jamie Gaskarth criticizes Trump’s disregard for the security of the intelligence and defense.
Tamim Iqbal, the former Bangladeshi cricket captain, has since experienced a significant heart attack while playing in a local match.
The 36-year-old was made public on Friday. When he was taken to a nearby hospital on Monday with a severe chest pain, Mohammedan Sporting Club was leading the 50-over Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League match.
The next day, Tamim was moved to a bigger health facility in the capital, Dhaka, where doctors inserted stents to repair an arterial blockage.
Evercare Hospital’s doctor, Shahabuddin Talukder, said to reporters on Friday, “We have decided to discharge him today after observing his health condition.”
Tamim would need to continue a rehabilitation program and alter his lifestyle, he added.
The doctor continued, “We hope he will be able to return to cricket soon.”
On Wednesday, Abu Zafar of the Bangladeshi Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told reporters that Tamim’s future is uncertain.
Tamim won’t be able to participate in sports for the following three months. He will be able to return if everything goes well, he said.
He is a smoker, which raises the risk of heart attacks, he says. He must avoid it. He will need to heed medical advice.
Two powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 6.4 have hit central Myanmar, causing death and large-scale destruction in both Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.
Friday’s tremors were also felt elsewhere in the region.
Authorities in Myanmar imposed a state of emergency in six states after structures collapsed and multiple deaths and injuries were reported. Later on Friday, state-run MRTV wrote on the Telegram messaging app that at least 144 people had been killed and 732 injured in the country.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the UN was “mobilising” in Southeast Asia to help those in need.
Here is everything we know about the disaster so far:
About 12:50pm (06:20 GMT), an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 hit 16km (10 miles) northwest of Sagaing city at a depth of 10km (6 miles). This was followed by an aftershock of magnitude 6.4.
The earthquake’s epicentre was about 17km (11 miles) west of the country’s second largest city, Mandalay, which has a population of nearly 1.5 million people.
Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng was outside Myanmar’s Defence Services Museum in the capital, Naypyidaw, when the earthquake hit.
“Suddenly, the building started moving very heavily from side to side,” Cheng said. “Plaster was raining down.”
Cheng added that concrete from the roof and support columns of the portico also fell during the quake.
“The swaying went on for about 30 seconds to a minute,” he said. “It gained in intensity as it went on. I’ve been in earthquakes in this region before, and I’ve never felt anything as strong as that.”
The tremors were felt across Southeast and South Asia.
At least nine people have died in Bangkok as a result of the earthquake, Bangkok’s Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej told Reuters on Friday evening.
Eight of the victims were killed when a 30-storey building that was under construction collapsed, also trapping 43 workers, according to the police and medics. Rescue workers said a further 117 people were missing.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand suspended activity on Friday afternoon.
Bangkok’s entire public transport system also was shut down for safety reasons, reported Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, who was in the city when the quake struck.
“Traffic is absolutely gridlocked. The buildings have been shuttered in the centre of the city,” Khan said.
China’s Xinhua news agency reported that shocks were felt in the southwestern province of Yunnan, which lies at the border with Myanmar. No casualties were reported.
Chinese media also reported that, in the northeast of the country, tremors were felt in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China, causing injuries and damage to houses in the city of Ruili, which is on the border with Myanmar.
In Mangshi, a city about 100km (60 miles) northeast of Ruili, the shaking was so strong that people were unable to stand, one resident told The Paper, an online media outlet.
Tremors were also reported in Cambodia, India and Bangladesh.
Myanmar’s state-run MRTV station wrote on Telegram that at least 144 people had been killed in Myanmar and 732 injured.
Two people were killed in the town of Taungoo in Myanmar when a mosque partially collapsed, the Reuters news agency reported, quoting witnesses. Local media also reported that a hotel collapsed in Myanmar’s southern city of Aungban, killing at least two people and injuring 20.
A doctor at a 1,000-bed general hospital in Naypyidaw told the AFP news agency that 20 people had died there. “About 20 people died after they arrived at our hospital so far. Many people were injured,” the doctor said on the condition of anonymity.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said three people have been killed by the quake in Thailand. Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai also said 90 people are missing.
A rescue worker from the Moe Saydanar charity group told Reuters that 60 bodies had been retrieved from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmanar, near Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.
“This 60 is only from my charity group and only at Pyinmanar town,” he said.
Infrastructure has taken a heavy hit in Myanmar and Thailand. Buildings, bridges and roads have been destroyed, according to local media.
State media in Myanmar said buildings and structures had collapsed in at least five cities and towns. Pieces of the ceiling at the National Museum of Naypyidaw fell as the tremors shook the structure, AFP reported.
State media reported that a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway collapsed.
Local media also reported that the Ma Soe Yane monastery had collapsed and the former royal palace had been damaged.
The 90-year-old Ava Bridge, also called Old Sagaing Bridge, partially fell into the Irrawaddy River, which flows between Mandalay and Sagaing.
Among the places where Myanmar’s military government has imposed a state of emergency are Mandalay and Naypyidaw.
A major hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, has been declared a “mass casualty area”, an official at the facility told the AFP news agency. Rows of wounded were treated outside the emergency department of the 1,000-bed general hospital, some writhing in pain, others lying still as relatives sought to comfort them.
Zin Mar Aung, the country’s shadow foreign minister with the parallel National Unity Government, said troops from the anti-junta groups, known as the People’s Defence Forces, would provide humanitarian assistance.
“It’s very serious, we need humanitarian and technical assistance from the international community,” Zin Mar Aung told Reuters.
“The state will make inquiries on the situation quickly and conduct rescue operations along with providing humanitarian aid,” the government said in a message on the Telegram messaging application.
Rescue efforts are under way. However, the Red Cross said damaged power lines in Myanmar are impeding rescue teams from reaching Mandalay and Sagaing.
The Red Cross said initial reports suggested the quake has caused “significant damage” and “information on humanitarian needs is still being gathered.”
Bangkok Governor Sittipunt has warned of possible aftershocks but has asked people to remain calm, saying the situation is under control.
Myanmar lies along the Sagaing Fault, a tectonic boundary between the Indian Plate and the Burma microplate, making it seismically active.
The country is also one of Asia’s poorest and least prepared for large-scale disasters. The country has urbanised rapidly, but the construction of buildings in cities has not accounted for seismic risks. The buildings in cities including the largest, Yangon, were not designed to be earthquake resistant, making them more vulnerable to damage from tremors, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
After a 2021 military coup, in which the military seized power, Myanmar became embroiled in a civil war and has been isolated internationally, making rescue efforts difficult. However, leaders from India, France and the European Union have offered support.