🇲🇲🇹🇭Over 150 dead in Myanmar and Thailand after huge earthquake
A huge 7.7 magnitude earthquake has hit central Myanmar, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
At least 144 people have died and 732 have been injured so far in the country, Myanmar military leader Min Aung Hlaing said.
The epicentre was 16km (10 miles) north-west of the city of Sagaing, sending strong tremors that were felt as far as south-west China and Thailand.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇺🇸Trump announces 25% tariffs on car imports to US
President Donald Trump has announced new import taxes of 25% on cars and car parts coming into the US.
Trump said the latest tariffs would come into effect on 2 April, with charges on businesses importing vehicles starting the next day. Taxes on parts are set to start in May or later.
The president said the measure would lead to "tremendous growth" for the industry, promising it would spur jobs and investment in the US.
But analysts have said the move is likely to lead to the temporary shutdown of significant car production in the US, increase prices, and strain relations with allies.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇳🇪Niger coup leader sworn in as president for five years
Niger's military ruler has been sworn in as the country's president for a transitional period of five years.
Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani has led the country since 2023, after he deposed Niger's elected President, Mohamed Bazoum.
On Wednesday, Gen Tchiani took the presidential office under a new charter that replaces the West African country's constitution.
He was also promoted to the country's highest military rank of army general, and signed a decree ordering that all political parties be dissolved.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇮🇳India accused of meddling in Canada's Conservative Party race
Canada's Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has said he won his leadership "fair and square" after reports emerged that India allegedly meddled in the party's contest.
Citing a source with top-security clearance, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported allegations that Indian agents were involved in fundraising and organising within Canada's South Asian community for Poilievre in the 2022 leadership race.
There is no evidence that Poilievre or his team were aware of the alleged interference.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇺🇸Trump's national security team's chat app leak stuns Washington
There are few US presidential actions more sensitive, more fraught with peril, than when and where to use American military force.
If such information were obtained by American adversaries in advance, it could put lives – and national foreign policy objectives - at risk.
Fortunately for the Trump administration, a group chat with information about an impending US strike in Yemen among senior national security officials on the encrypted chat app Signal did not fall into the wrong hands.
Unfortunately for the Trump administration, the message thread was observed by an influential political journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇹🇷Sixth night of protests in Turkey as Erdogan hits out at unrest
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed opposition parties for provoking a "movement of violence" as protests in the country continued for a sixth night.
Unrest began in Istanbul last Wednesday when the city's mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan's main presidential rival, was detained on corruption charges.
Imamoglu said the allegations against him were politically motivated, a claim denied by Erdogan.
Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party's (CHP), said the demonstrations will end on Tuesday, without saying what the next steps would be.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇨🇦Trump looms over Canada's election as campaign begins
Canada's newly appointed Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a snap election, sending the country to the polls on 28 April.
The election comes as Canada faces a trade war with the US and calls from President Donald Trump for it to become the 51st American state, issues which are expected to be top of mind for voters.
It also comes nine days after Carney, a Liberal, was sworn in as Canada's prime minister following Justin Trudeau's resignation.
Carney must now face Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, whose party had been leading in national polls since mid-2023, though recent polls suggest the race is now neck-and-neck.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇺🇸Trump revokes security clearance for Harris, Clinton, and critics
US President Donald Trump revoked security clearances from his previously defeated Democratic election rivals, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, as well as a number of other former officials and critics.
Trump said in February he was revoking security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden. His order confirmed that decision, adding that he was also revoking the security clearance of "any other member" of the Biden family.
"I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information," Trump's memorandum read.
Former US presidents and top security officials usually keep their security clearance as a courtesy.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇮🇱Netanyahu calls strikes on Gaza 'only the beginning' as hundreds reported killed
Israel has "resumed combat in full force" against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday night.
In a defiant video statement, he warned that "negotiations will continue only under fire" and that "this is just the beginning".
His comments came after Israeli aircraft launched massive airstrikes against what the military said were Hamas targets in Gaza.
More than 400 people have been killed in the attacks, the Hamas-run health ministry said, and hundreds more injured.
The wave of strikes was the heaviest since a ceasefire began on 19 January.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇺🇸🇷🇺Trump and Putin to hold call on ceasefire deal soon, US envoy says
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will speak in coming days, as talks continue over a possible ceasefire in the three-year war in Ukraine.
US envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin on Thursday in Moscow, told CNN that he expected that "there will be a call with both presidents this week".
"We're also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians," he added. "We're advising them on everything we're thinking about."
Last week, the US and Ukraine agreed to propose a 30-day ceasefire to Russia. While Putin said that he supported a ceasefire, he also set out a list of tough conditions for achieving peace.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇺🇸Trump blocked from using wartime law for deportations
A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump from using a 227-year-old law meant to protect the US during wartime to carry out mass deportations of Venezuelans.
Trump on Saturday proclaimed immigrants belonging to the Venezuelan crime gang Tren de Aragua were "conducting irregular warfare" against the US and that he would deport them under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
But US District Judge James Boasberg on Saturday evening ordered a halt to deportations covered by the proclamation that will last for 14 days, according to media reports.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇺🇸US arrests second pro-Palestinian Columbia University protester
US immigration authorities have announced the arrest of a second activist who participated in pro-Palestinian protests last spring at Columbia University in New York City.
Leqaa Kordia, who is a Palestinian and from the West Bank, was arrested in New Jersey, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Friday.
The statement said another student, Ranjani Srinivasani, who has Indian citizenship, chose to "self-deport" by leaving the US earlier this week.
This follows the arrest of Columbia campus activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained on Saturday in New York before being flown to a jail in Louisiana.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇨🇦Watch: Mark Carney's first hours as Canada's new prime minister
Mark Carney has been sworn in as Canada's new prime minister, succeeding Justin Trudeau.
The former governor of the Canadian central bank and Bank of England took time during his first news conference to comment on the current political climate with the US.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇵🇭Duterte's first night in a jail cell is a pivotal moment for the ICC
Outside the International Criminal Court's (ICC) detention centre, where former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was taken on Wednesday, his supporters gathered, waving national flags and shouting, "Bring him back!" as he was driven through the imposing iron gates at speed.
Shortly before he landed in the Netherlands, the 79-year-old unapologetically defended his bloody "war on drugs" for which the ICC says there are "reasonable grounds" to charge him with murder as a crime against humanity.
Small-time drug dealers, users and others were killed without trial on his watch as mayor and, later, as president.
The official toll stands at 6,000, though activists believe the real figure could run into the tens of thousands.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇮🇷Iran rejects nuclear talks as UAE delivers Trump's letter
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected the idea of negotiations with the US over its nuclear programme, as Tehran confirmed receiving a letter from President Donald Trump.
Last week, Trump said the letter proposed talks on a deal that would prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and avert possible military action.
Although Khamenei said he had not seen the letter, which was delivered by an official from the United Arab Emirates, he dismissed it as a "deception of public opinion".
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇸🇸South Sudan VP Machar under house arrest, his party says
South Sudan's First Vice-President Riek Machar, a long-time rival of the country's President Salva Kiir, has been placed under house arrest, his party says.
An armed convoy led by top security officials, including the defence minister, entered Machar's residence in the capital, Juba, and disarmed his bodyguards late on Wednesday, said the Sudan People's Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM/IO).
"Technically, Dr Machar is under house arrest, but the security officials initially tried to take him away," said Reath Muoch Tang, chairman of the party's foreign relations committee.
The government is yet to comment.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇵🇱Poland suspends migrants' right to apply for asylum
Poland has temporarily suspended the right of migrants arriving in Poland via its border with Belarus to apply for asylum.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced it would be happening after the controversial bill, which will allow Polish authorities to suspend this right for up to 60 days at a time, was signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.
Tusk had said it would be adopted "without a moment's delay" while Duda said the changes were needed to strengthen security on the country's borders.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇰🇷At least 18 dead in South Korea's 'worst ever fires'
At least 18 people have been killed and 19 injured as wildfires continue to ravage South Korea's south-east region.
The "unprecedented" crisis remains critical and is "rewriting the record books for the worst wildfires in our nation's history", said acting president Han Duck-soo.
Many of those who died are in their 60s and 70s and more than 23,000 people have been evacuated, authorities said.
The fires gutted the 1,300-year-old Gounsa temple in Uiseong city, where many cultural relics were removed and transported to safer ground.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
⚠️Hundreds join Gaza's largest anti-Hamas protest since war began
Hundreds of people have taken part in the largest anti-Hamas protest in Gaza since the war with Israel began, taking to the streets to demand the group step down from power.
Masked Hamas militants, some armed with guns and others carrying batons, intervened and forcibly dispersed the protesters, assaulting several of them.
Videos shared widely on social media by activists typically critical of Hamas showed young men marching through the streets of Beit Lahia, northern Gaza on Tuesday, chanting "out, out, out, Hamas out".
Pro-Hamas supporters defended the group, downplayed the significance of the demonstrations and accused the participants of being traitors. Hamas is yet to comment.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇺🇸🇻🇪Trump threatens tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan oil
President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 25% on US imports from countries that purchase oil from Venezuela.
Trump described the move as a "secondary tariff" aimed at punishing the Latin American country "for numerous reasons", including allegedly "purposefully" sending gang members to the US.
Separately, Trump suggested he was softening his plans for tariffs on imports from other countries, saying he "may give a lot of countries breaks".
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇰🇷South Korea court reinstates PM as acting leader
South Korea's constitutional court has dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, reinstating him as the country's acting president.
Han took over as acting leader last December when President Yoon Suk Yeol was suspended from duties and impeached by parliament after he attempted to declare martial law.
However, Han only lasted two weeks in power before lawmakers voted to impeach him as well. Since then, South Korea has been led by deputy prime minister Choi Sang-mok.
South Korea has been roiled by political chaos since Yoon's botched attempt to impose martial law.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇹🇷Istanbul mayor arrested ahead of selection to run against Erdogan
The mayor of the Turkish city of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, has been formally arrested and charged with corruption.
Imamoglu, a rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained on Wednesday, days before he was due to be selected as a 2028 presidential candidate.
Imamoglu denies the allegations, and protests against his detention - some of the largest the country has seen in more than a decade - have raged on for four nights.
Erdogan has condemned the unrest and accused Imamoglu's opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) of trying to "disturb the peace and polarise our people".
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇨🇦Canada can win trade war with US, foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly says
Canada's Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly has told the BBC she believes Canada can win the trade war which was sparked by a series of tariffs ordered by US President Donald Trump.
"We are the biggest customer of the US," Joly told the BBC's World Service Weekend programme. "We buy more from the Americans than China, Japan, the UK and France combined."
Joly said tariffs and increased prices are a priority for Canadians as voters prepare to head to the polls to elect a new prime minister later this year.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇺🇸🇷🇺Putin agrees in Trump call to pause Ukraine energy attacks but no full ceasefire
Vladimir Putin has rejected an immediate and full ceasefire in Ukraine, agreeing only to halt attacks on energy infrastructure, following a call with US President Donald Trump.
The Russian president declined to sign up to the comprehensive month-long ceasefire that Trump's team recently worked out with Ukrainians in Saudi Arabia.
He said a comprehensive truce could only work if foreign military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine came to an end. Ukraine's European allies have previously rejected such conditions.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇿🇦South Africa should not be 'bullied' by US in ambassador row, opposition says
Opposition parties in South Africa have called on its president not to be "bullied" by the US after Washington expelled Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, giving him just 72 hours to leave the country.
Rasool was declared an unwelcome person after US State Secretary Marco Rubio called him a "race-baiting politician who hates America" on Friday.
Tensions between South African and the US have been on a downward spiral since US President Donald Trump came into office.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇷🇸Serbia's largest-ever rally sees 325,000 protest against government
Hundreds of thousands of people descended on Serbia's capital on Saturday to protest over the deaths of 15 people in a railway station collapse.
While the government put attendance at 107,000 across Belgrade, an independent monitor said 325,000 - if not more - had gathered, making it Serbia's largest protest ever.
The Novi Sad collapse last November has galvanised anger towards the government and President Aleksandar Vucic. Demonstrators blame corruption and corner-cutting for the loss of life.
They believe the disaster reflects more than a decade of governing by the Progressive Party of Vucic - who closely associated himself with the station's recent renovation.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇿🇦South African ambassador 'no longer welcome' in US, Rubio says
The US is expelling South Africa's ambassador to Washington, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying he is "no longer welcome in our great country".
In a post on X, Rubio accused Ebrahim Rasool of hating America and President Donald Trump and described him as a "race-baiting politician".
The office for South Africa's president on Saturday called the decision "regrettable", adding that the country remained committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with America.
The rare move by the US marks the latest development in rising tensions between the two countries.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇬🇱Greenland's politicians unite against Trump
Greenland's leading political parties have issued a joint statement to condemn Donald Trump's "unacceptable behaviour", after the US president seemed to escalate his campaign to take over the island.
The show of unity saw all leaders of parties in the Inatsisartut - the parliament - release a joint message saying they "cannot accept the repeated statements about annexation and control of Greenland".
It follows a meeting between Trump and Nato's secretary general Mark Rutte on Thursday, where the president seemed to double down on his annexation plan.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇩🇪US tariffs could deepen Germany's recession, says bank
Tariffs on goods being imported into the US could tip Europe's largest economy into another recession, according to the president of Germany's central bank.
Germany's economy has contracted for the past two years and with tariffs, the country "could expect a recession for this year" too, Joachim Nagel, the head of the Deutsche Bundesbank, told the BBC World Service in an exclusive interview.
Without tariffs, the bank forecasts the German economy will stagnate but still grow, by about 0.2%, he added.
He said "there are only losers" when imposing tariffs, and supported the EU's retaliatory measures against US President Donald Trump's 25% tariff on all steel imports from overseas.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
🇮🇳India's Jio and Airtel ink deals to bring in Musk's Starlink
India's largest telecoms company Reliance Jio and its rival Bharti Airtel have signed separate deals with Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring the Starlink internet service to the country.
The move has caught most analysts by surprise, as Musk has publicly clashed with both companies recently.
It comes as Indian and US officials discuss a trade deal. US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on 2 April.
The agreements, touted to expand satellite internet coverage across India, are still conditional upon SpaceX obtaining the Indian government's approval to begin operations.
✅@virals ⭐️Boosts
