Myanmar's military rulers urge people to donate blood and medical supplies. The tremors reached as far as the Thai capital, Bangkok, over 1,000 kilometres away where a high rise building under construction has collapsed.
Chapter 1: What triggered the state of emergency in Myanmar?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson and at 14 hours GMT on Friday the 28th of March, these are our main stories. A huge 7.7 magnitude earthquake has struck central Myanmar, causing damage over a large area. The tremors reached as far as the Thai capital Bangkok, a thousand kilometres away, where a high-rise building under construction has collapsed.
Also in this podcast, the US Vice President J.D. Vance is to visit Greenland today, leading a high-level delegation to America's most northerly military base. And refugees fleeing the war in the DRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo, say they don't want to move to a much larger camp in Burundi.
Diejenigen, die schon im Camp sind, sagen, sie leiden. Ich frage mich, wenn ich mich zurückbekommen verabschiede, was passiert mit den Kindern, die ich in Kongo verabschiedet habe?
Sie werden mich nicht finden.
A powerful earthquake has struck parts of Southeast Asia with its epicenter close to Mandalay in Myanmar. Several buildings are reported to have collapsed and a state of emergency has been declared across large parts of the country. Strong tremors extended into Thailand and Yunnan in southwest China. The US Geological Survey said it had a magnitude of 7.7 and was just 10 kilometers deep.
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Chapter 2: How has the earthquake affected Myanmar and surrounding areas?
The military government in Myanmar has requested aid from abroad to help with the rescue operation.
We'll hear from Bangkok in a moment.
But first, let's hear from a South African resident living in Yangon, the country's largest city. He described what it was like when the earthquake hit.
In Myanmar haben wir meistens eine Erkrankung, aber nichts so intensives. Und das schien für immer zu dauern. Es war mehr als eine Minute. Wir waren sogar auf der Grundfläche, konnten nicht aufstehen. Du fällst über. Also war es definitiv sehr faszinierend. In Yangon scheint es ziemlich okay zu sein. Es gibt nicht zu viel Schaden.
Aber in Mandalay und der UNESCO-Weltheritagesite Bagan scheint der Schaden ziemlich intensiv zu sein. Es gibt Bilder und Videos, die online verbreitet werden, von Menschen, Hospitals that collapsed and pagodas in Bagan that collapsed. So it's all coming to light now, but it seems very grim, to be honest.
We've just heard that they've announced a state of emergency and asked for humanitarian help, which is quite unique for the situation in Myanmar to do that, but they did. I think everyone's trying to just scope out what the situation is first. I know that there's no power in Mandalay or Bagan. In Yangon we had a long power cut too, just after the earthquake.
Das ist normal, aber es kommt oft zurück. Und es hat es nicht. Und ich weiß, Mandalay ist noch in der Dunkelheit. Also ich denke, alle humanitären Autoritäten versuchen nur, herauszufinden, was die Situation ist, weil es keine Kraft da ist. Also ist es schwer, eine Beobachtung zu bekommen, was die Situation wirklich ist. Mandalay ist eine sehr flotte Stadt.
Es ist nicht eine Stadt, die sehr viele Hochreise hat, aber wie alle Bilder, die wir gesehen haben, sind vierstädtische Gebäude, die die Norm in Mandalay seien, die sich verletzt haben, was sehr rar ist. Es ist nicht normal. Drei Wochen ago hatten wir eine 5,2 auf der Richterskala, die sich außerhalb von Yangon befand.
For the latest on what's happening in Myanmar, here's our former Asia-Editor, Rebecca Henschke.
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Chapter 3: What are the immediate impacts in Bangkok due to the earthquake?
So for them to say, we now need help, is a sign of how serious the situation is.
Definitely.
And the situation in Myanmar before this earthquake was dire. We're talking about millions of people displaced because of the civil war. The United Nations was already warning that a third of the country would need aid this year. So that situation coupled with the civil war means that this is going to be bad.
Our former Asia editor, Rebecca Henschke. In Thailand, powerful tremors have caused substantial damage in the capital Bangkok, a thousand kilometers to the south of Mandalay. Rescuers are trying to reach dozens of workers trapped in the rubble of a skyscraper, which collapsed while under construction.
Video footage posted on social media showed the moment the building came down as workers ran for their lives. The authorities in Bangkok have declared the city a disaster area. We too, a reporter for the BBC Vietnamese service living in Bangkok, described how she fled her home after the earthquake struck.
I was cooking when the initial earthquake hit my buildings. And I thought it was just, I was having a vertigo, I was having a dizzy. Because it has been a decade, I believe, that Bangkok hasn't experienced any earthquake like that. So I was literally like ignoring in the first place.
And then when the second earthquake hit and it hit very hard and I felt like I was shaking and I can see all the stuff on the table was kind of like moving. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And I was literally hearing my neighbors yelling. And I opened the doors and I saw people like running and I joined with them.
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Chapter 4: How does Myanmar's political situation influence its response to the disaster?
I heard more from Penisa Enoch of the BBC's Thai service.
I'm sitting on the bridge that overlook into the side from a little bit of the bird eye view. We have seen that there's like high of concrete as tall as about three story building. That's high up, that's collapsed, was actually 30 story building that was on construction. At the moment, I see that there's a lot of rescue people.
There's a lot of police, also a lot of military personnel that went inside and stayed inside of the field. At the moment, the scene is already quite dark. It's already about to be 7 p.m. in the afternoon, local time. We have seen that the Prime Minister has arrived at the scene. As you say, it was a 30-story building that was under construction.
I've seen the video of its collapse, which is circulating on the internet. It looks terrifying. And as you say, a lot of people inside.
And the Thai authorities have declared the city of Bangkok...
A disaster area.
Ja, so the Bangkok governors and a lot of the Prime Minister is already at the scene as well and they're inspecting. And for the beginnings, about two, three hours after the collapse and after the shakiness that happened around 1 p.m., a lot of school has been instructed to send their kids back home.
A lot of office workers, they are advised not to go back inside of the total building for two, three hours because people were afraid of the aftershock that will come after that. But yeah, at the moment, at the scene, where we are, at the check-to-check, where the buildings collapse, you can't actually, the car can't get in, because it's full of rescue cars.
As we've heard, the picture in Myanmar is still confused. The United States Geological Survey has warned the damage is likely to be widespread and that thousands may have died. Myanmar's state media says two bridges have collapsed and buildings are damaged across five cities.
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Chapter 5: What are the geological reasons behind the earthquake in Southeast Asia?
I know you're always asked this question, but what does it mean going forward in the days ahead? Can you predict at all the size of the aftershocks and how many there might be?
No, but you can forecast that there will be a lot of aftershocks. Many of them will be big enough to be felt. And some of them, like the first one, the 6.4, will be damaging in their own right. Wir versuchen, unsere Finger auf die Skala zu legen, mit dem wir hier reden.
Für jemanden, der eine große Erfahrung mit Erkrankungen hat, was würdest du beurteilen, was die Schäden in diesen drei Ländern sein werden? Die Schäden in Myanmar werden sicherlich groß sein. Schau dir die Schäden in Bangkok an und denk dir, dass das 1.000 Kilometer entfernt ist. So, we can expect a lot of casualties, I'm afraid.
Dr. Richard Luckett from the British Geological Survey. The American Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife Usha will arrive in Greenland later for a visit that's been scaled back to avoid protesters who are furious with President Trump. He's repeated his threats to annex the self-governing Danish territory.
He made his position very clear on Wednesday when he spoke to the journalist Vince Collianese on his podcast. Markus Valentin, ein Journalist mit Greenlands National Broadcaster KNR, wurde gefragt, warum er dachte, Mr. Trump hätte seine Erklärung gestatet.
That's the million dollar question. We don't know exactly why it is that Donald Trump is so interested in Greenland. Because from the Danish, from the Greenlandic perspective, there is a military agreement with the US and there is goodwill between Denmark, Greenland and the US too.
If the US would want to make more military bases or amp up their military presence in Greenland, it could easily be done through this agreement.
Instead of watching a traditional dog sled race and a visit to Greenlands capital, Nuuk, Mrs. Vance has instead been forced to limit her trip to a remote American military base. Mr. Vance is traveling with her. I asked Mariam Mashiri in Greenlands capital, Nuuk, why the island matters so much to President Trump and the United States.
Es ist ein riesiges Territorium. 56.000 Menschen leben hier, aber es ist die größte Insel der Welt. Und eines der Dinge, die hier für die Vereinigten Staaten wirklich wichtig sind, ist der Fakt, dass es riesige Mengen von unabhängigen Ressourcen auf dieser Insel gibt. Vor allem spreche ich über Ölreserven und Mineralreserven, die natürlich wichtig für advanced technologies global sind.
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Chapter 6: Why is Greenland significant in US foreign policy?
Does anyone in Greenland seriously believe that President Trump will take over the island? I don't think it's a matter of seriously believing or not seriously believing. I think Greenlanders are very, very upset by this. I've Greenland is not for sale. They say they feel very uneasy about the political agenda that they believe is behind this visit.
Now, Greenland has a very complicated relationship with Denmark. Of course, it is a semi-autonomous region of Denmark. And it's trying in its way to move further and further forward. Vielen Dank. Mariam Mashiri
Das war wichtig für ihre Evolution.
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Thousands of refugees who fled the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo are sheltering at a temporary camp in neighboring Burundi. They say there's not enough food to go around and are refusing to transfer to a much bigger camp, some 200 kilometers from the border, where they believe the conditions will be even worse. Nomsa Maseko sent this report from Burundi.
Eine Reihe von Busen ist außerhalb des Rugombo-Footballstadions in der Chibidoki-Provinz parkiert, wo ein temporäres Camp vorgestellt wurde, um Tausende von Kongolisen zu bekommen, die kämpfen fliehen. Sie warten auf den Transport der Flüchtlinge zum Mosengi-Stand, der im Süden des Landes ist. Aber die Tänzungen sind seit einigen Tagen nicht mehr da.
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