A South Korean man tending a family grave is suspected of sparking one of the record wildfires that ravaged the southeastern part of the country last week, the National Police Agency said on Monday.

The multiple fires, which left 30 people dead and thousands of structures – including a centuries-old Buddhist temple – destroyed, were described as unprecedented in South Korea.

Police said the man, who is in his 50s, was booked in connection with the fires. In South Korea, a booking is not an arrest but rather indicates the man’s information was collected for the investigation.

He was looking after a family grave on a hill in Uiseong County, North Gyeonsang province, on March 22 when he was suspected of igniting a blaze amid windy conditions, police said.

Tending to family or ancestral graves is common in South Korea, especially during the spring and autumn months, and similar traditions exist across East and Southeast Asia.

The fires, which burned about 48,000 hectares in total, had been extinguished by Monday, the Korea Forest Service said in a statement.

More than 3,100 people were evacuated to 114 shelters due to the fires, and five areas – Uiseong, Andong, Cheongsong, Yeongyang, and Yeongdeok – have been declared special disaster zones, the service said.

South Korea’s military deployed approximately 7,500 ground troops and more than 420 helicopters, including four from US Forces Korea, to help in the wildfire fight, according to the Defense Ministry.

More than 10,000 firefighters, police and civil servants were deployed to multiple areas in the south last week since dozens of blazes broke out.

Among the casualties were civil servants dispatched to fight the wildfire. Many of the civilians killed were age 60 or older, including some who struggled to escape quickly or others who did not want to evacuate. A pilot was also killed when his helicopter crashed.

The 1,300-year-old Gounsa temple in Uiseong County, a major Buddhist landmark, was among the dozens of buildings that have burned to the ground with its ceremonial bell the only piece appearing somewhat intact, according to photos from the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.

Some of the artifacts that were in the historic site, including the seated stone Buddha designated a treasure by the state, were spared from the fire as they were relocated to other temples ahead of the approaching blazes, it added.

Han Duck-soo, South Korea’s prime minister and acting president, said the fires were the worst the country has seen in recent years and had caused “unprecedented damage.”

Wildfires are caused by a tangle of factors but as the climate crisis escalates, it’s fueling the hot and dry weather that helps fires burn faster and more intensely.

Unusually warm spring temperatures in South Korea dried out the landscape and, combined with strong winds, set the stage for fast moving fires to eat through the region’s dense forest.

This year alone, 244 wildfires have been reported in South Korea, 2.4 times higher than the same period last year, according to Han.

The prime minister of Greenland pushed back Sunday against assertions by U.S. President Donald Trump that America will take control of the island territory.

Greenland, a huge, resource-rich island in the Atlantic, is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a NATO ally of the United States. Trump wants to annex the territory, claiming it’s needed for national security purposes.

“President Trump says that the United States ‘will get Greenland.’ Let me be clear: The United States will not get it. We do not belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post.

Nielsen’s post comes a day after the U.S. president told NBC News that military force wasn’t off the table with regard to acquiring Greenland.

In Saturday’s interview, Trump allowed that “I think there’s a good possibility that we could do it without military force.”

“This is world peace, this is international security,” he said, but added: “I don’t take anything off the table.”

Greenland’s residents and politicians have reacted with anger to Trump’s repeated suggestions, with Danish leaders also pushing back.

Trump also said “I don’t care,” when asked in the NBC interview what message this would send to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has invaded Ukraine and annexed several of its provinces in defiance of international law.

The bodies of more than a dozen aid workers have been recovered in southern Gaza from what a United Nations agency described as a “mass grave,” a week after they went missing following attacks by Israeli forces.

Eight of the 14 bodies recovered Sunday from the site in the southern Rafah area were identified as members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), five as civil defense, and one as a UN agency employee, PRCS said in a statement. One PRCS medic remains missing.

Last week, PRCS said nine of its emergency medical technicians had been missing since March 23 following an incident in which Israeli forces fired on ambulances and fire trucks in southern Rafah.

In response to the initial incident, the Israeli military said it had fired on the ambulances and fire trucks because they were being used as cover by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.

Aid organizations and the UN have expressed outrage over the attacks, which the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent said were the “single most deadly” for IFRC workers in almost a decade.

“This massacre of our team is a tragedy not only for us at the Palestine Red Crescent Society, but also for humanitarian work and humanity,” PCRS said in its statement, calling the targeting of its medics “a war crime” punishable under international law.

The attacks come amid Israel’s renewed assault on the enclave and as its complete blockade of humanitarian aid nears the one-month mark.

Buried beneath the sand

OCHA, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the bodies were recovered after a “complex, week-long rescue operation” that involved using bulldozers and heavy machinery to unearth the victims and their battered vehicles from under sand.

“Health workers should never be a target. And yet, we’re here today, digging up a mass grave of first responders and paramedics,” Jonathan Whittall, the head of UNOCHA in the occupied Palestinian territories, said from the site.

Video shared by the UNOCHA showed a bulldozer digging through dirt and moving debris as emergency responders used shovels to reach the victims. Several bodies were seen being pulled from sand, some wearing PRCS vests and showing signs of decomposition.

Early information indicates the first team of aid workers dispatched to the area were killed by Israeli forces on March 23 and other emergency aid crews were struck over the following several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues, UNOCHA said.

“One by one, they were hit, they were struck, their bodies were gathered and buried,” Whittall said. “We’re digging them out in their uniforms, with their gloves on.”

Ambulances, as well as UN and civil defense vehicles, were found crushed and buried under the sand, Whittall added, accusing Israeli forces of trying to cover up the scene.

According to the PRCS, their aid workers were dispatched to Rafah’s Al-Hashashin area on March 23 to respond to Israeli attacks when they came under assault.

“Israeli forces besieged the area, leading to (the) complete loss of communication with our teams,” PRCS said.

Hours later, Gaza’s Civil Defense said that six of its staff also went missing after being dispatched to the same area following what it described as a “sudden incursion by the Israeli occupation forces, the killing and injuring of dozens, and the besieging” of PRCS vehicles.

It said it had “eliminated” a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants by firing on the vehicles and condemned what it claimed was “the repeated use of civilian infrastructure by the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, including the use of medical facilities and ambulances for terrorist purposes.”

The news also follows Israel’s decision before the ceasefire collapsed to block humanitarian aid from entering the enclave, in what it described as a move to pressure Hamas into accepting new terms for an extension of the ceasefire rather than proceed with phase two of the truce.

UNOCHA and aid groups accuse Israel of violating international law by blocking the flow of aid into Gaza and of using starvation as a weapon of war. The same organizations have accused Israel of restricting or creating hurdles to the entry of aid throughout the war.

‘Health services must be protected’

International aid and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly condemned the Israeli military’s attacks on medical facilities and personnel.

“Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules. These rules of International Humanitarian Law could not be clearer – civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected,” Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the IFRC, said in a statement on Sunday.

Hospitals in Gaza – including Nasser Medical Complex, the enclave’s largest functioning hospital – have seen intense bombardment and raids from Israeli forces accusing the facilities of harboring Hamas operatives.

About 400 aid workers, including teachers, doctors and nurses, have been killed in Israeli attacks in the enclave since October 7, 2023, according to OCHA’s latest update released Tuesday. The PRCS says the number of its staff killed in line of duty by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023 has now reached 27.

“The occupation’s targeting of Red Crescent medics … can only be considered a war crime punishable under international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate before the eyes of the entire world,” PCRS said.

Meanwhile, Gaza health officials said the death toll in Gaza since October 7 has surpassed 50,000, marking a grim milestone for a war with no end in sight.

Seven thousand head of cattle used to roam Ziwa ranch, a 27-square-mile (70-square-kilometer) expanse of grassland in central Uganda. Today, the cattle have gone and grazing in their place are rhinos – the only ones in the country living in their natural habitat.

Not long ago, Uganda used to be home to both the black and northern white species of rhinoceros. But by the early 1980s, due to poaching, trafficking and political turmoil under the dictatorship of Idi Amin, native populations – once thought to number around 700 – were wiped out.

More than a decade later, an initiative to bring back the majestic animals was born, with newly formed charity Rhino Fund Uganda approaching Captain Joseph Charles Roy, former pilot and owner of Ziwa cattle ranch, which they had targeted as prime rhino habitat, with the idea that he should move the herds of cattle out, and rhino in.

Roy – a lover of animals and an aspiring conservationist, according to his daughter – agreed, and in 2005 and 2006, six southern white rhinos were relocated to the ranch; four coming overland from Kenya and two flown over from Disney Animal Kingdom Florida on Roy’s own cargo airline. Numbers of northern white rhinos were so low (today, there are only two left in the world, both females) that the native subspecies could not be reintroduced.

No one fully expected what happened next. The team knew the ranch was an ideal habitat for the species – a mix of swamps, savannah and woodland – but they didn’t envisage the scale of success. Today, there are 48 rhinos at Ziwa, with five born in the last three months. In contrast, a pair of rhinos moved to Uganda’s Wildlife Conservation Education Center, formerly known as Entebbe Zoo, at the same time as the Ziwa rhinos were introduced, and have had no offspring whatsoever.

However, if the birthrate continues, the rhinos will soon outgrow the ranch – begging the question: where will they go, and will they be safe?

Rhino refuge

Wendy Roy, daughter of Captain Roy, has since taken over some of Ziwa’s management in collaboration with the Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA). The ranch has lodges for tourists and offers walking safaris to see rhinos, shoebills, leopards, antelopes, warthogs and other wildlife, with the funds generated going back into rhino conservation.

Brought up between the UK and Uganda, she is the first to admit that she was not born a conservationist, but now, as she gets more involved, she is starting to see the magic in it.

“Sometimes in the evenings, when I see the rhinos coming towards HQ, I think, ‘Wow, this looks like the Garden of Eden,’” she says. “It’s incredible: not just rhinos but zebras, antelopes, waterbucks. It’s surreal, it’s peaceful and, of course, you have to respect your environment and be equally as peaceful as the animals.”

Roy believes this serene environment is one of the secrets to Ziwa’s success: “It is just conducive for breeding: they’re not stressed.” Also key are the rangers who provide 24/7 protection. Each rhino family is monitored day in and day out by at least two wardens, while other rangers patrol Ziwa’s perimeter fences. This deters poachers seeking rhino horns for the illegal wildlife trade, and it allows wardens to monitor rhino behavior, gathering detailed data that can be used to inform rhino conservation globally.

Sharif Nsubaga has worked as a ranger at Ziwa for more than 10 years. “Every hour, we record the rhino activities and their behaviors, like feeding, urinating, defecating, resting, eating,” he says, adding that as a result, he has formed a close bond with the rhinos. “I know how each individual behaves: I know that this one is more aggressive, this one is unpredictable.”

His favorite, he confides, is Bella, one of the original rhinos brought over from Kenya who has birthed around seven calves and is now a grandmother. “She is one of the calmest rhinos in the sanctuary,” he says.

Right to roam

It has always been Ziwa’s central mission to breed enough rhinos so that they can be translocated to other areas of the country, such as national parks where rhinos once roamed. But the reality of replicating this stable environment has been a challenge.

Many of the national parks are unfenced and suffer from high levels of poaching from communities living nearby, as well as the encroachment of human settlements and resulting human-wildlife conflict.

The UWA has been preparing Ajai Wildlife Reserve, which was once a stronghold of the white rhino and lies 136 miles (220 kilometers) northwest of Ziwa, for reintroduction since 2021. But there have been several hold-ups, due to a lack of funding, challenges relocating people living within the park boundaries, and a shortage of rangers, says John Makombo, UWA’s conservation director.

Next month, community members who have agreed to compensation will be relocated to new homes outside of the reserve, he says, and in May, UWA will start constructing an electrified enclosure where the rhinos will be kept. He adds that they are already restoring the vegetation to make it a suitable habitat, and have started recruiting rangers, including people from the local community, who will be trained from June onwards.

Those at Ziwa are cautiously optimistic; they have been given dates before that have come and gone. This time however, there is more urgency. Roy estimates that Ziwa has the capacity for around 70 or 80 rhinos, but she adds that they are expecting a new intake of eight individuals from another African country soon, bringing its population to around 60. This new intake is much needed, she says, to diversify the gene pool and maintain a healthy population.

Symbol of stability

Moving rhinos from Ziwa to Uganda’s national parks is an exciting step, says Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, a veterinarian who has revolutionized gorilla conservation in Uganda and is founder and CEO of the nonprofit Conservation Through Public Health, but she warns that it needs to be met with solid investment.

However, if the move is successful, the benefits could be significant. Makombo says that if rhinos start reproducing in Ajai, they will look to reintroduce them in Kidepo, Murchison Falls and other national parks across the country. This will not only help to enhance biodiversity, he says, but boost Uganda’s wildlife tourism.

There is also a symbolic importance, says Kalema-Zikusoka. “During the Idi Amin days, the elephants were almost poached to extinction; the rhino, sadly, was actually poached to extinction … By bringing back the rhino, it shows that Uganda is stable again and can look after rhinos in their natural setting, which will be amazing.”

Myanmar was hit by a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Friday, with tremors felt across Thailand and in nearby Chinese provinces.

It was the most powerful earthquake to strike Myanmar in over a century, according to the United States Geological Survey, dealing a further blow to the civil war-ravaged country that has been cut off from much of the world since the military junta seized power in 2021.

Rescuers continue the desperate search for survivors after buildings were flattened and scores of people were killed as experts fear the extent of the devastation could take weeks to emerge.

Satellite images reveal the scale of the destruction.

She asked to be identified only as “Ambo,” out of fear of being recognized back in her home country.

Over the ambient noise of blade fans attempting to cool the large room, she explained she left her native country of Cameroon due to “political issues,” fearing that she would either be “sentenced dead” or spend the rest of her life in prison if she stayed.

She remembers arriving at the US-Mexico border on January 23 – three days after US President Trump’s inauguration – after trekking through Central America and the dangerous Darién jungle.

She turned herself in to United States Customs and Border Protection in hopes of making her case for asylum. By her count she spent 19 days in US custody, then finally got that chance – or so she thought.

Just after midnight on February 13, by her recollection, she and other migrants were loaded onto a bus where they drove for hours.

“We were so happy thinking that they were going to transfer us to a camp where we are going to meet an immigration officer,” she recalled.

She still thought that when she was loaded onto a plane, believing they were headed to another facility in the United States. But when they landed, they were in Panama.

“We’re asking them why are they bringing us to Panama? ‘Why are we in Panama?’” she said, “People started crying.”

Even still, she was optimistic.

“We’re like thinking maybe the camp in the US is full. That is why they are bringing us here. When it will be our turn, they will come and take us to give us a listening ear,” she said.

Even in a new country, under a new government authority, she held out hope someone from the United States government would step in and fix the situation.

“It wasn’t the case.” Her voice cracked, recalling the moment her optimism shattered.

‘Everyone is in a bad situation’

This is the downstream reality of an increased immigration crackdown in the United States, which the Trump administration has pressured Latin American countries like Panama, Costa Rica, and El Salvador to help with.

Just days before she arrived at the border, Trump had signed an executive order effectively shutting down the US-Mexico border to migrants seeking asylum in the United States. Weeks later, the Panamanian government agreed to receive some of those migrants, at least temporarily, and took in nearly 300.

Many are asylum-seekers from places like Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Sri Lanka. They are now are caught in limbo – expelled from the United States, but unable to go back to their home countries out of fear of being persecuted or killed.

“They shouldn’t just like abandon us like that without telling us what we have done wrong. It become very, very difficult and confusing to us. I’ve left my children back home,” Ambo said through tears.

Another woman from Ethiopia, was on a similar flight. She too requested not to use her name for fear of retaliation in her home country.

“I am so shocked. I’m saying this is Texas or Panama?” she recalled.

They all now live in a humble shelter, one of multiple places in Panama where these migrants are trying to navigate life, in a country where they don’t speak the language.

“Almost all of us are from different countries, but here we are like family, you know?” said the woman from Ethiopia.

“Are you going to kill us?”

Days after they were initially brought to a Panamanian hotel, the migrants were loaded onto buses again. They expected to be moved to another hotel, Ambo says.

But the drive stretched on for hours, until they arrived at a facility over a hundred miles outside of Panama City on the outskirts of the Darién jungle near the border with Colombia.

“Are you going to kill us? Why are you bringing us here?” she recalled asking in fear, “Bringing us in this place, a forest. What is going to happen to us?”

Artemis Ghasemzadeh, an English teacher from Iran, remembers crying after being expelled from the United States on her February birthday.

In February she was seen in a window of the migrant hotel with the words “Help Us” written across the window.

Days later she was at this Panamanian jungle camp, known as the San Vicente shelter, with over 100 other migrants who were in the same situation as hers.

“The food was really disgusting,” said Ghasemzadeh. “The bathroom was really dirty, no privacy, no door,” she added.

Salam said the water for bathing was not clean, causing hives to break out on her skin. She pulled up a pant leg to show the marks on her skin. “All my body is like this,” she said.

Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino has repeatedly denied that authorities have violated the deportees’ rights. Reached for comment about conditions at the camp, a spokesperson from the Panamanian Security Minister’s office deferred to the International Office for Migration (IOM), which assists migrants.

Through every step of the way, attorneys for these migrants argue their rights were violated.

“Our claim is that America violated the right to seek asylum and by extension, by receiving them, the Panamanian government did the same thing,” said Silvia Serna Román, regional litigator for Mexico and Central America for the Global Strategic Litigation Council. “Even though they all claim to be to be asylum seekers, they have never had their right to be heard,” she added.

Serna Román is part of a group of international lawyers that filed a lawsuit against Panama on these alleged violations in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Ian Kysel, who is also part of that group, has previously said they are exploring a range of further legal actions, including against US-specific entities and other countries that might be taking in deported or expelled US migrants.

Panama has denied any wrongdoing in this saga.

In early March, the Panamanian government released the over 100 migrants from the remote jungle camp, but gave them 30-day “humanitarian” permits, extendable up to 90 days, to find another place to go or risk deportation from Panama.

“We’re also trying to navigate the terms of those permits,” Serna Román explained. “If they’re only given 90 days and the 90 days come up then they might be forcibly removed and they might be like involuntarily be taken back to their countries and that’s our concern,” she added.

‘If I come back to my country, my government will kill me’

“Asylum means I’m not safe in my country, I need help. Just that. I’m not criminal. I’m educated person and just need help,” Ghasemzadeh explained.

“If I come back to my country, my government will kill me, so in Panama they are free to kill me,” she added.

Ambo, her life now in a demoralizing standstill, still dreams about the United States, even though she has no idea when this nightmare will end.

“America has always been a country that received people from all over the whole world. I believe that is why many people are going towards the USA for to seek for asylum,” she said.

“They should listen to us and see if they can permit us to stay or not because when you don’t listen to somebody, it means that human rights does not exist again in America.”

It was a televised ambush that many in Europe hope will stop a war.

Donald Trump’s dressing-down of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House was a lightning strike to the transatlantic alliance, dispelling lingering illusions in Europe about whether their American cousin will stand with them to counter Russian aggression.

Reeling, perhaps even fearful, Europe may have finally come to its senses over its self-defense needs in the era of Trump.

In a month when US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Europe “PATHETIC” for “free-loading” on defense in a group chat with administration officials (which inadvertently included a journalist for The Atlantic), the continent has been shattering decades-old taboos on defense. Policies are on the table that would have been unthinkable just weeks ago.

The biggest change came in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy. After the federal election, chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz won a vote in parliament to scrap Germany’s constitutional “debt brake” – a mechanism to limit government borrowing.

In principle, the law change allows for unlimited spending on defense and security. Experts expect the move to unlock as much as €600 billion ($652 billion) in Germany over the next decade.

In getting over its phobia of debt, Buras said that Germany has finally acted as though Europe really had passed a “Zeitenwende” – or “turning point” – as described by outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz in February 2022, just three days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Although the invasion jolted Germany, “only the Trump shock made them take this really fundamental decision of suspending the debt brake,” said Buras.

“This is the real, proper Zeitenwende.”

Taboos crumbling

In neighboring France, President Emmanuel Macron – who has long called for European “strategic autonomy” from the US – has said he is considering extending the protection of its nuclear arsenal to its allies, already ostensibly sheltered by American bombs.

Macron’s comments earlier this month came after Merz advocated for talks with France and the United Kingdom – Europe’s two nuclear powers – over extending their nuclear protection. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed the idea, and even called for Poland to consider getting nuclear weapons itself.

Meanwhile, Poland and fellow Baltic states Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – all neighbors to Russia – have pulled out of the 1997 Ottawa treaty on landmines, long considered a key milestone in the end to mass warfare. Lithuania has already announced the purchase of 85,000 landmines;, Poland is eyeing producing 1 million domestically.

Lithuania also withdrew from the international treaty against cluster munitions this month, becoming the first signatory ever to do so.

Military conscription has also made a comeback on the continent. Denmark made women eligible for obligatory conscription from 2026 and lowered health requirements for some roles, as part of a bolstering of the country’s armed forces. Poland has also announced plans for every adult male to undergo military training.

Even famously neutral countries are reconsidering their positions. Amid discussions about how to keep the peace in Ukraine in the event of a settlement, the government in Ireland – a military minnow focused on peacekeeping operations – put forward legislation to allow troops to be deployed without UN approval, skirting a possible Russian (or American) veto.

It’s long been the uncomfortable – and often unspoken – truth in Europe that its protection from invasion was ultimately dependent on the American cavalry riding over the horizon. That support no longer looks so sure.

The pivot goes beyond who will do the fighting to who will provide the arms. Some have begun to question future purchases of the astronomically expensive US-made F-35 jets that several European air forces had planned to acquire.

Portuguese Defense Minister Nuno Melo said his country was re-evaluating the expected purchases of the jets in preference for European alternatives over concerns of the US-controlled supply of spare parts.

It’s the first time such concerns were aired publicly at such a high level, especially in favor of jets that, on paper, don’t offer the same capabilities.

European unity?

But, although Europe seems to have gotten the message, talk of a unified approach is premature.

When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a plan to spend billions more on defense, called “ReArm Europe,” Spain and Italy balked. The plan has since been renamed “Readiness 2030.”

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has also ruled out sending Italian troops as part of a European contingent to keep the peace in Ukraine if a negotiated settlement – another key issue on which the continent is split.

The rebranding indicates a dividing line in Europe: The further away from Russia a country is, the less likely it is to put guns before butter.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said this month that “our threat is not Russia bringing its troops across the Pyrenees.” He called on Brussels “to take into account that the challenges we face in the southern neighborhood are a bit different to the ones that the eastern flank faces.”

“The further west you go, the more difficult it is to imagine that sort of thing. All the problems, all the decisions, they’re relative,” Landsbergis said.

Although this geographical split could deepen divisions, Buras, of the ECFR, said total European unity would always be “an illusion.”

“What really matters is what the key countries do,” he said, pointing to Germany, France, the UK and Poland. “I want to be cautiously optimistic, but I think we are on the right track now.”

Asked whether March would be remembered as the month Europe woke up, Buras said: “Yes, we have woken up – but now we need to get dressed.”

A government-sponsored junk food ban in schools across Mexico took effect on Saturday, officials said, as the country tries to tackle one of the world’s worst obesity and diabetes epidemics.

The health guidelines, first published last fall, take a direct shot at salty and sweet processed products that have become a staple for generations of Mexican schoolchildren, such as sugary fruit drinks, packaged chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, chili-flavored peanuts.

Announcing the ban had become law, Mexico’s Education Ministry posted on X: “Farewell, junk food!” And it encouraged parents to support the government’s crusade by cooking healthy meals for their kids.

Mexico’s ambitious attempt to remake its food culture and reprogram the next generation of consumers is being watched closely around the world as governments struggle to turn the tide on a global obesity epidemic.

In the United States, for instance, the Trump administration’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has vowed to upend the nation’s food system and “Make America Healthy Again” by targeting ultra-processed foods to curb surging obesity and disease.

Under Mexico’s new order, schools must phase out any food and beverage displaying even one black warning logo marking it as high in salt, sugar, calories and fat. Mexico implemented that compulsory front-of-package labeling system in 2020.

Enforced from Monday morning, the start of the school week, the junk food ban also requires schools to serve more nutritious alternatives to junk food, like bean tacos, and offer plain drinking water.

“It is much better to eat a bean taco than a bag of potato chips,” said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has championed the effort.

Mexico’s children consume more junk food than anywhere else in Latin America, according to UNICEF, which classifies the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic as an emergency. Sugary drinks and highly processed foods account for 40% of the total calories that children consume in a day, the agency reports.

One-third of Mexican children are already considered overweight or obese, according to government statistics.

School administrators found in violation of the order face stiff fines, ranging from $545 to $5,450.

But enforcement poses a challenge in a country where previous junk food bans have struggled to gain traction and monitoring has been lax across Mexico’s 255,000 schools, many of which lack water fountains and even reliable internet and electricity.

It also wasn’t immediately clear how the government would forbid the sale of junk food on sidewalks outside school campuses, where street vendors typically hawk candy, chips, nachos and ice cream to kids during recess and after the school day ends.

Rescuers are desperately searching for survivors more than two days after a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, toppling buildings as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok and sending tremors through nearby Chinese provinces.

More than 1,600 people are dead after what was the largest earthquake to hit the war-ravaged country in more than a century, authorities say. Experts fear the true death toll could take weeks to emerge.

Widespread damage has been reported after the quake triggered bridges and buildings to collapse, including in Bangkok, where authorities are trying to free dozens believed to be trapped under the rubble of an under-construction high-rise.

The epicenter was recorded in Myanmar’s central Sagaing region, near the former royal capital Mandalay, home to around 1.5 million people, as well as multiple historic temple complexes and palaces.

Meanwhile, foreign aid and international rescue teams have started arriving in Myanmar after the military issued a rare plea for help.

Friday’s quake was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country in years and comes as Myanmar reels from a civil war that since 2021 has damaged communication networks, battered health infrastructure and left millions without adequate food and shelter.

Here’s what we know.

Massive human toll

More than 1,600 people are dead and around 3,400 injured, Myanmar’s military said on state television. Nearly 140 others remain missing.

Authorities expect that number to rise. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated the final death toll could surpass 10,000 people, according to early modeling.

In Bangkok, hundreds of miles from the epicenter, at least 17 people were killed. Of these, 10 died when an under-construction building collapsed in minutes, leaving dozens trapped under the rubble. Seven fatalities were reported elsewhere in the capital, authorities said.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing in Bangkok for at least 80 people who remain missing, as families gather at the site of the collapsed high-rise for any news of their loved ones.

Around 9,500 reports of building damage have been received in Bangkok, the city’s governor said Sunday. Other than the collapsed tower, there have been few reports or evidence of catastrophic damage.

The earthquake was the most powerful to strike Myanmar in over a century, after it was struck by a 7.9-magnitude temblor in 1912 in Taunggyi, a city also in central Myanmar.

Aftershocks, the largest of which was a 6.7-magnitude tremor on Friday, have continued throughout the weekend, according to the USGS.

Widespread devastation

Testimonies and satellite images of the devastation have begun to emerge as witnesses in Myanmar recall the moments friends and loved ones were buried by rubble.

“It hit very strong and very fast,” one woman living in Mandalay recalled. Part of the wall of the house collapsed onto the woman’s grandmother who was sitting nearby, burying her legs in rubble and debris, she said.

The quake also shattered some of the city’s mosques, which were busy with worshippers attending Friday prayers, one man said.

Since the quake struck, communication has been difficult with people in Myanmar, including Mandalay – making it hard to know the true extent of the damage.

In the south, the townships of Nyaungshwe, Kalaw and Pinlaung are among the hardest hit by the earthquake, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

“Thousands of people are spending the nights on the streets or (in) open spaces due to the damage and destruction to homes or fearing further quakes,” the agency said.

In Naypyidaw, the country’s military capital and 160 miles south of Mandalay, a three-story hospital partially collapsed, trapping patients beneath the rubble, Chinese state media said. Some 40 hours after the quake, China’s rescue team rescued one person from the debris.

As of Sunday, nearly 1,700 houses, 670 monasteries, 60 schools and three bridges were reported to be damaged, and there are concerns for the structural integrity of large dams, OCHA said. It also noted damage to hospitals, major bridges, universities and historical and public buildings.

Before-and-after satellite images released by Maxar Technologies show the scope of the damage, with multiple monasteries, temples, pagodas and buildings throughout Mandalay and Sagaing having severe structural damage.

The Sagaing Bridge over the mighty Irrawaddy River, which separates Sagaing and Mandalay, was destroyed, with nearly every section of the bridge fully or partially collapsed into the water.

Foreign aid deployed

Several countries have deployed resources to assist in rescue and relief operations after military leaders, normally averse to foreign involvement, issued a rare plea for help.

A team from China was the first to reach Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon on Saturday, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said, as Beijing pledged $13.8 million in humanitarian assistance.

Russia was quick to follow China in deploying its own team of specialists, including dog teams, anesthesiologists and psychologists, the country’s Emergencies Ministry said.

The United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia will donate aid packages totaling over $20 million in humanitarian assistance.

United States President Donald Trump described the quake as “terrible” and vowed that the US would also send assistance. India, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have also announced they would send help.

The UN announced an immediate pledge of $5 million in aid for Myanmar and said it was mobilizing teams and support for the relief effort.

However, rescue teams face a daunting task after infrastructure weakened by the civil war was further damaged by the quake. Efforts are also likely to be complicated as the quake’s impact zone includes areas that have seen intense fighting since the junta seized power in 2021 and where competing administrations – the military government and rebel groups – operate separately.

Aid groups say wrecked roads, rubble and communication blackouts are impeding relief efforts, according to the United Nations, as health authorities struggle to cope in a system also hollowed out by conflict.

Severe shortages of medical supplies – including trauma kits, blood bags, anesthetics and assistive devices – have complicated relief efforts, OCHA said Saturday.

Health workers on the ground are struggling to field streams of injured people, according to OCHA.

Why was this earthquake so destructive?

Myanmar is on an active earthquake belt, but many of the temblors usually happen in sparsely populated areas, not cities like those affected Friday.

The USGS and Germany’s GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Shallower earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

Scientists say the quake occurred along the Sagaing fault, which runs north-south through Myanmar, and that it is a “strike-slip” fault, when two tectonic plates shift mostly horizontally.

Brian Baptie, seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said the rupture moved the earth five meters (16.4 feet) over about a minute in some areas.

Because most of the buildings in the area are made from “timber or unreinforced brick masonry,” he said, they are highly vulnerable to quake damage.