U.S. assisting in earthquake relief efforts; Trump criticizes both Putin, Zelensky; search continues for missing American troops in Lithuania.
1. The United States is sending military personnel to its ally Thailand and monetary assistance to Myanmar to help the neighboring countries recover from a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck the area Friday. Approximately 1,700 people were dead in Myanmar’s second largest city, Mandalay, near the quake epicenter, where the smell of decaying bodies blanketed the streets, according to The Associated Press on Monday. Another 3,400 were injured and 300 were missing, the AP reported. In Thailand’s capital, home to more than 5 million people, the death toll rose to 18 with 33 injured and 78 missing as of Monday morning, Bangkok’s city hall announced on its Facebook page that day.
2. President Donald Trump lashed out at both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, expressing frustration with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders as he struggles to forge a truce to end the war. Although Trump insisted to reporters that “we’re making a lot of progress,” he acknowledged that “there’s tremendous hatred” between the two men, a fresh indication that negotiations may not produce the swift conclusion that he promised during the campaign. Trump began voicing his criticisms in an early morning interview with NBC News while he was at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. He said he was “angry, pissed off” that Putin questioned Zelenskyy’s credibility. The Russian leader recently said that Zelenskyy lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal and suggested that Ukraine needed external governance.
3. A U.S. armored vehicle that went missing in Lithuania has been retrieved from a swamp after a six-day search but there is still no information about the fate of the four American soldiers who were on board, Lithuanian officials said Monday. “The armored vehicle was pulled ashore at 4:40 a.m., the towing operation is complete, Lithuanian Military Police and US investigators continue their work,” Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said Monday morning in a post on Facebook. The soldiers were on a training exercise at the massive General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in the town of Pabradė when they and their vehicle were reported missing in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the U.S. army said.
4. The Israeli military on Monday issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation in the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip. Israel ended its ceasefire with the Hamas militant group and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month. At the beginning of March it cut off all supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to accept changes to the truce agreement. The evacuation orders appeared to cover nearly all of the city and nearby areas. The military ordered Palestinians to head to Muwasi, a sprawl of squalid tent camps along the coast. The orders came during Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
5. Walter LaSota was blown out of a foxhole by a Japanese bomb the first time he was wounded during the World War II Battle of Okinawa. LaSota, a private with I Company, 22nd Marine Regiment, 6th Marine Division, and another Marine were in the foxhole at Sugar Loaf Hill in Naha city in early May 1945. “He used to carry my extra ammunition and all, and the man was 33 years old – I used to call him ‘Pop,’” LaSota, 99, said Monday during a visit to Toguchi Beach, a key landing site for the Marine Corps during the battle. The Battle of Okinawa lasted from April 1 to June 22, 1945. Two-time Purple Heart recipient LaSota returned to the island for the first time in 80 years with help from the Eagle Society, which brings WWII veterans back to their battle sites.
- News