UN special envoy tells Security Council "a bloodbath is imminent" in Myanmar

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Jacob Knutson
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

United Nations special envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told the UN Security Council during a meeting Wednesday that "a bloodbath is imminent" in Myanmar and urged the council to act, according to AFP.

Why it matters: The military junta that usurped power from Myanmar's democratically elected government in February has killed hundreds of protesters during anti-coup demonstration across the country.

Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

What they're saying: "Consider all available tools to take collective action and do what is right, what the people of Myanmar deserve and prevent a multi-dimensional catastrophe in the heart of Asia," special envoy Schraner Burgener told the council.

  • She added that it must consider “potentially significant action” to reverse the course of events because the junta is not capable of managing the country, according to Reuters.

Of note: The Security Council failed to formally condemn the military coup in February after Russia and China opposed the action, according to Reuters.

The big picture: Tensions have also flared between the military and armed ethnic minority groups.

  • The military launched an airstrike against territory controlled by the Karen ethnic minority on Sunday, killing two Karen guerrillas and sending around 3,000 villagers across the border into Thailand.

  • A group of elected lawmakers who were unable to take their seats in parliament because of the coup wants the ethnic minority groups to form an army to oppose the government armed forces, according to AP.

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday that it expects the civil unrest and violence occurring in Myanmar to continue.

Go deeper ... Russia and Myanmar: A pariah to the West is a friend to Putin

Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

Recommended Stories

  • U.N. special envoy tells Security Council to act to avoid 'bloodbath' in Myanmar

    United Nations special envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told a session of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that "a bloodbath is imminent" because of the military's intensified crackdown on anti-coup protesters. Schraner Burgener told a closed session of the 15-member council that the military that seized power in Myanmar on Feb. 1 was not capable of managing the country, and warned the situation on the ground would only worsen, according to comments shared with reporters. "Consider all available tools to take collective action and do what is right, what the people of Myanmar deserve and prevent a multi-dimensional catastrophe in the heart of Asia," she said.

  • UN Report: French Air Strike Killed 19 Civilian Wedding Party-Goers in Mali

    MINUSMAOUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso—From above, the photographs show a stretch of charred land in the middle of the desert and a mass grave covered in dried tree branches, where people living around Bounti, a village in central Mali, said those who had been killed by French airstrikes were buried. On the ground were images of strewn flip-flops; an empty parka with one outstretched arm; a mangled metal teapot and pieces of shrapnel—some designated with serial numbers—placed next to bright yellow evidence markers and metal rulers.This is the photographic evidence contained in a just-released 36-page report from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as Minusma, who this week confirmed that French forces struck a wedding on Jan. 3, where 100 people were celebrating, killing 22 people—19 of whom died on the site, all males. The investigation found three of the dead were suspected of being affiliated with an Islamist militant group operating in the region, called Katiba Macina, and that three died on their way to seek medical help.Minusma is authorized by the UN Security Council to protect civilians in Mali’s continuing conflict, among other roles, and the peacekeeping mission is bound by a Security Council resolution to investigate and document allegations of human-rights violations and abuses committed throughout Mali. This includes all violations connected to international forces, including France’s Operation Barkhane, Minusma peacekeepers and the G5-Sahel force as well as national forces during cross-border military operations. All violations are supposed to be documented and made public in the quarterly reports of Secretary-General António Guterres. Releasing this new report soon after its publication, however, is unusual for the UN, particularly because it relates directly to France, a permanent member of the Security Council.“The majority of those hit in the strike were civilians who are protected from such attacks by international humanitarian law,” said the report, which recommended that the French and Malian authorities “profoundly examine the processes and precautions they take in preparation for such strikes” to “conduct investigations into possible violations of international humanitarian law and human rights” and compensate the victims.The French Ministry of Armed Forces, who are in charge of Barkhane, a 5,000-strong anti-insurgency campaign in the Sahel region and based in Chad, maintain that the airstrike targeted only militants. Moreover, the French raised concerns about the “methodology” and findings of the Minusma report and its use of “unverifiable” local witness testimony, according to a statement on the ministry’s website released the same day the report was made public.“The only concrete sources on which this report is based come from local testimonies,” the statement read. “They are never transcribed, the identity of the witnesses is never specified as the conditions under with these testimonies were taken. It is therefore impossible to distinguish credible sources from possible terrorist sympathizers and individuals under the influence (including the threat) of jihadist groups.” It added that the bombing respected the laws of armed conflict.The investigation into the airstrikes that took place on Jan. 3 was done over nearly three months by the Human Rights Protection Division in Minusma. The team is comprised of 15 experts from the department and two forensic police from the mission, who visited the site in late February. The report states that the team conducted 115 interviews with individuals and spoke with at least 200 more people in groups and analyzed 150 publications, official communiqués and official declarations and photographic evidence.Among those interviewed were seven male civilians injured in the attack on the village, whose residents are Fulani, a pastoralist ethnic group who live throughout the Sahel. The wedding unfolded in a semiforested area, beneath a jagged stretch of red cliffs that are part of the spectacular landscape in the Mopti region that once drew thousands of foreign tourists. The Fulani have complained of ethnic profiling in counterterrorism operations in the Sahel region, especially because they have been targeted by Malian security forces; and Dozo ethnic militias are accused of committing large-scale massacres against the Fulani in central Mali.A Jan. 6 report by Sahelien.com, an independent regional news site, quoted a villager in Bounti saying of the French attack: “There were no women among the victims, as this is a zone held by the jihadists. They do not allow men to gather with women for weddings. So the group of women celebrated 300 meters away. The villagers respect the instructions of the jihadists to avoid reprisals. It was only a group of men and teenagers who were targeted, but the groom is alive.”The strike infuriated the villagers and prompted calls by local and international groups for investigations, including from the local representative working for the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights and the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch.“The UN investigation of the French airstrike on Bounti raises serious concerns that the attack was unlawfully disproportionate—that the loss of civilian life, which was considerable and could have been far higher, exceeded the military gain of the attack,” Jonathan Pedneault, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, told PassBlue in an email.The report underlined the growing number of terrorist attacks attributed to jihadist groups such as the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the greater Sahel, near Douentza, where Bounti is situated, which targeted Minusma forces and killed Malian and French troops at the end of last year. The French bombings in Bounti were part of a joint counterterrorism operation called Eclipse, conducted from Jan. 2 to 20 by Barkhane, the G5 Sahel forces and the Malian military. The Jan. 3 bombing came days after five French soldiers died in Mali.The findings of the UN investigation were released just days after media reports that Malian officials accused French forces of killing six civilians in an airstrike in Gao, in northeastern Mali. The alleged and confirmed attacks this year by France have occurred after the release of a 336-page report by the UN International Commission of Inquiry, documenting abuses by all sides of the Malian conflict, since it began in 2012. That is when jihadists groups allied with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb linked up with local Tuareg groups to occupy cities in northern Mali, like Timbuktu.The commission, mandated by the 2015 Algiers peace agreement for Mali, documented abuses by all actors in the conflict and found that widespread human-rights abuses had been committed by the Malian military and that French forces had killed civilians in airstrikes. The report also raised questions about the participation of French forces in counterterrorism operations with Malian forces, who have been accused of committing grave human-rights violations and French cooperation with armed militias accused of committing such abuses as recruiting child soldiers.The commission report was confidentially submitted to the 15-member Security Council in mid-December 2020 and made public a few months later. But the Council has yet to act on the recommendations, such as setting up a tribunal, as some Council members say it is waiting for a response from the Malian government, which UN investigators have identified as major rights abusers. Apparently, only one country in the Council, an elected member, has raised the issue this year regarding accountability on the report’s findings.While M. Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the head of Minusma, welcomed the report, the mission and other significant global bodies, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, have remained largely silent about the number of civilian casualties that have allegedly arisen from French airstrikes in Mali over many years.France refused to answer questions related to the UN Commission of Inquiry report about the French military’s cooperation with Malian armed groups in 2017 and 2018 and the nature of its joint operations with Malian troops, particularly during Operation Serval in 2013. In February, when PassBlue asked the Ministry of Armed Forces whether it keeps records of civilians killed during airstrikes in the Sahel, a spokesperson wrote in an email:“Even though such incidents rarely occur, every civilian victim is declared to the International Committee of the Red Cross but we are not in a position to give you any more information about this. In order to ensure transparency, we leave it to the recognized international authorities to declare the number of civilian victims.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • UN envoy: Myanmar faces possibility of major civil war

    The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar warned Wednesday that the country faces the possibility of civil war “at an unprecedented scale” and urged the U.N. Security Council to consider “potentially significant action” to reverse the Feb. 1 military coup and restore democracy. Christine Schraner Burgener didn’t specify what action she considered significant, but she painted a dire picture of the military crackdown and told the council in a closed briefing that Myanmar “is on the verge of spiraling into a failed state.” “This could happen under our watch,” she said in a virtual presentation obtained by The Associated Press, “and failure to prevent further escalation of atrocities will cost the world so much more in the longer term than investing now in prevention, especially by Myanmar’s neighbors and the wider region.”

  • Imprisoned Palestinian leader's entry shakes up planned vote

    A popular Palestinian leader imprisoned by Israel has registered his own parliamentary list in May elections, his supporters said Wednesday, in a last-minute shakeup that could severely weaken President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and help its militant Hamas rivals. Marwan Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, registered the list hours before the deadline set by the election commission. Polls indicate it would split the vote for Fatah, potentially paving the way for another major victory by Hamas.

  • It's Official: These Are the Best Flea Markets in the U.S.

    Never underestimate the power of a good flea market. Although plenty of estate and tag sales are surprisingly underwhelming, the right flea market can be a goldmine for antique furniture, handmade ceramics, and one-of-a-kind objets. Flea markets used to be synonymous with summer, but thanks to the growing collection of indoor venues, it's possible to shop for off-the-cuff wares year-round.

  • BBC journalist John Sudworth leaves China over safety concerns

    BBC China correspondent John Sudworth has left China over concerns for his safety as Beijing becomes increasingly aggressive towards foreign media. Chinese officials and state media have waged a disinformation campaign to discredit foreign journalists and academics whose reporting and research do not match the government’s official narrative, denouncing them for “bias,” “slander” and “fake news.” The BBC, and Mr Sudworth, pictured above, have been specifically targeted in some of these attacks, which have increased as diplomatic tensions grow between the UK and China. Mr Sudworth told Radio 4's Today on Wednesday that the BBC has “faced a full-on propaganda attack”, aimed not just “at the organisation itself but at me personally”. "In the end we, as a family based in Beijing, along with the BBC, decided it was just too risky to carry on - which is, of course, sadly precisely the point of that kind of intimidation - and we have relocated to Taiwan,” he said. He described being followed by “plain clothed police” as he and his family travelled to the airport and through the check-in hall. “The true grim reality for reporters” in China was made “clear all the way to the very end”, he said. Mr Sudworth said other foreign journalists had been forced to make similar journeys to Taiwan, where there is much greater press freedom. .

  • ‘Sexist’ Luxury Mattress Brand Forced Hypnotherapy, ‘Spiritual Coaching’ on Employees: Lawsuit

    Seth Wenig-Pool/GettyA former employee of luxury mattress manufacturer Hästens filed a lawsuit against the company on Wednesday, alleging its CEO fostered a “deeply misogynistic and sexist work culture” and pushed his bizarre spiritual beliefs on staff, including mandatory hypnotherapy.In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, Lizandra Vega claims that after joining the company in January 2020 as an executive recruiter she endured sexual harassment, wage disparity, and a “vile and disturbing” work culture driven by CEO Jan Ryde. When she spoke out, Vega said she was met with “immediate retaliation and her subsequent termination” on Jan. 7.Her suit, which lists Hästens and Ryde as defendants, asks for a jury trial and “an award of punitive damages.”“Hästens’ policing of its employees’ spiritual beliefs is a brazen abuse of corporate power that falls far outside the bounds of lawful employment practices. Forcing employees to undergo spiritual coaching, assessments by a ‘clairvoyant hypnotist’ on payroll, psychological manipulation—these are not the hallmarks of a safe or lawful work environment,” Jeanne M. Christensen, Vega’s lawyer, said in a statement.“The company’s willingness to blatantly retaliate against Ms. Vega for standing up to workplace gender discrimination suggests that Hästens is not nearly as ‘enlightened’ as it claims. We look forward to holding Hästens accountable for these disturbing and unlawful practices,” she added.Hästens did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.Texas Lifestyle Coach and QAnon-Obsessed Boyfriend Nabbed for Capitol RiotThe Swedish mattress brand is world-famous, boasting celebrity clients like the Swedish royal family, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and rapper Drake. It was also featured in the Netflix series Emily in Paris, and there’s currently a waiting list of people willing to shell out $400,000 for one of its beds.Vega’s lawsuit claims that while the brand touts staying “one step ahead of the lifestyle curve,” its business practices are behind the times, with Ryde exhibiting “ubiquitous profanity” as well as “unprofessional and unlawful conduct” around his employees.On a Jan. 31 zoom call with more than 114 employees, Ryde slammed employees who were not on camera, saying “all the losers who have their screen off—fuck off or open up your screens. You’re either in or you’re out,” the lawsuit alleges.The CEO also tried to control his employees’ spirituality by forcing them to be evaluated by a personal team of “mindset coaches”—including hypnotists and “high-frequency vibration” individuals, the lawsuit states.Workers were allegedly told to study “the law of attraction,” spiral dynamics, the David Hawkins’ Scale of Enlightenment, and The Four Agreements, a self-help book. Ryde also employed Gregory Downey, described as his “right-hand man, personal adviser, and mindset coach,” to teach employees how to properly follow these belief systems.“Vega was expected to use this same matrix of belief systems to source and recruit executive talent,” the lawsuit states. “To force employees to use such a subjective and mystical approach to executive recruiting was a recipe for disaster—especially since Ms. Vega was told to disregard resumes and candidates’ past work experience in order to recruit people that were ‘cooler,’ ‘younger,’ ‘more authentic,’ or that had ‘enough self-love’ and ‘abundance.’”Employees also had to submit to assessments on their vibrational frequencies and “light” from Peter Von Ah, “a clairvoyant and hypnotist on the Hästens company payroll,” the lawsuit states. Vega said she and other employees were forced to attend daily mindset sessions by Downey.Her lawsuit also claims Ryde and other male executives exhibited sexist and disturbing behavior. One example was on Nov. 16, 2020, when Ryde sent 18 of his top employees, including Vega, an email with an expletive-laden video.“Disgustingly the video contains footage of a lion killing live prey,” the lawsuit states. “Under the pretense of being a ‘sales training’ video, the narrator compares salespeople to lions and comments that the male lion had to make the kill because he ‘got tired’ of waiting for the female lion to do it.”The video was sent even after Marybeth Gregg, the global head of Human Resources, complained to Downey about a similarly disturbing training tape, according to the lawsuit. When Gregg made a second complaint about the November video, she was allegedly “mysteriously banished and excommunicated” from Hästens and “Vega and other employees were forbidden” from contacting her.After Von Ah determined that Gregg had “very low vibrations,” she was forced to take time off to “reflect” and become “fully transparent,” the lawsuit says.Vega also complained about the November video, at which point she was “suddenly and inexplicably” excluded “from all of [Ryde's] email communications going forward,” she claims.Lawsuit: Epstein Threatened to Feed a Victim to AlligatorsOn Jan. 7, Vega was fired, with executives allegedly telling her she was no longer keeping up with their vision of recruitment. But knowing the legal provisions in her contract, “Hästens seized upon the horror of Covid-19 and in a sham conditional offer” said she would not be fired if she traveled to New York City three days a week to work at a WeWork, according to the lawsuit. Her salary, however, would still be reduced by 50 percent.“Outraged, Ms. Vega, who had been performing work from home, asked why it was necessary for her to travel to a WeWork office in the middle of a pandemic when rates of infection were spiking and city leaders repeatedly urged individuals to stay home unless absolutely necessary,” the lawsuit states. Hästens allegedly told her that she needed to go in-person to “train her eventual replacement.”When she refused again, she was fired for the second time on Jan. 26.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Mozambique: Dozens dead after militant assault on Palma

    Witnesses say civilians with boats are evacuating survivors of a violent raid on the town of Palma.

  • Myanmar rebels split on confronting junta

    This Thai village is on heightened alert after airstrikes just over the border in Myanmar forced thousands to flee and raised the fear of armed clashes. Following an escalation in the military's crackdown on anti-coup protesters.Jumi, who runs a restaurant in Thailand's northern Mae Hong Son province, says if something happens, they were told to grab their bags and escape."There have been drills by the authorities and assistant village chief, teaching the villagers what they should do."Fighting has flared in recent days between the army and rebel forces in the east and north.Myanmar has two dozen or so ethnic armed factions, and they control vast swathes of the country.Most agreed ceasefires in recent years but now many anti-coup protesters want them to join forces and take on the ruling junta.Yawd Serk is a Myanmar rebel general from a group called the Restoration Council of Shan State.At his base in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, he agrees with the protesters that the groups must form a federal army."If the Ethnic Armed Groups ideology is to protect their own people and the country, they should no longer be able to just stand by and do nothing. We now have one common enemy, we need to join hands and work together."Other groups are reluctant. Back in Mae Hong Son, Khu Oo Reh of the Karenni National Progressive Party says the Myanmar military could use the involvement of rebel groups to their advantage.It might encourage soldiers and police to more violence, he says, and they could accuse us of being behind it.Thailand has been accused of helping the Myanmar military - on Monday (March 29) it denied turning back thousands of refugees.And in early March, the Thai army denied sending sacks of rice to Myanmar military units across the border after local reports surfaced.

  • Trevor Ariza with a dunk vs the Indiana Pacers

    Trevor Ariza (Miami Heat) with a dunk vs the Indiana Pacers, 03/31/2021

  • Semiconductor shortage could go on for 'a couple of years': Cisco CEO

    Cisco chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins weighs in on the outlook for the semiconductor shortage. It's not pretty.

  • Shayne Gostisbehere goes unclaimed through NHL waivers, stays with Flyers

    Shayne Gostisbehere went unclaimed through waivers Wednesday. By Jordan Hall

  • Texas Motor Speedway still has a ‘no-go zone,’ IndyCar drivers say following test

    Here’s what the drivers thought about the track’s condition and the weekend doubleheader in May.

  • 12 transgender models who are changing the industry

    Leyna Bloom became the first transgender woman of color to be featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

  • China Floats U.S. Military Lab as Possible COVID Origin Point, Urges WHO to Investigate

    China on Wednesday urged the World Health Organization to investigate whether COVID-19 first originated in a U.S. military laboratory after the agency’s director called for a deeper probe into whether the virus had escaped from a Chinese lab. A WHO-led team that visited China earlier this year to investigate the coronavirus pandemic’s origins said in a report on Tuesday that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus had leaked from a Chinese laboratory and recommended no further exploration of that theory. However, just before the report’s release, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the team’s probe into the potential lab leak was not sufficient and that further investigation was needed. He said he was prepared to send more specialists to explore that possibility, according to the Wall Street Journal. On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded to a question about Tedros’ comments by touting the team’s “important conclusion” that the lab leak theory was unlikely. “They have basically excluded the possibility of a lab incident” in Wuhan, she said. She also called on the agency to investigate early outbreaks in other countries and encouraged the WHO to investigate a U.S. military laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md. “As you know relevant study is already done in Wuhan labs, but when will Fort Detrick be open to those experts?” she asked. “If necessary, we hope the U.S. can be as open and candid as China.” For months Chinese officials have peddled the unfounded theory that the virus may have originated at Fort Detrick, which houses parts of the U.S. biological defense program and other medical research efforts led by the military, without offering any evidence. Hua would not say whether China would allow scientists to continue to investigate the labs in Wuhan or when it would start the second phase of studies outlined in the WHO-led team’s report. The WHO-led team was forced to rely on the word of the Chinese scientists participating in the investigation and were not given uninhibited access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where many public health experts believe the virus may have originated. The WHO report also contradicted U.S. intelligence claims about the safety protocols at the WIV. The report claims the lab was “well run” but State Department cables from 2018 reveal that diplomats who visited the facility had concerns that proper safety measures were not being observed. The report also suggests that no researchers at the lab came down with COVID but the State department announced in January that researchers reported flu-like symptoms in the fall, months before Chinese authorities acknowledged the COVID outbreak. WIV staff also deleted a genome database that contained information about which viruses were being studied at the lab. Dr. Robert Redfield, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said last week that he believes the coronavirus originated inside a lab in Wuhan and “escaped,” and was potentially spreading as early as September 2019. “If I was to guess, this virus started transmitting somewhere in September, October in Wuhan,” the virologist told CNN in a clip that aired Friday. “That’s my own feelings. And only opinion. I’m allowed to have opinions now.” Redfield said he is “of the point of view that I still think the most likely aetiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory, escaped.” “The other people don’t believe that,” said Redfield, who led the CDC under former President Donald Trump. “That’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out. It’s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect the laboratory worker.” The WHO-led team’s report also notes that it is possible the pandemic began outside Wuhan, or China, as the team found little evidence of substantial spread in Wuhan before December 2019, while the virus had been found in individuals in Italy and Brazil in late November. However, scientists have said it is possible the virus was spreading undetected in Wuhan and the surrounding areas for weeks or months before gaining attention. “The current thinking is that we are still working with the start in and around Wuhan and working backwards on how it came here,” said Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the WHO team. “It is perfectly possible you would have sporadic cases in and around Wuhan before December, November, even October 2019…That earlier move of the virus outside of the area could potentially be explained that way.”

  • Biden's dog involved in 2nd biting incident

    President Joe Biden's younger dog Major this week was involved in his second biting incident of the month, the White House said Tuesday.

  • 21 things you probably didn't know about '10 Things I Hate About You'

    The 1999 rom-com starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles has been beloved by fans for 20+ years, but even they probably haven't heard these fun facts.

  • Sharon Stone says brain surgery left her struggling to walk 2 weeks before famous Oscars dance with John Travolta

    Sharon Stone says symptoms of her seven-hour brain surgery included memory loss and frequent stuttering.

  • 'Delighted' Queen makes first public appearance in nearly five months

    The Queen ventured beyond the walls of Windsor Castle today for her first public appearance in nearly five months, as she marked the centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force. Her Majesty, 94, attended a short service at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Air Forces Memorial in Runnymede, Surrey. Dressed in lime green, and wearing an Australian wattle brooch presented to her on her first tour of Australia in 1954, she said she was "delighted" to be out and about. On arrival at the memorial, which she opened in 1953, the Queen remarked on how long it had been since her last visit. She added: "You've got a good day for it. It's a very windy spot normally." The event began with a flypast by the Red Arrows, using only white smoke instead of the familiar red, white and blue as their smoke pods are in for maintenance. During the ceremony, a wreath was laid on behalf of the Queen by her new equerry, Major Thomas White, before the monarch viewed panels bearing the names of Australian war dead and met serving RAAF personnel. Speaking to one RAAF officer about working with Typhoon jets in Northumberland, the Queen asked if they were "being sent off to chase the Russians?" He replied: "That's correct Ma'am, it's a lot of fun for us."

  • Biden tells migrants to stay put. Central Americans hear a different message

    LA TÉCNICA, GUATEMALA (Reuters) - Maritza Hernández arrived at this remote Guatemalan village exhausted, with two young kids in tow and more than a thousand miles left to travel. "I heard news they are letting children in," said Hernández, explaining she planned to cross the U.S. border in Texas and seek asylum. The number of immigrant families apprehended by U.S. agents along the southern border nearly tripled in February from a month earlier to about 19,000 people.