WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Desperate quake efforts, 'prosperity deal' push, and an April shower of bill increases

 
today's international story

Hunt for survivors goes on as Myanmar quake toll rises

What happened
Rescuers are desperately trying to locate survivors amid the rubble more than two days after a destructive 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook Myanmar.

At least 1,700 people have been confirmed dead in Myanmar and hundreds more are still missing. The powerful quake toppled buildings as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok and sent tremors through China.

Who said what
The level of devastation wreaked on the country "hasn't been seen in over a century in Asia", according to an official from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Myanmar’s location between two tectonic plates – the India and Eurasia plates – places it at "particular risk of earthquakes", said Al Jazeera.

Friday's quake "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", said the BBC.

Dr Ian Watkinson, from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, said Myanmar's "rapid urbanisation", with "a boom in high-rise buildings constructed from reinforced concrete", meant the earthquake's destruction would likely be comparable to the 7.8 magnitude quake in southern Turkey in 2023, where many buildings collapsed following years of unregulated construction.

What next?
People in Myanmar who were forced to find refuge after the earthquake could face further displacement when the monsoon season arrives in May. Last year there was "severe flooding that damaged homes and sanitation facilities", Lauren Ellery, of the International Rescue Committee, told BBC Breakfast.

 
 
today's trade story

Chance of UK-US 'prosperity deal' ahead of tariffs launch

What happened
Keir Starmer held "productive" talks with Donald Trump last night about "an economic prosperity deal" between the UK and US in the lead-up to the Trump administration's introduction of new tariffs this week, according to Downing Street.

Who said what
The two leaders have agreed that the negotiations will "continue at pace", according to a statement.

British negotiators are hoping to "carve out exemptions from looming US tariffs" – including a 25% levy on car imports – which are expected to come into effect on Wednesday, said Bloomberg.

Discussions with the US over potential exemptions are "intense", said Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Starmer has previously said he does not want to have a trade war, but that the UK "reserves the right" to introduce reciprocal tariffs on the US if a deal to exempt it cannot be reached.

What next?
Things do "not look hopeful", said Jeremy Werner in The Telegraph. "Even if Britain does win a carve-out, it would not be able to escape the destructive consequences of a wider trade war" that "will leave Britain broke".

 
 
Today's cost of living story

Households face 'awful April' as bills surge

What happened
Millions of UK households will see a sharp rise in essential bills from tomorrow due to the increasing costs of energy, water, council tax and telecom services.

Who said what
Energy, water, council tax and telecom bills are "all rising on 1 April by significantly more than than the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation", said The Times, meaning people will face an "awful April".

Water bills are set to surge by an average of 26%, adding £123 to annual household costs, while the energy price cap will increase by 6.4%, raising the typical gas and electricity bill to £1,849. Council tax will rise by 5% and mobile and broadband providers are hiking prices by 6.4%.

Citizens Advice says the increases will hit the poorest households hardest. "After years of cost of living pressures, households across the country are about to feel the extra shock of rising essential bills," said Clare Moriarty, the chief executive of the advice service.

What next?
Moriarty has called on providers to help customers by making sure that all those who are eligible for cheaper social tariffs are put on them.

 
 

It's not all bad

The UK government has unveiled plans to ban burning vegetation on deep peat so as to protect wildlife and reduce carbon emissions. Peatlands store an estimated 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon, but burning and drainage have left 80% degraded, turning them into carbon emitters. The new rules will expand protected areas from 222,000 to 368,000 hectares across the country. Environment Minister Mary Creagh called peatlands "the UK's Amazon rainforest" and said they were vital for biodiversity and flood prevention.

 
 
under the radar

South Korea's history of fraud in overseas adoptions 

Since the 1950s, South Korea has been the largest international exporter of adoptees. Those adoptees were primarily sent overseas to Western countries.

Now, for the first time, the country has acknowledged that private adoption agencies committed widespread fraud, including falsifying documents to expedite the process, with little to no government oversight.

Following its investigation, the government-established Truth and Reconciliation Commission admitted that the South Korean government had failed to implement proper oversight of how private agencies facilitated overseas adoptions in the wake of the "devastating economic aftermath of the Korean War", said The Wall Street Journal.

During those years adoption agencies "falsified documents to present babies as orphans when they had known parents", said The New York Times. In some cases agencies sent the children overseas without proper consent from their biological parents. South Korea's export of babies "peaked in the 1980s, with as many as 8,837 children shipped abroad in 1985", added the Times. Children were "sent abroad like luggage", said the commission. 

The commission's report might not be news to adoptees. Still, it is a "significant victory in the sense that we are finally receiving acknowledgment of what has happened to us over the years", Anja Pedersen, a girl who was sent to Denmark under another girl's name, told the Times. The findings will "carry repercussions beyond South Korea", according to the paper, with some of the receiving countries, such as Norway and Denmark, launching their own investigations into international adoptions.

Regarding the South Korean government, the commission recommended that it issue an official apology and develop plans to assist those who had discovered that their adoptions were the result of fraud.

 
 
on this day

31 March 1889

The Eiffel Tower officially opened, with the names of 72 male scientists engraved in gold letters on its second floor. Now, Paris is set to add the names of female scientists. Anne Hidalgo, the city's mayor, has formed a committee to decide how to do so while respecting the monument's heritage.

 
 
Today's newspapers

Prince Harry "wrecked" a fundraising charity event by announcing he would bring a Netflix TV crew with him, says the organisation's chair, Dr Sophie Chandauka, in The Mirror. Focusing on the same Sky News interview, Metro notes her claim that donors had stopped supporting the charity because of the "toxicity" of the prince's "brand". Keir Starmer will announce new "anti-terror tactics" to stop people smugglers, reports The Times. The government will pay foreign prosecutors to "hunt down" people smugglers. 

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Otter chaos

A Wisconsin zoo attempting to recapture a pair of escaped otters has had its attempts foiled by raccoons. The New Zoo & Adventure Park said at least one of the otters had repeatedly visited the traps its staff had set, but only attempted to enter the contraption after it had already been sprung. "Raccoons have, unfortunately, impeded some of our efforts, even setting off one trap not long before an otter arrived and tried to enter it," said the zoo on social media.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Jamie Timson, Harriet Marsden, Theara Coleman, Ross Couzens and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Sai Aung Main / AFP / Getty Images; Carl Court – Pool / Getty Images; Tang Ming Tung / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images.