The Chinese military conducted large-scale drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan on Tuesday that included an aircraft carrier battle group, as it again warned the self-ruled democracy against seeking formal independence.

Just after sunrise on Saturday, a satellite set its long-range camera on the city of Mandalay in Myanmar, not far from the epicenter of Friday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Southeast Asian county’s second-largest city.

The U.S. is sending military personnel to its ally Thailand and monetary assistance to Myanmar to help the neighboring countries recover from a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck the area Friday.

The death toll from the earthquake that hit Myanmar has risen to more than 1,700 as more bodies have been pulled from the rubble, the country’s military-led government said Monday.

The smell of decaying bodies permeated the streets of Myanmar’s second-largest city on Sunday as people worked frantically by hand to clear rubble in the hope of finding someone still alive.

U.S. Forces Japan has begun reorganizing into a “warfighting headquarters,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday during his first trip to the Indo-Pacific since taking office.

Kadena Air Base briefly ordered all its residents to shelter-in-place early Sunday morning due to unspecified space debris, according to the 18th Wing.

A unilateral partial ceasefire to facilitate earthquake relief efforts was announced on Saturday by Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, which coordinates the popular struggle against the ruling military. The country’s death toll from the disaster soared to 1,644.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has praised American-Japanese friendship and trust while attending a memorial service on Iwo Jima to honor those who died in a pivotal World War II battle.