A magnitude 7.8 quake hits Mindanao as the United States logs a near-record spring

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off Maasim, Sarangani, on Mindanao and was felt as far as Leyte, North Maluku, North Sulawesi, and Sabah. At least 35 people were killed, more than 200 were injured, and 12 were missing. Tsunamis were recorded in Guam, Palau, and parts of Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center canceled its advisory for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and Australia, Malaysia, and New Zealand lifted warnings. The center later said the tsunami threat had passed. Philippine president Bongbong Marcos suspended classes in affected parts of Mindanao on the first day of the school year.

The next day the death toll was 41, with 479 injured and four missing, all of them in the Davao and Soccsksargen regions. The revision replaced the first day's missing-person picture with a higher death count. Search and medical work were still the story, not a final reconstruction plan.

NOAA said the United States had just recorded its second-warmest spring since records began. Drought covered more than half of the contiguous states even with above-average rain in some regions. The climate note was national, separate from the Philippine quake.

Australia confirmed the first H5N1 bird flu cases in the country, in a brown skua in remote Western Australia. Officials said that meant the variant had now reached every continent. Brazil suspended its single-dose dengue vaccine after two deaths and another severe reaction among more than 500,000 recipients, with no causal link established.

Other accidents sat beside the quake. Two Ateneo de Manila basketball players, Divine Adili and Rene Baterbonia, drowned at a resort in Dipaculao, Aurora. Eight people were killed and six injured in an explosion at a steel plant in Visakhapatnam. Seven hikers died in avalanches on Mont Blanc, and five people were killed when an Indian Air Force An-32 crashed while landing in Jorhat.