Politics
China prepares to evacuate 400,000 as super typhoon makes landfall in Philippines
MANILA: The Chinese city of Shenzhen began preparing to evacuate 400,000 people while residents of the northern Philippines sought shelter from gale-force winds Monday as Super Typhoon Ragasa continued on a collision course with southern China.
The typhoon made landfall on the Philippines’ Calayan Island, part of the sparsely populated Babuyan chain, at 3 pm (0700 GMT), according to the Philippine weather service.
As of 2 pm (0600 GMT), maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometres per hour were reported at the storm’s centre, with gusts reaching as high as 295 kph, the national weather service said.
“I woke up because of the strong wind. It was hitting the windows, and it sounded like a machine that was switched on,” said Tirso Tugagao, a resident of Aparri, a coastal town in northern Cagayan province.
Cagayan disaster chief Rueli Rapsing told AFP his team was prepared for “the worst”.
Just over 10,000 Filipinos were evacuated across the country, with schools and government offices closed Monday in the Manila region and across 29 other provinces.
A much larger operation will take place in China’s Shenzhen, where authorities said late Sunday they planned to move hundreds of thousands of people from coastal and low-lying regions.
Multiple other cities in Guangdong province announced classes and work would be cancelled, and public transportation suspended because of the typhoon.
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific said it expected to cancel more than 500 flights as Ragasa threatened the financial hub.
A spokeswoman for the airline said passenger flights in and out of Hong Kong International Airport would be halted from 6 pm Tuesday, “resuming during daytime hours on Thursday”.
‘Extremely torrential’
In Taiwan, the state weather service predicted a chance of “extremely torrential rain” in the country’s east.
“Its storm radius is quite large, about 320 (kilometres). Although the typhoon’s centre is still some distance away, its wide, strong wind field and outer circulation are already affecting parts of Taiwan.”
James Wu, a local fire department officer, told AFP that evacuations were ongoing in mountainous areas near Pingtung.
“What worries us more is that the damage could be similar to what happened during Typhoon Koinu two years ago,” he added, describing a storm that saw utility poles collapse and sheet-metal roofs sent flying into the air.
Philippine government weather specialist John Grender Almario said Sunday that “severe flooding and landslides” could be expected in the northern areas of the main island Luzon.
The threat of flooding from Ragasa comes just a day after thousands of Filipinos took to the streets to protest a growing corruption scandal involving flood control projects that were shabbily constructed or never completed.
The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt, and the archipelago is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, putting millions of people in disaster-prone areas in a state of constant poverty.
Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the world warms due to the effects of human-driven climate change.
- US lawmakers believe there should be more frequent visits
- First House of Representatives visits Beijing in six years.
- Dong says visit to strengthen China-US communications.
A delegation of US lawmakers met with Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun on Monday in the first House of Representatives visit to Beijing in six years, with talks aimed at bolstering exchanges including military-to-military communication.
The bipartisan delegation was led by Democratic US Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the current top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees the US Defense Department and armed forces.
“We are the first delegation from the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and we feel strongly that there should be more frequent visits and more robust conversation,” Smith told Dong.
“We want to open up the lines of communication. And in particular around military matters,” Smith said, according to a pool report organised by the US embassy in Beijing.
Trip follows call between leaders
Dong said the visit marked a “good” phase in efforts to strengthen China-US communications, according to the pool report.
He urged the lawmakers to “eliminate interfering and restrictive factors and adopt constructive and pragmatic measures” to help improve military-to-military relations and bilateral ties, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
The Chinese military is willing to build stable and positive military ties based on respect and peaceful coexistence, while safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, Dong was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
The trip followed a call on Friday between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping as they seek a way out of strained ties exacerbated by trade tensions, US curbs over semiconductor chips, the ownership of TikTok, Chinese activities in the South China Sea, and matters related to Taiwan.
The leaders agreed to further talks on the sidelines of a forum in South Korea at the end of October. Trump also said he would visit China early next year and that Xi would come to the US at a later date.
In a readout of the meeting issued in Washington, Smith said that the US delegation also discussed with Chinese officials the current status of economic negotiations and the impact that tariffs are having on bilateral trade, the need for China to help stem the flow of the deadly drug fentanyl to the US and the status of negotiations on the future of TikTok.
“The delegation discussed the issue of critical minerals and concerns with China’s actions to restrict the global supply and processing of rare earth minerals,” Smith said.
Smith said the delegation emphasised the need to increase dialogue and transparency between the two countries, especially at the military-to-military level, including stressing that the US seeks a peaceful resolution to the issue of Taiwan.
In a separate meeting between China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng and the visiting US lawmakers on Monday, He called on Beijing and Washington to “engage in candid communication, enhance trust and resolve doubts” to develop stable, healthy and sustainable trade and economic relations, according to Xinhua.
The US lawmakers were welcomed by Premier Li Qiang, China’s No.2 political leader, on Sunday.
The COVID-19 pandemic ended formal House visits in 2020, and relations rapidly unravelled due to intense debate over the origins of the coronavirus that spread all over the world.
- Nato accuses Russia of violating airspace in Estonia, Poland.
- UK’s Cooper warns of risk of armed conflict with Russia.
- Russia denies accusations, calls for serious security discussions.
Nato allies accused Russia at the United Nations on Monday of violating the alliance’s air space in Estonia and Poland – actions that Britain said risked triggering an armed conflict.
Confronting Russia at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Your reckless actions risk direct armed confrontation between Nato and Russia. Our alliance is defensive but be under no illusion we stand ready to defend Nato’s skies and Nato’s territory.”
“If we need to confront planes operating in Nato space without permission then we will do so,” she said.
Estonia said on Friday that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets had entered Estonian airspace without permission and stayed for a total of 12 minutes before they were forced to withdraw in an episode that Western officials said was designed to test NATO’s readiness and resolve.
The Security Council convened on Monday to discuss the issue. Nato consultations were due to take place on Tuesday. The incident occurred just over a week after more than 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, prompting Nato jets to shoot some of them down.
Cooper’s comments were echoed by other Western ministers in the Security Council, including EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who suggested the multiple incidents could not be considered an accident.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said such actions by Moscow should be met robustly and renewed an offer by Kyiv to integrate its air defences into those of neighbouring Western countries to counter the Russian front.
“A strong response means that a threat should not be escorted, neither for 12 minutes, nor for one minute. It should be neutralized,” said the minister, Andrii Sybiha.
The United States’ new envoy to the UN, Michael Waltz, making his first appearance since taking his post, said Moscow needed to defuse tensions, not exacerbate them.
“I want to take this first opportunity to repeat and to emphasise the United States and our allies will defend every inch of Nato territory,” Waltz said.
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmytry Polyanskiy, said there was no evidence backing their claims and accused European powers of levying baseless accusations.
“We won’t be partaking in this theater of the absurd,” he said. “When you decide that you want to engage in a serious discussion about European security, about the fate of our common continent, about how to make this continent prosperous and secure for everybody, we’ll be ready.”
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will sign an executive order later this week that declares that a deal to divest TikTok’s US operations from its Chinese owner Bytedance, will meet requirements set out in a 2024 law, a White House official said on Monday.
The United States is confident that China has approved the deal and does not plan further talks with Beijing about its details, the official told reporters on a conference call, but added that additional paperwork is required from both sides to approve the deal.
Trump is trying to keep the short video app with 170 million US users from being banned after Congress passed a law that ordered it shut down by January 2025 if its US assets were not sold by the owner ByteDance.
Trump has delayed enforcement of the law through mid-December amid efforts to extract TikTok’s US assets from the global platform, line up American investors and ensure the new ownership qualifies as a full divestiture needed under the 2024 law.
Last week’s progress toward a deal on TikTok marked a rare breakthrough in months-long talks between the world’s two biggest economies that have sought to defuse a wide-ranging trade war that has unnerved global markets.
Save $36 on a Cool, Compact Hall Effect Keyboard
Betting buzz: Browns, Panthers end big underdog losing streak
WIRED Roundup: The Right Embraces Cancel Culture
-
Tech1 week agoHow to Switch to Google Fi
-
Tech1 week agoThe Top 11 Protein Powders, According to My Stomach
-
Tech1 week agoThe Hypershell Pro X Exoskeleton Made My Hikes Feel Easier—Then I Checked My Stats
-
Fashion1 week agoUK retailer ASOS & ITF sign deal to protect transport workers’ rights
-
Tech1 week agoThe MOTIF Hand: A tool advancing the capabilities of previous robot hand technology
-
Tech7 days agoHow AI Is Upending Politics, Tech, the Media, and More
-
Fashion1 week agoGHG emissions hit record high in 2024 despite declines in EU, Japan
-
Fashion7 days agoIndia’s new GST makes artisan-made ethnic wear costlier