Hundreds of thousands of people in southern China were clearing up Thursday after powerful Typhoon Ragasa crashed through Guangdong Province, ripping down trees, destroying fences and blasting signs off buildings.

Ragasa churned into Guangdong, home to tens of millions of people, with winds up to 145 kilometres (90 miles) per hour, on Wednesday after sweeping past Hong Kong and killing at least 14 in Taiwan.

AFP journalists at the impact point around the city of Yangjiang on Thursday saw fallen trees, while road signs and debris were strewn across the streets.

A light rain and breeze still lingered as residents worked to clean up the damage; however, authorities have not reported any storm-related fatalities.

On Hailing — an island administered by Yangjiang — relief workers attempted to clear a huge tree that had fallen across a wide road.

Cars drove on muddy tracks to get around the wreckage as the team worked to saw off branches.

A seafood restaurant had sustained heavy damage, its back roof completely collapsed, or in parts flown away entirely.

“The winds were so strong, you could see it completely ripped everything apart,” said restaurant worker Lin Xiaobing, 50.

“There´s no electricity (at home),” she said while helping clear up the mess inside the restaurant, where the floors were covered in water, mud and debris. “Today, some homes still have electricity and others don´t.”

The island is a popular holiday spot and many locals rely on the tourism industry to make a living.

“We can’t do business here during the National Day,” she said, referring to China´s annual holiday period centred on October 1 but that lasts until October 8.

“We were planning to do some business this National Day to make up for it,” she added. “But now we may not be able to.”

Taiwan fatalities

Ragasa’s passage in Taiwan killed at least 14 and injured dozens more when a decades-old barrier lake burst in eastern Hualien county, according to regional officials who late Wednesday revised the death toll down from 17 after eliminating duplicate cases.

Authorities initially said 152 people were unaccounted for, but later made contact with more than 100 of them and were still trying to confirm the actual number of missing.

The storm made landfall in mainland China near Hailing Island on Wednesday evening.

By that point, authorities across China had already ordered businesses and schools to shut down in at least 10 cities across the nation´s south, affecting tens of millions of people.

Nearly 2.2 million people in Guangdong were relocated by Wednesday afternoon, but local officials later said several cities in the province started lifting restrictions on schools and businesses.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Ragasa made its second landfall in Beihai, Guangxi, on Thursday morning as a tropical storm.

Chinese authorities earmarked the equivalent of about $49.2 million to support rescue and relief work in regions hit by Typhoon Ragasa, Xinhua news agency said.

Hong Kong reopens

Hong Kong resumed flights out of its international airport on Thursday after a 36-hour suspension, reopening businesses, transportation services and some schools after the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year lashed the financial hub.

Ragasa brought the densely populated city to a standstill from Tuesday afternoon, after sweeping through the northern Philippines and Taiwan where it killed 14, before making landfall on the southern Chinese city of Yangjiang on Wednesday.

More than 100 people were injured in Hong Kong, where authorities imposed the highest typhoon signal 10 for most of Wednesday.

On Thursday, the observatory maintained its second-lowest typhoon signal 3, keeping kindergartens and some schools shut as Ragasa moved away from the city and weakened into a tropical storm.

Huge waves crashed over areas of Hong Kong’s eastern and southern shoreline on Wednesday, with widespread flooding submerging some roads and residential properties.

Seawater surged through the Fullerton hotel on the island’s south, shattering glass doors and inundating the lobby. No injuries were reported and the hotel said services were operating as normal.

The president said the attacks, which struck Iranian cities, homes, and infrastructure while diplomatic talks were ongoing, represented “a grave betrayal of diplomacy and a weakening of efforts to establish peace and stability.”

“What you see in these images of killings and crimes is the massacre of children and women. It is a black record of slaughter carried out by Israel in our country against our people, including women, children, and youth, under the name of preserving peace and security in the region,” he said, holding out pictures of the victims.

Pezeshkian underscored Iran’s resilience, saying the country was “the world’s oldest continuous civilization” that has withstood the storms of history.

“Despite the harshest, longest, and heaviest economic sanctions, psychological warfare, media campaigns, and constant efforts to sow division, the Iranian people, from the very first bullet fired at their soil, stood united behind their brave armed forces, and today they continue to honor the blood of their martyrs,” he said.

The Iranian president said the strikes killed commanders, women, children, scientists, and national elites, while also damaging internationally-monitored facilities. He said the strikes constitute “a black record of crimes” carried out under the pretext of preserving regional security.

“Assassination of state officials, systematic targeting of journalists, and the killing of individuals solely because of their knowledge and expertise are flagrant violations of human rights and international law,” the Iranian president told delegates from around the globe.

Israel and the United States have shed the blood of thousands of innocent people in Gaza with the same approach, he said.

Pezeshkian accused Washington and Tel Aviv of deliberately undermining negotiations through military escalation.

The president stated that the foundation of all divine religions and human conscience is the golden rule: “Do not do unto others what you would not want done unto yourself.”

“Let us look at the past two years: the world has witnessed genocide in Gaza; the destruction of homes and repeated violations of sovereignty and territorial integrity in Lebanon; the devastation of Syria’s infrastructure; attacks on the people of Yemen; the forced starvation of emaciated children in their mothers’ arms; the stealthy assault on the sovereignty of nations, violations of states’ territorial integrity, and the open targeting of national leaders.”

“Would you accept such things for yourselves?”

The Iranian president warned that if such “dangerous violations” go unchecked, they will spread worldwide.

Call for ‘power through peace’

The president denounced what he called the “absurd and delusional” plan for a “Greater Israel,” accusing Israel of pursuing aggression and apartheid under the guise of “peace through power.”

“Today, after nearly two years of genocide, mass starvation, the continuation of apartheid inside the occupied territories, and aggression against neighboring countries, the absurd and delusional plan of a ‘Greater Israel’ is being shamelessly declared at the highest levels of this regime.”

He said such policies amount to “bullying and coercion — not peace, and not power.”

The Iranian president outlined an alternative vision for West Asia, calling for a “strong region” built on collective security, cultural diversity, joint investment in infrastructure and science, energy security, environmental protection, and the non-negotiable principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“We seek not peace through force, but power through peace.”

He also reiterated Iran’s longstanding support for a West Asia free of weapons of mass destruction, criticizing nuclear-armed states for violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) while pressuring Iran with “baseless accusations.”

“But we want our powerful Iran, alongside powerful neighbors, in a strong region with a bright future,” Pezeshkian said.

“We stand against mega projects that impose genocide, destruction, and instability on the region, and we defend a shared and hopeful vision: a vision that guarantees collective security through genuine mechanisms of defensive cooperation and joint responses to threats… a vision that seeks not ‘peace through force’ but ‘power through peace.’”

The president said in such a rich region, “there is no place for killing and bloodshed.”

“That is why, for many years, my country has been one of the staunchest supporters of creating a region free of weapons of mass destruction.”

“Yet those who themselves possess the largest nuclear arsenals, and who, in blatant violation of the NPT, make their weapons ever more lethal and destructive, have for years subjected our people to pressure with baseless accusations,” he said.

‘E3 trying to bully Iran’

Turning to the standoff over the so-called snapback mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal, Pezeshkian denounced three European countries for attempting to reinstate annulled UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran, calling the move “illegal” and carried out “at the order of the United States.”

“Last week, three European countries, after failing, through a decade of broken promises and later by supporting military aggression, to bring the proud people of Iran to their knees, at the order of the United States, attempted through pressure, bullying, imposition, and blatant abuse to reinstate the annulled UN Security Council resolutions against Iran,” he said.

He accused the European powers of abandoning goodwill, bypassing legal obligations, and misrepresenting Iran’s remedial steps after the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal.

“They falsely presented themselves as ‘well-intentioned parties’ to the agreement, and labeled Iran’s sincere efforts as ‘insufficient.’ All of this was aimed at destroying the very JCPOA they themselves once called the greatest achievement of multilateral diplomacy,” he said.

The president said the move, which also faced opposition from some Security Council members, lacks international legitimacy and “will not be welcomed by the global community.”

He reiterated that Iran has never pursued nuclear weapons, citing a religious decree by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Calling for a new approach to security, he urged world leaders to embrace “confidence building, mutual respect, and regional convergence” rather than force.

“I invite everyone to practice listening to one another instead of raising voices; to reconsider the intellectual foundations of polarization and political violence that today afflict not only the international community but also create tension and turmoil within societies; and to embrace, as the common ground of all beliefs and cultures, the principle of not imposing on others what we would not accept for ourselves.”

The Iranian president concluded by appealing for the restoration of the credibility of international institutions and the creation of a regional security framework in West Asia.

“Let us restore and rebuild the credibility of international institutions and legal mechanisms, and commit to establishing a system of regional security and cooperation in West Asia.”

• Protesters torch BJP office and police vehicle in Leh.
• Police use tear gas and batons, dozens reported injured.
• Activist Sonam Wangchuk on hunger strike, demands statehood.
  

At least five people were killed on Wednesday as police clashed with hundreds of protesters demanding greater autonomy in the Himalayan territory of Indian occupied Ladakh, leaving “dozens” injured, police said.

In the main city of Leh, demonstrators torched a police vehicle and the offices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, while officers fired tear gas and used batons to disperse crowds, police said.

“Five deaths were reported after the protests,” a police officer in Leh told AFP, on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to journalists. “The number of injured is in the dozens.”

Another police officer, Regzin Sangdup, told AFP that “several people, including some policemen, were injured.”

Authorities later imposed restrictions on gatherings, banning assemblies of more than four people.

The sparsely populated, high-altitude desert region, home to some 300,000 people, borders both China and Pakistan.

Around half of Ladakh’s residents are Muslim and about 40% are Buddhist.

It is classed as a “Union Territory” — meaning that while it elects lawmakers to the national parliament, it is governed directly by New Delhi.

Wednesday’s demonstrations were organised in solidarity with prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on hunger strike for two weeks.

He is demanding either full statehood for Ladakh or constitutional protections for its tribal communities, land and fragile environment.

“Social unrest arises when you keep young people unemployed and deprive them of their democratic rights,” Wangchuk said, in a statement posted on social media.

He appealed to people to avoid violence “whatever happens”.

India’s army maintains a large presence in Ladakh, which includes disputed border areas with China.

Troops from the two countries clashed there in 2020, leaving at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead.

Modi’s government split Ladakh off from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, imposing direct rule on both.

New Delhi has yet to fulfil its promise to include Ladakh in the “Sixth Schedule” of India’s constitution, which allows people to make their own laws and policies.

“There is no platform for democracy here today,” Wangchuk said. “Even the Sixth Schedule, which was promised and declared, has not been implemented.”