Super Typhoon Yagi slams southern China, shutting schools and canceling flights
Super Typhoon Yagi slams southern China, shutting schools and canceling flights/node/2570278/world
Super Typhoon Yagi slams southern China, shutting schools and canceling flights
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A ship passes by as storm clouds gather over Victoria harbor in Hong Kong on September 5, 2024, as super typhoon Yagi tracked across the South China Sea towards the southern China coast. (AFP)
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Storm clouds gather over buildings in Hong Kong on September 5, 2024, as super typhoon Yagi tracked across the South China Sea towards the southern China coast. (AFP)
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Tourists walk on the promenade under stormy skies over Victoria harbour in Hong Kong on September 5, 2024, as super typhoon Yagi tracked across the South China Sea towards the southern China coast. (AFP)
Super Typhoon Yagi slams southern China, shutting schools and canceling flights
Winds and rain were accompanied by powerful thunder and lightning across the region overnight and on Friday morning
Packing maximum sustained winds of 245 kph, Yagi is the world’s second-most powerful tropical cyclone in 2024 so far
Vietnam’s four airports in the country’s north, including Hanoi’s Noi Bai International, would be closed on Saturday due to the storm
Updated 06 September 2024
Reuters
HONG KONG: Powerful gales and heavy rain from Super Typhoon Yagi drenched southern China on Friday, with schools shut for a second day and flights canceled as one of the strongest storms to hit Asia this year headed for landfall along Hainan’s tropical coast.
Packing maximum sustained winds of 245 km per hour (152 mph) near its eye, Yagi registers as the world’s second-most powerful tropical cyclone in 2024 so far, after the Category 5 Atlantic hurricane Beryl.
More than doubling in strength since devastating northern Philippines earlier this week, Yagi is expected to make landfall along China’s coast from Wenchang on the island of Hainan, to Leizhou, in Guangdong province from Friday afternoon.
Winds and rain were accompanied by powerful thunder and lightning across the region overnight and on Friday morning.
Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority said four airports in the country’s north, including Hanoi’s Noi Bai International, would be closed on Saturday due to the storm.
Transport links across southern China were mostly shuttered on Friday with many flights canceled in Hainan, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. The world’s longest sea crossing, the main bridge linking Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai in Guangdong, was also closed.
In the financial hub of Hong Kong, the stock exchange was shuttered while schools remained closed on Friday.
The typhoon 8 signal, the third highest, would be lowered by 12.40pm, Hong Kong’s observatory said, with winds over the city expected to weaken gradually as Yagi moves away, allowing businesses to begin to reopening.
Intense rainbands associated with Yagi will still bring heavy squally showers to the territory, it said, warning residents to stay away from the shoreline.
China’s government sent task forces to Guangdong and Hainan to guide flood and typhoon prevention, official news agency Xinhua said.
In Hainan’s capital Haikou, streets were deserted as people stayed indoors, photographs on social media showed
Super Typhoon Yagi’s projected landfall in Hainan is rare, as most typhoons landing on the duty-free island are classified as weak. From 1949 to 2023, 106 typhoons landed in Hainan but only nine were classified as super typhoons.
Typhoons are becoming stronger, fueled by warmer oceans, amid climate change, scientists say. Last week, Typhoon Shanshan slammed into southwestern Japan, the strongest storm to hit the country in decades.
Yagi, which strengthened into a super typhoon on Wednesday night, is the Japanese word for goat and for the constellation of Capricornus, a mythical creature that is half goat, half fish. (Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing newsroom; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Iranian president arrives in Moscow for treaty signing with Putin, TASS says
Moscow and Tehran say their increasingly close ties are not directed against other countries
The 20-year Russia-Iran agreement is likely to worry the West
Updated 5 sec ago
Reuters
MOSCOW: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Moscow on Friday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the signing of a strategic partnership treaty between the two countries, Russia’s TASS state news agency reported. Pezeshkian, on his first Kremlin visit since winning the presidency last July after the death in a helicopter crash of his predecessor, is due to hold talks with Putin focusing on bilateral ties and international issues before signing the treaty. Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile toward the US, such as North Korea, since the start of the Ukraine war, and has strategic pacts with Pyongyang and close ally Belarus, as well as a strategic partnership agreement with China. The 20-year Russia-Iran agreement, which will include provisions for closer defense cooperation, is likely to worry the West which sees both countries as malign influences on the world stage. Moscow and Tehran say their increasingly close ties are not directed against other countries. Russia has made extensive use of Iranian drones during the war in Ukraine and the United States accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine. Tehran denies supplying drones or missiles. The Kremlin has declined to confirm it has received Iranian missiles, but has acknowledged that its cooperation with Iran includes “the most sensitive areas.” Putin met Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October and at a cultural forum in Turkmenistan the same month. Pezeshkian is accompanied to Moscow by his oil minister, and Western sanctions on the sector are likely to be discussed.
ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Pakistan on Friday sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan to 14 years in prison after he was convicted along with his wife of receiving land as a bribe from a real-estate tycoon, Khan’s party said.
The case involved a charitable entity, Al-Qadir Trust, set up by Khan and his third wife Bushra Khan in 2018 when he was still in office. The court sentenced Khan’s wife to seven years in prison in the case.
Pakistani authorities say the trust was a front for the couple to receive valuable land as a bribe from a real estate developer, Malik Riaz Hussain, who is one of Pakistan’s richest and most powerful businessmen. Hussain, like Khan and Bushra, denies any wrongdoing.
In response to Friday’s verdict, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said while it awaited a detailed judgment, the case against Khan and his wife “lacks any solid foundation and is bound to collapse.”
“All evidence and witness testimonies confirm that there has been no mismanagement or wrongdoing,” the PTI said in a statement.
“Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi are merely trustees with no further involvement in the matter.”
The announcement of the verdict in the Al-Qadir Trust case had already been postponed thrice before, drawing criticism from Khan’s party.
Senator Talal Chaudhry, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, this week said the Al-Qadir Trust case was an “open-and-shut case” and there was no possibility of a deal in it.
“Whether the decision is made today or tomorrow, it is a clear verdict, [this is] an open-and-shut case,” he said at the third postponement of the verdict on Jan. 13. “This is about Pakistan and there is no possibility of a pardon.”
Authorities say the Al-Qadir Trust scheme originated with 190 million pounds repatriated to Pakistan in 2019 by Britain after Hussain forfeited cash and assets to settle a British probe into whether they were proceeds of crime. Instead of putting it in Pakistan’s treasury, Khan’s government is accused of using the money to pay fines levied by a court against Hussain for illegal acquisition of government lands at below-market value for development in Karachi.
Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023 and faces a slew of legal cases, says all charges against him are politically motivated and being backed by his political rivals led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country’s all-powerful military. Both deny the allegations.
India docks 2 satellites in space in a milestone for its scientific ambitions
The two satellites weighing 220 kilograms each were blasted into orbit on a single rocket in December last year
On Thursday, they were maneuvered back together in ‘precision’ operation, Indian Space Research Organization says
Updated 17 January 2025
AP
JAMMU: India docked two satellites in space Thursday to become the fourth nation to complete such a mission, officials said, in a milestone for the country’s scientific ambitions.
The two satellites weighing 220 kilograms (485 pounds) each were blasted into orbit on a single rocket in December and sent into slightly different orbits. On Thursday, they were maneuvered back together in a “precision” operation, according to the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO.
“India docked its name in space history!” the ISRO said in a post on social media site X, adding that “control of two satellites as a single object is successful.”
The mission had been postponed twice earlier due to technical issues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indian scientists on the successful mission. “It is a significant stepping stone for India’s ambitious space missions in the years to come,” he said on X.
The maneuver, earlier achieved by only the Soviet Union, the United States and China, showcased India’s rising standing as a space powerhouse and dovetails with its desire to assert its place among the global elite.
In 2023, Modi said that India’s space agency will set up an Indian-crafted space station by 2035 and land an Indian astronaut on the moon by 2040.
Active in space research since the 1960s, India has launched satellites for itself and other countries, and successfully put one in orbit around Mars in 2014.
After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole in 2023 in a historic voyage to uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold reserves of frozen water. The mission was dubbed as a technological triumph for the world’s most populous nation.
Biden won’t enforce TikTok ban, official says, leaving fate of app to Trump
A law signed by Biden last year required that TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance divest the company by Jan. 19
Incoming President Donald Trump, who once called to ban the app, has since pledged to keep it available in the US
Updated 17 January 2025
AP
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden won’t enforce a ban on the social media app TikTok that is set to take effect a day before he leaves office on Monday, a US official said Thursday, leaving its fate in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump.
Congress last year, in a law signed by Biden, required that TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance divest the company by Jan. 19, a day before the presidential inauguration. The official said the outgoing administration was leaving the implementation of the law — and the potential enforcement of the ban — to Trump.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal Biden administration thinking.
Trump, who once called to ban the app, has since pledged to keep it available in the US, though his transition team has not said how they intend to accomplish that.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration and be granted a prime seating location on the dais as the president-elect’s national security adviser signals that the incoming administration may take steps to “keep TikTok from going dark.”
Incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz on Thursday told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” that the federal law that could ban TikTok by Sunday also “allows for an extension as long as a viable deal is on the table.”
The push to save TikTok, much like the move to ban it in the US, has crossed partisan lines. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke with Biden on Thursday to advocate for extending the deadline to ban TikTok.
“It’s clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers,” Schumer said Thursday on the Senate floor.
Democrats had tried on Wednesday to pass legislation that would have extended the deadline, but Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas blocked it. Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that TikTok has had ample time to find a buyer.
“TikTok is a Chinese Communist spy app that addicts our kids, harvests their data, targets them with harmful and manipulative content, and spreads communist propaganda,” Cotton said.
TikTok CEO’s is expected to be seated on the dais for the inauguration along with tech billionaires Elon Musk, who is CEO of SpaceX, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to two people with the matter. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to the statute brought by TikTok, its China-based parent company ByteDance, and users of the app. The Justices seemed likely to uphold the law, which requires ByteDance to divest TikTok on national security grounds or face a ban in one of its biggest markets.
“If the Supreme Court comes out with a ruling in favor of the law, President Trump has been very clear: Number one, TikTok is a great platform that many Americans use and has been great for his campaign and getting his message out. But number two, he’s going to protect their data,” Waltz said on Wednesday.
“He’s a deal maker. I don’t want to get ahead of our executive orders, but we’re going to create this space to put that deal in place,” he added.
Separately on Wednesday, Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general, dodged a question during a Senate hearing on whether she’d uphold a TikTok ban.
Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger voters, especially male voters, by pushing content that was often macho and aimed at going viral. He pledged to “save TikTok” during the campaign and has credited the platform with helping him win more youth votes.
Standoff in South Africa ends with 87 miners dead and anger over police’s ‘smoke them out’ tactics
Authorities had refused to help the miners who were working illegally in the abandoned mine
By the time they were compelled to act on orders of a court, dozens of miners have died
The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa and is a maze of tunnels and levels and has several shafts leading into it
Updated 17 January 2025
AP
STILFONTEIN, South Africa: The death toll in a monthslong standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87, police said Thursday. Authorities faced growing anger and a possible investigation over their initial refusal to help the miners and instead “smoke them out” by cutting off their food supplies.
National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that 78 bodies were retrieved in a court-ordered rescue operation, with 246 survivors also pulled out from deep underground since the operation began on Monday. Mathe said nine other bodies had been recovered before the rescue operation, without giving details.
Community groups launched their own rescue attempts when authorities said last year they would not help the hundreds of miners because they were “criminals.”
The miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released.
South African authorities have been fiercely criticized for cutting off food and supplies to the miners in the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine last year. That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a prominent Cabinet minister, was condemned by one of South Africa’s biggest trade unions.
Police and the mine owners were also accused of taking away ropes and dismantling a pulley system the miners used to enter the mine and send supplies down from the surface.
A court ordered authorities last year to allow food and water to be sent down to the miners, while another court ruling last week forced them to launch a rescue operation.
Many say the unfolding disaster underground was clear weeks ago, when community members sporadically pulled decomposing bodies out of the mine, some with notes attached pleading for food to be sent down.
“If the police had acted earlier, we would not be in this situation, with bodies piling up,” said Johannes Qankase, a local community leader. “It is a disgrace for a constitutional democracy like ours. Somebody needs to account for what has happened here.”
South Africa’s second biggest political party, which is part of a government coalition, called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish an independent inquiry to find out “why the situation was allowed to get so badly out of hand.”
“The scale of the disaster underground at Buffelsfontein is rapidly proving to be as bad as feared,” the Democratic Alliance party said.
Authorities now believe that nearly 2,000 miners were working illegally in the mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, since August last year. Most of them resurfaced on their own over the last few months, police said, and all the survivors have been arrested, even as some emerged this week badly emaciated and barely able to walk to waiting ambulances.
A convoy of mortuary vans arrived at the mine to carry away the bodies.
Mathe said at least 13 children had also come out of the mine before the official rescue operation.
Community members and workers protest during the rescue operation to retrieve illegal miners from an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein on January 14, 2025. (AFP)
Police announced Wednesday that they were ending the operation after three days and believed no one else was underground. To be sure, a camera was sent down Thursday in a cage that was used to pull out survivors and bodies.
Two volunteer rescuers from the community had gone down in the small cage during the rescue operation to help miners as authorities refused to allow any official rescue personnel to go into the shaft because it was too dangerous.
“It has been a tough few days, there were many people who (we) saved but I still feel bad for those whose family members came out in body bags,” said Mandla Charles, one of the volunteer rescuers. “We did all we could.” The two volunteers were being offered trauma counselling, police said.
The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa and is a maze of tunnels and levels and has several shafts leading into it. The miners were working up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) underground in different groups.
Police have maintained that the miners were able to come out through several shafts but refused out of fear of being arrested. That’s been disputed by groups representing the miners, who say hundreds were trapped and left starving in dark and damp conditions with decomposing bodies around them.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu denied in an interview with a national TV station that the police were responsible for any starvation and said they had allowed food to go down.
The initial police operation last year to force the miners to come out and give themselves up for arrest was part of a larger nationwide clampdown on illegal mining called Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole. Illegal mining is often in the news in South Africa and a major problem for authorities as large groups go into mines that have been shut down to extract leftover deposits.
Mametlwe Sebei (C), president of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa, joins community members and workers in a protest during the rescue operation to retrieve illegal miners from an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein on January 14, 2025. (AFP)
Gold-rich South Africa has an estimated 6,000 abandoned or closed mines.
The illicit miners, known as “zama zamas” — “hustlers” or “chancers” in the Zulu language — are usually armed and part of criminal syndicates, the government says, and they rob South Africa of more than $1 billion a year in gold deposits. They are often undocumented foreign nationals and authorities said that the vast majority who came out of the Buffelsfontein mine were from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and were in South Africa illegally.
Police said they seized gold, explosives, firearms and more than $2 million in cash from the miners and have defended their hard-line approach.
“By providing food, water and necessities to these illegal miners, it would be the police entertaining and allowing criminality to thrive,” Mathe said Wednesday.
But the South African Federation of Trade Unions questioned the government’s humanity and how it could “allow anyone — be they citizens or undocumented immigrants — to starve to death in the depths of the earth.”
While the police operation has been condemned by civic groups, the disaster hasn’t provoked a strong outpouring of anger across South Africa, where the mostly foreign zama zamas have long been considered unwelcome in a country that already struggles with high rates of violent crime.
