INDIA
Flooding forces evacuations
Heavy flooding triggered by monsoon rains has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes in the northeast state of Assam, authorities said yesterday, warning that the crisis was becoming more critical by the hour. The Brahmaputra River burst its banks in Assam over the weekend, inundating more than 2,000 villages, and it was still raining yesterday. Torrential rain hit at least 23 of Assam’s 33 districts and the federal water resources body said water levels in the Brahmaputra were expected to rise, with more rain forecast over the next three days. Paramilitary personnel have been deployed across the state for rescue operations. At least two people have died in the flooding.
PHILIPPINES
Sea search continuing
The coast guard yesterday continued its search for 14 people missing since a fishing boat and cargo vessel collided in choppy waters in the early hours of Sunday about 27km off Mamburao town in Mindoro Occidental province. The fishing boat was damaged and overturned, but the search for its occupants was being hampered by strong waves, officials said. The Hong Kong-flagged cargo vessel was being escorted by a coast guard vessel to Batangas province, the coast guard said.
CHINA
Sichuan floods kill 12
Authorities in Sichuan Province said at least 12 people have died and 10 are missing following heavy rains on Friday and Saturday, with flooding especially bad in Mianning County’s Yihai Township. Two vehicles plunged into a river along a flood-damaged highway, and 7,705 people were evacuated in the area. Nationally, flooding since the start of this month has affected nearly 14 million people in 26 provinces, with 744,000 evacuated, 78 people dead or missing, more than 100,000 homes destroyed or damaged and direct economic losses estimated at more than 25 billion yuan (US$3.5 billion), the Ministry of Emergency Management said on Sunday. Torrential rain is set to hit the eastern coastal regions this week, with some areas facing 30 to 50 millimeters of rain per hour by tomorrow, meteorologists said.
SINGAPORE
Election ‘not about family’
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) yesterday said the July 10 general election was not about him or a family dispute with his siblings after his estranged younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang (李顯揚), joined the opposition Progress Singapore Party. “He is within his rights as a citizen. This GE is not about me or any family disputes which may involve my brother and me,” the prime minister said when asked about his brother’s decision. “It’s about Singapore’s future at a very grave moment in our history when we are facing the most serious crisis we’ve seen since independence.” He added that “health, jobs and the future” should be the major focus.”
NEW ZEALAND
‘Wild West town’ for sale
Anyone who has ever wanted to play sheriff in a cowboy movie — and has NZ$11.6 million (US$7.46 million) to spare — now has the chance, as the Mellonsfolly Ranch on North Island’s Central Plateau is up for sale. Established in 2006, the 360-hectare property is a meticulous reproduction of an 1860s Wyoming frontier town, with a 10-building main street. The “town,” featuring a saloon, courthouse, billiards lounge, sheriff’s office, and accommodation for 22 people, is rented out for accommodation and events, and features a 450-hive manuka honey business.
UNITED KINGDOM
PM vows to boost spending
Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday promised a “Rooseveltian” boost to public spending to help the country’s economy recover from the COVID-19 shock and said a return to austerity would be a mistake. Johnson told Times Radio that he would double down on his plans to increase investment and said that his government — which has already announced emergency spending and tax measures worth an estimated ￡133 billion (US$164 billion) — would continue to help people and businesses. “This is the moment for a Rooseveltian approach to the UK,” he said. “I do think the investment will pay off, because this is a very, very dynamic, very productive economy.”
POLAND
President wins first round
President Andrzej Duda came top in the first round of the country’s presidential election, results showed yesterday, but fell short of the overall majority needed to avoid what looks set to be a tight run-off vote on July 12. Duda got 43.67 percent of the vote, according to results based on 99.78 percent of the total number of polling districts. Liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who is standing for the largest opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform, came second with 30.34 percent. Almost 7 percent of voters voted for far-right Confederation candidate Krzysztof Bosak.
RUSSIA
Nornickel owns up spill
A metallurgical company on Sunday said that it improperly pumped wastewater into the Arctic tundra and that it has suspended the responsible employees. The statement from Nornickel is the second time in a month the company has been connected to pollution in the region. The statement came hours after the independent Novaya Gazeta reported that water tainted with heavy metals from the tailings at a nickel-processing plant were being pumped into a river. Nornickel said the water was improperly pumped because of an overflowing sump.
CANADA
Detainee’s wife speaks out
The wife of one of two Canadians imprisoned in China on Sunday said that she is “disappointed” by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s refusal to consider a swap for detained chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟), who is facing extradition to the US. Trudeau firmly rejected appeals that he intervene in the extradition proceedings against Meng to win the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Trudeau said such a decision would put other Canadians around the world at risk by showing that Ottawa can be influenced by “random arrests.” In an interview with the CTV network, Kovrig’s wife, Vina Nadjibulla, said that the government should try to gain her husband’s and Spavor’s release and protect other Canadians from arbitrary arrest. “We can do both,” she said.
MEXICO
Two nabbed over killing
Authorities have arrested two people in connection with the murder of a federal judge and his wife in the middle of this month, prosecutors said on Sunday, while in Mexico City 17 of the 19 suspects detained in a failed attack on Police Chief Omar Garcia Harfuch appeared before a judge. Both attacks have been attributed to the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and are seen as major challenges to the government and the security strategy of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
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