PHILIPPINES
South braces for storm
The country evacuated nearly 1,800 people and suspended sea travel as Tropical Storm Molave was expected to bring widespread rains over two regions on the southern part of the main island of Luzon yesterday. Tropical cyclone wind alerts were issued for several provinces in the Bicol and Calabarzon regions, with the storm expected to make landfall later in the day while traversing the southern Luzon area, the national weather bureau said. “Further intensification prior to landfall over Bicol region remains likely,” it said in a bulletin.
UNITED STATES
Storm forms off Cuba
Tropical Storm Zeta formed early yesterday off the coast of Cuba, becoming the earliest named 27th Atlantic storm recorded in an already historic hurricane season. The system was about 400km south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Zeta was stationary, located near the Yucatan Peninsula about 415km east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and a tropical storm watch was in effect for Cozumel and for Tulum to Rio Lagartos, Mexico. The tropical storm had maximum sustained winds of 65kph, forecasters said. The system was expected to reorganize and move to the north-northwest later yesterday, skirting past Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula today before entering the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow.
SEYCHELLES
Opposition wins elections
Opposition candidate Wavel Ramkalawan yesterday upset President Danny Faure of the archipelago’s long-ruling party after two decades of failed attempts for the office. “I declare ... Ramkalawan as the elected candidate,” electoral commission chairman Danny Lucas said. He won with 54.9 percent of valid votes cast, the commission said. The country’s tourism-dependent economy has been battered by COVID-19, and it is expected to contract 13.8 percent this year, the IMF has said, reversing some fragile progress since the government defaulted on its debt in 2008 and sought an IMF bailout.
UNITED STATES
Pence chief of staff infected
Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short tested positive for COVID-19, raising the prospect of another outbreak within the White House. Pence has tested negative and would continue to campaign for President Donald Trump, his office said. Bloomberg News reported that one of Pence’s closest political advisers, Marty Obst, was also infected.
NAMIBIA
Thousands of seals die
An estimated 7,000 Cape fur seals have been discovered dead at a breeding colony in the country, scientists said on Saturday. Conservationist Naude Dreyer of the charity Ocean Conservation Namibia last month began noticing dead seals littering the sandy beaches of the Pelican Point colony near Walvis Bay city. Then, in the first two weeks of this month, he found large numbers of seal fetuses at the colony, Tess Gridley from the Namibian Dolphin Project told reporters. Fur seals normally give birth between mid-November and mid-December. Gridley estimated that 5,000 to 7,000 female seals had miscarried young, with more still being found. The cause of the mass die-off is yet to be established, but scientists suspect anything from pollutants or bacterial infection to malnutrition.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was