Vietnam typhoon death toll rises to 233 as more bodies found in areas hit by landslides and floods

Vietnam typhoon death toll rises to 233 as more bodies found in areas hit by landslides and floods
A resident cleans up on a street after flood waters receded in Hanoi on Sept. 13, 2024. Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades. (AFP)
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Updated 13 September 2024
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Vietnam typhoon death toll rises to 233 as more bodies found in areas hit by landslides and floods

Vietnam typhoon death toll rises to 233 as more bodies found in areas hit by landslides and floods
  • Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades
  • Soldiers rescued residents of flooded villages in the complex network of rivers and creeks surrounding the sprawling with some forced to wade through deep muddy brown waters

HANOI: The death toll in the aftermath of a typhoon in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported.
State-run broadcaster VTV said emergency crews have now recovered 48 bodies from the area of Lang Nu, a small village in northern Lao Cai province that was swept away in a deluge of water, mud and debris from mountains on Tuesday. Another 39 people are still missing.
Across Vietnam, 103 people are still listed as missing and more than 800 have been injured.
Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades. It made landfall Saturday with winds of up to 149kph. Though it had weakened by Sunday, downpours continued and rivers remain dangerously high.
Roads to Lang Nu have been badly damaged, making it impossible to bring heavy equipment in to aid in the rescue effort.
Some 500 personnel with sniffer dogs are on hand, and in a visit to the scene on Thursday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh promised they would not relent in their search for those still missing.
“Their families are in agony,” Chinh said.
In a sign of hope, eight people from two Lang Nu households were found safe early Friday morning, state-run VNExpress newspaper reported.
They had been out of the area at the time when the flash flood hit. 

Hundreds of villagers in Myanmar waded or swam through chin-high waters, fleeing severe floods around remote capital Naypyidaw on Friday, as Vietnam began clearing up after Typhoon Yagi.
A swathe of northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar have been battling floods and landslides in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which dumped a colossal deluge of rain when it hit the region last weekend.
Myanmar’s national fire service on Friday confirmed the new death toll, up from 17, while more than 50,000 people have been forced from their homes.
“We walked through neck-high water this morning,” one woman told AFP at Sin Thay village.
“We are very hungry and thirsty. It been about three days we don’t have food.”
Soldiers rescued residents of flooded villages in the complex network of rivers and creeks surrounding the sprawling, low-rise capital, with some forced to wade through deep muddy brown waters.
Houses and nearby banana and sugarcane plantations were all submerged.
“This is the very first time I have experienced such a flood,” another man said near the village, where people had gathered near a small bridge.
“We didn’t have time to prepare. It was a very scary experience.”
State media said flooding in the area around the capital had caused landslides and destroyed electricity towers, buildings, roads, bridges, and houses.
In Mandalay region, one group of villagers rode elephants to reach dry land, in footage posted on social media.
In Vietnamese capital Hanoi, residents equipped with shovels, brushes and hoses were out clearing up debris and mud from the streets after the waters that had submerged parts of the city receded — and the sun came out for the first time in days.
The Red River through Hanoi reached its highest level in 20 years earlier this week as the rain brought by Yagi funnelled out toward the sea.
“This was the highest flooding I’ve ever seen, it was more than a meter on our first floor,” Nguyen Lan Huong, 40, told AFP.
“The water started to recede yesterday afternoon so we began cleaning up bit by bit. But it will take days for our family to fully recover, and even weeks for the community here I think.”
A total of 130,000 people were evacuated in northern Vietnam since Yagi hit on Saturday — and many have not yet been able to return home — while more than 135,000 homes have been damaged according to the authorities.
In the deadliest single incident, a landslide wiped out a village in mountainous Lao Cai province, killing 48 people.
But in a rare piece of good news, eight people missing in the landslide and feared dead have returned safe. Some had been staying with relatives while others managed to escape in time.
Northern Thailand was also badly affected, with one district on the Myanmar border reporting its worst floods in 80 years.
Officials said Friday a fatality in a landslide in Chiang Rai province had taken the toll in the kingdom to 10.
Flights to Chiang Rai airport resumed on Friday a day after airlines halted them.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was set to visit Chiang Rai on Friday to see relief efforts, which are being led by the military.
There are flood warnings for several locations along the River Mekong, including Laotian capital Vientiane.
The Mekong River Commission said low-lying areas around Vientiane are expected to be flooded over the next few days.


Biden, Trump to meet at White House ahead of historic return

Biden, Trump to meet at White House ahead of historic return
Updated 16 sec ago
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Biden, Trump to meet at White House ahead of historic return

Biden, Trump to meet at White House ahead of historic return
  • Biden had promised an orderly transfer of power back to the Republican he beat in elections just four years ago
  • When Biden beat Trump in the 2020 election, the Republican refused to concede defeat, claming falsely that he was cheated

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden will meet with President-elect Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday after the US leader pledged an orderly transfer of power back to the Republican he beat in elections just four years ago.
Trump — who never conceded his 2020 loss — sealed a remarkable comeback to the presidency in the November 5 vote, cementing what is set to be more than a decade of US politics dominated by his hard-line right-wing stance.
This type of meeting between the outgoing and incoming presidents was considered customary, but Trump did not invite Biden for one after making unsubstantiated election fraud claims that culminated in the January 6 Capitol riot.
Trump also broke with precedent by skipping Biden’s January 20, 2021 inauguration, but the White House has said the president will attend the ceremony.
The Democrat’s meeting with Trump will take place in the Oval Office, the White House said Saturday, with the clock ticking down to the ex-president’s return to power.
Biden in January will join the tiny club of US presidents to return power to their White House predecessor — with the one previous instance coming when president Benjamin Harrison handed back to Grover Cleveland in the 19th century.
The 78-year-old ex-reality TV star won wider margins than before, despite a criminal conviction, two impeachments while in office and warnings from his former chief of staff that he is a “fascist.”
Exit polls showed that voters’ top concerns remained the economy and inflation that spiked under Biden in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
Biden, who dropped out of the race in July over concerns about his ability to continue at the age of 81, called Trump on Wednesday to congratulate him after his election win.

Democrats have been pointing fingers over who is to blame for Harris’s decisive loss, with Biden himself coming in for much of the blame.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told The New York Times that “had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race.”
“Because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different,” added Pelosi, who is reported to have played a key role in persuading Biden to step aside.
As the Democrats weigh what went wrong, Trump has begun to assemble his second administration by naming campaign manager Susie Wiles to serve as his White House chief of staff.
She is the first woman to be named to the high-profile role and the Republican’s first appointment to his incoming administration.
The other frontrunners for a place in the Trump 2.0 administration reflect the significant changes it is likely to implement.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading figure in the anti-vaccine movement for whom Trump has pledged a “big role” in health care, told NBC News on Wednesday that “I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccines.”
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, could also be in line for a job auditing government waste after the right-wing SpaceX, Tesla and X boss enthusiastically backed Trump.
Trump is expected to axe many of Biden’s signature policies. He returns to the White House as a climate change denier, poised to take apart Biden’s green policies with his pledge to “drill, baby, drill” for oil.
The president-elect announced Saturday that his inaugural committee will be led by close Trump associate Steve Witkoff and ex-senator Kelly Loeffler.
 


Lithuania’s defense minister proposes ways for smoother relations between Europe and Trump

Lithuania’s defense minister proposes ways for smoother relations between Europe and Trump
Updated 41 min 3 sec ago
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Lithuania’s defense minister proposes ways for smoother relations between Europe and Trump

Lithuania’s defense minister proposes ways for smoother relations between Europe and Trump
  • Trump has repeatedly taken issue with US aid to Ukraine, made vague vows to end the war and has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin

PRAGUE: European nations should not repeat the mistake of creating a barrier between them and President-elect Donald Trump but instead cooperate on issues of common interest, Lithuania’s defense minister said Saturday.
Assuming that Trump will again apply what Laurynas Kasčiūnas called “his contract approach to our relations,” Kasčiūnas outlined areas where Europe and the new president could join forces: more investment in defense, European acquisition of American weapons and cooperation on containing China and Iran.
“What we did a little bit wrong last time when he was elected (by defeating) Hillary Clinton, and it was unexpected, we built against him a moral wall,” Kasčiūnas told The Associated Press.
“I think it was not a correct way,” Kasčiūnas said. He was speaking on the sidelines of a three-day gathering in Prague focusing on European and transatlantic military capabilities.
During his first 2017-2021 term, Trump pushed NATO’s European members to spend more on defense, up to and beyond 2 percent of gross domestic product, and to be less reliant on US military cover.
That’s what the allies have been doing. A total of 23 members are expected to meet the 2 percent target his year, compared to just three 10 years ago, according to NATO. Lithuania has already surpassed 2.5 percent with a goal of reaching 4 percent, which would be more than the United States.
Europe’s defense industry managed to increase output of some products after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 but European countries also donated their own weapons to Ukraine, and “remain dependent on the US for some important aspects of their military capability,” a report published by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies at the Prague event said.
Lithuania, which borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west and Belarus to the east, remains the largest buyer of US arms among the three Baltic states.
The minister, whose country was in a spat with China over Taiwan, also spoke in favor of European Union sanctions on Iran.
However, Russia’s war against Ukraine has been divisive.
Trump has repeatedly taken issue with US aid to Ukraine, made vague vows to end the war and has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kasčiūnas insisted that Europe’s military aid to Ukraine has to continue and Russia should not dictate the conditions for peace while a limited ceasefire would not make sense because it would only help Russian troops recover from losses and strike again.
“We need a just peace, credible peace,” he said.
During his election campaign, Trump also threatened actions that could have groundbreaking consequences for nations across Europe, from a trade war with the EU to a withdrawal of NATO commitments.

 


Putin orders more efforts in suppressing extremism; signs into law defense treaty with North Korea

Putin orders more efforts in suppressing extremism; signs into law defense treaty with North Korea
Updated 55 min 14 sec ago
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Putin orders more efforts in suppressing extremism; signs into law defense treaty with North Korea

Putin orders more efforts in suppressing extremism; signs into law defense treaty with North Korea
  • More work and proactive behavior are also necessary in suppressing extremism," Putin tells Interior Ministry staff

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his interior ministry early on Sunday to increase efforts in suppressing extremism inside the country.
“Today, Russian citizens expect more dedication and new results from you in all key areas of work,” Putin said in a congratulatory message to the interior ministry’s employees on their professional holiday, which is celebrated in Russia on Nov. 10.
“More work and proactive behavior are also necessary in suppressing extremism. It threatens our sovereignty, constitutional order and the safety of people in any form and guise.”

On Saturday, Putin signed into law a treaty on the country’s strategic partnership with North Korea which includes a mutual defense provision.
The accord, signed by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June after a summit in Pyongyang, calls on each side to come to the other’s aid in case of an armed attack.
Russia’s upper house ratified the treaty this week, while the lower house endorsed it last month. Putin signed a decree on that ratification that appeared on Saturday on a government website outlining legislative procedures.
The treaty galvanizes closer ties between Moscow and Pyongyang since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Reports from South Korea and Western countries say North Korea has supplied Russia with weaponry. Ukrainian forensic experts say they have found traces of the weapons at sites of Russian attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that North Korea has sent 11,000 troops to Russia and some of them suffered casualties in combat with Kyiv’s forces Russia’s southern Kursk region.
Russia has not confirmed the presence of the North Korean troops.


The hardest job in Washington? A look at those who have served as chief of staff for Trump

The hardest job in Washington? A look at those who have served as chief of staff for Trump
Updated 10 November 2024
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The hardest job in Washington? A look at those who have served as chief of staff for Trump

The hardest job in Washington? A look at those who have served as chief of staff for Trump

WASHINGTON: Susie Wiles will be the latest occupant of the hottest hot seat in Washington — Donald Trump’s chief of staff.
It’s a tough job under the best of circumstances, responsible for networking with lawmakers, administration officials and outside groups while also keeping the White House running smoothly.
But it’s been particularly challenging under Trump, who has a history of resenting anyone who tries to impose order on his chaotic management style. Four people served as chief of staff during his first term, and sometimes things ended on acrimonious terms.

This combination photo of President-elect Donald Trump's longtime friends, aides and allies shows Boris Epshteyn, from top row left, Richard Grenell, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Howard Lutnick, from center row left, Linda McMahon, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, Brooke Rollins and from bottom row left Lara Trump, Dana White and Susie Wiles. (AP)

Will past be prologue? It’s impossible to know. So far, Wiles has fared better than most in Trump’s orbit, and she just steered his presidential campaign to victory.
Here’s a look at who came before her.
Reince Priebus
Priebus chaired the Republican National Committee while Trump ran for president in 2016, and he became Trump’s first chief of staff in the White House. Priebus was symbolic of the awkward alliance between the party establishment and Trump’s insurgency, and he struggled to balance the two.
The White House was plagued by infighting and failed to advance legislative goals such as repealing the Affordable Care Act. Priebus was sometimes viewed as untrustworthy by various factions vying for Trump’s favor. Anthony Scaramucci, who memorably but briefly served as Trump’s communications director, profanely attacked him for allegedly leaking information to the media.
Six months into his first term, Trump pushed out Priebus on July 28, 2017. The decision was announced on Twitter, which was par for the course in those tumultuous years.
John Kelly
Next up was Kelly, who had been Trump’s first Homeland Security secretary. Trump liked the way that Kelly, a former four-star Marine general who had served in Iraq, led his immigration crackdown.
But he soon became frustrated by Kelly’s attempts to impose military-style order on the chaotic White House. Kelly clashed with the president and some of his allies, ultimately becoming more isolated and less influential.
Trump appeared so eager to get rid of Kelly, he announced his departure on Dec. 8, 2018, without having a replacement lined up.
While Kelly served longer in the role than anyone else, his break with Trump was ultimately the most acrimonious. He described his former boss in acidic terms last month, saying Trump met the definition of a fascist and once praised Adolf Hitler as having done “some good things.”
Mick Mulvaney
It took days for Trump to settle on a replacement for Kelly, an unusual delay for a such a critical role. He chose Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who was running the White House budget office at the time.
The decision came with an asterisk — Trump called Mulvaney his “acting” chief of staff, suggesting the position would be temporary.
Mulvaney abandoned Kelly’s strict management approach and decided to “let Trump be Trump.” Instead of managing the seemingly unmanageable president, Mulvaney focused on overseeing the staff and working with lawmakers.
He held the job for a little more than a year, departing on March 6, 2020, after Trump was acquitted in his first impeachment trial.
Mark Meadows
Trump turned to Meadows, a North Carolina congressman and leader of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, to serve as his fourth chief of staff. It was a challenging time, with the coronavirus spreading in the United States and around the globe.
Long viewed as one of the roadblocks to congressional deal-making, Meadows played a leading role in negotiating pandemic relief legislation. He also proved himself as a loyalist as Trump was running for reelection against Joe Biden. Meadows oversaw a White House awash in conspiracy theories about voter fraud as Trump tried to overturn his defeat.
A former aide said Meadows frequently burned papers in his office fireplace during this time. Meadows refused to cooperate with a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, and he was indicted in election-related cases in Georgia and Arizona. He’s pleaded not guilty.

 


Afghanistan says to attend UN climate talks, first since Taliban takeover

Afghanistan says to attend UN climate talks, first since Taliban takeover
Updated 10 November 2024
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Afghanistan says to attend UN climate talks, first since Taliban takeover

Afghanistan says to attend UN climate talks, first since Taliban takeover
  • “Climate change is a humanitarian subject,” deputy NEPA head Zainulabedin Abid told AFP in a recent interview. “We have called on the international community not to relate climate change matters with politics”

KABUL: An Afghan delegation will attend the upcoming UN climate change summit in Azerbaijan, the foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Saturday, marking a first since the Taliban government came to power.
Afghanistan is ranked as the country sixth most vulnerable to climate change and Taliban authorities have pushed to participate in COP summits, saying their political isolation shouldn’t bar them from international climate talks.
Having tried and failed to attend UN climate change summits in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, this year an invitation from COP29 hosts Azerbaijan came through.
“A delegation of the Afghan government will be in Baku” for the summit, which opens on Monday in the Azerbaijani capital, said foreign ministry spokesman, Abdul Qahar Balkhi.
It was not immediately clear in what capacity the delegation would participate at COP29, but sources indicated it would have observer status.
No state has recognized the Taliban authorities since they swept to power in 2021, ousting the Western-backed administration.
Officials from the country’s National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) have repeatedly said climate change should not be politicized and called for environment-related projects put on hold due to the Taliban takeover to be reinstated.
“Climate change is a humanitarian subject,” deputy NEPA head Zainulabedin Abid told AFP in a recent interview.
“We have called on the international community not to relate climate change matters with politics.”
Azerbaijan will host the COP29 from November 11-22.
Baku reopened its embassy in Kabul in February this year, though it has not officially recognized the Taliban government.
NEPA had been invited to other environmental summits in the past but did not receive visas, the agency’s climate change director, Ruhollah Amin, told AFP in a recent interview.
The agency has received an invitation and is working on securing visas to attend the UN summit on desertification in Saudi Arabia, Amin added.
Afghanistan was a signatory to the 2015 landmark Paris Agreement, under which almost every country in the world agreed to slash emissions to limit soaring global temperatures.
NEPA was preparing its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) — expected to be updated and strengthened every five years — before the Taliban came to power.
NEPA has since been working to complete the NDC, despite uncertainty that it would be acknowledged by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat.
“In 2023, we decided that at least we have to finalize this document, even if the secretariat accepts this or not,” said Amin.
“But as a national issue... we have to complete this document.”
NEPA director-general Mawlawi Matiul Haq Khalis — a former Taliban negotiator and son of prominent jihadist figure Mawlawi Yunus Khalis — had criticized Afghanistan’s exclusion from last year’s COP in Dubai and urged other nations to facilitate the country’s participation in Baku, local media have reported.
He also called for Afghanistan to be compensated for damages caused by climate change.
Afghanistan’s total greenhouse gas emissions were only 0.08 percent as of a 2019 national report, according to Amin.
“It’s very little,” he said. Nevertheless, Afghanistan is one of “the most affected (countries) from the impact of climate change,” he added.
“It affects all aspects of our life.”
The United Nations has also called for action to help Afghanistan build resilience and for the country’s participation in international talks.
Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is spurring extreme weather.
Drought, floods, land degradation and declining agricultural productivity are key threats, the UN development agency’s representative in Afghanistan, Stephen Rodriques, said in 2023.
Flash floods in May killed hundreds and swamped swaths of agricultural land in Afghanistan, where 80 percent of people depend on farming to survive.