SUBIC, Philippines — The armed forces of the Philippines, the United States and four other countries began joint naval exercises off the coast of the Philippines’ northern Luzon island facing Taiwan in a display of naval strength amid rising tensions with China. 

Called “Sama Sama,” which means togetherness, this year’s drills, which involve almost 1,000 sailors and personnel from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United States and the Philippines, are high-intensity exercises focusing on anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air warfare. 

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Todd Cimicata told reporters in the port of Subic, to the west of Manila, that building partnerships with key allies created a “deterrent effect,” though he added that the exercises were not targeted at any country. 

“The intent of these exercises is not to ruffle feathers. It’s tailored for interoperability,” Cimicata said. “Across the gamut, there are people that don’t follow those rules so we have to agree so that we can set those standards.” 

The nine-day exercises will bring together the U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Howard, Canada’s Halifax-class frigate HMCS Vancouver and a CH-148 Cyclone helicopter, while Japan’s Force ShinMaywa US-2 amphibious aircraft and Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft are also participating, along with warships from the Philippines. 

The drills come more than a week after the Chinese military said its air and naval forces conducted maneuvers in a disputed area of the South China Sea, fanning tensions in a waterway that remains a volatile flashpoint in the region. Cimicata said the exercises were planned months in advance. 

China claims nearly all the South China Sea, but those claims overlap with those of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, angering its neighbors and the United States, which has stepped up its security engagements in the region. 

Last month, the United States carried out joint maritime exercises with Australia, Japan, Philippines and for the first time New Zealand in Manila’s exclusive economic zone to improve the militaries’ interoperability. 

Washington’s Marine Rotational Forces – Southeast Asia (MRF-SEA) will participate in at least eight exercises this year and next in their third deployment in the region, including assignments in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. 

“This is the most robust formation that we’ve had. And it is also conducting the most exercises since the inception of MRF-SEA,” its commander Col. Stuart Glenn told reporters. 
…

Bangkok — An ever-expanding array of underground services and the deft uptake of new technologies including artificial intelligence are fueling the continued growth of Southeast Asia’s cyber scam gangs and helping them stay a step ahead of law enforcement, the United Nations said in a new report released Monday.

The report said most of the estimated $18 billion to $37 billion lost to cyber scam syndicates last year across East and Southeast Asia were stolen by groups based in the countries of the lower Mekong River.

The U.N. calls these countries “a key testing ground” for cyberfraud groups with a growing global reach in the victims they scam out of their money and the workers they lure into prison-like compounds as forced labor to run their cons.

Last year, the U.N. estimated that more than 200,000 people were forced to work in “scam centers” in Myanmar and Cambodia alone.

“This is ground zero for the scamming industry in terms of innovation, in terms of the way that things develop,” Benedikt Hofmann, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime’s deputy representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, told VOA ahead of the report’s release.

The report details the ways in which the syndicates adopt cryptocurrencies and other new technologies to run their scams and integrate them with the region’s casinos to move their criminal profits around.

“All of this is coming together in basically what is a criminal service economy that’s grown around these scam centers and casinos in the Mekong region. And that’s really been at the core of the growth in this industry that we’ve been seeing,” Hofmann said.

Erin West, a deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County, California, agreed.

“Southeast Asia is absolutely the heart of the massive international threat that is coming from scamming worldwide right now,” she said.

As part of a task force of local law enforcement agencies focused on advanced tech crime, West has become a leading figure in the fight against cyber scammers.

The Mekong countries, she told VOA, are “where the organized crime syndicates have deliberately placed their compounds and their casino towers because … there are places where they know they can conduct this dirty business without much interference from government.”

Besides merely using cryptocurrencies to hide their money moves, the UNODC says the syndicates have a growing and increasingly sophisticated choice of “high-risk virtual asset service providers” — essentially cryptocurrency exchanges operating with little to no rules on reviewing, recording or reporting who is using them.

Perhaps the largest of the syndicates, the UNODC adds, is Huione Guarantee, an online marketplace run by the Huione Group, a sprawling Cambodian conglomerate with ties to the country’s ruling Hun family. Huione Pay, a subsidiary of the group providing a host of currency services, lists Hun To, a cousin of Prime Minister Hun Manet, as a director.

Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, recently estimated that Huione Guarantee has processed more than $49 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since 2021. While much of it may be legal, Chainalysis and others have linked millions of dollars worth of transfers to known criminal syndicates including the Lazarus Group, a hacking collective the U.S. says is helping fund North Korea’s weapons program.

These analytics firms say many of the merchants using Huione Guarantee make thinly veiled offers of services ripe for criminal exploitation, from mule accounts to digital face altering programs and electric shackles for binding “runaway dogs,” a reference to scam center workers who try to escape.

Huione Group did not immediately reply to VOA’s request for comment on the allegations.

Another emerging threat is the scammers’ uptake of artificial intelligence to help write malware programs or generate increasingly convincing deepfakes for video calls.

“It makes things much more complicated for both the law enforcement side but especially the consumer side,” Hofmann said.

“If you receive a video call from someone who you think might be either some official or family member or someone, that’s so many more times more convincing than if you just receive it like a WhatsApp message or some other messenger message out of the blue,” he added.

West says she also has seen Southeast Asia’s scammers using more AI to help them do “exponentially” more with less.

“We’ve seen them using technology to be able to conduct multiple conversations at a time using AI, which limits the need for as many people,” she said.

“It’s scary to realize the access that they have to that kind of technology,” she added. “They’re consistently way ahead of us in a lot of their craft. They’re just very good at it, and things that we used to be able to exploit, we’re no longer able to exploit because they’ve adapted and gotten better, smarter, faster.”

In Southeast Asia, the UNODC report also describes what it calls a “breakdown” in cooperation among law enforcement agencies across some borders, another weak spot it says the cyberfraud syndicates are exploiting.

Despite some successful cases of cross-border cooperation, Hofmann said it remains piecemeal.

Colonel Jessada Burinsuchat, superintendent of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau of the Royal Thai Police, echoed that view at a forum on cyberfraud in Bangkok last week, organized by the UNODC.

“We have cooperation with all the neighboring countries, but it’s very little when comparing with Thai police [and] USA, China, Japan or Russia. I can say that around Thailand, maybe we have the very least cooperation. It’s not systematic; it’s very individual, and it’s very … inconsistent,” he said.

At the same event, Hofmann called out a particularly “weak link” in Myanmar, where non-state armed groups have for decades controlled autonomous and often crime-riddled enclaves along the country’s porous border with Thailand. Many of those groups have only grown stronger since Myanmar’s military seized control from the country’s elected government in 2021, setting off a civil war that shows no sign of letting up.

Given the trends, analysts and experts say the region’s cyberfraud epidemic is likely to worsen before it gets better.

“It’s very clear that an ecosystem has been created that fosters innovation,” said Hofmann, making it ever easier for the scammers to work and harder for law enforcement to fight.

“Based on that,” he added, “you can just see the scale of this continuing to expand going forward.”
…

Vientiane, Laos — The failure of Myanmar’s junta to end the country’s violence, allow humanitarian assistance and implement other elements of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ “Five-Point Consensus” will be the focus of ASEAN’s summit this week in Laos.

For the first time since the junta seized power three years ago, Myanmar will send a Foreign Ministry official to the summit. But that move has drawn criticism from some human rights groups, NGOs and opponents of the junta inside the country, who have said allowing Myanmar to participate legitimizes the regime.

ASEAN’s highest profile 2024 gathering is set for Oct. 8-11 in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

Neither Myanmar’s junta nor Laos’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs would name the junta’s representative to the summit.

Myanmar’s shadow government, the National Unity Government (NUG), has called for the junta’s exclusion from ASEAN meetings and praised the creation of a group of three countries, consisting of Indonesia, which chaired the bloc last year, Laos and Malaysia, to address the crisis. 

“The military council does not represent Myanmar, and no one appointed by them should be invited,” NUG spokesperson, Kyaw Zaw told VOA on Sunday from an undisclosed location due to security concerns. “If anyone represents Myanmar, it must be the people’s true voice. Over 200 civil organizations have demanded an end to the conflict, and while we’ve supported the Five-Point Consensus, lack of cooperation has blocked progress.”

Kyaw Zaw also emphasized the need for urgent international action, including from ASEAN, to hold the junta accountable. “Myanmar is in a humanitarian crisis with 4 million war refugees and over a million flood victims. ASEAN and the global community must step in effectively,” he said.

The Five-Point Consensus is an ASEAN peace plan from 2021 aimed at resolving Myanmar’s crisis, calling for an end to violence, dialogue, and humanitarian aid. However, the junta’s non-compliance has stalled progress, limiting ASEAN’s ability to influence the situation.

Civil society demands junta exclusion

In an open letter, 237 organizations, consisting of human rights and public-interest and civil society groups across the region, urged ASEAN to exclude Myanmar’s military junta from future meetings, noting the junta’s attendance at over 500 ASEAN meetings since 2021, with little progress toward peace.  

These groups, led by Defend Myanmar Democracy, a Myanmar human rights international advocacy group, argued that allowing the junta to participate damages ASEAN’s credibility and helps legitimize the regime.

Defend Myanmar Democracy spokesperson Naw Aung condemned the decision to allow Myanmar to host a series of ASEAN meetings this month. 

“Rewarding the junta disregards the suffering of Myanmar’s people, who are being murdered, raped, and tortured by the regime,” the group said in a statement released on October 3.

“ASEAN is not relevant in this picture because it has yet to establish a clear position,” said Debbie Stothard, founder of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, Altsean, by phone to VOA. Stothard, a human rights advocate in Burma and the ASEAN region for over three decades, has been at the forefront of promoting democracy and accountability in the region.

“We are now witnessing what could be called a second wave of genocide against the Rohingya,” Stothard said. “Myanmar’s military airstrikes have surged to over 100 per month, yet ASEAN continues to shield an illegal regime.”

“The Five-Point Consensus is no longer relevant,” Stothard added, calling for a focus on the banking system and long-term planning for post-coup in Myanmar.

“We already know from [U.N. special Rapporteur] Tom Andrews’ reports that Thai and Singaporean banks have been involved in transactions which fund war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Myanmar,” says Stothard. “If ASEAN banks are found to have done nothing to prevent these activities, they will be in serious trouble.”

“Additionally,” Stothard continued, “The organization must plan how it will participate in the post-junta transition: how will ASEAN support the resistance to restore the rule of law and help rebuild the economic and social institutions that the junta has destroyed in just under four years?”

ASEAN has planned 19 official meetings in Myanmar this month, covering topics from women’s rights to tourism, hosted by junta-controlled ministries in Naypyitaw, the junta’s administrative headquarters.

As of now, ASEAN has not provided a specific public explanation for why they are holding 19 meetings in Myanmar. The meetings were announced on ASEAN’s official website as part of the standard procedure for member countries.

Broader summit discussions

Beyond Myanmar, the summit will include wider, global issues, including the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Hamas conflict. These global tensions are directly affecting ASEAN member states, some of which report citizens caught in the conflicts.

On Oct. 11, Laos will pass the ASEAN chairmanship to Malaysia. The new leadership will play a key role in shaping the region’s future, especially with long-term goals such as the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, which prioritizes digital transformation and sustainability.
…

Jakarta, Indonesia — Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto will increase the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio level gradually, alongside efforts to boost tax revenues, his top adviser and brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo told a seminar on Monday.

The increase may be within a range of 1 to 2 percentage points per year, he said, describing Indonesia’s current debt-to-GDP level of under 40% as “underleveraged.”

Investors and rating agencies are closely monitoring Prabowo’s fiscal plans after his earlier comments suggesting an appetite for higher debt levels to fund his costly campaign promises triggered concern about potential fiscal slippage.

In June, capital outflows hit the rupiah after Bloomberg News reported Prabowo planned to boost the debt-to-GDP ratio to 50% within his five-year term.

His advisers subsequently denied this and repeatedly promised Prabowo will comply with Indonesia’s fiscal laws limiting the annual budget deficit to a maximum 3% of GDP and debt-to-GDP at 60%.

“Prabowo will not add to national public debt abruptly, [and] not drastically,” Hashim said.

“We will remain prudent, but we will be daring, more aggressive, so we can fulfill our (campaign) promises,” he added.

Prabowo’s key campaign pledge is to provide free meals to more than 80 million children and pregnant mothers across Indonesia, which is estimated to cost $28.73 billion to implement.
…

Manila, Philippines — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said on Monday his country and South Korea have upgraded bilateral ties to a strategic partnership, as he met visiting counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol for talks.

The two leaders discussed various issues including the South China Sea and situation on the Korean peninsula, as well as signing memorandum of understanding agreements on coast guard cooperation and nuclear energy.

Yoon said the two countries would strengthen their partnership on the security front, with South Korea taking part in the modernization program of the Philippine military.

The two leaders agreed to uphold an international rules-based order, including on safety of navigation in the South China Sea, Yoon said, adding they agreed that the international community would never condone North Korea’s nuclear program or what he called “reckless provocations.”

Yoon will visit Singapore on Oct. 8-9 before heading to Laos the following day, where he will attend the regional summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and several other Asian countries.
…

ISLAMABAD — A powerful bomb blast in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi targeted a convoy transporting Chinese nationals late on Sunday, killing at least two people and wounding 10 others.

Police officials confirmed the casualties to local reporters in the attack near the city’s international airport. They stated without elaborating that investigations were underway to determine the nature of the blast and the exact losses it caused.

Television footage showed the explosion entirely or partially destroyed several vehicles.

Pakistan’s mainstream private ARY TV channel reported that “foreigners” were among the dead but did not name their nationalities. Authorities in Karachi, the capital of the Sindh province, did not immediately comment on whether foreign nationals were among the dead.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an insurgent group battling Pakistani security forces in the southwestern Balochistan province, took responsibility for the attack. It asserted in a statement sent to journalists that a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a convoy of “Chinese engineers and investors” departing the Karachi airport.

BLA, listed as a global terrorist group by the United States, has previously also targeted visitors from China in the largest Pakistani city. In April 2022, a BLA suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to her body near a van carrying Chinese teachers in Karachi, killing three of them and drawing strong condemnation from China.

The insurgent group claims it is fighting for Balochistan’s independence and denounces China’s infrastructure investments in the natural resources-rich province, which houses the Chinese-operated deep-water strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. BLA accuses Beijing of helping Islamabad exploit the region’s resources.

Pakistan has long blamed rival India for backing Baloch insurgents, a charge the neighboring country denies.

Sunday’s bombing came as Pakistan prepares to host a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization October 15-16. Officials have said that Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang is scheduled to visit Islamabad for bilateral talks before the gathering.

 
…

Yangon — A close ally of detained Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was granted amnesty by junta authorities as he battles cancer, a party source told AFP on Sunday.   

Zaw Myint Maung, 72, is a stalwart of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party that has been a thorn in the side of the military during its decades of rule.  

He was arrested following the military’s latest coup in 2021 and later jailed for corruption. 

“He was pardoned because of his health situation today,” a senior NLD source told AFP, requesting anonymity for security reasons.   

Zaw Myint Maung was in an intensive care unit in Mandalay, where he was battling cancer, the source said.  

“His condition is 50-50. We are trying to get more information,” they said. 

Zaw Myint Maung was a former chief minister of the Mandalay region and was detained shortly after the coup that upended a 10-year experiment with democracy in the Southeast Asian nation.  

The junta’s subsequent crackdown on dissent has decimated the senior ranks of the NLD. 

Months after the coup Nyan Win, a former NLD spokesperson and Suu Kyi confidante died of COVID-19 while being held in military custody for sedition.   

In 2022 another former lawmaker was executed by the junta in Myanmar’s first use of capital punishment in decades.  

In March last year the junta dissolved the NLD for failing to re-register under a tough new military-drafted electoral law, removing it from polls it has indicated it may hold in 2025. 

Suu Kyi, 79, is serving a 27-year prison sentence on charges ranging from corruption to not respecting COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. 

Rights groups say her closed-door trial was a sham designed to remove her from the political scene. 

Last month Italian media reported that Pope Francis has offered refuge on Vatican territory to Suu Kyi, who led the government ousted by the military in 2021.
…

Beijing — Coco Gauff won her second title this season with a lopsided 6-1, 6-3 victory over Karolina Muchova in the final of the China Open on Sunday.

Aged 20, the sixth-ranked U.S. player became the youngest China Open champion in 14 years. She is also the second American champion in Beijing, following Serena Williams’ title runs in 2004 and 2013.

It was Gauff’s eighth career title. She improved her record in tour finals to 8-1 and has a 7-0 record in hard-court finals.

Gauff wasted no time and took the opening set in just 31 minutes. She dropped just five points on her first serve and broke Muchova five times.

Shanghai Masters

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner overcame a one set deficit to rally to a 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2 win against Tomas Martin Etcheverry at the Shanghai Masters.

A night after winning his 250th career match with a straight-sets victory, the 23-year-old Italian faced a much sterner third-round examination against the No. 37-ranked Argentine under the roof inside Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena that hosted play due to rain.

Sinner will next play either No. 16-ranked Ben Shelton, who beat the Italian here last year, or Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain.

Etcheverry produced the shot of the night with a stunning drop volley to bring up set point in the first set tiebreak, which he converted to take the lead.

Sinner began to better find his range in the second and after trading breaks midway through the set, the Italian found another opportunity to level the match.

The momentum was all with Sinner in the third as he broke Etcheverry twice more to advance in 2 hours, 39 minutes.

Fifth-ranked Daniil Medvedev also came from behind for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory against Matteo Arnaldi to book his fourth-round berth against either 12th-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas or Alexandre Muller.

The 28-year-old Medvedev was forced to dig deep to level the match after the Italian took a tight first set.

In the deciding set, Medvedev’s experience and composure came to the fore as he clinched a vital break in the ninth game and held firm to close out the match in 2 hours, 44 minutes. 

Second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, who won the China Open on Wednesday for his fourth title of the year, plays his third round match against Chinese player, Wu Yibing. 
…

Moscow — Polls are open in Kazakhstan Sunday for a landmark referendum on building the country’s first nuclear power plant, confronting the country’s painful legacy as a testing ground for Soviet nuclear weapons.

The proposal is backed by the government and the country’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who hopes to boost the country’s energy security.

The plant, which is slated to be built close to Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan’s southeast, would take pressure off the coal-powered power stations on which the country heavily relies.

Although the use of renewable energy is growing, supporters believe Kazakhstan’s position as one of the world’s largest uranium producers makes nuclear energy a logical choice. 

However, the use of nuclear materials remains a controversial and often sensitive topic in Kazakhstan, which was used as a testing ground for the Soviet Union’s nuclear program. 

The weapon tests made large swaths of land in the country’s northeastern Semei region uninhabitable, devastating the local environment and affecting the health of nearby residents. In total, 456 tests were carried out between 1949 and 1989 at the Semipalatinsk test site. It was officially closed in August 1991.

Critics have also drawn attention to the project’s high costs: The Kazakh government estimates that the nuclear power plant could cost up to $12 billion.

Some Kazakhs have sought to protest but have been impeded by authorities. Several anti-nuclear protesters were arrested across Kazakhstan Sunday, while other activists said that permission to hold anti-nuclear rallies on the day of the vote had also been denied by officials in six Kazakh cities.

Questions on Russian involvement

There are also concerns that Russia’s state atomic agency, Rosatom, could be invited to take part in the plant’s construction at a time when an increasing number of Kazakhs wish to distance themselves from Moscow’s influence. Rosatom had previously been named by the government as one of four companies whose reactors could be used for the plant, as well as companies from China, South Korea and France.

Tokayev, who has maintained a delicate balancing act between Moscow and the West amid sanctions against Russia, has tried to allay such fears by suggesting that the plant could be built by a multinational team.

“The government must analyze and negotiate,” he told reporters after casting his referendum vote Sunday. “But my personal vision is that an international consortium of companies with the most advanced technology possible should work together in Kazakhstan.”

The result of the referendum is due to be announced Monday. 
…

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Several provinces in central Thailand braced for floods Sunday after the Irrigation Department announced it was releasing water from a major dam after weeks of frequent heavy rain. 

The rain stopped in the northern city of Chiang Mai, but many people, especially the elderly, remained cut off by floodwaters that in some areas were waist-high or more. Volunteer rescue teams, often traveling by boat, worked to supply them with food or evacuate them. 

Further complicating the situation, electricity was cut off in some neighborhoods for safety reasons. 

Areas popular with tourists, such as the city’s Night Bazaar and Tha Pae Gate, were under as much as a meter of water. 

Central provinces, including the capital Bangkok, have been warned of possible flooding as the Irrigation Department plans to release water from the Chao Phraya Dam to keep it under capacity. 

The latest flooding in Chiang Mai began when the Ping River, which runs along the eastern edge of the city, began overrunning its banks on Friday. Flooding is an annual problem in many parts of Thailand during the monsoon season. 

Concern remained for animals that had been kept in parks and sanctuaries on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. 

Most of the 125 elephants held at the city’s Elephant Nature Park have been led to safety, although some escaped on their own to seek higher ground. 

Photos in Thai media showed elephants in water so deep that they could barely keep their heads above it. Thai media reported that at least two elephants have been found dead and several more were unaccounted for. 
…

TAIPEI, Taiwan — It is “impossible” for the People’s Republic of China to become Taiwan’s motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, the island’s President Lai Ching-te said Saturday.

Lai, who took office in May, is condemned by Beijing as a “separatist.” He rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying that the island is a country called the Republic of China, which traces its origins back to the 1911 revolution that overthrew the last imperial dynasty.

The republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists who set up the People’s Republic of China, which continues to claim the island as its “sacred” territory.

Speaking at a concert ahead of Taiwan’s national day celebrations on October 10, Lai noted that the People’s Republic had celebrated its 75th anniversary on October 1, and in a few days it would be the Republic of China’s 113th birthday.

“Therefore, in terms of age, it is absolutely impossible for the People’s Republic of China to become the ‘motherland’ of the Republic of China’s people. On the contrary, the Republic of China may be the motherland of the people of the People’s Republic of China who are over 75 years old,” Lai added, to applause.

“One of the most important meanings of these celebrations is that we must remember that we are a sovereign and independent country,” he said.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a speech on the eve of his country’s national day, reiterated his government’s view that Taiwan was its territory.

Lai, who will give his own keynote national day address on October 10, has needled Beijing before with historical references.

Last month, Lai said that if China’s claims on Taiwan were about territorial integrity, then it should also take back land from Russia signed over by the last Chinese dynasty in the 19th century. 
…

…

Beijing — China said Saturday that it has evacuated 215 of its nationals from Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out intense bombardments since last month, resulting in more than 1,100 deaths. 

This week, Israel said its troops launched “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah, following days of heavy strikes on areas across the country where the group holds sway. 

Israel has recently shifted its focus to securing its northern border with Lebanon, where there have been near-daily clashes since Hezbollah launched strikes in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, after that group’s October 7 attack. 

Several countries have launched operations to remove their nationals from Lebanon in the wake of the ground raids, including Russia, France, Spain, Germany and the U.K. 

“So far, 215 Chinese citizens have been safely evacuated from Lebanon in two batches under the organization and arrangement of the Chinese government,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement given to Agence France-Presse. 

“The Chinese Embassy in Lebanon continues to carry out its mission in Lebanon and will continue to assist the Chinese citizens there in taking security measures,” it added. 

The ministry did not say where the evacuated Chinese nationals had been taken. 

According to Lebanese authorities, more than 1,110 people have been killed in the country since the escalation in Israeli bombardment on September 23, while more than 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes.  

On Wednesday, China urged world powers to prevent the conflict from “further deteriorating” after Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel, which warned it would make Tehran “pay” for the attack. 
…

bangkok — Chiang Mai, Thailand’s northern city popular with tourists, was inundated by widespread flooding Saturday as its main river overflowed its banks following heavy seasonal rainfall. 

Authorities ordered some evacuations and said they were working to pump water out of residential areas and clear obstructions from waterways and drains to help water recede faster. 

Dozens of shelters were set up across the city to accommodate residents whose homes were flooded. The Chiang Mai city government said the water level of the Ping River, which runs along the eastern edge of the city, was at critically high levels and was rising since Friday. 

However, the provincial irrigation office Saturday forecast that the water level was likely to remain stable and recede to normal in about five days. 

Elephants aid one another

Thai media reported that efforts to evacuate elephants and other animals from several sanctuaries and parks on the outskirts of the city were continuing Saturday. About 125 elephants along with other animals were taken to safety from the Elephant Nature Park, from where some escaped on their own to seek higher ground. About 10 animal shelters in the area have been flooded. 

Video posted online by the park vividly illustrate that care and compassion are not solely human traits. 

The video shows several of the park’s resident elephants fleeing through rising, muddy water to ground less inundated. Three of them dash through the deluge with some ease but, according to the park, a fourth one is blind and was falling behind. It showed greater difficulty passing through wrecked fencing. 

Its fellows appear to call out to it, to guide it to their sides. 

High water hampers evacuation efforts

Efforts to evacuate more animals were hampered by the high water, while more rain is forecast. 

Chiang Mai Governor Nirat Pongsitthavorn said that the latest flooding, the second in six weeks, exceeded expectations. 

Thailand’s state railway suspended service to Chiang Mai, with trains on the northern line from Bangkok terminating at Lampang, about 1 1/2 hours ride to the south. Chiang Mai International Airport said Saturday it was operating as usual. 

Flooding was reported in 20 Thai provinces Saturday, mostly in the north. At least 49 people have died and 28 were injured in floods since August, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said. 

In the Thai capital Bangkok, the government said Saturday it will let more water flow out of the Chao Phraya Dam in the central province of Chai Nat over the next seven days, as it risks exceeding it capacity. The release of the water may affect residents downstream who live near waterways in Thailand’s central region, including Bangkok and the surrounding areas.
…

seoul, south korea — A large fireworks festival in South Korea drew a massive crowd Saturday, snarling traffic through its busy capital, prompting police to deploy 2,400 officers and sending hotel room rates above $7,400.

The popular annual event has taken on a serious public safety dimension as memory is still fresh of a Halloween night disaster two years ago that killed 159 mostly young people in a crush of crowd packed in a dense entertainment district.

Many of the more than 1 million spectators who were expected to watch the 90-minute show were camping out since midnight to secure a spot with a view of the event scheduled to start at 7:20 p.m. (1020 GMT) over the Han River that runs through Seoul.

Oh Soo-taek, 64, who said he has been coming to the festival with his wife for three years, found the place already crowded when they got there at 2 p.m. but said it was exciting to be part of an event bringing so many families and friends together.

“We had that big accident two years ago so it’s so good to see the organizers and the police and everyone helping each other and keeping order.”

Many restaurants, bars and hotel rooms on Yeouido island on the river and on its banks with a view of the fireworks by teams from Japan, South Korea and the United States had been booked days ahead.

High-floor suites at one luxury hotel on Yeouido were sold out Saturday at nearly double the normal rate, despite the less than perfect view of the fireworks they offered, a reservation official said.

The event is hosted by the Hanwha conglomerate, which has grown from a dynamite maker to a global defense contractor. Its team participates in a fireworks performance as part of the festival.

Authorities took no chances on security, as spectators poured into an area the size of several city blocks on and near Yeouido, the country’s main financial center and a dense commercial and residential district.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo directed police, emergency services and the safety and health ministries to be on full alert with a focus on crowd control and also asked for spectator cooperation to ensure order.

The precaution comes as the country still grapples with the 2022 Halloween disaster in Seoul’s Itaewon nightlife district blamed on failed crowd control.

On Monday, the police chief of that district was convicted of negligence and sentenced to three years in prison in the first such verdict against a senior public official over the disaster.
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beijing — The European Commission’s decision to press ahead with tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles threatens to undermine decades of cooperation between China and the EU, and endangers climate-change goals, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

On Friday, the EU said it would push forward with hefty tariffs on China-made EVs, even after the bloc’s largest economy Germany rejected them. The dispute is its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade.

State-run Xinhua said the move revealed a “deep-seated protectionist impulse.”

“Instead of fostering co-operation, these tariffs risk sparking a trade conflict that could harm not only China-EU relations but also Europe’s own ambition for a green transition,” it said.

“The path forward is clear: Protectionist tariffs must be abandoned in favor of continued negotiations.”

European imports of Chinese-made EVs have soared in recent years, raising concerns among some domestic EV producers that they could suffer significant losses from a wave of cheap Chinese electric vehicles.

The proposed duties on EVs built in China of up to 45% would cost carmakers billions of extra dollars to bring cars into the bloc and are set to be imposed from next month for five years.

The Commission, which oversees the bloc’s trade policy, has said the tariffs would counter what it sees as unfair Chinese subsidies after a yearlong anti-subsidy investigation. It said on Friday, however, that it would continue talks with Beijing.

A possible compromise could be to set minimum sales prices.

China’s Commerce Ministry has expressed strong opposition to the planned tariffs, calling them “unfair, non-compliant and unreasonable.” It has launched a challenge to them at the World Trade Organization.

In what has been seen as retaliatory moves, Beijing this year launched probes into imports of EU brandy, dairy and pork products.

The U.S. imposes a 100% duty on imported Chinese EVs.
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan said Saturday that insurgents ambushed a military convoy overnight in a volatile district bordering Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of at least six soldiers, including an officer.

The ambush occurred in North Waziristan, a former stronghold of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization.

A brief military statement said that six assailants were killed in the ensuing exchange of fire. It identified the slain militants as “Khwarij,” an official reference to TTP.

Multiple area security sources confirmed to VOA that the gunfire had also injured at least 22 Pakistani soldiers.

The Waziristan district is in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has experienced a dramatic surge in TTP bombings and gun raids since the Taliban regained power in Kabul three years ago.

Separately, the military reported that an intelligence-driven security operation in the province’s Swat district late on Saturday killed two TTP militant commanders and captured another.

Pakistan says TTP, also referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is based in Afghanistan and stages cross-border attacks with the help of that country’s Taliban government.

Islamabad alleges that insurgents active in its southwestern Balochistan border province are increasingly using Afghan sanctuaries to orchestrate deadly attacks against the country.

A report this week by the Center for Research and Security Studies documented nearly 1,000 deaths of Pakistani civilians and security forces in the first nine months of this year. The Islamabad-based think tank reported that attacks by TTP and Baloch insurgents caused most of casualties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The Taliban government, which is officially not recognized by any country, denies Pakistani allegations and insists that neither TTP nor other foreign militant groups are on Afghan soil.

However, recent United Nations Security Council assessments have disputed the Taliban’s assertions and described TTP as “the largest terrorist group” in Afghanistan.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi again questioned U.N. security assessments Friday, claiming their government restored “security and stability nationwide.”

He emphasized, while addressing a Russian-hosted regional conference, that they are in control of the entire Afghan territory and that no one can use it to threaten regional security.

“Occasionally, representatives of some countries in the U.N. Security Council and the media express their concern about the existence of threats on Afghan soil,” Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said.

“We believe that the information gap about Afghanistan or disinformation by antagonist circles has found its way to international organizations,” he said, without elaborating.  
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ISLAMABAD — Russia reported Friday that a “principal decision” had already been made to remove Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban from Moscow’s list of terrorist organizations.

Zamir Kabulov, the Russian presidential envoy for the South Asian nation, was quoted by state-run TASS news agency as saying that the foreign ministry and national security agencies “are putting finishing legal touches” on the Taliban’s delisting in line with federal laws.

“A principal decision on this has already been made by the Russian leadership,” said Kabulov. “Hopefully, the final decision will be announced soon.”

The remarks were reported on the same day that Moscow hosted a conference of regional countries to discuss Afghanistan, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov presiding over the proceedings.

Lavrov later held bilateral talks with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who led his delegation at Friday’s multilateral event in the Russian capital, organized under the Moscow Format platform.

“We firmly believe in the importance of maintaining a pragmatic dialogue with the current Afghan government,” Lavrov said in his inaugural speech to delegates from countries such as China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan.

“Moscow will continue to develop political, trade, and economic ties with Kabul,” Lavrov pledged.

Russia launched the Moscow Format in 2017 and it has since become a regular platform for discussing challenges facing impoverished, war-torn Afghanistan.

Muttaqi, in his broadcast address to Friday’s gathering, welcomed Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan’s recent announcements that they will remove the Taliban from their lists of outlawed groups.

“We also appreciate the positive remarks [made] by the high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation in this regard and hope to see more effective steps soon,” said the Taliban chief diplomat.

Russia’s involvement in Afghanistan has been tumultuous. The Soviet army entered the country in 1979 to help a pro-Moscow government in Kabul but pulled out a decade later due to heavy losses inflicted by U.S.-backed Afghan insurgents, or mujahideen.

Moscow has developed close informal ties with the Taliban since they regained power in Afghanistan three years ago after the United States and NATO forces withdrew ending 20 years of war.

President Vladimir Putin stated in July that Russia considered the Taliban an ally in the fight against terrorism. The former Afghan insurgent group has been on the Russian list of terrorist organizations since 2003.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov praised the Taliban for combating narcotics in Afghanistan and fighting a regional Islamic State affiliate known as IS-Khorasan (IS-K).

“We support the Afghan authorities’ resolve to combat the terrorist threat,” he told the conference Friday.

Muttaqi called on all regional countries “to cooperate in preventing the recruitment of their citizens by ISIS and then send them to Afghanistan and other countries to carry out subversive operations.” He used an acronym for IS-K, which the United Nations describes as the most significant terrorist regional threat emanating from Afghan soil.

The Taliban foreign minister did not name any country, but Kabul formally alleged last week that the terrorist group is orchestrating attacks from bases in Pakistan, charges officials in Islamabad have refuted as unfounded.

No country has officially recognized the de facto Taliban government, although China and the United Arab Emirates have formally accepted Taliban-appointed ambassadors.

Washington remains opposed to any step toward easing sanctions or moving toward recognition of the Taliban as Afghanistan’s rightful government, saying Kabul must improve its human rights record to win international legitimacy and support.

“We will look for interest in any outcomes and deliverables from the upcoming Moscow Format meeting, but we do not participate,” Karen Decker, the head of the Doha-based U.S. diplomatic mission for Afghanistan, told reporters Thursday.

The U.S. has never attended a Moscow Format meeting because it is seen as a regional conversation, said Decker, who has also been tasked with overseeing Afghan diplomacy. 
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Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir — Election officials in Indian-administered Kashmir are hailing a historically high turnout in elections completed this week as evidence of a commitment to democracy that bodes well for the region’s future.

More than 69% of people in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, or J&K, cast their ballots in Tuesday’s third round of legislative elections, the first local electoral battle in a decade.

Round one took place September 18 with a voter turnout of 61.38%, and phase two was September 25 with a voter turnout of 57.31%, according to election officials.

Conducted in the three phases, the polling for 40 assembly constituencies — 24 in the Jammu division and 16 in the Kashmir valley — resulted in an overall voter turnout of over 63% in the disputed Himalayan region, organizers said.

Wire news reports say results are expected next week.

“These elections have witnessed a significant increase in voter turnout in areas infamous for militancy and boycotting democratic processes,” read a statement issued by the Election Commission of India.

“J&K assembly elections have marked a significant deepening of democracy, which will echo in the pages of history and continue to inspire a democratic spirit of the region for years to come,” said the prepared statement quoting Rajiv Kumar, India’s top elections official.

Northern Kashmir’s electoral landscape has traditionally been dominated by two rival political groups, the National Conference, or NC, and Peoples Democratic Party, or PDP. But the 2013 founding of the Awami Ittehad Party, or AIP, which is led by Indian parliamentarian Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as “Engineer Rashid,” could alter the electoral battlefield.

“It appears the contest will be between the NC and PDP. However, the situation may change as Engineer Rashid has attracted a massive crowd since his release from Tihar Jail,” Pattan resident Tanveer Najar told VOA. “It’s possible that the AIP could upset the NC and PDP.”

University of Kashmir political scientist Noor Ahmad Baba told VOA all phases of the 2024 local elections saw the largest voter turnout since 1989’s regional armed insurgency against Indian rule.

“People came out in relatively large numbers due to changing political dynamics after special status revocation,” said Baba, referring to India’s 2019 decision to strip the Himalayan region of its semiautonomous status. “Moreover, there has been no representation for the people during the last six years, so they voted.”

Umer Nazir, a resident of the Sumbal area of Bandipora district in northern Kashmir, said he thought the central government had discriminated against the Muslim majority region because of an anti-Muslim agenda.

“We want our own people to lead us,” Nazir told VOA.

“Our properties, our children and much more have been taken from us,” he added. “To put an end to this torture and seek some relief, I and my family decided to vote.”

Political analyst and podcaster Muzamil Maqbool told VOA that election campaigning in recent weeks focused on topics such as the restoration of special status for the area, possible statehood and the release of political prisoners held by India.

No ‘kingmaker’

But, he warned, voting results may not yield major changes. These “local assembly elections differ from parliamentary elections,” he said, noting that candidates such as Engineer Rashid may not fare as well regionally as their supporters hoped, even though they campaigned impressively.

“Engineer Rashid may win a few seats but he won’t be a kingmaker or a king as he has claimed in several recent interviews,” Maqbool said. “The support for Engineer Rashid in the recent parliamentary elections was largely based on emotional factors. Many voters believed that their votes would help secure his release from Tihar Jail after spending nearly six years.”

Maqbool also said residents were typically thinking about improving their communities when they cast ballots in the local elections.

“People here have understood the importance of voting [now] in these [local assembly] elections, where they could choose a genuine representative, so their rights, especially land rights, and jobs will be safeguarded,” Maqbool said.

Meanwhile, regional political parties, along with the main Indian opposition political group, the Indian National Congress, or INC, have said they will continue to lobby the government led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, to restore statehood for J&K.

“If statehood is not restored, we have no choice but to approach the Supreme Court. We are confident we will win this battle,” said former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah while revealing the manifesto of his party days before the election.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi also vowed to protest inside and outside Parliament to pressure the BJP to improve governance in J&K.

“If they don’t restore statehood, we will storm the well of both houses and take to the streets,” Gandhi said during a recent rally in Srinagar. “This is the first time in Indian history that a state has been downgraded to a union territory. This was done to allow governance by outsiders.” 

Wasim Nabi contributed to this report.
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Kolkata, India — Tens of thousands of people packed the streets of one of India’s biggest cities after doctors resumed a strike and called fresh rallies over the rape and murder of a colleague.

The discovery of the 31-year-old’s bloodied body at a state-run hospital in Kolkata two months ago rekindled nationwide anger at the chronic issue of violence against women.

Doctors in the eastern city went on strike for weeks in response and walked off the job again on Tuesday, saying pledges by the West Bengal state government to improve safety and security at hospitals had been unmet.

They were joined on Tuesday evening by thousands of people from all walks of life for a huge protest march, with many carrying the Indian tri-color flag and some staying out until dawn on Wednesday.

‘’We want to send out the message that our protests will not end until we get justice,” rally organizer Rimjhim Sinha, 29, told AFP at the march.

Kolkata is days away from the start of a festival held in honor of the Hindu warrior goddess Durga, the city’s biggest annual religious celebration.

Sinha said that the dozens of civil society groups backing doctors’ calls for public protests would use the occasion to demand an end to violence against women.

“The festival of worshipping Goddess Durga epitomizes the victory of good over evil,” she said. “This year it will turn into the festival of protests.”

With further demonstrations called over the coming days, a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity that more than 2,500 extra officers had been put on active duty around Kolkata.

The victim of the August attack is not being identified in keeping with Indian laws on media reporting of sexual violence cases.

Her father attended Tuesday’s march and told AFP that his family was still “devastated” two months after her death.

“My daughter’s soul will not rest in peace until she gets justice,” he said.

Doctors had briefly returned to limited duties in emergency departments last month, only to strike again in defiance of a September order from India’s top court to fully return to work.

They say that the state government’s promises to upgrade lighting, CCTV cameras and other security measures in hospitals have not been fulfilled.

Tens of thousands of ordinary Indians took part in the protests that followed the August attack.

One man has been detained over the murder but the West Bengal government has faced public criticism for its handling of the investigation.

Authorities sacked the city’s police chief and top health ministry officials.

The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus, which also sparked weeks of nationwide protests.
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Tokyo — Japan’s new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, said Tuesday that his nation faces its “most severe” regional security situation in the post-WWII era, without naming any specific threats.

“The security environment surrounding our country is the most severe since the end of World War II,” he said in his first press conference after being approved as prime minister by parliament earlier in the day.

Ishiba, 67, is a former defense minister who has previously called for the creation of an Asian NATO to counter China’s rapid military build-up, North Korean missile launches and other security threats.

“With the Japan-US alliance as a foundation, we will expand the circle of friendly and like-minded countries, using diplomacy and defense to realize the peace of Japan and the region,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

He also said he would focus on cybersecurity and the safety of Japanese people abroad and would work to fix a shortage of new troops for Japan’s military.

On the economy, Ishiba — who backs the Bank of Japan’s exit from its maverick ultra-loose policies — said he would broadly continue the work of his predecessor, Fumio Kishida.

“The Japanese economy stands on the brink of whether to emerge from deflation. I will navigate our economy and fiscal policies by prioritizing ending deflation,” he said.

Ishiba, who won a ruling party leadership vote last week, has said he intends to call a general election for October 27 to shore up his mandate.

On Tuesday, he said the public and private sectors will have a shared goal for “female participation in all decision-making scenarios at all organizations.”

However, his own 20-strong cabinet announced earlier in the day includes just two women.
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SEOUL — A North Korean defector living in South Korea was detained on Tuesday after ramming a stolen bus into a barricade on a bridge near the heavily militarized border, in an apparent attempt to get back to the North, Yonhap news agency reported. 

The incident took place at around 1:30 a.m. (16:30 GMT on Monday) at the Tongil Bridge in Paju, northwest of the capital Seoul, after the man ignored warnings from soldiers guarding the bridge and attempted to drive through, Yonhap said, citing city police.  

Paju police referred queries on the incident to provincial police authorities. The northern Gyeonggi police agency could not be reached for comment.  

The man aged in his 30s who had defected more than a decade ago told police that he was trying to return to North Korea after struggling to settle in the South, the report said. 

It is highly unusual for North Koreans who have fled their isolated country to try to return, though many struggle to adapt to life in their democratic, capitalist neighbor.  

As of June, around 34,200 North Koreans had resettled in South Korea, mostly after arduous, sometimes life-threatening journeys, usually via China, to escape poverty and oppression at home, according to Seoul’s unification ministry.  

The ministry, which handles cross-border affairs and provides resettlement support for defectors, said in 2022 that about 30 defectors were confirmed to have returned to the North since 2012, but defectors and activists say there could be many more unreported cases.  

In early 2022, a defector in his 30s made a rare, risky return to North Korea across the heavily fortified border after struggling to cope in the South, igniting fresh debate over how such escapees are treated in their new home country.  
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BEIJING — China is marking the 75th year of Communist Party rule as economic challenges and security threats linger over the massive state.

No festivities have been announced for the occasion Tuesday, save for a flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square, with an honor guard marching from the entrance of the sprawling palace that in past centuries was the home of Chinese emperors.

The entirely state-controlled media ran constant reports on China’s economic progress and social stability, with no mention of challenges ranging from a declining birth rate to the disruption in supply chains that has harmed the largely export-driven economy.

Commemorations were also held in the former British colony of Hong Kong and Portugal’s former territory of Macao, both of which returned to Chinese sovereignty in the late 1990s in a key indication of Beijing’s determination to overcome what it has called a “Century of Humiliation.”

In recent decades, China has mounted military parades and displays of the country’s economic might only at the turn of decades, such as for the 60th and 70th anniversaries.

The world’s second largest economy has struggled to regain momentum after the COVID-19 pandemic.

A prolonged property slump led to a spillover effect on other parts of the economy, from construction to sales of home appliances. Last week, China announced a slew of measures to boost the economy, including lower interest rates and smaller down payment requirements for mortgages.

Party leader and head of state Xi Jinping has largely avoided overseas travel since the pandemic, while continuing with his purges at home of top officials considered insufficiently loyal or being suspected of corruption or personal indiscretions.

“The road ahead will not be smooth, there will definitely be difficulties and obstacles, and we may encounter major tests such as high winds and rough seas, or even stormy waves” Xi warned during a banquet on the eve of the anniversary.

“We must be vigilant in times of peace, plan ahead, and rely closely on the entire Party, the entire army, and people of all ethnic groups across the country,” he said, adding “no difficulties can stop the Chinese people from moving forward.”

The anniversary also comes as China is facing growing frictions with neighbors including Japan, South Korea and the Philippines over territorial claims and their close relationships with Beijing’s chief rival, the United States.

The Communists under Mao Zedong seized power in 1949 amid a civil war with the Nationalists, also known as the KMT, led by Chiang Kai-shek, who shifted their political, economic and military power to the now self-governing island democracy of Taiwan.

Beijing continues to insist Taiwan must be annexed under Communist Party rule, by force if necessary, while the U.S. has provided arms to ensure its defense.

China, meanwhile, has involved itself in disputes over its claims to most of the South China Sea and uninhabited islands held by Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and other neighboring nations.

China’s military buildup and its recent launch of a nuclear capable ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean have raised concerns about a possible conflict.

At home, Xi has made himself effectively leader for life by ending term limits and extending his power over key government and party bodies. China allows no competitive elections and the party retains near total control over the media that informs its 1.4 billion people.
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KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan — Taiwan mobilized nearly 40,000 troops on Tuesday to be on standby for rescue efforts as powerful Typhoon Krathon approached its populous southwest coast, which is bracing for a storm surge.

As the typhoon approached, helicopters lifted to safety 19 sailors forced to abandon ship when it took on water.

Some flights were canceled, a rail line was closed and in the major port city of Kaohsiung, shops and restaurants shut and streets were mostly deserted.

Taiwan regularly gets hit by typhoons, but they generally land along the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast facing the Pacific. This one will make landfall on the island’s flat western plain.

Krathon is forecast to hit Kaohsiung early on Wednesday afternoon, then work its way across the center of Taiwan heading northeast and cross out into the East China Sea, the Central Weather Administration said.

Kaohsiung, home to some 2.7 million people, declared a holiday and told people to stay at home as Krathon – labeled a super typhoon by the U.S. military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center – approached.

Li Meng-hsiang, a forecaster for Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration, said the storm has reached its maximum intensity and could weaken slightly as it moves closer to Taiwan, warning of gusts of more than 150 kph for the southwest.

“The storm surge might bring tides inland,” Li said. “If it’s raining heavily, it will make it difficult to discharge waters and as a result coastal areas will be subject to flooding.”

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai, speaking to reporters after a disaster management meeting, said the strength and path of the storm were both on par with 1977’s Typhoon Thelma which killed 37 people and devastated the city.

“After the typhoon, the whole of Kaohsiung was without water and electricity, just like a war,” Chen said, recalling the decades-ago destruction. “As much as possible, limit going out.”

Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had put more than 38,000 troops on standby, as Kaohsiung residents made their own preparations.

“It’s going to strike us directly. We must be fully prepared,” said fisherman Chen Ming-huang, as he tightened ropes on his boat in Kaohsiung harbor. “In the worst-case scenario the ropes might snap and my boat could drift away.”

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip maker and a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia and which has a large factory in neighboring Tainan, said it had activated routine typhoon preparations and did not expect a significant impact to its operations.

Search for sailors

Off the southeast coast, Taiwan rescue helicopters lifted to safety 19 sailors from a listing cargo vessel traveling from China to Singapore, the government said. The sailors were taken to shelter on Taiwan’s remote Orchid Island.

The transport ministry said 88 domestic flights and 24 international ones had been canceled, with boats to outlying islands also stopped. It added that all domestic flights – 234 in total – would stop on Wednesday.

The rail line connecting southern to eastern Taiwan was closed, though the north-south high-speed line was operating as normal, albeit with enhanced safety checks for wind and debris.

In Kaohsiung, most shops and restaurants pulled down their shutters, and traditional wet markets shut with streets mostly deserted.

At a building in Siaogang district, home to the city’s airport, residents practiced how to rapidly set up metal barriers to stop water flooding into the underground parking lot.

“We will have only a few minutes to react if the flooding is coming,” said Chiu Yun-ping, deputy head of the building’s residents’ committee.

Chen Mei-ling, who lives near the harbor, said in past typhoons high tides reached just a few meters from her house’s main door and she had made preparations.

“We’ve got torches and emergency food supplies,” Chen said. “It’s a strong typhoon and we are worried.”
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