PHILIPPINES
Flooding forces evacuations
Authorities yesterday moved thousands of residents of the capital, Manila, out of their low-lying communities as heavy monsoon rain, compounded by a tropical storm, flooded the city and nearby provinces. The national disaster agency said 14,023 people, most of them from a flood-prone Manila suburb, had moved into evacuation centers. In some parts of the capital region, flood waters, in places waist-deep, cut off roads to light vehicles. “Some houses were flooded up to the roof,” Humerlito Dolor, governor of Oriental Mindoro province south of the capital, told DZMM radio station.
CHINA
Flood death toll rises to 56
Rescuers yesterday used bulldozers and rubber boats to move residents out of flooded neighborhoods in central China after torrential rains killed at least 56 people. In Zhengzhou government crews armed with industrial pumps finished draining water from a major traffic tunnel, a news report said. Yesterday, skies were mostly clear but parts of Zhengzhou and other cities including Xinxiang, Hebi and Anyang still were under water.
SOUTH KOREA
Olympic images cause furor
A major broadcaster yesterday apologized for using offensive images and captions to describe participating countries during the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony on Friday night. Munhwa Broadcasting Corp used images of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster for Ukraine, a riot for Haiti and a promotional bitcoin poster for El Salvador when each nation entered the stadium. The broadcaster issued an apology following the opening ceremony, saying “inappropriate images and captions were used to introduce some countries.” “We apologize to those countries including Ukraine and our viewers,” it said. In the captions, the network described the Marshall Islands as “a former nuclear test site for the United States” and Haiti as a country “with an unstable political situation due to the assassination of its president.” The images and captions triggered outrage online. “They used whatever popped up first on Google,” one person said online.
THE NETHERLANDS
Teen stuns Bezos on flight
The Dutch teenager who became the world’s youngest space traveler this week surprised Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on the flight by telling him he had never ordered anything on Amazon.com. Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old physics student, accompanied Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos and 82-year-old female aviator Wally Funk — the oldest person to go to space — on a 10-minute trip beyond Earth’s atmosphere. “I told Jeff, like, I’ve actually never bought something from Amazon, and he was like: ‘Oh, wow, it’s a long time ago I heard someone say that,’” Daemen said on Friday.
UNITED STATES
Condo collapse search over
Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue on Friday declared an end to its search for human remains in the rubble of a Florida condominium tower that collapsed on June 24, killing at least 97 people. Authorities said one victim was still believed to be unaccounted for. The Miami-Dade Police Department would continue to sift through what is left of the debris for additional remains and personal effects, officials said in a statement. The fire department’s round-the-clock operation at the beachfront site of the Champlain Towers South condo, in the Miami suburb of Surfside, was demobilized four weeks and a day after the 12-story structure gave way at about 1:30am.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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