CHINA
Mudslide kills 12
At least 12 people were killed after a mudslide yesterday hit a homestay house in a tourist area in the southeast as heavy rains from what remained of a tropical storm drenched the region, state media said. Elsewhere, a delivery person on a scooter was on Saturday killed after being hit by a falling tree in Shanghai, apparently because of storm-related winds, the online news outlet The Paper reported. The deaths were the first in China that appear linked to Typhoon Gaemi, which weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall on Thursday. The mudslide struck the homestay house at about 8am and trapped 21 people in Yuelin in Hunan Province, China Central Television reported online. About 30cm of rain was recorded in the area over a 24-hour period.
IRAN
Ayatollah endorses president
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday gave his official endorsement of reformist Masoud Pezeshkian as the Islamic republic’s ninth president, following snap elections that had concluded earlier this month. “I endorse the vote [for] the wise, honest, popular and scholarly Mr Pezeshkian, and I am appointing him as the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” a message from the leader read by the director of Khamenei’s office said. The new president is due to be sworn in before parliament tomorrow.
UNITED STATES
Park Fire continues to grow
A fire raging out of control in northern California has rapidly become among the biggest ever in the western state, authorities said on Saturday. The Park Fire burned more than 142,000 hectares as of Saturday evening, making it the seventh-largest ever recorded in the state’s history, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said. The fire, which prompted orders for more than 4,000 people to flee their homes, was burning through a largely rural, mountainous area near the city of Chico. “Extreme fire conditions continue to challenge firefighters,” Cal Fire wrote on X. The fire was just 10 percent controlled, despite the efforts of more than 3,700 personnel with more than a dozen helicopters and several planes, the agency said.
UNITED STATES
Trump courts crypto vote
Former president Donald Trump, once a cryptocurrency skeptic, on Saturday vowed to be a “pro-bitcoin president” if elected in November, as the Republican nominee sought backing from an industry irked by US regulations. “The Biden-Harris administration’s repression of crypto and bitcoin is wrong, and it’s very bad for our country,” Trump said to cheers at a conference in Tennessee, referring to US President Joe Biden and Vice President and likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The ex-president likened cryptocurrencies to the growth of the “steel industry of 100 years ago,” and said that if president, he would not allow the US government to sell its bitcoin holdings, saying it would be a strategic stockpile. Meanwhile, on Friday, Trump told a crowd in West Palm Beach, Florida, that if Christians vote for him, “in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.” It was not clear what he meant by his remarks, in a campaign where his opponents have accused him of being a threat to democracy, and after his attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to Biden that led to the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
UNCERTAIN TOLLS: Images on social media showed small protests that escalated, with reports of police shooting live rounds as polling stations were targeted Tanzania yesterday was on lockdown with a communications blackout, a day after elections turned into violent chaos with unconfirmed reports of many dead. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan had sought to solidify her position and silence criticism within her party in the virtually uncontested polls, with the main challengers either jailed or disqualified. In the run-up, rights groups condemned a “wave of terror” in the east African nation, which has seen a string of high-profile abductions that ramped up in the final days. A heavy security presence on Wednesday failed to deter hundreds protesting in economic hub Dar es Salaam and elsewhere, some
Flooding in Vietnam has killed at least 10 people this week as the water level of a major river near tourist landmarks reached a 60-year high, authorities said yesterday. Vietnam’s coastal provinces, home to UNESCO world heritage site Hoi An ancient town, have been pummeled by heavy rain since the weekend, with a record of up to 1.7m falling over 24 hours. At least 10 people have been killed, while eight others are missing, the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said. More than 128,000 houses in five central provinces have been inundated, with water 3m deep in some areas. People waded through
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