Super Typhoon Ragasa has caused widespread flooding and damaged roads in Hong Kong, which resumed international flights on Thursday but kept kindergartens and some schools closed. Ragasa, the strongest storm so far this year, killed 14 people in Taiwan and 11 in the Philippines, according to officials. More than 100 people were injured in Hong Kong The Guardian
Tag: Asia Pacific
Taiwan convicts four former ruling party officials of spying for China
Four former employees of Taiwan’s ruling political party have been convicted of spying for China and handed prison sentences of up to 10 years. The four include a former aide to Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, when he was vice-president and for a time during his current presidency, and a senior staffer to Joseph Wu, then foreign minister and now the national security chief. The aides worked for the Democratic Progressive party (DPP), Taiwan’s ruling party. Huang Chu-jung, a former assistant to a New Taipei city councillor, received the lengthiest sentence…
Weakened Super Typhoon Ragasa heads towards Vietnam after battering China and Hong Kong
Huge clear-up operations were under way in southern China and Hong Kong on Thursday, after Super Typhoon Ragasa battered the region, causing widespread flooding and damaged roads. Ragasa, the most powerful tropical cyclone so far this year, left a trail of damage across Hong Kong, which resumed international flights on Thursday but kept kindergartens and some schools closed. In the economic hub of Guangdong province in mainland China, where more than 2 million people were evacuated ahead of the super typhoon, crews used excavators to clear thousands of toppled trees…
The Guardian view on the climate crisis: green energy is booming – but fossil fuels need to shrink too | Editorial
All is not lost, Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, told the Guardian last week. But the latest planetary health check from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research is a brutal reminder of how close the Earth is being pushed beyond repair. Seven of the nine planetary boundaries are now breached, with ocean acidification added to the danger list. Yet the world has proved that cooperation works: the ozone layer is healing, air pollution controls are working. A decisive test looms at the end of the month, when governments…
Horror film digitally altered in China to make gay couple straight
An Australian horror film featuring a scene with a same-sex wedding was reportedly digitally altered for release in mainland China, transforming the gay couple into a heterosexual one, provoking outrage from viewers who spotted the change. The critically acclaimed film Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie, was released in selected cinemas in China on 12 September. It follows the journey of a young couple who move to the countryside and encounter mysterious and grotesque changes to their bodies. In one scene, which features a wedding between two men, one…
Typhoon Ragasa live: Two million people evacuated in southern China after deaths in Taiwan and Philippines
From 2h ago Typhoon Ragasa batters Hong Kong and southern China after causing deaths in Taiwan and Philippines Hong Kong and parts of southern China weere on high alert as Super Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year, approached on Wednesday with powerful winds and rains, forcing Chinese authorities to shut down schools and businesses in at least 10 cities. Nearly 1.9 million people were relocated across Guangdong province, the southern Chinese economic powerhouse. The national weather agency forecast the super typhoon would make landfall between the…
Super Typhoon Ragasa: at least 14 killed in Taiwan as Hong Kong and southern China brace for impact
The bursting of a barrier lake in Taiwan has killed at least 14 people and left 124 people missing, officials have announced, after Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded the island with torrential rains and brought widespread damage to parts of east Asia. The outer rim of Super Typhoon Ragasa has been bearing down on Taiwan since Monday as its path moves down towards the southern Chinese coast. The barrier lake, formed by landslides triggered by earlier heavy rain in Taiwan’s east, burst its banks mid-afternoon on Tuesday, unleashing a wall of…
UN and rights groups condemn reported jailing of Wuhan Covid citizen journalist
The UN, human rights groups and media freedom watchdogs have condemned reports that Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist, was sentenced to jail for the second time last week. Zhang, 42, is thought to have stood trial in Shanghai on Friday on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a charge often used in China to target critics of the government. Western diplomats were reportedly turned away from observing the trial. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a media freedom NGO, said on Saturday that Zhang had been sentenced to four…
Arc’teryx fireworks display in Tibet prompts environmental outcry
The outdoor brand Arc’teryx has issued an apology after a promotional fireworks display in the Tibetan plateau led to an outcry over potential environmental damage. The promotional Rising Dragon high-altitude show involved long stretches of choreographed pyrotechnics and coloured smoke along snow-topped Himalayan ridgelines in the Tibetan region of Shigatse. The Canadian company, part-owned by China’s Anta Group, had partnered with a Chinese artist, Cai Guo-Qiang, who oversaw similar shows for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The organisers said the display used biodegradable, environmentally friendly materials, that all stock herds had…
Weather tracker: Flash floods and landslides wreak havoc in California
Flash flooding and landslides led to the death of a two-year-old boy in California in the US last week, after heavy rainfall followed on the heels of Tropical Storm Mario further south. The storm skirted the Pacific coast of Mexico with minimal disruption, eventually dissipating to the west of Baja California on Tuesday, but the remnants went on to cause havoc on Thursday. Residual moist air from the tropical storm was drawn north-east towards California, bringing heavy downpours and thunder to central and southern counties. The heaviest rainfall was in…