A tropical storm has killed two people, caused dam breaches and forced tens of thousands to evacuate in southern China. Typhoon Maysak killed two people in Nanning, in China’s southern Guangxi province. Maysak, which lashed Vietnam and China’s southern island province of Hainan over the weekend, will dump the water it sucked up on its way across the South China Sea as it weakens and heads inland, meteorologists say. About 55,000 people were already affected by floods in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi region, and waters were overflowing or breaking…
Tag: Vietnam
Francis Markus obituary
My friend the former BBC Shanghai correspondent Francis Markus, who has died aged 65 of cancer, was a talented journalist whose compassion for those he reported on led him to spend the last two decades of his life working for humanitarian organisations throughout Asia. After being posted to Shanghai in 2002, Francis demonstrated not just an unerring news sense, covering protests in Hong Kong and social change in China, but a deep interest in human stories, from the suicide-watchers patrolling one of China’s highest bridges over the Yangtze River, to…
What Middle Powers Fear from the Trump-Xi Summit
Poland will soon host production lines for South Korean tanks. Australia is buying warships from Japan. Canada will send uranium to India, while India offers cruise missiles to Vietnam, and Brazil builds military transport planes for the United Arab Emirates. All of these deals were sealed in the past few weeks. Each one represents an attempt by middle powers to protect themselves as the conflict in Iran throttles global energy supplies, and as a high-stakes summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping of China looms. Global polls show the world…
Taiwan accuses China of vegetable laundering via Vietnam
Taipei has accused China of smuggling vegetables into Taiwan via Vietnam in a bid to evade import restrictions, with officials vowing to crack down on a practice they say amounts to “origin washing”. Taiwan, which bans the importation of more than 1,000 Chinese agricultural and fishery products, said firms in China were evading restrictions by rerouting vegetables like Napa cabbage and shiitake mushrooms through neighbouring Vietnam. The items, officials claimed, are then repackaged as Vietnamese goods and imported into Taiwan. Taiwan’s agriculture minister Chen Junne-jih told lawmakers at a legislative…
Sir Nick White obituary
The idea that a traditional Chinese herbal treatment could be the answer to drug-resistant malaria was tough to swallow for many policymakers in global health. With a combination of dogged persistence, commitment to communities in affected countries and impeccable research design, Nick White changed their minds. He led a campaign to make antimalarial drug combinations containing artemisinin, extracted in China from a common plant, the globally recommended treatment for the most common form of malaria. Millions of lives have been saved as a result. White, who has died aged 74,…
Five tech trends we’ll be watching in 2026
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, wishing you a happy New Year’s Eve filled with cheer, champagne and Mariah Carey’s comically awful rendition of Auld Lang Syne. Today, we’re looking forward to the next year in technology news. I am watching five trends I think will define the year: datacenters will see rapid proliferation beyond the US and China; billionaires will reap billions more; self-driving cars will park themselves in a slew of brand-new locales; AI will find its niche at work; and consumer tech will…
Hanoi floods again amid typhoon-spawned rains
Residents and businesses in Hanoi on Tuesday were coping again with flooding as storms triggered by Typhoon Matmo have submerged major roads, particularly in inner-city districts. Commuters pushed motorbikes through calf-deep water in some areas. Several schools closed or moved classes online. Some flights from Noi Bai International Airport have been rescheduled or delayed. For many, it’s an unpleasant return to the flooding just last week from Typhoon Bualoi, which killed at least 51 people in Vietnam and caused around $600 million in damage. Flooding caused by Typhoon Matmo in…
Super Typhoon Ragasa rampages through Taiwan, Hong Kong and southern China
Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded Taiwan, Hong Kong and China before moving into Vietnam on Thursday night, though as a much-weakened storm. At its peak Ragasa had mean wind speeds of 165mph as it moved to the south of Taiwan, where it brought significant heavy rain resulting in 17 deaths as a barrier lake burst. The storms then moved westwards just to the south of Hong Kong, before making landfall on Wednesday in the Guangdong province of China, with mean wind speeds of 150mph – equivalent to a category 4 hurricane.…
Super Typhoon Ragasa batters Hong Kong – video
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
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…