TUGUEGARAO, Philippines: Typhoon Mangkhut roared toward densely populated Hong Kong and southern China on Sunday after ravaging across the northern Philippines with ferocious winds and heavy rain that left at least 28 dead in landslides and collapsed houses.
The strongest storm so far this year in the world sliced across the northern tip of Luzon Island on Saturday, a breadbasket that is also a region of flood-prone rice plains and mountain provinces with a history of deadly landslides. More than 5 million people were in the path of the typhoon, equivalent to a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane when it hit the Philippines. On Sunday morning, It packed sustained winds of 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 190 kph (118 mph).
Hong Kong and southern China issued the highest storm signals. The Guangdong provincial office in charge of flood prevention said Sunday that nearly half a million people had been evacuated from seven cities.
The Hong Kong Observatory said although Mangkhut had weakened slightly, its extensive, intense rainbands were bringing heavy downfall and frequent squalls. Storm surge of about 3 ½ meters (9.8 feet) or above is expected at the city’s waterfront Victoria Harbor, the observatory said, appealing on the public to avoid the shoreline.
Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde told The Associated Press that 20 had died in the Cordillera mountain region, four in nearby Nueva Vizcaya province and another outside of the two regions. Three more deaths have been reported in northeastern Cagayan province, where the typhoon made landfall.
Among the fatalities were an infant and a 2-year-old child who died with their parents after the couple refused to immediately evacuate from their high-risk community in a Nueva Vizcaya mountain town, said Francis Tolentino, an adviser to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
“They can’t decide for themselves where to go,” he said of the children, expressing frustration that the tragedy was not prevented.
Tolentino, who was assigned by Duterte to help coordinate disaster response, said at least two other people were missing.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan said at least three people died and six others were missing in his mountain city of Baguio after strong winds and rain destroyed several houses and set off landslides, which also blocked roads to the popular vacation destination. It was not immediately clear whether the dead and missing had been included in the overall death toll.
About 87,000 people had evacuated from high-risk areas of the Philippines. Tolentino and other officials advised them not to return home until the lingering danger had passed.
In Cagayan’s capital, Tuguegarao, where the typhoon made landfall, Associated Press journalists saw a severely damaged public market, its roof ripped apart and wooden stalls and tarpaulin canopies in disarray. Outside a popular shopping mall, debris was scattered everywhere and government workers cleared roads of fallen trees. Many stores and houses were damaged but most residents remained indoors as occasional gusts sent small pieces of tin sheets and other debris flying dangerously.
The Tuguegarao airport terminal also was damaged, its roof and glass windows shattered by strong winds.
The typhoon struck at the start of the rice and corn harvesting season in Cagayan, a major agricultural producer, prompting farmers to scramble to save what they could of their crops, Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba said.
In Hong Kong, Security Minister John Lee Ka-chiu urged residents to prepare for the worst.
Cathay Pacific said all of its flights would be canceled between 2:30 a.m. local time on Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday.
“Because Mangkhut will bring winds and rains of extraordinary speeds, scope and severity, our preparation and response efforts will be greater than in the past,” Lee said. “Each department must have a sense of crisis, make a comprehensive assessment and plan, and prepare for the worst.”
In nearby Fujian province in China, 51,000 people were evacuated from fishing boats and around 11,000 vessels returned to port.
China’s National Meteorological Center issued an alert saying Mangkhut would make landfall somewhere on the coast in Guangdong province on Sunday afternoon or evening.
Ferry services in the Qiongzhou Strait in southern China were halted on Saturday and helicopters and tugboats were dispatched to Guangdong to transfer offshore workers to safety and warn ships about the typhoon, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Mangkhut, the Thai word for mangosteen fruit, is the 15th storm this year to batter the Philippines, which is hit by about 20 a year and is considered one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines.
Typhoon death toll in Philippines jumps to 28
Typhoon death toll in Philippines jumps to 28
- Storm warnings remained hoisted in 10 northern provinces, including Cagayan, which could still be lashed by devastating winds
- Tuguegarao airport terminal was badly damaged, its roof and glass windows shattered by strong wind, which also sent chairs, tables and papers flipping about inside
Bella Hadid celebrates fragrance launch in New York
DUBAI: American-Dutch-Palestinian model Bella Hadid celebrated the launch of her new fragrance brand, Orebella, at a party held over the weekend at The Huntress New York.
In typical Hadid fashion, she turned heads in an archival Roberto Cavalli look from the label’s Spring/Summer 2003 collection, consisting of a petite yellow gown, matching lace-up corset, and gold stiletto sandals.
The runway sensation turned to Instagram last week to showcase images of her fragrances, which are named “Salted Muse,” “Blooming Fire” and “Window2Soul.”
Crafted from glass and adorned with gold caps, the bottles are offered in 10, 50 and 100 ml.
Hadid in her caption described the fragrances as “hydrating, alcohol-free and enriched with essential oils.” She urged her followers to “shake to activate the transformative bi-phase formula.”
The “Salted Muse” perfume has “top notes” of sea salt, pink pepper and carbon dioxide extract, “heart notes” of olive tree accord, fig and lavender, and “base notes” of cedarwood, sandalwood and amber, according to reports.
The “Blooming Fire” fragrance has bergamot, cedarwood, clove leaf and cardamom, followed by Tahitian monoi and jasmine, and finishes with patchouli.
The “Window2Soul” scent has a blend of lemon, geranium and mint in its top notes, transitions to jasmine and damask rose, and concludes with a base of tonka bean.
Hadid wrote on her website: “For me, fragrance has always been at the center of my life — helping me feel in charge of who I am and my surroundings,” she said. “From my home to nostalgic memories, to my own energy and connection with others, scent has been an outlet for me. It made me feel safe in my own world.”
“Through my healing journey, I found that I was extremely sensitive to the alcohol in traditional perfumes — both physically and mentally — it became something that was more overwhelming than calming to me,” she added. “That is the main reason I wanted to find an alternative, so essential oils became an artistic and experimental process for me.”
While Hadid’s New York trip has primarily been spent promoting Orebella, she is expected to attend the Met Gala in a few days.
’Where can we go?’ say Rafah residents as Israel demands evacuation
- Areas designated for evacuation currently shelter some 250,000 people
- Israel’s retaliatory offensive, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, mostly women and children
Rafah: Palestinian civilians in the southern Gazan city of Rafah voiced despair on Monday as Israel dropped fliers urging them to evacuate for their own “safety” ahead of a “limited” military operation.
Israel’s army said it was instructing Palestinian families in eastern Rafah to flee in preparation for an expected ground assault on the city which abuts Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Residents of Rafah described emerging outside after a terrifying night in which around a dozen air strikes were carried out on Rafah, to find fliers falling from the sky telling them to “evacuate immediately.”
“The army is working with intensive power against the terrorist forces near you,” read a flier circulated in eastern Rafah.
“For your safety, the IDF (Israeli military) tells you to evacuate immediately toward the expanded humanitarian zone of Al-Mawasi,” it said, with a map indicating the location to the north of Rafah.
Osama Al-Kahlout, of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza, told AFP that the areas designated for evacuation currently shelter some 250,000 people, many of whom have already been displaced from other areas in the Gaza Strip.
“The evacuation process has begun on the ground, but in a limited manner,” he said.
An Israeli militark spokesman, when asked how many people should move, said: “The estimate is around 100,000 people.”
About 1.2 million people are currently sheltering in Rafah, according to the World Health Organization, most having fled there during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.
Amid pouring rain, some of those sheltering in Rafah said they had begun packing up their things from the densely packed tents and preparing to leave even before Israel’s directive arrived.
“Whatever happens, my tent is ready,” a resident told AFP.
But others said the area they were being told to flee to was already overcrowded, and they did not trust that it would be safe.
Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar, 36, said he and 12 family members were in the designated evacuation area.
Jazar and his family did not know what to do, he said, because the “humanitarian zone” they were told to head for “does not have enough room for us to make tents because they are (already) full of displaced people.”
“Where can we go? We do not know,” he told AFP.
“There are also no hospitals and it is far from any services many need,” he said, adding that one of his family members relied on dialysis at the Al-Najar hospital, in the area of Rafah instructed to evacuate.
“How will we deal with her after that? Should we watch her die without being able to do anything?“
An Israeli military spokesman told reporters that the evacuation “is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas ... we had a violent reminder of their presence and their operational abilities in Rafah yesterday.”
On Sunday, four Israeli soldiers were killed and others wounded, the army said, when a barrage of rockets was fired toward the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza.
The army said the rockets were fired from an area adjacent to Rafah.
International aid organizations have voiced alarm at the expected invasion of Rafah.
“From the humanitarian perspective, no credible humanitarian plan for an attack on Rafah exists,” said Bushra Khalidi, advocacy director for Oxfam in the Palestinian territories.
She said she could “not fathom that Rafah will happen,” asking where displaced Palestinians will go “when most of their surroundings have been reduced to death and rubble?“
Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war broke out following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized some 250 hostages, with Israel estimating that 128 of them remain in Gaza, including 35 whom the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
SEC closes $3bn financing for 3.6GW capacity power stations
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s power generation is poised for a substantial boost following the successful closing of financing for two electricity projects, with a combined capacity of 3.6 gigawatts.
The deals involving the Taiba 1 and Qassim 1 independent power producer projects, with a combined financing value of SR11.4 billion ($3.04 billion), signify a major milestone in Saudi Arabia’s energy landscape, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The two IPP projects, featuring combined cycle gas turbine technology, were awarded to the Saudi Electricity Co. by the Saudi Power Procurement Co. as part of an alliance with ACWA Power in October 2023.
Additionally, in November 2023, a 25-year power purchase agreement was signed with the SPPC for both projects, which are being developed on a build-own-operate basis.
Khalid Al-Qunun, CEO of SEC, commended the efforts of the company’s team in driving transformation in the electric energy sector in the Kingdom, the SPA report added.
He said: “These projects embody our ongoing ambitions to expand energy generation projects and adopt the latest technologies to ensure the provision of environmentally friendly energy solutions that contribute to achieving the company’s zero neutrality target by 2050, in line with the Kingdom’s ambitious aspirations in the field of energy sustainability.”
The financing agreements were signed by the two project companies: Sidra One for Electricity for the Taiba 1 station and Qudra Energy for the Qassim 1 station. The SEC holds a 40 percent share in both companies.
These modern stations represent a notable advancement in electric energy production in the Kingdom. They signify an important step toward a sustainable future by utilizing the latest energy production technologies, such as combined cycle gas turbines known for their high efficiency.
According to the SPA report, relying on these advanced technologies contributes to improving generation efficiency, reducing emissions, and reducing reliance on liquid fuels in the electricity production sector in the Kingdom.
These stations mark the beginning of a series of CCGT stations that will expedite the realization of Saudi Vision 2030 goals, including achieving an optimal energy mix and increasing local content.
This also sets the stage for achieving the goals of the Saudi Green Initiative, aiming for carbon neutrality by 2060. The engineering design of these stations allows for the future integration of carbon capture facilities, underscoring the SEC’s commitment to environmental, social, and governance responsibility, the SPA report added.
US weapon system identified in Israeli-Lebanon strike may breach international law
- Guardian investigation with Human Rights Watch identifies Boeing-made Joint Direction Attack Munition fragments at site where aid workers were killed
- US bans export of such systems to foreign militaries where ‘credible information’ of human rights breaches exists
LONDON: An Israeli airstrike in Lebanon that killed seven aid workers in March may have been conducted with a US-supplied weapon system, according to an investigation by The Guardian.
The incident claimed the lives of seven paramedics aged 18-25, all volunteers, at an ambulance center in Al-Habariyeh in southern Lebanon on March 27.
It came five days before an Israeli strike in Gaza killed seven aid workers working for World Central Kitchen.
Debris found at the scene in Al-Habariyeh was identified by The Guardian, an independent expert and Human Rights Watch as having belonged to a 500-pound Israeli MPR bomb and a Boeing-made Joint Direction Attack Munition, a system attached to explosives to turn them from “dumb bombs” into GPS-guided weapons.
HRW’s Lebanon researcher Ramzi Kaiss told The Guardian: “Israel’s assurances that it is using US weapons lawfully are not credible. As Israel’s conduct in Gaza and Lebanon continues to violate international law, the Biden administration should immediately suspend arms sales to Israel.”
The US government is legally unable to help or arm foreign militaries where “credible information” of human rights abuses exists, under the terms of the 1997 Leahy law.
A spokesperson for the US National Security Council told The Guardian: “The US is constantly working to ensure defense articles provided by the US are being used consistent with applicable domestic and international law. If findings show violations, we take action.”
But Josh Paul, a non-resident fellow with Democracy for the Arab World Now and a former State Department employee, said: “The State Department has approved several of these (weapons) transfers on a 48-hour turnaround. There is no policy concern on any munitions to Israel other than white phosphorus and cluster bombs.”
He added that JDAMs have been “key items” regularly requested by Israel since the start of the Gaza war.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will deliver a report on Wednesday to Congress on Israel’s use of American weapons and whether they may have been involved in violations of this or other laws.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen told The Guardian that the findings from Al-Habariyeh are “deeply concerning and must be fully investigated by the Biden administration, and their findings should certainly be included in the NSM-20 report that is due to be submitted to the Congress on May 8.”
The airstrike on the ambulance center in Al-Habariyeh came without warning before 1 a.m. on March 27. No fighting had been reported in the area.
The victims had been at the center for the night shift, and were named as twin brothers Hussein and Ahmad Al-Shaar, aged 18; Abdulrahman Al-Shaar, 19; Mohammad Hamoud, 21; Mohammad Al-Farouk Aatwi, 23; Abdullah Aatwi, 24; and Baraa Abu Kaiss, 24.
The Israeli military claimed that the strike, which leveled the two-storey building, killed a “prominent terrorist belonging to Jamaa Islamiya,” an armed Lebanese political group with ties to Hezbollah. It did not identify the person by name.
A Jamaa Islamiya spokesman acknowledged that some of the ambulance volunteers were members of the group, but denied that they were part of its armed wing.
Samer Hardan, head of the local Civil Defense center who was among the first responders, told The Guardian: “We examined every centimetre looking for parts of bodies and their possessions. We saw nothing military-related. We knew (the victims) personally, so we could identify their remains.”
Since Oct. 7, 16 medical workers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, and a further 380 people have died including 72 civilians. Eleven Israeli soldiers and eight civilians have also been killed.
Kassem Al-Shaar, father of Ahmad and Hussein, said he had warned his sons not to volunteer.
“I told them that it was dangerous to do this type of work, but they said that they accepted the risk. I don’t know what Israel was thinking — these were young people excited to help others,” he said.
“My sons wanted to do humanitarian work, and look what happened to them. Israel wouldn’t dare to do what they did if it wasn’t for the US standing behind them.”
Qatar’s non-energy private sector records improvement in April
RIYADH: Qatar’s non-energy private sector witnesses improvement in business conditions in April as the Purchasing Managers’ Index hit 52, compared to 50.6 in March, according to the latest data.
The Qatar Financial Center PMI is a composite single-figure indicator of non-energy private sector performance that is derived from indicators for new orders, output, employment, suppliers’ delivery times and stocks of purchases. A reading above 50 signifies sectoral expansion, while below that mark indicates contraction.
The latest PMI survey data from the center compiled by US-based capital marker firm S&P Global showed that the 1.4-point increase between March and April in the headline figure was among the largest registered over the past two years, according to a statement.
Moreover, the data disclosed that while output, new orders, employment and purchasing activity all increased at faster rates than in March, price pressures turned slightly negative, as both input and output prices fell marginally.
Additionally, the volume of incoming new business in Qatar’s non-energy economy rose at the fastest rate in seven months in April. This is mainly attributed to new customers and high quality, competitive products.
Total activity also surged at the fastest rate since last September in April as new projects and firms continued to complete existing workloads.
Furthermore, non-energy private sector companies were increasingly optimistic on growth over the next 12 months in April. Companies residing in the Gulf country linked positive forecasts to marketing campaigns, business development plans and efficiency drives.
Consequently, stronger inflows of new work and increased confidence led to a sharper rate of hiring growth in April. Employment has risen for 14 months, and the rate of job creation was running above the long-run survey average in April.
The Qatar PMI indices are compiled from survey responses from a panel of around 450 private sector companies. The panel covers the manufacturing, construction, and wholesale as well as retail and services sectors, and reflects the structure of the non-energy economy according to official national accounts data.
Islamic banking
The total value of the assets of Islamic banks operating in Qatar during the month of March 2024 increased by 6.4 percent on an annual basis to reach about 563.9 billion Qatari riyals ($154.8 billion), according to newly released statistics.
The monetary bulletin issued by the Qatar Central Bank for the month of March showed that this recorded figure represents 28 percent of the total assets of banks in Qatar, amounting to approximately 1.99 trillion riyals.
The data also revealed that the total value of Islamic banks’ financing in Qatar increased to 389.9 billion riyals, an increase of 3 percent over the corresponding month of last year.
