HANOI: Typhoon winds and rains that lashed central Vietnam killed five people and left two more missing, according to an official toll, with huge tracts of farmland flooded by the deluge.
Typhoon Wutip made landfall in southern China on Saturday with winds gusting up to 128 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour) and was downgraded to a tropical storm after swooping up the Gulf of Tonkin on Vietnam’s flank.
Vietnam’s agriculture ministry said on Saturday evening that three people had been killed in central Quang Tri province, with two more fatalities and two people missing in Quang Binh province.
More than 70,000 hectares (172,000 acres) of cropland were flooded, the ministry said.
Chinese authorities on the southern island of Hainan evacuated thousands of people, closed schools and halted rail services on Friday ahead of the storm’s landfall.
However, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast on Saturday that the storm would “weaken to dissipation” by the end of the weekend.
Natural disasters are becoming more severe and more frequent as a result of climate change. They claimed 514 lives in Vietnam last year, three times more than in 2023, according to the agriculture ministry.
In September, northern Vietnam was devastated by Typhoon Yagi, which killed 345 people and caused an estimated economic loss of $3.3 billion.
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Five killed, two missing in Vietnam typhoon floods
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Five killed, two missing in Vietnam typhoon floods
Taiwan to send team to assess US rare earth deposits
TAIPEI: Taiwan plans to send officials to assess US rare earths deposits with a goal to have such minerals refined on the island, Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin said on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up efforts to secure US supplies of critical minerals after China rattled senior officials and global markets last year by withholding rare earths required by American automakers and other industrial manufacturers.
Trump last week launched a US strategic stockpile of critical minerals, called Project Vault, backed by $10 billion in seed funding from the US Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private funding.
While semiconductor powerhouse Taiwan is not formally part of that scheme, it has previously held talks with the United States on how it can help, given Taipei’s concerns about over-reliance on a China-centric supply chain.
China views Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up its military threats.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Kung said the ministry’s Geological Survey and Mining Management Agency would go to the United States to assess rare earths deposits there.
“Specifically, what rare-earth elements they contain and whether they are suitable. In other words, whether those are the rare earths we actually need. So we still need to investigate,” he said.
Given Taiwan does not mine such elements itself, it can instead play a role in refining the materials from other countries, Kung added.
“The technology is not an issue; the next step is scaling up,” he said.
Taiwan consumes 1,500 metric tons of rare earth annually, a figure projected to rise to 2,000 metric tons given economic growth, Kung added.
“Our goal is to expand production capacity to meet half of our demand by then, strengthening the supply chain.
President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up efforts to secure US supplies of critical minerals after China rattled senior officials and global markets last year by withholding rare earths required by American automakers and other industrial manufacturers.
Trump last week launched a US strategic stockpile of critical minerals, called Project Vault, backed by $10 billion in seed funding from the US Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private funding.
While semiconductor powerhouse Taiwan is not formally part of that scheme, it has previously held talks with the United States on how it can help, given Taipei’s concerns about over-reliance on a China-centric supply chain.
China views Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up its military threats.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Kung said the ministry’s Geological Survey and Mining Management Agency would go to the United States to assess rare earths deposits there.
“Specifically, what rare-earth elements they contain and whether they are suitable. In other words, whether those are the rare earths we actually need. So we still need to investigate,” he said.
Given Taiwan does not mine such elements itself, it can instead play a role in refining the materials from other countries, Kung added.
“The technology is not an issue; the next step is scaling up,” he said.
Taiwan consumes 1,500 metric tons of rare earth annually, a figure projected to rise to 2,000 metric tons given economic growth, Kung added.
“Our goal is to expand production capacity to meet half of our demand by then, strengthening the supply chain.
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