China Lashed by Year’s First Typhoon, Record Rains Forecast

A person holding an umbrella walks in the rain at a waterfront, amid a typhoon warning on the 25th anniversary of the former British colony's handover to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China July 1, 2022. (Reuters)

Asharq Al Awsat

11:37-2 July 2022 AD ـ 03 Thul-Hijjah 1443 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

11:37-2 July 2022 AD ـ 03 Thul-Hijjah 1443 AH

China Lashed by Year’s First Typhoon, Record Rains Forecast

China's first typhoon of the year brought gales and rain to its southern shores on Saturday, as forecasters warned of record rainfall and high disaster risk in provinces including Guangdong, the country's most populous.

Typhoon Chaba, the Thai name for the hibiscus flower, was moving northwest at 15 to 20 km (10 to 15 miles) per hour after the eye of the storm made landfall in Guangdong's Maoming city on Saturday afternoon, the National Meteorological Center said in a statement.

Chaba, though medium in intensity and expected to lose strength over time, is likely to bring extremely heavy rains and may break the record for cumulative rainfall as it pulls the monsoon rain belt in the region inland, said Gao Shuanzhu, the center's chief forecaster.

"The abundant monsoon water vapor will lead to intense downpours and huge cumulative rainfall of an extreme nature," Gao said, predicting up to 600 mm (24 inches) of cumulative rainfall in some areas.

At risk are the west of Guangdong, where China's typhoons usually linger, the east of Guangxi autonomous region and the island province of Hainan, with rainstorms causing landslides, urban waterlogging and floods, Gao said.

Hainan upgraded its emergency response to Level II, the second-highest, on Saturday. It suspended railway service across the island and cancelled more than 400 flights to and from the cities of Haikou and Sanya.

In Macau, one person was injured due to the wind and rain on Chaba's approach, state televisions reported.

In waters off Hong Kong, which is 270 km (170 miles) northeast of Maoming, more than two dozen crew on an engineering vessel with 30 people on board were missing after it snapped in two in waters off Hong Kong as Chaba passed through, authorities said.

In recent weeks, historic rainfall and flooding in southern China have destroyed property, paralyzed traffic and disrupted the daily lives of millions in one of the country's most populous and economically key regions.

Extreme weather including unusually heavy flooding is expected to continue in China through August, forecasters predicted this week, with climate change partly blamed.

Ukraine Says It Captured 2 North Korean Soldiers Fighting for Russia

This undated handout photograph released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on January 11, 2025 shows an alleged North Korean soldier lying in a cell at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)

17:01-11 January 2025 AD ـ 12 Rajab 1446 AH

Ukraine Says It Captured 2 North Korean Soldiers Fighting for Russia

Ukraine’s forces have captured two North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, the first such claim by Kyiv since North Korea sent thousands of troops to shore up Moscow's war effort on the other side of the world.

Zelenskyy made the comments days after Ukraine, facing a slow Russian onslaught in the east, began pressing new attacks in Kursk to retain ground captured in a lightning incursion in August — the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II.

Moscow’s counterattack has left Ukrainian forces outstretched and demoralized, killing and wounding thousands and retaking more than 40% of the 984 square kilometers (380 square miles) of Kursk Ukraine had seized.

“Our soldiers have captured North Korean soldiers in Kursk. These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived, were taken to Kyiv, and are communicating” with Ukrainian security services, Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

He shared photos of two men resting on cots in a room with bars over the windows. Both wore bandages, one around his jaw and the other around both hands and wrists.

Zelenskyy said capturing the soldiers alive was “not easy.” He asserted that Russian and North Korean forces fighting in Kursk have tried to conceal the presence of North Korean soldiers, including by killing wounded comrades on the battlefield to avoid their capture and interrogation by Kyiv.

Ukraine's security service SBU on Saturday said one of the soldiers had no documents at all, while the other had been carrying a Russian military ID card in the name of a man from Tuva, a Russian region bordering Mongolia.

According to the SBU, one of the soldiers claimed he had been told he was going to Russia for training, rather than to fight against Ukraine. He said his combat unit, made up of North Koreans, only received one week of training alongside Russian troops before being sent to the front.

A senior Ukrainian military official said last month that a couple hundred North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces in Kursk have been killed or wounded in battle.

Ukraine estimates that 10,000 to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia. The White House and Pentagon said the North Korean forces have been battling on the front lines in largely infantry positions. They have been fighting with Russian units and, in some cases, independently around Kursk.

Its full-scale invasion three years ago left Russia holding a fifth of Ukraine, and Zelenskyy has hinted that he hopes controlling Kursk will help force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war. But multiple Ukrainian and Western officials in Kyiv last month told The Associated Press that they fear gambling on Kursk will weaken the whole 1000-kilometer (621-mile) front line, and Ukraine is losing precious ground in the east.

China Lashed by Year’s First Typhoon, Record Rains Forecast

China Lashed by Year’s First Typhoon, Record Rains Forecast

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Ukraine Says It Captured 2 North Korean Soldiers Fighting for Russia

Ukraine Says It Captured 2 North Korean Soldiers Fighting for Russia

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