عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Typhoon Yagi Kills 2 in China's Hainan as it Makes its Way to Vietnam

People ride scooters past falling trees after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Haikou, in southern China's Hainan province on September 7, 2024. (Photo by CNS / AFP)
People ride scooters past falling trees after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Haikou, in southern China's Hainan province on September 7, 2024. (Photo by CNS / AFP)
TT
TT

Typhoon Yagi Kills 2 in China's Hainan as it Makes its Way to Vietnam

People ride scooters past falling trees after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Haikou, in southern China's Hainan province on September 7, 2024. (Photo by CNS / AFP)
People ride scooters past falling trees after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Haikou, in southern China's Hainan province on September 7, 2024. (Photo by CNS / AFP)

A powerful typhoon killed two people and left at least 92 injured in the southern Chinese island of Hainan, authorities said Saturday, with heavy rains and winds causing power outages in over 800,000 households.
The typhoon Yagi is currently en route to northern Vietnam over the Gulf of Tonkin Saturday, with Vietnamese authorities describing Yagi as “one of the most powerful typhoons in the region over the past decade.”
The typhoon on Friday afternoon struck Hainan's Wenchang city, with wind speeds of up to about 245 kph (152 mph) near its center.
China’s national meteorological authorities said Yagi was the strongest autumn typhoon to have landed in China.
Some 420,000 residents were relocated in Hainan prior to the typhoon's landfall in Hainan. Another half a million people in Guangdong province were evacuated before Yagi made a second landfall in the province's Xuwen County on Friday night.
Haikou's meteorological observatory downgraded its typhoon signal from red to orange on Saturday, as the typhoon moved further away from the city.
In Hong Kong, more than 270 people were forced to seek refuge at temporary government shelters on Friday, and more than 100 flights in the city were canceled due to the typhoon. Heavy rain and strong winds felled dozens of trees, and trading on the stock market, bank services and schools were halted, The Associated Press reported.
Yagi was still a storm when it blew out of the northwestern Philippines into the South China Sea on Wednesday, leaving at least 16 people dead and 17 others missing mostly in landslides and widespread flooding and affecting more than 2 million people across the archipelago.
More than 47,600 people were displaced from their homes in Philippine provinces and classes, work, inter-island ferry services and domestic flights were disrupted for days, including in the densely populated capital region, metropolitan Manila.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Iranian Calls to Confront Geopolitical Shifts in the South Caucasus

A photo of a previous meeting of the 3+3 group on the South Caucasus in Tehran (archive - Iranian Foreign Ministry)
A photo of a previous meeting of the 3+3 group on the South Caucasus in Tehran (archive - Iranian Foreign Ministry)
TT
TT

Iranian Calls to Confront Geopolitical Shifts in the South Caucasus

A photo of a previous meeting of the 3+3 group on the South Caucasus in Tehran (archive - Iranian Foreign Ministry)
A photo of a previous meeting of the 3+3 group on the South Caucasus in Tehran (archive - Iranian Foreign Ministry)

Tension between Iran and Russia is mounting over the Zangezur Corridor in the South Caucasus, with both reformist and conservative politicians in Tehran suggesting that Moscow is deliberately hindering the revival of the nuclear deal with the West.
The controversy began when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, specifically the provision to open the Zangezur Corridor, which would connect mainland Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared this a “red line” that cannot be crossed.
Disrupting Strategic Trade Routes

Tehran argues that the opening of the Zangezur Corridor would sever a vital trade route linking Iran to Europe. Former Iranian MP Ali Motahari criticized Russia’s focus on the Ukraine war, saying it is disregarding Iranian interests.
Iranian MP Ahmad Naderi voiced his frustration, arguing that Iran’s previous lack of response to Russian actions undermining its national interests has only emboldened Moscow. In a post on X, Naderi stressed that Moscow must understand that strategic cooperation does not equate to compromising national interests, and called on Iran’s Foreign Ministry and military to develop a clear plan to counteract Russia’s “geopolitical ambitions.”
Russian Ambassador to Tehran Alexey Dedov was summoned to Iran’s Foreign Ministry, where he was reminded of Iran’s opposition to any changes in the geopolitical landscape of the Caucasus. This move reflects the ongoing divergence in Moscow and Tehran’s positions on regional dynamics, especially after Russia reaffirmed its commitment to opening the corridor.
Russia and the Nuclear Deal
While the surface-level dispute over the Zangezur Corridor appears to be about trade routes, some Iranian politicians believe it has deeper implications, connected to Russia’s efforts to thwart Iran’s diplomatic engagement with the West and hinder the revival of the nuclear deal.
Former MP Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, who once chaired Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin is launching a “preemptive strike” to prevent any potential rapprochement between Tehran and Washington.
Falahatpisheh, in comments published by reformist media, argued that Russia is using the Zangezur Corridor as leverage to exert pressure on Tehran, ignoring Iran’s “red lines” in regional politics. He claimed that Moscow prefers an isolated Iran, viewing any reduction in tensions between Tehran and the West as a threat to its own interests.
He also argued that Iran has had to make significant concessions to Russia, with the nuclear deal becoming a casualty of the ongoing Ukraine conflict. Iran had reportedly supplied Russia with hundreds of drones during the two-and-a-half-year war, and the potential transfer of ballistic missiles is viewed as a deeply concerning escalation by some insiders.
No Secret Nuclear Program

 

In parallel, Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, denied allegations of a secret nuclear program.
“For the past two decades, the West has used various tactics to pressure the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into investigating Iran,” Tasnim news agency quoted him as saying.
Eslami reiterated that Iran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and placed its nuclear activities under strict oversight, with the goal of resolving any concerns about a potential nuclear weapons program. Despite this, he noted that the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement, even though Iran had adhered to its commitments.
Eslami further criticized the three European signatories of the JCPOA—France, the United Kingdom, and Germany—along with the US, accusing them of spearheading a campaign against Iran’s nuclear program.