Typhoon Leaves behind Crushed Vehicles, Beached Whale in China

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, residents walk against strong wind and rain as Typhoon Talim approaches in Macao in southern China on Monday, July 17, 2023. (Cheong Kam Ka/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, residents walk against strong wind and rain as Typhoon Talim approaches in Macao in southern China on Monday, July 17, 2023. (Cheong Kam Ka/Xinhua via AP)
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Typhoon Leaves behind Crushed Vehicles, Beached Whale in China

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, residents walk against strong wind and rain as Typhoon Talim approaches in Macao in southern China on Monday, July 17, 2023. (Cheong Kam Ka/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, residents walk against strong wind and rain as Typhoon Talim approaches in Macao in southern China on Monday, July 17, 2023. (Cheong Kam Ka/Xinhua via AP)

Trees fell on moving vehicles, a whale washed ashore and a freezer full of ice cream floated off in floods as Typhoon Talim made its way across China's southern provinces on Tuesday.

On Chinese social media, videos showed pedestrians falling over and struggling against the winds, flooded roads and onlookers gathering around the beached whale in the dark, Reuters reported.
Talim, the first typhoon to make landfall in China this year, struck the coast late on Monday night in Guangdong province, quickly weakening into a tropical storm. Overnight it moved into Beibu Gulf, and by early Tuesday, it had made a second landfall and moved into southern Guangxi region.
Wind speeds had fallen to a maximum 25 m/s (90 kmh or 56 mph) near Talim's center, as of 8 a.m. (0000 GMT), China's Meteorological Administration said. The storm is expected to further weaken and dissipate as it moves northwesterly into northern Vietnam later on Tuesday, it said.
In Guangdong, after Talim's passing, firefighters rescued passengers pinned in vehicles by fallen tree branches as they cleared roadblocks and assisted other motorists to safety, according to state media.
Nearly 230,000 people in Guangdong were evacuated on Monday before the storm struck, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Local authorities in Guangdong had also ordered the closure of 68 coastal tourist destinations, called back 2,702 fishing vessels and ordered 8,262 fish-farming workers to be evacuated ashore, Xinhua said.
In Guangxi's Nanning city, state media reported 35 passenger train services have been disrupted and 26 flights cancelled since Monday. In Hainan, an island province to the south of Guangdong, railway services were gradually being restored on Tuesday morning after being suspended the previous day.
The effects of the typhoon were felt more then 1,000 km to the northeast in Fuzhou city in Fujian province.



Putin and Iranian President Sign Strategic Cooperation Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)
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Putin and Iranian President Sign Strategic Cooperation Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday signed a 20-year strategic partnership treaty involving closer defense cooperation that is likely to worry the West.

Pezeshkian, on his first Kremlin visit since winning the presidency last July, hailed the signing as an important new chapter in the two countries' relations, while Putin said Moscow and Tehran had many of the same views on international affairs.

"This (treaty) creates better conditions for bilateral cooperation in all areas," said Putin, emphasizing the upside for economic ties and trade, which he said was mostly carried out in the two countries' own currencies.

"We need less bureaucracy and more concrete action. Whatever difficulties are created by others we will be able to overcome them and move forward," Putin added, referring to Western sanctions on both countries.

Putin said Russia regularly informed Iran about what was going on in the Ukraine conflict and that they closely consulted on events in the Middle East and South Caucasus region.

Russia and Iran were the main military allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Moscow after being toppled last month. The West also accuses Iran of providing missiles and drones for Russian attacks on Ukraine. Moscow and Tehran say their increasingly close ties are not directed against other countries.

Putin said work on a potential gas pipeline to carry Russian gas to Iran was progressing despite difficulties, and that, despite delays in building new nuclear reactors for Iran, Moscow was open to potentially taking on more nuclear projects.

Pezeshkian, whose words were translated by Russian state TV, said the treaty would create good opportunities and showed Moscow and Iran did not need to heed the opinion of what he called "countries over the ocean".

"The agreements we reached today are another stimulus when it comes to the creation of a multi-polar world," he said.

CLOSE COOPERATION

Moscow has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile towards the US, such as North Korea, since the start of the Ukraine war, and already has strategic pacts with Pyongyang and close ally Belarus, as well as a partnership agreement with China.

Immediate details of the 20-year Russia-Iran agreement were not available but it was not expected to include a mutual defense clause of the kind sealed with Minsk and Pyongyang. It is still likely to concern the West, however, which sees both countries as malign influences on the world stage.

Neither leader mentioned defense cooperation during their Kremlin press conference, but officials from both countries had said earlier that part of the pact focused on defense.

Russia has made extensive use of Iranian drones during the war in Ukraine and the United States accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine.

Tehran denies supplying drones or missiles. The Kremlin has declined to confirm it has received Iranian missiles, but has acknowledged that its cooperation with Iran includes "the most sensitive areas".

Russia has supplied Iran with S-300 air defense missile systems in the past and there have been reports in Iranian media of potential interest in buying more advanced systems such as the S-400 and of acquiring advanced Russian fighter jets.

Pezeshkian's visit to Moscow comes at a time when Iran's influence across the Middle East is in retreat with the fall of Assad in Syria and the Israeli pounding of Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The fate of two major Russian military facilities in Syria has been uncertain since the fall of Assad.