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Extreme Rain in Beijing After Typhoon Turns Roads into Rivers, Kills Two 

This picture shows a view of the overflooded Yongding river, after heavy rains in Mentougou district in Beijing on July 31, 2023. (AFP)
This picture shows a view of the overflooded Yongding river, after heavy rains in Mentougou district in Beijing on July 31, 2023. (AFP)
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Extreme Rain in Beijing After Typhoon Turns Roads into Rivers, Kills Two 

This picture shows a view of the overflooded Yongding river, after heavy rains in Mentougou district in Beijing on July 31, 2023. (AFP)
This picture shows a view of the overflooded Yongding river, after heavy rains in Mentougou district in Beijing on July 31, 2023. (AFP)

In Beijing's western suburbs, cars were swept away on Monday as relentless rain since the weekend transformed roads into rivers, killing at least two and trapping hundreds, despite an overnight evacuation of tens of thousands from their homes.

Hundreds of roads have become flooded in China's capital, with videos posted by state media showing half-submerged vehicles in Mentougou district pulled along by fast-moving torrents as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri dumped record rainfall on the city of nearly 22 million.

Two bodies were found in a river during an emergency patrol in Mentougou as rescuers pulled hundreds to safety in other parts of the city.

Besides Beijing, heavy rain continued to soak the neighboring city of Tianjin as well as Hebei province in a region nearly the size of Britain in the wake of Doksuri, which was downgraded to a tropical depression on the weekend.

Three of the five rivers that make up the Hai river basin rose to dangerous levels on Monday.

Some houses were washed into the Yongding river, and nearly 55,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Baoding city, state media reported.

Doksuri was one of the strongest storms to hit China in years and caused widespread flooding over the weekend in the southern province of Fujian, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Average rainfall in Beijing reached 176.9 mm (7 inches) between Saturday night and Monday afternoon, with the maximum recorded rainfall in at a weather station in Mentougou hitting 580.9 mm (23 inches), according to state media.

The Beijing observatory kept a red alert - the highest warning - for heavy rainfall in place, while Beijing Hydrology Station upgraded its flood warning with more rain and river flooding forecast.

Incessant rainfall over the weekend until Monday morning has broken daily precipitation records at 14 weather stations in Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong provinces.

More than 31,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Beijing, work at more than 4,000 construction sites was halted, almost 20,000 buildings were inspected for damage, and scenic spots in the city were closed, media reported.

Both airports in the capital cancelled more than 200 flights on Monday afternoon, with close to 600 delayed, according to flight tracking app Flight Master.

Railway authorities dispatched workers to send food including instant noodles, eggs and ham, and drinking water to train passengers who were stuck overnight.

As many as 358 roads in Beijing were affected by the rain as of Monday.

In northern Hebei province, a driver was missing after two trucks fell off a collapsed bridge in Baoding city on Sunday, while a railway bridge for freight in Shijiazhuang city was washed away in a swollen river, media reported.

While Doksuri continues to taper off, forecasters warned that typhoon Khanun was approaching and was set to strike China's densely populated coast this week.

Authorities said Khanun could inflict further damage to corn and other crops that have already been hit by Doksuri.

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NATO and Ukraine to Hold Emergency Talks after Russia’s Attack with New Hypersonic Missile

A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
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NATO and Ukraine to Hold Emergency Talks after Russia’s Attack with New Hypersonic Missile

A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)

NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.

The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.”

Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday's Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech to his nation that the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was retaliation for Kyiv’s use of US and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Putin said Western air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov kept up Russia's bellicose tone on Friday, blaming “the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries” in supplying weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia.

"The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns were not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined," he said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow's talking points, suggesting the use of US-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely requires direct American involvement.

“These are rockets that are fired and then guided to a target via an electronic system, which requires the world’s most advanced technology and satellite communications capability,” Orban said on state radio. “There is a strong assumption ... that these missiles cannot be guided without the assistance of American personnel.”

Orban cautioned against underestimating Russia’s responses, emphasizing that the country’s recent modifications to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a “bluff.” “It’s not a trick... there will be consequences,” he said.

Separately in Kyiv, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called Thursday's missile strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe.”

At a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Lipavský also expressed his full support for delivering the necessary additional air defense systems to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks.”

He underlined that the Czech Republic will impose no limits on the use of its weapons and equipment given to Ukraine.

Three lawmakers from Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, confirmed that Friday's previously scheduled session was called off due to the ongoing threat of Russian missiles targeting government buildings in central Kyiv.

In addition, there also was a recommendation to limit the work of all commercial offices and nongovernmental organizations "in that perimeter, and local residents were warned of the increased threat,” said lawmaker Mykyta Poturaiev, who added this is not the first time such a threat has been received.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office continued to work in compliance with standard security measures, a spokesperson said.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the Oreshnik missile, whose name in Russian means “hazelnut tree,” was fired from the Kapustin Yar 4th Missile Test Range in Russia’s Astrakhan region, and flew 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. The missile had six nonnuclear warheads each carrying six submunitions and reached a spoeed of Mach 11, it said.

Test launches of a similar missile were conducted in October 2023 and June 2024, the directorate said. The Pentagon confirmed the missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.

Thursday's attack struck the Pivdenmash plant that built ICBMs when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The military facility is located about 4 miles (6 1/2 kilometers) southwest of the center of Dnipro, a city of about 1 million that is Ukraine’s fourth-largest and a key hub for military supplies and humanitarian aid, and is home to one of the country’s largest hospitals for treating wounded soldiers from the front before their transfer to Kyiv or abroad.

The stricken area was cordoned off and out of public view. With no fatalities reported from the attack, Dnipro residents resorted to dark humor on social media, mostly focused on the missile’s name, Oreshnik.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia struck a residential district of Sumy overnight with Iranian-designed Shahed drones, killing two people and injuring 13, the regional administration said..

Ukraine’s Suspilne media, quoting Sumy regional head Volodymyr Artiukh, said the drones were stuffed with shrapnel elements. “These weapons are used to destroy people, not to destroy objects,” said Artiukh, according to Suspilne.