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)
TT

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.



Trump Makes a Victor’s Return to Washington to Meet with Biden and GOP Lawmakers

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump smiles at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump smiles at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
TT

Trump Makes a Victor’s Return to Washington to Meet with Biden and GOP Lawmakers

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump smiles at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump smiles at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)

President-elect Donald Trump is making a victor's return to Washington.

President Joe Biden will welcome him to the White House on Wednesday for an Oval Office visit that is a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power — a ritual that Trump himself declined to participate in four years ago.

Trump also planned to meet with Republicans from Congress as they focus on his Day 1 priorities and prepare for a potentially unified government with a GOP sweep of power in the nation's capital. His arrival amid Republican congressional leadership elections could put his imprint on the outcome.

It's a stunning return to the US seat of government for the former president, who departed nearly four years ago a diminished, politically defeated leader after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol but is preparing to come back to power with what he and his GOP allies see as a mandate for governance.

Ahead of the visit, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Republicans are "ready to deliver" on Trump’s "America First" agenda.

After his election win in 2016, Trump met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and called it "a great honor." But he soon was back to heaping insults on Obama, including accusing his predecessor — without evidence — of having wire-tapped him during the 2016 campaign.

Four years later, Trump disputed his 2020 election loss to Biden, and he has continued to lie about widespread voter fraud that did not occur. He didn't invite Biden, then the president-elect, to the White House and he left Washington without attending Biden's inauguration. It was the first time that had happened since Andrew Johnson skipped Ulysses S. Grant's swearing-in 155 years ago.

Biden insists that he'll do everything he can to make the transition to the next Trump administration go smoothly. That's despite having spent more than a year campaigning for reelection and decrying Trump as a threat to democracy and the nation’s core values. Biden then bowed out of the race in July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him.

In the wake of the election, the president has abandoned his dire warnings about Trump, saying in a speech last week, "The American experiment endures. We’re going to be okay."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden is committed to "making sure that this transition is effective, efficient and he's doing that because it is the norm, yes, but also the right thing to do for the American people."

"We want this to go well," Jean-Pierre added. "We want this to be a process that gets the job done."

Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan echoed that sentiment, saying the administration will uphold the "responsible handoff from one president to the next, which is in the best tradition of our country."

Wednesday's visit is more than just a courtesy call.

"They will go through the top issues — both domestic and foreign policy issues — including what is happening in Europe and Asia and the Middle East," Sullivan told CBS of Wednesday’s meeting. "And the president will have the chance to explain to President Trump how he sees things ... and talk to President Trump about how President Trump is thinking about taking on these issues when he takes office."

Traditionally, as the outgoing and incoming presidents meet in the West Wing, the first lady hosts her successor upstairs in the residence — but Melania Trump isn’t expected to attend.

After his 2016 meeting with Obama, Trump also visited lawmakers on Capitol Hill and will be doing the same Wednesday — not far from where a mob of his supporters staged a violent January 2021 attack on the US Capitol to try and stop the certification of Biden's election victory.

When Trump left Washington in 2021, even some top Republicans had begun to decry him for his role in helping incite the Capitol attack. But his win in last week's election completes a political comeback that has seen Trump once again become the unchallenged head of the GOP.

It's not the first time Trump has returned to the Capitol area since the end of his first term, though. Congressional Republicans hosted Trump over the summer, as Trump was again solidifying his dominance over the party.

His latest visit comes as Republicans, who wrested the Senate majority from Democrats in last week's elections and are on the cusp of keeping GOP control of the House, are in the midst of their own leadership elections happening behind closed doors Wednesday.

The president-elect's arrival will provide another boost to Johnson, who has pulled ever-closer to Trump as he worked to keep his majority — and his own job with the gavel.

The speaker said he expects to see Trump repeatedly throughout the week, including at an event later that evening, and at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida "all weekend."

It's unclear whether Trump will also visit the Senate, which is entangled in a more divisive closed-door leadership election in the three-way race to replace outgoing GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.

Trump's allies are pushing GOP senators to vote for Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who had been a longshot candidate challenging two more senior Republicans, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, for the job.