Rescue workers work to evacuate flood-affected residents after remnants of Typhoon Doksuri brought rains and floods in Beijing, China August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
Rescue workers work to evacuate flood-affected residents after remnants of Typhoon Doksuri brought rains and floods in Beijing, China August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
China on Wednesday dispatched thousands of rescue workers to Zhuozhou, a flooded city of over 600,000 residents southwest of Beijing, as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri continued to wreak havoc on swathes of the city twice the size of Paris.
Zhuozhou is in Hebei province, which has borne the brunt of the worst storms to hit northern China in over a decade, killing least 20 people. The city also borders Beijing, which was inundated with the most rainfall in 140 years between Saturday and early Wednesday, official data showed.
Authorities in Hebei have declared a state of emergency as rainfall averaged 355 mm (14 inches) since Saturday, the heaviest since at least July 2012. More than 134,000 Zhuozhou residents have been affected, with over one-sixth of the city's population evacuated.
At the confluence of several rivers, Zhuozhou is one of the hardest hit cities in Hebei as floodwaters migrated downstream, according to state media, waterlogging residential areas more than twice the size of the French capital, and affecting nearly 650 hectares of agricultural land.
The local public security bureau said on Tuesday the city faced water shortages and a partial power outage, adding that it urgently needed rafts, life jackets and emergency supplies. Residents said waters rose as high as four meters.
Some 9,000 rescuers have been dispatched to Zhuozhou, with more rescue teams rushing over from neighboring Henan and Shanxi provinces, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
As the floodwaters flow south, the authorities in the city of Gaobeidian have evacuated 113,000 residents, as well as opened reservoirs to trap the excess water, Xinhua reported.
5 People Were Killed, More than a Dozen Injured in Krakow Shootinghttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5338659-5-people-were-killed-more-dozen-injured-krakow-shooting
This photo taken on November 5, 2026 shows a view of the Palace of Culture and Science (C) among Warsaw's skyscrapers at sunset. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP)
5 People Were Killed, More than a Dozen Injured in Krakow Shooting
This photo taken on November 5, 2026 shows a view of the Palace of Culture and Science (C) among Warsaw's skyscrapers at sunset. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP)
Up to 5 people were killed and more than a dozen injured in Krakow shooting; perpetrator shot by officers, Polish police say.
A shooter opened fire in a market square in the Polish city of Krakow Saturday, leaving people dead and injured, authorities said.
The shooting occurred in the Main Square in Krakow, the municipal government said on X. A spokesperson for the local firefighters told Polsat News that the perpetrator fired a gun from a passing car.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in a post on X, said police are investigating the attack. Other details were not immediately available.
Krakow is the second-largest city in Poland and roughly 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the capital, Warsaw.
US Treasury Sanctions Canadian Money Services Firms Over Iran-Related Transactionshttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5338505-us-treasury-sanctions-canadian-money-services-firms-over-iran-related-transactions
US Treasury Sanctions Canadian Money Services Firms Over Iran-Related Transactions
FILE PHOTO: The US Department of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 11, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer/File Photo/File Photo
The United States on Friday announced a new round of sanctions targeting networks and entities connected to Iran, according to a notification published on the US Department of the Treasury’s website.
“Today, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated eight money services businesses based in Canada that enable the Iranian regime, sanctioned entities associated with the regime, and other illicit actors that move assets into and out of Iran,” it wrote.
The sanctions effectively cut the firms off from the dollar-based financial system, blocking any assets that the firms may have in the United States and prohibiting any transactions with US persons or entities.
The actions are the latest in a series of Treasury moves against firms outside the United States that it says help Iran get around US sanctions, as Washington keeps up pressure on Tehran.
“Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Treasury will pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial channels anywhere in the world.”
The Treasury identified the designated businesses in Ontario and British Columbia as Diverse Trade Inc doing business as Million Exchange, 1380079 BC Limited, Top PC Technician Inc, NIA Nations Currency Ltd, 2397639 Ontario Ltd doing business as Farah Exchange, CCC Inc and B Galaxy Inc and Darvish Exchange.
Separately, the Treasury said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network division issued an order that also cuts off virtual currency exchanger MEXC Global from the US financial system over transactions that it says are linked to sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea and Russia.
FinCEN, the Treasury's anti-money laundering unit, said that the order prevents US financial institutions from processing fund transfers involving Seychelles-incorporated MEXC Global, which it says has facilitated at least $16 billion in illicit transactions linked to Iran, North Korea and Russia as well as transactions with other sanctioned actors.
Washington Offers $20 Million Reward for Information on Iran's Nuclear Programhttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5338498-washington-offers-20-million-reward-information-irans-nuclear-program
Washington Offers $20 Million Reward for Information on Iran's Nuclear Program
The Iranian president visiting a centrifuge facility as part of Iran's nuclear program (Archive - Iranian Presidency)
Washington is offering a $20 million reward “and possible relocation” for information about Iran’s nuclear program, the US military said Friday, as President Donald Trump reiterated Tehran wants to make a deal to end the war.
The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program said in an announcement posted to X that the “government remains committed to countering any attempt by Iran to develop a nuclear weapons program.”
The State Department agency said it was seeking information on “nuclear scientists and staff, nuclear program-related technologies, and capabilities, associated organizations and personnel.”
“If you have information on Iran’s nuclear program, assets, or associated individuals, send it to us via Signal or our Tor-based tip line. You may be eligible for a reward and relocation,” it added.
Anticipating Trump’s Decision
The announcement came a day after Trump said he would decide “soon” on whether to resume the war on Iran following a meeting with his top national security advisers.
“I would rather not destroy the rest of the country if possible, but maybe I will have to. You'll know soon enough,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
US-Iran negotiations remain deadlocked over Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium. Trump has said Iran must give up the stockpile, which he has referred to as “nuclear dust.” But Iranian officials have been adamant that they will not ship the uranium outside the country.
Earlier on Friday, two Middle East government officials told AP that Iran was reviewing proposals presented by Qatar to address differences with Washington over Tehran's nuclear program.
The Qatari draft involves lifting the US blockade on Iran's ports and releasing some of Tehran's frozen funds in exchange for allowing International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit sites bombed by the US and Israel, according to regional officials cited by AP.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen to Washington and no negotiations would take place until Tehran’s “seven conditions” were met.
SATELLITE VIEW shows vehicles at an entrance to Pickaxe Mountain tunnels, near Natanz nuclear facility, in Iran, June 21. (VANTOR/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
Reviewing Nuclear Doctrine
In Iran, calls are growing for a reassessment of the country’s nuclear doctrine and a withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Despite those demands, Rezaei said earlier this month that Iran has made no official decision to change its nuclear doctrine.
“So far, no official decision has been made by the government or the Supreme National Security Council to change the nuclear doctrine,” Rezaei said, according to remarks carried by the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Last week, Mohammad-Javad Haj-Ali-Akbari, Tehran’s interim Friday prayer leader, called for a revision of Iran’s nuclear doctrine and a move toward acquiring nuclear weapons. He claimed that the issue has now become a “national demand.”
Few days later, Nasrollah Pejmanfar, head of the Iranian parliament’s Article 90 Commission, called for Iran to seriously consider withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, intensifying the debate over Tehran’s nuclear policy amid escalating tensions with Western powers.
On Thursday, Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Taghi Naghdali said that public demands had shifted from nuclear energy to nuclear warheads, calling on parliament to prioritize Iran's withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The New York Times wrote on Thursday that senior Iranian officials and clerics are also debating whether Iran should withdraw from the NPT, which prohibits the development of a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not taken a clear public position on the issue. His father, former Leader Ali Khamenei had stated that nuclear weapons are forbidden.
Late last month, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said there were no signs of suspicious activity at Iranian nuclear sites bombed by the United States in June.
“We do not see anything that would give rise to hypotheses of any substantive work going on there,” Grossi said in New York.
Grossi told reporters that inspectors had no access to the two sites stricken in June, but confirmed that some inspection was under way.
“We are trying to build it back, and we are inspecting in Iran,” he said.
On Friday, a BBC report said Iran appears to be undertaking significant new construction near at least two of its major missile sites and repairing bases damaged by months of US and Israeli air strikes, according to analysis of satellite images.
It said evidence of digging and new buildings are visible in satellite imagery taken in November at the Garmdareh military base in Karaj near the capital Tehran and the Shahroud base in the north, analysts at British intelligence company MAIAR, who reviewed the photos, told BBC Verify.
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