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Türkiye’s Erdogan Says to Discuss Grain Deal with UN’s Guterres this Month 

Farmers bring in the harvest with their combine harvester on a wheat field in the southern Russian Krasnodar region on July 19, 2011. (AFP)
Farmers bring in the harvest with their combine harvester on a wheat field in the southern Russian Krasnodar region on July 19, 2011. (AFP)
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Türkiye’s Erdogan Says to Discuss Grain Deal with UN’s Guterres this Month 

Farmers bring in the harvest with their combine harvester on a wheat field in the southern Russian Krasnodar region on July 19, 2011. (AFP)
Farmers bring in the harvest with their combine harvester on a wheat field in the southern Russian Krasnodar region on July 19, 2011. (AFP)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Türkiye is in close contact with the United Nations on reviving the Black Sea grain initiative and he will discuss it with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at its general assembly this month, Turkish media reported. 

Speaking to reporters after talks in Russia with Vladimir Putin, Erdogan was quoted as saying the latest UN proposal sought to address some Russian demands, and he repeated he believed a solution could be found soon. 

Russian demands include a return of its Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT payments system and insuring the ships involved in the grain initiative, he was quoted as saying by TRT, Haberturk, and other Turkish broadcasters. 

"On August 28, UN Secretary General Guterres, in the letter he sent, proposed an intermediary mechanism that would result from the SWIFT transaction, not directly SWIFT as the Russians wanted," Erdogan said. "They said work was underway on the insurance issue too." 

He added that Moscow was putting these two demands forth as "musts" to revive the initiative, and that Putin had told him he would not take steps on this until "Europe keeps the promises they made me", according to Turkish media. 

NATO member Türkiye is seeking to convince Russia to return to the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by Ankara and the United Nations. Moscow withdrew in July, ending a year of protected exports from Ukrainian ports amid the war. 

On Monday, Putin repeated that Russia could return to the initiative, but only if the West stopped restricting Russian agricultural exports from reaching global markets. 

Erdogan will participate in the G20 summit in India on Sept. 9-10 before attending the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 18-26. 

"We will have meetings with Guterres there to discuss these issues," Erdogan was cited as saying. 

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Typhoon Gaemi Weakens to Tropical Storm as It Moves Inland Carrying Rain toward Central China

In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
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Typhoon Gaemi Weakens to Tropical Storm as It Moves Inland Carrying Rain toward Central China

In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)

Tropical storm Gaemi brought rain to central China on Saturday as it moved inland after making landfall at typhoon strength on the country's east coast Thursday night.

The storm felled trees, flooded streets and damaged crops in China but there were no reports of casualties or major damage. Eight people died in Taiwan, which Gaemi crossed at typhoon strength before heading over open waters to China.

The worst loss of life, however, was in a country that Gaemi earlier passed by but didn't strike directly: the Philippines. A steadily climbing death toll has reached 34, authorities there said Friday. The typhoon exacerbated seasonal monsoon rains in the Southeast Asian country, causing landslides and severe flooding that stranded people on rooftops as waters rose around them.

China Gaemi weakened to a tropical storm since coming ashore Thursday evening in coastal Fujian province, but it is still expected to bring heavy rains in the coming days as it moves northwest to Jiangxi, Hubei and Henan provinces.

About 85 hectares (210 acres) of crops were damaged in Fujian province and economic losses were estimated at 11.5 million yuan ($1.6 million), according to Chinese media reports. More than 290,000 people were relocated because of the storm.

Elsewhere in China, several days of heavy rains this week in Gansu province left one dead and three missing in the country's northwest, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Taiwan Residents and business owners swept out mud and mopped up water Friday after serious flooding that sent cars and scooters floating down streets in parts of southern and central Taiwan. Some towns remained inundated with waist-deep water.

Eight people died, several of them struck by falling trees and one by a landslide hitting their house. More than 850 people were injured and one person was missing, the emergency operations center said.

Visiting hard-hit Kaohsiung in the south Friday, President Lai Ching-te commended the city's efforts to improve flood control since a 2009 typhoon that brought a similar amount of rain and killed 681 people, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.

Lai announced that cash payments of $20,000 New Taiwan Dollars ($610) would be given to households in severely flooded areas.

A cargo ship sank off the coast near Kaohsiung Harbor during the typhoon, and the captain's body was later pulled from the water, the Central News Agency said. A handful of other ships were beached by the storm.

Philippines At least 34 people died in the Philippines, mostly because of flooding and landslides triggered by days of monsoon rains that intensified when the typhoon — called Carina in the Philippines — passed by the archipelago’s east coast.

The victims included 11 people in the Manila metro area, where widespread flooding trapped people on the roofs and upper floors of their houses, police said. Some drowned or were electrocuted in their flooded communities.

Earlier in the week, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered authorities to speed up efforts in delivering food and other aid to isolated rural villages, saying people may not have eaten for days.

The bodies of a pregnant woman and three children were dug out Wednesday after a landslide buried a shanty in the rural mountainside town of Agoncillo in Batangas province.