Torrential Rains Have Claimed More Than 150 Lives in China in the Past 2 Months

In this aerial photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the impact of flash floods and mudslides can be seen near Ridi Village, Kangding City, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China's Sichuan Province on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Liu Kun/Xinhua via AP)

07:36-5 August 2024 AD ـ 30 Muharram 1446 AH

Torrential Rains Have Claimed More Than 150 Lives in China in the Past 2 Months

Landslides and flooding have killed more than 150 people across southern China in the past two months as torrential rainstorms batter the region.

In the latest disaster, a flood and mudslide early Saturday in a mountainous Tibetan area in Sichuan province left eight people dead with 19 others still unaccounted for, state media said.

The early morning disaster destroyed homes and killed at least six people in the village of Ridi, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Two more people died and eight are missing there after a bridge between two tunnels collapsed and four vehicles plummeted.

China is in the middle of its peak flood season, which runs from mid-July to mid-August, and Chinese policymakers have repeatedly warned that the government needs to step up disaster preparations as severe weather becomes more common.

An annual government report on climate said last month that historical data shows the frequency of both extreme precipitation and heat has risen in China, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

There have been several deadly rainstorms since June.

Days of intense rain from the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi, which weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall in China about 10 days ago, killed at least 48 people in Hunan province and left 35 others missing last week.

Authorities said Friday that the death toll from an earlier storm in July that knocked out a section of a bridge in Shaanxi province in the middle of the night had risen to 38 people, with another 24 still missing. At least 25 cars fell into a raging river that washed some of them far downstream.

In mid-June, at least 47 died from flooding and mudslides after extremely heavy rain in Guangzhou province. Six more people died in neighboring Fujian province.

Landslides and flooding have also taken hundreds of lives elsewhere in Asia this summer, including a devastating storm that killed more than 200 people in south India last week.

World

North Korean Leader Marks the Delivery of 250 Nuclear-Capable Missile Launchers to Frontline Units

This picture taken on August 4, 2024 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on August 5 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaking at a ceremony for transferring new-type tactical ballistic missile launchers to the frontier military units, in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

Asharq Al Awsat

06:23-5 August 2024 AD ـ 30 Muharram 1446 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

06:23-5 August 2024 AD ـ 30 Muharram 1446 AH

North Korean Leader Marks the Delivery of 250 Nuclear-Capable Missile Launchers to Frontline Units

North Korea marked the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units at a ceremony where leader Kim Jong Un called for a ceaseless expansion of his military's nuclear program to counter perceived US threats, state media said Monday.
Concerns about Kim’s nuclear program have grown as he has demonstrated an intent to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons along the North’s border with South Korea and authorized his military to respond with preemptive nuclear strikes if it perceives the leadership as under threat, The Associated Press said.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the launchers were freshly produced by the county’s munitions factories and designed to fire "tactical” ballistic missiles, a term that describes systems capable of delivering lower-yield nuclear weapons.
Kim said at Sunday's event in Pyongyang the new launchers would give his frontline units “overwhelming” firepower over South Korea and make the operation of tactical nuclear weapons more practical and efficient. State media photos showed lines of army-green launcher trucks packing a large street with seemingly thousands of spectators attending the event, which included fireworks.
North Korea has been expanding its lineup of mobile short-range weapons designed to overwhelm missile defenses in South Korea, while also pursuing intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the US mainland.
Kim’s intensifying weapons tests and threats are widely seen as an attempt at pressuring the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and to end US-led sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear program. North Korea also could seek to dial up tensions in a US election year, experts say.
Kim lately has used Russia’s war on Ukraine as a distraction to further accelerate his weapons development. In response, the United States, South Korea and Japan have been expanding their combined military exercises and sharpening their nuclear deterrence strategies built around strategic US military assets. Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing that the South Korean and US militaries were closely analyzing North Korea’s weapons development and further monitoring was needed to confirm the operational readiness of the missile systems showcased Sunday. He didn’t provide a specific assessment on whether the systems could be placed.
Lee said the missiles are likely to be shorter in range than some of North Korea’s most powerful short-range ballistic missiles, which have demonstrated an ability to travel more than 600 kilometers (372 miles).
The North in recent months has revealed a new missile called the Hwasong-11, which analysts say can travel up to 100 kilometers (62 miles). If deployed in frontline areas, the missiles would theoretically be able to cover huge swaths of South Korea’s greater capital area, where about half of the country’s 51 million people live.
In his speech at Sunday’s event, Kim called for his country to brace for a prolonged confrontation with the United States and urged a relentless expansion of military strength. He justified his military buildup as a counter to the “increasingly savage” military cooperation between the United States and its regional allies, which he claimed are now showing the characteristics of a “nuclear-based military bloc.”
“It would be our choice to either pursue dialogue or confrontation, but our lesson and conclusion from the past 30 years ... is that confrontation is what we should be prepared more thoroughly for,” said Kim.
“The United States we are facing is not just an administration that comes and goes after a few years, but a hostile nation that our children and grandchildren will be dealing for generations to come and that also illustrates the necessity to continuously improve our self-defense capabilities.”
Kim also said the decision to hold the weapons ceremony while the country was trying to recover from disastrous flooding showed its determination to “push ahead with the strengthening of our national defense capabilities force without stagnation under any circumstances.”
The floods in late July submerged thousands of homes and huge swaths of farmland in regions near the border with China.
Russia has offered flood aid to North Korea, in another sign of expanding relations between the two nations. Kim has made Russia his priority in recent months as he pushes a foreign policy aimed at expanding relations with countries confronting Washington, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and trying to display a united front in Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.

Torrential Rains Have Claimed More Than 150 Lives in China in the Past 2 Months

Torrential Rains Have Claimed More Than 150 Lives in China in the Past 2 Months

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North Korean Leader Marks the Delivery of 250 Nuclear-Capable Missile Launchers to Frontline Units

North Korean Leader Marks the Delivery of 250 Nuclear-Capable Missile Launchers to Frontline Units

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