Typhoon Yagi Kills 2 in China's Hainan as it Makes its Way to Vietnam

People ride scooters past falling trees after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Haikou, in southern China's Hainan province on September 7, 2024. (Photo by CNS / AFP)
People ride scooters past falling trees after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Haikou, in southern China's Hainan province on September 7, 2024. (Photo by CNS / AFP)
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Typhoon Yagi Kills 2 in China's Hainan as it Makes its Way to Vietnam

People ride scooters past falling trees after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Haikou, in southern China's Hainan province on September 7, 2024. (Photo by CNS / AFP)
People ride scooters past falling trees after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Haikou, in southern China's Hainan province on September 7, 2024. (Photo by CNS / AFP)

A powerful typhoon killed two people and left at least 92 injured in the southern Chinese island of Hainan, authorities said Saturday, with heavy rains and winds causing power outages in over 800,000 households.
The typhoon Yagi is currently en route to northern Vietnam over the Gulf of Tonkin Saturday, with Vietnamese authorities describing Yagi as “one of the most powerful typhoons in the region over the past decade.”
The typhoon on Friday afternoon struck Hainan's Wenchang city, with wind speeds of up to about 245 kph (152 mph) near its center.
China’s national meteorological authorities said Yagi was the strongest autumn typhoon to have landed in China.
Some 420,000 residents were relocated in Hainan prior to the typhoon's landfall in Hainan. Another half a million people in Guangdong province were evacuated before Yagi made a second landfall in the province's Xuwen County on Friday night.
Haikou's meteorological observatory downgraded its typhoon signal from red to orange on Saturday, as the typhoon moved further away from the city.
In Hong Kong, more than 270 people were forced to seek refuge at temporary government shelters on Friday, and more than 100 flights in the city were canceled due to the typhoon. Heavy rain and strong winds felled dozens of trees, and trading on the stock market, bank services and schools were halted, The Associated Press reported.
Yagi was still a storm when it blew out of the northwestern Philippines into the South China Sea on Wednesday, leaving at least 16 people dead and 17 others missing mostly in landslides and widespread flooding and affecting more than 2 million people across the archipelago.
More than 47,600 people were displaced from their homes in Philippine provinces and classes, work, inter-island ferry services and domestic flights were disrupted for days, including in the densely populated capital region, metropolitan Manila.



Iran FM Araghchi Arrives in Oman Ahead of Nuclear Talks with US

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
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Iran FM Araghchi Arrives in Oman Ahead of Nuclear Talks with US

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters

Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi arrived in Oman on Friday ahead of fresh nuclear talks with the United States, after both sides said progress had been made in previous rounds.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X that "Araghchi and his accompanying delegation arrived in Muscat for the third round of Iran-US talks".

Iran's Mehr news agency released a brief video showing the foreign minister disembarking from an Iranian government plane in Muscat.

Baqaei said Araghchi would be leading the delegation of diplomats and technical experts in the indirect discussions with the US side.

US President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will represent the United States in the talks.

The latest round will include expert-level talks on Iran's nuclear program, with Michael Anton, who serves as the State Department's head of policy planning, leading the technical discussions on the US side, the department said.

Iran's Tasnim news agency reported that deputy foreign ministers Kazem Gharibabadi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi will lead the Iranian technical team.

Baqaei wrote on X that Iran's delegation is "resolved to secure our nation's legitimate and lawful right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes while taking reasonable steps to demonstrate that our program is entirely peaceful".

"Termination of unlawful and inhumane sanctions in an objective and speedy manner is a priority that we seek to achieve," he added.

According to Baqaei, the dialogue will again be mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi on Saturday morning.

The meeting follows two earlier rounds of Omani-mediated negotiations in Muscat and Rome starting on April 12.

- Calling for 'goodwill' -

Since his return to office in January, Trump has reimposed sweeping sanctions under his policy of "maximum pressure" against Tehran.

In March, he sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei calling for talks but warning of possible military action if they failed to produce a deal.

Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons -- an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its program is for peaceful civilian purposes.

Baqaei earlier Friday said "progress in the negotiations requires the demonstration of goodwill, seriousness, and realism by the other side".

Iran will treat Saturday's talks seriously, Araghchi said in a recent interview, "and if the other party also enters seriously, there is potential for progress".

In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal signed three years earlier between Tehran and major world powers. The agreement eased sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

After Trump's pullout, Tehran complied with the agreement for a year before scaling back its compliance.

Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit in the 2015 deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.

In an interview published by Time Magazine on Friday, Trump said the United States will "lead the pack" in attacking Iran if nuclear talks do not lead to a new deal.

But he expressed hope that an agreement could be reached and said he would be willing to meet Khamenei.