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Typhoon Blows Away from the Philippines, 4 Dead and 1.4 Million Displaced

Typhoon Blows Away from the Philippines, 4 Dead and 1.4 Million Displaced
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Typhoon Blows Away from the Philippines, 4 Dead and 1.4 Million Displaced

Typhoon Blows Away from the Philippines, 4 Dead and 1.4 Million Displaced

Typhoon Fung-wong blew out of the northwestern Philippines on Monday after setting off floods and landslides, knocking out power to entire provinces, killing at least four people and displacing more than 1.4 million others.

It was forecast to head northwest toward Taiwan.

Fung-wong lashed the northern Philippines while the country was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central provinces on Tuesday before pummeling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.

Fung-wong slammed ashore in northeastern Aurora province on Sunday night as a super typhoon with sustained winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph) and gusts of up to 230 kph (143 mph).

The 1,800-kilometer (1,100-mile)-wide storm weakened as it raked through mountainous northern provinces and agricultural plains overnight before blowing away from the province of La Union into the South China Sea, according to state forecasters.

One person drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes, and another died in Catbalogan city in eastern Samar province when her house collapsed on her, officials said.

In the northern mountain province of Nueva Vizcaya, a landslide buried a hillside hut in Kayapa town before dawn on Monday, killing two children and injuring their parents and a sibling, town police chief Maj. Len Gomultim said.

More than 1.4 million people moved into emergency shelters or the homes of relatives before the typhoon made landfall, and about 318,000 remained in evacuation centers on Monday.

Fierce wind and rain flooded at least 132 northern villages, including one where some residents were trapped on their roofs as floodwaters rapidly rose. About 1,000 houses were damaged, Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV of the Office of Civil Defense and other officials said, adding that roads blocked by landslides would be cleared as the weather improved on Monday.

“While the typhoon has passed, its rains still pose a danger in certain areas” in northern Luzon, including in metropolitan Manila," Alejandro said. “We'll undertake today rescue, relief and disaster-response operations.”

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of emergency on Thursday due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected damage from Fung-wong, which was also called Uwan in the Philippines.

Tropical cyclones with sustained winds of 185 kph (115 mph) or higher are categorized in the Philippines as a super typhoon to underscore the urgency tied to more extreme weather disturbances.

The Philippines has not called for international help following the devastation caused by Kalmaegi, but Teodoro said the United States, the country’s longtime treaty ally, and Japan were ready to provide assistance.

Authorities announced that schools and most government offices would be closed on Monday and Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

More than 325 domestic and 61 international flights were canceled over the weekend and into Monday, and more than 6,600 commuters and cargo workers were stranded in ports after the coast guard prohibited ships from venturing into rough seas.

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World

NATO and China: A Slow Alliance Confronts a Fast-Rising Rival

People visit the BYD booth at the Beijing Auto Show in Beijing on April 30, 2026. (Photo by Adek BERRY / AFP)
People visit the BYD booth at the Beijing Auto Show in Beijing on April 30, 2026. (Photo by Adek BERRY / AFP)
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NATO and China: A Slow Alliance Confronts a Fast-Rising Rival

People visit the BYD booth at the Beijing Auto Show in Beijing on April 30, 2026. (Photo by Adek BERRY / AFP)
People visit the BYD booth at the Beijing Auto Show in Beijing on April 30, 2026. (Photo by Adek BERRY / AFP)

NATO was established in 1949 to provide collective defense against the Soviet Union, based on the principle that an attack on one member is an attack on all. At the time, US President Harry Truman also sought to anchor an American presence in war-ravaged Europe to ensure security and prevent a strategic vacuum.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, along with the socialist bloc, brought the Cold War to an end and forced NATO to adapt. The alliance expanded its operations beyond Europe, intervening in the Balkans during the Bosnia and Kosovo wars, then in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. It also undertook maritime missions to combat piracy, including off the Horn of Africa, alongside intelligence-sharing and counterterrorism cooperation.

NATO has since built partnerships with countries beyond its traditional scope and broadened its definition of threats to include cybersecurity, hybrid warfare, and energy security, as well as, more recently, the challenge posed by China.

In sum, NATO has evolved from a purely European defensive alliance into a broader global security actor, largely driven by the United States, while still maintaining a central focus on deterring threats within Europe.

In recent years, the Brussels-based alliance has expanded its attention toward the Indo-Pacific region for strategic reasons that extend beyond Europe. Chief among these are the interconnected nature of global security, particularly in cyberspace, the need to ensure resilient and unobstructed supply chains, and the rapid spread of advanced technologies that increasingly diminish the importance of geographic boundaries.

FILED - 03 April 2025, Belgium, Brussels: A NATO flag flies in the wind in front of the NATO headquarters in Brussels. Photo: Anna Ross/dpa

China’s Rise

Another key factor is the view of China’s rise as a strategic challenge reshaping the global balance of power. For NATO’s 32 member states, up from 12 at its founding, safeguarding trade routes is a priority, especially maritime corridors in the Indo-Pacific that are critical to the global economy.

These include the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia, the world’s most important shipping lane, linking the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and carrying roughly 25 percent of global trade annually. It is also a vital artery for oil and energy flows to major Asian economies such as China, Japan, and South Korea.

NATO member states express “strategic concern” over China for several core reasons. First, China is rapidly modernizing its military, particularly in areas such as missile systems, space capabilities, and cyber operations, developments that are shifting the global balance of power.

Second, and closely linked, is China’s economic rise, reflected in initiatives such as the Belt and Road, which provide Beijing with avenues to expand its economic and political influence across Asia, Africa, and Europe. This expansion risks creating dependencies among countries in or near NATO’s strategic periphery.

Concerns are also fueled by growing ties between China and Russia, particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which could signal coordination between two major powers against the West.

At the same time, an indirect competition is underway over leadership in fields such as artificial intelligence, telecommunications networks, and semiconductors. NATO sees technological superiority as a core component of security.

The alliance has concluded partnership and cooperation agreements with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, encompassing joint military exercises, intelligence sharing, and political coordination. However, NATO does not appear to be planning an expansion of membership into the Indo-Pacific, instead favoring flexible partnerships over a permanent military presence.

World

Iran Delivered New Proposal for US Talks via Pakistan

US and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
US and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Iran Delivered New Proposal for US Talks via Pakistan

US and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
US and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Iran has delivered a new proposal for talks with the United States via mediator Pakistan, state media reported on Friday.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran delivered the text of its latest negotiating proposal to Pakistan, as the mediator in talks with the United States, on Thursday evening," the official IRNA news agency reported, without elaborating.

This came as President Donald Trump's administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval.

The statement furthers an argument laid out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during testimony in the Senate on Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.

While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the US Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea.

World

US Navy Turns to AI Firm Domino for Options to Counter Iranian Mines

Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, May 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, May 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
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US Navy Turns to AI Firm Domino for Options to Counter Iranian Mines

Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, May 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, May 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

The US Navy is ramping up its AI capabilities to hunt for Iranian mines in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical shipping lanes, a recently awarded contract shows.

President Donald Trump has said the US Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the strait, a vital sea route for oil shipments, whose disruption is increasingly threatening the global economy.

Sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the US and ⁠Iran in their weeks-long ⁠war.

The up to $100 million contract for the San Francisco artificial intelligence company Domino Data Lab could quicken this process with software that can teach underwater drones to identify new types of mines in a matter of days.

"Mine-hunting used to be a job for ships," Thomas Robinson, Domino's chief operating officer, said in an interview with Reuters. "It's becoming a job for AI.

⁠The Navy is paying for the platform that lets it train, govern, and field that AI at a speed required for contested waters that block global trade and imperil sailors."

Last week, the US Navy awarded the up to $99.7 million contract to expand Domino's role as the AI backbone of the Navy's Project AMMO - Accelerated Machine Learning for Maritime Operations - a program to make underwater mine detection faster, more accurate, and less dependent on human sailors.

The software integrates data from multiple sensor types, including side-scan sonar and visual imaging systems, and allows the Navy to monitor how well various AI ⁠detection models ⁠are performing in the field, identify failures, and push corrections to improve performance.

The core of Domino's pitch - and the Navy's wager - is speed. Before the company's involvement, updating the AI models that power the Navy's unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to recognize new or previously unseen mines could take up to six months. Domino says it has cut that cycle to days.

Robinson illustrated the relevance to the Middle East crisis: "If there were UUVs in the Baltic Sea trained on Russian mines, and then they needed to be deployed to the Strait of Hormuz to detect Iranian mines, with Domino's technology, the Navy could be ready in a week rather than a year."

A Navy spokesman was not immediately able to provide comment.