World
Typhoon Gaemi barrels towards China’s Fujian after sinking ship off Taiwan
![Typhoon Gaemi barrels towards China’s Fujian after sinking ship off Taiwan Typhoon Gaemi barrels towards China’s Fujian after sinking ship off Taiwan](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-07-25T061225Z_1114737481_RC2329AYT1OX_RTRMADP_3_ASIA-WEATHER-TAIWAN-1-1721890655.jpg?resize=1920%2C1440)
Strong winds sink a Tanzania-flagged freighter off Taiwan coast, with crew missing and rescuers unable to access area.
Typhoon Gaemi is sweeping towards southern China after wreaking devastation in Taiwan, killing at least two people and sinking a cargo ship, with its nine crew members missing.
The typhoon made landfall on the northeastern coast of Taiwan at about midnight (16:00 GMT) on Wednesday, the country’s Central Weather Administration said, reporting gusts of up to 227kmph (141mph) before it barrelled towards Fuzhou in China’s Fujian province as of 12:15pm (04:15 GMT) on Thursday.
Taiwan’s fire department said on Thursday that a Tanzania-flagged cargo ship had sunk off the coast of the southern port city of Kaohsiung, forcing its nine crew members from Myanmar to abandon ship in life jackets.
Hsiao Huan-chang, head of the fire agency, said the crew had contacted a nearby Taiwanese cargo ship, but when rescuers finally reached the area, “visibility at the scene was very low and the winds were too strong” to conduct a search.
“When the weather permits, we will immediately dispatch ships or helicopters to rescue, but at the moment it is not possible,” he said.
The authorities confirmed that Gaemi – the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years, with accumulated rainfall of 2,200mm (87 inches) since Tuesday – killed two people.
A motorist in Kaohsiung was crushed by a tree and a woman in eastern Hualien died after part of a building fell on her. More than 200 people were injured in the storm.
Several cities, including Taipei, announced a second day off on Thursday, with schools, government offices and the stock market closed, while hundreds of domestic and international flights were cancelled.
China flood alert
Chinese weather forecasters said Gaemi would pass through Fujian later on Thursday, with the province putting in place the second-highest flood alert level.
The Ministry of Water Resources warned on Wednesday that extremely heavy rains were expected to swell rivers and lakes in Fujian and the neighbouring province of Zhejiang.
In Fujian, government officials have relocated about 150,000 people, mainly from coastal fishing communities, state media reported.
As gale force winds picked up, officials in Zhoushan in Zhejiang suspended passenger waterway routes for up to three days.
Most flights were cancelled at airports in Fuzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang, according to the VariFlight website.
Guangzhou rail officials suspended some trains that pass through typhoon-affected areas, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Meanwhile, northern China has been deluged by summer storms from a separate weather system.
Some areas in the capital, Beijing, experienced heavy rain and emergency plans were activated, with more than 25,000 people evacuated, according to the Beijing Daily newspaper. Some train services were also suspended at the Beijing West railway station.
Gaemi exacerbated seasonal rains in the Philippines on its path to Taiwan, triggering flooding and landslides.
Relentless rain killed at least 20 people over the past two weeks in the capital, Manila, and its surrounding provinces, the Philippine authorities said on Thursday.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
World
NATO member Romania says more Russian drone debris from the Ukraine war has landed on its territory
![NATO member Romania says more Russian drone debris from the Ukraine war has landed on its territory NATO member Romania says more Russian drone debris from the Ukraine war has landed on its territory](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/dcac1a4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/700x394+0+28/resize/1440x810!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F90%2F29%2F4e3c1cc7446089a9101a7bdff4c8%2Fdefaultshareimage-copy.png)
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Debris from what is believed to be a Russian drone landed in a rural area of Romania, the country’s Defense Ministry said Thursday, in the latest apparent incident of drone wreckage from the war in neighboring Ukraine falling onto the NATO member’s soil.
Since the war started in February 2022, Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions.
The debris of what the Defense Ministry called a “Russia origin” drone were found following Russian attacks on Ukraine’s port infrastructure near the border.
A statement said the fragments were discovered by a team of specialists in an uninhabited area near the village of Plauru in Tulcea county, which is across the Danube River from the Ukrainian port of Izmail.
The discovery came after Russia carried out overnight attacks on “civilian targets and port infrastructure” in Ukraine over the past two nights, the ministry said. Those assaults prompted Romania to deploy warplanes to monitor its airspace.
The ministry strongly condemned the Russian attacks, calling them “unjustified and in serious contradiction with the norms of international law.”
Romania’s emergency authorities issued text alerts both nights to residents living in Tulcea, and NATO allies were kept informed, the ministry said.
World
Man charged over attempted murder of Salman Rushdie accused of ties to Hezbollah
![Man charged over attempted murder of Salman Rushdie accused of ties to Hezbollah Man charged over attempted murder of Salman Rushdie accused of ties to Hezbollah](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/07/Rushdie-Matar-Hezbollah.jpg)
A court filing made last week in New York alleged that the man charged with trying to murder Salman Rushdie may have had ties to Hezbollah and provided them with “material support.”
“Between in and about September 2020… the defendant, HADI MATAR, a citizen of the United States, knowingly did attempt to provide material support and resources … to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely, Hizballah,” the indictment, filed on July 17, claimed.
Matar, 26, was charged with repeatedly stabbing Rushdie on Aug. 12, 2022 on stage at the Chautauqua Institution just as the award-winning author was about to give a lecture. Emergency responders airlifted him to a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania, where he underwent life-saving surgery.
Matar will finally stand trial for the attack, having refused a plea deal, and following a minor delay after the publication of Rushdie’s memoir, “Knife,” that detailed his experience of the attack. He already faced charges of attempted murder and assault, and the plea deal required him to plead guilty to a federal terrorism-related charge, which had yet to be filed at the time.
TOP DEM WHO VISITED BUTLER SAYS LOCAL OFFICIALS TOLD HIM ‘WE NEED TO TALK’ MORE ABOUT SECRET SERVICE FAILURES
Defense attorney Nathaniel Barone, left, and Hadi Matar, 24, right, listen during an arraignment in the Chautauqua County Courthouse in Mayville, New York. (Joshua Bessex/AP Images)
Now, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo on Wednesday, Matar faces charges of attempting to support Hezbollah, the terrorist group based in Lebanon and backed by Iran. The charge includes a requirement to turn over all electronic devices should he be convicted on any of the charges alleged in the indictment.
Authorities would have to confiscate several hard drives, a PlayStation 4, two cellphones and a laptop in addition to several knives.
BRYAN KOHBERGER SEEKS TO MOVE MURDER TRIAL OUT OF SMALL COMMUNITY LEANING TOWARD CONVICTION
![Iran Fatwa attack](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/04/1200/675/GettyImages-1834210346-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
(L-R) Kiran Desai and Salman Rushdie speak onstage at The Center for Fiction 2023 Annual Awards Benefit at Cipriani 25 Broadway on December 05, 2023 in New York City. (Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for The Center for Fiction)
Both cases will now proceed to trial separately, with jury selection for the state charges set for Oct. 15. Matar has remained in custody without bail since the attack occurred.
The attack on Rushdie left him blind in one eye, and he suffered damage to his liver and the nerves in one of his arms. Matar claimed he had attacked Rushdie due to the fatwa put out against the author in 1989 by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for Rushdie’s death due to the publication of the novel “The Satanic Verses.”
MISSOURI WOMAN SANDRA HEMME WHO SPENT 43 YEARS IN PRISON FREED AFTER MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED
![hezbollah palestinian israel conflict](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/03/1200/675/lebanon-palestinian-israel-conflict.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Hezbollah militants gather to pay their respects for one of the militant group’s commanders. Ali al-Debs was killed by an Israeli air raid in Lebanon’s southern city of Nabatieyh on February 16, 2024. (MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images)
The novel prompted worldwide protests following its publication in 1988. The book’s publication led to the murder of its Japanese translator, and “others associated with it were attacked,” according to “60 Minutes.”
The fatwa drove Rushdie to flee to the United Kingdom, where he lived for years before diplomatic negotiations led the Iranian state to declare the affair “completely finished” and insist that the country would not encourage anyone else to threaten Rushdie’s life.
However, Iranian clerics and religious groups continued to urge followers to kill Rushdie, periodically raising the bounty on his head, which amounts to just shy of $4 million, according to Reuters.
Despite admitting that he had read little of “The Satanic Verses,” Matar stabbed Rushdie because the author had “attacked Islam” and, on top of that, he did not like Rushdie very much.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Exclusive-Logistics Giant Lineage Raises $4.45 Billion in Biggest IPO in 2024
-
World1 week ago
One dead after car crashes into restaurant in Paris
-
News6 days ago
Video: Young Republicans on Why Their Party Isn’t Reaching Gen Z (And What They Can Do About It)
-
News1 week ago
In Milwaukee, Black Voters Struggle to Find a Home With Either Party
-
Politics7 days ago
Fox News Politics: The Call is Coming from Inside the House
-
Midwest7 days ago
Michigan rep posts video response to Stephen Colbert's joke about his RNC speech: 'Touché'
-
News7 days ago
Video: J.D. Vance Accepts Vice-Presidential Nomination
-
World7 days ago
Trump to take RNC stage for first speech since assassination attempt
-
World5 days ago
Freshers' week in Strasbourg for new EU lawmakers