TACLOBAN: At least three people were killed and tens of thousands were driven from their homes by floods as Tropical Storm Kai-Tak pounded the eastern Philippines on Saturday, cutting off power and triggering landslides, officials said.
Kai-Tak, packing gusts of up to 110 km/per hour, hit the country’s third-largest island Samar in the afternoon and tore through a region devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan four years ago, the state weather service said.
Local officials reported three deaths on neighboring Leyte island — a two-year-old boy who drowned in the town of Mahaplag, a woman buried by a landslide and another person who fell into a flooded manhole in Ormoc city.
Samar and Leyte, with a combined population of about 4.5 million, had borne the brunt of Haiyan in 2013, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing.
Bus driver Felix Villaseran, his wife and four children hunkered down in their two-story house in the Leyte city of Tacloban along with 11 relatives whose homes were flooded from incessant rain.
“We have yet to shake off our phobia. I hope we don’t have a repeat of that,” Villaseran, who lost 39 cousins in the Haiyan onslaught, told AFP.
“My missus stockpiled on groceries before the storm hit, but since we also have to feed these three other families we’re now running low on food,” he added.
Military trucks drove through rising floodwaters on Samar and Leyte to rescue trapped residents, with more than 77,000 people now in evacuation centers, local officials said.
Strong winds toppled trees and power pylons, knocking out power throughout the region while floods, small landslides and rock falls blocked roads and buried some homes, local officials and witnesses said.
Farmland in the mainly rural region was also under water, while seven people were injured by landslides and flying objects, the regional civil defense office said in a report.
A spokeswoman for the national government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council told AFP it was trying to confirm reports of two other deaths from landslides and floods on the islands of Biliran and Dinagat.
“It was like a flashback again for residents of Tacloban city,” its Vice Mayor Sambo Yaokasin told Manila TV ABS-CBN, referring to the Haiyan disaster.
The station broadcast images of flooded streets and corrugated iron roofing sheets flying off homes.
“Nearly half the villages here are flooded,” Marcelo Picardal, vice governor of Eastern Samar province told ABS-CBN in an interview.
Three other people were missing in Ormoc after being swept away by floods on Saturday, city Mayor Richard Gomez told CNN Philippines TV in an interview.
“We need a lot of water and a lot of blankets,” Gomez added, citing widespread flooding that may have contaminated the tap water system of the city of 200,000 people.
The state weather service said more heavy rain was expected in the eastern Philippines in the coming hours with Kai-Tak forecast to slice across the rest of the central Philippines over the weekend.
Ferry services on the storm’s path were suspended due to rough seas, the civil defense office in the area said.
About 20 typhoons or weaker storms either make landfall in the Philippines or reach its waters each year, bringing annual misery and death and consigning millions of survivors to perennial poverty.
3 dead, 77,000 flee as storm pounds Philippines
3 dead, 77,000 flee as storm pounds Philippines
George Russell wins in Canada after McLarens collide, Lando Norris out
Russell takes Mercedes first win of season
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McLaren drivers Norris and Piastri collide three laps from end
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Piastri stretches lead to 22 points after 10 of 24 races
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Antonelli takes first podium in F1
MONTREAL: George Russell took Mercedes’ first win of the Formula One season in Canada on Sunday while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri went 22 points clear in the championship after teammate Lando Norris smashed into him and retired.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who had hoped to win for a record fourth year in a row at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, took second.
Russell’s 18-year-old Italian rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli finished third for his first F1 podium.
Piastri was fourth with the safety car leading the final lap before peeling off to clear the way for Russell to take the chequered flag.
An uneventful afternoon erupted in headline drama when Norris hit the rear of Piastri’s car three laps from the end — a clash long predicted in the title battle — while trying to overtake.
The Briton, who ended at a standstill by the side of the track with no front wing and a broken car, was quick to blame himself.
“I’m sorry. All my bad. All my fault. Stupid from me,” Norris said over the team radio.
Piastri pitted as the safety car was deployed and rejoined with a tire advantage over Antonelli that he could not use as the racing never resumed.
“Glad I didn’t ruin his race. In the end apologies to the team,” Norris told Sky Sports television.
“This wasn’t even like a ‘that’s racing’, it was just silly from my part.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and sixth with Fernando Alonso seventh for Aston Martin and Nico Hulkenberg bringing in more solid points for Sauber in eighth place.
Esteban Ocon was ninth for Haas in their 200th race with Carlos Sainz 10th for Williams.
“Well done team. That made up for last year,” said Russell, who also started on pole last year but finished third. His last win before Sunday was in Las Vegas last November.
“It’s amazing to be back on the top step.
“I felt last year was a victory lost and probably got the victory today due to the incredible pole lap yesterday.”
Third place made Antonelli the third youngest driver ever to stand on the F1 podium.
“I had a good start, managed to jump into P3 and just stayed up there at the front,” he said of passing Piastri for third on the opening lap.
“The last stint I pushed a bit too hard behind Max and I killed a bit the front-left (tyre), and struggled a bit at the end, but really happy to bring the podium home.”
Russell led away cleanly from pole, with Verstappen slotting in behind.
Behind them, Williams’ Alex Albon tracked across the grass after starting ninth with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto moving briefly up from 10th before losing out to Hulkenberg and then falling down the order.
Norris, who started on the hard tires to go longer in the opening stint, was leading by lap 16 after others who started on mediums came in for pitstops. He then pitted on lap 29 and came out fifth, behind Piastri in fourth.
Leclerc also came in that lap but then questioned why Ferrari had made the call, with his hard tires still in reasonable shape.
Hamilton was behind his teammate, with reported damage to his car, and wondering out loud where the performance had gone.
“I’m nowhere in the race, mate, I don’t know what’s happened,” the seven-times world champion told his engineer over the team radio.
EU foreign ministers to discuss Israel-Iran conflict on Tuesday
- The emergency call was organized as Iran and Israel broadened exchanges of missile and drone strikes against each other
BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers will meet by video link on Tuesday to discuss the Iran-Israel conflict and “possible next steps” aimed at bringing about a de-escalation, an official for the bloc’s foreign policy chief said.
“In light of the gravity of the situation in the Middle East, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas has convened a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers via video link for Tuesday,” said the official in her office on Sunday.
The emergency call was organized as Iran and Israel broadened exchanges of missile and drone strikes against each other.
The conflict, triggered on Friday by a surprise Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear and military targets, has led to a mounting death toll on both sides.
The EU ministers’ meeting “will provide an opportunity for an exchange of views, coordination on diplomatic outreach to Tel Aviv and Tehran, and possible next steps,” the official in Kallas’s office said.
The official underlined that the European Union was committed to “regional security and de-escalation” and would expend “all diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions and to find a lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear issue which can only be through a negotiated deal.”
Tens of thousands rally in Dutch protest for Gaza
- “More than 150,000 people here dressed in red — and a clear majority of the Dutch population — just want concrete sanctions to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib
- Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organize massive demonstration
THE HAGUE: Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague on Sunday to demand more action from the Dutch government against what they termed a “genocide” in Gaza.
Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organized the demonstration to the International Court of Justice through the city, creating a so-called “red line.”
With many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting “Stop the Genocide,” the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon.
One of the organizing groups, Oxfam Novib, estimated that 150,000 people participated in the march. Dutch police generally do not give estimates of demonstration turnouts.
Protesters brandished banners reading “Don’t look away, do something,” “Stop Dutch complicity,” and “Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die.”
Organizers urged the Dutch government — which collapsed on June 3 after a far-right party pulled out of a fragile coalition — to do more to rein in Israel for its military offensive on the Palestinian territory.
“More than 150,000 people here dressed in red — and a clear majority of the Dutch population — just want concrete sanctions to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib.
“We demand action now from our government,” added Servaes.
Dodo Van Der Sluis, a 67-year-old pensioner, said: “It has to stop. Enough is enough. I can’t take it anymore.”
“I’m here because I think it’s maybe the only thing you can do now as a Dutch citizen, but it’s something you have to do,” she added.
A previous protest in The Hague on May 18 drew more than 100,000 people, according to organizers, who described it as the country’s largest demonstration in 20 years.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “To all those people in The Hague I say: we see you and we hear you.”
“In the end, our goal is the same: to end the suffering in Gaza as soon as possible.”
The Gaza war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The Health Ministry in Gaza says Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians.
The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a case brought by South Africa against Israel, arguing its actions in Gaza breach the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
Thousands of demonstrators protested across France on Saturday in support of Palestinians and calling for peace in Gaza.
Protesters criticized France’s stance on the conflict, branding it conciliatory or even “complicit” with the Israeli government.
French trade unions, left-wing parties and pro-Palestinian activist groups called for a global weekend of protests against Israel’s offensive in the territory.
In Paris, where the largest march took place, police counted 9,000 demonstrators, while the CGT trade union and hard-left party France Unbowed said 150,000 attended the gathering.
Thousands of people also rallied in the cities of Marseille, Toulouse and Rennes.
European Parliament member Rima Hassan called on supporters to “deviate, disobey and take all necessary actions to enforce international law, to put an end to genocide.”
She recently spent three days in a detention centre in Israel after attempting to breach its blockade of Gaza on a boat with other activists.
“We don’t want what is happening in Gaza to be silenced. Every day we hear that 30, 60 people have died. It has become routine, we don’t see it anymore and I’m afraid that with what’s happening with Iran, it will become even more invisible,” said one protester.
Saudi crown prince, Greek PM discuss Iran-Israel tensions in phone call
RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke on the phone on Sunday with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to discuss the escalating situation between Israel and Iran, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The two leaders reviewed the latest developments in the region, with particular focus on the repercussions of Israeli military operations targeting Iran.
They stressed the need for restraint and de-escalation, and underlined the importance of resolving disputes through diplomatic means, SPA added.
The phone call comes amid heightened tensions following a series of tit-for-tat strikes between the two countries.
The latest flare-up has raised fears of a broader regional conflict, with international leaders urging all parties to avoid further escalation.
What We Are Reading Today: The River of Lost Footsteps by Thant Myint-U
Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Myanmar, only to see an apparent slide toward even harsher dictatorship.
In “The River of Lost Footsteps,” Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Myanmar, in part through a telling of his own family’s history, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling.
The book is a distinctive contribution that makes Myanmar accessible and enthralling, according to a review on goodreads.com.
