TAIPEI: Taiwan shut down ahead of the arrival of strong Typhoon Kong-rey on Thursday with all cities and counties declaring a day off, financial markets closed and hundreds of flights canceled for what is expected to be the largest storm by size in 30 years.
The storm is forecast to make landfall on the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast around 2:00 p.m. (0600 GMT), according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration, with strong winds and torrential rain affecting almost all the island.
At one point a super typhoon, Kong-rey slightly weakened overnight but remained powerful as the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane packing gusts of more than 250 kph (155 mph), according to Tropical Storm Risk.
Taiwan’s weather administration said it would be the biggest typhoon in size to hit the island since 1996.
Administration forecaster Gene Huang said after hitting the east coast it would head toward the Taiwan Strait as a much weakened storm and urged people across the island to stay at home due to the danger of high winds.
“The size of the storm is very large and the winds are high,” he said.
Warnings for destructive winds of more than 160 kph (100 mph) were issued in the eastern county of Taitung, whose outlying Lanyu island recorded gusts above 260 kph (162 mph) before some of the wind-barometers there went offline.
Up to 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) of rainfall is expected in eastern Taiwan with destructive winds along coastal areas, according to the administration.
The defense ministry has put 36,000 troops on standby to help with rescue efforts while 1,300 people have been evacuated from high risk areas ahead of time, the government said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and major supplier to companies like Apple and Nvidia, said it has activated routine typhoon alert preparation procedures at all its factories and construction sites.
“We do not expect significant impact to our operations,” it said in an emailed statement.
Taiwan’s transport ministry said 298 international flights had been canceled, along with all domestic flights and 139 ferry services to and from outlying islands.
Taiwan’s high speed railway, which connects major cities on its populated western plains, continued to operate with a much reduced service.
In the capital Taipei, the city government said overground parts of the subway system had stopped operations as the wind was too strong.
The government has warned people to stay away from the mountains and the coast.
Kong-rey is forecast to graze China along the coast of Fujian province on Friday morning.
Subtropical Taiwan is frequently hit by typhoons. The last one, Typhoon Krathon, killed four people earlier this month as it passed through the south of the island.
Taiwan shuts down for arrival of strong Typhoon Kong-rey
https://arab.news/nb5bh
Taiwan shuts down for arrival of strong Typhoon Kong-rey
- Taiwan’s weather administration said it would be the biggest typhoon in size to hit the island since 1996
- Warnings for destructive winds of more than 160 kph were issued in the eastern county of Taitung
Judge sets hearing on $1 million-a-day sweepstakes from Elon Musk PAC helping Donald Trump
- Giveaways come from Musk’s political organization, which aims to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign
- The sweepstakes is open to people in battleground states who sign a petition supporting the Constitution
PHILADELPHIA: A Philadelphia judge is holding a hearing Thursday morning in the city prosecutor’s bid to shut down Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day sweepstakes in battleground states. The giveaways come from Musk’s political organization, which aims to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, filed suit Monday to stop the America PAC sweepstakes, which is set to run through Election Day. Judge Angelo Foglietta will hear motions on the issue in a City Hall courtroom.
Matthew Haverstick, one of several lawyers representing the defendants, declined to say late Wednesday if Musk would attend the hearing.
The sweepstakes is open to people in battleground states who sign a petition supporting the Constitution.
Krasner has said he could still consider criminal charges, saying he is tasked with protecting the public from both illegal lotteries and “interference with the integrity of elections.”
Election law experts have raised questions about whether it violates federal law barring someone from paying others to vote. Musk has cast the money as both a prize as well as earnings for work as a spokesperson for the group.
Krasner, in the suit, said that America PAC and Musk “are indisputably violating Pennsylvania’s statutory prohibitions against illegal lotteries and deceiving consumers.”
Both Trump and Harris have made repeated visits to the state as they fight for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes.
Musk, who founded SpaceX and Tesla and owns X, has gone all in on Trump this election, saying he thinks civilization is at stake if he loses. He is undertaking much of the get-out-the-vote effort for Trump through his super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money.
He has committed more than $70 million to the super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win in November.
Americans are anxious and frustrated about the presidential campaign, an AP-NORC poll finds
- About 7 in 10 Americans say “anxious” describes how they are feeling ahead of Tuesday
- About two-thirds of Republicans are anxious, a moderate uptick from 2020
WASHINGTON: Most Americans are feeling a lot of emotions heading into Election Day, but excitement is not one of them.
A new poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about 7 in 10 Americans report feeling anxious or frustrated about the 2024 presidential campaign, and a similar share say they’re interested.
Only about one-third say they feel excited.
There’s a broad feeling of uncertainty hanging over the 2024 presidential contest during the last week of the campaign. The race is competitive nationally and in key swing states, according to recent polls, with neither Democrat Kamala Harris nor Republican Donald Trump showing a measurable advantage. At the same time, the candidates have offered closing arguments that are in stark contrast with each other, with Harris arguing that Trump is obsessed with revenge and his own personal needs, while Trump referred to Harris at a rally on Sunday night as “a trainwreck who has destroyed everything in her path.”
Some groups are even more anxious than they were four years ago, even though that election took place in the midst of a deadly pandemic. In 2020, an AP-NORC poll found that about two-thirds of Americans were anxious about the election, which is not statistically significant from the new result. But for partisans, anxiety is dialed a little higher. About 8 in 10 Democrats say anxious describes how they are feeling now, up slightly from around three-quarters in the last election. About two-thirds of Republicans are anxious, a moderate uptick from around 6 in 10 in 2020.
Independents, by contrast, haven’t shifted meaningfully, and they’re also feeling less worried than Democrats or Republicans. About half say they are anxious, similar to the finding in 2020.
Other emotions have gotten more intense compared to past election cycles, including excitement. About one-third of Americans report feeling excited about the 2024 campaign, up from around one-quarter in 2016. But a majority of Americans say they are not excited about this year’s race.
One thing has stayed fairly constant, though: Americans’ level of frustration with the campaign. Roughly 7 in 10 Americans say frustrated describes their emotional state, similar to 2020.
For those Americans, though, there is light on the horizon — soon, the election will be over.
To tackle plastic scourge, Philippines makes companies pay
- The Philippines generates some 1.7 million metric tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste a year
- New law intends to achieve ‘plastic neutrality’ by forcing large businesses to reduce plastic pollution through product design
MANILA: Long one of the world’s top sources of ocean plastic, the Philippines is hoping new legislation requiring big companies to pay for waste solutions will help clean up its act.
Last year, its “Extended Producer Responsibility” statute came into force — the first in Southeast Asia to impose penalties on companies over plastic waste.
The experiment has shown both the promise and the pitfalls of the tool, which could be among the measures in a treaty to tackle plastic pollution that countries hope to agree this year.
The Philippines, with a population of 120 million, generates some 1.7 million metric tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste a year, according to the World Bank.
Of that, a third goes to landfills and dumpsites, with 35 percent discarded on open land.
The EPR law is intended to achieve “plastic neutrality” by forcing large businesses to reduce plastic pollution through product design and removing waste from the environment.
They are obliged to cover an initial 20 percent of their plastic packaging footprint, calculated based on the weight of plastic packaging they put into the market.
The obligation will rise to a ceiling of 80 percent by 2028.
The law covers a broad range of plastics, including flexible types that are commercially unviable for recycling and thus often go uncollected.
It does not however ban any plastics, including the popular but difficult to recover and recycle single-use sachets common in the Philippines.
So far, around half the eligible companies under the law have launched EPR programs.
Over a thousand more must do so by end-December or face fines of up to 20 million pesos ($343,000) and even revocation of their operating licenses.
The law removed 486,000 tonnes of plastic waste from the environment last year, Environment Undersecretary Jonas Leones said.
That topped the 2023 target and is “part of a broader strategy to reduce the environmental impact of plastic pollution, particularly given the Philippines’ status as one of the largest contributors to marine plastic waste globally.”
The law allows companies to outsource their obligations to “producer responsibility organizations,” many of which use a mechanism called plastic credits.
These allow companies to buy a certificate that a metric ton of plastic has been removed from the environment and either recycled, upcycled or “co-processed” — burned for energy.
PCX Solutions, one of the country’s biggest players, offers local credits priced around $100 for collection and co-processing of mixed plastics to over $500 for collection and recycling of ocean-bound PET plastic.
The model is intended to channel money into the underfunded waste collection sector and encourage collection of plastic that is commercially unviable for recycling.
“It’s manna from heaven,” former streetsweeper Marita Blanco said.
A widowed mother-of-five, Blanco lives in Manila’s low-income San Andres district and buys plastic bottles, styrofoam and candy wrappers for two pesos (3.4 US cents) a kilogramme (2.2 pounds).
She then sells them at a 25 percent mark-up to US charity Friends of Hope, which works with PCX Solutions to process them.
“I didn’t know that there was money in garbage,” she said.
“If I do not look down on the task of picking up garbage, my financial situation will improve.”
Friends of Hope managing director Ilusion Farias said the project was making a visible difference to an area often strewn with discarded plastic.
“Two years ago, I think you would have seen a lot dirtier street,” she said.
“Behavioral change is really slow, and it takes a really long time.”
Among those purchasing credits is snack producer Mondelez, which has opted to jump directly to “offsetting” 100 percent of its plastic footprint.
“It costs company budgets... but that’s really something that we just said we would commit to do for the environment,” Mondelez Philippines corporate and government affairs official Caitlin Punzalan said.
But while companies have lined up to buy plastic credits, there has been less movement on stemming the flow of new plastic, including through redesign.
“Upstream reduction is not really easy,” said PCX Solutions managing director Stefanie Beitien.
“There is no procurement department in the world that accepts a 20 percent higher packaging price just because it’s the right thing to do.”
And while PCX credits cannot be claimed against plastic that is landfilled, they do allow for waste to be burned, with the ash then used for cement.
“It’s still linear, not circular, because you’re destroying the plastic and you’re still generating virgin plastic,” acknowledged Leones of the environment ministry.
Still, the law remains a “very strong policy,” according to Floradema Eleazar, an official with the UN Development Programme.
But “we will not see immediate impacts right now, or tomorrow,” she said.
“It would require really massive behavioral change for everyone to make sure that this happens.”
North Korea launches long-range missile designed to hit the US that may be a new, more mobile weapon
North Korea launches long-range missile designed to hit the US that may be a new, more mobile weapon
- Launch comes as Washington warned that North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine
- South Korean military spokesman said the launch was possibly timed to the US election in an attempt to strengthen North Korea’s bargaining power
SEOUL, South Korea: North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time in almost a year Thursday in a test of what may be a new, more agile weapon targeting the mainland US, its neighbors said.
The launch came as Washington warned that North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, likely to augment Russian forces and join the war. It also was likely meant to grab American attention days ahead of the US election Tuesday.
US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett called the launch “a flagrant violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions that he said “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.” Savett said the US will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and South Korean and Japanese allies.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea could have tested a new, solid-fueled long-range ballistic missile. Missiles with built-in solid propellants are easier to move and hide and can be launched quicker than liquid-propellant weapons.
JCS spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said the launch was possibly timed to the US election in an attempt to strengthen North Korea’s bargaining power. He said the North Korean missile was launched on a high angle, apparently to avoid neighboring countries.
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters that the missile may have been a new one since its flight duration of 86 minutes and its maximum altitude of more than 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) exceeded corresponding data from previous North Korean missile tests.
Both South Korea and Japan condemned the North Korean launch for posing a threat to international peace and they said they’re closely coordinating with the US over the latest North Korean weapons test.
South Korea’s military intelligence agency told lawmakers Wednesday that North Korea was close to test-firing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States and has also likely completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test.
North Korea has made strides in its missile technologies in recent years, but many foreign experts believe the country has yet to acquire a functioning nuclear-armed missile that can strike the US mainland. They say North Korea likely possesses short-range missiles that can deliver nuclear strikes across all of South Korea.
One of the technological hurdles North Korea still faces is for its weapons to be capable of surviving the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry. South Korean officials and experts earlier said North Korea may test-launch a ICBM on a normal angle to verify that capability.
In September, North Korean state media published a photo of Kim inspecting what appeared to be a 12-axle missile launch vehicle, the largest mobile launch platform the country has disclosed so far. Observers cited the vehicle as evidence North Korea could be developing an ICBM that is bigger than its existing ones.
North Korea last test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in December 2023, when it launched the solid-fueled Hwasong-18.
In the past two years, Kim has used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a window to ramp up weapons tests and threats while also expanding military cooperation with Moscow. South Korea, the US and others have recently accused North Korea of dispatching thousands of troops to support Russia’s warfighting against Ukraine. They’ve said North Korea has already shipped artillery, missiles and other convectional arms to Russia.
North Korea’s possible participation in the Ukraine war would mark a serious escalation. South Korea, the US and their partners also worry about what North Korea could get from Russia in return for joining Russia’s war against Ukraine. Aside from his soldiers’ wages, experts say Kim Jong Un likely hopes to get high-tech Russian technology that can perfect his nuclear-capable missiles.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving toward Ukraine, in what he called a dangerous and destabilizing development. Austin spoke at a news conference in Washington with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
South Korea said Wednesday that North Korea has sent more than 11,000 troops to Russia and that more than 3,000 of them have been moved close to battlefields in western Russia.
Man behind US ballot box fires purports to have pro-Palestinian sentiments, police are investigating
Man behind US ballot box fires purports to have pro-Palestinian sentiments, police are investigating
- Incendiary devices set by suspect at ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington states had a “wealth of experience” in metal fabrication and welding, say police
- The incendiary devices were marked with the message “Free Gaza,” according to a law enforcement official on condition of anonymity
PORTLAND, Oregon: The man suspected of setting fires in ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state is an experienced metalworker and may be planning additional attacks, authorities said Wednesday.
Investigators believe the man who set the incendiary devices at ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and nearby Vancouver, Washington, had a “wealth of experience” in metal fabrication and welding, said Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner.
The way the devices were constructed and the way they were attached to the metal drop boxes showed that expertise, Benner said.
Authorities described the suspect as a white man, age 30 to 40, who is balding or has very short hair.
Police previously said surveillance video showed the man driving a black or dark-colored 2001 to 2004 Volvo S-60. The vehicle did not have a front license plate, but it did have a rear plate with unknown letters or numbers.
The incendiary devices were marked with the message “Free Gaza,” according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.
A third device placed at a different drop box in Vancouver earlier this month also carried the words “Free Palestine” in addition to “Free Gaza,” the official said.
Investigators are trying to identify the person responsible and the motive for the suspected arson attacks, which destroyed or damaged hundreds of ballots at the drop box in Vancouver on Monday when the box’s fire suppression system didn’t work as intended. Authorities are trying to figure out whether the suspect actually had pro-Palestinian views or used the message to try to create confusion, the official said.
Surveillance images captured a Volvo pulling up to a drop box in Portland just before security personnel nearby discovered a fire inside the box on Monday, Benner said. The early-morning fire was extinguished quickly thanks to the box’s suppression system and a nearby security guard, police said. Just three of the ballots inside were damaged.
The ballot box in Vancouver that burned also had a fire suppression system inside, but it failed to prevent hundreds of ballots from being scorched, said Greg Kimsey, the longtime elected auditor in Clark County, Washington, which includes Vancouver.
Elections staff were able to identify 488 damaged ballots retrieved from the box, and as of Tuesday evening, 345 of those voters had contacted the county auditor’s office to request a replacement ballot, the office said in a statement Wednesday. The office will mail 143 ballots to the rest of the identified voters on Thursday.
Six of the ballots were unidentifiable, and the office said the exact number of destroyed ballots wasn’t known, as some may have completely burned to ash.
Election staff on Wednesday planned to sort through the damaged ballots for information about who cast them, in the hopes that those voters can be given replacement ballots. Kimsey urged voters who dropped their ballots in the transit center box between 11 a.m. Saturday and early Monday to contact his office for a replacement ballot.
Authorities in Portland said Monday that enough material from the incendiary devices was recovered to show that the two fires were connected — and that they were connected to an Oct. 8 incendiary device at a different ballot drop box in Vancouver. No ballots were damaged in that incident.
Voters in Washington are encouraged to check the status of their ballots at www.votewa.gov to track their return status. If a returned ballot is not marked as “received,” voters can print a replacement ballot or visit their local elections department for a replacement, the secretary of state’s office said.
