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☆ Philippine villagers fearful of tsunami flee toward deadly mudslide
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The government’s main disaster-response agency also reported 69 people were injured in the onslaught and at least 63 others remain missing. More than 1 million people were lashed by the storm, including more than 912,000 villagers who fled to evacuation centers or homes of relatives. “When the people heard the warning bells, they ran up and gathered in a church on a high ground,” Sinarimbo told The Associated Press on Saturday, citing accounts by Kusiong villagers. Elderly villagers who survived the tsunami and powerful earthquake passed on the nightmarish story to their children, warning them to be prepared. Somebody was assigned to bang the alarm bells and they designated high grounds where people should run to,” Sinarimbo said.

☆ China's Xi greets Vietmanese ally with ceremony, call for defiance
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Martin Quin Pollard | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Chinese President Xi Jinping meets the media following the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China October 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu WangBEIJING, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping told the visiting leader of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party on Monday that both countries and parties should "never let anyone interfere" with their progress, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Trong's was the first visit by a foreign leader since Xi secured a precedent-breaking third term as General Secretary at the Chinese Communist Party's 20th party congress this month. The visit by Trong - who holds more power than either Vietnam's president or prime minister - was a showcase of Communist unity. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will also visit China this week.

☆ China's Xi greets Vietnamese ally with ceremony, call for defiance
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Martin Quin Pollard | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

☆ China's booming electric-car industry could transform its military's submarine fleet
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Stephen Chen | South China Morning Post | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Solutions for problems with the batteries have been found through work in the booming electric car market, their study says. China has the world's largest conventional submarine fleet, with an estimated 60 to 70 vessels. The main purpose of China's conventional submarine fleet is to protect its coastal areas and strategic waters including the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. JMSDF/TwitterThe booming electric car market has also brought changes in the defence industry. Germany and France have also developed prototype lithium batteries for submarine use with plans for military service in the near future.

☆ Storm Nalgae in the Philippines kills 48, while 22 others are still missing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Residents wade through a flooded street in Kawit town, Cavite province on Oct. 30, 2022, a day after Tropical Storm Nalgae hit. The death toll from flooding and rain-induced landslides in the Philippines has climbed to 48, the country's disaster agency said on Sunday, with 22 others recorded missing after tropical storm Nalgae inundated many parts of the archipelago. Most of the casualties were recorded in the southern autonomous region of Bangsamoro, where 40 died due to landslides, with 10 still missing, the disaster agency said. Nalgae, which made landfall five times, is this year's second-most deadly cyclone to hit the Philippines, which sees an average of 20 tropical storms annually. The Philippine weather bureau said Nalgae was tracking westward and it could re-intensify into a typhoon over the South China Sea while heading toward southern China.

☆ Storm Nalgae death toll climbs to 48 in Philippines, 22 missing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/4] A mother and a child wade through a flooded road following heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Nalgae, in Las Pinas City, Metro Manila, Philippines, October 30, 2022. REUTERS/Lisa Marie DavidMANILA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The death toll from flooding and rain-induced landslides in the Philippines has climbed to 48, the country's disaster agency said on Sunday, with 22 others recorded missing after tropical storm Nalgae inundated many parts of the archipelago. Most of the casualties were recorded in the southern autonomous region of Bangsamoro, where 40 died due to landslides, with 10 still missing, the disaster agency said. Nalgae, which made landfall five times, is this year's second-most deadly cyclone to hit the Philippines, which sees an average of 20 tropical storms annually. The Philippine weather bureau said Nalgae was tracking westward and it could re-intensify into a typhoon over the South China Sea while heading toward southern China.

☆ China's alarming decline could tank the stock market, take down the global economy, and spark a dangerous showdown with the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

In the Western capitals and boardrooms, it appears the horror of Beijing's transformation has finally settled in, and the lure of China's economic future is fading. Economic dangerIf you want a clue to just how far China's economy has fallen, look no further than Beijing's attempts to hide information about the country's growth. Beyond the short-term signs of trouble, there are more enduring signs pointing to China's economic distress. That's a big if, and even if Beijing is successful, the slow-moving blob of debt will choke off economic growth for years to come. Xi has tightened his grip on China's economy and government from education to public health.

☆ Philippines' death toll from Tropical Storm Nalgae climbs to 72
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Flood waters surround a building following a heavy storm in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, Philippines October 28, 2022 in this still image obtained from a social media video. The tropical storm, which has maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometres (59 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 160 kph (99.4 mph), made landfall in the eastern Catanduanes province early on Saturday. On Friday, search and rescue teams pulled bodies from water and thick mud after Nalgae triggered flooding and landslides. "We are now gathering all rescue teams and will conduct a briefing before deployment," Nasrullah Imam, disaster agency official at Maguindanao province, said. An average of 20 tropical storms hit the Philippines annually.

☆ Xi Jinping just became unassailable. Here’s why investors are running scared
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Xi’s preference for personal loyalty over technocratic competence bodes ill for China’s already bleak economic outlook, analysts said. “In effect, Xi Jinping establishes an echo chamber around his own ideas,” she said. People watch the opening session of the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress in Huaibei, in China's eastern Anhui province. Li Qiang, the party boss of Shanghai who presided over the city’s chaotic two-month lockdown, is now the second-highest ranking party official after Xi. The NDRC is China’s top economic planner, responsible for drafting the country’s economic plans and overseeing major state investment projects.

☆ Vietnam party chief to visit China's Xi next week
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Vietnam's Communist Party's Generel Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is seen in Hanoi, Vietnam April 2, 2018, Picture taken April 2, 2018. REUTERS/Kham/File PhotoBEIJING, Oct 25 (Reuters) - The chief of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong will visit China next week on the invitation of President Xi Jinping, Vietnam's government said on Tuesday, in a rare overseas trip by the ageing leader. The visit to Beijing will take place from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 the government said, without elaborating. Like Xi, Trong has also stayed on as party chief beyond the usual tenure of one or two terms, cementing his influence in a party traditionally governed by consensus among its politburo and powerful central committee. Vietnam and China are among the last five communist-ruled states in the world, along with Cuba, Laos and North Korea.

☆ Energy and security on agenda when Australia, Japan leaders meet
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers a policy speech during an extraordinary session at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Japan October 3, 2022. "Australia is the most important country for Japan's energy policy," Kishida told reporters in Tokyo on Friday before boarding a plane for Perth. Australia and Japan are also expected to sign a new security cooperation agreement, updating a pact struck in 2007, to respond to a significantly altered regional security environment, officials said. "As Australia seeks to become a clean energy superpower, we will remain a steady and reliable supplier of energy to Japan including for new energy sources like hydrogen," Albanese said in a statement this week. Australia and Japan are also members of the Quad group of nations, with the United States and India.

But the theme of the event is continuity — of President Xi Jinping as leader, and with that the likelihood of friction with the U.S.-led West. Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, is poised to secure an unprecedented third term at this week’s twice-a-decade National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. “Those achievements have certainly strengthened the president’s leadership.”Under Xi, China’s gross domestic product has more than doubled to $17.7 trillion. Born in Beijing in 1953, Xi enjoyed a privileged youth as the second son of Xi Zhongxun, a Chinese communist revolutionary. “The long-term goals of President Xi, as well as general attitudes in the West, will make it very difficult for us to have more cooperation during his third term,” she said.

☆ Russia's attack on Ukraine shows that the US and Europe have to relearn how to fight an industrial war
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Alexander Clarkson | World Politics Review | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The military effort to support Ukraine shows how US and European defense priorities have been distorted. The war is a reminder that the US and Europe must fundamentally reassess how they prepare for war. The military responses Western states formulated toward these perceived threats were shaped by wider neoliberal policy approaches shaped by the impact of globalization. This greater reliance on private-sector actors to develop and administer key military functions also reflected a period of tightening defense budgets. An airman secures a GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition on an aircraft at Barksdale Air Force Base in August 2014.

☆ Typhoon submerges villages, farmlands in northern Philippines
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MANILA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - A tropical storm that made landfall early on Sunday in the northern Philippines has intensified into a typhoon, the weather bureau said, bringing moderate to heavy rains that submerged villages and farmlands. Nearly a thousand people were preemptively evacuated to safer ground, according to the disaster monitoring agency. Nesat, packing winds of 120 km (75 miles) per hour, may further intensify while moving towards the South China Sea, the weather bureau said. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Twitter government assistance was on the way to the affected communities. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Adrian Portugal; Additional reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. grants Philippines $100 million in foreign military financing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ABOARD USS RONALD REAGAN, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The United States has made available $100 million in foreign military financing to the Philippines, its ambassador in Manila said on Friday, part of efforts to boost the Southeast Asian country's defence capabilities and military modernisation. The new military financing underscores improved defence ties between the treaty allies under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whose predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, shifted his country's foreign policy away from the United States to pursue warmer ties with China. "The United States has now made available $100 million in foreign military financing in part for the Philippine military to use as it wishes," Ambassador MaryKay Carlson told a media briefing aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, which was on a scheduled port call in Manila. Manila is looking to buy heavy-lift Chinook helicopters from the United States. The amount includes $475.3 million worth of foreign military financing to Philippines, among the biggest in Southeast Asia.

☆ Earthquake rattles Taiwan, but epicentre out at sea
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

TAIPEI, Oct 11 (Reuters) - A 5.9 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre in the sea off Taiwan's east coast rattled the island on Tuesday, the island's weather bureau said, with no immediate reports of damage. It had a depth of 17.9 km (11.1 miles), and could be felt across the northern, central and eastern parts of Taiwan, the weather bureau added. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates in the South China Sea and is prone to earthquakes. More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, while a 7.3 magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in 1999. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. VP Harris condemns 'disturbing' Chinese actions
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"China is undermining key elements of the international rules-based order," said Harris, who is on a four-day trip to Asia. And we have witnessed disturbing behaviour in the East China Sea and in the South China Sea, and most recently, provocations across the Taiwan Strait." Harris said U.S. forces would operate in the region "undaunted and unafraid" even as the United States expects "continued aggressive" actions by China. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris listens during a roundtable discussion at the NAACP National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S., July 18, 2022. Aides said Harris would work on a unified approach in a region where leaders have warily watched rising tension between the United States and China.

☆ Take a look at China's fleet of destroyers, including the Type 055, which cost $920 million to build and is considered one of the country's most powerful warships
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Marielle Descalsota | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

China has the world's largest navy, with more than 355 vessels in its fleet, according to a 2021 report by the United States Naval Institute. Officers and soldiers of the Chinese naval fleet for escort mission line up on the deck at a port in Zhoushan, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 28, 2020. The report stated that "increasing capabilities of Chinese warships" like destroyers is crucial to the country's military plans. In addition to China's newest class, the Type 055, there are six other locally made active destroyer classes: Type 052A, Type 051B, Type 051C, Type 052B, Type 052C, and Type 052D(L), per a 2018 report by CRS. Keep reading for a look at all eight of China's destroyer classes.

☆ China is using civilian ships to enhance navy capability and reach
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Aerial view of fishing boats setting sail to South China Sea for fishing on August 16, 2022 in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province of China. Hundreds of fishing boats anchored for months at a time among disputed islands in the South China Sea. The civilian vessels do more than just augment the raw numbers of ships, performing tasks that would be difficult for the military to carry out. "Because they are ostensibly civilian fishing vessels, navies' ships are unable to deal with them lest China accuse the Philippines of provoking an incident and using force against civilians," he said. In the event of a conflict, China's use of civilian vessels would complicate the rules of engagement, he said.

☆ Philippines' Marcos orders aid for typhoon-struck areas, five reported dead
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BULACAN, Philippines, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Philippine authorities rushed on Monday to distribute aid to thousands of evacuees after typhoon Noru made landfall in the capital and northern provinces, leaving at least five dead and many areas flooded. President Ferdinand Marcos ordered supplies be airlifted and clean-up equipment be provided to most-affected communities. "Many homes were destroyed but all roads are passable and there were no landslides," Quezon province Governor Helen Tan told DZRH radio station. The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, sees an average of 20 tropical storms yearly. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, killed 6,300 people.

☆ Philippines evacuates coasts, cancels sea trips as supertyphoon nears
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

It will continue intensifying and may make landfall on Sunday afternoon or evening with 185 to 205 kph (115 to 127 mph) of sustained winds, it said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"I asked our mayors to comply with strict preemptive evacuations," Helen Tan, governor of Quezon province, told DZRH radio station. Noru was moving westward and likely to emerge over the South China Sea by late Sunday or early Monday. The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, sees an average of 20 tropical storms a year. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China is using a stealth fleet of fishing boats and ferries to boost its naval power, say military experts
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

China is utilizing a range of civilian ships to bolster its navy resources, AP reports. But a fleet of scientific ships, fishing boats, and ocean ferries also offer a military dimension. Poling added that the use of civilian vessels for military purposes complicates military interactions. Chinese authorities have commanded civilian fishing trawlers for military purposes for decades. China has also launched ships for ostensibly civilian purposes that could potentially be converted to military use quickly.

☆ Philippines' main Luzon island braces for Typhoon Noru
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterMANILA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Philippines' disaster agency was on high alert on Saturday as an approaching tropical storm intensified into a typhoon which is expected to bring moderate to heavy rainfall and severe winds over a swathe of the main Luzon island. Typhoon Noru, with sustained winds of up to 120 km per hour (75 mph), was expected to intensify prior to landfall in Aurora or Quezon province on Sunday, the weather bureau said in its latest advisory. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"The highest emergency preparedness and response protocol has been activated" in several regions, including Metro Manila, the agency said in a statement. The weather bureau said Noru was moving westward and likely to emerge over the South China Sea by late Sunday or early Monday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Clelia Oziel and Mike HarrisonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Biden seeks closer ties with Philippines after ‘rocky’ past
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Biden also noted that the Philippines was among U.S. allies to quickly condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The “One China” policy recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan. He has said he wants to pursue closer ties with China, which has also sought to court him. He sees a rising China as the most threatening economic and national security adversary to the United States. The elder Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law in 1972, a year before his term was to expire.

☆ China's new J-20 is nothing 'to lose a lot of sleep over,' but the US's stealth advantage isn't safe, US commanders say
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

China's air force has rapidly grown in size and capability, adding advanced jets like the J-20. The J-20 isn't "anything to lose a lot of sleep over," the head of US Pacific Air Forces said this week. But US Air Force leaders do say the US needs to work to stay head of the progress China is making. "We can take a look at it today and say we're not going to lose a lot of sleep. I'll lose sleep if we don't continue to modernize our Air Force to ensure that we stay ahead of where they are."

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