India's monsoon season grows increasingly unpredictable and devastating
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France 24
3 days ago
- France 24
Philippines shuts schools, scraps flights as Typhoon Co-May nears
Typhoon Co-May, upgraded from a tropical storm overnight, follows days of monsoon rains that have killed at least 12 people and left another eight missing across the archipelago since July 18, according to the national disaster agency. With maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, the typhoon was expected to make landfall on the west coast in either La Union or Ilocos Sur province by Friday morning, the country's weather service said. Around 70 domestic and international flights have been cancelled due to the storms, the civil aviation authority said. The government has announced the suspension of classes across Luzon for Thursday. Tens of thousands were evacuated across Manila earlier this week by floodwaters that swamped some neighbourhoods in waist-deep water and left residents of nearby provinces stranded and in need of rescue by boat. As of Thursday, at least several thousand people in Manila remained unable to return to their homes. "We cannot send them home yet because it is still raining and some typhoons are still expected to affect the country," Ria Mei Pangilinan, a rescue coordinator in the capital, told AFP. "There might be more (evacuees) if the rain does not stop." Typhoon Co-May was about 210 kilometres off the country's west coast as of 11 am (0300 GMT). Tropical Storm Francisco, meanwhile, was situated about 735 kilometres from the country's east coast and on a trajectory towards northern Taiwan.
France 24
3 days ago
- France 24
Vanuatu island chief 'very impressed' by global climate decision
Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which found countries have a duty to protect against the "urgent and existential" threat of a warming planet. "I'm very impressed," George Bumseng, the highest chief of the Pacific archipelago's cyclone-prone island of Ambrym, told AFP in the capital Port Vila. "We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for the past two decades," he said. The chief recalled that his island was battered by three tropical cyclones in 2023, with twin cyclones Judy and Kevin striking in March of that year, followed by Lola in October. The storms damaged "a lot of our root crops and forests and our traditional medicines", said Bumseng, who is chairman of the Ambrym council of chiefs. Global warming "keeps on changing our environment", the chief said. "We no longer have fig trees. There's coastal erosion continuously. Our tide is also changing," he said. "Some of the traditional crops are no longer growing like before," he added. © 2025 AFP
France 24
5 days ago
- France 24
Philippines flooding displaces thousands, two missing
Schools and government offices in Manila and the surrounding provinces were closed after a night of rain that saw the region's Marikina River burst its banks. More than 23,000 people living along the river were evacuated overnight, sheltering in schools, village halls and covered courtyards. Another 25,000 more were evacuated in the metropolitan area's Quezon and Caloocan cities. "Usually these people are from low-lying areas like beside creeks (feeding into the river)," according to Wilmer Tan of the Marikina rescue office, who said the river had reached 18 metres (59 feet) in height. An elderly woman and her driver were swept down a swollen creek as they attempted to cross a bridge in Caloocan, said John Paul Nietes, an emergency operations centre assistant supervisor. "Their car was recovered last night. The rescue operation is continuing, but as of today, they haven't found either of them," he said. "The car window was broken, so the hope is that they were able to escape." Floodwaters were receding on Tuesday morning, though thousands of people remained unable to return to their homes. Ongoing monsoon rains have killed at least three people and left another seven missing in the central and southern Philippines since Tropical Storm Wipha skirted the country on Friday, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. At least 20 storms or typhoons strike or come near the Philippines each year, with the country's poorest regions typically the hardest hit. Deadly and destructive storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change. "This is hard, because if the rain will continue... the river will swell," Manila street sweeper Avelina Lumangtad, 61, told AFP as she stood next to a flooded thoroughfare. © 2025 AFP
