Category World News

Super Typhoon Fung-wong, the most powerful storm to threaten the Philippines this year, has begun battering its northeastern coast, killing at least one person so far, disrupting power and forcing nearly one million people to evacuate as authorities urgently call for residents in high-risk areas to seek immediate shelter.

With an enormous 1,600km (994-mile) rain and wind band capable of affecting two-thirds of the archipelago, Fung-wong is striking as the country still is struggling to recover from Typhoon Kalmaegi, which killed at least 224 people in central provinces on Tuesday before moving on to Vietnam, where it killed five more people.

Fung-wong could make landfall on the main island of Luzon as early as Sunday night. More than 916,860 residents have fled vulnerable areas in northeastern provinces, including the Bicol region, which faces dual threats from cyclones and potential mudflows from the Mayon volcano.

During a televised address on Saturday, Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, who coordinates disaster response, warned of Fung-wong’s potentially catastrophic impact. The storm threatens vast regions, including the already devastated Cebu province and metropolitan Manila, the nation’s capital and financial hub.

The storm, the 21st to hit the Philippines this year, has sustained winds of 185km/h (115mph) and gusts as high as 230km/h (140mph).

According to the Office of Civil Defence, more than 30 million people could be exposed to Fung-wong’s hazards. While the Philippines hasn’t requested international aid after Kalmaegi, Teodoro indicated that the United States and Japan may provide assistance.

As Fung-wong approached, several eastern communities experienced power outages, reported Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro, deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defence.

Members of Iraq’s security forces and its internally displaced population have begun casting their ballots in the parliamentary elections – the sixth since a United States-led invasion toppled longtime ruler Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Polls opened at 7am (04:00 GMT) on Sunday for 1.3 million members of the security forces at 809 polling centres and will close at 6pm (15:00 GMT) before they are deployed for security purposes on the election day on Tuesday.

More than 26,500 internally displaced people are also eligible for early voting on Sunday across 97 polling stations at 27 places in Iraq, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) said.

Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari told INA that the special voting process is advancing “smoothly and in an organised manner”.

Nearly 21 million Iraqis are eligible to vote on Tuesday across 4,501 polling stations nationwide, the INA said.

More than 7,750 candidates, nearly a third of them women, are running for the 329-seat parliament. Under the law, 25 percent of the seats are reserved for women, while nine are allocated for religious minorities.

The current parliament began its term on January 9, 2022, and will last four years, ending on January 8, 2026.

An old electoral law, revived in 2023, will apply to the ongoing elections, with many seeing it as favouring larger parties. While about 70 independents won in the 2021 vote, only 75 independents are contesting this year.

Observers also fear that turnout might dip below the record low of 41 percent in 2021, reflecting voters’ apathy and scepticism in a country marked by entrenched leadership and allegations of mismanagement and endemic corruption.

There were widespread accusations of corruption and vote-buying before the elections, and 848 candidates were disqualified by election officials, sometimes for obscure reasons, including insulting religious rituals or members of the armed forces.

Past elections in Iraq have been marred by violence, including assassinations of candidates, attacks on polling stations, and clashes between the supporters of different blocs. While overall levels of violence have subsided, a candidate was assassinated in the run-up to this year’s election.

Influential Shia leader Moqtada Sadr urged his followers to boycott what he described as a “flawed election”.

Al-Sadr’s bloc won the largest number of seats in 2021, but later withdrew after failed negotiations over forming the government amid a standoff with rival Shia parties. He has since boycotted the political system.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, elected in 2022 with the backing of pro-Iran parties, is seeking a second term and is expected to secure a sizeable bloc.

Among the other frontrunners are influential Shia figures, including former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Muslim scholar Ammar al-Hakim.

One body has been found and dozens of others are missing after a boat carrying about 90 people sank near the Thailand-Malaysia border, officials said.

The Malaysian maritime authority on Sunday said at least 10 survivors were found, while the status of two other boats carrying a similar number of people remains unknown.

The incident is believed to have happened near Tarutao Island, just north of the popular Malaysian resort island of Langkawi.

“A boat carrying 90 people is believed to have capsized,” local police chief Adzli Abu Shah told reporters, adding that rescue operations were under way to locate the survivors.

Among the survivors found in the waters were three Myanmar nationals, two Rohingya refugees, and a Bangladeshi man, while the body was that of a Rohingya woman, state media agency Bernama reported, quoting Abu Shah.

The Malaysia-bound people initially boarded a large vessel, but, as they neared the border, they were instructed to transfer onto three smaller boats, each carrying about 100 people, to avoid detection by the authorities, the police chief was quoted as saying.

Reporting from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride said a major search and rescue operation was under way.

“The authorities believe that the migrants set off around three days ago from a part of the coast in Myanmar – they are thought to be mainly from the Rohingya minority,” he said.

“This is a well-used maritime route sailing down the coast of Thailand, heading towards Malaysia where they will hope to start a new life, where often they will have relatives and acquaintances who are already here in Malaysia.”

Dangerous crossings

Malaysia is home to millions of migrants and refugees from other parts of Asia – many of them undocumented, working in industries including construction and agriculture.

Members of the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority periodically flee predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, where they are seen as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship, and subjected to abuse. Nearly a million Rohingya refugees live in cramped camps across southern Bangladesh.

Myanmar has also been mired in civil war fought between the military and multiple armed opposition groups since a 2021 coup, when the military seized power from the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Many of the refugees attempt maritime crossings to relatively affluent regional countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, facilitated by human trafficking syndicates. But the trips often turn hazardous, leading to frequent capsizing.

In one of the worst incidents in December 2021, more than 20 people drowned in several capsizing incidents off the Malaysian coastline.

“According to the authorities, the situation in Myanmar – with the increased instability and also the ongoing civil war – is forcing people to take ever more desperate maritime journeys to try and start a new life,” said McBride.