Category World News

At least 954 people have died in recent days as a result of tropical storms, including floods and landslides, in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia. Thousands have been rescued from the extreme weather.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto stated on Monday that the government’s top priority was “how to immediately send the necessary aid.”

According to Prabowo, “God willing, we can reach a number of remote villages,” adding that the government was using helicopters and aircraft to aid the relief effort.

In response to flooding and landslides that have claimed at least 442 lives and left hundreds more missing, Prabowo is increasingly being pressured to declare a national emergency.

Prabowo has so far refrained from making public appeals for international assistance in contrast to Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s counterpart in Sri Lanka.

The government of Indonesia has sent aid to some of the hardest-hit areas, where many roads remain blocked, by two hospital ships and three warships.

Floodwaters mostly receded in Sungai Nyalo village, which is located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Padang, West Sumatra’s capital, leaving mud-drenched homes, vehicles, and crops.

Idris, 55, who goes by one name, told the AFP news agency, “Most villagers chose to stay because they didn’t want to leave their homes behind.”

Sri Lanka seeks assistance

Meanwhile, the government of Sri Lanka has requested international assistance and is using military helicopters to reach stranded residents of the country due to flooding and landslides caused by Cyclone Ditwah.

Sri Lanka’s disaster agency reported on Sunday that at least 334 people had died, many of whom are still missing.

A helicopter pilot was making an emergency landing north of Colombo while helping “flu-affected communities in Lunuwila,” the Sri Lankan Air Force reported in a Facebook post on Monday. “Traumically lost his life.”

Relief workers cleared roads slowed by fallen trees and mudslides, according to officials, who said the extent of the damage was only just beginning to become apparent.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the president’s declaration of an state of emergency to deal with the disaster, pledged to rebuild.

In a speech to the nation, Dissanayake said, “We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history.”

“We will undoubtedly create a better world than what was before.”

In southern Thailand, the death toll rises.

At least 176 people have died as a result of ongoing flooding in Thailand’s south, according to Thai authorities on Monday.

Two local officials have been suspended over their alleged failures, according to AFP, and the government has begun relief measures, but the flood response has received growing public criticism.

Two people were killed in Perlis state across the border of Malaysia, where extensive landslides also flooded large tracts of land.

Year of deadly floods in Asia

The most recent extreme weather events to devastate Southeast Asian nations in recent weeks include two typhoons that struck the Philippines just one week apart last month, killing at least 242 people.

A rare tropical storm that brought heavy rain to Sumatra Island specifically exacerbated the flooding that hit Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, has urged Donald Trump and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to assist his nation in retaliating against “growing and illegal threats” from the United States.

Maduro accused the US of trying to “seize” Venezuela’s largest oil reserves, which the bloc of major oil-producing nations sent to them on Sunday.

According to a copy of the letter released by state broadcaster TeleSUR, “I hope you will make every effort possible to stop this aggression, which is getting stronger and seriously threatens the balance of the global energy market, both for producing and consuming nations,” Maduro said.

Maduro also “formally denounced” the use of deadly force against both OPEC&nbsp and the group of OPEC+ countries in a larger way.

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, which is estimated to be 303 billion barrels by 2023, but it exported only $4.05 billion worth of crude oil in 2023, which is significantly lower than that of other major-oil producing nations, in part as a result of US sanctions placed on it during the first Trump presidency.

The Latin American nation joined OPEC in 1960 along with Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, and its members worked together to control oil supplies and control the price of oil in the years that followed.

buildup in the military

Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that Venezuela’s airspace was closed, but Maduro’s letter contradicts that statement without providing any further details.

The above and neighboring Venezuela will be closed for good in its entirety, Trump wrote. “To all airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers, please take into account the above and neighboring Venezuela.”

Trump’s statement was referred to as a “colonialist threat,” according to Caracas.

The government of Maduro has been saying for months that the Trump administration’s significant military presence in the Caribbean is meant to gain access to the nation’s oil and gas reserves.

Although critics have criticized the White House for claiming that its main goal is to stop drug trafficking, Venezuela is not a significant source of illegal drugs entering the US.

US strikes on ships that Trump claims were drug-carrying have resulted in at least 83 fatalities. The attacks have been criticized by human rights organizations as extrajudicial killings that violate international law.

The US has also deployed a sizable military presence to the Caribbean region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, one of the largest aircraft carriers in the world, as well as F-35 fighter jets and thousands of soldiers.

“Drill, baby drill”

Trump has promised to significantly increase oil production as president, keeping the promise made during his re-election campaign for president in 2023, “drill, baby drill.”

For the first time in a long time, the Trump administration made new plans to drill for oil off the coasts of California, Florida, and the United States.