In China, hundreds of thousands evacuate amid typhoon
Typhoon Bebinca hit Lingang New City in the east of Shanghai on Monday — the strongest storm to strike the area in 75 years. The Category 1 storm forced 25 million residents to shelter in place, while more than 400,000 evacuated the Shanghai metropolitan area..
Over 60,000 first responders offered help during the storm, which saw winds reach 94 miles per hour and nearly 10 inches of rain along Shanghai’s eastern coast. Two people were reportedly electrocuted and died from a high-voltage power line that collapsed, and a falling tree injured at least one other person. Over 800 acres of farmland also experienced flooding, and more than 10,000 trees were destroyed in the typhoon.
Hundreds of flights from and to Shanghai were canceled, as well as ground and sea transportation. Authorities also closed all highways, and imposed a speed limit of 25 miles per hour for all city driving.
An additional tropical storm hit an island south of Shanghai on Thursday evening with winds up to 40 miles per hour. China’s National Meteorological Observatory issued a severe weather alert and forecast offices warned locals of flood and landslide potential.
Bebinca was one of just three typhoons to hit Shanghai, following one more recently in 2022 and another in 1949.
In Germany, government tightens borders to ‘curb irregular migration’
Germany has implemented stricter border checks as part of a temporary initiative to “curb migration,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced last week. The crackdown will restrict the country’s free-movement zone following a series of attacks attributed to migrants.
The uptick in border control includes stationary and mobile policing at the country’s borders with France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and the Netherlands. The newly patrolled area is part of Schengen, a travel arrangement that guarantees free movement to the over 400 million citizens in the European Union — making Germany’s moves to tighten its border contentious among EU policymakers.
“Such actions are unacceptable from a Polish point of view,” Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said.
Eight people were killed in knife attacks — one of which was by a Syrian refugee seeker and the other by an Afghan immigrant — which prompted the increased regulations. The country’s authorities have said that the checks are set to mitigate immigration over the next six months, but are subject to lasting longer.
In England, a 12-year-old boy becomes the youngest to face prison sentence
A 12-year-old boy became the youngest person in England to be sentenced to prison, after he was issued a yearlong referral order for taking part in anti-immigrant riots outside a mosque.
The boy was part of a group of rioters who threw stones at police and set their vans on fire outside the Southport Islamic Society Mosque. Wendy Lloyd, the district judge who heard the case, also required that he take part in a rehabilitative program and follow a curfew from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. for three months. Lloyd also issued his father a six-month parenting order and a 200 pound fine.
The riots began in the summer, after right-wing activists falsely claimed that a man who stabbed three girls to death was a Muslim immigrant, and circulated a false name for the perpetrator on social media. The stabbing led hundreds of protesters to attack a local mosque, and demonstrations that erupted in the weeks following the incident resulted in thousands of arrests.
Contact Liyana Illyas at [email protected].
