News in Brief -2024-07-27

Typhoon Gaemi lashes China after

pounding Taiwan, Philippines

BEIJING, July 26: Typhoon Gaemi pummelled towns on China's coastal Fujian province on Friday with heavy rains and strong winds as the most powerful storm to hit the country this year began its widely watched trek into the populous interior. The storm has affected almost 630,000 people in China's Fujian so far, with almost half of them having to be relocated, Xinhua news agency reported. Earlier this week, it killed dozens of people as it swept through Taiwan and worsened seasonal rains in the Philippines. Gaemi was packing winds of up to 100.8 kph (62.6 mph) near its centre, easing slightly from 118.8 kph logged on Thursday night when it landed in the Fujian city of Putian. — Reuters

WHO sends over 1m polio vaccines

to Gaza to protect children

GENEVA, July 26: The World Health Organization (WHO) is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday. "While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper. — AFP

Russia deploys cheap drones to

locate Ukraine's air defences

LONDON, July 26: Russia has begun including new, cheaply-made drones in its long-range attacks on Ukraine, to try to identify air defences, film any damage and act as decoys, a Ukrainian military spy official said. The two new types of drone, which Russia has used in five drone attacks in the last two to three weeks including an overnight strike on Thursday, are produced from materials like foam plastic and plywood. — Reuters