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High alert as Cyclone Biparjoy approaches India, Pakistan coasts
A storm off India’s western coast has strengthened to become a powerful cyclone that could hit India’s Gujarat state and southern parts of Pakistan this week, the weather department says.
The cyclone, named Biparjoy, is expected to make landfall on Thursday afternoon between Mandvi in Gujarat and Karachi in Pakistan with a maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135kmph (78-84mph), gusting up to 150kmph (93mph), the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday.
The IMD has advised fishing communities to halt operations and the evacuation of people from the coastal areas of Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat.
Two of India’s biggest ports – Mundra and Kandla – are in the Gulf of Kutch, while the Jamnagar refinery, the world’s biggest oil refinery complex owned by Reliance Industries, is based in the Saurashtra region. The Gujarat Pipavav Port Limited, in a stock exchange filing on Monday, said operations at its Pipavav Port had been suspended since late Saturday evening due to “prevailing severe weather conditions”.
Seven teams of India’s National Disaster Response Force and 12 teams of State Disaster Response Force have been deployed in the districts likely to be affected by the cyclone, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said in a tweet.
(Aljazeera)
Millions of people are thought to be without electricity across Chile after a large nationwide power outage.
According to the national service for disaster prevention and response (SENAPRED), an area spanning most of the country is impacted, including the capital city, Santiago.
The exact scale of the outage, which began earlier on Tuesday, is not yet known but SENAPRED has said it covers the regions of Arica and Parinacota in the north to Los Lagos in the south.
Reuters news agency has also reported that the world’s largest copper mine, Escondida, is without power, citing a source close to the matter.
LATAM Airlines said that some of its flights may also be disrupted while power supplies were down, and urged passengers to check their journey status.
In a post on X, the Santiago Metro operator said its service had been temporarily suspended due to the ongoing power outage, with stations being evacuated and closed.
Footage from the city showed passengers evacuating stations by walking up switched-off escalators, while traffic signals were also shown not working.
There were also long queues for buses which were still running on the city’s roads.
Maria Angelica Roman, 45, told AFP news agency: “They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don’t know how we will get home because all the buses are full.”
Chile’s interior minister, Carolina Toha, also posted on X to say that a meeting would be called to discuss ongoing measures to restore services.
SENAPRED added that electricity companies across the impacted area were investigating the fault and attempting to restart services, and no emergency situations had been reported.
[BBC]
President Anura Kumara Disanayake met with Ms. Severine Chappaz, the newly appointed Head of Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on Tuesday (25) at the Presidential Secretariat.
Discussions focused on the ICRC’s support for the new government’s policy framework. As part of this collaboration, the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society has agreed to provide technical assistance and capacity-building support to strengthen the Office on Missing Persons (OMP).
President Disanayake highlighted that the budget 2025 has allocated funds for on-going programs related to searching for missing persons.
Additionally, the President announced plans to celebrate “Sri Lankan Day” as a national initiative aimed at fostering unity and strengthening the country’s collective identity, transcending ethnic and religious differences.
The President expressed his gratitude to the ICRC for its humanitarian operations in Sri Lanka since 1989 and acknowledged its continued commitment to the country.
The meeting was also attended by Roshan Gamage, Senior Additional Secretary to the President, and Ruwanthi Jayasundara, Communications Manager of the ICRC.
A meeting between President Anura Kumara Disanayake and the Indonesian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Dewi Gustina Tobing, took place on Tuesday (25) at the Presidential Secretariat.
During the discussion, Ambassador Tobing extended Indonesia’s well wishes to the new government and reaffirmed Indonesia’s commitment to strengthening the 70-year-long friendship between the two nations.
The Ambassador highlighted that both Sri Lanka and Indonesia recently held simultaneous elections and established new governments. She further stated that Indonesia’s current administration will support the “Clean Sri Lanka” programme, noting that measures have been taken to implement a similar initiative in Indonesia.
The discussions also focused on establishing vibrant trade agreements and free trade arrangements between the two nations.
Additionally, both parties explored opportunities to expand markets in a mutually beneficial manner while further strengthening economic, social and cultural ties.
Senior Additional Secretary to the President, Roshan Gamage and Indonesian Deputy Ambassador, Fiki Oktanio, were also present at the meeting.
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