CASE INDICTMENT ‘RIDICULOUS,’ SAYS TRUMP IN SOUTH

WASHINGTON—Former president Donald Trump appeared before ardent supporters in the deeply conservative southern state of Alabama on Friday, dismissing the latest federal indictment against him a day earlier as an “illegal and unconstitutional travesty.”

Trump, who is facing sweeping conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, called the indictment “ridiculous.”

“It’s an act of desperation by a failed disgraced crooked Joe Biden and his radical left thugs to preserve their grip on power,” Trump told the crowd.

A day after his visit to largely hostile Washington, Trump received a warm reception at the Republican summer dinner in Montgomery, Alabama’s state capital.

The 77-year-old billionaire won Alabama by landslides in 2016 and 2020, and all six Republicans the state sends to the House of Representatives in Washington endorsed his re-election bid ahead of the evening engagement.

He is also backed by Alabama’s senior senator, lieutenant governor and agriculture commissioner, although the junior senator and the governor have yet to endorse any candidate in the Republican primary. AFP is the most severe recorded in 140 years, when records began.

China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said that 142 of the deaths or disappearances recorded in July were caused by flooding or geological disasters.

The remaining five deaths or disappearances were due to other natural disasters such as drought.

Overall, floods and other geological disasters affected individuals to varying degrees over 7 million times.

More than 2,300 houses collapsed, and direct economic losses amounted to 15.8 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion), the release said.

The previously announced death toll from the floods in Beijing and surrounding provinces was at least 20, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

In that region, the rain has overwhelmed suburbs and rural areas, leaving a trail of muddy debris in its wake.

Dramatic aerial photographs taken by AFP of Hebei province’s Zhuozhou city showed shopping streets turned into rivers of brown water, while others showed farmland in the surrounding areas completely submerged and floodwater stretching for miles.

AFP saw rescuers using boats to ferry instant noodles, bread and drinking water to residents who could not or did not want to leave properties engulfed by water.

Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon, swept northwards over China after hitting southern Fujian province last week, following its battering of the Philippines.

Heavy rains began pounding the typically dry capital and surrounding areas last Saturday. AFP

SEOUL—American and British scouts pulled out of the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea Saturday citing scorching temperatures, as organisers weighed whether to cut short an event also reportedly plagued by dire campsite conditions.

About 43,000 people have joined the jamboree in North Jeolla province, but an extreme heatwave has seen hundreds of scouts fall ill, forcing Seoul to deploy military doctors and vow an all-out effort to salvage the event.

But despite the government’s promises of air-conditioned buses and freezer trucks, the US contingent said Saturday they would withdraw, following a British decision to exit Friday, citing concerns over the extreme weather.

The American scouts will go to Camp Humphreys, a US Army garrison in Pyeongtaek, according to US officials.

The World Organization of the Scout Movement has called on South Korea to shorten the event -- scheduled to run until August 12 in the coastal town of Buan -- pointing to issues caused by one of the country’s hottest summers in years. AFP

A NEW York gathering called by a popular online influencer drew an unexpectedly large crowd on Friday and degenerated into violence that left people injured, prompting a massive police turnout, authorities said.

It all started with a posting on Instagram from 21-year-old Kai Cenat, calling on fans to meet him in lower Manhattan for a live-streamed event where he would hand out gifts including PlayStation 5 game consoles.

Thousands of young people -- at least 2,000 according to US media -- gathered very quickly on Union Square and surrounding streets in the hopes of seeing Cenat, who has millions of followers on Twitch, YouTube, Instagram and other social media.

As the streets heaved, young men started throwing objects from a nearby construction site, targeting people in the crowd and the police, who were rapidly deployed in large numbers.

Television footage and news photographs showed rioters surrounding and blocking vehicles, with young men kicking and smashing some of the cars. AFP

Ukraine Drone Hits Large Russian Oil Tanker

KYIV—Ukraine carried out a drone strike on a Russian tanker in the Kerch Strait, a source in the security service told AFP Saturday, a day after one of Moscow’s ships was hit in the Black Sea.

This is the latest of the increasingly frequent attacks in the Black Sea since Moscow exited a deal last month that had allowed Ukrainian grain exports there.

“Overnight the (Ukrainian Security Service) SBU blew up the ‘SIG’, a large oil tanker of the Russian Federation that was transporting fuel for Russian troops,” the security source said.

It added that the “successful special operation”, which involved a naval drone and explosives, was carried out jointly with the Navy on Ukrainian territorial waters. The source described the targeted vessel as “one of the most powerful oil tankers of the Russian Federation.”

“It was well-loaded with fuel, so the ‘fireworks’ could be seen from afar,” the source added.

Russian authorities said the SIG tanker was hit around 11:20 pm (2020 GMT) Friday south of the Kerch Strait.

The oil and chemical tanker is under US sanctions for supplying jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency said there were no casualties in the attack, citing the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of Novorossiysk.

The SIG suffered a hole at the waterline in the area of the engine room, “presumably as a result of an attack by a marine drone”, the agency said on Telegram. “The ship is afloat.”

An oil boom had been placed around the vessel and preparations were under way to patch the damage, it said.

The Marine Traffic vessel-tracking website showed the SIG stationary and attended by tugs just south of the strait.

The oil and chemical tanker is under US sanctions for supplying jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency said there were no casualties in the attack, citing the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of Novorossiysk.

Traffic on the bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula to Russia’s mainland was halted for around three hours and resumed early Saturday, according to the Russian highways information centre’s Telegram channel. AFP