HUALIEN, Taiwan (Reuters) – Rescue workers in Taiwan battled through thick mud on Friday, looking for 11 people still missing after Super Typhoon Ragasa this week sent a wall of water into a small town on the east coast.
The flooding’s death toll held steady at 14.
The heavy rains in Hualien county caused a so-called barrier lake in the mountains to overflow on Tuesday and release a thick sludge of water and mud on the town of Guangfu.
While the flood waters have receded, the dark grey mud continues to blanket large parts of the area, creating problems for residents and rescuers alike.
Rescue workers, sometimes wading in mud up to their waists, have been cutting holes in the roofs of buildings to check for missing people.
A man who gave his family name as Hwang said he was still looking for his elder sister’s body.
“She died in the house because it was completely filled with mud and there was no way to get her out,” he said.
Many of the deaths occurred on the first floors of houses after people, often elderly, were unable to follow government orders to move upstairs and out of the way.
Huang Ju-hsing, 88, has been trapped inside his second-floor home after the flooding blocked access to his family-run grocery store downstairs.
“There was no time to escape. We told him to hurry up and go upstairs,” said his wife Chang Hsueh-mei, who has been able to scramble over the wreckage downstairs and get outside.
“When you’re faced with an emergency, you suddenly find the courage to do anything,” said Chang, 78, after climbing through aisles of fallen objects to reach her husband.
Mountainous, sparsely populated and largely rural, Hualien is one of Taiwan’s top tourist destinations due to its wild beauty.
What to do about the barrier lake, formed by earlier typhoons and which has now shrunk in size to only 12% of what it was before the disaster, remains an unresolved issue.
Barrier lakes are formed when rocks, landslides or other natural blockages make a dam across a river, normally in a valley, blocking and holding back water, hindering or even stopping natural drainage.
The government has ruled out using explosives to break through the bank holding up the water, fearing it could bring more landslides and worsen the situation.
The disaster has not impacted Taiwan’s crucial semiconductor industry, located on the island’s west coast.
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Good morning and welcome back to the final edition of FirstFT this week. Here’s what we have for you today:
A US peace plan for Gaza
Pharma industry hit with new tariffs
Report on conditions inside an iPhone factory in China
And the divorce capital of the world
Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in the US for an address today to the UN General Assembly after a week of intense diplomatic activity in New York to thrash out a Gaza peace plan. Here’s what you need to know.
What has been agreed? Nothing yet but former UK prime minister Tony Blair is pushing to play a senior role in the governance of Gaza after the war ends, following talks with the White House. Donald Trump held meetings with Arab and Muslim leaders this week on the sidelines of the UN to discuss proposals for a peace plan. The proposals include establishing a Palestinian committee to administer the war-ravaged strip, which would be overseen by an international supervisory board. One of the people briefed on the plans said Blair would like to be on the supervisory board. Another person familiar with the matter said he had been proposed as the chair of the board of a “Gaza International Transitional Authority”. Trump’s proposals include elements of various European and Arab plans that have been discussed in the past month. The US president’s plan also states there would be no forced displacement of Gazans.
What does Israel think of the plan? That is the big question. A test will come when Netanyahu meets Trump at the White House on Monday. Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to “destroy” Hamas and recently ordered a new offensive on Gaza City. Members of Netanyahu’s right-wing government have also demanded the immediate annexation of the West Bank, something Trump ruled out this week. Israel’s traditional allies — the UK, Canada, France and Australia — formally recognised a Palestinian state this week in a rebuke to Netanyahu amid mounting international outrage over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Read more on Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:
Economic data: The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure is released in a crucial test for the future path of US interest rates. The Personal Consumption Expenditures index is expected to have risen last month. Brazil’s central bank is expected to report the country’s current account deficit for August while Mexico’s national statistics agency is set to update the trade balance.
Federal Reserve speakers: Thomas Barkin, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond president, is scheduled to speak at the Peterson Institute for International Economics while Fed vice-chair for supervision Michelle Bowman is expected to participate in an event in New York.
Golf: The 45th biennial Ryder Cup golf tournament between Europe and the US begins in Farmingdale, New York. The event will run until Sunday.
FT journalists will convene today to discuss the accomplishments of New York Climate Week 2025, its impact on the lead-up to COP30, and share exclusive insights from their discussions with industry leaders and experts. Register here for free.
How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.
Five more top stories
1. Exclusive: Chinese factory staff assembling Apple’s latest iPhone face precarious conditions, working many hours of overtime, suffering wage delays and discrimination against ethnic minorities, according to a leading labour rights group. Read Eleanor Olcott’s undercover investigation into Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant.
TikTok split: The social media app’s US unit will be valued at about $14bn under Donald Trump’s deal to force its divestiture from its Chinese parent.
‘Cease and disable’: Microsoft has stopped providing some services to the Israeli military after a probe into the use of its products to surveil Palestinian civilians.
2. The US justice department has filed charges against James Comey after pressure from Trump to prosecute the former FBI director who investigated contacts between the president’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Read more on the case.
3. Donald Trump has said the US will impose 100 per cent tariffs on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical goods from October 1, in a sudden escalation of his trade war. In a flurry of social media posts Trump also said tariffs on imported trucks and furniture products would be extended.
4. German chancellor Friedrich Merz has called on the EU to use frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s war effort in a stark reversal of Berlin’s previous scepticism about the proposal. The move could unlock up to €140bn for Kyiv to use to buy military equipment. Read more on the proposal.
5. Accenture has reduced its global workforce by more than 11,000 in the past three months and warned staff that more would be asked to leave if they cannot be retrained for the age of artificial intelligence. Details of the restructuring plan were released alongside the IT consulting group’s annual results.
Today’s big read
A ruling this month paves the way for the biggest divorce case ever heard in the UK. It will also encourage an even greater number of “divorce tourists” to travel to England, say lawyers. Lucy Warwick-Ching and Alistair Gray explain why Natalia Potanina’s victory cements London’s reputation as the divorce capital of the world.
We’re also reading . . .
Chart of the day
A study has shown that voters and mainstream politicians have long been aligned on economic issues such as tax and public ownership, writes John Burn-Murdoch. But on sociocultural issues such as immigration and criminal justice there is a gulf. The result is the opening up of a wide “representation gap” into which the populist right is rapidly expanding.
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Take a break from the news . . .
The Lapalala Wilderness Reserve in Limpopo province, three hours north of Johannesburg by car, is a sanctuary for lions, rhinos, giraffes and antelopes. It is also home to Lepogo Lodges, one of the few entirely not-for-profit safari lodges in South Africa. As impressive as the scenery are the retreat’s pioneering efforts in protecting wildlife and indigenous culture.
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday outliningthe terms of a deal to transfer TikTok to a US owner.
Trump said he and China’s president Xi Jinping had come to an agreement to allow TikTok to continue operating in the US, separating the social media platform from its Chinese owner ByteDance. Trump said the deal complies with a law that would have forced the shutdown of the app for American users had it not been divested and sold to a US owner.
“I spoke with President Xi and he said, ‘Go ahead with it,’” Trump said at a press conference. “This is going to be American-operated all the way.”
Under the plan, US investors will take over the majority of TikTok’s operations and take charge of a licensed copy of the app’s powerful recommendation algorithm. American companies are expected to own about 80% of the US version of the spun off company, while ByteDance and Chinese investors will own less than 20%. The new version of TikTok will be controlled by a seven-member board of directors made up of cybersecurity and national security experts, six of them Americans, according to the White House.
The new US company will be valued at $14bn, according to JD Vance, who also spoke at the press conference, a number far lower than the valuation for ByteDance overall, which is estimated to be around $330bn. By comparison, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is valued at $1.8tn.
The group of American TikTok investors is led by the US software giant Oracle, which will oversee TikTok’s US operations, provide cloud service for user data storage and get a license to take control of the app’s algorithm. White House officials have said ByteDance and Chinese officials will not have access to US user data.
Along with Oracle and its co-founder Larry Ellison, Trump said at the press conference that other investors include media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the CEO of Dell computers Michael Dell. “Great investors. The biggest. They don’t get bigger,” Trump said. Vance added that more details about who is involved in the deal will be announced over the next few days.
When asked if TikTok would start prioritizing Maga-related content, Trump said, “I always like Maga-related. If I could, I’d make it 100% Maga-related” but indicated that the app would continue recommending a wide variety of content as before, saying: “Every group will be treated fairly”.
The deal ends months of legal limbo for one of the US’s most widely used apps, while also giving several US companies a powerful newfound influence within the social media industry. TikTok is used by about 180 million people nationwide, and Trump has credited it with helping him win the 2024 presidential election. The deal is also another foray for the Trump administration to exert influence over the tech industry, after it took a 10% stake in chipmaker Intel earlier this month and has urged companies like Apple and Nvidia to invest hundreds of billions domestically.
Trump had earlier indicated that the US government would receive a lucrative fee from the US investors for negotiating the deal with China, saying last week: “The United States is getting a tremendous fee-plus – I call it a fee-plus – for just making the deal.”
But on Thursday, when asked about this, the president simply said the US would take ordinary taxes from the new company, adding: “We’re gonna make money and we’re going to get a lot of money in taxes.”
TikTok once faced bipartisan pushback from lawmakers over concerns about data privacy, and allegations China could use the app to spread propaganda or undermine US democracy. TikTok repeatedly denied those claims, but Congress overwhelmingly voted last year to compel ByteDance to find a US buyer or face a ban in the country.
The supreme court unanimously upheld the ban in January. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order postponing the ban and has since repeatedly delayed its enforcement. The “Saving TikTok” executive order Trump issued on Thursday says the deal complies with the law passed by Congress, is a “qualified divestiture” and “resolves” national security concerns. The divestiture from ByteDance isn’t expected to be completed for another 120 days.
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At the press conference, Trump said “the young people” were rooting for him to “save TikTok”. He credited the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed earlier this month, for urging him to join the social media platform.
“Charlie helped me a lot too. He said, ‘You should go on TikTok,’” Trump said.
Last week, Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, announced that the US and China had reached a framework for a deal on TikTok following a series of high-level talks in Madrid. China’s top trade negotiator Li Chengang confirmed the agreement later that day, as well as issued a warning against the US attempting “suppression” against Chinese companies.
Although Trump had also alluded to the deal last week, he declined to provide any details.
“A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much want to save. They will be very happy!” he posted on Truth Social.
The Red Sea is a 1200-mile narrow strip of water located between northeastern Africa and the Arabian Sea which separates the coast of Suez-Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea from Saudi Arabia and Yemen, connecting the Gulf of Aden with the Arabian Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. It covers an area of 174,000 miles and is 190 miles wide and 9,974 feet deep. The name of the Red Sea is derived from the pattern of colour changes observed in its waters. It contains major mineral resources and has the world’s hottest and saltiest water, which has made it one of the key maritime trade routes.
According to World Bank data, Bab el-Mandeb is a route to 30 per cent of oil supplies and 40 per cent of other goods. However, the oil and natural gas deposits have been exploited by the nations adjoining the sea. In 2023, approximately 22 per cent of the global trade passed through the Suez Canal, carrying goods and products. In addition, the Suez Canal contributes 9.4 billion dollars, which is 2.3 per cent of a country’s GDP in the fiscal year 2022-23.
However, the Houthis’ attacks in the Red Sea have disrupted key maritime routes, threatening global trade, energy security and environmental compliance. Participation of international actors, since 2011, increased the scope of war, and Houthis started targeting military and commercial vessels in international waters and other places, hindering peace and security in the region and around the globe.
However, a deal was signed in December 2023, involving the Houthis-controlled North and Saudi-backed Yemeni government as part of a UN-brokered agreement. The agreement is considered a special envoy for Yemen. The purpose of this deal was to lift sanctions at Sana airport and Hodeida port; make Yemen more economically open; and decrease the number of attacks. However, according to the Pentagon, the Houthis carried out more than 100 drones and missile attacks targeting merchant vessels involving more than 35 countries. These attacks induced the United States to set up a multinational naval taskforce to protect Red Sea Shipping.
The Houthis, a Muslim group that stands with the Palestinian cause, control approximately 70 per cent of Yemen. Either these attacks are meant to target the ships that are doing business with Israel and to put pressure on the players involved in the conflict, as a mark of protest against Israel that is carrying out a genocide in Gaza, or it may be a way for Houthis to strengthen their hold on power.
The Houthis have been targeting commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea since November 2023, primarily the ships of the US, the UK and Israel. It is meant to disrupt arms aid to Israel as part of efforts to prevent Israel from committing Palestinian genocide.
The Houthis’ attacks impacted trade in various ways. These ways include the disruptions caused by overlapping shipping disorders. The world is facing simultaneous disruption as these attacks pose further implications for food and energy security and inflation. Moreover, the induced climate droughts, escalating attacks and the Russia-Ukraine war compounded the disruptions. The decrease in monthly transit – less than 40 per cent in the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal underscores the magnitude of overlapping ships.
The Suez Canal enables a more direct route, with 22 per cent of global trade passing through it. However, given the risk of ship attacks, many ships reroute, opting for a longer route from Africa, impacting trade. It has been estimated that around 586 container vessels were rerouted in February 2024.
The climate-induced droughts have created an alarming situation for the Panama Canal which is experiencing low water levels. This has reduced the daily transits from an average of 36 to 22 with predictions of further reduction to 18 per day by February 2024. This also increased the demand for rail and road routes. This rerouting has also increased the distance and shifted operations for maritime cargo. The car-carrying ships have dropped to half in 2023 as compared to 2022, due to this rerouting.
Moreover, the Red Sea shipping traffic has dropped to 60 per cent since 2023, approximately falling from 90 to 36 in August 2024. This disruption increased energy prices, rising 5-10 per cent during the peak attack period in 2024. It also impacts regional imports as regional ports and trade hubs face reduced activity, thus straining the economy. These disruptions also pose environmental threats such that the rerouting of ships leads to overconsumption of fuel, thus raising carbon emissions and straining compliance with the International Maritime Organization environmental regulations of 2022. Moreover, these attacks cause further escalation, resulting in intensified humanitarian crisis.
These events pose great implications at regional and global levels. It includes 9-10 per cent global trade disruption, raising shipping costs, reducing canal revenues by up to 40 per cent and reducing canal transits to below 40 per cent in 2023. Moreover, it also has an environmental impact due to the rise in fuel usage by 30-40 per cent and increased carbon emissions. In addition, the US-UK naval coalition, China’s muted response and Gulf states avoiding intervention redirect oil exports, causing economic instability. In contrast, according to a Wall of Street Journal report on October 24, Russia provides logistical support and intelligence to the Houthis in Yemen. Moreover, Iran and Russia have strengthened their military alliance and are supporting Houthis.
The Houthis’ attacks on Red Sea shipping, disrupting 9-10% of global trade, have slashed Suez Canal revenue, increased shipping costs and strained global supply chains, risking inflation and shortages. These attacks, coupled with a 30-40% rise in fuel use, challenge environmental regulations and escalate geopolitical tensions, as the US-UK airstrikes counter Houthis’ actions, while China remains reserved and Gulf states prioritise oil exports and diplomacy. As the EU shifts to Gulf oil, the ongoing Red Sea crisis, compounded by prior global economic shocks, threatens regional stability and global economic hegemony.
Benjamin Netanyahu has again taken a significantly longer flight route than necessary, avoiding the airspace of several European countries, this time while en route to the UN in New York.
The Israeli prime minister, who has an international criminal court arrest warrant against him for alleged crimes including starvation as a method of warfare, made a trip that flight-tracking data showed followed the Mediterranean Sea, rather than a more direct route over the continent.
The Wing of Zion, Israel’s equivalent of the US’s Air Force One, did cross territory over Greece and Italy but then turned south towards the strait of Gibraltar before heading across the Atlantic.
The Israeli government did not give an official reason for the routing, although Israeli media reported it was to avoid overflying a country that would be obliged to arrest him.
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Shorter, more fuel-efficient routes may have flown across France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and the UK. Those countries have all signed the ICC statute and would be legally required to arrest and surrender Netanyahu to The Hague-based court if he entered their territory.
While there is disagreement over whether a country’s military should enforce the rule by forcing a plane to land, the case would be much clearer if Netanyahu’s plane were to make an unscheduled or emergency landing.
France had previously authorised Israeli use of its airspace for Thursday’s flight, the French news agency AFP reported, citing a French diplomatic source. However, the flight did not cross French territory, possibly changing plans en route.
Relations between Israel and France have soured recently, with Paris heading an international diplomatic push to put pressure on Israel to end the bloodshed in Gaza, including by recognising Palestine as a state this week.
Netanyahu bitterly opposes recognition, and his political career has focused on preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Jerusalem Post reported two weeks ago that some journalists and members of Netanyahu’s entourage would not accompany him to compensate for the additional fuel required for the extended route.
It is not the first time Netanyahu’s fight has taken a circuitous route. In July, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, criticised Italy, France, and Greece for providing “safe passage to ICC-wanted Benjamin Netanyahu” when he flew to the US.
Three months earlier, the Times of Israel cited the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, as telling a pro-settlement organisation that Netanyahu’s flight to Washington DC in February had taken steps to avoid making an emergency landing in Europe.
Fears of a medical emergency while in the air were heightened as Netanyahu had his prostate removed in late 2024. “He had just had surgery, he came with two doctors, and they told him he may have to land for treatment,” it quoted the ambassador as saying. “But if he were to land anywhere in Europe, he could be arrested as a war criminal.”
The ambassador reportedly said Netanyahu’s flight deviated to fly in airspace close to US army bases, so he could land on those in an emergency.
The Israeli leader is scheduled to address the UN general assembly on Friday and is due to meet the US president, Donald Trump, next week. Both Netanyahu and Trump reject the authority of the ICC.
The Israeli military says its air force has carried out its “most powerful strike” in Yemen in response to the Houthi movement’s repeated drone and missile attacks on Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said dozens of its aircraft bombed targets belonging to the Houthis’ security and intelligence services, and military in the capital Sanaa.
The Houthi-run government’s health ministry denounced what it called Israel’s “brutal crime”, saying civilian facilities and residential buildings were hit and that eight people were killed.
It comes a day after 22 people were injured, two of them seriously, in a Houthi drone attack in the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat.
The Houthis have controlled much of north-western Yemen since they ousted the country’s internationally recognised government from there 10 years ago, sparking a civil war.
They began attacking Israel and international shipping in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden shortly after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, saying they were acting in support of the Palestinians.
Israel has carried out many rounds of air strikes in Yemen in retaliation for the hundreds of missiles and drones that have been launched at the country by the Houthis.
Videos from Sanaa showed large plumes of black smoke rising from at least three locations in the city following the Israeli strikes on Thursday afternoon.
The attack took place moments before Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV began broadcasting a speech by the movement’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.
Al-Masirah reported that the strikes targeted residential areas in the Maain and Sabaeen districts, as well as the Dhahban power station. It posted photographs showing several destroyed and damaged buildings.
Health ministry spokesman Dr Anees al-Asbahi accused the IDF of the “deliberate and systematic targeting of civilian, service, and residential facilities”, which he said was “a war crime in every sense of the word.
He reported that eight people were killed and 142 injured, and that civilians were among them. He added that first responders were still searching under rubble for casualties.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that his country had “delivered a powerful strike on numerous terror targets of the Houthi terror organisation in Sanaa”.
The IDF said in a statement that the targets included the Houthi military’s General Staff Command Headquarters, security and intelligence compounds, the Houthis’ “military public relations headquarters”, and military camps used to store weapons.
“The IDF will operate against the ongoing and repeated attacks of the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel, will conduct additional offensive operations against the Houthi regime in the near future,” it added.
A separate statement from the Israeli military said an inquiry into Wednesday’s Houthi attack on Eilat had suggested that the drone launched from Yemen was “detected relatively late, and that warning sirens were activated in accordance with protocol.
“Interception attempts were made using the Iron Dome [air defence system], but were unsuccessful. The cause for that has been identified, and corrective measures were implemented.”
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Israeli forces have intercepted more than 98% of the drones launched towards Israel by the Houthis, according to the IDF.
The Houthis’ military spokesman said the attack was a “response to the crimes of genocide and the dangerous escalation carried out by the Israeli enemy against our people in the Gaza Strip”.
On 10 September, four days after a Houthi drone attack on Eilat’s Ramon airport wounded one person, the Israeli military carried out a series of strikes in Sanaa and al-Jawf province that killed 35 people, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week that 31 journalists and media support workers were among those killed in Sanaa and that the incident constituted the deadliest single attack on the press worldwide in 16 years.
Yemen’s September 26 newspaper said all but one of them had worked in its office or the headquarters of the government’s Moral Guidance Directorate, which were both bombed.
The IDF said at the time that it had targeted the “Houthi Public Relations Department”.
