A powerful typhoon, Doksuri hit the northern Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, toppling trees, knocking out power and dumping heavy rain as thousands of people took shelter in emergency evacuation centers. Twelve others were injured, the country's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said on Friday. The disaster agency said over 500,000 people have been affected by the typhoon, and 20 people remain missing. The tropical storm made landfall in the coastal areas of Fujian Province, southeast China, on Friday, according to China's National Meteorological Center. Earlier, it had led to the cancellation of dozens of flights in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Japan had a record fall in its population in 2022, government data showed on Wednesday. The population in the country has now fallen for 14 straight years. For the first time, the population fell in all 47 prefectures of the country. In January, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that Japan was "on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society." The country has the world's second-oldest population, after Monaco. This has also led to a 90-percent increase in the number of abandoned homes in the past 20 years.

China launched its first flexible solar wing on Sunday, along with another three remote sensing satellites, from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province. The satellite is a flat-panel, stackable one. It was sent by a Long March-2D rocket, which blasted off at 10:50 a.m. Beijing Time; all four satellites have entered their preset orbit. The communications satellite, known as Lingxi-03, developed by GalaxySpace, is the first in China to use a flexible solar wing that is small, lightweight and features modularization.

Dengue is spreading quickly through Bangladesh this rainy season. It has raised fears that the mosquito-borne disease could result in a record number of deaths and infections for the second consecutive year. At least 201 people, more than half of them in the capital Dhaka, have died, and more than 37,000 have become infected with the virus so far this year, according to official figures. Hospitals in Dhaka are struggling to find space for the high caseload of patients.

Heavy rain brought flooding to Delhi on Wednesday, forcing some evacuations and school closures as the region braced for more downpours two weeks after the Yamuna river burst its banks, inundating parts of the city. Hundreds of vehicles were submerged in Noida, part of the National Capital Region (NCR), which adjoins southeast Delhi. People living near its banks had to move to higher ground, television footage showed, and some neighborhood schools were closed.

(Cover: Children on the sea wall at Navotas in Metro Manila as Super Typhoon Doksuri passes close to Luzon island, Bangdo, Philippines.  July 26, 2023. /CFP)