Typhoon Noul moves towards Guangdong, prompting emergency responses, mass evacuations

Typhoon Noul, the 12th typhoon of the year, was upgraded from a tropical storm to a typhoon Saturday morning as it barreled toward the coast of South China's Guangdong province, prompting emergency authorities to upgrade disaster responses and order thousands of vessels to port.

The eye of the typhoon was located about 295 kilometers southeast of Guangdong's Shanwei City at 02:00 GMT Saturday, packing maximum winds of roughly 118-133 kilometers per hour, according to the National Meteorological Center.

Forecasters expect Noul to make landfall along the coast between Hong Kong and Lufeng City, Guangdong, from Saturday evening through Sunday morning, bringing intense wind and heavy rainfall.

In response, the National Meteorological Center maintained an orange alert for typhoons, the second-highest level in China's four-tier warning system, alongside orange alerts for rainstorms and blue alerts for severe convection.

The China Meteorological Administration activated a Level-II emergency response, while the Ministry of Natural Resources raised its marine disaster emergency response for Guangdong to Level-II.

In Guangdong, the provincial flood control headquarters elevated the wind-prevention emergency response to Level-II at 01:00 GMT Saturday.

In the coastal city of Shantou, local authorities raised the wind-prevention response to Level-III and hoisted a typhoon yellow warning on Saturday morning.

More than 5,900 fishing vessels have returned to port, and authorities have evacuated 262 fish-raft aquaculture workers, 70 marine ranch employees, and 89 offshore wind power construction personnel.

Shantou has also closed 20 tourist attractions, suspended all on-campus school activities, halted construction work at all city sites, and plans to shut down the Nan'ao Bridge at 08:00 GMT Saturday.

A total of 2,483 residents across the city have been relocated as of 14:00 GMT on Friday.

Meteorological agencies warned of heavy to severe rainstorms over the next three days.

Typhoon Noul is also expected to bring heavy rain to the neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

In response, the Guangxi Maritime Safety Administration activated Level-IV emergency responses for both typhoons and flood control on Friday evening.

Maritime bureaus in cities including Fangchenggang, Qinzhou, and Beihai issued safety notices to vessels in port, while traffic regulators restricted ships from heading north through the Qiongzhou Strait.

As of 15:00 GMT on Friday, the local authorities suspended 40 ferry crossings across the region, while local reservoirs, including the Hongchaojiang Reservoir in Beihai, began pre-releasing water to manage expected runoff.

Typhoon Noul moves towards Guangdong, prompting emergency responses, mass evacuations

The United States, on one hand, strikes Iran's nuclear facilities, and on the other hand, signs a nuclear energy cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, a move that exposes Washington's consistent double standards, said an Iranian analyst on Friday.

According to announcements from the U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday and Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy on Thursday, the United States and Saudi Arabia have reached a nuclear energy cooperation agreement. Iranian political analyst Arash Akbari said that both Saudi Arabia and Iran are signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and enjoy the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy.

"At the same time that the U.S. is striking Iranian nuclear facilities in the middle of Iran, and it is threatening the life of living creatures, not only human, at the same time they are dealing with Saudi Arabia and giving them the rights, the same right that Iran is having now, which is being destroyed. This is the best example of double standard," Arash said.

Arash also said that Iran will resolutely respond to the U.S. strikes on its civilian facilities.

"We are on a direct confrontation with U.S. And the U.S. is striking Iranian civilian facilities such as roads, bridges, dams, tunnels. But at the same time, Iran is doing a confrontation on the basis of proportional self-defense. So whatever we are getting hit, we are getting hit back. At this stage, I think we are not at the end of this confrontation," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday attached a new condition to the U.S.-Saudi civilian nuclear agreement signed one day earlier, saying that the deal will move forward only if Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords.

In response, the expert said that the United States intends to use the nuclear energy cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia to bring Israel closer to regional Arab countries and strengthen Israel's strategic position in the Middle East.

US-Saudi nuclear deal exposes Washington's double standards: Iranian analyst