Briefly

INDIA

Cyclone hits Mumbai after 100,000 moved

A cyclone made landfall on Wednesday south of India's financial capital of Mumbai, with storm surge threatening to flood beaches and low-lying slums as city authorities struggle to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Live TV coverage showed inky black clouds framing the sea on India's western coastline. Trees swayed wildly as rain pounded the coastal towns and villages of the central state of Maharashtra. In the state capital Mumbai, the home of Bollywood, India's largest stock exchange and more than 18 million residents, high winds whipped skyscrapers and ripped apart shanty houses near the beach. Mumbai hasn't been hit by a cyclone in more than a century, raising concern about its readiness. Nearly 100,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas in Maharashtra and neighboring Gujarat, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

SOUTH KOREA

Pact reached to pay workers at US bases

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that it had accepted a proposal from South Korea for it to temporarily fund thousands of South Korean workers at US bases who were put on unpaid leave this year. The United States furloughed the workers in April after the two allies failed to sign a new cost-sharing agreement. In a statement, the Pentagon said South Korea would pay more than $200 million to fund 4,000 workers through to the end of this year. "This decision enables a more equitable sharing of the employee labor burden by the ROK and the US," the Pentagon said, referring to South Korea by the initials of its official name, the Republic of Korea.

VENEZUELA

Washington punishes firms for shipping oil

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday said it had sanctioned four shipping firms for transporting Venezuelan oil, the latest escalation in Washington's effort to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by cutting off the OPEC nation's crude exports. Marshall Islands-based Afranav Maritime Ltd, Adamant Maritime Ltd and Sanibel Shiptrade Ltd, as well as Greece-based Seacomber Ltd, all own tankers that lifted Venezuelan oil between February and April this year, the department said. In response, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said in a tweet that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a "criminal obsession" with Venezuela and that US moves to inhibit crude exports would complicate food and medicine imports.