Morning Briefing

The Health Department in the Philippines "warned Monday of a possible spread of infectious diseases" in the capital of Manila, which has had the largest rainfall "in nearly half a century, according to the government weather bureau," the New York Times reports. Rains have flooded "80 percent of this metropolis of 12 million people" and killed 240 so far. The government declared a "'state of calamity' in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, including many that had not flooded before, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue," the newspaper writes.