China’s capital hunkered down yesterday as rare typhoon-like gales swept northern regions, forcing the closure of historic sites and disrupting travel while bringing late snowfalls and hailstone showers in some areas.
Windows shook and cars were rocked by gusts of wind driven by a cold vortex from neighbouring Mongolia that sent temperatures plunging more than 12°C.
The winds, which began on Friday, are set to continue over the weekend, with gusts of up to 150kph, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Photo: AFP
They brought late snowfalls in Inner Mongolia and hailstones in southern China.
Beijing issued its second-highest gale alert this weekend, for the first time in a decade, warning 22 million residents to avoid non-essential travel as winds could potentially break April records dating from 1951.
By 11:30am yesterday, 838 flights had been canceled at the capital’s two major airports.
Photo: AP
Tourist attractions including the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Beijing Zoo and the Universal Studios theme park were also temporarily closed yesterday.
Almost 300 trees in the Chinese capital had toppled and 19 vehicles had been damaged, CCTV said, adding that no injuries due to the strong winds had been reported in Beijing yet.
The winds forced the postponement of a half-marathon set for today featuring humanoid robots competing with humans in a bid to showcase China’s technological advances.
Photo: AP
Sandstorms raging over a stretch from Inner Mongolia to the Yangtze River region crippled road travel in eight provinces, state broadcaster CCTV and Xinhua said.
Strong winds bringing sand and dust from Mongolia are routine in spring, but climate change has made weather events more extreme.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.
Dozens of people were killed and thousands evacuated during storms that caused severe flooding around the country last year.
In May last year, a highway in southern China collapsed after days of rain, killing 48 people.
Additional reporting by AFP
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is leaning into his banking background as his country fights a trade war with the US, but his financial ties have also made him a target for conspiracy theories. Incorporating tropes familiar to followers of the far-right QAnon movement, conspiratorial social media posts about the Liberal leader have surged ahead of the country’s April 28 election. Posts range from false claims he recited a “satanic chant” at a campaign event to artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images of him in a pool with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “He’s the ideal person to be targeted here, for sure, due to
DISPUTE: Beijing seeks global support against Trump’s tariffs, but many governments remain hesitant to align, including India, ASEAN countries and Australia China is reaching out to other nations as the US layers on more tariffs, in what appears to be an attempt by Beijing to form a united front to compel Washington to retreat. Days into the effort, it is meeting only partial success from countries unwilling to ally with the main target of US President Donald Trump’s trade war. Facing the cratering of global markets, Trump on Wednesday backed off his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, saying countries were lining up to negotiate more favorable conditions. China has refused to seek talks, saying the US was insincere and that it
RSS