Latest news with #GoNakamura
Japan Today
23-07-2025
- Climate
- Japan Today
Record heat in China strains power grid, stirs health fears
FILE PHOTO: People put cooling gel sheets on their foreheads to cool themselves amid a yellow alert for heat, in Shanghai, China July 4, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo BEIJING (Reuters) -China warned on Wednesday against the risk of power supply disruptions as people struggled to keep cool in record heat baking large swathes of the country, which also spurred warnings to the elderly to guard against heat stroke. Power demand exceeded 1.5 billion kilowatts for the first time last week, energy officials said, the third successive record for China this month, when its first nationwide alert on heat-related health risks also went out. "High-temperature weather will ... have an impact on power generation and supply," weather official Chen Hui told a press conference on Wednesday, adding that it would hit hydropower output and reduce the efficiency of photovoltaic generation. Authorities will send alerts to notify electricity suppliers if measures such as peak shaving and cross-regional dispatching of power are called for, added Chen, an official of the China Meteorological Administration. Over the weekend, China announced that construction had begun on what will be the world's largest hydropower dam in Tibet, at an estimated cost of at least $170 billion, cheering investors but vexing downstream neighbours India and Bangladesh. The project is expected to produce 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, equal to the amount of electricity consumed by Britain last year, as Beijing seeks to meet the country's growing power demand. Since mid-March, the number of days when temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) or more is the highest on record, said Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Climate Centre. Authorities asked the elderly to stay indoors unless necessary, while urging outdoor workers to scale down activity on such "sauna days". Temperatures have hit new highs since mid-March in the central provinces of Henan and Hubei, Shandong in the east, Sichuan in the southwest, and northwestern Shaanxi and Xinjiang, pushing the national average to the second highest on record. During the last two weeks, above 40 degrees C (104 F) heat enveloped 407,000 square kilometres of the country, Jia said. That is more than the land area of Germany or Japan. In the same period, roughly one in 10 national weather observatories tracked temperatures above 40C with one in Xinjiang reaching 48.7C. Jia did not rule out the chance of more record-breaking heat, saying August could prove as warm as, or even hotter than, in recent years. (Reporting by Xiuhao Chen and Liz Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Clarence Fernandez and Kim Coghill) © (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
The Standard
23-07-2025
- Climate
- The Standard
Record heat in China strains power grid, stirs health fears
People put cooling gel sheets on their foreheads to cool themselves amid a yellow alert for heat, in Shanghai, China July 4, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo
Straits Times
23-07-2025
- Climate
- Straits Times
Record heat in China strains power grid, stirs health fears
Find out what's new on ST website and app. FILE PHOTO: People put cooling gel sheets on their foreheads to cool themselves amid a yellow alert for heat, in Shanghai, China July 4, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo BEIJING - China warned on Wednesday against the risk of power supply disruptions as people struggled to keep cool in record heat baking large swathes of the country, which also spurred warnings to the elderly to guard against heat stroke. Power supply suffers while demand surges, exceeding 1.5 billion kilowatts for the first time last week, energy officials said, in a third new record for China this month, when its first nationwide alert on heat-related health risks also went out. "High-temperature weather will ... have an impact on power generation and supply," weather official Chen Hui told a press conference on Wednesday, adding that it would hit hydropower output and reduce the efficiency of photovoltaic generation. Authorities will send alerts to notify electricity suppliers if tactics such as peak-shaving and cross-regional dispatching of power are called for, added Chen, an official of the China Meteorological Administration. Since mid-March, the number of days when temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) or more is the highest on record, said Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Climate Centre. Authorities asked the elderly to stay indoors unless necessary, while urging outdoor workers to scale down activity on such "sauna days". Temperatures have hit new highs since mid-March in the central provinces of Henan and Hubei, Shandong in the east, Sichuan in the southwest, and northwestern Shaanxi and Xinjiang, pushing the national average to the second highest on record. During the last two weeks, 152 national weather observatories tracked temperatures above 40 degrees C (104 F) with one in Xinjiang reaching 48.7 degrees C (119.7 F), Jia said. He did not rule out the chance of more record-breaking heat, saying August could prove as warm as, or even hotter than, in recent years. REUTERS
The Star
07-07-2025
- Climate
- The Star
Students shelter in libraries as heatwave hits eastern China
People put cooling gel sheets on their foreheads to cool themselves amid a yellow alert for heat, in Shanghai, China, on July 4, 2025. -- Photo: REUTERS/Go Nakamura BEIJING (Reuters): Universities in eastern China scrambled to upgrade their dorms with air conditioning, and one let students sleep in cooler libraries, after near record temperatures raised concerns about the health of students and staff. One student at Qingdao University in Shandong suffered from heat stroke, and the school would upgrade its student accommodation over the summer break, Jimu News, an arm of state-run Hubei Daily, reported. One member of staff there died on Sunday morning after showing signs of "physical distress", the university said, without saying whether that was linked to the heatwave. The staff member was a dormitory supervisor, Jimu News said. A total of 28 locations across central Henan and eastern Shandong provinces issued their most severe alerts for extreme heat on Monday. Parts of the coastal city of Qingdao saw temperatures soar to 40.5 degrees Celsius (104.9 degrees Fahrenheit) over the weekend, just 0.5C below the highest recorded there since records began in 1961, according to the official Qingdao Daily. Qingdao University, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters, was one of at least six colleges in Shandong to announce plans to upgrade student accommodation in recent days. Yantai Nanshan University, also in Shandong, said on Monday it would let students stay overnight in libraries as it prepared to work on the student halls. Video footage posted by Jimu News showed scores of students sitting on the floor in air-conditioned supermarkets to escape the heat. The heatwave has piled pressure onto China's power grid. The national electricity load surged to a record 1.47 billion kilowatts on Friday as demand for air conditioning spiked, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The announcements will fuel concerns over Chinese institutions' preparedness for extreme weather events, which scientists say are exacerbated by global warming. In 2022, China was hit by the worst heatwaves since 1961, with many parts enduring a 79-day hot spell from mid-June to late August. According a 2023 report published in the medical journal The Lancet, there were about 50,900 heatwave-related deaths in China that year. No official death toll was disclosed at the time. China does not provide regular tallies of heat-related deaths. (Reporting by Ethan Wang, Ryan Woo, Liz Lee and Qiaoyi Li; Editing by Andrew Heavens) - Reuters
Economic Times
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Economic Times
Lafufus toy with fans; fake it till they almost make it
Reuters People look at Labubu dolls at the flagship store of Pop Mart in Shanghai, China June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura Labubus or Lafufus, what's in a name? as the Bard famously said. Well, for fans of the now iconic toy collectible – Labubu- there is a lot riding on the name as they battle a flood of counterfeits swamping the market. Pop Mart, the Beijing-headquartered retailer of the insanely viral Labubu dolls that were first created by the Hong Kong born, Belgium-based designer Kasing Lung for a story series The Monsters, has put in place a seemingly foolproof system to authenticate its products. But, to no avail according to Labubu fans who are discovering that the most alert among them are falling prey to duplicates that have now gained notoriety and recognition as – Lafufus. "I had picked up a Labubu for myself and had done an unboxing video which got a lot of views," one Chennai-based content creator who did not wish to be named told ET. The pint-sized dolls with pointy ears, large eyes, and a smile revealing nine teeth have grown into a global phenomenon since being launched in 'blind boxes' in 2019 after Pop Mart had licensed Lung's characters. These boxes sell for around $20–$30 but can go all the way up to even $300 and have turned into an addictive global phenomenon fuelled by celebrities flaunting their toys on tote bags. Last month, a life-sized Labubu doll sold for a record-breaking $150,000 (approximately Rs 1.28 crore) at a Beijing auction. " I thought it would be fun to do a video with my whole family unboxing their Labubus, so I picked up a pack of six. We did an unboxing video and even authenticated the product," said the creator cited above. As Pop Mart suggested, she scanned the QR code on the box which led her to the site where she had to key in the last four digits of the barcode to ensure that she had an original purchases passed the check and were proudly sported as her bag charms just like singer Rihanna and Bollywood persona Ananya Pandey. However, her joy was short lived because a keen-eyed collector spotted the fake as well as the dodgy credentials of the website providing fake authentication. She replaced the fake – a Lafufu – on her bag with a true-blue Labubu. But remains unfazed. 'Lafufus have their own fan base too!" she points out. Pop Mart itself has tried to crack down on these fakes. Last month Chinese customs authorities reportedly seized more than 46,000 counterfeit Labubu toys, showing the surge in knockoffs. The Chinese state media issued warnings about a growing 'black market chain' exploiting consumers and infringing on intellectual property sales have fuelled Pop Mart's galloping growth since the company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020. Founder Wang Ning is among China's top ten billionaires with a net worth of $22 though are a real threat as they retail for as less as $7.50 apiece and are seen as a way to keep up with the trend without spending too much money on the original.'70-80% Lafufus'"The fakes have become so good," Abbas Zaveri, founder of sneakers, streetwear and collectibles marketplace HypeFly said. 'Things that customers could look out for is that the heads of the Lafufus tend to be very flimsy and the font on the box generally is embossed but the quality on the boxes of fakes tend to be sub-par."Another sure shot way of spotting a fake is the price. Anything that is being sold for under Rs 3,000 is likely not from Pop Mart. "Some Indian websites are selling a pack of six for Rs 9,000 whereas the original pack of six costs Rs 24,000 or more." Another reseller, Nikhil Jain who runs City Kicks India estimates that "about 70-80% of the dolls in the Indian market are Lafufus," he said.'The site URLs (that come up when the QR code is scanned) have subtle misspellings like "Pop Mari" or "Poap Mart" which are good tell-tale signs for this fraud. There are some marketplaces that have had to set up a team to authenticate their products because earlier they sold them as originals and customers figured out that they were being charged for an original but received a Lafufu instead." The fake trail is not limited to India alone, Scottish consumer watchdog Advice Direct Scotland said it was concerned by the surge in fake Labubu toys flooding the Scottish market.'These counterfeits are not only deceiving collectors and draining hard-earned money from families, but they are also leaving children heartbroken. 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