Latest news with #LaurenJohnston
The Guardian
01-08-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Guardian
Blakey Johnston surfs 4,000 waves in 25 days, a new world record
Johnston is no stranger to endurance challenges. A professional surfer since he was 16, he previously broke the world record of longest surfing session by surfing for over 40 hours, catching 707 waves. This most recent challenge, breaking the world record for most waves surfed in a month, would see him take to the water 256 times. This photo was taken 22 days into the challenge on 25 July 2025 – Johnston's biggest day, in which he caught 232 waves over 14 sessions. Johnston changes boards between each session, as some are better for beginner and intermediate surfing, and others more suited to advanced barrels. His wife, Lauren Johnston, tells Guardian Australia that during the challenge, Blakey would leave the house at 5.30am. Some nights he wouldn't be home until after 11pm. The challenge tested his physical and mental endurance. 'He feels a lot better in water than when he gets out,' says Lauren. 'When he sits in the car at the end of the day, the body seizes up [and] when he is lying in the bed, he is twitching. He gets about 4 and half hours sleep each night, but even then it is not a good sleep, it's a broken sleep.' Johnston's philosophy has always been to stretch himself. 'You can make things happen in your life, and you are the author of your own story,' he says. 'Why not reach big, and go after big things?' When spending so long in cold water – in this photo, the water was around 11C – booties and gloves are essential. The cowboy hat, which he surfs in on easier waves, has become Johnston's signature. He wears it to protect his fair skin from the sun, but also because he likes to be different. 'Normal is boring,' he says. Sometimes he wears a viking helmet instead. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian On a small break between surf sessions, Johnston uses the time to eat homemade oat biscuits and get his temperature checked. He doesn't sit down, preferring to keep moving. One day during his world record attempt, Johnston found himself surfing alongside a group of men on a buck's day out during the advanced morning session at the Sydney sports centre Urbnsurf. Johnston surfed all the available sessions, which varied in difficulty from beginner to advanced. The cowboy hat came out for the easier waves. Johnston likes to change his board and swap sides of the wave pool after each session. Over the course of the world record challenge he did 169 sessions and 2,817 waves from the left, and 87 sessions and 1,280 waves from the right. Nearly every second day, Johnston's son would come out and surf with him. 'He has been feeling the highs and the lows, all the emotions,' says Lauren. 'Our son has lifted his energy, coming out to surf with him and watch him.' On the last day and night of the challenge, fans came out to cheer Blakey along. Johnston broke the world record officially on 4096 waves, but seven is his lucky number. After a quick temperature check, he got back in the water to catch one more wave, bringing his final total to 4097. A surfing guard of honour greeted him as Johnston finally left the pool. He had spent a total of 17hrs, 58min, 21sec on top of the waves themselves. 'I think the most important promises we make … are the promises we make to ourselves,' Johnson says. Johnston shares a hug with his wife, Lauren, after the final surf. He also has his first hot shower in eight years – generally he prefers cold water. There is a physical toll from all this surfing, most visible on his feet, which have sustained very painful blisters. He has had to take a course of antibiotics to clear them up, as well as an ear infection he contracted after spending so much time in the water. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian 'The hardest part is the physical,' Johnston says. 'It's been tough; my feet, my ears. Mentally, I have been great. I backed myself. I knew I could get here.' Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian His friend, surfing great Tom Carroll, speaks fondly of him: 'He is mad, but I like mad. I relate to him.' Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian 'Everyone deserves to feel awesome,' Johnston says. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
Zawya
07-03-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Is China's growing Zimbabwe alliance key to its bigger plans for southern Africa?
In Beitbridge, a border town in southern Zimbabwe, a mega industrial park that will eventually produce electricity, chromium-based materials and steel products is taking shape amid a major minerals rush in the southern African nation. The US$3.6 billion plan to build Palm River Energy Metallurgical Industrial Park in the province of Matabeleland South is being led by one Chinese firm – Xinganglian (Shanxi) Holding Group, which aims to exploit abundant reserves of coal, iron ore, and chrome and position Zimbabwe as a major steel producer. The project will cover 5,163 hectares (12,758 acres) within a special economic zone incorporating mining, power generation, coke production and steel manufacturing. It is expected to be built in five phases over 12 years. Zimbabwe has become a key resource destination for China as companies continue to seal deals to establish mineral processing operations, including steel plants, at a time when such industries face decline in other countries, such as neighbouring South Africa. The scope of the investments suggested that China had chosen Zimbabwe as its inaugural steel and chrome industrialisation zone in Africa, according to Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa specialist and associate professor at the University of Sydney's China Studies Centre. 'This makes sense. Zimbabwe has a rich human capital and natural resource endowment,' Johnston said.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is China's growing Zimbabwe alliance key to its bigger plans for southern Africa?
In Beitbridge, a border town in southern Zimbabwe, a mega industrial park that will eventually produce electricity, chromium-based materials and steel products is taking shape amid a major minerals rush in the southern African nation. The US$3.6 billion plan to build Palm River Energy Metallurgical Industrial Park in the province of Matabeleland South is being led by one Chinese firm - Xinganglian (Shanxi) Holding Group, which aims to exploit abundant reserves of coal, iron ore, and chrome and position Zimbabwe as a major steel producer. The project will cover 5,163 hectares (12,758 acres) within a special economic zone incorporating mining, power generation, coke production and steel manufacturing. It is expected to be built in five phases over 12 years. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Zimbabwe has become a key resource destination for China as companies continue to seal deals to establish mineral processing operations, including steel plants, at a time when such industries face decline in other countries, such as neighbouring South Africa. The scope of the investments suggested that China had chosen Zimbabwe as its inaugural steel and chrome industrialisation zone in Africa, according to Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa specialist and associate professor at the University of Sydney's China Studies Centre. "This makes sense. Zimbabwe has a rich human capital and natural resource endowment," Johnston said. Xinganglian Holding Group, through its Zimbabwean subsidiary Xintai Resources, has said it will spend US$237 million on the first phase of the project to produce an annual 200,000 tonnes of ferrochrome, an intermediate product used in the production of value-added materials such as stainless steel, according to Zimbabwean officials. In addition to its metallurgical operations, the Palm River Energy complex will include a 1,200 megawatt coal-fired thermal power station. The investment came a few months after Chinese steel giant Tsingshan Holding Group, through its Zimbabwean subsidiary Dinson Iron and Steel, completed a US$1.5 billion iron and steelmaking facility. Last year, the processing plant in Manhize, near Mvuma, a mining town about 200km (124 miles) south of the capital Harare, started producing pig iron, a major raw material needed to make steel, and steel billets. The investment has positioned Zimbabwe as one of Africa's largest producers of iron and steel. The plant will initially produce 600,000 tonnes of steel a year with production expected to reach 5 million tonnes in the final phase of the plant expansion. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (centre) officially launche the Palm River Energy Metallurgical Industrial Park on Monday. Photo: Instagram/presidentmnangagwa alt=Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (centre) officially launche the Palm River Energy Metallurgical Industrial Park on Monday. Photo: Instagram/presidentmnangagwa> At a launch ceremony on Monday for the Palm River park, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa credited his "government's engagement and re-engagement policy" for securing the project, adding that the strategy continued to attract investors, especially from China. A coal wash plant, with an annual capacity of 160,000 tonnes, had been completed as well as the chrome smelting plant, Mnangagwa said. "I applaud the fact that the project targets the production of 2 million tonnes of chromium-based materials and one million tonnes of coke per year," Mnangagwa said. Charlie Robertson, an economist who specialises in Africa and author of The Time-Travelling Economist, said that in Zimbabwe, labour costs might be half of what they would be in South Africa. "Or possibly, this is part of a quid pro quo in which China gets access to Zimbabwe's raw materials, in return for China's promise to invest in Zimbabwe's industrial base," he said. Johnston said that unlike South Africa, however, Zimbabwe's labour unions had been relatively disempowered while its government flew under the global radar. "This makes it an easier place for China to operate than South Africa. Plus, as a result of the period under which Zimbabwe was sanctioned by the West, China is also deeply important as a trade and investment partner," Johnston said. As a result of this, she said, the Zimbabwean government was more deeply embedded with people who had closer ties to China. Mnangagwa himself received military training in China in the 1960s, when he was a young member of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, the military wing of the then ruling ZANU party that was fighting against British colonial rule. Huang Minghai, economic and commercial counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Harare, said the potential of Zimbabwe was vast, adding that nearly half of the Chinese firms investing in the country had targeted the mining sector. Zimbabwe was "brimming with potential, a land blessed with abundant natural resources, a vibrant cultural heritage, and a resilient, hardworking people", Huang was quoted as saying by media in Zimbabwe. Xinganglian has promised to help train Zimbabweans in metallurgy and energy production. Zhou Xudong, the company's chairman, said it would set aside US$500,000 to fund a scholarship to sponsor Zimbabwean youth to study in China. "Over the next few years, we will annually select five to 10 outstanding students from the Beitbridge region to receive scholarships," Zhou said. Johnston said the steel produced in Zimbabwe might also feed into China's plans to be involved in construction across the southern Africa subregion, including railways, such as the planned refurbishment of Tazara, which connects Zambia's copper belt region to Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania. Chinese companies have also invested millions of dollars to acquire lithium mines, and have pumped more than US$1 billion into building processing plants in Zimbabwe. The country has recently emerged as a major source of lithium, an essential raw material for the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles. "Zimbabwe might become the inaugural hub for China's southern African transportation and industrialisation plans, also due to its abundance of base industrial materials," Johnston said. This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is China's growing Zimbabwe alliance key to its bigger plans for southern Africa?
In Beitbridge, a border town in southern Zimbabwe, a mega industrial park that will eventually produce electricity, chromium-based materials and steel products is taking shape amid a major minerals rush in the southern African nation. The US$3.6 billion plan to build Palm River Energy Metallurgical Industrial Park in the province of Matabeleland South is being led by one Chinese firm - Xinganglian (Shanxi) Holding Group, which aims to exploit abundant reserves of coal, iron ore, and chrome and position Zimbabwe as a major steel producer. The project will cover 5,163 hectares (12,758 acres) within a special economic zone incorporating mining, power generation, coke production and steel manufacturing. It is expected to be built in five phases over 12 years. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Zimbabwe has become a key resource destination for China as companies continue to seal deals to establish mineral processing operations, including steel plants, at a time when such industries face decline in other countries, such as neighbouring South Africa. The scope of the investments suggested that China had chosen Zimbabwe as its inaugural steel and chrome industrialisation zone in Africa, according to Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa specialist and associate professor at the University of Sydney's China Studies Centre. "This makes sense. Zimbabwe has a rich human capital and natural resource endowment," Johnston said. Xinganglian Holding Group, through its Zimbabwean subsidiary Xintai Resources, has said it will spend US$237 million on the first phase of the project to produce an annual 200,000 tonnes of ferrochrome, an intermediate product used in the production of value-added materials such as stainless steel, according to Zimbabwean officials. In addition to its metallurgical operations, the Palm River Energy complex will include a 1,200 megawatt coal-fired thermal power station. The investment came a few months after Chinese steel giant Tsingshan Holding Group, through its Zimbabwean subsidiary Dinson Iron and Steel, completed a US$1.5 billion iron and steelmaking facility. Last year, the processing plant in Manhize, near Mvuma, a mining town about 200km (124 miles) south of the capital Harare, started producing pig iron, a major raw material needed to make steel, and steel billets. The investment has positioned Zimbabwe as one of Africa's largest producers of iron and steel. The plant will initially produce 600,000 tonnes of steel a year with production expected to reach 5 million tonnes in the final phase of the plant expansion. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (centre) officially launche the Palm River Energy Metallurgical Industrial Park on Monday. Photo: Instagram/presidentmnangagwa alt=Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (centre) officially launche the Palm River Energy Metallurgical Industrial Park on Monday. Photo: Instagram/presidentmnangagwa> At a launch ceremony on Monday for the Palm River park, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa credited his "government's engagement and re-engagement policy" for securing the project, adding that the strategy continued to attract investors, especially from China. A coal wash plant, with an annual capacity of 160,000 tonnes, had been completed as well as the chrome smelting plant, Mnangagwa said. "I applaud the fact that the project targets the production of 2 million tonnes of chromium-based materials and one million tonnes of coke per year," Mnangagwa said. Charlie Robertson, an economist who specialises in Africa and author of The Time-Travelling Economist, said that in Zimbabwe, labour costs might be half of what they would be in South Africa. "Or possibly, this is part of a quid pro quo in which China gets access to Zimbabwe's raw materials, in return for China's promise to invest in Zimbabwe's industrial base," he said. Johnston said that unlike South Africa, however, Zimbabwe's labour unions had been relatively disempowered while its government flew under the global radar. "This makes it an easier place for China to operate than South Africa. Plus, as a result of the period under which Zimbabwe was sanctioned by the West, China is also deeply important as a trade and investment partner," Johnston said. As a result of this, she said, the Zimbabwean government was more deeply embedded with people who had closer ties to China. Mnangagwa himself received military training in China in the 1960s, when he was a young member of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, the military wing of the then ruling ZANU party that was fighting against British colonial rule. Huang Minghai, economic and commercial counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Harare, said the potential of Zimbabwe was vast, adding that nearly half of the Chinese firms investing in the country had targeted the mining sector. Zimbabwe was "brimming with potential, a land blessed with abundant natural resources, a vibrant cultural heritage, and a resilient, hardworking people", Huang was quoted as saying by media in Zimbabwe. Xinganglian has promised to help train Zimbabweans in metallurgy and energy production. Zhou Xudong, the company's chairman, said it would set aside US$500,000 to fund a scholarship to sponsor Zimbabwean youth to study in China. "Over the next few years, we will annually select five to 10 outstanding students from the Beitbridge region to receive scholarships," Zhou said. Johnston said the steel produced in Zimbabwe might also feed into China's plans to be involved in construction across the southern Africa subregion, including railways, such as the planned refurbishment of Tazara, which connects Zambia's copper belt region to Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania. Chinese companies have also invested millions of dollars to acquire lithium mines, and have pumped more than US$1 billion into building processing plants in Zimbabwe. The country has recently emerged as a major source of lithium, an essential raw material for the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles. "Zimbabwe might become the inaugural hub for China's southern African transportation and industrialisation plans, also due to its abundance of base industrial materials," Johnston said. This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
South China Morning Post
28-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Is China's growing Zimbabwe alliance key to its bigger plans for southern Africa?
In Beitbridge, a border town in southern Zimbabwe, a mega industrial park that will eventually produce electricity, chromium-based materials and steel products is taking shape amid a major minerals rush in the southern African nation. Advertisement The US$3.6 billion plan to build Palm River Energy Metallurgical Industrial Park in the province of Matabeleland South is being led by one Chinese firm – Xinganglian (Shanxi) Holding Group, which aims to exploit abundant reserves of coal, iron ore, and chrome and position Zimbabwe as a major steel producer. The project will cover 5,163 hectares (12,758 acres) within a special economic zone incorporating mining, power generation, coke production and steel manufacturing. It is expected to be built in five phases over 12 years. Zimbabwe has become a key resource destination for China as companies continue to seal deals to establish mineral processing operations, including steel plants, at a time when such industries face decline in other countries, such as neighbouring South Africa The scope of the investments suggested that China had chosen Zimbabwe as its inaugural steel and chrome industrialisation zone in Africa, according to Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa specialist and associate professor at the University of Sydney's China Studies Centre. Advertisement 'This makes sense. Zimbabwe has a rich human capital and natural resource endowment,' Johnston said.
