Latest news with #SouthwesternUniversity
Express Tribune
14 hours ago
- Climate
- Express Tribune
Southwest China floods, rural areas left devastated
Towns and villages by a major river in China's Guangxi lay half-submerged as floodwaters from a province upstream roared into the mountainous region, with the expected landfall of a tropical cyclone later on Thursday compounding disaster risk. The flooding that overwhelmed the cities of Rongjiang and Congjiang in Guizhou province on Tuesday has spread downstream to other parts of southwest China, including rural settlements in Guangxi by the Liu river, which originates from Guizhou. The Guangxi township of Meilin was the worst-hit, state media reported on Thursday, with floodwaters at their peak more than 4 metres (13 feet) above what was considered safe. Even as dangerous surface run-off began to recede, southwestern China - from Guizhou and Guangxi to Chongqing, Yunnan and Sichuan - remained on alert for secondary disasters such as road collapses, landslides and hydro-dam overflows. "Rural areas face significant challenges due to limited infrastructure and resources," said Chen Xiaoguang, professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu. "Strengthening these systems in rural counties will be key to reducing the long-term impact of increasingly severe weather." Urban areas typically have stronger capacity to respond to floods, he said, but not all cities are equally equipped. Rongjiang for instance is a county-level area where resources are more limited. In more remote areas, challenges include insufficient coverage of monitoring stations, making localised precipitation forecasting difficult, said Meng Gao, professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. On Tuesday, the Guizhou city of Rongjiang, located at the confluence of three rivers, was hit by a flood on a scale that Chinese meteorologists said could only happen once in 50 years, and at a speed that shocked its 300,000 residents. The flow rate of one section of the Liu river in Rongjiang surged to 11,800 cubic metres per second, the equivalent of nearly five Olympic-sized swimming pools. That was more than 80 times the average rate of flow. At least six people were killed. "This flood is a heavy blow to us," said a Rongjiang resident whose cake shop was completely inundated and small electric scooter used for deliveries was damaged beyond repair. "My family is a poor household that has just escaped poverty. This cake shop is our family's only source of income." Many displaced residents were temporarily staying at local hotels, which were also hosting rescue personnel and reconstruction workers, according to phone calls to more than 10 hotels in downtown Rongjiang. In conversations with local water resource bureaus, Southwestern University's Chen said local staff emphasised how their work grew more intense during summer, actively monitoring weather patterns, reinforcing infrastructure, and rehearsing emergency responses in anticipation of extreme weather events. As deluge-hit areas began to remove silt left behind by the flooding and restore power, telecommunications and water networks, rains from a tropical depression expected to make landfall in Guangxi on Thursday night could affect restoration and cleanup work or even risk a new round of flooding. The tropical depression made landfall on China's island province of Hainan early on Thursday, and later again in Guangdong on the mainland, bringing more rain to a region still reeling from Typhoon Wutip two weeks ago. Extreme storms and severe flooding, which meteorologists link to climate change, increasingly pose major challenges for Chinese officials, as they threaten to overwhelm ageing flood defences, displace millions of people and cause billions of dollars in economic losses. "Climate change is making extreme weather more frequent and unpredictable," said Chen. "While progress has been made, continued adaptation and investment - especially in forecasting technologies and resilient infrastructure - remain essential."
Malay Mail
21 hours ago
- Climate
- Malay Mail
Six dead as floodwaters from upstream swamp China's Guangxi, cyclone looms
BEIJING, June 26 — Towns and villages by a major river in China's Guangxi lay half-submerged as floodwaters from a province upstream roared into the mountainous region, with the expected landfall of a tropical cyclone later on Thursday compounding disaster risk. The massive flooding that overwhelmed the cities of Rongjiang and Congjiang in Guizhou province on Tuesday has spread downstream to other parts of south-west China, including rural settlements in Guangxi by the banks of the Liu river, which originates from Guizhou. The Guangxi township of Meilin was the worst-hit, state media reported on Thursday, with floodwaters at their peak more than 4 metres above what was considered safe. Even as floodwaters passed and dangerous surface run-off began to recede, south-western China — from Guizhou and Guangxi to Chongqing, Yunnan and Sichuan — remained on high alert for secondary disasters such as road collapses, landslides and hydro-dam overflows. 'Rural areas face significant challenges due to limited infrastructure and resources,' said Chen Xiaoguang, professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu. 'Strengthening these systems in rural counties will be key to reducing the long-term impact of increasingly severe weather.' Urban areas typically have stronger capacity to respond to floods, he said, but not all cities are equally equipped. Rongjiang for instance is a county-level area where resources are more limited. On Tuesday, the Guizhou city of Rongjiang, located at the confluence of three rivers, was hit by a flood on a scale that Chinese meteorologists said could only happen once in 50 years, and at a speed that shocked its 300,000 residents. The flow rate of one section of the Liu river in Rongjiang surged to 11,800 cubic metres per second, the equivalent of nearly five Olympic-sized swimming pools. That was more than 80 times the average rate of flow. At least six people were killed. As deluge-hit areas began to remove silt left behind by the flooding and restore power, telecommunications and water networks, rains from a tropical depression expected to make landfall in Guangxi on Thursday night could affect restoration and cleanup work or even risk a new round of flooding. The tropical depression made landfall on China's island province of Hainan early on Thursday, and later again in Guangdong on the mainland, bringing more rain to a region still reeling from Typhoon Wutip two weeks ago. Extreme storms and severe flooding, which meteorologists link to climate change, increasingly pose major challenges for Chinese officials, as they threaten to overwhelm ageing flood defences, displace millions of people and cause billions of dollars in economic losses. — Reuters
The Hill
01-04-2025
- Business
- The Hill
GOP rep says ‘tariff is a tax': ‘No question'
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said Monday said a 'tariff is a tax,' a day before the Trump administration's imposition of 'Liberation Day' reciprocal tariffs. In Sessions' appearance on 'CNN News Central,' a Monday opinion piece from The Wall Street Journal's editorial board was brought up by anchor John Berman. 'In the real economic world, a tariff is a tax. If you raise $600 billion more a year in revenue for the federal government, you are taking that amount away from individuals and businesses in the private economy,' the editorial board wrote in their piece. Sessions agreed with the Journal's editorial board, saying that his 'view is I could've written that myself.' 'I'm … a capitalist who believes in lower prices, lower taxes, opportunities,' he added. 'The facts of the case are that Donald Trump, now President Trump, and his advisers believe that they see the mathematics across the country, specifically in certain areas.' 'I am concerned about our trade with Canada, I am concerned about our trade with Mexico and I'm going to give the president a chance to put his plan out.' Sessions was later pressed by Berman on if he was 'saying you do think a tariff is a tax.' 'There's no question about it, [a] tariff is a tax, I learned that at Southwestern University when I was a sophomore in college, but the world now is slightly different,' Sessions responded. Wednesday has been referred to as 'Liberation Day' by Trump, when his administration is going to impose expansive reciprocal tariffs on other nations with duties on U.S. goods. Last week, Trump also unveiled that he will impose a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made vehicle imports, going into effect Wednesday.
