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From ‘Facekinis’ to Arm Sleeves, Sun Protection Gear Sells Out in China Heatwave

People walk across a street as temperatures rise during an unusual heat wave, in Monterrey, Mexico June 14, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
People walk across a street as temperatures rise during an unusual heat wave, in Monterrey, Mexico June 14, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
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From ‘Facekinis’ to Arm Sleeves, Sun Protection Gear Sells Out in China Heatwave

People walk across a street as temperatures rise during an unusual heat wave, in Monterrey, Mexico June 14, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
People walk across a street as temperatures rise during an unusual heat wave, in Monterrey, Mexico June 14, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

As temperatures hit a record roasting 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across multiple cities in China, how to shield one's skin from the sun and stay cool has become a hot topic in the country.
Accessories such as hats boasting ultraviolet (UV) protection to coverings known as "facekinis" which hide most of the face apart from the eyes are selling out - sported mostly by women seeking head-to-toe protection, Reuters said.
The trend has led to a boom in local brands that focus on sun protection products, such as Bananain, Beneunder and OhSunny.
Other larger brands, such as Anta, Uniqlo , Lululemon and Decathalon have also added clothing such as UV tinted hats and jackets to their local product assortment.
Data from Shanghai-based China Insights Consultancy shows that China's sun protection apparel market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4% from 2021 to 2026, with the market size reaching 95.8 billion yuan ($13.24 billion) in 2026.
"We're concerned about getting sunburned and tanned so we're fully prepared," said a 34-year-old business owner who gave her surname as Hong, referring to her outfit of a hat and arm sleeves as she visited Beijing's downtown tourism area of Qianmen on Thursday.
Many female consumers in east Asia favor fair skin and sun protection products are also popular in neighboring countries such as South Korea. Analysts say the trend has really taken off in China this year.
Data from Alibaba Group's Tmall shopping platform showed that during this year's 618 shopping festival held last month, sales of "new generation" sun protection apparel grew 180% year-on-year, with the number of pieces of sun protection gear purchased per consumer two to three times higher than in previous years.
"Sunscreen blush masks" are also particularly popular, according to Tmall. The bottom half of the mask is white with pink at the top, so it appears the wearer has makeup on from a distance.
Li Hongmei, a 26-year-old Beijing resident, said she's a fan of such masks, and also wears a sun protection jacket when going out.
"During the pandemic I didn't put on makeup often because I'd wear a mask anyway," she told Reuters as she browsed through a rack of sun protection clothing at Adidas. "Now I'm too lazy to return to makeup, I'd rather wear a sun protection mask and go out."

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Monet’s ‘Iris’ Becomes Most Expensive Artwork Sold at Auction in France, Sotheby’s Says

This photograph shows French painter Claude Monet's "Iris", 1924–1925, during a preview of 28 Impressionist works of the Schlumberger Collection unveiled ahead of the October 22, 2026, sale at Sotheby's auction house in Paris on September 17, 2026.
This photograph shows French painter Claude Monet's "Iris", 1924–1925, during a preview of 28 Impressionist works of the Schlumberger Collection unveiled ahead of the October 22, 2026, sale at Sotheby's auction house in Paris on September 17, 2026.
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Monet’s ‘Iris’ Becomes Most Expensive Artwork Sold at Auction in France, Sotheby’s Says

This photograph shows French painter Claude Monet's "Iris", 1924–1925, during a preview of 28 Impressionist works of the Schlumberger Collection unveiled ahead of the October 22, 2026, sale at Sotheby's auction house in Paris on September 17, 2026.
This photograph shows French painter Claude Monet's "Iris", 1924–1925, during a preview of 28 Impressionist works of the Schlumberger Collection unveiled ahead of the October 22, 2026, sale at Sotheby's auction house in Paris on September 17, 2026.

Claude Monet's "Iris" was sold late on Thursday for €50 million ($56.05 million), becoming the most expensive work of art sold at auction in France, Sotheby's said.

The painting, completed toward ‌the end ‌of Monet's ‌life, attracted ⁠frantic bidding with six ⁠people battling it out for 45 minutes for the piece, before the final two continued ⁠to scrabble for a ‌further ‌20 minutes.

"Iris" finally went ‌to an Asian ‌collector who bid over the phone.

The painting was one of several works ‌up for auction from the Schlumberger Collection ⁠and ⁠had been expected to sell between €22 million and €30 million.

The previous French auction record was set in 2010, by Amedeo Modigliani's "Head of a Caryatid," which sold for €43.2 million.

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Greece Passes Social Media Ban for Children Under 15

FILE PHOTO: Instagram app icon is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken October 27, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Instagram app icon is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken October 27, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Greece Passes Social Media Ban for Children Under 15

FILE PHOTO: Instagram app icon is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken October 27, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Instagram app icon is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken October 27, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Greece's parliament approved a bill on Friday that bans the use of social media platforms for children under 15 amid growing concerns over their impact on the health and safety of minors.

The ban comes ‌into force ‌on January 1, ‌2027, said Reuters.

Australia was the ⁠first country to pass legislation to curb the use of social media by minors, doing so last year. A similar law ⁠passed in France ‌was struck ‌down by the country's Constitutional Council ‌in August

Greek Prime ‌Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said social media platforms have 2-1/2 months to devise a way ‌to verify users' ages and protect their privacy

Greece ⁠is ⁠among seven European Union countries seeking an age verification solution with the European Commission

Greece says it is standing by parents to help curb the "endless scrolling" that deprives children of sleep, concentration and time with their friends

Varieties

370 Books in 20 Months: S.African Author Defends Her Use of AI

Coral Hart says she has been heavily criticized for using AI to produce books. GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP
Coral Hart says she has been heavily criticized for using AI to produce books. GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP
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370 Books in 20 Months: S.African Author Defends Her Use of AI

Coral Hart says she has been heavily criticized for using AI to produce books. GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP
Coral Hart says she has been heavily criticized for using AI to produce books. GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP

South African writer Coral Hart has published more than 370 books since February 2025 using artificial intelligence, a process she passionately defends despite criticism and threats.

"Grifter", "villain" -- insults abound on social media to describe the author who, in her forties, has become the symbol of AI's arrival in publishing.

Coral Hart -- a pseudonym she uses to protect her real name -- told AFP in an interview she had received "tens of thousands" of hate messages and several death threats.

In this hostile environment, few authors using AI agree to speak publicly and show their faces, AFP said.

"I chose to be the one to step up and say, these are conversations we need to start having," Hart said.

"This is here... They're not going to switch it off or unplug it because a bunch of authors said so."

Before she started writing with AI around 20 months ago, Hart had been working in publishing for 14 years and written several dozen works without the technology.

It took her three months to familiarize herself with the various AI models and build a framework capable of producing a book.

Now she juggles between ChatGPT, which is "really good at dialogue, terrible at prose"; Claude, "really good story structure, terrible at sex drives"; and others like Grok, "completely unhinged" but good on "spicy scenes".

"If you say, ChatGPT, write me a book, or, Claude, write me a book, you're going to get a flaming dumpster fire of trash back because it doesn't have anything (to work with)," Hart said.

The author defines the story concept, a style, details of the characters, and chapter outlines. And only then will her system generate the books.

Hart said when she started, "we could write one paragraph at a time. I usually took two or three prompts to do that."

"I can now draft the whole book in one sequence."

Since last year, AI models have "improved vastly", Hart said. "The prose has improved. The syntax has improved. The sentence structure has improved."

- 'Books are selling' -

The first draft of a book is generally not good, the writer said.

It is run through AI for "developmental edits" and then again "to fix any continuity issues, story issues, flat middles, character arcs that are incomplete, plot threads that have been dropped, people whose eye color has changed."

At the end of this process, a human proofreader reads through the text to fix any "AI tells that have slipped through" and do some rewriting. "And it's usually ready to go."

Although one of her novels made it into Amazon's top 100 bestsellers, the vast majority of her 371 titles -- many of them romance -- are tailored to certain readers based on rigorous market research.

She has sold more than one million books, by her own estimate, in digital, print and audio formats, earning more than $1 million so far this year.

The South African now heads an operation that has trained several hundred people in her method and is preparing to launch software for AI authors called Authorythm.

As for her own production, she mentions her use of AI only when required by a sales platform.

"For the last 16 years, nobody's asked me what my creative process was," said Hart, who publishes under more than 10 other pen names.

Now, she was ready to make it public "for the right reasons".

Regularly accused of contributing to "AI slop" -- low-quality AI-generated content in text, video, music, or images -- Hart points to the ultimate yardstick: "Books are selling."

"Readers don't read rubbish books; they return them," she said.

The writer has followed the debate around a novel by Haitian-Canadian Thelyson Orelien that was withdrawn from the shortlist for France's Goncourt prize after accusations that he used AI, which his publisher confirmed on Wednesday.

Critics had praised the book and sales were strong before the controversy, she said, asking: "If you need an AI label to hate something, do you hate it, or do you hate AI?"