عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Chinese Cities Suspend Schools, Cancel Flights ahead of Super Typhoon Yagi

A man looks up on a promenade at Victoria harbor in Hong Kong on September 5, 2024, as super typhoon Yagi tracked across the South China Sea towards the southern China coast. (Photo by Dale DE LA REY / AFP)
A man looks up on a promenade at Victoria harbor in Hong Kong on September 5, 2024, as super typhoon Yagi tracked across the South China Sea towards the southern China coast. (Photo by Dale DE LA REY / AFP)
TT
TT

Chinese Cities Suspend Schools, Cancel Flights ahead of Super Typhoon Yagi

A man looks up on a promenade at Victoria harbor in Hong Kong on September 5, 2024, as super typhoon Yagi tracked across the South China Sea towards the southern China coast. (Photo by Dale DE LA REY / AFP)
A man looks up on a promenade at Victoria harbor in Hong Kong on September 5, 2024, as super typhoon Yagi tracked across the South China Sea towards the southern China coast. (Photo by Dale DE LA REY / AFP)

Cities in southern China suspended schools and canceled some flights on Thursday, as tropical storm Yagi strengthened into a super typhoon and barreled straight for the holiday island province of Hainan.
Yagi triggered floods and landslides on the main Philippine island of Luzon this week, leaving at least 13 dead, according to official figures.
The tropical storm intensified into a super typhoon as it tracked west across the South China Sea, China's Xinhua news agency said, packing winds of up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour as it headed for Hainan.
"Hainan upgraded its emergency response to Yagi to the highest level at 11:30 am Thursday, according to the provincial disaster management authority," Xinhua said.
The typhoon is expected to make landfall on Friday afternoon in either Hainan or neighboring Guangdong, AFP said.
Work, school and local transport services were suspended from Thursday noon (0400 GMT) in Haikou, Hainan's capital.
In Hong Kong, which Yagi is expected to bypass, the weather observatory said it will issue the city's third-highest typhoon warning at 6:20 pm (1020 GMT), limiting public transport across the finance hub.
Classes at kindergarten and special schools in Hong Kong were suspended Thursday, while budget airline Hong Kong Express said six flights have been rescheduled.
Greater Bay Airlines said they would cancel four flights and reschedule two more due to the weather.
"Yagi will remain at super typhoon intensity and skirt around 300 kilometers (186 miles) to the southwest of Hong Kong tomorrow morning," the observatory said.
"Gale winds associated with Yagi are expected to affect the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary tonight and tomorrow morning."
After southern China, Yagi will move towards Vietnam, on course to hit the northern and north-central regions around the famed UNESCO heritage site Halong Bay.
Vietnam's meteorological agency issued a storm warning on Thursday, and the government mobilized more than 2,700 military personnel for storm response.
Coastal provinces are planning a sailing ban on Friday, while Vietnam's mountainous provinces were ordered to prepare rescue vehicles.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Berliners Jump into the Spree River to Show It’s Clean Enough for Swimming 

People swim in the river Spree to demand the lift of the hundred years old swimming ban at the river in front of the Berlin Cathedral and the TV Tower in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (AP)
People swim in the river Spree to demand the lift of the hundred years old swimming ban at the river in front of the Berlin Cathedral and the TV Tower in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (AP)
TT
TT

Berliners Jump into the Spree River to Show It’s Clean Enough for Swimming 

People swim in the river Spree to demand the lift of the hundred years old swimming ban at the river in front of the Berlin Cathedral and the TV Tower in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (AP)
People swim in the river Spree to demand the lift of the hundred years old swimming ban at the river in front of the Berlin Cathedral and the TV Tower in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (AP)

A century after the city of Berlin banned swimming in the Spree River because it was so polluted it could make people sick, there's a push by swimmers to get back into the water.

Around 200 people jumped into the slow-moving, greenish water Tuesday to show that it's not only clean enough, but also lots of fun to splash and swim in the Mitte neighborhood along the world-famous Museum Island.

A group calling itself Fluss Bad Berlin, or River Pool Berlin, has been lobbying for years to open the meandering river for swimmers again.

“For 100 years now, people have not been allowed to swim in the inner-city Spree and we no longer think this is justified, because we can show that the water quality is usually good enough to go swimming during the season,” said Jan Edler, who is on the board of Fluss Bad Berlin and helped organize Tuesday's swim-in.

To circumvent the ban, the group registered their collective swim event as an official protest.

Standing on a little staircase that leads down to the Spree canal, which flows around the southern side of the island, Edler stressed that “we want the people to use the Spree for recreation again.”

He pointed to the fact that the river has been cleaned up thoroughly, and that the water quality has improved in the last decade and is constantly being monitored.

Even city officials in the central Mitte district of Berlin say they'd be interested in introducing river swimming again in 2026.

“There are still many things that need to be clarified, but I am optimistic that it can succeed,” district city councilor Ephraim Gothe told German news agency dpa recently.

Supporters of lifting the swimming ban also point at Paris, where the Seine River was opened up for swimmers for the Olympic Games last year and will be opened this summer for Parisians. Swimming there had been banned since 1923.

In Vienna, too, water lovers can splash into the Danube River canal, in the Swiss city of Basel they can bathe in the Rhine, and in Amsterdam there are some designated areas where people can plunge into the canals.

Only in Berlin, swimming has been continuously prohibited in the Spree since May 1925, when the German capital closed all traditional river pools because the water was deemed too toxic. Some of those pools weren't only used for recreational swimming, but were a place for poor people to wash themselves if they didn't have bathrooms at home.

These days, the water is clean on most days, except when there's heavy rain, which leads to some water pollution.

Allowing swimmers to dive into the river would also mean loosening the historical monument protection on some parts of the riverbanks to install easy access ways to the water and places for lifeguards.

Another problem is the busy boat traffic on the Spree that could endanger swimmers. However, for the time being, the Fluss Bad Berlin group only wants to open up nearly 2-kilometer-long (just over a mile-long) canal where there's no boat traffic.

For what it's worth, the German capital, a city of 3.9 million, could definitely need more places where people can cool off in the summer as regular outdoor pools tend to be hopelessly overcrowded on hot summer days.

“The cities are getting hotter,” Edler said. “It's also a question of environmental justice to create offers for people who just can’t make it out of the city when it’s so hot and can enjoy themselves in the countryside.”