Torrential Rains Have Claimed More Than 150 Lives in China in the Past 2 Months 

In this aerial photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the impact of flash floods and mudslides can be seen near Ridi Village, Kangding City, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China's Sichuan Province on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Liu Kun/Xinhua via AP)
In this aerial photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the impact of flash floods and mudslides can be seen near Ridi Village, Kangding City, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China's Sichuan Province on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Liu Kun/Xinhua via AP)
TT

Torrential Rains Have Claimed More Than 150 Lives in China in the Past 2 Months 

In this aerial photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the impact of flash floods and mudslides can be seen near Ridi Village, Kangding City, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China's Sichuan Province on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Liu Kun/Xinhua via AP)
In this aerial photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the impact of flash floods and mudslides can be seen near Ridi Village, Kangding City, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China's Sichuan Province on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Liu Kun/Xinhua via AP)

Landslides and flooding have killed more than 150 people across southern China in the past two months as torrential rainstorms batter the region.

In the latest disaster, a flood and mudslide early Saturday in a mountainous Tibetan area in Sichuan province left eight people dead with 19 others still unaccounted for, state media said.

The early morning disaster destroyed homes and killed at least six people in the village of Ridi, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Two more people died and eight are missing there after a bridge between two tunnels collapsed and four vehicles plummeted.

China is in the middle of its peak flood season, which runs from mid-July to mid-August, and Chinese policymakers have repeatedly warned that the government needs to step up disaster preparations as severe weather becomes more common.

An annual government report on climate said last month that historical data shows the frequency of both extreme precipitation and heat has risen in China, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

There have been several deadly rainstorms since June.

Days of intense rain from the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi, which weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall in China about 10 days ago, killed at least 48 people in Hunan province and left 35 others missing last week.

Authorities said Friday that the death toll from an earlier storm in July that knocked out a section of a bridge in Shaanxi province in the middle of the night had risen to 38 people, with another 24 still missing. At least 25 cars fell into a raging river that washed some of them far downstream.

In mid-June, at least 47 died from flooding and mudslides after extremely heavy rain in Guangzhou province. Six more people died in neighboring Fujian province.

Landslides and flooding have also taken hundreds of lives elsewhere in Asia this summer, including a devastating storm that killed more than 200 people in south India last week.



Wars Top Global Risk as Davos Elite Gathers in Shadow of Fragmented World

A view of a logo during the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 19, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of a logo during the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 19, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Wars Top Global Risk as Davos Elite Gathers in Shadow of Fragmented World

A view of a logo during the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 19, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of a logo during the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 19, 2024. (Reuters)

Armed conflict is the top risk in 2025, a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released on Wednesday showed, a reminder of the deepening global fragmentation as government and business leaders attend an annual gathering in Davos next week.

Nearly one in four of the more than 900 experts surveyed across academia, business and policymaking ranked conflict, including wars and terrorism, as the most severe risk to economic growth for the year ahead.

Extreme weather, the no. 1 concern in 2024, was the second-ranked danger.

"In a world marked by deepening divides and cascading risks, global leaders have a choice: to foster collaboration and resilience, or face compounding instability," WEF Managing Director Mirek Dusek said in a statement accompanying the report.

"The stakes have never been higher."

The WEF gets underway on Jan. 20 and Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States the same day and has promised to end the war in Ukraine, will address the meeting virtually on Jan. 23. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will attend the meeting and give a speech on Jan. 21, according to the WEF organizers.

Among other global leaders due to attend the meeting are European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and China's Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang.

Syria, the "terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza" and the potential escalation of the conflict in the Middle East will be a focus at the gathering, according to WEF President and CEO Borge Brende.

Negotiators were hammering out the final details of a potential ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday, following marathon talks in Qatar.

The threat of misinformation and disinformation was ranked as the most severe global risk over the next two years, according to the survey, the same ranking as in 2024.

Over a 10-year horizon environmental threats dominated experts' risk concerns, the survey showed. Extreme weather was the top longer-term global risk, followed by biodiversity loss, critical change to earth's systems and a shortage of natural resources.

Global temperatures last year exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial era for the first time, bringing the world closer to breaching the pledge governments made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

A global risk is defined by the survey as a condition that would negatively affect a significant proportion of global GDP, population or natural resources. Experts were surveyed in September and October.

The majority of respondents, 64%, expect a multipolar, fragmented global order to persist.