AFP UK

Hundreds of middle-aged and older Chonqging residents have headed to subway stations to escape a searing heatwave

In chaotic and crowded subways, middle-aged and older residents of Chinese megacity Chongqing are taking shelter from the country’s hottest summer on record — the air conditioning and subterranean cool providing respite from the scorching temperatures outside.

Multiple Chinese provinces are sweltering under a heatwave, prompting power curbs that have forced factories to close and lights to dim on some of the country’s best-known city streets. 

Experts have said the intensity, scope and duration of the heatwave could make it one of the most severe recorded in global history.

In Chongqing, home to 30 million, the Jialing River — a tributary of the Yangtze — is running dry and patience is wearing thin.

Desperate to escape the heat, hundreds of middle-aged and older residents have headed to the depths of the city’s subway stations, whiling away the hours smoking, playing cards and napping.

Spread out snoozing in massage chairs or on blankets, some are street cleaners on their breaks, others manual labourers, while some just live close by or are out-of-work with nothing better to do.

Despite a recent Covid-19 outbreak in the city that saw 10 million summoned for mandatory testing, masks are few and between.

In a nearby supermarket that has become a hive of activity, one manager told AFP that many passing time underground have air conditioning at home but are bored and want to have a bit of subterranean fun with friends.

Nonplussed commuters squeeze past the crowds — a reminder that business in the city carries on despite the heat searing the streets above. 

Southern China has recorded its longest continuous period of high temperatures since records began more than 60 years ago

A crippling drought exacerbated by a record heatwave has spread across half of China and reached the normally frigid Tibetan Plateau, according to official data released ahead of more searing temperatures on Thursday.

The world’s second-largest economy has experienced over 70 days of heatwaves, flash floods and droughts — phenomena that scientists say are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.

Southern China has recorded its longest continuous period of high temperatures since records began more than 60 years ago, the agriculture ministry said this week.

Experts have said the intensity, scope and duration of the heatwave could make it one of the worst recorded in global history.

A chart from the National Climate Centre showed Wednesday that swathes of southern China — including the Tibetan Plateau — were experiencing “severe” to “extraordinary” drought conditions.

The worst-affected area — the Yangtze river basin, stretching from coastal Shanghai to Sichuan province in China’s southwest — is home to over 370 million people and contains several manufacturing hubs including the megacity of Chongqing.

The China Meteorological Administration predicted continued high temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Chongqing and the provinces of Sichuan and Zhejiang Thursday.

But some regions gained relief from the heatwave. Parts of southwestern Sichuan were battered by heavy rains overnight, causing the evacuation of almost 30,000 people, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

And in the southeast, Typhoon Ma-on made landfall in coastal Guangdong province and Hong Kong Thursday morning.

“High temperatures have basically been alleviated in the regions of south China, Jiangxi and Anhui,” the meteorological administration said.

“But high temperatures will continue for the next three days in regions including the Sichuan basin and provinces surrounding Shanghai.”

– ‘Severe threat’ –

China’s State Council on Wednesday announced a 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) subsidy to support rice farmers experiencing drought conditions, which authorities have warned pose a “severe threat” to this year’s autumn harvest.

China produces more than 95 percent of the rice, wheat and maize it consumes, but a reduced harvest could mean increased demand for imports in the world’s most populous country — putting further pressure on global supplies already strained by the conflict in Ukraine.

Wednesday’s CCTV evening news broadcast showed trucks supplying villagers who lacked drinking and agricultural water in rural Sichuan and Chongqing.

These regions have also been battling wildfires since last week, exacerbated by high temperatures and water scarcity. 

Livestock owners have fared badly, with Chongqing authorities pledging emergency measures to protect pig farms and a Sichuan farmer’s tearful plea going viral after she said all her chickens had died due to the heatwave and power cuts.

Some Chongqing residents complained on social media about queueing for hours in sweltering heat for compulsory mass testing required in the wake of a Covid outbreak. 

In parts of Sichuan and Chongqing, locals seeking cooler temperatures have taken to sleeping in car parks and subway stations due to daily power cuts. 

Temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) have led multiple Chinese provinces to impose industrial power cuts, as cities struggle to cope with a surge in demand for electricity.

Record low water levels on the Yangtze River have also put pressure on the region’s hydropower generators, with the National Energy Administration pledging Wednesday to make up the shortfall by ramping up coal production. 

Recent heat broke records in Sichuan, where one county recorded a temperature of 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) Wednesday.

Southern China has recorded its longest continuous period of high temperatures since records began more than 60 years ago

A crippling drought exacerbated by a record heat wave has spread out across half of China and reached the normally frigid Tibetan Plateau, according to official data released ahead of more searing temperatures on Thursday.

The world’s second-largest economy has been hit by heatwaves, flash floods and droughts — phenomena that scientists say are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.

Southern China has recorded its longest continuous period of high temperatures since records began more than 60 years ago, the agriculture ministry said this week.

Experts have said the intensity, scope and duration of the heatwave could make it one of the worst recorded in global history.

A chart from the National Climate Centre showed Wednesday that swathes of southern China — including the Tibetan Plateau — were experiencing “severe” to “extraordinary” drought conditions.

The worst-affected area — the Yangtze river basin, stretching from coastal Shanghai to Sichuan province in China’s southwest — is home to over 370 million people and contains several manufacturing hubs including the megacity of Chongqing.

The China Meteorological Administration predicted continued high temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Chongqing and the provinces of Sichuan and Zhejiang Thursday.

But some regions gained relief from the heatwave. Parts of southwestern Sichuan were battered by heavy rains overnight, causing the evacuation of almost 30,000 people, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

And in the southeast, Typhoon Ma-on made landfall in coastal Guangdong province and Hong Kong Thursday morning.

“High temperatures have basically been alleviated in the regions of south China, Jiangxi and Anhui,” the meteorological administration said.

“But high temperatures will continue for the next three days in regions including the Sichuan basin and provinces surrounding Shanghai.”

– ‘Severe threat’ –

China’s State Council on Wednesday announced a 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) subsidy to support rice farmers experiencing drought conditions which authorities have warned pose a “severe threat” to this year’s autumn harvest.

China produces more than 95 percent of the rice, wheat and maize it consumes, but a reduced harvest could mean increased demand for imports in the world’s most populous country — putting further pressure on global supplies already strained by the conflict in Ukraine.

Wednesday’s CCTV evening news broadcast showed trucks supplying villagers who lacked drinking and agricultural water in rural Sichuan and Chongqing, with remote mountain areas particularly hard-hit.

Chongqing and Sichuan have also been battling wildfires since last week, exacerbated by high temperatures and water scarcity. 

Temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) have led multiple Chinese provinces to impose industrial power cuts, as cities struggle to cope with a surge in demand for electricity.

Record low water levels on the Yangtze River have also put pressure on the region’s hydropower generators.

Recent heat broke records in Sichuan, where one county recorded a temperature of 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) Wednesday.

Southern China has recorded its longest continuous period of high temperatures since records began more than 60 years ago

Half of China’s vast territory is now experiencing drought, including parts of the frigid Tibetan Plateau, official data showed — with more high temperatures forecast Thursday for hundreds of millions of people enduring the country’s hottest summer on record.

The world’s second-largest economy has been hit by record heat, flash floods and droughts — phenomena that scientists say are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.

Southern China has recorded its longest continuous period of high temperatures since records began more than 60 years ago, the agriculture ministry said this week.

Experts have said the intensity, scope and duration of the heatwave could make it one of the worst recorded in global history.

A chart from the National Climate Centre showed Wednesday that swathes of southern China — including the Tibetan Plateau — were experiencing “severe” to “extraordinary” drought conditions.

The worst-affected area — the Yangtze river basin, stretching from coastal Shanghai to Sichuan province in China’s southwest — is home to over 370 million people and contains several manufacturing hubs including the megacity of Chongqing.

The China Meteorological Administration predicted continued high temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Chongqing and the provinces of Sichuan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang Thursday.

China’s State Council on Wednesday announced a 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) subsidy to support rice farmers experiencing drought conditions which authorities have warned pose a “severe threat” to this year’s autumn harvest.

China produces more than 95 percent of the rice, wheat and maize it consumes, but a reduced harvest could mean increased demand for imports in the world’s most populous country — putting further pressure on global supplies already strained by the conflict in Ukraine.

Officials also called for “a combination of measures to increase water sources to fight drought, first ensure drinking water for the people, ensure water for agricultural irrigation,” the readout added.

Wednesday’s CCTV evening news broadcast showed trucks supplying villagers who lacked drinking and agricultural water in rural Sichuan and Chongqing, with remote mountain areas particularly hard hit.

Temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) have led multiple Chinese provinces to impose industrial power cuts, as cities struggle to cope with a surge in demand for electricity partly driven by people cranking up the air conditioning.

Record low water levels on the Yangtze River have also put pressure on the region’s hydropower generators.

The heat broke records in Sichuan, where a temperature of 43.9 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) was recorded Wednesday afternoon, the province’s Meteorological Service Centre said in a statement.

California's environmental policies, including ones around car emissions, can, in effect, set national standards as the state's 40 million people make up the United States' largest market

All new cars sold in California by 2035 will have to be zero emission under plans set to be adopted by the state this week, as the biggest economy in the United States drives a nationwide fossil fuel evolution.

Proposals to be debated by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) this week will formalize targets set by Governor Gavin Newsom — and will likely prod other US states in the same direction.

The plans, which board member Daniel Sperling recently told CNN he was “99.9 percent” confident would be adopted, also include incremental steps mandating more than a third of 2026 car sales in the state be zero emission, and over two-thirds by 2030.

“This is monumental,” Sperling told CNN. “This is the most important thing that CARB has done in the last 30 years. It’s important not just for California, but it’s important for the country and the world.”

California’s more-than 40 million consumers make it the biggest market in the United States.

As such, rules imposed there impact manufacturers’ production plans across the country, as well as further afield, because they cannot afford to miss out.

This means California can, in effect, set national standards. 

The likely ruling Thursday comes on the heels of a climate law signed last week by US President Joe Biden, which sets aside hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives for clean energy programs.

Biden and his Democratic Party are rushing to make up climate policy ground they feel was lost under former president Donald Trump, who yanked the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord and reversed what many environmentalists viewed as already-weak progress in combating the fossil fuel emissions that drive global warming.

In recent years jurisdictions around the world, notably in Europe, have set their sights on the polluting automobile sector.

Norway is aiming to have all new cars produce zero tailpipe emissions by 2025.

The UK, Singapore and Israel are eyeing 2030, while the European Union wants to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035. 

Human-caused global warming has already raised average temperatures around the planet, affecting weather patterns and worsening natural hazards like wildfires and storms.

Scientists say dramatic action is required to limit the damage, and point to curbing emissions from fossil fuels as key to the battle.

A smuggler hid dozens of lizards and snakes in his clothes, including around his groin, as he tried to get them into the United States

A man who hid snakes and lizards in his trousers as he tried to sneak them into the United States as part of a $750,000 reptile smuggling enterprise faces decades in prison, officials said Wednesday.

Jose Manuel Perez masterminded the six-year scheme from his home in southern California, which involved bringing 1,700 animals into the United States from Mexico and Hong Kong.

In a plea deal with the Department of Justice, Perez acknowledged that he had paid mules to transport some of his illicit cargo, and at other times had made border crossings himself.

The animals that he netted, which included Yucatan box turtles, Mexican box turtles, baby crocodiles and Mexican beaded lizards, were sold to clients across the country for upwards of $739,000, documents show.

His downfall came in March when he tried to drive from Mexico with 60 creatures secreted around his groin and in other parts of his clothing.

After initially telling customs officers he was transporting his pet lizards in his pockets, he was found to have 60 reptiles on him.

They included arboreal alligator lizards and Isthmian dwarf boas, a kind of snake that changes color and whose defense mechanisms include bleeding from its eyes.

Three of the reptiles were dead.

Perez, who admitted two counts of smuggling, each of which carries up to 20 years in prison, and one of wildlife trafficking, which carries a maximum five-year jail term, will be sentenced on December 1.

A smuggler hid dozens of lizards and snakes in his clothes, including around his groin, as he tried to get them into the United States

A man who hid snakes and lizards in his trousers as he tried to sneak them into the United States as part of a $750,000 reptile smuggling enterprise faces decades in prison, officials said Wednesday.

Jose Manuel Perez masterminded the six-year scheme from his home in southern California, which involved bringing 1,700 animals into the United States from Mexico and Hong Kong.

In a plea deal with the Department of Justice, Perez acknowledged that he had paid mules to transport some of his illicit cargo, and at other times had made border crossings himself.

The animals that he netted, which included Yucatan box turtles, Mexican box turtles, baby crocodiles and Mexican beaded lizards, were sold to clients across the country for upwards of $739,000, documents show.

His downfall came in March when he tried to drive from Mexico with 60 creatures secreted around his groin and in other parts of his clothing.

After initially telling customs officers he was transporting his pet lizards in his pockets, he was found to have 60 reptiles on him.

They included arboreal alligator lizards and Isthmian dwarf boas, a kind of snake that changes color and whose defense mechanisms include bleeding from its eyes.

Three of the reptiles were dead.

Perez, who admitted two counts of smuggling, each of which carries up to 20 years in prison, and one of wildlife trafficking, which carries a maximum five-year jail term, will be sentenced on December 1.

California's environmental policies, including ones around car emissions, can, in effect, set national standards as the state's 40 million people make up the United States' largest market

All new cars sold in California by 2035 will have to be zero emission under plans set to be adopted by the state this week, as the biggest economy in the United States drives a nationwide fossil fuel evolution.

Proposals to be debated by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) this week will formalize targets set by Governor Gavin Newsom — and will likely prod other US states in the same direction.

The plans, which board member Daniel Sperling recently told CNN he was “99.9 percent” confident would be adopted, also include incremental steps mandating more than a third of 2026 car sales in the state be zero emission, and over two-thirds by 2030.

“This is monumental,” Sperling told CNN. “This is the most important thing that CARB has done in the last 30 years. It’s important not just for California, but it’s important for the country and the world.”

California’s more-than 40 million consumers make it the biggest market in the United States.

As such, rules imposed there impact manufacturers’ production plans across the country, as well as further afield, because they cannot afford to miss out.

This means California can, in effect, set national standards. 

The likely ruling Thursday comes on the heels of a climate law signed last week by US President Joe Biden, which sets aside hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives for clean energy programs.

Biden and his Democratic Party are rushing to make up climate policy ground they feel was lost under former president Donald Trump, who yanked the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord and reversed what many environmentalists viewed as already-weak progress in combating the fossil fuel emissions that drive global warming.

In recent years jurisdictions around the world, notably in Europe, have set their sights on the polluting automobile sector.

Norway is aiming to have all new cars produce zero tailpipe emissions by 2025.

The UK, Singapore and Israel are eyeing 2030, while the European Union wants to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035. 

Human-caused global warming has already raised average temperatures around the planet, affecting weather patterns and worsening natural hazards like wildfires and storms.

Scientists say dramatic action is required to limit the damage, and point to curbing emissions from fossil fuels as key to the battle.

The partial skull of the Sahelanthropus tchadensis dubbed "Toumai", which was discovered in Chad in 2001

The earliest known human ancestor walked on two feet as well as climbing through trees around seven million years ago, scientists said Wednesday after studying three limb bones.

When the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis was discovered in Chad in 2001, it pushed back the age of the oldest known representative species of humanity by a million years. 

Nicknamed “Toumai”, the nearly complete cranium was thought to indicate that the species walked on two feet because of the position of its vertebral column and other factors.

However the subject triggered fierce debate among scientists, partly due to the scarcity and quality of the available bones, with some even claiming that Toumai was not a human relative but just an ancient ape.

In a study published in the Nature journal on Wednesday, a team of researchers exhaustively analysed a thigh bone and two forearm bones found at the same site as the Toumai skull.

“The skull tells us that Sahelanthropus is part of the human lineage,” said paleoanthropologist Franck Guy, one of the authors of the study.

The new research on the limb bones demonstrates that walking on two feet was its “preferred mode of getting around, depending on the situation,” he told a press conference. 

But they also sometimes moved through the trees, he added. 

– ‘Not a magical trait’ –

The leg and arm bones were found alongside thousands of other fossils in 2001, and the researchers were not able to confirm that they belonged to the same individual as the Toumai skull.

After years of testing and measuring the bones, they identified 23 characteristics which were then compared to fossils from great apes as well as hominins — which are species more closely related to humans than chimpanzees.

They concluded that “these characteristics are much closer to what would be seen in a hominin than any other primate,” the study’s lead author Guillaume Daver told the press conference.

For example, the forearm bones did not show evidence that the Sahelanthropus leaned on the back of its hands, as is done by gorillas and chimpanzees.

The Sahelanthropus lived in an area with a combination of forests, palm groves and tropical savannahs, meaning that being able to both walk and climb through trees would have been an advantage.

There have been previous suggestions that it was the ability to walk on two feet that drove humans to evolve separately from chimpanzees, putting us on the path to where we are today.

However the researchers emphasised that what made Sahelanthropus human was its ability to adapt to its environment.

“Bipedalism (walking on two legs) is not a magical trait that strictly defines humanity,” paleontologist Jean-Renaud Boisserie told the press conference.

“It is a characteristic that we find at the present time in all the representatives of humanity.”

– Our ‘bushy’ family tree –

Paleoanthropologist Antoine Balzeau of France’s National Museum of Natural History said the “extremely substantial” study gives “a more complete image of Toumai and therefore of the first humans”.

It also bolstered the theory that the human family tree is “bushy”, and was not like the “simplistic image of humans who follow one another, with abilities that improve over time,” Balzeau, who was not involved in the research, told AFP.

Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, said in a linked paper in Nature that the study’s “authors have squeezed as much information as possible from the fossil data”.

But he added that the research will not offer “full resolution” of the debate.

Milford Wolpoff, a paleoanthropologist at the US University of Michigan cast doubt on whether Toumai is a hominin, telling AFP that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”.

Wednesday’s study was carried out by researchers from the PALEVOPRIM paleontology institute, a collaboration between France’s CNRS research centre and Poitiers University, as well as scientists in Chad.

Guy said the team hopes to continue its research in Chad next year — “security permitting”.

Chadian paleontologist Clarisse Nekoulnang said the team was “trying to find sites older than that of Toumai”.

High summer temperatures and low rainfall have seen trees shed their leaves in a phenomenon dubbed 'false autumn'

Searing summer temperatures in the UK have not just parched the earth and dried up rivers, lakes and reservoirs but are also seeing trees shed their leaves early.

Instead of green, many gardens, parks and woods are now a sea of orange, yellow, red and brown, with thick carpets of leaves on the ground.

The early leaf fall — dubbed a “false autumn” — is a sign of stress, as trees shed their leaves to try to retain moisture.

But experts say while older trees with deep roots can withstand the drier conditions, younger, less established ones could be at risk.

“The trees are enacting the hormones they use in autumn to just retract and ensure their survival,” said Rosie Walker, of the Woodland Trust conservation charity.

“They’ll keep going like this for a few years but it is going to start impacting our trees if we’re not very careful,” she told BBC radio.

Temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time in Britain in July, with the month the driest on record in many parts of southern and eastern England.

Climate change has been blamed for the searing heatwave, which has led to drought being declared and a ban on the use of hosepipes to save water in some areas.

The Woodland Trust said fallen leaves are most likely to come from birch, silver birch and rowan trees.

“We saw the first turn in silver birch on August 12, which is incredibly early,” said Walker, adding that other species were also shedding their leaves.

– Wildlife –

Leigh Hunt, principal horticultural adviser at the Royal Horticultural Society, said a similar situation was observed during prolonged dry spells in 2006-7 and just before the coronavirus pandemic.

“It really is pretty severe this year,” he told Times Radio on Wednesday. “But what I am noticing is that these events seem to be happening more frequently. 

“The idea that it’s going to be hotter, drier summers and more erratic rain very much fits in with that idea of climate change.”

The Woodland Trust meanwhile said it had recorded its earliest ever appearance of ripe wild blackberries — normally an autumn fruit — on June 28.

The premature ripening of berries and nuts could hit small mammals and birds who store energy in September and October for the cold winter months.

Animals such as dormice consume high-fat foods such as hazelnuts and other hedgerow fruits in autumn but could struggle if they are gone by August.

“Nature’s timing is everything for our wildlife,” said Steve Hussey, from the Devon Wildlife Trust in southwest England. 

“The climate crisis is bringing with it seasonal weather patterns which our wildlife is just not adapted to.

“Our long, hot summer and the ‘false autumn’ will have a knock-on for many species right into the real autumn months and beyond.”