4 dead, 9 injured, in China flash flood in Sichuan city of Pengzhou

“As of 7.30pm, the mountain flood has killed four people, severely injured three and lightly injured six others,” Pengzhou emergency response authorities said in a statement. The flood comes during a summer of extreme weather in China, with multiple cities including Shanghai recording their hottest days ever during a heatwave in July. Advertisement Scientists say extreme weather across the world has become more frequent due to climate change, and is likely to grow more intense as global temperatures rise. 01:57 Seoul moves to ban ‘Parasite-style’ basement flats as historic floods…

Xi Jinping faces stumbling blocks, as crucial Communist party meeting looms

Having presided over a grand celebration of the party’s centenary and suppressed mass Covid outbreaks last year, China’s president, Xi Jinping, told his countrymen and women in his 2022 New Year address that the Chinese nation was “making confident strides on the path toward the great rejuvenation”. But so far, the Year of the Tiger has been full of stumbling blocks. First, the draconian Covid lockdowns in major cities such as Xi’an and Shanghai, the commercial capital, sparked outcry and disrupted global supply chains. Then the economy showed signs of…