newsmart – Environment

scmp.com | 3 hrs. 34 min. ago

Chinese state media takes aim at Japanese firm KDDI over Mongolia wildfire

Chinese state media has called for a Japanese telecoms firm to apologise to China over a huge wildfire in neighbouring Mongolia, as diplomatic tensions run high between Beijing and Tokyo. The grassland fire broke out on October 8 and burned about 80 per cent of a nature reserve on the Mongolia-China border.

According to Japanese media reports, the company, KDDI, has acknowledged that the fire was linked to activities involving its majority-owned subsidiary MobiCom – the largest mobile network...

scmp.com | 19 hrs. 35 min. ago

European EV production drive sees China’s lithium-ion battery exports to EU surge

China’s lithium-ion battery exports to the EU surged in the first three quarters of this year, as Chinese carmakers rush to build factories in Europe amid a tightening of import restrictions on electric vehicles (EVs). Power inverter exports to the bloc’s members also grew strongly despite EU efforts to exclude Chinese products from publicly funded energy projects.

Shipments of Chinese lithium-ion batteries to the EU were worth US$31.2 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 46 per cent...

france24.com | 20 hrs. 17 min. ago

Dalai Lama appointed by China 'is going to be a fake one', exiled former Tibetan leader says

In an interview with FRANCE 24, exiled former Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangay said any successor to the Dalai Lama appointed by China "is going to be a fake one". He also likened Beijing's ethnic unity law to "an ethnic erasure", said Tibetan concerns had been "downgraded a bit" in US-China talks and accused China of failing to warn of the deadly August floods on the Nepal-Tibet border.

yahoo.com | 1 days ago

Super Typhoon Champi intensifies into one of the year's most powerful storms

Super Typhoon Champi, which is barreling across the western Pacific Ocean, became one of the strongest storms on Earth in 2026 on Wednesday.The tropical cyclone tied April’s Super Typhoon Sinlaku for the strongest 1-minute sustained winds of 2026, at 185 mph, which is equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.Hurricanes and typhoons are both tropical cyclones with sustained winds of at least 74 mph.

“A tropical cyclone is a generic term used by meteorologists to describe a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has closed, low-level circulation,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.The main difference between hurricanes and typhoons is geographic: Storms in the Northwest Pacific are called typhoons, while those in the North Atlantic and central and eastern North Pacific are called hurricanes.The Joint Typhoon Warning Center classifies a storm as a super typhoon when its 1-minute sustained winds reach at least 150 mph.

That threshold falls within the Category 4 hurricane range.What is Champi’s path?Champi is currently east of the Philippines and southeast of Taiwan, moving west-northwest across the Philippine Sea at 15 mph. Maximum sustained winds are at 175 mph, after peaking at 185 mph, according to the latest update from the National Weather Service.The storm is forecast to make a slight turn toward the northwest and weaken through Thursday.Super Typhoon Champi's path.Naval Meteorology and Oceanography CommandWhat are the expected impacts?Champi is expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds to parts of Taiwan and eastern China through the weekend, according to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Jason Nicholls.Heavy rain is expected to affect Taiwan from Thursday night (Oct.

22) into Saturday (Oct. 24) and east-central China from Friday night (Oct. 23) through Sunday (Oct. 25). Rainfall is forecast to total up to 18 inches, with the heaviest rain expected in northeastern Taiwan.The heavy rain could cause flooding, mudslides, structural damage and transportation delays, according to AccuWeather.Strong winds from Champi, with wind gusts up to 120 mph, are expected to affect Taiwan and eastern China from Thursday night into Sunday.

The winds could cause structural damage, prolonged power outages and transportation delays.This article originally appeared on Yahoo News at https://www.yahoo.com/news/weather-news/article/super-typhoon-champi-becomes-one-of-2026s-strongest-storms-as-it-heads-toward-taiwan-and-eastern-china-212554537.html

scmp.com | 1 days ago

Tesla’s ‘flying car’ draws public concern in China – and an official response

The Communist Party’s flagship newspaper has urged the public not to underestimate China’s technological achievements after Tesla’s “flying car” demonstration sparked concern in some quarters that the country may be falling behind in the global auto race. The People’s Daily commentary, published on Wednesday, followed the American electric vehicle giant’s unveiling last week of a second-generation Roadster fitted with thrusters developed with SpaceX, the rocket company led by Tesla CEO Elon...

scmp.com | 1 days ago

Former IMF executive says China and the world need an internationalised yuan

Both China and the world need an internationalised yuan in a multipolar global economic environment, a former senior Chinese official has urged in an article that was published as Beijing upgraded its digital-yuan infrastructure to bolster efforts to reshape the US dollar-dominated global financial system.

Wider use of the Chinese currency, also known as the renminbi, would support China’s high-quality growth while offering an alternative that could help stabilise the international financial...

scmp.com | 1 days ago

China AI researcher rises to Xiaomi’s top level in 10 months, talks work-life balance

Beijing-based smartphone and electric vehicle giant Xiaomi announced in mid-October that it would promote 31-year-old Luo Fuli to its highest-level position, once again putting the “AI prodigy” at the centre of heated discussion. The move came 10 months after Luo joined the company as head of its large language model (LLM) unit.

Luo attracted significant public attention in late 2024, when Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said during a live-stream that he hoped to hire her at an annual salary of...

axios.com | 1 days ago

"I am giving you money!" Nvidia's CEO wants every country to build its own AI

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is crisscrossing Europe with a multibillion-dollar checkbook and a grand ambition: Make his company the indispensable backbone of the global AI economy.Why it matters: As fears of an AI bubble rattle Wall Street, Huang is working to spread the boom beyond the U.S. and China — courting governments, bankrolling startups and cultivating massive new markets for Nvidia's chips.The big picture: The godfather of AI is trying to single-handedly build a new market for Nvidia chips, betting that governments and institutions around the world will want their own, highly customized data centers running open models.If it works, it could shore up demand for Nvidia chips just as another big group of customers — neoclouds — appear financially shaky.Driving the news: Part showman, part salesman, Huang has spent the past week preaching the gospel of AI across Europe ahead of a keynote Wednesday at Nvidia's flagship conference in Berlin.In France, Huang announced investments in four startups and joked, whisky glass in hand, that he's "the biggest VC in Europe."

President Emmanuel Macron welcomed him to Paris, while France's economy minister compared the AI revolution to the Gold Rush.In Britain, Huang channeled Oprah Winfrey while announcing stakes in five startups. "I am giving you money! And I am giving you money! And I am giving you money!" he shouted from the stage of a converted London church.In Sweden, Huang unveiled a supercomputer backed by the country's industrial elite, likening Nvidia's technology to a "time machine" capable of compressing years of scientific research into days.In Germany, Huang challenged Chancellor Friedrich Merz to loosen Europe's regulatory instincts.

"There's nothing to regulate if the industry doesn't thrive," he warned Monday. "Give Germany a chance. Give this industry a chance."Zoom in: At the heart of Huang's global strategy is "sovereign AI" — the idea that every nation should build and control its own AI infrastructure, data and models, rather than depend on U.S. or Chinese tech giants.In addition to roughly $10 billion in investments in Europe, Nvidia is helping build national AI ecosystems across Saudi Arabia, South Korea, India, Malaysia and Africa.For Huang, the prize is a vast new class of customers, including entire countries that see AI infrastructure as an economic and national security imperative.Between the lines: Huang's global offensive comes at a precarious moment for the AI industry, with Wall Street increasingly questioning whether the technology's enormous promise can justify its astronomical costs.Shares and bonds of Nvidia-backed CoreWeave and other "neocloud" providers have plunged, fueling fears that the companies borrowing billions to buy Nvidia's chips may struggle to pay their debts.Investors are also scrutinizing a circular flow of money in which Nvidia helps finance the very companies buying its products, raising questions about how much demand is self-sustaining.What to watch: Huang has emerged as the AI industry's chief cheerleader during periods of market turmoil, countering predictions of a bubble with assurances that demand is still accelerating.His Berlin keynote offers another chance to calm investors by arguing that the next wave of AI spending will come from governments treating the technology as a national necessity, not a speculative bet.The bottom line: Countries racing to secure their independence in the AI age may find themselves more reliant than ever on one American company.

scmp.com | 1 days ago

China-US team’s ‘gold factory’ relic; next-gen diabetes care: 7 science highlights

We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China breakthrough unlocks low-cost, high-margin sustainable aviation fuel Chinese researchers have developed a catalyst that converts synthesis gas into sustainable jet fuel – an advance that could boost production, help meet net-zero carbon goals and yield a gross profit margin above 50 per cent.

2. Landmark...