HONG KONG: Temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) scorched parts of northern and central China on Tuesday with authorities issuing heat warnings and offering aid to farmers to protect food production.
Temperatures in China’s northern Hebei province, Henan province, a key wheat-producing region known as China’s granary, and the eastern province of Shandong all reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.
In Zhengzhou, Henan Province and Shahe, Hebei Province, the mercury soared to highs of between 41 C (105.8 F) and 42.9 C (109.22 F) on Monday, their highest ever for the month of May, authorities said.
The high temperatures are expected to continue until Wednesday, the country’s National Meteorological Center said.
China is facing hotter and longer heat waves and more frequent and unpredictable heavy rain as a result of climate change. The country is especially vulnerable to global warming, authorities have said, because of its huge population.
Chinese meteorological data show 2024 was the warmest year for the country since comparable records began over six decades ago, the second straight year in which milestones were broken.
Last year’s warmer weather was accompanied by stronger storms and higher rainfall and led to spikes in power consumption in China, the world’s second-largest economy.
The National Meteorological Center on Tuesday issued a yellow warning for high temperatures. The center has a three-tier, color warning system for high temperatures, with red being the most severe, followed by orange and yellow.
In Zhengzhou, Henan’s capital, large sprinkler trucks and sprinklers were used to cool down urban areas, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
In Lanling county, in the south of Shandong province, agricultural experts were instructing vegetable farmers to ventilate their plants using sheds and water spraying, CCTV said.
Cold air moving from west to east will cool much of China’s north on Thursday and Friday, with a drop of 6-12 C (11-22 F).
In China’s southern Jiangxi more than 100 mm (3.94 inches) of rainfall was recorded across much of the province.
Last weekend, heavy rains in China’s southern Guangdong and Guangxi provinces killed at least six people and disrupted trains and power supply, with alerts issued for severe flooding and geological disasters in parts of the country.
North and central China hit by soaring heat
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North and central China hit by soaring heat
SpaceX acquires xAI in record-setting deal as Musk looks to unify AI and space ambitions
- The deal is the biggest M&A transaction of all time
- Deal values xAI at $250 billion, SpaceX at $1 trillion
Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence startup xAI in a record-setting deal that unifies Musk’s AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot. The deal, first reported by Reuters last week, represents one of the most ambitious tie-ups in the technology sector yet, combining a space-and-defense contractor with a fast-growing AI developer whose costs are largely driven by chips, data centers and energy. It could also bolster SpaceX’s data-center ambitions as Musk competes with rivals like Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Amazon-backed Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI sector.
The transaction values SpaceX at $1 trillion, and xAI at $250 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“This marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” Musk said. The purchase of xAI sets a new record for the world’s largest M&A deal, a distinction held for more than 25 years when Vodafone bought Germany’s Mannesmann in a hostile takeover valued at $203 billion in 2000, according to data compiled by LSEG. The combined company of SpaceX and xAI is expected to price shares at about $527 each, another person familiar with the matter said. SpaceX was already the world’s most valuable privately held company, last valued at $800 billion in a recent insider share sale. XAI was last valued at $230 billion in November, according to the Wall Street Journal. The merger comes as the space company plans a blockbuster public offering this year that could value it at over $1.5 trillion, two people familiar with the matter said.
SpaceX, xAI and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The deal further consolidates Musk’s far-flung business empire and fortunes into a tighter, mutually reinforcing ecosystem – what some investors and analysts informally call the “Muskonomy” – which already includes Tesla, brain-chip maker Neuralink and tunnel firm the Boring Company. The world’s richest man has a history of merging his ventures together. Musk folded social media platform X into xAI through a share swap last year, giving the AI startup access to the platform’s data and distribution. In 2016, he used Tesla’s stock to buy his solar-energy company SolarCity.
The agreement could draw scrutiny from regulators and investors over governance, valuation and conflicts of interest given Musk’s overlapping leadership roles across multiple firms, as well as the potential movement of engineers, proprietary technology and contracts between entities.
SpaceX also holds billions of dollars in federal contracts with NASA, the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies, which all have some authority to review M&A transactions for national security and other risks.
