A scorching heatwave has gripped China's Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong areas, prompting authorities to issue high-temperature alerts and activate emergency response measures.
On Thursday, the Beijing Meteorological Observatory recorded the city’s first high-temperature day of the year and issued an orange heat alert, the second highest level in the country's warning system.
By 15:00 on Thursday, the temperature in Beijing's plain regions had risen to above 36 degrees Celsius, with certain areas surpassing 38 degrees Celsius. On Friday, Beijing's temperature is anticipated to remain near 35 degrees Celsius.
Elsewhere in northern China, Hebei Province also experienced severe heat conditions, with temperatures rising above 37 degrees Celsius. The meteorological authorities maintained the issuance of an orange high-temperature warning.
Yuncheng City in north China's Shanxi Province, which neighbors Hebei, is also scorched by heatwave, with temperature soaring to 37 degrees Celsius on the same day. Sanitation water-spraying trucks were deployed to keep its roads cool.
In response to the temperature rising above 37 degrees Celsius, Zibo City in east China's Shandong Province has utilized sprinkler vehicles and trucks fitted with mist cannons to effectively reduce the road surface temperature.
"We have adopted a working mode that prioritizes mechanical operations supplemented by manual work. We try to ensure that front-line workers are not exposed to high-temperature periods and environments," said Chen Lei, an official at Zhangdian District Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau.
Local authorities have also set up rest areas, where heatstroke prevention medicine is available, and sanitation workers and other outdoor workers can cool off with beverages.
"We prepared some heatstroke prevention medicine in advance. Every morning, we boil mung bean soup in advance to ensure that the front-line workers could drink it any time they need to. This can help prevent heatstroke and cool them down," said Ma Bo, manager of manual operation center under Zibo branch of Beijing Enterprises Urban Environmental Services Group Limited.
Heatwave sweeps multiple Chinese cities
Axis powers during World War II should offer sincere reflection and apology, a Greek mayor said after Greece successfully repatriated a rare collection of 262 World War II-era photographs.
Greek officials traveled to Belgium to negotiate with the seller and brought the photographs back to Greece, after they were put up for sale online by a Belgian collector, said the Greek Culture Ministry.
The images were taken by Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer, who served in Greece from 1943 to 1944, during World War II, and part of the collection documents the mass execution of Greek communists by Nazi troops in Kaisariani, east of Athens.
During World War II, German occupation in Greece met with fierce resistance. On May 1, 1944, German forces executed 200 Greeks at the Kaisariani firing range in retaliation for the killing of a German general by resistance fighters.
A memorial and a museum were set up after the war in Kaisariani to commemorate those who died in the mass execution.
"The photos really shocked us all because they were real documents from the day of the execution. We are shocked for many reasons. An important reason is that the 200 communists were singing with their heads held high before the execution in the photos, and they were not mourning because they were fighters," said Ilias Stamelos, mayor of Kaisariani.
The newly recovered photographs have drawn renewed attention to the historical trauma still felt in the community, as the images provide a direct visual record of the final moments of those executed.
In 1987, then German President Richard von Weizsaecker visited Greece and made a special stop in Kaisariani, reflecting on the profound suffering inflicted on the Greek people by Germany during World War II.
Ilias said that, like Germany, Japan, another Axis power during the war, should also be held accountable for the massive harm it caused to multiple countries and should offer sincere reflection and apology for its wartime aggression.
"And I think it's a common demand, because those responsible for the deaths in the World War II need to pay for what happened. It's known to all that back then it was Germany, Japan and Italy, the allies in this war, that each played different roles in the war, yet they do have common responsibilities," said the mayor.
Historic photos of Nazi mass execution of Greeks returned to Greece, mayor calls for historical accountability
