China holds gathering to mark 90th anniversary of Long March victory

China held a gathering in Beijing on Thursday to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the gathering and delivered an important speech.

Also present at the event were Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi, who are members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, as well as Chinese Vice President Han Zheng.

The current El Nino event could be unprecedented in strength, literally off the monitoring charts that have been used for the past four decades, said Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), on Wednesday.

The WMO released its latest Global Seasonal Climate Update at a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland.

"The World Meteorological Organization is today releasing a new seasonal climate outlook, which indicates that the current El Nino event could be unprecedented in strength, literally off the monitoring charts that we have used for the past four decades. El Nino will peak towards the end of 2026, but its impacts will be felt long after that," said Saulo at the briefing.

"Our latest global seasonal climate update forecasts that sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific -- the epicenter of El Nino -- may rise to 3.8 degrees Celsius above average during November 2026 to January 2027," she added.

The WMO called on all countries to enhance early warning and disaster prevention capabilities, noting that El Nino is expected to further bring heavy rain and flood risks to some regions in eastern Africa, droughts to southern Africa, high temperatures and insufficient precipitation to Southeast Asia, and abnormal rainfall or drought to some regions in the Americas.