Authorities activate emergency response, send support teams to Xizang after deadly quake

Multiple Chinese ministries have activated emergency response programs and dispatched work teams to support rescue operations after a deadly earthquake struck southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region on Tuesday morning.

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Dingri County in the city of Xigaze at 09:05 on Tuesday, with at least 126 people confirmed dead and 188 others injured, while rescue efforts are ongoing to locate possible survivors buried beneath the rubble.

Following the quake, China's National Disaster Reduction Commission raised the emergency response to Level II, the second highest in the country's four-tier system.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has also launched a Level II emergency response and dispatched a special team to offer guidance on the post-quake emergency assessment of buildings and municipal facilities, carry out rush repairs, and oversee the construction of temporary houses.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management have urgently allocated 100 million yuan (over 13.6 million U.S. dollars) from the central natural disaster relief fund to support Xizang in its search and rescue operations, the relocation of affected residents, and the reconstruction of damaged houses.

The State Grid Tibet Electric Power Company has sent its first batch of personnel, including six vehicles and disaster relief supplies to the quake-hit zones to conduct power restoration efforts.

Further aid has come from the Red Cross Society of China, which has swiftly allocated 4,600 disaster relief supplies, including tents, quilts, thermal jackets, and folding beds, helping in the smooth relocation and basic living conditions of those impacted.

It also dispatched a work team and rescue personnel to conduct on-site assessments of the disaster zones on Tuesday afternoon and help carry out rescue and relief work.

The National Health Commission has also deployed experts from Peking Union Medical College Hospital and West China Hospital of Sichuan University. The commission has also called on national-level medical emergency response teams from neighboring provinces and regions to make preparations to join the rescue operations as needed.

A total of 19 aftershocks with a magnitude of 3.0 or higher have been recorded as of 17:00 on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Natural Resources had earlier on Tuesday afternoon raised the geological disaster defense response level, and also dispatched a work team to offer guidance on conducting secondary geological disaster assessments and providing emergency technical support in the quake-affected areas.

The China Railway Qinghai-Xizang Group promptly closed specific railway lines and halted some trains following the earthquake.

It also coordinated departments responsible for infrastructure, electrical systems, power supply, and construction to conduct a thorough inspection of facilities, including railway tracks, bridges, tunnels, and electrical systems in the affected areas. This effort is aimed at mitigating the earthquake's impact on railway operations and ensuring the safety of train services.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Natural Resources has released the first remote sensing image of the earthquake in Dingri County. The image shows that the epicenter is only around 2.5 kilometers away from the local government offices in Tsogo Township, with two other townships and several villages in the vicinity, with a relatively dense population.

From the image, it can be seen that most of the Tsogo Lake is still frozen, indicating low temperatures in the region, which may pose further difficulties for the post-disaster relief work and the resettlement of affected people.

The ministry has also released the first three-dimensional topographical video of the earthquake. It shows residential settlements in the earthquake-affected areas of Dingri County being situated in the valleys, with some houses near the epicenter sustaining damage.

Footage from surveillance cameras at a photovoltaic power station situated just over 100 kilometers from the epicenter revealed significant swaying of facilities at the moment the quake struck. However, both indoor and outdoor equipment is said to be functioning normally and remains undamaged.

Personnel at the power station actively coordinated the safe relocation of local farmers and herdsmen in the surrounding areas, with all those located in the vicinity of the station having been been safely relocated with no casualties reported.

In addition, surveillance footage from eight gas stations located within a 100-kilometer radius of the epicenter showed goods falling from shelves, ceilings caving in, and cracks appearing on some walls, while some power outages were also experienced.

Despite these incidents, no casualties have been reported at the gas stations. Equipment and facilities are operating as usual, and there are ample fuel supplies in stock.

Authorities activate emergency response, send support teams to Xizang after deadly quake

U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of a 100 percent tariff on overseas-produced films has ignited fierce criticism from Hollywood and academic circles, amid growing concerns over the struggling domestic film industry.

Nicholas J. Cull, a professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, warned that the film tariff is fundamentally an act of political manipulation. He cautioned that it would heighten uncertainty in the industry, hinder international cultural exchange, sever global understanding, and undermine efforts toward international cooperation and dialogue.

"We live in a world where the problems are too big for any one country to solve, and the only way these problems are going to be solved is if people are able to work together. Now working together requires trust. Trust requires knowledge. One of the ways in which countries get to know each other, get to appreciate each other, is through exposure to their popular culture. Now it should be a time for learning more about each other, building trust between countries, and learning how to work together. And seeing each other's movies, I think, is a really important way of building knowledge and building trust. And so to me, the idea of limiting the distribution of films or penalizing production of foreign films is swimming in exactly the wrong direction at this particular moment in history," said Cull.

Cull also challenged Trump's justification that foreign films pose a threat to national security, calling it unconvincing and counterproductive to America's global image.

"He is making this important connection in that statement between what people see of America, how people feel about America, and how secure the United States is, but I don't think making crazy proposals and threatening our neighbors is a great way of helping America's reputation. I think that there must be better ways of going about this. So in the long term, this kind of behavior, I think increases mistrust about the United States," he said.

Cull further warned that the policy could trigger retaliatory measures from other countries, escalating into a cultural trade war that would limit the global flow of ideas and creativity.

"I think that in the more immediate future we can see that there will be a danger of reciprocal tariffs. So other countries will say, 'well, if you're going to impose a tariff on our production, we're going to impose a tariff on your production.' And that would be unhelpful. I think one of the things I would worry about is the world seeing less of one another's creativity, less of one another's perspectives. Right now, we need to know more about what each other are thinking, I feel," he explained.

Trump's film tariff fuels global cultural divide: scholar