Day: February 8, 2026

Can this ‘super antibody’ overpower SFTS, a deadly tick-borne disease?

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In the world of tick-borne illnesses, Lyme disease gets the headlines. For example, Greg Yang, one of the 12 original co-founders of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI, said in late January that he was stepping back from the company after being diagnosed with the disease, saying that accidentally eating the wrong food would leave him “extremely tired”, requiring days to recover. But there is a more dangerous condition transmitted by the ticks that a team at a Chinese university might now have a way to treat. Advertisement The discovery,…

Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong pro-democracy figure, sentenced to 20 years in prison for national security offences

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Jimmy Lai, a once mighty media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences. The sentencing is the culmination of a years-long saga that critics say represents Hong Kong’s transformation from a mostly free city to one where dissent is fiercely suppressed by the Chinese Communist party-controlled authorities. Lai, 78, was convicted in December on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges. The collusion convictions carry a…

Jimmy Lai sentencing: Hong Kong court to rule on pro-democracy media mogul after conviction – live updates

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Hello, Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s former media mogul is set to be sentenced on Monday, following a months-long trial in which the 78-year old was convicted on national security offences. Lai, a British citizen and founder of the now defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty last December of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, as well as one count of publishing seditious materials. At the time of his verdict, Esther Toh, one of the three government-vetted national security judges who oversaw Lai’s trial, wrote: “There is…

‘Time is ripe’: why China is eyeing another vast canal link to Southeast Asia

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China has almost finished building the US$10 billion Pinglu Canal to deepen trade ties between its southwestern provinces and Southeast Asia. Now, it is considering an even more ambitious – and expensive – project further inland. The Xianggui Canal would be a 300km (186 mile) waterway that effectively acts as an extension of the new Pinglu Canal, giving cities right at the heart of the Chinese interior direct access to the Gulf of Tonkin, known in China as the Beibu Gulf. Like the earlier project, the aim is to give…

Japanese stocks soar to record after Takaichi landslide election win

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Japanese stocks jumped to record levels after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s landslide win in a snap general election as investors bet on her vision of a “strong and prosperous” nation. The Nikkei 225 benchmark rose as much as 5 per cent on Monday, breaking through the 57,000 level for the first time, after Takaichi’s victory in Sunday’s election.  The broader Topix index also surged to a record high, breaching the…

Europe must act fast in Trump’s more brutal new world order: Luuk van Middelaar

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Luuk van Middelaar is the director of the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, a think tank he co-founded in 2022. A political theorist and historian by trade, he has written several books and was in the cabinet of the first European Council president Herman Van Rompuy. Van Middelaar is widely read and cited across Europe for his analysis of the EU’s political evolution, with his books translated into many languages and awarded major European literary prizes. He writes regularly for leading newspapers including Le Monde, The Guardian, Die Zeit and others,…

Thai conservatives cruise to surprise election win

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s conservative party is set to win a snap general election, giving him the upper hand in forming a new coalition government and reviving the fortunes of the country’s royalist-military establishment. Anutin’s Bhumjaithai Party is leading in 194 of the 500 seats in the lower house of parliament, according to the election commission, with about 90 per cent of votes counted. Results after Sunday’s vote suggest…

Thai conservatives on course for surprise election win

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s conservative party is on course to win a snap general election, giving him the upper hand in forming a new coalition government and reviving the fortunes of the country’s royalist-military establishment. Anutin’s Bhumjaithai Party is leading in 194 of the 500 seats in the lower house of parliament, according to the election commission, with about 90 per cent of votes counted. Results after Sunday’s vote…