Month: April 2026

A massive genomic study of Indigenous peoples in the Americas has uncovered evidence of a previously unknown migration into South America that occurred as recently as 1,300 years ago – during China’s Tang dynasty. These new settlers carried genes remarkably similar to Indigenous populations in what is now Australia and the Pacific Islands, according to the study published online by the journal Nature on April 22. The international team, which included scientists from the University of Sao Paulo and Spain’s Spanish National Research Council, analysed 128 newly-sequenced Indigenous American genomes…

China’s top market regulator is intensifying its crackdown on debt-laden “zombie companies” – rolling out a pilot programme in seven economic hubs to facilitate the forced exit of unprofitable firms often propped up by government subsidies or bank loans. The move signals a broadening of Beijing’s campaign against local protectionism and the low-quality vicious competition that officials say results in neijuan, or “involution”. With a change to China’s Company Law, the State Administration for Market Regulation and relevant departments can now petition courts for the compulsory liquidation of these walking-dead…

Israel’s reported deployment of its Iron Dome missile defence battery in the UAE signals a “watershed moment” in Middle Eastern security alignments, analysts say, as the war in Iran highlights the critical role of such air defence systems. Israel sent an Iron Dome air-defence system along with troops to the United Arab Emirates “early in the war with Iran”, Axios said in a report this week citing two Israeli officials and one from the US. The Israeli officials, who were not named, told the US news website that Israeli Prime…

Chinese scientists are moving technology that converts greenhouse gases into aviation fuel out of the laboratory and towards large-scale production. Global jet fuel prices surged to US$175 a barrel in March – a year-on-year leap of 94.4 per cent – and broke through the US$200 mark in April, more than doubling the cost from a year earlier. Fuel costs have forced airlines to cancel flights. As energy prices spiked amid the war on Iran, a team from the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) unveiled…

The economic divide between the United States and China is projected to widen to US$11 trillion by the end of the decade, yet escalating geopolitics – specifically the war in Iran and the ongoing Strait of Hormuz crisis – could inadvertently act as a stabilising force for bilateral ties, according to a prominent global strategist. Kishore Mahbubani, former president of the UN Security Council and once a top diplomat from Singapore, has forecast that the gross-domestic-product disparity between the world’s two largest economies may become more pronounced, and that anyone…

As the US-Israeli war on Iran enters a third month, there is no sign of a break in the deadlock between Washington and Tehran. These are the main takeaways from what happened overnight. What did Trump say? US President Donald Trump told his aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported in Asian early trading hours on Wednesday, citing US officials. Advertisement “I am doing something with Iran, right now, that other Nations, or Presidents, should have done long ago,” Trump wrote in a…

Over 70 Democrats on Tuesday urged US President Donald Trump to keep Chinese carmakers out of America, warning of “irreversible” consequences, just weeks ahead of his high-stakes trip to Beijing to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping. “We must not cede the American auto industry to a strategic competitor intent on global dominance,” a letter, signed by 73 House Democrats led by US Representative Debbie Dingell, said. “The consequences for American workers, our supply chains, our national security, and our communities would be profound and irreversible.” Advertisement Ahead of the…

As the US-Israel war in Iran drags into its third month, sulphuric acid – a chemical ingredient critical for fertiliser production and metal processing that has seldom grabbed global headlines – has become a keenly watched commodity. The military conflict in the Gulf and the effective blockage of the Strait of Hormuz initially triggered a squeeze on sulphuric acid, with prices on the rise after shipments in the region – which accounts for a quarter of global production – were largely stalled since military strikes began on February 28. But…

As the race with China over artificial intelligence intensifies, US lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled a draft bill that would, for the first time, require the State Department to deliver a detailed assessment of Beijing’s artificial intelligence ambitions, including identifying “specific AI leaders”. The State Department should provide Congress with a comprehensive report on China’s AI development, including its “progress using independent, publicly available benchmarks to achieve autonomous research capability and to self-improve performance without human intervention”, along with a comparison to US AI systems during the same period, the House…