Month: June 2026

China’s top diplomat said on Monday that Beijing and Brasilia should “jointly repel external challenges”, as the two countries opened a high-level strategic dialogue in Beijing. Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the remark during a visit by his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, who arrived in the Chinese capital this weekend for the fifth Global Strategic Dialogue between the two governments. “Practical cooperation in all areas has been steadily enhanced, and the two peoples have never been so close,” Wang said. He added that Beijing supported Brazil in safeguarding its national…

China’s SAIC Motor plans to set ⁠up a car ⁠factory in Spain’s ⁠northwestern region of Galicia that would be its first production facility in the European Union, the regional government said on Monday. Galicia’s leader Alfonso Rueda said his administration ‌had given strategic priority to the project, with an initial investment envisaged at around €200 million (US$232 million). The project, which includes a logistics hub, still requires the central government’s approval for foreign direct investment. Advertisement SAIC owns the MG brand, which is popular in Europe ⁠and prioritises electrified powertrains.…

The US decision to classify two Brazilian gangs as terrorist organisations is a political one aimed at boosting an ally of US President Donald Trump, the son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, politicians and analysts say. The gangs join eight other Latin American organised crime groups designated by the US as foreign terrorist organisations. But unlike the rest, they do not operate in the United States. The listing of First Capital Command, known as PCC, and Red Command, or CV, followed a visit by presidential hopeful Senator Flavio Bolsonaro…

The Chinese and US militaries held working group talks on maritime military safety in Hawaii on Thursday and Friday, both sides have announced, in the latest effort by the two geopolitical rivals to keep military-to-military communication channels open. The meeting marked the first military communication between Beijing and Washington since last month’s high-profile summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Beijing. A brief statement published by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy on its official WeChat account said representatives of the Chinese and US militaries…

Efforts to negotiate an end to the Middle East war appeared mired in uncertainty on Monday, with Iran-linked media reporting that Tehran had suspended contact with Washington over Israel’s expanding offensive in Lebanon even as US President Donald Trump insisted talks were continuing “at a rapid pace” and claimed to have helped broker a halt to fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The conflicting accounts highlighted the fragile state of negotiations aimed at ending more than three months of conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and reviving discussions over Iran’s nuclear…

Since US President Donald Trump launched a tariff war against China during his first term in office, Washington has steadily expanded restrictions on Chinese access to advanced technologies, targeting semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, aerospace systems, supercomputers and a broad range of dual-use technologies. These export controls are aimed at slowing China’s rise in high-end manufacturing and frontier science. But Beijing’s rapid progress in a number of strategic sectors has forced a dramatic shift: China is no longer merely a target of technology restrictions – it may also need…