Golf and Tennis Academy members unhappy that Carlyle & Co members can now use their exclusive Town ClubFinancial Times
Month: July 2026
To reduce South China Sea friction, Beijing and Manila need it in writing
As the Philippines hosted Southeast Asian foreign ministers in late July, the sea would not stay quiet. On July 20, Chinese and Philippine crews fought beside the BRP Sierra Madre with oars and batons; one Filipino sailor was reportedly injured while each side blamed the other. Days later, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the security forum, Philippine vessels went to the Scarborough Shoal. Manila said Chinese ships used water cannons on Philippine ships, while Beijing said it drove off vessels that had…
The numbers game: why the US is losing ground to China in the first island chain
As the People’s Liberation Army marks its 99th anniversary on August 1, one year from the deadline for its centenary goals, its evolution highlights the past, present and future of China’s military strategy. In the second part of a series, Gabriel Dominguez examines how Beijing is pushing the envelope on its near-seas island arc. Beijing has urged the People’s Liberation Army to transform into a “world-class military” by the mid-21st century, intent on piercing US-led chokepoints along an arc of islands extending from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines. Known…
US lawmakers investigate DoorDash’s use of Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2.6 model
The move underscores growing tensions between US lawmakers and industry, as Chinese AI models have become increasingly popular among US companies looking to save costs of AI adoption. House Select Committee on China chairman John Moolenaar and House Committee on Homeland Security chairman Andrew Garbarino sent a letter on Friday to DoorDash co-founder and chief executive Tony Xu, requesting information by August 14 on each Chinese model DoorDash uses and any security tests conducted on those models. The letter also requests that DoorDash staff “with responsibility for DoorDash’s AI infrastructure,…
Trump envoy Steve Daines to return to Beijing as US and China lock in Xi summit agenda
US Senator Steve Daines is expected to return to China for another round of talks ahead of President Xi Jinping’s planned September visit to Washington, according to people familiar with the preparations. The trip was intended to help finalise the agenda for what both sides hoped would be a high-stakes summit between Xi and US President Donald Trump, one of the sources said. Daines, a Montana Republican, has emerged as an important backchannel figure between Washington and Beijing. He visited Beijing in May as the two sides sought to stabilise…
Will US or China win the next war? That’s the wrong question to ask
Who will win the next war? That is the question posed on the cover of the latest Foreign Affairs magazine which explores, among other things, the US-China military and technological rivalry. At its core is a clash of strategic philosophies between the US-led order and China’s world view, which has propelled the latter’s rise to the world’s second great power. The magazine’s contributors reflect a deeply ingrained Western strategic tradition, rooted in liberal realism, that says that the United States must maintain its primacy to underwrite global stability, defend democracy…
Chile’s Kast courts China day after US hits exports with forced labour tariff
Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast received China’s ambassador to Santiago, Niu Qingbao, at the La Moneda Palace on Friday morning, in an encounter that lasted more than an hour and marked the first meeting between the two men since the right-wing leader took office in March. According to the presidency, Kast, Foreign Minister Francisco Perez Mackenna and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Patricio Torres used the meeting to review their bilateral agenda, the minister’s coming trip to China and the preparations for the president’s participation in the Apec leaders’ meeting, to be…
China hits back at US forced labour blacklist as ‘classic act of coercion’
Beijing has condemned a White House decision to add 43 Chinese companies to an import blacklist targeting alleged forced labour in Xinjiang, describing the move as a “classic act of economic coercion”. Friday’s sanctions were the third time this week that Washington announced measures aimed at China. Enforcing the Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA), the Department of Homeland Security increased its entity list by 30 per cent to include companies in sectors ranging from food and cotton to pharmaceuticals, metals and lithium production. The UFLPA was passed by Congress…
We Need a Better Test for Dangerous A.I.
Perhaps the most important argument we’re having about artificial intelligence right now is how to determine which models are safe to release and which are too dangerous. That argument became louder recently, when at least two of OpenAI’s models escaped a sealed testing environment and broke into the servers of an A.I. company called Hugging Face. According to OpenAI, which publicly reported the incident a week later, its models were taking a cybersecurity test and reasoned that the solutions might be on Hugging Face’s servers, which house a digital library…
World-renowned climber Nirmal Purja among 11 struck by avalanche on Pakistan mountain
The world-renowned Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja – a former British special forces member – is among 11 climbers caught in a deadly avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak. The Alpine Club of Pakistan said “seven climbers have been spotted via aerial drone footage” adding that “their identities and condition cannot yet be verified”. Rescuers had said earlier on Friday that four bodies had been found and efforts were under way to retrieve them despite the harsh weather. Three of the dead have been identified: Pur Bahadur Gurung, a Nepali citizen, Nadhira…