Day: September 5, 2026

China has launched a world-first industrial-scale facility to extract iron from previously discarded mine tailings and ultra-low-grade ore, turning waste into a valuable resource that can reduce its dependency on overseas supply. According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) last Tuesday, a production line capable of processing 5.56 million tonnes of refractory iron ore and tailings per year has passed official checks and is now running steadily. China is the world’s largest iron ore user, absorbing more than half the global supply. However, relying on imports for more than…

After being stranded in the South China Sea following a power failure in July, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold was towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines for emergency repairs. The facility is among the repair and maintenance hubs the US Navy has been developing in the region, strategically pushing for allies to perform major maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) work on US naval vessels given the decline of its shipbuilding base at home. Thailand’s Pattaya pins hopes on arrival of 5,000 US sailors to boost tourism The repair…

China has started an international project to build a three-dimensional satellite network between Earth and the moon that will track solar activity and study some of the universe’s most powerful explosions. The project plans to send 30 backpack-sized CubeSats into highly elliptical orbits around Earth in the next four years or so, according to the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, which will lead the project. The laboratory said on Friday the constellation would “fill a global gap in systematic observations of cislunar space”. Participants include Egypt, Indonesia, Senegal, Serbia and Thailand.…

Asia remains shackled by “mental colonisation” despite accounting for over half the global population, a former UN Security Council president has said, while warning that Taiwan remains the region’s most dangerous flashpoint. “The big mistake that Asians made after the end of colonial rule [is assuming] that the end of physical colonisation would automatically mean the end of mental colonisation,” veteran Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani told the inaugural Penang Peace Dialogue in Malaysia on Saturday. The lack of confidence to challenge Western-dominated narratives “continued for several decades”, he added. But…

Chinese researchers have developed a table-top magnetic sensor that operates at room temperature and can spot magnetic signals a billion times fainter than the Earth’s own field. The Levitated Magnet Magnetometer (LeMaMa) functions like a compass with a needle that floats in mid-air with virtually no friction. By tracking the needle’s tiny deflections, the team can measure magnetic fields down to the femtotesla level – an advance that could widen the hunt for elusive dark matter particles or monitor brain signals. “The combination of room-temperature operation, tiny components and high…

Rescuers pulled out a 64-year-old Nepali woman alive on Saturday from her home, buried under thick mud and debris when the region was struck by massive flooding 10 days ago, killing over 1,300 people and leaving at least 5,500 missing. Emergency personnel said earlier they had rescued a Chinese man, named only as Luhaitao, found alive inside a 225-metre tunnel of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district. Footage ‌shared by the Nepali army showed him being given ⁠emergency medical attention inside a helicopter, which took him ⁠to…

China and Canada’s armed forces held their first round of talks in eight years on Friday in the face of growing tensions with the United States. The Chinese defence ministry said there had been a candid and in-depth exchange of views on international and regional issues of common concern. “[Both sides] expressed willingness to strengthen practical exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries, and enhanced mutual understanding and trust,” the ministry added. It was the first meeting through a channel known as the Defence Coordination Dialogue since April 2018 and…

In a rare study, Chinese aerospace researchers have explored how a war could one day spill into the vast space between the Earth and the moon, with rival spacecraft chasing and evading each other, trying to slip past defences and even blocking strategic routes. Spacecraft could hide in the complex gravitational environment around the moon, where their trajectories are difficult to predict, before emerging and moving towards targets closer to Earth when needed, according to a team from the Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian. The craft could also be stationed…

Egypt’s expanded currency swap with China may help bring the yuan into wider use in trade and investment, but experts say any reduced reliance on the US dollar will not happen in a hurry. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi this week backed greater use of their currencies, while linking closer financial ties to plans for new factories, energy projects and digital infrastructure. A joint statement released on Wednesday during Xi’s state visit to Cairo also envisions building Egypt up as a regional industrial and logistics…