Day: September 11, 2026

Leaders from some of the world’s largest emerging economies are gathering in New Delhi this weekend for a summit marking the 20th anniversary of Brics, a fast-expanding group of developing nations. Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with his Russian and Iranian counterparts Vladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian, are among those meeting in the Indian capital for one of the group’s most closely watched gatherings in years. Brics can point to some achievements over that time, with analysts highlighting its growing influence and role as a champion of the Global South.…

A US congressional advisory body on China said on Friday that leading Chinese artificial intelligence firms declined to meet its members during a recent Beijing visit over concerns that doing so could expose the firms to US sanctions. But members also underscored the importance of the coming AI dialogue between Washington and Beijing. “We were told you guys are a really scary commission, and you do hawkish anti-China things, and they’re afraid if they meet with you, they might be put on the entities list,” said Randy Schriver, the chairman…

Washington and Beijing are discussing the possibility of folding a long-awaited AI dialogue into a broader economic meeting in the days before Xi meets US President Donald Trump, according to several people familiar with the arrangements. The two leaders agreed in Beijing in May to launch an intergovernmental dialogue on AI. For months, that channel was treated separately from the trade talks led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng, with both sides struggling to make progress in the dialogue. Sources now say Bessent is expected…

Abnormally high temperatures across the Tibetan Plateau in early winter can trigger catastrophic rainstorms in California, according to a new study revealing a previously unidentified climate connection. In the winters of 2016-2017 and 2022-2023, record-breaking rain swept across the US state and surrounding areas, causing billions of dollars in damage and several deaths during years when drier weather was expected in the region. A study led by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that these rain events happened shortly after periods of unusually high land surface…

Fresh clues are emerging about a new type of Chinese drone being developed as a long-range intelligence and surveillance platform intended to operate deep inside contested airspace. New photographs circulated on Chinese internet forums earlier this month that appear to show the massive drone in the air, offering much clearer views of its wing shape than earlier images. The original source of the photos and exactly where they were taken have not been independently verified. Andreas Rupprecht, a specialist on Chinese military aviation, said the photographs showed the clearest view…

Beijing has strongly condemned a visit to Italy by senior Taiwanese officials and lodged formal diplomatic protests with both Rome and Brussels. Criticising the visit on Friday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing had submitted “serious representations against Italy and the European Union” following reports that Taiwan’s No 2 official, Hsiao Bi-khim, had arrived in Italy to attend an international forum. “[Taiwan’s] Democratic Progressive Party authorities and individual politicians have spared no effort to seek attention everywhere, attempting to pursue independence under the guise of democracy and freedom,” Mao…

The 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment comprised 760,000 15-year-old students across 91 countries and economies, including OECD members and partners. This edition of the survey was the largest since the OECD first administered the triennial assessment in 2000. In the report that OECD released on Tuesday, Singapore outpaced mainland China in reading with 535 points against China’s 527. The city state also posted strong results in mathematics and science with 563 and 560 points, respectively – second only to China. China’s ‘sky school bus’ lifts pupils to mountain-top classrooms…

Deng Yu, the 37-year-old Chinese mathematician who won the 2026 Fields Medal, has a backup plan if artificial intelligence puts him out of a job. On Tuesday, he wrote on social media that “if AI can solve all maths problems, I’ll go home and write my yuri novel”. Deng is known to be a big fan of yuri, a genre of Japanese novels and comics that depicts intimate friendships and romantic relationships between women. In the post, which was later shared on another Chinese social platform, Deng wrote that AI…