Category: Latest

Joshua Wong, face of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests, jailed for 10 years

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By 2014, Wong, who was then at the forefront of a civil disobedience movement known as the “Umbrella Movement”, had already become one of the most recognisable faces of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. In 2016, he co-founded Demosisto with Law and Agnes Chow, an activist who is now also in exile. But he often expressed discomfort at being labelled a “protest leader”. “We have a lot of facilitators in this movement and I’m one of them… Instead of having a top-down command, we now have a bottom-up command hub,” Wong told…

What Trump’s Midterm Defeat Means for Iran and Oil Prices

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Global leaders offered little public sympathy to President Trump after his party was blown out in the midterm elections, even as they wondered what the result might mean for trade, energy and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Mr. Trump’s enemies abroad — and many of his more estranged frenemies, as well — could not hide their glee on Wednesday morning after Democrats seized the House and Senate. There were celebrations in Iran and China, in Spain and South Africa, and from some European officials in Brussels. From many…

Weapon or wine bottle? China disputes reports of artillery shell in Papua New Guinea

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Chinese authorities have dismissed reports that a suspected China-made artillery shell was found in a commercial shipping container in Papua New Guinea, saying it is a “shell-shaped wine bottle”. “It poses no danger at all,” the Chinese embassy wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday, drawing skeptical comments. Police in Port Moresby arrested four Chinese nationals last Friday after the 32kg object was found at a construction site in the capital city. Authorities were looking into whether it was a live device, local reports said then, with police commissioner David…

China’s Message to Its Rivals: You Need What We Make

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They are among the biggest machines in the world: steel cylinders, some as long as a football field, armed with rotating discs that can chew through rock to clear the way for roads and railways. Known as tunnel-boring machines, they are made by only a handful of companies, mostly in factories in China. India uses them to dig tunnels, including in the Himalayas, to improve its ability to send troops to defend its contested border with China. But starting this month, Beijing is likely to be able to control whether…

The Big Change Coming in U.S.-China Relations in the Age of A.I.

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At Beijing Capital International Airport, it is now required after landing to send carry-on bags through a scanner before leaving the arrivals building. As I approached the scanner belt with my bags, though, I saw a sign that I had never encountered before: Any passenger carrying a drone has to remove and declare it. A Chinese security officer pointed directly to the sign to confirm that I had no drones in my bag. I shook my head no. I don’t usually travel with a drone. That sign was not the…

How One Country Became the Unlikely Crossroads of the Global A.I. Boom

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Across a stretch of southern Malaysia once carpeted with palm-oil and pineapple plantations, signs of China’s global technology ambitions are taking shape. More than 15 cranes tower over 100 acres of excavated earth, where DayOne, a company with corporate roots in one of China’s biggest data center operators, is building a sprawling complex. A short drive away, at the edge of dense tropical forest, hundreds of workers are completing another facility expected to serve Chinese tech companies. Inside these data centers will be some of the world’s most advanced artificial…

A Powerful Mosquito-Hunting Laser Uses A.I. to Zap Winged Pests

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For anyone kept awake by the infernal whine of mosquitoes, artificial intelligence may be coming to the rescue — armed with a laser. A Chinese company has started marketing a $1,000 A.I.-enabled device that tracks mosquitoes in flight and burns their wings off. It uses technology found in self-driving cars to pinpoint its targets, while relying on A.I. to decide when it is safe to fire. During a recent demonstration at the offices of Photon Matrix, the company behind the device, it appeared remarkably effective. The white, nearly brick-size machine…