From 1h ago Trump to meet with China’s Xi as Congress mulls bill banning artificial superintelligence Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. Donald Trump will meet with the Chinese president Xi Jinping later today, ahead of a three-day visit that will undoubtedly see artificial intelligence (AI) high on the agenda. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, has called on the two countries to establish a dialogue on AI similar to the communication between the US and the Soviet Union during the cold war. “Governments with the greatest…
Tag: China
Europe frets about Trump. But soon he could be the least of our problems | Mujtaba Rahman
I addressed a group of more than 100 European ambassadors recently on the big challenges facing the continent this year and next. My main point to these senior diplomats was that, perhaps counterintuitively, Europe’s biggest external challenges over the next 12 months will come from Russia and China, rather than the US. Europe’s relationship with Trump’s America remains difficult. The US president has weakened confidence in Nato, raised new transatlantic trade tensions and introduced uncertainty into everything from US support for Ukraine to his territorial designs on Greenland. Yet paradoxically,…
AI looms large over Trump-Xi meeting amid deep distrust between US and China
When Xi Jinping, China’s leader, touches down in Maryland on Wednesday, he will step out into the arms – perhaps a hug, if Donald Trump’s wishes come true – of a US president who has shown China more bonhomie than any of his recent predecessors. The meeting between Xi and Trump this week will be the second time that the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies have talked face to face this year. At the previous summit, held in Beijing in May, there was much talk of building a…
New rules to protect tech secrets could strand Taiwanese visitors in China
Taiwan has warned its high-tech professionals that if they visit mainland China, they could be stopped for questioning – or even barred from leaving the country – under new regulations that analysts told Radio Free Asia were put in place likely because Beijing is afraid of losing AI talent. The new regulations that took effect on Sept. 15 allow Chinese authorities to prevent its citizens from leaving the country if violations of export-control or technology-transfer rules could endanger “industrial or technological security.” The law applies to visiting citizens of Taiwan…
Trump invades the UN with a brutish speech | Ted Widmer
Expectations were low for Donald Trump’s address to the UN on Tuesday, and yet somehow it was even worse than expected. He does not perform well in formal settings, like chambers of government, preferring a blingier room, like Mar-a-Lago, or an outdoor rally. For years, he has made no secret of his hostility to the UN, and the very principles of international order that define it. In recent years, that hostility has deepened into something more like a full-on assault, with frequent attacks on the International Criminal Court (perhaps out…
Vietnam’s leader is likely to warn of threats to middle powers.
The podium of the United Nations was an unusual setting for the leader of a global superpower to threaten to “annihilate the Islamic republic” of Iran or to declare that, in another conflict, “to the victor belong the spoils.” Yet that was exactly what President Trump did on Tuesday, in threatening Iran if it failed to make a deal to end a war that had stretched far longer than Mr. Trump anticipated, and justifying his claims on Venezuelan oil reserves after American forces deposed its leader. Mr. Trump has long…
Six-year-old breaks women’s world Rubik’s Cube record – video
Six-year-old Lian Yunzhi broke the women’s 3×3 average world record twice at two World Cube Association-certified competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou, according to state broadcaster CCTV on Monday. She posted averages of 4.52 and 4.27 seconds, after solving the Rubik’s Cube five times. She is the first female speedcuber to average less than 4.5 seconds. The Guardian
Six-year-old Chinese girl ‘sets new women’s Rubik’s Cube world record’
A six-year-old Chinese girl has set a new women’s world record for solving a Rubik’s Cube in just over four seconds, state media reported. “Speedcuber” Lian Yunzhi broke the women’s 3×3 average world record twice this month at two World Cube Association certified competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou, according to state broadcaster CCTV on Monday. She posted averages of 4.52 and 4.27 seconds, after solving the Rubik’s Cube five times. The girl, who is from Chengdu, is “the first female speedcuber to average under 4.5 seconds”, CCTV said. A video…
European drugmakers say they are ‘losing ground’ to US and Chinese rivals
Some of Europe’s biggest pharmaceutical companies have said the continent is “losing ground” to rivals including the US and China in developing new drugs and attracting investment. The chairs of nine companies, including Britain’s AstraZeneca, GSK and Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, wrote to Andy Burnham and the national leaders of other European countries on Tuesday to call for action to “safeguard our companies’ future”. The letter, entitled Europe is Losing the Pharma Investment Race – But the Comeback is Within Reach, called on governments to treat medicines as strategic infrastructure, secure…
China’s Leader Xi Seeks to Extend Truce with Trump During U.S. Summit
When China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and President Trump meet in Washington this week, the two men will be operating on vastly different clocks. The American president is constrained by the immediate demands of a midterm election in November and a grinding war. The Chinese leader is gearing up for a norm-shattering fourth term as head of the ruling Communist Party, that will keep him in power for another five years. For Mr. Xi, the disparity in political realities gives him an edge in maintaining the truce that the two…