Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you while reading and disagreeing with Jenny Odell’s 2019 book How to Do Nothing. I’m pro-screen time. Today in tech, we’re discussing the upcoming meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, in which AI will likely feature prominently. Trump, Xi, AI Last week, the world freaked out about an AI apocalypse. Now the two most powerful men, running the countries with the two most advanced AI industries, are going to discuss that…
Tag: China
EU spends three times more on imports from China than bloc exports there
Consumers and businesses in the EU are spending three times more on Chinese imports than their counterparts in China are buying from the bloc, a study has shown. Customs data showed the gap between the EU’s imports from China and exports to China, the trade deficit, ran at more than €1bn (£860m) a day in July. The new data comes just days after the EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the trade imbalance must be arrested, and before Xi Jinping’s summit with Donald Trump on Thursday in Washington.…
Australia investigating how F-35 fighter jet parts bound for US went missing in Hong Kong
Richard Marles says the Department of Defence is examining how F-35 fighter jet parts bound for the US from Australia were unexpectedly diverted to Hong Kong. The acting prime minister said “very much everything that has occurred at the Australian end” will be reviewed, however, he claimed the technology parts were not “sensitive”, as first reported by Politico over the weekend. The parts, which were being transported by another unknown third party on behalf of manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, still remain unaccounted for months later following their unplanned diversion to Hong…
South Korean President Calls for Easing Sanctions on the North
Breaking with decades of policy on North Korea, the president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, is now urging the United States to ease sanctions on Pyongyang in exchange for an agreement that it freeze its weapons programs. “I believe there is significant value in a trade-off between sanctions — which are not particularly effective anyway — and a stop to the development of additional nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology,” Mr. Lee said in an interview with The New York Times on Friday. However unpalatable such a bargain…
Race to be next UN secretary general could rest on US and China trade-offs
Growing field of hopefuls face fraught task of achieving consensus from five permanent security council members Numerous last-minute entrants in the race to become the new UN secretary general are being discussed amid concerns that the world powers may not be able to agree a successor to António Guterres from the current field of seven candidates. Three rounds of secret ballots have so far not produced an obvious frontrunner, with probably only three candidates regarded as still having a realistic chance of gathering the required support. Continue reading… The Guardian
Whiplashed middle powers seek new alliances as Trump rages on world stage
In the event of a midterms election battering, it is possible that a deflated Donald Trump, constrained by a Democrat-controlled Congress, will gradually have to face up to the indignity of irrelevance. While continuing to sign off Truth Social posts with his usual, “Thank you for your attention to this matter”, no one will actually be paying much attention. His meandering press conferences will no longer be carried live by TV networks. The Republican party will move on to the question of his successor. Trump could announce he had changed…
Thirteen-year-old swim sensation sets women’s 200m butterfly record at Asian Games
The 13-year-old Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi set an Asian Games record as she scorched to gold on Sunday’s first full day of competition. The schoolgirl, who turns 14 next month, took the women’s 200m butterfly crown in a Games-record 2min 05.08sec. It was the first major title of her young career, less than two years out from the Los Angeles Olympics. “It was only so-so,” a smiling Yu said after receiving her medal. Yu Zidi competes in the women’s 200-metre individual medley heats at the Asian Games in Tokyo, Japan.…
‘People had naive expectations’: How MeToo has changed in China
When Jasmine, a once active member of China’s MeToo movement, organises feminist activities in Beijing, she often does so under the guise of an art or cultural event. She avoids publicising them on social media, instead sharing details privately in her personal circle. It’s very difficult to imagine what happened during the MeToo period, she says, “when one survivor could speak publicly about her experience and trigger a broader discussion about sexual harassment.” On Friday Sophia Huang Xueqin the imprisoned journalist who helped to ignite China’s MeToo movement, was released…
China’s stranglehold on rare earths must be ended, says hopeful supplier to EU
The head of a mining company hoping to supply the EU with rare earths in two years’ time has said it is “paramount” to end China’s stranglehold on the supply of the raw materials used in everything from cars to wind turbines and military jets. As Donald Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, prepare to meet on Thursday in their second summit of the year, Rafael Moreno said it was also “imperative” that they do a deal for Beijing to ease up, once again, on its threat to ban exports…
Why China is pushing back on US warnings over rapid AI development
About two years ago, education entrepreneur Boris But had what he calls a “penny-drop moment” – that, like countless others in China, his company needed to embrace AI before it was made obsolete by it. His clients, well-off parents looking to send their children to study overseas, had begun arriving in his office reeling off information and opinions gleaned not from rival firms, but from chatbots. In response, he started developing his own AI study tool, concluding: “If you can’t beat them, join them.” The pace and quality of AI…