What can help to protect women’s health, boost the incomes of impoverished families and thus allow girls to avoid early marriage? What – when it disappears – can set back children’s education, damage mental wellbeing, drive conflict within communities and become a vector for racial hatred? The humble donkey has rarely been in the spotlight. Yet Chinese demand for its skin proved so destabilising that African governments agreed to a continent-wide ban on the slaughter of the animal for its hide last year. This week, officials are meeting in Ivory Coast…
Tag: World news
Swarms of tiny nose robots could clear infected sinuses, researchers say
Swarms of tiny robots, each no larger than a speck of dust, could be deployed to cure stubborn infected sinuses before being blown out through the nose into a tissue, researchers have claimed. The micro-robots are a fraction of the width of a human hair and have been inserted successfully into animal sinuses in pre-clinical trials by researchers at universities in China and Hong Kong. Swarms are injected into the sinus cavity via a duct threaded through the nostril and guided to their target by electromagnetism, where they can be…
Hong Kong teachers allegedly told to avoid US Independence Day events
Teachers in Hong Kong have been warned to keep themselves and students away from any US Independence Day celebrations as they may breach national security laws, educators have alleged. A text message purportedly sent by the principal of a Hong Kong school to staff said the education bureau’s regional education office had reminded them “to be careful about Independence Day activities organised by the US consulate in Hong Kong, and not to participate to avoid violating the national security law and Hong Kong laws”. The text was published on Edu…
Weather tracker: Mexico’s Pacific coast hit by tropical storm and hurricane
While the western Atlantic has experienced a quiet start to the hurricane season, the eastern Pacific has recently become fairly active, producing a tropical storm and a category 4 hurricane within a few days. The first and weaker of these systems, Tropical Storm Dalila, developed into a tropical storm late last week. Although this storm stayed off the coast of Mexico and was relatively weak to other storms that have developed in this region, Dalila brought flooding and mudslides to the resort town of Acapulco, in western Mexico. On Tuesday,…
US weighs in with concerns over China’s proposed ‘super-embassy’ in London
A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air”, campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furore over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies”. The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint…
UK ‘woefully’ unprepared for Chinese and Russian undersea cable sabotage, says report
China and Russia are stepping up sabotage operations targeting undersea cables and the UK is unprepared to meet the mounting threat, according to new analysis. A report by the China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI) analysed 12 incidents where national authorities had investigated alleged undersea cable sabotage between January 2021 and April 2025. Of the 10 cases in which a suspect vessel was identified, eight were directly linked to China or Russia through flag-state registration or company ownership. The involvement of “shadow fleet” commercial vessels in these incidents is consistent with…
Tariff dodgers take big risks to cut small corners | Gene Marks
If you put up a barrier, people will find a way around it. So its not shocking to read recent news stories about how some businesses are trying to skirt around tariffs – particularly from China. They’re shipping goods through third countries, rather than directly from China, using special “shoppers” to skirt minimum quantity amounts, colluding with suppliers to falsify country-of-origin labels, undervaluing goods, or “assembling” products out of China where tariffs are lower. They’re creating shell companies in more tariff-friendly countries and even going so far as forging certificates…
China considers lifting sanctions on UK parliamentarians as relations warm
China is considering lifting the sanctions it imposed on UK parliamentarians in 2021, in the latest sign of warming relations between London and Beijing. The Chinese government is reviewing the sanctions, which it introduced four years ago in response to what it called “lies and disinformation” about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, according to two UK government sources familiar with the conversations. Asked to comment, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London said: “China has always attached importance to developing relations with the UK. Currently, UK-China relations are showing…
Trump’s military parade taps an ancient tradition of power: from Mesopotamia to Maga
To Donald Trump, the inspiration is the pomp and pageantry of Bastille Day, France’s annual celebration of the 1789 revolution. For his critics, it is redolent of the authoritarian militarism proudly projected by autocracies such as Russia, China and North Korea. Despite its military prowess and undoubted superpowers status, overt military displays in civilian settings are the exception rather than the rule in US history. But in bringing to the streets of Washington DC on Saturday, the military parade Trump has long hankered after he – consciously or otherwise –…
Weather tracker: Europe and China in midst of record-breaking heat
Temperature records for early June are being broken across large parts of Europe, with the mercury reaching 40.5C (104.9F) in Mértola, Portugal, on Sunday. On the same day, several weather stations in Spain recorded temperatures in excess of 42C, with dozens of sites at record levels for early summer. Across the Balkans, temperatures reached 37C. On Monday, 37.6C was recorded in Tirana, Albania, while in Greece night-time minimum temperatures have stayed mostly over 30C for much of this week. Hot conditions are to intensify across central and western Europe over…