newsmart – Latest News

iol.co.za | 6 min. ago NEW

South Africa to showcase innovation at Pujiang Innovation Forum in China

Science and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande will lead the South African delegation.

dw.com | 12 min. ago NEW

India's BRICS strategy tested with Xi, Putin set to visit

New Delhi's "America Plus" approach sees India deepening its ties with China and Russia, while also trying to keep BRICS from turning into an anti-Western platform.

scmp.com | 41 min. ago NEW

Beijing can rewrite China’s property rules, but it can’t undo the damage

Financial markets are notoriously prone to mistaking a fundamental institutional shift for a temporary liquidity crisis. The futurist Roy Amara is often credited with the observation that people tend to overestimate the short-term effect of a transformation while underestimating its long-term impact. China’s real-estate sector is furnishing a textbook case of an analogous dynamic. On August 28, Chinese housing authorities and financial regulators announced a package to overhaul the commercial...

scmp.com | 1 hrs. 46 min. ago

Fresh photos offer clearest view yet of China’s ‘WZ-X’ spy drone

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...

scmp.com | 2 hrs. 19 min. ago

Singapore and mainland China top global student assessment as OECD scores hit record low

Singaporean and Chinese students led the world in educational performance in 2025, according to an assessment by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, as average scores across OECD countries reached a record low. 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...

ft.com | 2 hrs. 23 min. ago

Anglo nickel deal tests EU resolve over Chinese control of resources

China-backed MMG urges Brussels to approve $500mn transaction as European regulators prepare formal warning

dw.com | 3 hrs. 1 min. ago

Why North Korea's Kim Jong Un doesn't need a US deal

Donald Trump's overtures to North Korea's dictator have gone nowhere, with an emboldened Pyongyang accelerating its nuclear program and solidifying alliances with Russia and China.

businessinsider.com | 3 hrs. 3 min. ago

China's AI chip IPO boom rolls on as another Nvidia challenger soars 200% in market debut

Tencent-backed Enflame is riding China's AI chip boom as US export curbs accelerate Beijing's semiconductor ambitions.

scmp.com | 3 hrs. 24 min. ago

China’s young investors embrace risk. Why are their portfolios so safe?

Young Chinese investors may be just as willing to take risks as their global peers, but their portfolios remain more conservative against a backdrop of years of relative underperformance in China’s stock market, a prolonged property downturn and deflation, according to a senior researcher at the CFA Institute Research and Policy Centre. The disconnect between their willingness to take risks and their actual investment choices illustrated what the institute called an “aspiration-implementation...

dw.com | 3 hrs. 33 min. ago

China angered by Taiwan VP's visit to EU democracy forum

Beijing has lodged a complaint with Italy and the EU over top Taiwanese officials visiting a democracy conference. The EU is navigating contentious issues with China and high-ranking Taiwanese visits are rare.

nytimes.com | 4 hrs. 4 min. ago

For China, a Mock A.I. Attack on WeChat Signals a Dangerous New Era

The demonstration of a potent cyberweapon has exposed China’s vulnerabilities and added to the urgency of A.I. safety talks between Beijing and Washington.

dw.com | 4 hrs. 4 min. ago

Hong Kong Tiananmen activists sentenced up to 7 years

Three pro-democracy activists who organized annual commemorations of China's deadly 1989 Tiananmen crackdown were charged under Hong Kong's Beijing-backed national security law.

scmp.com | 4 hrs. 26 min. ago

From Pakistan to Uzbekistan: how China’s J-10CE is widening its overseas reach

Battle-testing modern weapon systems can come at a steep price: a country must send its forces to war. But for China’s 4.5-generation J-10CE fighter aircraft, exports have opened another route. Pakistan provided the aircraft’s first major combat test during its four-day conflict with India in May 2025, when Islamabad’s J-10CEs were used in an air battle. Two US officials told Reuters that at least two Indian aircraft were downed, including a French-built Rafale – though the precise losses,...

euronews.com | 4 hrs. 31 min. ago

EU's largest political group doesn't want confrontation with China

The EU's most influential political family is drafting a paper urging tougher use of trade leverage with China, while maintaining dialogue and avoiding a trade escalation.

abc.net.au | 5 hrs. 10 min. ago

Former China ambassador warns Beijing is becoming 'smug' and closed

A former ambassador to China has sharply critiqued elements of the Morrison government's response to Beijing's coercion, saying some in the Coalition "almost delighted" in being targeted and "paraded" the famous list of 14 grievances handed over by Chinese diplomats.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com | 5 hrs. 11 min. ago

South China Sea methane leak formed a 1km plume; worms and bacteria built a ‘worm bed’ in 2 years

A South China Sea drilling incident caused a significant methane leak in 2018. Ocean scientists observed an ecosystem rapidly responding to the underwater gas release. Bacteria and worms quickly formed a methane-munching 'worm bed' within two years. This new biofilter degraded methane effectively, reducing plume height significantly. However, this rapid ecosystem development caused a notable decrease in original microbial diversity.

abcnews.com | 5 hrs. 17 min. ago

BRICS leaders gather in New Delhi as wars and rivalries strain the expanded bloc

BRICS leaders are meeting in New Delhi this weekend as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and U.S.-China tensions test the group's unity

businessinsider.com | 5 hrs. 49 min. ago

China's star AI labs routed user requests to Claude at least 35 million times in the summer: Anthropic

Anthropic said Alibaba, Moonshot, Zhipu, DeepSeek, and Xiaomi all tried to use Claude to train their models in various ways.

nytimes.com | 6 hrs. 20 min. ago

[$] At BRICS Summit, China and India Vie for Influence

China sees the BRICS group as a vehicle for challenging American power. India wants to keep the group broad enough to avoid choosing sides.

thehindu.com | 6 hrs. 38 min. ago

Low funding for postdoc roles fuelling brain drain, govt. funds only 2,500 positions

India spends about $13 a year per person on research; China spends $250, the U.S. over $2,100. There are just 262 full-time-equivalent researchers per million people in the country

scmp.com | 7 hrs. 14 min. ago

Enflame shares soar 188% on Shanghai debut as Nvidia challenger taps investor fever for AI

Enflame Technology, one of the major challengers to Nvidia in China, saw its share price surge 188 per cent in its Shanghai trading debut on Friday, giving the Tencent Holdings-backed artificial intelligence chipmaker a market capitalisation of 176.4 billion yuan (US$26.3 million). The Shanghai-based company opened at 410 yuan, up from its issue price of 142.18 yuan. The performance reflects continued investor appetite for domestic AI chip champions, with Enflame being the last of China’s “four...

scmp.com | 7 hrs. 15 min. ago

Alibaba mourns former independent director Tung Chee-hwa, hails his global vision

Alibaba Group Holding has mourned the death of Tung Chee-hwa, who served as an independent director, saying the global perspective of Hong Kong’s first leader helped the e-commerce giant remain rooted in China while expanding internationally. Tung, Hong Kong’s first postcolonial chief executive, later became a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He joined Alibaba Group’s board as an independent director in 2014 and held the position until 2022. He...

smh.com.au | 8 hrs. 14 min. ago

Chinese ship takes Arctic shortcut: Smart business, or a geopolitical flex?

Melting ice is opening a trade route through the Arctic. China has begun the first regular service as part of its polar ambitions.

scmp.com | 11 hrs. 42 min. ago

Tech, EV and aerospace executives likely to join Xi’s US trip to mirror Trump team

Beijing is weighing plans to send a group of top tech, electric vehicle and aerospace executives to accompany Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington later this month, as the two sides race to finalise details for the closely watched visit. The South China Morning Post first reported on August 28 that Chinese and US officials were negotiating whether business leaders would join Xi’s delegation to the US. However, details about who might be included have not been previously reported. According...

scmp.com | 11 hrs. 42 min. ago

Foreign carmakers offer steep discounts on petrol-powered cars in cutthroat Chinese market

Foreign carmakers have been slashing the prices of petrol-powered cars they make in China by more than 20 per cent to survive in a cutthroat market amid weakening consumer demand. Last month, big international marques including Volkswagen and Toyota offered average discounts of 23.4 per cent on cars powered by internal combustion engines, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). That compared with an average discount of 23.7 per cent in July. “Because their new cars...

kyivpost.com | 11 hrs. 44 min. ago

What Putin Hopes to Gain From BRICS in India – and Why He May Not Get It

Putin is looking to BRICS for economic protection, diplomatic support and a stronger anti-Western front, but divisions over Ukraine, Iran and China limit Moscow’s ambitions.

dailymail.com | 12 hrs. 15 min. ago

Moment Zombie knife importer laughs and clutches huge wad of cash after selling weapons to schoolchildren online

Jonathan Soares, 20, was caught importing weapons in bulk from Pakistan , South Korea and China to be sold by his criminal network in London.

al-monitor.com | 12 hrs. 16 min. ago

China, Iran among countries that have used AI to aid spying, Anthropic says

theguardian.com | 13 hrs. 54 min. ago

Taipei Story by Rebecca F Kuang review – the torture and hilarity of learning Chinese

An American Chinese student studies Mandarin in Taiwan, in this heartfelt journey of self-discovery and family secretsWhat is Taiwan? A former Japanese colony? A centre of the semiconductor industry? A democracy overseen by American imperialism? China’s next military target? An island of Austronesian Indigenous tribes? Is Taipei a cultural emblem of Taiwan, or just another booming global capital out of touch with the rest of the country? What stories will Lily Chen, an American Chinese student at Yale and Rebecca F Kuang’s funny and deadpan protagonist in Taipei Story, discover in this melting pot while spending 10 weeks learning Mandarin?A prolific maverick with rare satirical wit, Kuang has built a career debunking authoritative institutions. Babel (2022) highlights the prejudices of the British empire through a fantastical Oxford translation institute; Yellowface (2023) transplants a heist thriller into the dark heart of American publishing; Katabasis (2025), a journey into the underworld, gives the academic inferno at Cambridge a new lease of death. Centring on a tough Mandarin language school, Taipei Story explores the torture, hilarity and pretension of learning a second language, but here Kuang also offers a heartfelt journey of self-discovery and family wounds. Continue reading...

scmp.com | 14 hrs. 22 min. ago

Hong Kong is building a two-way global education highway

Thanks to the favourable global rankings of its universities and its unique linkage with mainland China and the world, Hong Kong is well positioned to upgrade itself into an international education and talent hub. Under the incumbent administration’s drive, more ambitious measures are being rolled out to burnish the “Study in Hong Kong” brand, and rightly so. The inaugural Global Education Summit held in the city over the weekend provided clarity on the way forward. Co-organised by the South...

theguardian.com | 15 hrs. 54 min. ago

The Guardian view on falling birthrates: cash alone cannot buy belonging

Editorial | Young people still want partners and children. Governments must address the insecurity and isolation preventing them from building familiesWhy are people in one of the world’s richest, safest countries having so few children? Singapore is asking that question. In 2000, its fertility rate matched America’s at 1.6 children per woman. By 2025, it had dropped to 0.87 – almost half the US rate. Singapore’s leaders, worried about population collapse, have reached for the chequebook. Each child, including those born to unmarried parents, will get $55,000 in government support by the time they turn 17. Yet a quarter of Singaporeans say they do not intend to have children. Wealth and security, clearly, don’t guarantee more babies.UN data shows that global fertility fell from 5.3 births per woman in 1963 to 2.2 in 2023. But this masks a growing divide. In some poor sub-Saharan African countries there are around six births per woman. Compare this with England and Wales, where the figure is just 1.39. More than half of the world – including a billion women in India and China – have a fertility rate below the global 2.1 “replacement level” needed to sustain populations without migration. But even in poor countries with high mortality rates and consequently higher replacement rates, births outpace deaths. In Nigeria, for example, the fertility rate of 4.4 exceeds its replacement rate of 2.6 children per woman.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

scmp.com | 15 hrs. 57 min. ago

China rebuts top US diplomat Marco Rubio over ‘Communist Party-backed projects’ in Peru

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks in Peru on Thursday on countering Beijing’s growing footprint around the strategic Chancay megaport, drawing a sharp response from China’s embassy in Lima, which defended its investments and took aim at Washington’s strict visa rules. Rubio met President Keiko Fujimori at the Government Palace, where she confirmed Peru would join the Shield of the Americas, a US-led coalition against organised crime. The Peruvian capital was the last stop of a...

dailymail.com | 16 hrs. 1 min. ago

China could switch the lights off at any second, such is Beijing's grip on our infrastructure, former MI6 chief warns

In an ominous address, Sir Richard Dearlove claimed last night that Beijing could hold the UK to 'ransom' by growing our dependency on Chinese steel and tech - then cutting our supplies when it chooses.

arstechnica.com | 18 hrs. 5 min. ago

Europe will go it alone on Venus mission after NASA yanks radar instrument

Europe is looking inward, and perhaps to China, as the White House tries to cancel some NASA partnerships.

scmp.com | 19 hrs. 42 min. ago

AI bottleneck-breaker: China’s Huawei touts high-speed optical module

Huawei Technologies has unveiled a high-speed optical module designed to eliminate bottlenecks in artificial intelligence infrastructure, staking an early claim in the race to set standards for next-generation data centre connections. The Shenzhen-based tech giant showcased what it called the industry’s first 7.2-terabit-per-second (Tbps) near-packaged optics (NPO) product at the China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE) in Shenzhen this week. The technology replaces traditional...

scmp.com | 20 hrs. 22 min. ago

Record China-US gap in bond yields unlikely to trigger capital flight: Marsh Investment

The widening yield spread between Chinese and American government bonds is unlikely to trigger catastrophic capital flight from China, according to investment executives at Marsh Investment, who attribute the record spread to the United States’ fiscal pressures and global macro trends rather than a structural retreat for Chinese assets. The spread between benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds and equivalent Chinese sovereign bonds hit a record 3.17 percentage points this week. Yields on US...

businessinsider.com | 20 hrs. 42 min. ago

Billionaire hedge fund investor Paul Tudor Jones says AI is like a ‘Category 6 hurricane’ heading for humanity

Hedge fund investor Paul Tudor Jones warns of AI's growing power, urging the US and China to work together to make sure it doesn't spiral out of control.

livemint.com | 21 hrs. 10 min. ago

China Cargo Ship Fire: Death toll rises to 25; Xi Jinping says ‘all regions must draw profound lessons from incident’

A fire on a foreign cargo vessel in Qingdao, China, resulted in at least 25 deaths. Of the 42 people aboard, 17 were evacuated. Chinese President Xi Jinping had instructed authorities to step up search and rescue efforts.

bbc.co.uk | 21 hrs. 30 min. ago

Twenty-five dead after fire on cargo ship in eastern China

Of the 42 people on board, 17 were were evacuated, CCTV reports.

scmp.com | 22 hrs. 22 min. ago

Senior Pentagon official for China to lead US delegation to Xiangshan Forum

The American delegation to the Xiangshan Forum, a major Chinese security conference in Beijing, will be led by Cynthia “Xanthi” Carras, the principal director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the department of defence, the South China Morning Post has learned. This year’s Xiangshan Forum, the 13th edition of the event, will be held in Beijing from next Tuesday to Thursday. Carras’ attendance marks a higher level of American participation than last year, when Washington sent a defence attaché...