UN biodiversity conference begins formal sessions in Armenia
The education ministers of North Korea and Russia have met in Pyongyang and discussed ways to expand exchanges in the education field, the North's state media reported Tuesday, amid deepening cooperation between the two nations. North Korean Education Minister Ri Yong-chol and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Kravtsov, held talks the previous day, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). A Russian delegation, led by Kravtsov, arrived in Pyongyang on Monday. "At the talks, the successes and experience gained by the two countries in the field of education were shared, and the issues of further boosting bilateral exchange and cooperation were discussed," the KCNA reported, without disclosing other details. In a separate dispatch, the KCNA said the Russian delegation toured the Pyongyang University of Education No. 2, a major educational institution for training teachers in the North, the previous day. The two nations signed a "supplementary agreement" to establish and operate a Russian education center in North Korea under a partnership between the Pyongyang university and Russia'
The US State Department announced on Monday that it was imposing sweeping sanctions under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act (PAIPA) on five Chinese entities suspected of stealing trade secrets from American companies. The targets include Shanghai Zhisuan Technology, founded by former Google software engineer Ding Linwei, venture capital firm MiraclePlus and three related entities. Ding was convicted of seven counts of trade secret theft in January. A federal judge subsequently...
The US and China are racing to secure concrete investment deals ahead of their leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen next month, even as both sides engage in a contest over leverage in extending their broad trade agreement. Multiple sources told the South China Morning Post that intense negotiations would continue in coming weeks, with Washington and Beijing still facing hurdles to finalising a complex package of institutional frameworks and economic agreements. The sources, who spoke on condition of...
Citing national security concerns, the US government has ordered federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products and any third-party services developed using the Chinese artificial intelligence model from their information systems. In a notice made public on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also barred agencies from acquiring DeepSeek products and services, including those developed by affiliated entities. The notice said that using the company’s products “may result in...
In New York last month, US-China talks on artificial intelligence opened up a path of cooperation. This was affirmed by the Xi-Trump summit in Washington where both presidents agreed to establish a formal AI dialogue and hotline. With the next AI meeting set to happen in November, it is imperative that both countries further cooperation. The AI ecosystem is in flux. American tech companies are draining their coffers as they commit vast sums to chips, data centres and energy before the revenue...
Asian-Americans are laser-focused on the economy and healthcare costs and increasingly disenchanted with US President Donald Trump and his Republican Party leading into the highly consequential November 3 midterm elections, according to a survey released on Monday. While the general trend among Asian-American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) mirrors the broader US electorate, the minority community’s views are frequently more pronounced, seen in part because they have been the object of more raids,...
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was open to a three-way meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to China next month, with nuclear weapons on the agenda. “We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearisation,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before travelling to Kansas. “If President Xi wants to have it, I’d have it.” Trump said the proposed meeting was his suggestion and linked it to his November...
Dozens of Air China passengers stranded in Cuba by successive cancellations were due to fly out on an extra flight on Monday, as a US oil embargo deepens the island’s energy crisis. The disruption has hit one of Cuba’s last direct air links to Europe, the Chinese carrier’s twice-weekly route between Beijing and Havana via Madrid. Air China added flight CA590 for travellers whose regular CA866 service was cancelled before October 10, the Chinese embassy said in a notice on Sunday. The flight was...
Honduran migration officials have summoned or placed under review 41 Chinese nationals after inspecting shops in the capital and a hospital being built by a state-owned contractor from China in the south of the country. Teams from the National Migration Institute, working with police and intelligence officers, interviewed 86 Chinese citizens at 54 shops in Comayaguela, Tegucigalpa’s twin city and main commercial district, and told 25 of them to report for further document checks. Migration...
The US State Department has added a “wrongful detention” warning to its travel advisory for China, alerting Americans to the risk of being detained arbitrarily under Chinese law. On Monday, the official China travel advisory added the “D” risk indicator for wrongful detention, while maintaining the country’s overall advisory level at Level 2, or “Exercise Increased Caution”. The advisory urges Americans travelling to mainland China to exercise caution due to the “arbitrary enforcement of local...
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Washington wanted to compete for business in Central Asia without asking countries to stop working with China, as the United States and five regional governments outlined proposals to deepen cooperation on minerals, transport and technology. Speaking in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Rubio was asked what Washington could offer as Beijing expanded its presence in the region. “I mean, look, it’s competition, right? We have products, we have companies;...
Ex-US treasury secretary urges US, China to cooperate on AI de-risking
