China confirms Xi will attend BRICS summit in South Africa followed by state visit

China’s coastguard has carried out an exercise featuring water cannons and drones near two disputed reefs at the centre of its simmering South China Sea contention with the Philippines to prepare for “foreign infringement”, according to state media. A China Coast Guard flotilla “recently” conducted “comprehensive maritime law-enforcement training” in the waters around Second Thomas Shoal and Sabina Shoal, according to state broadcaster CCTV, which did not specify dates. The official television...

As tightening US visa restrictions and geopolitics lock out Asian researchers from Western institutions, South Korea is emerging as a new academic sanctuary for top talent. According to Yoo Ji-beom, president of Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in Seoul, that reflects a broader trend that has seen the West giving way to Asia after decades of dominance – particularly in the field of applied technology in China, Japan and South Korea. “Technological competition and global talent mobility are...

More than a month after sparking public outrage by soiling herself during Hyrox Beijing, Australian athlete Joanna Wietrzyk has announced she is “super excited” about returning to competition. In a new video posted on her social media, the 24-year-old said the past several weeks gave her an opportunity to re-examine the incident and learn from it. “So I’ve had some time to reflect over the past six to eight weeks of everything that happened in Beijing,” she said, offering another apology. “I...

China successfully conducted take-off and landing operations of the GJ-21 drone from its first Type 076 warship this month, state media said on Friday. In late October, the Sichuan conducted consecutive sea trials, according to Xinhua. “The [People’s Liberation Army’s] first shipborne reconnaissance-strike stealth UAV, the GJ-21, has successfully completed its maiden take-off and landing on the amphibious assault ship Sichuan,” Xinhua said. “It represents another breakthrough in the development...

Chinese President Xi Jinping renewed a years-long anti-corruption drive at a major Communist Party meeting, while the general who led a military anti-graft purge was promoted to the Politburo. The party must “ensure that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity, or desire to commit corruption”, read a communique passed at the fifth plenum of the party’s Central Committee. The document also highlighted “unwritten rules” as a key issue to address. Zhang Shengmin, Xi’s vice-chairman on the...

A leading economist warned on Thursday that the United States and China are in a “conflicted co-dependency” that this year’s two bilateral summits failed to address. “I think there’s a good chance that we’re in a temporarily more stable place. But to say that has solved the deep-rooted problems between us, I think is a real stretch,” said Stephen Roach, a veteran China-watcher and the former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, at the China Institute of America. “You mentioned the two summits that...

Amid attempts this year to impress each other with splendour, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping appear to have decided that the relationship between their two countries should primarily run through their personal relationship. This has been a hallmark of the Trump years. The American executive branch has always held near-unilateral authority over foreign policy, but Trump has concentrated that in himself. Dozens of ambassadors and senior national security advisers have...

Beijing has provided new details on the scale of its anti-corruption drive across the People’s Liberation Army and defence sector, confirming that a fresh batch of senior figures is under formal investigation. They include top generals who once oversaw theatre commands, heads of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) General Office and executives in key defence companies. The names were included in a communique released on Thursday at the close of the fifth plenum of the Communist...

The Election Commission has declared RJD candidate Anil Jha elected from the Darbhanga Graduates constituency in the Bihar Legislative Council elections. Jha defeated sitting BJP MLC Sarvesh Kumar by securing 25,406 votes against his rival's 21,396. The RJD has now won two of the eight seats contested, improving its tally in the Upper House to 17.

A corporate employee's account of a printer that has been broken since 2021 but cannot be disposed of because of company policies has sparked online reactions. After repeated rejections from Finance and Facilities, the employee was eventually made the machine's official custodian, joking that it had more job security than he did.

Digital trust provider eMudhra appointed KPMG to conduct an independent review of a recent TLS certificate incident. This appointment follows a commitment made by the company to ensure clarity regarding the incident. The incident involved weak private keys associated with several certificate authorities, which remained undetected for a significant period. As a result, eMudhra has withdrawn from its global SSL/TLS certificate business due to security concerns.

The proposed council will bring together tourism experts, travel and tour operators, hotel and resort managers, hospitality professionals and other stakeholders from both countries