China’s full dress rehearsal for its crewed moon landing would be tougher on schedule but safer than Nasa’s cheaper bet on commercial landers, a US space policy analyst said after the rival powers updated their lunar plans within a week of each other. Wang Xiang, deputy chief designer of China’s crewed space programme, said in Beijing on October 31 that, before sending any astronauts, China would dock the Lanyue lander and Mengzhou spacecraft in lunar orbit, and Lanyue would touch down, lift off...

Two trains collided south of the Egyptian capital on Sunday, derailing several carriages, killing four and injuring dozens, according to the authorities. Egypt’s railway authority said a train travelling from Giza to Fayoum crashed into the rear of another service heading south from Cairo to the city of Aswan. The health ministry said an initial count put the toll from the crash at four passengers killed, with 88 others currently being treated for injuries in hospitals around the Giza...

A crew member of a helicopter battling Indonesian wildfires was killed on Sunday when the aircraft crashed into a river as it scooped up water for an airborne drop, a local disaster agency said. The crash in Borneo Island’s South Kalimantan province was the second in days involving a firefighting aircraft, after a military helicopter plunged into the waters off Borneo on Wednesday, killing three people. Two Australian pilots survived Sunday’s crash and were “safe”, Berton Panjaitan, a spokesman...

The United States should not blame China’s rise for its own problems and should not expect that these can be solved by changing presidents, China’s longest-serving former ambassador to Washington has said. “China’s development has never aimed to replace or challenge the US – it never has. Naturally, I also hope the US can resolve its own issues and that its future development will not come at the expense of China’s interests,” Cui Tiankai, who served as ambassador to the US from 2013 to 2021,...

Hong Kong is set to nearly double the campus area of one of three university towns planned for the Northern Metropolis to 75 hectares, with space reserved for a second campus for the city’s only public institution specialising in performing arts. According to a paper submitted to North District Council by the Development Bureau and picked up by the media over the weekend, the campus area of Ta Kwu Ling university town – which is part of a 250-hectare zone earmarked for priority development –...

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has been tasked with uncovering fabricated data using modern technology, according to the latest update to the agency’s responsibilities endorsed by Beijing. On Friday, the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform published a revised scheme dictating the agency’s functions, internal structure and staffing quotas. The scheme took effect on October 28, according to the notice. The office is a joint Communist Party and state body that finalises...

Japanese police arrested a 33-year-old man who admitted to stabbing a bookshop worker in Osaka on Sunday, a spokesman said, adding that the suspect said he “held a grudge against society”. The man, identified as Satoshi Okamoto, allegedly used a kitchen knife to stab the worker – who called police immediately afterwards – at a branch of national chain Maruzen & Junkudo in the heart of Japan’s second largest city. Police did not elaborate on the victim’s condition, but there was no fear for his...