As the US prepares to host the G20 summit in Miami in December, Americans’ views of participating countries vary, with China viewed more favourably than Russia, although both rank near the bottom, according to the latest Pew Research Centre report. Americans gave China an average rating of 37 out of 100, compared with 27 for Russia, Pew found in a report released on Friday. Canada, Australia, Japan and Italy received the warmest ratings, with average scores in the mid-to-high 60s. “Russia stands...

A Republican lawmaker is requesting the Pentagon blacklist 58 Chinese universities and 62 technology labs as national security threats, a move Beijing calls Cold War-style overreach and critics warn could freeze US-China scientific collaboration and ultimately undermine American innovation itself. In a letter to US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar urged the Pentagon to add several prestigious Chinese institutions – some linked to Nvidia,...

Katie Zacharia was “let go” as White House press secretary on Friday, a White House official said, five days into a tenure dominated by questions over her claimed legal career in China, where she said she had passed a bar exam. Her exit came on the same day Beijing invited her to visit China more often, responding to her remark that the country “doesn’t even have proper toilets”. US President Donald Trump said he had urged her to reconsider the job but denied firing her. “I told her: ‘I think...

Pope Leo spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Friday, calling for a ceasefire in a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine, as he recovers in hospital from a lung cancer operation. The Vatican said that Pope Leo “expressed his deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region, and called for a ceasefire to allow the delivery of food and medical assistance, and the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population”. The...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled what he described as a “flying” car, equipped with thrusters, during a live-streamed event at his SpaceX rocket company’s facility on Thursday. Technical and regulatory challenges have so far prevented the much-hyped flying car sector from getting off the ground. Musk revealed his new Roadster sports car during a launch event at a SpaceX test facility in Texas. During the demo, which was live-streamed on Tesla’s X account, the car launched from a steep steel ramp and...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday asked European Union leaders to provide Kyiv an extra 70 billion euros (US$79 billion) in funding next year to help it keep fighting Russia. “The war will cost 155 billion euros next year. And we need at least 70 billion euros more from you – for defence, for weapons and for our resilience,” Zelensky said in a speech at an EU summit in Brussels. “This is a realistic amount. And I ask you to find this support. It will help us hold Russia back.” The...

China and America are talking again. There are leaders’ meetings, phone calls and a new channel for discussing artificial intelligence. Officials are cautiously trying to keep the relationship from veering into crisis. And yet some of the hardest questions remain untouched. Neither side is giving much ground on advanced chips, export controls remain a battlefield and neither Washington nor Beijing appears ready to slow its race to develop increasingly powerful AI. So what, exactly, does it mean...