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China postpones Chang'e-7 lunar mission <br> China said on Sunday it ​has postponed its Chang&#39;e-7 &zwnj;lunar mission after a &quot;comprehensive assessment&quot;, according to state-run ​Xinhua news agency. The ​uncrewed Chang&#39;e-7 mission &quot;does not meet ⁠the conditions for ​launch and therefore cannot ​be carried out within the launch window scheduled for this ​year&quot;, Xinhua said, ​citing authorities. Before Sunday&#39;s announcement, the &zwnj;Chang&#39;e-7 ⁠spacecraft, had ​been expected ​to ⁠be launched as early as ​next week. The spacecraft was ​expected ⁠to search for frozen water near the ⁠moon&#39;s ​south pole. Read More: China readies robotic lunar mission in search for water ice Earlier, China announced to send Chang&#39;e-7, its most technologically complex lunar mission to date, in its search for frozen stores of water in permanently shadowed craters near the moon&#39;s south pole. T...

Chinese teenagers flock to tech frontline to touch the future amid AI study-tour boom <br> &nbsp;On a summer day, cheers erupted as clusters of children watched robots race across a soccer pitch, battling it out in playful matches, at a science center in Jiaxing, east China&#39;s Zhejiang Province. At a nearby workbench, nine-year-old Zhang Qihang was busy assembling a robot of his own. &quot;Building robots is awesome! I can let my imagination run wild,&quot; he said, beaming with excitement. This was the scene at an artificial intelligence (AI) summer camp -- part of a new wave of study tours gaining traction across China. Moving beyond textbooks, students are flocking to tech giants, university labs and science centers, eager to get hands-on experience with cutting-edge AI technologies and see firsthand how the future is taking shape. AI study-tour boom During this summer vacation, AI-themed study tours have begun to gain ground, with bookings surging ...

Austrian Mountain Town Finds Niche In AI Boom <br> Nestled in the wooded hills of Austria&#39;s Styria region, the town of Leoben oozes tradition with its pastel-coloured buildings and quaint central square boasting a 13th-century church. But on the edge of town, engineers peer through giant magnifying glasses while robotic arms manipulate sheets of copper to develop components used in some of the world&#39;s most advanced AI systems. AT&amp;S, an electronics company based in Leoben, makes integrated circuit (IC) substrates, the boards that connect chips to computer memory and power supplies -- a crucial component in the race to develop AI and high-speed data processing. The company&#39;s shares have surged more than 450 percent this year, making it one of the most striking beneficiaries in Europe of the AI boom. For chief executive Michael Mertin, this success shows that Europe can still &quot;occupy important niches&quot; in the AI race, even if...

Robots can outrun humans, but can they plug in a cable? <br> China&#39;s humanoid&nbsp;robots&nbsp;have shown they&nbsp;can&nbsp;run quicker than the fastest&nbsp;humans. Now comes the real test:&nbsp;can&nbsp;they also handle packaging and warehouse operations while reliably performing precision tasks like connecting cables designed to evaluate their ability to work like&nbsp;humans&nbsp;in less flashy jobs? The five-day World Humanoid Robot Games, which began Saturday in Beijing, combine events modelled on human sports with those designed to test the&nbsp;robots&nbsp;in simulated factories, restaurants, offices and in emergency situations. The games, heavily promoted in Chinese state media, feature 51 events, including 30 sports competitions and 21 scenario-based contests. More than 40% require&nbsp;robots&nbsp;to operate fully autonomously, according to Huawei, a tech partner of the games. On Saturday, two&nb...

From science fair to strategic showcase: a decade of China’s robot games <br> &nbsp;It&rsquo;s been called the Robot Olympics. But unlike the human Olympics, Team China is collecting almost all the medals. Over the past decade, robotic competitions in China have provided a window into the advances of a now-surging sector &ndash; and the importance of its success as a strategic industry singled out by ​President Xi Jinping. Once a curiosity organized by academic teams and hobbyists, China&rsquo;s robot games have become a national showcase celebrated by state &zwnj;media &mdash; and, increasingly, a proving ground for commercial products from companies looking to show real-world applications beyond the spectacle. The five-day World Humanoid Robot Games &ndash; the latest and biggest incarnation of the competition &ndash; began on Saturday in Beijing. Here&rsquo;s a timeline of how the competitions, and the underlying technology, have de...

Tesla and others begin record vehicle recall in China <br> Tesla and 10 other automakers launched software updates on Friday and said they would recall nearly 4.3 million vehicles over concerns it may be difficult to open doors in an emergency, in China&#39;s largest automotive recall to date. Beijing has this year increased oversight of the EV industry and introduced tougher safety requirements, as automakers, locked in a fierce price war, roll out technologies in the world&#39;s largest vehicle market. It has also said it will ban concealed door handles from 2027, making it the first country to phase out a design popularised by Tesla and widely adopted by domestic Chinese EV makers. Most of the actions, classified as product recalls under Chinese regulations, address concerns that emergency mechanical door release handles may be difficult to locate or operate during emergencies. Warning labels and software fixes Nine of the 11 automakers, including Tesla and ...

UK cinemas restricting Meta AI and other smart glasses over piracy concerns <br> Cinema operators in Britain are introducing policies to prohibit ​or restrict camera-enabled smart glasses, including &zwnj;Meta&#39;s&nbsp;AI-powered eyewear, the UK Cinema Association said on Thursday, citing privacy and ​film piracy concerns. The move follows ​growing scrutiny of smart glasses over ⁠their recording capabilities, with courts ​in England and Wales this month ​prohibiting Meta smart glasses because of restrictions on taking images and videos in courts. Policies ​vary by venue, with operators ​introducing prohibitions and/or restrictions rather than a single &zwnj;industry-wide ⁠rule. The UK Cinema Association said operators recognise smart glasses can provide benefits to those with specific access ​requirements. The association ​said it ⁠would continue working with members to ensure their ​approach &quot;remains relevant and proportionate.&quot; Else...

Satellite proliferation imperils astronomical observations, study finds <br> &nbsp;As thousands more satellites enter orbit, astronomers may face mounting difficulties in observing the cosmos, according to a study by the European Southern ​Observatory, which operates telescopes in northern Chile. The ESO study found that &zwnj;existing proposals to launch more than 1.7 million satellites into orbit, including some very bright ones, would substantially degrade astronomical observations. There currently are roughly 15,000 satellites in orbit. Bright ​streaks of light left by satellites can interfere with observatories and ​the quality of night-sky photography. &quot;Each of these satellites, when it crosses ⁠a telescope&#39;s field of view, leaves a bright line,&quot; said ESO astronomer ​Olivier Hainaut, author of the study published in the journal&nbsp;Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics, opens new tab. A single streak ​of light may be a minor nuisan...

PTA, Google sign agreement to make digital platforms safer for children <br> The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Google on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen child online safety and promote safer use of digital platforms, according to a press release issued by PTA. The MoU comes days after Google opened its first office in Pakistan, with the company saying the move reflected its confidence in the country&rsquo;s digital future and talent. Google has also partnered with the government on digital-skilling programmes and other initiatives supporting developers, startups, gaming, hardware manufacturing and online safety. Under the agreement, the two organisations agreed to collaborate on a child safety programme focused on &ldquo;awareness, education and capacity-building&rdquo;, the PTA said in a press release. The programme would equip parents and teachers with practical tools and resources to help children navigate ...

China lands reusable rocket breakthrough <br> China&rsquo;s commercial space industry took another important step towards making rocket launches cheaper, more frequent and more commercially viable after the successful recovery of the first stage of a Zhuque-3 reusable rocket on land. The Zhuque-3 Y2, developed by Beijing-based private aerospace company LandSpace, lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwest China on Wednesday morning. It successfully deployed the Honghu-03 satellite into its designated orbit before its first stage returned to Earth and made a controlled landing at a designated recovery site in Gansu province. The landing, completed less than 10 minutes after liftoff, marked China&rsquo;s first successful land-based controlled recovery of an orbital-class launch vehicle&rsquo;s first stage using deployable landing legs. The achievement represents a major advance in the country&rsquo;s effort to move reusab...

China readies robotic lunar mission in search for water ice <br> China is preparing to launch its next lunar exploration mission, Chang&rsquo;e 7, aimed at investigating the Moon&rsquo;s south polar region for traces of water ice, state-run China Daily reported Wednesday. The Chang&rsquo;e 7 spacecraft and its Long March-5 Y14 carrier rocket were vertically transferred to the launch area at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in southern Hainan province early Wednesday, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). Over the coming days, space engineers at the coastal spaceport will conduct final functional checks, joint testing and propellant filling ahead of the launch. Chang&rsquo;e 7 represents China&rsquo;s most complex robotic lunar mission to date. The four-part spacecraft consists of an orbiter, a lander, a surface rover and a specialised hopping mini-probe. The mission aims to achieve technological breakthroughs in high-precision soft lan...

As Europe rearms, Italy's fragmented space sector faces a scale test <br> Italy&#39;s&nbsp;fragmented&nbsp;space&nbsp;industry is facing growing pressure to consolidate as defence and government customers increasingly favour larger suppliers capable of handling complex programmes. The shift reflects a broader push across&nbsp;Europe&nbsp;to build strategic autonomy in defence and critical technologies, as governments respond to Russia&#39;s invasion of Ukraine, tensions with China and uncertainty over future United States&nbsp;security commitments. For Italy, whose&nbsp;space&nbsp;sector&nbsp;is known for niche engineering expertise but remains dominated by small and medium-sized companies, the challenge is whether firms can build the&nbsp;scale&nbsp;and financial strength needed to compete for large contracts without losing the flexibility that made them successful. Industry executives say limited access to capital ...

Why US states fought to present a united case against Meta over youth social media harms <br> As opening statements got underway in a landmark trial over claims that Meta Platforms misled the public about the safety of Instagram and Facebook for young users and violated child privacy laws, one of the biggest fights in the case had already been resolved: whether a bipartisan group of ​US states would present their claims together. The states pushed for a single trial covering state consumer protection and federal privacy claims brought &zwnj;by 29 attorneys general, while Meta argued for a series of smaller trials grouping states that have similar laws. The fight was about more than courtroom logistics. The states argued that the case centres on company-wide decisions affecting young users across the country and seeks nationwide changes to Meta&#39;s platforms, and that jurors should hear a single story about Meta&#39;s actions. Meta countered that ​jurors shoul...

Russia plans to build drone aviation infrastructure in 35 regions by 2030 <br> Deputy Head of Russia&#39;s Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsiya on Monday said that 35 Russian regions were&nbsp;expected to be equipped with infrastructure for unmanned aviation by 2030. Speaking at the &quot;Rostki: Russia and China - Mutually Beneficial Cooperation&quot; business forum in the&nbsp;city of Kazan, Andrey Potemkin said the infrastructure was already in place in some regions, including the Tatarstan region, and was also being developed in the Russian Far East. &quot;By 2030, we plan to equip 35 Russian regions with infrastructure for unmanned aviation,&quot; he said. According to the official, the infrastructure could provide a platform for developing what he described as the low-altitude economy, including the use of unmanned aircraft for civilian applications. Potemkin said Russia recorded 178,000 unmanned aircraft flights in 2025, up 20% fro...

SpaceX sets launch turnaround record with 2 Falcon 9 missions <br> SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 rockets for Globalstar and the United States Space Force on Saturday night, setting a company record by completing the missions just 38.5 minutes apart, according to a US media report. Spaceflight Now reported that the first rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 9:12pm EDT (0112GMT), carrying eight Globalstar satellites to replenish its low Earth orbit constellation. The Falcon 9 first-stage booster, B1090, completed its 14th flight and landed at Landing Zone 40 about eight minutes after liftoff, it added. A second Falcon 9 launched the classified USSF-366 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:50pm EDT (0150GMT). Read:&nbsp;Alphabet&#39;s SpaceX bet grows to $94b The Space Force did not disclose the payload, saying: &quot;The mission was assigned under a previously awarded [National Security Space Launch] Phase 3 Lane 1 ...

France's top court blocks social media ban for under-15s <br> France&#39;s top court on Friday blocked ​a bill banning social media access for under-15s, saying it infringed upon freedom of &zwnj;expression and delivering a setback for President Emmanuel Macron, who asked his government to rewrite the legislation. The bill would have barred children younger than 15 from opening a social media account from September 1. Accounts already open would be ​closed within four months by social media platforms, which would also need to use age ​verification approved by the French privacy regulator. But France&#39;s Constitutional Council found that the ⁠bill, while requiring everyone to give proof of age, failed &quot;to specify the conditions and limits&quot; under ​which it should be provided, as well as infringing on freedoms and privacy. &quot;The Council holds that the ​contested provisions, on the one hand, disproportionately infringe upon the free...

Apple trains its own AI model for China market with Alibaba's support, sources say <br> Apple has trained a large language model specifically for the China market, three people ​familiar with the matter said, a departure from the iPhone maker&#39;s strategy of relying on third-party models to power AI features &zwnj;in the country. The AI model was developed in partnership with Alibaba Group and trained with the Chinese tech giant&#39;s support, the people said, declining to be named as the information is sensitive and not public. Apple&#39;s training of its own China-specific model has not been reported before. The company had previously leaned towards domestic partners&#39; models to bring generative AI to ​iPhones and other devices sold in China, where US models such as Anthropic&#39;s Claude and OpenAI&#39;s ChatGPT, which Apple pairs with its own ​technology in its home market, are not available. Read: OpenAI asks US judge to dismiss A...

Anthropic investors eye $2 trillion valuation in potential Wall Street debut: report <br> Anthropic investors are betting that the artificial intelligence company could seek a valuation of at least $2 trillion in a potential October stock market debut, a figure that would eclipse SpaceX and make it the largest initial public offering&nbsp;(IPO) on record. Six investors in the five-year-old company told the Financial Times that Anthropic&#39;s rapidly rising revenue could support more than a doubling of its current valuation, according to a report published on&nbsp;Thursday. Investors said they expect Anthropic&#39;s annualised revenue to reach between $100 billion and $120 billion by the end of 2026, using a measure that projects full-year sales from recent performance. That would represent more than tenfold growth during the year. &ldquo;If Anthropic is growing 800% a year, you&rsquo;d think at the incredibly low end they would trade at 30 times [...

Microsoft retreats in China, but AI boom helps it keep a window open <br> Microsoft once regarded the idea of quitting China as unthinkable. The year was 2010, and Google was about to exit due to concerns over censorship and cyberattacks. That decision was lauded by democracy activists, but not by Bill Gates and Microsoft&#39;s then-CEO Steve Ballmer, who suggested Google ​was overreacting. In the past five years, however, at least 15 Microsoft branch offices and joint ventures in China have been shut, corporate filings show, and Microsoft is pursuing what five company sources described as a strategy of retreat. The firm considered quitting the market in &zwnj;2023 because some executives felt it took on too much geopolitical risk for too little economic return, one of them said, while stressing Microsoft has no current plans to exit. China accounted for just 1.5% of global revenue, Microsoft said in 2024. Microsoft took a major hit from the erosion of trust betw...

Report accuses Meta of systematically suppressing Palestinian content <br> Meta&rsquo;s content moderation practices have systematically restricted Palestinian voices on Facebook and Instagram, according to a report by Palestinian digital rights group 7amleh and a researcher at Utrecht University. The Platformicide of Palestine 2021-2025 examined 3,520 cases submitted to 7amleh&rsquo;s Palestinian Observatory for Digital Rights Violations from January 2021 to December 2025. The cases included account suspensions, post removals, restrictions on livestreaming and reduced content distribution. The report uses the term &ldquo;platformicide&rdquo; to describe what it considers the structural erasure of Palestinian visibility and participation on social media. While it does not conclude that Meta deliberately censored individual users, the report argues that the repeated restrictions cannot be explained solely as isolated technical or moderation errors. Only 32...

Meta says it has taken down 756,000 Australian teen accounts as ban enforcement looms <br> Facebook ​and Instagram owner Meta said on Thursday it had taken down more than 750,000 accounts it suspected &zwnj;were held by Australians aged under 16 since a world-first ban on teen accounts, and promised more action in the face of possible regulatory intervention. The company said it had deactivated 462,000 suspect Instagram accounts and 294,000 suspect Facebook accounts from just before the Australian social media ​ban went live in December to June, up from 331,000 Instagram accounts and 173,000 Facebook accounts it said ​it had removed by January. The world&#39;s largest social media company has said it wants to ⁠comply with a law it and other platforms have vocally opposed, just as Australia&#39;s internet regulator considers an&nbsp;enforcement lawsuit against platforms, including some that Meta owns, that it says have failed to take sufficient steps to comp...

Australia to make tech companies pay more outlets for content under reworked media law <br> Australia will raise the number of deals large tech firms must strike with local news outlets under a revamp of its media licensing ​laws to be introduced to parliament on Thursday, the government said, &zwnj;adding the measure would distribute advertising revenue to more domestic outlets. The changes also commit the government to giving 5% of funds raised under the scheme to the Australian Associated Press (AAP), ​the formerly industry-owned newswire service, which now runs as a non-profit. Changes ​made after discussions between government and opposition would also require digital ⁠platforms to strike deals with at least eight media companies, up from six ​in an earlier draft. The government also reinstated a cap limiting any single deal ​to 25% of a platform&#39;s&nbsp;levy liability&nbsp;under the law, which is equal to 2.5% of a company&#39;s Australian adv...

Nebius powers past estimates as customers race to secure AI computing power <br> Nebius on Wednesday beat quarterly revenue estimates as booming demand for AI infrastructure helped it land larger contracts and increase prices, sending shares of the cloud-computing company up more than 20%. The results came ​a day after larger rival CoreWeave raised its annual forecasts, with shares of AI ​infrastructure companies broadly advancing as strong results from both firms reinforced investor expectations ⁠that demand for AI computing capacity continues to outstrip supply. Revenue at Nebius&#39; mainstay AI ​cloud unit rose nearly sixfold, powering overall sales to $582.3 million in the second quarter ended June, ​which beat estimates of $572.75 million, according to LSEG data. Nebius is converting growing demand into &quot;contracted, profitable growth&quot;, CEO Arkady Volozh said. Nebius reported a 514% jump in second-quarter sales for its cloud business followin...

Meta, 29 states head to court in biggest test yet of youth social media litigation <br> Meta&nbsp;Platforms&nbsp;will face a coalition of state attorneys general in a California federal&nbsp;court&nbsp;trial beginning on Wednesday over claims it engineered Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children, a case that could expose the company to massive damages and&nbsp;force it&nbsp;to make sweeping changes to its platforms. The trial in Oakland, expected to last seven weeks, will&nbsp;test&nbsp;Colorado, Kentucky, California and New Jersey&#39;s allegations that&nbsp;Meta&nbsp;designed its platforms to keep young users hooked and misled consumers about their safety. It will also address claims by&nbsp;29&nbsp;states&nbsp;that the company illegally collected and used children&#39;s data in violation of federal law. Jury selection is on Wednesday, with opening statements slated to begin August 18.&nbsp;Meta...