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China has put a Polish university on its European dual-use exports blacklist. Why?

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology placed on export control list alongside defence firms as China hits back at latest EU sanctions Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (PWr) was among 14 European Union entities added to a dual-use export control list by the Chinese commerce ministry on Friday. The ministry said the additions, effective immediately, were in response to EU sanctions imposed on Thursday against 14 mainland Chinese and Hong Kong companies over alleged links to Russia. The university said it had not received any formal notification from Beijing. “We are unable to comment on this matter as we have not yet received any official information. We still need to verify this,” PWr said in a statement on Friday. While Beijing did not say why it had singled out PWr, the university’s defence research footprint and institutional ties with China offer clear clues.

July 26, 2026

Business

Israeli settlers set fire to West Bank mosques, graffiti and arson reported

As part of a security clampdown across the West Bank over the weekend, Israeli forces arrested around 60 Palestinians Israeli settlers attacked ⁠Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, setting fire to two mosques and scrawling graffiti on buildings, Palestinian officials said. The attacks followed an incident on Friday when four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers – one of them acting as a security coordinator for a nearby Israeli settlement – were killed when a crowd of Israeli settlers, some armed, approached the Palestinian village of Tal, southwest of Nablus. During the incident, villagers came out of their homes to confront the settlers and a ‌stand-off ensued, with video appearing to show one of the Palestinians grabbing a settler’s weapon. Palestinian local authorities say the settlers provoked the violence. The Israeli military said shots were fired by both sides. The incident was the latest in a growing series of clashes involving settlers in which dozens of Palestinians have been killed this year and hundreds wounded, according to figures from the UN and the Palestinian Authority.

July 26, 2026

Business

Typhoon Noul: Shenzhen girl, 6, blown away by gale, runs back to safety

The strongest storm to hit China so far this year made landfall some 55km from the spot Hongxing News, a Chinese media outlet, reported that a six-year-old girl lying in her cot in the southern city of Shenzhen was blown from inside a building onto the grass verge outside. Footage released by Hongxing showed a ground-floor grocery shop being battered by the gale, while the owners and two of their three children tried to take cover inside. The eldest daughter was blown away by the winds but walked back to the shop unharmed, the report said. “The strong wind came so suddenly and a gust blew the door open. As there were two children inside, we did not have time to look after the elder one at that moment,” the report quoted the father as saying. “I did not expect that [after she was blown out], she would run back on her own. It is scary now that I think about it,” the father said.

July 26, 2026

Business

Chinese scientist faces probe after girl, 6, dies ‘following experimental gene therapy’

Shanghai Jiao Tong University says it is investigating after a report alleges the child died after receiving treatment from Qiu Zilong A leading Chinese scientist is under investigation by his university after a six-year-old girl reportedly died following experimental gene-editing therapy. The girl, named Mei, died days after receiving a treatment designed to correct a genetic mutation affecting her neurodevelopment in March last year, according to a report published by Science following a joint investigation with Retraction Watch, a non-profit organisation that monitors retracted research. Her parents said she had suffered a fatal immune reaction linked to the treatment. “Seven days after the girl’s medical team infused trillions of viruses carrying the recipe for the base editor into her spinal fluid, she died of a severe immune reaction linked to the therapy,” Science and Retraction Watch said. Xinhua Hospital, which is affiliated to the university, paid a small fine worth around 24,000 yuan (US$3,500) to local health authorities last September, but Qiu faced no public sanctions at the time.

July 26, 2026

Business

Infant formula maker insists product safe after recalls in Hong Kong and Macau

Batch of Frisolac Prestige Stage 1 (800g) subject to recall after authorities in Macau discover samples have lead levels above safety limit The Dutch maker of Friso, a popular powdered infant formula brand, has stressed that tests show its product is safe, despite a recall of a product batch in Hong Kong and Macau after excessive levels of lead were found in samples. In a statement on Sunday, Royal FrieslandCampina said: “We have conducted additional third-party quality testing on the affected batch. The test results showed that the product complies with Hong Kong and Macau standards.” The company, meanwhile, stressed that “ensuring consumer safety and maintaining product quality remain our top priorities”. It said it had been contacting distributors and retailers to arrange exchanges, while also promising swaps or refunds for customers. Concerns about the product emerged over the weekend after Macau authorities said their tests showed some samples of a specific batch of the infant formula containing levels of lead that exceeded the city’s safety threshold of 0.02mg/kg for such goods. Authorities in Macau promptly ordered a recall of the batch of Frisolac Prestige Stage 1 (800g).

July 26, 2026

Business

Fake ICE raids and kidnapping drills: how Chinese teens prepare for US college

As Trump’s toughening rules spark anxiety, Chinese parents pay for camps teaching how to survive being seized by gunmen or ‘hidden dangers’ Beijing student Lulu Lu was just preparing for bed when she was startled by loud banging at her door. When she opened the door, a man pushed his way inside, shone a flashlight in her face and shouted: “Get down. Give me your phone.” Moments later, she came to her senses and did as she was told, burying her face in the mattress and raising her hands above her head. The intruder blindfolded Lu, tied her hands and finally made her record a phone message for her parents – begging them to pay a ransom. It was just an instructor at a private summer camp, training Lu how to handle a kidnapping in case it happened for real when she started school in the US in two months.

July 26, 2026

Business

America’s North Korea strategy needs a dose of reality

Each year on July 27, North Korea commemorates “Victory Day”, marking what it presents as its triumph in the Korean war. While few outside the country accept that characterisation, the date underscores a reality: the war never formally ended. The 1953 agreement was an armistice that left the peninsula in a state of suspended conflict. Responsibility for the resulting instability is widely distributed. North Korea’s missile tests, expanding nuclear arsenal and escalatory rhetoric have undermined...

July 26, 2026

Business

Low profile, high AI ambition: what leaked comments reveal about DeepSeek’s Liang Wenfeng

Tech founders are not known for ‘restraint’. But a transcript shows Liang Wenfeng is chasing an ultimate goal in AI, not short-term gains But last week, a leaked transcript of a closed-door meeting with potential investors in May offered an unprecedented look into Liang’s strategy: one rooted in a philosophy of corporate restraint, low-margin pricing and open-source models. On mainland Chinese social media, transcripts of the nearly four-hour discussion went viral, resonating deeply in a culture that traditionally values humility, discipline and long-term ambition over fast commercial cashouts. While DeepSeek did not officially confirm the authenticity of the document, the leaked remarks gave the industry its clearest glimpse yet into the mind driving one of China’s most intriguing AI contenders. Throughout the meeting, Liang repeatedly emphasised the concept of “restraint” as a core company vision, a principle reflected in DeepSeek’s open-source model and affordable pricing.

July 26, 2026

Business

UK’s Burnham ‘putting Britain first’ as he rules out 2029 election

Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham ‘will always put Britain’s interests first’ when asked if he would call out US President Donald Trump Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham “will always put Britain’s interests first”, he said in an interview when asked whether he was willing to call out US President Donald Trump. Burnham’s predecessor Keir Starmer, who announced ‌he was stepping down last month, had a fraught relationship with Trump due to differences over the US-Israeli war on Iran, immigration, energy and tech regulation. While Trump initially described Starmer’s successor as “extremely liberal”, he said this week he had a “very good conversation” with Burnham, who became Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade on Monday. In his first major interview since taking office, BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg asked Burnham if ⁠he was willing to call out Trump if he thought it was the right thing to do. “All leaders have to ‌do that. You have to defend your own national interest before anything else. That’s what you’re required to do if you’re to do this job properly,” he said. The prime minister also said ‌he would not call a general election before 2029. “I’m going to rule it out.

July 26, 2026

Business

Search for survivors continues as 45 rescued after cargo ship sinks in South China Sea

State media reported 17 Vietnamese crew members were missing after Saturday night’s accident near Fiery Cross Reef As of Sunday afternoon, 45 survivors had been rescued and the search for the others was continuing, state broadcaster CCTV reported. All those on board were Vietnamese nationals. Vietnam’s foreign ministry said the vessel “sank while operating in bad weather”, adding that the search for survivors was being carried out “with assistance from Chinese rescue forces – using ships and helicopters – and from vessels near the area of the accident”. The rescue operation began around 6.25pm Beijing time on Saturday after the Chinese salvage vessel Nanhai Jiu 115 spotted distress signals. The Chinese ship rescued all 29 people aboard on a life raft about half an hour later, and Chinese rescue ships picked up a raft carrying another seven people later in the evening while a helicopter saved another two people the following morning. The accident happened at the height of the typhoon season and CCTV said changing weather and sea conditions significantly increased the difficulty of the rescue operation.

July 26, 2026

Business

Chinese tech firms’ ‘snub’ to US Congress advisers highlights Beijing’s growing AI caution

The refusal to meet a visiting delegation during a recent fact-finding trip signals China’s new approach to tech diplomacy, observers say China’s biggest technology companies gave a US congressional delegation the cold shoulder during a recent visit. Analysts said this decision – which denied the visitors a rare insider’s view of one of the world’s fastest-moving artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystems – reflected Beijing’s increasingly selective approach to AI diplomacy. It also highlights a paradox: while the two powers continue to pursue dialogue on AI safety, many of the channels that once helped them understand each other are steadily narrowing. The fact-finding mission was intended to help shape the commission’s annual report to Congress, which provides lawmakers with an analysis of China’s military, economic and technological developments. The delegates met Chinese government officials, think tank experts, diplomats and business representatives to discuss AI, advanced technology, biotechnology, economic security and regional issues.

July 26, 2026

Business

How can Alzheimer’s patients in Hong Kong buy ‘more golden hours’ with family?

About 9.7 per cent of residents aged 60 and above have dementia, according to official figures, with cases expected to reach 330,000 by 2039 In the third of a five-part Health Matters wellness series on ageing in Hong Kong, Victor Ting looks at how advances in early screening and new drug therapies are offering fresh hope for Alzheimer’s patients, as experts say the city must expand support efforts to meet rising demand. For years, Hong Kong retiree Mary Chan* lived with a quiet fear that dementia ran in her family. The 65-year-old grandmother would sometimes misplace her belongings in public – incidents she brushed off as part of normal ageing. But when she one day forgot her bank account password at an ATM she used daily, she realised something was wrong. She sought help and was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease. For nearly a decade before that, Chan had lived with a sense of looming threat – a fear that her memory, and with it her ability to recognise loved ones and navigate daily life, could unravel at any time. Now, with answers at last, she said a weight had been lifted and she could begin to manage what lay ahead.

July 26, 2026