Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez underscored the vital role of cooperation in driving scientific progress during a visit to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Monday.

"Cooperation does not weaken science. It strengthens. It improves its quality, expands its impact, and creates lasting bonds between science communities," Sanchez said as he was awarded an honorary professorship by the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS).

Earlier in the day, he toured an exhibition highlighting CAS sci-tech achievements, where he was briefed on the institution's recent landmark innovations.

The visit underlines the maturing scientific partnership between China and Spain, which has progressively shifted from high-level strategic alignment to concrete, on-the-ground implementation.

In the area of large-scale scientific facilities, the CAS Institute of High Energy Physics has signed agreements with its Spanish counterparts to jointly advance technologies for fourth-generation synchrotron radiation light source, while in agriculture, the two nations have established a joint center for plant-environment interactions to tackle global food security challenges, according to the CAS.

In the field of optical astronomy, research bodies from both countries maintain a long-standing collaboration that includes the joint construction of astronomical optical infrastructure. In marine science, sustained cooperation spans ocean remote sensing, disaster mitigation, marine ecology, and the sustainable management of marine resources, the CAS said.

The UCAS continues to foster robust ties with Spanish universities and research institutions. This relationship is reflected in a steady two-way exchange of talent. Over the past decade, more than 10 Spanish scholars have pursued advanced studies at the UCAS, while nearly 100 UCAS students have embarked on research and academic programs in Spain, according to the CAS.

This reciprocal flow injects enduring momentum into the innovation partnership between the two countries.

Expressing his gratitude for the honorary professorship, Sanchez said that he will continue to promote deeper exchanges and cooperation between Spanish scientific and educational institutions and those of the CAS, including the UCAS, for the benefit of the people of both countries and the world.

Sanchez is undertaking an official visit to China from Saturday to Wednesday, marking his fourth trip to the country within four years.

A messaging app developed under Elon Musk's social media platform X is set to launch on April 17, with pre-orders now open on Apple's App Store.

The app, called XChat, is widely seen as a key step in Musk's ambition to transform X into an all-in-one "super app." Industry observers say the move aims to compete with leading global messaging platforms such as WeChat and WhatsApp.

Musk has repeatedly expressed admiration for China's WeChat, describing it as a perfect blend of Twitter, PayPal, and many other functions. He has noted that in China, users can rely on a single app for nearly all aspects of daily life, adding that no equivalent all-encompassing platform currently exists in Western markets.

As darkness falls on April 13, the 2026 International Dark Sky Week kicks off with a simple yet powerful call: go dark. 

The annual campaign, running April 13 to 20, invites people around the world to step outside after sunset, reconnect with the night sky and take meaningful action to protect the vanishing resource that is darkness itself. The urgency has never been greater. Light pollution is growing at an alarming rate of nearly 10% globally each year, pushing truly dark skies farther out of reach and leaving more than 80% of the world's population living under light-polluted skies.

China is emerging as an unexpected but significant force in the global dark sky movement. On March 12, the National People's Congress passed the Ecological Environment Code, which will take effect on August 15. For the first time in the nation's legislative history, light pollution control has been systematically codified at the national level. The Code establishes clear definitions, regulatory standards and enforcement mechanisms for light pollution, filling a long-standing legal void that has allowed this invisible pollutant to spread unchecked for decades. 

The breakthrough was widely celebrated by environmental advocates and legal scholars alike, who noted that the Code directly addresses what citizens have long experienced as a "hidden pollution" affecting quality of life.

Across China, dark sky protection is no longer just a concept, it is transforming local economies. In south China's Shenzhen's Xichong community, the country's first International Dark Sky Community welcomed more than 2.5 million visitors in 2025, driving a 20.63% increase in collective economic income while safeguarding some of the most pristine stargazing conditions in the Pearl River Delta. 

In northwest China's Qinghai Province, the remote town of Lenghu has placed its entire 17,800-square-kilometer territory under dark sky protection, transitioning from a depleted oil town into a world-class astronomical observatory hub.

The story continues in other regions of China. In Kaihua County, east China's Zhejiang Province, a thousand-year-old village called Gaotiankeng has become a star-gazing destination where ancient stone houses share the hillside with astronomy-themed retreats. 

And in Liuba County, north China's Shaanxi Province, the Huoshaodian Town, nestled deep in the Qinling Mountains, has transformed its pristine dark skies into a thriving tourism brand, complete with a rural astronomical observatory, star-themed accommodations and immersive night-sky experiences that attract urban visitors from across the region.

As the 2026 Global Dark Sky Week invites the world to look up, China is demonstrating that protecting darkness is not about turning off the lights and walking away. It is about turning on new possibilities, where starry nights become the foundation for sustainable development, rural revitalization and a deeper connection to the cosmos.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was awarded an honorary professorship from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) on Monday, during a visit to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), where he toured an exhibition showcasing the country's latest sci-tech achievements. CAS President Hou Jianguo accompanied Sánchez and UCAS President Zhou Qi presented the honorary certificate.

During the visit, Sánchez said he gained an in-depth understanding of the major scientific and technological innovations achieved by CAS in recent years and held discussions with representatives of scientists working in fields such as optical astronomy, synchrotron radiation, space science, embodied intelligence and intelligent breeding. He noted that CAS is a world-renowned research institution with outstanding achievements in science and technology as well as education and talent cultivation.

Sánchez expressed his honor at being named an honorary professor of UCAS and pledged to continue promoting deeper exchanges and cooperation between Spanish scientific and educational institutions and those of CAS, including UCAS, for the benefit of the people of both countries and the world.

The 2026 World Internet Conference (WIC) Asia-Pacific Summit opened in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday morning.

The two-day summit is themed "Digital and Intelligent Empowerment for Innovative Development: Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace." 

The summit highlights innovation in technology across the Asia-Pacific region, aiming to transcend geographic boundaries and promote global digital innovation and technological exchange to a new level.

Besides an opening ceremony and a main forum, the summit features six sub-forums on AI security and governance, AI for better life, digitalization and dissemination of classic texts, innovation and application of AI agent, digital and intelligent health, and digital finance. 

Political and business leaders, representatives of international organizations, and experts and scholars from around the world are gathering to exchange views on cutting-edge internet topics and regional digital cooperation, injecting new momentum and creating new advantages for the development of the Asia-Pacific region.

Innovative format and agenda

This is the second consecutive year the summit has been held in the HKSAR. With a focus on digital intelligence and innovation-driven development, the summit is expected to facilitate the role of AI and related technologies in promoting sustainable socioeconomic growth across the region and ensuring that benefits reach people worldwide, including the Global South.

The main forum this year will be integrated with the Distinguished Contributors Gala. Distinguished individuals and companies who have made significant contributions to global internet development will share insights and practices on promoting the vision of building a community with a shared future in cyberspace.

The six sub-forums, which expand digital intelligence discussions into various industries and aspects of daily life, will reflect the summit's responsiveness to emerging trends in the internet and AI sectors and its commitment to addressing the needs of different countries, especially the developing ones.

An advanced training course on AI and cybersecurity capabilities and an AI security thematic salon will be held, equipping government officials and digital security professionals from the Asia-Pacific region and other countries with enhanced AI capabilities.

The summit will also release a series of reports on the three themes of AI for public welfare, digital finance and AI governance, showcasing cutting-edge exploration and insights on AI empowering society.

Hong Kong's innovation edge

Sun Dong, secretary for innovation, technology and industry of the HKSAR government, highlighted Hong Kong's unique position as a launchpad between the Chinese mainland and the world. He noted that Hong Kong serves as an important platform for mainland companies expanding abroad, by leveraging its international resources and networks to access global markets.

Citing international rankings, Sun noted that Hong Kong rose to fourth place globally in the 2025 IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, placing third in technology, which reaffirms its status as a significant economy in terms of global digital competitiveness.

Besides, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster ranked first globally in the Global Innovation Index 2025 top 100 clusters, reflecting the high international recognition of the innovative capacity of the area. Hong Kong secured the top position in Asia in the 2025 World Talent Ranking. These achievements underscore Hong Kong's strengths in technology, innovation and talent development.

In recent years, the HKSAR government has also been actively promoting the construction of international innovation centers. It is accelerating the development of three major innovation and technology hubs in the Northern Metropolis, supported with HK$30 billion (about $3.8 billion).

Hosting the summit again this year will strengthen Hong Kong's global networks and its role as a "super connector," attracting top-tier enterprises and talents to drive development in the Asia-Pacific region's digital economy, said Sun.

Robots are racing at full speed in Beijing this Sunday night—and yes, it's real. They're getting ready for their own marathon.

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced on Saturday that construction has officially started on a carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) project at the Dongfang 1-1 gas field in south China's Hainan Province.

The project marks the country's first demonstration initiative applying offshore carbon injection technology to enhance natural gas production. Once fully operational, the project is designed to permanently store more than 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide underground each year.

Carbon injection for enhanced gas recovery is a specialized branch of CCUS technology. Its core principle is to turn carbon dioxide emitted during natural gas extraction into a valuable resource. After being captured and purified, the carbon dioxide is pressurized and injected back into gas-bearing reservoirs, where it acts as a driving force to unlock hard-to-recover natural gas reserves.

Yu Fasong, head of the Dongfang 1-1 CCUS project at CNOOC Hainan, said the initiative will move decarbonization processes from onshore plants directly to offshore platforms. This shift realizes carbon reduction at the source for offshore natural gas production, sharply boosting operational efficiency and environmental performance, according to Yu.

Upon completion, the project will be fully connected to the existing production infrastructure of the Dongfang 1-1 gas field. It will enhance the transportation capacity of the subsea pipeline network in the Yinggehai Sea, support the cost-effective development of more carbon-rich natural gas resources in the region, and help sustain long-term stable production of the entire Dongfang gas field cluster.

China on Saturday launched a Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3) carrier rocket from a sea-based platform, sending a satellite internet technology test payload into its preset orbit, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

The SD-3 commercial rocket lifted off from waters off Yangjiang in south China's Guangdong Province. The mission was carried out by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.

Developed by the First Academy of CASC, the SD-3 features a four-stage solid-propellant configuration and is primarily designed for launching payloads into sun-synchronous and low-Earth orbits. It is capable of delivering up to 1,500 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.

Saturday's launch was the 11th flight of the Smart Dragon-3 rocket.

China has released a new batch of national standards covering brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and other emerging technologies, as part of efforts to support high-quality development in cutting-edge sectors, China's market regulator said on Friday.

According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, the newly approved standards span a range of fields. 

In emerging technology sectors, 18 standards were issued for industries including intelligent connected vehicles, semiconductor devices, brain-computer interfaces and BeiDou navigation chips. An additional eight standards were also introduced for lithium-ion batteries, portable power supplies and industrial power systems to enhance electrical safety.

The release also includes 19 standards covering electromagnetics, nanotechnology, communications and electroacoustic equipment, providing technical guidance to support the orderly development of related industries.

In the manufacturing sector, 14 standards were introduced for intelligent vessels and methanol-fueled marine engines, addressing areas such as ship design, propulsion systems and safety protection, in line with efforts to advance greener and smarter shipbuilding.

Meanwhile, 10 new standards for advanced materials, including silicon carbide single crystals and carbon fiber composites, were issued to define technical requirements and testing methods, supporting wider industrial application.

The regulator also announced a series of standards focusing on safety production, including fire safety testing methods for construction materials and equipment such as firefighter emergency alarms, aimed at improving fire prevention capabilities.

Additional standards in meteorological disaster prevention, including public guidance and warning classification for sandstorms, were introduced to enhance public awareness and response capacity.

Chinese scientists have reported a major breakthrough in nickel-based high-temperature superconductors, offering new insights into one of the most challenging problems in condensed matter physics, according to a study published in Nature on Wednesday.

The research, led by Xue Qikun's team at the Southern University of Science and Technology, in collaboration with scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China, successfully created two new nickel-based superconducting materials under ambient pressure.

Superconductivity refers to a state in which electrical resistance drops to zero, allowing current to flow without energy loss. High-temperature superconductors, which operate at relatively higher temperatures, are considered key to future applications in energy transmission, precision sensing and quantum computing.

Nickel-based materials have emerged as a promising third class of high-temperature superconductors, following copper- and iron-based systems. However, progress in this field has been limited by a fundamental challenge: the high oxidation state required for superconductivity is difficult to achieve under conditions that also allow stable material growth.

To address this, the team developed a technique known as strong oxidation atomic-layer epitaxy, enabling precise control of material growth at the atomic scale under extreme oxidation conditions. This approach allows scientists to design and assemble atomic structures layer by layer, creating high-quality nickel oxide films with tailored properties.

Using this method, the researchers increased the superconducting transition temperature of a previously known bilayer nickel-based material from 45 kelvin to 63 kelvin. They also engineered new artificial structures by designing specific atomic stacking sequences, two of which exhibited superconductivity at 50 kelvin and 46 kelvin under ambient pressure.

Beyond creating new materials, the team also identified key electronic features linked to superconductivity. By combining atomic-level structural control with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, they found that superconducting samples share a distinct electronic band structure near the Fermi surface, providing experimental evidence for the underlying mechanism.

Researchers say the findings help establish a direct link between atomic structure, electronic properties and superconductivity, offering a new pathway for understanding high-temperature superconductivity.

Scientists believe that comparative studies of nickel-, copper- and iron-based superconductors could ultimately help solve the long-standing puzzle of high-temperature superconductivity, paving the way for advances in energy systems, information technology and quantum science.

A nationwide "single network" for mine safety risk monitoring and early warning has been largely established, officials announced at the first-quarter regular press briefing of China's National Mine Safety Administration on Friday.

The system has fully integrated safety sensing data from all coal mines under normal production and construction, open-pit mines with high and steep slopes, tailings ponds and 84% of non-coal underground mines in normal operation.

In response to a question from CGTN, officials said the system has significantly expanded both the breadth and depth of risk detection.

"It is capable of real-time monitoring of over 1.06 million sensors, more than 940,000 underground workers, and 160,000 industrial video feeds, while collecting over 5 billion data points daily," said Zou Delun, deputy director general of the Department of Policy, Regulation and Science and Technology Equipment.

Since the beginning of this year, the National Mine Safety Administration and its provincial branches have conducted more than 900 remote inspections using the national mine safety risk monitoring and early warning system.

A total of over 2,800 potential issues have been identified, including 15 major accident hazards. As of the end of March, the verification rate of identified issues reached 85%, with a rectification rate of 97%, playing an important role in fostering a safe and stable production environment.

China is rich in mineral resources, with 173 mineral types identified, according to data from the Ministry of Natural Resources. Proven reserves rank among the world's highest, with tungsten, antimony, rare earth elements, molybdenum, vanadium and titanium all ranking first globally.

However, a significant share of resource development is shifting toward greater depths, with breakthroughs in the exploration of deep coalbed methane, gold and metallic mineral resources.

According to the China Mineral Resources Report (2025) released by the Ministry of Natural Resources, investment in the mining sector has continued to grow steadily.

More than 80% of China's mineral resources require underground mining, underscoring the structural importance of subsurface extraction. Overall, China's mineral reserves account for approximately 12% of the global total.

For centuries, scientists have known that tobacco plants produce nicotine – but no one could figure out exactly how they do it. Now, a team of Chinese researchers has finally solved the puzzle.

In a study recently published in the journal Cell, researchers from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences mapped out the complete process – from start to finish – of how nicotine is made in a wild species of tobacco called Nicotiana attenuata, or coyote tobacco.

Nicotine is a natural substance belonging to the nightshade family of plants, which includes tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants. It acts as a powerful insect killer, and farmers have used it as a pesticide since the late 1600s. Beyond agriculture, nicotine also shows promise in treating brain-related conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and depression.

To uncover the plant's mechanism for producing nicotine, the researchers used an advanced integrative approach that combines multiple types of biological data, from genes to molecules. Their work led to the identification of a nicotine-free mutant plant, which in turn helped them pinpoint a key gene essential to forming nicotine's core structure.

According to the study, plants do not make nicotine in a single step. Instead, they use a tiny, temporary group of five different enzymes that work together like an assembly line. This group, called a metabolon, carries out a series of carefully coordinated chemical reactions.

Additionally, researchers discovered that plants use a subtle yet sophisticated glycosylation/deglycosylation strategy. They rely on this strategy to complete the final coupling reaction that links nicotine's two nitrogen-containing heterocyclic rings. Simply put, the plant attaches a sugar molecule to a reactive intermediate to keep it stable and safe. Then, after a series of reactions – including reduction, condensation and oxidation – it removes the sugar to release the final nicotine molecule. This method prevents harmful byproducts from building up inside the plant, solving what the researchers call the "autotoxicity dilemma." In other words, the plant protects itself from being poisoned by its own defensive chemical.

Finally, once nicotine is produced, a specific transporter moves it into a storage compartment within the cell known as the vacuole, where it is kept safely until needed.

"This discovery completes the decades-old puzzle of nicotine biosynthesis," said Li Dapeng, a researcher from the CEMPS.

"Beyond basic science, this work opens the door to using synthetic biology to produce nicotine and other valuable natural compounds in a more efficient and controlled way," Li added.

A Chinese research team has proposed the first full-chain framework for direct seawater electrolysis, aiming to bridge the gap between laboratory research and real-world deployment. The work, led by Xie Heping's team from Sichuan University and Shenzhen University, was published as a Perspective article in Nature Reviews Clean Technology.

The study, for the first time, integrates coupled multi-factor effects in real marine environments into seawater electrolysis research, linking microscopic reaction mechanisms with macroscopic engineering considerations. It also proposes a systematic evaluation framework for large-scale deployment.

Direct seawater electrolysis is widely regarded as a promising route for green hydrogen production, particularly in coastal regions rich in renewable energy. However, it faces persistent challenges, notably the competition between the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the chlorine evolution reaction (ClER), as well as corrosion and catalyst degradation caused by complex seawater chemistry.

In addition, most previous studies rely on controlled laboratory conditions, while real marine environments involve fluctuating salinity, wave-induced disturbances, salt spray corrosion, and variable renewable energy input – factors that significantly affect system stability and scalability.

To address these issues, the study systematically analyzes key mechanisms, including competing anodic reactions, calcium and magnesium scaling, and interfacial mass transport. It further evaluates mainstream technical routes and, for the first time, establishes a linkage framework between microscopic mechanisms and system-level performance.

The work extends the research scope from ideal laboratory systems to real marine scenarios, constructing a multidimensional framework covering materials, device design, environmental factors, and renewable energy coupling, providing quantifiable guidance for engineering design and scale-up.

Experts say the study clarifies the development pathway from "microscopic mechanisms to system-scale deployment and environmental adaptability," laying a theoretical foundation for advancing direct seawater electrolysis toward industrial application.

Four astronauts returned safely to Earth on Friday after completing a 10-day mission around the moon, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said.

The capsule Orion touched down at about 17:07 local time (0007 GMT Saturday) in the Pacific Ocean, some 96 kilometers off the San Diego coast, the US state of California, according to NASA. It was the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.

After splashing down, Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman said that all four crew members are in good condition. The other three crew members are NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The quartet blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1. In so doing, they became the first astronauts to fly in the vicinity of Earth's only natural satellite since the Apollo program of ‌the 1960s and 1970s. ⁠Glover, Koch and Hansen also made history as the first Black astronaut, the first woman and first non-US citizen, respectively, to take part in a lunar mission.

NASA said the crew traveled a total of about 1.12 million kilometers over the course of the mission. Weather and sea conditions at the recovery site were favorable, with winds and wave heights within NASA's required safety limits.

The capsule re-entered Earth's atmosphere using a modified flight path designed to reduce peak heating loads on the heat shield. NASA developed the adjusted profile following issues identified during the Artemis I uncrewed test flight in 2022.

A US Navy recovery team aboard the USS John P. Murtha was positioned to recover the crew following the splashdown.

"We are back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon, bringing them back safely," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said following the splashdown.

The voyage, following the uncrewed Artemis I test flight around the moon by the Orion spacecraft in 2022, marked a critical dress rehearsal for a planned attempt later this decade to land astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in late 1972.

NASA said the crew set a new record for the farthest distance any humans have ever traveled from Earth during the mission, depicting Artemis II as a key step toward future crewed lunar landings under the Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2028, with the long-term goal of building a base on the moon.

(With input from agencies)

China has deployed its domestically developed AG600 amphibious aircraft in a two-aircraft formation for forward wildfire response operations, as part of efforts to strengthen emergency rescue capabilities during the high-risk spring fire season.

According to Aviation Industry Corporation of China, two AG600 aircraft, numbered 1102 and 1103, were recently dispatched to Guangdong Province to carry out forward-positioned firefighting standby missions. The operation has successfully completed its initial phase, significantly enhancing the province's aerial emergency response capacity.

The missions began with a series of training activities after the first aircraft arrived, including rapid water refilling operations completed in as little as six minutes. The team also surveyed key water sources to ensure a reliable supply for firefighting.

The aircraft also carried out cross-regional deployments to Shaoguan and Zhanjiang, testing their adaptability in complex environments and their capability for coordinated, multi-domain support.

Dual-aircraft formation operations began on April 1. The two aircraft completed 34 sorties, logging a total of 76 hours and 46 minutes of flight time. They conducted 52 water-dropping operations, delivering a total of 624 tonnes of water.

Officials said the mission validated the AG600's capability to conduct coordinated firefighting operations in complex terrain, while demonstrating the reliability of its support systems. The deployment also helped develop a new operational model focused on precision water delivery and rapid response, providing strong support for wildfire prevention efforts during the peak spring season.

China will incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into teacher qualification exams and certification, as part of a broader push to integrate AI across its education system, the Ministry of Education said at a press conference on Friday.

According to an official action plan, AI will be used throughout the teaching process, from pre-class preparation to in-class instruction and post-class evaluation, to improve efficiency and reduce teachers' workload. Smart teaching systems will assist with assignment management, including automated grading, answering student queries and providing tutoring. AI tools will also analyze classroom teaching behavior to help educators enhance instructional quality.

The plan also calls for accelerating AI education among primary and secondary school students by ensuring sufficient, well-designed courses. AI will be fully incorporated into local curricula, with guidelines to define learning objectives, content and class hours at different education levels. Schools are encouraged to explore interdisciplinary AI teaching and integrate it into after-school programs and research-based learning activities.

To cultivate high-level talent for the intelligent era, universities will be required to offer AI as a general foundational course. Tailored teaching materials will be developed for different disciplines to ensure all students acquire basic AI knowledge. Higher education institutions will also be guided to optimize traditional programs, introduce interdisciplinary AI courses and expand cross-discipline training to nurture versatile talent.

In line with industrial transformation, universities will adjust academic programs and establish new disciplines aligned with emerging technologies, industries and business models. 

The plan further outlines the use of AI to support student learning, education governance and scientific research, while strengthening the infrastructure and ecosystem for "AI Plus education." By 2030, China aims to build a comprehensive AI education system that spans all stages of schooling and extends to society at large.

April 9 marks Iran's 20th National Nuclear Technology Day, a holiday established to celebrate the day in 2006 when Iran announced it had successfully completed the nuclear fuel cycle. Back then, under international sanctions, Iran demonstrated that its engineers could take uranium from mining through enrichment without relying on foreign technology.

But the "gift" Iran received on this anniversary in 2026 was not a celebration. It was a statement from the White House, saying that Iran had "indicated" it would hand over its enriched uranium stockpile.

Tehran has yet to confirm that.

The two sides tell completely different stories, casting a shadow over what should be a day of national pride and making it harder than ever to see how the conflict will end.

Iran's nuclear capabilities

Iran's nuclear program dates back to the 1950s, but it accelerated dramatically after the 1979 revolution.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), before Israel launched its first strikes in June 2025, Iran possessed roughly 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%. It is not weapons-grade, which requires 90% or higher, but if further enriched, it could yield enough material for 10 nuclear warheads.

Nuclear facilities under fire

Since June 2025, Israel and the US have carried out multiple rounds of air strikes against Iran's nuclear infrastructure. The targets include Natanz, Fordow and Arak – the heart of Iran's enrichment program. Satellite imagery and public intelligence show damage to multiple facilities and underground tunnels.

But the tunnel complex at Isfahan may be the only major nuclear facility that escaped serious damage. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said late last year that roughly half of Iran's enriched uranium was stored there. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday told reporters, "Right now, it's buried, and we're watching it. We know exactly what they have, and they know that."

As the bombing continued, some Iranian parliamentarians proposed a bill to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). If that happened, Iran's nuclear program would operate completely outside international control.

Can war solve the nuclear problem?

Weeks of military strikes have damaged Iran's nuclear facilities, but the answer is more complicated than it first appears.

The US-Israeli bombing has not eliminated Iran's nuclear capability. The enriched uranium stockpile at Isfahan is believed to be largely intact, and the core facilities remain operational. Continuing to strike nuclear sites carries a grave risk; hitting storage areas with nuclear material could trigger a radiological disaster.

Military pressure may have forced Iran back to the negotiating table. But the current "deal" chaos shows how far apart the two sides remain on what constitutes an acceptable compromise.

Picture this: robots dancing on stage, electric vehicles waiting for test drives and AI that is so ready to answer every curious question. What happens when Chinese and American teens meet in a world driven by innovation and new ideas? How will they use curiosity and creativity to connect? Join CGTN's Wang Tao as we dive into this tech adventure and see how curiosity turns into a playful blend of culture, technology and imagination.

Have you ever wondered how your brain manages to switch between remembering a birthday party and focusing on a friend's face right in front of you? Chinese scientists may have found the answer to this question.

A research team led by scientists from the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has uncovered an important organizational principle within a large-scale brain network, known as the default mode network (DMN).

The DMN is a set of interconnected brain regions long associated with internal thoughts, such as recalling the past, imagining the future or thinking about oneself. However, recent studies have also shown that the DMN is engaged in externally oriented cognitive tasks, like understanding language or recognizing people's emotions. Until now, no one knew how the same network could handle both jobs.

To figure out how the DMN works, the researchers combined analyses of directional functional connectivity (which reflects the direction of information flow), intrinsic network organization and task-evoked brain activity across multiple datasets. Their findings suggest that the DMN is not a single, uniform network, but consists of distinct subregions, each with its own special role in handling information.

In a study published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research team revealed that different parts of the DMN act as either "senders" or "receivers" of information.

According to the study, receiver-like areas are better at taking in information from the outside world. They help the brain process what we see and hear in the surrounding environment. Sender-like areas are better at sending information out to other brain systems. They help guide our actions based on memories and past experiences.

Using advanced brain imaging and data analysis, the researchers found that these two types of areas are involved in different kinds of tasks. For example, receiver-like areas are more active when a person makes decisions based on what they see, like recognizing a face. In contrast, sender-like areas are more active when a person makes decisions based on memory.

"Our findings suggest that the DMN's role in both external perception and internal cognition is rooted in its natural division into receiver-like and sender-like zones," said Zhang Meichao, who led the study.

"This research provides a new, simple way to understand how the brain's association cortex, the part responsible for higher-level thinking, helps us move smoothly between perceiving the world and recalling our own thoughts," Zhang added.

Neurons have been the main focus in studying Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ischemic stroke, and hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. However, increasing evidence suggests that the progression of these disorders is influenced not only by neuronal damage itself but also by the behavior of glial cells, especially microglia and astrocytes.

A study published in Ageing Research Reviews, led by MA Yinzhong's team from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, offers a comprehensive view of how glial cells contribute to disease progression through metabolic reprogramming, inflammatory amplification, and neurovascular dysfunction.

Researchers demonstrated that under normal conditions, microglia and astrocytes are crucial for maintaining homeostasis in the central nervous system. Microglia constantly monitor the brain environment and participate in immune regulation and debris removal, while astrocytes are involved in neurotransmitter recycling, lipid transport, metabolic support, and blood-brain barrier maintenance.

In disease states, however, the researchers showed that both cell types experienced significant functional changes. Microglia shifted from homeostatic surveillance to inflammatory or repair-related states, while astrocytes adopted reactive phenotypes that could be either neuroprotective or neurotoxic.

Furthermore, the researchers found that glial dysfunction is closely connected to metabolism. Activated microglia often switch from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis, which encourages cytokine release and the production of reactive oxygen species. Conversely, astrocytes frequently show disrupted lipid metabolism, impaired cholesterol transport, and lipid droplet buildup, all of which can weaken neuronal support and worsen inflammation.

Furthermore, researchers identified the pathological feedback loops between microglia and astrocytes. Once activated, these cells reinforce each other through inflammatory mediators, complement signaling, metabolites, and extracellular vesicles, creating a self-sustaining cycle of chronic neuroinflammation. This process extends beyond neurons and involves the blood-brain barrier and the neurovascular unit, helping to explain why many neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases share common patterns of injury progression.

This study suggests that glial cells should be seen not just as inflammatory responders but as key regulators linking metabolism, immunity, and neurovascular stability. It opens new avenues for therapeutic approaches that reprogram glial states and restore brain homeostasis.

A Washington, D.C., federal appeals court on Wednesday declined to block the Pentagon's national security blacklisting of AI ‌company Anthropic for now, a win for the Trump administration that comes after another appeals court arrived at the opposite conclusion in a separate legal challenge by the company.

Anthropic, developer of the popular Claude AI assistant, alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he issued orders designating the company as a national security supply-chain risk under two different laws over its refusal to remove certain usage guardrails on its products. Anthropic is challenging each separately, claiming the label blocks it from Pentagon contracts ​and could trigger a government-wide blacklisting.

Anthropic executives have said the designation could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm.

Hegseth's unprecedented ​move came after Anthropic refused to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for US surveillance or autonomous weapons due to safety and ‌ethics concerns.  

A California federal judge blocked one of the orders on March 26, saying the Pentagon appeared to have unlawfully retaliated against Anthropic for its views on AI safety.

In the D.C. case, a panel of judges of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied Anthropic's bid to pause the designation while the case plays out. The decision is not a final ruling.

An Anthropic spokeswoman said in a statement following Wednesday's ruling that the company is confident the court will ultimately agree the supply-chain risk designation is unlawful.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche hailed the ruling as a victory for military readiness in a social media post Wednesday.

"Military authority and operational control belong to the Commander-in-Chief and Department of War, ​not a tech company," Blanche said, using Trump's new name for the Defense Department.

Anthropic's designation was the first time a US company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under obscure government-procurement statutes aimed at protecting military systems from enemy sabotage or infiltration.

In its lawsuits, Anthropic says the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute its designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process.

The lawsuits say the designations were unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude.

The Justice Department says that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing.

The government said its decision stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety.

The D.C. case concerns a law that could lead to the blacklist widening to the broader civilian government following an inter-agency review process.

The California case deals with a narrower statute that excludes Anthropic from Pentagon contracts related to military information systems.

Chinese researchers have made a breakthrough for global food security by breeding a new strain of rice that resists disease without sacrificing yield. 

In recent years, rice bacterial blight has resurged due to global warming and limited resistance sources, threatening stable rice production. To tackle this, a team led by He Zuhua from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, and Shanghai Normal University, successfully cloned a broad-spectrum disease-resistance gene, Xa48, and clarified how rice resistance evolves over long-term cultivation. The study was published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Bacterial blight can reduce rice yields by 20-50%. Traditionally, indica rice grown in southern China is more resistant, while northern japonica rice is highly susceptible, yet, until now, the genetic reasons remained unclear. By screening thousands of rice varieties, the team identified Xa48 in an indica variety called Shuangkezao. Xa48 produces a "recognition protein" that accurately detects and combats bacterial blight strains common in Northeast Asia.

The researchers then combined Xa48 with another resistance gene, Xa21, to achieve broad-spectrum resistance similar to wild rice, overcoming the traditional trade-off between disease resistance and high yield. Field trials showed that the new varieties maintained stable resistance even after typhoons and floods, without reducing yield. This is the first study to demonstrate that the stacking of Xa48 and Xa21 can expand resistance range while preserving high productivity.

The breakthrough is already being applied to develop new rice varieties across China and offers critical technological support for green pest management and national food security.

Scientists have identified multiple nitrogen-containing organic compounds on the surfaces of lunar soil samples returned by China's Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 missions, providing new insights into the evolution of organic matter in the solar system.

The findings, released by a research team led by the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with international collaborators, reveal that the moon preserves a detailed record of how organic materials were delivered and transformed in space.

In the early solar system, asteroids and comets acted like "cosmic couriers," continuously delivering organic matter and life-related elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur to terrestrial planets. While such materials may have helped start life on Earth, the planet's active geology and biological processes have mostly erased these early records.

In contrast, the moon, with its relatively inactive geology, acts as a "time capsule," preserving evidence of both the delivery of extraterrestrial organic matter and its subsequent evolution.

Previous studies of Apollo samples confirmed the presence of carbon and nitrogen in lunar soil, but the existence, composition, and origin of nitrogen-bearing organic compounds remained unclear. In this study, researchers conducted systematic analyses of lunar soil particles using advanced microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to examine their structure, chemical bonds, functional groups, and isotopic composition.

The results show that organic matter in lunar soil exists in three main forms: granular, attached, and encapsulated. These forms range from submicron to micron scale and are often mixed with common lunar minerals. Chemically, the materials primarily consist of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, with mostly amorphous structures. Some samples also show amide functional groups, suggesting that the organics have undergone complex chemical reprocessing rather than simple graphitization.

Isotopic analysis showed that hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen in these lunar organics are generally "lighter" than those found in carbonaceous chondrites and asteroid samples. This pattern aligns with impact-driven processes like evaporation, condensation, and redeposition. The findings imply that when asteroids and comets strike the lunar surface, they not only deposit organic materials but also cause their decomposition, migration, and recombination into new nitrogen- and oxygen-bearing compounds.

The team also discovered, for the first time, signatures of solar wind implantation in lunar organic matter. Some surface-bound organics show distinct variations in hydrogen isotopes and hydrogen-to-carbon ratios near exposed areas, indicating long-term exposure to solar radiation. These "fingerprint-like" signals further rule out terrestrial contamination.

The study describes a continuous evolutionary pathway of lunar organic matter, from extraterrestrial delivery to impact-driven transformation and space weathering, providing new evidence for the history of organic transport in the early solar system. It also provides valuable scientific and technical support for China's upcoming deep-space sample-return missions.

Meta on Wednesday released an artificial intelligence (AI) model, Muse Spark, which touts as smarter and faster than its previous offerings, shaking up its Superintelligence Labs unit.

"Over the last nine months, Meta Superintelligence Labs rebuilt our AI stack from the ground up," the tech titan said in a blog post.

Muse Spark succeeds Llama 4, released by the Silicon Valley-based firm a year ago, and will power Meta's AI app and smart glasses, along with features for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

For now, Muse Spark is only available in the United States.

The new AI model was described as small and fast by design, capable of reasoning through complex questions in science, math, and health.

It is the first in a new Muse series, with the next generation already being developed.

Llama 4 lagged behind in the intense AI race as major competitors from China, France, and the United States released improved models at a rapid pace.

That prompted Meta's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, to overhaul its AI team, which led to the departure of its research boss Yann LeCun.

LeCun spent 12 years leading the AI lab at Meta, where Zuckerberg has made the quest for "superintelligence" a priority.

Zuckerberg launched a major recruitment drive last year to attract talent for Meta's initiatives, poaching Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang and appointing him as head of a new unit called Superintelligence Labs.

Zuckerberg later recruited executives from competitors OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google – often personally and at high costs.

In doing so, the tech tycoon abandoned the company's previous focus on developing free, open-access AI models like Llama.

"The future of Meta AI is rooted in the relationships and context already at the center of your life," the company said.

"We are building toward personal superintelligence – an AI that does not just answer your questions but truly understands your world because it is built on it."

China's polar icebreaker Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, returned to Shanghai in east China on Thursday after a 160-day-long voyage, part of the country's 42nd Antarctic expedition, having achieved fruitful scientific research outcomes.

This polar expedition involved 550 researchers, over 3,600 tonnes of routine supplies and 104 days of inland exploration, setting new records in terms of personnel scale and workload.

Wei Fuhai, the lead and chief scientist of the expedition team, highlighted Qinling Station, China's fifth Antarctic base that began operations in February 2024, saying it has "come of age" in terms of routine operation capability, with its foundational systems improved and many scientific facilities for weather observation, upper-atmospheric physics observation and marine environment monitoring put into use.

High-quality equipment has facilitated technological breakthroughs. For instance, the expedition has set a new record with the country's first hot-water drilling experiment on the Antarctic ice sheet, reaching a depth of 3,413 meters and surpassing the previous global mark of 2,540 meters. It will greatly support studies on life under the ice, ancient climate records and Earth's evolutionary history, the expedition team said.

Outstanding results were also obtained in ecological surveys. During the journey, the expedition members completed comprehensive investigations in key sea areas, including the Cosmonaut Sea and the Amundsen Sea. They established an "air-ground" monitoring system for penguin habitats and conducted aerial photography surveys of penguin populations. Additionally, they collected a large amount of precious samples related to krill and ice lakes.

Heartwarming moments

The Chinese expedition team carried out an international humanitarian rescue using domestic aircraft to help Russia evacuate sick and stranded personnel. China's Great Wall Station supported four Portuguese researchers in conducting their studies and provided medical assistance to the injured from Russia, the Czech Republic and Uruguay. The icebreaker Xuelong was also invited to assist in transporting 23 expedition members from the Republic of Korea.

In addition, China's three Antarctic research stations, together with two icebreakers, received over 400 visits from researchers of 11 countries. They also organized more than 130 visits to neighboring stations during the journey. Other activities included academic conferences on Antarctic science jointly hosted with Russia and India, as well as a Chinese film festival.

China's 42nd Antarctic expedition team embarked on the journey from Shanghai on November 1, 2025. It has been jointly supported by two icebreakers, namely Xuelong and Xuelong 2. The expedition is anticipated to end in May.

(With input from Xinhua)

Israeli and US scientists have found that ice has been slowly building up at the moon's poles for at least 1.5 billion years, according to a statement from Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science on Tuesday.

Published in Nature Astronomy, the study points to "cold traps," which are deep, sunless craters near the poles where temperatures drop to around minus 160 degrees Celsius, as the best places to find ice, read the statement.

Using data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers found that older dark regions contain more ice, suggesting gradual accumulation rather than a single event.

This ice could be turned into water, oxygen and fuel, and NASA plans to explore these areas under its Artemis program, read the statement.

The scientists hope future missions will collect samples to determine the water's origin and how it could support human activities in space, read the statement.

China launched a Long March-8 carrier rocket on Tuesday in south China's Hainan Province, sending 18 internet satellites into space.

The rocket blasted off at 9:32 p.m. from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site. It successfully placed the payloads, the seventh batch of networking satellites for the Qianfan Constellation, into preset orbit.

The Long March-8 series rocket is set to enter a high-density launch mode this year, promoting the construction of China's low-Earth orbit satellite internet constellation. 

Tuesday's mission was the 636th launch of the Long March series of rockets.

(With input from Xinhua)

A China-developed solar power project, the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, has officially begun grid-connected operation in Laos on Tuesday, marking a major step forward in regional clean energy cooperation.

The project, developed by China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), is part of the northern Laos interconnection clean energy base. With an installed capacity of 1 gigawatt in its first phase, it is also Laos' first large-scale mountainous photovoltaic project, according to China Media Group (CMG).

Once fully operational, the project is expected to generate about 1.65 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. This will help save approximately 500,000 tonnes of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 1.3 million tonnes each year.

According to Wang Yang, head of the production and operations department of CGN Energy International's Laos unit, the station is equipped with about 2.23 million solar panels. Leveraging the China-Laos 500-kilovolt interconnection line, the project enables cross-border power connectivity, supplying stable and clean electricity to Laos while supporting regional energy complementarity.

The project has also boosted industrial cooperation, involving more than 40 Chinese enterprises across the new energy manufacturing and construction supply chain, as well as over 30 local Lao companies in construction, machinery supply and raw materials.

Looking ahead, CGN plans to accelerate additional clean energy projects across five northern provinces in Laos, while expanding into central and southern markets, further deepening China-Laos energy cooperation and connectivity.

Apple's much–anticipated entry into the foldable phone market is shrouded in confusion.

Nikkei Asia reported on Tuesday that the company's first foldable iPhone is hitting engineering snags that could delay mass production by months. Multiple sources told the publication that the engineering development phase has proven more complex than Apple expected.

But Chinese media outlets cited supply chain sources saying the project was "moving forward normally" and the product would launch in the second half of 2026, adding that Apple's long-time assembly partner Foxconn has already begun trial production.

An increasingly crowded market

While Apple grapples with its first foldable phone, nearly every major smartphone maker has already brought multiple generations of foldables to market. The technology that Apple is still testing has been available from competitors for years.

Samsung, the pioneer of modern foldable phones, released its first Galaxy Fold in 2019 and now offers its 7th-gen lineup.

Huawei, despite facing US sanctions that have limited its access to the best chip-making and Western markets, has released multiple generations of the Mate X series and the Pocket line. The company also pioneered with tri–fold devices that open into a larger screen format, while inventing the "wide folding" form, whose display expands into a 16-to-10 ratio that is good for both video and productivity.

Other Chinese manufacturers have joined the race. Xiaomi offers the Mix Fold series, Oppo has the Find N line, Vivo sells the X Fold and Honor produces the Magic V. ZTE's Nubia has released an affordable foldable called the Nubia Flip.

Why foldables remain niche

Despite the growing number of options, foldable phones still represent a tiny slice of the overall smartphone market. IDC, a market research firm, estimates that global shipments reached roughly 20.6 million units in 2025 – less than 2% of the more than 1 billion smartphones sold worldwide.

The reasons for this limited adoption come down to persistent trade-offs that manufacturers have struggled to overcome.

The crease that forms where the screen bends remains visible and, for many users, unavoidable. The folding mechanism itself is fragile. What's worse, the repair costs for screen replacements can be staggeringly high. Battery life also suffers from the large screen. Price is another barrier. Foldable phones typically cost 1.5 to 2 times as much as their flagship non-foldable counterparts, with some models retailing for the equivalent of $1,800 or more.

Apple's track record of taking emerging technologies and making them accessible to mass audiences has fueled expectations that it could do the same for foldables. But the conflicting reports suggest that even Apple, with its massive supply chain leverage and engineering resources, is finding the technology harder to master than anticipated. If the company cannot solve the engineering challenges by early May, delays could push the launch well into late 2026 or even 2027.

China has begun full-capacity grid-connected operation of its deepest offshore wind power project, marking a new breakthrough in the country's push into deep-sea renewable energy development.

Developed by China Huaneng Group, the Huaneng Shandong Peninsula North offshore wind farm has a total installed capacity of 504 megawatts and comprises 42 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 12 megawatts.

Located around 70 kilometers off the coast of east China's Shandong Province, the site sits in waters 52 meters to 56 meters deep, making it China's deepest commercial offshore wind project to date.

The project features several technological innovations tailored for deep-sea conditions. Specifically, it has adopted a four-pile jacket foundation, which ensures stability in complex seabed environments. The structure's maximum height is 83.9 meters, the tallest of its kind in China.

To complete the installation of a 95.6-kilometer subsea cable, engineers also deployed a combination of drones and magnetic-field-assisted techniques.

According to project manager Wang Jinshou, the team utilized the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System to develop high-precision positioning technology, enabling millimeter-level accuracy in underwater pile installation. Combined with intelligent installation systems, this reduced the time required for installing a single turbine’s foundation from 48 hours to 29 hours.

The wind farm is expected to generate approximately 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, saving about 500,000 tonnes of standard coal per annum.

Russian researchers have developed new compounds based on spruce extracts that, according to lab tests, are effective in slowing blood clotting, a study recently published in the open-access journal Polysaccharides shows.

The researchers obtained the compounds by modifying the structure of a natural polysaccharide extracted from spruce, adding sulfates to improve water solubility. Natural plant polysaccharides are known for being safe and biocompatible with the human body.

In lab tests, researchers from the Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center, in partnership with Siberian Federal University and the Russian Ministry of Health, found that the modified compounds can slow blood clotting, which is important in preventing conditions such as thrombosis.

The study also reported that the compounds demonstrated strong antioxidant properties, neutralizing up to 96% of free radicals – harmful molecules that can damage cells, accelerate aging, and contribute to disease development.

Researchers believe the findings could lead to the development of new, more effective medicines with fewer side effects and lower doses. The modified compounds may also be used to develop drug delivery systems and biomedical coatings that resist clot formation.

Over 1,100 companies from 18 countries and regions have confirmed their attendance at the 16th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, which will be held in south China's coastal city of Zhuhai in November, according to a recent work-coordination meeting for the event.

The biennial event, also known as Airshow China or Zhuhai Airshow, is China's largest arms show and is seen as one of the world's most important defense exhibitions.

Organizers said that preparations for the event are progressing steadily, with the indoor exhibition area exceeding 120,000 square meters. Exhibitors include world-renowned aerospace and defense companies such as Boeing, Airbus, Safran, CFM, GE, and Rolls-Royce. National exhibition groups from countries such as Germany vowed to expand their participation.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Zhuhai Airshow. Based on the aerial performances and dynamic ground equipment displays from previous years, this year's event will further enrich its content and broaden its exhibition scope. The organizing committee will also coordinate efforts to ensure a safe visitor experience and facilitate the implementation of industrial projects, thereby promoting the development of the aerospace and maritime industries in Zhuhai.

Broadcom said on Monday it has signed a long-term agreement with Google to develop and ‌supply future generations of custom artificial intelligence chips and ‌other components for the company's next-generation AI racks through 2031.

The chip firm ​also signed a deal with Anthropic to provide the AI startup access to about 3.5 gigawatts of AI computing capacity drawing on Google's AI processors, starting in 2027.

Financial terms of the deals ‌were not disclosed.

Shares of ⁠Broadcom rose about 3% in extended trading.

Demand for custom chips such as Google's tensor processing units (TPUs), ⁠used for AI workloads, has surged in recent years as businesses seek alternatives to Nvidia's pricey graphics processors.

Reuters reported in December ​that Google ​was pushing to make its ​TPUs a viable alternative ‌to Nvidia's market-leading GPUs. TPU sales have become a crucial growth engine of Google's cloud revenue as it seeks to prove to investors that its AI investments are generating returns.

Anthropic said on Monday that the new deal builds on the company's ‌commitment to invest $50 billion in strengthening​ US computing infrastructure.

Demand for its AI ​model Claude has accelerated ​in 2026, with the startup's run-rate revenue now ‌surpassing $30 billion, up from about $9 ​billion at the ​end of 2025, it said.

Anthropic said it trains and runs Claude on a range of AI hardware, including Amazon ​Web Services' Trainium, ‌Google TPUs and Nvidia GPUs.

Amazon remains Anthropic's primary cloud ​provider and training partner.

A research team from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a self-protecting, non-flammable electrolyte that physically blocks "thermal runaway" in sodium-ion batteries – the first time this level of safety has been achieved in high-capacity cells. 

This "smart firewall" technology, which automatically solidifies when temperatures exceed 150°C, was detailed in a study published in Nature Energy on Monday.

For years, the industry has equated "flame-retardant electrolytes" with safety. Led by Hu Yongsheng, the team has developed Polymerizable Non-flammable Electrolyte (PNE) that acts as a multi-layered defense system.

Instead of a single line of defense, the liquid PNE can undergo a rapid phase change and solidify into a dense, physical barrier, effectively cut off the propagation of heat, and prevent the catastrophic fires or explosions typically associated with battery failure.

This breakthrough is expected to fast-track the adoption of sodium-ion batteries in sectors where safety is non-negotiable, such as Electric Vehicles (EVs), heavy-duty trucking, and massive grid-scale energy storage that are rapidly developing in China.

China has achieved a remarkable depth of over 3,400 meters in its first hot water ice drilling experiment in Antarctica, breaking the previous international record of 2,540 meters, the Ministry of Natural Resources said on Tuesday.

On February 5, China's 42nd Antarctic expedition team successfully completed the country's first hot water ice drilling test in the Qilin Subglacial Lake region, reaching a depth of 3,413 meters.

The achievement marks the country's capability to conduct drilling research across over 90% of the Antarctic ice sheet and all Arctic ice sheet.

Named by China in 2022, the Qilin Subglacial Lake is one of the largest buried lakes discovered in Antarctica, located in the Princess Elizabeth Land in the East Antarctic inland ice sheet, about 120 km from China's Taishan station.

Hot water drilling research is an international frontier scientific study aimed at understanding Earth's ancient environmental changes, predicting climate change, exploring the boundaries of life and expanding human knowledge.

It has significant advantages over traditional mechanical ice drilling as it can penetrate ice faster with minimal disturbance, allow large-diameter clean operations, and efficiently reach critical interfaces such as subglacial lakes, ice shelf bases and subglacial bedrock. Hot water drilling has become the mainstream technology for international research on the deep environments of polar ice sheets.

The experiment was mainly to demonstrate the application of a deep ice sheet hot water drilling system in Antarctica. By drilling through the ice cover above the Qilin Subglacial Lake, the experiment aimed to provide a contamination-free pathway and key technical support for subsequent in-situ observations of subglacial lakes and the collection of water and lakebed samples.

The experiment targeted ice sheets over 3,000 meters thick. It integrated multiple pieces of equipment designed for polar conditions and addressed key technical challenges, including low-temperature operation, external contamination control, and precise management of deep hoses and winches.

The successful drilling demonstrates efficient, stable and environmentally clean operation, filling a gap in China's polar research capabilities and reflecting its concepts of "green exploration" and environmentally responsible technologies.

China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Tuesday unveiled the logo for Tianzhou 10 cargo mission, one of the three flight missions to China's Tiangong space station currently planned for 2026.

The logo features a design with a cosmos-blue colored background. The Tianzhou cargo spacecraft at the center traverses a golden trajectory towards the Tiangong space station, with the stylized numeral 10 integrated with the CMSA emblem alongside the visual center. 

The circular shape of the logo symbolizes the wishes for the mission's success and the harmony between space and Earth, with the gradient accent color from gold to red highlighting the intrepid courage of China's aerospace professionals, CMSA explained.

The launch will mark the 10th mission of the Tianzhou-class uncrewed cargo spacecraft and the 9th resupply mission to the Tiangong space station. Tianzhou-9, the last resupply mission, was launched on July 15, 2025.

According to CMSA, Tianzhou-10 cargo spacecraft will be launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in 2026. The vessel will dock at the backward port of the space station's core module.

Tianzhou-10 will deliver crew supplies, maintenance spares, propellant and new EVA suits, reported Xinhua. Its payload also includes experiment samples for applied-science projects. When the spacecraft deorbits, it will burn up in the atmosphere and dispose of the waste collected from the space station.

China has also planned for two crewed missions to the Tiangong space station in 2026, according to CMSA. 

Crews from the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions are expected to participate in space station flight missions as early as this year. One crew member from the Shenzhou 23 mission will undertake a one-year extended-duration experiment on board the Tiangong space station.

(With inputs from Xinhua)

China has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered weather forecasting demonstration project aimed at strengthening early-warning capabilities for extreme weather in Belt and Road partner countries, Chinese meteorological authorities said on Tuesday.

The project, approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology and led by the Earth system numerical prediction center at China Meteorological Administration (CMA), will build an AI-enabled forecasting system spanning short-term, medium-range and subseasonal timescales.

The program plans to develop five core AI models, including intelligent multi-source observation fusion, nowcasting, and regional downscaling. It will also produce an integrated forecasting device that can be adapted to different local infrastructures.

According to the project team, the initiative includes joint research, data sharing, and on-the-ground demonstrations.

"At least six countries are expected to deploy the system and keep it running for more than six months, with disaster-warning services projected to reach about 10 million people," Han Wei, deputy chief engineer of the Numerical Prediction Center and the project lead, told Chinese media.

The project's AI models will be integrated into MAZU, China's AI-powered multi-hazard early warning system already in use in countries such as Pakistan and Ethiopia.

Nine Chinese institutions and meteorological agencies from five partner countries, including Mongolia, Ethiopia, and Cameroon, are participating in the program, according to the CMA.

The project was officially launched in March.

The current AI boom is often framed as a leap towards ultimate productivity, but if we look past the viral demos, the underlying architecture of the internet may be shifting in a troubling direction: We seem to be moving away from a world of connection and toward a series of cognitive "black holes."

While AI promises to make life easier, it might actually be eroding our digital sovereignty and our very capacity to think for ourselves.

Walled gardens are getting higher

In the early days, the value of the internet lay in its openness – its ability to link any two points of information.

The AI era is reversing this. Major tech corporations are using their massive ecosystems to build "fortresses" that are harder to escape than the walled gardens of the mobile era. These companies don't just own your data; they have the power to integrate services and block competitors so effectively that the internet becomes a collection of isolated islands.

This is also why products from pure AI companies like OpenAI are becoming less "magical" than those from Big Tech corporations like Google, which have many must-have services ready to be integrated into AI.

For average users, the convenience of the web is being replaced by proprietary silos. Instead of progress, this feels like a retreat into a fragmented, less accessible digital world.

The 'dumb terminal' in your pocket

A strange paradox is emerging in our hardware. We are buying more powerful phones and laptops than ever, yet we are using them for less and less.

Because the most advanced AI requires massive cloud-based power, we are becoming increasingly dependent on corporate services. For the sake of convenience, we have surrendered our local processing power. Our expensive devices are being relegated to "thin clients" – glorified, high-definition screens that serve as windows into a remote, centralized brain.

This dependency is deeper than anything we have seen with search engines; it is a total outsourcing of local computing power to services we do not own.

The atrophy of human intent

Perhaps the most troubling observation is the void of intent that emerges when the tools become too powerful.

We see this in the recent trend of users flocking to install tools like OpenClaw. Driven by hype, many grant administrator permissions to install this "lobster" on their systems, only to realize they have no idea what to actually ask it to do.

As AI agents become more capable of acting on our behalf, our own muscle memory for original thought and complex desire may be atrophying. We have built a machine that can do anything for a user who, increasingly, wants nothing but more consumption.

Looking for an exit

There is no single fix for this shift, but we can begin by exploring alternatives to total dependence.

This might mean prioritizing smaller, transparent models that can run locally on your own hardware – without needing a giant's permission. It also requires a new legal understanding of "open source" that includes not just code, but transparency in training data and a legal framework that prevents a few companies from monopolizing the building blocks of thought.

The goal should be to treat AI as a tool that enhances our abilities rather than a service that replaces our brains. We need to ensure that in our rush toward a smarter future, we do not accidentally leave our independence behind.

US satellite imagery provider Planet Labs said it will indefinitely restrict the release and distribution of satellite images related to Iran and the broader Middle East conflict area at the request of the US government, according to media reports on Saturday.

Reuters reported that, in an email to customers, Planet Labs said the US government had asked all satellite imagery providers to place an indefinite hold on publishing images from the conflict zone. The company said the move further expanded a 14-day delay policy it had already adopted last month. Under the latest arrangement, imagery dating back to March 9 will be withheld, and the policy is expected to remain in place until the conflict ends.

Planet Labs said it will adopt a system of managed distribution for some imagery, releasing material only on a case-by-case basis for urgent needs, critical missions or matters deemed to be in the public interest. The company added it was seeking to balance competing demands under what it described as an unusual situation.

Reports indicate satellite imagery has become increasingly important in modern conflicts, where it can be used for purposes such as target identification, weapons guidance and missile tracking. As commercial remote-sensing capabilities continue to improve, such imagery is playing a growing role in conflict-related analysis while also raising concerns that it could be exploited by parties involved in hostilities.

Reuters reported that another commercial satellite imagery provider, Vantor, said it had not been directly contacted by the US government, but had long reserved the right to tighten access controls during geopolitical conflicts and had already imposed restrictions on some parts of the Middle East.

The Wall Street Journal also reported on Saturday that the US government is seeking to limit outside access to satellite images of the Iran conflict zone.

The crew of China's Shenzhou-21, astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, has spent more than five months aboard the China Space Station, with mission tasks progressing steadily, according to the latest updates.

Over the past week, the crew carried out a series of scientific experiments and routine operations. In the field of space medicine, they conducted studies on trust and collaboration mechanisms, as well as human-machine interaction in space environments, using laptops and specialized software. They also performed experiments examining brain network activity in microgravity using near-infrared brain imaging equipment.

In microgravity physics, the astronauts completed scheduled tasks including replacing ignition components and sampling covers in the combustion science experiment rack, swapping experiment samples in the fluid physics rack, and cleaning sample chambers and maintaining electrode systems in the containerless experiment facility.

For station management, the crew conducted environmental monitoring such as temperature, airflow and dew point measurements. They also carried out inventory organization, routine cleaning, as well as inspection and maintenance of onboard equipment.

In terms of health maintenance, the astronauts completed a range of medical checks, including 12-lead electrocardiograms, non-invasive cardiac function tests, and ambulatory ECG and blood pressure monitoring. They also used traditional Chinese medicine diagnostic devices to assess health indicators, while maintaining regular in-orbit exercise routines.

As artificial intelligence advances, humanoid robots are emerging as a potential new force on the battlefield. A U.S. robotics CEO says autonomous systems could be deployed in combat roles within the next year, highlighting growing competition between the U.S. and China in AI, manufacturing, and defense technology.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.

On an island in Lake Victoria, water surrounds everything. It laps at the shoreline, stretches beyond the horizon, defines the landscape, yet for the families who live there, it is often undrinkable.

"Water is physically abundant, yet functionally inaccessible due to contamination," says Odak Onyango, chief executive of Wable Maji Safi Solutions. "In our context, scarcity is not absence, but contaminated abundance.”

That contradiction—water everywhere, yet not a drop safe to drink—is where this story begins.

But it is not the only form of scarcity in Kenya.

In the country's arid north, the problem is the opposite: water scarcity. And in its cities, a third crisis unfolds more quietly: millions of liters of wastewater are discharged untreated, poisoning the very rivers communities depend on.

Three different crises. Three radically different solutions.

Together, they reveal something larger: a continent no longer waiting for water systems to be fixed, but actively reinventing them.

The end of the long walk

For years, trader Lydia Ngweso's day began before sunrise, at Ogongo, Homa Bay, Kenya.

At 4:00 a.m., she would wake and rush to secure water, joining long queues and competing for a resource that was never guaranteed. The time it took cut into her livelihood as a trader, limiting how much she could earn.

Today, she no longer wakes in the dark. Water is available where she lives, at any hour.

"Water resilience means predictable, reliable, and nearby access," Onyango says. "It directly translates into improved school attendance, economic productivity, and household stability.”

Onyango grew up on an island in Homa Bay County, western Kenya, surrounded by the vast waters of Lake Victoria. Yet over time, the lake became contaminated with pollutants and microplastics. Onyango also witnessed recurring outbreaks of cholera and bilharzia. Contamination, disease, and the high cost to families forced to spend scarce resources on bottled water combined to reveal a deeper systemic failure: proximity to water does not guarantee access to safe water. This confluence of issues led Onyango to create Wable Maji Safi Solutions.

Onyango's model is deceptively simple. The company treats contaminated surface water at the point of need. Solar-powered purification systems sit within communities, embedded with sensors that monitor quality and uptime. Access is managed through mobile payments, turning water into a measurable and traceable service.

"We have effectively productized water," Onyango says, "leveraging Africa's fintech infrastructure to make safe water commercially viable."

The impact is not theoretical. In communities where the systems operate, local clinics have reported declines in waterborne diseases, Onyango says, an early signal of deeper changes.

"We were no longer just supplying water. We were reducing disease burden and easing pressure on fragile rural health systems," he says.

In places like Ogongo, the effects ripple outward. This results in more time for work and school, and more stability in households where water once dictated the rhythm of life.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, Onyango notes, billions of dollars in economic value are lost each year to the simple act of fetching water.

"This is as much a productivity issue as it is a health issue," he says.

Water from Thin Air

Onyango's solution addresses water contamination.

Water scarcity is another story.

For Beth Koigi, CEO and Founder of Majik Water, the realization did not come in childhood, but through contrast.

She grew up in a part of Kenya where water was abundant. It was only later, at university in an arid region, that she encountered a completely different reality.

"Communities were struggling daily to access even the most basic necessity... clean and safe water," she says.

At first, she focused on filtration, helping communities clean what little water they had. But in 2017, one of Kenya’s worst droughts exposed a harsher truth.

"It is one thing to lack clean water; it is far worse to have none at all," Koigi says.

Crops failed, livestock perished, and entire communities were pushed to the brink. It was during this period that a question began to take shape—one that would redefine her approach.

"What if water didn't have to come from the ground at all?" Koigi asked.

Majik Water was Koigi's solution.

"Our solution provides a decentralized, sustainable source of safe drinking water that is solar-powered, does not depend on existing infrastructure, and can operate in off-grid environments. This makes it particularly well suited for remote and water-stressed regions where infrastructure is limited or unreliable," she says.

Solar-powered machines harvest moisture from the air, producing clean drinking water even in regions that appear completely dry. The technology draws no water from rivers or aquifers and does not deplete already strained resources, creating a new supply. In places like Kakuma Refugee Camp in Turkana, northern Kenya, the first encounter with this idea is unforgettable.

"The excitement, relief, and disbelief were powerful," Koigi recalls. "For many, it was the first time they had consistent access to safe drinking water without walking long distances."

At St. Juliet Educational Centre in Kibera, Nairobi County, the transformation has been quieter but just as profound. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa.

Before the installation of an atmospheric water generator, students—especially girls—frequently missed school due to a lack of water for hygiene and sanitation, particularly during menstruation. Afterward, absenteeism dropped.

"With improved hygiene conditions, they are now able to attend school more consistently and with greater dignity and confidence," Koigi says.

Even during school holidays, the system continues to produce water consistently, turning the school into a reliable community source.

"Communities no longer have to rely on water trucking or walk long distances," she adds. "It allows families to plan better, children to stay in school, and small businesses to operate more reliably."

The river that disappeared

For Mshila Sio, founder of Omiflo, the crisis is not just about scarcity. It is about loss.

"When I was a boy, school holidays meant traveling upcountry to Taita," he says. "Their home was across the Voi River, and since there was no road, my father and uncles would wade into the water, carrying us on their shoulders. That rushing river was the lifeblood of the community."

Years later, he returned with his daughter.

"I ended up placing her on a completely dry, sandy riverbed," he says. "She played with the sand, delightfully clueless as to how things had changed."

The realization was immediate and irreversible.

"That was the moment it hit me: we had lost a vast river in a single generation. If we didn't fundamentally change how we manage our water, we were going to lose our future.”

In cities across Africa, the pattern repeats differently but just as destructively. Wastewater, untreated and unmanaged, flows back into ecosystems, degrading them over time.

"Over 90% of the wastewater we produce is discharged entirely untreated," Sio says. "It is destroying our environment and creating public health crises.”

His response is not mechanical, but biological.

Omiflo's Phytofix system uses floating matrices of aquatic plants to treat wastewater naturally. Their roots host bacterial biofilms that break down pollutants, cleaning the water without chemicals or external energy.

"We designed our system to turn hazardous waste into a restorative resource. We don't just treat wastewater—we reclaim it. This ensures it can be safely reused for agriculture, landscaping, or returned to natural water bodies."

The systems are compact, modular, and adaptable, requiring only a fraction of the space of traditional methods, and can be deployed even above ground structures.

But their impact is not only environmental—it is deeply human.

At one school, where pit latrines once produced overwhelming odors, children developed a routine: they would remove their sweaters before entering, to avoid carrying the smell with them all day. Omiflo transformed the pit latrines into low-flush toilets and installed a pan that prevents bad smells from emanating.

After Omiflo's intervention, something small but telling changed.

"We observed that students now walk in with their sweaters," Sio says. "It's a small thing, but very meaningful."

Beyond aid

For decades, water access across much of Africa has depended heavily on aid. These are projects that arrive with urgency but often struggle to sustain themselves. All three founders reject that model.

"Africa does not lack solutions, it lacks aligned systems," Onyango says. "Water systems must transition from charity models to utility-based, revenue-backed models."

Koigi agrees.

"Solutions should generate revenue, even at an affordable level, to sustain operations," she says. "Combining innovation with entrepreneurship, local ownership, and smart financing models can reduce dependence on aid and create systems that are scalable and resilient over time."

Sio is more direct.

"We have to stop treating sanitation as a donor-funded charity and start treating it as a highly profitable, scalable asset class," he says.

The shift they describe is not just financial. It is philosophical. Water, in this framing, is not a temporary intervention. It is infrastructure central to health, education, and economic growth.

"Africa must redefine water as infrastructure, not charity," Onyango says.

The hardest part is not the technology

Despite their breakthroughs, all three founders face a similar obstacle: scale.

"Scaling is not a technology problem, it is a capital and ecosystem problem," Onyango says, pointing to the need for blended finance and policy environments that support innovation.

Koigi echoes the challenge.

"Deploying at scale requires upfront capital investment," she says. "There is also a need to build trust in new technology within communities and institutions."

For Sio, resistance often comes from within systems themselves.

"Trying to convince them to adopt decentralized, nature-based solutions requires shifting deeply entrenched mindsets," he says.

In many cases, regulatory frameworks were designed for centralized utilities, which are large, rigid systems that struggle to accommodate more agile, distributed models. The result is a tension between innovation and the structures meant to govern it.

A different future takes shape

What emerges from these efforts is not a single solution, but a new way of thinking.

In one place, contaminated water is purified at the source. In another, water is created from air. Elsewhere, wastewater is reclaimed and returned to use.

Each approach solves a different piece of the puzzle. Together, they form something larger: a decentralized, climate-resilient water system built from the ground up.

"The future of water in Africa will be driven by technology, renewable energy, and data systems," Onyango says.

Koigi adds a note of urgency:
"The most urgent priority is to invest in solutions that increase water availability without depleting natural resources, while ensuring access for vulnerable communities."

Sio points toward a broader transformation still:
"Success is a circular water economy where no drop of water is wasted, and our cities grow alongside thriving ecosystems, rather than at their expense," he says.

More than water

If these ideas succeed, their impact will extend far beyond access. Health systems will stabilize, time will be returned to households, and economies will grow.

"Success means a future where access to clean, reliable water is no longer a daily struggle. For the continent, it means building resilient, sustainable water systems that support communities, economies, and ecosystems for generations to come," Koigi says.

"For Africa's water future, success looks like a complete paradigm shift. It means reaching a tipping point where dumping waste into the environment is no longer the default because decentralized, affordable treatment is readily available," Sio adds.

"If Africa gets water right, health systems stabilize, economies grow, and governance improves," Onyango says.

It is a simple statement, but one that carries enormous weight.

Across Kenya, in lakeside villages, drought-stricken regions, and crowded cities, the future of water is already being rewritten—not as a story of scarcity alone, but as one of invention.

China has issued a trial guideline on the ethics review and service of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Friday.

The guideline, jointly issued by 10 government departments, including the ministry, calls for efforts to support technological innovation in AI ethics review and to strengthen the use of technical measures to prevent AI-related ethical risks.

The guideline clarifies that the review should focus on human well-being, fairness and justice, and controllability and trustworthiness.

It also details issues that should be addressed in the review, such as the selection criteria for training data, the rationality of the algorithm, model and system design, and measures to prevent bias, discrimination and algorithmic exploitation.

The guideline also calls for promoting the orderly open-sourcing of high-quality datasets for AI ethics review, strengthening the development of general risk management, assessment and auditing tools, and exploring risk assessment based on application scenarios.

It also encourages the promotion of AI products and services that comply with scientific and technological ethics and the protection of intellectual property rights in AI ethics review technologies.

Google on Thursday announced Gemma 4, a new generation of open models designed for advanced reasoning and agentic workflows, describing it as its most intelligent open model family to date.

According to a post published on Google's official blog, Gemma 4 is built on the same research and technology foundation as Gemini 3 and is released under the Apache license 2.0.

Google said the new family is intended to make advanced artificial intelligence capabilities more widely accessible to developers.

Google said Gemma 4 is being released in four different sizes to support a range of hardware from Android devices and laptop GPUs to developer workstations and accelerators.

Gemma 4 is capable of multi-step planning and deep logic, and can be used for building autonomous agents that interact with tools and application programming interfaces, Google said, adding that the four Gemma 4 models also support code generation and can natively process images and video.

According to Google, the edge models feature a 128K context window, while the larger models support up to 256K context. The company also said Gemma 4 was natively trained on more than 140 languages.

Google said Gemma has been downloaded more than 400 million times since the launch of its first generation, and that the "Gemmaverse" community has created more than 100,000 variants.

A drone manufacturer backed by Donald Trump's two eldest sons is seeking to expand sales in Gulf countries, as the region faces heightened tensions with Iran and remains reliant on US military support led by their father.

Florida-based Powerus is pitching its technology across several Gulf states, positioning itself to potentially benefit from the ongoing US-Israel conflict with Iran. Co-founder Brett Velicovich told The Associated Press that the company is conducting drone demonstrations to showcase how its defensive interceptor systems could help counter Iranian threats.

The involvement of the Trump brothers could translate into sizable equity stakes in the company. Their father, as commander in chief, launched strikes alongside Israel against Iran more than a month ago – an escalation that has heightened regional security concerns and driven demand for advanced defense systems.

Since returning to office, the president's eldest sons have broadened their business portfolios beyond traditional sectors such as hotels and golf courses. Their investments and advisory roles, often tied to equity stakes, now span cryptocurrency ventures, prediction markets and federal contractors producing rocket components and rare earth magnets.

Founded in 2025 by Andrew Fox, Powerus develops heavy-lift drones capable of carrying industrial payloads of up to 675 kilograms. The company also provides services to convert manned vessels into remotely operated or fully autonomous systems. Its founding team includes US Army Special Operations veterans.

Meanwhile, Trump is set to unveil a $1.5 trillion defense budget proposal on April 3, marking what would be the largest year-over-year increase in military spending since World War II. The proposal is expected to include funding for the controversial $185 billion "Golden Dome" missile defense system, alongside procurement of F-35 Lightning II jets and additional warships.

In 2025, the administration requested $892.6 billion for national defense, later adding $150 billion through a supplemental package – pushing total spending beyond $1 trillion for the first time. While the broader framework for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2027 will be released on April 3, and further details are expected from the Pentagon on April 21.

(With input from agencies)

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) released guidelines for the Sustainable Development International Cooperation Program (SDIC) in 2026, which involves multiple international partner organizations and covers areas such as life and health, green resources, and climate change.

According to the guidelines issued on Wednesday, this year's SDIC will focus on key challenges in global sustainable development, combining common challenges with global sci-tech frontiers. It will provide joint funding with international partner organizations in fields including life and health sciences, green resource development, biodiversity, climate change, agricultural and food sciences and marine sciences.

The guidelines encompass organizational partnership, cooperation, and strategic research. The first batch of international partner organizations includes the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) of Brazil, the State Research Agency (AEI) of Spain, the Mongolian Foundation for Science and Technology (MFST) and the Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI).

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) are also in the first batch of partner organizations.

The guidelines emphasize that project proposals should highlight the cultivation of young talent and the building of international cooperation networks, particularly multilateral cooperation. They also encourage research teams from different disciplinary fields to submit joint applications.

The SDIC was jointly launched by the NSFC and international organizations and research funding agencies from various countries. It aims to conduct scientific research addressing global challenges, promote bilateral and multilateral international exchanges and cooperation, and expand the scope of international collaboration.

China's cumulative installed capacity of new-type energy storage is expected to exceed 370 gigawatts by 2030, according to the Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper 2026. 

The report, released at an energy storage expo in Beijing, said newly added installed capacity of new-type energy storage reached 66 gigawatts in 2025, up 51.9% year on year. Total installed capacity had already reached 136 gigawatts by the end of 2025, marking an 84% increase from the previous year and more than 40 times the level recorded at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

As the share of renewable energy continues to rise, demand for longer-duration storage is also increasing. "By 2030, the average duration of installed energy storage is expected to rise from 2.58 hours to 3.47 hours," said Chen Haisheng, head of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Experts say energy storage is playing an increasingly critical role in power system transformation. "The significance of energy storage for transforming the power system is revolutionary," said Liu Yafang in a previous interview with CGTN.

Liu, the former deputy director-general of China's National Energy Administration emphasized that new energy cannot enter the market without energy storage, and that it is impossible to generate revenue without energy storage.

Global energy storage deployment is also accelerating. According to the China Energy Storage Alliance DataLink database, the newly added storage capacity worldwide in 2025 exceeded 100 gigawatts for the first time, reaching 123.9 gigawatts, up 49.3% year on year. China's cumulative installed capacity of operational power storage projects reached 213.3 gigawatts by the end of 2025, accounting for 43.0% of the global total. 

From a regional perspective, China, the United States and Europe remain the three largest energy storage markets globally and continue to drive industry growth.

The white paper also noted that as the share of renewable power generation continues to increase, demand for long-duration regulation resources is becoming more urgent. By 2030, the average duration of new-type energy storage installations is expected to approach 3.5 hours, creating opportunities for the large-scale application of technologies such as flow batteries and compressed air energy storage. Analysts say this trend indicates that energy storage is shifting from a supporting role to becoming a fundamental component of the power system.

Editor's note: China is not one innovation story but many – emerging from local areas across the nation. In this series, we bring you those stories as pieces of a larger mosaic that, when put together, reveal the full picture of a country on the move.

In Jiujiang's Poyang Lake Eco-Tech City, the largest "training school" for humanoid robots in Jiangxi Province has officially been unveiled. Signaling a shift toward data-driven industrial scaling in China's robotics sector.

Spanning 4,000 square meters of intelligent training space, the facility utilizes data as its primary curriculum to bridge the gap between basic mobility and autonomous reasoning. The center currently houses over 100 robots across 15 industrial scenarios, leveraging tens of millions of test data points and proprietary algorithms to refine more than 1,000 customized small models.

Moving beyond traditional investment frameworks, Jiujiang has deployed 650 million yuan ($89.7 million) in targeted funding to synchronize capital with industrial growth. This strategy streamlines the transition from laboratory research to factory floor, establishing a complete supply chain for high-end manufacturing.

By 2026, 10,000 "Jiujiang-made" intelligent robots will be shipped across the country. This output places the region at the forefront of the global humanoid race, transforming theoretical AI into a tangible workforce for diverse industrial applications.

Artemis II astronauts are now on course to return to Earth after a historic journey around the lunar far side, during which they broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth ever traveled by humans.

During their journey, the crew witnessed a rare total solar eclipse from space, which they called "truly hard to describe." They will downlink detailed observations of the moon to Earth.

Communication with mission control was temporarily lost for about 40 minutes as their Orion spacecraft passed behind the moon. Upon emerging from the blackout, astronaut Christina Koch said, "It is so great to hear from Earth again."

"We will always choose Earth; we will always choose each other," said Koch.

The Artemis II team broke the distance record set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, which they were expected to surpass by over 6,600 kilometers when they reached the journey's anticipated furthest distance from Earth, about 406,771 kilometers.

Astronaut Jeremy Hansen said the moment was "to challenge this generation and the next, to make sure this record is not long-lived."

During a roughly six-hour observation of the lunar surface, the astronauts provided vivid human perspectives.

Victor Glover called the terminator – the line separating lunar night from day – "the most rugged I've seen it from a lighting perspective." Koch described lunar craters as "like a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through."

Moon memorials

The crew also proposed names for two previously unnamed craters.

The first they requested to name was in honor of their spacecraft's nickname, "Integrity."

They offered a second name, "Carroll," for another crater, which they asked be named after the late wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman, who died of cancer.

"It's a bright spot on the moon," said Hansen, his voice breaking with emotion. "And we would like to call it Carroll."

The astronauts embraced, and mission control in Houston held a moment of silence.

NASA said they would formally submit the name proposals to the International Astronomical Union, the body charged with naming celestial bodies and surface features.

Artemis II features several firsts: Glover is the first person of color, Koch the first woman and Hansen the first non-American to orbit the moon.

NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, a veteran of Gemini VII, Gemini XII, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 who died on August 7 at the age of 97, recorded a message for the Artemis II crew before his death, which the crew heard during their wake-up call on Monday morning. "Good luck and Godspeed from all of us here on the good Earth," Lovell said in the recording.

The mission does not include a lunar landing. Splashdown is scheduled for April 10 in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, California.

(With input from agencies)

The crew of NASA’s Artemis II made history Monday, April 6, by traveling farther into space than any humans have before. The astronauts are conducting a lunar flyby after years of training.

CGTN’s Walter Morris has the details.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Monday it closed a probe into nearly 2.6 ‌million Tesla vehicles over a feature allowing users to move cars remotely after finding ‌it was linked only to low-speed incidents.

The agency opened the probe into the "Actually Smart Summon" feature in early 2025 ​after reports of several crashes. The system allows users to move vehicles over short distances in parking areas or on private property, using a smartphone app.

The agency concluded that the feature was linked primarily to low-speed incidents resulting in minor property damage and said it had reports of about ‌100 crashes but no injuries ⁠or fatalities.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Most reported incidents involved vehicles striking obstacles such as parked cars, garage doors or ⁠gates, often early in a Summon session when visibility or situational awareness was limited, NHTSA found.

No incidents were reported that involved a major crash, air bag deployment or a vehicle being towed away, ​it ​said.

The agency said the low frequency and severity of ​the incidents did not warrant further ‌action.

Tesla addressed issues through a series of software updates aimed at improving obstacle detection, camera blockage identification and vehicle response to dynamic objects such as gates, the regulator said.

The updates also sought to reduce errors caused by environmental factors such as snow or condensation affecting cameras.

NHTSA last month separately upgraded a probe into Tesla's Full Self-Driving system to an "engineering analysis," a more ‌advanced stage that typically precedes a potential recall and ​expanded the review to about 3.2 million vehicles.

Tesla's driver-assistance ​and self-driving features remain under regulatory scrutiny ​over concerns about crashes, visibility limitations and whether the systems adequately warn ‌drivers in real-world conditions.

In October 2025, NHTSA opened ​an investigation into 2.9 ​million vehicles equipped with its Full Self-Driving system over more than 50 reports of traffic-safety violations and a series of crashes.

The auto safety agency said FSD has "induced vehicle behavior ​that violated traffic safety laws." ‌NHTSA and Tesla have had a series of meetings over the issue in ​recent months.

China's deepest undersea high-speed railway tunnel has reached a record excavation depth of 113 meters beneath the seabed, marking a major milestone in the construction of the Shenzhen-Jiangmen High-Speed Railway.

The Shenzhen-Jiangmen railway, linking the southern cities of Shenzhen and Jiangmen, is a vital component of the coastal high-speed rail corridor. The project has now entered a critical phase of construction.

At the heart of the project is the Pearl River Estuary Tunnel, an undersea shield tunnel. During the Qingming Festival holiday, construction workers remained on duty as China's domestically developed large-diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM), "Shenjiang-1," continued round-the-clock excavation.

After more than four years of continuous work, the TBM has advanced over 4 kilometers and reached a depth of 113 meters underwater, setting a new world record for the deepest undersea high-speed rail shield tunnel. The tunnel's maximum depth will reach 116 meters, where water pressure poses significant engineering challenges.

Geological conditions along the route are highly complex. The TBM must pass through 13 strata, five composite geology types, and six fault zones. Resembling a "steel dragon," the machine features a massive rotating cutterhead at the front, equipped with densely packed cutting tools that crush rock and soil as it moves forward.

The TBM operates with two main pipeline systems. One delivers fluid slurry to the cutterhead to reduce friction, and the other transports thick, debris-laden slurry back to the surface for treatment. At the processing plant, excavated materials are separated, and the treated slurry is recycled for reuse.

Behind the cutterhead, workers assemble precast concrete segments to form the tunnel lining. Each segment is about two meters wide, and nine segments are needed to complete a full ring for the tunnel, which has a diameter exceeding 13 meters. This simultaneous excavation and assembly method helps significantly improve construction efficiency.

The Pearl River Estuary Tunnel, stretching 13.69 kilometers, is a critical section of the railway. Located between Dongguan and Guangzhou, the tunnel crosses multiple waterways at the mouth of the Pearl River.

The Shenzhen-Jiangmen High-Speed Railway runs 116 kilometers from Shenzhen's Xili area in the east to Jiangmen in the west. Once completed, travel time between the two cities will be reduced to under one hour.

The project is expected to further enhance the rail network in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, improving regional connectivity and supporting economic integration.

Russia discovered 276 solid mineral deposits in the past year, President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday in a congratulatory message marking Geologist's Day.

In the message published by the Kremlin, Putin said that 41 oil and gas condensate fields were also discovered during the period.

He added that Arctic and continental shelf projects are being successfully implemented, and the replenishment of core mineral resources is being reliably ensured.

In late March, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev reportedly said the country discovered new lithium reserves for the first time in more than 20 years.

Geologist's Day is a holiday for geologists, geophysicists and geochemists in Russia.

A massive clean energy project broke ground on Monday in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, marking a major step forward in reliable renewable power.

Located in Dangxiong County at an elevation of 4,550 meters, the site is officially the highest trough-style solar thermal plant in the world.

How the tech works

Most people are familiar with standard solar panels that turn light directly into electricity. This project, also known as the Wumatang Project, uses a different method called concentrated solar power (CSP).

Instead of flat panels, it uses a vast field of curved, U-shaped mirrors to focus sunlight onto long tubes filled with a special oil. This heated oil is then used to warm up giant tanks of molten salt. This setup essentially functions like a massive thermal battery.

While typical solar panels stop producing power the moment the sun goes down or a cloud passes by, this plant can store the sun's heat to keep generating electricity for up to six hours after dark, helping to address the intermittency that can challenge power grids.

Building in extreme conditions

Building a high-tech facility at nearly 5,000 meters above sea level presents brutal challenges. The air is thin and the temperature swings between day and night are extreme.

To keep workers safe, the project team has installed specialized heating and oxygen systems in living quarters, along with high-pressure oxygen chambers for faster recovery.

Environmental and local impact

The project is designed to coexist with the local environment using a "solar-plus-grazing" model. The solar equipment is raised to allow local livestock to graze freely underneath, preserving the traditional lifestyle of the region's herders.

Once the complex is fully operational in 2027, it is expected to generate roughly 719 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually. This will replace the burning of approximately 216,900 tonnes of coal each year – cutting carbon dioxide emissions by more than 652,300 tonnes and helping to keep the region's air clean.

The facility is being developed by China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN).

Intelligent technologies are helping mushroom producers in eastern China to scale up their operations, creating growing environments that can ensure year-round production and even yield varieties that would otherwise not be possible in the region.

The indoor vertical mushroom farms in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, are able to maintain constant temperature, humidity, and low light conditions required for various species. The technology has significantly raised annual yields of enoki, a long, thin mushroom that is popular across China.

"By introducing advanced digital production equipment, we have achieved year-round production, yielding an annual output of more than 20,000 tonnes of enoki mushrooms," said Xiong Houqiang, a technician at Zhejiang Junyuan Biotechnology Company Limited.

The innovations have allowed growers to produce many kinds of mushrooms that would never grow outdoors in Zhejiang. In China, porcini mushrooms mainly grow seasonally in the plateau of the southwestern province of Yunnan, but now these technologies help companies in the Zhejiang Province to produce this golden and plump variety.

In 2025, the edible mushroom industry in Quzhou achieved an annual output of of 49,100 tonnes thanks to these advancements.

This year, Hotan Prefecture in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plans to rehabilitate over 2.23 million mu of desertified land, including the planting of 266,900 mu of artificial forest, with 150,700 mu scheduled for spring planting. At present, regions in Xinjiang have fully launched the green barrier expansion project along the edges of the Taklimakan Desert.

At a desert control site in Hotan, towering sand dunes – some reaching four to five meters high – stretch across the landscape. Before any planting can begin, heavy machinery moves in to reshape the terrain. Bulldozers level the dunes by shaving off the peaks and filling in the depressions, while graders follow to smooth and compact the surface. This approach helps prevent loose sand from drifting, creating more stable conditions for planting.

Tree-planting machines, now widely used in the region, can plant seedlings and lay drip irrigation tapes simultaneously. A single dual-track machine can plant more than 13,000 trees per day, over ten times the efficiency of traditional manual methods.

Some of these machines operate autonomously, guided by China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System. Moving at a steady pace, they leave behind straight rows of newly planted saplings, spaced about five meters apart.

The gaps between rows are not left unused. Seeders follow behind, distributing alfalfa and rapeseed into the gaps. This intercropping method allows the land to serve multiple purposes, stabilizing soil while also supporting vegetation growth.

OpenAI confirmed on Monday that some users experienced empty responses when using the company's ChatGPT web service.

The incident, first reported at 14:10 UTC, was classified as a "minor" impact event. The company's status page indicated the issue was under investigation and moved to "monitoring" status within approximately two hours.

"We're aware that some users may experience empty responses from ChatGPT in web," the company stated on its status page.

Many users resorted to service health detection services and social media to complain, saying they got responses from ChatGPT webpage but no content was displayed.

As of the latest update, the issue remained under monitoring. OpenAI did not specify a root cause.

The incident did not affect the API or mobile applications.

This marks another in a series of service disruptions for OpenAI this year, following a major outage in February that impacted millions of users worldwide.

China has made several breakthroughs in renewable energy generation in recent years. By 2025, renewable energy installations accounted for more than half of the country's total installed capacity, driven by the use of innovative technologies. This has provided strong momentum for both China and the world in their clean energy transition.

Last October, the world's largest 26-megawatt offshore wind turbine, independently developed by China's Dongfang Electric Corporation, was successfully connected to the grid in waters off east China's Shandong Province, setting new global records for both single-unit capacity and rotor diameter.

According to the company, under full-load conditions, each rotation of the turbine generates 62 kilowatt-hours of electricity. At an average wind speed of 10 meters per second, a single unit can produce 100 million kilowatt-hours annually – enough to power 55,000 households – while saving 30,000 tonnes of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 80,000 tonnes.

In east China's Shanghai, a commercial underwater data center powered by offshore wind farms began operation in February, aligning surging computing demand with renewable energy supply.

Offshore wind turbines located above the data center are designed to supply electricity directly, enabling on-site consumption and avoiding energy losses typically associated with long-distance transmission.

At full-load operation of 24 megawatts, the project's annual carbon reduction is equivalent to the annual carbon absorption of about 1.6 million trees.

Similar clean energy-powered data centers are also being developed in northwest and southwest China.

China is accelerating the construction of renewable energy infrastructure to support its fast-growing digital economy while effectively reducing carbon emissions.

In September last year, China pledged to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions across its economy by 7 to 10 percent from peak levels by 2035. To achieve this goal, China's installed capacity of renewable energy has already surpassed that of coal-fired power.

As China rapidly expands its clean energy infrastructure, it is also sharing the spillover benefits of its technological innovation with the rest of the world.

At the Solar and Storage Live Africa 2026 exhibition held in Johannesburg in March, Chinese companies' photovoltaic equipment and smart energy solutions drew widespread attention.

Qhakazile Mathebula, general manager for digital energy at City Power Johannesburg, welcomed the strong presence of Chinese firms and highlighted their contribution to Africa's energy transition.

"We welcome the participation of Chinese renewable energy companies, whose investments and technologies are helping accelerate Africa's shift toward cleaner and more sustainable energy," she said.

China's ability to deliver cost-effective and scalable solutions is critical as African countries are working to expand energy access and address supply constraints, Mathebula added.

"At the scale and pace that China is producing them (clean energy), plenty of things stand to be swept away – including, quite possibly, the once seemingly intractable problems of energy poverty and fossil-fuel dependence," wrote Jeremy Wallace, a professor of China Studies at Johns Hopkins, in a recent column for Wired magazine.

A 7.5-tonne unmanned cargo aircraft powered by AEP100, China's independently developed megawatt-class hydrogen-fueled turboprop engine, completed its maiden flight on Saturday at an airport in Zhuzhou, central China's Hunan Province.

This marks the world's first test flight of a megawatt-class hydrogen-fueled turboprop engine.

The engine operated normally and remained in good condition throughout the 16-minute test flight, according to the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC), its developer. The aircraft covered 36 kilometers at 220 km/h, flying at an altitude of 300 meters. After completing all scheduled flight maneuvers, it returned safely.

Experts from the AECC noted that the successful maiden flight highlights that China has now established a complete technological chain in hydrogen-fueled aviation engines, covering everything from core components to full engine integration. They added that this achievement lays the foundation for the industrial application of hydrogen energy in aviation.

As green hydrogen production costs fall, hydrogen aviation engines will show growing economic and energy security advantages, experts said. Hydrogen-fueled aero-engine technology is expected to debut in low-altitude economy fields such as unmanned air freight and island logistics, before gradually expanding to regional and mainline aircraft.

This technology will drive coordinated upgrades across industrial clusters, including upstream green hydrogen production, midstream storage, transportation and refueling infrastructure, and downstream high-end equipment and new materials. Ultimately, it will propel the green, low-carbon, and high-quality development of China's aviation industry, experts added.

(Cover: An AEP100 engine showcased at the Shanghai International Commercial Airshow in Shanghai, China, November 24, 2023. /VCG)

A supernova – the explosive death of a star – is always violent, blasting material into space while typically leaving behind a compact stellar remnant like a neutron star or black hole. But some supernovas involving the largest stars in the cosmos may be so immensely powerful they leave absolutely nothing behind.

Scientists since the 1960s have theorized the existence of these ultra-powerful supernovas, and have now come up with evidence for them – albeit indirect – in research involving black holes and ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves.

Such supernovas are predicted to occur in the most enormous stars – those with a mass around 140 to 260 times greater than the sun, according to Hui Tong, a doctoral student in astrophysics at Monash University in Australia and lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

"Despite their enormous mass, they live relatively short lives, about a few million years. For comparison, the sun will live for about 10 billion years, so these stars burn out roughly a thousand times faster – like a massive firework that burns intensely and briefly before exploding," Tong said.

The explosion of large stars of a certain mass leaves behind a neutron star, a compact collapsed stellar core. Some stars that are even larger, when they explode, leave behind a black hole, an exceptionally dense object with gravity so strong not even light can escape. The black hole retains a portion of the original star's mass, with the rest blown into space.

In this study, the researchers combed through data on 153 pairs of black holes, knowing their mass based on gravitational waves they emitted, and then separated out black holes that had formed through the earlier mergers of two smaller black holes.

What the researchers then detected was an absence of black holes between about 44 and 116 times the mass of the sun, what they called a "forbidden range."

That absence, they said, may best be explained if the largest stars, which might be expected to leave behind black holes in that mass range, instead were obliterated at the end of their lifespan in a rare type of explosion called a pair-instability supernova, leaving no traces.

"A pair-instability supernova is one of the most violently explosive types of stellar deaths," said astrophysicist and study co-author Maya Fishbach of the University of Toronto's Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics.

"For the most part, massive stars make black holes. The more massive the star, the heavier the black hole," Fishbach said, until stars reach a certain mass threshold beyond which the physics of their explosive demise dictates that there is no stellar remnant left behind.

These huge stars evolve in a similar way to other massive stars at first, burning hydrogen and helium and building up a large core made mostly of carbon and oxygen. For the core to remain stable, there needs to be a balance between the inward pressure of gravity and the outward release of energy – in the case of these stars high-energy photons, the particles that make up light.

But at the extreme temperatures present inside these stars, some of the photons convert into pairs of subatomic particles called electrons and positrons, thus weakening the outward pressure that was helping to maintain the core's stability. These particle pairs and the instability they cause explain the name of this supernova class.

"The core becomes unstable, leading to a runaway collapse and then a violent thermonuclear explosion that blows the star apart," Tong said.

While these supernovas were first predicted six decades ago, Fishbach said, "they are rare and difficult to find and identify."

Scientists have observed a type of stellar explosion called a superluminous supernova that is a candidate for being a pair-instability supernova. These explosions can be more than 10 billion times more luminous than the sun. But for now, the evidence presented in this study may be the best indication yet about the existence of pair-instability supernovas.

"We are essentially using something invisible, black holes, as a record of some of the brightest explosions in the universe," Tong said.

The director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has appointed Chinese Professor Chen Qun as the UN agency's assistant director-general (ADG) for education.

According to a UNESCO statement updated on Thursday, Chen is an academic, physicist and education specialist with more than 30 years of experience in academic and executive leadership. He will support Director-General Khaled El-Enany in transforming education systems and advancing equitable, inclusive and high-quality learning, while equipping learners worldwide with advanced skills, for the benefit of people and peace.

Chen's appointment came after the naming of three women to senior positions in January, when Sweden's Asa Regner was designated as UNESCO deputy director-general, Mozambique's Lidia Brito appointed as ADG in charge of priority Africa and external relations, and Mariya Gabriel, Bulgaria's former deputy prime minister and foreign minister, was named as ADG for communication and information.

El-Enany, an Egyptologist, took office last November. He is the 12th director-general of UNESCO, the first from an Arab country and the second from Africa to hold this position.

China is accelerating the development of its space computing industry in a systematic and orderly manner, said an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Friday.

Space computing refers to deploying computing capabilities in orbit, using satellite networks to achieve seamless global coverage. Compared with ground-based data centers, its biggest advantages are real-time processing and wide-area coverage. The development of space computing is being driven by multiple factors, including the explosive demand for AI computing power, breakthroughs in reusable rocket technology and the limitations of energy and space faced by ground-based data centers.

Conventional satellites operate like "cameras that only take pictures." They collect vast amounts of raw data in space, transmit it back to ground stations and rely on supercomputers for analysis and decision-making. In contrast, space computing equips satellites with radiation-hardened chips, servers and storage devices, allowing multiple satellites to form a network. This approach enables satellites to collect, analyze and make decisions in real time, sending back only the most valuable results to Earth.

China is not alone in pursuing this approach. SpaceX in the United States plans to deploy a million satellites in low Earth orbit to serve as orbital data centers. Russia is advancing computing upgrades to its satellite networks, while Japan is focusing on in-orbit processing of Earth observation data.

But deploying computing power in space is far from cheap. So why are countries still intent on moving data centers into orbit?

Ground-based supercomputing centers face high energy consumption and costly cooling challenges. In orbit, satellites can draw on continuous solar energy and dissipate heat more effectively in the vacuum of space, offering a potentially more sustainable model.

Coverage is another key advantage. Ground infrastructure is limited by geography, leaving gaps in remote regions such as oceans, deserts and high-altitude areas. Satellite networks, by contrast, can provide near-complete global coverage, enabling consistent access to computing resources anywhere on the planet.

Moreover, the real-time capabilities of in-orbit computing can dramatically shorten the time between data collection and decision-making. Instead of waiting for images to be sent to Earth for analysis, satellites can perform recognition, generate alerts and transmit critical information within seconds.

Beyond efficiency and performance, space computing carries strategic implications. It could serve as a resilient backup in the event of disruptions to terrestrial networks and provide essential computational support for future deep-space exploration missions.

China's AI industry is entering a new phase, marked by a steady rise in the volume of tokens generated by its large language models. This growth is underpinned by the country's strong computing power and robust electricity infrastructure. CGTN reporter Li Xiaoyao explores how these factors are fueling China's AI innovation.

China is accelerating the development of its space computing industry in a systematic and orderly manner, said an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Friday.

Space computing boasts advantages such as real-time on-orbit processing, low-cost energy and wide-area coverage, said Zhao Ce, deputy director of the MIIT department of information and communication development, at an industry conference in Beijing.

In recent years, China has gradually carried out pilot construction and verification of space computing networks, accelerated technological breakthroughs and advanced multiple constellation projects, he noted.

More efforts should be made to plan measures to guide space computing development, support qualified localities to engage in the industry in line with local conditions, and promote R&D in technologies and products involving satellite-based radiation-resistant chips and inter-satellite laser communication.

He also encouraged the exploration of space computing applications in areas such as remote sensing and communication enhancement, as well as on-orbit data processing for low-altitude economy and emergency communication.

China's installed capacity of new-type energy storage is expected to exceed 370 GW by 2030, according to a 2026 white paper on the energy storage industry. By the end of 2025, installed capacity had reached 136 GW, up 84 percent year on year. The report also said average storage duration is expected to rise as demand for longer-duration storage grows.

Humanity sets out for the moon once again. More than half a century after the Apollo program, deep space exploration continues. Artemis II blasted off Wednesday evening from the Kennedy Space Center on the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built, carrying four astronauts farther from Earth than any humans since the Apollo era. CGTN's Nitza Soledad Pérez reports.

Take a look at the flight path for the four astronauts in NASA’s Artemis II mission. After launching on April 1, they will complete a 10-day test flight traveling twice around the Earth and once around the Moon before returning home.

The United States has launched its first crewed mission toward the moon in more than 50 years. Four astronauts lifted off Wednesday evening, April 1, aboard NASA's most powerful rocket, beginning a ten-day journey that will take them farther from Earth than any humans have traveled since the Apollo era. CGTN's Nitza Soledad Pérez reports.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.

A Chinese motorcycle brand has roared into the global spotlight. ZXMoto, founded by entrepreneur Zhang Xue, secured back-to-back victories at the Portugal round of the World Superbike Championship (WSBK), marking a historic first for China's motorcycle industry and breaking a 38-year dominance by established European and Japanese brands.

At the center of the win is the ZXMoto 820RR-RS, a fully domestically developed machine, from its core engine and key components to its final tuning. Its triumph is widely seen as a milestone moment, not only for Chinese motorsports but also for the country's broader push into high-end manufacturing.

WSBK, as one of the world's premier motorcycle racing series, is considered a proving ground for production-based performance. Competing bikes must be derived from mass-produced models, making victories a direct reflection of real-world engineering strength.

Behind the headline-grabbing result is a two-decade journey. Zhang began as a 14-year-old apprentice in a motorcycle repair shop, steadily working his way up to build a brand now capable of competing – and winning – on the world stage. His story mirrors a deeper transformation underway in Chinese manufacturing: from scale-driven growth to innovation-led advancement.

Chongqing: The industrial backbone behind the win

Zhang's decision to build his company in Chongqing is pivotal. The southwestern municipality hosts one of China's most complete and mature motorcycle supply chains, with more than 2,000 related enterprises and a local parts matching rate exceeding 90 percent.

This dense industrial network dramatically accelerates innovation. Specialized components that might take weeks or even months to prototype elsewhere can be produced in Chongqing in a matter of days, significantly lowering costs and enabling rapid iteration.

The ecosystem also strikes a balance between competition and collaboration. Talent flows freely across companies and along the supply chain, allowing new technologies and expertise to spread quickly, creating the environment that helped shape both Zhang and his team.

Today, Chongqing has formed a coordinated industrial landscape. Central districts such as Banan and Jiulongpo focus on upgrading fuel-powered motorcycles. Meanwhile, western areas, including Tongliang and Dazu, are emerging as hubs for electric models. In 2025, the city produced 7.857 million motorcycles, accounting for 35.5% of China's total output.

"Chongqing's supply chain is on par with the best in the world," Zhang said. "Give us a blueprint, and the city's industrial ecosystem can turn it into a top-tier product."

This model is not unique. Across China, industrial clusters – from Shenzhen's electronics sector to the Yangtze River Delta's robotics industry – are driving a similar shift, pushing "Made in China" from mass production toward technological sophistication, innovation and brand building.

A city that rides with its industry

Chongqing's role extends beyond manufacturing. Its mountainous terrain and layered urban design, dubbed an "8D metropolis," make motorcycles a practical and efficient mode of transport.

Unlike many neatly planned cities, Chongqing is a three-dimensional metropolis built on mountains and along rivers. For example, the Huangjuewan interchange, with its five levels and 20 ramps, leaves drivers scratching their heads, wondering, even with GPS, how to navigate it. In a city like this, compact and agile motorcycles find their perfect playground.

Local governance has reinforced this riding culture. A balanced regulatory approach that emphasizes licensing, helmet use, two-person limits, and right-lane riding ensures both safety and accessibility. With more than two million motorcycles on its roads, Chongqing is widely seen as one of the most motorcycle-friendly cities in China.

In parallel, motorcycle racing events have surged in recent years, from national championships to international off-road series. These high-frequency competitions serve as real-world testing grounds, pushing technological limits and feeding innovation back into mass production.

Each September, the city also hosts the China International Motorcycle Trade Exhibition, Asia's largest and China's only national-level motorcycle expo. The 2025 event drew 950 exhibitors, and the 2026 edition is expected to feature a dedicated cross-border e-commerce section to support global expansion.

From scale to strength on the global stage

Chongqing's motorcycle industry is also accelerating its push into overseas markets. In 2025, the city exported 6.109 million units – 77.8 percent of its total output – with export value rising 29.5% year on year to 26.47 billion yuan ($3.85 billion). Chongqing-based firms now account for half of China's top 10 motorcycle exporters.

Policy support has played a key role. The authorities have encouraged companies to participate in major international exhibitions, improved logistics through rail and river-sea intermodal networks, and supported the establishment of overseas marketing, service centers, and warehouses to enable localized operations.

Despite producing more than 60 percent of the world's motorcycles and leading global exports for three decades, China's industry has long been associated with low-cost manufacturing. In the high-displacement segment, Chinese brands still compete largely on price-performance. Models from established brands such as Ducati and Yamaha often retail for around 200,000 yuan, while comparable Chinese bikes are typically priced at 70% to 80% of that level, or lower.

But that perception is beginning to shift.

"China's motorcycle industry has never lacked the courage to innovate or the capability to build world-class products," said Zhang Hongbo, secretary-general of the China Chamber of Commerce for Motorcycles. "This victory is a powerful reflection of decades of accumulated strength."

ZXMoto's breakthrough captures that evolution. It is the result of years of steady, technology-driven progress and a sign that Chinese manufacturing is moving beyond its low-cost roots toward the high end of the global value chain.

Chinese researchers have developed a new catalytic strategy that enables more efficient conversion of syngas to light olefins under mild conditions, significantly reducing energy consumption.

Light olefins are essential building blocks for manufacturing plastics and synthetic fibers. Published in Nature on Wednesday, the study was led by researchers from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The researchers have introduced a hydroxyl-induced cobalt oxide catalytic strategy that achieves 80% CO conversion and 60% light-olefins selectivity at 250-260 degrees Celsius, 0.1 MPa.

Traditional Fischer–Tropsch synthesis for producing olefins requires higher temperatures of above 300 degrees Celsius and pressures over 2 MPa. By contrast, the new strategy has lower energy consumption and cost, offering a technological path for cleaner and more efficient coal utilization.

China holds vast coal resources. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, coal consumption accounted for 51.4% of the country's total energy consumption in 2025. This makes clean and efficient utilization critical for its low-carbon development in the chemical industry.

A new study by Chinese researchers has helped people better understand how microplastics "move" on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and has sustained plastic pollution prevention and control efforts, according to the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Through in situ sampling and quantitative analysis, the study explored the dynamics of suspended atmospheric microplastics and their wet deposition in the Qilian Mountains in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, said the institute.

Also known as the "Water Tower of Asia," the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau has been considered a remote area with little direct impact from anthropogenic pollutants due to its high altitude, cold climate and sparse human activities. However, recent studies show that new pollutants, such as microplastics, can reach this plateau region via long-distance atmospheric transport.

Compared with understanding the dynamics of microplastics in densely populated areas, it is more significant to better understand the distribution patterns, deposition processes, and driving mechanisms of atmospheric microplastics in plateau regions, according to Zhang Yulan, a researcher at the NIEER.

The NIEER study team conducted systematic atmospheric sampling in the Qilian Mountains.

Researchers analyzed atmospheric suspended microplastics and their wet deposition dynamics, accurately measuring the size, polymer type and various morphological parameters of individual microplastic particles.

In general, microplastic abundance in the study areas was lower than in high-density population areas. Suspended atmospheric microplastics and wet deposition microplastics were dominated by fragments, with the percentage over 70%, according to the study results.

This study indicates that suspended microplastics in these regions have a wider size range and a higher degree of fragmentation, suggesting they underwent longer atmospheric transport and aging processes.

The research team introduced "sphericity" as a continuous variable to quantify the atmospheric transport potential of microplastics of different shapes. Analysis showed that low-sphericity microplastics are more likely to achieve long-distance transport, while high-sphericity particles tend to undergo local deposition.

"Our new study provides key scientific evidence for unveiling the transport and deposition of atmospheric microplastics in high-altitude regions," Zhang said.

These new findings offer important scientific support for improving global atmospheric microplastic cycle models, more rigorously assessing ecological risks in remote cryospheric regions, and supporting the formulation of plastic pollution prevention policies, according to Zhang.

The study results have been published in the Journal of Environmental Sciences.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will negotiate future participation in NASA missions after the US space agency revamped its lunar program, the ESA head told AFP on Wednesday.

The US space agency recently announced it is suspending its so-called Gateway lunar orbital space station efforts to focus on constructing a base on the Moon's surface.

This made the European role in future exploration unclear. The ESA had an agreement with NASA for three astronaut flights to Gateway.

The Gateway is postponed, therefore I will need to sit down with the administrator, that means Jared Isaacman, and the NASA team to negotiate how these seats that have been earmarked for the Gateway can be utilized for the surface," ESA head Josef Aschbacher told AFP.

A German astronaut was scheduled to go first, then a French astronaut, and later an Italian astronaut.

Aschbacher was speaking from the Kennedy Space Center, where phase two of the Artemis program proceeded on Wednesday with a successful rocket launch of three Americans and one Canadian astronaut on a mission to fly around the moon.

The ESA director general said, "This is a discussion that needs to take place right now."

"How many seats for the surface flight, or under which conditions, or what is the countervalue that Europe needs to bring into this bargaining and this discussion?" he said.

"The goal is to have Europeans walking on the moon," said Aschbacher, an Austrian who has helmed ESA since 2021.

"But of course, the dream, or the objective, is that eventually Europe develops its own technologies and capacities to have more autonomy on human spaceflight."

Europe was to provide components for Gateway – some already assembled, others in development. The Japanese space agency (JAXA), another partner of NASA, is also conducting similar efforts and currently has a Japanese astronaut scheduled to travel before the first European.

An art exhibition featuring 80 pieces of paintings by teenagers was held simultaneously on Wednesday aboard China's orbiting space station, which is orbiting about 400 kilometers above Earth, and at the Capital Museum in Beijing.

The artworks, themed "Role Models in My Heart," were displayed and introduced by the Shenzhou-21 crew – mission commander Zhang Lu and astronauts Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang – during their mission.

The event launched its call for entries in July 2025, selecting 80 paintings from a pool of over 15,000 submissions from teens across the country. On October 31, the selected works were sent to the Chinese space station aboard the Shenzhou-21 crewed spacecraft.

It is the fifth painting exhibition held aboard the space station.

Meanwhile, the offline exhibition at the Capital Museum brings together works displayed during the first five editions of the exhibition, making it the first comprehensive showcase of all five collections. The exhibition will run until May 24.

Editor's note: China is not one innovation story but many – emerging from local areas across the nation. In this series, we bring you those stories as pieces of a larger mosaic that, when put together, reveal the full picture of a country on the move.

China is placing high importance on Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology, officially included in the 2026 government work report, with Chongqing advancing it from research and development (R&D) to clinical trials and showing early signs of practical success.

On March 26, at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Mr. Wang (pseudonym), a patient recovering from stroke sequelae, underwent rehabilitation training using BCI technology under medical supervision. Powered by brainwaves and wearable devices, Wang was able to move his limbs without exerting active physical effort.

A stroke had left Wang with weakness in his left leg. After learning online and from friends that BCI technology could help his condition, he sought treatment at the hospital. "Before the treatment, my leg felt weak. After the training, I felt more relaxed and had a bit more strength when walking. The results are quite positive," Wang shared regarding his experience.

BCI technology essentially establishes a direct communication pathway between the brain and external devices. By identifying brain signals, interpreting the brain's intentions, and translating them into computer commands, it enables interaction between humans and machines or the external environment.

This technology is applicable in the treatment and rehabilitation of neurological conditions, such as stroke sequelae and Parkinson's disease, helping patients improve limb function and enhance their overall quality of life.

BCIs are primarily categorized into non-invasive and invasive types. Non-invasive BCIs do not require brain surgery, achieving therapeutic effects through wearable devices. Invasive BCIs involve surgically implanting electrodes directly into the brain to interface with neurons and record neural activity.

The fundamental difference between the two lies in the precision of brain signal acquisition, with invasive methods offering higher signal accuracy.

Chen Yangmei, Director of Neurology at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, explained that the working principle remains the same for both invasive and non-invasive BCIs. The system first reads brain signals, primarily brainwaves, along with other neural data. It then interprets the meaning of these signals through post-processing and ultimately connects them to a machine. This is the core logic of a BCI.

Globally, BCI technology is rapidly accelerating from R&D toward clinical trials and commercialization, presenting immense market potential.

According to market research firm Precedence Research, the global BCI market was valued at $2.94 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to $3.33 billion in 2026. By 2035, it is expected to reach approximately $13.86 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 16.77% from 2026 to 2035.

A massive patient population provides a strong clinical demand for the development of the BCI industry. The Global Status Report on Neurology, published by the World Health Organization in 2025, indicates that neurological disorders affect over 40% of the global population. More than 3 billion people suffer from these conditions, resulting in over 11 million deaths worldwide annually.

Within this billion-dollar sector, Elon Musk's Neuralink stands out as the most prominent player. Musk recently announced that Neuralink will begin mass-producing BCI devices in 2026.

Meanwhile, the firm advances a highly simplified, nearly fully automated surgical process to significantly lower the trauma threshold of invasive procedures. Bolstered by a $650 million Series E funding round completed in 2025, Neuralink applies highly automated engineering principles to drive practical application of its technology.

Despite promising prospects, BCI technology still faces unresolved challenges. Chen noted that several hurdles remain, such as interpreting signals after flexible electrodes are implanted in the brain, improving brain signal decoding technology and advancing computing power and software optimization. There remains room for and a necessity of further improvement in these areas.

(Video courtesy of Western China International Communication Organization)

SpaceX has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO), reported Bloomberg on Wednesday, bringing Elon Musk's space company closer to possibly the biggest IPO in history.

The company submitted its draft IPO registration to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous. 

The filing, which allows companies to get feedback from the SEC and make changes before the information becomes public, puts SpaceX on schedule for its expected public offering in June.

The mega IPO, reportedly aiming to raise as much as $50 billion, could easily surpass Saudi Aramco's 2019 listing, which raised $29 billion and remains the world's largest IPO on record. SpaceX is lining up 21 banks for its listing, Reuters reported. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup will serve as the lead banks managing the deal, an anonymous source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Bloomberg reported in February that the company could seek a valuation of over $1.75 trillion. Originally a space launch provider, the company has expanded into satellite communications and AI after acquiring Musk's own artificial intelligence startup. 

The $1.75 trillion market value would make SpaceX larger than Meta Platforms Inc., but it would still fall behind the top five companies in the S&P 500 Index: NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon.

SpaceX said it would use its IPO to fund an "insane flight rate" for its Starship rocket, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg in 2025. 

Starship, a reusable, 40-story-tall super heavy-lift launch vehicle designed for Mars colonization, has been under development for over a decade. In 2016, Musk stated that his company would build a megarocket capable of carrying humans to Mars by 2025. That deadline has now been extended to 2030.

The memo also mentioned plans to fund space-based AI data centers and a lunar base.

The company's Starlink satellite business is likely the main source of revenue backing SpaceX's $1.75 trillion valuation, according to Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum Equities, interviewed by Reuters.

"Starlink is the only reason this valuation is defensible," Boloor said. "This is going to be the recurring revenue engine." 

Starlink generates 50%-80% of SpaceX's revenue, according to Reuters. The broadband satellite network launched by SpaceX's rockets now has around 10,000 satellites in orbit, providing internet to 10 million active users, the company announced. Additionally, Starlink secured a Pentagon contract in 2023 to develop a military version called Starshield. 

(With inputs from agencies)

China's conservation efforts on the Yangtze River have brought freshwater ecosystems back from the brink. The 10-year fishing ban, launched in 2021, has achieved "notable phased results," the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said Tuesday.

Between 2021 and 2025, 351 indigenous fish species were recorded in the Yangtze River basin, 43 more than before the ban, while fish resources in the main stream in 2025 recovered to twice pre-ban levels, the ministry said.

The index of biological integrity in key waterways, including the main stream, improved compared with 2017-2020, reversing the decline in aquatic biological resources.

Fisheries law enforcement has strenghtened nationwide, with cross-regional and multi-agency operations helping to curb illegal fishing, transport and sales. In 2025, fishery-related criminal cases fell by nearly 40% year on year.

The ministry called for efforts to further strengthen protection of aquatic life in the Yangtze River, advance flagship species conservation programs, step up the restoration of important habitats, and promote the overall recovery of aquatic ecosystems.

Solid steps should also be taken to secure the livelihoods of former fishing households, promote stable employment and social security through multiple measures, and steadily improve their living standards, according to the ministry.

Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest sectors of the U.S. economy, but it’s not treating everyone equally. Even major tech companies have had massive layoffs, in part due to AI. 

CGTN’s Mark Niu has more on how tech leaders and job seekers are feeling about the state of the industry.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.

China has set a target for its core Internet of Things (IoT) industry to exceed 3.5 trillion yuan (about $505.8 billion) by 2028, according to an action plan jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments.

The plan states that by 2028, China aims to formulate or revise more than 50 advanced and applicable standards and increase the number of IoT terminal connections to 10 billion.

The IoT enables ubiquitous intelligent connections among humans, machines and objects through sensing technologies and communication networks, bridging the digital and physical worlds.

To foster innovation and development in the IoT sector, the action plan outlines five major measures: promoting the innovation and upgrade of IoT devices, enhancing the service efficacy of IoT platforms, cultivating IoT application scenarios, strengthening the IoT network foundation, and fostering a sound ecosystem for IoT industry growth.

By 2028, new IoT technologies, products and business models are expected to continue emerging, with improved innovation capabilities across the industry, according to the plan. Breakthroughs will be made in key technologies, such as sensing, networking and communication, data processing, and security, significantly raising the intelligence levels of terminals and platforms.

As data becomes the lifeblood of the digital age, the quest to move it securely and seamlessly across borders has emerged as one of the most defining challenges of our time. 

The World Data Organization (WDO), established in Beijing on March 30, aims to do more than bridge policy gaps – it seeks to build the very technical infrastructure of trust.

In a world still fragmented by divergent data regulations, technology may offer the most promising path forward, turning the vision of "data without borders, security without compromise" into a tangible reality.

To explore how, CGTN spoke with three experts whose work lies at the intersection of cryptography, distributed systems and data architecture.

"Without trust, data flows become flows of hidden risks." For Guo Jingyu, a senior engineer and recipient of the National Cryptographic Science and Technology Progress Award, the conversation about data must begin with a single non-negotiable premise: security.

"Data dividends cannot be realized without security," Guo said. "If the technological foundation is not credible, data flows become flows of hidden risks."

He sees cryptographic technologies – from commercial encryption to quantum-safe solutions – as the essential bridge between high-level principles and real-world implementation. 

"These are the tools that turn the promise of 'secure and orderly' flow from a policy commitment into engineering reality," he explained. "Technological innovation in data and intelligence is, at its core, paving the way for global data mutual trust."

Yu Jiaping, a lecturer at the Ocean University of China specializing in reliable distributed computing, blockchain security and decentralized digital identity (DID), views the WDO's launch as something far more significant than the creation of another international platform.

"As a young faculty member, I see the establishment of the World Data Organization not merely as the formation of a cooperation platform, but as a clear signal (that) data is moving from being a simple factor of production to a central issue in international public governance," Yu said.

He pointed to the core challenge articulated in the organization's founding vision: balancing development with security, openness with governance, and efficiency with equity. These are not just technical problems; they are questions of principle that will shape the digital economy for decades to come.

For Yu, universities have a vital role to play in this new landscape. "We must strengthen interdisciplinary research that brings together data science, artificial intelligence, law, and management to support national participation in global digital governance," he said. 

"At the same time, we need to cultivate talent equipped not only with technical skills but also with governance awareness and an international perspective. Only when innovation is translated into governance effectiveness can data dividends truly benefit people across the world more broadly and more fairly."

Security and development: Two sides of the same coin

Xiao Qinghai, CTO of Fisherman info, a senior system architect, and recipient of military and provincial-level science and technology progress awards, emphasizes that security and development cannot be treated as competing priorities. They are, in his view, inseparable.

"The core of digital economy development lies in using technological innovation as the driving force; ensuring data security and orderly flow while simultaneously improving the efficiency of data development and utilization to support healthy, stable global digital growth," Xiao said.

He describes this approach as one that "balances security and development, grounds itself in international cooperation, and aims to break down barriers and share achievements so that the value created by data can benefit people in all countries, achieving inclusive and win-win outcomes."

Xiao repeatedly returns to the idea of a foundation. "Only by building a secure foundation can we ensure that data effectively empowers industries and society, thereby maintaining the stable and healthy development of the global digital economy," he said.

"Ultimately, by giving equal weight to security and development, we can enable data dividends to truly benefit people in all countries, achieving the unity of openness, sharing, and risk prevention."

A future built on trust

The WDO's ambition is as much technical as it is political. Its success will depend not only on the willingness of nations to cooperate, but on the robustness of the technologies that underpin that cooperation, from cryptographic protocols that protect data in transit to blockchain systems that verify identity without central control and architectural frameworks that bring these elements together in real-world applications.

As Xiao put it, the goal is nothing less than ensuring that data – the defining resource of our era – fulfills its promise as a force for shared prosperity.

Editor's note: China is not one innovation story but many – emerging from local areas across the nation. In this series, we bring you those stories as pieces of a larger mosaic that, when put together, reveal the full picture of a country on the move.

Step inside the "birthplace" of humanoid robots at the Robotics Pilot Testing and Validation Platform of Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics and discover how AI ecosystems are powering real business growth at "Magic World" Beijing AI New Quality Industry Community in Beijing E-Town.

The high-tech scene in China's capital city is buzzing, fostering innovation, talent and promise for the future.

Scientists in China have created two new atomic nuclei that have never been observed before: Berkelium-235 and Americium-231. Their groundbreaking work pushes the boundaries of the periodic table and helps us better understand the building blocks of matter.

The team, from the Institute of Modern Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, used a powerful particle accelerator in Lanzhou City, the capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, to perform the feat. Their results were published in the journal Physics Letters B.

How to make a new nucleus

Creating a new isotope is like playing high-speed cosmic billiards. The researchers used the Chinese Accelerator Facility for Exotic Nuclei (CAFE2) to fire a high-intensity beam of Argon-40 ions at a target made of Gold-197.

When these atoms collided at just the right speed, they fused together, creating new, heavier nuclei. These products were then filtered and identified using a sophisticated "separator" called SHANS2, which can detect even a single atom based on its energy, position, and timing.

The research team determined that Americium-231 is the "daughter" nucleus produced when Berkelium-235 undergoes radioactive decay, with a half-life of about 75 seconds.

Fine-tuning physics theories

How accurate are our theoretical models that predict nuclear behavior? Interestingly, the team found that existing mass models overestimated the decay energies for these extremely neutron-deficient elements. That mismatch gives theorists a clear signal that their models need fine-tuning.

For now, Berkelium-235 and Americium-231 exist only for seconds inside a detector. But their brief existence has already taught us something new about the limits of matter.

US aerospace company SpaceX confirmed on Monday that a Starlink satellite experienced an on-orbit anomaly on Sunday, resulting in a loss of communications and the generation of debris.

Starlink satellite 34343 lost contact while operating at an altitude of approximately 560 km above Earth, according to a release via Starlink's official X account.

The latest analysis indicates that the anomaly poses no new risk to the International Space Station and its crew, nor to NASA's upcoming Artemis II crewed lunar mission, according to the release.

SpaceX said it will continue to monitor the satellite along with any trackable debris and coordinate with NASA and the US Space Force.

SpaceX also noted that it posed no new risk to the Transporter-16 rideshare mission launched earlier on Monday, as payload deployments for that mission were conducted well above or below the Starlink constellation to avoid potential collisions.

Meanwhile, LeoLabs, a US space technology company specializing in the tracking of satellites and space debris in low Earth orbit, said on Monday it detected a fragment generation event associated with Starlink 34343 on Sunday. Its analysis suggests similarities with a previous anomaly involving Starlink satellite 35956 on December 17, 2025.

Such events illustrate the need for rapid characterization of anomalous events to enable clarity of the operating environment, the company said.

Fifty years after the first aerial survey of New Zealand's Southern Alps glaciers, scientists are reporting no reversal in the overall trend of ice loss despite a temporary reprieve from recent late snow and variable summer weather.

Researchers from Earth Sciences New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington and the Department of Conservation completed their 2026 end-of-summer survey in March, photographing hundreds of glaciers to assess changes in snowlines and ice volume, an Earth Sciences New Zealand statement said Tuesday.

Andrew Lorrey, principal climate scientist from Earth Sciences New Zealand, said this year's snowline and glacier survey, conducted annually since 1977, saw retained snow on some glaciers, but this was "only a stay of execution and not a reversal in the long term decline of ice coverage."

Researchers said that 2025 was New Zealand's fourth warmest year on record. Globally, the World Meteorological Organization said that 2025 was 1.43 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

"A warmer planet means less ice, and our glaciers are one of the more visible signs of a warming climate," the statement said.

"Glaciers are an important part of New Zealand's environment, economy and identity. They underpin tourism, deliver meltwater carrying nutrients into rivers and lakes, and feed the hydroelectric lakes that power much of our renewable electricity," Lorrey said, calling for climate warming to be halted quickly to limit glacier decline.

China is building the world's first floating artificial island designed for all-weather, deep-sea scientific research, a 30-story-tall giant developed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The platform, capable of moving like a ship, can withstand towering waves and level-17 (Category 5) typhoons with winds reaching 250 km/h. With a displacement comparable to a medium-sized aircraft carrier, it will be equipped with cutting-edge scientific instruments. Its massive "moon pool" is so vast that a blue whale could pass through it. It allows researchers to deploy equipment weighing up to 300 tonnes to depths of 6,000 meters – reaching areas even light cannot penetrate.

Set for deployment by 2030, this floating island might just become our "space station" at sea.

The global race for artificial intelligence is intensifying, from cutting-edge models to real-world deployment.

So who’s best positioned in the AI race, and is this less about technological breakthroughs and more about who controls the next industrial revolution?

Tech expert and policy consultant Randolph Wiggins shares his takeaways with Karina Mitchell here.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.

What used to take hours in post-production now happens live on set. In Deqing County, east China's Zhejiang Province, filmmakers are swapping months of post-production for real-time creativity. Check out how China is redefining the "blockbuster" experience with high tech in this episode of Hot Take.

China's brain-computer interface (BCI) industry is entering a new phase of development as the country accelerates efforts to translate laboratory research into clinical and commercial applications.

On March 13, China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved an implantable BCI medical device for market use. Jointly developed by Shanghai-based Neuracle Medical Technology and Tsinghua University, the device is the world's first commercially approved invasive brain-computer interface product, marking a shift from clinical application toward real-world deployment.

Brain-computer interfaces establish a direct communication pathway between neural activity and external devices. Signals generated in the brain, particularly in motor-related regions, are captured through implanted electrodes and decoded into executable commands. These commands can then be used to control assistive systems, offering new possibilities for patients with motor impairments.

The newly approved system is designed for patients with tetraplegia caused by cervical spinal cord injuries. It enables grasping movements through a pneumatic glove controlled by decoded neural signals, allowing users to perform basic hand functions in daily life.

The device integrates multiple components, including a BCI implant, an implanted electrode array, a neural signal transmitter and receiver, pneumatic glove equipment, surgical tools, and brain-signal decoding software.

Thanks to its minimally invasive surgical procedure and semi-invasive system design – electrodes are embedded between the skull and the dura mater, the thick external membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord – patients can typically return home within about one month after surgery.

The approval has also triggered a rapid policy response. Following the device's market authorization, China's National Healthcare Security Administration quickly engaged with the developer, reviewing technical details, clinical application scenarios, and industry needs. Within one week, the administration completed medical insurance coding for the device, aiming to accelerate its transition from approval to clinical use and ensure patient access.

Globally, different technological approaches to brain-computer interfaces are emerging. In the United States, Elon Musk's Neuralink leads with fully implantable systems using high-density electrodes. The company announced its first human implantation in 2024, although it has yet to receive full commercial approval from US regulators.

Shanghai-based StairMed Technology is a direct counterpart to Neuralink, exploring fully invasive BCI systems. The company participated in the country's first clinical trial of a fully invasive BCI and recently completed a strategic financing round backed by major technology companies, including Tencent and Alibaba Group.

Also based in Shanghai, NeuroXess in January launched a super factory project in the Ganjiang New Area of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, a major step towards supporting large-scale manufacturing of implantable BCI devices in China.

Data from CCID Consulting indicate that China's BCI market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of around 20% between 2024 and 2028, outpacing many traditional manufacturing sectors. Globally, the BCI market could approach or exceed $10 billion by around 2030, while China's domestic market may surpass 120 billion yuan (roughly $17 billion) by 2040.

China's policy framework has also provided sustained support for the sector. Brain-computer interfaces are identified as one of six priority future industries in the country's 15th Five-Year Plan.

The approval of China's first implantable brain-computer interface product represents a significant step not only for the country, but also for global development of the field. As different technological approaches continue to evolve, the next phase of innovation is likely to be defined by how effectively these systems move from controlled clinical environments into everyday use.

"China's BCI industry is at a critical stage characterized by accelerated technological breakthroughs, rapid ecosystem development, and a gradual increase in commercialization," said Ming Dong, vice president of Tianjin University and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. "The country has already entered the first tier of global brain-computer interface development."

Ming added that at the technological level, non-invasive brain-computer interface technologies in China have reached parity with leading international standards, with some subfields taking the lead, while the gap in key components for invasive systems is narrowing rapidly. At the industrial level, growing attention from capital markets is accelerating the transition of the entire value chain from laboratory research to industrialization.

The Boao Forum for Asia Sub-forum on the South China Sea and the "Our Shared Home" roundtable media series, jointly organized by China Media Group, the National Institute for South China Sea Studies (NISCSS), and Huayang Center for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance (Huayang Center), took place on March 27 and 28 in Boao, Hainan.

A maritime community with a shared future

The "Our Shared Home" roundtable brought together over 10 Chinese and international experts from countries including China, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore for dialogues in both online and offline formats.

Discussions focused on marine governance, maritime security, and the blue economy, addressing challenges, solutions, and future directions for humanity's shared home.

Experts at the roundtable noted that intensifying global geopolitical conflicts are increasingly spilling over into maritime security and ocean governance. Regional maritime stability and the international maritime order now face new tests.

Against this backdrop, the vision of a maritime community with a shared future is gaining greater contemporary relevance and practical significance.

The vision serves as a key to addressing the challenges facing the maritime domain, said Wu Shicun, chairman of the Huayang Center and chairman of the NISCSS.

Wu said the South China Sea can be a testing ground for building a maritime community with a shared future, guided by the region's stability and prosperity, bound by peace, driven by environmental protection, and grounded in the engagement of youth, working together to safeguard peace and stability in the region.

Martin Jacques, a renowned British scholar and former senior research fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, spoke highly of the role that the Chinese government has played in the areas of climate change and marine environment protection, noting that while the US continues to withdraw from relevant cooperation mechanisms, China has never been absent from such cooperation.

Rommel Banlaoi, chairman of Philippine Society for International Security Studies, stressed that the South China Sea has long been a shared homeland for the neighboring countries. However, external interference has created disorder in the region. To make it a sea of ​​peace, friendship and prosperity, the emphasis should be placed on promoting peace rather than confrontation.

Facing challenges to the maritime order, Zhou Jian, former representative of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affair of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said he's glad to see the regional countries have adopted a united stance to safeguard regional common security and interests, and promote regional prosperity and development through rules rather than unilateral actions.

Experts also agreed that the ocean is not an arena for dividing the world, but rather a shared home for humanity, which requires countries to work together to build it.

Veronika S. Saraswati, director of the Global Development Research Center of Indonesia, commended the maritime cooperation between China and Indonesia, which, facilitated by a bilateral intergovernmental cooperation mechanism, has delivered significant results in fisheries, ports and ecological conservation.

Peter T.C. Chang, research associate of the Malaysia-China Friendship Association and former deputy director at the Institute of China Studies of Universiti Malaya, said China's vision of a maritime community with a shared future has struck a strong chord with Southeast Asian countries. Amid the many challenges facing the oceans currently, China has taken a leading role and done very well in marine environmental protection and the sustainable development of fisheries.

The vision offers a Chinese solution, guided by which countries can make the ocean a blue home that all of humanity can manage in an orderly manner, said Yan Yan, researcher at the NISCSS.

2026 Maritime International Communication Symposium

On the same day as the roundtable, representatives from China's maritime institutions, universities, and media gathered at the CMG Sanya Base to discuss the planning and production of South China Sea documentaries, other distinctive maritime media products, and ways to enhance the quality of international maritime communication.

Boao Forum sub-forum on the South China Sea

Nearly 200 experts, scholars, and industry representatives from over 20 countries and regions engaged in discussions on the maritime order amid global changes during the Boao Forum for Asia Sub-forum on the South China Sea and the "Our Shared Home" roundtable media series, contributing to efforts to promote marine cooperation and governance.

The four astronauts selected for NASA's Artemis II mission arrived in Florida on Friday, entering the final preparations for the first crewed journey to the moon in over 50 years.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen flew from Houston to Kennedy Space Center, where they could launch as soon as April 1 aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. They will travel in the Orion crew capsule on a roughly 10-day mission looping around the moon and back.

"The nation and the world have been waiting a long time to do this again," Wiseman, the mission commander, told reporters after landing at Kennedy Space Center, adding that he and his crewmates "are really pumped to go do this."

Artemis II, the first crewed mission of NASA's Artemis program, will test Orion's life-support systems, navigation, communications and heat shield performance.

Boeing is the prime contractor for the SLS core stage, Northrop Grumman builds the rocket's solid-fuel boosters, and Lockheed Martin produces the Orion spacecraft.

The crew has spent over two years training for the mission since being named in 2023, and has been in preflight quarantine since March 18. Glover, the mission's pilot, will become the first Black astronaut to travel to the moon's vicinity. Koch will be ‌the first woman to do so, while Hansen will be the first non-American astronaut to go beyond low Earth orbit.

All of the crew members except Hansen have previously been in space. Wiseman, the mission commander, told reporters last year that the crew were prepared for all eventualities.

"When we get off the planet, we might come right back home, we might spend three or four days around Earth, we might go to the moon – that's where we want to go," Wiseman said. "But it is a test mission, and we're ready for ​every scenario."

Wiseman, 50, previously spent 165 days aboard the ISS and served as NASA's chief astronaut before being selected to command Artemis II. Glover, 49, flew 168 days in space with NASA's Crew-1 mission. Koch, 47, set a record in 2019 for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, spending 328 days aboard the ISS. Hansen, 50, who was selected as a Canadian astronaut in 2009, will make his first spaceflight. His seat reflects a long-standing US-Canadian partnership in human spaceflight, including Canada's contributions to robotics used aboard the ISS.

NASA plans additional Artemis missions in the years ahead as it works towards a sustained human presence on the moon and future crewed missions to Mars.

(With input from Reuters)

The China Manned Space Agency announced that it would solicit proposals for a space human research program starting April 1, targeting major strategic, fundamental, and forward-looking scientific issues related to the long-term healthy survival of humans during future space station flights and lunar landing missions.

The program aims to create a space human atlas, establish a space human research database, and yield a series of innovative research outcomes that can benefit both the health of taikonauts on long-duration orbital missions and the public on Earth.

It is also part of the country's efforts to accelerate the construction of aerospace power and technological power, according to the program guidelines issued by the agency this week.

Taking human samples, organoids and cells as research objects, the program will study the effects of microgravity on bones and muscles and the impacts of long-term spaceflight and post-return conditions on the heart and blood vessels, metabolism, cognition, and aging.

Space medicine experiments are among the crucial research areas aboard the Chinese space station Tiangong, which means Heavenly Palace. Since a public solicitation announcement issued in June 2023, a total of 387 projects have been submitted, and 53 of them have been conducted on the national space lab, the agency said.

China is targeting a crewed lunar landing by 2030. Moreover, the orbiting Tiangong space station will receive two crews this year, and one taikonaut involved will undertake an orbital stay lasting over one year. As long-term crewed missions in space become more frequent, ensuring taikonauts' well-being has become a matter of public concern.

Space medicine research has also helped advance public health on Earth.

According to Li Yinghui, a researcher at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, the country has made several achievements in the field, including completing the country's first research on a space organ chip and the world's first involving an artificial blood vessel tissue chip. These research results have provided theoretical and technological support for studies into heart health, the muscular system, neurodegenerative diseases, human aging, and drug protection and screening.

German chemical company BASF has started full operations at its integrated production site in Zhanjiang, south China, marking its largest single investment globally.

The project, with a total investment of 8.7 billion euros (around $10 billion), comes as China advances its 15th Five-Year Plan, which emphasizes green development and industrial upgrading.

The site is designed to run on 100% renewable electricity and uses electric-driven compressors.

"By utilizing 100% of the renewable energy, our carbon footprint for a site like ours will probably be around 4 million tonnes of CO2. And today we are at 1.7 million tonnes of CO2," said Haryono Lim, president of Mega Projects Asia at BASF, at the inauguration ceremony on Thursday.

Cutting carbon emissions by more than half, the Zhanjiang site is setting new benchmarks for sustainable chemical production.

With approximately 8.7 billion euros invested to date, the site represents BASF's largest single investment globally.

Company executives said the location was chosen for its proximity to the Pearl River Delta and access to infrastructure, including a deep-water port.

The local government's support has been key, too. In turn, the project is now driving the region's broader green ambitions.

"BASF's full operation boosts the region's low-carbon hydrogen transition by developing the hydrogen value chain to attract related industries, supplying low-cost green power from offshore wind and solar, driving green upgrades in local petrochemicals and steel, and helping build a national pilot zone for zero-carbon industrial parks," said Yang Jiedong, director of the administrative committee of Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone.

BASF is not alone in its commitment. Across the chemical sector, other players are scaling up green investments in China. Germany's Covestro, another chemical heavyweight, has also been steadily expanding its operations in Shanghai, where it operates its largest global production site with 12 plants.

Beyond the chemical sector, German industrial giants have accelerated their investments in China throughout 2025. Siemens Healthineers established a new magnetic resonance imaging base in Shenzhen, while Volkswagen unveiled a full-process R&D and testing center in Hefei – the first of its kind outside Germany – cutting vehicle development cycles by 30%.

A December 2025 survey by the German Chamber of Commerce in China found that 93% of German companies in China plan to stay, and 53% intend to increase their investment.

CEO of BASF Markus Kamieth explained the motivation behind the increase.

"We appreciate that China is continuing to invest in opening up and supporting, let's say, rule-based trade relations with most of the world."

At the ongoing Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing, Arnold Pippel, senior vice president of Elsevier, a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical and medical content, emphasized that China plays a pivotal role in scientific publication and in science, adding that it has taken on a leading role in recent years when measured by scientific output.

Pippel noted that China now ranks first globally in the number of scientific articles published.

"I think it's fair to say that the output is more than the US and Europe combined," he said.

He highlighted that beyond sheer volume, the quality and impact of Chinese research are steadily increasing year by year. This progress, he said, stems from sustained government investment, a strong emphasis on international collaboration, a focus on attracting top talent, and a commitment to advancing cutting-edge technology across disciplines.

Turning to the role of artificial intelligence (AI), Pippel said AI is fundamentally reshaping how scientific discovery works. While it can accelerate research and generate insights, he cautioned that AI cannot generate trust. As such, publishers and researchers must embrace AI responsibly while safeguarding the integrity and credibility of scientific work.

Pippel also praised the Zhongguancun Forum for fostering dialogue across borders and sectors. By bringing together scientists, industry leaders and policymakers, the forum creates opportunities not only to advance policy discussions but also to drive scientific and ultimately human progress.

The forum, running from Wednesday to Sunday in Beijing, is focused on the theme of "Full Integration Between Technological and Industrial Innovation." Since its founding in 2007, the forum has become a major international event for advancing science and technology innovation.

China's domestically produced large passenger aircraft C919 will fly a new air route linking Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, with Xiamen in southeastern China's Fujian Province, starting from March 30. 

According to its operator, China Eastern Airlines, there will be three round-trip flights daily.

Currently, China Eastern Airlines has a total of 14 C919s. Those planes are operated on 19 routes, covering 16 airports in 14 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

China Eastern was the first airline to take delivery of the C919 and begin commercial operations on May 28, 2023.

From March 29, Air China's C919s will officially operate one round-trip flight per day linking Beijing and Xiamen. The carrier has expanded its C919 air routes to 11. It also plans to open a Beijing-Harbin route, with two round-trip flights per day.

Another major Chinese carrier, China Southern Airlines, has received 10 C919s. With the continuous expansion of its fleet, it currently operates 10 regular commercial routes such as Guangzhou-Beijing, Guangzhou-Hangzhou, Changsha-Shanghai, linking 21 major domestic cities.

China launched a new test satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Friday.

A Long March-2C rocket, attached with the Yuanzheng-1S (Expedition-1S) upper stage, blasted off at 12:11 p.m. It has sent the Shiyan-33 satellite into the preset orbit.

The satellite will be mainly used for scientific experiments on space environment detection.

It marked the 635th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.

China's science fiction industry generated 126.1 billion yuan ($17.4 billion) in revenue in 2025, up 15.7% year on year, according to data released at the opening of the 2026 China Science Fiction Convention in Beijing on Friday.

Held at Shougang Park – a former steel complex turned cultural venue – the three-day event brings together scientists, entrepreneurs and writers, highlighting how sci-fi is increasingly intersecting with real-world technological development.

At the opening ceremony, a robot host named "Huanhuan" and satellite-linked display system were used to stage a synchronized "ground-to-space" launch.

The convention also featured a dialogue between geologist Liu Jiaqi, astronaut Zhao Chuandong and sci-fi author Liu Cixin, underscoring a growing convergence between scientific research and speculative storytelling.

Organizers say the increasing international participation this year reflects rising global interest in China's sci-fi ecosystem, as well as its links to industries such as aerospace, artificial intelligence and digital entertainment.

More than 20 events, from industry forums to public exhibitions, are being held during the convention, as policymakers and companies explore how sci-fi can contribute to innovation, science communication and industrial development.

The convention runs through March 29.

More than 40,000 people are attending one of the biggest gatherings of cybersecurity experts in San Francisco; the RSAC Conference.

Analysts say there are new threats emerging in the industry, particularly from autonomous agents.

CGTN’s Mark Niu reports.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.

China's Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) on Tuesday issued its latest dataset, including more than 30 million spectra, to domestic astronomers and international collaborators, cementing its position as the survey project with the highest number of released spectra worldwide.

According to the LAMOST Operation and Development Center of the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), the dataset, dubbed DR13, covers an observation period from October 2011 to June 2025, encompassing 6,961 low-resolution observation patches and 3,404 medium-resolution observation patches.

The 30.82 million spectra released include roughly 13.47 million low-resolution spectra and 17.35 million medium-resolution spectra. Additionally, it features a stellar spectral parameter catalog containing about 12.94 million entries.

The total number of spectra released by LAMOST and the scale of its stellar parameter catalog continue to lead the world, the NAOC said.

To date, over 1,900 users from 278 institutions across countries and regions including China, the US, Germany, Belgium and Denmark have conducted research using data generated by LAMOST, resulting in the publication of more than 2,200 high-quality papers.

In recent years, LAMOST data have helped publish over 300 papers annually, with more than 40 percent of these papers authored by foreign astronomers. Its overall scientific output places LAMOST among the world's leading large astronomical telescopes in the 6-to-10-meter class.

As China's first major national sci-tech infrastructure in the field of astronomy, LAMOST pioneered global large-scale spectroscopic sky surveys and has been operating efficiently and stably for 14 years. Its spectra have enabled global astronomers to conduct the most systematic research to date on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way, and have led to a series of breakthroughs in areas such as the search for compact objects, stellar physics, exoplanets and quasars.

Arctic sea ice reached its lowest level ever recorded, statistically tying last year's record, a leading US climate observatory for this geopolitically significant region said on Thursday.

The ice is formed by seawater that freezes through the winter. It partially melts through the summer. However, the amount of reformation each winter is in decline, as rising temperatures due to climate change disproportionately affect the Arctic.

Earlier and lower levels

This year's maximum ice level was reached on March 15 – a week earlier than last year.

The ice clocked in just below last year's level at 14.29 million square kilometers, a statistical tie with last year's all-time record low of 14.31 million square kilometers, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado.

It is the lowest level observed in 48 years of satellite monitoring. Previous records were set in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

This year's weak ice formation "gives a head start to the spring and summer melt season," said NSIDC Senior Researcher Walt Meier.

Samantha Burgess of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) had a similar analysis in a recent conversation with AFP, saying it may trigger a "potentially faster and more extensive summer melt."

The weak ice growth was visible on satellite for weeks.

Impacts on wildlife, geopolitics

Unlike land-based ice, such as glaciers or ice sheets, melting sea ice does not directly raise sea levels. But it does cause wide-ranging climate impacts that threaten ecosystems.

Many species, including polar bears in the Arctic and emperor penguins in Antarctica, rely on sea ice to breed and feed.

Some effects can cascade.

"There are areas, for example, in the Beaufort Sea, near Canada or the Siberian seas of the ocean, that had never been exposed to the atmosphere," said Gilles Garric, a polar oceanographer at Mercator Ocean Toulouse. That exposure, in turn, could make these waters warmer in the summer.

The melt also has geopolitical consequences, as it opens new shipping routes and access to mineral resources. Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to take over Greenland.

"From a geopolitical perspective, the climate change-induced melting of sea ice is turning the Arctic into the new Mediterranean: a common shared maritime resource surrounded by competing states," Elizabeth Chalecki, an expert on climate change and security, told AFP.

China released its first industry standard for embodied artificial intelligence on Thursday, marking a key step toward standardizing how next-generation AI systems are evaluated and deployed.

The standard, jointly drafted by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and more than 40 institutions, establishes a unified benchmarking and testing framework for embodied AI systems. It signals that the field is moving into a new phase where performance can be assessed against clear, consistent criteria.

The standard focuses on core AI technologies and evaluation methodologies, while defining system architectures and capability requirements. It is set to take effect on June 1, 2026.

The release follows an earlier move by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which in February published a standard system framework for humanoid robots and embodied intelligence. Together, these efforts reflect a broader push to establish technical foundations and industry norms for embodied AI.

Robots outnumbering humans – is it science fiction or our imminent reality? Ya-Qin Zhang, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes this is inevitable within a decade.

Should we panic? Not necessarily. Zhang said robots will augment humans, not replace us. However, managing risks is crucial, and the revolution's already here, from zero-emission beach cleaners at the Boao Forum and AI traffic bots at a Hangzhou marathon to smart elder-care robots cooking and monitoring health in Beijing.

Behind these relatively simple tasks are extensive efforts at massive AI learning centers, where over 120 robots are trained across more than 30 real-world scenarios and 3 million data points are collected in just four months.

(Wang Zhixiang contributed to this story. Cover picture by Pei Zihan)