Two Chinese ceramics at the British Museum have been damaged while on display and are being restored, sparking fresh debate over how museums should safely exhibit fragile cultural treasures. The museum confirmed on Friday that a bowl had fallen from its shelf and landed on a small box on the bottom shelf, damaging both pieces. “Both objects are already with our expert conservation team for complete restoration,” the museum said. The museum, which said the incident occurred on October 4, noted...

At events marking China’s National Day in Africa on October 1, robots provided the entertainment. In Luanda, Angola, dancing robots amused guests and ambassador Zhang Bin called the industry “a small snapshot of the Chinese economy’s move towards innovation and higher-quality development”. In Brazzaville, Congo, nearly 400 guests – including Congolese officials and Chinese business representatives – watched on as a robot dog performed. Guests also interacted with a robot dog at a Chinese New...

Last month, President Xi Jinping travelled to New Delhi to attend the Brics summit – his first visit in seven years. On the summit’s sidelines, Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had an in-depth conversation that explored topics of shared interest between them, such as leveraging open-weight artificial intelligence (AI) for mutual benefit. Even so, such sanguine signals were soon drowned out by a spate of downbeat headlines. One recent story warned of the “asymmetric” relationship...

Kurt Campbell is a veteran US diplomat and strategist who has played a leading role in shaping Washington’s approach to China and the Indo-Pacific for more than a decade. He served as the White House coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs from 2021 to 2024 and as US deputy secretary of state from 2024 to 2025. Previously, he served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 2009 to 2013 and was a key architect of the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia”. Often...

US President Donald Trump has opened the American market to Russian diesel, reversing years of sanctions pressure on Moscow just three weeks after signing a law to punish buyers of its energy, as record fuel prices threaten his party in next month’s midterm elections. Trump said on Truth Social on Friday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had reached the supply deal in a phone call that had been expected to focus on suspected plague cases in Russia. According to Trump, Russia will...

When China and the United States agreed in May to frame their relationship as a “constructive relationship of strategic stability”, the phrase left many observers trying to guess what it actually meant. Four months on, they have added an elaboration that offers further insight into the two sides’ respective priorities. After presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met in Washington last month, the two sides pledged to build a “constructive relationship of strategic stability on the basis of...