China youth unemployment hits high as recovery falters

Youth unemployment in China has hit a new record high as the country's post-pandemic recovery falters.The jobless rate of 16 to 24 year olds in urban areas rose to 21.3% last month, official figures show.

It comes as the world's second largest economy grew just 0.8% in the three months to the end of June.Analysts say the weak pace of growth has raised expectations that authorities may soon announce new measures to boost the economy.

Race towards 'autonomous' AI agents grips Silicon Valley

Around a decade after virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa burst onto the scene, a new wave of AI helpers with greater autonomy is raising the stakes, powered by the latest version of the technology behind ChatGPT and its rivals.
Experimental systems that run on GPT-4 or similar models are attracting billions of dollars of investment as Silicon Valley competes to capitalize on the advances in AI. The new assistants - often called "agents" or "copilots" - promise to perform more complex personal and work tasks when commanded to by a human, without needing close supervision.

Xi Jinping’s foreign minister vanishes amid rumours of TV presenter affair
Part of China’s breed of ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomats, Qin Gang has disappeared, as has the Hong Kong presenter alleged to be his mistress

Fu Xiaotian, a television presenter who was educated at Cambridge University, is rumoured to have had a relationship with Qin Gang, China’s foreign minister
Qin Gang, China’s aggressive new foreign minister, has disappeared from public view, fuelling speculation that he has fallen foul of the leadership and even rumours of an affair with a well-known television presenter.
Qin became foreign minister in December after a seamless rise through the ranks, including terms as ambassador to Britain and the United States. He was among the most prominent of a new breed of “Wolf Warrior” diplomats, who engage fiercely with China’s western critics. But he has not been seen in public since he met his Sri Lankan counterpart on June 25, an unusually long absence for a foreign minister.

Europeans Are Becoming Poorer. ‘Yes, We’re All Worse Off.’
An aging population that values its free time set the stage for economic stagnation. Then came Covid-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine.Europeans are facing a new economic reality, one they haven’t experienced in decades. They are becoming poorer.

 

A Mineral Strategy for American Security
The U.S. can counter China’s mineral dominance, but only if we get moving.

China hasn’t been shy about its ambition to become the world’s superpower. But before Beijing can achieve that goal, it first needs to monopolize the world’s supply of critical minerals. The U.S. has been asleep at the wheel on this growing threat to America’s economic and national security.

North Korea fires two ballistic missiles into sea

The launch was reported by South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), according to Yonhap, who said they were fired early Wednesday from the Sunan area in Pyongyang, and flew some 550 kilometres (340 miles) before splashing into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

Ukraine War

Information War-

Nafo, not Nato, take the fight to Russia’s internet trolls
A pro-Ukraine social media group is smothering the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign with memes

The Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy, one of the highest honours the Baltic state can confer on a foreign citizen, is usually reserved for luminaries such as the historian Timothy Snyder and Christo Grozev, director of the Bellingcat investigations website. Now it has been bestowed on a group of self-professed “brain-dead dogs”.
The North Atlantic Fella Organization, an anarchic and pro-Ukrainian social media movement known by its acronym Nafo, has emerged as the West’s leading scourge of Russian propaganda. Its members, often displaying customised pictures of smug-looking shiba inu dogs, act as a collective anti-troll farm, drowning out disinformation with scorn and memes.

Ukraine says troops retake nearly 18 sq km of territory in east, south

The advances brought the total territory recaptured so far during the counteroffensive to more than 210 sq km, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said in updates on the Telegram messaging app.

''Russia has 'sufficient stockpile' of cluster bombs; will use them if necessary'.Ukraine has received cluster bombs from the United States, munitions banned in more than 100 countries. Kyiv has pledged to only use them to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.