At least 82 people have been killed and two are missing after a coal mine blast in northern China, officials have said. The gas explosion at the Liushenyu Coal Mine is the worst mining disaster in China since 2009, and Chinese President Xi Jinping said no effort must be spared in the search and rescue operation. Early on Sunday morning, rescuers deployed mine inspection robots underground, equipped with gas sensors and infrared cameras, state media reported. The BBC's China correspondent Stephen McDonell is at the scene of the blast in Shanxi province. Could a football match soften North Korea-South Korea relations?

Chinese missiles and robots find warm welcome in EU's backyard Chinese leader Xi Jinping shakes hands with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at the Palace of Serbia during the Chinese president's two-day state visit to Belgrade in May 2024. If the European Union has a red line in Serbia's relationship to China, President Aleksandar Vucic may be getting close. The Balkan nation, the only European buyer of advanced Chinese weaponry west of Belarus, upgraded its arsenal this year to include supersonic missiles from China. Next may be fighter jets, a possible discussion topic when Vucic visits China next week. A Beijing bridgehead at the border of the EU has deepened doubts about the prospect of Belgrade joining the bloc and the limits of Vucic's strategy of juggling ties to the West, China and Russia.

David Beckham and Dame Mary Berry are among the famous faces to have painted gnomes to raise funds for a school gardening campaign.

What are Russia's gains from the Iran war? 'We are not losers; we are winners' Russian drones have hit two ships in the Black Sea approaching ports in Ukraine's Odesa region, including a Chinese-owned cargo vessel, one day before Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping. Ukraine's seaports authority said the strikes hit two civilian vessels on Monday, one under a Marshall Islands flag and the other under Guinea-Bissau's flag, both of which were heading to ports in the region. It posted a photograph of the ship showing its name with one of its sides partially charred. Russia has regularly attacked civilian vessels in the port area of Odesa, a vital maritime hub for Ukrainian agricultural exports, since it invaded Ukraine four years ago . Monday's attack comes just before Putin's two-day trip to Beijing, where he is to have talks with Chinese President Xi.

The Trump-Xi Beijing summit exposed deepening U.S.-China Cold War realities, with Taiwan tensions, Iran divisions and AI competition defining the rivalry's dangerous trajectory.

Who are the US CEOs in China with Trump, and what's in it for them? More than a dozen United States business leaders have joined President Donald Trump on his state visit to China, where he is discussing issues including trade, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Upon arrival in Beijing on Wednesday, Trump introduced the group by telling Xi that they were all "distinguished representatives from the American business community" who "all respect and value China", according to China's Xinhua news agency. The Chinese president responded by welcoming more "mutually beneficial cooperation" and assured them that American companies "will have broader prospects in China". The visit comes amid a long-simmering trade war between the two countries, after Trump's sweeping tariffs last year triggered tit-for-tat levies that exceeded 100 percent.

United States President Donald Trump has departed for Beijing ahead of a high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, after weeks of unsuccessful US efforts to persuade China to help bring Iran back to negotiations and ease tensions around the Strait of Hormuz. The leaders of the world's two largest economies are due to meet on Thursday and Friday during Trump's first visit to China since 2017, with talks expected to focus on trade, Taiwan, artificial intelligence and the war involving Iran. Why does the Trump-Xi summit matter? The Trump-Xi summit is a high-level meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping taking place in Beijing as the world's two largest economies face growing tensions over trade, technology, Taiwan and the Iran war. The summit is particularly significant because Trump will be the first US leader to visit China in nearly a decade, while the talks also come at a time of heightened geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

When China's leader Xi Jinping hosts his American counterpart in Beijing this week, Donald Trump will be reminded of his last visit in 2017 - he was wooed hard, complete with dinner inside the Forbidden City, an honour no US president before him had received. This week's reception promises to be just as grand, including a stop inside Zhongnanhai, the rarefied compound where China's top leadership lives and works. The agenda too will be just as thorny, with Iran being a new source of tension, alongside trade, technology and Taiwan. But a lot has changed as Trump returns to a stronger and far more assertive China. Now well into an unprecedented third term, an ambitious Xi has been pushing forward with plans for new productive forces with heavy investments in renewable energy, robotics and artificial intelligence.

Security around Beijing's historic Tiananmen Square has been heightened for days, with rumours on social media swirling of a special parade or some big, choreographed event. Preparations for this major event have started with a whisper, but China appears ready to put on a show for US President Donald Trump. The visit will include talks, a banquet, and a visit to the Temple of Heaven, a complex of imperial temples where emperors would pray for a good harvest. And both Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be hoping the visit will bear fruit. This summit between the world's two most powerful leaders is set to be one of the most consequential encounters for years.

An engineer at the AgiBot factory in Shanghai, China, where the 5,000th mass-produced humanoid robot had rolled off the production line. An engineer at the AgiBot factory in Shanghai, China, where the 5,000th mass-produced humanoid robot had rolled off the production line. How close are we to the sci-fi vision of autonomous humanoid robots? C hen Liang, the founder of Guchi Robotics, an automation company headquartered in Shanghai, is a tall, heavy-set man in his mid-40s with square-rimmed glasses. His everyday manner is calm and understated, but when he is in his element - up close with the technology he builds, or in business meetings discussing the imminent replacement of human workers by robots - he wears an exuberant smile that brings to mind an intern on his first day at his dream job. Guchi makes the machines that install wheels, dashboards and windows for many of the top Chinese car brands, including BYD and Nio. He took the name from the Chinese word, "steadfast intelligence", though the fact that it sounded like an Italian luxury brand was not entirely unwelcome. For the better part of two decades, Chen has tried to solve what, to him, is an engineering problem: how to eliminate - or, in his view, liberate - as many workers in car factories as technologically possible. Late last year, I visited him at Guchi headquarters on the western outskirts of Shanghai. Next to the head office are several warehouses where Guchi's engineers tinker with robots to fit the specifications of their customers. Chen, an engineer by training, founded Guchi in 2019 with the aim of tackling the hardest automation task in the car factory: "final assembly", the last leg of production, when all the composite pieces - the dashboard, windows, wheels and seat cushions - come together. At present, his robots can mount wheels, dashboards and windows on to a car without any human intervention, but 80% of the final assembly, he estimates, has yet to be automated. That is what Chen has set his sights on. As in much of the world, AI has become part of everyday life in China . But what most excites Chinese politicians and industrialists are the strides being made in the field of robotics, which, when combined with advances in AI, could revolutionise the world of work.