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A Border Force officer and his handler who worked for Chinese intelligence in the UK have been jailed. Chi Leung Peter Wai, 40, was sentenced to 10 years and Chung Biu Bill Yuen, 65, given an eight year term after being found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service, an offence under the National Security Act. Wai used his position as a Border Force officer to access to the Home Office computer system to track Hong Kong dissidents in the UK, was also convicted of misconduct in public office. The judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the men that their actions threaten the sovereignty of the state during sentencing remarks at the Old Bailey on Thursday. The dual Chinese-British nationals were found guilty after a trial last month.

I n a small, crowded room in Taipei, Pan Chien-chin is trying to keep a drone hovering steadily. Imagining himself flying a plane, he gently nudges controller joysticks to guide the insect-like device as it hums through the air. Cheers break out as Pan, who has never flown a drone before, steers it around a rectangular course marked by traffic cones without crashing. Around him are about two dozen fellow trainees, all signed up for the same course: Taiwan's first civil defence drone training programme. "The war in Ukraine has really changed how drones are used," says Pan, 48, a food company worker. "It's like giving myself another skill, something I can use if it's ever needed one day," he adds.

China-based actors are likely behind the use of ChatGPT for "covert influence operations" aimed at stoking opposition to data centres in the United States, OpenAI has said. In a research report released on Wednesday, the company behind the world's most popular AI chatbot said it had banned a cluster of accounts likely based in China for attempting to "manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI". Among other content, the accounts generated a comic strip showing a cigar-chomping businessman holding bags marked with dollar signs as a family reacted in shock to their electricity bill, according to the San Francisco-based company. OpenAI said a second cluster of accounts had generated content casting US tariffs as an effort to "dominate technological competition" with China, and specified that the material should not mention Chinese leader Xi Jinping. While the campaign sought to "exploit and amplify existing public concerns" about energy prices, OpenAI found no evidence that it had a "meaningful" influence, the company said.

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.