… Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration said Saudel is tracking north of the island, where it is expected to gradually weaken and shrink in storm radius, bringing moderate rainfall to parts of northern and southern Taiwan through Friday.
… The completion shows the South China Sea as an increasingly militarised arena of competition between China and the United States and its allies, as both sides jostle for advantages that could prove critical in any future conflict over Taiwan. …
… The new tariffs were imposed on major trading partners like Japan, Brazil and Taiwan under Section 301 of the 1974 US Trade Act, legislation which is designed to target nations that use forced labour. …
… Surging chip stocks also helped push markets in Japan and Taiwan higher. SK Hynix, which is a major supplier to leading AI chip firm Nvidia, saw its shares gain almost 30%, while Samsung was up by 28%. …
… Devices such as Macs and iPhones require microprocessors with “advanced nodes” – essentially computer chip technology that allows them to operate more quickly – most of which Apple has manufactured through TSMC, which is based in Taiwan. …
China’s coastguard and civilian fleet are expanding their presence in the waters east of Taiwan, raising fears that Beijing may be rehearsing a containment strategy that would cut off the self-ruled island from outside trade and assistance. …
… He has previously attributed a decision by TSMC last year to expand its investments in the US to his threats of tariffs on Taiwan and on the global semiconductor business. …
Rene Haas, chief executive of Cambridge-based chip designer Arm Holdings, told the BBC that artificial intelligence will find a cure for cancer beyond human capability in the future, though modelling DNA markers impacted by cancer is currently too complex for both humans and existing computers. Haas also said that AI's rapid growth is being held back by a shortage of chips needed to build data centres.
Rene Haas, chief executive of Cambridge-based chip designer Arm Holdings, told the BBC that artificial intelligence will find a cure for cancer beyond human capability in the future, though modelling DNA markers impacted by cancer is currently too complex for both humans and existing computers. Haas also said that AI's rapid growth is being held back by a shortage of chips needed to build data centres.
China's coastal and southern regions are preparing for days of intense precipitation, with tens of thousands evacuated as Typhoon Narra tracks inland and Typhoon Saudel approaches the eastern seaboard. A rare quartet of storms — Narra, Saudel, Gaenari, and Atsani — are swirling simultaneously across the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea, with authorities closing businesses and suspending tourist operations.
China has finished the first phase of building a man-made island at Antelope Reef in the disputed South China Sea, with satellite images showing the reclaimed feature and initial construction of buildings including a helicopter pad, according to Reuters analysis.
Oil and gold prices climbed on Wednesday as geopolitical tensions escalated, including separate attacks on shipping by the U.S. and Iran-aligned Houthis, and a North Korean missile launch, ahead of U.S. consumer price index data expected to signal potential Federal Reserve rate decisions. U.S. crude rose to $83.94 a barrel and Brent to $89.60 per barrel, while spot gold gained to $4,387.03 an ounce.
More than a million people were evacuated from homes in eastern China, including Shanghai, after Typhoon Dolphin made landfall on Sunday with wind speeds of 150km/h. The storm halted transportation across the region with 1,400 flights cancelled in Shanghai alone, and authorities warn of torrential rains, flooding, and landslide risks through Wednesday.
Typhoon Dolphin lashed Okinawa on Saturday, injuring six people and cutting power to over 50,000 buildings, while China shut ports and raised its emergency response level ahead of the storm's expected landfall between late Sunday and early Monday on its east coast.
Twenty-five US states sued the Trump administration over tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, including the UK, China, and the EU, which came into effect in July over forced labour concerns. The states argued the decision was "arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law," while the White House defended the tariffs as lawful authority to address forced labour practices.
South Korea's Kospi index surged almost 18% on Friday, partly reversing a three-day sell-off, as chip makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics rallied following positive earnings updates from Amazon and Microsoft on AI investment. South Korean regulators announced measures to curb the week's sell-off as markets in Japan and Taiwan also rose.
Apple said it expected significant supply constraints to worsen and spread across its key products due to unexpectedly high demand, with Mac computers already affected and iPhone and iPad expected to follow; the company's shares fell more than 7% on the warning despite reporting a 16% revenue increase to $109 billion and 26% profit increase to $29 billion.
China's coastguard and civilian fleet have expanded their presence in waters east of Taiwan through June and July, marking the first time such patrols have moved east of the island in quick succession, according to analysts. Observers warn the shift may signal Beijing's strategy to surround Taiwan rather than only constrain it in the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC will invest another $100bn in Arizona to expand US production, raising its total US commitment to $265bn and creating tens of thousands of American jobs, according to the Commerce Department. The company also reported a 77% jump in second-quarter net profits to $22bn.
A powerful typhoon that spans 1,000 km at its widest point made landfall in the coastal cities of Taizhou and Wenzhou on Saturday and Sunday, prompting the evacuation of nearly two million people. The storm, the second to hit China in a week, has killed at least 17 people in the Philippines and disrupted flights and train services across China.
Taiwan's defence ministry has restored "anti-communist patriotic education" classes for military academy graduates, ending a 25-year gap since the formal programme ended in 2002. The ministry cited rising military and infiltration threats from China as the reason, with officials noting the need for graduates to understand national security threats and the military's mission.
Lam Wing-kee, a Hong Kong bookseller who fled to Taiwan in 2019 after defying Chinese authorities and selling material critical of political elites, has died aged 70 from lung cancer. He was detained in 2015 alongside other booksellers and later reopened his Causeway Bay Books bookshop in Taiwan.
South Korea has unveiled plans for at least $880bn in investment to expand chip manufacturing and artificial intelligence capabilities, part of a Three Mega Projects initiative to develop new chip production hubs, data centres and robotics technology. President Lee Jae-myung said the plan aims to rejuvenate economies outside Seoul as regional rivals Taiwan, China and Japan invest heavily in chip factories.
A KNUST researcher who studied over 1,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire says cocoa policies must address farmer health and wellbeing alongside production, as climate change affects both crops and farmers themselves, yet farmer concerns are often overlooked.
Asian stock markets suffered steep losses on Monday as investors grew concerned about overvalued artificial intelligence investments and a rise in oil prices following renewed Iran-Israel strikes. US markets recovered some losses with the Nasdaq closing up 0.9% and the S&P 500 up 0.3%, though South Korea's Kospi index fell 8.3% and Japan's Nikkei dropped 3.9%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world's largest chipmaker, has told the BBC that inflation is pushing up costs and has not ruled out price rises, though its CFO said the firm would not introduce sudden "fourfold, fivefold" increases. Any price increases could eventually affect customers' electronic device costs.
China has banned four New Zealand Members of Parliament for a year following their visit to Taiwan in May, a first for the country according to New Zealand's foreign ministry. The MPs—Maureen Pugh, David Wilson, Laura McClure, and Duncan Webb—can have the ban reduced or waived with an apology, though at least one MP said she would not apologize.
The US announced new tariffs of 10-12.5% on dozens of countries, accounting for almost all its imports, over concerns they are not doing enough to tackle forced labour. The 60 trading partners listed—including the UK, the EU, Canada, India and Japan—face the duties because of their failure to address the importation of goods made with forced labour.
The US has announced new tariffs of 10–12.5% on 60 trading partners, including the UK, EU, China, Canada, India, and Japan, over concerns they are not doing enough to tackle forced labour. The targeted countries account for almost all US imports, and the tariffs have not yet been enforced.
U.S. crude futures jumped around 2% to $95.40 a barrel as fresh hostilities flared in the Gulf after U.S.-Iran peace talks stalled, with Iran firing missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain that were thwarted or failed, while AI-driven stock rallies in Asia pushed Taiwan and Japan indexes to record highs.
A technical brief by Dr. Alexander Quaicoe examines Ghana's Free Zones Programme, established in 1995 and launched in 1996 to shift the economy toward export-led growth, using econometric analysis from 1998 to 2022 to assess its impact on exchange rate, economic growth, and inflation while providing reform recommendations.
Nvidia has announced the RTX Spark, a new chip for personal computers designed for artificial intelligence applications, which will be included in Windows PCs from manufacturers including Lenovo, HP, Dell, Microsoft Surface, Asus, and MSI, set for release in autumn.
Shares in Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics rallied on Monday following expectations of meetings between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Korean executives to discuss AI and robotics partnerships. South Korean semiconductor exports surged to a record high in June amid the AI boom.
The US, UK, and Australia will develop uncrewed undersea vehicle technology to protect undersea cables and boost defence under their Aukus military alliance, with the UK contributing £150m and the technology expected to be ready by next year.
Huawei said its high-end chips will have transistor density equivalent to 1.4-nanometre processes in five years, as China seeks to counter U.S. sanctions on semiconductor technology. The company unveiled a new "Tau Scaling Law" principle at a Shanghai semiconductor symposium that focuses on reducing signal and data transit times through chips rather than making transistors smaller.
Taiwan's president Lai Ching-te said Taiwan will not provoke conflict but will not give up its sovereignty, responding to a Trump-Xi summit where China's Xi emphasized Taiwan as the most important bilateral issue. Lai reiterated Taiwan's longstanding position that there is no "Taiwan independence" issue because Taiwan already considers itself a sovereign and independent democratic country.
Nigeria and the United States say they have killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, described by US President Donald Trump as the "second in command of ISIS globally," in a joint operation in the Lake Chad Basin. Al-Minuki was killed along with several of his lieutenants during a strike on his compound in Metele, Borno state, with Nigerian and US forces reporting zero casualties.