
Ukraine captures Chinese nationals fighting for Russia, says Zelensky
In a statement on social media platform X, Zelensky said the soldiers were captured in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region with identification documents, including bank cards which had "personal data" on them.Ukraine's forces fought six Chinese soldiers and took two of them prisoner, he said.The post was accompanied by a video showing one of the alleged Chinese captives in handcuffs, speaking Mandarin Chinese and apparently describing a recent battle."We have information suggesting that there are many more Chinese citizens in the occupier's units than just these two," he said."Russia's involvement of China, along with other countries, whether directly or indirectly, in this war in Europe is a clear signal that Putin intends to do anything but end the war," he said.Zelensky called for a response "from the United States, Europe, and all those around the world who want peace".An investigation is under way and the captives are currently in the custody of Ukraine's security service, he added.Ukraine's foreign minister said that he had summoned China's charge d'affaires in Kyiv to "demand an explanation".Writing on X, Andrii Sybiha said: "We strongly condemn Russia's involvement of Chinese citizens in its war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as their participation in combat against Ukrainian forces."He added: "Chinese citizens fighting as part of Russia's invasion army in Ukraine puts into question China's declared stance for peace and undermines Beijing's credibility as a responsible permanent member of the UN Security Council."French newspaper Le Monde has previously reported that it identified around 40 accounts on TikTok's sister app, Douyin - which is only available in China - belonging to Chinese individuals who claim to have signed up with the Russian army.North Korea has sent thousands of troops to aid Russia's war effort against Ukraine, according to Kyiv and Western officials. One of Russia's chief advantages in the war is numbers. There have been reports of Moscow using "meat grinder" tactics to throw huge numbers of soldiers at the front lines and incrementally improve their position.Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukraine's territory, mostly in the east.
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Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
China's rebound has a distinct cool factor: Taosha Wang
HONG KONG, July 28 (Reuters) - The first seven months of 2025 have delivered a whirlwind of news on Chinese technology and business, oscillating between anxiety and euphoria, but what has cut through the noise has been the emergence of a "cool factor". In January, TikTok suspended its U.S. services for one day, when the outgoing administration shut down the app due to its ties to China, before the decision was swiftly reversed by the incoming Trump administration. Days later, Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek shocked the world with its cost-effective, high-performance R-1 reasoning model, triggering an intense debate about who will lead the 'AI race'. And then in early May, U.S.-China tensions reached unprecedented heights, as tariffs jumped above 100%, effectively halting bilateral trade, before de-escalation. By summer, however, China was once again exporting critical rare earth to the U.S. and Nvidia had re-started the sales of its AI chips to China, suggesting a burgeoning trade detente between the world's two largest economies. Amid this volatility, China's capital markets have responded favorably. The MSCI China Index has surged around 25% year-to-date through July 25, outpacing the MSCI All-Country World index's 12% gain and the S&P 500 index's 9% rise. Notably, this strong performance has been driven not just by typical business-cycle fluctuations, but also an appeal rooted in innovation, collaboration and youth culture, suggesting China's next growth cycle could look very different from those in the past. China's evolution from low-cost imitator to global innovator is epitomized by its electric vehicle dominance. Chinese EV leader BYD, which began as a battery maker and currently has a market cap of $150 billion, was once dismissed by Elon Musk for its unattractive products and weak technology. However, a decade of development, supported by state-backed infrastructure including China's 10-million-strong charging network, has propelled BYD past Musk's Tesla in global sales. In 2024, one of every five EVs sold globally was from BYD, whose market share is now double that of Tesla's. Moreover, BYD's vehicles, like many other Chinese EVs, now boast the type of sleek designs and novel amenities associated with its U.S. rival. Beyond product innovations, some Chinese companies are also experimenting with new business models and sales strategies. For example, livestream social shopping, which was pioneered by Alibaba, has been adopted by Amazon, Instagram, YouTube and even Walmart (in collaboration with TikTok) in the U.S. to target Gen-Z and millennial shoppers. New players like Chinese toymaker Pop Mart are also experimenting with fresh business models. Its designer toys are sold in mystery boxes, where sealed packages conceal randomized plush "Labubu" figures, which adorn the luxury handbags of many influencers. This strategy seeks to tap into the thrill of uncertainty, creating viral demand beyond the Chinese domestic market. And this appears to be working. Pop Mart's sales from outside mainland China contributed to nearly 40% of its total revenue in 2024, and its profit in the first half of 2025 is expected to soar by at least 350% year-over-year. Historically, tensions surrounding intellectual property have dogged China's global trade relationships. Today, however, its embrace of open-source collaboration appears to signal a profound shift. China is now the fastest-growing and second-largest contributor of open-source code on GitHub, the world's leading platform for software collaboration. Moreover, Chinese tech giants like Huawei and Tencent rank among the top corporate sponsors of Apache and Linux foundations, major nonprofit organizations that shape foundational technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud computing. DeepSeek's R-1 model exemplifies this strategy. Released under the permissive MIT license, it grants large-scale commercial reuse rights (unlike Google's Apache 2.0 or Meta's Llama licenses) and has fueled countless derivative models globally. Such openness has the potential to build developer loyalty, influence AI standards, and circumvent geopolitical friction. This shift has been underpinned by a focus on developing scientific prowess. In 2024, China led the world in high-quality research publications, according to Nature, holding the top spot for the second consecutive year. Its advantage in publications extends even to semiconductor design and fabrication, a field where U.S. technological superiority is often assumed, with Chinese scholars authoring over half of the most-cited papers in this field in 2024. However, the outlook for the country's businesses is not all rosy. Industrial profits are still shrinking, falling 1.1% year-to-date, despite various government stimulus measures, including a recently expanded consumer subsidy scheme and a central bank-backed initiative for state-owned enterprises to buy unsold homes. And price wars in sectors such as EVs and food delivery have gotten so brutal that the authorities have stepped in to mediate 'irrational' competition. Another structural issue is the country's stubbornly high youth unemployment rate (16-24-year olds excluding students), which remained at 14.5% - well above the 5% rate for the labor force as a whole. If China's future growth is to be driven more by a 'cool' factor, then the career prospects of its youth need to be strong enough to support their distinct consumption preferences as well as their entrepreneurial endeavors. Regardless of these challenges, innovation and open collaboration still have the potential to reshape China's global identity. Importantly, economic growth driven by these factors may be more evenly distributed and idiosyncratic, and therefore less cyclical, compared to China's old economic engines of real estate, infrastructure and production capacity investments. No longer just the world's factory, China is becoming a source of culturally resonant innovation. And as America's track record over the past decades suggests, no one should underestimate the value of cool. (The views expressed here are those of Taosha Wang, a portfolio manager and creator of the 'Thematically Thinking' newsletter at Fidelity International). Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI),, opens new tab your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI,, opens new tab can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn,, opens new tab and X., opens new tab


Metro
12 hours ago
- Metro
What's stopping Keir Starmer from recognising Palestine as a state?
Sir Keir Starmer is coming under a lot of pressure to recognise Palestinian statehood. He's under pressure from 221 MPs – more than a third of all the people who sit in the House of Commons – who collectively signed a letter urging recognition. He's under pressure from Jeremy Corbyn's newly announced left-wing party, which placed alleged UK complicity in the Gaza horror at the centre of its launch, and the significant number of supporters it has attracted. And he's under pressure from top Labour figures, ranging from London Mayor Sadiq Khan to members of his own cabinet, who are pushing him on the matter both publicly and privately. Those calls have grown in the past few days, as images of starving children have been beamed around the world and French President Emmanuel Macron has announced France will formally recognise Palestine as a state. But the Prime Minister has remained firm, insisting he will only press forward at the moment when the move would have the maximum impact. Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here. In a statement released on Thursday night, Starmer said: 'We are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. 'A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.' The UK is deeply entwined in the history of the region currently occupied by Israel and Palestine. In 1916, the British claimed control of the region called Palestine amid the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the following year, Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour said the UK would back a 'national home' for the Jewish people in the area. A little over three decades later, in 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of Israel. The UN admitted Israel as a member in 1949, but not Palestine. It was not until 1988 that Palestinian statehood was recognised by any UN member states, after the Palestinian National Council formally declared independence. Today, 147 of the UN's 193 member states recognise Palestine, including the vast majority of the countries in Asia, Africa and South America. The UK, US, Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are among the nations that do not. In 2014, MPs in the House of Commons voted to 274 to 12 in favour of recognising Palestine as a state. But David Cameron's government responded with a line that remains familiar today – that recognition would wait until it was deemed most appropriate for the peace process. On the face of it, the British government appears to be closer than ever to announcing formal recognition of a Palestinian state. Among the high-profile cabinet members reportedly arguing in favour are Deputy PM Angela Rayner, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood. The UK has also been closely aligning with France on the issue, as part of the E3 group of nations alongside Germany. However, both Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have insisted publicly that the move is only worth making when it would be most effective in the pursuit of peace. On Tuesday, Lammy told the BBC: 'We don't just want to recognise symbolically, we want to recognise as a way of getting to the two states that sadly many are trying to thwart at this point in time.' Labour's election manifesto last year said the party is 'committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.' More Trending The letter signed by 221 MPs, organised by Labour's Sarah Champion, said the announcement of recognition should come at a UN conference co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on Monday and Tuesday. It said: 'British recognition of Palestine would be particularly powerful given its role as the author of the Balfour Declaration and the former Mandatory Power in Palestine. Since 1980 we have backed a two-state solution. 'Such a recognition would give that position substance as well as living up to a historic responsibility we have to the people under that Mandate.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Will there be a bank holiday and trophy parade if England win Women's Euro 2025? MORE: Empty shops to be turned into clubs and bars under new government plans MORE: Trump warns 'there'll be no Europe left' before immediately hitting golf course

The National
14 hours ago
- The National
TikToker hits 3m views praising National's Trump front page
TikTok user Hal_for_NY said Friday's splash, timed to coincide with the president's arrival in Scotland for the opening of a new golf course and meetings with Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Layen, was 'amazing'. The clip has been viewed 3.1 million times and racked up more than 549,000 comments since it was posted on Friday. In the clip, the social media user said: 'Donald Trump is being welcomed to Scotland as a felon and not as a president as his trip is already off to a bad start. "Now, if you didn't know, today Donald Trump is headed to Scotland where he's expected to visit both of his golf courses and celebrate the grand opening of a new golf course, but in preparation for his arrival, Scottish newspaper The National released their front page and it is amazing. Take a look at this: 'Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland'. 'Yeah, not president of the United States. Heck, they even call him 'Republican leader' instead of president. That is how he's going to be welcomed. On top of that, there are protests at both of his golf courses for his arrival.' The social media user goes on to speculate that Trump would have hoped the trip could have provided a 'distraction' to his domestic woes, as his Maga fanbase turn sour on the president over his refusal to release the so-called Epstein files. The results of historic investigations into paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, a former friend of Trump, are potentially explosive and reportedly name him but much of the material remains classified. (Image: Anna Moneymaker, Getty Images) Trump had said during his election campaign he would be open to releasing more – but has since walked this back, saying the case is closed. He also appeared to have been angered by a recent South Park episode which depicted him as literally getting into bed with Satan and having a tiny penis. The social media user added: 'Donald Trump thought he could get away and have a bit of a distraction. He's got so much going on here between the [Epstein] files that he's not releasing, the South Park episode. (Image: Greg Lovett/Palm Beach Post/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images) 'He's not having exactly the time he wants here, so he thought maybe in Scotland he can get away from this and get a distraction. Instead, he's getting the welcome that he so richly deserves. Well done.' It also featured in a video from the popular MeidasTouch YouTube channel which has received 1.6m views. The front page has spread like wildfire in Scotland, the UK and US, with anti-Trump Americans expressing their joy on social media at seeing the president exposed in the media.