Free boba and “red envelopes”: China’s AI giants launch marketing blitz for Lunar New Year

5 February 2026 at 16:05

Chinese artificial-intelligence titans are gearing up for an intense marketing blitz in the run-up to the Lunar New Year, dishing out digital “red envelopes” filled with cash, giving away bubble...

$50 on war in Iran: How geopolitical bets have surged on Polymarket, in five charts

Rest of World

By: Hazel Gandhi

5 February 2026 at 06:00

Want to bet on whether the U.S. will attack Iran? An increasing number of people are using Polymarket and similar online prediction markets to gamble on war and other geopolitical...

China is running the EV playbook on humanoid robots — and it’s working

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

5 February 2026 at 04:00

While Silicon Valley spent 2025 polishing its marketing decks for the humanoid future, China was busy shipping the robots. Nearly 90% of all humanoid robots sold globally in 2025 were...

G1 Robot, a humanoid agent AI avatar by Unitree Robotics, takes center stage at the Web Summit Qatar 2026

China prioritizes investments outside the U.S.

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

5 February 2026 at 04:00

China’s growing distrust of the West is showing in its investment playbook. Only 2.6% of China’s total foreign direct investment announced in 2025 went to North America, according to data...

Chinese and Saudi guests pose at the NING Service center in Riyadh, which is Catl's largest new energy aftermarket facility outside China.

The volunteer Wikipedia army protecting against AI slop

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

5 February 2026 at 04:00

As Wikipedia takes on a critical role in shaping artificial intelligence tools, its content moderators are feeling the pressure and responsibility of their task. On January 15, Wikimedia Foundation —...

To understand China, we need to understand the Chinese internet

Rest of World

By: Yi-Ling Liu

4 February 2026 at 06:00

To understand China today and where it’ll go tomorrow, we must learn to read the Chinese internet: what goes viral and what disappears just as swiftly, how it shapes and...

Why won’t people buy these tiny electric cars?

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

4 February 2026 at 03:00

Micro EVs are going nowhere, fast. These compact electric cars, typically under 2.5 meters and designed for urban driving with top speeds of up to 100 kilometres (62 miles) an...

A tiny car with a passenger sitting inside drives past in Beijing, China on January 19, 2021.

Is India softening its stance toward Chinese tech?

Rest of World

By: Itika Sharma Punit and Ananya Bhattacharya

3 February 2026 at 03:37

In June 2020, the Indian government abruptly banned 59 Chinese apps to protect the country’s “sovereignty and integrity” amid border tensions. By the end of the year, this number had...

Temu’s global rise runs into a regulatory wall

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

3 February 2026 at 03:00

China’s ultracheap e-commerce app, Temu, took the world by storm, topping download charts in 2023 and 2024. Now, the very tactics that fueled its rise are becoming its biggest problem....

The world is trying to log off U.S. tech

Rest of World

By: Rina Chandran

2 February 2026 at 06:00

In just the past week, France has banned its public officials from using American technology, more governments are considering keeping young people off Silicon Valley’s biggest social media platforms, and...

What it takes to get an H-1B visa in Trump’s America

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

2 February 2026 at 03:00

The U.S. will open registrations for the highly sought-after H-1B visa in about a month. Each year, the visa category receives over five times as many applications as the number...

AI agent Moltbot makes waves in China and Silicon Valley

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

30 January 2026 at 10:32

Artificial-intelligence superusers in China are rushing to test out Moltbot, the AI assistant that has gone viral in Silicon Valley, with cloud providers offering special packages to early adopters. Developed...

AI health care is taking off in China, led by Jack Ma’s Ant Group

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

30 January 2026 at 06:00

Ant Group, Alibaba’s fintech affiliate and parent of China’s ubiquitous payment app Alipay, is racing to lead the country’s digital health market with a chatbot designed to be a wellness...

Beijing enlists AI to bring traditional Chinese medicine into the future

Rest of World

By: Nicole Fan

29 January 2026 at 06:00

At first glance, Que Tang Yu Fang in the Chinese city of Nanjing looks like any other milk-tea shop offering freshly brewed drinks. But step inside, and every order begins...

India’s electric bus push has a deadly blind spot

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

29 January 2026 at 03:00

India’s big cities are learning that electric buses need trained drivers to handle them. Public electric buses in Bengaluru caused 18 accidents, six of them fatal, over 15 months ending...

Meet UpScrolled, the anti-censorship TikTok alternative

Rest of World

By: Rina Chandran

28 January 2026 at 06:00

Within hours of the deal for TikTok’s U.S. operations being announced last week, Issam Hijazi noticed a big uptick in users to his social media platform UpScrolled. That stream of...

When war destroys the internet economy

Rest of World

By: Itika Sharma Punit and Damilare Dosunmu

28 January 2026 at 03:00

Iran was ranked among the world’s rising startup ecosystems as recently as last year. A year later, it is in the middle of a conflict, and a weeks-long internet shutdown...

A radio signal tower stands behind houses with bullet holes in Omdurman, Sudan.

Death of an Indian tech worker

Rest of World

By: Parth MN

27 January 2026 at 06:00

On a warm night last May, Nikhil Somwanshi sent his roommate a WhatsApp message asking him to tell his family that what was about to happen next was an accident....

Nikhil Somwanshi's parents home on 30th October, 2025 in Balad, Maharashtra, India. Photographer : Sameer Raichur for Rest of World

While politicians shape U.S.-China relations, their families turn to the stock market

Rest of World

By: Hazel Gandhi

26 January 2026 at 10:33

In April 2023, Texas Republican Representative Michael McCaul led an official visit by U.S. lawmakers to Taiwan, meeting with senior officials and business leaders to discuss ways to strengthen the...

Is AI a bubble? Davos leaders say no

Rest of World

By: Itika Sharma Punit

23 January 2026 at 06:34

More than 84 world leaders, 800 CEOs, and thousands others gathered amid the Alps this week to attend the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Artificial intelligence —...

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