Daniel Kim — Technology Editor A wave of advanced artificial intelligence models from Chinese firms is rapidly closing the technology gap with U.S. rivals, according to reports. Recent launches from companies including Alibaba, Moonshot, ByteDance, DeepSeek and Z.ai are intensifying competition on performance and pricing, creating what some describe as a “death zone” for developers who lack frontier-pushing technology or … Read more
The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope has discovered 31 ancient quasars, including two that are the oldest ever observed. These objects, including EUCL J172902.75+641018.1, existed when the universe was just 670 million years old—roughly 5 percent of its current age—setting new records for cosmic distance and age. For decades, astronomers have chased the first … Read more
Fossilized human footprints discovered in Saudi Arabia’s Nefud desert indicate that early humans inhabited the Arabian Peninsula much earlier than previously believed. The Nefud desert in northern Saudi Arabia is currently defined by heat and arid dunes, but the geological record reveals a different history. In a discovery that shifts the understanding of early human … Read more
The initiative has seen more than 100 birds released over four years, with some previous releases now returning to the site to nest. The return of the curlew to the lowland landscapes of Britain is a slow game of patience and precise intervention. At Elmley Nature Reserve in Kent, that patience is paying off. According … Read more
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed on July 31, 2026, that the company will launch a unified Copilot “super app” later this year. The application will integrate conversational AI, coding assistance, and autonomous AI agents into a single interface serving both consumer and commercial users to streamline the AI ecosystem. Microsoft is moving away from a … Read more
Seafood Expo Asia and Seafood Processing Asia will take place from September 2–4, 2026, at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore. Organized by Diversified, the fourteenth edition of the event brings together global suppliers and buyers to address Asia’s growing seafood demand through new national pavilions, AI integration, and sustainability initiatives. The global … Read more
Researchers from the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University have identified the tallest known tree in East Asia, a Taiwania fir measuring 84.1 meters. Located in the Daan River valley, the specimen, nicknamed the Heaven Sword of the Daan River, was documented following a decade of LiDAR scanning and ground expeditions. Finding … Read more
Researchers from the Natural History Museum of Denmark have established a new genus of rove beetles named Luffy, after the rubber-bodied protagonist of the manga and anime series One Piece. The discovery, led by Alexey Solodovnikov and PhD student Fang-Shuo Hu, was detailed in a study published June 5, 2026, in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal … Read more
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has launched Qwen3.8-Max, its largest and most powerful AI model to date, in an effort to close the gap between Chinese AI development and U.S. rivals. The model, which was officially launched on Monday, features 2.4 trillion parameters and is designed to compete with global leaders such as Bloomberg, according to … Read more
France became the first European Union country to ban social media for children under 15 after the French parliament approved the law on July 21, 2026. The measure, a priority for President Emmanuel Macron, aims to protect minors from digital risks and will be phased in starting September 1, 2026. The French government is taking … Read more