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China’s Tianzhou-9 cargo spacecraft has successfully docked with the orbiting space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The Shenzhou-20 crew will enter Tianzhou-9 to carry out cargo transfers and other scheduled tasks.

China’s economy expanded by 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2025, according to data released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), signaling resilience amid global uncertainties and domestic pressures. Preliminary estimates put the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) at 66.05 trillion yuan ($9.2 trillion) for the January-June period. In quarterly terms, the first quarter GDP witnessed a growth of 5.4 percent year-on-year while in the second quarter it grew by 5.2 percent year-on-year and 1.1 percent quarter-on-quarter. The NBS said the national economy “withstood pressures, overcame challenges, and maintained overall stability with steady progress.” Large bridge…

BRUSSELS : France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Greece will test a blueprint for an age verification app to protect children online, the European Commission said on Monday, amid growing global concern about the impact of social media on children’s mental health. The setup for the age verification app is built on the same technical specifications as the European Digital Identity Wallet which will be rolled out next year. The five countries can customise the model according to their requirements, integrate into a national app or keep it separately. The EU executive also published guidelines for online platforms to take measures…

In 1905, a silent, 30-minute black-and-white reel captured Peking Opera master Tan Xinpei performing as a general in “Dingjun Mountain” – China’s first-ever film – ushering in an era of visual storytelling for the nation. Now, 120 years later, China has rewritten global box office records with “Ne Zha 2,” an animated epic that stands as the highest-grossing animated film of all time and one of the top five films worldwide by total earnings. In a recent reply letter to eight veteran Chinese film artists, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the country’s film industry to create more outstanding cinematic…

KARACHI : Following the announcement of a countrywide wheel-jam strike, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has invited traders for dialogue, urging them to come to Islamabad for discussions. Speaking to the media at the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce in Karachi, the minister said, “We are ready to sit with traders and explain the government’s position on the issues at hand.” Aurangzeb said the government took concrete steps to stabilise the economy and support the salaried class, investors, and businesses. Clarifying concerns over the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)’s powers, Aurangzeb emphasized that the additional powers granted to the FBR have…

By : Zheng Junfeng, CGTN High-speed trains and futuristic cityscapes often dominate global perceptions of China. Yet as millions of visitors arriving in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing under visa-free schemes, they discover something fascinating and more fundamental: an astonishing abundance of delicious, diverse and affordable food. It is a stark contrast to the cost-of-living crisis squeezing grocery budgets in many Western countries. Hosting the Green Agriculture Forum at Beijing’s third China International Supply Chain Expo gave me, a CGTN anchor, a privileged view. The expo underscored a critical truth: feeding 1.4 billion people remains China’s paramount challenge, no matter how…

Pakistan and China have agreed to launch joint vocational training programs in construction engineering, AI, agriculture, and hospitality management under CPEC’s second phase. During a high-level visit to China from July 6-12, 2025, led by Gulmina Bilal Ahmad, Pakistan’s NAVTTC Chairperson, both countries also initiated steps for mutual recognition of vocational certifications with Saudi Arabia and Oman. The delegation signed multiple MoUs with top Chinese vocational institutes, including agreements to establish the China-Pakistan High-Skilled Talent Training Center and the Huijiang Workshop. This collaboration aims to strengthen Pakistan’s skilled workforce and create new employment opportunities aligned with global market demands.

Buying momentum continued unabated at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index crossing the 135,000 level amid a gain of over 1,000 points during the opening hours of trading on Monday. At 9:35am, the benchmark index was hovering at 135,313.06 level, a gain of 1,013.30 points or 0.75%. Buying was observed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, PSO, SNGPL, SSGC, MEBL, NBP and UBL traded in the green.

AI-powered therapy chatbots may unintentionally stigmatize users with mental health conditions and deliver dangerously inappropriate responses, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University. The study, titled “Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses prevents LLMs from safely replacing mental health providers,” is scheduled to be presented later this month at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. Led by assistant professor Nick Haber of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and computer science PhD candidate Jared Moore, the research assessed five widely available chatbots using standard guidelines that define the traits of an effective human therapist. “These…

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast widespread rain across several parts of the country, including the federal capital, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir over the next 24 to 48 hours. The Met Office said that rain, accompanied by wind and thunderstorms, is likely in various parts of Islamabad, with some areas expected to experience heavy rainfall. “Partly cloudy weather is expected in the capital, however, isolated heavy spells may occur,” a spokesperson from the department said. On Sunday, rain was reported in Murree Mianwali, Attock, Jhang, South Waziristan and Swat. The change…