Days after the World Fencing League (WFL) said it would start its 2027 season in Hong Kong, the sport’s world governing body has warned athletes and officials against taking part in unauthorised events In an official statement released on Thursday, the International Fencing Federation (FIE) said the league was not an official competition and it had not sanctioned any of its proposed tournaments. Signed by FIE secretary general Gulnora Saidova, the statement also pointed to the federation’s...

This article was first published by The Korea Times in a partnership with the South China Morning Post. Chinese humanoid robot makers are accelerating efforts to gain a foothold in South Korea, moving beyond dance performances and showroom displays to factory trials and commercial deployments, as Seoul ramps up investment in physical artificial intelligence. A growing number of Chinese robotics companies – including Hong Kong-listed UBTech Robotics, start-up Anyverse Dynamics, Shanghai-based...

Manager Gareth Ainsworth wants Gillingham to put past Grimsby misery behind them when the Mariners return to Priestfield on Saturday.

Catch up with all the week’s football fixtures and results here.

Hong Kong won a gold medal at the Asian Para Games for the second day in a row after swimmer Chan Yui-lam defended her 100m butterfly (S14) crown on Thursday. Chan, 23, stormed to gold at Nagoya City General Gymnasium in one minute and 5.19 seconds to finish ahead of host swimmer Aira Kinoshita, who finished in 1:05.56. Fellow Hongkonger Lau Chiu-yee took bronze in 1:07.39. The victory for the regional and Asian Para Games record-holder added to her success earlier this week when she took home...

Unitree Robotics is developing a “self-evolving” feedback loop designed to allow humanoid robots to write code, run simulations and improve their real-world performance independently, founder Wang Xingxing said, in a move that mirrors a broader push towards “self-improving” artificial intelligence. Speaking on Thursday at a physical AI conference hosted by Unitree in Hangzhou, Wang unveiled the project, dubbed “Unitree Rehearsal”, which he called the company’s most important initiative of the...

Gillingham captain Liam Gordon is one of four injured players closing in on a return to action.

Alexandra Eala crashed out in the Ningbo Open last 16 on Thursday as world No 1 Elena Rybakina reached the quarter-finals on her return from injury when opponent Polina Kudermetova retired. Top seed and defending champion Rybakina was cruising 5-0 in eastern China when the world No 105 from Uzbekistan called it quits because of injury. Earlier, Philippine history-maker Eala suffered a battling straight-sets defeat to Diana Shnaider, the Russian world No 13 winning 7-5, 6-4 to book a...

China denied the United States an eighth consecutive women’s team title at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships on Wednesday to win their first gold medal in 20 years. The quartet of Du Siyu, Ke Qinqin, Qiu Qiyuan and Zhang Qingying combined to score 165.764 points, just ahead of the United States and Japan, who finished with 165.531 and 164.063 points respectively. All three countries secured direct passage to the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028. Winning their first title since 2006,...

Defender Andy Smith admitted the Gills had let themselves down last weekend but was pleased with their response against Port Vale.

A knife-wielding intruder is confronted. A car is lifted to free a trapped victim. A pedestrian is pulled from the path of an oncoming vehicle. The scenes described are not from a Hollywood blockbuster, but a promotional clip for a new “guardian” robot created by the Chinese technology firm Unitree Robotics. The footage for the H2-X model, released on Wednesday, underscores a wider shift in strategy by the Hangzhou-based firm, as it focuses on finding practical, real-world uses for its athletic...

Around six years ago, during one of his 105 visits to China, Steve Bellis was approached by a Scotsman at a British Council function. “He said, ‘Remind me to tell you my Stockport County story before I leave’,” Bellis said. “I said, ‘Hang on a minute, I do the Stockport County stories around here’.” The president of the high-flying League One club, which he first joined 37 years ago, Bellis does indeed boast an endless stream of tales about his beloved Stockport. The man from Glasgow’s was...

Catch up with all the week’s football fixtures and results.

Meta Platforms was ordered to pay a groundbreaking US$25 billion civil penalty to the state of New Mexico in a consumer deception case spurred by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The fine issued by state court Judge Francis Mathew is among the largest verdicts issued in US legal history. The award comes after a jury in Santa Fe determined that Meta had violated the state’s consumer protection over 43 million times based on widely viewed deceptive statements made by the company and its top...

Tesla has agreed a deal to integrate Chinese fintech giant Ant Group’s Alipay digital payment software into its vehicles in China, as Elon Musk’s firm steps up efforts to offer localised smart features amid intense competition in the Chinese market. The agreement, signed on Tuesday, will see Tesla roll out an Alipay-powered smart parking service across its Chinese fleet, according to the fintech firm. Neither side revealed a launch date or which car models would receive the feature, though...

Veteran Chinese hurdler Wu Yanni has responded to renewed public criticism following her bronze-medal finish in the 100m hurdles at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, revealing recent physical health struggles and vowing to continue competing for as long as her body allows. In a series of interview videos released on Tuesday and Wednesday, the outspoken athlete addressed accusations of being “high-profile” and “talking big”. “My mother thinks I talk too big, but I don’t think I do,” Wu said....

The US government’s latest ban on Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek could have a chilling effect on the wider American business community and deter companies from adopting low-cost Chinese AI models, industry experts say. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ordered federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products and third-party services built on the Chinese AI model from their IT systems, according to a directive signed in July and published on Monday. The...

Chinese table tennis star Fan Zhendong has again condemned secret filming after photos of a private trip were leaked online. On Tuesday, a self-proclaimed “superfan” uploaded two photo-slide show videos of Fan onto social media, captioning them: “No more hiding, let’s share.” The images showed Fan walking alone through Shanghai Pudong International Airport wearing a mask and hat, showing his movements on escalators and boarding. In one photo taken from just behind him, the poster claimed Fan was...

Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth was left to rue the big missed chance that let visitors Port Vale off the hook.

Gillingham had to settle for a point at home after Port Vale fought back from a goal down at Priestfield.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is set to take the stage in Berlin on Wednesday, as the world’s most valuable company faces heightened investor scrutiny over whether the massive artificial intelligence spending boom – the engine behind the chipmaker’s meteoric growth – can deliver long-term returns. The conference agenda focuses on sovereign AI, industrial automation and operational infrastructure – key sectors where Nvidia hopes to drive demand beyond the handful of US tech giants currently dominating...

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has fully open-sourced an internally developed framework designed to run AI models efficiently, as a senior researcher at the company described the growing divide between open-source and closed-source AI as a battle between “light and darkness”. The company on Tuesday released DeepInfer, an inference framework tailored to support its DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash model on both Nvidia’s SM100 Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) and Huawei...

The growing popularity of Chinese artificial intelligence models has emerged as a key risk factor for Anthropic ahead of its blockbuster initial public offering, according to US research firm Hedgeye Risk Management. “It’s all about Chinese competition when analysing Anthropic,” said Felix Wang, managing director and global tech sector head at Hedgeye. “Many of my clients are asking the same question.” The assessment comes as Anthropic faces renewed investor jitters over whether its massive AI...

Gillingham were forced to make two changes to their team hours before Tuesday’s game against Port Vale.

Follow tonight’s football action in our live blog, including Gillingham’s clash with Port Vale in League 2.

Chinese table tennis star Sun Yingsha has warned fans against organising any birthday celebrations ahead of her turning 26 years old, calling on supporters to redirect their attention to the court. In recent years, supporters of prominent Chinese athletes have increasingly mirrored the entertainment industry’s so-called “fan circles” by organising lavish tributes, including commercial LED billboard campaigns in city centres, charity drives, offline promotional displays and drone light...

China has set up a new state-owned enterprise dedicated to managing the country’s massive data resources, a significant move designed to turbocharge the nation’s artificial intelligence industry and bolster its digital economy. The National Data Group Co – based in China’s “city of the future”, Xiongan New Area in northern Hebei province – is tasked with “developing and utilising data resources, unlocking the value of data elements, serving AI development and fostering a data industry...

Hong Kong’s fencers have set their sights on the Los Angeles Paralympics after winning silver in the women’s foil team event at the Asian Para Games on Tuesday. Lam Ka-man, Yu Chui-yee, Tong Nga-ting and Chung Yuen-ping lost 30-12 to China in the final at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Centre, having come from behind to beat Thailand 30-23 in the semi-final. Despite the presence of veteran Yu, who also took women’s foil category A bronze on Monday, Hong Kong were always chasing gold and trailed...

Skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond is optimistic Kent can compete in County Championship Division 1 next summer.

Changes could be on the cards for Gillingham after their weekend disappointment.