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

The World Fencing League is sticking to its guns in its quest to showcase the sport “in a dynamic format and grow its global fan base”, ahead of the trailblazing competition’s Hong Kong debut next year. Founded by Olympic bronze medallist Miles Chamley-Watson, the WFL staged a glitzy, sell-out inaugural event in Los Angeles seven months ago. But the league last month found itself in a squabble with the International Fencing Federation (FIE), after the global governing body issued a waspish...

Elon Musk bet nearly half a billion dollars that political spending could keep Washington friendly to his sprawling business empire. On Tuesday, that bet came up short. As Democrats recaptured control of the US Congress in the midterm elections, the world’s richest man found himself facing an abruptly altered political landscape. After pouring a record-breaking US$474 million into political groups – overwhelmingly backing Republicans – Musk now faces a divided Washington keen to examine his...

Manager Gareth Ainsworth has welcomed the return of one of his “star signings of the summer” as Gillingham prepare for their FA Cup clash.

China’s second-largest contract chipmaker, Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor, is aggressively expanding into silicon photonics, as the company looks to capture the next wave of the global artificial intelligence infrastructure boom. Speaking on an earnings call with analysts on Thursday, Hua Hong chairman and president Bai Peng said the company planned to significantly expand its footprint in silicon photonics – a critical technology used in AI optical modules – during its next major capacity...

It was not just the “basic stuff” on the court: Wang Xinyu also wants to improve the mental side after her season ended on Thursday at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open. Tournament sixth seed Wang did not look at her best throughout the match as she lost 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to Antonia Ruzic, failing to get past the second round on her third appearance in the city. The world No 81 Croatian, who is ranked more than 40 places below Wang, will now play Philippines sensation Alexandra Eala, who beat the...

Dong Mingzhu chairs Gree Electric Appliances, a home-appliance giant based in southern China’s Guangdong province. Having worked her way up from a frontline sales job, she is one of China’s best-known figures in manufacturing. As a deputy to the National People’s Congress, she has long advocated for manufacturing innovation, higher incomes and greener consumption. In this interview, conducted when she was named an inaugural “Cool Leader” at an assembly of the UN Environment Programme’s Cool...

Invicta Dynamos face two tough games this weekend as they embark on league and cup action.

Gareth Ainsworth knows Gillingham will be under pressure to deliver in the FA Cup this Saturday.

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

Manager Gareth Ainsworth has told Gillingham fans to direct any criticism his way rather than towards his players.

The Democratic Party’s sweeping midterm election victory and takeover of both houses of Congress could slow down the pace of artificial intelligence development in the US, with implications for both the global AI trade and the technology rivalry between Washington and Beijing, analysts said. The assessment comes as concerns about AI and the data centres that power it proved to be a contributing factor in the backlash against the Republican Party and US President Donald Trump, a vocal supporter...

DeepSeek is committed to open-source artificial intelligence to accelerate the arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI), even if it heightens safety risks, a company engineer says, defying growing safety concerns from the US and scrutiny in China over whether the strategy poses national security risks. Speaking on Tuesday on an AI panel at the World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, DeepSeek engineer Gao Xi said open-source development promoted shared innovations and technical...

Chinese basketball icon Yao Ming said children should find a hobby and not view sport as the way to manage stress, while speaking with local primary students in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The former Houston Rockets star took to the pitch at the Hong Kong Football Club alongside Olympic gymnastics champion Li Xiaopeng and table tennis legend Deng Yaping, leading about 25 schoolchildren through a session in non-contact touch rugby. The three Laureus World Sports Academy members were taking part in...

Gillingham moved up into a qualifying position in the Jersey Mike’s Trophy group stage on Tuesday night, despite not playing.

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings has rolled out its latest flagship artificial intelligence model, Hy4, seeking to challenge top open-weight rivals with enhanced agentic capabilities built to power its enterprise software ecosystem. Released on Wednesday, the large language model (LLM) introduced visual understanding for the first time. Hy4 could process images, analyse complex charts and conduct visual mathematical reasoning, according to the Shenzhen-based company. Tencent said the release...

Former Chinese women’s team captain Shang Chunsong credited her gymnastics career for laying the groundwork after she clinched gold at the parkour World Cup, while also voicing hope that the sport will one day be included in the Olympics. The 30-year-old won the women’s freestyle title at the FIG Parkour World Cup leg in Beijing, sealing the 2026 overall series crown in an event that attracted more than 100 competitors from over 20 countries and regions. Sporting green hair, Shang had a starkly...

For autonomous vehicles, the hardest lessons to learn are the ones that can test the skills of even the most experienced human drivers: an errant cyclist darting through a red light, or an animal bolting into oncoming traffic from behind a corner. The Chinese tech giant Baidu has developed a new AI-driven simulator to prepare its Apollo robotaxis for just such rare but high-stakes road hazards, as the firm looks to gain an edge in the fast-growing self-driving taxi market. The system, Apollo...

Kent head coach Adam Hollioake is to take charge of a team at the Italia T10 Cricket competition - co-owned by arguably England’s best bowler.

Philippines sensation Alexandra Eala said there were few better places to wrap up a tennis season after battling past Emerson Jones at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open on Tuesday. Playing in Hong Kong for the second time, after her debut last year, Eala also said she was “super happy” to come back and start her quest to end the season on a high with a win. The Filipino was set to renew her rivalry with American Alycia Parks in the first round, but the world No 59 from Florida withdrew about...

US artificial intelligence giant Anthropic’s initial public offering prospectus has exposed a vast profitability gap between it and rivals Z.ai and MiniMax, highlighting the challenges facing China’s AI model developers in turning technological advances into sustainable businesses. The Claude developer’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week revealed a significant financial advantage over its most direct Chinese counterparts, despite the latter’s continued...

Defender Andy Smith struck a late winner for Gillingham and boss Gareth Ainsworth hailed the defender as “sensational”.

A year after stepping away from competition, Olympic shot put champion Gong Lijiao has lost more than 30kg (66lbs) after refusing to “lie flat” during her retirement. The 36-year-old submitted her official retirement paperwork after the National Games in November last year. She said then she aimed to lose 25kg before pursuing marriage. “I also want to become beautiful. You will surely see a different version of me,” Gong said. Speaking to Chinese media in an interview published on Monday, the...

China’s “Lipstick King” has traded make-up swatches for artificial intelligence. Top live-streamer Li Jiaqi on Monday evening teamed up with an executive from Alibaba Group Holding to pitch AI subscriptions, selling nearly 100,000 monthly packages in just 30 minutes, according to data provided by the e-commerce giant. The broadcast on Taobao and Tmall – Alibaba’s largest domestic online marketplace – marked the first time generative AI products have taken centre stage during the annual Singles’...

Match-winning defender Andy Smith was delighted with Gillingham’s response to a heavy home defeat after a week of some hard truths.

The answer to the question of just how far a group of athletes and coaches could go relying almost entirely on passion was perhaps found out there on the court at the Ma On Shan Sports Centre on Sunday. It was the fourth and final stage of the Chinese Men’s Handball Super League. On the final day, Hong Kong, taking part as an invited team, narrowly beat Anhui 29-28 in the play-off for third place to secure a podium finish on their national league debut. Head coach Hui Man-pong heaped praise on...

Empyrean Technology, China’s top provider of electronic design automation (EDA) tools, plans to acquire a majority stake in a domestic start-up, reinforcing Beijing’s drive for tech self-sufficiency and bolstering support for Huawei Technologies’ semiconductor ambitions. The Beijing-based firm said in a Shenzhen Stock Exchange filing on Sunday that it would acquire a 50.38 per cent stake in Easy-Logic Technology for 218.8 million yuan (US$33 million). Once completed, the start-up would be...

The draw has been made for the third round of the FA Vase.

For the first time, the amount of inference data generated by artificial intelligence systems in China has surpassed the amount of data used to train those systems, according to a new government-backed report, illustrating how the country is increasingly adopting AI at scale. The report released on Saturday by the China Centre for Information Industry Development (CCID), which operates under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), cited recent official data showing that...

Harry Waldock made an instant impact on his return to the Gillingham starting line-up, showing the benefits of his hard work.