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Iranian state media reported that the IRGC fired missiles at the USS Abraham Lincoln during the 24th wave of its "True Promise‑4" operations, alongside claims of strikes on multiple U.S. and Israeli targets. The claims remain unverified and, if accurate, imply a significant escalation that increases the risk of direct confrontation between Iran and the United States.

A US B‑1 bomber landed at RAF Fairford after the UK agreed to let American forces use British bases for "specific and limited" defensive purposes in the campaign surrounding strikes on Iran. The deployment sharpens operational reach for the US while raising political and escalation risks for the UK and its allies.

A SoMi report claims Iran has attacked Amazon and Microsoft data centres in the Middle East, framing the strikes as retaliation for alleged intelligence-driven attacks against Iranian leadership. The incident highlights the growing dual-use nature of commercial cloud infrastructure and signals a potential shift toward targeting data centres as legitimate wartime objectives, with wide legal, commercial and strategic consequences.

The White House confirmed President Trump will attend a Dover Air Force Base ceremony on March 7 to receive the remains of six U.S. service members killed in military action linked to Iran. The deaths follow a series of strikes after the February 28 attack that killed Iran’s supreme leader, raising the stakes for further U.S. military and diplomatic responses.

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi will address Chinese and international journalists at a press conference during the NPC session on 8 March, providing an authoritative statement of Beijing’s diplomatic priorities for 2026. The briefing is a key moment for global audiences to gauge China’s stance on US‑China rivalry, regional tensions and economic diplomacy.

OpenClaw’s burst of popularity on GitHub spawned a fast‑moving consumer market in China, where platforms like Xianyu and Xiaohongshu have become hubs for paid installation services, courses and bespoke integrations. The trend exposes how information asymmetry and FOMO convert freely available open‑source tools into paid commodities, often obscuring ongoing costs such as API fees and maintenance.

Oracle and OpenAI have abandoned a planned expansion of a flagship AI data‑centre near Abilene, Texas — part of the broader Stargate programme — after financing stalled and OpenAI’s capacity needs changed. Meta is exploring leasing the stalled expansion, with Nvidia facilitating talks, highlighting chipmakers’ growing influence over where AI compute is built.

A drone strike on an AWS data centre in the UAE triggered a chain of outages that highlighted the strategic fragility of cloud-dependent AI. Cheap Gulf electricity has encouraged large AI data-centre investments, but attacks and geopolitical ties are forcing a re-evaluation of where and how critical compute is hosted.

Chinese researchers report a successful laser communications test linking a ground station to a geostationary satellite 40,740 km away at 1 Gbps with a four‑second acquisition time. If scaled and integrated with reconnaissance satellites and weapons, such links could enable near‑real‑time targeting updates for long‑range anti‑ship strikes while posing new operational and strategic challenges for naval defence and space stability.

China’s 2026 defence budget of 19,095.61 billion yuan — a circa 7% rise — fits an 11‑year pattern of steady, single‑digit increases and sits at about 1.5% of GDP. Beijing frames the rise as defensive and remedial, but even incremental modernisation can reshape regional balances and spur reciprocal responses from neighbours and partners.

Xi Jinping’s 14th visit to the PLA delegation reiterates a durable blueprint for China’s military: firm Party control, institutional and legal reforms, and a technology-driven push to upgrade combat capability. The speech underscores continuity rather than new policy, but its repeated themes deepen the signal that Beijing intends to sustain an accelerated, innovation-focused military modernisation.

China says trainees from Hong Kong and Macau are preparing for possible missions to the Tiangong space station as early as this year, while foreign astronaut selection and training continues on schedule. The declaration is both a technical signal of readiness and a political gesture intended to showcase inclusion and expand China’s role in post‑ISS low‑Earth‑orbit activity.

Iran says US and Israeli strikes since February 28 have destroyed hundreds of civilian buildings and that about 30% of the dead are children and adolescents. Tehran reports over 1,300 killed overall, including more than 170 pupils in a repeatedly struck girls’ school in Minab, and the IRGC has retaliated by striking a US base in the UAE.

Chinese carriers have begun restoring Gulf routes and repatriating hundreds of nationals after regional strikes disrupted air travel. Coordinated action by Beijing’s foreign ministry, aviation regulators and airlines enabled a rapid restart of services and highlighted both humanitarian priorities and broader diplomatic risks tied to Middle East instability.

The recent US‑Israeli strikes on Iran and Washington’s vow to ‘‘flatten’’ its missile industry illustrate a familiar policy of coercion framed as a route to peace. Historical precedents in Iraq, Libya and Syria suggest such tactics may destroy targets but are unlikely to produce lasting stability, instead risking escalation and regional destabilization.

China’s Commerce Ministry warned the Netherlands it will be held fully responsible if Dutch actions again trigger a global semiconductor supply-chain crisis, after reports that the Dutch arm of Nexperia restricted office software access for its Chinese employees. The statement underscores the geopolitical sensitivity of chip supply chains and signals possible regulatory or diplomatic responses from Beijing that could further fragment global technology networks.

China has enshrined a “smart economy” in its 2026 policy agenda, signalling a push to industrialise AI across production, services and consumer markets. Li Meng, a former vice minister, argues that specialised embodied agents — notably companionship robots and smart toys — are likeliest to reach commercial scale first, while technical progress hinges on richer physical world models and hardware advances. She warns policymakers to manage distributional risks and ensure inclusive, human‑centric deployment.

China on March 7, 2026, launched the Communication Technology Experiment Satellite-23, continuing a steady program of experimental communications satellites. The mission underlines Beijing’s push to mature a full commercial-and-strategic space ecosystem, with implications for global telecom markets, military communications, and orbital sustainability.

Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360, warned that large models today are essentially chatbots and argued that industrial deployment of AI requires converting these models into autonomous agents that can coordinate with one another. He urged a focus on multi‑agent systems, infrastructure and integration to unlock real‑world applications across industries.

China’s draft 15th Five‑Year Plan sets out a broad state‑led agenda for 2026–2030 emphasizing maritime development, decisive tech self‑reliance (notably chips and industrial machinery), strategic digital and physical infrastructure, and a controlled widening of service‑sector openness. It pairs industrial prioritisation across near‑term, mid‑term and future sectors with social and energy targets, signalling continuity in state economic planning but with updated strategic priorities.