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The Jeffrey Epstein scandal has spread across global institutions: World Economic Forum president Børge Brende resigned after scrutiny of his ties to Epstein, the Pritzker Architecture Prize announcement has been postponed because of family links, and prominent figures including the Clintons, Lawrence Summers and Bill Gates are facing public questioning or taking responsibility. The episode highlights how associations with Epstein continue to inflict reputational damage and push demands for greater transparency in elite networks.

IDC has cut its 2026 smartphone shipment forecast to about 1.1 billion units, forecasting a roughly 13% decline driven by a memory/storage chip shortage. The disruption favours large OEMs and major memory manufacturers, risks higher prices and delayed product launches, and could lengthen replacement cycles for consumers.

Dongyangguang has moved to acquire control of the vehicle that holds Qinhuai Data’s China business — a RMB 280 billion asset the group helped buy in 2025 — by issuing shares and raising funds. The transaction would bring a top‑tier data‑centre operator into the listed company but raises questions about financing, leverage and governance given Dongyangguang’s heavy borrowings and high shareholder pledge ratios.

China’s stock market closed mixed as targeted rallies in AI compute hardware — particularly PCB and chip-packaging suppliers — lifted a narrow group of stocks while most others fell. The surge reflects investor bets on near-term demand from AI server builds and related capacity expansion, but the market breadth and retail-driven volatility warrant caution.

After a Supreme Court rebuke of its earlier emergency tariff plan, the U.S. administration has implemented a 10% global temporary tariff and signalled it will raise duties to 15% or more for selected countries while publicly sparing China ahead of a planned Trump visit. Officials plan to rely on Section 301 investigations and other statutes, including Section 232 and Section 338, to justify targeted, more permanent levies — a strategy that heightens uncertainty for trading partners and global supply chains.

Chinese cyber authorities allege the United States seized about 127,000 bitcoins tied to Chen Zhi of the Prince Group and that those assets were originally taken by U.S. state‑level hackers in 2020. The allegation frames recent high‑value U.S. crypto forfeitures as part of a broader American practice of using technical and legal tools to assert control over global virtual assets, raising legal, diplomatic and market‑stability questions.

Trip.com Group posted 2025 net revenue growth of about 17% and a near‑doubling of attributable profit, buoyed by a large one‑off gain from selling its MakeMyTrip stake. Two co‑founders resigned and the company is under investigation by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, creating governance and regulatory uncertainty despite solid underlying travel demand.

During a two‑day visit to Beijing, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said China plans to buy up to 120 Airbus aircraft, underscoring the commercial payoff of high‑level diplomacy. The potential order reinforces Airbus’s foothold in China, complicates the competitive landscape with Boeing ahead of a U.S. presidential visit, and spotlights ongoing Sino‑German dialogue on trade imbalances and export controls.

China’s uncrewed delivery sector has entered a rapid commercial phase: leading firms have raised close to CNY10 billion since 2025 and reported cumulative L4 deliveries above 10,000, driven by steep hardware cost declines and supportive policy. Yet technical ‘long‑tail’ scenarios, fragmented standards and scarce local road rights remain major barriers to nationwide scale.

The offshore renminbi strengthened to 6.83605 on February 26 as market sentiment, a softer dollar and heavy exporter FX settlements bolstered the currency. Analysts expect continued near‑term strength but caution that policy guidance and seasonal flows could moderate the one‑sided appreciation through 2026.

ESA has contracted Monaco’s Venturi Aerospace to research lunar rover mobility and survival systems, focusing on suspension, ultra‑deformable wheels, and power and thermal management to withstand extreme lunar conditions. Tests will use a Venturi rover in an ESA‑DLR lunar simulation facility and aim to mature technologies essential for reliable surface operations.

NetEase reports that China’s aggregate AI API call volume has surpassed the United States for the first time, with four Chinese large models filling four of the global top five usage slots. Experts attribute the surge largely to engineering choices that reduce inference costs, enabling mass deployment across consumer and enterprise services.

Beijing has added 20 Japanese firms to an export-control list and placed 20 more on a watch list, targeting dual-use technologies it says would accelerate Japan's remilitarisation. The measures are presented as narrowly focused yet significant: they threaten to slow critical supply chains, raise compliance costs and deepen strategic contestation between China, Japan and their allies.

A reported secondary sale by investor General Atlantic implies a roughly $550 billion valuation for ByteDance, situating the company between Tencent and Alibaba in scale. The figure, unconfirmed by ByteDance, offers a market signal about private demand but should be treated cautiously given regulatory and geopolitical risks.

Skyworth will operate Panasonic‑branded TV sales and distribution in Europe and North America while Panasonic retains control in Japan. The deal, alongside TCL’s tie‑up with Sony, signals a structural shift in the global TV industry toward Chinese firms operating Western channels and Japanese firms focusing on high‑end tech and domestic markets.

China’s internet giants spent heavily over the Lunar New Year to drive mass adoption of AI-native apps, pushing several products into the 100‑million MAU club. The campaigns delivered explosive short‑term growth but leave open the harder tests of retention, monetisation and safe, sustainable deployment.

A 99‑year‑old veteran of a PLA company founded in 1927 used a recent video link with young soldiers stationed in Tibet to pledge a reunion in 2027, when he, the company and the PLA will all mark centenaries. The episode illustrates how China uses personal veteran narratives and unit histories to bind generations, bolster morale and frame the military’s role ahead of major national commemorations.

Iran and Oman met in Geneva to inaugurate a third round of indirect Iran‑US talks, with Tehran outlining demands on nuclear constraints and sanctions relief and Oman offering mediation support. The meeting signals diplomatic intent but substantial obstacles remain, including mutual mistrust, sequencing of concessions, and regional opposition.

A Politico exclusive reported that senior advisers to President Trump privately preferred Israel to strike Iran first, hoping Iranian retaliation would create public support in the U.S. for follow-on American military action. The White House declined to confirm the claim, while the disclosure underscores how domestic political calculations are shaping high-stakes diplomacy and raising the risk of unintended escalation.

A federal judge barred the Pentagon from demoting Senator and veteran Mark Kelly, finding the threatened action violated his First Amendment rights; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has appealed. The case raises critical questions about executive authority, veterans' free speech and the politicization of military personnel decisions.