China’s Xi says AI ‘should not be a solo performance by a single country’
The Chinese leader called for more international cooperation in developing the technology at a conference in Shanghai. Published On 17 Jul 202617 Jul 2026 Artificial intelligence should not be dominated by one country, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said, urging international cooperation on development at a major conference in Shanghai. Xi also emphasised the importance of a “people-centred” approach to AI technology in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference on Friday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The conference showcases the cutting-edge technology Xi hopes will soon rival that of the United States. Chinese AI models are gaining ground on the most powerful offerings from the US, attracting global users with lower costs. But how to govern the booming sector has become a topic of debate amid concerns over the deployment of AI in military combat and its use by hackers or criminals. In his address, Xi spoke of China’s role in ensuring equitable access to AI capacity-building for developing countries to prevent the creation of “new historical injustices”. To that end, he announced China’s plans to cooperate with international bodies, including from Africa, Latin America, Asia and BRICS countries, to provide AI-related opportunities. “AI development should not be a solo performance by a single country, but a symphony of international cooperation,” Xi said. “We should jointly oppose overstretching the national security concept in the field of AI or placing one country’s security over that of others.” ‘Ensure AI is always under human control’ The US and European Union have imposed restrictions on Chinese tech imports, citing national security concerns, while recent tussles between Washington and American AI labs have raised questions about who controls access to top technology. Advertisement In May, the US Commerce Department issued a notice affirming its restrictions on shipments of semiconductors to subsidiaries of Chinese companies located outside China amid concerns about loopholes in Washington’s export control regime. The guidance said its licensing requirements for the export of advanced AI chips applied to all businesses with headquarters or a parent company in China. At Friday’s conference, Xi also stressed the need for a “people-centred” approach to AI with humans at the wheel. “We should put in place laws and regulations, technological monitoring, early warning, and emergency response systems, in order to … ensure AI is always under human control,” he said. AI has become a strategic pillar of China’s industrial policy, driven by state investment aimed at building a domestic ecosystem, from chip production to consumer use. Daily consumption in China of “tokens” – the industry unit of AI usage – has increased a thousandfold over the past two years, according to state media citing officials. As Al Jazeera reported earlier, China, while lagging behind the US in access to the most cutting-edge semiconductors, holds the edge in powering the huge data centres that run on AI chips. A typical data centre can consume as much electricity as 100,000 households, while next-generation “hyperscale” facilities can gobble up as much power as two million homes, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). China’s access to an abundant supply of cheap electricity places it in the ideal position to meet such colossal energy demands. It already generates more than twice as much electricity as the US, a lead that is expected to widen amid an aggressive state-led investment in the country’s energy grid. Adblock test (Why?)
John Esposito transformed how the West understood Islam
John L Esposito, a prominent scholar of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University, passed away on July 15, 2026, due to complications from heart surgery. He was a towering intellectual who published more than 55 books, mainly with Oxford University Press, which have been translated into dozens of languages. He uniquely shaped the modern study of Islam and Muslim societies during the late 20th and early 21st century, particularly in the area of Islam-West relations during key moments of friction following the 1979 Iranian revolution and 9/11. John was born into a working-class Italian-American family in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940. His worldview was shaped by his devout Catholic mother and his father’s commitment to social justice. He aspired to become a Catholic priest and, at a young age, joined the strict Capuchin Franciscan Order. John left the seminary before ordination and opted for graduate school instead. He earned a doctorate in religious studies at Temple University under the supervision of Ismail al-Faruqi, the late Palestinian-American scholar of religion. John’s family and friends questioned his career choice because they feared for his employability. When he entered the job market in 1974, there was only one advertised position in Islamic studies. The study of religion, particularly Islam, was absent in many institutions of higher learning, and international relations programmes at universities ignored the role of religion in global affairs. Telling stories was one of Professor Esposito’s many passions. Reflecting on his career, he frequently joked that he owed his livelihood to two famous “radical” Muslims, one Shia and the other Sunni: Ayatollah Khomeini and Osama bin Laden. Advertisement After the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, interest in the relationship between Islam and politics skyrocketed in the West. The same happened after 9/11. John’s expertise was suddenly in high demand. He responded by publishing several groundbreaking books on the relationship between Islam and politics, Islam’s normative ideals, Islam-West relations, and the diverse political and social structures of Muslim societies. He was frequently quoted in the media, and governments now sought his counsel. This story about John’s career, however, has a steep downside. The Western interest in Islam and Muslims emerged due to threats to United States national security. This meant the ability to understand this topic in a free, unbiased and independent way was absent for most Westerners. The enveloping context that shaped the policy and public debate on Islam and Muslims was themes of political revolution, mass violence and perceived threats to global order. John’s educational efforts were always an uphill battle. Establishment academics dominated the intellectual, policy and media debates. Bernard Lewis wrote about the alleged “Roots of Muslim Rage” at modernity that purportedly explained turmoil in the Middle East. Around the same time, Samuel Huntington advanced a popular thesis on the “Clash of Civilizations”. These views had a wide following, in part because they reinforced pre-existing Western biases about Islam and Muslims. They were further enhanced by US and Israeli national security narratives about an alleged Islamic threat in the aftermath of the Cold War. John was an early and courageous scholar who challenged Orientalist misrepresentations of Islam and Muslims in an era of deep polarisation. His scholarship created room for understanding in lieu of prejudice, and his intellectual insights allowed a younger generation of scholars to build on and expand upon his pioneering research. Professor Esposito advanced a new understanding of religion by criticising the dominant social science theories about political development. He astutely drew attention to a “secular bias” that informed mainstream intellectual debates in the West on the relationship between religion and politics. These modernisation theories purported to be universally applicable based on the assumption that religion was a relic of the past that no longer mattered in the modern world. In truth, these claims were ideologically biased, based on a set of specifically Western experiences. By contrast, John interpreted the politics of the Muslim world not from a Western normative framework but rather from the Muslim world’s own experience. In other words, not from the outside in, but rather from the bottom up, from the perspective of the masses, many of whom held onto a religious identity. In doing so, he advanced a historically grounded and sociologically compelling analysis of religious politics in the Islamic world. Critiques of the legacy of colonialism, authoritarianism and US foreign policy were central to his intellectual work. Advertisement Professor Esposito’s work on political Islam was pioneering. He wrote about the social conditions and collective aspirations that rendered political Islam appealing to diverse constituencies across the Middle East and the broader Muslim world. While most mainstream Western scholars and liberal intellectuals focused on the Islamist desire to implement “Sharia”, Esposito focused on the core aspirations that animated political Islam: dignity, justice, self-determination, and opposition to external domination. These same aspirations made political Islam a resilient and enduring force. In reflecting on John Esposito’s legacy, I’m reminded of an observation by Edmund Burke III. Commenting on the work of the late Marshall GS Hodgson, author of The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History of a World Civilization, Burke noted that Hodgson, like Esposito, refused to view Islam as the “other”. Instead, he understood the Islamic tradition as “a venture alongside others that marked human efforts to bring about a just and moral world”. We are unlikely to see a scholar in our lifetime again who can match John Esposito’s moral and intellectual caliber. His impact on our collective education and understanding of Islam-West relations is unique and immeasurable. Those who care about universal values rooted in international law, human rights, democracy, and cross-cultural understanding are deeply in his debt. John Esposito is survived by his wife of 61 years, Jean Esposito, his partner and primary supporter in all his endeavours, and the enduring love of John’s life. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy. Adblock test (Why?)
Why is Pakistan’s Sindh province facing a major child HIV outbreak?
Islamabad, Pakistan – At least 130 people, most of them children, have tested HIV-positive in connection with an outbreak at a government-run hospital in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, with officials adding that the number has risen sharply in recent weeks. Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said earlier this week that more than 10,500 people were screened in and around Kulsum Bai Valika (KBV) Hospital, a Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution (SESSI) run facility, where 120 tested positive. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list A separate screening drive at another SESSI facility in Karachi’s Landhi area identified 10 additional cases. SESSI is an autonomous provincial organisation that provides healthcare, medical facilities and financial assistance to industrial and commercial workers and their dependants across Sindh. The crisis at KBV Hospital first came to public attention in November 2025, when residents of Karachi’s SITE Town noticed a cluster of infections among children treated there. Officials, however, trace the outbreak to October 2025, when the first six HIV-positive cases were reported to the provincial health department. So what happened, what caused the outbreak, and why does Sindh continue to witness such episodes? What has happened this month? Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was briefed on July 14 that two internal inquiries had found serious lapses, including poor adherence to infection prevention protocols, inadequate use of protective equipment and improper handling of single-use syringes. The first inquiry, submitted in November last year, identified 16 HIV-positive children, all linked to the KBV’s paediatrics department. Advertisement A second, more comprehensive inquiry, submitted to the provincial ombudsman on June 19, confirmed 78 infections and six deaths, holding named hospital staff responsible for administrative and supervisory failures. The number has since increased, with the latest infections confirmed at the SESSI facilities. Minister Ghani said all cases had been traced to exposure before October 2025 and that screening would continue “despite fears that additional cases may emerge”. Thirty-seven doctors and hospital staff were issued show-cause notices on July 3 and given 14 days to respond. Ghani said criminal cases and dismissals would follow for those found responsible. Asked about his own accountability, he said he had “accepted indirect responsibility” and would not object to resigning if it helped resolve the crisis. A HIV patient displays a new syringe and distilled water he received at Pakistan Society, a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Drop-In Centre in Karachi, on November 30, 2013 [Akhtar Soomro/Reuters] Is Sindh’s outbreak an isolated case? Responding to questions after a Sindh High Court petition alleged the outbreak stemmed from reused syringes, Ghani told reporters on July 4 that the infections were not caused by syringe reuse. He argued that KBV Hospital uses auto-disable syringes that cannot be reused. The official inquiries, however, pointed to a broader breakdown in infection prevention, citing failures that included poor adherence to safety protocols, inadequate use of protective equipment and improper handling of single-use syringes. The petition before the Sindh High Court alleges the number of infections is significantly higher than officially acknowledged. This is not the first large HIV outbreak reported in Sindh. Last December, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS identified the crisis in Pakistan as one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, comprising of 21 nations, with annual infections rising 200 percent over 15 years, from 16,000 in 2010 to 48,000 in 2024. In a joint World AIDS Day statement issued on December 1, the agencies estimated that about 350,000 people in Pakistan are living with HIV, with nearly 80 percent unaware of their status. The statement also noted that HIV infections among children aged 0 to 14 increased from 530 in 2010 to 1,800 in 2023. Only 38 percent of children living with HIV are receiving treatment, while just 14 percent of pregnant women requiring therapy to prevent mother-to-child transmission receive it. Advertisement In June, physicians writing in British medical journal The Lancet HIV argued that Pakistan’s epidemic is now driven “in large part, by the health-care system itself”, pointing to repeated outbreaks linked to unsafe medical practices. That assessment, however, remains inconclusive. While repeated outbreaks have highlighted unsafe medical practices, researchers say Pakistan also lacks comprehensive surveillance to determine how many HIV infections nationwide originate in healthcare settings compared with sexual transmission, mother-to-child transmission or intravenous drug use. Syed Faisal Mahmood, professor of infectious diseases at Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, urged caution. “At this point in time, it is impossible to say which of the two are the dominant drivers of infection,” he told Al Jazeera. For sexual transmission, mother-to-child transmission and intravenous drug use, he said, “the numbers are somewhat more reliable, because a great deal of work has been done” through established surveillance. “There is no systematic surveillance looking at how many people have acquired HIV from visiting clinics, hospitals, or informal care providers,” he said. The pattern extends beyond KBV Hospital. Three other hospitals in Karachi have also reported increasing numbers of paediatric HIV patients, including one facility where admissions rose from 10 cases in 2024 to 70 in 2025. The Pakistan Medical Association warned in April that 329 of the 894 HIV cases recorded in Sindh during the first quarter of 2026 involved children, describing the figures as “merely the tip of the iceberg”. For Mahmood, these outbreaks point to a much broader problem. “For many of us working in this field, this is a systemic problem,” he said. “It is not linked to any one hospital or healthcare system. Poor injection safety protocols are pervasive throughout the entire country and across all levels of healthcare.” He added that children are not the only victims, pointing to outbreaks in dialysis centres linked to unsafe blood transfusions. Pakistan also has one of the world’s highest hepatitis C burdens, he said, “driven by the same mechanism and the same underlying reasons” as the HIV cases now emerging. What is being done? The Sindh High Court has given the provincial government until July 20 to respond to
Murshidabad Train Accident: 2 students among 3 killed in train-van collision in West Bengal
3 people, including 2 schoolchildren, died Friday morning after a school van was hit by a local train at Karna Subarna station in Murshidabad, West Bengal. The van was crossing tracks around 7 AM when the level-crossing gate was reportedly open.
‘I’ll come back as a Ghost’: Sonam Wangchuk vows to march to Parliament, doctor issues warning
As of July 17, Wangchuk’s health parameters as of 9:30 am showed his weight at 56.55 kg, a reduction of 350 grams in 24 hours. Blood pressure was 108/68, blood sugar 70 mg/dL, and pulse rate 72 per minute.
Maharashtra Horror: 12-year-old girl killed at home, sexual assault suspected; probe underway
A 12-year-old girl was found dead in her Wardha, Maharashtra home on Wednesday. Police suspect sexual assault before she was bludgeoned with a stone.
At a Houston funeral home, a community comes together to pay respects to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
As his sons greeted visitors near the casket of their father, who was killed in an ICE operation, some at the public visitation said they knew him well — even if they’d never met him.
New flooding haunts Hill Country residents a year after historic disaster
Residents experiencing flooding on Thursday similar to 2025’s catastrophic July 4 event describe a new sense of preparedness but the same intense anxieties.
‘Shadow government’: Trump claims intel community bragged about hiding Chinese meddling
President Donald Trump accused members of the U.S. intelligence community Thursday night of operating a “shadow government” to allegedly conceal evidence of China’s efforts to influence U.S. elections, seizing on newly declassified emails that he says reveal a bitter internal dispute about how Beijing’s activities should be characterized. Trump did not claim China changed votes or altered election results. Instead, he argued Beijing engaged in an influence campaign aimed at shaping U.S. public perceptions. Trump claimed intelligence officials kept significant reporting out of his presidential briefings and highlighted an email in which a National Security Agency analyst allegedly wrote, “We have deliberately massaged our one pending (presidential daily brief) to avoid any direct links to the election.” TRUMP RELEASES DECLASSIFIED ELECTION INTELLIGENCE, SAYS IT REVEALS ‘SHOCKING VULNERABILITIES’ “Those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden,” Trump claimed. “They did not disclose (it) to me as president or to anyone else.” Trump used the disclosures to press Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, casting the newly released intelligence as evidence that lawmakers must tighten federal election rules before the midterms. “Most importantly, addressing this crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the SAVE America Act,” Trump said. “These reforms are urgently needed to stop the vulnerabilities that I’ve mentioned.” The SAVE America Act passed the House in February but stalled in the Senate in March, when a 53–47 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance it. Trump urged Americans to call their senators and representatives and demand its passage “without delay.” REPUBLICAN SAYS TRUMP’S TOP ELECTION PRIORITY ‘DEAD’ IN SENATE AS GOP FRACTURES AHEAD OF MIDTERMS The legislation would require documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections, photo identification to vote and ongoing state efforts to identify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls. Absentee voters would be required to submit a copy of an eligible photo ID when requesting a ballot and again when returning it. Trump also called for eliminating mail-in voting except in cases of illness, disability, military deployment or travel. The current text of the SAVE America Act does not include that prohibition — it permits absentee voting subject to identification requirements. Trump urged Americans to call their representatives and demand the bill’s passage “without delay.” The newly released emails show that analysts disagreed over whether any alleged Chinese influence operations and intelligence collection should be explicitly linked to elections. After the NSA analyst described “massaging” the President’s Daily Brief, other intelligence officials questioned the decision, with one writing that “the mind boggles” and another calling the approach “highly irregular.” One official alleged the intelligence community was “deliberately avoiding mentioning a connection to elections for non-substantive reasons,” according to a November 2020 email. That official sought to reconnect the intelligence to the election-security assessment and prevent what another described as an “analytic objectivity mistake.” The documents, however, do not establish Trump’s broader allegation of a politically motivated conspiracy. Instead, they portray competing intelligence assessments over whether China’s actions amounted to an effort to influence the presidential contest or a broader campaign focused on U.S. policies, public opinion and issues important to Beijing. Trump went further Thursday, claiming an FBI official wrote that she was running a “shadow government” to prevent the China intelligence from becoming public. China denied any interference in U.S. elections. “China has all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in other’s internal affairs,” Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Chang told Fox News Digital. “The U.S. election is an internal matter of the U.S. Its outcome is determined by the votes of the American people. China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.” Trump is still expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in September, a senior White House official told Fox News. Trump directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Justice Department, FBI and CIA Thursday to investigate why the intelligence was withheld, fire anyone found to have participated in a cover-up and pursue criminal charges “if appropriate.” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in response to the address: “Americans heard the president once again repeat claims about our elections that have been investigated for years and repeatedly rejected by the Intelligence Community.”
Trump releases declassified election intelligence, says it reveals ‘shocking vulnerabilities’
President Donald Trump addressed the nation Thursday evening on “free and fair” elections, announcing the declassification of critical intelligence that reveals, as he said, “shocking vulnerabilities” related to “hacking, exploitation and foreign interference.” “This vital information is for many years been covered up and hidden from you,” Trump said. “The American people are beautiful, our great American people. But that all changes right now.” Trump did not claim China changed votes or altered election results. Instead, he argued Beijing engaged in an influence campaign aimed at shaping U.S. public perceptions. Documents were posted to the White House website during the president’s speech. TRUMP KEEPS ‘REALLY BIG’ ADDRESS UNDER WRAPS AS WHITE HOUSE SAYS ‘NOBODY KNOWS’ WHAT HE’LL REVEAL The speech came as his administration has aggressively pushed policies, legislation and executive orders to secure U.S. elections. “The documents we will release starting tonight have been gathered by the White House Government Transparency Taskforce, a great group of people, along with the staff of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, supported by our top intelligence agency chiefs, who have all personally reviewed the findings we are presenting this evening and fully confirmed their authenticity,” Trump said Thursday. Leading up to the address, Trump teased that his speech would be “big news.” Trump touted his new Trump Accounts and spoke about how his administration has lowered drug prices, reduced crime and strengthened the border — with the main focus on securing American elections. Trump said the disclosures underscore its push for stricter election security measures and renewed calls for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, while critics have disputed many of Trump’s claims about the 2020 election and widespread voter fraud. Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin were among the White House officials seated in the East Room. The White House released four sections of documents focused on alleged vulnerabilities in electronic voting and ballot-counting systems, China’s acquisition and exploitation of American voter data, Michigan voter-registration investigation and noncitizens on state voter rolls. Election law expert and senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom Hans von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital that Trump’s allegations are shocking, especially given that they are from reports produced by the CIA, FBI, and other intelligence agencies. “The president should be commended for declassifying and releasing the reports that support his claims so they can be reviewed in depth,” said von Spakovsky. Trump said China obtained information about American voters such as names, addresses, phone numbers, political affiliations and other personal information to form a dedicated unit to exploit the voter data it had acquired. “China has all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in other’s internal affairs. The U.S. election is an internal matter of the U.S. Its outcome is determined by the votes of the American people,” Chinese Embassy spokesperson Mr. Liu Chang said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S,” Chang added. Reports from the CIA and National Security Agency about China’s interference were kept out of Trump’s almost daily presidential briefings, Trump claimed. Trump also said Congress also was not notified. TRUMP THREATENS TO EXPAND STRIKES ON IRAN, SAYS POWER PLANTS ARE NEXT TO GO: ‘HIT THEM HARD’ Trump called on the director of national intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI and the CIA to launch an investigation and, if appropriate, fire and press criminal charges against those involved. “To the extent that these intrusions into our election system were covered up, as the president alleges, and hidden from the public, Congress, state election officials, and leadership in the Executive Branch, Pres. Trump is right that everyone involved in that coverup should be investigated and prosecuted for any criminal violations of the law,” said von Spakovsky. Trump again highlighted the issue of noncitizens on voter rolls as he renewed his push for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship and photo identification to register and vote in federal elections. “I’ve also ordered DHS to notify every state about noncitizens on their voter rolls and direct them to remove all ineligible voters from the lists immediately,” said Trump. The Department of Homeland Security told election officials in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania that a preliminary review identified more than 256,000 potential noncitizens on the states’ voter rolls, according to letters obtained by Fox News Digital. Trump has pushed to get the SAVE America Act passed, which includes the long-sought voter ID and citizenship verification — which Republicans say is key to ensuring elections are safe and secure. Trump has tried to attach the stalled election legislation to defense spending, holding housing legislation hostage and playing Senate primary politics. Republicans are running against the clock to pass the stalled elections bill before the party’s midterm window narrows. Democratic lawmakers swiftly condemned Trump’s remarks and criticized the SAVE Act. “Not now. Not ever. The SAVE Act is dead on arrival in the United States Senate,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X reposting Trump’s speech. “Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. And now he’s trying to rig this year’s election with the SAVE America Act to make it harder to vote for millions of women, veterans, rural folks, & voters of color,” wrote Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley. “Tonight seems to be the ceremonial kickoff of President Trump’s campaign to interfere in the November election. Trump has badly lost independent voters, even MAGA is disheartened; he is failing and unpopular, and he’s dragging his party down with him in the midterms,” said Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.