17 h. ago China’s AI and EV boom drives record power demand, widening energy gap with US

China’s total electricity consumption hit a record high of 10.4 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2025, more than double that of the US, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Saturday. The 5 per cent jump from the previous year marked the first time in China’s history that annual electricity consumption had surpassed 10 trillion kWh – the highest in the world and more than the combined total of the European Union, Russia, India and Japan, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing NEA...

Politics

28 h. ago Vietnam’s To Lam eyes supreme power, seeks presidency at party congress

Vietnam’s leaders convene next week for a once-every-five-years congress, where General Secretary To Lam is looking to cement control over the Communist Party ruling one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. The nation of 100 million people is both a repressive one-party state and a regional economic bright spot, with the party seeking to deliver rapid expansion to underpin its claim to legitimacy. But its leaders face challenges from tensions between its main trading partners, the United States...

Politics

30 h. ago Counting China’s wins and losses among ‘swing nations’ in new era of power rivalry

It took the United States less than three hours to stun the world with its abduction of the sitting leader of a sovereign state, but the strategic ramifications of that dramatic operation are likely to reverberate for decades. In laying bare the limits of China’s economic-centric diplomacy towards third countries in its competition with the US, the Venezuela crisis has delivered a stark reminder that spheres of influence continue to shape global politics in this new era of great power...

Politics

48 h. ago Chinese power stocks surge on State Grid’s record US$574 billion investment plan

Shares of Chinese electricity and grid equipment makers surged after State Grid unveiled a 4 trillion yuan (US$574 billion) plan to upgrade the country’s power networks, as surging demand and the global race in artificial intelligence drive investment in energy infrastructure. Baoding Tianwei Baobian Electric, which makes transformers, climbed 4.6 per cent to 14.50 yuan in Shanghai and power equipment manufacturer Henan Pinggao Electric jumped 4.8 per cent to 20.83 yuan. Suzhou Electrical...

Economics

2 d. ago Mapping issues in 7 of 8 power bank rental platforms tested by Hong Kong watchdog

Seven out of eight power bank rental platforms tested by Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog displayed inaccurate navigation or positioning data on map applications, a problem that may waste users’ time and incur extra charges due to delays. The Consumer Council on Thursday also found a significant variance in rental fees across different stations within the same platforms, with charges for a 30-minute rental differing by nearly 1.3 times and the daily cap on charges differing by more than 2.3...

Politics

3 d. ago Chinese risk study finds space solar power stations could accidentally zap satellites

As China pushes to take the global lead in building space-based solar power stations, a new study warns that powerful lasers beaming energy back to Earth could pose serious risks to other satellites in the increasingly crowded low-Earth orbit. If these beams miss their targets – because of tracking errors or system malfunctions – they could strike nearby spacecraft, overheat solar panels or trigger electrical discharges, according to a team from the Beijing Institute of Satellite Environment...

Events

4 d. ago The AI boom needs electricity, but Western grids are strained. Is power China’s power?

Near the end of last year, thousands of European travellers saw their holiday plans unravel after a prolonged power outage in the Eurotunnel – the underwater train passage linking Britain and France – caused by a fault in the overhead supply. For many, this brought back memories of chaotic scenes the previous April, when rolling blackouts struck much of Portugal and Spain. The United States also suffered from multiple power outages last year, including major disruptions in California – most...

Politics

7 d. ago 1 dead in UK, 100,000 French homes without power as storms batter Europe

A man was killed after a tree fell on a caravan in England after record winds brought by Storm Goretti, as 100,000 homes in France were still without power on Saturday. Some 15 people have died in weather-related accidents this week across Europe as gale-force winds and storms caused travel mayhem, shut schools, and cut power to hundreds of thousands in freezing temperatures. The storm barrelled through southwestern Cornwall and parts of Wales overnight Thursday to Friday, with gusts of up to...

Events

1 week ago Trump’s US isn’t giving up on extraterritorial power, just the rules

The explosions that rocked Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, in the early hours of January 3, signalled the definitive collapse of the post-war international order. With the announcement that US forces had captured president Nicolas Maduro and his wife under “Operation Absolute Resolve,” the world has been thrust into a chilling new era. This is the era of the “Trump Corollary”, a doctrine that replaces diplomatic norms with raw power and turns the western hemisphere into a private arena for US...

Politics

1 week ago China Teases Smart Tech That Harvests Radar Energy to Power Stealth Jets

China Teases Smart Tech That Harvests Radar Energy to Power Stealth Jets  The Defense Post

Events

1 week ago Berlin mayor denounces attack on city’s power grid as ‘terrorism’

Mayor Kai Wegner has classified the major attack on Berlin’s power supply as terrorism: “This is not just arson or sabotage. This is already terrorism,” the conservative politician told the regional RBB television on Sunday evening. Wegner said that a left-wing extremist group attacked the infrastructure, endangering lives, including those of elderly people who might need ventilators and families with young children. “We must catch these perpetrators now,” he added. The Berlin police, the...

Events

1 week ago Berlin mayor denounces attack on German capital’s power grid as ‘terrorism’

Belin mayor Kai Wegner has classified the major attack on the German capital’s power supply as terrorism. “This is not just arson or sabotage. This is already terrorism,” the conservative politician told the regional RBB television on Sunday evening. Wegner said that a left-wing extremist group attacked the infrastructure, endangering lives, including those of elderly people who might need ventilators and families with young children. “We must catch these perpetrators now,” he added. The Berlin...

Events

2 w. ago Thailand election 2026: can ‘orange wave’ break conservative grip on power?

For any party that wants to change Thailand, bitter experience has shown that winning an election and taking power are two entirely different things. Conservatives hold the keys to government in the kingdom, where politicians, tycoons and generals serving the apex power of the monarchy allow elections, but conjure up coups and other political manoeuvres to take down winners perceived as a threat to their power. But this time could be different, says Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, the leader of the...

Politics

2 w. ago Power vacuum in Caracas? Venezuelans wonder who’s in charge after Maduro capture

Venezuelans on Saturday scrambled to understand who was in charge of their country after the US military captured President Nicolas Maduro, ousting the strongman who had outlasted a botched coup attempt, several army mutinies, mass protests and economic sanctions in the vast nation of 29 million. “What will happen tomorrow?” asked Juan Pablo Petrone, a resident of Venezuela’s capital of Caracas. As fear gripped the city, streets quickly emptied save for long lines snaking from supermarkets and...

Politics

2 w. ago Cable fire cuts power to tens of thousands of Berlin homes and businesses

Tens of thousands of homes in Berlin will be without electricity until Thursday as authorities struggle to repair power cables seriously damaged in a suspected arson attack, officials said. Some may also be without heating as the outage has affected local systems, at a time when the German capital is blanketed in snow and temperatures are hovering around freezing. Emergency services were alerted early Saturday that several high-voltage cables on a bridge near a power plant had gone up in...

Events

2 w. ago 43 measures for Hong Kong’s CLP to improve power supply after series of failures

Hong Kong’s biggest electricity company, CLP Power, has been urged to implement 43 measures to improve the stability of its supply, including enhancing lightning protection systems, after a series of failures. The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department released a review report on CLP on Friday, following an independent consultant’s analysis – under the supervision of experts – of power supply interruptions and voltage dips between 2021 and mid-2024. CLP, which supplies electricity to...

Events

2 w. ago In the new world order, market power trumps military might. Can China compete?

China needs to adapt to a more competitive global environment driven by market power, technological innovation and institutional leverage, according to analysts at a leading Beijing-based think tank. These pillars were more critical than conventional military dominance or strengthening territorial control in the great power rivalry, particularly as Beijing sought to project itself as a stabiliser in an increasingly fractured international order, the analysts added. In an article this week, Fu...

Events

2 w. ago China’s 6G surface could convert enemy radar beams into power for stealth jets

China’s 6G surface could convert enemy radar beams into power for stealth jets  Interesting Engineering

Events

2 w. ago As Trump brings back coal to power AI, China moves on to clothe the world with it

US President Donald Trump is pushing to resurrect America’s coal sector by expanding mining and subsidising coal-fired power plants to meet the energy demands in a race against China on artificial intelligence. “Our nation’s beautiful clean coal resources will be critical to meeting the rise in electricity demand due to the resurgence of domestic manufacturing and the construction of artificial intelligence data processing centres,” Trump said in an executive order signed on April 8. But China...

Politics

2 w. ago China could enable stealth jets turn enemy radar beams into power with its 6G smart surface

China could enable stealth jets turn enemy radar beams into power with its 6G smart surface  Interesting Engineering

Events