HONG KONG — With the two leading AI powers, the United States and China, forming their own AI blocs, other countries are maneuvering to harness the strengths of both groupings and avoid losing out. As the rivalry intensifies, experts say the window for countries to be able to choose freely between the two AI superpowers may be narrowing, forcing them to at one point pick between the U.S.-led Pax Silica and the China-inspired World AI Cooperation Organization. That could put many countries in a dilemma: Do they go with the U.S.’s most advanced chips and AI technologies, or join China’s more affordable, open-source AI systems? Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation of about 21 million people, is a rare example of a country that has sought to bridge that gap. Just three weeks after its AI minister Zhaslan Madiyev visited Washington in June to join the U.S. group working to strengthen AI supply chains, he headed to Shanghai for a signing ceremony making the Central Asian country a founding member of China's initiative to shape the global AI agenda. Being in Pax Silica means more technologic

HONG KONG — China's political leaders and elites began a four-day meeting Monday to discuss strengthening the ruling Communist Party's discipline, as Chinese President Xi Jinping pushes for greater loyalty and reliability from officials while deepening his yearslong campaign against corruption. This week’s closed-door gathering, known as the fifth plenum of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, comes roughly a year before Xi is widely expected to secure his fourth five-year term as the party's leader and personnel changes to key leadership bodies. Xi began the meeting by delivering a work report and speaking about a draft policy decision on advancing “full and rigorous party self-governance,” according to China's official Xinhua News Agency. The policy aims to make cadres more disciplined, effective and less corrupt. While Xi has consolidated his grip on power, analysts say the plenum will offer him an opportunity to further align what Chinese officials do with what Beijing wants. “The plenum is a chance to ensure the new generations rising the ranks share Xi’

Jordanian security forces have arrested three suspects in connection with an attack on a church in the US-allied country that killed nine people, state television reported on Monday. The attack, in which gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church on Friday in the village of Hamoud in Karak governorate, about 120 km (75 miles) southwest of the capital Amman, also wounded 40 others. The shooting lasted several minutes, witnesses said. Jordan's Public Security Directorate said security forces located the three suspects early on Monday hiding in an abandoned house in Karak. The suspects refused to surrender and opened fire on security forces, who returned fire and arrested all three after they were wounded, the directorate said in a statement carried on state media. No security personnel were injured, and a number of firearms and ammunition were found in the suspects' possession after their arrest. "Terrorism has no place among us," the directorate said, adding that the suspects had met their "just fate". The Public Security Directorate did not identify the suspects' affili

CARACAS/BARQUISIMETO — Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was greeted by tens of thousands of cheering supporters as she made her way by car to Caracas on Sunday night, after she arrived home following several failed return attempts which have strained her ties with US President Donald Trump's administration. "This country is giving lessons to everyone," she shouted as her convoy entered the capital, leaning out of the sunroof to shake hands and hug raucous supporters Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, who was prevented from challenging deposed leader Nicolas Maduro for the presidency in 2024, has been out of the country for 10 months and spent the previous year in hiding following the disputed election. On Sunday morning, Machado appeared at a church in western Lara state and was greeted by bystanders who sang the national anthem and shouted "liberty!" as she left in an SUV, a Reuters witness said. She then traveled to the capital in a journey that took eight hours because of crowds. By the time she neared Caracas, festooned in rosaries handed to her by followers, the

ORLEANS — Marine Le Pen, France's far-right candidate to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, kicked off her campaign Sunday vowing to "restore the rule of law" if elected next year. Le Pen — the frontrunner in the polls — seems to be benefiting from the convulsions France has been going through for weeks, which has seen violence flare on the sidelines of mass cost-of-living rallies. "We are going to restore the rule of law," she said, after looting and arson erupted on the sidelines of demonstrations last weekend. She was addressing 8,500 supporters of her nationalist, anti-immigration party in the city of Orleans, where Joan of Arc — revered by the far right as a symbol of national resistance — lifted an English siege in 1429. "We are proposing for the country not a return to the past, but the dawn of a new era," the 58-year-old told the crowd, which broke into chants of "We're going to win, we're going to win." Le Pen vowed to preserve France's cultural identity, from its language and traditions to its values and way of life, drawing thunderous cheers from supporters waving Fre

TOKYO — Japanese prosecutors have indicted a U.S. Marine on suspicion of murdering a woman in Okinawa, reports said Monday. The case has prompted public outrage, caused Japan's premier to slam the "heinous crime" and reignited controversy over the heavy U.S. military presence on the southern island. According to the indictment document, the 20-year-old suspect allegedly strangled a 39-year-old woman from Naha in a hotel with a telephone cord on Oct. 3, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. He is also accused of stealing a backpack containing the woman's wallet and other belongings, the newspaper said, and has been indicted on robbery charges. The Marine denied the allegations at the time of his arrest but has now made statements that imply some involvement in the case, the Yomiuri and other media said, citing investigative sources. Prosecutors were not immediately reachable when contacted by AFP. Crimes including rapes, assaults, hit-and-runs and drunk driving by U.S. military personnel have long triggered protests on the southern Japanese island, which has for years urged other regions in the c

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America. With 100 percent of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula held an unassailable lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro. The announcement capped an evening of chaos at polling places across Brazil, following a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours. That decision by a Supreme Court justice may trigger legal action by Bolsonaro. His triumph bucks a trend in Latin America where increasing numbers of right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump have been winning. Lula’s victory leaves Mexico and Brazil, Latin America’s two most populous nations, with left-of-center leaders. It also positions Latin America’s largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, to remain independent of the U.S., despite the pressure of increased tariffs imposed by Trump. The announce

BELGRADE, Serbia — The long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, conceded defeat on Sunday in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government. It was a seismic political shift in the Balkan country where Vucic, who had been endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and who denounced the student movement as a foreign-led attempt to unseat him, led with virtually absolute power for 14 years. Almost immediately, crowds flooded the streets of the capital Belgrade and other Serbian cities in an outburst of euphoric celebration. Belgrade resident Dragana Kovacevic was thrilled that “everyone greets with smiles.” She said "we are all too happy, finally we are becoming one normal and free country.” Maja Stetic said she feels “fantastic.” Vucic's outster, she said, "means liberation for me, means a new future for us and our children.” High turnout and gathering tensions marked the highly contested parliamentary election that was a showdown between Vucic and his ri

Bauza had voiced a number of characters in this summer's animated hit Coyote vs. Acme.