North American Bitcoin Conference (BTC Miami 2020) Ushers in New Year and New Era for Blockchain

A deputy mayor in western Japan died after being crushed under a giant float during a local parade, officials said on Monday, a week after two others were reportedly killed at separate traditional festivals. Akihiro Nabae, deputy mayor of the city of Saijo in the Ehime region, was carrying a giant float with other participants on Saturday before becoming trapped beneath it, city and police officials said. He was taken to hospital and later pronounced dead, local media said. The exact...

After more than half a century of political procrastination, environmental protests and funding shortfalls, Sydney finally has a second airport. But the new A$5.6 billion (US$4 billion) site’s commercial prospects are already in question. Western Sydney International, 50km (31 miles) inland from the city centre, will handle its first passenger flight on Sunday – a Jetstar service to the Gold Coast. But the facility has attracted only a handful of airlines and has half a dozen or fewer scheduled...

A prolonged housing crash, sluggish consumer spending and plunging investment have left China dependent on exports to keep the economy growing.

India has a soaring ambition to modernise its air force, built around a fleet of domestically developed fighter jets. Yet production of these aircraft has been hampered by engine delays and other bottlenecks that defence analysts say could limit its ability to fight future air wars. On October 11 at an airbase in Jodhpur, Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh strapped into a Tejas jet for the last time. It was his final fighter sortie before retiring later this month and he flew it in an Indian-built jet...

Chinese memory chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) saw its shares fall more than 8 per cent in early Monday trading, despite forecasts of strong profits and plans for a share buy-back amid a global sector-wide market rout. CXMT shares dropped on Monday morning to an intraday low of 41 yuan, after closing at 45.02 yuan on Friday. The company’s stock surged to a peak of 61.8 yuan in August – up as much as 614 per cent from its initial public offering price of 8.66 yuan in July – before...

When artificial intelligence agents first arrived, they came with a tantalising promise: autonomous “digital workers” that would finally free humans from corporate drudgery. As businesses across Asia are discovering, however, the reality is quite the opposite – more work, new friction and a whole new layer of management. When Xiao Mengjie, an AI product marketing manager at a Big Tech firm in Shanghai, recently assigned two AI agents what she described as a simple task, she expected efficiency....

Rahul Gandhi is the descendant of three prime ministers. A surge of protests could give him a springboard to take on the nation’s current leader.

Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars’s moons to retrieve samples that could help unlock the origins of the Solar System and life on Earth, in what aims to be the first round trip to the Martian region. The uncrewed Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe, a collaboration with US and European space agencies as well as numerous universities and tech companies, could also help lay the groundwork for eventual human exploration. The flagship H3 rocket carrying the MMX is set to blast-off...

When shoppers step into Rokid’s brand new flagship store in Hong Kong, they are greeted not by eager sales associates, but by glowing monitor screens and a robotic system waiting at the exit. In what the Chinese augmented reality (AR) gadget pioneer called an experiment in “no man’s land” retail, customers navigate the entire journey independently: testing artificial intelligence smart glasses, making payments on a screen and receiving their new devices directly from an automated system on their...

Such deadly crowd events are relatively common in India, and it was unclear what caused this one. The authorities detained the event’s organizer and others involved.

Pakistan’s counterterrorism campaign against Taliban insurgents risks being undermined by public resentment, following the dismissal of the opposition-led administration of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. According to a statement issued by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office after an emergency cabinet meeting last Sunday, the decision to impose temporary federal rule was necessitated by the “provincial government’s deliberate disengagement from the fight against terrorism”. The KP...

Toxic haze from wildfires burning in Indonesia has spiked a demand for oxygen tanks and air purifiers across the region, manufacturers say, as they work the clock on equipment providing life-saving clean air. The months-long haze has blanketed parts of Southeast Asia, forcing school closures and fuelling a rise in respiratory complaints. Families are now rushing to buy devices to keep indoor air clean. At AA Alive, a medical equipment company based just outside Kuala Lumpur, employees were...