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AdvertisementChina exportsEconomyChina EconomyAs China churns out artificial gems, is a diamond still forever?China has pioneered the production of flawless artificial diamonds. Some worry they are eroding demand for the real thing
Reading Time:6 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPLuna Sunin BeijingPublished: 6:00am, 26 Oct 2025Updated: 6:34am, 26 Oct 2025Creating a new diamond used to be a process spanning millions or even billions of years. Now, it takes about a week.
AdvertisementInside specialised factories, hulking 50-tonne machines simulate the crushing pressure and extreme temperatures inside the Earth’s crust, transforming seed crystals into flawless, glittering stones in just a few days.
Zhongjing Diamond, a company based in China’s central province of Hubei, has nearly 300 of the machines humming around the clock, which together mint some 600,000 carats of crude diamonds every year.
China has pioneered the production of lab-grown diamonds, allowing its factories to churn out precio..

National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) predicts foggy and misty weather in Abu Dhabi, Dubai. Image: AI Representative Image. Misty mornings are set to return across the UAE, with rising humidity paving the way for fog and light mist through the weekend. The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) has cautioned drivers to stay alert during early hours when visibility could dip in coastal and inland areas.Saturday will be fair to partly cloudy overall, with the temperature expected to hover around 35°C in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and slightly higher peaks of up to 36°C in Al Ain. Nights will turn humid, particularly along the coastline, as conditions remain ideal for fog formation.Winds will shift between northeasterly and northwesterly, blowing at 10 to 20 km/h and occasionally picking up to 30 km/h. Both the Arabian Gulf and Oman Sea are expected to stay calm, with only slight tidal variations through the day.Looking ahead, forecasters expect the weather pattern to hold steady through Monday, w..

The GOP government, MAGA bigwigs and senior federal officials have placed blame on Blue state California after an 18-wheeler semi-truck crash killed three people earlier this week.The incident involved an undocumented immigrant named Jashanpreet Singh, whose commercial driver’s licence was issued despite federal restrictions.US President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, released a report Thursday accusing California of violating federal law by issuing a commercial driver’s license to Indian-origin Jashanpreet Singh. The 21-year-old Singh allegedly caused a crash on the I-10 Freeway while under the influence of drugs. The incident left three people dead, including a Pomona High School basketball coach and his wife, and four others injured.Duffy said California ignored a federal order to halt noncompliant licences and revoke improperly issued credentials, claiming the failure cost “three innocent souls.” He added, “My prayers are with the families of the victims of th..

AdvertisementUS-China relationsUSDiplomacyUS senators call on Trump to raise Jimmy Lai concerns with Xi Jinping in key meetingLetter signed by bipartisan group of 38 US senators urges US president to secure Lai’s release and put human rights back on the agenda
Reading Time:2 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPBochen Hanin WashingtonPublished: 6:51am, 25 Oct 2025Updated: 6:55am, 25 Oct 2025A bipartisan group of 38 US senators is urging President Donald Trump to use his expected summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea next week to secure the release of former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, the latest in the US Congress’s efforts to get human rights on the agenda of the high-stakes meeting.AdvertisementIn a letter released on Friday, the lawmakers described Lai as a political prisoner and said the case for his release was “more dire than ever” due to his worsening health.“At 78 years old, he is in poor and deteriorating health. He is a diabetic and suffers from numer..

AdvertisementScienceChinaScienceThe STEM crisis in China’s universities: how outdated courses are wasting talentMany Chinese degrees prioritise theory over practical experience and fail to prepare students for real-world employment, critics say
Reading Time:6 minutesWhy you can trust SCMP2Dannie Pengin BeijingPublished: 6:00am, 25 Oct 2025Updated: 6:07am, 25 Oct 2025At a conference in December, Wang Xingxing – the robotics guru who founded China’s industry-leading Unitree Robotics – had a sharp critique.Advertisement“China is at a disadvantage in terms of talent reserves because its education system has decided that knowledge learned in school is often outdated, whereas overseas students study the world’s most cutting-edge technologies,” he told the audience.“The education system fundamentally shapes future development potential and opportunities,” Wang said, adding that for an intelligent individual entering university, studying frontier knowledge versus 20-year-old textbook materials..