BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with global executives and made a case for investing in the country, as Beijing focuses on reaching out to businesses amid escalating trade tensions with the U.S. He said multinational companies had a big responsibility to “uphold global order” and that they needed to work hand in hand with China. He emphasized that China was a safe and stable place for foreign companies. “To invest in China is to invest in tomorrow,” he said in Mandarin translated by CNBC. Echoing recent policy plans, Xi said that China would ensure fair opportunities for foreign businesses to participate in government procurement bids. More than 40 people, mostly foreign executives and business officials, attended the roundtable meeting with Xi, including Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters and Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwartzman. President Donald Trump has raised tariffs by 20% on China since January over its alleged role in the U.S. fentanyl crisis, and threatened a swath of new tariffs on major trading partners starting in early April. Trump said this week that he might reduce China tariffs to help close a deal that forces Beijing-based ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations. The U.S. this week also added dozens of Chinese tech companies to its export blacklist, the first such restrictions under the Trump administration. Xi said U.S.-China trade tensions should be resolved through negotiations. “We need to work for the stability of global supply chains,” he added, noting there was no way out under decoupling. China has increased its trade with Southeast Asian countries and the European Union, but the U.S. remains Beijing’s largest trading partner on a single-country basis. In a sign of how Beijing seeks to offset trade pressures, rather than retaliate forcefully, China courted the executives of major U.S. businesses at a state-backed annual conference that ran from Sunday to Monday. Apple CEO Tim Cook was among the executives who attended, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk was conspicuous by his absence. Also on Sunday, U.S. Republican Senator Steve Daines met Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing — the first time a U.S. politician has visited China since Trump began his latest term in January. “This was the first step to an important next step, which will be a meeting between President Xi and President Trump,” Daines told the Wall Street Journal. “When that occurs and where it occurs is to be determined.” The White House did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment. Li urged cooperation and said no one can gain from a trade war, according to state media. Top executives of major firms including FedEx, Pfizer, Cargill, Qualcomm and Boeing as well as U.S.-China Business Council President Sean Stein were also present at Daines’ meeting with Li, according to a foreign media pool report.

SRINAGAR, India — After trekking through streams and forests in Indian-administered Kashmir, Sheetal Kalthia and her vacationing family had just arrived in a remote, picturesque meadow when they heard gunshots. Kalthia, who was with her husband and their two children, said they “sensed that something was wrong and ran to hide behind the tent, but they suddenly were standing in front of us.” Militants armed with rifles had descended on tourists in the meadow from the surrounding woods, identifying non-Muslims and then separating the men from the women and children. One of the militants “shot six to seven men in front of me,” Kalthia said, before shooting her husband, Shailesh. “My husband died in my lap, and I couldn’t do anything about it,” she told reporters Thursday at his funeral in their hometown of Surat in the Indian state of Gujarat. Twenty-six people were killed in the Tuesday attack, which took place in one of Kashmir’s top tourist destinations, the Baisaran Valley, whose lush green meadows, dense pine forests and snowcapped mountains have led it to be called India’s “mini Switzerland.” It was the deadliest attack on Indian civilians in almost two decades, and took place while Vice President JD Vance and his family were visiting another part of India. All but one of those killed were Indian nationals; the other was from Nepal. The attack near the town of Pahalgam in Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region that is the only Muslim-majority part of India, has devastated the local tourism industry on which many rely for their livelihood. It also undermined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s insistence that the security situation had stabilized after a decadeslong separatist insurgency. New Delhi has responded with fury, immediately downgrading ties with neighboring Pakistan, which it has long accused of supporting cross-border terrorism. Indian officials say the gunmen had ties to militant groups based in Pakistan, which denies any involvement. Relations between the two nuclear powers, which both rule parts of Kashmir and have fought two wars over the region, are now at their lowest point in years after tit-for-tat treaty suspensions and the expulsion of diplomats and civilians. On Saturday, Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged gunfire for the second day in a row along the Line of Control that divides the two parts of Kashmir. Modi, a Hindu nationalist who has overseen a crackdown on dissent in Kashmir, vowed retribution for the attack. The family homes of several suspects have been demolished. “I say to the whole world, India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers,” he said Thursday. President Donald Trump, who is close with Modi, said the Indian leader has his “full support.” For Indians watching Modi’s speech, it was an echo of 2019 when a convoy of Indian security forces was blown up in Kashmir and he responded by launching aerial strikes on Pakistan. Six years later, Indian nationalism is higher than ever, the Pakistan military’s grip on power has weakened, and the U.S. is no longer in Afghanistan, which analysts say historically deterred violence between India and Pakistan. “That perhaps gives India a bit of a blank check to do whatever it pleases,” said Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow for South Asia at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. A region simmering with rage Resentment between India and Pakistan dates to 1947, when Hindu-majority India gained independence from British colonial rule and Muslim-majority Pakistan was established as a separate state in a deadly partition in which at least an estimated million people were killed while migrating across the newly formed border. The border lines were clearly defined and accepted except for the mountainous state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is among the most militarized places in the world. Both Pakistan and India lay full claim to it, but most of it is Indian-administered, while Pakistan controls a small chunk to the west. Tensions have escalated since Modi revoked Kashmir’s semiautonomous status in 2019, effectively putting the region under direct control of the federal government in a move that was criticized by rights groups and raised fears that Kashmir’s ethnic and religious identity would be diluted by Hindu settlers. Modi’s government said the move ended decades of armed rebellion in the region. Elections were held last year and hailed as a sign of normalcy. “One indicator of normalcy that the government was always giving out was, look, there are so many tourists visiting,” said Lt. Gen. Deependra Singh Hooda, former head of the Indian Army’s Northern Command, who was stationed in Jammu and Kashmir from 2012 to 2016. Praveen Donthi, a New Delhi-based senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the attack was a “colossal intelligence failure.” Modi’s narrative of peace and stability “led to complacency, which is why they did not see this coming,” he said. 'Bodies lying on the ground' Pallavi Rao and her husband, Manjunath, had taken their son to Kashmir to celebrate his near-perfect score on his high school diploma exams. They had enjoyed a boat ride on the popular Dal lake in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar before heading to Pahalgam about 30 miles away. The militants found them in the meadow. After her husband was shot in the head, Rao told reporters, she and her son asked the militants to kill them too. They refused, saying, “We won’t kill you. Go tell Prime Minister Modi.” A local pony handler, Syed Adil Hussain Shah, was also killed while trying to save the tourists. “He used to earn 300 rupees [$3.50] in a day, our only source of income in the family,” Ravisa Hussain Shah, his younger sister, told NBC News in an interview at their home in the village of Hapatnur. Among the first to reach the scene was Sajad Ahmad Bhat, 31, a shawl seller and tour guide. “I saw bodies lying on the ground,” he said. Bhat carried one of the victims almost 2.5 miles to safety, video of which went viral online. “I don’t know who the boy was. But he was crying and seeking help. His hands and sweater were soaked in blood,” he said. Since the attack, India has suspended a 1960 water treaty with Pakistan and closed the only functional land border crossing. Pakistan, which said any disruption to its water supply would be considered an “act of war,” has closed its airspace to Indian airlines and halted all trade with its neighbor. Analysts inside Pakistan say the government may use the situation to bring the Kashmir issue back into global discussions. “Pakistan can say, look, this happens because of India’s human rights violations in Kashmir,” said Farhan Siddiqi, a professor of international relations at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. On Wednesday, Kashmir observed a complete shutdown as locals and politicians marched through the streets denouncing the killings. Roads throughout Kashmir were deserted, with shops closed and no transport on the roads. “We wanted to exhibit that Kashmiris are nonviolent and peaceful people, and any innocent killings shouldn’t take place on our soil,” said Javed Ahmad Tenga, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The United Nations has urged India and Pakistan to “exercise maximum restraint” and called for “meaningful, mutual engagement.” But Donthi and others say strong Indian military action against Pakistan is likely. “Anything less than the airstrikes in 2019 will not do. The public is seeking something much bigger,” Donthi said. “After riding the tiger of hypernationalism, the government has backed itself into a corner. This is their litmus test and they have to come out with flying colors.” Junaid Kathju reported from Srinagar, India, and Mithil Aggarwal reported from Hong Kong.

Russia acknowledged for the first time that North Korean troops were on the front lines of its war with Ukraine, with a senior military official crediting their role in helping Russian forces reclaim control of the Kursk region. “I would like to separately note the participation ... of military personnel of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Valery Gerasimov, the Russian chief of general staff, told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a report Saturday. Gerasimov added that under a “comprehensive, strategic partnership” between the two countries, North Korean soldiers had provided “significant assistance” to Russia’s army in defeating Ukrainian forces. Putin congratulated his military in a statement from the Kremlin on Saturday, adding that “the full defeat of the enemy in the Kursk border region creates conditions for further successful actions by our forces on other important parts of the front.” South Korean media reported this year that more than 11,000 North Korean troops were fighting in the western Russian region of Kursk, reports that neither Moscow nor Pyongyang had confirmed until now. In March, South Korean officials reported that between January and February, North Korea had sent an additional 3,000 troops to Russia after around 4,000 of them were “believed to have been killed or injured” due to inexperience in drone warfare. Shortly after the Trump administration temporarily suspended military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv in March, Russian forces intensified their attacks on Ukrainian troops in the territory. Ukraine has not yet responded to Putin’s claim, but losing control of the western Russian region would be a significant blow for Kyiv, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has viewed as valuable leverage in any future peace talks.

North Korea confirmed for the first time Monday that its troops were fighting alongside Russia in its war against Ukraine, saying they helped Moscow take back control of its Ukraine-controlled Kursk region. American, South Korean and Ukrainian officials have said North Korea sent as many as 12,000 troops to Russia in the fall to fight in Kursk, which Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion in August. North Korea had not confirmed or denied those reports until now. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the troops’ deployment under a mutual defense pact that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed in June 2024, North Korea’s Central Military Commission said in a statement that was carried by state-run news agency KCNA. The treaty includes a pledge of mutual defense if either country is attacked. The statement said the operation to regain control of Kursk had been “victoriously concluded” and that it was “an honor to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation.” “They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland,” Kim was quoted as saying. The North Korean report came two days after Russia said it had recaptured Kursk with the help of North Korean soldiers, which was also its first confirmation of their presence in the conflict. Ukraine denied that Kursk had been retaken, saying its defensive operations are continuing in some areas. In a statement Monday, Putin said North Korea “acted on a sense of solidarity, justice and genuine comradeship.” “We highly appreciate this and are sincerely grateful personally” to Kim, his leadership team and the people of North Korea, Putin said. If Russia is confirmed to have retaken Kursk, it would be a blow to Ukraine amid U.S.-led efforts to negotiate an end to the war, which is now in its fourth year. On Saturday, President Donald Trump questioned whether Putin — who last week launched one of the worst attacks on Ukraine’s major cities since the war began — was willing to end the war. In exchange for providing Russia with reinforcements, North Korea gains valuable experience for its military, which has not been deployed overseas since the Vietnam War. While North Korean soldiers are fiercely loyal to Kim, experts say their limited exposure to modern warfare leaves them vulnerable on the battlefield, especially against drones. About 4,000 of the North Korean soldiers have been killed or injured, according to South Korean officials. They said last month that North Korea had sent an additional 3,000 troops to aid Russia’s war effort since the start of this year. The North Korean statement did not say how many of its troops were sent to Russia in total or how many casualties there have been. Kim said a monument to their “battle feats” would be erected in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and that flowers would be placed “before the tombstones of the fallen soldiers.” He also said measures should be taken to “preferentially treat and take care of the families of the brave soldiers who participated in the war.” The South Korean National Defense Ministry denounced the North Korean troop deployment and said that by officially announcing it, the North had “effectively admitted to its criminal behavior.” “Our military strongly urges North Korea to immediately cease its deceitful and inhumane actions that threaten international peace and force the sacrifice of its residents through illegal military dispatches,” the ministry said Monday. The deployment of troops to Russia is just part of Kim’s efforts to expand the capabilities of his nuclear-armed military. On Friday, he unveiled a new naval destroyer at a ceremony at a military shipbuilding dock in the port of Nampo, KCNA reported Saturday, saying the 5,000-ton warship would enter service early next year. The warship was built “within 400-odd days perfectly with our own strength and technology” and is equipped with the “most powerful weapons,” the report quoted a secretary in Kim’s party as saying.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced a temporary ceasefire Monday hours after President Donald Trump said he believed his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was prepared to give up his claim to the Crimean Peninsula as part of a longer-term truce deal. The Kremlin said in a note to the media that the ceasefire would begin at midnight local time May 8 and end at midnight May 11, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of “Victory Day,” when Russia celebrates its victory over the Nazis. The note added that all military action would be suspended during this period, adding that "the Ukrainian side should follow this example." It said any actions in defiance of a ceasefire would be met with a response. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha responded to the announcement by calling on Russia to “cease fire immediately” if it “truly wants peace.” “Why wait until May 8th?” Sybiha asked in a post on X on Monday. It comes after Trump suggested Zelenskyy may be willing to give up Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Asked if he thought Zelenskyy was ready to cede the peninsula, Trump replied, “I think so.” If Ukraine's leader were to agree to such a measure, it would mark a major shift in Ukraine’s stance on giving up land for peace. In what looks to be a potentially pivotal week for efforts to bring at least a pause to fighting in Ukraine, upbeat comments from the Trump administration and Zelenskyy over the weekend were followed by Putin's spokesperson Monday, who said that the Kremlin was ready to begin peace negotiations with Washington and Kyiv. Setting out Russia’s conditions for peace, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov separately said Monday that international recognition of the “Russian affiliation of Crimea,” and the four other Ukrainian regions in which Russia has annexed territory was “imperative” to any deal. That recognition must be legally codified and “indefinite” Lavrov said, adding that the demilitarization of Ukraine and the lifting of sanctions against Russia and the return of Russian assets frozen by the West would also be key. Trump met with Zelenskyy in Vatican City on the fringes of Pope Francis’ funeral Saturday. Speaking to journalists Sunday as he boarded Air Force One in New Jersey, the president said he believed a ceasefire deal could be on the horizon as he urged Putin to “stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal.” “We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it and be done with it and and just go back to life,” Trump added. Asked separately by a reporter how the meeting went, Zelenskyy described it as “really productive,” but declined to elaborate. Noting that he also met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, Zelenskyy added that he wanted to “continue such meetings to bring peace to Ukraine.” Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart had appeared “calmer” during the meeting in what was likely a reference to the public clash between them during the Ukrainian president’s White House visit in February. Zelenskyy has long maintained that Ukraine cannot relinquish its claim to Crimea. He did not immediately appear to respond to Trump’s remarks, but any acquiescence would mark a significant change in his stance. He has come under increasing pressure to do so. On Friday, one of Ukraine’s most prominent politicians, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, conceded that his country may have to give up territory to Russia if it wants to achieve a peace deal. While the Trump administration has been accused of being more lenient toward the Kremlin during ceasefire discussions, the president’s tone following Saturday’s meeting added to comments he made last week that he was “very disappointed that missiles were flying, by Russia,” and suggest a shift in his view of the war. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged Trump’s comments in a briefing Monday, but said Russia’s “special operation continues” as he maintained that Moscow was prepared to begin the negotiation process with Ukraine and Washington. Even so, Ukrainian officials reported continued shelling overnight, including in the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions, as well as in Kherson city. North Korea separately confirmed for the first time Monday that its troops were fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. Peskov also claimed Monday that Russia has recaptured Kursk with the help of those soldiers from Pyongyang and in doing so also marked the first Russian acknowledgment of their involvement in the war. Ukraine denied Kursk has been retaken. If Kursk is confirmed to have changed hands, Ukrainian will have lost a bargaining chip in ceasefire talks. Appearing on NBC News’ “Meet the Press" on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there were “reasons to be optimistic” about a deal, but cautioned: “We’re close, but we’re not close enough.”

China says six Filipinos landed on a tiny outcropping that both countries claim in the South China Sea, days after photos emerged of Chinese coast guard officers displaying a Chinese flag on the same group of sandbars. The back and forth over Sandy Cay is the latest flare-up in a long-running dispute between the two countries over territory in the South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety. A Chinese coast guard statement described the Philippine landing on Sunday as “illegal” and said that Chinese officers had gone ashore “to conduct on-site verification and enforcement measures.” It didn’t specify what those steps entailed. A Philippine statement said that a joint coast guard, navy and maritime police team on rubber dinghies had landed on the three sandbars that make up Sandy Cay, known as Tiexian Reef in Chinese. Commodore Jay Tarriela, a Philippine coast guard spokesperson, posted the statement on X with a video and photos, including one showing personnel displaying a Philippine flag on one of the sandbars. “This operation reflects the unwavering dedication and commitment of the Philippine Government to uphold the country’s sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea,” the statement said. The move came three days after the Global Times, a Chinese state-owned newspaper, published photos of Chinese coast guard officers on Tiexian Reef in mid-April holding up a Chinese flag and cleaning up plastic bottles and other debris. The Chinese coast guard statement on the subsequent Philippine landing said that China holds “indisputable sovereignty” over the Spratly islands, including Tiexian Reef and the surrounding waters.

SEOUL, South Korea — A small group of foreign tourists has visited North Korea in the past week, making them the first international travelers to enter the country in five years except for a group of Russian tourists who went to the North last year. The latest trip indicates North Korea may be gearing up for a full resumption of its international tourism to bring in much-needed foreign currency to revive its struggling economy, experts say. The Beijing-based travel company Koryo Tours said it arranged a five-day trip from Feb. 20 to Feb. 24 for 13 international tourists to the northeastern North Korean border city of Rason, where the country’s special economic zone is located. Koryo Tours General Manager Simon Cockerell said the travelers from Britain, Canada, Greece, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Australia and Italy crossed by land from China. He said that in Rason, they visited factories, shops, schools and the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the late grandfather and father of current leader Kim Jong Un. “Since January of 2020, the country has been closed to all international tourists, and we are glad to have finally found an opening in the Rason area, in the far north of North Korea,” Cockerell said. “Our first tour has been and gone, and now more tourists on both group and private visits are going in, arranging trips,” he added. After the pandemic began, North Korea quickly banned tourists, jetted out diplomats and severely curtailed border traffic in one of the world’s most draconian Covid-19 restrictions. But since 2022, North Korea has been slowly easing curbs and reopening its borders.In February 2024, North Korea accepted about 100 Russian tourists, the first foreign nationals to visit the country for sightseeing. That surprised many observers, who thought the first post-pandemic tourists would come from China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner and major ally. A total of about 880 Russian tourists visited North Korea throughout 2024, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said, citing official Russian data. Chinese group tours to North Korea remain stalled. This signals how much North Korea and Russia have moved closer to each other as the North has supplied weapons and troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine. Ties between North Korea and China cooled as China showed its reluctance to join a three-way, anti-U.S. alliance with North Korea and Russia, experts say. Before the pandemic, tourism was an easy, legitimate source for foreign currency for North Korea, one of the world’s most sanctioned countries because of its nuclear program. North Korea is expected to open a massive tourism site on the east coast in June. In January, when President Donald Trump boasted about his ties with Kim Jong Un, he said that “I think he has tremendous condo capabilities. He’s got a lot of shoreline.” That likely refers to the eastern coast site. A return of Chinese tourists would be key to making North Korea’s tourism industry lucrative because they represented more than 90% of total international tourists before the pandemic, said Lee Sangkeun, an expert at the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea’s intelligence agency. He said that in the past, up to 300,000 Chinese tourists visited North Korea annually. “North Korea has been heavily investing on tourism sites, but there have been not much domestic demand,” Lee said. “We can assess that North Korea now wants to resume international tourism to bring in many tourists from abroad.” The restrictions that North Korea has typically imposed on foreign travelers — such as requirements that they move with local guides and the banning of photography at sensitive places — are likely to hurt its efforts to develop tourism. Lee said that Rason, the eastern coast site and Pyongyang would be the places where North Korea feels it can easily monitor and control foreign tourists.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed tests of newly developed reconnaissance and attack drones this week and called for their increased production, state media said Thursday. Kim has been emphasizing the development of drones, and the tests were the latest display of his country’s growing military capabilities. Photos released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency showed Kim observing what appeared to be a large reconnaissance drone roughly resembling Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail airborne warning and control aircraft. Other images showed exploding drones crashing into military vehicles used as targets. The agency said the test demonstrated the reconnaissance drone’s ability to track multiple targets and monitor troop movements on land and at sea, potentially enhancing North Korea’s intelligence-gathering operations and ability to neutralize enemy threats. The report said the new exploding drones were designed for various attack missions and featured unspecified artificial intelligence capabilities. Kim expressed satisfaction with the drones’ performance and approved plans to expand production, emphasizing that drones and AI should be “top” priorities in efforts to advance his armed forces and adapt them to modern warfare, KCNA said. The agency said the tests took place as Kim visited a drone technology complex and an electronic warfare research group on Tuesday and Wednesday. The South Korean Defense Ministry did not immediately comment on the North Korean report. Kim previously inspected other demonstrations of drones that explode on impact in November and August last year. North Korea also accused South Korea last year of sending its own drones to drop anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets over the North’s capital of Pyongyang, and threatened to respond with force if such flights occurred again. The South Korean military did not confirm whether the North’s claims were true. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated recently as Kim continues to expand his military capabilities, which now include various nuclear-capable weapons targeting South Korea and intercontinental ballistic missiles potentially capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. Kim is also aligning with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, sending troops and military equipment to support Russia’s efforts. This has raised concerns that he may receive Russian technology transfers in return, further strengthening the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a report Thursday that it believes North Korea sent around 3,000 additional troops to Russia in January and February and has continued supplying ammunition, short-range missiles, self-propelled howitzers, and multiple rocket launchers. The Joint Chiefs assessed that, of the approximately 11,000 North Korean troops sent to fight in the war against Ukraine, around 4,000 have been killed or injured.

SHANGHAI — China’s national space agency said Thursday that it would let scientists from the U.S. and allied countries analyze rocks it retrieved from the moon, Beijing’s latest move to increase the international influence of its lunar exploration program. The announcement highlights how U.S.-China cooperation in some areas like space has not completely ended, despite tensions between the two countries over geopolitics and tariffs. Two U.S. universities that receive NASA funding, Brown University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, are among the seven institutions that have been allowed to borrow lunar samples China retrieved from the moon in 2020. The remaining authorized institutions are from Japan, France, Germany, Britain and Pakistan. With its uncrewed Chang’e-5 mission in 2020 China became only the third country to collect rocks from the lunar surface, joining the Soviet Union and the United States, which last went to the moon and retrieved samples in 1972. China’s subsequent uncrewed Chang’e-6 mission, completed in June last year, made it the first country to bring back rocks from the side of the moon facing away from Earth. However, he said he expected NASA to have to work with the FBI for another national security certification to enable any moon rock deliveries to U.S. universities for research. Beijing hopes to use its space prowess to forge closer political ties with close partners and U.S. allies alike. “It seems the United States is quite closed off now despite being open in the past, while we were closed off in the past and are now open; this is because of the increase in our nation’s overall strength and consequent rise in self-confidence,” Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program, told Reuters in an interview Wednesday, adding that growing U.S. “isolationism” would not help its space ambitions. A CNSA official said Wednesday that the Chang’e-4 and 6 missions had four international payloads, while the Chang’e-7 mission next year will have six international payloads and “cooperation with 10 countries” is being discussed for the subsequent Chang’e-8 mission. China hopes Chang’e-7 and 8 can help provide the information it needs to decide where and how to build a permanent manned lunar base by 2035.

A member of the K-pop boy band Just B publicly came out as gay during a concert this week in Los Angeles. It's a rare move in a high-pressure Korean music industry, in which artists tend to be fiercely guarded about their private lives. Just B-member Bain, 23, made the announcement while performing a solo at the band's L.A. show Tuesday, saying “I’m proud to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community — as a gay person.” Videos shared on social media showed the crowd responding with loud cheers. “To anyone out there who’s part of the LGBTQ+ community, or still figuring it out — this is for you. You are seen, you are loved, and you were born this way,” he added, in a reference to the song by Lady Gaga whom he called “my queen.” He then launched into a performance of the song while waving a rainbow pride flag. Publicly identifying as gay is rare among active K-pop stars, whose behavior is tightly controlled by music labels and policed by fans who expect them to have wholesome images. According to the Korean media outlet News1, Bain is the first male K-pop star to come out publicly. After Tuesday's performance, Bain’s bandmate Siwoo left a message of support on a fan platform, South Korean media reported. “I was watching from backstage and I cried too,” he said. “I cried even more because I knew how hard it was for him.” Fans have also shown their support, with one of the most popular comments on Bain’s Instagram post saying, “I’m so proud of you, kiddo. Always love yourself because WE LOVE YOU!!!!” Just B, a six-member group, has released five EPs and several singles since debuting in 2021. Before Bain, Jiae from the now-defunct girl group Wassup said in 2020 that she was bisexual, while Lara, an Indian-American member of the U.S.-based girl group Katseye, came out as queer last month on a fan platform. Homosexuality is a sensitive subject in socially conservative South Korea, where same-sex marriage is not legally recognized. Discrimination against LGBTQ people “remains pervasive,” Human Rights Watch said in a 2023 report.