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Revellers around the world ring in the new year with parties, celebrations and fireworks

Presidential campaigns and the US telecommunications network have also been targeted by hackers in recent months.

President seeks to allay fears that world’s second-largest economy will falter in 2025 because of high US tariffs
is on course to expand by 5% in 2025, according to its president, Xi Jinping, meeting official growth targets and rebutting concerns that Donald Trump’s incoming US administration will harm Beijing’s prospects in the new year.
Using his annual address to the nation, Xi sought to allay fears that the world’s second-largest economy would falter over the next 12 months after the government battled to prevent a slide towards recession during 2024.

Op-ed highlights business interests of tech billionaire who spent $250m to elect Trump
’s mounting influence in ’s inner circle has triggered alarm from a former US military chief, who warns the tech billionaire and Trump confidant’s deep ties to Beijing could compromise national security.
Lt Gen Russel Honoré condemned Musk’s web of Chinese business interests – including and a Tesla factory subject to Beijing’s stringent information-sharing laws – in as he questioned the SpaceX chief’s fitness to shape White House policy.

A Justice Department investigation into whether antidoping authorities covered up positive tests for elite Chinese swimmers set off a power play to kill the inquiry.

A Chinese state-sponsored hacker broke into the US Treasury Department's systems and accessed some unclassified documents.

Claims a Chinese state-sponsored actor was behind breach this month are ‘groundless’, says foreign ministry
Beijing has hit back at accusations that a China state-sponsored actor was behind a at the US treasury department, calling the claims “groundless”.
The breach was orchestrated via a third-party cybersecurity service provider. Hackers were able to gain access to a key used by the vendor to override certain parts of the system, according to a letter the treasury department sent to lawmakers on Monday.

The episode comes at a particularly sensitive moment, just as the Biden White House is dealing with one of the most far-reaching, and damaging, hacks into American infrastructure in the cyberage.

The companies have found plenty of new channels to the U.S. market — demonstrating the potential limits of the tariffs Donald Trump has promised to impose.

‘This is a moral and scientific imperative,’ World Health Organization says in statement marking five years since Chinese authorities first alerted to ‘viral pneumonia’ in Wuhan
The World Health Organization has implored China to share data and access to help understand the origins of Covid-19, five years on from the start of the pandemic that upended the planet.
“We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of Covid-19. This is a moral and scientific imperative,” the WHO said in a on Monday.

Third-party cybersecurity provider was compromised after hackers obtained key to override certain systems
Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached the US treasury department earlier this month, accessing several employee workstations and unclassified documents, according to an agency spokesperson.
The breach was orchestrated via a third-party cybersecurity service provider, BeyondTrust. Hackers were able to gain access to a key used by the vendor to override certain parts of the system, according to a letter the treasury department sent to lawmakers on Monday that was reviewed by the Guardian.

It set the stage for China's economic ascent - and its rivalry with the US.