A new space race is unfolding at the moon’s south pole. Here’s what to know about China’s game plan

 

A gravity-defying competition that brewed in the background of geopolitics for decades is now roaring to the forefront — with China demonstrating rapid advances in space technology and the United States ratcheting up rhetoric about a looming battle for control of the cosmos.

In the past five years alone, China has launched Tiangong, a modern orbital laboratory to rival the aging, US-led International Space Station. China also retrieved the first-ever soil samples from the far side of the moon, a feat no other nation has duplicated.

But it’s the fact that China plans to build a permanent settlement on the moon by 2040 that has prompted an urgent response from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They’ve declared a new space race, and NASA is pledging to build a lunar outpost of America’s own. Adding to the tension is the fact that aerospace development in China is largely shrouded in secrecy, making it tough to say with absolute certainty which country is ahead in the contest. There are, however, a few clues.

And this year could mark a dramatic turning point as the moon’s south pole becomes more of a focal point for both nations.

The region is already the linchpin for US and Chinese ambitions because scientists believe it to be home to water ice. This crucial in-space resource can be converted into rocket fuel, breathable air or drinking water — all vital to sustaining an extraterrestrial settlement.

Both the United States and China plan to send robotic explorers to the south pole later this year, paving the way for human explorers to follow close behind.

The US is relying on the private sector to develop and build low-cost, exploratory robotic landers. The nation is next planning to deliver a lander called Griffin, developed by Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic Technology, to the lunar south pole in late 2026. The NASA-funded mission will aim to improve on the performance of two prior landers, built by another US company, that tripped while attempting to land on the south pole’s notoriously treacherous terrain.

Read More

As US and China throw up tit-for-tat sanctions, is Trump’s Xi meeting at risk?

 

China's leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump visit the Temple of Heaven on May 14, 2026 in Beijing, China.

Brendan Smialowski/Pool/Getty Images

Beijing —  

The road to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s expected visit to the United States next month is shaping up to be rockier than Beijing would have hoped.

Weeks ahead of the state visit, the world’s two largest economies have revived a tit-for-tat exchange of sanctions, with Beijing unveiling multiple measures against US firms or interests in what it said was retaliation for “erroneous” American moves.

The US has banned imports of new humanoid robots (largely produced in China); sanctioned Chinese shipping operators alleged to be handling Iranian fuel; placed more than 40 Chinese firms on an entity list for alleged human rights violations; and added two top civilian universities to a Pentagon blacklist. It’s also threatened to sanction Chinese AI firms.

That left Beijing with “no choice but to take necessary countermeasures,” its Commerce Ministry said Wednesday as it unveiled a package that sanctioned seven US firms; upped controls on the export of drones and their tech to the US; and launched an investigation into certain office equipment running foreign software.

A separate measure also suspends a fast-track for US factories to certify goods like electrical appliances for the Chinese market. The ministry said it was specifically retaliating against the recent US entity listing of Chinese firms, as well as the robotics and previous tech-related bans issued by the US Federal Communications Commission.

The tit-for-tat brings up echoes of last year, when the rivals were locked in a blistering trade war. It also raises the question of whether a new period of escalation – if it spirals further – could push Beijing to put Xi’s upcoming trip on ice.

So far, China’s bevy of measures – which its own spokesperson described as “restrained” – suggests its leaders hope to keep things on track for the September summit. That’s especially as the meeting is seen as a chance for Xi and Trump to discuss what is emerging as their fiercest area of rivalry: AI.

“China values the hard-won stability of China-US economic and trade relations and hopes the United States will work with China in the same direction,” a commerce ministry spokesperson said Wednesday – while also threatening “further countermeasures” if not.

Observers and people close to policy circles in China say that Beijing strongly values preserving the high-level lines of communication with Trump, who’s seen as relatively China-friendly compared with many more hawkish members of his cabinet.

Read More

Netanyahu calculates upsetting Trump is his least-bad option

 

Polls suggest Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a difficult upcoming general election.

Ilia Yefimovich/AFP/Getty Images

On tricky issues, Netanyahu’s preference is to kick the can down the road. If he must take a position, he likes to include a twist of ambiguity, some wiggle room, just in case things get hairy later. Not this time, though, on the subject of US President Donald Trump’s roadmap for progressing the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

“I wish to be precise: Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said during opening remarks at Sunday’s weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting.

In fact, he went on to say it twice.

“I have heard people saying: ‘You didn’t say it.’ So here I am saying it again: Israel does not accept the 15-point document.”

The US president – more desperate than ever for a win, as his Iran folly looks increasingly like handing him an L – reinvested in Gaza 10 days ago, declaring that his Board of Peace had reached a “historic agreement” with Hamas for its complete disarmament. The board’s top envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, went on to explain carefully on X that decommissioning would need to take place “in lockstep” with Israeli troop withdrawal, suggesting a phased process by which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would pull back in stages from positions inside Gaza, as Hamas turned in its arms.

Read More