ASIA

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For decades, the Pritzker Prize has been a stage for architectural legends—the visionaries who stamp their unmistakable style onto skylines and cityscapes. But 2025's laureate, Liu Jiakun, is a different kind of master. Unlike the starchitects who have long dominated the field, Liu has built a career on not having a signature look. Instead, he lets his projects take shape from their surroundings, whispering their own stories through materials, history, and local culture.

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President Xi Jinping met with prominent private business leaders, including Alibaba's Jack Ma, on Monday, according to state media. The meeting comes after Xi Jinping has emphasized the importance of state-owned enterprises and cautioned against the "disorderly" expansion of the private sector during his time in office.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Friday that India and the EU will aim to finalize a "mutually beneficial" free trade agreement by the end of the year. The announcement came after a meeting with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in New Delhi, where both leaders tasked their teams with achieving the deadline.

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In a bid to raise its profile in the global artificial intelligence (AI) community, Alibaba today announced the open-source release of its state-of-the-art AI video generation model, Wan 2.1. The action aims to drive innovation and cooperation in the AI ecosystem by providing free access to sophisticated tools capable of generating high-quality videos and images from image and text prompts.

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On Friday, Alibaba's stock experienced a significant surge, climbing over six percent, fueled by speculation that President Xi Jinping was planning a meeting with Jack Ma, the company's co-founder. This positive news compounded Alibaba's already impressive performance in 2025, with the stock already up over 40 percent. The rally was further bolstered on Thursday when Alibaba's chairman announced the company's intention to provide AI technology for Apple's iPhones in China, adding another 6.3 percent to its share price.

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A ban on sales of the iPhone 16 in Indonesia will be lifted after the Indonesian government and Apple reached an agreement, a source familiar with the matter revealed Tuesday.