CHINA: Exports grew last month by much more than had been expected, jumping by 27 per cent from a year earlier thanks partly to the artificial intelligence boom, the customs agency said today.

Exports rose by 19.4 per cent year on year in May, while imports surged by 36 per cent in June, better than May’s 27.4 per cent year-on-year growth, partly due to the Iran war driving up import costs.

China recorded a trade surplus of $125.6 billion (£93bn) in June, up from $105.4bn (£79bn) the previous month.

RUSSIA: Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman attended the departure toay of a US-Russian crew to the International Space Station (ISS), despite tensions over Russia’s military action in Ukraine.

US astronaut Anil Menon and Russian crew mates Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina blasted off aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 for an eight-month stay on the ISS.

SOUTH AFRICA: The authorities have deported or repatriated more than 53,000 African immigrants in the space of a month, in a crackdown coinciding with a series of sometimes violent protests against illegal migration.

More than 80 per cent of the immigrants sent home were from Malawi, South African Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said on Sunday.

FRANCE: Hundreds of firefighters battled two blazes in the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris yesterday that have consumed about 4,900 acres and forced the evacuation of 1,000 people.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the Fontainebleau wildfires, with two others held over fires elsewhere, said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez.