In focus
Xinhua questions China's men's table tennis team after none of five entrants reaches Montpellier semifinals
The WTT Champions Montpellier tournament concluded in the early hours of November 2, with South Korea's Jang Woo-jin winning the men's singles title. According to a Xinhua report relayed in a Baidu trending-search summary, five Chinese men competed: three reached the quarterfinals, but none advanced to the semifinals. The same report contrasted that result with the Chinese women's sweep of the top four places and asked, 'What has happened to China's men's table tennis team?' A Sina News headline on the same topic described a failure to reach the men's singles semifinals at multiple WTT events. The discussion appeared on Weibo, Douyin and Baidu trending lists on the collection date. Another highly popular topic claimed that Fan Zhendong remained ranked second despite not playing WTT events for two years. That was only the topic headline's claim; the collected material did not explain the ranking basis.
Walking home from Chile: Karl Bushby crosses the Humber Bridge after 28 years on foot
On November 1, local time, British man Karl Bushby crossed the Humber Bridge on the way to his hometown. He had set out from Chile in 1998 under a self-imposed rule of traveling on foot without using transportation. According to a Baidu trending-list entry, the journey home lasted 28 years and covered about 50,000 kilometers through roughly 30 countries. Along the way, he was attacked by assailants and faced off with a polar bear near the Arctic Circle. Crossing the Humber Bridge brought the long journey close to its end, with his return home imminent.
Autopsy finds cardiac tamponade in 35-year-old groom who died after seeking treatment on his wedding day
According to Baidu trending-search records, a 35-year-old man surnamed Xie sought treatment for a sore throat at Tongzi County People's Hospital in Guizhou on October 3, his wedding day. He suddenly developed an impairment of consciousness during an intravenous infusion and died despite resuscitation efforts. His sister spoke publicly on November 2. A forensic examination identified cardiac tamponade caused by blood accumulating around the heart as the cause of death, and the family said a further assessment of medical-malpractice liability was needed. Public information so far establishes only that the family intends to pursue that assessment; no liability finding has been provided. Whether there was medical negligence linking the infusion to his death, and how responsibility should be apportioned, remain to be determined. Another trending-list entry mentioned his parents raising money for the funeral, without providing further details.
News in brief
Queues form for 10-yuan quick haircuts as traditional salons face resistance to membership sales
A discussion on Zhihu's trending list said queues for 10-yuan quick haircuts had appeared in many parts of China. It described these shops as having no cashier service or hair-washing stations and not pushing membership cards, while many traditional salons were closing amid problems including aggressive membership sales. The discussion also cited inflated stylist titles and disputes over prepaid cards as reasons consumers regard some salons as 'haircut assassins'—a term for unexpectedly expensive haircuts.
Residential deflagration in Wuhan's Wuchang district kills two and injures one
According to a notice from the Wuchang district branch of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau, a deflagration occurred at a residential complex in Wuchang at about 11:50 p.m. on November 2, killing two people and injuring one. The injured person's condition was not life-threatening. Police, fire and rescue personnel, and emergency medical services responded. Treatment of the injured and examination of the scene proceeded in parallel, with the investigation and response still underway.
Wang Chuqin beats Lind 3–0 on return from injury, reaching Frankfurt's last 16
On the evening of November 3, Wang Chuqin returned from injury to beat Denmark's Lind 3–0 in the opening round of the men's singles at WTT Champions Frankfurt. The game scores were 11–7, 14–12 and 11–9, sending him into the last 16. Wang had lost 1–3 to Lind at this year's U.S. Smash; this win avenged that defeat and brought his international head-to-head record against Lind to three wins and two losses.
Thunder announce retirement of Westbrook's No. 0 jersey on February 8 next year
Thunder general manager Sam Presti announced on November 3 that the team would retire Russell Westbrook's No. 0 jersey on February 8 next year. In an interview, Westbrook called it a tremendous honor and said he had left a legacy during his career.
Severely injured snow leopard cub 'Ling Xiaohan' dies despite rescue efforts in Qinghai
According to information on Baidu's trending searches, the severely injured snow leopard cub 'Ling Xiaohan' died in Qinghai on November 1 despite 26 days of intensive rescue efforts. Examinations at the rescue center found multiple skull fractures, accompanied by cerebral hemorrhage, brain swelling and an intracranial infection. The cub ultimately died of circulatory and respiratory failure.
Lijian-2's second rocket launches successfully, placing Qianfan polar-orbit Group 21 satellites into orbit
At 8:15 a.m. on November 3, CAS Space's second Lijian-2 launch vehicle lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone and placed the Qianfan polar-orbit Group 21 satellites into their intended orbit. The flight test mission was successful. It was Lijian-2's second flight.
China's central bank raises foreign-currency deposit reserve ratio to 6%, effective November 15
The People's Bank of China announced on November 3 that it would raise financial institutions' foreign-currency deposit reserve requirement ratio from 4% to 6%, an increase of two percentage points, effective November 15, 2026. It cited stronger management of foreign-currency liquidity at financial institutions as the reason. Xinhua placed the move in the context of the renminbi's recent sustained appreciation, describing it as intended to stabilize market expectations and maintain orderly operation of the foreign-exchange market.
Several Nanjing high schools move required arrival times to between 7:10 and 7:20 a.m.
According to reporters' visits, several high schools in Nanjing have delayed the start of the school day, with required arrival times at a number of schools moved to between 7:10 and 7:20 a.m. Parents had previously reported that high school students were spending more than 15 hours a day at school and expressed concern about their health. Responding on October 27, Jiangsu education department director Jiang Yong said the province had conducted 12 rounds of inspections this year and would strengthen management in five areas, including daily schedules and homework burdens.
Apple Intelligence for mainland China opens for testing November 4, integrating Alibaba's Qianwen
Apple announced that the first Apple Intelligence features for mainland-China devices would open for testing with an iOS developer beta on November 4 and reach Chinese users with the official iOS 27.3 release in December. The initial features include live translation, writing tools, photo cleanup, Genmoji, visual intelligence and new Siri interactions. Alibaba's Qianwen is integrated into Siri, writing tools and visual intelligence to handle requests beyond on-device capabilities. The initial rollout is limited to iPhone; iPad and Mac must await approval. The next-generation Siri AI is not part of the first release.
Phantom Blade Zero developer says sales exceed four million within 72 hours of release
S-GAME said its self-developed and self-published game Phantom Blade Zero sold more than four million copies within 72 hours of release. It said it had recorded player feedback and begun fixing obvious bugs. Separately, SteamDB data showed the game's peak concurrent player count on Steam exceeded 830,000, setting a 2026 Steam record for concurrent players in a single-player game.
Li Jiaqi's livestream sells 100,000 Qianwen Office monthly memberships in half an hour
Qianwen Office tokens went on sale in Li Jiaqi's Tmall Double 11 livestream on the evening of November 2. According to Caijing.com and other reports, 100,000 individual monthly membership cards were sold within half an hour, representing about two trillion tokens in total. That evening, Alibaba vice president and Qianwen Office CEO Chen Yusen appeared on the livestream to discuss AI office-work applications.
October auto sales: BYD leads with nearly 490,000 vehicles; Xiaomi and XPeng exceed 50,000
The October 2026 automaker sales and delivery rankings are out. BYD led with 490,168 vehicles, up 10.97% year on year, followed by Geely at 310,183 and Chery at 295,934. Among newer automakers, Leapmotor delivered 106,127 vehicles, XPeng 50,237 and Xiaomi more than 50,000, each reaching a new milestone high. Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance delivered 33,537 vehicles, down 50.84% year on year. Note that the rankings mix measures such as sales, deliveries and wholesale volumes, so the figures are not fully comparable.
At a glance
Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and China's foreign minister, spoke by phone with Philippine Foreign Secretary Lazaro at her request on November 3. The two sides reached a basic consensus on improving and developing China–Philippines relations.
A U.S. official disclosed on November 2, U.S. Eastern Time, that the United States had attacked Iran's Qeshm Island that day.
The Chinese embassy in Sweden said in a November 2 notice that members of a Chinese official delegation had recently been detained by police during a visit to Sweden for photographing sensitive local facilities and personnel, disrupting their subsequent itinerary. The embassy reminded Chinese citizens in Sweden to pay attention to signs prohibiting entry, photography and similar activities.
A man surnamed Liu from Qianshan, Anhui, claimed online that he had spent 2.6 million yuan climbing Mount Everest. Checks found that he had fabricated the story to attract traffic, and he received an administrative penalty under the law.
An altercation between tourists occurred at the Jiuzhaigou scenic area. The Jiuzhaigou administration said staff had gone to the scene to handle the incident and called the police, who have opened an investigation.
According to a report on IT Home's trending list, anti-fraud blogger 'Huijian' was reportedly killed in a murder-for-hire two years ago. Before his death, he had publicly accused Liu Ren, described as a key member of Chen Zhi's criminal organization.
Bloomberg reported on November 3, citing people familiar with the matter, that Disney planned to cut thousands of jobs and had asked some managers to reduce annual costs by 20%. CEO D'Amaro intended to direct some of the savings toward film and television production, technology research and development, and the parks and cruise businesses.
AI researcher Karpathy said dissatisfaction with YouTube's recommendations led him to use a one-sentence prompt to have Claude build HackerTube in two hours. The page copies YouTube's layout and includes only 6,454 videos repeatedly recommended on Hacker News.
DeepSeek Harness announced its official arrival on Bilibili, describing how plugins can be generated through conversations in 'Create Mode' and releasing a collection of prompts for reference.
According to a report from Ecuador's national risk management secretariat as of November 3, local time, sustained heavy rainfall caused by El Niño had triggered 1,086 disaster incidents across the country's 24 provinces, killing 11 people and affecting nearly 49,000.
On November 2, Yantai Marathon organizers issued an apology concerning reports of crowds scrambling for post-race seafood refreshments. They said they had seriously underestimated runners' enthusiasm. Each batch of seafood took about 20 minutes to cook on site, creating a temporary mismatch between serving speed and the concentrated arrival of participants, with queues forming in the refreshment area.
Terms in context
'Smartphone dementia': the individual case behind the trending term
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'Smartphone dementia' refers to symptoms such as forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating associated with prolonged smartphone use. In a widely circulated case, a 25-year-old woman working in online sales in Fuzhou reportedly used her phone for more than 10 hours a day and was diagnosed by a doctor with 'digital dementia.' This description comes from an individual case report and is not an established medical conclusion.
Trending term: Houhui Youqi
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The show Houhui Youqi has recently prompted discussion on Weibo, Douyin and other platforms, with related topics focusing on 'how many people the show approached' and 'why it became popular.' A media article described the program as bringing together four groups of friends who had once been close but later drifted apart, inviting them to travel together and try to confront things left unsaid.
Hongguo short dramas: binge-watching drives the buzz
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On November 3, several Hongguo short-drama topics appeared on Weibo's trending list, focusing on its high popularity, watching until dawn and viewers' reactions. A question on Zhihu also claimed it had topped Taiwan's app-store download rankings, while IT Home relayed a report saying its user count had surpassed Doubao's.
AI tokens
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A token is a basic unit used by large language models to process text. Tokens have now become a livestream product: on the evening of November 2, Li Jiaqi's livestream offered Qianwen Office tokens and sold 100,000 individual monthly membership cards in half an hour, representing about two trillion tokens in total. At the same time, some media reports cautioned buyers about potential pitfalls when purchasing tokens during Double 11.
Physical AI: enabling models to understand and act on the real world
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Physical AI aims to let AI understand physical environments, interact with real devices and carry out tasks autonomously, as distinct from digital generative AI that primarily handles text, images and video, according to an industry overview compiled by 36Kr. Recent developments include Nvidia expanding its Isaac robotics development platform, Google DeepMind publishing research on the Genie 4 world model, and Intel and SAP demonstrating a proof of concept for physical AI and autonomous warehouses. Soochow Securities identifies automobiles and robots as important end devices for physical AI.