The city of Hangzhou is one of the most historic and beautiful in China.

But this ancient place now has the most modern of reputations, as China’s ‘Silicon Valley’.

A vibrant hub for entrepreneurs and high-tech start-ups, Hangzhou is home to headline-grabbing success stories like Alibaba and breakthrough AI firm, DeepSeek.

In the context of escalating competition with America, the world is increasingly paying attention.

Those who are part of the tech scene here brim with enthusiasm.

Over coffee, in an ultra-modern city complex, they describe how exciting this moment feels, not just for their businesses, but for China too.

“We have the talents, we have the environment, and we have the full supply chain, even though we have a challenging environment,” says Grace Zheng, who has worked at the AI glasses creator Looktech since its inception.

“It’s our time.”

The others laugh and nod. “I agree with it,” says Jia Dou, whose company Wuli Coffee, creates high-tech, automated commercial coffee machines. “And I think it’s our time to show and battle with other foreign countries.”

And is that a battle China could now win, I ask? “Of course,” comes the answer.

They tell stories of how estate agents in Hangzhou dedicated hours of their time for free to find the perfect laboratory space, and how the local government showered them in grants and incentives; so hungry is this city for tech success.

“Hangzhou says we’ll provide the sunshine and the water, you go ahead and grow,” explains Zhang Jie.

She is the convenor of this group. An entrepreneur herself and the founder of a thriving ‘incubator’ for start-ups, she has invested in and mentored all the others around the table.

She is passionate, energetic and has a second-to-none understanding of what makes Hangzhou and China’s tech scene so successful.

“In China, we have more than 10 million university and college students graduating. Then we’re talking about at least five to six million engineers with college education background,” she says.

“So with such a large group of young and intelligent people with a good environment, a favourable environment for entrepreneurship, I’m sure there will be even greater companies coming in the future.”

Indeed, a combination of light-touch local regulation, (unusual in China more broadly), coupled with one of the most business-oriented and free-thinking universities in the country, Zhejiang University, is viewed by many as the secret sauce in Hangzhou.

Zhang says she has had more young people approach her with business ideas in the last quarter than at any other time before, and she is full of optimism about the current wave.

“They are already companies [in China that will] probably be greater than Apple, right?” She laughs.

And she may well be right.

But there is one name in particular, born and bred in Hangzhou, that has captured the world’s attention in recent months.

When DeepSeek unveiled its latest open-source AI model earlier this year, it stunned the world, claiming to be as good as western competitors for a fraction of the price.

Many are now talking about the ‘DeepSeek moment’, a moment that turbocharged confidence within China and made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Indeed, successes like this are being lauded by China’s leaders. In February, tech bosses, including DeepSeek’s founder Liang Wenfeng, were invited to a symposium with Xi Jinping and his top team.

Photo ops and handshakes with the president, an abrupt change from the crackdown they faced just a few years ago. In fact, tech is now being positioned as a key pillar in China’s future economy, repeatedly highlighted in official communications.

But what is seen as inspiring innovation in China is viewed by the United States as a threat.

Donald Trump is moving to ramp up restrictions, including more export controls on chips being sold to China.

Read more from Sky News:
What is DeepSeek?
China raises tariffs on US

Businesses in Hangzhou are of course aware of the trade war unfolding around them, many who export to America will take a significant hit, but most think they can cope.

Dr Song Ning is one of them. He proudly shows us his factory, which is integrated with the lab work and R&D side of his business.

His company, Diagens, uses AI to massively speed up medical diagnostics, cutting the time taken to run a chromosomal screening from 30 days to 4. He is also working on a chatbot called WiseDiag which has more advanced medical understanding and can be used by patients.

While they are actively seeking business in over 35 foreign countries, for now, the pursuit of American customers is on pause.

“Competition is a good thing… it makes us all stronger,” he says.

“I do not think by limiting the scientific and technological progress of China or other countries, Trump will be able to achieve his goal, I think it is a false premise.

“Information is so developed now, each country has very smart people, it will only force us to have more tech innovation.”

While individuals remain defiant, the trade war will still leave a big hole in China’s economy. Tech firms, however advanced, can’t yet fill that gap.

But the innovation here is rapid, and there is no doubt, it will leave its mark on the world.

Mourners will be able to view the body of Pope Francis lying in state in St Peter’s Basilica from Wednesday, ahead of his funeral this weekend.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to travel to the Vatican over the next three days to pay their respects to the pontiff, who died on Easter Monday at the age of 88.

After his funeral on Saturday morning (9am UK time) there will be a nine-day period of mourning, known as the “novendiali”, after which the secretive meeting – called the conclave – will begin to elect a new pope.

Pope Francis: Follow the latest

The conclave to choose his successor must start between 5 and 10 May.

The first images of his body were released on Tuesday, showing him in red vestments and his bishop’s mitre in a wooden casket.

The Vatican secretary of state was shown praying over him in the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta hotel where he lived and died.

Previous popes were entombed in three coffins: the first made of wood, another of lead and a third, again made of wood. But in 2024, Francis changed the rules and said that only one coffin, a wooden one lined in zinc, should be used.

In a break from tradition, he will be buried in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major), according to his wishes.

Following the pope’s death, from a stroke and heart failure, world leaders have praised his moral leadership and compassion.

On Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer described him as “a quite remarkable man, and the work and commitment that he put into fairness over so many years, and globally, I think will be a real lasting legacy”.

Sir Keir will join a growing list of dignitaries who will attend the funeral on Saturday, including Prince William, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ireland’s prime minister Micheal Martin, Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia, and Donald Trump.

Read more from Sky News:
St Peter’s Square full of smiles
How accurate is Conclave?
What next after the Pope?

Huge numbers have attended the funerals of Pope Francis’s predecessors.

In 2023, around 50,000 people attended the funeral of Benedict XVI, according to the Washington Post. In 2005, around 300,000 went to the funeral of John Paul II.

Once the conclave begins, cardinals vote in secret sessions in the Sistine Chapel.

After voting sessions, the ballots are burned in a special stove. Black smoke indicates that no pope has been elected, while white smoke indicates that the cardinals have chosen the next head of the Catholic Church.

Talks to try to end the Birmingham bin strike that has seen piles of black rubbish bags fill the pavements of the city will resume today.

Mounds of waste remain uncollected, while residents have started to take matters into their own hands.

Birmingham City Council declared a major incident on 31 March, saying the “regrettable” move was taken in response to public health concerns, as picket lines were blocking depots and preventing waste vehicles from collecting rubbish.

The all-out strike started on 11 March, but waste collections have been disrupted since January.

Here is everything you need to know.

How long have workers been striking?

More than 350 workers of the Unite union began a series of walkouts in January and decided to escalate into indefinite strike action on 11 March, citing fear over further attacks on their jobs, pay and conditions.

The union has said that the removal of the role of waste recycling and collection officer (WRCO) role will leave about 150 workers £8,000 worse off – as the number of workers working on bin lorries will be reduced from four to three.

The council said it scrapped the WRCO role to put the city’s waste operations in line with national practice and to improve its waste collection service.

It said all workers have been offered alternative employment at the same pay, driver training or voluntary redundancy and that offer remains open.

Three military planners are understood to have been assigned to the city to provide logistical support to Birmingham’s council for a short period of time.

What are the impacts?

Normally, the city’s waste teams would make more than half a million collections in a week with 200 vehicles deployed over eight-hour daily shifts.

This has been reduced to just over 26,000 since the start of April, according to the latest council figures.

The cost of the ongoing clean-up could cause even more damage to the council, which effectively declared bankruptcy in 2023. One waste management agency told Sky News that totally clearing the backlog could cost more than £200m.

The strike has become one of the longest the UK has seen in recent years.

Back in 1978-79, the winter of discontent led to rubbish piling up on the streets of London, as the waste collection industry joined other trade unions in demanding larger pay rises in response to government caps.

More recently, more than 200 bin workers in the Wirral went on a week-long strike in 2022, eventually securing a 15% pay rise. In the same year, a similar dispute over pay saw rubbish pile up in Edinburgh during the city’s busy festival season.

Why is it taking so long to settle the dispute?

Unite, the union representing striking workers, and the city council have failed to reach an agreement since the strike began in March, with Unite holding firm on the strike action despite pressure from the government.

Members rejected the council’s latest offer on 14 April by 97% on 60% turnout, saying it was “totally inadequate” and did not address potential pay cuts for 200 drivers.

The union’s general secretary Sharon Graham said the rejection was “no surprise” as “workers simply cannot afford to take pay cuts of this magnitude to pay the price for bad decision after bad decision”.

Meanwhile, the government and council said it was a “significantly improved” offer.

Responding to an urgent question in the House of Commons on 22 April, communities minister Jim McMahon said “significant progress” had been made in dealing with the remaining tonnes of rubbish.

He said through “a concerted effort” and with the assistance of other councils, private operators and workers, 26,000 tonnes of excess waste had been removed, and the levels were “approaching normal”.

Council leader John Cotton told Sky News’ Midlands correspondent Lisa Dowd on 16 April that it “pains” him to see pictures of mounds of rubbish and rats feeding off the mess being broadcast around the world.

He said the only way for the normal waste collection schedule to resume was for the strike to end – but added the cash-strapped council has “red lines” that it will not cross during negotiations.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner visited the city on 10 April and urged the union to end the “misery and disruption” by accepting a pay deal.

How have residents been affected?

Mounting rubbish has led to residents complaining of a risk to public health, with rotting food attracting foxes, cockroaches and rats.

Rashid Campbell, a local resident who is part of a volunteer litter-picking team from the Birmingham Central Mosque, told Sky’s Shamaan Freeman-Powell that 12 members of his team collected 24 bags of rubbish from two Birmingham streets on Easter Sunday.

“If we don’t [litter-pick], we’re just going to be drowning in rubbish,” he said.

Latifat Abdul Majed Isah said even in some places where bins have been taken away, the street remained “dirty, unpalatable and unpleasant to see”.

Joseph McHale, a rat-catcher from Vergo Pest Management, told Sky News at the beginning of April that discarded bin bags provide vermin with “somewhere to hide, somewhere to feed, somewhere to stay warm”.

He said his business had seen a 60% increase in people from Birmingham calling them for help.

By declaring a major incident, the council was able to free up an additional 35 vehicles and crews to clear rubbish and fly-tipping from the streets.

The limited number of waste trucks are deployed each morning from three depots across the city and cover multiple different routes.

Residents are also able to dispose of household general waste and bulky items at the council’s mobile household waste centres, without prebooking.

To recycle household items, locals are required to book a slot at one of the council’s household recycling centres.

Could it spread to other areas?

The union’s general secretary has warned the strikes could “absolutely” spread to other areas.

“If other councils decide to make low-paid workers pay for bad decisions that they did not make, workers paying the price yet again, then absolutely, of course, we all have to take action in those other areas,” Sharon Graham told LBC.

The union’s national lead officer Onay Kasab agreed, telling BBC Four: “Well, if other local authorities look to cut the pay of essential public service workers, then there is the potential for strike action spreading.

“That’s why different political choices need to be made.”

Ms Graham also criticised the government, saying it had taken them “a huge amount of time to get involved in the dispute”.