Thursday, August 20, 2026
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
'US oil route could reduce need for concessions on Strait of Hormuz'
Ali Gholhaki, an activist close to Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Wednesday the US is using specialized vessels to clear a southern shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz near Oman, which could reduce the strait’s strategic value and Washington’s incentive to make concessions to Iran.
“The Americans were using specialized vessels to remove sharp, obstructive rocks along the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz, near Oman, in order to clear the shipping corridor for vessels to pass through,” he posted on X.
“The US’s “quiet transfer of oil through the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz” would diminish the strait’s strategic value. If this continues, the US will have no reason to lift the “blockade,” waive any sanctions or release any funds,” he added.
پیشتر نوشتم که آمریکاییها با کشتیهای خاصی اقدام به تراشیدن صخرههای تیز و مزاحم در مسیر جنوبِ تنگه هرمز (عمان) نمودهاند که مسیر تردد کشتیها در آن «کریدور» را هموار کنند.
— Ali Gholhaki (@aghplt) August 19, 2026
«انتقالِ بیسروصدای نفت از مسیر جنوبِ تنگه هرمز توسط آمریکا»، سکهی تنگه را از رونق خواهد انداخت؛ در صورت…
'Trump’s Iran pressure campaign hinges on crackdown in Dubai - WSJ'
President Donald Trump’s effort to squeeze Iran’s economy hinges on the UAE curbing the financial and trading networks that have made Dubai a major gateway for Tehran to global markets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The UAE supplied more than 30% of Iran’s imports in 2024, worth about $21 billion, according to the World Trade Organization, while Dubai has long served as a financial hub for Iranian companies and individuals seeking to bypass Western sanctions, the report said.
US officials have pressed the UAE to target Iranian financial networks, including those linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, arguing that disrupting money flows could have a greater impact on Tehran than the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, according to people familiar with the matter, the report added.
President Trump’s effort to squeeze Iran into submission will depend heavily on curbing one of the country’s biggest economic lifelines: Dubai. https://t.co/5KvVM8Wami
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 19, 2026
China robot makers show off latest humanoids as event draws surprise visit from Nvidia CEO’s daughter
Chinese robot makers showed off humanoids sorting parcels, packing mobile phones and helping with household chores at a Beijing conference on Wednesday, seeking to demonstrate a shift from crowd-pleasing displays to broader commercial use.
More than 300 mostly domestic companies are attending the World Robot Conference, which runs through Sunday, displaying over 2,000 exhibits and launching more than 150 products, according to organizers.
The event comes amid a surge of investor interest in humanoids, a potential new source of industrial growth for China and an arena of technological competition with the United States.
Shares in Unitree, China’s best-known humanoid robot maker, soared nearly sixfold in their Shanghai trading debut on Wednesday, after Unitree’s initial public offering was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors.
Following Unitree’s IPO, startup Lumos Robotics and the robotics division of China’s largest auto exporter Chery Automobile told Reuters they were also considering stock market listings
Nvidia executive visits
Madison Huang, a senior Nvidia executive and daughter of the US chipmaker’s CEO Jensen Huang, made an unannounced visit to the event, watching robots perform flying kicks and dance routines before stopping at a companion-robot booth to ask about its sensors.
Huang, who drew onlookers much as her father has on past visits to Beijing, oversees marketing for Nvidia’s Omniverse and robotics platforms, software used to simulate and test physical AI — systems that can perceive and act in the real world.
Despite geopolitical tensions and US restrictions on exports of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips to China, her visit highlighted foreign suppliers’ role in China’s push to develop intelligent and autonomous robots for its factories, warehouses and homes.
RealSense, a US-based maker of vision systems for robots and one of the few foreign exhibitors at the conference, said it was expanding manufacturing capacity and building sales partnerships in China as the sector develops.
“We see China as a very strategic market for us,” said Mike Nielsen, the company’s chief marketing officer.
“It is becoming the center of humanoid technology.”
Robotics an ‘important force’
At the opening ceremony, Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology, pledged support, saying robotics had become “an important force” in China’s economic and social development, state-backed financial outlet Cailianshe reported.
Robots are increasingly being tested in logistics, manufacturing and service settings, though many deployments remain at the pilot or early commercial stage.
“Our most common application scenarios are in logistics,” said Zhang Dapeng, assistant vice president at industrial humanoid robot firm Leju, as his company showed robots moving and sorting crates and small objects.
Zhang said European factories and Chinese auto plants were using Leju robots to move boxes and load components.
At Robotera’s booth, a humanoid torso on a wheeled tripod base sorted parcels. A company official said the robot had been deployed at China Post logistics sites since last year using Robotera’s AI software.
A sales representative said Robotera had more than 100 parcel-sorting robots in 15 warehouses nationwide.
From demonstrations to deployment
Nearby, DexForce demonstrated humanoid robots packing mobile phones into boxes on an assembly line.
The robots have been deployed since early this year at a Lens Technology factory, a Chinese supplier of touchscreens and other components to Apple and Huawei, said DexForce official Nicole Yang.
Yang said the machines had millimeter-level operating accuracy and could detect and correct errors, such as a phone being placed at an angle.
“In theory, human beings are the most dexterous,” Yang said. “But many workers in factories are unwilling to do this kind of boring work.”
Lumos Robotics is already using robots to automate the assembly of key modules at its factory and plans to introduce them into final assembly, founder and Chief Executive Yu Chao said.
“This year, everyone is more focused on how robots can work in real-world scenarios,” he said.
X Square Robot, known for its focus on household chores, is looking to move beyond short home-service trials.
Its longest deployment has lasted one month, and it is testing robots in hundreds of homes this year before gradual commercialisation next year, said co-founder and Chief Executive Yang Qian.
Commercial test
Global humanoid shipments rose 272% in the first half of 2026 to about 19,000 units, with Chinese companies accounting for 97% of the total, according to Morgan Stanley, citing Smart Analytics Global data.
But about 65% of shipments still went to entertainment, education, research and data collection rather than productive commercial work, Morgan Stanley said.
RealSense’s Nielsen said the companies most likely to succeed would be those able to put robots into active production environments, adding that China’s rapid development cycle was pushing suppliers to move more quickly.
“The product cycles for robots are more like six to eight months, not three to four years,” he said.
El-Sayed says would take socialist plan a ‘step further’ than Bernie Sanders for key US industry
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed said he wanted to “take it a step further” when asked whether he supported Bernie Sanders’ public ownership model for major artificial intelligence companies.
El-Sayed argued for “some system of public control,” days after a top House Democrat rejected suggestions that young socialists are talking about “seizing the means of production.”
Asked during a June 12 appearance on the left-wing “Head in the Office” podcast whether he supported public ownership models for major artificial intelligence companies like one proposed by Sanders, El-Sayed said he wanted to “actually take it a step further.”
He added that while he agreed “we need public ownership,” he also believed “we need some system of public control.”
El-Sayed did not explicitly call for the government to seize or take ownership of private AI companies, instead describing possible forms of “public control” that included public representation on corporate boards or an oversight body.
“I want to actually take it a step further. I agree that we need public ownership, but I also agree that we need some system of public control. What is the point of democracy if it’s not to protect us from existential risk? And, right now, there is no regulation,” El-Sayed said when asked about public ownership and public control of major AI companies, with the podcast host citing proposals from Sanders.
“I just think it’s really important for us to be thinking what is democratic control over this industry? What does it look like?”
El-Sayed later offered examples of what “public control” could look like, including public representation on corporate boards or a public oversight body over companies, arguing that AI poses potentially “existential” risks requiring greater public oversight.
“Democracy is supposed to fix these problems, and, right now, they’re trying to slip democracy, and we cannot allow that,” El-Sayed continued about the political power tech companies wield in Washington. “And, so, we need leaders who both understand the technological risk and are not bought off by the AI industry itself. It is mission critical right now for our future.”
El-Sayed’s call to “take it a step further” on public ownership comes as senior Democrats have sought to push back on the idea that the party’s rising socialist wing is seeking government control of the means of production.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., recently argued that young Americans who identify as socialists are not embracing socialism in its traditional Marxist sense, asking whether they mean, “I want to socialize the means of production,” before answering, “I don’t think so.”
Raskin has similarly argued that young self-described socialists are primarily seeking “greater equality and opportunity,” rather than embracing concepts such as “dialectical materialism” or the “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
But some of the movement’s most prominent figures have used more explicit language. Mamdani said during a 2021 Young Democratic Socialists of America conference that one of the movement’s firmly held beliefs was the “end goal of seizing the means of production,” while acknowledging it did not then enjoy the same level of public support as other progressive causes.
The June podcast comments are drawing fresh attention as El-Sayed, a progressive who has embraced comparisons to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, seeks to carry that brand of politics into a marquee statewide Senate race.
The resurfaced exchange also comes amid a broader debate over the Democratic Party’s embrace of democratic socialists and how far the movement’s economic agenda extends beyond policies such as universal healthcare and a higher minimum wage.