' "iPhone Moment" Nears For Humanoid Robots'

 Brett Adcock, founder of Archer Aviation, who left the flying taxi company to pursue humanoid robotics and the deployment of Artificial General Intelligence, recently shared how his team at Figure AI developed a humanoid robot in just 31 months, achieving the robot's first successful walk within a year. 

Adcock recently spoke at the 2025 Abundance360 summit in Los Angeles and described how humanoid robots are the ultimate "deployment vector" for AGI, comparing what's happening in robotics to an "iPhone moment"- a game-changing breakthrough when a new product suddenly transforms an industry. 

Adcock said that Figure AI designs a new hardware platform every 12 to 18 months. He noted that his startup has secured commercial customers like BMW... 

He forecasts that Figure AI's humanoid robots will be affordable, around $20,000 to $30,000, allowing for widespread adoption in both the workplace and the home. 

Here's a summary of Adock's conversation about humanoid robotics and how the industry is in the midst of an "iPhone moment": 

• (00:00–01:42): Brett Adcock, founder of Figure, rapidly launched humanoid robots from scratch in 31 months. He sees humanoid robots as the ultimate "deployment vector" for AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), comparable to an "iPhone moment" happening now.

• (02:21–03:30): Adcock stresses that giving AGI a physical body is critical to avoid dystopian outcomes where powerful AI remains trapped in servers. Humanoids allow AGI to learn and act through transfer learning and multitasking.

• (06:24–07:54): Commercial robots are already operating at BMW's largest US plant (Spartanburg, SC), autonomously performing repetitive manufacturing tasks. Demand is growing, with a second logistics customer signed.

• (08:28–09:58): Long-term goal: humanoid robots for home use, priced around $20,000–$30,000, leasing for about $300/month. At that rate, Adcock envisions multiple robots per home doing chores like dishwashing, laundry, dog-walking.

• (10:40–12:28): Figure's success is attributed to assembling a world-class, hardworking team with a laser-focused, high-intensity culture (working 5–7 days a week in person) and a shared "ship-product" mindset.

• (14:30–15:43): To succeed, Figure had to solve three hard problems: build ultra-reliable humanoid hardware, teach humanoids through neural nets (not hand-coded controls), and generalize actions to unfamiliar tasks via language instructions.

• (16:51–19:17): Figure abandoned external AI vendors like OpenAI and built its own large vision-language-action AI model called Helix. Robots using Helix can generalize and complete new tasks, like putting groceries away without prior training.

• 22:04–25:45): Workforce applications (manufacturing, logistics, healthcare) are booming, with massive demand. Home deployment is harder but accelerating rapidly. Internal alpha tests in engineers' homes are planned this year, with full rollout projected within this decade.

Watch Here:

As we've previously described, AI, semiconductors, eVTOL, and photonics—are poised to define the great power nations in the 2030s and why the US needs to urgently re-shore or at least friend-shore those critical supply chains.

Entirely relying on China for critical minerals and magnet exports to power drones and humanoid robots has left Tesla delaying its series production of Optimus robot. 

America's robotics industry can't have an "iPhone moment" if it lacks control over the critical supply chains needed to build these technologies. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/iphone-moment-nears-humanoid-robots

US could restrict Mexican livestock imports over screwworm worry, official says

  President Donald Trump's administration warned on Saturday that it will restrict livestock imports from Mexico if that country's government does not intensify its fight against a damaging pest called New World screwworm.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a letter Saturday to her Mexican counterpart said that she "will restrict the importation of animal commodities" if those issues are not resolved by Wednesday.

Rollins' letter, which she posted on the social media site X, said Mexico had limited one of the companies hired to conduct aerial spraying to eliminate the pest to flying only six days a week and had imposed "burdensome customs duties" on parts needed to keep its planes in the air.

Her threat comes against the backdrop of a global trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has ratcheted up tariffs on Mexico and other trading partners.

Screwworm can infest livestock, wildlife and in rare cases, people. Maggots from screwworm flies burrow into the skin of living animals, causing serious and often fatal damage.

Before screwworm's discovery, Mexico had been the U.S.'s largest supplier of cattle. Last month, the U.S. imported 24,000 head of cattle from Mexico, down from about 114,000 a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The U.S. blocked Mexican livestock shipments in late November after the pest was discovered. It lifted that restriction in February based on new protocols for assessing the health of animals before they enter the country.

https://www.aol.com/news/us-could-restrict-mexican-livestock-221938664.html

Urogen Updated 18-Month Duration Of Response (Dor) Of 80.6% in Phase 3 Of Ugn-102

 

• 18-month DOR of 80.6% by Kaplan-Meier estimate was attained in patients who achieved a complete response (CR) at three months (79.6%)

• Data unveiled during a Podium Presentation at the American Urological Association (AUA) 2025 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/urogen-announces-updated-18-month-223000021.html

Abbott New Data: Long-Term, Sustained Benefits Of System For Patients With Afib

 

• Long-term data from the Volt CE Mark Study show strong results out to 12 months in patients receiving pulsed field ablation (PFA) therapy with the Volt™ PFA System

• The 12-month results of the Volt CE Mark Study confirm the long-term safety and efficacy of the Volt PFA System

• The data were presented at the 2025 Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) annual meeting

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/clinical-study-data-showcase-long-231500628.html

Medtronic PLC Says Sphere-360 Study Shows 88% Freedom From Arrhythmia Recurrence

Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) announced positive clinical outcomes from two studies using their Affera™ family of technologies for atrial fibrillation treatment. The Sphere-360™ single-shot PFA catheter demonstrated 88% freedom from arrhythmia recurrence and 98% pulmonary vein isolation at one year, with no reported safety events in the optimized waveform group.

The Sphere-9™ catheter showed effectiveness for linear ablation in persistent AFib patients, based on sub-analysis from the Sphere Per-AF IDE study. The device received FDA approval in October 2024. Medtronic plans to begin U.S. pivotal trials for Sphere-360 later this year.

The company currently offers two PFA solutions: the PulseSelect™ system available in over 30 countries, and the Affera system with Sphere-9 catheter available in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. AFib affects more than 60 million people worldwide and is a progressive disease that increases risks of heart failure, stroke, and death.

https://www.stocktitan.net/news/MDT/medtronic-affera-tm-pulsed-field-ablation-technologies-continue-to-z1pqnfewba3s.html

China exempts some goods from US tariffs

China has exempted some U.S. imports from its 125% tariffs and is asking firms to identify critical goods they need levy-free, according to businesses that have been notified, in the clearest sign yet of Beijing's concerns about the trade war's fallout.

The dispensation, which follows de-escalatory statements from Washington, signals that the world's two largest economies were prepared to rein in their conflict, which had frozen much of the trade between them and raised fears of a global recession.

Beijing's exemptions, which business groups hope would extend to dozens of industries, pushed the U.S. dollar up slightly and lifted equity markets in Hong Kong and Japan.

"As a quid-pro-quo move, it could provide a potential way to de-escalate tensions," said Alfredo Montufar-Helu, a senior adviser to the Conference Board's China Center, a think tank.

But, he cautioned: "It's clear that neither the U.S. nor China want to be the first in reaching out for a deal."

China has not yet communicated publicly on any exemptions.

U.S. President Donald Trump told TIME magazine in an interview that U.S.-China talks were taking place on tariffs, and that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him. Beijing has so far disputed the U.S. characterization of talks.

"He's called. And I don't think that's a sign of weakness on his behalf," Trump told TIME. He did not say when Xi called or what the two leaders discussed.

Equity markets largely shrugged off the interview. European shares remained in positive territory, while U.S. stock futures failed to hold onto early gains and were last little changed on the day. [MKTS/GLOB]

A Friday statement by the Politburo, the Communist Party's elite decision-making body, focused on efforts to maintain stability at home by supporting firms and workers most affected by tariffs.

The readout, which followed the Politburo's regular monthly meeting, showed that Beijing was also ready to hunker down and fight a trade war of attrition if needed to outlast Washington in enduring trade war pain.

A Ministry of Commerce taskforce is collecting lists of items that could be exempted from tariffs and is asking companies to submit their own requests, according to a person with knowledge of that outreach.

The ministry said on Thursday it had held a meeting with more than 80 foreign companies and business chambers in China to discuss the impact of U.S. tariffs on investment and the operation of foreign firms.

"The Chinese government, for example, has been asking our companies what sort of things are you importing to China from the U.S. that you cannot find anywhere else and so would shut down your supply chain," American Chamber of Commerce in China President Michael Hart said.

PHARMA, CHIP EXEMPTIONS

Hart added some member pharmaceutical companies had reported being able to import drugs to China without tariffs. He believed the exemptions were drug-specific, not industry-wide.

The chief executive of French aircraft engine maker Safran said on Friday it had been informed the previous night that China had granted tariff exemptions on "a certain number of aerospace equipment parts" including engines and landing gear.

A source at a memory chip design firm said the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) informed them earlier this week of waivers on imports of eight types of microchips.

Analogue chips are exempted but not memory chips, the source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters. This would likely impact Micron Technology , the largest U.S. memory chip producer.

Asked for comment, the CSIA said it was a matter for customs. Micron did not immediately respond to a request for comment

The impact of China's tariffs on U.S.-made chips was bigger than initially thought, prompting the adjustments, the source added.

The tariff exemptions under consideration by Beijing could provide cost relief for companies in China and take pressure off U.S. exports at a time when the Trump administration has shown signs of wanting to make a deal with Beijing.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China also said it had raised the issue of tariff exemptions with the commerce ministry and was awaiting a response.

A list of 131 categories of products said to be under consideration for tariff exemptions was circulating on Chinese social media platforms and among some businesses and trade groups on Friday. Reuters could not verify the list, which included items ranging from vaccines and chemicals to jet engines as well as eight types of chips.

Huatai Securities said the list corresponded to $45 billion worth of imports to China last year.

China's customs agency and commerce ministry did not reply to requests for comment. China's foreign ministry said it was not familiar with tariff exemption plans, redirecting queries to "relevant authorities".

LASTING FIGHT

While Washington has said the trade stand-off with China is economically untenable and already offered tariff exemptions to some electronic goods, China has repeatedly said it is willing to fight to the end unless the U.S. lifts its 145% tariffs.

But China's economy headed into the trade war with rising unemployment, deflationary pressures and heightened concern that a mounting backlog of unsold exports could drive domestic prices even lower.

While China ran a trillion-dollar trade surplus in 2024, it also relies on the United States for key imports, including the petrochemical ethane, which is needed to make plastics, and some drugs.

Major ethane processors have already sought tariff waivers from Beijing because the U.S. is the only supplier.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-considers-exempting-goods-us-043426233.html

'Global Money Managers Are Reluctant to Return to Chinese Stocks'

 

Signs of a softening stance from the US on China tariffs may be a cue to buy the Asian nation’s stocks for some traders, but for long-term global funds the risk is still too high to pile into the market.

Money managers and strategists at Franklin Templeton, UBS Global Wealth Management and Jupiter Asset Management are among those expecting the trade war to be drawn out and inflict significant pain on the Chinese economy, making them cautious. Their wariness suggests any temporary detente will likely prove insufficient to lure back global funds en masse.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-27/global-money-managers-are-reluctant-to-return-to-chinese-stocks

Labor Sec: States Could Lose Fed Funds If Illegal Immigrants Get Unemployment Benefits

 by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer warned states of losing federal funding if they fail to comply with President Donald Trump’s directives on rewarding illegal immigrants with tax dollars, according to an April 25 statement issued by the Department of Labor.

“Our nation’s unemployment benefits exist solely for workers who are eligible to receive them,” Chavez-DeRemer wrote in a letter addressed to state governors.

“To qualify for unemployment, one must be able and available to work, actively seeking work, and be legally authorized to accept employment in the United States. Unemployment benefits are not a handout for those in our country illegally.”

The secretary reminded all states that failing to fulfill existing legal obligations will result in the loss of federal funding through the Title III UI administrative grant.

The warning is pursuant to presidential memorandum, “Preventing Illegal Aliens from Obtaining Social Security Act Benefits,” and executive order 14218, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders.”

Chavez-DeRemer also reminded states of an earlier communication by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, based on which, states can access the DHS immigration database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE), at no cost and use it to verify the immigration status of benefit claimants.

This is a “critical tool” to ensure “illegal immigrants do not access our nation’s unemployment benefits,” said the labor secretary.

“As a result of this change, I instructed the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to send a letter to all State Unemployment Insurance Administrators urging them to immediately start using SAVE for every initial and continued claim filed by an individual who indicates that they are not a U.S. citizen,” he said.

The SAVE database is aimed at helping agencies at federal, state, local, and tribal levels to confirm the immigration status and citizenship of individuals before issuing benefits.

A presidential memorandum signed on April 15 directed multiple federal agencies to take steps to prevent ineligible people, such as illegal immigrants, from receiving social security benefits.

An executive order issued on Feb. 19 asked agencies and departments to take action to ensure that “no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens” and to “prevent taxpayer resources from acting as a magnet and fueling illegal immigration to the United States.”

According to a Department of Government Efficiency finding released earlier this month, 6,300 illegal immigrants on the terror watchlist had been receiving Medicaid and unemployment insurance.

The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts have been met with challenges.

On April 24, a federal judge issued an order blocking the administration from stripping federal taxpayer funding for cities that have adopted “sanctuary” policies with regard to illegal immigrants.

State and local governments with sanctuary policies block or restrict local officials from enforcing federal laws such as those related to immigration.

The lawsuit was filed by over a dozen cities that would be affected by the cancellation of federal funding for “sanctuary” cities.

In his order, the judge said the administration’s attempt amounts to a violation of the Constitution’s separation of powers principles and banned the government from any further funding cuts.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is looking to prevent illegal immigrants from accessing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or food stamps.

On April 24, the Department of Agriculture asked states to take steps to this effect.

States were asked to check the identities of people who apply for SNAP, collect their social security numbers, and verify their legal status in the United States.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/labor-secretary-warns-states-could-lose-federal-funding-if-illegal-immigrants-get

A new ‘spur-of-the-moment’ leftist protest planned for May Day!

 

By D. Parker

You’ve seen them out on the streets and in the cities where Democrats dominate the landscape.  Anti-liberty leftists these days have devolved back down to kvetching about nothing, with a variety of signs, hoping something will stick.  But none of their chants makes any sense, and none of their complaints are catching the imagination.  They’re down to referring to an illegal-alien MS-13 gang member as a “Maryland man” or “Maryland father” because nothing they’ve thrown up against the wall has stuck.

And they wouldn’t be leftists if they didn’t project the Hitler slur in every other news story.  Everyone should know by now that leftists never apologize or account for their old lies; they merely make up something new and move on.  That’s their version of “progress.”

Naturally, they’ve been out in force, nonsensically referring to a man reducing the size and scope of the government as a “dictator” and the new Hitler.  

That brings us to May Day:

With every meeting the size of the audience increased and by the time Hitler appeared at the Clou restaurant center there were 5000 present.

The occasion was a closed celebration of the Marxist holiday, May Day, and the Fuhrer began like a Lenin: “We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.”

The many quotations on that same subject obliterate one of the left’s biggest lies, and their widespread existence is one reason the leftists’ lies are running on fumes these days.

Curiously, the Nazis also voiced a slogan that is perfectly at home with the left.  This was a new labor code inaugurated in connection with the May Day observance.  From the New York Times:

NAZIS INAUGURATE LABOR CODE TODAY; “The Common Good Before the Good of the Individual” Is Slogan of New System. STATUS OF JEWS AN ISSUE Law Says They May Be “Leaders” in Their Businesses, but Public Opinion Protests

 

Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. May 1, 1934

BERLIN, April 30. — The new Nazi labor code with its system of “leaders and followers, confidential shop councils, courts of honor and labor trustees” goes into effect tomorrow. In connection with the May Day observance, the “leaders and followers” will take an oath to serve loyally under the slogan, “The Common Good Before the Good of the Individual.”

Raise your hand if you could easily imagine leftists parroting that pablum without knowing that it was originally in German.  Both cadres of leftists pulled out all the stops in celebrating their socialist “holiday.”

Coincidently, the nation’s socialists are also going to be out on the streets next Thursday and Saturday in their next “spur-of-the-moment” pre-planned protest.  Yes, nothing says spontaneity quite like events that are planned out behind closed doors and then communicated to the astroturf in advance.  You might ask, how can they afford to do this on a weekday?  Don’t they have jobs?  We’ll let you think that over for yourself, because their main unvoiced complaint is that taxpayer dollars are no longer flowing to organizations that fund such extravaganzas.

It’s relatively easy to trace back the preparation and planning for these ever so spontaneous protest marches.  That’s the beauty of the Wayback Machine: It even color-codes what has taken place in the weeks and sometimes months leading up to these “spur-of-the-moment” events.  The initial links will usually be restricted to a select few — an oligarchy, to coin a phrase — and then, later on, when they need to get the word out to as many as possible, the pages will be opened up for all to see.  This can be pretty useful because it will give everyone a heads-up on places to avoid.

At this point, it’s almost become comical to see how tattered the left’s National Socialist lie has become.  You’ll find that leftists will usually drop this little stink bomb on social media as their parting distraction shot, much like a skunk raising its tail and letting loose.  They won’t stick around to defend their lie, because they have nothing to back it up, and they never actually had a case — it was just a bunch of half-baked opinions and bloviation.

So, as they keep this up, we’ll just do more research and add more similarities to the list, because the nation’s left is far more like that other nation’s socialists than the pro-freedom right.  The Original Social Justice Warrior wasn’t known for his humor, and in general, leftists suffer the same malady, especially in the sense that they can’t seem to meme.  But Joseph Goebbels praised FDR and the New Deal.  The left has pushed price controls and politics into every aspect of life, just like the National Socialists, so they should be cautious in continuing their constant lies.  People are waking up to the fact that National Socialism and leftism are very similar.

D Parker is an engineer, inventor, wordsmith, and student of history, former director of communications for a civil rights organization, and a longtime contributor to conservative websites. Find him on Substack.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/04/a_new_spur_of_the_moment_leftist_protest_planned_for_may_day.html

Rebutting the fallacy that ICE needs a warrant to grab illegal aliens

 

By Andrea Widburg

I’m sorry to obsess about the issues arising from Judge Hannah Dugan’s arrest, but it really is the perfect storm of leftism, for it marks the intersection of illegal immigration, rogue judges, the rule of law, and dishonest leftist narratives.

The story so far is that Hannah Dugan, a former executive director of Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin Inc. (the parent of which received millions of taxpayer dollars that were used to facilitate illegal immigration), became a judge. In that role, she is alleged to have deliberately and quite blatantly blocked ICE as it was attempting to detain an illegal alien leaving her courtroom. For that, the DOJ arrested her.

Now the left is freaking out. Freakout number one is that no one should be arrested for preventing the Nazi federal government from deporting illegal aliens, many of whom have additional violent crimes piled on top of their illegality, but all of whom are being likened to European Jews rounded up from their legal residences and taken to gas chambers.

Image by Grok AI.

Freakout number two is that Dugan’s arrest marks Trump’s tyrannical assault on justice itself. Judges, say leftists, cannot be arrested for imposing “moral” law on the nation through their virtuous actions.

Now, I’m seeing another attack leveled at the Trump administration: ICE’s efforts to seize the illegal alien were themselves illegal because ICE forgot to get a proper warrant, thereby forcing Dugan to act immediately to protect the illegal alien from the administration’s blatant lawlessness:

The problem is that Dugan was wrong, as are all the leftists echoing her claim. The law is clear that ICE doesn’t need warrants to detain and deport illegal aliens whom they reasonably believe are deportable and are in a public space...like a courthouse:

ICE officers are sworn federal law enforcement officers who operate within the confines of the law. Section 287 of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides ICE officers the authority to arrest aliens without a judicial warrant. In fact, no judge in this country has the authority to issue a warrant for a civil immigration violation. Congress, by statute, vested this authorization solely to supervisory immigration officers. Local police officers don’t need a warrant when they encounter someone breaking the law in a public space, and the same holds true for ICE officers. Obstructing or otherwise interfering with an ICE arrest is a crime, and anyone involved may be subject to prosecution under federal law. In addition, encouraging others to interfere or attempt to obstruct an arrest is extremely reckless and places all parties in jeopardy.

 

The administrative warrant was a belts-and-suspenders exercise, not a necessity. Dugan’s alleged acts were illegal. I worry, though, that America no longer has a concept of the rule of law and has abandoned the notion that nobody is above the law or (as in Trump’s case) placed below the law.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/04/rebutting_the_fallacy_that_ice_needs_a_warrant_to_grab_illegal_aliens.html