He described the voyage as the state-owned company’s first such operation in decades.
The shipment comes as traffic through the critical waterway remains disrupted by the US-Iran war and attacks on commercial vessels.
“The enemy’s plan in recent months has been to cut the country’s vital arteries with the aim of putting pressure on the Iranian people,” Pezeshkian wrote on X.
He acknowledged that economic pressure had increased but said government measures and public cooperation had prevented Iran’s adversaries from achieving their objectives in what he called an “economic war.”
Pezeshkian’s comments come as a US maritime blockade has severely constrained Iran’s oil exports and Washington has expanded sanctions against key sectors of the economy.
Former Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that Serbia would continue refusing to impose sanctions on Russia if the coalition he leads wins the October 25 parliamentary election.
"We will continue to pursue international policy as we have always done: with a love of freedom, independence, and autonomy," Vucic told supporters in Belgrade, according to RIA Novosti. He said Serbia would continue its path toward the European Union while preserving "our national interests" and "traditional friendship" with Russia.
Vucic resigned as president on September 27, eight months before the end of his second presidential term, to lead the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) into the snap election and seek the premiership after nearly two years of protests and unrest. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Vucic discussed numerous topics in a phone call, including bilateral relations, energy supply, and the upcoming parliamentary elections in Serbia.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Vucic-vows-no-Russia-sanctions-if-coalition-wins/67228386
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday that Russia poses no threat to Europe or the West.
"We are not a threat to anyone in Europe or the West," Medvedev told Iranian state television. "We have no special interests there other than normal relations with European states, as the Russian leadership has repeatedly stated. We need nothing from them other than a full-fledged, normal dialogue and calm cooperation. If they want it, we will do it. If they view us as a threat, so be it," he said.
Medvedev claimed that portraying Russia as a threat is used to influence public opinion, win elections and "knock money out of their military budgets."
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Medvedev:-Russia-poses-no-threat-to-Europe/67228414
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev warned that the conflict involving Iran is already having major economic consequences and said negotiations are needed to prevent further damage.
"I believe the security situation in the region is extremely dire. This is primarily due to the aggression carried out by the United States and Israel," Medvedev told Iranian state television. "We need to negotiate, not rattle our weapons. Otherwise, the world faces economic collapse," he added, saying higher oil and diesel prices had "hit American taxpayers hard."
Medvedev also said US actions against Iran could push more countries to seek nuclear weapons, claiming that "a significant number of countries, including those in the Middle East, will seek to acquire nuclear weapons. Because only nuclear weapons, in essence, are capable of preventing a global conflict."
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Medvedev-warns-of-economic-collapse-amid-Iran-conflict/67228399
Users of GLP-1 receptor agonists had as much as fourfold higher likelihood for nail disorders, particularly onycholysis (separation of the fingernails or toenails), compared with patients not taking the drugs, a large prospective study showed.
The data showed that 39.3% of 575 GLP-1 agonist users had onycholysis as compared with 8.7% of obese/diabetic patients not taking the drugs, which translated into a 4.5-fold higher likelihood. For dyschromia (nail discoloration), the rates were 45.6% versus 17.0%, representing a 2.7-fold greater likelihood among GLP-1 receptor agonist users. Nail fragility and presence of ridges or grooves also were more common in GLP-1 agonist users.
Overall, 66.3% of GLP-1 drug users and 52.8% of non-users reported any type of nail disorder, a statistically significant difference (P<0.001). An analysis that took into account comorbidities, including dermatologic conditions, still showed almost a two- to threefold higher likelihood of onycholysis and dyschromia among GLP-1 agonist users. An analysis limited to patients who lost weight did not appreciably change the results, reported Bianca Maria Piraccini, MD, PhD, of the University of Bologna in Italy, at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) meeting in Vienna.
Almost half of patients taking GLP-1 receptor agonists had a history of nail problems before starting the drugs, said Piraccini. Sensitivity analyses accounting for that continued to show a two- to four-fold difference in onycholysis and dyschromia among GLP-1 agonist users. However, an analysis of new-onset nail lesions showed no difference in onycholysis or dyschromia between GLP-1 drug users and non-users. Investigators think the true association probably lies somewhere between the fully adjusted and new-onset results, leaving room for possible effects attributable to the drugs.
"After adjusting for age, sex, country, comorbidities and so on, we have a really high prevalence of onycholysis in patients undergoing GLP-1 receptor agonist treatment," said Piraccini. "This is quite unusual because onycholysis cannot be related to weight loss. Weight loss is commonly associated with nail plate surface abnormalities, which can be described as rough, uneven nails. Nail detachment is not a sign of low caloric intake or protein deficiency or other signs, so we think it could be directly related to the drug. This will prompt us to do more studies."
For clinicians who have patients on GLP-1 receptor agonists, the message is "don't forget to look at the nails and ask if [nail abnormalities] were present prior to starting the treatment or if the onset was during treatment," she added. "Look carefully at [affected nails] and try to correlate them to the drug. I think that a specific drug effect is possible and warrants confirmation."
In response to a question, Piraccini said investigators ruled out other possible causes of onycholysis, such as trauma or fungal infection, because patients did not have active nail disorders when they started treatment with a GLP-1 agonist.
Co-investigator Charles Taieb, MD, PhD, of European Market Maintenance Assessment in Fontenay-sous-Bois, France, said the study is one of the first large-scale analyses of nail and hair effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists.
"Until now, nail changes associated with GLP-1 therapies had essentially been anecdotal," Taieb said in an EADV press release. "Our findings show a clear association, but they also underline an important point: Not everything that happens during GLP-1 treatment is necessarily caused by the treatment itself."
Interesting Observation, But ...
Though the study raises an interesting issue, the results should be viewed cautiously, said Joe Tung, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.
"It should not worry people who are currently doing well on a GLP-1 medication, and I would be cautious about reading it as proof that the drugs themselves have any direct effects on nails," Tung told MedPage Today. "At first glance, nail lifting looked about four times more common in GLP-1 users ... . However, that gap shrank considerably once the researchers accounted for other comorbid health conditions and nutritional deficiencies."
"In the most rigorous analysis presented, which counted only nail changes that began after starting the GLP-1 medications, the association disappeared entirely ... . That happened in part because about half of GLP-1 users said their nail problems were already present before treatment. The results were also self-reported in an online survey without a dermatologist examining anyone's nails."
The findings have biologic plausibility, as rapid weight loss and lower intake of protein and micronutrients could affect the rapidly growing nail unit, just as it can trigger hair shedding, Tung added.
"I would encourage patients who notice nail changes to see a dermatologist, because common causes of nail disorders are very treatable," he said. "These findings alone, however, would not justify stopping an otherwise beneficial GLP-1 medication for the appropriate patient."
Study Details, Key Findings
The study involved patients recruited in France, the United States, Brazil, and Mexico. The 575 GLP-1 receptor agonist users were compared with a control group of 1,329 participants with obesity and/or type 2 diabetes who had never used a GLP-1 drug. Patients in the control group were older (56.7 vs 45.3 years), but sex distribution was approximately 50/50 in both groups.
An unadjusted analysis showed a 4.5-fold higher prevalence of onycholysis and 2.7-fold higher prevalence of dyschromia. A series of adjusted analyses produced the following odds ratios for onycholysis and nail dyschromia, respectively:
Analyses limited to patients who lost weight showed similar results for the prevalence of onycholysis and dyschromia, which Piraccini reported as odds ratio ranges:
Piraccini said the results provide a basis for additional studies examining the nail effects of GLP-1 drugs.
Disclosures
The study was supported by Pierre Fabre-Ducray.
Piraccini disclosed relationships with Eli Lilly, Almirall, Difa Cooper, Dercos-L'Oreal, ISDIN, Legacy Healthcare,Pierre Fabre-Ducray, Giuliani, Olistic, and Pfizer.
Taieb has disclosed a relationship with La Roche-Posay.
Tung has no relevant financial disclosures.
The robot Ukraine’s former defense minister wants to send to war would look at least somewhat human; at least, in function.
Mykhailo Fedorov, a 35-year-old politician and technology entrepreneur who previously oversaw Ukraine’s rapid expansion of battlefield drones as defense minister, is now trying to do something similar with terrestrial robots. His goal is to build relatively simple, humanoid machines that can perform jobs soldiers still have to do themselves: reload a machine gun, swap batteries in sensors, launch drones and operate in places where sending a person could be deadly. On the front line under constant 24/7 video surveillance, a soldier can be spotted and swiftly attacked with a drone in mere minutes, and that is not an exaggeration.
At the IT Arena technology conference in Lviv on Sept. 26, Fedorov called for a “new Manhattan Project” to accelerate military robotics. His new initiative, the Army of Robots, aims to bring engineers, startups, investors and military units together to develop such machines quickly enough to matter in the current war.
“Our idea is to combine engineers, startups and capital into one ecosystem so we can launch humanoid-like robots on the battlefield,” Fedorov told Defense News. “We want to eventually substitute our infantry with these robots.”
To be clear, Fedorov is not proposing anything like the fancy and polished general-purpose humanoids demonstrated by American and Chinese robotics companies. He says Ukraine needs simpler machines that can be manufactured cheaply, assigned a narrow set of battlefield tasks and produced in large numbers. In other words, we won’t see anything like in The Terminator anytime soon, at least not in Ukraine, but the concern is real that we’re heading in that direction.
To some of you reading about all this, the vision may sound a bit like a pipedream. After all, Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe. However, it would be a mistake to underestimate them, as Vladimir Putin and his army have painfully come to realize.
Ukraine is not starting from zero. Its forces already use ground robots for logistics, evacuation, mine operations and attacks. Fedorov now wants to move beyond mostly remote-controlled vehicles toward machines capable of performing some of the physical work that still keeps infantry soldiers on the front line.
Ukraine has rapidly expanded its use of unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, for jobs including carrying ammunition, evacuating wounded soldiers, laying mines and attacking positions.
In August alone, Ukrainian forces recorded more than 25,000 logistics and evacuation missions using ground robotic systems, 3.3 times as many as in January, according to figures released by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.
But calling these machines “robots” can give the wrong impression. Most are essentially rugged remote-controlled vehicles. A human operator remains in charge, often steering the machine from kilometers away.
Ukraine has experimented with combat robots before. In late 2024, the Khartiia Brigade said it carried out what it described as the war’s first documented machine-only ground assault, combining armed vehicles with mine-laying and mine-clearing robots while drones watched from above. Reuters reported at the time that human infantry still advanced afterward to secure the area, and Reuters could not independently verify the brigade’s claim.
Fedorov wants to push much further.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, he has set a six-month goal for a humanoid robot to kill a Russian soldier and a 12-month goal for robots and drones to conduct an operation together without infantry taking on its most dangerous stages.
In a recent interview with Forbes Ukraine, Fedorov claimed that the first humanoid-like prototype could appear within a month. Current versions may cost roughly $40,000 to $70,000 each, Fedorov said, but mass deployment would require bringing that down to around $10,000 to $20,000.
“We are moving away from the types of humanoids we see in the United States toward simple models that can be scaled,” Fedorov told Forbes Ukraine.
Those figures sound like they are missing some zeros, but Ukraine does not need a robot that can cook dinner, climb stairs and fold laundry. It needs machines that can reliably perform a handful of specific actions under mud, jamming, gunfire and damaged communications.
Drone playbook moves onto the ground
Fedorov is trying to repeat a strategy Ukraine has already used with drones: encourage many small manufacturers, test their machines quickly with soldiers, measure what works and rapidly manufacture successful designs. There would be dozens of proposed products, but the competitive environment would incentivize the most cost-effective solution.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said in June that 95 percent of the drones procured through its defense purchasing agency were domestically manufactured. And they make over six million a year, of various classes, from the famous FPV drones that swarm the battlefield to the medium- and long-range strike drones that are more like precision munitions with wings and a noisy diesel rotary engine.
Ground robots are actually much harder to engineer than aerial drones. They must cross trenches, rubble and mud, carry substantial loads, survive electronic warfare and continue operating when communications fail. Humanoid machines add another layer of difficulty, such as maintaining balance. A wheeled robot can remain useful even if it is crude. A two-legged machine that falls over may need a soldier to rescue it — defeating much of the point.
That helps explain why Fedorov describes the proposed machines as “humanoid-like” rather than insisting on science-fiction-like androids. Not even he knows exactly what they’re going to look like, regardless of his CGI promo videos shared on social media.
There’s also the elephant in the room. How much decision-making should eventually pass from operator to machine? Surely, such robots will be equipped with sensors and computer vision; at some point, the incentive structure is such that a super-effective killer humanoid robot equipped with autonomous AI would be too tempting not to use. The other side will then be forced to respond in kind.
For now, Ukraine’s ground systems remain overwhelmingly human-controlled. But the Army of Robots explicitly includes autonomous systems and AI. In August, the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross renewed their call for international rules governing autonomous weapons, warning about systems that can select and attack targets without further human intervention. But does anyone pretend to care what the U.N. has to say?
Fedorov’s immediate argument is that Ukraine is fighting a larger opponent while fighting an existential war. In order to keep fighting, they need to conserve their precious few soldiers from being exposed to an increasingly drone-saturated battlefield.
“We don’t have enough time,” he told Defense News. “We need to achieve these results as soon as possible.”
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/ukraine-humanoid-robot-initiative/
