Tag: China
Automakers Pressure Congress To Ban Chinese EVs To ‘Protect Privacy’
If you enjoy badly written bipartisan protectionist tech legislation designed primarily to coddle giant U.S. companies under the xenophobia-tinged breathless pretense of privacy and national security, you are really going to enjoy the next twelve to twenty-four months.While the U.S. drowns in corrupt kakistocracy, the Chinese are making significant market inroads in everything from AI...
Govt signs deal to mordenise Lake Malawi Transport
A new partnership between Malawi government and Chinese firm is set to modernize Lake Malawi transport.This follows signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the Government of Malawi with Chinese firm Hongtai Investment Group to modernize marine transport on Lake Malawi as part of efforts to cut costs and open new trade routes.The MoU was...
Achinyamata, iwalani za ntchito: Miyala ya mtengo wapatali ya mu dziko muno azikaikonzera ku Ulaya
...Ndalama pafupifupi 1 thiliyoni zipita ku Poland kukayamba ntchito yosula miyala ya ku Malawi Pamene sukulu za ukachenjede mu dziko muno zili pakalapakala kusula akatswiri pa ntchito za migodi, zadziwika kuti ambiri mwa iwo atha kukhala chabe malova ochezerera Tikitoko ndi Fesibukhu. Za ntchito za migodi asazilingalire kwenikweni chifukwa ngakhale migodi imeneyi ili mu dziko...
Seven minutes of terror: 3D images reveal how Gyirong mudslide unfolded
China's Ministry of Natural Resources has released three-dimensional imagery showing the area around Gyirong Port on the Chinese side of the China-Nepal border before and after a major mudslide, offering a detailed view of the disaster's source, path and impact. The imagery shows that the mudslide caused extensive damage around Gyirong Port, with buildings, roads...
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 08-28-26
Pook-Emu Bee will be taking the weekend off, first for Newsletter Saturday and probably for Sunday, so let us finish this work week strong before I return to my day job. [caption id="attachment_7376" align="aligncenter" width="1028"] I took this photo at the corner of State and Clinton Streets in Brooklyn Heights on the evening of August...
Why Are People More Scared of Robots than Weapons of War?
Thoughts on The Second World Humanoid Robot Games
Meidas: Trump Admin Caught in Secret CIA Trip to Moscow
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the secret delivery Trump sent to Putin on Tuesday as Trump blows up the United States economy and the US alliances.
The Outbackier Subaru
This week Robbie and Sam are joined by Craig Cole who has his own thoughts on the 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Robbie tells us about hauling band gear in the new Subaru Outback and Sam pontificates on the BMW XM. In the news, why are some automakers using NACS only for DC charging with a...
A Wrap-Up of Today's Trump Clown Show
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump blinking already in his economic d-day threat against China and others who have economic ties with Iran.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech: School Of Hard Blocks
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation's Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed. To get extended episodes with additional coverage, support us on...
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 08-19-26
Keeping the Pook-Emu Bee weekday streak going on this sunny (here in Brooklyn, at least) August 19, 2026. [caption id="attachment_7131" align="aligncenter" width="1008"] I upgraded the InfiniTime firmware on my PineTime yesterday.[/caption] 1 | Vindman Vaporizes $16.2 Million in Loss, Spends 36X DSA Candidate on Ads (Paul Bois for Breitbart. August 18, 2026) & Rep. Cory...
Trump’s Bumbling, Racist Anti-China Protectionism Extends To Data Centers
The Trump administration's anti-Chinese protectionism is routinely a disastrous, xenophobic mess that mostly just injects chaos, cronyism, and higher prices into U.S. tech markets under the pretense of protecting privacy and national security. All propped up by bumbling Democrats and a corporate press incapable of highlighting that the emperor is buck-ass naked. Four years of...
The Price of the Badge: What is a car brand worth when horsepower is free?
For a century, a car brand sold something scarce: engineering competence that ordinary buyers had no way to verify. China has made that competence cheap. The question is not whether Porsche can beat a 1,400-horsepower Chinese EV. It is what a brand can still own once winning has stopped mattering.
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 08-06-26
Is it safe to say the daily Pook-Emu Bee links are "daily" again with three posts in a row? [caption id="attachment_6703" align="aligncenter" width="800"] I did laundry yesterday evening.[/caption] 1 - Video Game Accounts Can Be Inherited, Chinese Court Rules (Li Xin for Sixth Tone. August 6, 2026.) The game account inheritance news from China you...
Trump’s Sloppy, Incompetent Chinese Protectionism Expanded To Robot Vacuums, Lawnmowers
Ideally, I think it makes sense to open up the U.S. market to Chinese goods (AI, EVs, robots), but have functional and well-funded regulators that policy all labor, competition, environmental, privacy, and consumer rights abuses. But big companies don't much like that because it would boost competition and accountability, eroding quarterly revenues.So instead we get...
The fight over downloadable AI is not really about a ban
Companies want access, Anthropic wants testing, and Washington and Beijing are arguing over alleged copying.
The Trump FCC’s Chinese Drone Ban Continues To Be A Sloppy, Protectionist Mess
Last year the Trump administration announced it would ban Chinese-made drones from the U.S. As I noted at the time, the plan had several problems, not least of which being the Trump administration is a racist, corrupt, dysfunctional mess filled with weirdos and lazy incompetents, primarily interested in assorted personal investment grifts and protecting less...
Xi rallies Brazil behind BRICS and Global South alliance
BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on Brazil to stand with China in strengthening BRICS and giving the Global South a bigger voice in world affairs.Speaking by phone with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Monday, Xi said China and Brazil should "firmly stand on the right side of history" and...
Xi Jinping surprises Mutharika
Malawi President Arthur Peter Mutharika has revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping surprised him with a personal birthday gift and message as he celebrated his 86th birthday, describing the gesture as a symbol of the enduring friendship between Malawi and China. The birthday gift and personal greetings were presented to Mutharika by China's Ambassador to...
Birthday surprise for APM: Ansah celebrates Mutharika’s birthday with prayers for health, strength
Malawi Vice President Jane Ansah has led tributes to President Arthur Peter Mutharika as he celebrates his 86th birthday, offering prayers for his health, wisdom and continued strength. Ansah, one of the first senior political figures to publicly honour the President on Saturday, described Mutharika as a leader deserving of God's continued blessings. "Happy Birthday,...
Absolute Xinema
just some iconic images turned into iconic memes
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 06-11-26
I missed Pook-Emu Bee links yesterday, but I am making sure to make up for it by starting this post yesterday. [caption id="attachment_5798" align="aligncenter" width="1008"] I took this photograph of the Marina at Brooklyn Bridge Park on the morning of June 7, 2026.[/caption] 1. Uzbek Fighters in Syria Face Tensions with Al-Sharaa’s Government (Jacob Zenn...
Beba Água Quente, Fique de Cocoras e Conheça a Internet em sua Fase mais Chinesa
Foi em abril de 2025 que tudo começou. Uma conta no X (antigo Twitter, atual 4chan) chamada @firl_virus postou uma frase solta. You met me at a very Chinese time in my life. Hoje, esse post tem mais de 27 mil curtidas. E de lá pra cá, a frase não parou de se espalhar. Se você passa algum tempo no TikTok, Instagram ou Bluesky, já deve ter esbarrado nela. Aparece em vídeos de gente bebendo água quente de manhã. Aparece em alguém se agachando pra descansar em pé. Aparece em caras brancos comendo ar...
Electric Truck Sales Have Already Crossed 50% in China. What That Means for Australia.
In December 2025, more than half of new heavy trucks sold in China were electric. Australia has a long-haul electric prime mover already running on its busiest corridor. The economics are no longer hypothetical.
The Weekly Planet #19: The China Shock, Part 3: AI.
When UBTech robots walked onto the factory floor at Zeekr's electric vehicle plant in March 2025, they did something no humanoid robots had done before: they worked as a coordinated team, lifting boxes, assembling car parts, and performing quality checks - all without human supervision. Powered by DeepSeek's reasoning model, these machines represented more than a manufacturing curiosity. They embodied a fundamentally different vision of artificial intelligence, one that may reshape the global technology competition in ways Silicon Valley hasn't fully grasped.
The Daily Planet #117: The China Shock, Part 18
And finally, any country that's rapidly becoming more technologically capable and dominant in some industries is going to get adverse attention. Are they trustworthy? Will they eat us alive? These are fair questions, and it's instructive to see how the official Chinese sources are responding to them. This is what they have to say:
The Daily Planet #116: The China Shock, Part 17
Agentic AI is not the same as embodied AI, but the article linked in today's Daily Planet gives us some insight into how China is thinking about the former.
The Daily Planet #115: The China Shock, Part 16
The race to develop humanoid robots is unfolding along two very different paths in China and the United States, reflecting contrasting philosophies about how robots should learn and improve. China is taking a bold, fast-paced approach by deploying large numbers of robots directly into real-world environments like factories, streets, and homes. This “learn-on-the-job” strategy allows robots to gather vast amounts of real-world data, which is then used to continuously improve their artificial intelligence. Companies such as Unitree and Agibot are leading this effort, with Agibot even offering an open-source operating system called Lingqu OS to encourage collaboration and innovation across the industry. By flooding the market with task-specific robots, China creates a massive, living laboratory that accelerates progress through collective learning and rapid iteration.
The Daily Planet #114: The China Shock, Part 15
Embodied intelligence refers to intelligent agents that have a physical or virtual body and interact with their environment through continuous sensing, decision-making, and action. Unlike traditional AI that processes static data, embodied intelligence emphasizes the dynamic loop where perception guides action, and action changes what is perceived. This interaction involves three key components: intelligence (the computational brain), embodiment (the physical or simulated body), and environment (the external world with its objects and dynamics).
The Daily Planet #113: The China Shock, Part 14
China is advancing its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts in a way that differs significantly from the United States. While the U.S. mainly focuses on developing large language models (LLMs) to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI) - a future AI that can outperform humans in all cognitive tasks - China is taking a broader and more balanced approach. Instead of putting all its resources into one method, China is investing in multiple paths to AGI simultaneously.