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U.S. ban on foreign-made humanoid robots targets China over security risks www.cbc.ca
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is banning imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots and power inverters, citing national security risks, in a move that targets China.

Beijing quickly accused the U.S. of protectionism.

The measures are likely to test relations with Beijing ahead of a planned U.S. visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in September. China dominates the global market for humanoid robots with an estimated market share of roughly 85 per cent.

The FCC’s ban also includes new imports of quadruped robots, often referred to as four-legged robot dogs. The agency said imports of advanced robots pose cybersecurity and other national security risks. Offshore production of such equipment also leaves U.S. supply chains vulnerable to disruptions.

The ban on power inverters, which are used to convert direct current (DC) electricity into alternating current (AC) electricity and are used in renewable energy systems, data centres and household appliances, could have sweeping ramifications.

The CEO of Cracker Barrel that decided to redesign the franchise for modern audiences has been fired. As the CEO, Missy Masino implemented a “modern audiences” change to Cracker Barrel that was soon cancelled after major pushback from the public. Now, she has been officially fired as CEO, replaced by David Deno.

Cracker Barrel has a new CEO www.americanthinker.com
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Hooray! After trying to remediate Julie Masino, including lessening her responsibilities, Cracker Barrel has announced a new CEO. Interestingly, the outgoing Julie will retain an advisory role until only October 9, which is not long at all (often, CEOs who step down to “spend more time with family” consult for longer periods, perhaps even transitioning to the board).

As I type, the stock is marginally down, but that’s because the incoming CEO, David Deno, will clean house. The cracked company needs to be resealed. A deep, purifying purge could be disruptive for short-term traders, but mandatory to roll out the splendidly refurbished old Barrel.

Missy Masino missed the mark. Her Woke focus on logos and store decors undermined the traditional appeal and charm of Southern comfort foods. Ruining such an established, highly-valued brand is unforgivable in and of itself, even if the menu retained its gastronomical delights.

It did not!  More like gastronomical frights, with service that slights.

In fact, the quality of food and service deteriorated while Julie obsessed about asserting her own unneeded and unwelcoming embellishments. Just look at this wannabee chicken and dumplings meal that degenerated into slop before hitting the table. Given a choice in side-by-side bowls, my old dog would probably have gone for his dry kibbles rather than that gunk — and he wasn’t a food snob.

The Marxist-Islamist Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, has just released what appears to be a de facto proscription list for his foreign-paid street fighters to target. He released a list of property owners, including their names and addresses, who own another home outside the city.

While the information is public, the signal is clear; Attack these people. Mamdani ally and national Democrat Socialists of America co-chair Megan Romer made that clear when she said on Fox News “We will win by making conditions so intolerable to the ruling class that they would rather give in to our demands than live with the disturbance we cause.” Disturbance is a dog whistle for violence. Ruling Class is a dog whistle for white people.

Mamdani Doxxes NYC Property Owners, Quietly Expands Reach of New Tax legalinsurrection.com
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New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani is facing widespread criticism after his administration on Monday published a searchable database identifying wealthy property owners who may be subject to the city’s pied-à-terre tax. The administration says the database is intended to promote transparency. Critics, however, argue it effectively “doxxes” property owners by making them easier to identify and locate, unnecessarily exposing them to harassment, vandalism, and even potential acts of violence.

Mamdani is also drawing criticism for including properties valued between $1 million and $5 million in the database, despite repeatedly promoting the pied-à-terre tax as applying only to properties worth $5 million or more. As it turns out, that was part of the plan — which I’ll return to shortly.

The Department of Finance’s online database allows anyone to search properties and access the names and addresses of owners whose non-primary residences could be affected by the proposed tax.

A Department of Finance spokesperson told Fox News that state law required the publication of the property assessment roll: “As per State law, a property roll was released for public inspection. From this list, DOF will identify properties that may be subject to the new non-primary residence property surcharge.”

It’s true that property records have long been public. Even so, aggregating the city’s most expensive properties into a single, searchable database that anyone can access strikes me as dangerous. There’s no shortage of bad actors who could exploit such a list for nefarious purposes, from political targeting to criminal activity.

The New York Post editorial board called the database Mamdani’s “enemies of the people” list and asked why no one at City Hall stopped this “amateur-hour idiocy?”

Because the Democratic Socialist crew is obsessed with naming and shaming their “class enemies”: As national DSA co-chair Megan Romer explained on Fox News Sunday, “We will win by making conditions so intolerable to the ruling class that they would rather give in to our demands than live with the disturbance we cause.”

Immigrant-Led Business Group Sues NYC Over Mayor’s Taxpayer-Funded Grocery Stores › American Greatness amgreatness.com
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An immigrant-led business alliance has voted to sue New York City to block Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial $70 million taxpayer-funded municipal grocery store project, citing concerns over unfair competition.

Breitbart News reports that the Multicultural Business Coalition’s (MBC) board approved the lawsuit  to block five city-run supermarkets that would sell produce, meat, milk, cheese, and bread at a 30 percent discount.

The MBC plans to build a nonpartisan $1 million legal and lobbying war chest to challenge Mamdani’s initiative in the coming weeks.

Legal Groups Demand Answers After Mamdani Appoints ‘Truly Representative’ Judiciary Panel with No Jewish Members slaynews.com
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing mounting criticism after four Jewish bar associations accused his administration of excluding Jewish representation from a newly appointed judicial advisory committee despite City Hall describing the panel as a “truly representative cross-section” of the city’s legal profession.

Backed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the organizations are demanding that Mamdani revise the 19-member committee.

The panel plays a key role in screening and recommending candidates for judgeships across New York City’s Criminal, Family, and Civil Courts.

The controversy comes as concerns over antisemitism continue to grow across New York City.

China Hits U.S., Europe With New Rare Earths Export Controls legalinsurrection.com
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Early this year, the Trump administration unveiled a new minerals stockpile initiative called “Project Vault,” which prioritizes the development of mines and processing operations for more than 50 minerals deemed critical.

This move comes on top of Trump’s pursuit of new alliances to challenge China’s control over these essential resources. Additionally, the administration has been expediting mine openings, supporting new smelting operations, and exploring deep-sea options for these resources.

These developments are likely not making Chinese officials happy. Subsequently, it should not come as a surprise that China has now imposed new export controls on rare earths bound for this country.

China added MP Materials (MP.N) and USA Rare Earth (USAR.O) as well as eight other ​U.S. entities it said are linked to the U.S. military to its export ‌control list in retaliation for Washington placing several Chinese companies under restrictions this month.

Aveox, a motor manufacturer for mission-critical applications, was also among those placed on the list, which halts Chinese dual-use exports to the companies.

Pentagon-backed ​MP Materials, which operates the only active rare earth mine in the U.S., and ​USA Rare Earth are both involved in the mine-to-magnet supply chain.

USA Rare ⁠Earth said it did not have any comment on the matter. MP Materials and Aveox were ​not available for comment outside of business hours.

The Department of Treasury is using its Exchange Stabilization Fund to buy Japanese Yen in the hopes of propping up the dangerously weak currency. This hasn’t happened in 30 years. The U.S. is not using U.S. dollars; it is using Euros.

This action follows a recent previous Treasury intervention to help a weakening Argentinian currency. That deal resulted in the loan being paid back in full (at profit). These interventions signal a shift in Treasury policy from two plus decades of international currency passivity to aggressive interventionism.

U.S. Treasury sells euros, not dollars, to help lift yen. Economists warn it could backfire fortune.com
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The U.S. is stepping in to help boost Japan’s yen for the first time in nearly three decades after the currency hit a 40-year low, but the intervention has an unusual feature: instead of selling dollars to buy yen, the New York Fed reportedly sold euros to fund the purchase.

The coordinated move on Friday lifted the yen to 157 to the dollar and marked the first time the U.S. and Japan jointly bought the currency since 1998 during the Asian financial crisis. In 2011, the U.S., alongside the G7,  weakened the yen after the Fukushima disaster caused the yen to be too strong, threatening Japan’s export-reliant economy.

Japan is estimated to have spent $52.8 billion. The exact amount from the U.S. is unknown, though a photo of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s notepad suggests a range between $5 billion to $10 billion.

Japan, US confirm joint yen-buying intervention, signal more action www.channelnewsasia.com
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Japan has been struggling to curb a relentless drop in the yen that pushes up import prices and stokes broader inflation, hitting households’ wallets and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s public approval ratings.

Tokyo’s solo intervention conducted between late April and early May caused only a brief yen rebound. The BOJ’s June rate hike to a 31-year high of 1 per cent also gave the struggling currency little lasting boost.

Friday’s joint intervention followed Tokyo’s solo intervention worth up to US$58.97 billion in New York markets a day earlier.

In a sign of further Japan-US coordination, Bessent said the United States would consider increasing in coming months the size of the Federal Reserve’s repurchase facility providing temporary dollar liquidity, calling the tool an “important backstop”.

AI Capability Races Ahead of the Business Payoff | American Enterprise Institute www.aei.org
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The state of the AI revolution can be confusing. At times, it can seem as if the latest artificial intelligence models are showing huge capability increases. One example is when two OpenAI models broke out of the lab, accessed the internet, and broke into another AI company. Or, as a Wall Street Journal headline put it, “The Day the Bots Broke Loose.”

But then you might come across another headline from the Wall Street Journal: “Big Companies Are Starting to Hire Again, Defying Predictions of AI Wipeout.” And from that piece:

The push to expand head count, at least modestly, is a reversal from the prevailing corporate messaging during much of the AI era. Major employers largely held back on adding people due to economic uncertainties or a belief that artificial intelligence could shoulder more tasks on the job. But some executives say the costs and limitations of AI now demand that more people be added; others want to hire people back following layoffs.

Graphics card prices jump by up to 20% in China as shops stockpile Nvidia and AMD GPUs www.techspot.com
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Ripple effect: Just when it seemed like graphics card prices couldn’t get much worse, the memory crisis has delivered another unpleasant surprise. Nvidia and AMD GPU prices have surged in China, with some models rising by as much as 20% in a single week and premium cards now selling for almost 60% above their official MSRPs.

Distributor lists from MSI and Colorful reveal the increases. MSI raised the RTX 5080 Shadow 3X OC and Ventus from 9,999 yuan ($1,477) to 11,999 yuan ($1,773), a 20% jump in seven days. Its RTX 5070 Ti Shadow 3X OC rose 19.5%, while the RTX 5090D V2 increased 13%. What’s worse is that these cards were already well above their suggested prices before the latest adjustment.

Comparing the new figures with Nvidia’s Chinese MSRPs makes the situation look even worse. MSI’s RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Trio OC is now 54% above the base MSRP, while the RTX 5080 Gaming Trio models are around 57% higher. Colorful’s RTX 5080 Vulcan W OC is priced at 13,199 yuan ($1,949), 59% above MSRP, and its RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan W OC carries a similar 58.7% premium.

The increases aren’t just limited to Nvidia. A market snapshot showed Radeon cards climbing across Chinese retailers, with some RX 9000 models seeing double-digit increases. AMD reportedly warned Asus, XFX, Sapphire, and other partners earlier this month that its GPU-and-memory bundles would become 10% more expensive.

The culprit is, of course, the continuing rise in GDDR6 and GDDR7 costs, combined with more expensive PCBs, coolers, and packaging. Nvidia supplies board partners with GPU and memory kits, so higher VRAM costs are passed directly to manufacturers. Reports claim the latest adjustment adds around 600 yuan ($89) to 8GB cards, 900 yuan ($133) to 12GB models, and 1,200 yuan ($177) to 16GB products.

EU will require companies to label AI-generated content starting Sunday www.techspot.com
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The takeaway: Companies operating in the European Union are now subject to a new requirement: clearly label content created or altered by artificial intelligence. Beginning Sunday, the EU’s latest transparency rules take effect, covering everything from chatbot responses to AI-generated images, audio, and video. The aim is simple: users should be able to tell, without guessing, whether what they are seeing or hearing is real or machine-generated.

The rule is part of the EU’s broader artificial intelligence law, which is being rolled out in phases. This first step focuses on disclosure. If content is generated by AI or significantly manipulated by it, companies must make that clear. That includes adding visible labels as well as technical markers, such as watermarks or embedded metadata, that help identify synthetic material.

The push comes as deepfakes and other AI-generated media become more convincing and easier to produce. Regulators are particularly concerned about how quickly this content can spread and how difficult it has become to determine what is real.

The requirements apply mainly to content created in professional contexts. Material designed to inform the public about matters of general interest must carry a label if it is produced by AI without human editorial oversight. At the same time, the EU has carved out exceptions. Individuals using AI for personal purposes are not covered, and exemptions exist for “artistic, creative, satirical, fictional” works.

Starting this Sunday, the EU’s new AI Act begins to take effect, which includes key provisions empowering the EU to regulate AI models and apply fines to companies that fall out of compliance. The law also gives the EU investigatory powers to penalize non-cooperating companies and individuals.

The Act itself presents a challenge to AI geopolitical realities of power as nations and associations like the EU attempt to use domestic laws to affect foreign AI powers. For instance, the fines countries give to foreign companies doing business in their territory due to non-compliance with their AI rules could become weapons of war in the AI geopolitical reality of power.

EU to begin enforcing AI Act from Sunday with hefty fines for rule breakers – Firstpost news.google.com
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The European Union will begin enforcing key provisions of its AI Act from Sunday, empowering regulators to oversee AI models and fine companies that violate the bloc’s rules.

The European Union will take a major step in regulating artificial intelligence from Sunday, when authorities gain the power to enforce key provisions of the bloc’s landmark AI Act. The move allows regulators to oversee advanced AI systems, order corrective measures and impose significant financial penalties on companies that fail to comply with the law.

The AI Act, adopted by the European Union in 2024, is being rolled out in phases and follows a risk-based framework.

Under the legislation, AI systems considered to pose greater risks to people’s rights or health face stricter obligations designed to safeguard individuals.

The law also prohibits the use of AI for predictive policing, emotion recognition systems in workplaces or schools, and technologies that manipulate human behaviour.

 

Brent falls below $82 per barrel, first time since July 13 – Business & Economy tass.com
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MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. The price of Brent crude futures contract with September delivery on the ICE exchange in London fell below $82 a barrel for the first time since July 13, according to trading data.

As of 1:00 Moscow time (10:00 p.m. GMT, August 2), Brent was down 6.74% at $82 a barrel.

By 1:10 Moscow time (10:10 p.m. GMT, August 2), Brent had pared losses to trade at $82.89 a barrel, down 5.73%.

Javier Milei Just Proposed a Great Idea. Every Government Should Follow His Lead. – PJ Media pjmedia.com
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Javier Milei has done great things for Argentina — and honestly, the entire region — and will continue to do so, but I have to admit that his latest proposal left me weak in the knees. He’s calling it the grillete fiscal or the “fiscal shackle,” and it’s part of a larger reform of the Central Bank’s charter that he’s sending to the country’s Congress, possibly for a mid-to-late-August vote.

EU crisis chief urges tougher climate action amid France, Spain wildfires | Climate Crisis News www.aljazeera.com
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The European Union’s crisis management commissioner says the bloc needs to invest more in tackling climate change and accelerate its response, as France and Spain prepare for another crippling heatwave that could ignite new wildfires and intensify blazes already burning.

Hadja Lahbib said the EU must ensure its climate strategy remains in lockstep with realities on the ground, as global warming advances faster than scientists previously projected. She has called for increased funding, better education on fire risk and a renewed focus on forest management.

“Climate change is accelerating. So our response must evolve just as quickly,” Lahbib told Reuters.

“We must prepare for risks before disasters strike and not simply react afterwards.”

Lahbib’s comments come as devastating wildfires continue to burn across parts of France and Spain, forcing the evacuation of 330,000 people.

Burnham to Host Zelenskyy in Signal of Continued UK Support financialpost.com
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In his first week in office, Burnham has focused on domestic issues, announcing a raft of cost-of-living measures, from capping bus fares to helping households with energy bills. His relationship with Zelenskyy will be a test of how decisively he is prepared to step onto the international stage.

AI can become more biased than humans while choosing who gets hired; study finds | timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Artificial intelligence is increasingly being trusted to help employers screen CVs, rank candidates and even conduct early-stage interviews. The promise is simple: AI can process thousands of applications quickly, reduce administrative workloads and, in theory, make hiring decisions more objective than humans. According to a recent review by MIT Technology, based on the 2024 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology titled “Costly Exploration Produces Stereotypes With Dimensions of Warmth and Competence”, large language models (LLMs) may not only inherit human biases from the data they are trained on but also develop entirely new stereotypes based on their own experiences. Rather than simply reflecting existing prejudice, these systems can create fresh patterns of discrimination as they attempt to optimise decision-making over time.The findings are particularly significant because businesses are rapidly integrating AI into recruitment. If these systems begin making assumptions about groups of applicants after only a handful of hiring decisions, they could gradually reinforce unfair employment practices without any explicit human instruction.The research, conducted by scientists at Princeton University and the University of Chicago, builds on earlier psychological work showing how stereotypes can emerge from repeated decision-making. It suggests that the same learning strategies that make AI effective at solving complex problems can also make it unusually prone to stereotyping job candidates.

Trump Accounts draw 6.5 million sign-ups, but families are waiting on the promised $1,000 funding fortune.com
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President Donald Trump says Trump Accounts could hoist children out of poverty and give more Americans the chance to benefit from investments in the stock market. But some parents say they’re still waiting for the money to arrive.

Trump on Wednesday plans to speak at a Georgia high school to promote the investment accounts, which offer $1,000 in seed money to every child born during his second term. The accounts went live July 4, two days before Trump rang the opening bells for both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ from the Oval Office.

The tax-advantaged accounts, created last year through Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill, can be opened for any child under the age of 18. The Treasury Department boasts 6.5 million sign-ups for Trump Accounts, with 1.5 million of those eligible for the $1,000 seed funding for babies born from 2025 through 2028.

Boosters of the program say it’s a chance to give more Americans a stake in the stock market. They hope it will stem the rising popularity of democratic socialists, who seek to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy to ease the cost of things like food and healthcare for low-income and middle-class Americans.

Thousands of idle ships trapped near the Strait of Hormuz could become floating nurseries for invasive marine species and spread them worldwide when trade resumes | timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Having escalated into open hostilities on February 28, 2026, the current United States and Iran war has been going on for nearly five months. In this period, the Strait of Hormuz, the only open-ocean exit for major producers like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and the UAE has been in chokehold. The strait is the world’s most critical maritime energy chokepoint, facilitating the passage of roughly 600 billion worth of energy trade annually. According to estimates, about 1,500 vessels are stuck in the Persian Gulf, and several hundred more are stuck in the adjacent Gulf of Oman.Now according to new research, something growing on the hulls of these ships could spread worldwide when the trade resumes. The study published in Biological Invasions, was led by an international team of 24 marine scientists, led by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), and including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).The team cautioned that thousands of commercial vessels stranded for months in the Persian/Arabian Gulf following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz could unintentionally trigger a massive marine invasive species event. The study titled, “Closure of the Strait of Hormuz May Trigger a Bioinvasion Super-Spreader Event,” highlighted how prolonged periods at anchor allow ship hulls to accumulate dense communities of marine organisms including algae, barnacles, mussels and other invertebrates which can be transported across the globe when trade resumes.

German Nuclear Fuel Plant Cleared to Work With Russia’s Rosatom www.themoscowtimes.com
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Germany on Wednesday approved an application by French firm Framatome to produce nuclear fuel rods under a licensing agreement with state-backed Russian firms despite political concerns, arguing it lacked the legal basis for a rejection.

A Framatome subsidiary had applied to produce at its plant in northern Germany fuel elements to supply nuclear plants in the eastern European market using Russian licenses and technology in a joint venture with Russian firms TVEL/Rosatom.

Despite political concerns due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the environment ministry in the state of Lower Saxony with guidance from the federal environment ministry granted the necessary approval subject to certain conditions.

A spokesperson for the federal ministry said that while the government in Berlin has a critical view of the cooperation with a Russian state-owned company, the decision was made in accordance with the relevant nuclear laws of Germany.

“The appropriate instrument to address this, however, is not nuclear law, but rather EU-wide sanctions, including those in the nuclear sector,” the ministry said in a statement.

Houthis say they attacked Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, threatening new chokepoint in Iran war www.channelnewsasia.com
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Before the Red Sea flare-up, Trump vowed on Wednesday to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s joint military command in turn warned that if Trump’s threat against infrastructure was carried out, Iranian forces would target regional oil, gas, electricity and economic infrastructure and prevent the export of “even a single drop of oil”, Iranian state media reported.

Hours later, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported an explosion in what it called a mined route south of the Strait of Hormuz, saying one of three oil tankers had caught fire while the other two turned back. The Guards said the strait was under their control and “completely closed”, warning that no tanker would be allowed to enter or leave without coordination with Iran.

In 12 straight days of attacks since a June ceasefire fell apart, American strikes have widened from the south to western and central areas of Iran. The US military’s Central Command said it would continue to “further degrade” Iran’s ability to threaten ship traffic.

Bessent Drops the Financial Hammer on Iran, With a Personal Message to the Ayatollah – RedState redstate.com
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Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent is at it again, tracking down Iranian regime’s cash and grabbing or freezing it with Operation Economic Fury, the financial side of the actions against the regime.

Bessent explained how they’ve been tracking accounts all over the world, and now they’ve frozen a crypto wallet containing about $130 million linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).