Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

Black community leaders in Cincinnati held a press conference on Monday to demand the arrest of one of the victims of the black-on-white mob attack that garnered national attention, last month.

Six alleged assailants – Aisha Devaughn, Jermaine Matthews, Montianez Merriweather, Dekyra Vernon, Dominique Kittle, and Patrick Rosemond – have been indicted on eight charges each, including felonious assault and aggravated rioting, following a grand jury indictment.

The FBI has also opened a federal investigation into the incident, which occurred at around 3:00 a.m. July 26, in downtown Cincinnati, during the city’s Music Festival weekend.

Ohio lawmaker Cecil Thomas (D) invited black leaders, representatives of black organizations, and other interested parties to join him at the New Prospect Baptist Church express their concerns about law enforcement’s response to the attack.

Thomas, a former police officer,  said the lack of charges for the white victim in the white shirt who allegedly “incited” the mob violence “raises serious questions on whether there is bias involved in the investigation.”

“It also brings into question the possibility of lack of integrity and whether there’s something else to hide. The Black community of this city demands to be respected and until justice is fully served, this city can not and will not move forward,” the Democrat added to applause.

The shocking violence left six people injured, including two who were hospitalized. According to some witness accounts, a prior verbal altercation involving racial slurs and a slap may have sparked the escalation.  As of August 12, the man who allegedly slapped Matthews has not been charged, though police have confirmed they are actively investigating him.

During a press conference days after incident, Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge downplayed the violence and said the viral social media clips lacked full context. Theetge chastised the media for “misrepresenting” and “distorting” what happened.

While largely referred to as a “brawl” in the corporate media, police and court records allege the violence was sparked when Merriweather and Matthews coordinated an attack on the first victim, with Merriweather striking a man from behind after whispering to Matthews. Both men were accused of planning an “ambush” attack.

Prosecutors allege Matthews can be seen on video punching and stomping the victim, attempting to cause serious physical harm, and dragging an unconscious person into the street.

The melee reportedly involved roughly 100 people with additional black-on white assaults,  including Dekyra Vernon’s knock-out punch of a woman who trying to protect the first victim.

That woman, identified in the media as “Holly,” told Fox News the beating left her with brain damage and life-altering injuries, including a severe concussion. Holly’s severe facial bruising was shared on social media by Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno to raise awareness.

“I’m having someone help take care of me financially, mentally and physically,” she said. “It’s very humbling, it’s very embarrassing to not be able to just be able to hang out by myself. I think that’s the scary part, to not know just how deep the damage is going to be.”

Holly told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson on August 5 that neither the Cincinnati Mayor nor the Cincinnati Police Chief had contacted her.   Shockingly, according to Holly, the Cincinnati Police officers who responded to the vicious assault did not try to help her or even take down her information.

“I’m a single mom. I don’t get out much, so I just wanted to go celebrate my friend’s birthday and let loose for a couple hours and, you know, total innocent fun with all of us. I tried to break up a fight, and then I got attacked myself.”

“There were a hundred people there that night. I was the only one who jumped in to try and save him because that was the right thing to do,” she said. “Not one person called 911 but they film these heinous crimes and attempted murder, because that is what it is, no matter what they label it. It was attempted murder.”

Cincinnati City Councilwoman Victoria Parks has faced calls to resign after commenting on X “They begged for that beatdown. I am grateful for the whole story.”

Police released body camera footage on Friday showing the moments officers responded to the lone 911 call brought law enforcement to the scene.

“I’m 62 years old. I was attacked. I got attacked by multiple people,” a man in a green polo shirt is seen telling a Cincinnati Police Department officer.

“What led up to the fight?” the officer is heard asking.

“Don’t really know,” the man replied, sounding dazed. “It just got out of the bar and it just got crazy.”

The six suspects are facing  up to 29.5 years in prison. Merriweather, who was out on a $400 bond for four prior felony charges, received a $500,000 bond, Matthews $100,000, and Vernon $150,000.

During the community meeting Monday,  Thomas questioned why Theetge and other officials had not announced any charges for the victim who allegedly delivered the slap toward the beginning of the altercation.

Other black community leaders spoke at the meeting, “including council member Scotty Johnson, Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, Pastor Damon Lynch, Pastor Leslie Jones, and former juvenile judge and current pastor Tracie Hunter,” according to WCPO.

“So, what incited and who incited the riot?” said Lynch.

“If the riot is because of the slap, who incited the riot? And how are the only people charged — I’ll say it again — the ones who look like me?”

Johnson also spoke on city leaders’ responsibilities in the two weeks since the fight and said they have missed the mark.

“We as a city have blown this one,” said Johnson. “We as a city have missed the mark on this one … We missed it as a city, I’m one of those people. But now we gotta get back on the right track. We are not going anywhere until justice prevails.”

The community members all appeared to agree that an alleged slap was to blame for the head-stomping, black-on-white violence that ensued that night, with many suggesting he be charged with inciting a riot.

“We haven’t seen justice in this case and we’ve waited a long time — two weeks is a long time,” said Kearney. “It’s time to make these charges, it’s time to do that today.”

Johnson also warned that Cincinnati officials will take their own action if the man who allegedly slapped Matthews is not charged with a crime.

“There is something in the chamber that is coming if there isn’t a move to justice,” said Johnson.

During a press conference last week, Theetge said the alleged slapper had retained a lawyer and was not talking.

“Just yesterday, asking the investigators to go to the Justice Center, speak with him. He is represented by counsel. The investigators are aware of that. They spoke to his counsel before they went down to see him, and the counsel said no, they did not want the police talking to his client. So therefore, we have not had a conversation with him yet,” Theetge said.

Speakers also accused conservative lawmakers, politicians and influencers of trying to leverage the city’s shocking violence for political reasons.

Vice President JD Vance, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, and Gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy have all weighed in on the incident in different capacities.

“Do not politicize our pain,” said Jones. “Our communities are not battlegrounds for political agendas.”

“This was racially and politically skewed from the beginning,” said Johnson. “We have allowed right-wing pressure to move us in a direction that we had no intention of going. JD Vance and Bernie Moreno have dictated the direction of this investigation. We cannot bow to and allow political pressure to skew criminal investigations.”

Thomas said when he asked the Cincinnati Police Department leadership whether there would be any further arrests in the case, he was told multiple times that “additional arrests are imminent.”

He said he waited, “only to see that six Black people were charged in connection with the fight — but not the white man who appeared to slap a black man in the face.”

“We need transparency,” said Thomas. “Because there’s a lot of questions and concerns and this is why we’re having this meeting today. We are demanding openness and transparency to cover the entire situation from beginning to end.”

Jones called for the arrest of every individual involved in the melee “regardless of their race or socioeconomic background.”

“Our young people are restless and they’re watching,” he warned. “Our community is restless and they’re watching.”

Home delivery services Instacart (CART) and Doordash (DASH) saw their stocks tumble after Amazon announced that it is now offering same-day grocery delivery in more than 1,000 cities and plans to bring the service to over 2,300 more by the end of the year, marking a major expansion as demand for food deliveries has remained resilient (which was to be expected in the laziest nation on earth).

Customers will be able to order perishable items such as produce, dairy, meat, seafood and baked goods, alongside frozen foods and household items, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Same-day grocery delivery is free for Amazon Prime subscribers on orders over $25 in most cities, it said. For non-members, the service carries a $13 fee, regardless of order size.

Considering there are zero barriers to the entry to the home delivery business, and it’s a natural expansion for companies which already have the “last-mile” delivery infrastructure in place, such as Amazon, it is surprising it took Amazon this long to disrupt the industry.

“Amazon.com’s latest move to grow food share by offering free same-day delivery of groceries, in tandem with core products for Prime members, could pull some on-demand orders away from rivals like Walmart and Kroger as its $25 minimum order undercuts theirs,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Poonam Goyal and Anurag Rana wrote in a note.

Shares of the food delivery company Instacart plummeted almost 11% on the news. Supermarket chain Kroger fell 4.3%. Walmart, which also offers same-day grocery delivery in some markets, dropped 1.3%. Ahold Delhaize, the owner of supermarket chains Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Giant and Hannaford, slipped 1.3%.

As Bloomberg notes, Amazon’s rationale for being in the famously low-margin grocery business is much the same as Walmart’s: to use regular pantry refills to drive traffic and coax shoppers to buy other products. Over the past few years, Amazon has built a large online business selling such staples as paper products, canned goods, pet food and health and beauty items. Those sales were supercharged when the pandemic forced many people to shop online for groceries and consumables for the first time. 

But the company has been trying for years to figure out how to profitably sell fresh food, starting and killing a range of initiatives.

Amazon owns Whole Foods Market, the organic grocer. Amazon recently began exerting more control over the chain, largely ending its independence. Jason Buechel, the Whole Foods chief executive officer named Amazon’s grocery chief in January, said in a memo that the prior structure led to duplicative efforts and failed to make the most of employees.

Amazon also runs a chain of Amazon Fresh-branded mainstream grocery stores, which the company started opening early in the pandemic before slowing its expansion as executives reevaluated the stores. 

The company’s announcement that it’s expanding food delivery follows a series of robust earnings reports from food- and restaurant-delivery companies, including Uber, DoorDash and Instacart that all confirmed US consumers are sticking with their ordering habits, despite broader concerns about the economy.

Authored by Austin Alonzo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), 

The emergence of cloud computing in the early 2000s and generative artificial technology in the 2020s has exponentially increased the U.S. technology industry’s demand for electricity.

In the coming decades, the massive data centers that power new technology will need far more energy than they currently consume.

Data centers in the United States are poised to consume more than 30 times more power in 2035 than they do currently, and government officials and tech giants are betting big on a once-vilified power source: nuclear energy.

New federal directives and billions of dollars in corporate investment are aimed at rapidly bringing next-generation nuclear reactors online while reshaping the U.S. energy mix and rewriting its regulations.

Data Center Demand

Since the launch of Amazon Web Services in 2006, cloud computing and storage solutions have revolutionized the way the world works, learns, and plays. But the rapid growth of the data centers that run the services is creating an incredible demand for electricity.

In an April report, a team of authors at Deloitte, led by Executive Director Kate Hardin, said U.S. data centers currently use about 33 gigawatts (GW) of power annually (enough to power about 27.5 million U.S. homes). That demand is projected to grow to 176 GW by 2035, according to the report.

“Nuclear energy presents a potential solution for meeting some of the growing electricity demands of data centers, with its reliable and clean energy profile,” Hardin and her co-authors wrote.

Currently, the Deloitte report states, nuclear is already punching above its weight in terms of electricity generation. Nuclear sites in the United States provided more than 19 percent of U.S. electricity in 2024 while representing less than 8 percent of overall generating capacity.

In 2023, fossil fuels generated 60 percent of the nation’s electricity, nuclear generated about 19 percent, and sources such as wind and hydropower produced about 21 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration.

In July, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman joined President Donald Trump at an event in Pittsburgh to speak about the company’s $20 billion investment in the Keystone State. One plank of that plan is locating a new data center campus in Salem Township, near Talen Energy’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

Amazon is investing heavily in nuclear energy. In a statement published in May, it called nuclear “a safe, carbon-free energy source that can be brought online at scale.”

The company stated that it has spent more than $1 billion on nuclear energy projects and technologies.

Representatives of the leading cloud service providers Amazon, Microsoft, and Google either declined or did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

However, in a September 2024 announcement, Microsoft Vice President of Energy Bobby Hollis said the company signed a power purchase agreement with the energy company Constellation that will enable the restart of Three Mile Island Unit 1, an 835-megawatt nuclear facility in Londonderry, Pennsylvania, that was fully retired in 2019.

In a statement, Hollis said the move was part of the company’s commitment to becoming a “carbon negative company.”

On March 28, 1979, the Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island suffered a partial nuclear meltdown. While nobody died in the incident, it is regarded as the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history.

Despite optimism from the leading cloud service providers, nuclear is currently the smallest component of the U.S. energy mix.

Right now, there are 94 nuclear reactors operating in the country, according to the Deloitte report. These reactors are, on average, about 40 years old.

Given the current pace of maintenance and expansion, Deloitte estimated that nuclear power will provide about 10 percent of the overall projected electrical demand to data centers in the United States by 2025.

Representatives of the Department of Energy (DOE) who spoke with The Epoch Times said the country’s nuclear infrastructure will likely greatly exceed those projections within the next decade, especially now that Washington is demanding rapid expansion of nuclear generating capacity.

Political Will

On May 23, Trump signed four executive orders that the White House stated would “usher in a nuclear renaissance.”

The orders call for aggressively expanding nuclear energy production in the United States and set a goal of quadrupling nuclear energy generating capacity by 2040.

They call for 10 new large reactors to be online by 2030, as well as for accelerated development of nuclear reactor technologies, use of nuclear power for artificial intelligence infrastructure and military installations, and expedited construction and testing of advanced nuclear reactors.

One of the orders also overhauls the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, calling it a failure. The reforms are aimed at speeding up regulatory approvals and updating the commission’s safety models. The commission was established by Congress in 1978 to ensure the safe use of radioactive materials. The order states that since it was created, only two new reactors have come online.

“Instead of efficiently promoting safe, abundant nuclear energy, the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] has instead tried to insulate Americans from the most remote risks without appropriate regard for the severe domestic and geopolitical costs of such risk aversion,” the order reads.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, a senior official at the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy said the executive orders are already paying dividends.

The official highlighted recent public–private partnership announcements focused on small modular reactors. Those partnerships with the DOE involve firms such as Amazon, Dow, X-Energy Reactor Co., and TerraPower.

Currently, the DOE has $800 million set aside to help fund the initial deployment of small modular reactors. These smaller versions of nuclear fission reactors are designed to be built off-site and rapidly deployed in power plants.

To further accelerate novel reactor technology development, a senior official said the DOE established what it calls a test bed at the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho. There, reactors can be tested under DOE authorization. In July, the Idaho National Laboratory announced that both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft are involved with active projects to streamline novel reactor deployment.

Given the president’s requirement to test at least three new reactors by July 2026, the senior official said that it is “definitely very feasible” that at least one of the novel reactors tested at the Idaho National Laboratory will be deployed by 2030.

Apart from the Idaho National Laboratory, interest in testing novel reactor technologies remains high. So far, the DOE is receiving far more applications to begin trials than it was initially expecting before the executive orders were signed.

As for beating the Deloitte estimate, senior officials did not provide a specific expectation of how much energy nuclear will provide to data centers in the future. However, they did say that if the United States can get 10 large, GW-generating nuclear plants under construction by 2030, as the executive order calls for, then nuclear will provide “a significant fraction” of the power that data centers need to function.

Lingering Doubts

Because of incidents such as the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979, the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, and the more recent Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011, some environmental activists oppose nuclear energy.

Representatives of leading activist groups such as the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.

In its most recent article on the subject, the Bulletin questioned “whether government intervention can make new nuclear reactors built on [artificial intelligence’s] timeline without compromising safety or repeating past mistakes.”

In a July 22 appearance before the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Stephen Burns was highly critical of the Trump administration’s reforms, which he said undermine the independence of the agency and could put safety at risk.

“Great care must be taken in streamlining licensing and regulatory processes to preclude erosion of nuclear safety standards,” Burns said. “Nuclear safety, not regulatory acceleration, must be the bedrock of this effort.”

Despite the history of high-profile accidents, public opinion polling from Gallup and Pew shows that Americans are generally supportive of nuclear power.

The most recent poll, published by Gallup in April, reported that 61 percent of respondents said that they favor the “use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity.”

The DOE considers nuclear power plants to be one of the safest ways to generate power. Even countries that previously banned nuclear—including Germany, which decommissioned its final plant in 2023—are “waffling” on that decision, a senior official said.

The senior official acknowledged that getting new power online will be difficult, but echoed the comments of Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

“This is America,” Wright said in a July 22 interview with Fox News. “We put people on the moon. Can we build nuclear reactors again? Absolutely.

“Is it going to be a challenge? Do a lot of things have to change to get this ball rolling again? Yes. But can we do it? Yes, we can, and yes, we will.”

Authored by Cindy Harper via Reclaim the Net,

The European Union’s “European Media Freedom Act” became binding law across all member states on August 8, but behind its name lies a set of provisions that could restrict the very freedoms it claims to safeguard.

We obtained a copy of the act for you here.

Alongside language about protecting reporters, the regulation authorizes arrests, sanctions, and surveillance of journalists whenever authorities say it serves an “overriding reason in the general interest.”

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, hailed the legislation’s arrival on social media, saying, “A free and independent press is an essential pillar of our democracy. With our European Media Freedom Act, we want to improve their protection. This allows journalists to continue their important work safely and without disruption or intimidation.”

Although the law outlines protections such as prohibiting spyware or coercion to expose sources, those assurances are undercut by built-in loopholes.

Governments can bypass them if their actions are allowed under national or EU law and deemed proportionate to a vaguely defined “general interest.”

That permission extends to intrusive surveillance technologies in cases tied to crimes carrying a maximum prison term of three years or more, a list that ranges from terrorism and human trafficking to offenses labeled as “racism and xenophobia.”

The legislation also orders each country to maintain registers of media owners and addresses. It targets so-called “disinformation,” accusing some media outlets of manipulating the single market to spread falsehoods.

Large online platforms are portrayed as choke points for access to news, blamed for fueling polarization.

To confront this, the EU wants tighter cooperation between national regulators, overseen by a European Media Services Board made up of member state regulators and a Commission representative. Although labeled independent, the board’s secretariat is run by the Commission, giving it an inside track on the decision-making process.

Another element of the act involves pushing “trustworthy media” and reinforcing state broadcasters through transparent appointment processes and stable public funding.

Annual gatherings between EU officials, internet companies, media representatives, and NGOs are encouraged to assess how disinformation initiatives are being carried out.

Despite being sold as a shield for press freedom, the structure of the act gives Brussels and national authorities the ability to decide which voices remain active and which can be silenced. By allowing arrests, surveillance, and tighter state involvement in the media landscape, it risks turning from a safeguard into a tool for control.

If you’re tired of censorship and surveillance, join Reclaim The Net.

Shares of Cava Group crashed in premarket trading after the Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain slashed its full-year same-store sales growth forecast to a maximum of 6%, versus the previous estimate of 8%.

The downgrade follows the slowest quarterly sales growth since early 2021, with 2Q same-store sales rising just 2.1% as flat foot traffic offsets gains from price hikes and add-ons. 

“That fog has gotten denser and lighter depending on the month, depending on the tariff policy that comes out in a given week,” CEO Brett Schulman said in an interview, quoted by MarketWatch. 

Schulman noted that President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act offered some near-term clarity for consumers, be it good or bad. “But in the absence of that,” he added, “they’re in a bit of a holding pattern.”

The slowdown comes amid multiple headwinds for the fast-casual restaurant chain, including the hype around opening stores nationwide, along with inflation-weary consumers. 

Shares of Cava have soared nearly 600% since its June 2023 IPO, peaking at $150 in December 2024, and have since halved by Tuesday’s close. In premarket trading, shares tumbled 24% in New York, and if losses hold through the cash session, it would mark the largest daily decline on record for the stock.

The deteriorating full-year outlook illustrates how difficult it is for some restaurant chains to operate in today’s challenging macroeconomic conditions of elevated inflation and tariffs, much of which has pressured low/mid-tier consumers.

“CAVA disappointments in restaurants continuing (ex MCD). CAVA expectations were low post the summer conference circuit and their comments about a tough macro, but not this low,” Goldman analyst Ariana Contessa told clients. 

Houston, we have a problem pic.twitter.com/9v7R9Uxkjd

— tae kim (@firstadopter) August 13, 2025

Zacks analyst Tracey Ryniec told Bloomberg, “This report is a disappointment given the expectations and the company’s expensive valuation.” 

By Juan Galt of Bitcoin Magazine,

At the Bitcoin 2025 Conference, held May 27-29 at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Simple Proof CEO Carlos Toriello and Screven County, Georgia, Elections Supervisor Stacey Scott shared insights into their groundbreaking use of Bitcoin’s blockchain to secure election results.

In an exclusive video interview, now released to the public, the duo detailed how Simple Proof’s hash-only timestamping technology is transforming document authentication while balancing transparency and privacy. The interview, conducted amid the conference’s 30,000 attendees, highlights the growing adoption of Bitcoin-based solutions in public recordkeeping.

Bitcoin 2025 Exclusive: Simple Proof’s CEO and Screven County Elections Supervisor Discuss Blockchain’s Role in Election Integrity

Featuring @carlostoriello @realSimpleProof via @BitcoinMagazine pic.twitter.com/iKFmEckIYp

— JuanGalt.com (@JuanSGalt) August 12, 2025

Simple Proof, a tech startup leveraging Bitcoin’s OpenTimestamps protocol, made history in November 2024 when Screven County became the first U.S. county to secure its election results on the Bitcoin blockchain, specifically in block 869,047. Toriello explained in the interview, “Our hash-only solution allows organizations like Screven County to prove a document’s existence at a specific time without exposing its contents. This is critical for sensitive records like voter rolls, where privacy and integrity are paramount.” Stacey Scott, who oversaw the implementation in Screven County, added, “This technology gave us a way to ensure our election results were tamper-proof, building trust with our voters.”

The hash-only functionality enables clients to generate cryptographic hashes — a kind of unique identifier derived from the data of the files using commonplace cryptography. The process can be done locally, ensuring sensitive data remains secure while anchoring a timestamp to Bitcoin’s immutable blockchain.

This approach, as Toriello noted, addresses the dual need for transparency and confidentiality in government processes. Screven County’s adoption followed Simple Proof’s earlier success in timestamping Guatemala’s 2023 presidential election, a project Toriello credited with protecting both data integrity and his personal safety during his work as an election auditor.

Beyond elections, Simple Proof is seeing growing interest from other sectors according to Toriello who highlighted potential applications in state archives, where historical documents like constitutions could be safeguarded against tampering, even by advanced threats like rogue AI or quantum computing. The company has also secured records for Williamson County, Tennessee’s Republican Party convention, signaling broader adoption in the U.S. South and beyond.

Simple Proof’s induction into the inaugural class of the Strategy Bitcoin Hub at Strategy HQ underscores its rising prominence. The company’s technology, built on Bitcoin’s OP_Return and OpenTimestamps, creates unforgeable proof of document existence, scalable to vast datasets with minimal blockchain footprint. As Toriello emphasized in the interview, “This isn’t just about elections — it’s about preserving truth for any digital record, from historical archives to everyday transactions.”

“Within a month of meeting Carlos we were able to secure our election results in Screven County Georgia. The great thing is it was super simple, I didn’t have to know anything about Bitcoin or the blockchain, all I had to do was send an email with the election results to Simple Proof and they were able to time stamp this on the blockchain,” Scott recalled in the interview with Bitcoin Magazine. 

Simple Proof’s work is reframing Bitcoin as more than a currency, positioning it as a tool for immutable recordkeeping, while using scalable technologies that respect the Bitcoin blockchain’s scalability concerns and best practices. With interest growing in regions beyond the U.S. South and in industries like legal and archival services, the company is poised to expand its impact. 

We’ve expanded our coverage of humanoid robots and robot dogs for very good reason: “iPhone moment” for these AI-powered machines is just a few years away. These bots are expected to enter homes by the end of the decade, if not the early 2030s. We even got our hands on a Chinese Unitree robodog to test its capabilities, and yes, there’s even a Picatinny rail for a flamethrower attachment. 

Robot companies, such as Figure AI, have been training humanoid robots for factory applications, as well as the home… 

“Today we unveiled the first humanoid robot that can fold laundry autonomously,” Figure AI wrote on X earlier today. 

Today we unveiled the first humanoid robot that can fold laundry autonomously

Same exact Helix architecture, only new data pic.twitter.com/0iEToKfETD

— Figure (@Figure_robot) August 12, 2025

On its website, Figure AI, the startup founded by Brett Adcock, who also launched drone maker Archer Aviation, boasts that its robots have now mastered the task of folding laundry.

Here’s more: 

Folding laundry may seem mundane to a person, but it is one of the most challenging dexterous manipulation tasks for a humanoid robot.

Why is this important? Well, as Figure AI explains:

The same general-purpose architecture, and the same physical platform, can seamlessly transition from industrial logistics to household chores. As we scale real-world data collection, we expect Helix’s dexterity, speed, and generalization to keep improving across an even broader range of tasks.

That’s right, these robots are being trained to enter the home and complete basic tasks, like folding laundry, putting groceries away, and even cooking. 

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta announced earlier this year that it is entering the AI-powered humanoid robot race, aiming to design and develop a bot for “household chores.” 

The next frontier for big tech is placing a humanoid robot in every home – likely a 2030s story. 

Latest in the world of robots, Goldman analyst Jacqueline attended the 2025 World Robot Conference (WRC) in Beijing, China, last week, and spoke with top humanoid robot companies to gauge the state of the industry. Read the report here. 

We tested the Unitree Go2 Quadruped Robot. We’ll have more pictures and even footage as we progress with the test.

Our coverage focuses on a ‘Skynet-like system’ materializing in the years ahead:

• Goldman’s Chat With Top Robotics Firm Reveals Skynet Humanoid Timeline

• Goldman’s Investing Guide To Skynet

• “Here Come Humanoids”: Morgan Stanley Braces For The Looming Phase Shift in AI

• There’s An iPhone Moment Happening With Humanoids

• “iPhone Moment” Nears For Humanoid Robots

• China Warns of Rogue Robot Troops Unleashing Terminator-Style “Indiscriminate Killings”

• China Humanoid Robotics Index Jumps After Unitree Debuts “Stellar Hunter”

• Vacuuming, Mopping, Mowing: The Household Robots Are Coming

• Meta Plans For New AI Humanoid Robot For “Household Chores”; Headline Fuels Stock Rally

• A New Fear Unlocked.

• From Illegals To Humanoid Robots: Next Wage Apocalypse For America’s Working Class Nears

. . . 

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Reform UK Member of Parliament Sarah Pochin has urged that Britain is facing a full on invasion from Muslim men who hold “medieval” views and that it isn’t surprising that British men are forming vigilante groups in preparation.

Appearing on Talk TV, Pochin warned “it’s no wonder that we’re now hearing about groups of concerned British men mobilizing themselves into guardian angel style street patrols.”

“The inconvenient truth for the left is that the culture of men from predominantly Muslim countries like Afghanistan is one that holds a medieval view of women’s rights,” Pochin further asserted.

Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin says illegal migrant men coming from Muslim cultures have a “medieval view” of women.

“This is an invasion on our culture!”@SarahForRuncorn pic.twitter.com/onEo3Pr3n7

— Talk (@TalkTV) August 11, 2025

She added, that “Women are at risk of sexual assault and rape from these men.”

“Hundreds of young men who arrive in this country, housed in our communities, who undoubtedly become sexually frustrated, have a warped view of their right to sexually assault women,” the MP emphasised.

Pochin praised “street patrols out there to protect their daughters, their girlfriends, their wives, even their mothers.”

“And why wouldn’t they be when we hear that these illegal migrants are loitering around schools, around parks, men with deplorable attitudes towards women,” she further declared.

The MP also slammed leftists who appear more concerned with protesting outside parliament every weekend about Palestine, at a cost of millions to the British taxpayer, when there is rampant social breakdown stemming from mass migration at home.

Pochin’s comments come as it is revealed that the UK has seen nearly 50,000 migrants cross the English Channel in small boats since Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister on July 5, 2024.

🔺 Number of small boat crossings since Starmer became Prime Minister expected to hit 50,000 on Tuesday.

Read the full story ⬇️https://t.co/M0c1zbkbB2 pic.twitter.com/yY1TYJWf3v

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 12, 2025

This figure, reached in just 401 days, marks a significantly faster rate of crossings compared to Starmer’s predecessors, with Rishi Sunak taking 603 days and Boris Johnson 1,066 days to hit the same threshold.

The numbers of crossings are up by almost 50 percent on last year.

‘Just this morning we’ve had 220 that have arrived in Dover, with three small boats currently out in the Channel with at least 150 people heading towards the UK.’

GB News’ Mark White reacts to the ‘sobering’ migrant figures as numbers hit 50,000 so far this year. pic.twitter.com/e5EuRqBFzz

— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 12, 2025

The surge has fueled criticism of Labour’s immigration policies, particularly Starmer’s pledge to “smash the gangs” behind the crossings, which critics argue has failed to deter the unprecedented influx.

Is this before or after the four star hotel stays and loaded debit cards? https://t.co/gkTmck2WD8

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) August 11, 2025

The Labour government has faced intense scrutiny, with Conservative figures like Kemi Badenoch and Chris Philp accusing it of “surrendering” UK borders by scrapping the Rwanda deportation plan, which they claim acted as a deterrent.

🚨NEWS: More than 50,000 illegal migrants have entered Britain since Keir Starmer took over as prime Minister

He’s not stopping the boats is he?
He lied to everyone didn’t he? pic.twitter.com/lq4vUyPBJ7

— Basil the Great (@Basil_TGMD) August 12, 2025

Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader, has also slammed Starmer’s “weak” leadership, predicting the crossings would continue unabated and labelling the situation a “national emergency.”

BREAKING NEWS

Illegal migrants can be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” as they invade our country.

These men will now be free to roam our streets thanks to Keir Starmer.

This is a national security emergency. pic.twitter.com/PA60AILbRs

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) August 10, 2025

As I predicted 5 years ago, unless we deport illegal migrants the invasion will be huge.

50,000 since our weak Prime Minister took office and there is no sign of it stopping. pic.twitter.com/BUVdb2l7xH

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) August 12, 2025

Meanwhile, Labour defends its approach, pointing to a new “one in, one out” deal with France to return some migrants and increased efforts to tackle smuggling gangs. However, public discontent has grown, with protests against asylum seeker accommodations in hotels, and Badenoch suggesting “camps” as an alternative, citing community safety concerns.

👀 https://t.co/3arNkknuq9

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) August 12, 2025

The Home Office insists it is making progress, but the record-breaking numbers—nearly 20,000 in the first half of 2025 alone—suggest otherwise.

*  *  *

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The visual below, created by Julie Peasley via Visual Capitalist, maps the single most turbulent flight route on each continent using Turbli’s 2024 rankings.

Turbli compiles daily turbulence along actual flight tracks and reports average intensity using the eddy dissipation rate (EDR) scale from 0 to 100 (light to extreme).

South America’s Mendoza (MDZ)–Santiago (SCL) tops the chart at 24.684 average EDR, followed by mountain-hugging routes such as Kathmandu–Lhasa, Albuquerque–Denver, and Christchurch–Wellington.

Interestingly, SCL has the distinction of being the world’s most turbulent airport. Europe’s Nice–Geneva and Africa’s Durban–Johannesburg also make the list.

What the Data Shows

Several of the bumpiest routes trace over or alongside major mountain chains—the Andes, Himalayas, Alps, and Southern Alps—where strong winds can generate mountain waves, rotors, and turbulent shear. Island-to-island or strait crossings (e.g., Wellington) also see rough air as winds accelerate through gaps.

Why Turbulence Is Rising

A growing body of research points to more frequent clear-air turbulence (CAT), driven by climate change. Warmer air intensifies wind shear in jet streams; over the North Atlantic, the annual duration of severe CAT increased about 55% between 1979 and 2020, with notable rises across other busy regions as well.

EDR: The Standard for “How Bumpy”

EDR is an objective, aircraft-independent measure of turbulence intensity and the ICAO/WMO standard used in aviation. NCAR and partners compute EDR from onboard parameters to create consistent, comparable reports, which is exactly the kind of metric Turbli aggregates for its rankings.

What This Means for Flyers

Rougher skies don’t mean flying is unsafe. Modern aircraft are designed for turbulence, and injuries are rare when seat belts are fastened. For broader context on risk, see our chart on air travel fatalities per million passengers.

Explore more aviation data, including Longest Flights of the World, on Voronoi.