Chinese robots are racing in half marathons and we can't even automate the Tube

James Price has a useful CAPX piece on robots, their rapid development and how Britain is plodding along at the back somewhere. Well worth reading on our meandering journey through the treacherous green swamps of Fabian Mire.

The robot race is on, and Britain is falling behind

• Chinese robots are racing in half marathons and we can't even automate the Tube
• Britain can address its robotics lag in a free market way
• There is an existential fear about the future among today’s political class

Can a robot write a symphony? Can it turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?”
Can you?

This exchange from the film ‘I, Robot’ (and later parodied in a million memes) captures human fears and concerns about coexisting with robots, and what it means to be human. Fast forward 20 years, and artificial intelligence is getting pretty good at composing both music and paintings, while my artistic efforts are worse than Shia LaBeouf’s performance in that film.

It has been weird to see AI become so effective at these skills before machines have become competent in the physical world, where they have long been hopelessly poor. No longer.

Last weekend, the ‘Lightning’ humanoid robot won the Beijing E-Town Humanoid Half Marathon in 50 minutes 26 seconds, beating Jacob Kiplimo’s human world record by nearly seven minutes. Last year, in the inaugural event, the winning robot took 2hrs 40min 42sec, something even I can just about beat. In 12 months of progress, that is a 70% improvement. As impressively, in 2025’s race, only 6 of 21 robots even finished. Last weekend saw more than 300 robots, including entries from all around the world – 40% ran autonomously.

Examination of attitudes

Examination of attitudes when buying a house: Government argues about explosive encroachment on property rights

In Berlin, the dispute over a possible test of conviction when buying a house is escalating. The background is a draft from the Federal Ministry of Construction by Verena Hubertz, who belongs to the SPD. According to the available reports, municipalities should be able to intervene if the buyer is suspected of "anti-constitutional tendencies". In addition, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the BKA are to be involved in the examination, while the ministry explains that the text is still being coordinated by the departments. The initiative therefore hits a highly sensitive core of the rule of law, because not only criminal offenses, but already political suspicions could have consequences for the purchase of residential property.

The real scandal, however, lies deeper than in a usual departmental debate. If the state links the purchase of a house to a preliminary examination, it shifts the line between danger prevention and political selection. Property would then no longer be just a question of contract, financing and compliance with the law, but at the same time of the state's assessment of the person of the buyer. This is precisely a pattern that free societies must strictly limit.

Why Is The World Becoming So Ugly?

 

Labour’s dishonesty has become intolerable

Joseph Dinnage has a useful CAPX reminder of Keir Starmer and Labour's underlying problem, dishonesty. Incompetence too, they aren't even competent at hiding the dishonesty. 

A familiar issue of course, but the whole piece is well worth reading because as Dinnage says, the dishonesty is becoming intolerable. Intolerable? This suggests some kind of major upheaval may be lurking on the political horizon, quite apart from the May elections.


Labour’s dishonesty has become intolerable

• Between Peter Mandelson's sinophilia and Chris Pincher's wandering hands, we've suffered sleaze for too long
• Keir Starmer will ultimately leave Britain in an angrier and materially poorer position than when he found it
• Whoever leads Britain into the next decade must be guided by one principle above all: honesty

It takes a special kind of political crisis to make a right-winger agree with Diane Abbott.

As Keir Starmer faced MPs on Monday over his appointment of renowned sinophile and friend of Jeffrey Epstein Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, Abbott struck at the heart of the Prime Minister’s weakness. Portraying himself as feeling as hurt, betrayed and confused as the rest of the nation, Starmer insisted time and again that he believed due process had been followed. But as the Hackney MP pointed out, ‘ordinary people don’t really care about process and procedure, they want transparency and they want to know that they have confidence in the words of elected politicians’.

She’s absolutely right, and at one time Starmer seemed to think so too.

Has it had an impact?

Earth Day started as a US 'teach-in' 56 years ago. Now it's a global event

Millions of people around the world will pause Wednesday, at least for a moment, to mark Earth Day. It's an annual event founded by people who hoped to stir activism to clean up and preserve a planet that is now home to some 8 billion humans and assorted trillions of other organisms.

Here are answers to some common questions about Earth Day and how it came to be...

Has it had an impact?


Indeed it has -

 

Hang on - this circus is all clowns

‘Dismissive approach’ from No 10 over Mandelson vetting process, Robbins says

The former top official at the Foreign Office said there was a “dismissive approach” to Peter Mandelson’s security vetting from Sir Keir Starmer’s No 10.

Sir Olly Robbins, who was sacked by the Prime Minister last week over the failure to disclose Lord Mandelson’s failed security checks – but he was granted developed vetting (DV) clearance anyway, said there was pressure from Downing Street to clear the appointment.


Ed Miliband to give major energy speech as fury erupts over 'lunacy'

Ed Miliband's "anti-oil and gas stance" will fuel fresh price hikes for families already struggling with the cost of living crisis, critics warned.

Energy Secretary Mr Miliband will "double down, not back down" on the shift to clean energy, including speeding up the rollout of renewables and electrifying heating and transport to get homes and businesses off fossil fuels.


Reeves’s cash Isa reforms in chaos

Rachel Reeves’s plans to penalise savers who hold cash in investment accounts have stalled despite months of Treasury meetings, The Telegraph understands.

In last year’s Budget, the Chancellor announced the controversial cut to the cash Isa limit from £20,000 to £12,000 for under-65s from April next year.

HMRC said later that it would penalise savers trying to use loopholes to circumvent the limit, including putting cash into stocks and shares Isas.

But industry sources told The Telegraph that after months of talks, the Treasury has not made crucial decisions about how the rules on investment accounts would work in practice.

Quality Accouting Center

With delightful accuracy, Babylon Bee hits yet another nail firmly on the head.

Ilhan Omar Assures Public Her Finances Were Handled Honestly By Professionals At 'Quality Accouting Center'

 

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