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Apple Trains Custom AI Model For China With Alibaba’s Help

Apple has trained a custom large language model specifically for the Chinese market, utilizing technical support from Alibaba Group, according to Reuters. 

This arrangement would make Apple the first foreign company cleared by Beijing to offer a proprietary AI model in China.

The custom model is expected to power portions of Apple Intelligence when the AI suite rolls out to mainland China via an upcoming iOS update.

This marks a strategic shift from Apple’s earlier plan to rely solely on third-party Chinese models for its regional generative AI features. According to the report, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude – which Apple pairs with its own technology in Western markets – are unavailable in China.

In July, China’s Cyberspace Administration officially registered Apple’s generative AI service, clearing the primary regulatory hurdle that had kept Apple Intelligence off local devices.

Under this approved framework, Alibaba’s Qwen model will integrate into Apple Intelligence across compatible iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Vision Pro headsets sold in China, while Baidu’s technology will separately support search-related features.

It remains unclear exactly how Apple’s proprietary model will divide tasks with Qwen and Baidu, as the technical breakdown between the systems has not yet been disclosed.

China remains one of Apple’s most crucial markets. Until now, the lack of native AI capabilities on Chinese iPhones has put Apple at a distinct competitive disadvantage against domestic rivals like Huawei, which have aggressively marketed AI-equipped handsets.

Apple Intelligence began rolling out globally in October 2024, but Apple said at the iPhone 16 launch that September that mainland China availability was “subject to regulatory approval.” The CAC’s July 15 registration came roughly 22 months later, clearing Apple alongside six other on-device generative AI services from Huawei, Samsung, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE.

The wait proved costly in a market Apple has been winning back. IDC put Apple’s China smartphone share at 18.1 percent in the second quarter, up from 13.9 percent a year earlier on 24.4 percent shipment growth – the strongest gain of any major brand, and enough to move Apple from fifth place to second. Huawei held the lead at 22.6 percent. They were the only two vendors to grow at all as overall shipments fell 4.3 percent to roughly 66 million units, a fifth straight quarterly decline driven by rising memory costs and fading government subsidies.

Apple’s gains came from holding iPhone 17 pricing steady while Android rivals raised theirs, and from signaling second-half price increases that pulled demand forward – mechanics that flatter one quarter rather than establishing a trend. Domestic rivals shipped on-device generative AI features throughout the wait.

Reporting has indicated Apple evaluated Baidu, ByteDance’s Doubao and DeepSeek before settling on Alibaba as its primary model provider. Apple has said nothing publicly about the arrangement – every confirmation to date has come from Alibaba and Baidu, or from the regulator’s own filing. No mainland launch date has been announced.

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B.C. government has given $8.7M to group hosting ‘jockstrap’ dance parties

Have you ever heard of the HIM (Health Initiative for Men) Society?

Founded as a grassroots organization focused on gay men’s health, HIM entered into a formal contract with Vancouver Coastal Health in 2009 to deliver health-promotion services.

Today, it says it provides health-based programs and services for gay, bisexual and queer men and gender-diverse people. Over the past seven years, according to HIM’s CRA filings, the organization has received more than $8.7 million from provincial and federal government sources.

So, what exactly are taxpayers helping fund?

For one, HIM hosts something called the “HIMBO Jock Tea Dance,” where attendees are invited to show up in jockstraps and “lube up” their thighs for the event.

Culture Guard, a political advocacy organization that says it works to protect traditional family values and ways of life, first put HIM on my radar. Culture Guard sent a public accountability letter to Premier David Eby, asking why his government continues to provide substantial public funding to a registered charity involved in events like the “HIMBO Jock Tea Dance.” 

Let me show you some of what Culture Guard highlighted, using screenshots from HIM’s own website.

For example, there is their “QUEERLY DESIGNED & LOCALLY MADE” merchandise. HIM’s website describes it as the “horny lovechild” of HIM. And then there is their “Collab,” inviting adult-content creators to sit down together and build community.

HIM describes some of these activities through the lens of HIV prevention. On its own website, the organization says: “Connectedness is HIV prevention,” and “Dancing together is HIV prevention.” It has continued to receive substantial public funding through provincial health authorities, such as Vancouver Coastal Health, Interior Health, and Fraser Health, as well as from the federal government.

Like Culture Guard’s letter to Premier Eby, I too have reached out to clarify whether your tax dollars have actually gone to preventing disease or to funding sexually charged jockstrap dance parties and adult content communities for the gay and queer men in BC.

I have not yet heard back at this time.

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Iran Offers $30,000 Bounty for Killing or Capturing American Troops — Double If Carried Out By a Woman

Iran’s military is offering cash rewards for anyone who kills or captures an American service member as fighting with the U.S. and its allies continues across the Middle East.

Iranian Army chief Amir Hatami announced Sunday that anyone who kills or captures an “invading American military personnel” and hands them over will receive the equivalent of approximately $30,000.

“Anyone who kills or captures and hands over an invading American military personnel will receive a reward equivalent to $30,000 or 5 billion tomans from Iran’s Army,” Hatami said.

Female participants are being offered twice as much.

“Courageous Iranian women who carry out such an action will receive double the reward,” he added.

According to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, Hatami claimed the scheme was established following a “large number of requests” from people seeking to provide financial support.

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San Mateo County Passes Resolution To Regulate Commercial Humanoid Robots

San Mateo County may become the first in California to regulate humanoid robots used for commercial purposes.

The county board of supervisors on Aug. 11 passed a resolution sponsored by Supervisor Ray Mueller to direct county legal and administrative staff to draft an ordinance regulating the use of untethered autonomous or semi-autonomous humanoid robots, or “mobile humanoid robots,” in restaurants, retail stores, and other businesses.

State law already regulates autonomous vehicles but not the commercial use of humanoid robots, according to a county memo. The resolution aims to create a “comprehensive permitting process governing the commercial deployment and operation” of such robots within the county.

Several companies have already started humanoid robot pilot projects.

Tau Robotics, for instance, offers cleaning services to invited San Francisco residents at $30 per hour in a pilot program launched on July 28. The robots are operated by humans and artificial intelligence, according to the company’s website.

According to the county memo, having a permitting framework in place before these robots are widely implemented would “encourage the responsible integration of emerging technologies in a manner that serves the public interest.”

The resolution directs county staff to consider having businesses pay an annual fee dedicated to HazMat and fire equipment for local first responders to handle risks from the lithium-ion batteries the robots use.

“In recent years, we’ve seen an uptick in lithium-ion battery fires due to thermal runaway,” Rich Seguine, vice president of Local 2400, which represents firefighters in San Mateo County, said in a public comment at the county board meeting. “A funding source like this in the resolution can be used to purchase necessary specialized equipment.”

The resolution also aims to require the robots to have accessible emergency “kill switches,” have clean manufacturer safety records, and be supervised by a trained human onsite.

Technological progress and protecting working people aren’t competing goals, said Julie Lind, a member of the San Mateo Labor Council, in a virtual public comment.

“Businesses should understand and account for the human consequences of deploying this technology, including potential job losses,” Lind said.

Non-humanoid robots have already been deployed in a few commercial uses in the area, including Cafe X, a robotic coffee bar in San Francisco International Airport; Artly Coffee in Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco; and autonomous sidewalk delivery company Coco Robotics.

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Why Are They Getting Free Sh*t?

A major British telecoms giant is supplying thousands of free SIM cards loaded with six months of data to a charity that hands them out to illegal migrants arriving in the UK via boats, it has been revealed.

The charity Care4Calais has distributed more than 162,000 items to nearly 30,000 people, including 2,221 Vodafone SIM cards, 3,765 hoodies, 3,532 pairs of joggers, 1,174 T-shirts, 1,173 Ramadan food packs around Calais, 2,770 cold-weather “snug packs,” and 1,169 weatherproof garments.

The charity also ran 80 drop-in sessions and 17 large-scale distributions at British military bases housing asylum seekers, providing around 23,000 items, plus free haircuts, phone charging, English lessons, Ramadan food packets, and “new arrival packs” for about 1,800 people reaching England’s South Coast.

Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf has accused Vodafone of “facilitating the invasion of Britain.”

In a letter to chief executive Margherita Della Valle he wrote that customers “will no doubt be astounded to hear that a British company of generally good repute is helping to facilitate the invasion of Britain by unvetted, military-age men” and that they “will be shocked to hear that their phone or broadband provider is actively endangering British women and girls.”

Yusuf demanded the company cancel the cards, end its relationship with Care4Calais, and hand over tracking data.

Under a Reform government, he said, “we will hold each and every officer and director of Vodafone Group Plc and all relevant subsidiaries personally and criminally liable for distributing SIM cards to illegal migrants. If found guilty, you would be liable to go to prison.”

The party has also pledged to review public contracts and exclude the firm from defence, national security and emergency services procurement.

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Homeless Repeat Criminal Who Broke into Portland Business Files $10 Million Lawsuit After Getting Shot by Owner 

A career criminal with a lengthy record of burglaries and thefts who broke into a Portland countertop fabrication business and was shot three times by the owner while attempting to flee is now seeking $10 million in a civil lawsuit, arguing the property owner used excessive force against him.

The incident took place on March 6, 2023, around 5:30 a.m.

The criminal, 43-year-old Kenneth Voyles, who was homeless and had methamphetamine in his system, entered Touchstone Granite & Marble Inc. by pulling plywood off a damaged garage door and cutting through metal bars.

Voyles later claimed he was looking for food and to get out of the cold but also admitted he intended to rob the place.

Inside the building, he ran into the 70-year-old owner, James Grant, an Army veteran with a concealed weapons permit who had been living in a back room of the business.

Grant, who was not wearing his hearing aids, confronted Voyles, threw a cup of urine and tiles at him, and ordered him to leave.

“I go, ‘Stop!’ Like, ‘Please stop!’” Voyles claimed in court, according to a report from the Post Millennial. “He’s assaulting me. He was pretty angry.”

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Second SickKids staff member charged in child sexual exploitation case in less than a month

Another employee at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children is facing serious criminal charges related to child sexual exploitation, less than a month after a physician at the same children’s hospital was arrested on similar allegations.

Antonio Alvin Dela Cruz, 55, worked on SickKids’ housekeeping team. Toronto Police say he faces five charges stemming from an online child-luring investigation, including luring a person under 18 by means of telecommunication, making sexually explicit material available to a person under 18, exposing genitalia to a person under 16, and accessing and possessing child sexual abuse and exploitation material.

According to police, the Internet Child Exploitation Unit began investigating in October 2024. Investigators allege Dela Cruz communicated with a 15-year-old through social media and phone chat applications, made inappropriate comments and sent explicit images.

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Tokenization Of H₂O: Elites Are Claiming The World’s Water Supply & Plan To Trade It

Tokenization: Turning Life Itself into a Tradeable Chip

For those who do not understand tokenization, here is a short and simple explanation: Tokenization means turning something real, like a share of water rights, a measured volume of water from a river or aquifer, or even credits for water that was “saved” or recycled, into a digital token (a unique digital certificate) that lives on a blockchain.

A blockchain is simply a shared digital notebook that many computers keep identical copies of at the same time, so the records of who owns what cannot be secretly changed by any one person or company.

That token can then be bought, sold, or traded on markets the same way people trade stocks or other assets. Instead of water simply belonging to the land, the local community, or the people who rely on it, it becomes a financial product that large investors, corporations, and institutions can own fractions of and exchange for profit. The right to use, claim, offset, or trade that water becomes the commodity.

Offset means making up for the water you use by helping save or restore the same amount somewhere else. A farmer switches to drip irrigation, a project restores a wetland, or a company reuses treated wastewater. That saved or restored water is measured and turned into credit. You buy or claim the credit. On paper your water use is balanced.

How Dare They Profit from Stealing Our Water

How dare they make money off this corrupt plan to steal, control, measure and meter the world’s water supply. Yes, I sound like Greta. The irony is thick: the same girl who made “How dare you” famous has been thoroughly programmed to cheer for Agenda 2030 and the very control grid she should be screaming against. Since she refuses to use her catchphrase where it actually belongs, then I will.

Water is the foundation of life itself. Every human, every animal, every plant depends on it. Yet the same elites who lecture the public about scarcity and climate are building the machinery to turn every last drop into a tradable asset they can profit from while ordinary people face rationing and surveillance.

This is exactly the process already described and promoted in official reports. Goldman Sachs itself published “Securing and Financing the Future of Water” in 2026, openly stating that tokenization can turn water rights into traceable tokens that track use across markets and deliver credits for companies that conserve or recycle water through connections to flow meters. Read it yourself: https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/securing-and-financing-the-future-of-water

The United Nations has declared the world has entered an era of “Global Water Bankruptcy.” Their report argues that the old system of local rights is finished and that new enforceable limits, transparent accounting, and centralized management are required. See the official collection: https://unu.edu/inweh/collection/global-water-bankruptcy

The Mapping Machines Are Already Flying Over Your Head

Look at how they are already doing it.

Across the United States, helicopters now fly low over farms and aquifers towing giant electromagnetic loops that map the groundwater beneath our feet like an MRI of the earth. California’s Department of Water Resources runs statewide Airborne Electromagnetic Surveys for exactly this purpose. Click here to read how the water mapping technology works: https://water.ca.gov/programs/sgma/aem

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‘Moderate’ Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear Calls for Abolishing Electoral College

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has called for the abolition of the Electoral College.

Beshear, who styles himself as a so-called “moderate” and is likely to throw his hat in the ring for the 2028 Democratic nomination, appeared on CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday morning to discuss his “big ideas” for the future.

Here is a transcript of the exchange:

HOST: Well, what I’m curious about is what- given they’re looking for big ideas, what would be your biggest, boldest idea that you’re promoting these days?

BESHEAR: Well, I’ll give you two because people want you to fix the darn economy, and they want you to fix the darn government. On the economy, it is time for an aspirational investment in housing that can bring down the cost of especially first-time home ownership.

People can actually see that progress all over the country. We ought to tie the federal dollars to speed. You’ve got to break ground and you’ve got to do it quickly. Get through the overregulation and the NIMBY-ism. But I tell you what, people also think this government is broken.

So, fix the darn government. Constitutional amendment. It is time. It should outlaw partisan redistricting and enshrine part of the Voting Rights Act right there in the constitution. It should create term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court. No more gaming those appointments.

It should also overturn Citizens United, and I think call for direct elections of the president and the vice president. That could actually make things work. A big idea that would, yes, change government, but in a way enshrined in the constitution where people would know it’s going to get better.

HOST: I didn’t realize you support abolishing the Electoral College. If you’re saying direct election of the president and vice president.

BESHEAR: Yeah, I’ve said it a number of times, and it’s because in Kentucky we will never see a candidate for president or vice president unless they’re from here.

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Jeffries: Democratic Socialists of America Will Be Part of Our ‘Broad Caucus’

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said if elected, some Democratic Socialists of America members will be part of the Democrats’ “broad caucus.”

Host Kristen Welker said, “Do Democratic Socialists belong in the Democratic Party?”

Jeffries said, “Well, what I can say is that I do not support defunding the police. I do not support open borders. I do not support abolishing the Senate. We’re focused on actually solving problems that hardworking American taxpayers want us to solve, which is to lower the high cost of living in a situation where life is far too expensive in this country. That’s the democratic agenda. That’s what House Democrats are fighting to achieve.”

Welker said, “Do you think, though, that there is room in the Democratic Party, under the tent of the Democratic Party, for Democratic Socialists, is it big enough?”

Jeffries said, “Well, listen, I don’t support the DSA agenda, as has been articulated, by the DSA itself. Now you’re going to have individual members, who have been elected in Democratic primaries and if they are elected in the general in November, will be part of the House Democratic caucus. It’s going to be a broad caucus.”

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