China’s robots rock, box and mix drinks. Can they outperform humans?
Beijing policymakers have made robotics a ‘strategic priority’
Pentagon fires military newspaper staffers for insubordination
Defence department dismisses Stars and Stripes editor-in-chief and Middle East reporter
Letter: Swarovski should try treating women with less condescension
From Nicole Trudeau, chief legal officer of financial services company, Seattle, WA, US
Letter: BoJ’s wrongheadedness — a record without parallel
From Alexander Kinmont, Alma Capital London, London SW1, UK
Letter: Please, keep thoughts out of reach of the office bossware
From Lakshmi Prasanna, Singapore
Letter: The troubling vocabulary of machine consciousness
From Jan Farrell, Chair, The Francis Bacon Debate Society; Chief Executive, Brethil Investment; Advisor, AIXI Safety Lab, Madrid, Spain
Letter: Modular housing may not be the panacea
From Rory Coonan, Director, KlimaHaus, London BR3, UK
Letter: Don’t blame cats if they look for a second lunch
From Andrew Vigar, Singapore
Letter: How artists responded to the Franco-Prussian war
From Alan Beckett, Winchester, Hampshire, UK
FT Crossword: Polymath number 1,401
FT Crossword: Number 18,459
‘Betrayal’: US ranchers lash out at Trump’s plan to cut tax on beef imports
President claims unnamed foreign suppliers will provide 25% discount in run-up to midterm elections
US-Canada trade deal goes down to the wire
Officials talk up prospect of agreement after Trump paused $20bn of new levies on North American trading partner
Bitcoin and gold surge as Bessent’s intervention in bond market hits dollar
World’s biggest cryptocurrency registers best week in more than three years as investors pile into ‘debasement’ trades
SEC accuses ex-Bank of America utilities banker of insider trading
Regulator says Jason Satsky helped a friend make $18.5mn in illegal profits tied to planned takeover of South Jersey Industries
Greenwich moon time? The high-stakes race to set lunar clocks
World powers gather to decide how to deal with potential threat to colonising Earth’s nearest celestial neighbour
Ukraine seeks Musk’s help to hit Russian missile launchers
Starlink-equipped drones could strike targets up to 200km inside Russia
Iran’s president calls to end war with US from ‘position of strength’
Masoud Pezeshkian’s comments reflect debate within regime over how much economic pressure country can endure
Transcript: Burnham — to drill or not to drill?
George Parker talks to Stephen Bush and Jim Pickard
Burnham hit by fiscal challenges as O’Neill declines government role
£1.8bn deficit in July confounds economists’ expectations as prime minister prepares for October Budget
Directors’ Deals: Pearson executive cashes in as digital growth boosts shares
First-half revenues at the education group rise by 19 per cent
Stockpickers: Costain, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, BHP
Our experts discuss which companies to buy, sell or hold this week
Italy’s MPS thinks three takeovers are better than one
Crunching two banks together is challenging, and takes time; to attempt the same feat with four calls for some truly magical thinking
Apollo says hackers accessed personal data in latest Wall Street breach
Alternative asset manager’s probe determined names, home addresses and social security numbers were stolen in cyber attack last month