Leipzig startup SAXON Q used sulfur co-implantation to lift qubit yield from 10% to 85%, enabling server-rack systems shipping within 90 days

Take a look inside ITER, the world's largest fusion reactor, to see how scientists from around the world are working tirelessly to re-create the sun's superpower on Earth and fuel a clean energy revolution.

MUNICH / LONDON (IT BOLTWISE) – Munich-based robotics startup Agile Robots expects to double its revenue this year to around €600 million. The company aims to become profitable within the next two to three years, citing signed customer contracts that already support its planned growth. To date, Agile Robots says it has raised approximately US$1.5 billion from investors. In addition to industrial robots, the company is developing humanoid systems and is collaborating with Google DeepMind on this effort.

Agile Robots' forecast focuses less on the next product demonstration and more on a key business metric: revenue is expected to increase from €300 million to approximately €600 million. The Munich startup believes this growth will enable it to achieve profitability within two to three years. According to CEO Zhaopeng Chen, the key customer contracts required for the planned expansion have already been signed. For industrial customers, this is particularly significant because it signals that robotics is no longer being marketed merely as a research or pilot project, but as a recurring delivery and operational business with predictable utilization.

From a technical perspective, Agile Robots remains primarily a robotics implementation company rather than a pure research organization. Current revenues are likely generated mainly from industrial applications—environments in which investment cycles, safety requirements, and maintenance models can be planned relatively reliably. At the same time, the company is expanding its capabilities through acquisitions. According to management, more than a dozen acquisitions have broadened its expertise. Such consolidation often addresses critical bottlenecks in robotics by rapidly combining capabilities in mechanics, sensing, control systems, and production integration, without requiring the startup to develop every component from scratch.

The company's partner and ecosystem strategy reinforces this approach. Agile Robots has identified collaborations with Tinavi, which develops orthopedic surgical robots, and with neurosurgical robotics company Remebot. These fields differ significantly from traditional manufacturing, presenting less standardized work environments and often stricter requirements for precision, process stability, and clinical validation. The inclusion of such partners suggests that the startup aims to position its robotics platform for use across multiple domains, an approach that may also facilitate customer acquisition.

While its day-to-day business remains focused on industrial robots, the company is increasingly looking toward humanoid systems. According to Agile Robots, it is working to improve the decision-making capabilities of humanoid robots and established a partnership with Google DeepMind for this purpose earlier this year. Decision-making is a critical capability for humanoid platforms because they require more than perception alone—they must integrate goal planning, motion control, and the ability to derive robust actions from changing situations. In practice, this means that companies evaluating such systems are shifting their attention from isolated demonstrations of grasping or walking toward gradual learning and adaptation processes that remain reliable in real-world environments.

The broader market context is clear: robotics is moving beyond the prototype stage toward large-scale deployment. Agile Robots is investing not only in hardware but also in the vision that humanoid robots will eventually become mainstream. As Chen puts it, they could one day become as common on the streets as cars are today. Such statements should be understood as long-term aspirations, but they indicate the company's strategic direction. If humanoid systems are to become mass-market products, success will ultimately depend on the combination of cost, availability, and consistently reliable performance. This also highlights the strategic importance of the company's revenue plans: only businesses capable of scaling manufacturing and service operations simultaneously can economically finance the next generation of robots.

Over the coming months, the key question will be how effectively Agile Robots converts its planned revenue growth into operational results. The fact that customer contracts have already been signed reduces—but does not eliminate—the risk that the forecast is overly speculative. Even with confirmed orders, production, component supply, quality assurance, and deployment must all keep pace. Cost structure will also be critical. Achieving profitability requires not only revenue growth but also maintaining control over manufacturing costs, customer support, software operations, and the expenses associated with technical scaling. In this context, the startup is likely to benefit most if the capabilities acquired through its acquisitions can be rapidly integrated into repeatable implementation processes.

As a result, Agile Robots is entering a competitive environment in which both established industrial robotics companies and teams focused on humanoid robots are competing for time, talent, and customer expectations. For potential customers, not only robot performance but also economic predictability will matter. A company seeking profitability within two to three years must demonstrate that its supply chain and integration capabilities are truly designed for scale. The projected revenue figures and financing position therefore provide an important benchmark for evaluating the business. If Agile Robots successfully executes its growth contracts, its story may increasingly evolve from one centered on robotics to one focused on industrial engineering—with measurable business outcomes rather than technical promises alone.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10514053

Russia has built a network linking socialist and anti-globalist groups abroad under the banner of support for left-wing causes. The effort often starts with seemingly benign events such as community cleanups and discussion clubs before developing into street protests, disinformation campaigns, sabotage operations in Western countries, and even recruitment for Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Insider has identified several British and U.S. citizens who were recruited to fight for Russia with the help of “communists” and far-left activists.

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In the name of the left

In late April 2026, the founding forum of an international socialist network called the Sovintern was held at Moscow’s House of Unions. The event was organized by the party Spravedlivaya Rossiya (lit. “A Just Russia”). The name Sovintern echoes the Comintern, the Soviet-era Communist International that Moscow used in order to coordinate foreign communist parties and advance Soviet influence abroad.

The Kremlin did not hide its warm attitude toward this kind of international activity: the event opened with a welcoming address from Vladimir Putin himself. Sovintern’s stated public task was to create as much information content as possible. Each participant was expected to spread common narratives back home, thereby motivating potential future participants to join in the efforts to discredit their own national governments.

Like the Comintern once did for the Soviet Union, the new organization also appears to function as a cover for Russian special operations abroad. In fact, several of its participants are directly involved in recruiting foreign soldiers for the war in Ukraine.

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One example is the American Communist Party (ACP). The party was founded only recently — on July 21, 2024 — by two Russophile Marxist-Leninist streamers: Adam Tahir, who uses the public name Haz Al-Din (and is also known as Infrared), and Jackson Hinkle. Their left-wing identity does not prevent them from being ardent admirers of the fascist ideologue Alexander Dugin and Nazi sympathizer Martin Heidegger.

Historically, communists in the United States have been represented by the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), whose leadership once actively cooperated with Soviet intelligence. The founders of the new ACP previously belonged to the shrinking CPUSA and have so far set up small chapters across the United States, as well as a branch in Canada. The party’s official activities are limited to community cleanup days, aid to the poor, and peaceful protests glorifying Stalinism and Chinese socialism. Party supporters also back Hamas and Hezbollah. Several members are even fighting against Ukraine on Russia’s side.

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In the UK, similar activity is handled by the Workers Party of Britain and its affiliated movement, no2nato. The party is headed by George Galloway, 71, a frequent guest on Russian propaganda shows. Aside from the direct disinformation work of its leader, the party’s members are also on the lookout for potential mercenaries.

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Until the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia used a network of state-controlled cultural centers and associated agents abroad to recruit agitators and, at times, fighters for proxy military structures. The Insider previously described how this worked using the example of Alexander Ionov, president of Russia’s Anti-Globalization Movement.

After the full-scale war began, most such organizations were expelled or shut down across the Western world. As a result, semi-legal and often highly marginal socialist and far-left cells became disproportionately useful.

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Recruitment [of foreign soldiers for Russia's military] continues to this day. In late April 2026, Canadian Ryan Gallant — a member of his country’s branch of the American Communist Party — arrived in Irkutsk via China. Stimson said on his blog that the recruit was a professional helicopter pilot.

Sometimes the path is more complicated. One example is Kalen Pavan, a 17-year-old Canadian cadet who was recruited through socialist chapters and arrived at the Interbrigades headquarters in the Donbas in 2024 ... When it turned out that Pavan was under 18 and had lied slightly about his age, he was recruited by the FSB, Russia’s domestic security service, and sent to the European Union — first to Denmark and then to Poland — for intelligence work. But he failed the assignment and was detained and convicted.

That example, however, appears to be more the exception than the rule. Those who leave for the war usually do not return home, either because they are killed in “meat grinder assaults” or because they risk criminal prosecution. If a recruit survives, after a while he may become a colleague of recruiters ... and begin looking for new recruits himself.

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Archived

In this industrial province of Tuscany, home to Europe's largest textile hub, fraudulent practices by some Chinese companies have fueled a shadow economy built on tax evasion, undeclared labor and the exploitation of migrant workers.

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In these early days of July, the sun beat down fiercely on Seano. In the industrial zone of this small town in the province of Prato, at the heart of Tuscany, Italy, rows of nondescript warehouses stretched on. For several weeks, one of them had become the focus of mounting tension and anger. Acca SRL, a Chinese logistics company in the fashion sector, had been based there before deciding to shut down, putting around 100 jobs at risk.

Since March 2025, Acca SRL– which did not respond to our interview requests – has been under investigation by the European Public Prosecutor's Office for alleged tax fraud amounting to €71 million, while also facing trial in the Prato court for exploitation and caporalato, a system of illegal labor recruitment typical of mafia organizations.

At the entrance to the parking lot, wooden pallets were stacked, bristling with the orange flags of the Union for Democracy and Dignity (Sudd) Cobas. Under a tent, sitting on two camp beds and plastic chairs, about 20 workers passed the time by scrolling through their phones.

After an hour of apathy, the group suddenly sprang into action: A little further down the sidewalk, about 20 Chinese nationals accompanied by an Italian lawyer approached them. Fists raised, the strikers greeted them with shouts of "Acca thief!" and "Hands off our jobs!" Chinese business owners had come to retrieve goods blocked inside the company's warehouses. "There is €2 million worth of merchandise," explained the lawyer, who added that the goods "have been paid for and are waiting to leave the warehouses." Police stopped them from going any further, fearing a confrontation with the protesters. The scene was a reflection of the deep social tensions in Prato's fashion district.

Long union struggle

"In recent weeks, we realized that, in reality, Acca SRL hadn't closed, but had secretly shifted work to other streets or nearby parking lots," said Riccardo Tamborrino of the union. "We are certain they are employing people off the books, with no workplace safety, no rights at all, and they abandoned their warehouse just to circumvent the right to strike."

Ayaz, 30, originally from Pakistan, had been living in Prato for four years. Until Acca SRL closed, he worked as a warehouseman. "I worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, no sick leave, nothing," he said, in fluent Italian. Ayaz pointed to the building where he used to load fabrics: "Those are the air-conditioned offices where the Chinese worked, while downstairs it was unbearably hot," he emphasized.

A subsidiary of the Chinese multinational Xinsitong, which specializes in logistics, Acca SRL managed the shipment of fast fashion made in Prato's textile hub to the rest of Europe. Locally known as "pronto moda" ("ready-to-wear"), this sector consists of thousands of workshops that transform textiles, mostly imported from China, and send them around the world.

Like other companies in the area, Acca SRL had regularized 90 workers in the spring after a long union battle, giving them a 40-hour, five-day work week with proper employment contracts. But for the shadow economy run by Chinese businesses, staying outside the law appeared to be a far more lucrative business. "The pressure to give up is intense," confided Mumtaz, another Pakistani worker encountered on the picket line. "They offered me €10,000 to leave Sudd Cobas."

A few kilometers away lies the Macrolotto, the beating heart of Prato's cheap ready-to-wear district. Here, flashy names like Fashion One, Glamour-Chic and Mister New Man stand alongside Chinese signage everywhere. At the foot of a faceless building, a few camp beds had been set up under tents. Among them was Abid, a 33-year-old Pakistani who had been on strike for three months. "I worked five years as a fabric cutter for a Chinese laundry business," he recounted. "Eighty hours a week for €1,200. Eventually, I got a contract for eight hours a day, but six months later, the boss came and told us he was shutting down because demand had changed and there was no more work."

Like many other exploited workers, Abid fell victim to the apri-chiudi ("open-close") system, which has become a hallmark of Prato's fast-fashion businesses. These fraudulent companies pay no taxes and would shut down overnight, only to reopen in another warehouse a few dozen meters away under a new business name. The workforce was simply a variable to be adjusted.

With more than 6,000 companies generating annual revenue of €2 billion, Prato's textile hub, the largest in Europe, is a microcosm that the Chinese mafia skillfully manipulates. This system is well known to Luca Tescaroli, Prato's public prosecutor. "The number of foreign nationals exploited by Chinese companies is rising in Prato's 'Chinatown,'" explained the magistrate from his office at the courthouse. "These businesses have gradually stopped recruiting their fellow nationals and now hire people from other countries, like Bangladesh, Pakistan or North African countries, thus diversifying the workforce they use. It's a kind of cannon fodder for entrepreneurial enrichment."

"Chinese organized crime is marked by highly efficient operations and a strong ability to infiltrate," continued Tescaroli, who previously worked in the anti-mafia offices of Rome and Florence. "It is rather closed in on itself, but it has learned from traditional Italian criminal groups how to infiltrate public administration, which makes these groups even more dangerous."

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The impunity with which many Chinese and Italian companies in the pronto moda sector continue to operate has sparked growing local frustration, to the point where some lines are starting to shift. At the end of 2025, several unions, including the Italian General Confederation of Labor and the Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions (CISL), as well as employers' associations like Confindustria and Confartigianato, submitted a proposal to all local elected officials to step up labor inspections through stricter monitoring of tax evasion and labor exploitation. "With 20 more people, we could inspect at least 600 textile companies a year," said Fabio Franchi, the CISL's general secretary for the Florence-Prato area. However, the proposal has yet to materialize.

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Even local church authorities broke their silence, publishing a document at the end of June condemning a parallel economy in which everyone bears some responsibility. "We must have the courage to say that the 'Chinese economy' and the 'economy of Prato's residents' are not completely separate realities," the document reads. The church criticizes the fact that Tuscan business owners can sell or rent warehouses to dubious companies. The Diocese of Prato even proposed training courses "on a culture of legality and citizenship" to combat the mafia mentality.

The justice system presses on with its work to tackle abuses, using the same methods applied to Mafia informants in southern Italy. "We have put in place a protocol to protect workers who cooperate. We allow them to obtain residence permits for reasons related to justice, and we try to ensure they can find decent housing and new work," prosecutor Tescaroli explained. Since the start of 2025, 220 textile workers have reported their employers. Most of the companies involved were Chinese-owned; some have been forced to shut down, and their managers are now in jail or awaiting trial.

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On July 3, under 40°C heat, the Sudd Cobas picket line was violently broken up by police outside the former Acca SRL premises. At the same time, goods destined for the Acca warehouse in Seano were redirected to Shunda, another Chinese logistics company, which did not respond to our requests for comment and employs new, underpaid workers. "If you move the goods, you move the struggle," the union responded, promising new blockades to come.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/69048367

Lithuania is making progress toward normalising relations with China, Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas said after meeting with Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys.

A document obtained by Void Group appears to reveal how Russia organized supposedly public anti-Western demonstrations through a tightly controlled process involving 2,000 participants, prescribed slogans, visual examples, and designated supervisors.

The rallies were held outside the US Embassy and the diplomatic missions of 13 European countries on June 4, 2026. Participants carried flags, displayed anti-Western placards, and issued threats against countries supporting Ukraine.

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Russian propaganda outlets began claiming that Ukraine had attacked civilian students. The Kremlin also threatened retaliation and warned foreign embassies in Kyiv to leave the city “for their own safety.”

That messaging continued into June, with staged demonstrations becoming one of the methods used to amplify it.

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Though the leaked document appears somewhat lazily assembled (a characteristic format for such orders flowing down the russian power vertical, according to the Void), it covers the basic minimum: executing the propaganda action required 2,000 people, with described poster inscriptions and slogans, plus attached photos.

Amongst others, he document specifies these slogans:

• "Your weapons kill children!"
• "They could have lived!"
• "We won't forget. Won't forgive!"

Other signs were to accuse individual countries of sponsoring terrorism.

“[Country name] is a sponsor of terrorists,” one template read.

Another declared: “Your hands are covered in blood up to the elbows.”

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At the end of the document, you'll find a list of protest coordinators with their contact details.

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Void Group characterized the document as an example of how demonstrations operate in authoritarian systems: not as independent expressions of public opinion, but as controlled events commissioned from above and delivered according to instructions.

Intimidating countries that support Ukraine remains one of the Kremlin’s central propaganda tools—particularly as Russia struggles to achieve its objectives through military force alone, says the Void Group.

"Attempts to intimidate Ukraine's partners represent the only possible policy of a crumbling empire."

Successfully stopping Gianni Infantino’s FIFA plan to sell World Cup profits to private investors was the first half of a high-stakes game in global soccer politics.

The second half kicked off Saturday with what seemed a clear aim of ending Infantino’s decade-long presidency.

“No option should be off the table,” said European soccer body UEFA, whose president Aleksander Čeferin has led the fight against Infantino in a seismic week for FIFA.

“The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”

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Infantino had proposed creating a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors but drew backlash that grew every day since Tuesday’s announcement.

Infantino was forced to scrap the plan early Saturday after his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia’s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.

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UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, issued its blistering statement hours after FIFA announced it was withdrawing its private equity plan.

“We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game,” UEFA said. “We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.

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Infantino had proposed spinning off FIFA’s commercial businesses — including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women — into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.

The “anchor investor,” described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm launched by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

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In 2018, Infantino pushed a secretive offer of $25 billion from Japan’s SoftBank to create new competitions, that posed a long-term risk to continental events for clubs and national teams.

In 2021, Infantino proposed playing World Cups every two years instead of four — an idea that also angered the International Olympic Committee where he is an elected member.

Both plans created big rifts in the sport and were eventually dropped by FIFA.

Despite the turmoil, Infantino was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023.

The third time shapes to be different.

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Archived

Hacktivist group LunarisSec has issued a direct ultimatum, threatening cyberattacks on EU systems unless Chat Control is abandoned.

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As states across NATO's eastern flank face a raft of hostile actions from Moscow and Minsk ranging from drone incursions to cyberattacks, experts say startups like his are improving the region's economic resilience and helping to deter Russian aggression.

• 'Scalable solutions' -

An active startup scene has developed in Lithuania and its fellow Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia in the decades since their transition from Soviet-controlled command economies.

It is even home to several companies that are now well known far from the Baltics, such as Vinted, Bolt and Skype.

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Entrepreneurs are filling gaps left by traditional arms contractors.

The conflict in Ukraine has seen a massive technological shift in warfare, with drones and robots taking on much of the fighting.

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That has put a premium on quick development as well as the capacity to rapidly scale up production.

"The current technology that will drive, and is currently driving, the transition of European arms must be as scalable as it must be high-tech," says [Rapolas Markevicius, a former managing at private equity fund in Lithuania who is now running Pdkinematics - a startup that builds precision guidance systems that help drones strike targets more accurately even when GPS signals are jammed].

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Defence startups across the region have been able to attract significant foreign investment.

"The Baltic states have really been tried and tested over the past four years about how they needed to restructure their economies, reorient and really invest in their defence capabilities," said Mario Bikarski, Senior Europe Analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

"They are really now some of the best-prepared countries to withstand a wide range of new forms of attacks," he added.

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Archived

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Pierre-Henri Chuet, who flew Super Étendard and Rafale M fighters from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, was formally placed under investigation after he was presented to an investigating magistrate last week, following his questioning by France’s domestic intelligence service, the DGSI.

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He is under investigation for four charges of espionage: disclosure of national defense secrets by a person entrusted with them, intelligence with a foreign power, collection of information relating to the fundamental interests of the nation, and delivery of information to a foreign power.

Chuet joins a long list of Western pilots who have been warned or investigated for training China’s PLA Air Force (PLAAF) aviators on tactics, procedures, and related skills. Training sometimes took place in China or in third countries.

Notably, former U.S. Air Force major Gerald Eddie Brown Jr., who also flew the F-35, was arrested in February this year in the US shortly after he returned from China. He was charged with providing and conspiring to provide unauthorized defense services to PLAAF pilots in 2023.

Similarly, Daniel Edmund Duggan, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot, was charged in a 2017 U.S. indictment with conspiracy for allegedly providing training to Chinese military pilots, including aircraft carrier takeoff/landing tactics, techniques, and procedures. In April, he lost his appeal to resist extradition to the US.

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China has allegedly been facing a shortage of skilled naval aviators. A Chinese military magazine, Ordnance Industry Science Technology, reported in 2022 that the People’s Liberation Army Navy lacks sufficient qualified shipborne fighter-jet pilots.

Pierre-Henri reportedly traveled to China in September 2018 and August 2019 while still serving, without notifying his chain of command, as required by French military regulations.

Both trips were financed by a South African aviation company, already under the scanner for hiring Western fighter pilots to train Chinese pilots, Aerotime reported.

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Archived

An EU naval mission led ​by Italy boarded a tanker from Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" on Sunday, the second ‌such operation in less than two weeks as Europe intensifies scrutiny of vessels suspected of helping Moscow circumvent oil sanctions.

Italy's Defence Ministry said the Toa Payoh, a tanker subject to EU sanctions, was intercepted ​west of the Sicilian island of Pantelleria while sailing from Benin to Istanbul.

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The ​vessel had switched to a Cameroon registry only last week, according to ⁠a source familiar with the operation. Maritime authorities launched the inspection to verify that ​the tanker was legally entitled to fly the Cameroon flag and that its registration documents ​were valid.

The source said the EU naval mission, named operation EUNAVFOR MED Irini, did not have the authority to seize vessels during such inspections, meaning the Toa Payoh was not detained. However, documentation gathered during ​the boarding was still being examined and could be used by national authorities for ​a subsequent sequestration if necessary.

The Toa Payoh's captain initially failed to cooperate with the EU mission, prompting ‌a team ⁠of Italian military personnel to board the vessel from a helicopter launched by the Thaon di Revel, the EU's EUNAVFOR MED's flagship.

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The European Union has imposed sanctions on scores of vessels that it says form part of a "shadow fleet" used by Russia to circumvent restrictions on its oil exports since its ⁠invasion ​of Ukraine.

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