Morning Digest

Thursday, August 20, 2026

35 stories from 8 sources, 70 more held back.

RT

Eurasian Cinema Academy award screenings to begin in China

Beijing is gearing up for the Eurasian Cinema Academy award screenings, which will showcase six feature-length films that garnered the Diamond Butterfly in various categories at the inaugural ceremony in Moscow last year.

RT 7:54 PM

The unborn are dying in the siege of Gaza

Shocking news of a sudden over-threefold year-on-year increase of the number of miscarriages and stillbirths should be front page on global media. But because it is one of the latest consequences of the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, it will probably go ignored by most Western corporate media.

RT 7:53 PM

RT speaks with Russian farmer fined for firing at Ukrainian UAV

Russian farmer Nikolay Mukhin, who was fined for attempting to shoot down a Ukrainian drone with his shotgun, has told RT that his actions were motivated by love for his motherland. The 66-year-old vowed to appeal the court’s decision, and the Volgograd Region prosecutor’s office is now siding with him amid a public outcry.

RT 4:19 PM

Russia and China stand against Japan’s nuclear ambitions – Beijing

Japan ‘playing with fire’ over nuclear ambitions – China. Russia and China are both opposed to Japan’s accelerating militarization and growing debate over acquiring nuclear weapons, Beijing’s ambassador to Moscow, Zhang Hanhui, has said, warning that Tokyo’s policies could trigger a new arms race.

RT 1:49 PM

The Robot Report

ATDev gives update on its journey building autonomous wheelchairs - The Robot Report

There are millions of powered wheelchair users in the U.S. today. Assistive Technology Development Inc., or ATDev, aims to use robotics to give these users more independence and freedom in their lives. “I’ve been a power wheelchair user for over 30 years, my whole life really,” Owen Kent, founder and chief marketing officer at ATDev, told The Robot Report.

The Robot Report 5:39 PM

Agtonomy releases new autonomous multi-point turning features - The Robot Report

Off-road physical AI company Agtonomy has expanded its commercial platform with fully autonomous multi-point turning and enhanced passive data collection. The company said this enables farm equipment to execute complex maneuvers in tight headland spaces without human intervention. Agtonomy develops full-autonomy packages that retrofit vehicles from its OEM partners, Kubota and Bobcat.

The Robot Report 12:30 PM

Kollmorgen to give a joint-by-joint guide to humanoid motion at RoboBusiness - The Robot Report

Today, humanoid robot OEMs are facing one central challenge: How do they bridge the gap between a working prototype and a manufacturable, scalable product? according to Kollmorgen. While software iterates in weeks, motion hardware moves from paper to functional sample in months and to volume production in years. That mismatch—not concept design—is often the real bottleneck.

The Robot Report 8:15 PM

ESPN

Jets owner Woody Johnson buys stake in Aston Martin F1 team

Johnson will focus on the team's commercial growth, especially in the U.S., but won't undertake any day-to-day management duties, according to Aston Martin. Johnson, 79, who purchased the Jets for $635 million in 2000, purchased a 43% stake in Crystal Palace of the English Premier League in 2025 for a reported $254 million.

ESPN 4:00 PM

Ex-Kings trainer files suit alleging pregnancy discrimination

A former assistant athletic trainer for the Sacramento Kings has filed a lawsuit against the organization and its senior director of athlete health, alleging pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination, according to court documents.

ESPN 4:00 PM

A.J. Brown, Jalen Hurts reunite briefly amid post-trade rift

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- A.J. Brown and Jalen Hurts caught up for a few minutes after practice Thursday -- a notable development after the Patriots receiver revealed Wednesday that the former teammates had not spoken since he was traded to New England by the Eagles in June.

ESPN 2:59 PM

Sources: Oklahoma, Brent Venables agree to new 6-year contract

The new deal, which adds two additional years and is pending approval by the OU board of regents, is expected to average more than $10.5 million per season, sources told ESPN. Venables, 55, led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff in 2025 -- the school's first appearance since the 2019 season. Oklahoma went 10-3, losing to Alabama in the CFP.

ESPN 2:54 PM

Raw America

Breaking: MAGA Election Denier to Pay for His Own Public Humiliation

An active-duty Air Force major who went on cable news and directly accused Donald Trump of violating the Constitution was arrested less than 24 hours later, making that the second time he’s been arrested for upholding his oath. Senate Republicans are quietly panicking that the growing backlash against data centers could cost them a crucial Senate seat in a reliably red state.

Raw America 3:31 PM

Revealed: Shocking Video Shows McConnell in Addled State Before Hospitalization

Donald Trump was caught on camera this week holding a “cheat sheet” in the Oval Office, the same kind of note card Republicans once said was proof Joe Biden had dementia. Newly surfaced video shows Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky sitting almost completely motionless for hours during a Senate vote session just days before he completely vanished from public view.

Raw America 10:40 PM

Cubs — MLB.com

Shaw begins rehab assignment; Milner throws a scoreless inning

Shaw landed on the 10-day Injured List on June 29 with a left-hand sprain that he suffered while fouling off a pitch. Shaw, 24, is hitting .246/.322/.415 (105 OPS+) through 56 games with Chicago this season. He also spent time on the IL earlier in the year with back tightness.

Cubs — MLB.com 4:26 AM

The 10 biggest breakouts on the new Top 100 Prospects list

MLB Pipeline gave a full refresh to its Top 100 Prospects list last week -- and each team’s Top 30 -- now that the 2026 draftees have joined their respective organizations. That makes it as good a time as any to look at the biggest breakout players in Minor Leagues. Some of these players were high Draft picks or on the preseason Top 100 Prospects list.

Cubs — MLB.com 11:15 PM

Cubs bolster SS depth, claim Arias from Mets; transfer Maton to 60-day IL

CHICAGO -- With Dansby Swanson currently on the injured list and sidelined for at least the next month, the Cubs’ depth at shortstop has been thinned at a crucial point in the baseball calendar. On Wednesday, the Cubs made a move to boost the depth chart, claiming utility man Gabriel Arias off waivers from the Mets to add a layer of insurance not only at shortstop, but around the infield.

Cubs — MLB.com 11:04 PM

Cubs — Sun-Times

¡Empate total! La serie estelar entre los Cubs y los White Sox termina 3-3

A los aficionados del béisbol de Chicago puede que no les guste, pero no lo olvidarán. Con los White Sox venciendo a los Cubs 3-0 el miércoles en Wrigley Field, la mejor serie Crosstown de todas terminó en un empate 3-3. Sí, leíste bien, la mejor, desde que el juego entre ligas empezó en las Grandes Ligas en 1997.

Cubs — Sun-Times 1:22 PM

Splittsville! Stellar Cubs-White Sox season series ends tied 3-3

Chicago baseball fans might not love it, but they won’t forget it. With the White Sox beating the Cubs 3-0 Wednesday at Wrigley Field, the best Crosstown season series of ’em all ended in a 3-3 deadlock. Yes, you read that correctly — the best, since interleague play began in the major leagues in 1997.

Cubs — Sun-Times 6:16 PM

Manufacturing Dive

Tesla looks to build $10B solar cell manufacturing site in Texas

Both of Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX, are separately working toward a combined goal of building out of 100 gigawatts per year of manufactured solar power capacity in the United States, the CEO said at the World Economic Forum at the start of the year. “That’ll probably take us three years or something,” Musk said at the event.

Manufacturing Dive 11:59 AM

Big Ass Fans maker to acquire Ebm-Papst for $5.4B

Ebm-Papst is headquartered in Mulfingen, Germany, and was established in 1963. The company has more than 13,000 employees worldwide, with operations in about 40 countries including two U.S. sales offices in Connecticut and Tennessee, according to the website. Madison Air has also been one of the Germany-based manufacturer’s longstanding customers, President and CEO Jill Wyant said in a statement.

Manufacturing Dive 8:53 AM

Simon Willison

A quote from Jeremy Morrell

My hypothesis is that there is a new opportunity for Extensible Software on the web. LLMs radically lower the cost of authoring extensions, and modern sandbox primitives lower the deployment cost and provide good security boundaries. We can build our app as a solid, accountable core, and allow users to safely extend it in many directions by having LLMs fill in the missing pieces.

Simon Willison 10:56 PM

Conceptual integrity and counting lines of code

Last week I recorded an episode of the Talking Postgres podcast with Claire Giordano on the subject of “How AI is changing software development”. We had a really great conversation. Here are a couple of my highlights from a lightly edited transcript (prompt to Claude: “very minor edits to remove disfluencies”).

Simon Willison 10:46 PM