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Real-time News
On August 18th, according to US media reports on the 17th, Jared Kushner, US President Trumps son-in-law, who is currently visiting the Middle East, stated that the "demilitarization" process in the Gaza Strip could begin within 30 days. Kushner made these remarks during an interview with Fox News after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. He said, "We could see progress as early as 30 days, hopefully starting to clear some weapons and filling in some tunnels within the next 60 to 90 days." He also threatened that if Hamas fails to fulfill its promises, "Israel will receive stronger support from the United States and other parties." Kushner further stated that the US will not allow reconstruction in the Gaza Strip before demilitarization is achieved. Furthermore, the US "will not restrict Israels right to self-defense" should an imminent threat be faced.August 18th - BHP Billitons annual profit rose by nearly a third, driven by higher commodity prices, and for the first time, its copper revenue surpassed its iron ore revenue. BHP Billiton announced on Tuesday that its underlying profit for the fiscal year ending in June reached $13.2 billion, a 30% increase year-on-year, exceeding analysts expectations. The company also announced a final dividend of 99 cents, equivalent to a 72% payout ratio. Copper prices surged to record highs during the past fiscal year, and iron ore, another core product of BHP Billiton, continued its strong performance. BHP Billiton expects global copper demand to increase from approximately 34 million tons currently to 50 million tons per year by 2050. However, with declining grades and aging mines, BHP Billitons copper production at its Chilean mines is currently declining, prompting the company to invest billions just to maintain production.[Compiled by: Daily Tech News Roundup (August 18)] Artificial Intelligence: 1. Anthropics annualized revenue surpassed $65 billion before its IPO. 2. ByteDance signed an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America to strengthen copyright protection for its AI models. 3. Nvidia partnered with SB Energy to develop an 8-gigawatt hyperscale AI data center in Ohio, USA, and invested $1.5 billion in SB Energy. 4. Nvidia: OpenAI pledged to deploy Nvidias AI infrastructure on a large scale by 2030, corresponding to a computing business scale of approximately $600 billion. Other: 1. Metas exorbitant lawsuit will begin its trial on Tuesday. 2. Jiuguang released a humanoid robot capable of lifting a 50-kilogram barbell. 3. CITIC Capitals acquisition of Alibabas Lingxi Interactive Entertainment has officially taken effect. 4. Xiaomi Auto: Xiaomi SU7 series deliveries surpassed 500,000 units in 28.5 months. 5. Unitree Robotics achieved a 2-meter high jump and a top speed of 12.66 m/s, surpassing the world records for both standing high jump and running speed. On August 18th, Scottish company DataVita secured £300 million (approximately $407 million) in financing from ING, ABN AMRO, and other European banks to expand its existing data center in Scotland and build a new one. The UK government facilitated the financing by guaranteeing 80% of the £252 million provided by two Dutch banks and Santander. The remaining funds will be provided unsecured by the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services. Computing giant Dell will relocate its Scottish headquarters to the site. This investment is a key signal of a significant revival for the UKs so-called "AI growth zones" under the leadership of new Prime Minister Burnham. Former Prime Minister Starmer had identified these areas as a crucial pillar of the Labour governments AI policy.On August 18th, the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau released key regulatory indicators for the banking and insurance industries in the second quarter of 2026. Data showed that the net interest margin (NIM) of commercial banks was 1.41% in the second quarter, a slight increase of 0.01 percentage points from 1.40% in the first quarter, marking the first quarterly increase since 2022. However, different types of banks showed divergent trends. State-owned banks, city commercial banks, rural commercial banks, and private banks all saw their NIMs increase quarter-on-quarter, while joint-stock banks remained flat, and foreign banks experienced a decline. Industry analysts believe the core driver of this NIM stabilization is on the liability side: the concentrated maturity and repricing of high-interest deposits, coupled with banks proactive optimization of their liability structure, effectively reduced interest costs. Under regulatory guidance, the interest rate self-regulation mechanism played a role in curbing irrational price competition in lending rates, helping to stabilize asset pricing and supporting the NIM.
