A humanoid robot was knocked headless during the world's first free-combat tournament for full-sized machines, but that didn't stop it from swinging, Newsweek reports.
The bizarre scene unfolded at the Ultimate Robot Knock-out Legend (URKL) competition, which kicked off Thursday in Shenzhen, China.
A white robot named White Eagle landed a high kick on its black opponent, "Matador," sending the loser's head rocking violently before it popped completely out of place.
china’s URKL robot fight is absolute cinema
a robot got its head kicked off.. and kept fighting like it was completely normal 🤣 pic.twitter.com/A6KSfC0CTc
Even with its head dangling, Matador kept throwing punches and kicks at its rival. The bot eventually toppled over, crushing its own head beneath its body. As it tried to get back up, the head flew off entirely and the machine collapsed.
Organized by Shenzhen robotics company EngineAI, the event featured 32 international teams battling with the company's T800 humanoid robots.
The spectacle is the latest and most extreme entry in a fast-growing genre of robot combat. In May 2025, rival Chinese firm Unitree staged what was billed as the first humanoid robot kickboxing match in Hangzhou, pitting four of its smaller, remote-operated G1 machines against one another on state broadcaster CCTV - an event we covered at the time. The format has since gone global: earlier this year, San Francisco venues began hosting VR-controlled bouts using Unitree's humanoid robots, matches one researcher dismissed to Rest of World as little more than "robot theater." EngineAI itself teased this moment in December, unveiling the full-size T800 in a viral clip that showed the machine throwing spinning kicks - and, in a follow-up, booting the company's own CEO across a room. URKL raises the stakes further: full-sized humanoids, a standardized platform, and 32 teams whose edge comes down to software and tuning rather than hardware.
Watch the entire event here:
Tyler Durden Fri, 07/17/2026 - 18:00By Diana DiGangi of UtilityDive
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office, Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others weighed in on Dominion Energy’s proposal for allocating the cost of transmission projects driven by data center development at a hearing held by the Virginia State Corporation Commission on Tuesday.
Louise White, Spanberger’s deputy energy officer, said that the governor’s office wants the SCC to apply three solutions in the case: a “but for” cost causation standard; requiring transmission level-contributions in aid of construction, or CIAC, payments; and transitioning to the summer/winter peak and average cost allocation method.
Attorney and lobbyist Will Cleveland testified on behalf of Google that Dominion only recently completed its shift to a 12 coincident peak demands allocation factor, and its new GS-5 rate class for large loads hasn’t yet gone into full effect, saying it’s “simply too early in the process” to know whether these changes alone might fairly reallocate the data center cost burden.
The SCC’s hearing concerns Dominion’s proposed change to its Rider T-1, a line-item charge allocated to cost recovery for transmission investments, which the utility seeks to increase in order to recover around $1.5 billion in transmission costs. Dominion originally estimated that the average residential ratepayer’s bill would increase by around $2.90 a month as a result but lowered that estimate to $0.94 a month based on updated forecasting.
Cleveland said that SCC’s final order in Dominion’s 2025 rate case approved large load provisions like the creation of the GS-5 rate class, with cost shifting as the provisions’ “entire premise ... Why is that not sufficient?” He asked the SCC to direct Dominion to revise its line extension policy to allow for voluntary CIAC payments, which he called a “win-win.”
Andrew Major, an SCC attorney testifying on behalf of commission staff, said that if the commission chooses to adopt a methodology other than 12CP, staff “recommends transitioning over a multi-year period in order to facilitate gradualism and cost responsibility.”
“However, regardless of the cost allocation methodology that is chosen, there remains a glaring cross-class subsidization occurring to the benefit of new GS-5 customers,” Major said. He noted that Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta signed a ratepayer protection pledge at the White House in March, adding, “Curiously, none of those companies mentioned this pledge in either pre-filed testimony or opening statements today.”
The SCC continued to hear arguments on Wednesday, and must issue a decision in the case by Aug. 1.
In testimony filed June 11, Amazon witness Cameron Brooks also requested the adoption of voluntary CIAC payments “as a way to reduce ratepayer burden,” saying this would make “the customer’s financial responsibility for the identified facilities … clear, enforceable, and integral to mitigating subsidization and stranded cost risks.”
Jonathan Zader, senior assistant county attorney for Loudoun County — where the bulk of Virginia’s data centers are being developed — testified that “the stakes are particularly high” for Loudoun County, which requests cost recovery under Rider T-1 include direct allocation and CIAC payments for upgrades that are “but for” caused by interconnecting large load customers.
Methodology argumentsMichael Goggin, of Grid Strategies, testified on behalf of Appalachian Voices that concerns about stranded asset risk — enabled by what Brooks called the “socialization of speculative investment” from data center developers — is driving advocacy for CIAC payments as well as direct assignment, which allocates the cost of upgrades directly to the customer or rate class they’re serving.
But Goggin argued that “direct assignment only helps address part of the problem here. Dominion is still far too reliant on supplemental projects and needs to be directed to utilize the PJM regional competitive transmission planning process for the bulk of its transmission investment, so that we can reduce costs for all ratepayers,” he said.
John Farmer, section chief of the insurance and utilities regulatory section within the office of consumer counsel at the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, said the consumer council office “generally supports direct assignment conceptually when it is possible to identify a cost causer,” and “believes that the situations in which we may be able to identify a specific cost causer are growing.”
“But unlike allocating costs among the different classes, something this commission has done with regularity for many many years, there are uncertainties when it comes to the direct assignment of transmission costs that may warrant additional analysis,” Farmer said. For instance, he said, additional analysis on the relative merits of direct assignment to specific customers versus direct assignment to the overall GS-5 rate class “could be helpful.”
Farmer also said that the summer and winter peak average methodology of calculating cost, or an average and excess methodology used alongside 12CP, could be “reasonable alternatives” to the current 12CP methodology.
“Consumer Council does not find [Dominion’s] counterarguments to testimony recommending the SWPA method, in particular, to be persuasive, and expects the evidence that will come before this commission will support a movement to that methodology,” he said.
Dominion uses SWPA for cost-of-service studies and rate structures in North Carolina, but Dominion regulatory analyst Robert Miller said the company “believes that 12CP is the more appropriate allocation methodology for the companies for the Virginia jurisdiction.”
Miller reasoned that Dominion has a much smaller service territory in North Carolina, and he is not aware of any new high load factor customers in that area. He said that 12CP is a preferable methodology for use in Virginia, but agreed with Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney Nate Benforado that SWPA “is in the zone of reasonableness.”
Tyler Durden Fri, 07/17/2026 - 17:40President Donald Trump on Thursday said that US TV networks that refused to air his primetime address on election integrity should have their licenses revoked.
President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White House on July 16, 2026 in Washington, DC. Saul Loeb/Pool - Getty ImagesDuring the address, Trump said that both NBC and ABC News said they "would not cover the speech" - something he called a "rare move."
"They knew what it was about because of the fact that they don’t like the topic, because they know how corrupt our system is, and they don’t want to reveal it," he said, adding "Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public, multi-billion-dollar in value airwaves for absolutely no money. They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting."
ABC News said on Thursday that they would run the speech - but only on their live streaming platform and ABC News Radio - but not on its broadcast channel. NBC News also aired the speech on its streaming platform.
As the Epoch Times notes further, Trump announced the declassification of information that he said reveals large-scale Chinese hacking of American voter information, saying that China obtained 220 million voter records during the 2020 election.
The president also detailed the findings of a Homeland Security Department review that found 278,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in federal elections. Trump said he had ordered the agency to notify states and direct them to remove all ineligible voters from their voter rolls.
White House communications director Steven Cheung called out NBC and ABC News for not airing the president’s address and encouraged viewers to watch it on the White House’s platform instead.
“NBC and ABC don’t want you to hear the truth. All they want to do is hide the facts from YOU. Tune in @WhiteHouse at 9:00pm EDT, where we always get bigger ratings than any of the networks,” Cheung said in a post on X.
Trump had previously called for the broadcast licenses of ABC News and NBC to be revoked over what he described as “unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives.” He also accused the networks of being “an arm of the Democrat Party.”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in April ordered an early review of license renewals for eight Disney-owned ABC television stations. The FCC was also looking into whether ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” violated federal rules requiring broadcast stations to provide equal airtime to all political party candidates.
Tyler Durden Fri, 07/17/2026 - 17:20