In a development that surprises absolutely no one who has seen a sci-fi movie, robots have officially outpaced humans in a half marathon race in Beijing. The winning machine, a robot named Lightning developed by the Chinese smartphone maker Honor, crossed the finish line in a brisk 50 minutes and 26 seconds. This left its biological competitors, presumably busy with breathing and maintaining a stable body temperature, in the proverbial dust. The event served as a stark reminder that our new overlords will not only be smarter but also have better cardiovascular endurance.
For context, the current men's half marathon world record, held by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, stands at 57 minutes and 20 seconds, set in Lisbon this past March. This means Lightning was nearly seven minutes faster than the fastest human, a margin that is both impressive and mildly insulting. Race organizers noted that around 40% of the competing robots raced autonomously, while the others were remotely controlled, suggesting some humans were still involved in the losing effort, just from a comfortable distance.
Meanwhile, in other news that robots probably find quaint, a two-year-old wolf named Neukgu escaped from a zoo in Daejon, and the Philippine President challenged his critics to a gym session. The K-pop supergroup BTS kicked off their marathon world tour, the largest in K-pop history, in Seoul after a nearly four-year hiatus, with some 260,000 fans expected to watch them perform together for the first time since 2022. It was a big weekend for endurance events, both mechanical and musical.
Elsewhere in Asia, the news was considerably less whimsical. A huge blaze engulfed a car parts factory in the central city of Daejeon, killing eleven people and injuring dozens. In Myanmar, drivers queued for hours at petrol stations as global conflicts continue to send shockwaves, and Senior Kashmir leader Farooq Abdullah escaped unhurt from an incident with a suspect now in custody. A court is due to deliver its verdict in the insurrection trial of South Korea's Yoon Suk Yeol, marking another tense political moment.