What happened
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and Jared Kushner, a top outside adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, “met privately in recent weeks” and “discussed potential areas of common ground,” The New York Times reported yesterday. The meeting “shows the depth of Republican Party angst over losing their congressional majority,” The Associated Press said, and White House efforts to “stem any potential political fallout” on Trump if Democrats “wrest majority control” in November.

Who said what
Kushner and Jeffries (pictured above) “discussed housing, immigration and the high cost of living,” the Times said, all issues where compromise “seems remote.” The Trump GOP’s “my-way-or-the-highway approach to governing” has “failed the American people,” Jeffries said yesterday, and “the question is whether Republicans will join us” in “fighting for an affordable America.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) “bristled” yesterday when asked about the meeting, the AP said. “I don’t know what that’s about,” but Kushner “hedges his bets” and isn’t “directly involved” in “day-to-day” White House operations, he said on Fox News. “I’m telling you, we’re going to defy history and hold this majority.”

What next?
Trump has “mostly steered around Congress in his second term, trampling its powers and prerogatives” with “little pushback from GOP leaders,” the Times said. “All that is likely to change if Democrats control either chamber,” the AP said.

What happened
Chinese robots ran faster and jumped higher than human record-holders on Saturday, the first day of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. One humanoid ran the 100-meter sprint in 9.39 seconds, surpassing Usain Bolt's 9.58-second world record, while another covered 400 meters in 39.7 seconds, topping Wayde van Niekerk’s 43.03-second record. Both robots were made by Beijing’s X-Humanoid, as was a third that reached 2.88 meters in the standing high jump, besting Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45 meters. 

Who said what
The five-day Olympics-like event is a “spectacle demonstrating China’s rapid progress in advanced robotics,” The Associated Press said. China “makes the majority of the world’s humanoid robots,” but they are “still mostly used for demonstrations, performances and research — at least for now.” The sprinting performances were a “sharp improvement” over last year, Reuters said, though “braking was an issue, as the machines slammed into ​a thick mat” after the finish line and had to be carried off on stretchers. 

What next?
More than 2,000 humanoid robots are competing in 30 sporting events like soccer, table tennis and boxing. But there are also 21 scenario-based contests like “EV charging, restaurant work” and “industrial assembly,” Reuters said. And the “real test” is whether the humanoids can “also handle packaging ‌and warehouse operations while reliably performing precision tasks” that test “their ability to work like humans in less flashy jobs.” 

The EU’s smallest country, located just south of Sicily, has become one of the most popular filming locations over the past decade. Malta has hosted more than 30 movie and TV productions in each of the past three years, including “Jurassic World Rebirth,” Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” and Guy Ritchie’s upcoming “Viva la Madness.” The island microstate has stood in for Greece, southern France, the Caribbean, and Essos in “Game of Thrones.”

Malta is “really punching above its weight,” said Adrian Wootton, the CEO of the British Film Commission, to The Guardian. It has been “very aggressive in a positive way.”

One reason for its success is that productions benefit from a “hefty 40% tax rebate,” said Variety. It’s probably the “most generous cash rebate in the world,” said Aidan Elliott, an executive producer of “Gladiator II” and “Napoleon.” But as it goes with “generous rebates,” said Deadline, there has been “some local pushback.”

Malta’s infrastructure is “being tested to the limits as its cities, towns and villages regularly turn into film sets,” said The Guardian. Road closures and parking restrictions have become a “bugbear” for locals.

And critics say Malta’s rise as a filming location has “come at the cost of neglecting local cinematic talent,” said The Guardian. It’s “tempting to sit back and believe the local film industry to be strong simply because many foreign productions shoot” in Malta, said film producer Malcolm Scerri Ferrante at the Times of Malta. But volume alone “does not constitute a robust film industry and certainly not an indigenous one.”