Russia claims downing 592 Ukrainian drones; Ukraine reports deadly Russian air raids across country

Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defenses intercepted 592 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over 19 locations and the Black Sea between 20:00 (Moscow time) Thursday and 08:00 Friday, while Ukraine said it had endured intensive Russian aerial bombardments that left multiple casualties across the country.

In the Perm region, Governor Dmitry Makhonin said that 39 drones were downed, with an industrial facility struck and one person killed.

In the Ulyanovsk region, Governor Alexei Russkikh said that eight people had been injured in a drone attack on the regional capital. The attack damaged industrial and civilian infrastructure, Russkikh said.

Meanwhile, Samara Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said that a passenger train was damaged, injuring the driver while leaving passengers unharmed.

Further south in the Rostov region along the Black Sea coast, about 50 drones were destroyed, damaging an oil refinery and forcing it to shut down temporarily, Governor Yuri Slyusar said.

As Russia grappled with the drone incursions, Ukraine endured intensive Russian aerial bombardments that left multiple casualties across the country.

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a social media post on Friday that air raids on the city had left one person dead and nine others injured as of 10:28 that day. The central Pecherskyi district was the hardest hit, with seven people injured.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post on the same day that eight Ukrainian regions, in addition to the capital, were targeted in the air raids. The strikes killed one person in Odesa and caused additional injuries in the Sumy and Mykolaiv regions.

During his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Zelensky acknowledged that the approaching winter could be extremely difficult for Ukrainians but said Russia would also face consequences, threatening retaliatory strikes on Russian energy infrastructure if Russia continued attacking Ukraine's energy system and heating facilities.

Russia claims downing 592 Ukrainian drones; Ukraine reports deadly Russian air raids across country

Humanoid robots could become widespread within the decade because advances in actuators, sensors, cameras and AI computing can give them a fundamental advantage over human biology in reaction speed and physical performance, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday.

Speaking to the China Media Group (CMG) in Silicon Valley, California, Musk shared his views on the rapid evolution of humanoid robotics.

"Robots have a very fast reaction time, so it's going to be very difficult to beat a robot for reaction time. Because we are somewhat constrained by our biology. But a robot, you can just improve the actuators, improve the sensors, improve the frame rate of the cameras, increase the amount of AI compute there is and it's going to just fundamentally be much better and have faster reactions than humans. I enjoyed watching the robot games. I mean, everyone in America was fascinated by that. Yeah, it was all over U.S. social media," said Musk. Referring to the robot games, Musk further elaborated on how such demonstrations reflect the broader progress of humanoid robotics.

"It's entertaining to watch, but it also shows you the progress of humanoid robotics. It wouldn't be entertaining to watch if the robot just fell over. But the robots are like boxing, wrestling, running, doing gymnastics. It's pretty cool. So, I mean, the future is going to have a lot of robots. I think that's an easy prediction. I'd say no later than 10 years," he said.

Humanoid robots could outpace humans in reaction, go mainstream within 10 years: Musk