The Chinese chairman of a multi-billion-dollar American company

Plus: Racing to slow down AI  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Chad de Guzman  | August 18, 2026     Good morning! In The Brief today, we zoom in on Sheffield, U.K., where a small group of engineers is trying to build so-called “AI verification” tools. We also have a first-in-international-media interview with SharkNinja chairman CJ Wang, who doesn’t want his company caught in the crossfire of the U.S.-China trade war. Plus: A TV report’s crude mixup and today’s Linked await! IN TODAY’S BRIEF AI slowdown Trump’s appeal rejected Oman under threat Understanding frailty An American success story? Poll monitors Gaslighting         READ THIS FIRST The people building a way to slow down the AI race Courtesy of Tom Milton—Amodo In the corner of a nondescript office in Sheffield, a city in the north of England, a compact server full of Nvidia chips is whirring away.  It’s a microcosm of the huge data centers springing up all over the globe: town-sized, energy-guzzling computers that are the worldly manifestations of frontier AI models. But on these eight chips in Sheffield, engineers from the consultancy Amodo Design are piloting a monitoring system that they hope, one day, might find its way into every data center, allaying the fears of AI researchers who are concerned that the technology they are building may destroy the world. —Billy Perrigo         SPONSORED The Free Newsletter Fintech and Finance Execs Actually Read Most coverage tells you what happened. Fintech Takes is the free newsletter that tells you why it matters. Each week, I break down the trends, deals, and regulatory shifts shaping the industry — minus the spin. Clear analysis, smart context, and a little humor so you actually enjoy reading it. Subscribe free. Sign Up Free         IN THE NEWS Supreme Court rejects Trump appeal in E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse case—again Steven Ferdman—Getty Images The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied President Donald Trump’s request for a rehearing in relation to a 2023 civil case that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, court documents show.  The President’s legal battle with Carroll began in 2019, after the writer alleged she was raped by Trump in a changing room at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City in the 1990s. It resulted in two separate trials.  In one lawsuit, filed under the New York Adult Survivors Act in 2022, a jury awarded Carroll some $5 million in damages for the sexual abuse and defamation. Trump asked the Supreme Court to review the decision, but his petition was denied in June. He requested a rehearing by the highest court, but that request was denied Monday without comment.  Rehearings in the Supreme Court are rarely granted. Per court regulations, such petitions are only permitted under “intervening circumstances of a substantial or controlling effect.” —Callum Sutherland         THE CONTEXT Trump again threatens to bomb Oman AFP/Getty Images As the nearly six-month-long war between the U.S. and Iran prolongs global supply disruptions with no clear end in sight, President Donald Trump appears to be looking for other ways to pressure Iran into a deal—including threatening to bomb Oman. Iran and Oman are reportedly nearing an arrangement to govern commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor that Iran effectively closed at the start of the war. Washington has opposed giving Iran control over traffic through the Strait or allowing it to charge vessels for passage. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s--- out of them,” Trump told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst on Monday. Trump later told reporters, “I don’t think [Oman] behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily, just like we do other things.” Tehran has said the Strait’s administration should remain strictly between the two coastal states. Iran also previously proposed collecting fees for passage through the waterway, while Oman proposed a system with voluntary fees in late July. Trump has threatened to bomb Oman, a longtime security partner of the U.S., before. In late May, amid reports that Muscat and Tehran were discussing maritime service fees, Trump warned Oman would “behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.” —Miranda Jeyaretnam         HEALTH CHECK Frailty is more than just weakness. Here's what to know Flavio Coelho—Getty Images Older age does not look the same for everyone. Two people may both be 75, for example, but have a much different risk of dying in the near future. Decades ago, when scientists went looking for an answer to why, they uncovered a pattern. The people more likely to die sooner moved more slowly, had weaker hand-grip strength, and showed a cluster of other red flags for a condition now called frailty.  Frailty is “a long-term condition in the same sense that diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease is,” the British Geriatrics Society says on its website.  And it’s projected to become more prevalent in the near future, says Dr. Kenneth Rockwood, a professor of medicine at Dalhousie University in Canada who developed one of the scales for diagnosing frailty. However, frailty is not inevitable. “It looks like large elements of frailty are reversible, up to a certain period,” says Rockwood. —Veronique Greenwood         SPONSORED Never worry about roaming again Stay connected on every trip with Saily eSIM plans. From beach vacations to business travel, access data in 200+ destinations. VIP perks available. Activate instantly upon arrival. Download SAILY in your app store and use code newsletter15 at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase. Get 15% off now Chat support available 24/7. Get a full refund if your device isn’t eSIM compatible.         IN FOCUS SharkNinja’s billionaire Chinese backer on building an American success story Courtesy of Wang What makes a company American: the flag on its packaging, the location of its headquarters, or the passport of its owner? Budweiser belongs to Belgium-based AB InBev. Trader Joe’s is controlled by a German family trust. Ben & Jerry’s sits inside Britain’s Unilever. Yet foreign ownership becomes more politically charged when the money is Chinese. SharkNinja is headquartered in Massachusetts, listed in New York, run day-to-day by an American management team, and celebrated for products that routinely ignite TikTok crazes. But its chairman and controlling shareholder, CJ Wang, hails from the People’s Republic. In an era when Chinese capital is increasingly viewed through the lens of national security, Wang worries that a natural inclination for privacy may be mistaken for secrecy. His response is to step into public view before others define him. “I just want to proactively tell my story to mitigate speculation,” Wang, a former teacher who invented the world’s first automatic soymilk maker, tells TIME in his first international media interview. “SharkNinja is a very American company, but people start making assumptions. I want people to know who I am and my motivations.” Wang founded the Joyoung electronics brand in 1994 and purchased SharkNinja as the easiest way to expand internationally. The soft-spoken, golf-loving billionaire adopted a strategic, hands-off approach, keeping American CEO Mark Barrocas at the helm. By expanding in-house R&D to 1,200 staff globally and embracing viral, social media-driven marketing, Wang transformed a modest appliance vendor into a $26 billion colossus, propelling annual revenues from $1.3 billion to $6.4 billion. But as Washington tightens scrutiny on Chinese capital amid cascading tariffs and regulatory friction, Wang wants to protect the company he refounded from being collateral damage in a trade war. SharkNinja has proactively shifted nearly all U.S.-bound production out of China into Southeast Asia while scouting potential American factory sites. For Wang, SharkNinja isn’t a national security vulnerability—it’s a blueprint for transpacific synergy. “SharkNinja has experienced tremendous growth, which I see as the power of Chinese and U.S. business cultures coming together,” says Wang. “It’s a very positive story of the combination of both countries.” —Charlie Campbell         ONE NUMBER 1,000 The U.S. Justice Department under Trump plans to deploy some 1,000 election monitors for the November midterms, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon told Bloomberg in an interview published Monday. Dhillon hasn’t specifically said where the 1,000 monitors, “probably … a historic number for a Republican Administration,” would be deployed but said their job is to ensure fair conduct at the polls—amid Trump’s repeated accusations of Democrats’ “cheating.” SOURCE: BLOOMBERG         A VIRAL MOMENT Costly error During a Fox News report on Monday about President Donald Trump seeking patience from Americans about rising gas prices, a graphic erroneously claimed that the average pump price a year ago, based on the American Automobile Association, was $4.13 a gallon—meaning it had dropped since then to $4.06. But data from the AAA shows last year’s average was actually $3.14 per gallon.         SPONSORED 1.1M+ readers let Anthropic and ex-Google engineers decide what's worth reading in AI each day. TLDR AI is free, daily, and takes 5 minutes. Subscribe for free       Linked In this addictive word-association game, find the steps that will unite two seemingly unrelated words in just four moves. PLAY NOW       ALSO WORTH YOUR TIME HEALTH What to Say to Someone Blasting Their Phone in Public REMEMBRANCE Tributes Pour In for Actress Hayden Panettiere After Her Death at 36     EMAIL US: thebrief@time.com More Newsletters from Click to sign up. D.C. BRIEF +FUTURE PROOF +HEALTH MATTERS +INSIDE TIME +IN THE LOOP +WORTH YOUR TIME + Connect with TIME   PRIVACY POLICY     © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508 Boone, IA 50037-0508, United States Unsubscribe