Maikeru

@JavierBlas @USTreasury I am sure this is some epic 64D chess move somehow.

Having said two days ago that the U.S. wouldn’t renew a general license easing Russian oil sanctions, the @USTreasury did exactly the opposite: renew it. Vladimir Putin keeps benefiting from the U.S.-Iran war: higher prices and American sanctions waivers. Double win.

As you can clearly see in this 3 day long AIS playback since the blockade line was drawn between the eastern horn of Oman and the Iran-Pakistan border, a lot of the tankers which have been placed under US sanctions have been entering and departing the scene with ease. #OOTT

@pstAsiatech Actually my sense of it is that China can replace US/vassal SME faster than they can replace PRC REE & magnets. So China should double down.

As I have noted in several posts over the past year, there is a growing recognition that both the US and China have pushed export controls to levels that are damaging to each other’s economies. A Deal Waiting to Be Made: Select Careful Rollback of Export Controls on Both Sides Link in comments...

@militaryhistori @PadraigBelton @KayM77 The double decker bus is a particularly useful unit for measuring the size of warships.

@PadraigBelton @KayM77 Giraffes are not recognised units of measurement. Also relevant are : an army tank, whales (as well as Wales), double decker buses, the RMS Titanic, Nelson's Column, and a Saturn V rocket.

I write for British newspapers. The only valid units of measurement are: Wales, swimming pools, football pitches. Fight me.

@Hamish_Low5 BS. No reason they can't develop EUV in parallel with DUVi.

Importantly it demonstrates that these leading industry figures do no expect functional EUV tools by 2030. As they don't even expect domestic DUV tools to be good enough to cover China's current most advanced 7nm node that utilises ASML lithography tools, with only "construction and trial operation" rather than full scale commercial build out. This is a major win for US export controls, leading figures in China's semiconductor industry think an ambitious goal would be their getting to trial efforts at a fully domestic 7nm node in 2030, when TSMC first started producing at 7nm in 2018 - a 12 year gap!

🧵The heads of Naura, YMTC, and Empyrean — alongside top PKU and Tsinghua academics — just published their wishlist for China's 15th Five-Year Plan. It's a rare window into how China's own semiconductor establishment sees the road ahead. The picture isn't pretty for China, with the target being only trial operation of a fully domestic 7nm node by 2030, fully 12 years behind TSMC.

@bgroothuis Problem with HW gear is it is much harder for US to spy on Europe. Read Snowden and Wikileaks you ridiculous US shill.

Spain is allowing more than 70 Huawei products in their critical infrastructure. This sellout of sovereignty and national security must be stopped. I’m working in Brussels on a law (CSA2) to ban Huawei from such sectors across the EU, and it will be done theobjective.com/economia/telec…

@TimurNegru Ah, but is there a giant mural of King Billy on his white horse on the outside wall? And if so, does that raise or lower the asking price?

Let's spread the word and help Adam sell this beauty in Northern Ireland. That entrance hall is a beaut. £229k ($310k)

Jensen Huang: The claim that China lacks AI chips is utterly baseless; they can scale up computing power infinitely if they choose to. China can fully compensate for the process gap in individual chips by stacking more chips. 'They have so much energy; if they wish, they could combine more chips even if the process lags behind by a few nanometers.' #China #techwar #chips #tech @baoshaoshan @thecyrusjanssen @DOualaalou @lajohnstondr @PSTAsiatech buff.ly/p6LAWy5

@trikomes Gould was an activist not a scientist.

20th century biologists like Stephen Jay Gould led the charge in asserting that human evolution stopped a very, very long time ago, and that natural selection had almost no role in explaining the phenotypic diversity seen in modern humans, especially for the brain and behavior. Those assertions were made for ideological reasons. This new paper just adds to the evidence against the idea that human evolution somehow magically stopped in the deep past, or that there’s no meaningful, heritable variation among modern humans.

Jake Sullivan: The Tech High Ground A lot to unpack here, here is a short thread. 🧵 foreignaffairs.com/united-states/…

@FinanceLancelot @richimedhurst China was dumping its UST holdings anyway.

Correct again @richimedhurst. The goal here is starve China of oil and Dollars, while destroying their Belt & Road initiative. China has 4 months of oil reserves + Russian pipelines, so this Iran blockade could last 6 months or longer if China doesn't make a deal. This oil shortage will damage many countries outside of China that hold U.S. treasuries, and that's the plan. I believe the ultimate goal here is to starve every nation of oil and Dollars so that they're desperately willing to sell their U.S. treasuries back to the U.S. below face value, in exchange for oil or Dollars. This allows the U.S. to take their debt out of circulation (at a discount), and eliminate interest payments on the debt that is no longer sustainable. Thus a Great Reset of debt.

@KingKong9888 Show me that VZ or Iran even had older stuff?

@DiverMike69 Yes it is stated at the beginning of my post: “These systems are roughly in the league of older Russian S-300 variants or early Patriots: “

🚨Is Chinese missile defense systems trash? Did they fail in Venezuela and Iran? No, they’re not inherently “trash” — but recent real-world tests of exported Chinese systems (HQ-9B/FD-2000 SAMs, JY-27-series “anti-stealth” radars, FK-3, etc.) have shown clear limitations against high-end U.S. and Israeli air power. These systems are roughly in the league of older Russian S-300 variants or early Patriots: affordable options that perform decently against drones, cruise missiles, and non-stealth aircraft from less advanced opponents. China markets them heavily as capable “anti-stealth” solutions, but combat results in client states reveal gaps in integration, electronic warfare (EW) resistance, and performance under saturation attacks. ⭕️Venezuela – January 2026 U.S. operation to capture Maduro This was a clear underperformance for Chinese gear. Venezuela had invested heavily in Chinese air defense: a network of JY-27A VHF “anti-stealth” radars (reportedly 9–12 units), JYL-1 radars, FK-3 (export HQ-12) medium-range SAMs, and possible HQ-9 elements — alongside Russian S-300VM, Buk-M2, and Pantsir systems. During the U.S. raid involving roughly 150 aircraft (including stealth fighters like F-35s and F-22s, EA-18G Growlers for heavy jamming, helicopters, and support assets), the Venezuelan air defense network detected essentially nothing. No meaningful intercepts or even firings occurred. U.S. electronic warfare blinded radars early, and command-and-control quickly collapsed. Venezuelan forces suffered from chronic problems: up to 60% of radars reportedly non-operational due to spare parts shortages, minimal crew training, poor network integration, and overall maintenance neglect. Chinese analysts and some observers argue this was more a systemic/operator failure than pure hardware defects. Still, it was a public embarrassment for Beijing’s export marketing, which had positioned these systems as competitive against top-tier Western threats. ⭕️Iran – February–March 2026 U.S./Israeli strikes Claims here are more disputed and likely overstated in some media. Widespread reports (especially in Indian and Western outlets) claimed Iran’s recently acquired Chinese HQ-9B (FD-2000) batteries failed completely — unable to intercept any incoming missiles or aircraft, with systems reportedly destroyed in the opening hours of the strikes. However, credible open-source analysts and experts note a lack of hard evidence that Iran even operates modern HQ-9B systems. China has publicly denied supplying advanced SAMs to Iran in recent years (due to arms restrictions and sanctions). There are no confirmed photos, satellite imagery, or official U.S./Israeli statements confirming encounters with Chinese HQ-9B. Iran’s air defenses rely primarily on Russian S-300, indigenous Bavar-373, and older systems. Rumors of HQ-9B acquisitions often stem from unverified barter deals (oil-for-weapons) or possible disinformation. Iran’s overall air defenses were indeed overwhelmed by stealth platforms (B-2s, F-35s), heavy SEAD operations, and precision strikes — as expected against peer-level opponents. But attributing specific failure to Chinese systems lacks solid substantiation. Broader picture and similar cases We saw comparable scrutiny in Pakistan during 2025 clashes with India (Operation Sindoor), where HQ-9B systems reportedly struggled against Indian strikes and EW. These incidents hurt China’s reputation as the world’s #3 arms exporter. Buyers like Venezuela, Pakistan, and others spent billions expecting near-peer performance. 🔶Important caveats: China’s domestic PLA systems benefit from better integration, constant upgrades, and higher-quality operators. They haven’t faced equivalent peer-level combat testing. Export versions are often simplified or downgraded for foreign sale. Success in third-world hands depends heavily on maintenance, training, and integration — areas where many clients fall short.

@fbermingham @Aligarciaherrer Yes I think after Nexperia and Pirelli and the banning of Huawei products in many EUnstates, Chinese companies will be very reluctant to invest in Europe, especially if it involves tech transfer.

Economist Alicia Garcia Herrero pushes back against Sanchez's China strategy: "The third pillar of this privileged relationship was investment. China was expected to arrive in Spain with abundant capital, generate employment, and bring technological expertise." @Aligarciaherrer

@senatorshoshana They should make a movie about this.

As a child, fearful that my ailing father would be drafted into the Chinese military, I took his spot—though, as a girl, I was technically unqualified to serve. I cleverly impersonated a man and went off to train with fellow recruits, where I excelled.

The last 40 years were a historical anomaly, made possible by the fact that there was only one (exceptionally benevolent) superpower.

@DougAMacgregor What, again?!

Sydney Sweeney is psyop. She's barely mid. She has no hips. She's an idiot. I'm tired of seeing people simping for her on my feed.

@ChrisRMcGuire @kyleichan

@kyleichan I am not aware of a single person deeply familiar with the capabilities of leading US and Chinese models who believes Chinese models are only 1-2 months behind US models. So the question here isn’t, “Are Chinese models actually this close?” It’s “What’s wrong with this data?”

How far behind are Chinese AI models vs. US ones? It depends on the benchmark. On SWE-Bench Pro, one of the hardest agentic coding benchmarks, GLM-5.1 (released early April) outperforms Opus 4.6 (early Feb) and GPT-5.4 (early March). That would put GLM-5.1 less than 1-2 months behind top US frontier models on this specific benchmark.

@Osint613 That's Li Shangfu, not Dong Jun