The Trump family got a $2 billion deposit into their crypto company, the United Arab Emirates got a huge amount of restricted AI chips despite security concerns. Our story about how how business is being done, and influence gained, in the second Trump administration. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

“Oil-producing countries have had an oversized influence on international affairs; in an A.I.-powered near future, compute producers could have something similar since they control access to a critical resource,” Prof Vili Lehdonvirta told @paulmozur.bsky.social, @nytimes.com.

A new A.I. divide is forming. As the biggest companies and richest countries scramble for GPUs, much of the world is being left behind. It's a new type of inequality that will go a long way to determining development in the coming years. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The US' largest private prison operator, Geo Group, also runs one of its largest immigrant surveillance programs. Now, ICE is using the privately run system to track and deport growing numbers of people. 200k are currently in the system. Geo expects it to grow. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/t...

Good piece in China Talk @jordanschneider.bsky.social I’ve been trying to hit these points in our recent DeepSeek stories. Its approach is very against the grain for China tech. Completely opposed to the grueling hours/top-down ethic that typify big tech in China www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseeks-...

If confirmed as a commercial airliner in the Potomac, this mid-air collision at DCA would be the worst U.S. air disaster since the Colgan Air Q400 crash near Buffalo in 2009.

A short explainer on Liang Wenfeng. It is amazing how much he does NOT sound like a Chinese tech boss. In the context of China's grueling tech work environment he sounds downright hippyish: "Everyone has their own unique journey and brings their own ideas with them, so there’s no need to push them."

the first fatal commercial plane crash in 16 years happened just days after Trump froze hiring of air traffic controllers that were already stretched thin

One of the interesting things about DeepSeek is that two creative constrictions created its advances. One is obviously U.S. chip restrictions. But the second was China's crackdown on speculative trading, which drove the company to put money into pure A.I. research. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/b...

Nice profile showing how DeepSeek is an exception in China’s AI ecosystem. Yesterday, I wrote a similar piece on my substack, also highlighting how the company is an outlier in rather than a representation of the “China model” - you can read it here: highvalueadded.substack.com/p/deepseek-p...

Our profile of DeepSeek. There have been tons of hot takes, but it's valuable to understand the company's story. In many ways it's the exception to the AI ecosystem in China at the moment. While others chased quick returns, DeepSeek set its sites on real disruption. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/b...

greatest city in the world

For anyone wanting to know more about Xinjiang/the Uyghur region I have made a starter pack of campaigners, academics and journalists who research and write about the region. It's still very incomplete - I'd be grateful for more suggestions! go.bsky.app/PWzGYxx

For years the U.S. has struggled to convince countries to shun Huawei and other China tech. Now it believes it has a way to do it, offer Nvidia chips in exchange. That's the basis of a new A.I. diplomacy emerging as a last gasp policy from the Biden Admin. Nvidia, caught in the middle, is not happy.

Probably not many remember Chinese chip investor Canyon Bridge, but it made waves with a bid for Lattice Semiconductor 7 years ago. The US blocked the deal. So Canyon Bridge bought UK based Imagination. US seems to have been justified. Knowledge transfer programs sent key IP to China AI chip firms.

Def some signaling happening with China's Taiwan Affairs Office suddenly warning about TSMC becoming the "American Semiconductor Manufacturing Company." TSMC's founder, Morris Chang, after all, is American. Since TSMC cut out Huawei, its loyalties have been clear. www.globaltimes.cn/page/202412/...

Manufacturers in China recently began limiting sales to the US and Europe of key components used to build unmanned aerial vehicles, according to multiple people with knowledge of the developments

THREAD: How China is influencing local elections in New York City, mobilizing organizations via a local power broker known as "The King of Brooklyn" (布鲁克林之王）to ensure that candidates who voice sympathy for Taiwan, or for Hong Kong democracy, are either defeated or never get elected. (1/x)

From Russia's Rybar TG channel - the importance of Syria is a key hub for Russian operations in Africa. Loss of Syria as a refueling and logistics point undermines all of Russian efforts on the continent.

New footage from inside Sednaya Prison, filmed by IDA and sent to @nytimes.com, shows the grim conditions within: numbered cells with debris, crumbling walls and ceilings, family members looking for loved ones sifting through paper records. nytimes.com/live/2024/12...

The White Helmets are searching the Sandnaya compound, but haven't yet found any of the rumoured secret doors or hidden basements in the complex.

Just out: The first Western media interview with South Korea’s opposition leader since the martial law debacle. He’s been compared with both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump:

Big news, China investigating Nvidia for violating antimonopoly law. Even with US export controls there’s a lot of revenue for Nvidia to lose in China. Another skirmish in the supply chain war. As we said last week, expect China to be aggressive in response to Trump. www.reuters.com/technology/c...

When Ukraine's government needed help fighting Russian disinfo on Telegram earlier this year, it turned to Apple. The platform, using the leverage of its app store, has had more influence on Telegram than anyone, even nation states.

My five recent favorite cultural things, from the NYT's what's in our queue feature. I am serious that my wife and I consider beating the Elden Ring DLC one of our biggest accomplishments of the year.

I don't think Ben Taub is on here but his New Yorker piece on The Assad Files will always stick with me. (And horray, for the ability to easily post links to deeply reported journalism!) www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

Having covered the secretive prisons of Xinjiang, the liberations from Syria's Saydnaya prison are crushingly powerful. A place of torture and execution so secretive Amnesty Int'l used forensic architects to build a virtual model has been thrown open in real time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysgn...

Notch another victory for the drone as asymmetric weapon of our era. As HTS rebels take Damascus, a celebratory photo pays tribute to the Shaheen, a suicide drone used in the campaign. Built with 3-D printers in Idlib, inspired by Iran/Russian drones, it’s another example of the power of cheap tech.

China just announced it is investigating Miao Hua, a member of the powerful Central Military Commission, of serious violations of discipline. He outranks the defense minister apnews.com/article/chin...

4. But the problem is that the U.S. is not the only actor that can play this game. According to a new NYT article by Alexandra Stevenson and @paulmozur.bsky.social China has prepped itself by discovering its own chokepoints - crucial inputs that it will deny to US producers in "supply chain warfare"

A Trump trade war 2.0 could look very different from 4 years ago. One big difference? China is ready to punch back. It's less reliant on the U.S. and has new weapons. Its control of supply chains gives great leverage. A swipe at US drone maker Skydio shows the power. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/b...

Faced with the next wave of Trump tariffs, China is preparing to respond by weaponizing the supply chain. Powerful reporting from my colleagues Alex Stevenson and @paulmozur.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/b...

As long as humans have laid cables on the sea floor, other humans have tried to cut them, as this article reminds, with an anecdote the U.S. cutting telegraphic lines during the Spanish-American war. Would be stunning if Chinese ship Yi Peng cut the Baltic cables. www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...

Always a huge grain of salt with SCMP's "Chinese scientist's develop X" formulation, but this is a clear indication China is learning from the drone innovations in Ukraine, where ideas to mount guns on quadcopters with AI aim assist have already been floating around. www.scmp.com/news/china/s...

First hot take on a new social network: international baseball needs to happen more. It’s Taiwan v Japan in the finals of the WBSC at the Tokyo Dome and the atmosphere is electric. Got dudes going headfirst into first. Fan chants booming. Half of Taiwan is watching. National honor on the line.