sultan.B

Avi is a picture of my skull.

[StarBoySAR 🇭🇰 🇨🇳 🥭 @StarboySAR]

China just tested a JL-style SLBM from a nuclear-powered sub into the Western Pacific, signalling credible second-strike at sea and a quieter, more survivable deterrent leg of it's nuclear triad

China just did what Washington has called “stability” for 60+ years:
A nuclear-powered PLA sub fired a test missile into the Western Pacific, carrying a dummy warhead, pre‑notified neighboring countries, on target at 12:01 sharp

The test was China’s first known submarine-based missile test since 1982, and the first known to have been fired from a nuclear-powered submarine!

That’s not “destabilising” that’s Beijing demonstrating second‑strike capability so that US war planners think twice before playing Cuban Missile Crisis fanfic in the Indo‑Pacific and at China's doorstep

Of course Canberra and Tokyo whining “destabilising” even after getting advance notice

Cos as a US client state only US/allied nukes are “responsible deterrence”, everyone else’s are “provocations”. The unspoken rule of Western hegemony: your missiles = balance, China’s missiles = threat 🤡

In reality, this is textbook, China:

→ signals credible sea‑based deterrent
→ stick to international practice and notifications
→ frame it as routine training just as the US does

The louder the outrage, the clearer the message: multipolar nuclear reality is finally washing up on Pacific shores ✌️
https://t.co/CAjUj845P2

[sultan.B @sultanB17]

Bosnia would be nuke before seeing the U.S. team suspended by FIFA. Europe's silly response to the matter shows how hypocrite they are.

[Bosnian Football @BosniaNTBall]

If FIFA want to stay consistent with their statutes, suspension of the United States Federation and team from the World Cup for political interference should follow! #FIFAWorldCup

[sultan.B @sultanB17]

@teortaxesTex Also, popping this bubble could help China in fixing its demographic problem. Low property cost with an income that has been increasing for past 20 years means parents are more likely to have more children.

[Blue Bear @Bluebearmonkey]

@michaelxpettis Oh don’t be a drama queen.

China built it in a couple decades.

Doesn’t seem all that difficult. 🤷‍♂️

[Carl Zha @CarlZha]

"Shop online at Shopee"

Shopee is not Chinese, Sir

[Shaun Rein @shaunrein]

If China's leaders listened to American economic experts, China would still just be making t-shirts

Forget about AI, chips, NEVs, solar panels, batteries

It'd also be 3 rmb per USD so exports would be near zero

China would still be a poor country like India

[Blue Bear @Bluebearmonkey]

50 years ago, China made a secret deal with the heavens where every national failure, every humiliation, every embarrassment, every loss… will be inflicted upon and the suffering born by China’s men’s football team.

Today, we salute your sacrifice. 🫡

[sultan.B @sultanB17]

As if Ukraine is fighting at its own against Russia. The entire Ukrainian war logistics can be traced back to NATO and the U.S.

[Clifford D. May @CliffordDMay]

Russia has not become more innovative than Ukraine. It has become better at scaling production, and much of that scale can be traced back to China.

[sultan.B @sultanB17]

Let us see for how long Latin America can live under the American sphere. Toppling Maduro was simply about stealing and destabilizing Venezuela and its nearby countries.

[Brutal Truth Bombs @FORTRESSMAXXING]

Venezuela is permanently over, now the IDF is in Caracas.

[Teo @Teo_Sinamin]

This is a kiln in a “university lab” I visited in China.

In the West, this would probably qualify as pilot plant. In China, it’s for students to use and PhDs to complete their thesis on.

That tells you everything about the gap.

China didn’t master low-grade ores and rare earth processing overnight. They invested time, capital, and policy support to make uneconomic resources viable.

Now they can process what others can’t. And they're also processing what others can.

They've built a moat around processing on global scale that took them decades.

Expecting the West to replicate this within a few years is not realistic.

[Sputnik @SputnikInt]

🚨🇨🇳 China unveils world-first gallium oxide wafer chip production line

Chinese microchip firm Hangzhou Garen Semiconductor makes both 6-inch and 8-inch homoepitaxial gallium oxide wafers

🔸 The technology could advance next-generation power semiconductors

🔸 Gallium oxide enables high-voltage, high-temperature applications for electric vehicles, power grids and radio systems

🔸 Larger wafers could slash chipmaking costs and improve production scale

China is leapfrogging traditional silicon-based semiconductors — gaining a critical edge in the global technology race

[sultan.B @sultanB17]

The problem this time is that the U.S. played the card that they plan to play again with Turkey, which was the promise of integration with the West. Turns out that they just wanted to exploit Turkey against USSR and any Western enemy. This time it is not easy to repeat it

[471TO @TOzgokmen]

For those of us who are familiar with history, what is going on is the same situation right after WW2:

Turkiye & Greece were under the risk of becoming part of USSR's Iron Curtain. USA responded by making them part of NATO. Turkey sent soldiers to Korean war and was a critical partner throughout the Cold War.

Today, the same risk exists: Türkiye can very easily become part of BRICS; Turkey is certainly closer to Iran than to USA; they have been living in the same region for 1000 years & they have stopped making wars against one another.

In addition, Turkiye does not need US technology; they are developing their own weapons system, including stealth planes & drones & missiles.

It is only natural that US, who lost a major war, is now seeking to renew their ties with Turkiye.

Whether it works, or not, is another story. US does not have much to offer today.

[sultan.B @sultanB17]

@AlfieJCarter Agents

[Naser al-Tamimi | ناصر التميمي @nasertamimi]

🇵🇰🌍🇮🇷🇺🇸

تمنح الوساطة باكستان ترقية استراتيجية نادرة. فهي تنقل صورة إسلام آباد من دولة مأزومة إلى وسيط إقليمي نافع، يعزز حضورها في واشنطن، ويمنحها رصيداً أكبر في الخليج، ويرفع قيمتها لدى الصين كحلقة وصل بين إيران والخليج وجنوب آسيا.

المكاسب ليست رمزية فقط؛ فهي تخفف الضغط على الحدود مع إيران، تقلص مخاطر اضطراب الطاقة، وتمنح الاقتصاد الباكستاني الهش هامشاً إضافياً للمناورة. داخلياً، يعزز النجاح سردية القيادة والمؤسسة العسكرية بأن باكستان ما زالت قادرة على إنتاج نفوذ يتجاوز أزمتها الاقتصادية.

لكن المكسب يبقى هشا ومشروطا. فباكستان سهّلت الاتفاق، لكنها لا تملك ضمان بقائه. إذا صمد المسار الأمريكي-الإيراني، ستكسب إسلام آباد مكانة ونفوذاً. وإذا انهار، فقد تتحول لحظة الوساطة إلى انكشاف استراتيجي.

[ℏεsam @Hesamation]

GLM-5.2 will be fine-tuned on cybersecurity by a random dude and end up almost as strong as Fable 5 at 1/10th of the price.

just a matter of time.

zero fear marketing,
zero usage limits,
zero drama,
zero gatekeeping on AI research.

[Lisan al Gaib @scaling01]

frontier labs are absolutely scamming you on API pricing btw

GLM-5.2 is $4.4 output at 744B@40B
DeepSeek-V4-Pro is $0.87 output at 1.6T@49B
(and they are both making money, without any fancy Blackwell chips)

Sonnet 4.6 is $15 output
Opus 4.8 is $25 output
GPT-5.5 is $30 output

frontier labs are probably at 90%+ margins at this point

[Design Arena @Designarena]

BREAKING: GLM-5.2 is now 1st on Design Arena.

With an Elo of 1360, GLM-5.2 has jumped ahead of the now unavailable Claude Fable 5.

And it's open weights.

This is an improvement of 4 positions and 27 Elo points to achieve one of the highest Elo scores in our code categories since Design Arena started.

Huge congratulations to the @Zai_org on the release!

[sultan.B @sultanB17]

Iran lifted the sanctions by defeating the U.S. in this round. So the EU should stop acting as if it is their decision to 'lift' the sanctions.

[Al Jazeera Breaking News @AJENews]

BREAKING: Germany, Italy, France, UK say ready to lift sanctions on Iran

🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/USocikfl1F

[Naser al-Tamimi | ناصر التميمي @nasertamimi]

🇨🇳🌍 SCMP’s report points to a subtle but consequential shift: Gulf-China ties are no longer confined to oil, infrastructure, and state-level diplomacy. They are expanding into family-level educational, technological, and business networks. Wealthy Gulf families increasingly view China as a laboratory for AI, robotics, digital infrastructure, and entrepreneurship, even amid Iran-war travel disruptions.

Strategically, this extends China’s soft-power reach by embedding the Gulf’s next-generation elites inside Chinese innovation ecosystems. The likely trajectory is clear: more education-tech tourism, deeper family-office engagement, greater Gulf investment in Chinese technology, and stronger efforts to emulate China’s digital-industrial model.

This strengthens geoeconomic interdependence while leaving China’s core posture unchanged: deeper influence without direct military or political security ownership in the Gulf.