Podcasts about Communist party

AI data centers are expanding across America, but who pays the bill? While Washington frames artificial intelligence as a critical race with China, Big Tech companies push for new AI regulations as local communities confront rising electricity demand, grid expansion, water use, and massive infrastructure costs. In this episode of The P.A.S. Report Podcast, Professor Nick Giordano pulls back the digital curtain on the physical AI boom. Beyond consumer tools like ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is reshaping military power, intelligence, medicine, cybersecurity, and global competition. But the AI race also raises serious questions about regulatory capture, government surveillance, Fourth Amendment protections, and whether taxpayers and ratepayers will subsidize the infrastructure required by trillion-dollar technology companies. Discover why China's Communist Party fears AI-driven "cognitive warfare," why major AI companies are calling for greater federal regulation, and what a free-market framework could look like if hyperscale data centers had to finance their own energy needs while protecting local ratepayers and communities. What You'll Learn in This Episode: The U.S.-China AI Race: Why artificial intelligence now shapes military, economic, technological, and geopolitical power. The AI Regulation Battle: How regulatory capture could protect established Big Tech companies while making it harder for startups to compete. Government Surveillance and AI: How machine-speed analysis could expand government profiling and raise serious Fourth Amendment and due-process questions. AI Data Centers and Electricity Costs: Why hyperscale data centers could consume a major share of U.S. electricity and place new demands on local grids. A Free-Market Data Center Framework: How dedicated energy generation, SMRs, natural gas, water transparency, ratepayer protections, and enforceable community benefits could change the economics of the AI boom. Episode Chapters 00:00 NSA SKYNET: AI Surveillance and Government Power 05:01 China's AI Race: Cognitive Warfare and Global Power 09:37 AI Regulation: Big Tech, Regulatory Capture, and Competition 15:57 PATRIOT Act, FISA, and Government Surveillance Overreach 20:21 AI Surveillance: Predictive Profiling, Threat Scores, and Civil Liberties 23:08 AI Data Centers: Electricity Demand, Grid Costs, and Community Impact 28:15 AI Guardrails: Constitutional Rights, Energy, and Who Pays? ⭐ Support The P.A.S. Report: Hit the follow button, leave a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and share this episode with a parent, student, teacher, or citizen who cares about the future of the country. #AIDataCenters #ArtificialIntelligence #AIRegulation #AIRace #China

On a July morning, 120 new recruits and 20 members of the Ruijin squadron stood in formation at Yunshi Mountain in Ruijin, Jiangxi province, a place closely associated with the departure of the Central Red Army on the Long March more than nine decades ago.7月的一个清晨，120名新兵和20名瑞金中队官兵整齐列队，站在江西瑞金云石山上。这里与90多年前中央红军踏上长征征程的历史紧密相连。After a floral tribute was laid, they raised their right fists and recited the servicemen's oath.在敬献鲜花后，他们举起右拳，庄严宣誓，重温军人誓词。Among them was Huang Zhijie.其中就有黄志杰。Six months earlier, Huang had struggled to adjust to the demanding pace of guard duty and training. An ankle injury sustained during tactical training forced him to take a break, adding to his frustration.6个月前，黄志杰还难以适应高强度的站岗执勤和训练节奏。一次战术训练中，他不慎脚踝受伤，不得不中断训练，这让他一度感到沮丧。Shen Guohao, the squadron's political instructor, noticed Huang's low spirits and spoke with him after training.中队政治指导员沈国昊注意到了黄志杰的低落情绪，并在训练结束后主动找他谈心。"In 1934, Red Army soldiers left their families here and set out on the Long March," Shen told him. "Many were about your age. Compared with the snow-covered mountains and marshlands they crossed, the difficulties in front of us are not that great."“1934年，红军战士就是从这里告别亲人，踏上长征之路的。”沈国昊对他说，“当年很多红军战士和你年龄相仿。相比他们翻越的雪山、穿越的草地，我们现在面对的困难并没有那么大。”The words stayed with Huang. In his notebook, he wrote: "Miracles come from persistence and hard work. The predecessors did it. I should give it a try."这些话一直留在黄志杰心中。他在笔记本上写道：“奇迹来自坚持和努力。前辈们做到了，我也应该试一试。”After recovering, Huang returned to training. Within months, his performance had improved markedly.伤愈后，黄志杰重新投入训练。几个月后，他的表现有了明显提升。For servicemen stationed in Ruijin, stories from the Long March have become part of their training and daily lives.对于驻守瑞金的官兵来说，长征故事已经融入日常训练和生活。This year marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, which took place from 1934 to 1936. Ruijin was an important starting point, with the Central Red Army beginning its strategic transfer from the area in October 1934.今年是红军长征胜利90周年。长征发生于1934年至1936年，瑞金是重要出发地之一。1934年10月，中央红军从这里开始战略转移。The Ruijin squadron of the Ganzhou detachment under the Jiangxi Corps of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force has been rated an advanced unit for 26 consecutive years.隶属于中国人民武装警察部队江西总队赣州支队的瑞金中队，已连续26年被评为先进单位。In Huawu village, 17 tall pine trees stand on a hillside. In 1934, the young men from the village set out with the Red Army on the Long March. Before leaving home, they planted pine saplings and hoped to return after victory. None of them did.在华屋村，一座山坡上矗立着17棵高大的松树。1934年，村里的17名青年跟随红军踏上长征。临行前，他们种下松树苗，希望胜利归来后能够重返家园。然而，他们最终都没有回来。More than 90 years later, the trees have become living memorials and a regular stop for new recruits.90多年过去，这些松树成为一座座“活的纪念碑”，也是新兵入队后的固定参观地点。Recruit Peng Xiang was deeply affected when he first stood beneath them.新兵彭翔第一次站在这些松树下时深受触动。"Standing on the land where our predecessors once fought, you can truly feel the power of faith," he said.“站在先辈们曾经战斗过的土地上，能够真正感受到信仰的力量。”他说。The visit is part of a routine for newcomers. They also drink water from the Red Well, a historic well dug under Chairman Mao Zedong's leadership in 1933 to provide clean water for local residents; learn revolutionary songs; attend short classes on the Long March; and walk part of the route at Yunshi Mountain.参观这些红色遗迹，是新兵入队教育的一部分。他们还会饮用红井的水，学习革命歌曲，参加长征主题课程，并沿着云石山部分路线徒步体验。红井是一口具有历史意义的水井，1933年在毛泽东领导下开挖，用于解决当地居民饮水问题。In 2019, the squadron introduced an "honor number" system. Numbers 1 through 70 were collectively reserved for generations of servicemen who had contributed to the squadron during its first 70 years, while current members began receiving numbers from 71 onward.2019年，瑞金中队推出“荣誉编号”制度。1至70号编号，集体保留给中队成立前70年中作出贡献的一代代官兵；现役官兵则从71号开始获得编号。In early July, the squadron's Communist Party of China branch was commended by the Central Military Commission as an advanced grassroots Party organization of the armed forces.今年7月初，中队党支部被中央军委表彰为“军队先进基层党组织”。For decades, generations of servicemen from the squadron have maintained ties with a local nursing home in Ruijin, visiting during holidays and helping elderly residents with daily tasks.几十年来，中队一代代官兵始终与瑞金当地一家敬老院保持联系，逢年过节前往看望老人，并帮助他们解决日常生活中的困难。"The servicemen have changed generation after generation, but this bond has never been broken," Shen said.“官兵换了一代又一代，但这份情谊从未中断。”沈国昊说。The squadron has also supported a local student, Gu Jiawang, since 2021, after a major change in his family circumstances put his education at risk. Its members set aside money from their allowances to support him and helped him with his schoolwork.自2021年以来，中队还持续帮助当地学生顾嘉旺。由于家庭情况发生重大变化，他的学业一度面临困难。中队官兵从自己的津贴中拿出钱资助他，并帮助他完成学习任务。In 2024, Gu was admitted to Beijing Normal University, where he majors in physical education.2024年，顾嘉旺考入北京师范大学，学习体育教育专业。This summer, he returned to the squadron, using what he had learned at university to help servicemen with training techniques.今年暑假，他回到中队，运用大学所学知识帮助官兵改进训练方法。"The squadron gave me a second home," Gu said. "In the future, I want to become a physical education teacher and pass this warmth on to more children.“中队给了我一个第二个家。”顾嘉旺说，“未来，我想成为一名体育老师，把这份温暖传递给更多孩子。”"I think that, too, is a kind of inheritance."“我觉得，这也是一种传承。”【词汇提炼】formation /fɔːrˈmeɪʃn/ n.队形；编队tribute /ˈtrɪbjuːt/ n.致敬；悼念；敬意 pay tribute to向……致敬oath /əʊθ/ n.誓言；誓词inheritance /ɪnˈherɪtəns/ n.传承；继承station /ˈsteɪʃn/ v.驻扎；派驻veteran /ˈvetərən/ n.老兵；退伍军人commemorate /kəˈmeməreɪt/ v.纪念

Foreign Minister Wang Yi encouraged Iran and the United States on Wednesday to act rationally and exercise restraint, return to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and rebuild the negotiation mechanism, saying that the continued prolongation of the US-Iran conflict is not in the common interest of the parties concerned and the international community.中国外交部长王毅星期三敦促伊朗和美国保持理性、克制，回到《伊斯兰堡谅解备忘录》的框架内，重建谈判机制。他表示，美伊冲突持续延宕不符合有关各方以及国际社会的共同利益。Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during talks in Beijing with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi.王毅同时担任中共中央政治局委员。他在北京同伊朗外交部长赛义德·阿巴斯·阿拉格齐举行会谈时作出上述表示。Since Israel and the US launched joint strikes on Iran on Feb 28, the two foreign ministers have spoken by phone several times. Wednesday's talks marked their second in-person meeting in Beijing since then. They also met in Kyrgyzstan in July.自2月28日以色列和美国对伊朗发动联合打击以来，两国外长已多次通过电话沟通。此次会谈是双方此后第二次在北京举行面对面会晤，双方此前还于7月在吉尔吉斯斯坦举行会谈。Signed by Iran and the US on June 18 following negotiations facilitated by Pakistan, the MoU launched a 60-day window for reaching a final agreement. The window expired on Aug 17, with the two sides nowhere close to determining how to move forward.在巴基斯坦斡旋推动下，伊朗和美国于6月18日签署《谅解备忘录》，并开启为期60天的达成最终协议窗口期。然而，该期限于8月17日结束，双方仍未就下一步行动方向达成一致。Wang urged the US and Iran to conduct substantive consultations on their respective concerns on the basis of the understandings reached so far.王毅呼吁美伊双方在此前达成共识的基础上，围绕各自关切开展实质性磋商。As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, China is ready to play a constructive role in resolving international disputes, he said.他说，中国作为联合国安理会常任理事国，愿为解决国际争端发挥建设性作用。Describing China and Iran as comprehensive strategic partners, he said that China stands ready to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with Iran and help safeguard the country's legitimate rights and interests.王毅表示，中伊是全面战略合作伙伴，中方愿进一步加强同伊朗的对话与合作，帮助维护伊朗的合法权益。Wang expressed support for dialogue between Iran and the Gulf countries, adding that all sides should respect each other's territorial sovereignty and national security, as well as safeguard the common interests of the region in a constructive manner.王毅支持伊朗与海湾国家开展对话，并表示，各方应相互尊重领土主权和国家安全，以建设性方式维护地区共同利益。He also called on all parties to take effective measures to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as soon as possible, safeguard the security and smooth operation of international shipping routes and maintain the stability of international energy transportation, as well as industrial and supply chains.他还呼吁有关各方采取有效措施，尽快恢复霍尔木兹海峡开放，保障国际航运安全畅通，维护国际能源运输以及产业链、供应链稳定。China does not want tensions in the region to spill over further into Yemen and the Red Sea, Wang noted, calling on all parties to stop further complicating the situation and resolve issues through dialogue and negotiations.王毅指出，中国不希望地区紧张局势进一步外溢至也门和红海。他呼吁各方避免使局势进一步复杂化，通过对话和谈判解决问题。Wang said that the current situation once again demonstrates that the existing security architecture in the Middle East is incomplete and needs to be reformed and strengthened.王毅表示，当前局势再次表明，中东现有安全架构并不完善，需要改革和加强。During his visit to Egypt earlier this month, President Xi Jinping put forward a four-point proposal on building a new security architecture in the Middle East via upholding a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security.本月早些时候，习近平主席访问埃及时，提出了通过坚持共同、综合、合作、可持续安全理念，构建中东新安全架构的四点主张。China welcomes the useful explorations made by regional countries in this regard, Wang said.王毅表示，中方欢迎地区国家在这一方向上开展的有益探索。Noting that China's policy toward Iran remains consistent and stable, he said China has always stood for fairness and justice at the UN Security Council and other multilateral platforms, opposed the use of force and upheld the norms governing international relations.王毅指出，中国对伊朗政策始终保持连续性和稳定性。中国始终在联合国安理会等多边平台上维护公平正义，反对诉诸武力，维护国际关系基本准则。As a responsible major country, China will continue to contribute to peace and stability, promote talks for peace and uphold fairness and justice in the Middle East, he added.他说，作为负责任的大国，中国将继续为维护和平稳定、推动和平谈判、维护中东地区公平正义发挥积极作用。Araghchi said that Iran does not want the conflict to continue and hopes to return to diplomatic channels while firmly safeguarding its rights and interests. He said that Iran believes the Islamabad MoU remains valid, adding that Iran has reached an arrangement with Oman on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and that the US should honor its commitments.阿拉格齐表示，伊朗不希望冲突继续下去，希望回到外交轨道，同时坚定维护自身权利和利益。他说，伊朗认为《伊斯兰堡谅解备忘录》仍然有效，并表示伊朗已就重新开放霍尔木兹海峡问题同阿曼达成安排，美国也应履行相关承诺。He added that Iran is ready to engage in dialogue and consultations with regional countries, establish and develop good-neighborly relations, and work for the early restoration of peace and stability in the region.他表示，伊朗愿同地区国家开展对话磋商，建立和发展睦邻友好关系，为地区和平与稳定早日恢复作出努力。Araghchi welcomed and supported the four-point proposal on promoting peace and stability in the Middle East and the four-point proposal on promoting common security in the region put forward by Xi. The Iranian foreign minister expressed Iran's readiness to strengthen cooperation with China within this framework and its expectation that China will play a greater role in promoting regional peace and stability.阿拉格齐欢迎并支持习近平提出的推动中东和平稳定四点主张以及促进地区共同安全四点倡议。他表示，伊朗愿在这一框架下加强同中国合作，并期待中国在推动地区和平稳定方面发挥更大作用。Experts said that the volatile situation in the Middle East has seriously affected international peace and development, and seeking a solution through diplomatic channels remains a realistic option.有关专家表示，中东局势动荡已对国际和平与发展造成严重影响，通过外交渠道寻求解决方案仍是一种现实选择。Li Zixin, an assistant research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, said that Iran's reaffirmation of the memorandum's validity has kept a window open for future political engagement between the two sides. All parties should seize the opportunity to restart political dialogue rather than intensify military confrontation and economic coercion, Li said.中国国际问题研究院助理研究员李子欣表示，伊朗重申《谅解备忘录》的有效性，为双方未来开展政治接触保留了空间。她认为，各方应抓住机会，重新启动政治对话，而不是加剧军事对抗和经济施压。Niu Xinchun, executive director of the China-Arab Research Institute at Ningxia University, said that China has been actively promoting peace talks since the conflict began. China does not pursue geopolitical self-interest or bloc confrontation and takes into account the reasonable security concerns of all parties, he said, adding that its initiatives offer a viable path toward addressing the security dilemma in the Middle East.宁夏大学中国阿拉伯国家研究院执行院长牛新春表示，冲突发生以来，中国一直积极推动和平谈判。他表示，中国不谋求地缘政治利益，也不寻求集团对抗，而是兼顾各方合理安全关切；相关倡议为解决中东安全困境提供了一条可行路径。【词汇提炼】rational /ˈræʃənl/ adj.理性的；合理的restraint /rɪˈstreɪnt/ n.克制；约束mechanism /ˈmekənɪzəm/ n.机制；体系memorandum /ˌmeməˈrændəm/ n.备忘录；协议文件Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)谅解备忘录substantive /səbˈstæntɪv/ adj.实质性的；重要的architecture /ˈɑːrkɪtektʃər/ n.架构；体系multilateral /ˌmʌltiˈlætərəl/ adj.多边的

1931 YAKS IN JACOAddressing Transnational Repression Before Summit MeetingPiero Tozzi, co-host Gordon Chang: Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's summit in Washington, Tozzi urges increased protections against Beijing's transnational repression targeting dissidents, Tibetans, and Uyghurs on American soil. China operates clandestine police stations in cities like New York and Boston while using its United Frontapparatus to suppress peaceful protest movements. Grounded in a legalist Leninist governance ideology that demands complete cognitive control, Beijing recently enacted an ethnic unity law requiring families to teach love for the Communist Party. United States foreign policy must prioritize releasing prominent political prisoners, including Hong Kong Catholic publisher Jimmy Lai from solitary confinement in prison. (6)

1943 WAR EMERGENCY PIPELINECONTENTS THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW 9-16Global Diesel Shortage Spans Multiple ContinentsMichael Bernstam explains Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian refineries impact domestic Russian consumption rather than global markets because Moscow previously banned refined petroleum exports. The worldwide diesel crisis stems from losing 2.5 million barrels daily due to Middle Eastern supply disruptions, Strait of Hormuz closures, and pipeline attacks. With global refineries running at 96% to 98% capacity, facilities face severe quality mismatch issues because domestic shale crude yields less diesel than heavy Middle Eastern imports. Meanwhile, overall Russian oil production dropped by 1.5 million barrels per day. New United States congressional legislation permits potential 100% tariffs on purchasing nations. (1)America Deploys Operational Space Control WeaponsRick Fisher reports Air Force officials publicly confirmed that the United States deployed operational space control weapons capable of protecting joint military forces. A French Space Agency graphic recently detailed orbital assets operated by America, Russia, and China, including telemetry jamming, proximity operations, and kinetic collision satellites. These classified capabilities were maintained secretly across multiple congressional administrations to prevent a dangerous space arms race. Strategic tensions surrounding Iran or potential Russian aggression in Europe likely prompted this public disclosure. Importantly, these conventional defense systems fully comply with established Outer Space Treaty terms because the agreement exclusively bans nuclear weapons. (2)Canada Seeks EU Integration Amid RealignmentCharles Burton reports Canada is rapidly reorienting its economic and defense relationships away from dependency on the United States. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed opening associate membership to Canada, creating a unique alliance covering defense, trade, and personnel movement. Supported by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canadian leaders are promoting infrastructure initiatives to redirect trade flows while granting Europeaccess to critical minerals. Polling indicates that over 70% of Canadians identify with European values, whereas USsympathy dropped to 16% due to trade unpredictability. Canada also quietly strengthened strategic military defense ties with China regarding security. (3)Hellscape Defense Strategy Deters Taiwan InvasionRebecca Grant reports the United States Indo-Pacific Command developed an offensive tactical framework named Hellscape to counter potential Chinese invasions of Taiwan. Designed by Admiral Samuel Paparo, Hellscape deploys swarms of cheap drones, loitering munitions like Damocles, and unmanned vehicles to confuse attacking Chinese forces. This strategy draws upon lessons from Ukrainian drone warfare to disrupt enemy spectrum operations and clear pathways for heavy precision weapons. Regional allies including Japan, Australia, and the Philippines are integrating into this defense architecture. To ensure deterrence succeeds, Taiwan must receive delayed military shipments of advanced electronic warfare systems for its fighter jets without delay. (4)Diplomatic Strains Impact Global Western AlliancesMary Kissel notes global polls indicate declining trust in American leadership as both the United States and China are perceived as international threats. Friction over tariffs and rhetoric pushed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to pursue European Union associate membership and deeper ties with Beijing. In Ukraine, American requests asking Kyivto spare Russian oil refineries reflect a flawed moral equivalency that undermines deterrence against aggression. Meanwhile, escalating Middle Eastern instability and Houthi chokeholds along Red Sea shipping lanes threaten Saudienergy security, risking a shift where Gulf allies seek Chinese security partnerships if Washington fails to provide reliable military backing today. (5)Addressing Transnational Repression Before Summit MeetingPiero Tozzi, co-host Gordon Chang: Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's summit in Washington, Tozzi urges increased protections against Beijing's transnational repression targeting dissidents, Tibetans, and Uyghurs on American soil. China operates clandestine police stations in cities like New York and Boston while using its United Frontapparatus to suppress peaceful protest movements. Grounded in a legalist Leninist governance ideology that demands complete cognitive control, Beijing recently enacted an ethnic unity law requiring families to teach love for the Communist Party. United States foreign policy must prioritize releasing prominent political prisoners, including Hong Kong Catholic publisher Jimmy Lai from solitary confinement in prison. (6)Historical Roots Shape Complex Yemen ConflictGregory Copley explains the ongoing conflict in Yemen reflects deep historical, cultural, and tribal divisions stretching back to pre-Islamic Jewish roots. Mountainous North Yemen, led by Hashemite Zaydis, maintains historical claims as traditional guardians of Mecca and Medina predating Saudi control. Demonstrating sophisticated defense capabilities, North Yemeni forces recently downed a Royal Saudi strike jet. Meanwhile, Egypt refuses to reenter the conflict after its disastrous 1960s war, leaving Oman as the primary regional mediator. Additionally, Canada is strengthening economic ties with Europe and King Charles III to reassert national sovereignty independent of Washington trade policy pressure across global commercial sectors today. (7)European Inflation Escalates Under Energy PressuresSimon Constable reports a severe heatwave in southern France damaged sunflower harvests while diesel prices soared to $9.20 per gallon, causing widespread agricultural and logistical distress. Rising European natural gas costs pushed electricity rates up 12% in one month, driving price hikes across essential agricultural commodities like corn and wheat. Meanwhile, public opposition against artificial intelligence data centers reflects underlying hostility toward wealthy technology figures rather than environmental impact. In the United Kingdom, escalating national debt service costs reached $127 billion annually, far surpassing the nation's $80 billion defense budget during severe ongoing international economic challenges facing European leadership in government circles. (8)Commercial Space Programs Advance Amid ShakeupsBob Zimmerman reports SpaceX is preparing Starship Super Heavy for an orbital test carrying commercial Starlinksatellites, while Amazon booked extra Ariane 6 launches to deploy its constellation. Meanwhile, NASA awarded Blue Origin a $700 million Mars communication satellite contract based on its Blue Ring orbital tug, prompting an unusual formal protest from Rocket Lab. Internationally, China is conducting an unannounced major organizational overhaul of its lunar program following recent mission failures. Additionally, American authorities arrested a Chinese tourist for flying drones over restricted Kennedy Space Center launchpads, and Djibouti joined the Artemis Accords as the newest member nation in global space. (9)

President Xi Jinping has called on the country's police officers to remain committed to serving the people, be loyal guardians of the Party and the people, and demonstrate a strong sense of responsibility and dedication.Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a reply letter to a primary-level police force in Zhangzhou, Fujian province.Recently, members of the "Zhangzhou 110" police unit wrote to Xi, reporting on their work and expressing their determination to fulfill duties on the new journey.In his reply letter, Xi lauded the unit's police officers for their dedication and hard work at the grassroots level in serving the public and maintaining social stability for the people.He emphasized that the police bear the important responsibility of safeguarding the people's well-being and the country's peace, calling on police officers nationwide to uphold fine traditions, devote themselves to wholeheartedly addressing the needs and concerns of the people, and work diligently to protect the safety of the public.In China, "Dial 110 in case of emergency" is a well-known phrase. The "Zhangzhou 110" unit is one of the exemplary primary-level units within China's police forces.Since 1990, it has pioneered and continuously improved a rapid response mechanism tied to the 110 police emergency call service, playing a significant role in combating crime, maintaining public security and serving the community.While working in Fujian in the 1990s, Xi visited the police unit three times to inspect and guide its work. During an inspection tour in 1996, Xi, who was then deputy secretary of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee, emphasized that the work of the 110 police emergency call service is fundamental to serving the public, according to a report by the People's Daily Overseas Edition.The emergency call service is an important channel for the Party committee to connect with the people, and it also strengthens the bond between public security agencies and the people, Xi said at that time, praising the unit's police officers as "people's guardians".Previously, public security officers were considered to be mainly responsible for handling cases such as maintaining public order and combating crime. After the "Zhangzhou 110"police unit was established, citizens found they could also seek assistance from the police for such matters as helping elderly people who lose their way return home, or mediating neighborhood disputes.However, there were discussions in the unit about the duties of police. In one case, a local pregnant woman dialed 110 to ask the police to take her to the hospital, since her family members were away and she was about to deliver. Police officers helped her, but some complained that they worked like housekeepers instead of police.A lively debate led to a consensus: As people's police under the leadership of the Party, serving the public is an unshirkable duty. Consequently, the "Zhangzhou 110" police unit established a principle: "The people's difficulties are our difficulties, and the people's satisfaction is our greatest wish."Over the years, the "Zhangzhou 110" police unit has made many institutional innovations and reforms. It has also improved its speed in handling incidents with the help of modern technology."Compared to fighting crime, it's more often that we offer assistance to ordinary people. When we respond one second earlier, that's one second sooner that the public can feel at ease," said Wang Shaohui, a police officer of the "Zhangzhou 110" unit.Wan Lin, another officer in the unit, said that upon reading the reply letter from Xi, he felt greatly inspired."General Secretary Xi emphasized in the letter that the police bear the important responsibility of safeguarding the people's well-being and the country's peace. This has provided direction and injected strong motivation for us young police officers to fulfill our duties," Wan said."I will respond to every call for help and resolve every dispute with care and dedication, ensuring peace and tranquility in our community," he added.

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief:• New reporting reveals a deep power struggle inside Iran, where hard-line security figures allegedly sabotaged a peace agreement with Washington by attacking commercial ships without the knowledge of President Masoud Pezeshkian or other senior leaders.• China's top intelligence official warns that artificial intelligence could pose a direct threat to Communist Party rule, offering a rare glimpse at Beijing's growing concerns over the technology.• NATO vows greater support for Ukraine after Russian drone strikes near the Polish border, including one that hit a rail station shortly after senior Western officials had passed through.• In today's Back of the Brief, a former CIA official found with hundreds of gold bars, millions of dollars in cash and dozens of luxury watches is negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors.To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com.Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybriefHomeServe: Protect your home systems from expensive repairs with https://HomeServe.com/dailybriefand get 50% off your first year of coverage.Brunt Workwear: Get $10 Off at BRUNT with code PDB at https://www.bruntworkwear.com/PDB#BruntpodSundays for Dogs: Upgrade your dog's food without the hassle—try Sundays for Dogs and get 30% off your first order at https://sundaysfordogs.com/PDB or use code PDB at checkout.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, has launched an investigation into the major fire that occurred at a shipyard in Qingdao, Shandong province, on Thursday, killing 25 people and injuring five, the Ministry of Emergency Management announced on Monday.应急管理部周一通报，9 月 10 日，山东省青岛市一处造船厂发生重大火灾事故，造成 25 人遇难、5 人受伤，国务院已成立调查组对该事故开展调查。A State Council investigation team, led by the ministry, held its first plenary meeting on Monday.由应急管理部牵头的国务院事故调查组于 周一召开第一次全体会议。The meeting set out the investigation plan and called for investigators to identify the cause of the accident as soon as possible.会议研究制定了调查方案，要求调查组尽快查明事故原因。Before the meeting began, all the participants observed a moment of silence for the victims of the accident.会议开始前，全体与会人员向事故遇难者默哀。Song Yuanming, deputy director of the Office of the State Council Work Safety Committee and vice-minister of emergency management, chaired the meeting.国务院事故调查组组长、国务院安委会办公室副主任、应急管理部副部长宋元明主持会议。The investigation will not only examine the cause of the fire, but also determine whether the shipyard, industry supervision and local authorities had acted responsibly.调查不仅要查清火灾事故原因，还要核查涉事船厂、行业监管部门以及地方政府是否履职尽责。Those found responsible for the accident will be held accountable in accordance with the law, the announcement said.通报称，对事故相关责任人员，将依法依规追究责任。The inquiry will follow the principles of scientific rigor, compliance with laws and regulations, seeking truth from facts and focusing on practical results.调查工作坚持科学严谨、依法依规、实事求是、注重实效的原则。The authorities were also urged to draw broader lessons from the accident.同时要求各方深刻汲取事故教训。Local governments, relevant departments and centrally administered State-owned enterprises were told to strengthen workplace safety and step up inspections for fire hazards.要求地方政府、相关部门以及中央国有企业强化安全生产，加大火灾隐患排查力度。Investigators will also pay particular attention to subcontracting and illegal practices connected with it.调查组将重点关注分包以及相关违法违规行为。The meeting called for wider safety checks in sectors including hazardous chemicals, mining, industry and trade, transportation, construction and special equipment, in an effort to prevent serious accidents.会议要求，在危化品、矿山、工贸、交通运输、建筑施工、特种设备等行业领域开展全面安全排查，防范重特大事故发生。The fire broke out at around 11:15 am on Thursday aboard a foreign cargo vessel undergoing repairs at China State Shipbuilding Corporation Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Co.9 月 10 日上午 11 时 15 分许，中国船舶集团青岛北海造船有限公司一艘正在维修的外籍货轮发生火灾。Authorities have not yet disclosed the nationality of the vessel or of those killed or injured.有关部门尚未公布涉事船舶以及伤亡人员的国籍。There were 42 people aboard the vessel when the fire broke out. Twelve managed to evacuate, while 30 others were trapped.火灾发生时船上共有 42 人，12 人成功撤离，30 人被困。The blaze was extinguished at around 2:30 pm.明火于当日下午 2 时 30 分许被扑灭。Provincial and Qingdao authorities immediately activated emergency response mechanisms, mobilizing emergency management, fire and rescue, public security, health and industry bodies to carry out rescue operations.山东省及青岛市立即启动应急响应，调集应急管理、消防救援、公安、卫健、工信等各方力量开展救援。By 7:24 pm that day, the search and rescue operation had concluded, with all 30 trapped people found.截至当日 19 时 24 分，搜救工作结束，30 名被困人员全部找到。The five injured were taken to hospital, where they remain in stable condition, while 25 were confirmed dead.5 名伤者送医救治，目前伤情稳定；25 人不幸遇难。Experts specializing in fire investigations from five provincial-level regions arrived at the site early on Friday to conduct preliminary inspections and analysis.来自 5 个省级地区的火灾调查专家于 9 月 11 日一早抵达现场，开展初步勘查与分析。The investigation team includes representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Transport, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the National Fire and Rescue Administration and the Shandong provincial government.调查组包含外交部、工业和信息化部、公安部、交通运输部、国务院国有资产监督管理委员会、中华全国总工会、国家消防救援局以及山东省政府相关代表。Officials from relevant departments of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision, as well as the Supreme People's Procuratorate, attended the meeting.中央纪委国家监委相关部门、最高人民检察院派员参加会议。investigation /ɪnˌvestɪˈɡeɪʃn/n. 调查subcontracting /ˌsʌbkənˈtræktɪŋ/n. 分包；转包hazard /ˈhæzəd/n. 隐患，危险accountable /əˈkaʊntəbl/adj. 负有责任的

Send us Fan MailBill Saunders, a scholar of religious liberty and human rights at the Catholic University of America, joined Liz Collin on her podcast. Saunders told the story of Chen Guangcheng, aka the “Barefoot Lawyer"— a blind, self-taught lawyer who shares his journey from a remote Chinese village to dignity and freedom in America.Saunders also spoke about how the Chinese Communist Party "spends a lot of money in the United States, millions and millions of dollars to influence everything you can think about, from Hollywood to Wall Street."And he cautioned that "if Americans want to preserve their democracy, their freedom of speech, their human rights, and the rule of law, they've got to find ways to stand up to the Communist Party.” Saunders and Guangcheng will speak at the Life Legal Benefit Dinner on October 3, 2026 in St. Michael, Minnesota: https://lifelegalmn.org/2026mndinner/Support the show

President Xi Jinping has extended greetings to teachers and educators across the country ahead of Teachers' Day, which is celebrated annually on Sept 10.在教师节到来之际，国家主席习近平向全国广大教师和教育工作者致以节日问候。教师节于每年9月10日庆祝。In a congratulatory message, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called on teachers nationwide to enhance their professional competence and capabilities, and foster a new generation of young people to shoulder the mission of realizing national rejuvenation.中共中央总书记、中央军委主席习近平在贺信中表示，广大教师要不断提升专业素养和教育教学能力，培养一代又一代能够担当民族复兴大任的青年人才。Over long periods of time, teachers across the country have devoted themselves to education, imparting knowledge and nurturing young minds, said Xi, commending their significant contributions to the cause of the Party and the state.他指出，全国广大教师长期以来坚守教育岗位，潜心教书育人，传授知识、启迪心智，为党和国家事业发展作出了重要贡献。Xi emphasized the importance of carrying out the basic task of fostering virtue through education and cultivating a high standard of professional integrity and conduct on the new journey.习近平强调，在新的征程上，要落实立德树人根本任务，不断提高教师队伍职业素养和师德师风建设水平。He also called for fostering public respect for educators, encouraging support for education, and bringing together all efforts to make China a leading country in education.他还强调，要进一步营造尊师重教的社会氛围，支持教育事业发展，凝聚各方力量，加快建设教育强国。China boasts the largest education system in the world, having roughly 440,000 schools at all levels and of all types, with 280 million students and 18.7 million teachers.中国拥有世界上规模最大的教育体系。目前，中国各级各类学校约44万所，在校学生2.8亿人，教师队伍规模达到1870万人。extend /ɪkˈstend/ v.致以；给予；扩大congratulatory /kənˌɡrætʃuˈleɪtəri/ adj.祝贺的；庆贺的competence /ˈkɒmpɪtəns/ n.能力；素养rejuvenation /rɪˌdʒuːvəˈneɪʃn/ n.复兴；振兴impart knowledge /ɪmˈpɑːt ˈnɒlɪdʒ/ v.传授知识foster virtue through education /ˈfɒstə(r) ˈvɜːrtʃuː θruː ˌedʒuˈkeɪʃn/ v.立德树人；以教育培养品德professional integrity and conduct /prəˈfeʃənl ɪnˈteɡrəti ænd ˈkɒndʌkt/ n.职业操守；师德师风

This episode of the podcast is a thought-provoking conversation with a man who's had a life full of twists and turns. From being a radical leftist in the 1960s to becoming a conservative, Dr. Marv Treiger shares his incredible story of transformation. As a Buddhist teacher and retired psychotherapist, he's had a unique perspective on the world, shaped by his experiences and spiritual practices. In this episode, Dr. Treiger takes us back to his early days as a Marxist-Leninist, involved in the Communist Party and . He shares his fascinating story of how he met Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn, and how he eventually parted ways with the radical left. But what's truly remarkable is how his perspective shifted after the 9/11 attacks, leading him to re-examine his views and eventually become a conservative. His journey is a testament to the power of personal growth and the importance of staying open to new ideas. Dr. Treiger's conversation with Jimmy delves into the complexities of Marxism, the Democratic Socialists of America, and the current state of politics. He offers insightful commentary on the dangers of a single-minded ideology and the importance of understanding the cultural context. His thoughts on the extractive nature of capitalism and the need to shape the culture are particularly noteworthy. If you're interested in hearing more of Dr. Treiger's remarkable story and his thoughts on the current state of politics, tune in to this episode. His conversation is a must-listen for anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of ideology and the importance of staying open to new ideas.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

หมายเหตุประเพทไทยสัปดาห์นี้ ชวนทำความรู้จักความคิดทางการเมืองของ อันโตนิโอ กรัมชี่ (Antonio Gramsci) นักคิดมาร์กซิสต์ชาวอิตาลี ผ่านงานเขียนในช่วงก่อนถูกคุมขัง (Pre-Prison Writings) โดยเฉพาะงานชุด “Towards the Communist Party” ในช่วง ค.ศ. 1910–1920 จากความสนใจเรื่อง สภาโรงงาน (Factory Councils) ในฐานะพื้นที่ประชาธิปไตยของชนชั้นแรงงาน ไปสู่การตระหนักว่าการต่อสู้ในระดับโรงงานเพียงอย่างเดียวไม่เพียงพอ และจำเป็นต้องมีองค์กรทางการเมืองที่สามารถจัดระเบียบการต่อสู้ในระดับกว้างขึ้น ซึ่งต่อมาเชื่อมโยงกับการก่อตั้งพรรคคอมมิวนิสต์อิตาลีในปี 1921 พร้อมแนะนำบทความ “ความคิดว่าด้วยเรื่องพรรคคอมมิวนิสต์ในงานเขียนทางการเมืองของ อันโตนิโอ กรัมชี่” โดย ธนกร บุญยืน และวัชรพล พุทธรักษา เผยแพร่ใน วารสารสังคมศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยศรีนครินทรวิโรฒ ปีที่ 28 ฉบับที่ 2 (2568) ซึ่งศึกษาความคิดของกรัมชี่ก่อนถูกคุมขัง และเสนอว่า สำหรับกรัมชี่ พรรคคอมมิวนิสต์มีฐานะเป็น “เครื่องมือทางประวัติศาสตร์” ทำหน้าที่จัดระเบียบเจตจำนงของชนชั้นแรงงาน สร้างจิตสำนึกทางชนชั้น และเชื่อมโยงอุดมการณ์เข้ากับการปฏิบัติจริง กรัมชี่ยังปฏิเสธแนวคิดกำหนดนิยมทางเศรษฐกิจ (Economic Determinism) ที่มองว่าการเปลี่ยนแปลงทางเศรษฐกิจจะนำไปสู่การเปลี่ยนแปลงทางสังคมโดยอัตโนมัติ แต่ให้ความสำคัญกับบทบาทของการจัดตั้งทางการเมือง อุดมการณ์ และวัฒนธรรม พรรคจึงไม่ใช่เพียงเครื่องมือของชนชั้นกรรมาชีพในการยึดอำนาจรัฐ แต่ต้องสามารถสร้างความเข้าใจ ความร่วมมือ และผู้นำที่เกิดขึ้นจากฐานประชาชน ขณะที่ สภาโรงงาน ก็ไม่ได้มีหน้าที่เพียงต่อสู้เรื่องค่าแรงหรือเงื่อนไขการทำงาน หากยังเป็นพื้นที่สำหรับสร้างการมีส่วนร่วมและวัฒนธรรมทางการเมืองแบบใหม่ของชนชั้นแรงงาน การอ่านงานเขียนของกรัมชี่ในช่วงก่อนถูกคุมขังยังช่วยให้เห็นว่า แนวคิดในยุคหลังอย่าง การครองอำนาจนำ (Hegemony) ไม่ได้เกิดขึ้นอย่างลอย ๆ ใน “Prison Notebooks” (สมุดบันทึกจากคุก) แต่มีรากฐานจากประสบการณ์ทางการเมือง การต่อสู้ของขบวนการแรงงาน และคำถามเรื่องการจัดตั้งพรรคที่กรัมชี่ขบคิดมาก่อนหน้านั้น

In this powerful edition of the show, Joe pulls no punches as he breaks down the ideological battlegrounds gripping both Capitol Hill and local communities. The episode opens with a direct, uncompromising look at the radicalized rhetoric driving current political movements before bringing on guest Patti Fox. Fresh off her compelling testimony in Washington, D.C., Patti shares her firsthand experience on the Hill—a poignant appearance punctuated by a viral moment capturing Congressman Jerry Nadler sleeping through her crucial testimony. The conversation delves deep into the personal heartbreak behind her advocacy, detailing the devastating journey of her daughter, Carissa, supported by striking pre- and post-accident visuals that bring her family's struggle into stark focus.Shifted from the halls of Congress to the home front, Joe turns his attention to a massive wave of student walkouts sweeping across more than 100 Colorado schools. Backed by groups like the Colorado Youth Coalition and Denver People's March, these youth protests frame a broader debate over law enforcement and constitutional principles. The show exposes exclusive audio recordings from Denver East High School Principal Terita Walker sent ahead of the walkouts, alongside raw clips of student organizers, laying bare the specific language and driving ideologies at play within the public school system today.Rounding out the broadcast, the discussion connects these ideological shifts to local funding and national policy. Joe examines a controversial $54 million mill levy override request from the Douglas County School District, raising hard questions about institutional priorities and public oversight. The episode concludes with a critical look at comments from Representative Pramila Jayapal regarding systemic immigration overhauls, contrasting calls for sweeping reform against the necessity of enforcing the rule of law. It is an unvarnished, fast-paced episode that bridges national politics with local impact.Donate to Carissa and Patti here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-all-the-current-unknowns

In part two of Red Eye Radio with Gary McNamara and Eric Harley, Fox News said Thursday that it had parted ways with longtime anchor Maria Bartiromo, a vocal defender of President Trump who hosted several financial news shows. Bartiromo has been Fox Business Network's global markets editor since joining it in 2014. She hosted “Mornings with Maria” and “Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street” on Fox Business, while also anchoring “Sunday Morning Futures,” a business-focused show on Fox News Channel. The reason for her firing is still unknown. Also former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom has filed a federal lawsuit against the Chicago Sky and the owners of Wintrust Arena / California's controversial billionaire tax has picked up perhaps its least surprising endorsement yet: the Communist Party / and Republicans regret too much concern over AI data centers. For more talk on the issues that matter to you, listen on radio stations across America Monday-Friday 12am-5am CT (1am-6am ET and 10pm-3am PT), download the RED EYE RADIO SHOW app, asking your smart speaker, or listening at RedEyeRadioShow.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen to current week's news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule of around 10 to 15 minutes.From tragic violence in Manipur and climate disasters in Nepal, to high-profile convictions in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Cambodia, plus major civil rights disputes sweeping Sri Lanka and beyond. Tune in to listen.Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Fabian Antony, presented by Joe Mathews, Cover photo by AFP, background score by Andre Louis, edited and produced by Binu Alex for Union of Catholic Asian News. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com To contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donate On X Follow Or connect through DM at : x.com/ucanews To view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

In June, the most capable American AI models stopped shipping as public launches and started shipping through a government gate. Six weeks later the gate is open again — and the real fight has moved to the layer no gate can touch. A Chinese open-weight model rattled trillions out of chip stocks, Washington pivoted from gating American closed models to threatening bans on Chinese open ones, the industry mounted its largest-ever policy counter-mobilization, and an American frontier model literally broke out of its lab and hacked another company. Knee-jerk reactions, or the beginning of real AI governance? Navigation: Intro The Gate Opens The Kimi Shock The Escape The Counterstrike and the Petition Interlude — The Low-Background Books The Investor Reckoning Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Bertrand Introduction Welcome to Tech Deciphered Episode 80. This one, once again, will be all about AI, government, frontier models, and open weight counterstrike. A lot has been happening in the regulation space, in cybersecurity, in the launch of new models in the past, maybe just 6–8 weeks. It’s actually pretty insane how much happened. We believe it was time to do an episode to talk about where we are and maybe where all of this is going. Maybe let’s start with a summary of where we stand, all that June and July saga, so you, our listeners, can get up to speed if you are not already there. You want to start with some points? Nuno The Gate Opens Yeah. Again, to your point, the gate swings. The gate had closed. We had to prepare an episode for the gate closing, and then the gate reopened. Now we have a different episode. This will probably change again as we’re seeing there’s news every day. Let’s start maybe with the first 19 days of the gate closing. There was an executive order on June 2nd from President Trump that asked frontier labs to share models with the government, 30 days pre-release. It inferred the protected frontier model designation into that. Basically, it was effectively a de facto licensing agreement defined by an executive order of the President as of June 2nd. On June 9th, Anthropic launched Fable 5 and the famous Mythos 5 or Mythos. I’m not sure how you actually say it in English. Then on June 12th, there was an export control directive banning access by any foreign national. Since there’s no way to verify nationality in real-time, Anthropic had to switch the models off for everyone worldwide. Bertrand On this point, you could argue that there are possibilities to check IDs. Many services let you check IDs online. You can pre-check a flight by showing your ID. There are ways, it’s just that if you don’t want to follow what’s already available, because guess what? Maybe it slowed down your revenue growth, maybe it looks bad on you or whatever. My point is that there was actually an option. I think it’s already a decision from Anthropic to say it’s either on or off, but nothing in between. Nuno I think the point is they had no way implemented of doing it. If they implemented it, to your point, it would have hampered use in general. A lot of people wouldn’t have gone through that trouble of doing it. Anyway, long story short, in June 26th, the White House apparently asked OpenAI to limit GPT-5.6, so Sol, Terra, Luna, to only 20 vetted partners. Now, apparently, the trigger for a lot of these things that have been going on was that there was a jailbreak that was found by Amazon researchers. All of that led to this jumping around of, let’s close the gates. You have foreign nationals, and therefore, Anthropic got it out and said, “Hey, then we’re going to switch the models off until we can sort this out.” OpenAI was asked also to only allow it for certain vetted partners, et cetera. The government came in, closed the gates effectively, and said, “From now on, we need to be involved in this thing.” De facto regulation, there’s no doubt that this has imposed de facto regulation, certainly on the top players in the market. But then came the reversal. Bertrand, do you want to talk about the reversal, the gate swinging the other side? Bertrand Maybe I just wanted to say that as a user of Anthropic products, ChatGPT products, for the brief moments, a few days where Fable 5 was made available to the public before it was closed the first time, I immediately started using it. I must say it was a real issue to use it because the guardrails were pretty crazy. It would keep saying that my code was not okay, there was cybersecurity risk and stuff when I was doing absolutely reasonable development with absolutely no connection whatsoever to any cybersecurity risk, attack, detection, anything. Still, it would keep blocking me, degrading me to Opus 4.8 at the time. I just want to say this was already very hardcore what they were implementing, and not just hardcore, but in some ways, plain stupid for something that’s supposed to be super smart. It was totally unable to classify properly some of my work. I must say I was already disappointed. On top of it, the costs were insane. Half a day, I would reach my limits when I had the best plan you can get from Anthropic. My point is that there were some real serious issues when they launched Fable 5, even at that point. Nuno I had a similar issue. I used Fable 5 as well before they had to take it offline or take it off. I think the issue was really not that the guardrails failed. As you said, maybe the guardrails were actually too aggressive, but it was this jailbreak that caused the recall, apparently caused this knee-jerk reaction. Bertrand But my point is that it seems that it was not working either way. It would either overclassify something that’s absolutely not doing anything wrong, and it might fail to classify something that is actively trying to do some cybersecurity work. It’s a real issue of quality for a company that’s supposed to be at the forefront of quality of AI and everything. I think for me, there are already signs that something is deeply wrong. Nuno Then it’s reversed, right? We went the other way around. The government came out on June 26th and approved redeploying Mythos 5 to US organizations defending critical infrastructure, and then the export controls were effectively lifted on June 30th. July 1st, Fable 5 came back online for all of us to use. Shocking enough, with strings attached, that were different. They had some time to revise their commercial deployment of it along the way because it came back with some, “Now you have usage credits, but you have some limits on plan use, et cetera.” I’m like, “You guys, this was blocked. But meanwhile, you did have some time to do some commercial stuff around it.” Bertrand It was crazy. I’ve never witnessed any such crappy launch of any service whatsoever in 30 years in tech, it was so bad. Every day, they would change the terms of service. They would tell you it’s part of the plan. It’s not part of the plan. It’s part of the plan for three more days, and then it’s excluded. You have a special discount now, but then it goes back to full price. It was a total nightmare. I’ve never felt myself being so much mistreated by a company. I guess you saw the same, but when I started using the newest version of Fable 5, it was even worse, actually, I think. I couldn’t do any work with this crap. I let it go and work on the work I wanted it to do. It was simply not working. On top of it, you never know how long you are supposed to lose your credit, how fast. It was burning credit like crazy. Me, personally, I can say, very quickly, I actually stopped using it. I was like, “No, I cannot deal with this shit. My main model is back to Opus 4.8. I’m going to use Fable 5 for code review, but not anymore to control anything because I cannot trust it would do the job without stopping or changing models and stuff. I just cannot trust it.” Back to Opus 4.8 as my main model, I can say that my life was much easier. I use Fable 5 as a review mechanism, as a support mechanism, but not as the main mechanism. Suddenly, the guardrails were not so horrible anymore because it was used in a much lighter way, I guess. As a pain as a user, I think it was really bad. I don’t know your experience, but me, for me, it was unacceptable. Nuno I wouldn’t say it was as bad as yours in terms of just end-user experience. I think the terms of service switching back and forth, which went one further step, because then when they then launched Opus 5, they started making comparisons between Opus 5 and Fable so that people would migrate more and more to Opus 5 themselves, which is interesting. It’s like they’re saying “This is much cheaper. This is whatever. You’re not going to run of credits. You should use Opus 5,” kind of thing effectively. To your point, I don’t think they managed well the launch. They didn’t really manage it well. We’re moving people around. A lot of people are using this for stuff that’s like daily tasks, hourly tasks, anything that relates to code and co-work. It’s like, we need to have visibility on what your terms of service are going to be. Should I be using this new model or not? What’s happening to the other model? I don’t see it as negatively as you, Bertrand, but I see your point. It was clearly mishandled in terms of how they deployed it, how they were redesigning effectively their pricing scheme and their terms of service almost on a daily basis, at a certain point in time. We’re like, “Dude, there’s millions of people using this. You guys are making a lot of money.” Just moving it as it is. At this point in time, at the scale that these guys are at, it’s calling in people to say, how about we think through a class action suit at some point around pricing? Because you guys are changing the rules of the game all the time, right? Bertrand I don’t know if I need the class action, but for me, that joke that, “Let’s not rush too fast. The model is dangerous.” But still, they rushed the launch because it’s very clear that if they had enough compute capacity and stuff, they would not have to limit so much. They would not have to put so much cost per token and all of this. You can see that actually when they launch Opus 5, literally like 2, 3 weeks after, by most benchmark at launch, they tell you basically that, “You know what? Actually, Opus 5 is better than Fable 5 on 80% of the metrics.” They’re like, “What? Seriously? You couldn’t wait 2 weeks? Why did you even launch Fable 5 in the first place?” That’s another part for me that is quite literally insane, to be frank. It’s like, “Why? Why do you make us go through so much pain if it’s only to tell us after 2 weeks to…” “This new model, by the way, has less issues, less stuff, because 2, 3 times less is part of your plan, and it’s actually better by most metrics.” It’s like, “What’s going on here? What’s going on? Are you guys mad?” I don’t know. It was crazy. Personally, I still use Opus, now 5, as my main system and platform, Fable 5 for review, code reviews and the like. I don’t want to run into its stupid guardrails. I can see Fable 5, from my perspective, seems quite a bit smarter. I don’t know why they do this stupid benchmark showing you it’s actually worse than Opus 5. I guess they should have better benchmark if they want to demonstrate why you are supposed to pay 2, 3x more for a model versus another if it’s actually worse by most benchmark. Again, I still think it’s a huge mess from a marketing perspective, customer perspective. Me as a user, I really feel that they don’t want my money, and they couldn’t care less about me. This is even before everything else we’re trying to talk about. Nuno Yes. Maybe just to close the cycle on the reversal on the door opening the other way, finally, Commerce lifted the GPT-5.6 restrictions on July 8th, and then on July 9th, general availability across ChatGPT, Codex, and the API as well. What has this proved? It proved that now we have gating mechanisms, and certainly for closed models in the US, for sure. We had frontier models that were switched off worldwide in hours, and it took a couple of days, in this case, 19 days to restore them. There were concessions. Now we know that there were concessions around effectively institutionalizing that gate. Early government access to future models is, I think, now a given, certainly in the US. New safeguard frameworks are probably now having to be put in place. There are some stage limits now on who gets access to what for new models and how it happens. This voluntary executive order, so to speak, not really sure, has become effectively regulation enforcement path. It’s de facto regulation that now has been put in place. It has affected not just to the points we were making before, the access to these models, but also who gets access to these models, and actually potentially even pricing access to the models. It has probably some commercial implications as well as we just discussed along the way. Very significant. This is very significant. This is regulation, de facto at the table, imposed on the two largest players in the market by far by one government, in this case, the US government. This is significant. Actually, you could even allege it was imposed by the President because this was coming as part of executive orders. Really incredible. Pretty significant, fast, aggressive. It has created a regime that you could say it’s a regulatory regime, it’s a de facto regulatory regime. It has some significant pricing and licensing and commercial implications. It goes even beyond your classic regulatory framework. Very, very, very significant. Bertrand I don’t know if it goes beyond a classic regulatory framework. Nuno I think it does, because it has implications on who do you give access to? When government is saying you can only give access to these players, right? Bertrand Defense industry. It’s all over the defense industry. You cannot sell an F-35 like this. Nuno No, but that has commercial implications, Bertrand. That’s like you’re saying these are your customers, you go and use them. Bertrand That’s the defense industry. You cannot sell to Iran your F-35. No, that’s exactly the same story for me. Nuno No, no, no. It’s beyond that. These guys are saying when they came back, and they said, “For Mythos, you can make them available to these entities,” they were saying the first entities that are going to have access to the model. It has commercial regulatory implications. You’re saying these players are the first players that are going to have access to it. It’s no longer just defense concerns and these governments don’t have access to this. No, no, no. You’re saying to a company that is a private company, your models are only going to be used by these guys because I’m telling you so. It’s the other way around. It’s not even that you can’t sell it to Iran or whatever. It’s like you can only sell it to these guys. Bertrand Again, in the defense industry, if you’re a private company, do you think you can buy F-35 like this? No. Nuno No, no, no. But this is a private company, Bertrand. This is not a defense agency and a plane that is on whatever, with IP from the US, right? Bertrand Boeing is a private company, and they cannot sell the military equipment they manufacture. Nuno No, no, no. But the development of their IP was subsidized by agencies that belong to the US, right? That’s a different matter. It’s a matter of IP, right? This is not, right? Anthropic, their models are not owned by the US government. There’s no IP granted to the US government, to my knowledge. This has significant commercial implications. Bertrand Maybe, yes. Maybe on this. But I think there are already regimes to limit who you can sell to, and that’s decided by the state or the DOD. Nuno It’s the export control logic. The export control logic? Bertrand You have export control, and export control is Commerce. My point is that they are using existing tools, part of the government, to limit what can be sold. Selling chips, NVIDIA was limited in terms of where it could sell its chips. It’s not different either, but still there were limitations. If you are an ASML, you cannot sell to a private company in China. Many private companies cannot buy ASML products. This is a foreign company. This is a foreign company under pressure from US government. Nuno I understand, and I’m not a lawyer, but it feels different to me when you say you cannot export, this is export controls, to these countries, to these entities, et cetera, because they’re foreign et cetera. Then to say, “No, no, no. On top of that, these guys get first access.” That’s, for me, a significant shift. Again, I’m not a lawyer, so I’m sure there’s very intelligent people right now looking at this stuff and saying, “You can’t do this stuff, or not, or they can.” I don’t know. But it feels to me, it goes beyond the remit of export controls. It’s like you’re defining initial clients for specific use. Bertrand My impression is more like, “We can do this situation where we’re going to forbid you to give access to anyone outside the US or even in the US or limit even more.” Basically, it was, I guess, some gesture to go beyond that. That’s how they probably defined these 20 authorized companies. I don’t know. Apparently, there was also restrictions because I remember seeing that Anthropic had their own list of companies they would authorize access to Mythos early on. That’s apparently another thing that pissed off state government because there were companies in there that were considered close to the Chinese government. They were extremely unhappy that Anthropic didn’t ask, actually, for any guidance from the state government, but used basically their own perspective on who they should allow or not. I guess that was also part of why they got these serious restrictions. Nuno Anyway, now we have a regulatory environment that’s very interesting and exciting. Talk about the US not regulating. Bertrand To be clear, I don’t know you, but I’m not saying that I agree with any of this, to be very clear. I’m trying to explain and share some perspective, but I’m not in agreement on a lot of this. Nuno Yes, we were just describing what happened to the best of our knowledge. We’re having a discussion on what we think actually is happening and how it’s happening. We’re not really right now saying we agree or disagree with this. I think later in the episode, we can share some perspectives on what we think is actually happening and how there’s dimensions to this which are very geopolitical and very complex, which quite literally probably only God knows what’s going to happen. That was the gate swinging. There was a gate closing, then there was a gate reopening, and all of a sudden we have a gatekeeping system that has been created along the way. The Kimi Shock Along the way, moving to our Act 2, the world has changed, and we now have so-called open-source plays out there that are creating massive, massive shifts in the market. The Chinese models, in particular, with Moonshot AI launching Kimi K3, which is the largest open-weight model ever released. We’ll come back to the discussion around open-weights. I’m not sure all our listeners understand what that means, because there’s a debate now, should models be open weight or not, and how does that work? There’s been a petition as well signed along the way. Right now, we have open weight models that are out there that are huge. What that actually means very pragmatically is we now have open source models, lack of a better word. I know open weight and open source are not the same thing. You guys will have to bear with us during this episode. We’ll explain at some point the differences. But we have models out there that are open source that are significant. That are catching up with the closed source models, with the models by OpenAI, Anthropic. That’s significant because most of those models are Chinese. This is where the geopolitics starts getting really frazzling and we start playing 3D chess. Because everyone’s like, “These models are 5, 6 months behind.” Now people are saying, “Maybe they’re actually just 3 months behind, 2, 3 months behind.” If we, for example, decided to stop or slow down our model releases in the US by the closed source guys who are leading, it might mean they’ll catch up. What are the implications of that? Again, for you and I that are not necessarily experts in model development, well, the implications as a use case is if you want to use the latest models, and the best models start becoming these open source models, you’re going to use those models. Then you start using Chinese models. If you’re an American company, maybe you’ll have restrictions on the use of those Chinese models. But if you’re a European company, you probably won’t. What happens after that? Is the world going to be in the hand of Chinese models? Will that constitute effective competition to the closed models in the US? Will we have open models in the US that will scale as well? What’s going to happen? Bertrand I think it’s a really big question. It goes to some of the core of the issue. It’s that ability of Chinese models to basically challenge frontier models, not just being 6, 12 months late, but being 6 weeks late. Basically, no gap. Some will say that, yes, but OpenAI and Anthropic have even better models that are not shared and stuff. Yes, sure. But maybe the Chinese have the same models that they are not sharing right now. We don’t know. What is clear is that one is that open weight, as you said, two, there is a question of how it is marketed in the sense of, can anyone use these weights? Is there a license to use them? Yes, what we can see is that, for instance, typically there is a license for some of the biggest Chinese open-weight models you have to abide with. You might have a need for a commercial license if you are acting as a company leveraging this model to provide AI-informed services. If you use it internally by yourself, you’re okay. If you use it internally for your own internal company needs, maybe you are okay if it’s not your main business to do AI work. Anything else, a much bigger corporate providing AI services and stuff, you will probably end up having to pay a fee to be able to provide services around this model. My point is that it’s not just 100% free. Some of the Chinese models are 100% free to use, MIT license, Apache 2.0 license. But the biggest ones with the biggest weight that are truly frontier typically have a different license if you want to scale these models, providing AI in front. That’s one thing to keep in mind. Nuno Maybe just to make a very quick point, because people are like, when you talk about open models, what does it mean right now? In the context of this episode, open models mostly will mean open-weight models. How do those differ from open source? Open weight means that you release the weights to the public, which means that anyone can download, fine-tune, and run the model on their own hardware. It doesn’t normally mean that you also have access to training data, training code, or a truly open license. That’s the distinction to open source. Open-weight doesn’t mean that. For example, we’ve talked about Meta’s Llama in the past, and we also discussed in the past that their license agreement does have restrictions, certain players can’t use it, et cetera. The open model definition and open weights are really open-weight models that we’re talking about here, and they are closer to freeware binaries than to Linux, for those who understand the difference between that. It’s binaries that you can use and then use your own weights on it versus actually I can change code on it. I’m not going to be able to change code on this. When we, for the purposes of this episode, talk about open, we mention open weight, just to clarify that point to everyone that’s listening right now. Bertrand Yes, that’s a great point. One of the only players, as far as I know, who is truly open source is actually NVIDIA with their Nemotron-3 models. They’re actually following a special license to achieve that. They provide you the data, they provide you all the processes and tools, so you can easily post-train. NVIDIA is a big, big exception. It’s a very interesting player, by the way. We might not talk much about it in this episode, but I think for intermediate-size models built in the US, where you have access to everything in the deployment, it’s a very interesting alternative and maybe one of the best choices if you are a US company or a big corporate, and you want something trusted. Another piece of the puzzle to clarify is that when you use open-weight, it means that you can run them by yourself, or you can use a US provider to run them. If we are talking about Chinese open-weight, you can use the APIs they provide, but then the service is running in China, they might have access to your data. But because it’s open weight, if you run it by yourself or if you use a third-party provider based in the US to run it, then there is no access to your data by China or Chinese players. I think that’s a pretty important gap to understand. It means that these models are actually very, very low risk from that perspective if you run them on your premises or in the US by a US player. I think that’s something to keep in mind. You can also fine-tune easily these models to make sure they will behave in a way that, for instance, is not going to represent the line of the Communist Party on some topics. There are ways to make these models more neutral in their output as well. There are a lot of ways to make good use of them. By default, they’re already very safe, but you can make them even more safe. I think that’s some things to keep in mind. But again, it depends ultimately on the license and what you’re authorized to do and some fees you might end up having to pay. Nuno Why did this matter so much? Immediately there was a reaction from the market because people are like, well, if there’s much better stuff out there that’s much more efficient than it’s open, then it might be that all the demand that we are taking into account, for example, for chipsets actually isn’t real. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell into bear market territory. It went down by as much as 20% plus from the late June peak. The worst chip week since April 2025. Taiwan’s benchmark initially fell 6% plus, Japan’s 4%, TSMC dropped dramatically despite beating earnings and rising guidance. Basically, a huge amount of effect. Now, there’s a little bit the aftermath of this where apparently Moonshot ran out of GPU capacity. Maybe… Bertrand In just 48 hours. Nuno In 48 hours. Great for them, but at the same time, not great in the sense that maybe there was a misread by Wall Street of the Kimi effect, so to speak. Bertrand Completely. For me, that’s such a joke. It’s like, because you have an open source model, so what? I mean, you still need to run it. This is not a small one. 2.8 trillion parameters. Good luck running that in your garage, by the way. Nuno They misread supply, basically. Tough luck, right? All of that basically happens. Bertrand Maybe you want to talk about the Jevons paradox, because I think that’s a big part of the puzzle as well. Its one is they might not have the GPUs to run the inference on the model. They might have enough to build a model, but not enough these days to run inference, especially given how much with intelligent models, thinking models, you need way more inference than before. But on top of it, the cheaper you make it, the more you get to the Jevons paradox. Nuno Yes, Jevons paradox, for those who don’t know, is an economic term. It describes an economic phenomenon where technological improvements that increase the efficiency of a resource lead to an increase rather than a decrease in the total consumption of that resource. What that means is, for example, for chipsets, chipsets become so much better, and they are so much more efficient. You’re like, well, maybe normally in resource terms, that leads to decreased usage of that resource. But in this case, it actually leads to an increased use of that resource rather than a decrease. There’s more and more consumption of that resource. You need more and more chipsets because people actually need to do more and more stuff with it, although there are great efficiencies going into it. There’s the efficiency gain, there’s the cost reduction, and there’s the price-elasticity element to it. But basically, the adoption just continues going through the roof along the way. Bertrand In some ways, it’s like the price of energy. Coal went cheaper and cheaper, and people were asking the same question 150 years ago, now that it gets cheaper, there is not much money. No, no. Actually, what happens is that people find more and more use for coal. Homes are getting heated more. You have ships now using coal. You have manufacturing using coal. The cheaper it gets, the more use case you can develop, and therefore, you don’t need less of the stuff, you need more of the stuff. By going at scale to get more of the stuff, you also decrease price, making even more demand. It’s a very interesting phenomenon, but it’s not new. It is what happened for a while in the energy sector and some other sectors. Nuno We already started talking about the Chinese logic and what’s happening. Getting a little bit of a reality check on this. The Chinese models, and these are numbers from Open Router in July, Chinese models are at 46.4% of routed tokens and 35.7% for US origin. Again, more than a third of global AI usage now seems to be running on Chinese open models. This is significant, and it has a huge impact on the geopolitical scale of everything that’s happening. Also, the whole Chinese field is converging on open. Open seems to be a strategy, not just a nice thing that’s happening. It seems to be a Chinese strategy, so much so that you have players like Moonshot, DeepSeek, our old friends DeepSeek, Z.ai’s GLM 5.2, Minimax, and even Alibaba seems to be reversing and going open with Qwen. It feels to me this is becoming policy as well. Xi Jinping has personally endorsed the building of open-source AI, if it’s really open source, if it’s just open weight anyway, and this feels to be a jab at Washington, DC and the fact that the big closed models are coming from the US. This is now geopolitical 4D chess, right? We didn’t need this stuff. Bertrand To be clear, it’s the usual in tech. If you are not number one, you are number two, number three, your alternative is to go open source because that’s another angle that your competitor usually cannot follow without destroying its own business model. That has been the alternative for the past 20 years of most software projects. Here, what’s different is that it’s not the number one or number two player. It’s the US number one as a country, China number two as a country. That’s where it’s new. For me, what’s very interesting is the endorsement by Xi Jinping. I was waiting for something official, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. As you said, there was an immediate U-turn of Alibaba, who in the past… Nuno Surprisingly. Bertrand Yes, a little more like, “yes, we are going to close and stop open source. It was good while it lasted.” Just a few days ago, Qwen 3.8 Max was launched, and we are supposed to get the weight in a few days. We talk about the US administration policy and stuff. Yes, let’s not forget that in China there is similar stuff. Sometimes it’s totally invisible because you don’t see the directives, but they exist as much. Sometimes it’s more visible. Here it was quite visible. The difference in China is that if you don’t abide by the directive, on top of it, you might have to fear for your personal safety. It’s a different game, and that’s probably why the reaction is pretty quick, usually. That’s pretty interesting for me because it means that now you can bet for a while that China is going to play that game up to a point. I guess the point is if it’s truly frontier scale, you will have a special license that, yes, technically the weights are open, but you can not do everything you want with it. Two, you have a player like NVIDIA that I think will feel more pressure to provide even more high quality, larger models at scale going forward. Their largest Nemotron-3 Ultra model was, if I remember well, only around 500 billion parameters. I would not be surprised for NVIDIA to go into the two, three trillion range at some point. Because I think the US need a very clear US-born alternative open source. I think NVIDIA might be the best player for that. We will see if Meta goes back to open source. I think NVIDIA is one, very well positioned, but two, it’s also in their best interest. Because NVIDIA for now depends on just a few big hyperscalers as clients. If they can expand their clients to every S&P 500 companies, selling them directly hardware because now these companies can run a model made by NVIDIA, I think there is a very clear value proposition for NVIDIA to go in that space. Again, if you are number two, your differentiation, open source is often the answer. There is a true business as a business model for companies, because if it’s truly not just open weight, but open source, you can tweak it as much as you want, you can change it, you can change even the pre-training process. Because there is a lot of stuff you can do that really benefits you as a corporate, and you can reach a much better value by having more control on the model. Nuno We won’t spend a ton of time on it today, but like, again, if there’s a view that we are in a bubble, that the valuations cannot be sustained in chipsets, infrastructure platforms, applied AI, et cetera, today, this might be that beginning, where the valuations start being destroyed because you can’t keep a premium on just charging people for tokens and all that stuff if you have models that become more and more efficient and cheaper to use. Maybe just to close a little bit the geopolitical part of the discussion today, we won’t go into all the announcements from China because there were many, a lot of go back and forth with Alibaba by then. Xi Jinping made some announcements. You guys can check it online. Let’s move quickly to Washington’s reaction, which was from gating the US closed models to banning the Chinese open ones. There’s been as strong affirmations as one can get from the Office of Science and Technology Policy Director, Michael Kratzios, mentioning that they have information that Moonshot AI distilled Anthropic’s Fable. Basically, there’s been reverse engineering and stuff in the market. They’re basically copying. Bertrand I’m sorry to interrupt, but it feels like so much bullshit. It’s coming from Anthropic who has basically gotten access at scale to all the knowledge made by humanity, copyrighted or not. We’ll talk more about what they did with books. Then to claim after that that others cannot do to you what you did to everybody else. For me, it’s pretty big. It’s clearly unacceptable. The other piece is that everyone is doing distillation. It’s a very typical approach of every business model. You try other software when you are competing with somebody else. You try other datasets, you check what’s happening. It’s part of doing business for decades. Suddenly it’s not good for Anthropic. I personally have a lot of trouble to accept that. I think it’s totally unacceptable. The other piece of the puzzle will also go back. If these guys are so smart, if these guys have so much of the best model, why can’t they block by themselves distillation at scale? The only answer is that either they are morons, probably not, or they simply don’t want to because it’s going towards their business model. Suddenly, you book less revenues and stuff, or you put more friction, and therefore your customers don’t like it. Instead of doing it yourself, you ask the government to protect you, go out of business practice that is very typical. For me, it’s really, really, really not good. Sorry, we are going more in the opinion side, but I had to put that on the table. Nuno Yes, Fable went public finally again on July first. Question marks on whether distillation would only be possible from July first onwards or not. But a 15-day distillation to frontier, which is K3, launched on July 15th, would have been a Guinness World Record, as one of Moonshot employees actually mentioned. It’s very implausible and unlikely. Bertrand Or they shared the Mythos 5 with the wrong companies, who themselves shared with Chinese companies. We go back to maybe they didn’t have a good list. Again, it goes back to maybe they didn’t want to hurt their business model. Nuno Anyway, under the threat of sanctions, Moonshot, in any case, open-sourced the full K3 weights and technical reports. They open weighted it to become the largest open weight model in the world in terms of parameters. Beijing’s MOFCOM brands US threats as basically the US wanting to fundamentally control and be monopolistic around AI along the way. The administration bans Chinese hardware with an eye on the AI race, and Beijing warns of retaliation. That was July 27. Now we’re in a war between Beijing and DC. Bertrand Just to finish maybe on China, it’s important to know that they are building their own GPUs now. Huawei has pretty good, not to NVIDIA level, but pretty decent GPU hardware that they’re able to manufacture by themselves. A Chinese player of memory just got IPO’d a few days ago, CXMT. China is also developing their own memory. Again, not to the same level of quality that you can get from the West. But China is moving. It’s not just that they are building great models, it’s also that they are building GPUs and memory. That might be a few years late to the latest standards in the West, but there are definitely improvements. I also read, even on the tools to make manufacturing like ASML equivalent, there is definitely some work going on, and some improvements and some stuff will be visible. In some ways, the genie starts to get out of the bottle from the Chinese perspective. Nuno I’ll put a stick on the ground. I don’t think it’s a matter of if, it’s a matter of when will China surpass and have a lot of this tooling on their own side, and not just the software layer, not just the frontier models. I think it’s also going to be around infrastructure and platform. Good luck to everyone. Let’s see how the race continues. But it’s definitely this is a geopolitical thing right now. It’s definitely a race. The Escape Maybe moving to what happened in just 2 weeks or a week and a half. The escape, there was some jailbreaking going on, and the narrative on safety has totally switched. It’s not still significant enough that’s like, “Oh, we saw a nuclear plant going, whatever.” No. But still, it is significant. Hugging Face, the AI company, disclosed an intrusion, and it was driven end-to-end by an autonomous AI agent system at machine speed, running for days before detection. Now, this is where it gets really cool. OpenAI takes attribution on that. They initially said it was just a little bit, sorry. Then they said, actually, it was worse than that. “Oh, it broke out of an isolated sandbox.” “Oh, no, actually, it was more than that, and it went into other systems as well.” Bertrand Truly, the genie out of the bottle. Nuno No, but this is where it gets really cool, Bertrand, right? Because it actually, Hugging Face contained the intrusion by running a Chinese open-weight model, GLM 5.2. This is beautiful, right? Bertrand Yes. You know why? Because they couldn’t even run their own defense because both Anthropic and OpenAI would not let them access their latest models with the guardrails off. When they tried using it for defense, the latest from Anthropic, from ChatGPT, they would tell them, “No, this is too dangerous what you’re asking us to do.” Preventing an intrusion, helping defend you. No way we are going to do that. Nuno No. Let’s use the Chinese models on our infrastructure. Bertrand We have no choice but to use the Chinese models to run. More than that, we don’t let you use our models to defend yourself, but our not yet released models that run without guardrails, they can attack you. This is probably the most insane from that perspective. Nuno The Chinese models came to the rescue. Bertrand For me, that’s a perfect example because Hugging Face is a very visible company in AI in open source. But anybody who is not at that scale is not going to get some support from OpenAI or Anthropic when this happens. Maybe these guys won’t even recognize they did anything wrong. You will be left to defend by yourself because they won’t accept to support you. Because remember, if you want the better model that is able to defend you from cybersecurity perspective, no way. If you are not one of the few top 20 companies or so, as defined, you are left defenseless. Again, we are going back to opinion, but for me, it’s so shocking what’s happening right now. I’m very glad we have alternative open source to be able to defend ourselves because right now, good luck getting defense services if you are a smaller business and individuals, and you need support from Anthropic, OpenAI. Nuno Now, even self-described AI optimists are saying, “This is scary now.” Like Walter Isaacson, who wrote all the famous biography books. There’s now discussion around the AI Kill Switch Act, bipartisan thing that’s coming across from Texas and California, a potential bill that’s coming in. We’ll see if that works. Now let’s get an off-switch. I’m like, “Cool.” As if that’s going to solve the problem, because you have open-weight models on the other side catching up, right? Bertrand Yeah, sure. Bring in clueless politicians from Congress to solve our problems. Yes, sure. Nuno Anthropic came to the table, helped build and said they built some regulatory machine on their side, and now they’re getting bitten by it, and they’re part of the offending players in that market. Now there’s all this debate and all this discussion around open weight and around slowing down AI and et cetera, which is our next section. You wanted to say something, Bertrand. Tell us. Bertrand Don’t forget, because this advertisement for OpenAI was just too good. Our AI attacked some other companies, and not just one, but three, actually. Let’s not forget the progress. Great ads. Then I came and said, “You know what? AI also hacked businesses.” You’re not the only one hacking around with a crazy AI out of control. You’re not the only one. We want our advertising. For me, it was shocking that on one side, unreleased models that you let run wild. On the other hand, you have released models that you put crazy guardrails on top of it, so the defender are defenseless. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I really hope that there will be as little regulation as possible, quite frankly, to make sure anyone can defend themselves and have the best tool at their disposal, not just a few well-connected big corporates. This is really, really shocking. The Counterstrike and the Petition Nuno Now the empire strikes back, so this is counterstrike, the petitions. In several days, we have now a bunch of petitions. The first one was the open weights letter. Bertrand, do you want to explain to us what the open weights letter is? Bertrand Yeah. I think it was great. This was released by Jensen Huang, first ever post on X, 11 million views. Congrats, Jensen. Co-signed with Microsoft, Meta, c actually was probably the initiator of this letter. Very good letter saying, “Hey, we need open weight. This is not a joke. We need that. You cannot block open weight.” Because that’s the rumor we are getting that potentially open weight could get blocked. I think they are making the case, “You know what? Hey, we absolutely need that as an alternative. You cannot block it.” They can keep their closed models, but don’t force a closure of the open weight models. As I said before, it’s actually a great model for NVIDIA because NVIDIA doesn’t want, probably rightfully so, to be dependent on just a few frontier models, their best customers. They want a variety of customers. They have a big interest actually to defend open weight and to invest even more. They have great researchers, are a great company. If one company is about to do really kick-ass work, I think it’s them. They are defending. What’s great is that it’s not just them. It’s basically most of big tech in the US and outside the US, from a Linux Foundation to a Microsoft, the Palantir, an IBM, a Dell. It’s a who’s who of the industry except Anthropic. Anthropic didn’t sign that. I guess they hate open source so much. If I look at 20 years ago, it feels like Microsoft, after all, was very kind to open source. You remember what was said by Microsoft at the time. It’s clear there is one company against open source. OpenAI signed the letter. Honestly, I don’t know what to think. Do they really believe in it or was it just a way to show that they are not like Anthropic? I don’t know. But for the rest, I think it’s genuine because it’s actually in their best interest. I hope they will be heard. Then a second letter came, the Open Secure AI Alliance, NVIDIA-led and again, the big tech companies from Microsoft, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, Databricks, Palantir, all those, but not present, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Here it’s to say, “Hey, we need a secure approach to AI. Open should be part of the equation.” guess what? The worst AI-caused security incident to date was actually caused by closed frontier models that were not even available to the public. While again, not providing you access to even the latest closed model for cybersecurity use case. Nuno I would highlight the NVIDIA open source NOOA framework, Apache 2.0 licensing agreement, Microsoft contributed the MDASH, SpaceX AI contributed Grok Build. Cool stuff. There’s some cool stuff happening around that. This is more than a letter. This is an alliance. Apparently, they’re contributing all this stuff, we’ll see. Yeah, cool stuff. Same day. Same day, Amodei has an answer, right? Bertrand Yeah, same day. They say, “We never advocated for a ban,” which, again, opinion on my side is entirely bullshit. This guy has been crying wolf against everybody else, and especially against open source. You can see him doing testimony in Congress against open source. I think they are doing everything they can behind the scene to block open source in the US or in the world if they could. I think, yeah, obscurity is not good safety. I’m a big fan of open source in general, and I’m also a big fan in AI. I think it’s now Anthropic, mostly against the rest of the world. I think OpenAI is mostly on their side, to be frank. They don’t want to acknowledge it so much, but they have shared interest, and they have shared probably position. Nuno Why would you? I don’t feel as strongly as you because I think Anthropic is a private company, right? The same thing with OpenAI. OpenAI, you could say it’s a nonprofit that has a for-profit. There’s still that complexity in there. Bertrand No, they can do what they want with their own product. But to block others is where I’m not okay. That’s the part I’m not okay. Nuno What Dario Amodei is proposing is more enforcement, right? He’s basically saying you need to do even tighter controls on advanced chips flowing to authoritarian states, enforcement against industrial-scale distillation, whatever that means, right? Bertrand Yeah, which he could do, but all by himself. He doesn’t need the government to do that. Nuno Mandatory safety testing for all sufficiently capable AI, open and closed, right? He’s basically saying, “Okay, I don’t agree with the open weight stuff effectively,” right? He’s just putting it under a different banner. “I agree with this extra regulation.” then obviously, David Sacks responded and say, “Hey, it’s like, bans don’t work for weights. Why do they work for chips?” It’s like, magically, chips are more controllable and bannable. Whatever that is. Then our friend Mark Zuckerberg, just to be clear, goes on the other side as well, because he also has to have a view. He has to have a view that is the rebuttal of both of the other guys. Bertrand I feel he’s a bit flip-flopping because he was very pro open source 2 years ago, and the latest Meta models went closed source. Now I think he’s back open source. I don’t think he has a very strong spine on the topic, but it’s good to see that he’s not a doomer. That for me is great. He’s showing how AI can be a source for progress, a source for entrepreneurship, source for freedom. I think that’s very exciting to hear that. We need to hear more of it. By the way, that’s not what you hear in China, for instance. AI is very positive in China. It’s in the US with the doomers that you hear this discourse, and people get worried as a result. I’m glad that he was pushing for a more positive vision and for support of open weight, open source initiatives. But let’s see what they really truly open weight going forward. Nuno But that’s been his position because I guess he’s standing behind. He thinks open weight is going to be the best way to compete, right? Bertrand Yeah, but he closed his latest model, so let’s see. Nuno Yeah, so it’s flip-flopping, as you’re saying. Then we see the latest petition from last week. Bertrand The true Empire striking back. Nuno Yeah, the true Empire striking back as of late last week. Maybe this is Return of the Jedi, where we discover the father, “I’m your father, Luke.” That’s the pacing petition. The pacing petition is we need to pace AI. There you have initially employees from OpenAI and Anthropic that circulate this petition. Actually, Dario did sign this petition originally. It wasn’t signed originally by Anthropic, but by him. But you’ve heard that now Anthropic and OpenAI as companies have also signed this petition, right? Bertrand I think they have signed as companies now. It started mostly by Anthropic researchers with some OpenAI researcher and a tiny part from other companies. But it was mostly Anthropic internally led, at least potentially internally. Maybe it was controlled by Anthropic all along, I don’t know. But it started officially as Anthropic employee-led letter. Nuno What does this letter actually say? Is Anthropic and OpenAI, are they willing to slow down themselves? Or are they asking President Trump to go around the world and tell President Xi that he needs to slow down and ask his guys to slow down? What’s the play of this letter? Bertrand It’s crazy, but for me if you want to slow down yourself. Do whatever you want. Don’t force others. Don’t use the power of the government to control others. Of course, it’s easy to push others to slow down when you are yourself at the very top. You have most money, most resource. You know you are going to win any regulatory framework because that’s how it works with this type of framework. It’s purely self-interested. You are probably not thinking well about these topics. If you truly think it’s a good idea, from a personal perspective, you are well instrumentalized if you sign this sort of stuff, because at the end of the day, they would be the winners. I certainly, personally, don’t want a company dictate what is my future in AI as an individual, as a business person. I don’t want them to control me. I want competition. I don’t want them to unfairly control AI because they managed to do some regulatory capture. I feel that’s exactly their game plan. These guys believe in their stuff, and they want the regulator to end up being the one deciding for us. Sorry, we go back again on the opinion piece, but it’s tough not to share an opinion on this topic because it’s, from my perspective, very scary. Nuno I think this is a push to further regulation, not less. All these letters and alliances, this is definitely a push for more regulation. In that environment, just to be very honest with you, we’ll talk about the investor impact in just a bit, et cetera. But in that environment, again, China has a huge advantage. In that environment, if it’s all captured in regulation capture so soon in this battle where OpenAI and Anthropic have an advantage in the US, et cetera, I’m like, what happens to all the other frontier labs and all the other players that are coming around? Bertrand What’s crazy is to even think that, yeah, maybe you can regulate capture in the US. But then how do you do that to Europe? How do you do that to China? Europe probably will always welcome regulatory capture because they love regulations. But China is going to build to their advantage to the max. They are not crazy. They are smart on that perspective, they won’t accept this type of, quite frankly, dimwit argument, or you can call it regulatory capture. We’ll see. But for me, this makes no sense from a global competition perspective. This can make some sense from capturing the revenue in the US market. But then that means you are going to destroy the US AI environment compared to China. That is not acceptable. That also means that you are going to destroy our freedom as individuals, as business owners to develop and live in a business world that ultimately is controlled by one or two business companies that didn’t win the marketplace through their own business success, but won it through regulations. That for me is really not acceptable. Interlude — The Low-Background Books Nuno Now, maybe for an interlude, and we have to cue in the music, imagine like Severance music, like hallway or a bit of a palate cleanser from all the policy stuff that we’ve been talking about, all this policy heaviness. Let’s move to another kind of heaviness, one of your favorite topics, which you, Bertrand, discovered, I had no clue this was going on, around books and around Anthropic. Bertrand It’s so horrible. From a company that keeps presenting themselves as the adults in the room, the careful ones, the ones that know better than you about what to do in this complex AI and dangerous world. What we discover is that actually all along, they were buying and destroying books. They will buy books, scan them, destroy them, all of them. They will do that with any books, including rare books. Of course, this was not supposed to come to the public’s attention. This was one of these top secret projects, but obviously it came out. Yes, they were scanning books, millions of them, including rare books, and they didn’t care about destroying them at the end of the process. Because from a regulatory perspective, if you destroy the books, it’s not considered a copyright infringement, apparently. This is coming on the back of some judgment a few years ago that were showing that it’s okay for you as a corporate to scan and use the result if you don’t keep a copy of the book. It’s one of these crazy regulations happening based on a single judgment that push you to do. For me, it’s like, you know this book from decades ago, Fahrenheit 471? We’re talking about book burning. It’s book destroying, crunching. It’s so shocking. Nuno There are two things, right? First, the legal strategy, which is what you’re saying, because by purchasing a physical copy and converting it into one private digital copy and discarding the original, Anthropic pursued this cleaner legal argument for fair use copyright compliance. As you said, there was a federal judgment at some point on this. The other reason is actually operational. If you disassemble the book, and you feed loose pages, it’s much faster to scan books. You are destroying the book effectively anyway operationally. I think to your point, probably this came from a legal standpoint, not just the operational one. But even from an operational standpoint, it does make sense that they would have disassembled the book. Bertrand But some people have shown you can go very fast without destroying the book. It’s really not so critical. Two, you could make an exception if the book is rare. For that 1% of book that is rare, I’m not going to have this approach. I’m going to have another approach. But for that, you will have to care about books and not just care about building AI. Nuno This is the episode, as you guys have heard by now, that we’re trying to spit stuff at Anthropic. Bertrand To go back this is the same company saying, “Hey, guys, it’s bad to distillate my work. I’m the one scanning book at scale without asking author permission, without asking publisher permission, to be clear.” Nuno But just to be clear, Bertrand, we’re pissed off at everyone. We’re pissed off at Anthropic, we’re pissed of at OpenAI as well, right? We’re just pissed off in general at this moment. Bertrand At this stage for me, the more clear-cut company that is in the wrong is, from my perspective, at least, is Anthropic. OpenAI might be a fast follower, but I will say so far, they tried to be a bit more. Nuno But at this pace, Bertrand, who knows? Maybe next week we’ll be more pissed off at OpenAI. Something will come out. This episode is a mix of tragicomedy, like a Greek tragedy with some comedy in the middle or the other way around. It’s a slapstick thing that will end up in tragedy. I’m not sure. The Investor Reckoning Anyway, maybe switching to our final act, which is the investor perspective. What does this mean for investors like ourselves? There’s a lot of things going on. There’s the debate around the IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, which now, with all this uncertainty, might be under significant weight. There’s a lot of other discussions that we browsed through that there’s potential IPOs going forward on companies like the Moonshot AI company actually IPO-ing in the next 6 months as well. It’s very unclear what the IPO landscape looks like. Bertrand There’s been a lot of Chinese IPOs, actually, when you look at what’s happened in the past few months. Nuno Anthropic, OpenAI as potential IPOs, there’s all this question marks now. When will that happen? How will it factor in? All that’s happening around regulation as regulation is moving at the speed of light, which is for once something that’s very different than what we’ve seen before. There’s obviously SpaceX AI, which is already taking into account that price. It’s already a public company in there, and it’s under SpaceX, which is now a public company. Obviously, that’s already being factored in some ways. Bertrand Yeah. SpaceX AI has been very smart to acquire Cursor. It was a very smart move because Cursor is one of the leading companies in terms of automated code source development with AI. They had great models on their own. They’re bringing development data to SpaceX AI Grok. I think it was a great move. Nuno We have now people like Google delaying Gemini 3.5 Pro in terms of launch window. There’s stuff actually happening in the market where things are taking their own path. There’s uncertainty commercially, there’s uncertainty at regulation level. You have new players that have come out of nowhere that are making all these waves like Moonshot. We have all these… We had calculated probably a month and a half, 2 months ago, there had been 67 new frontier labs funded. All of these, we haven’t seen any much coming out of them. When some of this stuff starts coming out, will that also create disruptions in this market? Who knows? Bertrand Look at Thinking Machines, for instance. Thinking Machines led by the previous CTO of OpenAI, they released some pretty interesting open source models, actually. Very good quality for a first launch. Now it looks funny to say, but nearly on par with the top Chinese open source models. Nuno We have several investments in the space. humans& has made some recent announcements, which is quite interesting as well. We’ll see what actually happens in the market, but even more disruption probably will come in actual products in a form of product and commercial, on top of all the geopolitical mess that we discussed through the entire episode. If you’re an investor, how the hell do you underwrite an investment right now in early stage, mid-stage, late stage, et cetera? I think my answer is very carefully is how you underwrite it. Bertrand On your advice of being very careful to underwrite it, let’s not forget what happened to our boy wonder, Leopold Aschenbrenner of Situational Awareness. I guess he didn’t listen to you in terms of being careful because part of the instability in the stock market was actually coming from his hedge fund. These guys were leveraged 3, 4x going after the hottest of the hottest AI stocks, and margin calls, and all their public investment is gone just to answer their margin calls. I think it’s clear that the AI bet is… Personally, I’m very excited, and I think it’s the future, and you need to spend time and think about and invest in it. At the same time, it’s a bet that is not an easy one to follow. We go from GPUs to memories to equipments to power generation. All of this is not transitioning in an easy, organized manner. It would be boom and bust going there. He’s probably one of the first big-scale fatalities. The other big-scale fatality was the stock market in Korea, plunging 40% in a month. Definitely, all of that we discussed about was, on the background, you had the stock market going up and down pretty crazily the past few weeks. Nuno Everyone’s being affected. Everyone, you have your 401(k), you have your pension fund dependent on these equity stocks. Everyone’s seeing the effects of this volatility right now very aggressively. We do wish Leopold… Hopefully he’s on honeymoon right now because he got married, I think, this weekend. Hopefully there will be… Bertrand To none less than an Anthropic Chief of Staff. Nuno His wife is the Chief of Staff of Dario, is that it? Bertrand To Dario, yes, as far as I unders

At around 11:30 am local time on Monday in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, President Xi Jinping and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov put their signatures to a treaty on permanent good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation, after which they exchanged copies of the treaty, shook hands and posed for photographs.The two presidents also signed a joint declaration on the high-quality development of the China-Kyrgyzstan comprehensive strategic partnership for a new era, and witnessed the exchange of bilateral cooperation documents covering investment, transportation, customs and sister-city relations.During Xi's visit, which began on Sunday, the two sides signed more than 20 additional cooperation documents in areas including science and technology, education, culture, people-to-people exchanges and the media.While holding bilateral talks with Japarov, Xi said that high-level political mutual trust and firm mutual support are important guarantees for the steady and long-term development of China-Kyrgyzstan relations. China firmly supports Kyrgyzstan in safeguarding its national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and supports the country in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions, Xi said.He added that China stands ready to continue firmly supporting Kyrgyzstan on issues concerning each other's core interests.Japarov said he was honored to welcome Xi to Kyrgyzstan on the 35th anniversary of the country's independence, which fell on Monday. The visit further demonstrated the profound friendship and high level of political mutual trust between the two countries and marked an important milestone in bilateral relations, he said.Xi said the signing of the treaty on permanent good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation will provide an important legal foundation for friendship between the two countries from generation to generation and for their continued mutual support.China is advancing the building of a strong country and national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization, while Kyrgyzstan is making every effort to implement its National Development Program through 2030, Xi said.China is ready to work with Kyrgyzstan to better align their development strategies, deepen exchanges of experience in governance and deliver more tangible outcomes through practical cooperation, he said, calling for taking profound and concrete measures in building a China-Kyrgyzstan community with a shared future.Xi called for the two sides to deepen practical cooperation by implementing their intergovernmental economic and trade cooperation plan, diversifying traded goods and fostering new growth drivers such as digital trade and cross-border e-commerce.He called for the high-quality construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, describing it as a "major transportation artery" carrying the development aspirations of people across the region.The two sides should also modernize border crossings and strengthen "soft connectivity" in institutions, standards and rules, he said.Xi urged more landmark projects in renewable energy and resource recycling, as well as efforts to implement cooperation documents on green minerals and expand collaboration across entire industrial chains.He also called for facilitating personnel exchanges and expanding cooperation among young people, as well as media, tourism, sports, healthcare and subnational exchanges, to further consolidate public support for China-Kyrgyzstan friendship.The two sides should expand law enforcement and security cooperation, jointly combat the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, as well as drug trafficking and transnational crime, and work together to safeguard regional peace and stability, Xi said.China supports Kyrgyzstan in playing a greater role in international and regional affairs and is willing to strengthen coordination with the country within the United Nations framework, he said.Xi called on the two countries to jointly implement the four global initiatives, oppose hegemonism and power politics, uphold true multilateralism, safeguard international fairness and justice, and promote a more just and equitable global governance system.As founding members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China and Kyrgyzstan should advance the implementation of the outcomes of last year's Tianjin summit, promote common development in the region and take the SCO's development to a new level, said Xi, who is also in Bishkek for this year's SCO summit.Japarov said the signing of the treaty on permanent good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation will open up broader prospects for bilateral relations."The People's Republic of China is an important priority in Kyrgyzstan's foreign policy, and our main trade and investment partner. China is our good neighbor, close friend and time-tested, reliable partner," Japarov told Xi.Japarov also said that Kyrgyzstan is willing to expand cooperation with China in trade and investment, connectivity, scientific and technological innovation, energy, minerals and the green economy, while strengthening exchanges in education, healthcare, culture and youth affairs.Kyrgyzstan is ready to work with China to combat the "three forces" and safeguard regional security, he said.Japarov also expressed his country's willingness to strengthen coordination with China through multilateral platforms, including the UN, the SCO, the China-Central Asia mechanism and the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization.During the talks, Japarov, on behalf of the Kyrgyz government and people, extended his deep sympathies over the mudslide disaster in Gyirong county of China's Xizang autonomous region.Xi thanked him and said the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government are making every effort to search for missing Chinese and foreign nationals, relocate affected residents, treat the injured and guard against secondary disasters. China has also sent rescuers to Nepal and provided emergency assistance, he said.Earlier on Monday morning, Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, arrived by car at Yntymak Ordo, the Kyrgyz presidential administration building, under the escort of a Kyrgyz cavalry guard. They were warmly received by Japarov and his wife, Aigul Japarova.permanent good-neighborliness /ˈpɜːmənənt ˌɡʊd ˈneɪbəlɪnəs/ n.永久睦邻关系national rejuvenation /ˈnæʃənəl rɪˌdʒuːvəˈneɪʃən/ n.民族复兴transportation artery /ˌtrænspɔːˈteɪʃən ˈɑːtəri/ n.交通大动脉multilateralism /ˌmʌltiˈlætərəlɪzəm/ n.多边主义hegemonism /hɪˈɡemənɪzəm/ n.霸权主义equitable /ˈekwɪtəbəl/ adj.公平合理的；公正的

Klara Nahrstedt is a Computer Science Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign whose research has spent decades asking a deceptively simple question: how can technology make communication between people feel more real?Long before that became her career, Klara grew up in a world where communication itself was restricted.Her mother left Czechoslovakia for Stanford in the late 1960s, expecting the rest of the family would eventually follow. Then the political situation changed and the borders closed. Klara stayed behind and later studied and worked in East Germany.She remembers living in East Berlin, seeing the Berlin Wall, and knowing she could not cross it. When her mother visited, they eventually had to say goodbye at Friedrichstraße. Her mother could leave. Klara could not.Even access to scientific information had limits. Klara recalls Western journals that were available only to Communist Party members. If you were outside that system, certain knowledge could remain out of reach.Then, in January 1990, she left East Germany for the United States. She calls it the best decision she ever made.America felt almost surreal. After growing up with shortages, she saw aisle after aisle of choices in a Philadelphia grocery store. At the University of Pennsylvania, she encountered computers, networks, and robotics systems far beyond what she had previously used.That transition led to a career working on high-speed networks, real-time video, tele-immersion, 3D video, virtual reality, augmented reality, and distributed computing.The challenge is often the same: moving increasingly rich information across networks fast enough that humans do not notice the delay.Later, Klara helped develop tele-immersion systems where dancers at Illinois and Berkeley could appear in the same virtual 3D environment and perform together thousands of miles apart.Today, she is thinking about what comes next.What if a remote student could appear to sit in an empty chair inside a classroom? What if people physically present could meet alongside others rendered into the room through augmented reality? What if the internet could transmit not only video and audio, but touch and even smell?A digitally generated smell still has to travel through the air to your nose. Haptic systems may require responses faster than ordinary operating systems can provide. Virtual reality must update quickly enough that differences between what your eyes see and your body feels do not make you sick.At the center of it all is one of multimedia's hardest questions: what information does a person actually need?If you are looking at one part of a virtual room, why transmit every pixel in the rest of it at full resolution?That is where machine learning becomes useful.But when asked why she has not spent the entire conversation talking about AI, Klara gives a simple answer: AI is a tool.For her, the mistake is starting with whatever technology is fashionable and then searching for a problem to attach it to. She starts with the problem. If machine learning helps, use it. If the problem requires networking, optimization, computer vision, or distributed systems, use those instead.She gives similar advice to students: knowing AI alone is not enough. Become useful across several domains. Study outside your major. Read beyond engineering. Travel. Meet people from different cultures. Learn how other people think.Scientific knowledge matters, but understanding people and knowing how to communicate with them may matter just as much.Klara grew up in a system where borders separated families and access to information could depend on politics. She came to America and found a world overflowing with information, technology, people, and possibility.She has spent much of her career trying to remove another kind of distance.Not the Berlin Wall this time, but the technological distance between one human being and another.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Washington to remove disruptions and overcome obstacles to high-level exchanges between China and the United States, saying that both countries should earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state.中国外交部长王毅敦促美方排除干扰、克服障碍，推动中美高层交往，并表示中美双方应切实落实两国元首达成的重要共识。Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks on Wednesday during a meeting in Beijing with David Perdue, the US ambassador to China, according to a statement released by the Foreign Ministry on Thursday.据中国外交部8月27日发布的消息，中共中央政治局委员、外交部长王毅8月26日在北京会见美国驻华大使戴维·珀杜时作出上述表态。Under the guidance of the two heads of state, China and the US are working to build a constructive relationship of strategic stability, Wang said.王毅表示，在两国元首的引领下，中美双方正共同努力构建具有战略稳定性的建设性关系。He said facts show that improving bilateral relations, coexisting peacefully on the basis of mutual respect and achieving win-win cooperation serve the fundamental interests of the two peoples and meet the common expectations of the international community.他表示，事实证明，改善两国关系，在相互尊重基础上和平共处、实现互利共赢，符合两国人民的根本利益，也顺应国际社会的共同期待。Noting that the China-US relationship still faces various risks and challenges, Wang emphasized the need for both sides to focus on a constructive agenda and properly manage differences to promote stable, healthy and sustainable development of bilateral ties.王毅指出，当前中美关系仍面临各种风险挑战，双方应聚焦建设性议程，妥善管控分歧，推动两国关系稳定、健康、可持续发展。Perdue said the two heads of state have provided important strategic guidance for advancing bilateral ties, noting that US President Donald Trump's visit to China in May was a success.珀杜表示，两国元首为推进双边关系发展提供了重要战略指引，并指出美国总统唐纳德·特朗普今年5月的访华之行取得成功。The US is willing to strengthen communication with China, advance cooperation, make preparations for the next stage of important high-level interactions, and build a constructive relationship of strategic stability on the basis of respect and reciprocity, the ambassador added.这位大使补充说，美方愿同中方加强沟通，推进合作，为下一阶段重要高层互动做好准备，并在相互尊重、对等相待的基础上构建具有战略稳定性的建设性关系。On behalf of the US, Perdue expressed condolences over the casualties caused by a deadly mudslide that struck the Gyirong land port along the China-Nepal border in Southwest China's Xizang autonomous region.珀杜代表美方，就中国西南部西藏自治区中尼边境吉隆口岸发生的泥石流灾害造成的人员伤亡表示慰问。Later, Perdue said in a post on social media that he had productive meetings with Chinese Foreign Ministry officials.随后，珀杜在社交媒体上发文表示，他与中国外交部官员进行了富有成效的会谈。During his trip to China in May, Trump invited President Xi Jinping to visit the US in the autumn.特朗普今年5月访华期间，曾邀请中国国家主席习近平于今年秋季访问美国。At a regular news conference on Thursday in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that China and the US are maintaining communication on the arrangement of interactions between the two heads of state within the year.在周四于北京举行的例行记者会上，中国外交部发言人林剑表示，中美双方正就年内两国元首互动的安排保持沟通。Wang's meeting with Perdue came as the US is reportedly planning to impose a 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese goods on the pretext of excess manufacturing capacity.王毅与珀杜会面之际，据报道美方正计划以所谓"产能过剩"为由，对中国输美商品加征7.5%的关税。Huang Ling, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday that the US, citing "overcapacity", has initiated an investigation against 16 economies, including China, under Section 301 of its Trade Act of 1974, which politicizes economic and trade issues.商务部新闻发言人黄玲周四表示，美方以所谓"产能过剩"为由，依据其1974年《贸易法》第301条款，对包括中国在内的16个经济体发起调查，这一做法使经贸问题政治化。The US-China Business Council released its annual member survey report in June, indicating that 95 percent of respondents considered China to be "somewhat" to "very important" for maintaining global competitiveness.美中贸易全国委员会今年6月发布年度会员调查报告显示，95%的受访企业认为，中国市场对于维持其全球竞争力"较为重要"乃至"非常重要"。The survey also found that US tariffs continue to increase costs for its own citizens, while the country's export controls unnecessarily undermine US businesses.调查还发现，美国关税持续推高本国民众的生活成本，而美方出口管制措施则在不必要地损害美国企业的利益。Around half of the affected US companies are losing sales to Chinese or international competitors, leading to lost market share in many cases, the report said, adding that the curbs failed to achieve their purported goal of denying China access to key technologies.报告显示，约半数受影响的美国企业正因中国或其他国际竞争对手而流失销售份额，导致其在许多情况下市场份额下滑；报告还指出，这些限制措施并未达到所谓阻止中国获取关键技术的预期目标。Craig Allen, former president of the US-China Business Council and a nonresident senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis, said Chinese investors in the US play a very important role in local economic stability.美中贸易全国委员会前会长、亚洲协会政策研究院中国分析中心非常驻高级研究员克雷格·艾伦表示，在美中国投资者对当地经济稳定发挥着十分重要的作用。"In my view, the largest growth areas are probably in the services industries, also probably any industry touched by AI (artificial intelligence). But I think that there's room for growth across the board," Allen said in a recent interview with Chinese media.艾伦在近期接受中国媒体采访时表示："在我看来，增长潜力最大的领域可能是服务业，此外，任何受到人工智能影响的行业也可能存在很大增长空间。不过我认为，各个领域都还有增长的余地。""We want to see more enthusiastic trade and investment going both ways across the Pacific Ocean.""我们希望看到更加活跃的贸易与投资在太平洋两岸双向流动。"hurdle /ˈhɜːrdl/ n.障碍，难关disruption /dɪsˈrʌpʃən/ n.干扰，扰乱high-level exchange /haɪ ˈlevəl ɪksˈtʃeɪndʒ/ n.高层交往consensus /kənˈsensəs/ n.共识strategic stability /strəˈtiːdʒɪk stəˈbɪləti/ n.战略稳定性condolence /kənˈdoʊləns/ n.慰问，哀悼productive meeting /prəˈdʌktɪv ˈmiːtɪŋ/ n.富有成效的会谈regular news conference /ˈreɡjələr nuːz ˈkɒnfərəns/ n.例行记者会tariff /ˈtærɪf/ n.关税excess manufacturing capacity /ɪkˈses ˌmænjuˈfæktʃərɪŋ kəˈpæsəti/ n.过剩制造产能overcapacity /ˌoʊvərkəˈpæsəti/ n.产能过剩politicize /pəˈlɪtɪsaɪz/ v.使政治化

President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out rescue and relief efforts after a mudslide on Wednesday in Nepal caused heavy casualties and left many people missing at a border port in the Xizang autonomous region.8月26日，尼泊尔境内发生的一场泥石流造成重大人员伤亡，并致使西藏自治区一处边境口岸多人失踪，国家主席习近平作出重要指示，要求全力开展搜救救援工作。Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the instruction after the mudslide struck the Gyirong border port, a major land port linking China and Nepal, in Shigatse at around 10:30 am, according to Xinhua News Agency.据新华社报道，泥石流于当日上午10时30分许袭击了西藏日喀则市境内、连接中尼两国的重要陆路口岸——吉隆口岸，中共中央总书记、国家主席、中央军委主席习近平就此作出上述指示。As of 8 pm on Wednesday, at least three people had been killed and 265 others remained missing, CCTV News quoted local authorities as saying.据央视新闻援引当地政府消息，截至8月26日晚8时，灾害已造成至少3人遇难，265人失联。The president stressed that the top priority now is to make every possible effort to search for and rescue missing people, evacuate residents at risk and provide timely medical treatment to the injured.习近平强调，当前首要任务是全力搜寻救援失联人员，转移安置受威胁群众，及时救治受伤人员。He also underlined efforts to strengthen monitoring and early warning, carry out rescue work in a scientific manner and prevent secondary disasters.他还强调，要加强监测预警，科学有序开展救援工作，严防发生次生灾害。Noting that the country is at a critical stage of flood control, Xi emphasized that all local authorities and relevant departments should prepare for worst-case scenarios and extreme situations, and earnestly implement measures for flood and typhoon prevention.习近平指出，当前正值我国防汛关键期，各地区各部门要立足最不利情况、做最坏打算，切实抓好各项防汛防台风措施落实。They must also step up efforts to identify and defuse potential risks and hazards, resolutely prevent serious and major disasters and accidents, and effectively protect people's lives and property, he said.他表示，要加大风险隐患排查整治力度，坚决防范遏制重特大灾害事故发生，切实保障人民群众生命财产安全。Premier Li Qiang has ordered prompt efforts to verify the number of people missing and affected, conduct all-out relief operations and evacuate people at risk.国务院总理李强作出批示，要求抓紧核实失联和受灾人员情况，全力开展救援救灾工作，转移安置受威胁群众。He urged the Foreign Ministry to strengthen communication and coordination with relevant countries to share information in a timely manner and work together to properly handle rescue and relief efforts.他要求外交部加强与有关国家的沟通协调，及时通报情况，共同做好救援救灾相关工作。Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing has led a team to the site to guide rescue and response efforts.国务院副总理张国清已率工作组赶赴现场，指导救援处置工作。Video footage released by China Central Television showed muddy water gushing, carrying tree branches and debris, and some buildings were buried as the mudslide struck.中央电视台发布的视频画面显示，泥石流暴发时，浑浊的洪水裹挟着树枝和杂物汹涌而下，部分建筑物被掩埋。Meanwhile, the disaster has cut off roads, communication networks and power supplies at the border port area on the Chinese side, Xinhua reported.新华社报道称，此次灾害还导致中方一侧口岸区域道路、通信网络及电力供应中断。In the wake of the disaster, China has activated a Level-II emergency response for disaster relief and a Level-II emergency response for geological disasters, the second-highest in the country's four-tier emergency response system.灾害发生后，中国启动了救灾二级应急响应和地质灾害二级应急响应，这是中国四级应急响应体系中第二高的响应级别。Governments at all levels have responded with immediate measures, making every effort to carry out disaster relief as well as search and rescue operations.各级政府已迅速采取应对措施，全力开展抢险救灾及搜救工作。Three central government departments — the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Emergency Management and the National Development and Reform Commission — have altogether allocated 220 million yuan ($33 million) to support Xizang in carrying out emergency rescue and disaster relief work.财政部、应急管理部、国家发展和改革委员会三部门已累计下拨2.2亿元人民币（约合3300万美元）资金，支持西藏开展应急救援和灾害救助工作。The Ministry of Emergency Management has deployed 249 personnel from the national comprehensive fire and rescue force, along with 325 engineering rescue personnel from China Anneng Construction Group, PowerChina and other centrally administered State-owned enterprises.应急管理部已调派国家综合性消防救援队伍249名指战员，以及中国安能建设集团、中国电力建设集团等中央企业325名工程救援人员参与救援。A total of 30,000 central relief items, including tents, stoves, clothing and quilts, folding beds and moisture-proof mats, have been sent to support the evacuation, resettlement and relief work.中央已调拨帐篷、炉具、衣被、折叠床、防潮垫等各类救灾物资共计3万件，用于支持转移安置和救灾工作。At the local level, as of Wednesday afternoon, the Xizang Fire and Rescue Corps had deployed 72 vehicles and 431 fire and rescue personnel at the site, equipped with rescue dogs, life detectors, assault boats and other rescue equipment.在地方层面，截至8月26日下午，西藏消防救援总队已调派72台车辆、431名消防救援人员奔赴现场，并配备搜救犬、生命探测仪、冲锋舟等救援装备。Five repair workers from the State Grid Xizang Electric Power Co — the first group of emergency power repair personnel to arrive at the site — rushed there with a medium-voltage power generator vehicle and two small emergency lamps, and started work to ensure basic power supply and lighting for nighttime rescue operations.国网西藏电力有限公司5名抢修人员作为首批抵达现场的应急电力抢修队伍，携带一台中压发电车和两盏小型应急照明灯赶赴现场，随即投入工作，确保夜间救援行动的基本供电和照明需求。The local meteorological bureau has forecast continued rainfall across the county of Gyirong from Wednesday evening through Sunday, warning of possible floods, landslides and other secondary disasters in low-lying areas.当地气象部门预报，吉隆县自8月26日晚间起至8月30日将持续降雨，并警示低洼地区可能发生洪水、山体滑坡等次生灾害。border port /ˈbɔːrdər pɔːrt/ n.边境口岸land port /lænd pɔːrt/ n.陆路口岸missing /ˈmɪsɪŋ/ adj.失踪的，失联的evacuate /ɪˈvækjueɪt/ v.转移，撤离at-risk residents /æt rɪsk ˈrezɪdənts/ n.受威胁群众early warning /ˈɜːrli ˈwɔːrnɪŋ/ n.预警secondary disaster /ˈsekənderi dɪˈzæstər/ n.次生灾害flood control /flʌd kənˈtroʊl/ n.防汛worst-case scenario /wɜːrst keɪs sɪˈnɛrioʊ/ n.最不利情形，最坏打算typhoon prevention /taɪˈfuːn prɪˈvenʃən/ n.防台风defuse /diːˈfjuːz/ v.化解，排除（风险）hazard /ˈhæzərd/ n.隐患，危险因素

Chinese lawmakers started reviewing on Tuesday a draft law aimed at combating cross-border corruption as part of a broader initiative to strengthen legal tools for repatriating fugitives, recovering assets and addressing corruption cases with international cooperation.中国立法机关8月25日开始审议一份旨在打击跨境腐败的法律草案，这是加强法治工具以遣返逃犯、追缴资产及通过国际合作处理腐败案件的一项更广泛举措的一部分。The draft was submitted for its first reading to the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.该法律草案已提交正在举行的全国人大常委会会议进行首次审议。全国人大是中国的最高立法机关。With six chapters and 47 articles, the draft outlines the principles, scope and key positions underpinning China's efforts to tackle cross-border corruption. It defines the operational mechanisms and responsibilities of relevant departments, calling for stronger case handling and international cooperation.草案共六章四十七条，明确了中国打击跨境腐败的基本原则、适用范围和关键定位，界定了相关部门的运行机制和职责，要求加强案件办理和国际合作。The draft also clarifies the obligations of enterprises regarding integrity and compliance, and specifies legal liabilities for violations. Specific provisions included in the draft are currently under review and have not been made public.草案还明确了企业在廉洁合规方面的义务，并规定了违法违规的法律责任。草案的具体条款目前正在审议中，尚未对外公布。Liu Jinguo, head of the National Commission of Supervision, who introduced the draft to lawmakers on Tuesday, said the legislation involves strategic implementation of the central leadership's plans to fight cross-border corruption.国家监察委员会主任刘金国8月25日向立法机关介绍草案时表示，该立法涉及中央领导层打击跨境腐败规划的战略实施。It serves as a vital step toward establishing a comprehensive legal framework for addressing foreign-related corruption issues, he said.他表示，这是朝着建立处理涉外腐败问题全面法律框架迈出的重要一步。Liu emphasized that making such a law is of great importance in filling the legislative gap in China's cross-border anti-corruption framework, improving the foreign-related anti-corruption legal system, and advancing legislative efforts against cross-border corruption through the rule of law.刘金国强调，制定这样一部法律对于填补中国跨境反腐败框架的立法空白、完善涉外反腐败法律体系、以法治方式推进跨境反腐败立法工作具有重要意义。The legislation also highlights China's firm stance against corruption, and is crucial for safeguarding national security and development interests, he added.他补充说，该立法还彰显了中国坚决反腐败的立场，对维护国家安全和发展利益至关重要。Liu noted that the draft law is a practical measure to regulate the healthy development of enterprises operating internationally and to foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized.刘金国指出，该法律草案是规范国际化经营企业健康发展、营造市场化、法治化、国际化一流营商环境的重要举措。China is a major trading partner for more than 160 countries and regions, and it has signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations.中国是160多个国家和地区的主要贸易伙伴，已与150多个国家和30多个国际组织签署了共建“一带一路”合作文件。With more than 50,000 Chinese enterprises operating overseas, the scale of overseas assets is rapidly expanding, according to a statement released on Tuesday by the National Commission of Supervision. In this context, building a clean, integrity-based business environment is critical for expanding China's trade footprint, supporting Chinese companies amid global competition and advancing the Belt and Road Initiative, the statement said.据国家监察委员会8月25日发布的一份声明，目前有5万多家中国企业在海外运营，海外资产规模正在迅速扩大。声明称，在此背景下，营造廉洁、诚信的营商环境，对于扩大中国贸易版图、支持中国企业在全球竞争中立足以及推进“一带一路”倡议至关重要。Liu said that by clarifying the compliance obligations of cross-border enterprises and enhancing regulatory oversight, the legislation helps to guide overseas Chinese businesses to operate legally, compliantly, and with integrity.刘金国表示，该法律通过明确跨境企业的合规义务并加强监管，有助于引导中国海外企业合法、合规、诚信经营。He acknowledged the complexity and challenges of the anti-corruption battle, noting that corrupt actors are employing increasingly sophisticated and concealed methods, and that the cross-border nature of corruption is intensifying, with domestic and offshore corruption becoming more interconnected.他承认反腐败斗争的复杂性和挑战性，指出腐败分子手段日益复杂隐蔽，腐败的跨境特征日益突出，境内腐败与境外腐败相互交织的趋势更加明显。Liu said it is necessary to codify experiences and practices developed in the cross-border corruption battle since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, considering that the current rules in this regard are dispersed across various laws, with no systematic procedures for critical issues such as sharing case leads, reporting corruption, collaborating with foreign authorities on investigations and prosecutions, or tracking fugitives and recovering assets.刘金国表示，有必要将2012年中共十八大以来在跨境反腐败斗争中积累的经验和做法加以制度化，因为目前这方面的规定分散于多部法律之中，在案件线索共享、腐败举报、与外国执法机构开展调查和起诉合作、追逃追赃等关键问题上缺乏系统性的程序安排。Zhang Lei, a professor of law at Beijing Normal University, underscored the importance of this legislative effort. “It clearly shows that China's commitment to combating corruption is steadfast and unwavering,” Zhang said.北京师范大学法学院教授张磊（音译）强调了这一立法努力的重要性。“这清楚地表明，中国打击腐败的决心坚定不移、毫不动摇，”张磊说。The drafting of the law will enrich legal tools available for addressing foreign-related corruption cases and further fostering international cooperation, he added.他补充说，该法律的制定将丰富处理涉外腐败案件的法律工具，并进一步促进国际合作。underpinning /ˌʌndəˈpɪnɪŋ/支撑，巩固integrity and compliance /ɪnˈteɡrəti ənd kəmˈplaɪəns/廉洁合规National Commission of Supervision /ˈnæʃənəl kəˈmɪʃən əv ˌsuːpəˈvɪʒən/国家监察委员会strategic implementation /strəˈtiːdʒɪk ˌɪmplɪmenˈteɪʃən/战略实施comprehensive legal framework /ˌkɒmprɪˈhensɪv ˈliːɡəl ˈfreɪmwɜːk/全面法律框架foreign-related corruption /ˈfɒrɪn rɪˈleɪtɪd kəˈrʌpʃən/涉外腐败market-oriented /ˈmɑːkɪt ˈɔːrientɪd/市场化的law-based /lɔː beɪst/法治化的

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We've launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Brightlooks at how the Supreme Court's decision ending Chevron deference changes the way lawyers should research and evaluate Treasury regulations, IRS guidance, and other federal tax authorities.Take the course and earn CLE credit at cle.minimumcomp.com.This Day in Legal History: Communist Control ActOn August 24, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Communist Control Act, a law that did something extraordinary in a country built around the First Amendment: it effectively outlawed a political party. The Act declared the Communist Party of the United States an instrument of a conspiracy to overthrow the government. It stripped it of “all rights, privileges, and immunities” available to legal organizations, and made knowing membership in the party potentially criminal.Perhaps more remarkable is how little resistance any of this encountered. This was the height of the McCarthy era, when the political cost of appearing insufficiently hostile to communism was enormous. The bill passed the Senate 79-0 and the House 265-2. Those margins tell you something important about the moment: liberals and conservatives alike had strong incentives to demonstrate their anti-communist bona fides, and almost no one had much incentive to be the person standing up for the constitutional rights of communists. Eisenhower signed the bill, and, at least on paper, an American political party ceased to have any legal existence.The significance of August 24, 1954 is mostly as a lesson in what happens to civil liberties when they are placed under enough political pressure—and in the messier ways our constitutional system often corrects itself. The Communist Control Act was constitutionally dubious from the start; punishing someone for just belonging to a political organization runs directly into the freedoms of speech and association. But the law was rarely enforced, courts largely avoided confronting its most sweeping provisions head-on, and it gradually withered into a stricture approaching a dead letter, though it technically remains on the books. Later Supreme Court decisions made considerably clearer that the government can't punish mere association or abstract advocacy, as opposed to incitement to imminent lawless action.That makes this a fitting anniversary for a day when we also have a story about protesters sentenced for their political activity. The point captured in today's opening quote from Justice Brandeis is easy to endorse when the speaker and the cause are popular. The real test of the freedom to think and speak as you will comes when neither is.A federal judge has struck down one of the administration's broader immigration policies, vacating a State Department decision that suspended immigrant visa processing for applicants from 75 countries.The policy, announced in January, halted immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries—including Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and Somalia—on the theory that applicants from those countries were likely to require public assistance. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan called the policy “patently unlawful,” but the interesting part of the decision is less the rhetoric than the relatively straightforward statutory problem she identified: Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not have the power Congress gave someone else.Federal immigration law expressly limits the Secretary of State's authority over how consular officers process immigrant visas. The administration therefore could not use the Secretary's general authority to accomplish something Congress had specifically placed beyond his reach. It is a theme we have seen repeatedly this summer: not some enormous constitutional confrontation over presidential power, but the considerably more mundane question of whether the executive branch can point to a statute that actually authorizes what it is doing.Vargas's order also does more than stop the policy going forward. She vacated visa denials based solely on the suspended-processing policy, meaning applicants who were turned away under it can have their applications reconsidered. The lawsuit was brought by immigrant-rights organizations, visa applicants, and U.S. citizens seeking visas for family members.The broader point is that immigration and foreign affairs may be areas in which the executive branch enjoys substantial discretion, but discretion is not the same thing as unlimited authority. The government still needs to identify where Congress gave it the power it claims to possess. Here, the court concluded Congress had done essentially the opposite.US judge strikes down policy suspending immigrant visa processing for 75 nations | ReutersWashington Post · Al JazeeraSeven pro-Palestinian protesters who shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in 2024 have now been sentenced, and the result is a useful little illustration of how the law handles civil disobedience.The seven were among 26 protesters who drove onto the bridge in April 2024, stopped their vehicles, and chained themselves together to protest the war in Gaza, blocking traffic for hours. They were convicted in July of misdemeanor false imprisonment, obstruction of a thoroughfare, and unlawful assembly. On Friday, they were sentenced to 30 days in jail—with an option that could cut that time in half—along with six months of probation and roughly $1,000 in fines and restitution.The First Amendment line here is not especially mysterious. Protest is protected; physically preventing other people from leaving is not. That is the significance of the false-imprisonment charge: motorists were stuck on a bridge with nowhere else to go. You can stand alongside the road holding a sign. You do not acquire a First Amendment right to chain the road shut merely because your reason for doing it is political.But the sentence is interesting in the other direction. The defendants potentially faced years in prison and received 30 days, while prosecutors dropped the most serious felony conspiracy charge after the jury deadlocked on it. That gap illustrates just how much calibration occurs after we decide that conduct is criminal. Prosecutors and judges can recognize both that the protesters deliberately interfered with the rights of hundreds of other people and that they did so as part of nonviolent political expression rather than for personal gain or predatory purposes.That is more or less how a legal system metabolizes civil disobedience: the political motivation does not erase the underlying offense, but neither must the law pretend that motivation is irrelevant when deciding how severely to punish it. On the anniversary of the Communist Control Act, it is an especially useful reminder that the legal treatment of dissent rarely comes down to a simple choice between “protected” and “illegal.” Much of the real work happens in between.Pro-Palestinian protesters sentenced over blocking Golden Gate Bridge traffic | ReutersKQED · Mission LocalAnd finally, TikTok and parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle the Justice Department's lawsuit accusing the platform of violating federal children's privacy law—an enormous number for a case built around a statute passed before TikTok, or really modern social media, existed.The Justice Department filed the lawsuit in 2024 on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that TikTok allowed millions of children under 13 to create accounts without their parents' knowledge or consent and then made it unnecessarily difficult for parents to have those accounts deleted. The statute at issue is COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, which generally requires online services covered by the law to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.There is an especially interesting wrinkle in how the $400 million settlement is structured. TikTok will pay $300 million now and another $100 million once a court vacates an earlier consent decree entered against Musical.ly, TikTok's predecessor. That matters because this is not the first time the platform has encountered the government over children's privacy. Musical.ly had already been penalized over COPPA violations, and the government's latest case alleged that the problems continued afterward.TikTok is settling without admitting wrongdoing and says it has made substantial changes to its age controls and parental-oversight systems. But whatever one thinks of the underlying allegations, $400 million is a fairly substantial reminder that COPPA is not merely a disclosure statute sitting around from the early Internet.And this case fits into the larger fight over children and social media from a somewhat different direction than the addiction and product-design litigation we have been following. Those cases ask what platforms may design for children and what harms those designs may cause. COPPA asks the considerably less glamorous but foundational question that comes before all of that: who gets to collect information about children in the first place, and on what terms? Four hundred million dollars suggests the government still thinks the answer matters quite a bit.US Justice Department, TikTok settle $400 million children's privacy suit | ReutersAxios · Justice Department This is a public episode. 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Why does a kettle cost less than ten pounds?What kind of official refuses to send the army against protesters in one decade, then puts thirty million people out of work in the next?And when the man who built modern China spent his last twenty years saying nothing at all, what was he saying?Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch disagree, at length and on the record, about whether the architect of the modern cheap economy was brave or simply ruthless.Zhu Rongji died in Beijing in August, aged 97. Outside China his name means very little. Inside China, and inside every container ship leaving Ningbo, it means a great deal. He trained as an electrical engineer, was expelled from the Communist Party for speaking approvingly of economic reform in Hungary and Yugoslavia, spent five years doing manual labour during the Cultural Revolution, and came back to run Shanghai. In 1989 he refused to send the army against the city's protesters and went on television to talk them down instead. Then, as premier, he dismantled the iron rice bowl and cost somewhere between thirty and forty million people their jobs. Peter thinks that took nerve. Afua thinks ruthless and callous are the better words. Neither quite talks the other round.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fm[0:00] Three deaths in eight weeks, in Havana, Washington and Beijing — and why the deputy often tells you more[4:30] Zhu Rongji, dead at 97, and why a kettle costs less than ten pounds[6:08] Expelled from the Party, then five years of manual labour[8:38] Shanghai, 1989: the man who would not send in the army[11:47] Grasping the large, letting go of the small — and the end of the iron rice bowl[17:00] Brave or callous? Peter and Afua fail to agreeStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.comJoin Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Proletarian TV | 3 August 2026 Ranjeet Bar, general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (ML), speaks at our international celebration on Saturday 25th July 2026. In his eloquent and insightful message, he touches upon the true history of the great historical events of 26th and 27th July 1953: the Attack on Moncada and Victory in the Korean Fatherland War. He recounts their true history and how that is distorted today. And he draws out the relevance to the global situation, of capitalist crisis, escalating war, resurgent Fascism, genocidal Zionism and the wars of the Anglo American imperialists to further conquer and suppress the world by force. As well as the heroic resistance of the Socialist nations of the DPR Korea, and tiny but defiant Socialist Cuba, Ranjeet pays tribute to the Palestinian people, the Axis of Resistance in the middle East, and in particular the Iranian and Russian people, who are engaged in an existential fight for survival against the aggressive wars launched by our Labour government on behalf of the British capitalist ruling class and their US imperialist partners in crime. The British workers must stand in with all peoples in struggle. As our capitalist ruling class is driven toward global war to keep its moribund and crisis ridden system alive, the only answer to the troubles of the working people is to break all ties with the imperialist Labour Party and finish it entirely. Only then will a really mass party of the working class, taking an independent political line in the interests of the working masses in Britain and of the wider world be possible. We must learn to turn - as Fidel so ably did, in his trial after Moncada - the repressive apparatus of the state into a trial of the repressive, unjust and monstrously inhuman capitalist system itself. We must strip our ruling class of all legitimacy in the eyes of the British workers and demonstrate to them that their true interests do not lie among the path of continuing colonial war, genocide, ultra-nationalism, racism, deepening poverty and destruction. But that another future: a bright, cooperative, equal, hopeful and just socialist future, is possible and within our grasp. Our demands most moderate are: we only want the earth! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! www.thecommunists.org www.lalkar.org www.redyouth.org Telegram: t.me/thecommunists Twitter: twitter.com/cpgbml Soundcloud: @proletarianradio Rumble: rumble.com/c/theCommunists Odysee: odysee.com/@proletariantv:2 Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpgbml Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/ Education Program: https://thecommunists.org/education-programme/ Each one teach one! www.londonworker.org/education-programme/ Join the struggle www.thecommunists.org/join/ Donate: www.thecommunists.org/donate/

The remains of former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji were cremated in Beijing on Tuesday.President Xi Jinping and other senior Party and State leaders, including Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi and Han Zheng, bade farewell to Zhu at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in the morning.Amid solemn music, they walked slowly toward Zhu's remains and stood in silent tribute.They then paid their final respects with three bows and shook hands with Zhu's family members. Hu Jintao sent a wreath to express his condolences over Zhu's passing.Zhu died of illness on Aug 12 in Beijing at the age of 98. He had served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 14th and 15th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China.To mourn his death, national flags flew at half-staff on Tuesday at Tian'anmen Square, Xinhuamen, the Great Hall of the People and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, in seats of CPC committees and governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, at land ports, seaports and airports, and at Chinese embassies and consulates.Zhu was extolled in an official obituary as an excellent Party member, a time-tested and loyal communist fighter, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the Party and the State.Zhu, who was born in October 1928 in Changsha, Hunan province, joined the CPC in October 1949.During his tenure as vice-premier and premier of the State Council, China's Cabinet, between 1991 and 2003, the country was in a critical period of transition — from a planned economy to a socialist market economy.Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Jiang Zemin at its core, Zhu organized and implemented a series of major reforms, promoting the establishment of the basic framework for a socialist market economy.Zhu spearheaded reform of the fiscal and taxation systems, actively promoted the reform of the financial system, carried out the reform of State-owned enterprises, and pushed for the establishment of a unified, regulated and comprehensive framework for the social security system.He oversaw the completion of the arduous negotiations for China's accession to the World Trade Organization, and advanced the country's opening-up in both scope and depth.Zhu also advanced China's housing reform, gradually replacing the allocation of housing to employees with monetary housing benefits.He had deep affection for the people and emphasized that government officials should always bear in mind that they are public servants, have the courage to speak the truth and refrain from seeking special privileges.Zhu's life was a revolutionary, fighting and glorious one, the obituary said, adding that his death is a great loss to the Party and the State.

This episode, we examine the 1925 Federated Seaman's Union Strike. We also discuss some key state elections, such as the 1925 NSW election which saw Jack Lang become Premier for the first time and the Communist Party of Australia contest its first election. Finally, we talk about the 1925 Federal election, the splitting of the Northern Territory, and more across 1925 and 1926.

Amid record numbers of new university graduates and a persistent labor mismatch across China, a fast-growing number of degree holders are turning to vocational training to acquire practical workplace skills, plugging long-standing gaps between theoretical university learning and on-the-job requirements.全国高校毕业生规模创历史新高，劳动力供需错配问题长期存在。越来越多拥有本科学历的毕业生选择参加职业培训，习得职场实用技能，弥补高校理论学习与岗位实操要求之间长期存在的鸿沟。The shift is epitomized by 26-year-old Liu Wenhao, who holds an environmental design degree. His first jobs in interior design in Qingdao, Shandong province, paid under 3,000 yuan ($445) a month, and despite cycling through five employers in a single year, he saw virtually no pay growth. He repeatedly confronted real-world work demands unaddressed by his university education, including being tasked single-handedly with designing a 300-square-meter apartment.26岁的刘文浩便是这一转变的典型代表，他本科专业为环境设计。他早年在山东青岛从事室内设计，首份工作月薪不足3000元（折合445美元）；一年内接连换了五家公司，薪资却几乎毫无涨幅。工作中屡屡遇到大学课程未曾覆盖的实操难题，比如独立完成一套300平米住宅的全套设计。To break his career stagnation, Liu enrolled at Qingdao Technicians College in 2024 in a multimedia training program, a sector booming as social media reshapes corporate communications and brand outreach. His newly acquired practical skills were in such strong demand that he left the two-year program early last year to take a corporate communications role at a local manufacturing plant, with his monthly income increasing to 5,000 yuan.为打破职业发展瓶颈，刘文浩2024年进入青岛市技师学院，报读多媒体专业培训。随着社交媒体重塑企业宣传与品牌推广模式，多媒体行业迎来快速发展。他习得的实操技能市场紧俏，于是去年提前结业，入职当地一家制造企业负责品牌宣传，月薪涨到5000元。"A degree only gets you through the door. What matters afterward is your actual ability," Liu said.刘文浩表示：“学历只是入职敲门砖，真正决定发展上限的是实操能力。”With the number of college graduates nationwide reaching a historic high of 12.7 million this year, vocational "retraining" has evolved from individual career adjustment into a notable social trend, fueled in part by national policy priorities aimed at resolving China's stubborn labor supply-demand imbalance.今年全国高校毕业生规模达到1270万的历史峰值。职业技能回炉培训已从个人职业调整手段，演变为显著社会风潮，国家出台多项重点政策，着力破解长期难以化解的劳动力供需失衡问题，进一步助推这一趋势。During a 2024 study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, identified the mismatch between graduate talent supply and industrial skills demand as the country's foremost employment challenge. He called for adjustments to academic programs and resource allocation in higher education, enhancements to vocational education and improvements in lifelong vocational skills training.2024年，中共二十届中央政治局开展集体学习，习近平总书记指出，高校人才供给与产业技能需求错配是我国就业领域首要难题。总书记提出，要优化高等教育专业设置与资源配置，做强职业教育，完善终身职业技能培训体系。Authorities have moved swiftly to implement these directives, restructuring university course offerings and resource distribution, modernizing vocational training infrastructure and expanding subsidized skill-upgrading programs.各地各部门迅速落实相关部署：调整高校专业布局与资源分配，升级职业培训实训硬件，扩大政府补贴式技能提升培训覆盖面。Official figures show the government delivered 11.53 million subsidized vocational training sessions in 2025 alone, part of a broader push to align graduate capabilities with industrial needs.官方数据显示，仅2025年，政府补贴开展的职业培训累计达1153万人次，这也是全国统筹推进毕业生能力适配产业发展的重要举措。Findings from a 2025 survey covering 105 technician schools show that between 2023 and 2025, the number of schools running courses targeted at college graduates rose from 26 to 45, with total enrollment increasing from 1,821 to 2462.2025年一项覆盖105所技师学院的调研显示：2023至2025年间，开设高校毕业生专项技能班的院校数量从26所增至45所，参训总人数从1821人提升至2462人。Growth is particularly robust among learners with higher academic credentials. Institutions offering retraining for holders of bachelor's degrees and higher jumped 75 percent, from 16 to 28, and enrollment in these programs climbed from 401 to 570 participants.高学历参训群体增长势头尤为迅猛。面向本科及以上学历人群开设回炉课程的院校数量大涨75%，从16所增至28所；对应参训人数从401人升至570人。While highly educated retrainees still account for a modest share of overall vocational students, their rapid growth rate signals fast-rising demand for practical skill upgrades among China's university-educated workforce, experts say.专家表示，尽管高学历回炉学员在全部职校学生中占比仍不高，但其增速迅猛，说明国内本科就业群体对实操技能提升的需求正在快速攀升。National and local policymakers have rolled out targeted initiatives to accelerate the trend.中央及各地政府陆续推出专项扶持举措，持续推动这一发展趋势。In April last year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launched a nationwide campaign encouraging vocational colleges to open specialized training tracks for university graduates.去年4月，人社部启动全国专项行动，引导各类职业院校开设面向高校毕业生的专属技能培训赛道。The push comes amid acute industry-wide talent shortages. The ministry estimated that China was facing a skilled-labor shortage of 4.5 million in smart manufacturing alone by the end of last year.该行动出台的背景是全行业技能人才缺口突出。人社部测算，截至去年年底，仅智能制造领域，我国技能人才缺口就达450万。To address this, Beijing plans a two-year program this year at six technician colleges in smart manufacturing, multimedia and auto repair.为补齐人才短板，北京今年启动为期两年的专项培养计划，依托六所技师学院开设智能制造、多媒体、汽车维修三大方向培训班。Jiangsu province, a manufacturing powerhouse on China's eastern coast, plans to launch 20 such classes this year in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and modern services.东部制造业大省江苏，计划今年开设20个同类专项培训班，覆盖人工智能、先进制造、现代服务业领域。Vocational educators witness this academic-practical skill divide firsthand. Lu Weiyang, an instructor at a Guangzhou technician college that began offering one-year skills programs to graduates last year, sees the gap daily. Undergraduates arrive with theoretical knowledge but weak hands-on skills — a gap he considers bridgeable. They learn faster, he said, thanks to stronger self-learning and comprehension.职教一线教师直观感受到理论知识与实操能力之间的断层。广州一所技师学院自去年开设一年制毕业生技能专班，教师卢伟阳每天都能见到这类差距：本科生理论基础扎实，但动手实操薄弱，而这一短板完全可以通过培训补齐。他表示，本科生自学与理解能力更强，技能学习速度更快。"Students with an undergraduate background have the ability to extrapolate — they can deduce the next steps after a bit of guidance," he said.他说：“本科毕业生具备知识推演能力，稍加点拨就能举一反三，推导出后续操作流程。”Teaching such mixed cohorts — some with relevant degrees, others from unrelated fields — has required new approaches.培训班学员背景混杂，有人专业对口，有人跨专业转行，这倒逼院校创新教学模式。To accommodate these academically advanced learners, vocational institutions are revamping their teaching frameworks. Li Yang, vice-dean of the college's electromechanical equipment department, said the school has adopted custom modular courses tailored specifically for graduate retrainees.为适配高学历学员的学习特点，各职校重构教学体系。该院机电设备系副主任李阳介绍，学校专门为本科学历回炉学员定制模块化课程。"Modular training is like targeted driving test instruction — each module builds a specific practical skill," he said. Students work through separate skill blocks — electrical systems, pneumatics, installation, programming — at their own pace, focusing only on what they lack rather than repeating what they already know.他解释：“模块化培训类似驾照专项分项教学，每个模块对应一项独立实操技能。”学员分模块学习电气、气动、设备安装、编程等内容，可自主把控学习进度，只补自身短板，无需重复学习已掌握的知识。ntegrated model产教融合一体化培养模式In his speech at the 2024 study session of the Political Bureau, Xi emphasized the need for better integration of vocational and general education, industry and education, and science and education. He also highlighted the importance of allowing the market to play a decisive role in human resource allocation while ensuring that the government fulfills its supportive role.总书记在二十届中央政治局2024年集体学习讲话中强调，要推动职普融通、产教融合、科教融汇。同时要充分发挥市场在人力资源配置中的决定性作用，更好发挥政府扶持保障作用。Guangdong province, an industrial powerhouse, has emerged as a front-runner in implementing this integrated model.制造业大省广东是落地一体化培养模式的先行地区。By the end of last year, the province had built 171 industry-education-evaluation skill chains, partnering with leading companies, including Huawei, Tencent and BYD, to tailor vocational training curricula to real supply chain and industrial needs.截至去年年底，广东建成171条产教评技能产业链，联合华为、腾讯、比亚迪等龙头企业，依据产业链真实需求定制职业培训课程。For Li Shaochang, 29, a graduate of Guangzhou Electromechanical Technician College, the decision to enroll in a technician college was driven by market demand. Despite holding a degree in mold design and manufacturing from Tianjin University, one of China's most prestigious institutions, he spent five years outside his field. Observing the shift toward smart manufacturing and AI, he recognized the need for practical skills.29岁的李少昌毕业于广州机电技师学院，他选择入校学习完全出于市场需求考量。他本科就读顶尖学府天津大学模具设计与制造专业，却有五年时间从事无关行业。目睹智能制造、人工智能产业快速兴起后，他意识到实操技能不可或缺。"The technician college gives me extensive hands-on experience," he said. "That, combined with university training, is exactly what companies want."他表示：“技师学院能提供充足实操练习，再搭配大学打下的理论基础，正是企业最看重的复合能力。”The college's partnership with Guangzhou Jiafan Computer Co, an automation enterprise focused on smart manufacturing, gives students access to the same production line hardware used in the factory, with engineers teaching on campus. Li Shaochang's strong academic background earned him an early placement at Jiafan, where he joined an automated guided vehicle robotics team — a platform that combines a mobile chassis with a robotic arm for tasks like material handling and loading. His team leader was an engineer who had taught him at the college.学院与专注智能制造的自动化企业广州佳帆计算机公司深度合作，校内配备和工厂生产线同款设备，企业工程师驻校授课。李少昌凭借扎实理论基础提前入职佳帆，加入自动导引车机器人研发小组，该设备结合移动底盘与机械臂，可完成物料转运、装卸等作业，小组主管正是在校教过他的工程师。Zhang Kai, 37, holds a business administration degree from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and now oversees Jiafan's advanced skills training base. Speaking from both sides of the desk — as a manager and a student in the same program — he said the company screens for a willingness to learn and a desire for skills, not credentials.37岁的张凯拥有广东外语外贸大学工商管理学位，现任佳帆高级技能实训基地负责人。他既当过参训学员，如今又是企业管理者，他表示企业招人更看重学习意愿与实操能力，而非一纸文凭。"A bachelor's diploma shows you can handle exam pressure," he said. "But a degree plus real skills — that's where the real competitive edge lies."他说：“本科学历只能证明你具备应试学习能力，学历搭配过硬实操，才是真正的核心竞争力。”At the annual Central Economic Work Conference in December, Xi called for combining investment in physical assets with investment in human capital — a call that has since crystallized into the political catchphrase "investing in people", shorthand for upgrading the workforce through education, skills training, health and social adaptability.去年12月中央经济工作会议上，总书记提出统筹推进物质资本投入与人力资本投入，这一部署凝练为“投资于人”的重要提法，即通过教育、技能培训、健康保障、社会适应能力培育全面提升劳动者综合素养。Embodying that principle is Liu, the environmental design degree holder who enrolled at Qingdao Technicians College. He now earns more than double his previous salary, so his choice to build on his degree with vocational training has already paid off.前文提到的环境设计专业毕业生刘文浩正是这一理念的鲜活案例。如今他薪资较从前翻了一倍有余，依托学历补充职业技能的选择已经收获实实在在的回报。mismatch /ˌmɪsˈmætʃ/错配，供需失衡stagnation /stæɡˈneɪʃn/停滞，发展瓶颈modular /ˈmɒdjələ(r)/模块化的extrapolate /ɪkˈstræpəleɪt/推断，举一反三pneumatics /njuːˈmætɪks/气动技术curriculum /kəˈrɪkjələm/课程体系，教学大纲

After German reunification, former East German Air Force officer Roland faced an extraordinary transformation: joining the military alliance he had once been trained to fight. Roland recounts his difficult passage from the East German military into the Bundeswehr. His experience, qualifications and years of service suddenly counted for less. Having been a member of the Communist Party, he endured intensive screening, as well as a reduction in rank, lower pay than western colleagues and long separations from his family. Some new comrades welcomed him; others regarded him with suspicion, prejudice and open hostility. Yet Roland was determined to prove that professionalism could survive the collapse of the country he had served. From working with Mi-8 helicopters to supporting Germany's inherited MiG-29 fleet, he rebuilt his career inside a radically different military culture. This is a revealing story of reunification from inside the armed forces—and of one former “enemy” confronting divided loyalties, institutional mistrust and the challenge of beginning again. Special thanks to Witali Gerber, military historian and curator at the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, for his assistance in arranging this interview. Curated episode extras ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode469/⁠⁠⁠ Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation, You'll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link. Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/store/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION o BlueSky ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Threads ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Twitter/X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Facebook ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Youtube ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China has ample room to introduce pro-consumption policies in the second half of the year, as consumer prices maintained a moderate overall increase in July, experts said.专家表示，由于7月居民消费价格总体保持温和上涨，中国在下半年推出促消费政策仍有充足空间。The country's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 0.5 percent year-on-year last month, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 0.9 percent year-on-year.国家统计局发布的数据显示，作为衡量通胀主要指标的居民消费价格指数（CPI）上月同比上涨0.5%。扣除食品和能源价格的核心CPI同比上涨0.9%。There is considerable room for pro-consumption policies in the second half of the year, and price factors in particular will not be a major constraint on the central bank's potential interest rate cuts, said Wang Qing, chief macroeconomic analyst at Orient Golden Credit Rating International.东方金诚国际信用评估有限公司首席宏观分析师王青表示，下半年促消费政策仍有较大空间，尤其是物价因素不会对央行可能的降息形成明显制约。Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank, said he expects pro-consumption policies to be stepped up in the second half of the year, with summer vacations and the National Day holiday boosting prices in tourism, accommodation and catering services.中国民生银行首席经济学家温彬预计，下半年促消费政策将加大力度，暑假和国庆假期将带动旅游、住宿和餐饮服务价格上涨。Data show that industrial consumer goods excluding energy rose 1.5 percent year-on-year in July, slowing by 0.2 percentage points from a month earlier, contributing about 0.37 percentage points to the CPI growth.数据显示，7月扣除能源的工业消费品价格同比上涨1.5%，涨幅较上月回落0.2个百分点，对CPI涨幅贡献约0.37个百分点。Service prices increased 0.7 percent year-on-year, down by 0.1 percentage points from June, contributing about 0.36 percentage points to the CPI growth. Food prices fell 1.5 percent year-on-year, narrowing the decline by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month, dragging the CPI down by about 0.25 percentage points.服务价格同比上涨0.7%，涨幅较6月回落0.1个百分点，对CPI涨幅贡献约0.36个百分点。食品价格同比下降1.5%，降幅较上月收窄0.1个百分点，拖累CPI下降约0.25个百分点。On a month-on-month basis, the CPI edged down 0.1 percent in July, with the decline narrowing by 0.2 percentage points from the previous month.环比来看，7月CPI小幅下降0.1%，降幅较上月收窄0.2个百分点。NBS attributed the monthly decline to international market price fluctuations, which drove down domestic gasoline prices by 10.7 percent month-on-month, with the decline widening by 5.8 percentage points from June, pulling the CPI down by about 0.35 percentage points.国家统计局将环比下降归因于国际市场价格波动，导致国内汽油价格环比下降10.7%，降幅较6月扩大5.8个百分点，拉低CPI约0.35个百分点。Food prices remained flat month-on-month, 0.6 percentage points below the seasonal average. Service prices, which were flat in June, turned to a 0.4 percent monthly increase, pushing up the CPI by about 0.21 percentage points.食品价格环比持平，较季节性平均水平低0.6个百分点。服务价格由6月的持平转为环比上涨0.4%，推升CPI约0.21个百分点。The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee recently held a meeting on economic work. At the meeting, it was stressed that macro policies should be strengthened and more effective, disbursement of fiscal funds and bonds proceeds should be accelerated, and solid progress should be made in promoting large-scale equipment renewals and trade-ins of consumer goods.中共中央政治局近日召开经济工作会议。会议强调，宏观政策要更加有力有效，加快财政资金和债券资金拨付使用进度，扎实推进大规模设备更新和消费品以旧换新。The meeting also underscored the need to effectively expand domestic demand, increase the supply of quality goods and services in response to the consumption needs of different groups, and tap the potential of services consumption.会议还强调，要有效扩大国内需求，针对不同群体消费需求增加优质商品和服务供给，挖掘服务消费潜力。Local authorities have stepped up efforts to optimize trade-in policies. The southwestern city of Chongqing, for instance, has expanded its subsidy categories for home appliances and smart home products, covering nearly all aspects of daily life. Hunan province in Central China added 10 new categories to its trade-in program, including smart service robots, smart door locks, smart air purifiers and smart toilets.各地政府也在加大优化以旧换新政策的力度。例如，西南城市重庆已扩大家电和智能家居产品的补贴范围，几乎覆盖日常生活的方方面面。中部省份湖南在消费品以旧换新计划中新增了10个品类，包括智能服务机器人、智能门锁、智能空气净化器和智能马桶。NBS data also show that China's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went up 3.5 percent year-on-year in July.国家统计局数据还显示，衡量工业品出厂价格的工业生产者出厂价格指数（PPI）7月同比上涨3.5%。Wen said that China's price trend is expected to improve further as domestic demand potential continues to be released and a lower comparison base comes into play.温彬表示，随着国内需求潜力持续释放以及低基数效应显现，中国物价走势有望进一步改善。"Although the transmission of PPI recovery to CPI will entail a lag, the equipment renewal and trade-in policies will gradually lift prices of durable consumer goods such as home appliances and automobiles," Wen added.他补充说：“尽管PPI回升向CPI传导存在一定滞后，但设备更新和以旧换新政策将逐步推高家电和汽车等耐用消费品的价格。”core CPI /kɔːr siː piː aɪ/核心CPIconstraint /kənˈstreɪnt/制约因素interest rate cuts /ˈɪntrəst reɪt kʌts/降息industrial consumer goods /ɪnˈdʌstriəl kənˈsjuːmə ɡʊdz/工业消费品contributing /kənˈtrɪbjuːtɪŋ/贡献（拉动）dragging down /ˈdræɡɪŋ daʊn/拖累month-on-month /mʌnθ ɒn mʌnθ/环比edge down /edʒ daʊn/小幅下降

A.M. Edition for Aug. 13. A Journal investigation finds that thousands of North Korean operatives have landed jobs at American companies and are funneling millions of dollars back to the regime. Plus, big businesses like Apple and FedEx start reeling in hundreds of millions in tariff refunds. And the WSJ's Stu Woo details how American chatbots are towing Beijing's party line. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mark Clifford: Mark Clifford discusses the ongoing detention of British citizen and entrepreneur Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. While China recently released a Protestant pastor, Xi Jinping reportedly remains determined that Lai, a fervent Catholic and advocate for Western values, will die in prison. Clifford suggests Xi's animosity is personal, rooted in a belief that the survival of the Communist Party is paramount and that any dissent is an existential threat. Despite the UK's new leadership focusing on domestic issues, Clifford hopes the government continues to pressure Beijing for the release of its citizen. (4)

TABLE OF CONTENTS, THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 8-12-2026Michael Bernstam: Michael Bernstam discusses a critical shortage of refined products such as diesel and gasoline, noting that global supply has dropped by 8.3 million barrels per day. While crude oil is available, refining capacity in the US and Europe has declined for decades. Recent Ukrainian drone strikes have further crippled Russia's refining capabilities, forcing it to import fuel. These disruptions, along with Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, contribute to a daily deficit of 2 million barrels. Bernstam warns that consumers worldwide will face higher energy and food prices indefinitely as a result. (1)Michael Lucchese: Michael Lucchese explores the history and modern return of isolationism within American politics, particularly the Republican Party. He characterizes isolationism as a short-sighted avoidance of global affairs that often coincides with political extremism. Lucchese argues that the West is currently in a civilizational contest against an axis of revisionist powers including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. He critiques recent administrations for showing a lack of civilizational confidence, which he believes has encouraged adversaries to be more aggressive on the world stage. (2)Captain James Fanell: Captain James Fanell reports on China's escalating campaign to annex international waters east of Taiwan. For the first time, Chinese vessels are interrogating ships on the high seas, an outrageous violation of maritime norms. This aggression occurs as the US Navy is severely overstretched, with carrier deployments extending to nine months and the arsenal of democracy being depleted by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Fanell urges the US and partner navies to conduct joint maneuvers with Taiwan to counter Beijing's comprehensive national power strategy. (3)Mark Clifford: Mark Clifford discusses the ongoing detention of British citizen and entrepreneur Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. While China recently released a Protestant pastor, Xi Jinping reportedly remains determined that Lai, a fervent Catholic and advocate for Western values, will die in prison. Clifford suggests Xi's animosity is personal, rooted in a belief that the survival of the Communist Party is paramount and that any dissent is an existential threat. Despite the UK's new leadership focusing on domestic issues, Clifford hopes the government continues to pressure Beijing for the release of its citizen. (4)Charles Burton: Charles Burton provides insight into the annual Beidaihe retreat, where Chinese leaders meet secretly to decide the party's direction. This year's focus is on a failing domestic economy, including a collapsed housing market and crushing local government debt. Burton notes that Xi Jinping's limited international travel may indicate internal instability. Additionally, the discussion touches on escalating trade tensions between Canada and the US over potential tariffs and disagreements regarding the financing of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge. (5)Peter Huessy: Peter Huessy examines the fragile state of nuclear deterrence as Russia conducts drills for tactical nuclear weapons. He warns that the US is behind the eight ball regarding theater nuclear options, possessing only gravity bombs while Russia maintains thousands of short-range weapons. Huessy fears Putin may use these weapons for blackmail if he perceives a conventional loss in Ukraine. He advocates for the rapid modernization of the US nuclear triad, specifically calling for sea-launched cruise missiles to restore a credible deterrent against reckless adversaries. (6)Cliff May: Cliff May argues that Islamism is not being studied with the rigor that communism once received during the Cold War. He observes that many university Middle East studies departments, funded by foreign interests such as Qatar, have become Islamist adjacent. May highlights a recent Senate hearing on the Muslim Brotherhood where most senators failed to attend, fearing accusations of Islamophobia. This willful determination to ignore history allows the red-green alliance of far-left activists and Islamists to grow, posing a significant threat to democratic values. (7)Admiral Mark Montgomery: Admiral Mark Montgomery details the growing cyber and hybrid warfare cooperation within the axis of aggressors: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. This cooperation often involves criminal actors sharing attack techniques and technology to target critical infrastructure. Montgomery warns of new generation warfare, including terrorist acts, jamming, and disinformation. He specifically points to China's Volt Typhoon program, which has installed malware in US rail, water, and energy systems. Montgomery urges an all-hands-on-deck approach to secure essential systems, as attribution for these ghost-like attacks remains difficult. (8)Simon Constable: Simon Constable reports on rising commodity prices, with Brent crude reaching $89 per barrel and European gas prices surging 18 percent. He discusses the recent change in UK government, where new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to focus almost exclusively on domestic issues. Constable also touches on the results of a longevity quiz, noting that average life expectancy in the US has reached 79 years. Finally, the conversation addresses unusual political rhetoric in Britain regarding the monarchy and the impact of extreme weather and wildfires across Europe. (9)Bob Zimmerman: Bob Zimmerman discusses the progress of commercial space ventures, highlighting Rocket Lab's new contract for its reusable Neutron rocket. He explains how companies such as SpaceX are developing recoverable capsules for in-space manufacturing, including pharmaceuticals. Zimmerman also notes a recent Chinese rocket failure, which was transparently reported only because of local live-streamers. Additionally, India is attempting to transfer control of its spaceports to the private sector to foster competition. Despite opposition from fake environmental activist groups, Zimmerman remains optimistic about the future of private-sector space exploration. (10)One correction applied: the raw had "Vault Typhoon" — the PRC infrastructure intrusion campaign is Volt Typhoon. Also still open from the prior batch: Hu Chunhua and Mohammad Reza Tavakoli.Across both batches, four threads run through nearly every segment.The axis as a working system, not a slogan. Chinese and Russian materiel moving to Iran (Holt), Iranian resupply of the Houthis (Fitton-Brown), Hezbollah's Syrian pipeline (Daoud), and Montgomery's cyber cooperation among all four — the same four capitals appear in Lucchese's civilizational contest and Montgomery's shared attack techniques. The story is no longer four separate adversaries but one logistics and learning network.Pauses as rearmament. Haqqani, Daoud, and Fitton-Brown independently report Iran boasting that ceasefires are for restocking. Sayeh supplies the domestic mirror: executions spike precisely when negotiations are underway. Ben-Ur gives the Gaza version — Hamas distributing rifles while the disarmament deal is being signed. The diplomatic interval is the adversary's production cycle.American absence, and who fills it. Haqqani's "helpless giant," Fitton-Brown's elephant in the room, Fanell's nine-month carrier deployments and depleted arsenal, Huessy's theater nuclear gap, Bernstam's lost refining capacity. Chang and Holt argue the reticence is a gambit; the guests closer to the ground read it as depletion. Haqqani's line is the sharpest: China wins by saying nothing.Xi's brittleness. Collier's $7.7 trillion in hidden bad loans, Burton's Beidaihe meeting on a collapsed housing market and local debt, Xi's shrinking travel schedule, Holt's factional rival. Clifford's Jimmy Lai segment is the same material in personal form — the vindictiveness of a leader who treats any dissent as existential. External aggression from Fanell sits directly on top of internal weakness from Collier and Burton, which is the more interesting juxtaposition than either alone.Two smaller pairings worth an hour break: Bernstam and Constable both on energy and food prices as the civilian bill for all of the above, and Araújo/Peña Esclusa's hemispheric shift as the one segment where the trend runs the other way — Petro out, De la Espriella in, Lula isolated.If you want a running order argument: Collier and Burton to establish the weakness, Fanell and Holt for the aggression it produces, then the Iran arc from Haqqani through Sayeh, with Bernstam and Constable as the price tag.

In part two of our deep dive into China (and part four of our socialist organization series), we break down how Mao attempted to dialectically sublate a national front and a united front. We explore the structural inclusion of the "patriotic national bourgeoisie" into the block of four classes (symbolized by the stars on the Chinese flag) and contrast it with classical Soviet developmental theory and orthodox Marxism.We also dive into:- The historical debate between Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Lenin, and Trotsky.- Why modern "Hoxhaists" and Left Communists consider New Democracy to be revisionist.- The evolution of class structures under Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin's "Three Represents" doctrine (allowing billionaires into the Party).- The reality of modern China's development: Is it a transitioning socialist project, or an hyper-competent form of state capitalism and developmental liberalism?Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for Episode 5, where we pivot to National Frontism and National Bolshevism.Journal ArticlesDirlik, A. (1970). The ideological foundations of the Chinese Revolution. Journal of Contemporary History, 5(3), 39–54.Dittmer, L. (1977). Line struggle: Notes on its organizational context and theoretical development. Modern China, 3(3), 303–312.Fogel, J. A. (1980). Ai Siqi, establishment intellectual by Joshua A. Fogel. Modern China, 6(1), 23–47.Hammond, E. R. (1978). Marxism and the mass line [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.Korolev, A. (2017). De-ideologized mass line, regime responsiveness, and state-society relations. China Review, 17(2), 7–36.Lyman, S. V. (1970). The Chinese Communist Party in the United Front, 1937–1945 [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.Mazur, M. G. (1995). The United Front of the 1940s: A social and cultural perspective. Modern China, 21(4), 431–456.Selden, M. (1971). The Yenan Way in revolutionary China. The China Quarterly, (45), 263–294.Steiner, H. A. (1951). Current mass line tactics in Communist China. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 277(1), 422–436.Teiwes, F. C. (1978). The origins of rectification: Inner-party purgation in the 1930s. The China Quarterly, (74), 181–201.Tokuda, N. (1971). The mass line during the Yenan period. The China Quarterly, (47), 1–18.Townsend, J. R. (1967). Political participation in Communist China. University of California Press.Womack, B. (1980). The phase of de-Maoization in China. China Report, 16(1), 7–21.Womack, B. (1991). Mao Zedong and the sinification of Marxism. The China Quarterly, (126), 1–15.Young, G. (1980). On New Democracy and the transition to socialism. Modern China, 6(1), 3–22.Books & Primary SourcesCoble, P. M. (2023). The collapse of Nationalist China: How Chiang Kai-shek lost China's civil war. Cambridge University Press.Elbaum, M. (2018). Revolution in the air: Sixties radicals turn to Lenin, Mao and Che. Verso Books.Hirata, K. (2024). Making Mao's steelworks: Industrial Manchuria and the transnational origins of Chinese socialism. Cambridge University Press.Karl, R. E. (2010). Mao Zedong and China in the twentieth-century world: A concise history. Duke University Press.Li, H. (2024). Fighting on the cultural front: U.S.-China relations in the Cold War. Columbia University Press.Lin, C. (2019). Mass line. In C. Sorace, I. Franceschini, & N. Loubere (Eds.), Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political concepts from Mao to Xi (p. 122). ANU Press.Lovell, J. (2019). Maoism: A global history. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.Lowe, D. M. (1966). The function of "China" in Marx, Lenin, and Mao. University of California Press.Mao, Z. (1940). On New Democracy. Marxists Internet Archive.Mao, Z. (1977). A critique of Soviet economics. Monthly Review Press.Moufawad-Paul, J. (2016). Continuity and rupture: Philosophy in the Maoist terrain. Zero Books.Schram, S. R. (Ed.). (2005). Mao's road to power: Revolutionary writings 1912–1949: Vol. VII. New Democracy, 1939–1941. M.E. Sharpe.Zheng, Q. (Ed.). (2020). An ideological history of the Communist Party of China (Vol. 2) (L. Sun & S. Bryant, Trans.). Royal Collins Publishing Group.Send us Fan Mail Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon, Buddy Roark, Daniel Petrovic,Julian, Drea, Free Beer 

Former premier Zhu Rongji passed away in Beijing on Wednesday. He was 98.Zhu, who had served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 14th and 15th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China, died of illness, according to an official obituary.The obituary was jointly issued by the CPC Central Committee; the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature; the State Council, China's Cabinet; and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body.It extolled Zhu as an excellent Party member, a time-tested and loyal communist fighter, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the Party and the State.Born in October 1928 in Changsha, Hunan province, Zhu joined revolutionary work in December 1948 and became a CPC member in October 1949.Between 1987 and 1991, he served successively as deputy secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, mayor of Shanghai, and secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee.During his tenure, he advocated for adjusting the city's industrial structure, developing an export-oriented economy and enhancing its international competitiveness.Zhu played a crucial role in advancing the development and opening-up of Shanghai's Pudong New Area. His efforts laid a solid foundation for Shanghai's further reform, opening-up and development, the obituary said.In 1991, Zhu was appointed vice-premier of the State Council.In October 1992, he was elected a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and its standing committee, and he was responsible for the executive work of the State Council.In June 1993, he concurrently served as the governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank.Zhu studied and developed approaches and measures to strengthen and improve macroeconomic regulation, making significant and effective contributions to curbing an overheated economy, reining in inflation and achieving an economic "soft landing".He pushed forward efforts to rectify and restore order in the fiscal and taxation sectors, accelerated fiscal and tax reforms and helped improve China's financial regulation system.In September 1997, Zhu was reelected a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and its standing committee.In March 1998, he was appointed premier of the State Council, and he later served as the secretary of the leading Party members group of the State Council.Facing the impact of the Asian financial crisis and the catastrophic flooding in China, Zhu focused on a shift from implementing a moderately tight fiscal and monetary policy to adopting a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, expanding domestic demand and deepening reforms in key areas, thereby maintaining steady and rapid economic growth.During Zhu's tenure as vice-premier and premier of the State Council, a series of policies and measures were adopted to expand opening-up, encourage exports, keep the renminbi exchange rate stable without devaluation, attract foreign investment, and firmly safeguard the prosperity and stability of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as an international financial center.He also presided over the implementation of major reforms in the social security system, healthcare system, and investment and financing system, among others, promoting the establishment of the basic framework of a socialist market economy.He oversaw the completion of the arduous negotiations for China's accession to the World Trade Organization.In March 2003, Zhu no longer served as premier of the State Council. After retiring from leadership posts, he steadfastly upheld and supported the leadership of the CPC Central Committee.He continued to care about the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and firmly supported efforts to improve conduct, promote integrity and fight corruption.Zhu's life was a revolutionary, fighting and glorious one, and one that was dedicated to wholeheartedly serving the people and the communist cause, the obituary said, adding that his death is a great loss to the Party and the State.

Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics opened subscriptions for its initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's sci-tech innovation board, or STAR Market, on Monday, as the market witnessed a broader economic shift with future industries expected to power the country's next wave of economic growth.8月10日中国人形机器人制造商宇树科技在上海证券交易所科创板启动新股认购，此举正值中国经济迎来更广泛的转型，未来产业有望成为驱动国家新一轮经济增长的重要引擎。President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said in an article published in June in the Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee, that cultivating and developing future industries are of great significance for seizing the development initiative, developing new quality productive forces and improving people's quality of life.中共中央总书记、国家主席习近平在中共中央机关刊物《求是》杂志6月刊发的文章中指出，培育和发展未来产业，对于抢占发展主动权、发展新质生产力、提高人民生活品质具有重大意义。Efforts should be made to vigorously foster first-class scientific, technological and high-tech enterprises that excel in core technologies and possess strong innovation capacities, Xi said.习近平指出，要大力培育掌握核心技术、创新能力强的一流科技型高新技术企业。For decades, China's economic expansion was powered largely by traditional industries, infrastructure investment and manufacturing scale.数十年来，中国经济增长主要依靠传统产业、基础设施投资和制造业规模驱动。But the next wave of growth is increasingly expected to come from future industries, including embodied intelligence, future energy, quantum technology, brain-computer interfaces and 6G, which have been highlighted as key areas in China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30).但下一轮增长动能正日益转向未来产业，包括具身智能、未来能源、量子科技、脑机接口和6G等，这些领域已被列为"十五五"规划（2026年至2030年）的重点方向。Since leading semiconductor firm ChangXin Memory Technologies debuted on the STAR Market in late July, a number of companies including artificial intelligence chip developer Enflame Technology, semiconductor manufacturer Can-Semi Technology, commercial rocket maker LandSpace and AI chip company Kunlunxin have been moving toward potential listings.自领先半导体企业长鑫存储7月下旬在科创板上市以来，人工智能芯片研发商燧原科技、半导体制造商积塔半导体、商业火箭企业蓝箭航天以及人工智能芯片企业昆仑芯等多家企业也在积极推进上市进程。Behind the wave of listings is not just a reshuffle of capital market preferences, but a transformation in the sources of future economic growth.这波上市潮的背后，不仅是资本市场偏好的重新洗牌，更是未来经济增长动能来源的深刻转变。Hu Yongjun, secretary-general of future industries and platform economy research center under the State Information Center, said: "Developing future industries is a key move in driving industrial transformation and upgrade. Technologies that appear to be in an exploratory stage today could become engines of economic growth over the next decade or more."国家信息中心未来产业与平台经济研究中心秘书长胡拥军表示："发展未来产业是推动产业转型升级的关键举措。今天看似仍处于探索阶段的技术，未来十年乃至更长时间里可能成为经济增长的引擎。"He said that future industries will fuel China's economic growth through new trillion-yuan-level industries that will come about as emerging technologies transform into commercial applications, and traditional industries are upgraded by integrating technologies such as AI, digitalization and low-carbon solutions.他表示，随着新兴技术加快向商业化应用转化，以及人工智能、数字化、低碳等技术与传统产业深度融合、推动其转型升级，未来产业将通过催生新的万亿级产业，为中国经济增长注入新动能。"More importantly, future industries are not simply about developing several new products. They could accelerate upgrades across an entire industrial chain, from core components to end-user applications," he said.他说："更重要的是，未来产业并非仅仅是研发几款新产品，而是能够带动从核心零部件到终端应用的整条产业链加速升级。"A humanoid robot illustrates this ecosystem effect.一台人形机器人便是这种生态带动效应的生动例证Behind a single robot are dozens of interconnected sectors, including AI models, chips, sensors, precision reducers, motors, batteries, new materials, industrial software and intelligent manufacturing equipment.一台机器人的背后，牵动着数十个相互关联的产业领域，涵盖人工智能大模型、芯片、传感器、精密减速器、电机、电池、新材料、工业软件以及智能制造装备等。China's electric vehicle industry offers a similar example.中国电动汽车产业也提供了类似的例证。Over the past decade, the rise of new energy vehicles has reshaped the global auto industry while driving rapid growth in power batteries, energy storage materials, intelligent driving technologies and automotive chips.过去十年间，新能源汽车的崛起重塑了全球汽车产业格局，同时带动动力电池、储能材料、智能驾驶技术和车规级芯片实现快速增长。In addition, the Unitree IPO and other upcoming listings represent a broader reallocation of capital toward technologies that may require years of investment before generating large-scale commercial returns.此外，宇树科技上市及其他即将登陆资本市场的企业，也反映出资本正更广泛地流向那些可能需要多年投入才能实现规模化商业回报的技术领域。Xi also stressed efforts to improve fiscal and taxation policies, vigorously develop technology finance, and optimize government procurement and talent cultivation, introduction and utilization to foster a robust environment that encourages innovation.习近平还强调，要完善财税政策，大力发展科技金融，优化政府采购，做好人才培养、引进和使用工作，营造鼓励创新的良好环境。Tian Xuan, dean of Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, said: "China is transiting from factor-driven growth toward innovation-driven development. Capital is moving beyond its traditional role of financing capacity expansion in mature industries and increasingly taking on the earlier-stage, longer-term uncertainty involved in building future industries."北京大学光华管理学院院长田轩表示："中国正从要素驱动型增长向创新驱动型发展转变。资本正超越以往为成熟产业产能扩张融资的传统角色，日益承担起培育未来产业过程中早期、长周期不确定性的风险。"As of June 2026, the STAR Market had attracted 609 hard technology companies, with total funds raised through IPOs and refinancing exceeding 1.37 trillion yuan ($203 billion).截至2026年6月，科创板已吸引609家硬科技企业上市，通过首次公开募股及再融资累计筹资超过1.37万亿元人民币（约合2030亿美元）。More than 40 listed companies on the market have also entered cutting-edge fields such as quantum technology, 6G and biomanufacturing.科创板上市公司中，已有40余家企业布局量子科技、6G和生物制造等前沿领域。The China Securities Regulatory Commission has also introduced a regular "green channel" mechanism for IPO financing and mergers and acquisitions involving technology companies in strategically important core technology areas.中国证券监督管理委员会还针对掌握战略性核心技术的科技企业，建立了常态化的首次公开募股融资及并购重组"绿色通道"机制。For instance, Unitree Robotics moved rapidly through the listing process, taking less than four months to go from the application acceptance stage to approval, marking the fastest review under the STAR Market's preliminary review mechanism since its implementation.以宇树科技为例，其上市进程推进迅速，从申报受理到审核通过历时不足四个月，创下科创板预先审阅机制实施以来的最快审核纪录。"Amid the rapid development of AI, rising geopolitical tensions and a growing emphasis on strategic security, China needs to build a financial system better aligned with the development of new quality productive forces," Tian said.田轩表示："在人工智能快速发展、地缘政治紧张局势加剧、战略安全日益受到重视的背景下，中国需要构建一个与新质生产力发展更加适配的金融体系。""This requires expanding the supply of patient capital, improving market structures, enhancing policy predictability and reducing resource misallocation, thereby providing sustained and solid financial support for innovation," he added.他补充说："这需要扩大耐心资本供给，完善市场结构，增强政策可预期性，减少资源错配，从而为创新提供持续而坚实的金融支撑。"quantum technology /ˈkwɒntəm tekˈnɒlədʒi/ n.量子科技brain-computer interface /breɪn kəmˈpjuːtər ˈɪntərfeɪs/ n.脑机接口semiconductor /ˌsemikənˈdʌktər/ n.半导体reshuffle /riːˈʃʌfəl/ n./v.重新洗牌，调整secretary-general /ˈsekrətəri ˈdʒenərəl/ n.秘书长trillion-yuan-level /ˈtrɪljən juˈɑːn ˈlevəl/ adj.万亿元级的digitalization /ˌdɪdʒɪtəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/ n.数字化low-carbon /loʊ ˈkɑːrbən/ adj.低碳的industrial chain /ɪnˈdʌstriəl tʃeɪn/ n.产业链precision reducer /prɪˈsɪʒən rɪˈduːsər/ n.精密减速器

Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 by Frank Dikötter  Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize An unprecedented, groundbreaking history of China's Great Famine that recasts the era of Mao Zedong and the history of the People's Republic of China. "Between 1958 and 1962, China descended into hell. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up to and overtake Britain in less than fifteen years. The experiment ended in the greatest catastrophe the country had ever known, destroying tens of millions of lives." So opens Frank Dikötter's riveting, magnificently detailed chronicle of an era in Chinese history much speculated about but never before fully documented, as access to Communist Party archives has long been restricted to all but the most trusted historians. A new archive law has opened up thousands of central and provincial documents that "fundamentally change the way one can study the Maoist era." Dikötter makes clear, as nobody has before, that far from being the program that would lift the country among the world's superpowers and prove the power of Communism, as Mao imagined, the Great Leap Forward transformed the country in the other direction. It became the site not only of “one of the most deadly mass killings of human history"--at least forty-five million people were worked, starved, or beaten to death--but also of "the greatest demolition of real estate in human history," as up to one-third of all housing was turned into rubble. The experiment was a catastrophe for the natural world as well, as the land was savaged in the maniacal pursuit of steel and other industrial accomplishments. In a powerful meshing of exhaustive research in Chinese archives and narrative drive, Dikötter, for the first time, links up what happened in the corridors of power--the vicious backstabbing and bullying tactics that took place among party leaders--with the everyday experiences of ordinary people, giving voice to the dead and disenfranchised. His magisterial account recasts the history of the People's Republic of China.

If you ever studied modern Chinese history, you likely met the “century of humiliation” in your first class. In 1840, British gunboats shattered the pride and legitimacy of the Qing empire, and the decades of semi-colonization that followed inaugurated a century of reform and revolution — all aimed at restoring an ancient, creaky civilization to unity and to the top of the world. The Kuomintang and the Communist Party told the same story and drew the same conclusion: the mandate belongs to whoever ends the humiliation.In China, history has never been merely academic. Where elections do not exist, leaders seek legitimacy in historical title deeds — which is why the Party still teaches the story in every classroom and invokes it in every speech on national rejuvenation. The battle crossed the Pacific, too. John King Fairbank absorbed the nationalist framework in wartime China and canonized it at Harvard, organizing American understanding of modern China around two dates: 1840 and 1949. He built the field of China studies as we know it, and generations of his students inherited the framework with it, until American scholarship was teaching China's nationalist mythology back to itself — and to Washington, where it still underwrites op-eds casting Xi Jinping as the new emperor. How America tells China's story shapes how America makes China policy.Dr. Alice Miller thinks we have the story wrong. From 1974 to 1990, she was a senior CIA analyst of Chinese foreign policy and domestic politics, and later a division chief supervising analysis of China, North Korea, Indochina, and Soviet policy in East Asia. She is now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where she edited and contributed to the China Leadership Monitor from 2001 to 2018. She published as H. Lyman Miller before her gender transition.In part two of our conversation — edited for clarity and brevity — we trace her formation at Princeton under Fritz Mote, the ferocious “Who lost China?” debates of the 1950s, the eternal feud between historians and political scientists, and her heterodox verdict on engagement: it didn't fail — it worked so well that Xi Jinping had to stomp on it. We close with a story of a different kind: her transition in 2006, and the unexpected grace with which the CIA, Hoover, and the Naval Postgraduate School received it. Part one, on her years decoding Beijing for the CIA, is here.Enjoy!LeoMusic: Carnaval Op. 9 No. 18 - “Aveu”, Bishara Haroni, Artlist Classics, Robert SchumannFor quick navigation to the specific sections:* Early sinologist debates about “who lost China?”* The fallacy of “The Century of Humiliation”* The battle between historians and political scientists over contemporary China studies* “How Did We Get China So Wrong?”* An identity transition from Harold to AlicePeking Hotel is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.About usThe Peking Hotel podcast and newsletter are digital publications in which Liu He interviews China specialists about their first-hand experiences and observations from decades past. The project grew out of Liu's research at Hoover Institution collecting oral history of China experts living in the U.S. Their stories are a reminder of what China used to be and what it is capable of becoming.We also have a Chinese-language Substack. We hope to publish more conversations like this one, so stay tuned! Get full access to Peking Hotel at pekinghotel.substack.com/subscribe

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Villain-Venice-Steampunk-Adventure-Expanded/dp/B0GYVW1ZM3?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE The Zygons have come to claim the Earth, and this time they're playing the long game. For the Black Cadre have a plan, a plan that will take exactly one hundred years to come to fruition. From the streets of St Petersburg to the plains of Death Valley, the Zygon Century continues... 1922: The Black Cadre by Jonathan Barnes From Munich to Dublin to an asylum in Dartmoor, the Zygons have agents everywhere, and their plans are growing in scope and ambition. Can Herbert Scott, that long incarcerated investigator of the occult, do anything to stop them? Is his rescuer - the German heiress, Ilse Lange - all that she seems? And why are the Black Cadre so interested in a mysterious carnival, travelling the wilder reaches of the Cornish coast? 1968: An Incident in Death Valley by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle Fleeing her brutal human captors, and in hiding from the Black Cadre, the Zygon Vorvoren arrives at a run-down diner in the bowels of Death Valley. There, she finds a friend in Junie, a young waitress, and a town terrorised by a ruthless cult. But just who is their mysterious leader, 'The Arkon'? And could he really hold the key to Vorvoren's liberation and revenge? 1974: The Caldwell Restitution by Ken Bentley Agent Caldwell has been posted to the British Embassy in Moscow and ordered to investigate a rising star of the Communist Party. But Caldwell is a shadow of his former self, plagued by nightmares of the past and misty visions of the future.

Proletarian TV | 17 July 2026 Joti Brar, Chair of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), discusses in this video how reports concerning rape and sexual violence are being weaponised to promote anti-immigration politics in Britain despite the complete absence of comprehensive ethnicity data. Bad actors, reactionary media commentators and politicians manipulating reports of sexual violence by racialising the information and associating it with the immigrant communities in Britain who are victims of imperialism in their own countries. By adopting such a framing, these bad actors and their ilk are attempting to divert attention from the real institutional and economic failures of our system onto migrants. This is just one of the many problems that are pinned on to migrants; others include: overstretched services, falling wages, deteriorating living standards, et cetera. The reality is that Britain does not have an immigration problem. It has a capitalism problem. ______________________________________________ Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! http://www.thecommunists.org http://www.lalkar.org http://www.redyouth.org Telegram: https://t.me/thecommunists Twitter: / cpgbml Soundcloud: / proletarianradio Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/theCommunists Odysee: https://odysee.com/@proletariantv:2 Facebook: / cpgbml Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/ Education Program: Each one teach one! http://www.londonworker.org/education... Join the struggle! https://www.thecommunists.org/join/ Donate: https://www.thecommunists.org/donate/

Sam has been AWOL for the summer and he offers us a peek into why. He has been traveling around Asia solo, visiting Japan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. Hear about his escapades as he visits Buddhist temples, tropical Islands and the densest urban neighborhood on planet earth. Deep in the jungle of Southern Thailand, what are the karaoke bars like? Did Sam end up visiting the Great Wall of China? Did the Communist Party of China's propaganda museum work on him? And what does Sam hope he can learn from Buddhist tendencies from the other side of the world? All of this and more on this week's special, informal episode. Sam says he misses the Party Girls family very much and will be back in August! SIGN UP NOW at https://patreon.com/partygirls to get all of our bonus content, Discord access, and a shout out on the pod! Follow us on ALL the Socials: Instagram: @party.girls.pod TikTok: @party.girls.pod Twitter: @partygirlspod BlueSky: @partygirls.bsky.social Leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you feel so inclined: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/party-girls/id1577239978 https://open.spotify.com/show/71ESqg33NRlEPmDxjbg4rO Executive Producer: Andrew Callaway Producers: Ryan M., Jon B

Gregory Copley reports Xi Jinping faces significant internal opposition from Communist Party elders at the Beidaiheretreat. Despite his titles, Xi's operational power is waning as the Chinese economy evaporates and social unrest grows. A recent ballistic missile launch served as a show of strength before a state visit to the US. Copley notes that youth unemployment is high, and the PLA may eventually act independently. (11)

SCHEDULE THE MAKING OF THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 7-28-26.1900 IDAHOLiz Peek reports the US economy remains robust, driven by strong consumer spending in rural areas like Connecticutand Lancaster County. Peek highlights rising small business and consumer confidence despite increasing gasoline prices. Attention shifts to new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, who may end "dot plot" forecasting. Warsh aims to be more "taciturn," forcing markets to rely on incoming data rather than Fed projections. (1)Liz Peek examines the Michigan Democratic Senate primary as a national test for the party's ideological direction. Moderate Haley Stevens faces Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate favored by the Democratic Socialists of America. Peek notes the "shocker" UAW endorsement of El-Sayed, highlighting a shift toward "woke" politics among union members in higher education. This race evaluates if a far-left candidate can win a statewide swing-state contest. (2)Thaddeus McCotter and Judy Dempsey discuss Ukraine's strike on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, which complicates global energy security for Europe. This inland sea is a vital source of non-Russian energy. Dempsey reports that Germany is carefully observing the implications of this new front. The strike underscores the deep military connection between Russia and Iran regarding equipment exchanges. Meanwhile, recent polls show seven out of ten Americans oppose the Iran war. (3)Thaddeus McCotter and Judy Dempsey turn to a deadly ramming attack at a Berlin parade that has put Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the defensive regarding his security credentials. The populist AfD party is exploiting the tragedy to criticize "uncontrolled immigration" ahead of crucial state elections. While Merz responded with calls for law and order, the incident underscores the difficulty police face in monitoring numerous terrorist suspects. The AfD utilizes these crises to offer simple solutions. (4)Mary Kissel notes diplomatic efforts with Iran currently involve "shuttling messages" through intermediaries like Omanand Qatar. Kissel argues that the Islamic Republic is a revolutionary regime with no interest in genuine strategic peace. The administration's lack of a cohesive strategy has led to declining public support for military action. Meanwhile, the Houthi threat in the Red Sea remains a dangerous Iranian-backed tool for disrupting international shipping. (5)Mary Kissel observes President Zelenskyy is receiving a warmer reception in Washington due to Ukraine's increasing military leverage. Innovative long-range drone strikes on Russian energy nodes have demonstrated Ukraine's utility to USstrategic interests. Unlike the situation with Iran, the US maintains active diplomatic channels in Moscow to discuss potential conflict resolutions. Kissel notes that influential voices on the right are beginning to shift their views on Ukraine. (6)Jonathan Schanzer reports the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are merging as Russia, Iran, and Chinacoordinate their efforts. Schanzer notes that Ukraine's Caspian Sea strike has clarified this global partnership. The US is currently attempting to "keep a lid" on Israel to prevent a regional escalation. However, the US military faces a depletion of missile interceptors, making it difficult to sustain a long, high-intensity conflict. (7)Jonathan Schanzer discusses new UK–US talks focused on a maritime coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has an opportunity to reset the relationship with Donald Trump. The Iranian-backed Houthi threat remains a top concern for global oil analysts and regional powers like Egypt. Meanwhile, the US is signaling that Lebanon is "too big to fail" to counter Hezbollah's regional influence. (8)Gregory Copley reports the Trump administration has imposed tariffs on Australia, alleging "forced labor" practices—a claim Copley describes as spurious. This move antagonizes a loyal ally that has fought alongside the US for over a century. Consequently, Australia and Canada are beginning to lessen their strategic dependence on the US. Copley warns that such unilateral protectionism could weaken the long-term structure of the Western alliance. (9)Gregory Copley describes Cuba's total implosion as its infrastructure collapses and major blackouts occur. Copley describes a strategic failure in the Caribbean, where China has built significant influence over the last 20 years. The USmust decide whether to facilitate a rapid collapse or a managed transition of the regime. While the Cuban people suffer, the wealthy expatriate community remains ready to fund reconstruction. (10)Gregory Copley reports Xi Jinping faces significant internal opposition from Communist Party elders at the Beidaiheretreat. Despite his titles, Xi's operational power is waning as the Chinese economy evaporates and social unrest grows. A recent ballistic missile launch served as a show of strength before a state visit to the US. Copley notes that youth unemployment is high, and the PLA may eventually act independently. (11)Gregory Copley turns to the UK, where following the rise of Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the country faces political uncertainty as Labour struggles with a lack of growth. Copley highlights King Charles III's vital role as a unifying force, focusing on British national identity and values. While the Burnham government is viewed as sclerotic and ideological, the King remains an egalitarian figure. His efforts to preserve heritage, like Dumfries House, bolster his standing. (12)Joseph Sternberg criticizes Prime Minister Andy Burnham's economic policy as ineffective against the cost-of-living crisis. Sternberg argues that the UK is trapped by net-zero regulations that prevent the use of vast North Sea oil and gas reserves. Burnham finds it politically difficult to cut taxes or reverse climate policies despite potential economic benefits. This paralysis makes his government a target for future replacement. (13)Joseph Sternberg notes Chairman Kevin Warsh is moving the Federal Reserve toward a "taciturn" style, ending the practice of "forward guidance." This reform aims to prevent the Fed from becoming locked into policies that may become inappropriate as data shifts. Sternberg suggests that saying less may protect the Fed from political conflict with the White House over tariffs. Markets must now interpret raw data rather than Fed signals. (14)Thaddeus McCotter describes the Michigan Democratic Senate primary as a "civil war" between establishment candidate Haley Stevens and progressive Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. The candidates are sharply divided over AIPAC funding and support for Israel. Stevens is endorsed by high-profile figures like Gretchen Whitmer and Barack Obama. The result will indicate if the Democratic Socialists of America can succeed in a statewide race in a swing state. (15)Thaddeus McCotter notes Dr. Abdul El-Sayed denies being a socialist, claiming he merely wants to regulate "capitalism run amok." However, his platform includes radical proposals such as abolishing ICE. Haley Stevens frames him as a "celebrity candidate" and questions his appeal to women voters. McCotter notes that while the DSA lacks a ground model, identity politics may drive a high turnout among Michigan's large Muslim population. (16)Corrections applied throughout as directed: Thaddeus McCotter and Liz Peek.

Today on the Christian History Almanac, we remember the H-mao Christians in China and their suppression by the Communist Party. GTI Zoom Info Meeting on August 11th at 7 pm Eastern/4 pm Pacific: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89787313197 Show Notes: Support the work at 1517 1517 on YouTube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education Germany / Switzerland - Study Tour What's New from 1517: The Turk at the Door by Adam Francisco Luther and the Lion: A Narnian Catechism by Samuel Schuldheisz By Water and the Word by Brian Thomas Being Family by Dr. Scott Keith More from the hosts: Dan van Voorhis Follow 1517:  Instagram X/Twitter Facebook SHOW TRANSCRIPTS are available: https://www.1517.org/podcasts/the-christian-history-almanac CONTACT: CHA@1517.org Facebook Twitter Audio production by Christopher Gillespie (outerrimterritories.com)

In this continuation of our African Revolutions and Decolonization series, we we have an lengthy conversation that just starts to scratch the surface of Sudan, with a terrific guest and guest host.  Here, we are joined by Mohamed Khougali, author of Politically Unconscious: The Psychic Aftermath of the Sudanese Revolution, and returning guest host Ruehl Muller, whom you will remember from our episodes with the Communist Party of Swaziland's Bafanabakhe Sacolo.  Stay tuned, part 2 of this conversation will be coming very soon! Mohamed Khougali is a Sudanese socialist who was part of the Sudanese revolution of 2018-19. He is currently residing in Germany where he and his wife founded the Black Radicals, an anti-racist group informed by the Black Radical Tradition. He also continues his radical psychological practice, where you can reach him (notatherapist.de).  Also be sure to follow his instagram, Black Radicals!  Ruehl Muller is senior lecturer/associate professor at the Institute of Creativity and Innovation at Xiamen University in China, and the editor of the fantastic Building a People's Art: Selected Works of Trường Chinh and Tố Hữu (buy a physical copy or download the free PDF from Iskra Books). Help support the show by signing up to our patreon, where you also will get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/guerrillahistory 

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comFrank Dikötter is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and one of the foremost historians of modern China. His research in overlooked and restricted Communist Party archives has transformed our understanding of Maoist rule.-Frank Dikötter is kind of Dutch, but not really-Writing the definitive history of Maoist horror-Edgar Snow a…

The International Brigades and the Fight for Spain**In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we are joined by Tony Fox, organiser of the Northeast Volunteers for Liberty and the International Brigades Memorial Organisation, to discuss the newly published collection, *Remember Me to My Comrades: Letters from Spain to Britain*.**The book emerged from a remarkable collaboration with the families of volunteers from the North East of England – one of the industrial heartlands hit hardest by the Great Depression. Through letters, diaries, and previously unpublished documents from the Russian archives, it brings to life the voices of men who went to Spain to fight fascism.Tony explains how the International Brigades were formed in response to the Non-Intervention Treaty signed by Britain, France and other powers. While Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy poured troops and weapons into Franco's Nationalist forces, the Soviet Union organised volunteers through the Comintern. In Britain, the Communist Party – not the Labour Party, which supported non-intervention – recruited and vetted two-and-a-half thousand men.We discuss the diverse motivations of the volunteers: from committed communists who had already fought Oswald Mosley's fascists on the streets of Britain, to idealists who saw Spain as the front line of a wider war against fascism. We explore the unique political character of the International Brigades – an army of working-class activists who knew why they were fighting, and whose morale was sustained through political education, including an essay competition held in the middle of the war.Tony also shares the story of Sam Wild, the last and finest commander of the British Battalion, and the chaotic, heroic rear‑guard actions that defined the British experience – from the defence of Madrid to the bloody retreats across the Ebro.**Topics covered:**- The Non-Intervention Treaty and its consequences- The formation of the International Brigades- The role of the Communist Party in recruitment- The social and political character of the volunteers- The Battle of Jarama and the defence of Madrid- Sam Wild and the British Battalion- Letters from the Russian archives- The human cost of the Spanish Civil War---*Tony Fox's *Remember Me to My Comrades* is available from Barnfather Publishing and independent bookshops. Please consider buying from an independent retailer or directly from the publisher.**If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us – we are migrating from Patreon to Substack. Details in the show notes.*Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last time we spoke about the Miluo River Catastrophe. On September 17, General Xue Yue, watching alarming reconnaissance telegrams, learns the Japanese 11th Army has massed across the north bank of the Xinqiang River—3rd, 4th, 6th, and 40th Divisions—alongside additional detachments. Chinese operatives even intercept a Japanese order directing divisions to prepare for an attack on September 18. Despite this, Xue Yue's decisions and readiness remain inadequate. By September 21–23, the fighting at and around the Miluo River and Dongting Lake destroys the 37th Army's ability to function as a coherent combat force. The disaster as both tactical collapse and a failure of planning: Japanese interception and decoding of radio orders allow them to shift toward encirclement, turning Chinese movements into a "trap" laid in advance.   #211 The Japanese Blunt China's Iron Army at Changsha Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The four divisions that had stormed into northern Hunan had made good progress, achieving the victory of defeating three main Chinese armies in quick succession. General Anami Korechika, commanding the Japanese forces, was secretly pleased, but he dared not slacken his efforts in the slightest. He was a methodical man, and he understood that the contest was not yet decided. Every day, his intelligence officers placed before him a stream of intercepted Chinese military telegrams and aerial reconnaissance reports. What they showed gave him reason for both confidence and caution. Two significant forces were moving toward the battlefield — forces unlike those he had so far encountered. One of them was Chiang Kai-shek's elite 74th Army, a formation whose reputation had reached Anami long before, from his time at headquarters in Tokyo. The other was the 10th Army, considered second only to the 74th in quality and fighting spirit.   The 74th Army was no ordinary unit. It had been rigorously trained under German and Soviet instructors specially hired by Chiang Kai-shek, its officers schooled in both European combined-arms doctrine and Soviet tactical flexibility. It was characterized by its disciplined offensive and defensive tactics and was lavishly equipped by the standards of the Chinese military. Most remarkably, it had maintained an undefeated record on the battlefield since the beginning of the war — a distinction that had earned it the title of "Iron Army of the Anti-Japanese War" among the Chinese people. In the high command of the Imperial Japanese Army, it was referred to, with a mixture of respect and wariness, as the Tora no Ko — the "Tiger Child" — meaning, in essence, the ace in the enemy's hand.   The 10th Army was held in nearly equal esteem. The deployment of either of these two formations required the personal approval of Chiang Kai-shek himself. The Generalissimo's principle for employing them was clear and deliberate: they were to be committed only to the most critical battles, those that would decide outcomes, or to the most prominent ones, where their prowess could demonstrate the might of the Chinese army to a watching nation. Since the outbreak of the war, the 74th Army had been kept in reserve at Fenyi in Jiangxi Province, and the 10th Army at Hengyang in southern Hunan. Both forces had been conserving their strength, training, and waiting.   Now Anami's relentless offensive had forced Chiang Kai-shek's hand. The battle situation had tilted dangerously under the weight of Japanese pressure, and the fall of several elite units had left the Chinese commander of the Ninth War Zone, General Xue Yue, with little room to maneuver. Xue Yue had no choice but to appeal to Chongqing for help, and Chiang Kai-shek, reluctantly and with full awareness of the risks, agreed to release his two trump cards. Anami, having mastered his opponent's intentions through his intelligence apparatus, now found himself in the rare and advantageous position of a card player who could see his opponent's hole cards. He carefully planned his battle strategy, studying maps late into the night, conferring with his officers, and calculating how best to neutralize the Chinese elite before they could bring their full weight to bear. He knew that his life's honor, his career, and his legacy rested on this one gamble.   Li Yutang, the commander of the 10th Army, was from Guangrao in Shandong Province — a place that had given China more than its share of fighting men. He was a graduate of the first class of the illustrious Whampoa Military Academy, where he had trained alongside men who would go on to shape the fate of China. At the academy, he had been part of a celebrated group known informally as the "Four Lis of Shandong": himself, Li Xianzhou, Li Yannian, and Li Hanfan. The first three would all rise to significant commands in the Nationalist army. The fourth, Li Hanfan, a native of Changqing in Shandong, had taken an entirely different path, joining the Communist Party of China and fighting the same war under a different flag. In later years, the group became known as the "Three Lis of Shandong," the fourth having parted ways with his classmates long before the guns fell silent.   Li Yutang had not risen quickly or through privilege. He embodied the hardworking, resilient, and tenacious qualities long associated with the men of Shandong — qualities forged by a hard land and harder circumstances. He had climbed the ranks of the army step by step: platoon leader, company commander, battalion commander, regimental commander. Each step had been earned through performance under fire. When Japan launched its full-scale invasion in 1937, Li Yutang was serving as commander of the 3rd Division of the 2nd Army under Li Yannian, participating in the brutal Battle of Shanghai in August of that year. He fought in the grinding urban warfare along the Suzhou Creek, learning lessons in modern combat that would serve him for the rest of the war. The following spring, in March and April of 1938, he led his troops in the Battle of Xuzhou, holding the Linyi line northeast of Taierzhuang, blocking the Japanese 5th Division under Itagaki Seishiro from breaking through to reinforce the embattled Japanese forces at that critical engagement. His handling of the defense contributed to one of the few early Chinese battlefield successes of the war.   For his performance at Xuzhou, he was promoted to commander of the 8th Army. During the Battle of Wuhan in 1938, he led his troops in major engagements against the Japanese 101st and 106th Divisions along the Nanxun Railway, inflicting significant casualties on the attackers. After that campaign, General Xue Yue, recognizing both Li's talent and his Shandong origins — Shandong being home to Mount Tai, the foremost of China's Five Sacred Mountains — personally inscribed a banner reading "Mount Tai Army" and formally presented it to Li Yutang's 8th Army. Chiang Kai-shek added his own recognition, awarding Li Huazhou a medal. In the Battle of Nanchang, Li Yutang again distinguished himself, leading his troops in the defense of Wuning for ten days and ten nights of uninterrupted fighting. When the battle was over, Japanese soldiers lay piled in front of his defensive lines, and the name "Taishan Army" was on every officer's lips from Chongqing to the front. After the First Battle of Changsha in 1939, Chiang Kai-shek personally nominated Li Yutang to take command of the 10th Army — the posting that would now define his legacy. The orders came on September 20, 1941 — three days after the Japanese forces had broken through the Xiangbei defense line in the north. General Xue Yue's summons reached Li Yutang's headquarters in Hengyang, and the 10th Army began immediate preparations for movement to the battlefield.   The mobilization was extraordinary even by the standards of an army that prided itself on discipline and fighting spirit. Li Yutang addressed his men, and the response was unlike anything a commander might ordinarily expect. He received wave after wave of letters — requests to be placed at the front, declarations of determination, pledges to die before surrendering. Some of the letters were written in ordinary ink. Others had been written in blood, the soldier biting his own finger to draw enough for a few lines. These were not men who needed to be driven to battle. They were men who had spent months training for precisely this moment.   Their preparation had been rigorous to the point of fanaticism. For six months before the order came, the 10th Army had conducted intensive training in the three core skills of infantry combat: marksmanship, grenade throwing, and bayonet fighting. The Ministry of National Defense had set a standard that considered a unit successful if one quarter of its men scored "top-tier" in each category. Chiang Kai-shek had personally raised the bar for the 10th Army: eighty percent of every unit must score "top-tier," with the remainder no lower than "excellent." Any unit falling short would face elimination. When the assessments were completed, the result was unambiguous — one hundred percent of the army had met the standard.   Over 30,000 men boarded seven special trains at Hengyang, their military songs and mobilization slogans ringing through the station as families and bystanders watched them depart. The troops traveled by train to Zhuzhou, then transferred to motor vehicles for the road north to Changsha, arriving in the Jinjing area — some seventy kilometers northeast of the city — on September 22nd. They had moved with professional speed. What awaited them would test something no training exercise could fully replicate. From the moment of arrival, the situation was clear to any officer with eyes: the 10th Army had stepped into chaos. However, given the already established passive situation, the 10th Army was like a leaf caught in a whirlpool as soon as it arrived on the battlefield. General Xue Yue, at the Ninth War Zone Command, immediately ordered the entire army to support the besieged 37th Army and simultaneously launch an offensive against the Japanese 3rd Division. It was an ambitious order for troops who had just completed a multi-day journey and had not yet oriented themselves to the ground. Nevertheless, Li Yutang passed the order down and his divisions began to move.   The first division to feel the dislocating effect of high command's demands was Zhu Yue's 190th Division. On September 23rd, the vanguard regiment of the 190th made contact with Japanese forces and was preparing to engage. Before a single shot was fired in earnest, Division Commander Zhu Yue received a telegram from army headquarters ordering him to abandon his current position and rush immediately to Shending Mountain to relieve the siege of the 140th Division of the 37th Army. The order brooked no delay. The troops dropped their baggage where it lay and ran — truly ran, in light order — to the vicinity of Shending Mountain.   They had barely formed ranks at their new position when a second telegram arrived from General Xue Yue. The 190th Division was to immediately reverse course and return to the Fulipu area to establish a defensive line and block the Japanese advance southward. Another forced march, exhausting men who had already marched and traveled for days. They arrived at the designated position on time — a testimony to their conditioning — and Zhu Yue established his division headquarters at Liangjiaduan, near Fulipu. After all the aimless marching and countermanding orders, after all the wasted energy and fruitless attempts, the troops were running on the last of their reserves. They worked through the night constructing fortifications with shovels and bare hands. Just as the first light of dawn revealed the outline of their new positions, the Japanese army advanced.   General Toyoshima Fusataro's Japanese 3rd Division had not rested. It had decisively defeated the 37th Army on the night of the 23rd and turned immediately, without pause, to attack the 190th Division. The blow came from the sky before it came from the ground. At dawn, more than ten Japanese planes swept down over Zhu Yue's division headquarters — seemingly guided, as the Chinese soldiers would later say, as if they had eyes in their heads, so accurate was the targeting. The small village that housed the headquarters was bombed almost to the ground. Dust and smoke billowed over the ruins as the aircraft banked away, and before it had settled, over a thousand Japanese infantrymen, seemingly springing from the earth itself, rushed forward directly toward the headquarters position. The regiment commanders, still at their positions elsewhere, could not be recalled in time.   Division Commander Zhu Yue did not hesitate. He drew his pistol and began commanding his subordinate units to fight back, rallying the headquarters staff and support troops into a perimeter defense. Under the fierce and accurate Japanese fire, Zhu Yue was hit by a bullet in his right arm. Then another round struck him in the left leg, and he went down. Almost simultaneously, Deputy Division Commander Lai Shixiang took command of the nearest available men and attempted to lead a breakout with a machine gun. An enemy mortar round found its mark, and Lai Shixiang was killed instantly. The division headquarters personnel, already shocked by the swiftness of the attack and the wounding of their commander, broke into disorder. Chaos erupted on the battlefield. Many soldiers ran blindly in the smoke and confusion, dying in the crossfire from multiple directions.   Division Chief of Staff Tao Xiu, now acting as deputy division commander with Zhu Yue incapacitated, took hold of the situation as best he could. He led the remnants of the headquarters staff in retreat toward a hollow in a grove of trees near the edge of the village. When the headcount was taken, approximately twenty men remained capable of fighting. It was already ten o'clock in the morning. Tao Xiu gathered these few men and led them along a small path through the dense forest on the outskirts of the village, bypassing Liangjiaduan, searching for the dispersed units of the division.   Out on the main positions, the 568th, 569th, and 570th Regiments were simultaneously surrounded and attacked. The officers and soldiers, exhausted from days and nights of continuous fighting, summoned what remained of their endurance and put up a tenacious resistance. From dawn until the afternoon, several positions were cut off and divided by Japanese encircling movements. In the ever-shrinking pockets, each cluster of defenders became an isolated target for enemy aircraft and artillery. Completely losing the initiative, groups of officers and soldiers perished in the shelling. Many of them died not in defiance but in something closer to despair — regretting this humiliating reversal, the waste of their patriotic aspirations, their unfulfilled desire to fight and kill the enemy on their own terms.   By evening, the regimental commanders had lost control of their respective battalions and companies. The remaining soldiers on each position scattered and concealed themselves in whatever ground offered cover, hiding in all directions across the darkening hills. It was not until midnight that the lightly wounded and unwounded officers and soldiers managed to assemble, as the contingency plan had directed, in a dense forest on the southwest side of the position. Division Commander Zhu Yue, wounded in both his arm and his leg, had been sent to the rear to receive treatment. Acting Deputy Division Commander Tao Xiu stood before the assembled survivors — more than two hundred men gathered from the regiments — and offered them quiet words of comfort. There was little else he could give them. The people present carried the seriously wounded on improvised stretchers and supported the lightly wounded with their arms and shoulders, groping their way through the darkness toward Zhuzhou. The 10th Reserve Division, under Commander Fang Xianjue, had been assigned to hold the Jinjing line — a position that, on paper, formed an anchor of the defensive scheme. In practice, the situation was deeply flawed from the outset. The Ninth War Zone Command had placed the 10th Reserve Division alone at Jinjing with no depth behind it and no friendly forces on either flank — an isolated salient that offered the Japanese every opportunity for encirclement.   On the 23rd, the division captured the Kanai line at noon, an initial success that promised more than it delivered. Around six o'clock in the evening, as darkness gathered, General Kanda Masatsuka arrived at the front with the vanguard of the Japanese 6th Division. He was not a man to move without information. Before committing to a full assault, Kanda ordered a probing attack and watched its progress carefully through binoculars from a small hill behind the advancing force. What he saw gave him pause. However he searched for a weak point in the Chinese line, the defenders showed none. No gap in the wire, no position carelessly manned, no sector that sagged under pressure. Kanda lowered his binoculars and considered his next step. He felt this was indeed an elite unit with excellent tactical skills, and should not be underestimated. He ordered a halt to the attack and waited for the full arrival of his division's strength.   On the morning of the 24th, the Japanese launched their proper assault — a fierce attack from the east, north, and west simultaneously. The three-directional pressure was designed to pin the defenders and deny any lateral reinforcement. Kanda went further, requesting permission from General Anami to concentrate all thirty-plus bombers available for the entire battlefield and direct them at the 10th Reserve Division's positions in a single concentrated raid. Anami granted the request. The bombing was devastating. The defending positions were almost completely destroyed from the air. Yet in the ruins of their fortifications and bunkers, the soldiers of the 10th Reserve Division continued fighting, repelling Japanese ground attacks wave after wave through the rubble and the smoke.   At two o'clock in the afternoon, a report reached Fang Xianjue that halted him in his tracks. A Japanese regiment had executed a large-scale outflanking maneuver around the south side of Jinjing and was approaching the rear of the position. The encirclement was closing. Fang Xianjue was shocked. He now grasped in full the tactical impossibility of his assignment. The Ninth War Zone Command had placed the 10th Reserve Division here alone, exposed on all sides, without depth and without support. The order to "block the enemy's southward advance" had been an empty promise from the start. Fang Xianjue could not understand the strategic intention behind the deployment at all — there was none that made any tactical sense. The only purpose of holding out here, he concluded bitterly, was to theoretically be seen to be "fighting the Japanese." Before Fang Xianjue could translate his analysis into a decision, the Japanese troops launched another fierce attack from the front and both flanks, and one side of the defensive line was breached. The situation became critical. Fang Xianjue decided to withdraw before the encircling force to the south could complete its movement and seal off all escape. He did not have time to seek authorization from the war zone — there was no time. He ordered each regiment to organize its own breakout and reassemble at designated locations.   At four o'clock in the afternoon, Fang Xianjue led the division headquarters in the first withdrawal from the battlefield. Looking back as he departed, he watched as the regiments were cut apart by Japanese fire, large numbers of officers and soldiers falling among the mountain ridges and into the ditches and gullies. There was nothing more he could do for them.   By the 25th, approximately half of the division's troops had reached the designated reception point. After a hasty reorganization, they were ordered to occupy positions along the Xueshi Bridge line and prepare to resume the defense. That same evening, a portion of the Japanese 3rd Division — fresh from its defeat of the 190th Division — launched a fierce attack on Xueshi Bridge. The positions could not be held. The scene of the previous day's rout was repeated almost exactly, and this second defeat completed the destruction of the 10th Reserve Division as a coherent fighting force. General Xue Yue's rebuke reached Fang Xianjue shortly afterward, and the division commander had no way to express the depth of his frustration — the tactical position he had been placed in had made his assignment impossible before the first shot was fired. On the 26th, he led the surviving troops to be received and reorganized by war zone units near Changsha. Compared to the bitter fates of the 190th Division and the 10th Reserve Division, Zhou Qingxiang's 3rd Division wrote a different kind of story in these same days — one of extraordinary tactical competence maintained against mounting odds. In the equally fierce battles, the 3rd Division demonstrated the qualities of an elite force more effectively than any other unit on either side.   On the 22nd, the 3rd Division had been ordered to establish positions two kilometers east of Fulipu. At noon on the 24th, after the Japanese 3rd Division defeated Zhu Yue's 190th Division, a portion of the Japanese force turned and attacked the right flank of Zhou Qingxiang's position. It was repelled. That evening, the Japanese 4th Division, riding the momentum of its success against the 37th Army, launched a night attack on the 3rd Division's left flank. It too was repelled. On the 25th, Zhou Qingxiang's division was attacked from both sides simultaneously by the main forces of two Japanese divisions — forces that outnumbered the defenders several times over. The officers and soldiers of the entire division showed no fear. They fought bravely and with skill honed by months of intensive preparation, holding their lines despite heavy casualties and preventing the Japanese from breaking through at any point.   When word of this resistance was relayed to General Anami Korechika at his headquarters, he fell into a long, uncharacteristic silence. He studied the reports before him, the maps, the casualty tallies on both sides. Then he turned to his chief of staff, General Isamu Kinoshita. "This is the elite force," Anami said quietly. He paused a moment, and added: "I really want to go there and see for myself." The compliment, delivered in the private setting of a Japanese headquarters, was perhaps the most honest assessment of the fighting quality of Zhou Qingxiang's men that history has preserved.   Anami's response, however, was not admiration — it was determination to overwhelm. On the morning of the 26th, he concentrated nearly the entire combat power available to him against the single 3rd Division: units drawn from the Japanese 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 40th Divisions — close to 100,000 men — were directed to surround and destroy the Chinese formation. The 3rd Division stubbornly held its ground despite catastrophic casualties, the soldiers refusing to give way even as the perimeter contracted and the dead accumulated.   To ease the relentless pressure from enemy aircraft, the division commanders made a calculated decision: all positions were ordered to allow the Japanese troops to close to hand-to-hand fighting range. If the enemy was within arm's reach, the bombers above could not strike without killing their own men. Several instances of fierce hand-to-hand fighting erupted across the defensive line as a result — bayonets, shovels, pistols and bare hands in the broken earth and shell craters. By noon, the 8th Regiment had been divided and surrounded. Shortly afterward, the 7th and 9th Regiments met the same fate. Zhou Qingxiang moved the division headquarters to the position of the 7th Regiment to maintain command over his most accessible unit, while the deputy division commander and chief of staff were dispatched to coordinate the independent defense of the 8th and 9th Regiments respectively. For another half day, each of the three regimental pockets fought alone. At dusk, Zhou Qingxiang ordered a breakout.   As darkness fell, exploiting the brief respite that came when the Japanese halted their attacks for the night, each regiment burst simultaneously from its position. Carefully prepared covering detachments remained behind and created convincing feints toward false breakout directions, drawing the enemy's main pursuit forces away from the actual withdrawal routes. The deceptions worked. By the time the Japanese commanders understood what had happened, the breakout had succeeded. Officers and soldiers filtered into the designated reception point in small groups — three men here, five there — arriving through the night and into the following morning. When the count was complete, the 3rd Division was a remnant of less than one-fifth of its pre-battle strength. The finest infantry division in the 10th Army had bled itself almost dry, but it had done so on its own terms, and it had extracted as much as it was possible to extract from an impossible situation.   On September 27th, a chilly autumn wind blew across the city of Changsha. At the playground of Lizhong Middle School in the eastern part of the city, Li Yutang stood and watched the survivors of his divisions come in. A week before, on September 20th, more than 30,000 men had departed Hengyang aboard seven special trains. Their military songs had filled the railway station. Their letters of determination, some written in blood, had been stacked on Li Yutang's desk. Their training scores were the highest ever recorded for a Chinese army unit — a perfect one hundred percent of "top-tier" achievement across all three infantry skills. They had been, by every measurable standard, the finest army China could produce.   Standing now at the playground of a secondary school repurposed as a muster point, Li Yutang looked at what remained: a little over 2,000 men, including lightly wounded soldiers from Changsha who had been caught up in the fighting and bandaged civilians who had taken up arms. Two thousand, from thirty thousand. What had happened to the others? They were dead. They were injured. They were maimed. Some had broken under the pressure and run. The accounting was simple and devastating. Li Yutang's expression remained dignified as he inspected his survivors — the face of a commander who understood that bearing is required of officers precisely in the moments when bearing costs the most. But his heart was filled with tears. Perhaps soon, he reflected, there would be another 10th Army — still heroic and spirited, still singing loudly as it went to war. But it would not be the same one.   History has no gaps or blank pages. The story of the 10th Army's ordeal was barely complete before the next chapter began. Reluctantly, one must turn the page. Following the 10th Army, Wang Yaowu's 74th Army also suffered a crushing defeat. Wang Yaowu had received his orders from Commander Xue on September 21st and had immediately begun moving his three divisions from their cantonments at Fenyi and Xinyu in Jiangxi Province. The 74th Army was composed of three divisions: the 51st Division under Li Tianxia, the 57th Division under Yu Chengwan, and the 58th Division under Liao Lingqi. These were the formations that had kept the "Iron Army" undefeated through four years of brutal warfare. Their code names told their own story — the 51st Division was called "Frontline," the 57th was called "Tiger Warrior," and the 58th was called "Exhilarating." Wang Yaowu had personally chosen the code name for the army headquarters: "Brilliant." Chiang Kai-shek himself had once remarked, "Of all the code names, yours is the best." It was a small distinction, but one that Wang Yaowu quietly cherished.   What Wang Yaowu did not know — could not know, for Anami's intelligence network had kept the preparation perfectly concealed — was that Anami Korechika had been monitoring his movements since the order to deploy was first issued. The Japanese commander had already selected the terrain, positioned his units, and laid the trap. He was waiting for the 74th Army's arrival.   On the 25th, Wang Yaowu led the 57th Division into the battlefield first, marching rapidly as Xue Yue had directed to Chunhua Mountain on the north bank of the Laodao River, east of Changsha, to occupy positions and cover the main force's deployment. On the evening of the 25th, the 169th and 170th Regiments of the 57th Division arrived at the south side of Chunhua Mountain and encountered a Japanese search party of over a hundred men. The 169th Regiment swiftly cut off the small force's escape route, coordinating effectively with the 170th. The Japanese detachment suffered heavy casualties, and the survivors fled toward Chunhua Mountain. When part of the 170th Regiment reached the foot of the mountain, they ran into a much larger Japanese force coming down to meet them — and learned in that moment that Chunhua Mountain had already been occupied by the enemy.   Wang Yaowu responded instantly. To seize the initiative before the Japanese could consolidate, he ordered two regiments to assault Chunhua Mountain that same night. Around midnight, the troops advanced in silence through the dark. After a fierce night battle, two Japanese battalions were unable to hold against the assault and withdrew in the early hours of the morning. The 57th Division had its foothold. At dawn on the 26th, a regiment from the 57th Division followed up the night's success, and Yu Chengwan positioned the division along the Chunhua Mountain line. As the morning advanced, the 51st and 58th Divisions arrived to complete the deployment. Following Xue Yue's orders, Wang Yaowu spread his force across the line: the 57th Division at Chishi River, the 58th Division at Chunhua Mountain itself, and the 51st Division at Fengjiang Bridge. They were ready. Or so it appeared.   At dawn on the 27th, Wang Yaowu went on the offensive. The 57th Division launched a surprise attack on the camp of the main force regiment of the Japanese 3rd Division. The Japanese were caught entirely unprepared — the attack came in total darkness, and the camp was thrown into chaos before anyone could organize a coherent response. The Japanese managed to form some kind of defense only as the first light of dawn broke, and through the morning the two armies clashed furiously. By mid-morning, the Japanese had been forced back three kilometers — a genuine and significant victory achieved through aggression and timing.   Then, at eight o'clock, the Japanese 3rd Division launched its counterattack with the support of dozens of aircraft — fighter-bombers diving low over the Chunhua Mountain positions, strafing and bombing. Both armies knew themselves to be elite formations; each had its country's reputation riding on the outcome. They clashed with corresponding ferocity.   Around noon, Wang Yaowu climbed to the rooftop of a farmhouse and studied the Japanese battle line through his field glasses. What he saw was encouraging: a breach had appeared in the enemy's formation to the north of Chunhua Mountain — a gap that, if exploited quickly, could roll up the Japanese flank. He ordered Li Hanqing, the infantry commander of the 51st Division, to take two regiments and execute an outflanking maneuver through that gap, striking the Japanese from the side. An hour later, Li Hanqing's movement succeeded. The Japanese forces were thrown into disarray, breaking rearward in a rout. For one brief hour, it seemed as though the 74th Army might achieve a decisive success. Then the Japanese 4th Division arrived. It swept in from behind Li Hanqing's flanking force, surrounding his two regiments before they could extract themselves. In the desperate fighting of the breakout attempt, Li Hanqing was shot and killed.   In the afternoon, with two of its regiments lost to encirclement and its flanking stroke reversed, the 57th Division found itself holding off two full Japanese divisions alone. The fighting continued — artillery, rifle fire, close assaults — until nightfall dimmed the battlefield. The division had suffered over 3,000 casualties, and more than half of all commanders below battalion level had been killed or wounded. Division Commander Yu Chengwan conferred with Wang Yaowu over the field telephone, and together they decided to withdraw the troops to prepared positions to hold through the night.   Meanwhile, on the same 27th of September, Liao Lingqi's 58th Division at Chunhua Mountain was subjected to a separate and equally devastating assault by the Japanese 6th Division, reinforced by elements of the 3rd Division. The positions at Chunhua Mountain were compact and clustered — ideal targets for concentrated aerial bombardment. The Japanese bombers came in two waves, and after both had passed, the hastily constructed earthen fortifications were almost entirely destroyed. Across what had been the defensive line, limbs and broken bodies could be seen among the wreckage. The entire division had suffered devastating casualties.   Beginning at nine o'clock in the morning, tens of thousands of Japanese troops launched successive offensive waves, methodically dividing the defensive line into sections and breaking through each one in turn. The defenders engaged the Japanese in hand-to-hand combat at position after position, gunfire and the shouts of bayonet fighters filling the smoke-thickened air. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the Chunhua Mountain defense line collapsed. The surviving soldiers attempted to break out in small groups, but many were intercepted and cut down by Japanese forces waiting along the escape routes.   Wang Yaowu was seething. He directed the battle from wherever he could find a usable vantage point, issuing orders in rapid succession — one moment ordering the 51st Division to send reinforcements to Chunhua Mountain, the next directing the army's directly subordinate regiments to absorb the shattered remnants of the 58th Division, then ordering the 57th Division to block Japanese forces from reinforcing the encirclement. He was everywhere at once, doing the work of a staff of twenty, improvising responses to crises that unfolded faster than any plan could accommodate. And as he directed, the same thought played and replayed: wasn't the Ninth War Zone just feeding them to the wolves? They had jumped into the enemy's encirclement without any initiative, while the enemy could attack from whatever direction they chose. He had nowhere to vent his frustration on the battlefield, only able to fend for himself. While directing the battle, he cursed under his breath: "What kind of hell is this?!"   As dusk fell over the chaos, the gunfire gradually subsided. The Japanese as a rule did not launch night attacks — a pattern the Chinese had come to rely upon for the brief respite it offered. Li Tianxia, commander of the 51st Division, concentrated his troops from the flanks toward the center to consolidate a defensible perimeter. The 57th Division, adjacent to the 51st and badly diminished by the day's fighting, did the same. Both divisions settled into their positions, and the exhausted soldiers lay down fully clothed, weapons in hand, and tried to rest. At midnight, the battlefield exploded.   Fierce gunfire roused the soldiers from whatever shallow sleep they had found. Two elite regiments of the Japanese 6th Division had broken through the gap that had opened between the positions of the 51st and 57th Divisions — a gap created by both units pulling inward — and were driving directly toward the headquarters of the 74th Army. In Wang Yaowu's many years of battlefield experience, this was the only instance he ever encountered of a large Japanese force launching a major attack at night.   The knowledge of terrain displayed by the attacking Japanese regiments was so precise, the route to army headquarters so accurately selected, that it raised immediate suspicions of an intelligence compromise — an inside source who had provided the attackers with maps and positions. Whatever the explanation, the effect was devastating. The headquarters' directly subordinate regiment and guard battalion were outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed. They fought where they could, but the Japanese pushed through them.   The guard platoon leader, a man who had served at Wang Yaowu's side through numerous campaigns, gathered several of his best soldiers and formed a close escort. He led Wang Yaowu into the darkness as the Japanese closed around the headquarters compound. More than a hundred Japanese soldiers gave chase — moving through the dark with a sureness of foot that seemed almost preternatural, as if they had developed night vision. The platoon leader recognized that Wang Yaowu could not outrun a hundred men. He shouted to the general and the remaining escort: "Go quickly!" Then he and a single machine gunner turned and stayed behind. Wang Yaowu ran. A few minutes later, the machine gunner was killed. Shortly after that, the platoon leader was shot through the leg and fell to the ground. He was captured.   Wang Yaowu threw himself into the grass beside a drainage ditch and lay still as Japanese soldiers searched the ground around him, their voices close enough to touch. From his hiding place, he heard his platoon leader — the man who had been at his side day and night, who had chosen to stay behind so that his general might live — cursing the Japanese soldiers from the ground where he lay captured and wounded. Then a Japanese officer drew his sword. The cursing stopped. The Japanese soldiers moved on. The gunfire subsided. Wang Yaowu lay in the grass in the dark and did not move until he was certain they were gone. When he crawled out of the bushes, he looked up at the stars, found the direction of Liuyang, and began walking in the darkness with the few guards who had stayed close. He walked until dawn.   Since joining the army, Wang Yaowu had never allowed himself to think about fear of death. He had spent too many years on battlefields, seen too much death and bloodshed, to entertain it as a personal concern. This time, however, he was in tears. Not from sadness, and not from fear. From something harder to name and harder to bear: frustration — the frustration of a capable commander who had been committed to battle by a higher command that neither understood the ground nor provided him the support to fight on it, and who had watched good men die for orders that made no tactical sense.   In the aftermath of the battle, Wang Yaowu's grief was compounded by something beyond the ordinary losses of combat. The 27th alone had cost the 57th Division nearly half its strength, and the 58th Division had been essentially wiped out as a fighting formation. Of his three powerful divisions, only the 51st remained relatively intact. In war, such losses, however painful, are comprehensible. What happened next was not. Liao Lingqi, the commander of the 58th Division — one of the three officers Wang Yaowu had called his "tigers" — did not remain with his shattered troops to regroup and reorganize them. Instead, after the division's collapse, he slipped away from the battlefield with only his personal guards, changed into civilian clothes, and boarded a train bound for his hometown of Qiyang in southern Hunan to visit his family.   By unhappy chance, a senior staff officer from the Ninth War Zone was aboard the same train. He recognized Liao Lingqi and watched, saying nothing, as the division commander traveled south in civilian dress while his men lay dead on Chunhua Mountain. Upon arriving in Hengyang, the officer went directly to report the incident to General Xue Yue. Xue Yue instructed the Military Law Supervision Department to investigate and referred the case to the Military Commission's Military Law Enforcement Directorate on charges of desertion in the face of the enemy. At that point, in that situation, there was nothing Wang Yaowu could say. He had no words left. He had given everything he had to the battle, and this was what greeted him at the end of it.   The elite 74th Army, with its heroic spirit and its unbroken record, had captured the imagination of the Chinese nation and the hearts of countless young men. When soldiers of the 74th Army returned to their hometowns on leave, they wore their elite status openly, and the prestige of the unit was such that families sought them as sons-in-law. Young men who enlisted and were not selected for the 74th Army were known to weep. What a fine unit. But this time, the trap had been perfectly laid, and the intelligence had been mastered. Anami had looked at his opponent's hole cards and played accordingly. He had concentrated overwhelming force, moved with coordination and speed, and exploited the confusion generated by contradictory orders from the Ninth War Zone Command. The Chinese elite had fought with courage and skill that earned the admiration of their enemies. They had simply been outgeneraled at the operational level.   The Second Battle of Changsha, Phase Three, had cost China two of its finest armies. The 10th Army had departed Hengyang over 30,000 strong and returned barely 2,000. The 74th Army had suffered a crushing defeat from which it would require months to rebuild. Wang Yaowu had walked alone through the dark to Liuyang. Li Yutang had stood in the autumn wind at a schoolyard and looked at what remained of the men who had written their determination in blood.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Phase Three of the second battle of Changsha showed Anami Korechika using intelligence and planning to blunt China's elite forces as Chiang Kai-shek reluctantly deployed the "Iron Army" 74th and the 10th. Intercepted communications enable encirclement and heavy losses. Li Yutang's merit and experience shape resistance, yet Japanese strategy dominates from the outset through coordinated advances.

Risk Aversion and Logistical Timelines for Moon Landings. Rick Fisher and Doug Messier. The Chinesespace program is highly risk-averse to protect the Communist Party's legitimacy. While NASA is "game on," it faces challenges with the Starship lander, which reportedly requires at least 15 refueling launches per mission. China hopes for a manned landing by 2030, while NASA's 2028 timeline remains subject to potential delays. (16)  

SCHEDULE THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 7-8-20261966 SWEDEN Chaos in the Strait of Hormuz and Global Alignments. Gordon Chang and Kamran Bokhari. The Strait of Hormuz memorandum of understanding has collapsed, leading the U.S. to end the ceasefire with Iran. Iran is attempting to divide international allies by courting India and Pakistan. Pakistan balances a mediating role against domestic economic instability, while India shifts toward a burden-sharing role in the Indo-Pacific. (1) Chinese Missile Provocations and the Undersea Power Struggle. Gordon Chang and Rebecca Grant. Chinalaunched a long-range missile over sovereign territories toward Fiji, an aggressive move coinciding with major NATO and RIMPAC events. The test signals China's intent to expand its nuclear triad despite its currently "noisy" submarine technology. The U.S. maintains its undersea dominance through advanced programs like the Columbia-class boomer and unmanned Orca systems. (2) Religious Persecution and the Rise of Underground Christianity in China. Gordon Chang and Piero Tozzi. Pastor Ezra Jin's release highlights the CCP's continued persecution of underground churches that refuse to answer to the state. Despite intense Sinicization and arrests of figures like Jimmy Lai, Christianity is flourishing in China as a witness for human dignity. Totalitarian control efforts have created an enemy in an underground congregation potentially numbering over 100 million. (3) PLA Purges and Xi Jinping's Power Consolidation. Gordon Chang and Piero Tozzi. Xi Jinping's provocative missile launches are linked to internal instability and purges within the Central Military Commission. By creating international tension, Xi forces competing party factions to rally behind his leadership. While he controls the propaganda and state security apparatus, his control over the People's Liberation Army remains incomplete. (4) Venezuela's Humanitarian Crisis and US Diplomatic Pragmatism. Evan Ellis. Twin earthquakes in Venezuelahave left thousands dead and missing, with the Maduro regime's response marked by corruption and inefficiency. The U.S. continues to work with regime "thugs" for stability and oil access while preventing the democratically elected leader, María Corina Machado, from returning to aid her country. (5) Electoral Shifts Toward U.S. Cooperation in Peru and Colombia. Evan Ellis. Keiko Fujimori in Peru and Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia have secured victories, pledging to join U.S.-led regional security coalitions. Both leaders inherit nations plagued by record-high coca production and expanded criminal groups. Their success is viewed as critical for regional stability and counter-cartel efforts in the Americas. (6) Bolivia's Instability and US-Mexico Trade Leverage. Evan Ellis. Bolivia remains on "borrowed time" as Evo Morales leads blockades from his coca-growing stronghold. Simultaneously, the U.S. uses the USMCA's renewal uncertainty as leverage to ensure Mexico's cooperation on migration and drugs. This strategy risks long-term investment but forces immediate strategic compliance from the Mexican administration. (7) Cuba's Grid Collapse and Caribbean Regional Integration. Evan Ellis. Cuba's recurring blackouts highlight a crumbling infrastructure and the failure of economic reforms to appease U.S. sanctions. While the U.S. applies individual sanctions on leaders, CARICOM is expanding its regional influence, recently bringing Martinique in as an associate member to bolster Caribbean governance and maritime security. (8) Russia's Energy Chokepoint and the Shifting Global Oil Map. Michael Bernstam. Ukrainian drone strikes on major Russian refineries have triggered a severe fuel crisis, forcing export bans on diesel and gasoline. Meanwhile, Gulf states are building massive pipelines to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. These developments are neutralizing Iran's "golden weapon" and shifting global oil transit maps away from traditional naval chokepoints. (9) The Strategic Impact of the Drone War on Russia. Michael Bernstam. Ukrainian drones have achieved what sanctions could not, choking Russia's fuel supply and forcing it to sell oil at massive discounts to China and India. This new form of decentralized drone warfare has made fuel supplies the primary vulnerability of the Russianeconomy. Modern nations, including Taiwan, are now observing these lessons in resource warfare. (10) The Capitalism Model and Monetization of the Space Sector. Bob Zimmerman. Wall Street has embraced commercial space, with private companies like Catalyst performing satellite servicing missions once reserved for government agencies. The U.S. Space Force now buys rapid-launch capabilities from the private sector for orbital reconnaissance. India is also transitioning its space program toward this capitalist model to increase efficiency. (11) Asteroid Probes and Scientific Cosmological Anomalies. Bob Zimmerman. Missions are targeting asteroids like the potentially dangerous Apophis, with a fleet of probes planning a 2029 flyby. Meanwhile, the Euclid telescope has detected ancient quasars that challenge Big Bang timelines. Additional anomalies in Galaxy Centaurus A and unpredictable sunspot activity suggest current cosmological models remain incomplete. (12) European Heat Waves and Shifting Commodity Markets. Simon Constable. Extreme heat is becoming the norm in Europe, driving demand for air conditioning and pressuring electrical infrastructure. Commodity prices show mixed signals; oil and gas have risen due to Middle East tensions, while industrial metals like copper decline. In Britain, Andy Burnham is positioned as a likely future prime leader. (13) The Invisible Power of Global Data Centers. Simon Constable. Data centers represent the digital future, with Virginia housing the world's highest concentration for the federal government. Despite accounting for over 4% of U.S. electricity usage, a quiz reveals that a quarter of Americans know nothing about these facilities. The U.K.holds the second-highest number of data centers globally. (14) The Sino-American Lunar Race for Permanent Presence. Rick Fisher and Doug Messier. China aims for a permanent lunar presence at the South Pole to potentially deny access to other powers. NASA is countering with a civilian coalition of private partners like SpaceX to develop sustainable infrastructure for future Mars missions. China's architecture mimics Soviet systems, while NASA's Starship requires complex orbital refueling to reach the moon. (15) Risk Aversion and Logistical Timelines for Moon Landings. Rick Fisher and Doug Messier. The Chinesespace program is highly risk-averse to protect the Communist Party's legitimacy. While NASA is "game on," it faces challenges with the Starship lander, which reportedly requires at least 15 refueling launches per mission. China hopes for a manned landing by 2030, while NASA's 2028 timeline remains subject to potential delays. (16)