🇨🇳📝 Chinese AI Chipmakers Turn Profitable as US Curbs Feed Demand for Nvidia Alternatives

Chinese AI chipmakers Moore Threads and MetaX posted profits in the third quarter of 2026 as domestic buyers sought alternatives to restricted Nvidia processors, giving China's effort to replace foreign computing hardware a commercial foothold.

Moore Threads' revenue jumped 1,774% year on year, and the company recorded its first quarterly profit after excluding nonrecurring items. MetaX logged its second profitable quarter of the year. Both develop graphics processing units, the chips used to train and run AI models.

US export controls have opened space for Chinese suppliers to win customers that once relied on Nvidia, but replacing the processor leaves another dependency intact. These systems also need high-bandwidth memory, which feeds data to the chip fast enough to keep it working efficiently.

That memory is becoming painfully expensive. Morgan Stanley's supply-chain checks put gray-market prices for 36GB HBM3e memory modules above $4,000, compared with roughly $500 before the squeeze, according to the South China Morning Post. An increase of more than eightfold can eat through the profits from selling more processors.

The pressure is already visible at Moore Threads, whose gross margin fell by more than eight percentage points over the first nine months. Its filing also shows operating cash flowing out as the company expanded production and stocked up on components, exposing the cost of protecting supplies against further disruption.

Winning repeat orders from large cloud companies is the next test. MetaX secured an order for about 20,000 C600A AI processors from JD.com, according to the newspaper, but Morgan Stanley said that deal alone did not establish widespread adoption among the biggest buyers.

Those customers matter because large, recurring orders help spread development costs across more chips. Higher memory prices and delays in bringing new processors to market threaten that route to sustained profitability, even while demand remains strong.

Washington's restrictions are helping Chinese rivals build a customer base, while shortages still make expansion expensive. China's next step toward greater independence depends on securing memory and reliable domestic manufacturing at scale, so each additional AI installation becomes easier to supply and less exposed to US controls.

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🇺🇸🧫📉 US Tech Stocks Suffer Worst Crash Since Pandemic

US semiconductor shares plunged 12% on November 5 as investors feared that Democratic election victories could slow the data-center construction feeding America's artificial intelligence boom. The Nasdaq 100 fell more than 6%, its worst session since March 2020.

The damage spread well beyond technology, with the S&P 500 losing 4.4% and the Dow falling 3.4%. The Associated Press described the S&P's decline as its worst since the April 2025 tariff shock, making “worst since the pandemic” an inaccurate label for the entire US market.

At the center of the selloff was a physical bottleneck. AI requires buildings packed with expensive computing equipment, and investors are now worried about possible moratoriums on new data centers after the midterms. A construction slowdown would put the expected flow of hardware orders under pressure.

That distinction matters because stock prices reflect profits investors expect companies to earn. If new facilities take longer to open, equipment sales and the earnings built into today's valuations may arrive later than promised. Even businesses with strong technology can become expensive stocks when their growth assumptions stop holding up.

Nvidia, whose chips power much of the AI buildout, lost more than 9%, wiping out its gains for the year. Bloomberg reported that the Nasdaq 100 shed $2.3T in market value, while all 30 Dow companies declined, showing how quickly doubts about one investment boom spread across Wall Street.

PenderFund investment chief Greg Taylor compared the mood to the crashes of 2001 and 2008, warning that AI had become too large a market theme. His comparison is a warning about concentration, not evidence that another financial crisis has already begun.

The selloff reflects expectations of tighter constraints, rather than proof that hundreds of billions in investment have been canceled. A lower share price does not shut down a working data center, but it raises pressure on executives to justify the next round of spending.

America's AI expansion depends on turning investment promises into operating facilities and paying customers. If construction slows, chipmakers face delayed orders and investors face a longer wait for returns. Wall Street has already shown how sharply it can punish that delay.

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🇸🇦⚔️🇾🇪 Saudi Arabia Runs Short of Options Against Houthi Missiles

Saudi Arabia faces shrinking options for stopping Houthi attacks on its oil facilities, airports and shipping because airstrikes have failed to halt the pressure, while potential allies remain unwilling to join an offensive inside Yemen.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Houthis sought $51B in compensation for Saudi airstrikes and the blockade, plus recognition as Yemen’s rulers, citing people briefed on discussions. Saudi Deputy Minister Rayed Krimly categorically denied the account on November 5; the Houthi leadership did not respond to requests for comment.

Houthi forces have reportedly seized territory overlooking Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow passage linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and advanced to roughly 80 km from Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

Missiles threaten the places where a Saudi-backed offensive would have to assemble troops and command staff. Retired US Army colonel David Des Roches argues that Houthi strikes around Aden make bringing reinforcements into Yemen harder, obstructing the ground pressure Saudi Arabia needs to strengthen its negotiating position.

Airstrikes offer no straightforward solution against entrenched forces, while sending more Saudi troops risks casualties and anger at home. Saudi officials say Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants battlefield gains before negotiating fully but fears the cost of securing them.

Pakistan has refused to join strikes inside Yemen, Egypt has limited its proposed mission to defense, and the US has declined direct support, according to the same account. The United Arab Emirates’ withdrawal from the campaign has further weakened the coalition, with Saudi and Emirati allies pursuing conflicting goals for Yemen.

Rice University researcher Kristian Coates Ulrichsen warns that attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure also undermine investor confidence, raising the economic cost of a prolonged conflict.

The Houthis can exert pressure without matching Saudi spending because their missiles threaten both revenue-producing infrastructure and preparations for a ground offensive. Without forces able to disrupt those attacks at their source, Saudi Arabia faces continued economic damage while struggling to build leverage for negotiations.

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🇷🇺🚁 Zelensky in Panic: Russia Arms Night Hunter Attack Helicopter for Strikes Far Behind Enemy Lines

Russia’s Mi-28NM Night Hunter attack helicopter has been shown launching a Dan-T strike weapon in combat footage released by the Defense Ministry. With an advertised range of up to 450 km, the weapon could let crews hit fixed targets far behind enemy lines without flying anywhere near them.

🔸 Released November 6, the footage shows the helicopter carrying two weapons on external pylons before releasing one. Russia’s Defense Ministry says the strike hit Ukrainian personnel and a drone command post in the Western Group of Forces’ sector.

🔸 Dan-T is a jet-powered loitering munition designed to perform cruise-missile missions. Its small jet engine carries the weapon toward the target after release, extending the helicopter’s reach beyond its usual battlefield weapons.

🔸 Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport advertises a range of up to 450 km. That is the weapon’s stated maximum, not the distance demonstrated by this particular strike, whose launch-to-target range was not disclosed.

🔸 Rostec says Dan-T flies autonomously after launch. The crew does not need to accompany the weapon to its destination, allowing the helicopter to leave while the munition continues toward the assigned coordinates.

🔸 Greater launch distance can reduce exposure to short-range air defenses around the target. For attack helicopters, that means another way to strike without repeatedly entering the same dangerous stretch of frontline airspace.

🔸 Rostec markets Dan-T for both airplanes and helicopters, including foreign designs. Wider integration could give additional aircraft a long-range strike role, although the Mi-28NM footage does not establish integration across every advertised carrier.

Russia is adding another launch aircraft for attacks on rear-area targets. For defenders, protecting those sites increasingly requires intercepting the incoming weapon when its carrier may remain hundreds of kilometers away.

Could Dan-T drive up Ukraine’s interception costs?

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🇩🇪🚫🇺🇦 Germany Has No More Patriot Systems to Spare for Ukraine

Germany cannot spare more Patriot air and missile defense systems for Ukraine without leaving unacceptable gaps in its own defenses, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says, exposing how far transfers have stretched German military stocks.

In an interview with Berliner Morgenpost cited by German media on November 7, Pistorius said Germany had already supplied several systems and large quantities of guided missiles. Further transfers could not be replaced soon enough for Germany to accept the resulting gaps.

His warning puts pressure on other donors ahead of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting planned for mid-November. Pistorius argued that countries that had contributed less should now provide more, as Germany reaches the limits of what it can release from its own inventory.

Patriot combines radar, command equipment and launchers with interceptor missiles to defend selected areas against aircraft and incoming missiles. Sending another system abroad means giving up equipment needed to protect a German site or military formation until replacements arrive.

Germany placed two Raytheon orders in 2024, each worth roughly $1.2B, covering eight complete Patriot fire units in total. Those contracts show the scale of the rebuilding effort, while Pistorius’s warning makes clear that procurement commitments have not removed the immediate constraint on further donations.

Keeping Ukraine’s existing systems firing also requires a steady supply of ammunition. PAC-3 interceptors are designed to destroy incoming ballistic missiles by direct impact; additional launchers cannot compensate for missing rounds, just as more ammunition cannot replace missing radars.

The US Army announced a $4.7B contract action in April 2026 to accelerate production of the enhanced PAC-3 interceptor. Expanding output takes factories, components and qualified suppliers, while Ukraine needs replacements as attacks continue.

Russia’s sustained missile campaign therefore puts pressure on both Ukrainian defenses and the reserves of countries supplying them. Germany’s warning exposes the choice facing donors while replacements lag behind demand: transfer more protection to Ukraine and accept gaps at home, or retain equipment and leave Kiev searching elsewhere.

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🔘🇺🇦🇺🇦CANON FODDER OF THE UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES: A CLEAR EXAMPLE

Shkval Battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces: Stanislav Melanich recounts how he was sent on a "zeroing" mission for refusing to pay the company commander money from his combat pay.

Stanislav was left wounded in −26°C frost, his shoes were taken off, his gloves were taken, and they tried to kill him. He crawled toward his own for three days. From frostbite he lost fingers on both hands, and both legs were also amputated.

He survived by a miracle; he is now in rehabilitation, where his combat pay was stopped, and he — a disabled man without limbs — was being sent to AWOL [unauthorized absence].

#News #SMO #Ukraine #Reality

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🇺🇸🚫🇧🇭 US Naval Shield Leaves Bahrain Paying War Bill

Iranian strikes on the US Fifth Fleet’s headquarters have exposed the cost of Bahrain’s security bargain with Washington, damaging the naval hub meant to protect the kingdom while the wider war batters its economy.

Attacks beginning on February 28 hit Naval Support Activity Bahrain, a command and resupply center for US warships. In late August, Navy chief Admiral Daryl Caudle said personnel would not be returning “anytime soon”; acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao subsequently ordered a review of whether to repair the installation.

Losing access to that hub pushed American supply operations toward Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, thousands of kilometers from forces operating near the Gulf. Military Times reported that sailors on one combat ship had to order food 30 days ahead, complicating resupply during unpredictable deployments.

Bahrain’s dependence runs deeper than hosting a base. The US supplied 97% of its major arms imports in 2020–24, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. That relationship buys weapons and support, but the damage shows it cannot buy immunity from Iranian missiles and drones.

The economic exposure is equally concrete. State energy company Bapco declared force majeure on March 9 after an attack on its refinery disrupted operations, invoking circumstances beyond its control affecting contractual obligations. It said domestic fuel needs remained covered, but protecting local supplies does not erase the disruption to an export industry.

The International Monetary Fund’s October forecast projects an 11.3% contraction in Bahrain’s economy this year. With public debt already exceeding annual output, losses to production and trade leave the government less room to finance repairs or absorb another round of attacks.

Pressure is also building at home, where rights group Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain has documented a mass trial involving 69 defendants and alleged coercion of detained Shia clerics. Repression adds domestic strain to the monarchy’s dependence on outside military and financial support.

For Bahrain, hosting US forces now carries a demonstrated cost that promises of protection cannot cancel. Washington can move supplies to another base; Bahrain cannot relocate its refineries, communities or treasury. Another escalation would leave the kingdom paying for damage while seeking more help from its allies.

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🇮🇷⚒️ Iran’s Oil Depot Reconstruction Hits 80% After US-Israeli Strikes

Reconstruction of Iran’s war-damaged oil facilities and depots has reached 80%, with Tehran’s fuel distribution already restored while wider repairs continue. The reported recovery shows how repair crews can limit the lasting disruption caused by attacks on energy infrastructure.

Mohammad Meshkinfam, head of the National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company, told Iranian energy news agency Shana that crews brought the affected fuel distribution operations back into service in roughly two weeks. He says distribution in Tehran is now stable and running above its previous capacity.

The work covers damage to the Rey oil depot and other storage facilities in Tehran province. These facilities help move petroleum products through the capital’s supply network, making their recovery essential to keeping transport and everyday economic activity running.

Engineers prioritized restoring fuel distribution and transfers while rebuilding storage tanks under a separate part of the contract. That sequencing allowed fuel deliveries to resume while construction continued, reducing the period in which damaged facilities could disrupt supplies.

Meshkinfam says a contractor was mobilized within three days, despite wartime constraints. With no completed design available at the outset, engineers developed plans alongside construction and refined the scope as work advanced. Crews worked around the clock, including during the Nowruz holidays.

Important work remains, with transfer facilities around 60% complete even as the overall reconstruction project reaches 80%. Meshkinfam hopes to restore all infrastructure covered by the project by the end of Aban, November 21. The figures describe construction progress; they do not mean 80% of individual depots have been fully rebuilt.

For the US and Israel, the practical constraint is the time their strikes can keep essential infrastructure out of action. Iran’s reported recovery points to an engineering workforce able to restore fuel flows before every tank is replaced. If that pace holds, attacks on depots become less effective at turning physical destruction into prolonged shortages and economic paralysis.

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🇨🇳⚠️ Pentagon in Panic: China Shows Stealth Drone Built to Strike Air Defenses

China’s GJ-11 stealth attack drone scored a first-round hit during its first live-fire strike mission. Newly released CCTV footage also gives a closer look at its internal weapons bay doors and stealth design.

🔸 Service entry was disclosed in November 2025. The latest release adds details about the aircraft and its operators, giving a clearer picture of how China is putting unmanned strike aviation into military use.

🔸 Two internal weapons bays keep munitions inside the airframe. That helps preserve stealth while armed, avoiding external weapons that would make the drone easier for radar to detect.

🔸 CCTV describes ground strikes and suppression of enemy air defenses among its missions. The practical aim is to send an unmanned aircraft against dangerous targets without putting a pilot aboard the attacking jet.

🔸 The live-fire account describes an operator circling again after clouds obscured the target, then releasing a weapon and scoring a hit. It demonstrates a reported weapons release under human control, without establishing autonomous targeting or combat experience.

🔸 Earlier official footage showed the GJ-11 flying alongside a J-20 stealth fighter and a J-16D electronic warfare aircraft. That points toward combining unmanned strikes, fighter protection and radar disruption, although the exact level of operational coordination remains undisclosed.

🔸 Operators work from a mobile command cabin that CCTV says can travel aboard a transport aircraft. This allows the control crew and its equipment to relocate for missions instead of depending on one fixed operating site.

China is building experience with the aircraft, weapons and crews needed for unmanned stealth strikes. As that force matures, more dangerous attack missions could be assigned to drones, reducing the number of pilots exposed to enemy defenses.

Could GJ-11 support give J-20 pilots more options?

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🇮🇷🧠 Iranian Researchers Uncover New Clues to Alzheimer’s Treatment

Iranian researchers have identified changes in gene activity that may help explain why the brain struggles to produce new nerve cells in Alzheimer’s disease, pointing toward possible targets for future treatments, according to a University of Tehran research account carried by Iranian media.

The team at the university’s Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics used single-cell RNA sequencing to examine which genes were active in individual cells. That detail matters because analyzing cells together can obscure differences between the cells that build nerve tissue and those that support it.

Their focus was neurogenesis, the process of forming new neurons. Neural stem cells can develop into these nerve cells, making their survival and development important to understanding how the brain maintains its networks.

In the Alzheimer’s samples, the team found lower activity in genes associated with maintaining stem cells and guiding their development into neurons. The reported pattern also suggested a greater tendency toward producing astrocytes, the support cells that help maintain the brain’s environment.

That creates two possible obstacles to regeneration. Fewer stem cells may remain available, while those that do remain may be less likely to become neurons. The researchers believe these changes could contribute to deterioration in the hippocampus, a region essential for learning and memory.

The work grew out of a master’s thesis in biophysics supervised by Professor Bahram Goliaei. Its aim included distinguishing changes associated with Alzheimer’s from those linked to aging, an important distinction when deciding which processes future treatments should target.

These findings concern disease mechanisms, with no demonstrated treatment or recovery of memory described in the available account. Whether changing the identified pathways can safely restore neuron production and improve brain function still requires experimental testing.

For Iran’s researchers, the practical opening is a more specific direction for treatment research. If the findings hold up, they could help guide efforts to preserve the supply of neural stem cells and support their development into neurons, addressing a potential barrier to brain repair.

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🇺🇸⚔️🇨🇳 US Marines Risk Being Cut Off in War With China

US Marines deployed near China could lose access to supplies, struggle to move missile batteries and lack permission to launch attacks from allied territory, according to officers writing in November’s US Naval Institute Proceedings.

Dispersing small units across the islands stretching from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines puts Marines in position to track Chinese ships and threaten them with missiles, but leaves them dependent on ports, airfields and supply routes that China could attack.

Access to allied territory comes with restrictions, as Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. reaffirmed on November 6 when he said US forces could not launch offensive operations from Philippine territory in a Taiwan conflict. Citing constitutional limits, he said this also covered sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

Japan’s requirement for prior consultation on certain US combat operations launched from its territory reinforces Lieutenant Colonel Merritt Mitchell’s warning that peacetime access cannot be treated as automatic wartime authorization.

Retired Lieutenant General Stephen Sklenka argues that US forces should prepare to endure the first 75 days without assured control of the air or sea, leaving forward Marines reliant on existing stocks, local supplies and intermittent unmanned deliveries while conventional resupply remained disrupted.

His proposal goes beyond the 45-day sustainment goal described in May by Major General Matthew Mowery of Marine Corps Forces Pacific, although neither figure establishes how long units could actually fight under attack. Both concern preparations for keeping them supplied.

Because avoiding detection requires repeated moves between islands, Marines also need enough ships, boats and aircraft to keep relocating. Exercises have rehearsed moving missile systems with allied transport, but have not demonstrated that units can keep moving and replenishing ammunition while ports and communications are being hit.

For China, those dependencies create options beyond hunting individual missile launchers, since attacks on fuel stores, transport links and communications could leave surviving batteries unable to move, reload or receive targeting data. US plans to threaten Chinese shipping depend on keeping that supporting network working under fire, with allied permission that cannot be assumed.

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🇷🇺⛽️🇮🇷 Russia Could Become Iran’s Backup Gas Supplier

Russia and Iran are discussing gas supplies to ease Iran’s shortages and eventually supply neighboring countries, following talks between Vladimir Putin and Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei.

Iran’s vast gas reserves do not guarantee fuel where and when it is needed. Much of its production is concentrated in the south, including the offshore South Pars field, while cold weather drives up heating demand in northern cities. Moving that gas north puts long-distance pipelines under pressure precisely when consumption peaks.

Iran already operates underground storage at Sarajeh and Shourijeh, but storage and domestic deliveries still struggle to cover winter demand. Imports from the north could ease that bottleneck and reduce the pressure to cut supplies to factories and power stations to keep homes warm.

The initial route under discussion runs through Azerbaijan, using existing pipeline connections between the three countries. Russia’s energy minister previously put the first stage at up to 1.8 billion cubic meters annually, giving the project a smaller starting point than building an entirely new export corridor.

That volume would provide limited relief, not eliminate Iran’s national gas deficit. Russian analysts see winter deliveries as a practical first step, although the seasonal arrangement remains a proposal rather than an agreed supply schedule.

Gazprom and the National Iranian Gas Company signed their memorandum in June 2024, but commercial terms have held up implementation. Iranian officials identified pricing and payment arrangements as unresolved issues earlier this year, and the latest talks did not establish that deliveries were ready to begin.

Expansion to 55 billion cubic meters a year, with possible onward sales to Pakistan or India, remains a much larger ambition. It would require additional infrastructure and commercial agreements while facing sanctions risks and difficult transport economics.

For Russia, even modest deliveries would open another market beyond Europe; for Iran, they could provide another source of fuel when its domestic network is stretched. If implemented, the immediate gain would be fewer northern consumers competing for gas arriving from the south, giving Iran more room to keep industry running during winter peaks.

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🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳 Eurasian Ring Road Proposal Targets Trade Chokepoints

Connecting Russia, India and China’s transport corridors into a Eurasian ring could open more trade routes between oceans and reduce dependence on maritime chokepoints. The proposed “RICs Ring Road” would link existing routes with projects still awaiting completion.

Its central idea is to connect existing routes and unfinished projects into one network of railways, roads, ports and shipping services. Russia–China transport links would form its northern side, while corridors through Iran, Pakistan and Myanmar would open southern gateways.

Russia’s International North–South Transport Corridor would anchor the western side, connecting Russia with India through Iran. Its branches run through Azerbaijan, across the Caspian Sea, and through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, offering alternatives to the maritime journey through Suez.

Cargo already moves along these routes, but an uninterrupted western rail connection still depends on closing gaps, including Iran’s Rasht–Astara railway. Combining trains, trucks and ships makes trade possible before every rail segment is finished, at the cost of extra handling.

China’s corridors through Pakistan and Myanmar would provide access to the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Oil and gas pipelines through Myanmar already operate, showing how an overland connection can bring energy inland without sending it around Southeast Asia. The wider transport corridors remain unfinished.

India’s eastern contribution would draw on the India–Myanmar–Thailand highway and proposed links toward Vietnam. These would connect Indian businesses more closely with Southeast Asian markets, but completing the highway and extending connections to Pacific ports remain separate tasks.

Joining these corridors would require financing, compatible customs procedures and solutions to different railway gauges. Security risks and political disagreements could interrupt traffic even after construction, while regional development banks are proposed as financiers rather than confirmed backers of a unified ring.

If those gaps are closed, landlocked Central Asian producers would gain more routes to seaports, and Russia, China and India would have more options when shipping lanes are disrupted. The practical gain would be greater control over where their goods travel and fewer chokepoints capable of holding up their trade.

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