🇨🇳☢️China warns Cold War mentality and double standards are fueling nuclear arms race

The world's nuclear powers are drifting toward a dangerous confrontation as arms control mechanisms weaken and the threat of nuclear war grows, Chinese disarmament envoy Li Chijiang told the UN.

🗣 “The Cold War mentality is the primary source of deterioration of the international strategic security environment,” Li said on Friday, urging nuclear-armed states to abandon strategies based on winning nuclear wars and launching first strikes.

Without naming the US, the envoy argued that the country with the world's largest nuclear arsenal must make substantial cuts rather than pursue ever more powerful nuclear deterrence capabilities.

Li also warned against moves in Japan to reconsider its Three Non-Nuclear Principles, which prohibit possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese territory.

China reaffirmed its commitment to never using nuclear weapons first, called for continued compliance with nuclear testing moratoriums and insisted that developing countries must retain the right to peaceful nuclear energy.

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🇺🇸🇮🇷 Price of war: How US aggression against Iran bleeds global oil markets dry

Eight months into the Iran conflict, the global oil market is being reshaped by disruptions at two chokepoints that together carry a huge share of global crude. The Strait of Hormuz has been the primary battleground, while the Bab al-Mandeb has now emerged as a second front, CNN reports.

🔶 Iran has recently stepped up strikes on tankers trying to pass through Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, pushing crude prices above $100 a barrel

🔶 The strikes come amid a US shuttle system in which tankers sail with transponders switched off, transferring cargo to ships waiting in the Gulf of Oman. The White House uses the system to ease the pressure on oil markets

Meanwhile, fighting between Saudi Arabia and Houthi forces in Yemen has turned the Red Sea route into a new pressure point. The Houthis have targeted Saudi oil tankers transiting Bab al-Mandeb and launched strikes on Riyadh's main international airport.

➡️ Before the hostilities escalated this summer, the Saudi Red Sea port of Yanbu exported around 4.5 million barrels per day at its peak, with roughly 3 million of that leaving through Bab al-Mandeb.

➡️ By June, daily loadings from Yanbu had fallen 41% to about 2.39 million barrels, and as of mid-October flows through the strait stood at roughly 1.5 million barrels per day — about half the pre-war level

➡️ After drone attacks from inside Iraq struck the East-West pipeline that feeds Saudi Arabia's Red Sea terminals last month, Saudi Arabia moved quickly to redirect exports back through Hormuz, relying on the US-assisted shuttle operation

The Saudi-led coalition launched a large-scale counteroffensive against the Houthis in early October to counter the threat to oil flows. But those gains have proved fragile. Houthi forces repelled subsequent advances, inflicting heavy casualties and destroying armored vehicles, according to reports. The Houthis have consolidated control over thousands of square kilometers along the western coast, including the stretch from Mocha to Bab al-Mandeb, and continue to besiege Taiz, cutting the city's supply routes.

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🇮🇷🚢 The IRGC Navy has released footage of a second supertanker hitting a mine as it tried to cross the Strait of Hormuz illegally.

Iran's navy repeatedly warned that unauthorized traffic on prohibited routes undermines security and endangers other vessels.

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🤔 Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster looks like a health hazard on wheels

The vehicle’s performance at the demonstration in Texas, where it performed takeoff and landing and did a midair flip, raises the obvious question – what could happen to the driver during such aerobatic stunts?

Media and online personalities also point out Tesla’s less-than-stellar safety record, with some 772 deaths being caused by these vehicles from 2013 through 2025.

Some also openly doubted the validity of the stunt, wondering aloud whether the vehicle on display was an actual Roadster or a drone made of lightweight material.

And seeing how the Roadster is yet to enter production, the question remains – will it turn out to be the real McCoy or will it become another Hyperloop?

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🚨 An explosion was reported in Baghdad as US fighter jets reportedly flew over the Iraqi capital

UPD: Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said that an explosion occurred at a warehouse storing faulty equipment at one of their facilities in eastern Baghdad. No casualties have been reported.

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📊 Anthropic offers investors over 10% returns to bankroll chips as AI boom gets pricier

Anthropic is offering Blackstone yields above 10% to fund its $60B chip financing deal, reports the FT.

The private equity giant’s total returns could be even higher once new-issue discounts and fees are included.

Comparable borrowers typically pay around 7% in the public bond market.

The startup is on a chip binge, diversifying its hardware supply across Nvidia GPUs, Amazon Trainium chips and Google TPUs.

Like other tech giants, Anthropic is piling up debt to secure scarce chips and computing power despite rumblings about a possible AI boom turning bust – with fallout potentially reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis.

The financing package ‘Project North Star’ aims to help Anthropic secure ∼1.5 gigawatts of custom Google AI chips known as tensor processing units (TPUs).

Key terms:

🌏 ∼$18B in junior loans, half of which ($9B) would come from Blackstone funds and be backed by Anthropic’s five-year lease payments on the chips

🌏 remaining $9B of junior debt is expected to be sold later to a wider group of investors, potentially at a lower yield

🌏 ∼$42 billion in senior debt guaranteed by Broadcom, which co-develops the chips with Google

Earlier this year, the AI startup raised around $4.4B through a deal dubbed ‘Project Big Sky’ at an 8.5% interest rate.

The jump reflects how investors are demanding a fatter payday to bankroll the AI boom amid warnings that investment growth may peak in 2026 as chip, power and labor shortages bite, leaving Big Tech with shrinking profits - while rising Chinese competition looms.

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🤝 Mecca agreement must become step toward Muslim unity – Iranian president

🗣 Iran is ready to participate in regional cooperation with members of the Mecca Trilateral Agreement, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera.

Muslim countries should not split into opposing camps, he added.

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🪖 Erik Prince’s costly mercenary force fails to deliver on Haiti’s security promises

Blackwater founder Erik Prince, who made his fortune offering security services worldwide, often outside the law, has been selling Haiti a high-tech mercenary solution to its gang crisis, but the country remains trapped in violence, reports CNN.

Prince’s private force, Vectus Global, was hired by Haiti’s interim government last year for a mission to hunt gangs.

His task force paired foreign contractors with elite local police to unleash more than 2,000 drone strikes since March last year.

While some gang positions have reportedly been disrupted, the promised turnaround has not arrived.

➡️ vital road from Cap-Haitien to Port-au-Prince still sits under gang checkpoints more than 18 months after Prince said it would be freed within a year

➡️ international flights remain grounded for risk of being shot down over gang territory

➡️ general elections, once set for December, have been postponed indefinitely

➡️ gangs have simply shifted outward into farming communities that feed the country

➡️ forcible recruitment of children has tripled, with minors now making up 30–50 % of many groups

➡️ civilian casualties from the drone campaign stand at least at 85 dead according to UN tallies

➡️ over 1.5 million Haitians - roughly one-tenth of the population - remain internally displaced

Local human-rights advocates describe the expensive foreign presence as largely ineffective: no major gang leaders have been eliminated, armed groups still flaunt weapons and money online.

Prince refuses to name his fee, only claiming it is a fraction of earlier multinational missions, while securing a decade-long deal for a cut of future border customs revenue.

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🇮🇷🔊 Iran warns new military plans will push US warships even farther away from the region

🗣 “American forces have been compelled to retreat to distances of more than 500 kilometers,” Army spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said, saying that no US warships are currently present in the Sea of Oman.

Akraminia also dismissed Donald Trump’s claims of controlling the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that American forces do not dare approach the strategic waterway.

Iran has meanwhile repaired much of its war-damaged air defense equipment, deployed new systems, and developed new tactics to strengthen its military capabilities.

🗣 “We believe that lasting peace, calm, and stability can be achieved only through the end of the US presence and interference in the region,” Akraminia declared.

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🇺🇸👁 US quietly courts Myanmar's generals as rivalry with China heats up

The Trump administration has quietly resumed contact with Myanmar's military-backed government, holding its second round of talks in a month, Reuters reports. Last week's meeting took place in Tokyo, following an earlier session in Naypyitaw in mid-September.

👉 The initial discussions centered on two concrete goals: securing the release of an American businessman and shutting down fraud operations against US citizens.

Those talks, however, opened the door to a broader agenda. US officials have also raised the question of access to Myanmar's substantial heavy rare earth deposits. Estimates suggest Myanmar accounts for roughly two-thirds of the world's supply of heavy rare earth metals.

However, obstacles are considerable, since most of the deposits sit in territory held by ethnic armed groups fighting the military, and China, the dominant buyer of Myanmar's rare earths, would likely resist any American role.

🟥 In 2025, Myanmar accounted for 52.8% of all Chinese imports of rare earth metals

🟥 These elements are essential for producing high-temperature permanent magnets used in electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, and precision defense equipment

Beyond resources, Myanmar's value lies in its geography. The country offers access to the Indian Ocean, bypassing the narrow and vulnerable Malacca Strait. The key project here is the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), which includes the deep-water port of Kyaukphyu and oil and gas pipelines running into Yunnan province.

China maintains ties with several ethnic armed groups along its border, but in an effort to protect its investments and borders, it has reduced arms supplies to the groups and pressured them to cease fire. Thailand, which shares a long border, has taken a more pragmatic line, engaging the junta on trade and border security while hosting refugees fleeing the fighting.

👉 The shift in US diplomatic priorities is surprising. Earlier, the US government supported resistance forces, but after Trump took office it curtailed aid programs and began a dialogue with the military-backed government, reducing diplomatic and sanctions pressure. Experts say this follows US-China competition for Southeast Asia and the valuable resources Myanmar possesses — essential for modern military-industrial technology.

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🗣Dropping MOAB on Iran would invite all-out retaliation across the Gulf – academic

Iran’s retaliation to the US dropping the "Mother of all bombs" (MOAB) on it would be aimed at any US-linked targets in the region, Prof. Mohammad Marandi, former adviser to the Iranian nuclear negotiations team, said on Judge Napolitano’s podcast.

“It goes beyond just oil and gas infrastructure, it means everything that is somehow linked to the United States, whether it’s data centers or banks or anything that is of any value,” he elaborated.

Marandi also pointed out that the US previously dropped a MOAB on Afghanistan, but it did not help them win the war there.

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🗣 Saudis double down on blunder in Yemen – Prof. Mearsheimer

Despite their situation already being bad, the Saudis continue escalating in Yemen, apparently believing that “they can up the ante against the Houthis and beat the Houthis,” Prof. John Mearsheimer remarked on Judge Napolitano’s podcast.

He further noted that Saudi Arabia waged a proxy war against the Houthis with significant assistance from the United States for several years until a ceasefire deal was struck, and still failed to defeat the Yemeni movement.

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