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The United States and China are entangled in what many have dubbed an “AI arms race.”

In the early days of this standoff, US policymakers drove an agenda centered on “winning” the race, mostly from an economic perspective. In recent months, leading AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic got involved in pushing the narrative of “beating China” in what appeared to be an attempt to align themselves with the incoming Trump administration. The belief that the US can win in such a race was based mostly on the early advantage it had over China in advanced GPU compute resources and the effectiveness of AI’s scaling laws.

But now it appears that access to large quantities of advanced compute resources is no longer the defining or sustainable advantage many had thought it would be. In fact, the capability gap between leading US and Chinese models has essentially disappeared, and in one important way the Chinese models may now have an advantage: They are able to achieve near equivalent results while using only a small fraction of the compute resources available to the leading Western labs.

The Pentagon has initiated an official review of the AUKUS defense pact, a landmark agreement signed in 2021 by the Biden administration with Australia and the United Kingdom to develop nuclear-powered submarines.

The AUKUS agreement, valued at approximately $239 billion, represents a significant commitment to enhancing Australia’s naval capabilities through the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. The pact, which also includes cooperation on advanced technologies such as hypersonic weapons, was established to strengthen collective defense in the Indo-Pacific region.

“The Department is reviewing AUKUS to ensure this initiative from the previous administration aligns with the President’s ‘America First’ agenda,” a Pentagon spokesperson stated.

The Turkish publication Aydınlık raised concerns about the modernization of B61-12 nuclear bombs.

What’s the modernization about? Essentially, the bomb’s tail section is upgraded with a guidance system that can adjust its flight path to the target. This is similar to the JDAM kit used by the U.S. military (not to be confused with JDAM-ER, which is akin to the UPMK).

This upgrade boosts the bomb’s combat effectiveness by reducing its circular error probable (CEP) compared to the free-fall version. It also aims to standardize the B61 bomb, which currently has four variants, into a single version. According to the Turkish outlet, the upgraded bomb can travel up to 24 kilometers.

The publication argues that modernizing these bombs, ramping up production of the new B61-13, and statements by some U.S. politicians about using nuclear weapons only heighten tensions between Russia and the U.S., putting Turkey at risk as a result.

In a surprising turn of events, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between India and Pakistan on social media on May 10. He claimed his intervention prevented a nuclear war. On May 12, responding to a reporter’s question at the White House, Trump said, “The U.S. didn’t just ‘broker’ the ceasefire between India and Pakistan— we stopped a ‘nuclear conflict.’”

Was there a nuclear threat during Operation Sindoor that Washington knew about, prompting Trump’s dramatic statement? From May 7 to 10, rumors of radiation leaks sparked serious concern. The buzz was that India had struck Kirana Hills near Rawalpindi, where Pakistan reportedly stored nuclear materials underground. Amid the flood of reports, some claimed Indian strikes caused a radiation leak, detected by a specialized U.S. reconnaissance plane.

Social media and certain Indian outlets went wild, hailing it as India’s ultimate triumph — a bold yet restrained and just response to Pakistan’s nuclear bluff, damaging its strategic assets. But to quell rising fears and provide a clearer, grounded assessment, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog, stepped in. On May 15, it confirmed that “no radiation leak or release occurred at any nuclear facility in Pakistan.”

So, what led to Trump’s claim of averting a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan?