“What would Republicans have said if the Biden crowd acquired government stakes in companies with ties to its friends and family? Well, that’s more or less what the Trump team is doing to little political objection. State capitalism and political cronyism are in fashion…”
www.wsj.com/opinion/usa-...
“Elon Musk's SpaceX wants to launch a constellation of 1 million satellites that will orbit Earth and harness the sun to power AI data centers, according to a filing at the Federal Communications Commission.”
- www.reuters.com/business/aer...
Anthropic-Pentagon Clash Over Limits on AI Puts $200 Million Contract at Risk
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
2026 NDS word count:
Taiwan - 0
Greenland - 5
Russia - 14
China - 22
"Trump" - 50+
2026 NDS: "Supercharge the defense industrial base."
Also 2026 NDS: No mention of semiconductors. No export controls. No critical minerals. No workforce. No updated NDIS.
Acquisition speed isn't an industrial strategy. You can't supercharge what you haven't mapped.
Unlike traditional benchmarks, Pokémon allows AI models to demonstrate reasoning, decision-making and long-term goal progression, mirroring complex real-world tasks.
www.wsj.com/articles/how...
Trump’s lesson in how to turn U.S. allies into China’s friends. www.wsj.com/opinion/the-... via @WSJopinion
When China wants to intimidate its rivals, it has an extensive—and often menacing—playbook to draw from
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
Nvidia must meet new security requirements before sending its H200 artificial-intelligence chips to China
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
US to push for quicker action in reducing reliance on China for rare earths www.reuters.com/business/ene...
“I would be very cautious about any predictions because we don’t know the full scope of adoption or the rate of change. What’s also not really accounted for is how jobs can change in place versus automation away from jobs.”
www.straitstimes.com/world/as-ai-...
New role, same mission.
I'm now leading SCSP's Technology Leadership Directorate as Vice President—working with an amazing team to ensure America stays ahead in the technologies that will define this century.
More to come on what we're building at the Special Competitive Studies Project!
8/ Bottom line: This positions the U.S. to shape both hemispheric energy flows and global refined product markets.
The Venezuela situation is about infrastructure control, not just barrels. 🛢️
7/ American technology unlocks the reserves → Western-operated refineries (potentially including a revived Isla facility) process the heavy crude → U.S. Gulf Coast plants convert it into high-value products like diesel.
This isn't energy trade; it's strategic integration.
6/ The endgame isn't just about oil flows—it's about control points in the global energy system.
If U.S. firms secure contracts to rebuild the Orinoco belt (as Trump has explicitly invited), they engineer a closed-loop advantage:
5/ An intriguing opportunity: Curaçao's Isla refinery was specifically built to process Venezuelan crude but has been idle for years after PDVSA mismanagement.
How will Curaçao and the Netherlands play this card? Will they partner with U.S./Western firms to restart it?
4/ India and China have facilities that can process Venezuelan crude. China's been a major destination even during sanctions (via indirect routes). India has also imported it.
Key question: Will the Trump administration tolerate this, or use sanctions enforcement as leverage?
3/ Why does this matter? Canadian heavy crude supplies (their traditional feedstock) face long-term uncertainty.
Venezuelan crude could fill this gap—if sanctions allow it.
2/ Oil from the Orinoco belt is heavy and sour, requiring specially-designed refineries. Few exist globally—many are on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
They've run below capacity for years and would welcome additional heavy crude feedstock, especially at competitive prices.
A Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) oil pumpjack on Lake Maracaibo in Cabimas, Zulia state, Venezuela. Gaby Oraa/Bloomberg/Getty Images
🧵 1/ The real significance of events in Venezuela for oil is less about reserves and more about refining capacity and geopolitical positioning.
The potential boon for U.S. oil companies? Refining Venezuelan crude (caveat: depends on sanctions relief and production ramp-up).
"Enhe’s primary school does not teach Russian, the kind of omission that Mr. Putin has denounced as an intolerable violation of ethnic Russians’ rights in countries like Ukraine and the Baltic States." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/04/w...
President Donald Trump on Friday blocked U.S. photonics firm HieFo Corp's $3 million acquisition of assets in New Jersey-based aerospace and defense specialist Emcore, citing national security and China-related concerns.
- www.reuters.com/world/china/...
Reunification ‘is unstoppable’, says Chinese president, a day after the conclusion of intense military drills
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
China says what happens with Taiwan is none of Japan’s business. The reality is that an invasion of Taiwan would have immense stakes for Japan. These maps show why www.wsj.com/world/asia/c... via @wsj.com
Three months, 19,687 nautical miles: One ship’s journey epitomizes a moment of peak globalization
www.wsj.com/articles/thr...
