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The Financial Times dropped a fascinating mini-documentary on the billion-dollar black market for Nvidia AI chips in China. It is a compelling look at how US export controls are inadvertently forcing Chinese innovation while simultaneously creating a sprawling underground economy of middlemen in Shenzhen.

Highlights by Theme

News & Business

Bloomberg Law breaks down the high-stakes legal war over whether prediction markets like Kalshi are federally regulated futures exchanges or illegal sportsbooks. On the geopolitics front, the Hoover Institution offers a sobering warning on how Indonesia’s military is creeping back into civilian governance and non-military roles like food security. For a sharp historical parallel in Chinese, Yuan Sir over at LIFEANO CLUB hilariously unpacks how warlords and politicians in Republican-era China used “overseas study tours” as a convenient excuse for political exile and plotting their comebacks.

Learning & Ideas

Veritasium takes on the “scariest chart in electrical engineering” (the Smith chart) in a surprisingly gripping deep dive into how radio frequency engineers conquer standing waves and impedance matching. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal explores the race to commercialize 5-MeO-DMT (toad venom), highlighting how biotech firms are trying to package the world’s most intense psychedelic into a billion-dollar clinical therapy for depression. In Chinese-language cultural history, 晓松闲谈 delivers a massive, nostalgic monologue on the origins of Beijing’s odd place names, the cultural divide between North and South city residents, and his favorite childhood restaurants.

Tech & AI

CNBC International features a solid interview with Sierra AI co-founder Clay Bavor discussing how autonomous “agentic AI” could upend traditional SaaS subscription models in favor of outcomes-based pricing. If your digital life is bursting at the seams, The Wall Street Journal offers a quick, practical guide to dodging monthly digital rent by freeing up cloud storage space and going local with physical drives.

Everything Else

The New York Times covers the raging “pants debate” at Men’s Fashion Weeks, noting the stark divide between voluminous balloon fits and the sudden, pointed return of ultra-shrunken trousers. For language learners, Susie Woo 戴舒萱 has a handy short on decoding British rapid-fire slang, specifically explaining how “it’s all right” morphs into a sound practically identical to “sorry” in casual conversation.