- 2 months ago
Something unusual unfolded over Pakistan between August 18 and August 21, as Turkish military transport aircraft conducted a concentrated series of flights into multiple Pakistani airbases. Heavy Turkish C-130 Hercules and A400M Atlas aircraft were tracked arriving at locations including Nur Khan, Masroor and Murid.
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00:08can pressure really stop a determined power or simply force it to adapt today two stories of
00:14countries finding new ways around pressure pakistan has seen turkish and chinese military
00:20aircraft land at key air bases raising questions about drones air defense systems and its new
00:26defense pact with turkey and saudi arabia meanwhile china faces a western blockade on advanced chips yet
00:33its engineers are pushing older machines harder redesigning chips and stacking them to extract more
00:39performance one is rebuilding its battlefield capabilities the other is rebuilding its
00:45technological strength so is containment actually working or simply creating new workarounds
00:50hello and welcome you're watching statecraft with me geeta mohan
00:54starting with the united states of america the trump administration has unveiled what it calls
00:59an economic d-day against iran a sweeping sanctions campaign designed to choke tehran's financial
01:05lifelines and isolate those still doing business with it u.s treasury secretary scott besant says
01:11washington has mapped the networks iran uses to move oil access funds and evade sanctions and now the
01:19message is not just for tehran the united states is giving governments around the world a defined
01:23timeline to shut down activities linked to iran or risk being targeted themselves every country has a
01:31defined timeline to shut down activities we have identified if they do not take action we will do so
01:38unilaterally through treasury authorities but this is bigger than another round of sanctions on iran it is
01:45a window into trump administration's increasingly coercive economic strategy use the dollar financial
01:52institutions and access to global markets as instruments of geopolitical power and that comes
01:58at a particularly fragile moment for the global economy with energy markets already under pressure
02:03shipping disrupted and supply chains vulnerable to shocks further attempts to isolate iran could carry
02:09consequences well beyond west asia if countries are forced to choose between trading with iran
02:16and maintaining access to the us-led financial system the pressure could deepen existing economic
02:22fractures and push global trade further towards competing financial and geopolitical blocks
02:28washington calls this economic asphyxiation of the iranian regime but the larger question is how much
02:35economic pressure can the world absorb before the cost of coercion begins to spread far beyond iran
02:42iranian state television has crossed a new line this time targeting donald trump's 20 year old son
02:47baron trump a video aired by iranian state media and linked to the irgc carried a chilling title
02:54where to kill baron trump it offered a 10 million dollar reward and focused on baron's movements claiming
03:01that his security could be breached this is not just another angry message from tehran it is a direct threat
03:08against the us president's family the video also claimed that baron's online activity could expose him to danger
03:14but the bigger message is clear iran wants washington to know that the confrontation can reach beyond the battlefield
03:20and into trump's personal circle and this is not the first time or the first warning last month iranian state
03:28television
03:28released a similar video targeting melania trump that video showed locations linked to the first lady
03:34and ended with a warning aimed directly at baron now the threat has become even more explicit the timing
03:41matters trump has declared that iran faces a major new economic pressure campaign while tehran insists that
03:47washington has failed to defeat it so this is no longer just a war of missiles sanctions and threats between
03:53governments iran has dragged the trump family into the crosshairs and that could make an already
03:59explosive confrontation even more dangerous a few seconds of footage a serious exchange and a sudden
04:06walk out and the internet has already created a trump family mystery at the freedom 250 grand prix
04:13melania trump walked away after speaking with donald trump triggering speculation about a possible
04:19argument and event drawing neatly hop into the conversation but what actually happened
04:24remains unclear rishika radhi with this report
04:38a few seconds one serious look one sudden walk out and the internet has already decided there is a trump
04:47family drama at the freedom 250 grand prix donald trump and melania trump were seen sitting together
04:54in a viewing booth trump leaned toward melania and appeared to say something melania looked serious
05:01listened briefly and then got up and walked away that was enough social media exploded with theories that
05:10the couple had argued with the audio unclear users even tried to lip read the exchange
05:16but here is the important part the footage does not prove they argued and it does not tell us what
05:22they
05:23were discussing so why has natalie harp suddenly entered the conversation harp is one of trump's closest aides
05:31and has attracted intense attention because of how often she appears by his side she serves as an executive
05:38assistant and has been described as a key gatekeeper around the president
05:43her loyalty to trump is hardly a secret harp has reportedly carried a portable printer to give
05:50trump favorable new stories earning her the nickname human printer she has also traveled with him extensively
05:58and was among the small group that accompanied trump during his dramatic departure from air force one in
06:04turkey amid an alleged iranian assassination threat but the biggest controversy surrounds her personal
06:12letters to trump in letters reportedly written in 2023 harp expressed extraordinary devotion writing that trump
06:21was all that matters to her and that she never wanted to let him down she even wrote about envying
06:27women
06:27whose job was simply to talk to trump and look pretty adding i want that job those revelations have
06:35fueled questions about just how close the relationship is especially because harp now holds a position with
06:41access to the prestige and this is where the grand prix video gets interesting online users immediately
06:48connected melania's departure to hop with some claiming melania was upset because hop was nearby
06:54but again there is no evidence establishing that connection so what do we actually know we know trump
07:02and melania had a brief visibly serious exchange we know melania walked away we know natalie harp
07:09remains an unusually prominent figure in trump's inner circle but whether harp had anything to do with that
07:15moment that remains speculation not fact and for now the internet has turned a few seconds of blurry footage
07:23into a full-blown white house mystery with rishika radhia fury report india today global
07:39something unusual happened in pakistan's skies this week for nearly 60 hours turkish military transport
07:47aircraft kept flying into pakistan heavy airlifters multiple sorties multiple pakistani air bases and at the
07:55same time chinese military transport aircraft were also arriving the question is obvious what was being
08:02transported neither ankara nor islamabad released an official cargo manifest but defense analysts point
08:09towards a major consignment of drones loitering munitions counter drone technology and air defense
08:16components and the timing is impossible to ignore this happened less than two weeks after pakistan turkey and
08:23saudi arabia signed the mecca joint defense agreement so is this simply a military resupply or is pakistan's
08:30new trilateral defense arrangement already turning into hardware on the ground the airlift began on the night
08:37of 18th of august and continued through 21st of august open source flight tracking data recorded a
08:44coordinated air bridge from turkish military logistics hubs including istanbul and ankara into pakistan at the
08:51center of it were turkish air force c130 hercules transport aircraft and massive airbus a400m atlas
08:59airlifters and these were not making casual visits the aircraft were repeatedly landing at strategically
09:06important pakistani air bases three bases stand out paf base noor khan near alpindi pakistan air force base
09:16masroor in karachi and paf base murid in chakwal these are not ordinary military facilities noor khan sits
09:24next to pakistan's military headquarters and is used for sensitive strategic airlifts and high-value
09:30military deliveries masroor is pakistan's largest airbase linked to maritime strike air defense and
09:37logistics operations and murid is associated with unmanned aerial vehicle and surveillance strike
09:43capabilities so when turkish heavy airlifters repeatedly appear at these locations the obvious
09:50question is what exactly was being unloaded there is no official answer yet but defense analysts suspect
09:58the cargo included advanced unmanned systems and weapons one possibility is upgraded turkish
10:04bioreactor tb2 drones fitted with satellite communication systems pakistan already operates turkish
10:11bioreactor tb2 and akinchi unmanned combat aircraft but satcom changes the equation traditional line of
10:19sight drones are limited by the distance between the drone and its ground control station satellite
10:25enabled systems can operate beyond that line of sight in simple terms pakistani operators could
10:32potentially control strike missions hundreds of kilometers away without relying on a direct radio link
10:38then there are the kamakadzi drones the reported consignment is also believed to include turkish
10:45loitering munitions and armed drone systems among them reports point to the paikar yaha 3 also referred
10:52to as k2 this is a tactical loitering munition designed to carry a six kilogram warhead and operate at a
11:00radius of
11:01more than 200 kilometers it can be launched from mobile vehicles it uses electro-optical sensors and ai
11:09assisted target recognition can help identify targets that means small military units could
11:15potentially deploy these systems against radar sites artillery positions and armored formations with
11:21relatively little preparation but the story gets even more interesting when we move to karachi
11:27the turkish aircraft also landed at pf base masru and defense experts have raised the possibility
11:33that some of the cargo could involve evaluation models or components linked to turkey's tusash anka 3
11:41stealth unmanned combat aircraft the anka 3 is a tailless low observable flying wing drone designed for
11:50deep penetration missions it can also be configured with standoff weapons and that is where the arabian
11:57sea enters the picture if integrated with anti-ship weapons such a platform could potentially add
12:03another layer to pakistan's maritime strike capabilities there is another turkish system that
12:09may have arrived the super simset tactical target and decoy drone its job is not necessarily to destroy
12:16an enemy aircraft its job can be to confuse the enemy's air defense network by saturating and misleading
12:23hostile radar systems decoy drones can create openings for other strike platforms and alongside
12:30these turkish consignments comes another major development chinese y-20 military transport aircraft
12:37will also track landing at nur khan and masrur military analysts suspect those chinese aircraft may have
12:45delivered replenishment modules and missile interceptors for pakistan's hq series air defense systems
12:51including the hq9p and hq16 fe and that creates a striking picture turkey supplying advanced drones and related systems
13:01china supplying heavy airlift and suspected air defense replenishment pakistan receiving both within the same 60
13:08hour window in other words two of islamabad's most important strategic partners were moving military hardware
13:15into pakistan at almost exactly the same time and then comes the biggest question why now look at the calendar
13:25on the 7th of august pakistan turkey and saudi arabia signed the mecca joint defense agreement the pact says
13:32aggression against one member would be treated as aggression against all three officially it is framed around
13:39collective security counter-terrorism and maritime security but the practical implications could be
13:46much wider turkey brings defense technology saudi arabia brings financial strength pakistan brings military
13:53manpower and strategic capability many describe these airlifts as the first major operational
14:00manifestation of the mecca pact and for pakistan there's another factor its military has been trying to
14:07address vulnerabilities exposed during the may 2025 conflict with india operation sindur pakistan had
14:15relied heavily on drones loitering munitions and standoff strikes but india's layered air defense system and
14:21electronic warfare capabilities created major challenges the result according to the article was a pakistani
14:28push to improve electronic resilience communications drone capability and air defense depth and that helps
14:35explain the interest in satcom-enabled drones ai guided loitering munitions and additional air defense systems
14:43but there's one more piece of this puzzle space pakistan's park sat mm-1 communication satellite became operational in
14:51september 2024 the satellite provides high throughput communications coverage across south asia west asia and parts of east africa
14:59defense analysts believe integrating turkish drones with pakistan's satellite communications infrastructure
15:05could allow telemetry video feeds and weapon control data to travel through satellite links that would
15:12reduce dependence on vulnerable terrestrial communication networks in a modern drone war that is a major capability
15:21new delhi is now watching a military triangle turkish drones chinese air defense systems and satellite
15:27enabled warfare pakistan is not simply rebuilding after its battlefield losses it is trying to transform the
15:34way it fights the next conflict but india is preparing too with indigenous drones counter drone systems
15:41air defense electronic warfare and space-based surveillance because in the next confrontation the decisive battle may
15:49not begin with fighter jets crossing the border it could begin with drones satellites algorithms and an airlift
15:56arriving silently in the dead of the night the west locked china out of advanced chip making today china is
16:05leading
16:05the world when it comes to ai and robotics china was supposed to hit a wall western sanctions cut off
16:11the
16:11machine software and equipment chinese makers needed for the most advanced semiconductor chips the obvious
16:19prediction slow china down and keep tsmc far ahead but beijing found another route
16:26if it cannot get the newest tools squeeze more out of the old ones repeat the process redesign the chip
16:34stack
16:34chips together build the supply chain at home and while that happens chinese humanoid robots are running faster than usain
16:42bolts record and learning to play tennis charge cars and handle factory tasks china has not defeated tsmc or asml
16:51but the blockade has not stopped innovation so is the west actually trapping china or accidentally teaching
16:58it how to escape is china actually being held back by the western semiconductor blockade yes but only up to
17:06a
17:06point china cannot simply buy the newest chip making machines it wants the most advanced lithography machines
17:13use euv light asml is currently the only commercial euv manufacturer and the netherlands has restricted china's access
17:23to its most advanced equipment the blockade matters it slows china down but does it stop china no chinese manufacturers
17:33have to use older equipment repeat steps improve designs stack chips and build more of the supply chain
17:40at home the road got narrower china looked for another road so what exactly are chinese foundries doing
17:47differently first they're pushing older machines harder china has older deep ultraviolet or duv lithography
17:55machines they're less precise than euv and cannot efficiently print the smallest modern chip features
18:02in one go so chinese manufacturers use multi patterning the wafer goes through the lithography
18:10machine repeatedly with different masks creating different parts of the circuit it can produce seven
18:16nanometer class chips without euv smic use this approach for advanced huawei chips but there is a catch the process
18:25takes more time uses more electricity and materials creates more chances for defects and can produce
18:32lower yields so china can get closer to advanced performance but not necessarily at the same cost or
18:39efficiency as tsmc a seven nanometer label does not automatically mean a chinese chip matches tsmc
18:47tech insights reported that huawei's kirin 9030 used an improved version of smic's seven nanometer process
18:56but remains significantly behind the five nanometer processes produced by tsmc and samsung china has not
19:04turned an old duv machine into an euv machine it has learned to squeeze more from what it has and
19:11that
19:11leads to the second workaround better chip design for years the formula was simple make transistors
19:17smaller and the chip gets better but what happens when shrinking becomes harder you improve the way the chip
19:25works huawei has explored designs that focus on how different parts of a chip communicate china
19:31cannot always make every transistor smaller so it can try to make the whole system work smarter that
19:39does not replace euv but it can extract more performance from constrained equipment then comes
19:45another workaround stack the chips now several chips can sit together inside one package or stack vertically
19:53with extremely fast connections between them several smaller blocks can form one larger structure
19:59that is advanced packaging smaller chiplets can improve yields while several less advanced chips can work
20:06together to deliver some performance expected from a more advanced chip this matters especially for
20:13artificial intelligence there are limits the system can use more electricity generate more heat
20:19and require complicated software the point is compensation if china cannot win through transistor shrinking
20:27alone it can try through architecture packaging and engineering and then comes the biggest piece scale
20:35a chip factory needs much more than a lithography machine china wants more of the chip supply chain at home
20:41beijing has used subsidies tax incentives state financing and government purchasing to support domestic suppliers
20:49a reported late 2025 rule required new chip factories and capacity expansions to source at least half of
20:56their equipment domestically domestic companies get demand and scale giving engineers more chances to test
21:04and improve that brings us to the world humanoid robot games in beijing why do robots matter in a story
21:11about
21:12semiconductors because they show what happens when chips batteries motors sensors software and manufacturing all come
21:21together the world humanoid robot games 2026 in beijing runs from august 22nd to 26th with 51 competitions
21:30more than 600 teams and 2056 humanoid robots they compete in sports emergency response
21:38industrial assembly logistics hotel work ev charging and hand dexterity challenges then came
21:46the headline a tn kong ultra robot reportedly ran the 100 meters in 9.39 seconds usain bolt's human world
21:56record 9.58 seconds another humanoid lightning reportedly ran 9.47 seconds what does it prove china has become
22:06very good at combining motors batteries sensors ai software structures and manufacturing that combination is the
22:15real story but here comes the reality check can a robot beat bolt and still fail at a cable
22:22absolutely a sprint takes place on a prepared track a cable can sit at the wrong angle a package can
22:30shift
22:30an object can land just out of reach a robot can lose balance that is why cable connection ev charging
22:38industrial assembly and logistics matter and logistics matter and the robots have exposed weaknesses too
22:44during one football match a robot knocked over its own teammate while other robots fell and could not
22:51continue in tennis a galbert humanoid track the ball and return shots before losing balance
22:57then getting back up impressive yes perfect not even close the same caution applies to chips one
23:06impressive prototype does not equal millions of reliable affordable chips china still faces disadvantages
23:13in euv access manufacturing yield energy consumption cost advanced software memory and precision equipment
23:21so has china beaten tsmc no has china made the blockade irrelevant no but has the blockade failed to stop
23:30china
23:32absolutely yes and that may be the most important part of the story the western strategy aimed to slow china's
23:39access to advanced computing it has done that but it also gave beijing a stronger reason to build
23:45alternatives older machines get pushed harder designs get reworked chips get packaged together and domestic
23:52equipment gets developed the result is not one giant breakthrough it is a whole ecosystem and that
24:00changes the question the semiconductor race is no longer simply about who owns the smallest transistor
24:07it is about who can combine constrained technology with smarter design packaging and manufacturing scale
24:14china has not found a magic machine replacing euv it has found ways to need less of what it cannot
24:20buy
24:21the blockade has slowed china without stopping it and that is why the robot games matter they do not
24:28prove that china has matched tsmc from taiwan they show that china can combine chips batteries motors sensors
24:37software and mass manufacturing into working machines and test them at scale so what does this mean for
24:45taiwan's tsmc the world may be moving forward and moving toward competing technology ecosystems the west still
24:53holds major advantages and china still has a significant gap to close the biggest story is whether china
25:01can turn restrictions into engineering problems and problems into domestic solutions china has not
25:08outsmarted tsmc with one miracle chip it is trying to outsmart the blockade one workaround at a time and
25:16that may prove harder to stop that's all in this edition of statecraft before we go japan's brutal summer heat
25:23has sparked an unusual solution for a very important group pets a tokyo company has created a cooling fan
25:31suit for dogs and cats inspired by air-conditioned vests worn by construction workers battery-powered fans
25:38circulate air through the jacket while an ice pack in the collar adds extra cooling with temperatures
25:44crossing 40 degrees celsius in parts of japan the outfit is proving popular with worried pet owners
25:51take a look goodbye and take care
26:32and take care
26:34and the IC meridian