Hard Numbers: South China Sea war games, Chinese sour on America, US chipmaking labor shortage, Ya Ya breaks the internet

The USS Gerald R. Ford transits the Atlantic Ocean.
The USS Gerald R. Ford transits the Atlantic Ocean.
ABACA via Reuters Connect

24: In a recent war game run by Chinese military planners, 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles were able to sink the USS Gerald R. Ford, the US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, every single time in 20 simulated battles. In the exercise, the US fleet is attacked after ignoring Chinese warnings not to approach a China-claimed island in the disputed South China Sea.

70,000-90,000: The US CHIPS Act is pouring billions of dollars into bringing semiconductor factories back to American soil to counter China. But, who will make the chips? According to one estimate, the US chipmaking industry faces a shortage of between 70,000 and 90,000 workers (engineers and technicians) in the coming years.

12.2: Only 12.2% of Chinese people “like” the United States, according to a new survey about views on national security by Tsinghua University, Xi Jinping's alma mater. The most popular country is Russia (54.8%) and the least, India (8%).

230 million: China's superstar giant panda Ya Ya finally returned to Beijing this week after 20 years at the Memphis Zoo in the US. Ya Ya, whose troubled journey encapsulates the current state of US-China ties, has become such an internet sensation among patriotic Chinese that a hashtag following her homecoming got 230 million views on Weibo, China's answer to Twitter.

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Courtesy of ChatGPT

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The flag of China is displayed on a smartphone with a NVIDIA chip in the background in this photo illustration.
Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Reuters

H3C, one of China’s biggest server makers, has warned about running out of Nvidia H20 chips, the most powerful AI chips Chinese companies can legally purchase under US export controls.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervises the test of suicide drones with artificial intelligence at an unknown location, in this photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on March 27, 2025.

KCNA via REUTERS

Hermit Kingdom leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly supervised AI-powered kamikaze drone tests. He told KCNA, the state news agency, that developing unmanned aircraft and AI should be a top priority to modernize North Korea’s armed forces.

The logo for Isomorphic Labs is displayed on a tablet in this illustration.

Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters

Isomorphic Labs, which broke off from Google's DeepMind in 2021, raised $600 million from investors in a new funding round led by Thrive Capital on Monday.

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Elon Musk is the world’s richest man by far. He runs multiple companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, and X (formerly Twitter), with business interests all over the world. So why would the tech billionaire want to spend so much of his time focused on the complicated and often tedious work of overhauling the federal government through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)?

Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025.
REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

15: Fifteen Palestinian medics who went missing last week were apparently killed by Israeli forces and buried in an impromptu mass grave along with their ambulances, according to the UN.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS) appointed Saudi Prime Minister, in a government shuffling announced by a Royal Decree, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on September 24, 2022.
Balkis Press/ABACAPRESS.COM

After cutting Saudi oil production beginning in late 2022 to set a floor under slumping global oil prices, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is set to change course.