  We present recent highlights from the most recent operation phases of
Wendelstein 7-X, the most advanced stellarator in the world. Stable detachment
with good particle exhaust, low impurity content, and energy confinement times
exceeding 100 ms, have been maintained for tens of seconds. Pellet fueling
allows for plasma phases with reduced ITG turbulence, and during such phases,
the overall confinement is so good (energy confinement times often exceeding
200 ms) that the attained density and temperature profiles would not have been
possible in less optimized devices, since they would have had neoclassical
transport losses exceeding the heating applied in W7-X. This provides proof
that the reduction of neoclassical transport through magnetic field
optimization is successful. W7-X plasmas generally show good impurity screening
and high plasma purity, but there is evidence of longer impurity confinement
times during turbulence-suppressed phases.
