Business

Mexico’s new tariffs hit Shein — and millions of local resellers. It’s ingeniuous of Mexican resellers to mitigate the impact of the new tariffs that Mexico recently placed on Shein and China

How Facebook Marketplace is keeping young people on the platform. “Only 32% of U.S. teens use Facebook today, down from 71% in 2014, according to a 2024 Pew Research study. However, Facebook’s resale platform Marketplace is one reason young people are on the platform. Unlike eBay or Etsy, Marketplace doesn’t charge listing fees, and local pickups help avoid shipping costs, according to Facebook’s Help Center.”

Southwest Airlines will charge to check bags for the first time, launch basic economy tickets. Southwest is changing to be just another airline. I get it. It is to survive. But I am afraid that the likes of Delta and United are already so far ahead that Southwest will fall into oblivion and it will be acquired in the future.

Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28. Privacy and security should be a given. “There are plenty of reasons why people wouldn’t want Amazon to receive recordings of what they say to their personal device. For one, the idea of a conglomerate being able to listen to personal requests made in your home is, simply, unnerving. Further, Amazon has previously mismanaged Alexa voice recordings. In 2023, Amazon agreed to pay $25 million in civil penalties over the revelation that it stored recordings of children’s interactions with Alexa forever. Adults also didn’t feel properly informed of Amazon’s inclination toward keeping Alexa recordings unless prompted not to until 2019—five years after the first Echo came out.“

Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino. Scathing criticisms from Gruber and I think Apple deserved this one

2 obscure clean energy metals are caught in the crosshairs of the US-China trade war. “Gallium and germanium aren’t exactly household names. But they are found in products that are indispensable to modern life — and a fossil fuel-free society. With its impressive electrical properties, gallium is used in semiconductor chips that make their way into everything from cell phones to power converters in electric vehicles to LED lighting displays. Germanium, meanwhile, is used to refract light inside fiber optic cables. In addition to helping form the backbone of the internet, the metal’s exceptional light-scattering properties make it useful for infrared lenses, semiconductor chips, and high-efficiency solar cells used by satellites. There aren’t many substitutes for these two elements.“

Other Stuff I Find Interesting

Deep-sea mining tech advances but doubts remain. I understand why we need to find more minerals which are allegedly and likely available in abundance on the seabed. However, as one scientist in the article said, until we understand more what’s down there and what the impact of deep-sea mining would be, leave it alone.

St. Louis Wants Immigrants. Trump’s Crackdown Could Get in the Way. Cities and states around the country are facing real economic challenges due to declining population and lack of able workers. Some found a great solution in migrants and refugees. Yet, the rhetoric from the Republicans and their constituents is that immigration is bad. It is far more nuanced than that. The hard turn to the anti-immigration stance will hurt our country economically.

Here’s how I use LLMs to help me write code. Probably the best piece I have read about this very topic.

A Chinese battery company bet on a small Michigan town for its U.S. expansion. A fascinating saga regarding a Chinese company’s ambition to launch a factory in a small Michigan town. This is not going to be the last time we’ll read this kind of stories. Like Huawei, any Chinese company will struggle to convince US lawmakers that they can fight against the Chinese government’s requests. When Washington is all about “America first” and all Republicans are behind Trump; though, it may be the best time to receive support. The problem is that if there is a new administration in town, such support can be easily revoked.

Stats

By 2030, 25% of Singaporeans will be 65 or older

Tariffs can add as much as $10,000 to the cost of a new home

By 2022, there were 1.2 million US citizens born to unauthorised immigrant parents