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- Trade Surplus = $ 1 Trillion
Trade Surplus = $ 1 Trillion
China Reaches Record Trade Plus
China’s trade surplus is at a record high, with the trade gap reaching $785 billion in the first 10 months of this year, a 16% increase from 2023, according to Bloomberg. This rise reflects an export-heavy economy compensating for weak domestic demand, with October exports surging beyond expectations. China tops the list of few countries that reports trade surplus along with Japan, South Korea, Germany and few others.
China’s imports fell by 2.3% last month, as a slowing economy, reduced consumer spending, and a preference for domestic goods curbed import demand. As U.S. President Trump’s administration considers high tariffs on Chinese imports, analysts anticipate China may respond with economic stimulus and a possible depreciation of the renminbi, which hit its lowest official exchange rate against the dollar this year.
Meta’s “Pay or Consent Model”
Meta plans to offer less personalized ads to users in the European Union, responding to regulatory pressure from EU privacy laws. The company will seek users' consent for targeted ads based on their online behavior, such as posts viewed or shared. If users opt out, they will still receive general ads based on demographic data rather than highly targeted ones. This policy change aligns with EU requirements to protect user privacy and may impact Meta's advertising revenue in the region as it adapts to stricter data-use rules
The new ad format is the second change in a year that Meta has made to its EU ads options. Last fall, it introduced an option called “subscription for no ads,” which forced users in Europe to choose between consenting to its highly targeted ads or buying a subscription to an ad-free version of Facebook or Instagram for a monthly fee starting at 13 euros, or nearly $14, a month on mobile devices.
Apple will now let you share the location of a lost AirTag with other people. The Find My feature, called Share Item Location and available as part of the just-launched iOS 18.2 public beta, will allow you to share the location of lost luggage with an airline, for example.
When using the feature, you can generate a Share Item Location link within the Find My app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Once you share the link with someone, they can click on it to view an interactive map with the location of your lost item. Apple will update the website automatically when the lost item moves, and it will also display a timestamp when it moved last.
Apple will turn off the feature once you find your lost item. You can also manually stop sharing the location of an AirTag at any time, or the link will “automatically expire after seven days.”
Fun Electric Fact…
By 2030, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry will consume twice as much electricity as the whole of New Zealand. Taiwan’s more than 23 million people consume nearly as much energy per capita as U.S.’s 300 Million consumers, but the lion’s share of that consumption — 56 percent — goes to Taiwan’s industrial sector for companies like TSMC. In fact, TSMC alone uses around 9 percent of Taiwan’s electricity.