Liberation day
Liberation Day was a glorified press conference where the Trump administration revealed their tariff scale on every country around the world. Weirdly enough, Russia wasn’t tariffed. Here’s some of the interesting analysis I saw prior to, and after the event.
The Trump administration leant into an aesthetic influenced by patriotic memes, the steeliness of The Apprentice and generative AI – a look I call Midjourney Modern. Liberation Day was no exception.
The Economist did a hot take that calls the whole thing a ‘fantasy’.
America’s Cultural Revolution – by Stephen Roach – Conflict – Stephen Roach was an Asian focused chief economist at Morgan Stanley. The American Cultural Revolution narrative is something I have heard from a few contacts in China and Roach echoes that perspective in this article.
China says weaponising agriculture in US trade war should be off-limits | South China Morning Post – agricultural price shocks in the past have led to civil disruption in China
Liberation Day and The New World Order | Fabricated Knowledge
Opinion | I Just Saw the Future. It Was Not in America. – The New York Times – President Trump is focused on what teams American transgender athletes can race on, and China is focused on transforming its factories with A.I. so it can outrace all our factories. Trump’s “Liberation Day” strategy is to double down on tariffs while gutting our national scientific institutions and work force that spur U.S. innovation. China’s liberation strategy is to open more research campuses and double down on A.I.-driven innovation to be permanently liberated from Trump’s tariffs.
Beijing’s message to America: We’re not afraid of you. You aren’t who you think you are — and we aren’t who you think we are. – Thomas Friedman – Overall, I would agree with the sentiment, BUT, you have to remember what he’s been shown is the best view of what China can do and reality is much more complex. I still think that there is a lot of the future being made in places like France, Finland, Latvia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan – as well as China. What China does best is quantity that has a scale all of its own, something America has historically excelled at.
Consumer behaviour
Culture
Montreal DJs move clubbing from midnight to morning, adding coffee and croissants | Trendwatching – early morning clubbing, reminds of Marky J‘s mornings at the Baa Bar in Liverpool.
Health
Is Gen Z more mentally ill, or do they just talk about it more? | Doomscrollers
Europe Rapidly Falling Behind China in Pharma, Astra Chief Warns – Bloomberg
Ideas
I’m Tired of Pretending Tech is Making the World Better | Joan Westenberg
Innovation
Samsung Develops Groundbreaking Achromatic Metalens With POSTECH – Samsung Global Newsroom
Korea
South Korean movie theater launches monthly knit-while-you-watch screenings | Trend-Watching
Luxury
Counterfeit luxury goods: London raids miss the target | Dark Luxury
Vogue Business Index top 10: Preppy is back and so is Ralph Lauren | Vogue Business
Polène: The global success of the French handbag made with love | Le Monde
Marketing
X-tortion: How Advertisers Are Losing Control Of Media Choice | Forrester – I am surprised how ‘on the nose’ Forrester is in this post.
Technicolor, Parent Company of The Mill, MPC, and Mikros, Facing Potential Closure | LBBOnline – this hit the creative industries like a lightning bolt.
Influencer Marketing: The quiet reset in the influencer economy, ET BrandEquity – the total number of influencers has shot up from 9,62,000 in 2020 to 4.06 million influencers in 2024, reflecting a staggering 322% growth.
Materials
DIY Birkin? China’s Gen Z 3D print dupes, share on RedNote | Jing Daily – Armed with affordable 3D printers and free design templates, young consumers are crafting their own versions of iconic luxury accessories. – Homage flowerpots or penholders rather than ‘dupes’ but 3D printing feels mainstream
Online
Revealed: Google facilitated Russia and China’s censorship requests | Censorship | The Guardian – After requests from the governments of Russia and China, Google has removed content such as YouTube videos of anti-state protesters or content that criticises and alleges corruption among their politicians. Google’s own data reveals that, globally, there are 5.6m items of content it has “named for removal” after government requests. Worldwide requests to Google for content removals have more than doubled since 2020, according to cybersecurity company Surfshark.
The reason you feel alienated and alone | Madeline Holden – your Dunbar number is filled with para-social relationship rather than social relationships.
China’s fragile online spaces for debate | Merics
AI Discoverability: Amazon’s Mistakes NN Group
Retailing
Lidl TikTok Shop launch sells out in under 20 minutes | Retail Gazette – I am curious about Lidl fulfilment approach
Security
Military delegates lose sway at China’s signature political gathering | FT
Putin is Unlikely to Demobilize in the Event of a Ceasefire Because He is Afraid of His Veterans | Institute for the Study of War – which poses economic challenges in Russia and a greater incentive to attack outside Ukraine once the conflict winds down
Exclusive: Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired federal workers, research shows | Reuters
FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado – Ars Technica
Technology
Google’s Sergey Brin Asks Workers to Spend More Time In the Office – The New York Times – 60 hour weeks are productivity sweet spot according to Sergey Brin. Silicon Valley looks more-and-more like Huangzhou.
Alibaba exec warns of overheating AI infrastructure market • The Register
Telecoms
SoftBank and Ericsson agree to collaborate on next-gen telco tech
Web-of-no-web
Meta announces experimental Aria Gen 2 research smart glasses | CNBC
WeRide to open driverless taxi service in Zurich | EE News – Chinese operator is set to launch a fully unmanned taxi service in Zurich in the next few months. This follows the launch of its latest generation Robotaxi, the GXR, for fully unmanned paid autonomous ride-hailing services in Beijing. The GXR, with a L4-level redundant drive-by-wire chassis architecture, is WeRide’s second Robotaxi model to achieve fully driverless commercial operations in the city following pilot trials.
Wireless
London’s poor 5G blamed on spectrum, investment, Huawei ban • The Register – the comments nail it