Hydrogen power
Hydrogen power and hydrogen fuel cells have been around for decades. Hydrogen power fuel cells as an invention were invented in the 19th century. The modern hydrogen fuel cell was refined before the second world war and have been used in NASA’s space programme since Project Apollo. The space programme’s use of hydrogen power inspired General Motors to create a hydrogen fuel cell powered van in 1966. By the late 1980s, BMW had developed a hydrogen-powered engine which it trialled in its 7-series vehicles a decade later.
By the mid-2010s there were four hydrogen power passenger cars using fuel cells: Honda Clarity, Toyota Mirai, Hyundai ix35 FCEV, and the Hyundai Nexo. BMW is collaborating with Toyota to launch another four models next year.
In addition in commercial vehicles and heavy plant Hyundai, Cummins and JCB have hydrogen power offerings. JCB and Cummins have focused on internal combustion engines, while Hyundai went with hydrogen fuel cells. The aviation industry has been looking to hydrogen power via jet turbines.
Hydrogen power offers greater energy density and lower weight than batteries. Unlike batteries or power lines, hydrogen can be transported over longer distances via tanker. So someplace like Ireland with wind and tidal power potential could become an energy exporter.
The key hydrogen power problem has been investment in infrastructure and an over-reliance on batteries. Batteries bring their own set of problems and a global strategic dependency on China.
Toyota is now warning that if there isn’t imminent international investment, that China will also dominate the supply chain, exports and energy generation in the hydrogen economy as well. It feels like me reaching a historic point of no return.
Swiss Researchers May Have Solved Hydrogen Storage | Hackaday
Aviation industry calls for UK investment in hydrogen fuel | FT
Hydrogen, take two | Axios What’s Next
Hydrogen-powered drones could fly longer, farther | Axios
The Japanese Companies Pursuing a Hydrogen Economy – The Diplomat
Japan Recommits to the Hydrogen Society – Akihabara News
A Chicken and Egg Problem: How Germany’s Hydrogen Boom Stalled – DER SPIEGEL
Lex in depth: the staggering cost of a green hydrogen economy | Financial Times
Alexander Brown on how industrial policy adds momentum to China’s push into hydrogen | Merics
Hyundai Rolls out Big Hydrogen Truck – The Chosun Ilbo
Japan Announces Roadmap for Hydrogen Introduction | Nikkei TechOn
Beauty
Skincare you can wear: China’s sunwear boom | Jing Daily – A jacket with a wide-brim hood and built-in face shield. Leggings infused with hyaluronic acid to hydrate while shielding skin from the sun. Face masks with chin-to-temple coverage. Ice-cooling gloves designed to drop skin temperature. In China, UV protection apparel isn’t just functional — it’s fashionable, dermatological, and high-tech. Once a niche category for hikers or extreme sports enthusiasts, China’s sunwear market has exploded into a $13 billion category blending climate adaptation, anti-aging culture, and the outdoor lifestyle wave. While other apparel segments slow, the sunwear sector is projected to reach nearly 95.8 billion RMB ($13.5 billion) by 2026 expanding at a CAGR of 9%, according to iResearch.
Business
Online disrupters challenge traditional MBA providers | FT
What’s the winning strategy in China’s “low-trust” society? – low trust driving a lack of M&A and vertical integration
China
China is trying to kneecap Indian manufacturing – Asia Times – China trying to starve India and the Philippines of inbound investment through coercion on Chinese and multinational companies
Collapse of Chinese-built high rise spurs wave of anger in Thailand
Consumer behaviour
Have humans passed peak brain power? | FT
Buy European: a new shopping movement takes hold | Trendwatching
Bachelors Without Bachelor’s: Gender Gaps in Education and Declining Marriage Rates – interesting US-focused paper, but I expect that the findings would be mirrored far more widely
AI and the New Impostor Syndrome | Psychology Today & Overreliance on AI tools at work risks harming mental health | FT
Culture
Design
Volkswagen reintroducing physical controls for vital functions | Autocar – VW’s design chief commits to “never” repeating the “mistake” of relegating essential controls to touchscreens
Economics
Why does Britain feel so poor? – by M. F. Robbins
The Three Tariff Problem – by Doug O’Laughlin & American Disruption – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
White House slams Amazon tariff price display “hostile and political” | Axios
FMCG
TVB News| 29 Apr 2025 | Soft meal of classic HK dishes launched for people with chewing difficulties – YouTube – Hong Kong’s aging population is promoting innovation in FMCG categories including food
Finance
Y Combinator founders raising less money signals a ‘vibe shift,’ VC says | TechCrunch & A quarter of YC’s latest startups are letting AI write 95% of their code | This Week In Start-ups (TWIST)
Daring Fireball: Costco Only Accepts Visa Credit Cards
Portrait of the Trader as a Young Rebel | Jacobin
Gadgets
iRobot made Roomba into an icon. Now, it’s in a huge mess – Fast Company
Health
China’s obesity crisis is big business | FT
Zyn and the New Nicotine Gold Rush | The New Yorker
Hong Kong
MACAU DAILY TIMES 澳門每日時報Beware of Li Kashing’s supersized value trap – But as the initial excitement starts to fade, investors are growing nervous, wary of a billionaire family that has a poor track record on shareholders’ returns. The Li clan takes pride in the myriad of businesses and markets it operates in. But what kind of value-add can a diversified conglomerate offer when globalization is out of favor and geopolitical risks are on the rise? CK’s de-rating has accelerated since Trump’s first term, with the stock trading at just 35% of its book value even after the recent share bump. The complex business dealings have made enterprise valuation an impossible task. In a sign of deep capital market skepticism, CK seems to have trouble monetizing its assets. Its health and beauty subsidiary A.S. Watson is still privately-held, a decade after postponing an ambitious $6 billion dual listing in Hong Kong and London. Softer consumer sentiment in China, once a growth market, has become a drag. Last summer, CK Infrastructure did a secondary listing in the UK, hoping to widen its investor base. – Rare direct criticism of CK Hutchison’s conglomerate discount.
McDonald’s Admiralty Station location just got a vibey redesign – Fast Company
Innovation
DeepSeek founder says China AI will stop following U.S. – Nikkei Asia
US Weather Agency Websites Set to Vanish With Contract Cuts – Bloomberg – NOAA Research related content. Sites were housed on Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and WordPress
Japan
Ghost in the Shell’s Creator Wants to Revisit the Anime, But There’s One Problem – Production I.G’s CEO Mitsuhisa Ishikawa—who produced both Ghost in the Shell films—spoke at the event. Ishikawa revealed a key obstacle preventing a third film: finances. He explained that Innocence had an enormous budget, estimated at around 2 billion yen (approximately $13 million), with profits reaching a similar figure. However, the film was planned with a ten-year financial recovery period, and even after 20 years, it has yet to break even.
Jargon watch
Typing loudly, wearing AirPods: ‘taskmasking’ is how gen Z pretends to work at the office | US work & careers | The Guardian – One example of taskmasking: moving quickly though the office while carrying a laptop or clipboard – straight out of a West Wing walk-and-talk. Another example: typing loudly, like a DMV employee having a bad day, even if what you’re typing has no relevance to your job.
The Mainframe Vocabulary Problem (And Why It Matters) | Mainframe Society
Is DEI a Racial Slur? Rise in Term Outrages Black Americans | Newsweek
Luxury
Rolex, A Love-Hate Relationship – Watches of Espionage
‘Gucci’s 25% sales collapse should shock no one’ | Jing Daily – “Gucci is so boring now.” “They’ve lost all their confidence.” “It feels desperate — just influencers and celebrities.” Comparing Gucci’s bold, visionary eras under Tom Ford and Alessandro Michele and today’s safe, uninspired iteration reveals a stark contrast. That classroom moment reflected a broader truth: Gucci’s Q1 2025 is not a temporary dip. It’s the result of a deeper structural identity crisis — arguably one of the worst brand resets in recent luxury history.
Online
Common Crawl – Open Repository of Web Crawl Data
AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5% | Ahrefs
‘We Were Wrong’: An Oral History of WIRED’s Original Website | WIRED
Security
EU: These are scary times – let’s backdoor encryption! • The Register
Rafts of Security Bugs Could Rain Out Solar Grids
Suspected Chinese snoops hijacking buggy Ivanti gear — again • The Register – cracked VPN appliances
An Open Letter to Third-Party Suppliers | JP Morgan Chase
Software
Amazon can now buy products from other websites for you | The Verge
Technology
China-developed EUV lithography could trial in 2025 | EE News Europe and China’s EUV breakthrough: Huawei, SMIC reportedly advancing LDP lithography, eye 3Q25 trial, 2026 rollout | DigiTimes
IBM plans US$150 billion spend to catch quantum computing wave EE News Europe
Thailand
Travel and T-pop fuel Thai beauty boom in China | Jing Daily – one of the brands doing well is Mistine.
Wireless
How our stolen mobile phones end up in an Algerian market | The Times and The Sunday Times – interesting that they are going to Algeria rather than China