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A weak yuan guarantees Beijing massive trade surplus even as the White House tries tamp down on Chinese importsSince China offered a truce in the trade war last October following its threat to deprive the United States of rare-earth magnets, the Trump administration has been happy to stop escalating. After all, imports from China have been falling, down by 40% in the year to June, compared with the same period in 2024. Best to declare victory and call it a day.But the US hasn’t won this battle – and there’s strong evidence to show it’s too chicken to really try. Continue reading...

• RuntimeWire, an AI-driven newsroom operating since May, recently beat mainstream outlets like WIRED to a major story regarding OpenAI and hacking. • The platform has published nearly 2,000 stories by autonomously crawling court databases, company filings, social feeds, and web forums to find granular tech news. • This event signals a shift in journalism where AI can outperform human reporters in speed and discovery of niche data.

Officers may not have fully unzipped the bag containing the sex doll to avoid destroying evidence, one expert saysRevelations that a “body” found inside a suitcase was actually a lifelike doll may have been embarrassing for police, but experts say officers followed the correct procedure.New South Wales police on Sunday were called to Oallen, a town near Goulburn, after two members of the public found a suitcase containing what they believed to be human remains, dumped on the side of the road. Continue reading...

The RBA’s governor, Michele Bullock, has made it clear that the ‘easing’ property market is on her mindGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIt’s the silver lining that’s not making headlines: falling home prices means another Reserve Bank rate hike is less likely.RBA board members will not be sitting on Monday and Tuesday discussing ways to prop up Sydney house values. Continue reading...

• Former Fed official Kevin Warsh highlighted significant discrepancies in how the Federal Reserve measures inflation, questioning whether the actual rate is 3.7% or 2.2%. • In separate retail news, Costco has reached a $14 million email settlement, allowing eligible customers to claim payments up to $500 by the August 24 deadline. • Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a warning during his latest earnings call regarding a potential "hundred year flood" in memory chip pricing.

• Anthropic has released Opus 5, a model delivering state-of-the-art coding performance while costing significantly less than Fable 5. • Despite the price reduction, the lower cost creates new challenges for organizations managing autonomous agents, specifically regarding spend control and oversight. • The shift toward cheaper, high-performance models necessitates a rethink of security frameworks to prevent uncontrolled agent behavior.

• Apple has received approval from Beijing to integrate third-party AI models into its operating systems, partnering with Alibaba for its Qwen model and collaborating with Baidu. • This strategic move allows Apple to leverage existing Chinese AI infrastructure rather than developing its own proprietary models for the region. • The news triggered a positive market reaction, sending Apple shares to a record high and boosting Alibaba and Baidu stocks by 5% and 4% respectively in Hong Kong trading.