Labubu surge signals 'lipstick' effect from anxious spenders: Analyst
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6 minutes ago
China imposes anti-dumping duties on European brandy as trade tensions rise
BEIJING -- China on Friday imposed anti-dumping duties on European brandy, most notably cognac produced in France, as trade tensions between Beijing and United States allies continue to rise. The tariffs, effective on Saturday, will range from 27.7% to 34.9%, China's Commerce Ministry said. They are to be in place for five years and will not be applied retroactively. The announcement came during a European visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi aimed at ironing out trade differences. Wang was set to visit Paris after stops in Brussels and Berlin. The anti-dumping duties are the result of a probe China launched last year into European cognac, after the European Union undertook a probe into Chinese electric vehicles subsidies. 'The investigative authority finally ruled that the dumping of related imported brandy from the EU has existed,' read a statement by China's Commerce Ministry. 'The domestic brandy industry faces a material threat of damage, and there is a causal relationship between the dumping and the substantial damage threat.' Besides cognac, China has also launched investigations into European pork and dairy products. The brandy probe was the first and targeted mainly French makers of cognac and similar spirits such as Armagnac. China initially announced provisional tariffs of 30.6% to 39% on French cognac producer Remy Martin and other European brandies after a majority of E.U. countries approved duties on electric vehicles made in China. Wang was set to meet his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, later Friday in Paris.
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
The US needs to reinvent manufacturing for the AI age, or risk losing out to China, Marc Andreessen warns
Marc Andreesen believes America is at a profound turning point — and it can either lead the next industrial revolution powered by AI, or fall behind in a world dominated by "Chinese robots." In a conversation at the Reagan Library's Economic Forum on Thursday, the billionaire venture capitalist and Andreesen Horowitz cofounder argued that the path to future growth lies not in nostalgia for old factory jobs but in reindustrializing America around next-generation manufacturing, especially in robotics. "I think there's a plausible argument — which Elon also believes — that robotics is going to be the biggest industry in the history of the planet," Andreesen said, referring to CEO Elon Musk. "It's just going to be gigantic." "There's going to be billions, tens of billions, hundreds of billions of robots of all shapes, sizes, descriptions running around doing all kinds of things, and those robots need to be designed and built." But if the US doesn't take the lead, he warned, it risks "living in a world of Chinese robots everywhere." Manufacturing's long fall Andreesen's case comes amid a . In 1947, manufacturing made up over 25% of the US GDP. By 2017, it had plunged to under 12%, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shared by the American Enterprise Institute. Employment figures are even more stark. Manufacturing accounted for nearly 33% of all US jobs in 1947, but had dropped to about 8% by the end of 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tariffs have been the Trump administration's preferred solution to this decline, but industry experts and Wall Street have said that won't be enough. A May report from Wells Fargo estimated that the US needs $2.9 trillion in capital investment to regain 1979 manufacturing job levels, calling it an "uphill battle." Goldman Sachs analysts echoed that sentiment in June, warning that tariffs can't overcome China's advantages of cheaper labor and government subsidies. Only a surge in technological innovation, they wrote, can reverse the "long-run stagnation" in productivity. Meanwhile, US manufacturers are struggling to fill the roles already available. In an April 2024 report, the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte found the US could need 3.8 million new manufacturing workers by 2033, but half of those jobs could remain unfilled due to skill shortages. Build what's next — or be left behind Andreesen proposes a different vision: use AI to transform what manufacturing means. Rather than bringing back low-cost labor, he called for massive investment in "alien dreadnought" factories — hyper-automated factories producing robotics, drones, EVs, and AI-enabled machines that he believes could revitalize rural America and make the US the leader in embodied AI. "We shouldn't be building manufacturing lines that have people sitting on a rubber mat for 10 hours screwing screws in by hand," he said. "We should be building what Elon calls alien dreadnought factories," he said. Elon Musk has repeatedly used the term, including in 2016 and in 2020, to describe his vision for highly automated, roboticized Tesla factories, particularly for Model 3 production. Andreesen argued that this reinvention would not only reverse decades of deindustrialization but also help solve broader problems, from national security to wage stagnation to the urban-rural divide. "We have to do we have to do this because it's necessary from a national security standpoint. We have to do it because we need the economic growth. We have to do it because we need an answer for the entire population of the country, not just the cities," he said. "And we have to do it because if we don't do it, China's going to do it — and we don't want to live in that world."
Engadget
2 hours ago
- Engadget
The Morning After: Big, Beautiful Fallout
The so-called 'Big, Beautiful Bill' has passed with plenty of nasty treats for the US technology and manufacturing industries. As well as swinging the sword at basic environmental protection measures, the bill sticks its thumb in the eye of the EV industry. Tim Stevens takes you on a tour of the most salient changes, like the imminent end of the EV tax credit. Joining that on the bonfire is the used EV incentive, as well as the rebates for the purchase of commercial EVs. Similarly, for all of this administration's talk of bringing manufacturing back to the US, the bill is a middle finger for domestic solar companies. The US is the only credible manufacturing rival to China in solar panels, but the bill cuts these businesses off at the knees. I spoke to people inside the US solar industry who know that, despite whatever tariffs are implemented, this bill opens the door to a flood of cheap, Chinese-made solar panels to usurp their US rivals. An earlier version of the bill also contained moves that could only be described as weirdly vindictive. It previously proposed an annual EV tax of $250 (and $100 for hybrid owners) as well as a general levy on all wind and solar projects. Why? A cynic might suggest it was due to the bill being drafted to benefit fossil fuel companies at the expense of literally everyone else. Anyway, hopefully you can enjoy the holiday and won't need to spend it panic-buying an EV and US-made solar panels. Although that's not actually a bad way to spend a long weekend. — Dan Cooper Get Engadget's newsletter delivered direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! You can snag two months of Paramount+ for just $2, allowing you to take advantage of the new season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . The deal applies to both the Essential and Premium plan, so you can easily have a little run of ad-free Star Trek as a treat. And, if you don't like the idea of binging Strange New Worlds , you can always watch Star Trek: Lower Decks instead. Continue Reading. Microsoft has announced it will cut 9,000 jobs from its global workforce, with much of that focus on its gaming division. Engadget's Jessica Conditt got the inside scoop from employees at Halo Studios, who reveal all is not well at what should be one of Microsoft's crown jewels. Sadly, the company was already gutted back in 2023, and the lukewarm reception of its work since then is a sign of how badly things are going. Continue Reading. Igor Bonifacic for Engadget Translating a work of art is a delicate task requiring nuanced knowledge of both the culture and the languages you're translating from and to. Unless you're Anime-favoring streaming service Crunchyroll, which just dumped subtitle files into ChatGPT and hoped for the best. As well as a general sloppiness, Engadget's Igor Bonifacic found instances of lines beginning with 'ChatGPT said:' at the start of a line. Crunchyroll said the subtitles were the result of the unauthorized action of a "third-party vendor," and it is working to rectify the error right now. Continue Reading. Neil Druckmann, head of Naughty Dog and co-creator of The Last of US and its TV adaptation, is stepping down from the HBO series. He said he's shifting his focus back to video games full time to work on the studio's next big title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet . The Last of Us Part II co-writer Halley Gross is also stepping down at the same time, and that got our staff TLoU superfan Nathan Ingraham's antennae twitching. He feels the video game industry, currently suffering body blow after body blow, needs Druckmann (and Gross) far more than the TV world does. Continue Reading. Nothing has launched its third-generation flagship, the $799 Nothing Phone 3, complete with a new eye-catching gimmick. Whereas previous models had the Glyph Interface, a series of flashing lights on the rear cover, the 3 gets a tiny dot-matrix display called the Glyph Matrix. Wanna find out if it's going to be worth your cash? Check out Mat Smith's detailed hands-on. Continue Reading.
