The following are some of the news items mentioned in the last few days:

  • Apple plans to hire 20,000 in US and invest 500B USD in the next few years
    • Apple said its half a trillion dollar investment spread over Trump’s second term in the office, included regular spending on thousands of US suppliers, data centers, and corporate facilities as well as initiatives such as academy in Michigan to train the next generation of US manufacturers.
  • Ukraine agrees US minerals deal in effort to mend ties with Washington
  • It is estimated that 100,000 Russian soliders have been killed in the Ukraine battle
  • Weather prediction using AI is set for a big step forward with the launch of a European system that can outperform conventional forecasting for up to 15 days ahead
    • An experimental version tested over the last 18 months showed that the system was about 20 percent more accurate on key predictions than the best conventional methods
  • Bundesbank reported a loss of 19 Billion Euros
  • According to a recent research estimate, 90 million people in US suffer sleep problems
  • Tesla has agreed to buy German engineering group Manz.
    • Tesla’s only manufacturing facility is in Germany
    • Tesla sold about 10000 units last month in Europe, a decline of more thatn 45 percent from the same period in 2024
  • Stock exchange business gives LSEG only 3 percent of the entire revenues. The rest of the revenues accrue from data and analytics business
  • Edtech businesses received a funding of 3B USD in 2024, compared with 17.3B USD in 2021
  • 10 year treasuries fell to 4.9 percent last week
  • Huawei has significantly improved the number of AI chips it can produce, in a key breakthrough that supports China’s push to create its own advanced semi conductors
  • BP will abandon pledge on cutting oil output as pressure grows for radical change
    • BP produces about 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, down from about 2.6 million in 2019
  • Jakarta’s crackdown on illicit palm oil exports has crated a glut in the local market