Indonesia went to Washington to negotiate a trade deal and came home with more than 200 obligations to America’s nine. A day after the signing, the US Supreme Court struck down the legal basis for the tariff threat that had driven the whole exercise – for a time, at least. Detractors have likened this “agreement on reciprocal trade” to a blank cheque and a surrender of Indonesia’s sovereignty. The...
Indonesia went to Washington to negotiate a trade deal and came home with more than 200 obligations to America’s nine. A day after the signing, the US Supreme Court struck down the legal basis for the tariff threat that had driven the whole exercise – for a time, at least. Detractors have likened this “agreement on reciprocal trade” to a blank cheque and a surrender of Indonesia’s sovereignty. The government, for its part, calls it a win-win. Advertisement The deal was signed by President Prabowo Subianto on February 19, when a threatened 32 per cent US tariff on Indonesian exports still seemed like it might come to pass. It fixed that rate at 19 per cent and secured zero-tariff access for 1,819 goods, including palm oil, coffee, cocoa, rubber and spices, that are central to the Indonesian economy. Workers in Indonesia transfer harvested palm oil fruits onto a truck to be processed into palm oil. Photo: AFP In exchange, Jakarta agreed to extend tariff exemptions to more than 99 per cent of American goods and strip away key non-tariff barriers – among them some local content requirements and halal certification – for US companies operating in Indonesia.
From Sydney to Hong Kong, wealth migration is reshaping the global super-luxury property market as activity picks up after two subdued years – though the dominance of relative newcomer Dubai is now being tested by the war in the Middle East. In Sydney, Peter Li, general manager at Plus Agency, said commission revenues on super-luxury homes had risen about 20 per cent from a year earlier. The firm,...
From Sydney to Hong Kong, wealth migration is reshaping the global super-luxury property market as activity picks up after two subdued years – though the dominance of relative newcomer Dubai is now being tested by the war in the Middle East. In Sydney, Peter Li, general manager at Plus Agency, said commission revenues on super-luxury homes had risen about 20 per cent from a year earlier. The firm, which handles more than US$300 million in annual sales, has hired six new staff members since January and expanded its bonus pool as high-end buyers return. “The activity level this year feels very different as clients are moving with conviction,” Li said, adding that he made the right call in increasing staffing levels. Advertisement Since the start of the year, the agency has hosted three large events and increased VIP viewings, particularly around Chinese New Year . One team even organised a concert featuring an overseas performer, drawing about 2,000 attendees and generating new sales leads. “The extra expense is worth it,” Li said. A top down view of houses in Sydney’s Birchgrove area. Photo: Getty Images The mood is similarly upbeat in Hong Kong.
The team proposed Pointer-CAD, a framework built on Alibaba Group Holding ’s Qwen 2.5 model, which helps designers select edges or faces of a 3D object, increasing the accuracy and efficiency in computer-aided design (CAD), a tool widely used in engineering, manufacturing and architecture. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. The new method could “effectively support the generation of comple...
The team proposed Pointer-CAD, a framework built on Alibaba Group Holding ’s Qwen 2.5 model, which helps designers select edges or faces of a 3D object, increasing the accuracy and efficiency in computer-aided design (CAD), a tool widely used in engineering, manufacturing and architecture. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. The new method could “effectively support the generation of complex geometric structures and reduce segmentation error to an extremely low level” compared with existing technology, according to a paper published on Wednesday on open-access repository arXiv. Advertisement The authors – including DeepSeek researcher Liu Wen, Tencent’s Zhao Zibo, HKU professor Ma Yi and Beihang University student Qi Dacheng – have open-sourced the novel approach, with code available at GitHub, the world’s largest developer community. Pointer-CAD is a framework built on Alibaba Group Holding’s Qwen 2.5 model. Photo: Reuters CAD workflows typically begin with 2D sketches, such as lines and circles, which are then transformed into 3D modelling operations. Existing AI methods that generate 3D objects either consume too many tokens or do not support entity selection, limiting complex editing.
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. On Valentine’s Day, I brought you a story that’s since made headlines all around the world: How one man, just trying to steer his DJI robot vacuum with a P...
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. On Valentine’s Day, I brought you a story that’s since made headlines all around the world: How one man, just trying to steer his DJI robot vacuum with a PlayStation gamepad, discovered an entire network of 7,000 remote-control DJI robots ready to let him peek into other people’s homes. To be clear, DJI had already begun addressing some of the related vulnerabilities before the man, Sammy Azdoufal, showed The Verge just how much he could access. But it wasn’t clear whether DJI would pay him for his discovery, particularly after how it treated security researcher Kevin Finisterre back in 2017 — or how soon DJI might fully patch the additional vulnerabilities that Azdoufal discovered. Today, we have some of the answers. DJI will pay Azdoufal $30,000 for one single discovery, according to an email he shared with The Verge, without specifying which discovery it’s paying him for. Though DJI is not naming Azdoufal, it confirms to The Verge it has “rewarded” an unnamed security researcher for their work. DJI would also not tell us which discovery it’s paying him for, but says it has already addressed the extra vulnerability Azdoufal found where someone can view a DJI Romo video stream without needing a security pin. “We can confirm that the PIN code security observation was addressed by late February,” reads a statement provided by DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong. You might be wondering: What about the vulnerability that seemed so bad we refused to describe it in our original story? DJI tells me it’s working on that one too: “We have also started upgrading the entire system. This includes a series of updates, which we anticipate will be fully implemented within one month.” DJI has also published a public blog post today about strengthen...
Key Points Walmart's operating income is growing significantly faster than revenue as new, high-margin profit engines scale. BJ's Wholesale is seeing impressive momentum in digital sales and membership fee income, but its merchandise gross margin is facing pressure. Valuation ultimately makes one of these stocks a more resilient long-term investment than the other today. 10 stocks we like better t...
Key Points Walmart's operating income is growing significantly faster than revenue as new, high-margin profit engines scale. BJ's Wholesale is seeing impressive momentum in digital sales and membership fee income, but its merchandise gross margin is facing pressure. Valuation ultimately makes one of these stocks a more resilient long-term investment than the other today. 10 stocks we like better than Walmart › If you compare the latest quarterly results from Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) and BJ's Wholesale Club (NYSE: BJ), one contrast is impossible to ignore. In its fiscal fourth quarter, Walmart's operating income jumped 10.8% year over year, easily outpacing its 5.6% revenue growth. BJ's, meanwhile, saw its total revenue increase by the exact same 5.6% in its most recent quarter, but its operating income actually slipped 0.2% year over year. But BJ's does have an edge on its much larger competitor in one crucial area: valuation. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » So, which stock is the better buy today: the better operator with a demanding valuation, or the cheaper warehouse club? Walmart: a shifting profit profile Beneath Walmart's 5.6% top-line growth in fiscal Q4 were several underlying drivers pointing to a fundamentally improving business. The defining metric was the company's surging global e-commerce sales, which rose 24% year over year and now account for a record 23% of total net sales. Backing up this digital strength, U.S. comparable sales (excluding fuel) rose 4.6%, driven by a 2.6% increase in transactions. This proves Walmart is still driving real traffic, not just leaning on higher prices. Even more importantly, the company's highest-margin revenue streams are growing the fastest. Walmart's global advertising business surged 37% year over year in the quarter, with its U.S. a...