Staying Current

on December 12, 2025 at 12:50 pm - Reuters: EU finance ministers agreed to set a €3 customs duty on low-value parcels from July 2026, aiming to crack down on cheap Chinese imports from brands like Shein  —  European Union finance ministers agreed on Friday to set a 3 euro ($3.52) custom duty on low-value parcels arriving in the bloc …

EU finance ministers agreed to set a €3 customs duty on low-value parcels from July 2026, aiming to crack down on cheap Chinese imports from brands like Shein (Reuters)

on December 12, 2025 at 11:50 am - Kirsty Needham / Reuters: Papua New Guinea says Google will build three subsea cables for the country, a $120M effort funded by Australia, amid China's rising influence in the region  —  Papua New Guinea said on Friday that Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google will build three subsea cables, funded by Australia under a mutual defence treaty …

Papua New Guinea says Google will build three subsea cables for the country, a $120M effort funded by Australia, amid China's rising influence in the region (Kirsty Needham/Reuters)

on December 12, 2025 at 9:55 am - Nikkei Asia: Taiwan opens its largest AI supercomputing data center using Nvidia's Blackwell chips, a major effort in its push for sovereign AI and chip industry innovation  —  TAINAN, Taiwan — Taiwan has opened its latest and largest AI supercomputing data center with Nvidia's most advanced Blackwell chips …

Taiwan opens its largest AI supercomputing data center using Nvidia's Blackwell chips, a major effort in its push for sovereign AI and chip industry innovation (Nikkei Asia)

on December 12, 2025 at 7:30 am - Reuters: Sources: Intel tested chipmaking tools this year from CA-based ACM Research, which has deep China ties; ACM's two overseas units were targeted by US sanctions  —  Chipmaker Intel (INTC.O), has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units …

Sources: Intel tested chipmaking tools this year from CA-based ACM Research, which has deep China ties; ACM's two overseas units were targeted by US sanctions (Reuters)

on December 12, 2025 at 7:00 am - Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Newsletter: GPT-5.2 models match GPT-5 and 5.1 with a 400K context window and 128K max output tokens, but have a newer knowledge cutoff of Aug. 31, 2025 vs. Sept. 30, 2024  —  Plus a YouTube video, a podcast appearance and more  —  In this newsletter:  — GPT-5.2  — Useful patterns for building HTML tools

GPT-5.2 models match GPT-5 and 5.1 with a 400K context window and 128K max output tokens, but have a newer knowledge cutoff of Aug. 31, 2025 vs. Sept. 30, 2024 (Simon Willison/Simon Willison's Newsletter)