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Thursday, 5:32 AM

February 13, 2025

Good morning news friend! Keep informed with the latest updates, staying in tune with the rapidly changing stream of events. 📰🌟

Would you like to see the poll results and comments from our previous edition? Click here to see what other readers had to say about: Trump’s Gaza proposal, trading rare earth minerals for military aid with Ukraine and releasing the JFK records!

Ukraine Peace Talks Begin

President Trump held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This marked their first discussion since Trump took office. They agreed to start negotiations to end the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Later in the day, Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for about one hour. Zelenskiy confirmed they discussed ways to achieve peace. Both leaders expressed a desire to collaborate for a resolution.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that it is unrealistic for Ukraine to regain all territory lost since 2014. He emphasized that peace requires recognizing current realities.

Meanwhile, Zelenskiy proposed a minerals deal to secure US investment in Ukraine. Russia currently occupies around 20% of Ukraine, while Kyiv seeks NATO membership or equivalent guarantees.

Sources: WallStreetJournal, APNews, Reuters, Bloomberg, NYTimes, FinancialTimes.

Inflation Ticks Up in January

US inflation surged to 3% in January, an increase from 2.9% in December. The Consumer Price Index grew 0.5%, the largest increase since August 2023. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, also rose to 3.3%, up from 3.2% the previous month.

Egg prices jumped 15.2% from December to January, driven by a bird flu outbreak that decimated about 40 million birds. This led to a 53% increase in egg prices compared to a year earlier. The grocery inflation rate reached 1.9%.

Car insurance and hotel prices also climbed, up 2% and 1.4% respectively. In response to this inflation spike, the Federal Reserve is likely to maintain its current interest rates, impacting borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.

Sources: APNews, Reuters, Bloomberg, WallStreetJournal, FinancialTimes, NYTimes, Forbes.

Nissan and Honda's Merger Collapse

Nissan and Honda ended their merger discussions, which aimed to create a $60 billion automotive group. Honda proposed making Nissan a subsidiary, which Nissan rejected.

Both companies had planned to combine forces to tackle rising competition from BYD. They will now focus on collaborating in electric vehicle development instead.

Nissan has a restructuring plan involving cutting 9,000 jobs and reducing global production capacity by 20%. Honda's pressure for deeper job cuts and factory closures also contributed to the breakup.

Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant, has expressed interest in collaborating with Nissan.

Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg, APNews, NYTimes, WallStreetJournal.

Reciprocal Tariffs 

President Trump announced reciprocal tariffs targeting countries that impose duties on US imports. Economists warn that such tariffs may increase inflation, already reflected in a 4.8% rise in the US average tariff rate.

These tariffs will affect countries like India, which charges an average of 9.5% on US goods, while the US imposes only 3%.

A 0.5% increase in core personal consumption expenditures is projected if tariffs are fully passed on to consumers, and $50 billion worth of goods will be impacted by them.

Industries reliant on steel and aluminum imports now face a scramble due to 25% tariffs announced on those metals. Trump has not ruled out exemptions for the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors.

Sources: Reuters, CNBC, Forbes, WallStreetJournal, LiveMint, EconomicTimes.

Cosmic Ghosts: Record-Breaking Neutrino Discovery

The KM3NeT detector in the Mediterranean Sea identified the highest-energy neutrino ever, with an energy of 220 peta electron volts. This neutrino is 30 times more powerful than previous records.

KM3NeT, located around 3.5 kilometers underwater, uses a cubic kilometer of seawater to capture these elusive particles. The event triggered by the neutrino produced a muon, a heavier cousin of the electron, which emitted over 28,000 photons of light.

Neutrinos are known as "ghost particles" because they rarely interact with matter, passing through stars and planets. Each second, about 100 trillion neutrinos from the sun flow through our bodies unnoticed.

Researchers suspect the neutrino may originate from beyond the Milky Way, possibly from supermassive black holes or cosmic ray interactions with background radiation. However, its exact source remains unknown.

Sources: ScientificAmerican, APNews, Space, CNN, USAToday

Marsquake Revelations

A massive meteor strike on Mars in February 2021, which created a crater 21 meters wide, sent seismic waves traveling 1,640 km to NASA’s InSight lander. This revealed that previously recorded marsquakes were caused by meteor strikes rather than tectonic activity.

AI helped identify 123 new impact craters linked to seismic events detected by InSight. Researchers estimate that meteoroid impacts on Mars occur 1.6 to 2.5 times more frequently than once thought.

New findings indicate that Martian seismic waves can penetrate deeper than previously assumed, creating a 'seismic highway' beneath the planet. As a result, scientists plan to revise their understanding of Mars's internal structure.

Sources: ScienceAlert, SciTechDaily, TimesOfIndia, Entrevue, Space

“The tragedy is that much of what you think is random is in your control and, what’s worse, the opposite.”

Baked with love,

Anna Eisenberg ❤️