Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Wednesday, February 5th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Temu and Sheehan got a reprieve from the USPS, but they are still in deep, deep trouble. I'll explain why. Alphabet earnings disappoint their investors, but cheer investors of Nvidia. Google and Meta are going in different directions when it comes to

AI, and why are people increasingly refusing to pay ransomware? Here's what you miss today in the world of

tech.

The United States Postal Service this morning said it will resume accepting mail from China and

Hong Kong hours after suspending service and is working with Customs and Border Protection

on the new China tariffs.

I told you on Monday that if the tariffs against China held up, this was potentially a huge

issue for the likes of Sheehan, Temu, and Ali Express.

While the USPS had halted all inbound parcels from China and

Hong Kong after President Trump ended the de minimis exception I told you about, sending the e-commerce

industry into chaos, here's why that was potentially a big deal, quoting the Financial Times.

The U.S. Postal Service gave no reason for its decision to suspend packages temporarily,

which would also cover Hong Kong, saying only that it would still accept flat parcels and letters.

Customs agents now have to check and clear packages mailed from China following Trump's decision

to scrap the de minimis rules, exempting shipments under $800 from duties. The changes will drive up sharply the cost of the

four million parcels a day arriving in the U.S. under the day minimis exemption, about 30% of which

come from Chinese e-commerce groups Temu and Sheehan. With flights disrupted, the new tariffs

threatened to hit China's burgeoning international e-commerce trade at a moment when Beijing is relying on exports to offset weak demand in its domestic economy, end quote.

And quoting Wired.

Daniel, the owner of a trucking company based in Alberta, Canada, who asked to only use his first name for privacy reasons, tells Wired that two of his company's trucks were turned away at the U.S. border in New York and Montana today because they contained packages originally from China. After speaking with a U.S.

Customs and Border Protection Agent in Montana, the company was able to get a third truck into

Washington State by removing all packages from China, Daniel says. We talked to the Montana

...