Economy

Tariff crisis  Crypto market
Bitcoin fell in October – first time in seven years

October was a tough month for bitcoin, which fell by about 5 percent. It was the first time the cryptocurrency had fallen in an October month since 2018, according to Reuters.

The decline was driven mainly by reduced risk appetite after President Donald Trump announced 100 percent tariffs on China and restrictions on exports of critical software.

Despite the setback, the cryptocurrency is still up 16 percent since the beginning of the year, after a strong year marked by political support for digital assets.

Political situation in South Korea
China and South Korea strengthen economic cooperation

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed during a meeting in Gyeongju to deepen cooperation in several growth sectors. Reuters reports.

The talks resulted in seven agreements, including a currency swap between the won and the yuan and initiatives in AI, biotechnology and aging populations.

Xi, on his first visit to South Korea in eleven years, stressed the importance of broadening cooperation and addressing common challenges. Anti-China protests were held in Seoul at the same time, while Lee called for a balance between ties with the US and China.

During the meeting, Lee also asked Xi for support in resuming dialogue with North Korea – an issue that has so far been dismissed by Pyongyang as a “smokescreen”.

Global internet outages
Experts warn of more global internet outages

Large parts of the internet were recently knocked out after problems at Microsoft and Amazon. The disruptions affected, among other things, Systembolaget, Snapchat and Minecraft.

Experts TT has spoken to believe that the vulnerability is due to the fact that three American companies – Amazon, Microsoft and Google – dominate the cloud market.

– We will see more mistakes, says IT security expert Karl-Emil Nikka.

Professor Pontus Johnson at KTH emphasizes that cloud services are secure but not invulnerable.

– If someone were to succeed in taking them down, or taking over control. Then the consequences would be completely catastrophic.