Good Morning, it's Monday, May 12. The US and China have reached a temporary trade ceasefire, which is calming the markets. The presidential race in South Korea has officially begun, and the Japanese police have arrested travellers who had six suitcases stuffed with hermit crabs 🦀
What Matters Today
US and China Agree to Slash Tariffs
US and China have agreed to lower their tariffs by 115% for 90 days after their trade talks in Switzerland. This pause comes after weeks of reciprocal tariffs imposed on each other; China with a 125% tariff on US goods and the US with a 145% tariff on Chinese imports. Since the announcement, the stock market has also seen a sudden rebound, with some European and Hong Kong stocks opening higher.
South Korea’s Presidential Campaigns Commence
The presidential race has begun in Asia’s fourth-largest economy following the ousting of conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol and the biggest talking points: boosting the economy while navigating trade talks with the US & unifying a country that has been deeply divided by politics. Even though seven candidates have entered, the race is widely regarded to be between Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), and Kim Moon-soo, candidate of the conservative People Power Party.
Lee is polling at 43 percent and Kim, supported by outgoing Yoon, is polling at 29%, but expert opinion is that the deeply divided People’s Power Party may lead to an easy victory for Lee, which means a realignment for South Korea’s political landscape.
Weight Loss Drug Showdown
A trial was funded by Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of weight loss drug Mounjaro, to test the efficacy of Mounjaro vs Wegovy (another weight loss drug owned by Novo Nordisk). The trial was a 72-week treatment with 750 people and showed that Mounjaro is more effective than rival Wegovy - Mounjaro resulted in 20% weight loss while Wegovy was only at 14%.
Both drugs trick the brain into making you feel full, so you eat less, but there are slight differences in how they work: Wegovy mimics a hormone to flip one appetite switch in your brain, while Mounjaro flips two. Dr Louis Aronne, who conducted the trial, said the majority of obese people will do just fine with Wegovy, but if you're at the higher end, then you may do better with Mounjaro.
Currency Tracker
Taiwanese Insurers Face Risks: Taiwan’s life insurers now face the possibility of having their earnings wiped out, thanks to the appreciation of the Taiwanese Dollar against the US Dollar. About 70% of the insurers’ portfolio is made up of US Dollar-denominated assets, and the sudden rise means the value of these investments could reduce when converted back to local currency (Read more).
Currencies Rise in Tariff Slash: Following the announcement that the US and China had lowered their reciprocal tariffs, the Dollar has surged, rising 1.7% to 147.835 yen and 1.5% to 0.84405 Swiss francs. China's yuan has also surged to its highest since November 11 at 7.2001 yuan per Dollar (Read more).
Tech
Baidu’s Patent for Animal Sound-deciphering AI: Chinese tech company Baidu has filed a patent for its AI system, which may convert animal sounds to human languages. The patent, however, is still in the research phase (Read more).
India Ruling on ANI vs Wikipedia: India’s Supreme Court has reversed a takedown ruling by a lower court that ordered Wikipedia’s host non-profit, Wikimedia Foundation, to remove a page describing its legal dispute with Indian news agency, ANI. The Supreme Court’s ruling was based on protecting free speech (Read more).
Business & Finance
Nigeria Changes Its Tax Rules: After a nearly two-year push to phase out colonial-era tax regulations and create favourable tax rules for businesses, Nigerian lawmakers have passed bills which will overhaul stamp duties, drop certain taxes on food and public transport and exempt the lowest earners from paying income tax (Learn more).
Japanese Investors Buy Record Levels of Foreign Equity in April: Japanese investors are diversifying their portfolio and seeking higher returns with discounted foreign stocks, leading to a net 3.27 trillion yen, their highest monthly buy in about 20 years (Read more).
Egyptian Proptech Startup Raises $52 Million: Nawy, a property tech startup aiming to solve problems with Egypt’s fragmented real estate market, has raised $52 million in Series A funding (Read more).
China’s Meituan Enters Brazil: Meituan, China’s largest on-demand delivery service company for food and retail, officially announced its entry into the Brazilian market on Sunday, also announcing its plans to invest 5.6 billion Brazilian Real in the country (Read more).
Telefonica to Sell Its Chilean Business: Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica has enlisted Citi as an advisor to sell its Chilean operation. This comes after the sale of its Peruvian operations last month, marking a list of withdrawals from Spanish-speaking Latin American countries (Read more).
Trade
China Strengthens Ties with CELAC: China will be hosting the China-CELAC forum in Beijing this Tuesday, where it aims to strengthen partnerships with CELAC, or the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Read more).
Traders Rebrand Venezuelan Oil as Brazilian: According to tanker tracking firms, traders have relabelled over $1 billion worth of Venezuelan oil shipments as Brazilian oil to Chinese buyers in the past year. This was done to lower shipping costs and escape US sanctions on Venezuelan oil (Read more).
Politics
Colombia Grants Asylum to Panama Ex-President: President Martinelli travelled to Colombia under asylum on Saturday after leaving the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama, where he was sheltered following a corruption conviction (Read More).
Bangladesh bans Awami League activities: Street protests by student-driven National Citizen Party have led to the interim government banning all activities of the political party of former Prime Minister Hasina (Read More).
Visas & Immigration
UK Immigration Blitz
The UK plans to end the “failed free market experiment” in immigration by restricting skilled worker visas to graduate-level jobs and forcing businesses to increase training for local workers. Further, companies in the care sector will no longer be able to seek visas for workers recruited abroad. A White Paper is due to be published today with further details (Read More).
Trump-o-meter
Indian Pharma Stocks Fall: Stocks fell by 1.6% today in India in the pharma industry after Trump said he would cut drug prices by 30–80 % to match other wealthy nations (Read More).
Trump in UAE: With visits planned to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar, three of the wealthiest countries in the world, which have pledged billions of dollars in US investments (Read More).
Mind, Body, Beauty
Eczema on Darker Skin
Eczema affects people of all skin tones, but it can present differently on darker skin tones, leading to confusion on diagnosis and treatment. Some of the differences in eczema appearance on darker skin include raised bumps in shades of purple or gray (compared to red or pink in lighter skin tones) and more prominent lines on the palms, which scientists say occurs more in people with darker skin (Learn more).
Study Shows High Diabetes Risk in Chinese Pregnancies
Pregnant Chinese women may be at increased risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus (DM), a new study has found. The study, which was conducted on over 100,000 pregnancies, found several novel loci (or gene locations) specific to gestational DM.
Cold Plunges May Not Work in Women
A new clinical study in Switzerland has found that neither cold nor hot water plunges improved recovery from muscle damage, and may actually elevate blood pressure, worsening cardiac health for some women (Learn more).
Beauty Products Linked to Cancer
For Black and Latina women, beauty maintenance is essential. However, following previous studies around hair extensions, another recent study is showing that some beauty products used by these demographics contain carcinogenic ingredients, including formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers in relaxers (Read more).
Smart Reads
The dating & marriage crisis in the Muslim Community and the impact of Western values (Read More).
Meet the Ghanaian woman who is the World’s most Interesting Mathematician (Read More).
Kenya outlawed the sharing of Indigenous seeds and a village choir is fighting back (Read More).
The CIA is trying to recruit Chinese spies for the US government. Chinese citizens don't seem interested (Read More).
This & That
The Mayor of Johannesburg has announced a mega housing project in South Africa’s richest province (Read more).
Aviation technology is now a subject in a public all-girls’ high school in Kenya (Learn more).
Edutech founder launches a class action suit against Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to allow students verify unusually poor results (Read more).
All 378 townhouses in a new village in Abu Dhabi sold out in 24 hours (Read more).
Three Chinese nationals have been arrested in Japan after stuffing their bags with thousands of hermit crabs (Learn more).
