
How China's One-Child Policy Led to a Wave of Forced Adoptions
Instead of besuited businessmen doing deals over eggs and congee, the room was packed with middle-aged Caucasian couples wearing New Balance sneakers and jeans. Even more surprising, many of them were carrying tiny Chinese babies.
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Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US-China talks to restart as hopes grow for trade war truce extension
The US and China are due to start a fresh round of talks on Monday as expectations grow that the world's two biggest economies could agree a 90-day extension to their trade war truce. The meetings in Sweden - led on Washington's side by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and for Beijing by Vice Premier He Lifeng - come hours after US President Donald Trump announced a framework tariffs deal with the European Union. The current 90-day truce between the US and China - which saw the two countries temporarily lowering tariffs on each other - is set to end on 12 August. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, the US and China had raised import levies on each other to more than 100%. The current 90-day tariffs pause came after top officials from the US and China met in Geneva and London earlier this year. Last week, Bessent said talks with China were in "a very good place" and suggested the new round of talks could result in a second truce. On Monday, citing sources on both sides, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that the US and China are expected to extend the truce by another three months. The BBC has contacted the Chinese embassy in the US and the US Treasury Department for comment. The latest US-China talks come after Washington struck deals with both the EU and Japan in the last week. On Sunday, Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a trade agreement framework. It ended a months-long standoff between two of the world's biggest economic partners. Last week, Trump said Washington had agreed a "massive" trade deal with Tokyo. Under the agreement, Japan would invest $550bn (£407bn) in the US while its goods sold to America would be taxed at 15% when they reach the country - below the 25% tariff Trump had threatened. The US has also struck tariffs deals with the UK, Indonesia and Vietnam. At 10%, Britain has negotiated the lowest US tariff rate so far. No similar breakthrough is expected from the US-China talks this week but, with expectations of an extension to their truce, there are hopes that global trade will not be hit by fresh tariffs disruption. Asia is reeling from Trump's tariff salvo – is anyone winning? What the US-Japan deal means for Asia and the world Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Donald Trump will birth a ‘golden age' for Bitcoin at the expense of the dollar
Wolfgang Münchau is a columnist for DL News. He is co-founder and director of Eurointelligence, and writes a column on European affairs for UnHerd. Opinions are his own. Probably the most under-reported economic story of our time is the strong appreciation of the euro against the dollar. While the Bitcoin prices rose 26% in dollar terms this year, it was up only 13% in euros. People fret about Donald Trump's tariffs, but the exchange-rate supercharges the tariffs. If a US buyer imported a product from the EU at a cost of $1.03 at the beginning of the year, it now costs $1.16 net of tariffs. Add a 10% tariff, and you are at $1.28. If the tariff were 30%, the rate determined by Trump to take effect August 1, the price goes up to $1.47. That's almost 50% up on the year. And for the Europeans it gets worse. Because China has soft-pegged the renminbi to the dollar, the EU is hit by a double-whammy exchange rate shock from its two most important trading partners. After Trump imposed his tariff on China, Chinese goods started flooding the European markets in April and May. Because of Chinese dominance of rare earths, there is only so much the Europeans can do about this. If they hit the Chinese too hard, Beijing will cut them off from essential supplies for their industries. 'Seismic shift' What's happening is a seismic shift in US economic policy similar to what happened in 1971. President Richard Nixon's 'new economic policy' included a 10% unilateral tariff on imports, a 10% cut in US foreign aid, and the dollar's withdrawal from the Bretton Woods system of semi-fixed exchange rate. The parallels are almost one-to-one. After the US extricated itself from Bretton Woods, the dollar depreciated. The Europeans, and the Germans in particular, protested, but there was nothing they could do about it. Again, it looks like history repeating itself. The brain behind the 1971 operation was not Nixon himself, but his treasury secretary, John Connally. And this is the main difference to today where the driving force is the president. What is also different is that the trading partners, and especially Europe, are in a more vulnerable position. Germany is more reliant on exports for economic growth than it was back then. It has a higher trade surplus against the rest of the world, and especially against the US. Trump's policies pose an existential threat for them. And for the EU as well, since their economic model critically depends on Germany. Recalibrating the world economy The Europeans could have put themselves in a more advantageous position, had they created a fiscal and capital markets union alongside the euro. That would have the euro on a trajectory where it could one day take over from the dollar as the world's leading global currency. But instead, EU member states chose to prioritise national fiscal sovereignty. The Europeans did not prepare themselves for a financial world without the support of the US. As was the case in the early 1970s, the fall in the dollar, and the rise in tariffs together form part of a programme that will end up recalibrating global trade and financial flows beyond what anyone would imagine. While all eyes are focused on the tariffs, the dollar devaluation is the far more consequential part of the policy. My expectation is that we are only at the beginning of this change as the US is losing the safe-haven status for global investors. All the evidence so far points that Trump pursues dollar devaluation on purpose. Section 899 of his One Big Beautiful Bill would have been a revenge wealth tax on global investors. It has now been removed. But ask yourself: why did they put this clause into the bill in the first place? Why is Trump taking every opportunity to insult Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve? Why does he keep calling on the Fed to cut rates by hundreds of basis points? You would not do that if you wanted a strong dollar. And you would certainly not draw up the One Big Beautiful Bill with its unfunded tax cuts. The independent Congressional Budget Office estimated that the budget plan would increase the debt-to-GDP ratio of the US to 124% from 100% by 2034. In that period, the annual interest costs would double to 4.2%. The annual deficit would be running at 7%. If you truly cared about the dollar, you would not pass a budget like this, talk about firing the central bank chief, or try to sneak in a wealth tax on global investors. 'Undermining the dollar' The Trump administration's undermining of the dollar is not a bug. It's a feature. Trump is a Mercantilist — just as the Chinese and the Germans were before them. He wants a manufacturing-based economy. You would be mistaken to think, as virtually all macroeconomists do, that this attempt is bound to fail. We can debate whether this is a good idea or not. But it will happen. If you create the right incentives, anything can happen. Trump is winning. He is not chickening out. And that's hard for his opponents to admit. He needs the tariffs because he needs the money to fund his deficit. It's as simple as that. There is no higher purpose behind the tariffs. Trump is not concerned about global imbalances. This is the stuff people like me talk about, perhaps too much. For Trump, it's just the money. When I recently predicted in a DL News column that crypto and gold would enter a golden age, this is the scenario that is behind it — a White House that is dead serious about weakening the dollar. China has capital controls. It is aeons away from offering similar services. So is the euro. A world in which the dollar is simultaneously debased and without competition is the most fertile environment for cryptocurrencies. They can thrive through two independent channels: directly, as a store of value and indirectly through stablecoins. Dollar stablecoins appear to be the only ones with a chance to prevail in online payments systems. You can describe a stablecoins in many ways. I look at them as financial derivatives whose underlying security are US treasury bonds. If and when the dollar debases, so will stablecoins by definition. As a store of value, they will be as useless as the dollar. I would not touch them as an investment, but they are a potentially important transaction currency. During a meeting of international finance ministers in 1971, Treasury Secretary John Connally told his colleagues: 'The dollar is our currency, but your problem'. That was 54 years ago. It is still true today. Errore nel recupero dei dati Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hengrui Pharma and GSK enter agreements to develop up to 12 innovative medicines across Respiratory, Immunology & Inflammation and Oncology
Includes license for potential best-in-class PDE3/4 inhibitor (HRS-9821) in clinical development for treatment of COPD Additional 11 programmes to be developed by Hengrui Pharma and optioned by GSK following phase I completion JIANGSU, China, July 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Hengrui Pharma ( today announced it has entered into agreements with GSK plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) to develop up to 12 innovative medicines, adding significant value to the globalization strategy of Hengrui and significant new growth opportunities to GSK beyond 2031. The programmes were selected to complement GSK's extensive Respiratory, Immunology & Inflammation (RI&I) and Oncology pipeline, and assessed for their potential best- or first-in-class profiles. GSK will pay $500 million in upfront fees across the agreements. The agreements include an exclusive worldwide license (excluding mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan region) for a potential best-in-class, PDE3/4 inhibitor (HRS-9821) in clinical development for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as an add-on maintenance treatment, irrespective of background therapy. The addition of HRS-9821 supports GSK's ambition to treat patients across the widest spectrum of COPD by including those who face continued dyspnoea (shortness of breath) or who are unlikely to receive inhaled corticosteroids or biologics, based on their disease profile. HRS-9821 has demonstrated potent PDE3 and PDE4 inhibition, leading to increased bronchodilation and anti-inflammatory effects in early clinical and preclinical studies. In addition, HRS-9821 provides the opportunity for a convenient dry-powder inhaler (DPI) formulation that strategically fits GSK's established inhaled portfolio. The agreements also include a pioneering scaled collaboration to generate up to 11 programmes in addition to HRS-9821, each with its own financial structure. Hengrui Pharma will lead the development of these programmes up to completion of phase I trials, including patients outside of China. GSK will have the exclusive option to further develop and commercialise each programme worldwide (excluding mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan region), at the end of phase I or earlier at GSK's election as well as certain programme substitution rights. Frank Jiang, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Hengrui Pharma, said: "This strategic collaboration with GSK marks yet another significant milestone in Hengrui's globalisation journey and our mission to innovate and deliver higher-quality, cutting-edge therapies for patients worldwide. GSK brings additional R&D expertise, a robust global clinical network, and broad regulatory capabilities that will accelerate our PDE3/4 inhibitor as well as an array of other innovative therapy programs to overseas markets, potentially delivering breakthrough treatments to patients globally." Tony Wood, Chief Scientific Officer, GSK said: "We're delighted to announce these exciting agreements with Hengrui Pharma which complement our already-extensive pipeline. This deal reflects our strategic investment in programmes that address validated targets, increasing the likelihood of success, and with the option to advance those assets with the greatest potential for patient impact." The collaboration enables scale and speed to proof-of-concept to develop up to 11 additional innovative medicines. It benefits from GSK's therapy area expertise, deep understanding of disease biology, clinical development capability and global commercial scale with Hengrui Pharma's early discovery engine, platform technologies, extensive pre-clinical pipeline of high-value programmes and speed of clinical evaluation. Financial considerations GSK will pay $500 million in upfront fees across the agreements including for the license of the PDE3/4 programme. The potential total value of future success-based development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments to Hengrui Pharma is approximately $12 billion if all programmes are optioned and all milestones are achieved. In addition, Hengrui Pharma will be eligible to receive tiered royalties on global product net sales (excluding mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan region). The license to HRS-9821 is subject to customary conditions, including applicable regulatory agency clearances under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act in the US. About GSKGSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together. Find out more at About Hengrui PharmaHengrui Pharma is an innovative, global pharmaceutical company dedicated to the research, development and commercialisation of high-quality medicines to address unmet clinical needs. With a global R&D team that includes 14 R&D centres and more than 5,500 professionals, Hengrui Pharma's therapeutic areas of focus include oncology, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, immunological and respiratory diseases, and neuroscience. To date, Hengrui has commercialised 23 new molecular entity drugs and 4 other innovative drugs in China. Founded in 1970 with the core principle of putting patients first, Hengrui Pharma remains committed to advancing human health by striving to conquer diseases, improve health, and extend lives through the power of science and technology. Media on behalf of Hengrui Pharma:DGA Grouphengrui@ View original content: SOURCE Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data