MiniQ Starship 🛸

A conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Germany’s foreign minister yesterday over the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip reportedly heated up when Annalena Baerbock charged that Israel is “heading towards famine in Gaza.” Channel 13 reports that when the Baerbock offered to show Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer “photos of hungry [Gazan] children on my phone,” Netanyahu told the German official, “Come and see the pictures of the markets in Gaza, the beaches in Gaza, there’s no famine there.” https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/were-not-like-the-nazis-netanyahu-reportedly-bickered-with-german-fm-over-famine-in-gaza/

https://twitter.com/BRICSinfo/status/1784699410036703556?t=wNv-0jL0YKP_9CjwmTThNg&s=19 @CaptKylePatriots

It's Golden Week in Japan now. ✨✨ ※Golden Week is a period of various holidays when many people have long vacations. 🇯🇵😊

Nissan appoints Official Distributor in Iraq Japan's Nissan Motor Corporation has appointed Al Sour as its official and registered distributor in Federal Iraq. Thierry Sabbagh, Divisional Vice President, President Middle East, KSA - Nissan, INFINITI, said: "As a considerable and growing automotive market in the region, Iraq is part of our long-term growth strategy, and this partnership reinforces our commitment to address the specific needs of our valued customers by providing high-quality products and services that enrich their lives." Ahmad Musher, President and CEO, Al Sour, said: "We are honored to be appointed Nissan's partner in Federal Iraq and are committed to delivering exceptional automotive experiences to our customers in the territory ... We look forward to exceeding customer expectations, fostering trust, and contributing to Nissan's continued success in the vibrant market." https://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2024/04/29/nissan-appoints-official-distributor-in-iraq/

Chinese Investment Gold Demand Soars People have been trying to figure out why, since Valentine’s Day this year through last Friday, the price of gold has soared more than 20 percent, and the price of silver has jumped almost 29 percent. Demand for gold has been so strong from the Chinese government and private citizens, already the world’s top gold-consuming nation, that imported supplies have not kept up with demand. Chinese people want to own gold to protect their finances against weak real estate and stock markets and the risk of a further decline in the purchasing power of the Chinese yuan currency. It turns out that, being unable to purchase sufficient physical gold for immediate delivery, the trading volume on the Shanghai Futures Exchange has increased more than two hundred percent over the past two months. Chinese citizens are willing to take delayed delivery of their gold so long as they can lock in the purchase at current prices. The shortage of physical gold for immediate delivery has led the Chinese government to begin a media campaign urging citizens to purchase silver instead of gold. Demand for physical silver has already been growing strong this year, as it is used to manufacture solar panels and other photovoltaic products in India. https://www.numismaticnews.net/coin-market/chinese-investment-gold-demand-soars

Vietnam expected to become e-commerce powerhouse in Southeast Asia TikTok Vietnam said the number of merchants and average sales on its app tripled last year, fueling its optimism in the country, the Nikkei Asia newspaper reported recently. The platform of China's ByteDance eclipsed Lazada to become Vietnam's No. 2 online marketplace after Shopee, with vendors in the country earning about 1.3 billion USD in the past six months, analytics firm Metric said. According to DataReportal, TikTok Vietnam had 67 million users early this year versus 50 million a year earlier in a country of 100 million people, compared with Facebook's 73 million users and YouTube's 63 million. A report by the E-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that the revenue of products sold through online business-to-consumer (B2C) retail models increased from 10.8 billion USD in 2018 to 20.5 billion USD last year. The figure is forecast to surge in the coming time and reach 650 trillion VND (26.31 billion USD) in 2024. Meanwhile, according to a report on online retail market in 2023 released by e-commerce data platform Metric, 2.2 billion items were successfully delivered through five major e-commerce platforms in Vietnam, namely Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Sendo, and Tiktok Shop, a surge of 52.3% over 2022. The e-Conomy SEA 2022 report by Google, Temasek, and Brain & Company said that Vietnam was one of the countries recording highest e-commerce growth. The B2C revenue and sales volume in Vietnam are predicted to continue uptrend, with the five leading e-commerce platforms expecting to earn 310 trillion VND in 2024, representing a year-on-year growth of 35%. https://en.nhandan.vn/vietnam-expected-to-become-e-commerce-powerhouse-in-southeast-asia-post135169.html

House and Senate race to approve stablecoin legislation as interest rises U.S. House Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, said that lawmakers are making progress on passing stablecoin legislation and that the final version of the stablecoin bill could be ready soon. Waters made the comments during an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, saying that she had been working “very well together” with committee chair Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and other lawmakers in the U.S. Senate on the stablecoin legislation. She said the stablecoin bill needs only a “few more tweaks” before it can progress in the House. “It’s been very complicated,” Waters said. “We have so many entities that are involved everybody has had something to say. We’ve had to recognize all of those concerns. In doing that, in the final analysis, it’s about making sure that investors and that the people are protected and that we don’t have a stablecoin bill where companies don’t have the assets that they say that they have.” “We have to ensure that they have those assets to back up stablecoins,” she said. Waters added that they are working closely with their counterparts in the Senate to help ensure the bill's approval. “We’ve met with Schumer. Talked with Sherrod Brown. We’re on our way to getting a stablecoin bill in the short run,” she said. Senator Brown (D-OH), chair of the Senate Banking Committee, recently said he was open to passing stablecoin legislation as long as his concerns were addressed. https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2024-04-25/house-and-senate-race-approve-stablecoin-legislation-interest-rises