On December 22, Qingqiao Morning Post|Thailand's Luckin claimed 2 billion yuan from China's Luckin

The difference is a thousand miles

Today in history: 16 years ago today, the ancient shipwreck of "Nanhai No. 1" was completely salvaged from the water. "Nanhai No. 1" is a wooden ancient shipwreck that was wrecked and sunk in the early Southern Song Dynasty when transporting porcelain on the Maritime Silk Road, and was discovered in 1987 in the waters of Yangjiang, China, and is the earliest, largest and most well-preserved ocean-going trading merchant ship found in the world so far. More than 180,000 pieces of cultural relics have been unearthed from the shipwreck, which are of great significance to the study of the ancient shipbuilding history, ceramic history, shipping history and trade history of China and even the whole East Asia and Southeast Asia.

politics

01Cambodia formulates a monitoring and evaluation mechanism for the Pentagon Strategy

Cambodia-China Times News, recently, Cambodia's "Pentagon Strategy" first phase of the implementation of the monitoring committee held a meeting, the meeting was chaired by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Prime Minister's Office Wangsey Weso, the discussion included the development and implementation of a comprehensive, high-quality work plan, to ensure that the 7th government promulgated the Pentagon Strategy can be implemented according to the plan and efficient. The Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia stressed that as Cambodia enters a new stage of socio-economic development, the new government has decided to promulgate the first phase of the Pentagon Strategy, while establishing a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure the successful implementation of the strategy and the achievement of results.

It is understood that the five corners of the "Five-Corner Strategy" are human development, economic diversification and competitiveness, private sector development and employment, resilience and sustainable development, and digital economy and social development. It is divided into 5 phases, which are planned to be implemented by each of the 5 governments over the next 25 years. The first phase of the Pentagon Strategy covers five areas: growth, employment, equality, efficiency and sustainability.

Within this framework, the new Government has announced six strategic priorities, namely, expanding health services to achieve universal health coverage, providing vocational and technical training to poor and vulnerable groups throughout the country, and improving the national social protection system to help the poor and vulnerable overcome the economic crisis.

military

01The United States formed a multinational alliance to protect ships in the Red Sea

According to Lianhe Zaobao, in recent days, Yemen's Houthi rebels have frequently attacked merchant ships in the Red Sea, threatening free trade. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a joint effort by 10 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, and Spain, to address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Operation Prosperity Defenders aims to ensure freedom of navigation for all countries and to promote regional security and prosperity. This important multinational security initiative will operate within the existing Joint Maritime Force framework and will be led by Joint Task Force 153, which focuses on Red Sea security.

According to US media reports, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries did not participate in Operation Prosperity Guardian. They fear that they will provoke Iran, which supports the Houthis, and thus drag Iran into the Israeli-Kazakhstan conflict, causing a more serious crisis, and the Middle East countries are generally reluctant to confront the Houthi rebels head-on. In response, the Houthis said that they only attacked ships linked to Israel, because of Israel's war of aggression against Palestine, and that the United States did not need to do so, and that they would also oppose any coalition forces deployed to the Red Sea.

economy

01Thailand Luckin claimed 2 billion yuan from China's Luckin

According to a number of Thai media reports, recently, the Thai Royal 50R Group formally submitted a lawsuit to the court, asking the court to sentence China Luckin Coffee to compensate for economic losses of 10 billion baht, about 2 billion yuan, and the court has accepted the case.

According to the documents submitted to the court, the Royal Thai 50R Group has legally registered the Luckin trademark with the Thai Ministry of Commerce in 2020, and everything is handled in accordance with the rules and procedures of Thai law, and it is allowed to use the trademark to operate a coffee shop business that sells beverages such as tea and coffee. However, China Luckin Coffee later filed a lawsuit with the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court, accusing 50R Group of maliciously registering its trademark, and the lower court ruled against the defendant. However, the 50R Group considered the judgment unfair and submitted a rebuttal to the court, which won the case on December 1 this year.

The complaint of the Royal Thai 50R Group also stated that in the early days, before the court made a final judgment, China Luckin had repeatedly forced the plaintiff to stop using the trademark, and repeatedly forcibly seized the property of the other party, causing it to suffer serious economic losses. 50R Group also spent a lot of money in the lawsuit, asking the court to award a total of 10 billion baht, or about 2 billion yuan, in compensation to China Luckin Coffee.

02Egypt extends ban on sugar exports

Egypt's Ministry of Trade and Industry recently extended the country's ban on all types of sugar exports for three months, according to Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper. According to the report, the extension of the sugar export ban is a precautionary measure to ensure that Egypt has an adequate supply of sugar in the country.

It is understood that recently, Egypt's domestic sugar prices have risen alarmingly, and suppliers and food and beverage companies have begun to hoard inventory. Egypt's Minister of Supply and Domestic Trade, Ali Musellehi, said Egypt's strategic sugar reserves could meet the country's consumption needs for almost eight months, and he called for regular reporting on the price of sugar in the market until the price of sugar stabilized at 27 Egyptian pounds per kilogram. According to the Egyptian National Agricultural Library, Egypt can produce about 2.7 million tons of sugar per year, while the country needs 3.5 million tons of sugar per year.

safety

01 First seizure of fentanyl in Malaysia

According to Lianhe Zaobao, recently, Malaysian Customs seized for the first time a liquid fentanyl drug, commonly known as a "zombie drug", weighing 807.9 kilograms and worth RM44.4 million, which can be consumed by about 4 million people. It is understood that the batch of drugs was transferred from Mumbai International Airport in India to Dubai via Kuala Lumpur, which is also the first seizure of fentanyl drugs in Malaysia.

Fentanyl affects users 100 times more than morphine and 20 to 40 times more than heroin, and Malaysian authorities classify it as a "very dangerous" drug. The Deputy Director General of the Malaysian Customs Department, Shaza, pointed out that the declaration information of this batch of drugs was "perfume", and the criminal gang used false information to package the drugs as fragrance compounds and send them to the air in an attempt to hide the world. At present, Malaysian law enforcement has not arrested any suspects, and under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 issued by the authorities, those involved could face the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted.

02Singapore has stepped up the protection of the critically endangered species of yellow-crowned bulbul

Singapore news, recently, Singapore's Minister of National Development Lee Chi Cheng said that the yellow-crowned bulbul is one of the most attractive native birds in Singapore, but because of its beautiful call, it is often captured, and has been listed as a critically endangered species in the world, and it is necessary for Singapore to strengthen the conservation of the yellow-crowned bulbul.

It is understood that there are only about 1,700 mature yellow-crowned bulbuls left in the world, of which one-third are in Singapore. As early as 2021, the National Parks Board of Singapore (NBS) included the Yellow-crowned Bulbul in its species restoration programme and set up a working group with the Natural Society of Singapore to focus on four key areas of Yellow-crowned Bulbul conservation, namely monitoring and conservation, genetic breeding and conservation reproduction, and community advocacy.

culture

01The award ceremony of the "Happy Vietnam" Photo Video Contest was held in Hanoi

According to the Vietnam News Agency, on December 19, the opening ceremony and award ceremony of the photo and video exhibition under the framework of the "Happy Vietnam 2023" photo and video contest was held at the Hanoi Grand Theater. Organized by the Foreign Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Media of Vietnam, the event aims to increase the promotion of Vietnam's economy, culture, society and human rights protection through the perspectives of all walks of life at home and abroad.

In the four months since the start of the competition, the organizing committee has received more than 7,000 entries. At the same time, the contest uses photos and videos as channels to show the love of the Vietnamese people, overseas Vietnamese and international friends for their hometown and motherland, and promotes the cultural value and strength of the Vietnamese people in the new era.

Financial Newsletters

Recently, investors speculated that the unusually hot weather would not be conducive to the growth of coffee bean crops in Brazil, and coffee futures generally rose slightly, with coffee "C" futures up 6.20% and Robusta coffee futures up 4.99%. Cocoa futures rose 0.73%.