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President Donald Trump signed an order Friday to lower US tariffs on agricultural imports such as beef, bananas, coffee and tomatoes, as his government comes under pressure from voters grappling with the escalating cost of living.These products are now exempted from his “reciprocal” tariffs, imposed this year to address behavior deemed unfair, after the administration considered issues like the US capacity — or lack thereof — to produce certain goods.But other duties in place will continue to apply.The new tariff exemptions are backdated, so they technically took effect on Thursday, according to the order published by the White House.The Trump administration has been stepping up efforts to convince Americans of the economy’s strength as affordability concerns emerged as a key issue in this month’s elections for New York City mayor, and the governors of New Jersey and Virginia.Democrats swept all three of those races, with an intense focus on cost of living issues.The list of tariff exemptions published Friday also covers other produce such as avocados, coconuts and pineapples.Among the products targeted are commodities that the United States imports in order to meet domestic demand.The majority of America’s coffee comes from abroad, and coffee prices have jumped by around 20 percent in August and September, respectively. Part of the reason involved climate shocks, but costs have also been disrupted by tariffs.National Coffee Association president Bill Murray said the White House move will help “ease cost-of-living pressures for the two-thirds of American adults who rely on coffee each day” and secure supplies for US companies.Beef prices have been rising this year as well, in part due to a tighter supply of cattle.On Friday, the White House said that “certain qualifying agricultural products will no longer be subject to those tariffs, such as certain food not grown in the United States.”- ‘We’re going to fix it’ -Washington’s latest announcement comes a day after it unveiled trade agreements with Argentina, Guatemala, Ecuador and El Salvador.Under the deals, Washington committed to removing “reciprocal” tariffs as well on certain goods that the United States cannot grow, mine or produce in sufficient quantities.Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on US trading partners, sparking warnings from economists that these could fuel inflation and weigh on growth.While there has not been a sharp uptick in overall consumer inflation, policymakers have noted that tariffs pushed up prices of certain goods.They expect the effect of higher levies to continue filtering through the world’s biggest economy.The Trump administration has acknowledged affordability worries that Americans are facing, with Trump’s top economic advisor nodding to a loss of purchasing power in recent years.”That’s something that we’re going to fix, and we’re going to fix it right away,” Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said this week.

Global stock markets struggled for momentum Friday as doubts built over whether the US Federal Reserve would cut interest rates next month and amid persistent fears of a tech bubble.Oil prices rallied meanwhile as analysts cited risks to Russian oil flows due to Ukrainian strikes and US sanctions.On Wall Street, major US indices mostly pulled back, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged up after heavy selling on Thursday.Major European and Asian indices finished in the red, with London losing 1.1 percent after UK government bonds and the pound slid following reports that finance minister Rachel Reeves had scrapped plans to raise income taxes in her budget speech this month. Analysts said the reports heightened concerns about UK public finances. Paris and Frankfurt also slipped in the wake of stock losses in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. “After an extraordinary run that began in April, the tech sector has finally started to wobble, with valuations looking overstretched in recent weeks,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst for StoneX.”It wouldn’t be surprising if markets stayed a bit jumpy for a while yet, though it’s still premature to call the top of this cycle,” he added.- ‘Volatile week’ -“It’s certainly been a volatile week… with relief over the end of the (US government) shutdown vying with concerns over AI valuations and whether the Fed will cut rates again,” said Jim Reid, managing director at Deutsche Bank.Traders trimmed bets on a December rate cut after several Fed officials voiced concerns about cutting borrowing costs while inflation remained high.For much of the year, equities have been boosted by optimism that US rates would come down, and the Fed has delivered at its past two meetings.But comments from Fed chief Jerome Powell last month that a December repeat was not “a foregone conclusion” sowed the seeds of doubt.Investors also await the release of economic data that had been held up by the US government shutdown, with jobs and inflation numbers the main focus, even though some statistics are expected to be incomplete.The dimmer outlook for rates compounded worries that the tech sector might be overpriced after an AI-fueled surge that sent markets to record highs this year.”The tech-sector rout from Wall Street spilled across the globe,” on Friday, said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.Oil prices rallied more than two percent, rebounding days after tumbling on a monthly OPEC report that forecast an oversupply in the third quarter.The International Energy Agency on Thursday flagged risks to Russian output caused by US sanctions imposed last month, including on the country’s two largest producers.- Key figures at around 2205 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.7 percent at 47,147.48 points (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.1 percent at 6,734.11 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 22,900.59 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 1.1 percent at 9,696.47 points (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.8 percent at 8,170.09 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.7 percent at 23,876.55 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.8 percent at 50,376.53 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.9 percent at 26,572.46 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.0 percent at 3,990.49 (close)Dollar/yen: UP at 154.55 yen from 154.53 yen on ThursdayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1621 from $1.1634 Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3171 from $1.3189Euro/pound: UP at 88.22 pence from 88.21 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 2.4 percent at $60.09 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 2.2 percent at $64.39 per barrel

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, one of only a handful of senior US political leaders attending this year’s UN climate summit, told AFP Friday that President Donald Trump’s America is “deliberately losing” the clean tech race to China.The 70-year-old lawmaker said he had come to Belem, Brazil, to underline that Trump’s aggressively pro-fossil-fuel policies do “not represent the American people” — and that the United States is forfeiting a vast economic opportunity.”Right now, we are deliberately losing our competition on solar, on wind, on battery storage, on electric vehicles and all the support technologies that go into that,” he said in an interview.”It is a huge self-administered blow that Trump is doing, entirely to pay back his fossil fuel donors.”Whitehouse said that as he arrived in the Amazonian city in the early hours of the morning, he passed numerous Chinese electric vehicle dealerships — a sight that hammered home his message about America falling behind.The Trump administration declined to send an official delegation to the COP30 summit, leaving only a few prominent Democrats to attend in an unofficial capacity, including California Governor and presumed 2028 presidential-candidate Gavin Newsom.”The Trump administration does not represent the American people on climate,” said the Rhode Island senator, known for his long-running “Time to Wake Up” speeches on global warming in Congress.”They are doing political work for the fossil fuel industry and the public very much supports climate action,” he continued, citing a slew of polls to back his point.For Whitehouse, one of the few remaining pathways to climate safety lies in carbon pricing, which he argued is essential to spark the innovation needed to slash emissions.”If it’s free to pollute, there’s really no pathway to safety,” he said, reiterating his support for Europe’s carbon border tax — a key point of contention with developing countries at COP30.Trump, who received hundreds of millions of dollars from oil and gas giants during his presidential campaign, pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement for a second time on the day he returned to office.Trump and Republican lawmakers have rolled back clean-energy tax credits and scrapped incentives for electric vehicles, prompting General Motors to scale back production. Whitehouse’s team said he will meet with “heads of state, lawmakers, private sector leaders, environmental champions, and civil society leaders” during his visit. But he cannot take part in negotiations on the COP’s outcome.Attending the conference itself was made more complicated by resistance from the State Department, he said, which forced him to get his badge through a nonprofit organization.”I’ve never seen the State Department be completely unwilling to support members of Congress traveling on an official Congressional Delegation, even to the point of refusing to help us get badges.”

Lobbyists tied to the fossil fuel industry have turned up in strength at the UN climate talks in the Brazilian Amazon, an NGO coalition said Friday, warning that their presence undermines the process.A total of 1,602 delegates with links to the oil, gas and coal sectors have headed to Belem, equivalent to around one in 25 participants, according to Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO), which analyzed the list of attendees.By comparison, hosts Brazil have sent 3,805 delegates.KBPO’s list includes representatives of energy giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and TotalEnergies, as well as state-owned oil firms from Africa, Brazil, China and the Gulf.It also includes personnel from a broad range of companies including German automaker Volkswagen or Danish shipping giant Maersk, or representatives of trade associations and other groups.The Venice Sustainability Foundation is on the list because its members include Italian oil firm Eni.KBPO also counted Danish wind energy giant Orsted, as it still has a gas trading business, and French energy firm EDF — most of its power comes from nuclear plants but it still uses some fossil fuels.The list includes state-owned Emirati renewable firm Masdar.One of the analysts, Patrick Galey, head of fossil fuel investigations at Global Witness, told AFP that some of the names might appear “surprising” at first sight, but KBPO analyzes data and open-source material to identify links to fossil fuels.Any renewable company that is a subsidiary of a fossil fuel firm made the list, for instance, because they are “at the beck and call” of their parent group, Galey said.KBPO considers a fossil fuel lobbyist any delegate who “represents an organization or is a member of a delegation that can be reasonably assumed to have the objective of influencing” policy or legislation in the interests of the oil, gas and coal industry.TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne defended his presence in Belem when confronted by a Greenpeace activist about the attendance of fossil fuel lobbyists.”I am not a lobbyist at all… You are very wrong,” Pouyanne said.”I was invited. I came and I believe in dialogue,” he added. “I don’t think we will make progress on climate through exclusion because otherwise what will happen? We will stay in our corner, we’ll make our oil and that’s it?”- ‘Common sense’ -KBPO has analyzed COP participant lists since 2021. COP28 in oil-rich Dubai in 2023 had a record number of participants — over 80,000 — but also the most fossil fuel lobbyists ever counted by KBPO at 2,456, or three percent of the total.In Belem, 3.8 percent of attendees are tied to fossil fuel interests, the largest share ever documented by KBPO.”It’s common sense that you cannot solve a problem by giving power to those who caused it,” said KBPO member Jax Bonbon from IBON International in the Philippines, which was recently struck by a devastating typhoon.”Yet three decades and 30 COPs later, more than 1,500 fossil fuel lobbyists are roaming the climate talks as if they belong here,” Bonbon said in a statement.The numbers could be higher.According to Transparency International, 54 percent of participants in national delegations either withheld their affiliation or selected a vague category such as “guest” or “other.”

Global stock markets slumped further Friday as doubts built over whether the US Federal Reserve would cut interest rates next month and persistent fears of a tech bubble.Crude prices rallied as analysts cited risks to Russian oil flows due to Ukrainian strikes and US sanctions.On Wall Street, the Dow shed 1.1 percent to stand at 46,929.78 points some 25 minutes into the session, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was off 1.9 percent at 22,436.79 points — having ended two percent down Thursday.The S&P 500 fell almost 1.5 percent — losses mirrored on major European and Asian indices.London struggled after UK government bonds and the pound slid following reports that finance minister Rachel Reeves has scrapped plans to hike income tax in her budget speech this month. Analysts said the reports heightened concerns about UK public finances. “After an extraordinary run that began in April, the tech sector has finally started to wobble, with valuations looking overstretched in recent weeks,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst for StoneX.”It wouldn’t be surprising if markets stayed a bit jumpy for a while yet, though it’s still premature to call the top of this cycle,” he added.- ‘volatile week’ -“It’s certainly been a volatile week… with relief over the end of the (US government) shutdown vying with concerns over AI valuations and whether the Fed will cut rates again,” said Jim Reid, managing director at Deutsche Bank.Traders trimmed bets on a December rate cut after several Fed officials voiced concerns about cutting borrowing costs while inflation remained stubbornly high.  For much of the year, equities have been boosted by optimism that rates would come down, and the Fed has delivered at its past two meetings.But comments from Fed boss Jerome Powell last month that a December repeat was not “a foregone conclusion” sowed the seeds of doubt.Investors also awaited the release of economic data that had been held up by the record US government shutdown, with jobs and inflation the main focus, even though some statistics are expected to be incomplete.The dimmer outlook for rates compounded worries that the tech sector may be overpriced after an AI-fuelled surge that sent markets to record highs this year.”The tech-sector rout from Wall Street spilled across the globe,” on Friday, noted Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.Oil prices rallied some two percent, rebounding days after the commodity tumbled on OPEC’s monthly report which forecast an oversupply in the third quarter.The International Energy Agency on Thursday flagged risks to Russian output caused by US sanctions imposed last month, including on the country’s top two producers.- Key figures at around 1445 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 1.1 percent at 46,929.78 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN 1.3 percent at 6,646.91New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 1.9 percent at 22,436.79London – FTSE 100: DOWN 1.6 percent at 9,657.52 pointsParis – CAC 40: DOWN 1.4 percent at 8,120.54Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.3 percent at 23,676.79Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.8 percent at 50,376.53 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.9 percent at 26,572.46 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.0 percent at 3,990.49 (close)Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.16 yen from 154.53 yen on ThursdayEuro/dollar: UNCHANGED at $1.1634 from $1.1634 Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3160 from $1.3189Euro/pound: UP at 88.41 pence from 88.21 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 2.2 percent at $59.96 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.9 percent at $64.16 per barrel

A British court ruled Friday that Australian mining giant BHP is liable for one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters, potentially paving the way for billions of pounds in compensation. A dam collapse in 2015 at an iron-ore mine run by a firm co-owned by BHP killed 19 people and unleashed a deluge of thick toxic mud into villages, fields, rainforest, rivers and the ocean.”BHP are strictly liable as ‘polluters’ in respect of damage caused by the collapse,” the High Court in London said in its ruling following a mammoth trial. BHP on Friday said it intends to appeal the ruling.”BHP has supported extensive remediation and compensation efforts in Brazil since 2015,” the company said in a statement.The victims first filed the UK legal action in 2018 to demand compensation from BHP. At the time of the disaster, one of its global headquarters was in Britain.The eventual trial at the High Court in London ran from October 2024 to March this year, and the court has already begun preparing the second phase of the case to determine potential damages and compensation. During the trial, the claimants’ lawyers argued that BHP was aware that toxic sludge was accumulating at the facility in Minas Gerais state, north of Rio de Janeiro, at rates that far exceeded the annual limit.The lawyers said the build-up contributed to the disaster at the mine, which was managed by Samarco, co-owned by BHP and Brazilian miner Vale.Judge Finola O’Farrell ruled on Friday that “BHP were negligent, imprudent and/or lacking in skill,” in monitoring the dam’s condition, despite studies and recommendations for remediation. “The risk of collapse of the dam was foreseeable,” she noted in the judgment.- ‘Long-overdue justice’ -BHP maintained on Friday that a compensation agreement it reached last year in Brazil — worth around $31 billion — provided a resolution. However, a majority of the 620,000 claimants, including 31 municipalities, argue that they are not sufficiently covered by the deal.Instead, claimants are seeking around £36 billion ($47 billion) in compensation, according to a previous estimate from law firm Pogust Goodhead.The amount of compensation to be awarded to claimants will be decided at a later trial, scheduled for October 2026.The city of Mariana, one of the areas hardest hit by the disaster, is seeking tens of billions of Brazilian reais in damages.”Today’s ruling delivers long-overdue justice to the thousands whose lives were torn apart,” said Pogust Goodhead chief executive Alicia Alinia.She added that the judgment “sends an unmistakable message to multinational companies around the world: You cannot disregard your duty of care and walk away from the devastation you caused.”Vale and BHP were acquitted in November 2024 of criminal charges by a Brazilian court, which ruled there was insufficient evidence linking them to the dam’s failure.”Finally, justice has begun to be served, and those responsible have been held accountable for destroying our lives,” Gelvana Rodrigues, who lost her 7-year-old son in the tragedy, said in a statement shared by Pogust Goodhead.”I promised myself that I would not rest until those responsible were punished for the death of my son Thiago,” she said.Another similar civil lawsuit has been ongoing since 2024 in the Netherlands.

Markets sank Friday, tracking a selloff on Wall Street as doubts built over next month’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision and persistent speculation about a tech bubble.With the US shutdown saga now out the way, focus returned to the central bank’s policy meeting next month, when officials will decide whether or not to lower borrowing costs again.For much of the year, equities have been boosted by optimism that rates would come down, despite persistent inflation — and the Fed has delivered at its past two gatherings.But comments from bank boss Jerome Powell last month that a December repeat was not “a foregone conclusion” sowed the seeds of doubt, while several other decision-makers have made similar noises.The latest came this week, with three regional presidents voicing concerns about moving while inflation remained stubbornly high.St. Louis head Alberto Musalem urged “caution”, adding that “there’s limited room for further easing without monetary policy becoming overly accommodative”.His Minneapolis counterpart Neel Kashkari, who called for a pause in October, pointed to “underlying resilience in economic activity, more than I had expected”.And Cleveland’s Beth Hammack told the Pittsburgh Economic Club: “On balance, I think we need to remain somewhat restrictive to continue putting pressure to bring inflation down toward our target.”She called current rates “barely restrictive, if at all” and that “we need to keep rates around these levels”. The comments come as investors await the release of economic data that had been held up by the record shutdown, with jobs and inflation the main focus, even though some are expected to be incomplete.”As we await this schedule, we’ve seen some recalibration of expectations around whether the Fed cuts by 25 basis points on 10 December,” wrote Pepperstone’s Chris Weston. He added that markets saw a 52 percent chance of a cut, down from 60 percent the day before.The dimmer outlook for rates compounded worries that the tech sector may be overpriced after an AI-fuelled surge this year that has sent markets to records.There is growing talk that the mind-boggling amounts of cash invested in artificial intelligence may take some time to be realised as profit.Chip titan “Nvidia’s earnings (are) the key bottom-up focal point next week — potentially prompting traders to de-risk, lock in performance and sit tight until the tape turns and risk appetite returns into year-end”, said Weston.All three main indexes on Wall Street ended well in the red, with the tech-rich Nasdaq down more than two percent, while the Dow and S&P 500 were each off 1.7 percent.And Asia followed the lead, having enjoyed a broadly positive week.Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore, Wellington, Bangkok and Taipei all shed at least one percent. Seoul — which has hit multiple tech-fuelled records of late — shed nearly four percent, and Manila more than two percent.There were also losses in Mumbai.London, Paris and Frankfurt extended Thursday’s losses.Shanghai was also hit by fresh data showing growth in Chinese retail sales slowed in October for the fifth successive month, as leaders struggle to revive consumption in the world’s number two economy.Oil rallied after the International Energy Agency flagged risks to Russian output caused by hefty sanctions imposed by Washington last month, including the country’s top two producers.The IEA said the decision could have “the most far-reaching impact yet on global oil markets”.Friday’s gains of more than one percent came days after the commodity tumbled following OPEC’s monthly crude market report, which forecast an oversupply in the third quarter.- Key figures at around 0705 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.8 percent at 50,376.53 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.9 percent at 26,572.46 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.0 percent at 3,990.49 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 9,715.30 Dollar/yen: UP at 154.66 yen from 154.53 yen on ThursdayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1636 from $1.1634 Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3152 from $1.3189Euro/pound: UP at 88.43 pence from 88.21 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.6 percent at $59.63 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.5 percent at $63.92 per barrel

Retail sales in China grew last month at the slowest pace in over a year, official data showed Friday, highlighting the battle facing authorities’ efforts to counteract persistent consumer malaise.The world’s second-largest economy has been confronted with sluggish domestic spending since the end of the Covid pandemic, with a prolonged debt crisis in the property sector weighing on sentiment.Many economists argue that China must shift to a growth model driven more by consumption than infrastructure investment and exports, long the key sources of activity.Leaders are targeting overall growth in 2025 of five percent, a goal experts say remains within reach despite an apparent slowdown in the latter half of the year.”External instability and uncertainty factors remain numerous, domestic structural adjustment pressures are significant, and the stable operation of the economy faces many challenges,” Fu Linghui, chief economist at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told a news conference.  Retail sales rose 2.9 percent on-year last month, data from the NBS showed, slightly lower than the three percent increase recorded in September.The figure represented the slowest increase since August of last year.It also marked the fifth straight month of slowing growth since the peak of 6.4 percent reached in May.The spending slump last month came as Beijing and Washington worked to ease a damaging trade war, with presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreeing in October to a one-year truce.China’s exports have largely remained resilient this year despite Washington’s tariffs, with a decline in shipments to the United States offset by increases elsewhere, particularly Southeast Asia.But spurring activity in the domestic economy has been more challenging.At a Communist Party gathering last month that was focused on economic planning, leaders said the country must “vigorously boost consumption”.Moody’s Ratings warned in a report this week that China’s “domestic demand may be slow to revive”.After last month’s meeting, priorities are “accelerating innovation in strategic technologies and reinforcing domestic demand through structural improvements in income distribution and social safety nets”, the report said.- Factory slowdown -NBS data also showed factory activity in October fell short of expectations.Industrial production rose 4.9 percent year-on-year, lower than a Bloomberg forecast of 5.5 percent and the slowest increase since August last year.”A key drag came from weaker external demand — export values and industrial sales for export both weakened significantly,” Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a note about Friday’s data.”We expect the economy to remain weak over the coming quarter,” she wrote, adding that Beijing’s recent trade truce with Washington “is unlikely to provide much relief”.China’s real estate sector has been mired in a debt crisis since 2020, having enjoyed a decades-long construction boom powered by rapid urbanisation and rising living standards.Friday data showed home values — a key store of wealth for Chinese households — continued to decline.Prices for new residential properties fell year-on-year in October in 61 out of 70 major cities surveyed by the NBS.”The housing sector still clouds the overall outlook,” wrote Sheana Yue, Senior Economist at Oxford Economics.There is “limited policymaker appetite for new housing stimulus despite fading property momentum” she said, adding that “a nationwide turnaround remains distant”.In another worrying sign for policymakers, fixed-asset investment in the January-October period was down 1.7 percent year-on-year.The indicator slipped into negative territory in September, falling 0.5 percent year-on-year.

Women wearing long wigs and ornate traditional dresses milled around a pebbled courtyard, stopping to snap photos under a pavilion, as the melodious strumming of the Chinese zither played in the background.These customers have paid to “time travel” back to ancient China for a few hours in an experience offered by a newly opened themed restaurant in central Beijing, which provides clothing services and an eight-course meal. While the world’s second-largest economy has been beset by sluggish domestic demand, many young people are still spending on experiences and goods that gives them satisfaction — a trend recently dubbed in China as “emotional consumption”.Consumers born after the 1990s often buy things to “please themselves”, fueling emotionally charged purchases in the country, the state-backed China Daily reported in September.Such purchases include Labubu dolls, which have flown off the shelves in China.”New forms of consumption… (and) new trends” such as the toothy-grinned dolls could help boost China’s economy, commerce minister Wang Wentao said in July.Before dining, customers picked out their garments from a room lined with traditional “hanfu”, or Han clothing, headpieces adorned with faux jewels, and accessories.Businessman Carey Zhuang told AFP that he paid around 1,000 yuan ($140) to dress up as one of the main characters from the famous Chinese classic novel “Dream of the Red Chamber”, from which the restaurant has drawn inspiration.Wearing a red silk top emblazoned with dragons, Zhuang said he is happy to spend money on a new experience. “It’s not about blindly being frugal, it’s more about living in the moment,” 27-year-old Zhuang told AFP. – Willing to spend -On the second floor, women sat in front of vanity desks as make-up artists powdered their faces and daintily applied blush to the apples of their cheeks.After being made up, 22-year-old Wu Ke, dressed in a flowy, lilac “hanfu” with a matching cape, said that she was drawn to this restaurant because of her interest in ancient Chinese culture and clothing from the Song and Qing dynasties.The broadcast host said that while people have tightened their purse strings in China, they will still be willing to spend on certain things and experiences. “If, in our daily life, we’re a bit thrifty with things like food — for example, eating more simply — and we choose public transportation when we go out, then the money we save will definitely find somewhere to go,” Wu told AFP.Outside, Huang Jing smiled as she watched her nine-year-old daughter pose for photos with a parasol on a small wooden bridge in the middle of a misty garden.Huang had paid at least 900 yuan ($126) for her daughter to dress up in traditional clothing for the dinner and get her pictures professionally taken.The restaurant was “immersive” unlike regular ones, and had a cultural element to it, Huang, a teacher, told AFP. – Culture charm -In recent years, Chinese people — mostly women — have got increasingly interested in dressing up in “hanfu” especially while visiting key tourist sites in the country.The hashtag “hanfu” has been viewed over eleven billion times on Instagram-like Xiaohongshu, and is filled with posts of women in elaborate costumes and hairdos. Huang said that “the charm of Chinese culture is now loved by the younger generation”.”I hope that my daughter’s generation can continue to inherit, carry forward, and spread it so that more people can know about it,” she added. The revival of the “hanfu” is “a concentrated manifestation” of the “emotional economy”, said Yang Jianfei from the Communication University of China.Through immersive experiences involving the traditional clothing, young people are also engaging in a form of personal identity exploration, which connects them to “the roots of our national culture”, Yang told AFP.Diners were ushered into a grand, circular room, served by waiters dressed in “hanfu”, and treated to an eight-act performance involving twirling dancers and emotive dialogue from actors.   Broadcast host Wu told AFP that as long as the reason “felt right” and “moved” her, she would be willing to fork out money. “I won’t try to save in this regard,” she said, adding that she doesn’t view it as “emotional spending”.”I prefer to understand it as something that’s just about making ourselves happy.”

A pair of swivelling, human-like robotic arms, built for physical artificial intelligence research, mirror the motions of an operator in a VR headset twirling his hands like a magician.With enough practice, arms like these can complete everyday tasks alone, says Tokyo company Enactic, which is developing humanoid robots to wash dishes and do laundry in short-staffed Japanese care homes.Welcome to the future of AI as it starts to infiltrate the material world in the form of smart robots, self-driving cars and other autonomous machines.”The next wave of AI is physical AI,” Jensen Huang, head of US chip giant Nvidia, said last year.That’s “AI that understands the laws of physics, AI that can work among us” and understands “how to perceive the world”, Huang added.Tech firms are pouring massive sums into physical AI, and Morgan Stanley predicts the world could have more than a billion humanoid robots by 2050.The buzz is only heightened by videos showing advanced androids, often Chinese-made, dancing to Taylor Swift or pulling heavy objects with ease.Beyond the promise of sci-fi robot butlers, the race has sparked concern over job losses, privacy and how long these innovations will take to actually be useful.Hiro Yamamoto is the 24-year-old CEO of Enactic, whose OpenArm physical AI training devices are used by Nvidia and at top universities such as Stanford.He plans to begin deploying new robots, currently under development, from next summer to “live alongside people in environments that are very chaotic, and where conditions are always changing” like care homes.”So it has to be safe,” with a soft exterior that won’t injure anyone, Yamamoto said.- ‘Any human role’ -In the Chinese city of Guangzhou, a female figure with a glowing oval-shaped visor for a face, clad in white woven fabric like a fencing athlete, walked slowly across a stage last week to cheers and whispers.It was the latest humanoid robot to be unveiled by Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng, which is also pushing into physical AI.Nimble machines made by US companies, such as Boston Dynamics’ dog-like robots, have grabbed headlines over the years.But government support and strong domestic supply chains are helping Chinese rivals, also including Unitree Robotics and EngineAI, race ahead.”I haven’t given much thought to how many robots we will sell annually in 10 years’ time, but I think it would be more than cars,” XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng told reporters.XPeng’s robots walk and even dance autonomously — but how well they handle objects, a more complicated feat, has not been widely demonstrated.Their dexterous fingers and flexible skin are unlikely to replace workers on China’s factory floors soon, He said.The cost of one robot hand, which needs to be replaced regularly for heavy-duty work, could pay a Chinese worker’s salary for years.But with enough data and training, AI humanoid robots could one day perform “almost any human role”, from nanny to home chef or gardener, XPeng co-president Brian Gu told AFP.- On-the-job training -Text-based AI tools like ChatGPT are trained on huge volumes of words, but physical AI models must also grapple with vision and the spatial relationship between objects.For now, remotely operating AI robots to teach them how to do something like picking up a cup “is by far the most reliable way to collect data”, Yamamoto said.Just 30 to 50 demonstrations of each task are needed to fine-tune “vision-language-action” AI models, he added.Enactic has approached several dozen care facilities in Japan to propose that its teleoperated robots take over menial tasks, so qualified care workers have more time to look after elderly residents.This on-the-job experience will train physical AI models so the robots can act autonomously in future, Yamamoto said.US-Norwegian startup 1X is taking a similar approach for its humanoid home helper NEO, which it will deliver to American homes from next year.NEO costs $20,000 to buy, but so far its performance is shaky, with one video in US media showing the robot struggling to close a dishwasher door, even when teleoperated.- Physical limits -In another embarrassing moment, a Russian humanoid robot, said to be the country’s first, staggered then fell flat on its face as it made its debut on stage earlier this week.There is currently a “big gap” between robots’ AI systems and their physical abilities, which lag behind, said Sara Adela Abad Guaman, assistant professor in robotics at University College London.”Nature has shown us that in order to adapt to the environment, you need to have the right body,” Abad told AFP, giving the example of a mountain goat that stumbles on ice.Nevertheless, big deals are being struck, even as booming investment in artificial intelligence feeds fears of a stock market bubble.Japan’s SoftBank recently called physical AI its “next frontier” as it said it was buying industrial robot maker ABB Robotics for $5.4 billion.Automation raises questions about the future of human labour, but Abad is not too worried.At the end of the day, “our sense of touch is incomparable,” she said.