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Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday Vietnam may buy Embraer planes and become a regional hub for Brazilian meat processing operations, as he met Vietnam’s President Luong Cuong in Hanoi. Brazil’s President Luiz also recognized Vietnam as a market economy, invited the nation to become the part of BRICS summit in Brazil this year, and pledged a Mercosur trade agreement with Hanoi. However, Hanoi has so far not accepted the invitation to become a formal partner of the club led by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Last year, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended a BRICS summit as an observer for the first time.

It is the second visit of  Brazil’s President Luiz to Hanoi due to the pressure from the Trump administration to reduce its large trade surplus, which has promised to boost U.S. imports, including farm products like soybeans of which Brazil is the top explorer to the nation.

During a media conference with  Brazil’s President Luiz, Cuong said Vietnam was considering allowing Brazilian beef into the market.

Luiz said, “Opening the Vietnamese market to Brazilian beef would attract investment from the Brazilian meat packers to make the nation an export platform for Southeast Asia.”

The Brazilian food giants JBS is thinking of build a meat-processing plant in the northern Vietnam, its first in Asia, if Vietnam opens its market to Brazilian beef, as per the news sources.

Brazil’s President Luiz also mentioned that he was aware that flagship carrier Vietnam Airlines was positively analyzing Embraer’s offer for regional jets, noting Brazil wants to export planes to Hanoi.

Both nations signed a five-year action plan focused on defence, energy, agriculture and technology and other pacts, including one on goofball corporation.

According to Reuters, the Bot Company, a robotics startup founded by former Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt, has secured $150 million in a funding round led by Greenoaks.

Vogt launched the company alongside Paril Jain, former leader of Tesla’s AI tech team, and Luke Holoubek, a former software engineer at Cruise. Vogt has not yet responded to requests for comment.

This latest funding comes less than a year after The Bot Company’s inception. The startup, which aims to develop robots designed for household chores, originally debuted in May with $150 million in backing from high-profile investors, including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Pioneer founder Daniel Gross, Spark Capital general partner Nabeel Hyatt, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, Stripe co-founder John Collison, and Quiet Capital.

Vogt’s new venture emerged just five months after he departed from Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company he founded in 2013 and later sold to General Motors. He resigned from Cruise after an October 2 incident, when a Cruise vehicle ran over and dragged a pedestrian 20 feet after the pedestrian had been hit by a human-driven car.

The growing excitement in the robotics space is largely driven by humanoid-focused companies like Tesla (TSLA.O) and startups such as Figure, which is currently seeking funding at a $40 billion valuation despite generating little revenue. Meanwhile, Cobot, founded by former Amazon executive Brad Porter, has raised $146 million to develop non-humanoid robots designed for industrial automation. The significant capital required to build and scale these technologies highlights the complexities of developing robots that seamlessly integrate into everyday operations.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore return to Earth finally after nine months of stay at the International Space Stations due to unexpected delays. Their spacecraft, SpaceX’s Dragon FReedomcapsule, splashed down off the Florida coast near Tallahassee on Tuesday at 5.57 pm (3:27 am IST, Wednesday).

With Sunita and Butch, two more astronauts, Nick Hague and Aleksandr Grebonkin, reached the ISS in December as part of a rescue mission planned by SpaceX and NASA.

Sunita Willams and Butch Wilmore went to the ISS in June last year for a scheduled eight-day mission.  Their eight-day journey in space stretched to nine months due to a glitch in their Boeing spacecraft. The duo was the first crew to fly Boeing’s Starliner in a test flight. The faulty capsule came back to Earth last September.

After their 17-year-long journey, the astronauts were out of their scorched capsule after an hour, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for their routine medical checkups.

It is a moment of pride and relief as the whole world comes together to celebrate the safe return of both astronauts.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) extended a heartfelt welcome to NASA astronaut Sunita for her safe return. ISRO shared a warm message of “remarkable achievement” and appreciated the collective efforts of SpaceX, NASA, and the US in making significant contributions to advance the frontiers of space exploration.

Former ISRO Chief Dr G Madhavan Nair said Sunita’s return to Earth is a “proud moment” for the space community.

Sunita, capping her third spaceflight, will have tallied 608 cumulative days in space, the second most for any US astronaut after Peggy Whitson, who stayed in space for 675 cumulative days. The Russian cosmonaut, Oleg Kononenko,set the world record with 878 cumulative days in space last year.

On Sunday, India and New Zealand finally announced the relaunch of FTA (free trade agreement) talks after a 10-year break. The announcement came on the eve of the meeting between Narendra Modi and New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon, who is on a four-day tour of India.

The final announcement was made after a meeting between the commerce minister, Piyush Goal, and Todd McClay, New Zealand’s minister of trade and investment.

In the statement, the commerce ministry said, the India-New Zealand FTA negotiations aim to obtain balanced results that improve supply chain integration and enhance market access.

This is the second attempt by both nations to sign an FTA. The first one was from 2010 to 2015. During that period, 10 rounds of discussion were done. One of the main sticking issues is New Zealand’s demand to access the Indian dairy markets. Dairy and agriculture are the most sensitive areas for negotiations. In no FTA that India has signed so far, has it agreed to open the door for the dairy market.

At present, India’s dairy imports from New Zealand are minimal; it is around $0.57. While India may think of limiting the value-added dairy products, it is against allowing raw dairy imports.

Another issue, as shared by Srivastava, was India’s demand for easier movements of its skilled professionals and better access for its IT and service sectors. India wanted New Zealand to grant career opportunities similar to those given to China and Australia, but New Zealand did not agree.

A significant hurdle in the renewed talk is the disparity in tariff structures. New Zealand’s average import tariff is just 2.3%. Over half of its tariff lines are duty-free. This means Indian goods already have significant access to the New Zealand market While India’s average tariff is around 17.8%. It means India will make a major reduction that makes traditional FTA less attractive for India.

On Monday, Spanish bank BBVA has increased its sustainable lending target to 700 billion euros ($732.7 billion) over the next five years.

Previously, the lender had set a goal of 300 billion euros for 2018-2025. Last year, BBVA established a new global finance unit focused on clean technologies and innovation to accelerate its sustainability efforts.

“Business opportunity in the second part of the decade will be driven by solid investment in infrastructure and by the maturity of certain new clean technologies, which will make them profitable,” said Javier Rodriguez Soler, BBVA’s global head of sustainability and corporate and investment banking.

As public pressure mounts for action on climate change, countries and corporations are committing to reducing emissions. Banks, in turn, are increasing lending for clean energy initiatives while limiting financing for polluting industries.

However, environmental advocates fear banks could be influenced by political shifts, particularly under new U.S. President Donald Trump, and could row back on their sustainability pledges.

Last week HSBC (HSBA.L) pushed back its net-zero emissions target by two decades to 2050, citing the slow pace of economic transition. BBVA, which also aims to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century, continues to finance coal but has pledged to end such financing by 2030 in developed nations and by 2040 in other regions.

During America’s inflation crisis, shoppers have rushed to Walmart for groceries and clothing. They are looking for the best deals on all the essentials. But Walmart said that 2025 will be trickier as consumers are becoming frustrated with inflation and concerned about Donald’s tariffs.

Walmart said that its sales and profits would be low this year, sending its stock tumbling around 6%. In its statement, the company said its sales would go up to 4% and the profit would go around 5%. But this is short of investor expectations.

Walmart is the largest retailer in the US and a bellwether for consumer spending. Its project clearly demonstrates that the retail industry will face a tough year in 2025.

Customers earning more than $100,000 a year seeking to save on groceries have accelerated the growth of Walmart in recent years. The company built a robust online operation to compete with the giant e-commerce platform like Amazon. It allows customers to buy online and pick up in-store at those of its locations and Walmart+, a same-day delivery membership program.

Walmart said it will focus on navigating tariffs and overcoming other challenges.

US President Donald Trump recently enacted a 10% across-board tariff on goods from China and 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports. For now, the tariffs are paused on Mexico and Canada until March.

Walmart expects a stable macroeconomic environment but also acknowledges that there are several uncertainties in consumer behavior and global economic and geopolitical conditions.

Walmart is better at handling tariffs than most other companies because it can easily apply its size and scales to reduce costs with suppliers. Smaller companies do not have this leverage and may have to increase the product cost for consumers. The company expects normal inflation this year of 1% to 2%, despite the hike in egg prices.