At least 17 people were killed in clashes with police in southern Peru, the country’s human rights office said on Monday, the deadliest day so far of protests demanding early elections and the release of jailed former president Pedro Castillo.

The clashes occurred in Juliaca, a city near the banks of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru’s Puno region, and left 68 people injured, Henry Rebaza, a Puno health ministry official, told the state-run television channel TV Peru. The dead included at least two teenagers, according to the ministry.

Some of the bodies had bullet wounds, Puno’s regional health director, Ismael Cornejo, told local radio station RPP.

The latest casualties raise the death toll from anti-government clashes with security forces to 39 since the protests began in early December following the removal and arrest of Castillo shortly after he tried to illegally dissolve Congress.

Castillo is serving 18 months of pre-trial detention on charges of rebellion, which he denies.

Rebaza also told Peru TV that 28 injured police officers are unable to be evacuated from Juliaca’s airport. Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said thousands of protesters had tried to invade the airport along with a police station.

During the day in Juliaca, a Reuters witness recorded footage of gunshots and smoke on the streets as protesters took cover behind large metal plates and road signs and threw rocks at police using improvised sling-shots.

Other footage showed people administering CPR to a man lying motionless on the ground in a blood-stained sweater, and people with severe injuries in a crowded hospital waiting room.

An unidentified woman told Reuters their relative had been hit with a bullet while taking a walk with a friend who lived nearby.

“I want to call on the central government – how can we have so many dead?” said Jorge Sotomayor Perales, the head of the intensive care department at a hospital in Juliaca.

Peru’s human rights office, known as the Ombudsman Office, called for police to comply with international standards in using force and for investigations into the deaths, while urging protesters to refrain from attacking property or impeding movement of ambulances.

Earlier on Monday, the Ombudsman said a newborn had died while being transferred from the town of Yunguyo, southeast of Juliaca, to a local hospital in an ambulance that had been delayed by a road blockade.

Protests calling for the early elections and the release of Castillo resumed last week after a holiday lull. The protesters are also demand the resignation of new President Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress and changes to the constitution.

Speaking at a “national agreement” meeting earlier on Monday with representatives from the country’s regions and various political institutions, Boluarte said she could not grant some of the protesters’ key demands. She called for citizens to “reflect”.

“The only thing that was in my hands was moving forwards the elections, which we have already proposed,” she said. “What you are asking for is a pretext to continue generating chaos in the cities.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said it would conduct a visit to Peru from Wednesday to Friday, visiting Lima and other cities to evaluate the situation.

Many parts of China are already past their peak of COVID-19 infections, state media reported on Tuesday, with officials further downplaying the severity of the outbreak despite international concerns about its scale and impact.

A summary by Health Times, a publication managed by People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, said infections have been declining in the capital Beijing and several Chinese provinces. One official was quoted as saying nearly 90 million people had already been infected in Henan province.

The virus has been spreading freely in China since a policy U-turn in early December after protests against a “zero-COVID” regime ruthlessly enforced for three years. China reopened its borders on Sunday, removing the last major restrictions.

The frequent lockdowns, relentless testing and various levels of movement curbs since early 2020 have brought the world’s second-largest economy to one of its slowest growth rates in nearly half a century and caused widespread distress.

With the virus let loose, China has stopped publishing daily infection tallies and has been reporting daily death tolls in single digits, figures that have been disputed by the World Health Organisation.

Many Chinese funeral homes and hospitals say they are overwhelmed, and international health experts predict at least 1 million COVID-related deaths in China this year.

On Tuesday, a Health Times compilation of reports from local government officials and health experts across the country, suggested the COVID wave may be past its peak in many regions.

Kan Quan, director of the Office of the Henan Provincial Epidemic Prevention and Control, was cited as saying the infection rate in the central province of nearly 100 million was nearly 90% as of Jan. 6.

The number of patients at clinics in the province reached a peak on Dec. 19, but the number of severe cases was still high, he said, without giving further details.

Yin Yong, acting mayor of Beijing, was cited as saying the capital was also past its peak. Li Pan, deputy director of the Municipal Health Commission in the city of Chongqing said the peak there was reached on Dec. 20.

In the province of Jiangsu, the peak was reached on Dec. 22, while in Zheijiang province “the first wave of infections has passed smoothly,” officials said. Two cities in the southern Guangdong province, China’s manufacturing heartland, reached their peaks before the end of the year.

Separately in the state-run China Daily, a prominent health official said the percentage of severe cases remained unclear.

“It is still too early to conclude the overall percentage of severe and critical COVID patients in China as different types of hospitals report different numbers, Wang Guiqiang, head of Peking University First Hospital’s infectious disease department, was quoted as saying.

Analysts predict a downturn in economic activity in the near term as workers and consumers fall ill, but also a swift recovery later in the year as immunity levels improve.

Immigration offices in Beijing this week saw long queues of people eager to renew their passports as China dropped COVID border controls that had discouraged its 1.4 billion residents from travelling for three years because of the restrictions on their return.

But a rebound in overseas travel is expected to be bumpy and shopping abroad by Chinese tourists may take time to reach the $250 billion a year pre-COVID levels.

Airlines are yet to rebuild their capacity, with daily flights in and out of China about a tenth of pre-pandemic levels, according to Flight Master data.

Further inconveniencing travel, many countries are demanding negative tests from visitors from China, having raised concerns about the country’s transparency over the scale and impact of the outbreak as well as over potential mutations.

China has dismissed criticism over its data as politically-motivated attempts to smear its “success” in handling the pandemic and said any future mutations are likely to be more infectious but cause less severe illness.

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Addison Rae’s Item Beauty is being pulled from Sephora after struggling to connect with customers.

Item Beauty

• Influencer brands Item Beauty and Selfless by Hyram are being pulled from Sephora.
• Addison Rae launched Item Beauty in 2020, while Hyram Yarbro launched Selfless in 2021.
• Influencer-founded beauty brands have seen mixed results over the years, industry sources told Insider.

It looks like the beauty products of two popular influencers — Addison Rae and Hyram Yarbro — might no longer be available in the malls of America.

Insider has confirmed from a well-connected industry source that Sephora will be pulling Addison Rae’s Item Beauty and Hyram Yarbro’s Selfless by Hyram from its shelves. While Item products are still available to purchase on the beauty giant’s site, products from Selfless are nowhere to be found. 

Representatives for Rae and Yarbro did not respond to requests for comment from Insider prior to publication. Sephora also did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Item Beauty was launched in August 2020 by Rae, who shot to internet fame by replicating viral dances on TikTok. Her brand positions itself as a “clean, science-backed” line, free of the chemicals found in traditional cosmetics. 

While Item originally launched as a direct-to-consumer brand — selling to customers through an online storefront —  it entered into an exclusive partnership with Sephora in August 2021.

Beauty vlogger Yarbro — whose didactic videos about skincare have earned him millions of followers on YouTube and TikTok —  launched his skincare line Selfless by Hyram directly in Sephora in June 2021. 

Selfless bills itself as gentler than other skincare lines on the market, with products featuring lower concentrations of chemicals like retinol and salicylic acid than competitors. 

Rae and Yarbro’s fame suggested that their brands were poised to succeed among their target customers — the millions of fans who followed them on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. However, a well-connected source in the beauty industry said Sephora customers didn’t connect with either brand, according to correspondences seen by Insider. 

“It’s kind of a fallen star,” said Shannon Coyne, a cofounder of Asbury and Coyne Advisors, noting that the brand’s growth had slowed significantly in recent months.

‘You lose TikTok and Instagram, and you are out of business’

Hyram Yarbro has millions of followers across social media, but his brand hasn’t fared as well at Sephora.

Selfless by Hyram

It’s not that shocking to beauty insiders that companies like Item and Selfless are struggling. Over the last three years, Insider found that as many as 25 celebrities and influencers have launched beauty or skincare brands, and only the best of those have been able to rise to the top. 

The news about Item and Selfless comes just a week after Morphe Cosmetics, a beauty chain known for its influencer collaborations, announced it would be closing all of its US stores.

“Celebrities bank on their name, but there has to be more than just a name because they fall in and out of favor,” Coyne said.

For weeks, products from Item had been heavily reduced at Sephora, signaling that the beauty chain possibly wanted to rid itself of the inventory. 

Added to that, Rae herself has been relatively mum about the brand on social media. The last time she posted about the brand on her personal Instagram feed was September 29, 2022.

“Sephora is a retailer, not a manufacturer,” Jeffrey Ten, a beauty industry veteran and president of Global Indie Brand Development, told Insider. “They sell you space. They don’t build your brand. You are in charge of building your brand.”

Both brands have seen their social media followings drop too. Item went from 355,000 Instagram followers in November 2021 to 334,000 currently, per Social Blade data. And Selfless went from having 196,000 Instagram followers in November 2021 to 170,000 today, per Social Blade. 

“You lose TikTok and Instagram, and you are out of business,” Ten said.

TikTok stars like Rae have had a hard time forming lasting bonds with their fans. While it’s a good platform for discovery, there is limited ability to sell products on the app, agents and creators told Insider.

There are bright spots among celebrity-backed brands, like Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty

That isn’t to say that all celebrity-founded beauty brands have fared poorly. 

Dae Hair, founded by Instagram influencer Amber Fillerup Clark, has been touted by investors and analysts as an example of a brand that has resonated well with customers.

In December, the brand announced an $8 million Series A deal, led by Verity Venture Partners — a rare bright spot at a time when many investors have pulled back from new deals in the consumer space. 

Likewise, singer Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty has been also cited by several industry sources as another shining example of celebrity-backed beauty success.

The brand launched in Sephora in September 2020 and has seen steady growth. Site traffic to Rare Beauty’s website grew over 70% between November 2021 and November 2022, according to data that analytics platform Similarweb provided to Insider. One industry expert posited that the brand was likely doing well at Sephora too. 

Whether a beauty brand stands the test of time ultimately seems to rest on how much personal capital a celebrity or influencer is willing to invest into it.    

“Celebrities and influencers with their respective embedded communities can be wonderful brand amplifiers and early adopters; however, simply being a talent-led brand today is not enough,” one investor who focuses on beauty startups told Insider. 

“Consumers are incredibly savvy and informed and the market is highly competitive; to truly resonate with the consumer, it is imperative that brands are able to stand on their own in terms of product quality, efficacy, value, and brand positioning,” they added. 

Supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with security forces as they raid the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, on January 8, 2023. Some demonstrators climbed onto the roofs of the House of Representatives and Senate buildings.

Joedson Alves/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

• Thousands of the Brazilian rioters who stormed the national congress wore the same shirt.
• The Brazilian national team’s soccer jersey has been appropriated by Bolsonaro for years.
• Since the 1960s, authoritarian forces in Brazil have used the yellow jersey for political motives.

As thousands of Brazilian supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro rioted in the country’s capital on Sunday, many of them wore a shirt and national symbol appropriated by the former right-wing leader.

After months of protests and road blockades in opposition to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s 2022 election, Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed Brazil’s parliament, presidential palace, and supreme court in Brasilia on Sunday in scenes eerily similar to the January 6, 2021 insurrection in the US.

Photos showed a sea of yellow, with many rioters wearing the Brazilian national soccer team’s iconic canary-colored jersey — which has a long history of being co-opted by right-wing forces in Brazil.

Supporters of Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro who dispute the election of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gather at Planalto Palace after invading the building as well as the Congress and Supreme Court, in Brasilia, Brazil January 8, 2023.

Reuters

Bolsonaro has told his supporters to ‘vote with the jersey’

Bolsonaro — who has yet to formally concede his recent election loss — made the jersey a symbol for his supporters as early as 2015, when he became the center of a movement to unseat former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. By the time he won the election in 2018, and in 2022, he urged his supporters to “vote with the yellow jersey!” according to The Athletic.

Brazil’s most famous current player, Neymar, has shown up as one of Bolsonaro’s biggest supporters, endorsing him multiple times and elevating the link between the jersey and Bolsonaro. When Brazil’s national team won the 2019 Copa America, Bolsonaro sat squarely with the players and trophy, smiling ear to ear as he parroted the win.

By Sunday, thousands of Brazilians wore the jersey as they carried out their assault on democracy. 

Security forces detain supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro during a demonstration against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Brasilia, Brazil, January 8, 2023.

Adriano Machado/Reuters

Brazil’s soccer association spoke out about the riots

Brazil’s Ministry of Justice said that over 1,000 people have been arrested, according to CNN. Bolsonaro is currently in Florida seeking medical treatment.

Last week’s scenes in Brazil’s capital also triggered condemnation from the Brazilian Football Confederation, a typically outwardly apolitical organization.

“The Brazilian national team shirt is a symbol of the joy of our people,” the CBF tweeted on Monday. “It’s to cheer, energize and love the country. We encourage that the shirt be used to unite and not divide Brazilians.” 

Supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrate against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, outside Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, January 8, 2023.

Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

The right-wing  in Brazil has used the shirt for politics since the 1960s

After a newspaper held a design contest for a new national team kit in 1953, a yellow and green model was chosen and the old white and blue kit was relegated to history.

The appropriation of Brazil’s Seleção Canarinho (little canary) shirt, the national team’s vibrant yellow jersey with green trim, goes back to the days of the country’s military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, a time period when Brazil won the 1970 World Cup with Pelé starring.

“Under [Emilio] Medici, the military would use football as an exemplar of the unified and morally upstanding Brazil it was trying to create,” David Goldblatt wrote in the book “Futebol Nation: A Footballing History of Brazil.” “The reality was often less edifying.”

Pele 1970 World Cup.

Photo by Getty Images

During a period of hyperinflation, cultural censorship, and political repression, Brazil’s dictatorship centered soccer and the national team as the ultimate expression of patriotic consciousness – a move that Bolsonaro, who was an army captain during the dictatorship, replicated with his supporters. 

At the time, Brazil’s 1970 World Cup win helped the dictatorship lay claim to the national team’s colors on the world stage, as success on the pitch was re-framed as the strength of Brazil’s nationalism.

“The 1970 World was the first of its kind to be broadcast in color, and that gives it, for those who saw it, a kind of chromatic magic,” Goldblatt wrote. “Brazil’s yellow shirts shimmered and sparkled in the blistering white sunlight of the Mexican noon — the appointed time of kick-offs to support European TV schedules.”

Just months ago, Brazil’s national team wore the kit during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where players like Neymar and Richarlison picked apart defenses and danced while celebrating goals during a short-lived run to the quarter-finals. Now, a new administration will seek to reform a newly-tangled image of the jersey.

Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

There is a move to re-appropriate the shirt on the left

During da Silva’s first weeks in charge, he’s already tried to pry the jersey from the clutches of the right wing, now that wearing it has partially become synonymous with being a Bolsonarista, according to The Guardian.

“We can’t be ashamed of wearing our green and yellow shirt,” da Silva said in late November, per The Guardian. “[It] doesn’t belong to one particular candidate. It doesn’t belong to one particular party. Green and yellow are the colors of 213 million citizens who love this country.”

Da Silva said he’d go back to wearing the jersey with the number 13 — the number of the Worker’s party — and made his design available for soccer fans to download and add to their jersey, as a political statement.

U.S. President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart discussed stronger economic ties, fighting the illegal drug trade, and approaches to curbing illegal migration at a meeting in Mexico City on Monday, the White House said in a statement.

Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also discussed incentives to promote investment in semiconductor manufacturing along the border in the bilateral meeting, the White House said.

“There are unmatched conditions to start a new policy of economic and social integration in our continent,” Lopez Obrador said at the start of the meeting, urging Biden to invest in the region.

Lopez Obrador is hosting Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from Monday to Wednesday for the first summit between the three since late 2021.

The talk of closer partnership comes even as disagreements persist over Lopez Obrador’s nationalist energy policies, which led to the launch of a formal trade complaint in July by Washington and Ottawa.

Lopez Obrador said a trade agreement has proven to be a valuable instrument but that there was continuous growth in its Pacific ports with goods from Asia, signaling the countries remain dependent on Asian industrial production.

“Couldn’t we produce in America what we consume? Of course, it is a matter of definition and joint planning of our future development,” he said during a meeting with Biden.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic battered supply chains, policymakers have stepped up calls for firms to relocate business from Asia to beef up the economies covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada regional trade agreement.

The two leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to use “innovative approaches” to reduce irregular migration, after the Biden Administration recently introduced a policy to expel back to Mexico migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua who cross the border illegally.

Mexico has urged the United States to commit funds to Central America and southern Mexico to boost development and stem migration from one of the poorest regions in the hemisphere, and to make it easier for migrants to get U.S. jobs.

The leaders discussed more cooperation to prosecute drug traffickers and disrupt supplies of chemicals used to make fentanyl, the White House said, with the synthetic opioid blamed for thousands of U.S. deaths.

Two Mexican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters earlier on Monday the plan would in essence involve Mexico reducing the fentanyl smuggled across the border in exchange for the United States’ bringing down the number of guns being trafficked into Mexico.

Mexico last week arrested a prominent cartel leader, Ovidio Guzman, who is wanted in the United States. Weaponry used by Guzman’s gang had come into the country from U.S. border states, one of the Mexican officials said.

Despite the talk of strengthening ties, tensions remain. Lopez Obrador has alarmed the United States with a plan to prohibit imports of genetically-modified corn, though Mexico agreed to delay the ban until 2025. The three trading partners have also been at loggerheads over auto rules of origin.

“Trade tensions over automobiles, customs rules, genetically-modified corn and Mexico’s energy policies are already high and could sharpen,” said Jake Colvin, president of the Washington-based National Foreign Trade Council.

“To create a North American corridor to outcompete China, the United States, Canada and Mexico need to be on the same economic page,” he added.

Lopez Obrador, a combative leftist, says his energy policy is a matter of national sovereignty, arguing that past governments skewed the market to favor private interests.

The United States and Canada say their firms have been disadvantaged by Lopez Obrador’s campaign to give control of the market to his cash-strapped state energy companies, and the row has taken the shine off the outlook for investment.

Trudeau told Reuters on Friday he would make the case that resolving the energy dispute would help bring more foreign capital to Mexico, and was confident of making progress.

As part of that drive, Lopez Obrador – who in June snubbed Biden’s invitation to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in protest at his exclusion of the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua – wants to discuss his plan to boost solar power in northern Mexico and secure U.S. financial support for it.

Christopher Landau, U.S. ambassador to Mexico under former President Donald Trump, said domestic politics meant finding compromises on energy, as well as migration would be difficult.

“There’s no obvious deal that satisfies all of their domestic interests,” he said, “but I think it’s in all their domestic interest to say they get along.”

Far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was admitted to a hospital in Florida on Monday with stomach pains as 1,500 of his supporters were rounded up in Brasilia after storming key buildings in the capital over the weekend.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist who took office on Jan. 1 after defeating Bolsonaro in an October election, vowed to bring those responsible to justice. He accused rioters of trying to overthrow democracy, and questioned why the army had not discouraged calls for a military coup outside their barracks.

On Sunday, angry mobs rampaged through Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential offices, smashing windows, furniture and artwork in the worst attack on state institutions since Brazil’s return to democracy in the 1980s.

Bolsonaro, who flew to the United States days before his term in office ended, went to a hospital in Orlando on Monday complaining of intestinal pains related to a stabbing he suffered during the 2018 election campaign. His doctor said he has an intestinal blockage that was not serious and would likely not need surgery.

In an interview with CNN Brasil, Bolsonaro said he had planned to stay in the United States until the end of January, but now plans to go back to Brazil sooner to see his doctors.

“I intend to bring forward my return because in Brazil the doctors already know about my problem of intestinal obstruction due to the stab wound,” Bolsonaro said, according to a report on the CNN Brasil website.

Bolsonaro faces several investigations before the Supreme Court in Brazil and his future in the United States, where he traveled with a visa issued to heads of state, diplomats and other government officials, is in question.

Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democratic lawmaker in the U.S. Congress, said on CNN that the United States should not give refuge to an “authoritarian who has inspired domestic terrorism” and should send Bolsonaro back to Brazil.

The U.S. government declined to comment on Bolsonaro’s current visa status.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said a person who entered on a visa for foreign officials must depart the country within 30 days or apply for a change of immigration status if they are no longer engaged in official business.

Restoring order in the Brazilian capital, Brazilian soldiers backed by police on Monday dismantled a two-month-old camp opposite the army’s headquarters where Bolsonaro supporters have been protesting since his election defeat.

Some 1,200 people from the camp were detained for questioning on Monday, authorities said, after about 300 arrests on Sunday.

Thousands of Bolsonaro’s backers set off from that encampment on Sunday before storming the presidential palace, Supreme Court and Congress.

Lula, who was back at work at the ransacked Planalto palace, met with his defense minister and commanders of the armed forces to discuss the violence, reminiscent of the assault on the U.S. Capitol two years ago by backers of former President Donald Trump.

Speaking later to the country’s governors, Lula stepped up his criticism of the Brazilian military for tolerating demonstrations at their gates calling for a coup since Bolsonaro lost the election.

“People were openly calling for a coup outside the barracks, and nothing was done. No general lifted a finger to tell them they could not do that,” the 77-year-old president said. He accused some security forces of being complicit with rioters.

U.S. President Joe Biden joined other world leaders in condemning Sunday’s riots, calling them “outrageous,” while Bolsonaro, who is now in Florida, denied inciting his supporters and said the rioters had “crossed the line.”

In a phone call on Monday, Biden invited Lula to visit Washington in early February, according to a statement from the White House.

Pro-Bolsonaro truckers, who have caused intermittent havoc on Brazil’s highways for months, held more protests through Sunday night. Police on Monday removed their blockade of the BR 163 highway that cuts through Brazil’s top grain-producing state Mato Grosso and on another highway in Parana state.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the governor of Brasilia removed from office late on Sunday for 90 days over alleged security failings and demanded that social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and TikTok block accounts of users spreading anti-democratic propaganda.

Facebook parent Meta (META.O) and Google’s (GOOGL.O) video platform YouTube said on Monday they were removing content supporting or praising the weekend actions. TikTok and Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.

Brazil’s financial markets held steady after an early drop, with the Bovespa benchmark stock index (.BVSP) edging higher in afternoon trading and the currency closing 0.4% weaker against the U.S. dollar. Some analysts said Sunday’s violence could strengthen Lula politically.

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Asian shares fell on Tuesday following hawkish comments from two U.S. Federal Reserve officials overnight with investors turning cautious ahead of key inflation data, while China’s reopening after COVID-19 restrictions pushed commodities higher.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 0.02% in early trade.

“The main theme overnight was cautiousness in the equity space as stocks pared gains after hawkish comments from two Fed officials. Raphael Bostic and Mary Daly said the Fed would likely hike (interest) rates to above 5% and hold them there for some time,” Commerzbank said in a client note.

The S&P500 index began the week on a bullish tone with a more than 1.4% increase in early U.S. trading on Monday before giving up all the gains to close a touch lower.

The U.S. dollar and U.S. treasury yields remained under pressure, with the yield on U.S. 10-year notes edging higher on Tuesday by 1.14 basis point to 3.5284%, from 3.517% late on Monday. The dollar index fell 0.068%.

“Sentiment may turn more cautious ahead of the U.S. CPI (consumer price index) release on Thursday, dampening the ‘risk on’ trades initiated as a result of the optimism around China’s reopening,” Mizuho Bank said in a note.

If U.S. consumer price data confirms cooling seen in the most recent monthly jobs report, Atlanta Fed Bank President Bostic said he would have to take a quarter point increase “more seriously and to move in that direction”. read more

China’s reopening buoyed sentiment with its stocks rising for a sixth consecutive session on Monday, while Hong Kong shares jumped to a six-month high. However, any optimism may be short-lived, said Trinh Nguyen, emerging Asia economist at Natixis in Hong Kong.

“I think what would temper a lot of this optimism coming up is really the reality of this opening up. Even in Hong Kong, although it is officially open, the visa issuance has been rather slow,” Nguyen said.

China’s benchmark (.CSI300) dipped 0.21% on Tuesday while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index (.HSI) fell 0.85%.

Copper prices hit their highest in more than six months, driven higher by an improving demand outlook after top consumer China’s reopening, while zinc climbed 5% to its highest since Dec. 15.

Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) rose 0.57%, bucking the regional trend.

Core consumer prices in Tokyo, released on Tuesday, rose a faster-than-expected 4.0% in December from a year earlier, underpinning market expectations that the Bank of Japan may phase out its massive stimulus by tweaking its yield curve control policy. read more

In Australia, shares (.AXJO) lost 0.19% in early trading.

Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday as traders awaited clarity on rate hikes. U.S. crude fell 0.07% to $74.58 per barrel and Brent was at $79.51, down 0.18%.

Gold prices inched higher, adding 0.1% to $1,872.66 an ounce.

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So Kevin McCarthy is Speaker, finally! So the drama and chaos are over with, and the house will be led with quiet competence and a steady hand. So they all lived happily ever after. Just kidding. If you thought the other night was crazy, I’ve got news. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

For there are enemies in the house. One can never live happily ever after with enemies lurking in the shadows. Poor Kevin! Poor, poor little Kevin McCarthy! He has no idea what is waiting for him in the parlor now, does he?

He has no idea of the malevolent plans his enemies have for him. The enemies are the freedom caucus – and they have big plans for Kevin. According to multiple reports, the freedom caucus plan to hold Kevin’s feet to the fire. Many of them are still angry and resentful, and even though Kevin squeaked out a win, many will continue to undermine him as House Speaker.

Burn it all down. That’s their mantra. In the meantime, people are betting on how long McCarthy will actually survive as House Speaker. Many feel he will not last the year. I, too, share this sentiment. The thing is, Kevin McCarthy is not liked. He never has been.

The only reason he got the House Speaker’s job, in my opinion, is because few others wanted it. If some had stepped forward, I’ve no doubt Kevin would have lost the 15th vote as well.

So no, this is not a family united. This is a family divided. They’re divided because they’re agents of chaos being led by someone who is utterly despised. There will be much trickery in the months ahead. People will attempt to undermine Kevin, and they may succeed. And they will all live unhappily ever after.

The post A House divided against Kevin McCarthy appeared first on Palmer Report.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The lawyer for former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan said he was “singled out” for extradition to the United States to face charges of training Chinese military fliers, even though other Australians provided military services to foreign states.

Australia’s attorney-general last month accepted an extradition request from Washington for Duggan, who was arrested in rural Australia in October. He remains in custody in Sydney, and his next court date is on Feb. 13.

Duggan is accused of training Chinese pilots to land on aircraft carriers, and faces charges of money laundering and breaking U.S. arms control laws in the United States, according to a 2017 indictment unsealed in December.

He was arrested the same week that Britain announced a crackdown on former military pilots training Chinese fliers.

Duggan’s lawyer Dennis Miralis said outside a Sydney court on Tuesday that Duggan “contests and denies” the U.S. allegations, and intended to contest the extradition request.

“He has clearly, in our view, been singled out in circumstances where the Department of Defence has admitted that it has known of many Australian citizens who have performed foreign services in other jurisdictions with foreign states of a military nature,” he told reporters.

The defence minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Australia launched a review into the obligations former Defence Force personnel have to protect state secrets, after reports Australians were among Western military pilots who had been approached to help train the Chinese military.

Duggan was arrested in rural Australia in October after returning from China, where he had lived since 2014.

He became an Australian citizen after serving in the Marines for 12 years, and later renounced his U.S. citizenship.

The final decision to surrender Duggan would be made by the attorney-general after the court decides whether he is eligible to be extradited, Miralis said.