Real-time News

May 13 - Railway construction progressed efficiently and effectively from January to April this year, with the national railway system completing 200.8 billion yuan in fixed asset investment, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%.

On May 13, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Baghae stated in a media interview on May 11 that ending the war and lifting the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz are prerequisites for any negotiations between Iran and the United States. He emphasized that the unilateral demands made by the US in the negotiations are unacceptable, and Iran will never succumb to the US's "exorbitant demands." Baghae pointed out that the urgent tasks are to end the current war, properly resolve the issues related to the Strait of Hormuz, and lift the blockade against Iran. Regarding the claim that the current ceasefire agreement is "extremely fragile," Baghae stated that Iran is prepared to deal with any unforeseen circumstances.

May 13 - A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the southern coast of Hokkaido, Japan, at approximately 11:24 a.m. local time on May 13. The maximum intensity was 1, and the epicenter was at a depth of 10 kilometers. There was no risk of a tsunami.

According to Nikkei, an executive at U.S. chip giant Texas Instruments (TXN.O) said the company is expanding its global manufacturing scale, including in Japan and Malaysia, to increase in-house production of its “foundational” semiconductors, thereby supporting the booming artificial intelligence infrastructure market.

According to Nikkei, Japan's three major banks will obtain the right to use Claude Mythos, a powerful artificial intelligence model developed by the US startup Anthropic, as early as the end of May.

Faraday Future’s Data Factory business unit signed its first sales order.

On May 13, the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office held a regular press conference. A reporter asked: Recently, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism issued an announcement stating that Shanghai residents can book group and individual tours to Kinmen and Matsu through qualified travel agencies in Shanghai and Fujian provinces. What is the current progress of this? Spokesperson Zhang Han stated that tourism industry representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait have recently begun mutual visits and inspections, paving the way for future cross-strait tourism exchanges and cooperation. We have already announced the promotion of the pilot program to resume individual travel to Taiwan for residents of Shanghai and Fujian provinces. We hope that relevant authorities in Taiwan will heed public opinion and open this up as soon as possible, creating conditions for the normalization of cross-strait personnel exchanges and the normalization of exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

May 13th - Data shows that in the first four months of this year, Guangdong's foreign trade growth rate was 3.5 percentage points higher than the national average, and its share of the national total increased by 0.6 percentage points year-on-year to 21.5%. Foreign trade volume increased by 541.07 billion yuan, exceeding the total for the entire previous year; its contribution to the national import and export growth during the same period reached 25.8%. According to the latest data released by the Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs, in the first four months of this year, Guangdong's imports and exports totaled 3.49 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.4%. Among them, exports reached 2.06 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.4%; imports reached 1.43 trillion yuan, an increase of 30.1%; Guangdong continued to rank first among all provinces and municipalities in terms of scale, share, and increase.

On May 13, the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office held a regular press conference. A reporter asked: Recently, an inter-ministerial and inter-provincial working conference on the construction of a demonstration zone for cross-strait integrated development was held in Beijing. What is the current status of implementing the "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Supporting Fujian in Exploring New Paths for Cross-Strait Integrated Development and Building a Demonstration Zone for Cross-Strait Integrated Development"? What are the next steps to further support Fujian in promoting the high-quality development of the demonstration zone? Spokesperson Zhang Han stated that in the past three years, the demonstration effect of the cross-strait integrated development demonstration zone on Taiwan has gradually emerged, and its influence has been expanding. Going forward, the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office and the National Development and Reform Commission will work with relevant departments of the central and state organs and Fujian Province to support Fujian in continuously exploring new paths and models for cross-strait integrated development and introduce more innovative measures to deepen the integration of Fujian and Taiwan in various fields.

May 13th - According to a recent OECD estimate, the Bank of Japan's benchmark interest rate is projected to reach 2% by the end of 2027. The report notes that assuming inflation remains around 2%, current interest rates are still close to the lower end of a relatively neutral interest rate range for the economy. The report also recommends that the Bank of Japan should continue to gradually raise interest rates to prevent the economy from overheating. The Bank of Japan previously estimated Japan's nominal neutral interest rate to be between 1.1% and 2.5%, but also pointed out that the specific level remains highly uncertain.

The Indonesian rupiah fell to a record low of 17,530 against the US dollar.

May 13 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Group announced on Wednesday that it will join an autonomous vehicle demonstration project led by the Gwangju city government in southwestern South Korea to test and advance its mobility solutions. Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors signed a memorandum of understanding in Gwangju with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Gwangju city government, and mobility startups including Autonomous A2Z and Ride Flux. Under the agreement, the two automakers will develop approximately 200 autonomous vehicles based on the Ioniq 5 electric car and operate autonomous mobility services in Gwangju, including vehicle dispatching and fleet control operations.

On May 13th, at the opening ceremony of the Create2026 Baidu AI Developer Conference, Baidu founder Robin Li proposed that the metric for the AI era might be "Daily Active Agents" (DAA), corresponding to the most commonly used metric in the mobile internet, "Daily Active Users" (DAU). Li stated that the current metric closest to industry consensus is token consumption, but tokens don't necessarily represent the end result; they represent costs, not returns; they measure input, not output. "When humanity enters the era of intelligent agents, to measure the prosperity of a platform and ecosystem, we should focus more on the DAA metric, on how many agents are working for humanity and delivering results. This is closer to value and closer to the essence than pointless token consumption."

According to Yonhap News Agency, Hyundai Motor Group will test AI-powered autonomous vehicles in Gwangju.

The Hang Seng Tech Index fell by more than 1%, while the Hang Seng Index fell by 0.2%.

OECD: Japan should primarily rely on consumption tax increases to boost revenue.

OECD: The Bank of Japan should be prepared to adjust the pace and maturity structure of its bond purchases in the event of disruptions in the financial and bond markets.

OECD: The Bank of Japan is expected to raise its short-term policy rate to 2% by the end of 2027.