China on Sunday set a modest economic growth target of about 5% and elevated domestic consumption as a key policy goal.
The big picture: Battered by a slew of COVID restrictions and an increasingly tightened regulatory environment, China's GDP grew by only 3% last year, one of its lowest in decades.
Under pressure from animal rights activists, HelloFresh will stop selling coconut milk sourced from Thailand in its meal kits in the coming months over monkey labor allegations, the company confirmed to Axios.
Driving the news: Major retailers, including Walmart, Costco, Target and Kroger, have already stopped carrying coconut milk from certain Thai suppliers accused of using monkeys for forced labor, but HelloFresh is taking it a step further by saying it won’t source any coconut milk from Thailand.
Environmentalists have hailed a historic deal to protect oceans reached at the United Nations headquarters in New York City by over 190 countries over the weekend as "the biggest conservation agreement in the history of the world."
Why it matters: The High Seas Treaty moves to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 with the aim of halting and reversing the current extinction crisis, per Axios' Ben Geman.
The State Department held internal consultations on whether to deny Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich a visa ahead of his expected visit to the U.S. next week after he called for the Israeli government to "wipe out" the Palestinian village of Hawara, one U.S. and one Israeli confirmed.
Why it matters: If the U.S. denies Smotrich — a senior minister in the Israeli government — a visa, it would be an unprecedented move in the U.S.-Israel relationship.
