Wall Street suffered a sweeping technology selloff on Thursday as fears over artificial intelligence spending and possible restrictions on data centres drove the Nasdaq Composite into correction territory. The technology-heavy index dropped 5.5 per cent to 24,315, closing nearly 12 per cent below its October peak. The S&P 500 lost 4.4 per cent to 7,353.73, its steepest daily decline since April 2025, while the Dow Jones Industrial […]
By Nitya Chakraborty China has taken the initiative to hold a trilateral summit involving Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on the sides line of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at Shenzhen, China on November 18 and 19. It was being talked about earlier, but the big defeat of President Trump at […]
The article Xi Jinping Preparing For A Trilateral Summit With Trump And Putin At APEC Summit On Nov 18-19 appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).
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The gap between the West and Asia shows in the companies’ own reports. IHG reports that 99.2% of its US hotels were aligned with its cage-free egg commitment in 2025, compared with 0% in Greater China. Marriott reports that 90.84% of egg spend at its managed US properties was cage-free in 2025, compared with 59.13% at its managed properties in Greater China.
Unilever reports 100% cage-free eggs in Europe and North America, but its latest available figure for Asia and Oceania is 7%, for 2023. It has said it will end its commitment to reach 100% cage-free eggs globally. Kraft Heinz’s animal welfare policy, issued in September 2026, commits to sourcing only cage-free eggs in North America and Europe. For other regions, including Asia, it says it will “continue to monitor the availability and affordability of cage-free eggs”. Both companies describe North America and Europe as their “biggest markets”. Sodexo has extended its timeline up to 2035 for countries where cage-free supply chains are still developing. Radisson Hotel Group’s April 2026 status report says it will focus on implementation “rather than setting additional time-bound public targets where credible pathways are not yet clear”, and Grupo Bimbo cites factors affecting “the operational feasibility of completing the transition within the original timeline”.
The advocates acknowledge the challenges, and several animal welfare groups work directly with egg producers in the region to build cage-free supply. Other companies already show that progress is possible. Hilton’s latest report lists 100% cage-free egg sourcing in the Philippines and more than 95% in Malaysia and Thailand, among its managed hotels in Asia Pacific. Accor’s June 2026 report shows 91% of its hotels in South Korea, 88% in the Philippines and 80% in Thailand offering only cage-free eggs at the end of 2025.
The advocates call on the companies to honour their 2025 commitments in Asia without further delay, and to publish market-by-market progress together with the concrete steps being taken.
Animal advocacy groups across Asia, including Farmed Animal Compliance Thailand, the Malaysia Accountability Project, the Indonesia Network for Compassionate Animal Farming, Malayang Manok PH, Vietnam Animal Welfare Watch and Accountability Lens Asia, will continue to track each company’s public reporting and progress, and will share updates as companies publish new figures for Asia.
Notes for editors: Company figures are taken from each company’s own published reports and policies, as checked on Nov 5, 2026. Some companies’ goals excluded specific countries or types of egg; details are in the source table that follows this release.
Source table
| Company | 2025 commitment | West, latest | Asia, latest | Change since | Sources |
| Aramark | Worldwide by 2025, shell and liquid (March 2017); covers “controlled spend”, excludes ingredient eggs | Europe 83%, US 77% of eggs (2025) | No Asia figure; Asia and Latin America are under 15% of egg purchases | September 2026 update gives no date; April 2026 version mentioned “enriched cages and credits” | Sept 2026 update, April 2026 version, p.3, 2017 release, policy |
| Grupo Bimbo | 100% cage-free supply by 2025 from suppliers “around the world” (December 2015) | North America 46% (2025) | Only a combined “Europe, Asia & Africa” figure: 57% (2025) | Cites “the operational feasibility of completing the transition within the original timeline”; no new date | December 2025 Cage Free Egg Report, 2015 release |
| IHG Hotels & Resorts | Goal: only cage-free “across our entire global estate by 2025” (December 2016) | US 99.2%, Europe 79.9% of hotels aligned (2025) | EAPAC 8.9%, Greater China 0% of hotels aligned (2025) | 2025 reporting gives no target date. “Aligned” includes hotels in regulated markets and hotels that serve no eggs | 2025 ESG Databook, p.12, 2016 release |
| Inspire Brands | “each brand that currently serves eggs has committed globally to 100% sourcing of cage-free eggs by 2025” (Good Citizens Report, 2022 edition) | Dunkin’ US: approximately 30% of eggs on breakfast sandwiches (2022 report). Arby’s met its commitment in 2020, with a footnote that supply shortages have limited availability | None published | Current website no longer states the global goal; it says Arby’s met its commitment and SONIC and Dunkin’ “continue to make positive progress” | Good Citizens Report 2022, PDF pp.28, 71, Inspire Food page |
| Kraft Heinz | Eggs globally from cage-free or better hens by 2025 (December 2017) | North America 66% (2024) | Asia Pacific 15% (2024) | Policy issued 16 September 2026: only cage-free eggs (directly sourced) in North America and Europe, “our biggest markets” (US, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK); no deadline. Outside these regions it “will continue to monitor the availability and affordability of cage-free eggs” | Global Animal Welfare Policy v2.0, §3.7, 2025 ESG Report, p.12 |
| Marriott International | All owned, managed and franchised hotels globally by end-2025; shell, liquid and egg products | US managed properties 90.84% of egg spend (2025) | Managed egg spend: APAC excl. China 74.91%, Greater China 59.13% (2025). Managed properties in Bhutan and Nepal at 100% | Report states no change. The 70.03% global figure covers managed and franchised hotels, so it isn’t comparable with the regional figures | 2026 Serve 360 Report, pp.8–9, 2022 statement |
| Mondelēz International | 2016: US and Canada by 2020, Europe by 2025; later global by 2025 excluding Russia and Ukraine | US and Canada 100% by end-2020 | No Asia figure found; China and Vietnam excluded from the 2027 goal | Now 2027, excluding China, Morocco, Russia, Ukraine and Vietnam; 82% in 2025 on that basis | Cage-free position, Goals & Progress, 2022 report, p.10 |
| Radisson Hotel Group | Globally by 2025, shell, liquid and egg products (November 2019) | Europe 79% of reporting hotels (2025) | South Asia 47%, Southeast Asia Pacific 71%, China 45% of reporting hotels (2025; China excludes franchised). Only 11 of 18 China hotels reported | April 2026 status report sets no new date: no “additional time-bound public targets where credible pathways are not yet clear”. Global: 72% of reporting hotels, 40% of all hotels | April 2026 status report, February 2026 update, 2019 release |
| Sodexo | Worldwide by 2025, shell and liquid (July 2016) | FY2025: 100% shell and liquid in 13 European countries; UK 98%; US shell 77%, liquid 89% | FY2025 shell eggs: China 0.4%, India 2.6%, Malaysia 0.6%, Philippines 0%, Singapore 1.5%, Thailand 3.8%; liquid 0% or not reported | 2025 goal now described as covering countries making up 88% of revenue; 15 markets, including China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, moved to roadmaps ending 2030 or 2035 | FY2025 Animal Welfare Performance Report, pp.3, 6–8, FY2024 report, p.4, URD FY2025, p.150 |
| Unilever | “100% global 2025 target” (2018) | 100% in Europe and North America; 68% globally (end-2024) | Asia and Oceania 7% (2023 actual, in the 2024 report); the 2025 Annual Report gives no cage-free egg figures | Says it “will end our commitment to reach 100% cage free eggs globally” and will “maintain 100% cage-free eggs in North America and Europe, which are our biggest markets” (page undated; news dates the change to late 2025) | Position page, 2024 report, 2025 Annual Report, Food Manufacture (news) |
Companies credited in the release
| Company | West, latest | Asia, latest | Cited in the release for | Source |
| Hilton | Americas 93%, EMEA 96% (managed) | APAC 42% (managed); Philippines 100%, Malaysia and Thailand over 95% (managed) | Country results in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand | 2025 Responsible Sourcing Goals, p.5 |
| Accor | Europe 80% of all hotels (end-2025) | Asia Pacific 73%, South Korea 91%, Philippines 88%, Thailand 80%, Greater China 17% of all hotels (end-2025, self-reported) | Country results in South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand | June 2026 progress report |
Hashtag: #CageFree
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The memorandums of understanding, signed in Tokyo on Wednesday during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s visit to Japan, cover superconducting materials and equipment for heating and fuelling plasma. Proxima will collaborate with Fujikura on high-temperature superconducting tape and with Kyoto Fusioneering on specialised reactor systems.
The agreements are preliminary arrangements rather than binding purchase orders or commitments to construct manufacturing facilities. Financial terms and delivery schedules have not been disclosed, leaving the scale of any eventual procurement dependent on further negotiations and technical work.
Under the Fujikura agreement, the companies will examine the feasibility of establishing a factory in the German state of Lower Saxony to manufacture high-temperature superconducting tape, known as HTS tape. The material is used to make powerful magnets that confine extremely hot plasma inside fusion machines.
Proxima estimates that its Alpha demonstration stellarator will require approximately 20,000 kilometres of tape. Each subsequent Stellaris commercial power plant would need around 40,000 kilometres, making dependable manufacturing capacity central to its development plans.
The collaboration follows Proxima’s September memorandum of understanding with Lower Saxony concerning a large-scale European production facility. The proposed project’s first two phases envisage investment of approximately €140 million through 2029, with public and private financing expected to contribute equally. The state has identified €21 million as its intended contribution.
The latest Fujikura arrangement concerns feasibility work and does not establish that the proposed factory has secured final financing, regulatory approvals or a construction timetable. Fujikura already manufactures superconducting tape and supplies other fusion developers, giving it industrial experience in a material whose production requires demanding quality controls.
Fujikura announced in September a separate long-term agreement to supply more than 10,000 kilometres of superconducting tape to US-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems for its planned ARC power plants. That contract also involves expansion of the Japanese manufacturer’s production capacity.
Proxima’s second agreement brings Kyoto Fusioneering into work on gyrotrons, devices that generate high-power microwaves to heat plasma, and fuel-cycle technology used to manage the hydrogen isotopes required for fusion reactions. Both systems are essential to operating a reactor beyond the magnetic confinement stage.
Kyoto Fusioneering is also expected to contribute technology to Germany’s national Fusion Hubs programme, which was launched with an initial €125 million in research funding. The collaboration connects a Japanese supplier specialising in fusion engineering with Proxima’s reactor development and Germany’s broader industrial research effort.
The company has experience developing plasma-heating equipment and integrated fuel-handling technologies. Its engineering activities include work on gyrotrons and experimental systems designed to test processes needed for future fusion plants. The agreement with Proxima does not itself constitute a confirmed equipment delivery.
Proxima develops stellarators, a type of fusion device that uses carefully shaped magnetic fields to hold plasma in place. Its approach differs from the tokamak configuration pursued by several other fusion developers, although both depend on advanced magnets and systems capable of sustaining demanding operating conditions.
The company’s Alpha demonstrator is intended to operate in the early 2030s and test whether its stellarator design can achieve net energy gain from fusion. Its Stellaris concept is intended as a subsequent electricity-producing plant at Gundremmingen, the site of a former nuclear power station in Bavaria.
Proxima raised €411 million in July to support its development programme. The company emerged from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in 2023 and has assembled partnerships with engineering and manufacturing businesses as it moves towards constructing its first major machine.
Neither the Alpha timetable nor the commercial ambitions establish that fusion electricity production has been demonstrated at an economically viable scale. Substantial engineering, testing and regulatory work remains before a commercial plant can supply electricity to the grid.
The company’s manufacturing strategy also reflects the substantial quantities of specialised materials required for stellarator construction. Superconducting tape must meet stringent performance specifications, including its ability to carry large electrical currents while exposed to strong magnetic fields and extremely low temperatures.
Fujikura and Kyoto Fusioneering were already listed among participants in Proxima’s Alpha Alliance, an industrial network bringing together companies with expertise in materials, components and reactor engineering. The new memorandums identify more specific areas for cooperation within that wider group.
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