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Samsung.
Inheritance Samsung from the BBC World Service explores the real life dramas of the Lee family and their company Samsung.
All episodes available now.
Search for Inheritance Samsung wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
Thirty years after two civilian airplanes were shot down, why is the US government now bringing charges against the former Cuban president, Raul Castro?
I'm Asma Khalid, and I host the Global Story podcast from the BBC.
Cuba's government is calling this all a political maneuver, but the Cuban exile community in Miami calls it justice.
Oil prices fall as the U.S. and Iran edge closer to a deal.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Liana Byrne.
India feels the pain of higher fuel prices and can a smart ring be worth $11 billion?
Wall Street is about to find out.
Yes, oil prices have dropped today after Washington and Tehran signalled that they're inching closer to a deal to extend their ceasefire and reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.
With me now, Bill Dinning, Chief Investment Officer at W1M in London.
Hello, Bill.
Hello.
So where is the oil price at now?
Well, Brent crude is at $98, which is, as you said, is down about 5% today.
The market's reacting pretty positively to the news, even though, as is so often the case, we don't have much detail.
But the stock market is up as well.
It's obviously closed here and in the US, but stock futures are open and they're trading higher.
It's interesting, Bill.
What do you make of that stock market reaction?
Because they always react positively, it seems, on this.
But when there's not much detail, and then it could also swing back the opposite way.
Well, I think in this case, yes, the stock market is taking its cue from the oil market.
So if the oil market thinks that this deal is enough to push oil prices down by 5 a day, then that's obviously a positive, because the oil price move has really been a real negative.
It's been very impressive.
The stock market's been able to sort of shrug that off mostly because of a lot of excitement in other parts of the market, not least in things like AI.
But I think it's the oil market that's leading financial markets today.
Now, even with these fluctuations, the pricing pressures from the Iran war, it won't go away overnight, will they?
No, they won't.
And we've got to remember that oil was $60 at the beginning of the year.
So the oil prices come off, but it's still materially higher.
That's fed through into higher petrol prices and higher prices for heating.
And I think that's going to it's going to take a while for that to dissipate.
And also there's some outward pressure on food prices.
You know, we're talking about the government here threatening to try and cap food prices.
So there's all sorts of inflationary pressures.
And as you said, I don't think that's going to go away in a hurry.
But today's news is hopefully constructive.
Well, it's nice to finish on a bit of a positive.
Bill Dinning, Chief Investment Officer at W1M in London.
Always a pleasure.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Even though oil prices are easing a little today on hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran, that doesn't undo the damage already done.
India, the world's third biggest oil importer, has raised fuel prices four times this month and its state fuel companies say they're still hemorrhaging cash.
And interestingly, all of that comes as Marco Rubio arrives in Delhi promising a big new trade deal with Washington.
Archana Shukla spoke to me a little earlier from Mumbai.
A couple of hours back I was at a petrol pump speaking with some of the commuters, and one of them was telling me he earns just about 150 a month and travels about 8 to 10 kilometers daily from home to work and back.
And for him, every single rupee increase is actually impacting his budgets.
And We know in India a large part of the population, especially in rural India, commutes by two wheelers which runs on petrol.
So every increase in fuel price actually hits their daily budget.
But then we're hearing state fuel companies are still losing millions of dollars every day despite these price rises.
Why is that?
Well, these state-run fuel retailers that operate about 90 of the pumps across the country.
Whatever they sell practically is imported.
But the price hikes have actually not kept pace with the global crude oil prices.
Fuel prices in India are deregulated, but they are influenced by the government because these are state-run fuel pumps.
And we had crucial state elections in the early part of this year.
So for the first two months of the Iran war, when the global oil prices were actually zooming past 120 and 30, India did not increase fuel prices at the pump.
Now, while this is all going on, Marco Rubio is in India saying a big trade deal with the US could be agreed within weeks.
What is he offering?
What do we know?
US-India trade, Diliana, really has been very elusive.
It's been on and off.
There have been months of conversations and negotiations.
There is already a bilateral framework.
Marco Rubio's statement today reflected that that India has committed to buy about 500 billion worth of US products.
US has been wanting India to move away from Russian oil purchases and buy more US oil and energy.
But India does continue to purchase Russian oil, considering it's cheap.
And India has said it's a sovereign right to purchase cheaper oil for its population.
But now after the U.S.
Supreme Court order on U.S. tariffs, the tariffs have become flat for every single country at 10%.
So what are the new negotiations on the table is something that we'll still have to watch out for.
While it's positive that the two countries are still talking and there is some step forward, you know the trade deal so far has been elusive.
Archana Shukla there.
Pope Leo has raised his strong concerns on the development of artificial intelligence.
He's been speaking at the launch of his first major document, the Encyclical of the Vatican.
Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed.
The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences and indicating paths forward for humanity.
Also at the event the co-founder of the AI company, Anthropic Christopher Ola, who has concerns about jobs.
There is a real possibility that AI will displace human labour at a very large scale.
If that happens, supporting those displaced will be a moral imperative of historic proportions.
That was Christopher Ola, co-founder of Anthropic, speaking earlier today at the Vatican.
Now, if you are in the health and wellness space, you might have come across this small device.
This is the Oura Ring 4.
I've had it for about six months or so now, so here's my honest review.
The main thing that I love is that it's quiet wellness, so it tracks my recovery stress, sleep all without having to think about it.
Yep.
Over 5 million Oura rings have been sold worldwide, as it's known to track your health and sleep and provide you with data.
The Finland-based company is valued at about 11 billion and has now filed to become a public company in the US.
Francisco Geronimo is Vice President of Europe, Middle East and Asia Inclined Devices at market research tech company IDC.
What is critical for Smart Rings is not just the hardware, it's not just getting the data, but to help the users, to interpret that data, to help giving us signs when we need to be more cautious if we are going online.
But giants like Samsung, they're already in the market.
Apple could enter as well.
And there are examples in the past where you've got either FitTech or WearableTech have IPO'd and hasn't really gone to plan, but Samsung is still a small player in this specific category.
Apple could enter, but they have been more focused on the smartwatch.
Consumers are a bit tired and there's a bit of fatigue around smartwatches.
If you take the example of sleep tracking...
There's no better device than a smart ring to track the way we sleep.
Hoop is another example of another brand that became very, very popular, supported by celebrities, by football players, etc.
And it's a leading fashion brand as well in this space.
So that's where Aura is, wants to play and to become is that fashionable brand in the smart ring and to provide all that health and well-being monitoring to the user in a very intelligent way.
Ora is a Finnish company, but it's choosing to list on Wall Street.
It's not choosing to list in Europe.
What does that tell us?
The US is a much bigger market.
It's where most startups need to be when it comes to expanding their business.
Take the example of Nokia, take the example of other kind of companies like ABB and other industries.
And Finland has this pool of engineering talent, but the Finnish market is very small.
Even the European market is small for some brands like Aura who want to lead at a global scale.
And for that purpose, the first place to be is definitely the U.S.
That was Francisco Geronimo from market research tech company IDC.
And that is it from World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Have a great day and thanks so much for listening.
Their company's success helped build a nation.
The company is such a big part of Korea's economy.
But who are the family behind one of the world's tech giants?
The major corporate empire that we now know today.
Samsung.
Inheritance Samsung from the BBC World Service explores the real life dramas of the Lee family and their company Samsung.
All episodes available now.
Search for Inheritance Samsung wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
