Nigerians Send Egusi To Space, Trump Coin Stumbles, Xi, Putin & Modi to meet and Nestle Ousts CEO

2nd September 2025

Donald Trump’s World Liberty crypto token tumbles on its first trading day, raising fresh questions about his family’s digital finance venture. Nestlé abruptly fires CEO Laurent Freixe over an undisclosed relationship with a subordinate. Nigerian egusi seeds make history as they head to space aboard a NASA mission. And Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin use the SCO summit to champion a new global order challenging U.S. dominance. All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Major Headlines

• Nigerian Egusi seeds makes historic journey to space aboard NASA mission

  
  

Egusi (melon) seeds, a cornerstone of West African cuisine, are poised for an unprecedented journey to outer space. This pioneering scientific experiment, spearheaded by Nigerian space scientist and Federal University of Technology, Akure alumnus, Temidayo Oniosun, aims to evaluate the nutritional and functional suitability of Egusi seeds for extended human space exploration.

The historic launch was scheduled for July 31st at 12:09 PM EDT (5:09 PM Nigerian time), aboard NASA’s Crew-11 resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This groundbreaking initiative, according to a statement jointly signed by Space In Africa’s Queen Dare and Temitayo Oniosun, marks the first time that seeds from Nigeria will be sent to space, a testament to global cooperation in space research, facilitated by collaborations with The Karman Project and Jaguar Space LLC. Temidayo Oniosun, a prominent voice in Africa’s burgeoning space tech community, expressed the profound significance of the moment.

The statement quoted Oniosun as saying, “I am sending Egusi seeds to outer space to assess their suitability for nutritional and functional applications in long-term human space exploration. “This is the first time in history that seeds from Nigeria will be going to space.” The Egusi seeds, carefully sourced from Oyo State, will share the payload with other experimental items under the supervision of NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Jonny Kim.

Upon their return to Earth, the Egusi seeds will undergo a rigorous battery of experimental analyses in partnership with Dr. Wagner Vendrame, a distinguished Professor at the University of Florida. This post-spaceflight research will delve into various aspects, including in vitro germination for morphological and physiological changes, spectral imaging for viability, respiration tests to assess metabolic activity, and molecular analysis to identify genetic variations. Oniosun further emphasized, “This research goes beyond agriculture; it’s about food.  BBC

• Trump Coin Stumbles

  
  

The digital tokens backing the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, fell in value on Monday in their first day of trading. The World Liberty tokens, known as $WLFI, were sold to investors after the Trump family and its business partners last year launched the venture, a decentralized finance platform that has also issued a stablecoin. Investors in the tokens voted in July to make them tradable, paving the way for their sale and purchase - and potentially boosting the value of the president's holdings of them. Early investors can sell up to 20% of their holdings, World Liberty has said.

The tokens initially traded above $0.30 in their Monday debut but later fell in price. They were down about 12% at $0.246 as of 1840 GMT, according to CoinGecko data. That gave the token a total market capitalisation of just below $7 billion, making WLFI the 31st largest crypto token in circulation, CoinGecko data showed. Several of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKX and Bybit, are offering the tokens on their platforms.

Since World Liberty's launch last year, the Trump family has made around $500 million from the project, according to Reuters calculations based on the company's terms and conditions, transactions traced by crypto analysis firms, and publicly disclosed deals. The tokens were not made tradable at their initial sale. Instead, they gave holders the right to vote on some changes to the business, such as its underlying code. Early investors have said the primary draw of $WLFI was the connection to Trump and their expectations that the tokens would grow in value due to his backing. Making the tokens tradable allows investors to determine their price, enabling speculation, earning trading fees for exchanges that list them, and likely stoking interest from a wider swath of crypto investors.

World Liberty and Trump's other crypto businesses have faced criticism from Democratic lawmakers and government ethics experts who say the Trump family's forays into the cryptocurrency businesses, at the same time as the president reshapes the regulatory framework that governs digital currencies, represent profound conflicts of interest. The White House has said repeatedly that Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that there are no conflicts of interest. Reuters

• SCO summit 2025 as it happened: China's Xi met Putin and Modi, as Trump's shadow loomed

The summit saw Xi and Putin press their vision for a new global security and economic order that prioritises the "Global South", in a direct challenge to the United States. The two-day event was attended by more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries, including India's Modi, who is visiting China for the first time in seven years.

In his speech, Xi said the SCO must "promote the democratisation of international relations and enhance representation of developing countries".

"We must continue to take a clear stand against hegemonism and power politics, and practise true multilateralism," he said, in a veiled attack on the current U.S.-dominated world order.

However, Xi did not set out any concrete policies in what he called his "Global Governance Initiative". Putin, whose country has forged even closer ties with China amid the fallout from the Ukraine war, said the SCO had revived "genuine multilateralism". "This, in turn, lays the political and socio-economic groundwork for the formation of a new system of stability and security in Eurasia," Putin said.

Xi also called for the creation of a new SCO development bank, which would be a major step towards the bloc's long-held aspiration of developing an alternative payment system that circumvents the U.S. dollar.  He added Beijing will provide 2 billion yuan ($280 million) of free aid to member states this year and a further 10 billion yuan of loans to an SCO banking consortium. Reuters

• Nestle abruptly removes CEO Freixe over undisclosed relationship with subordinate

Nestle (NESN.S), has abruptly dismissed its CEO Laurent Freixe for failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a subordinate, the Swiss food giant said on Monday, a dramatic removal exactly a year after he took the reins. The maker of products ranging from KitKat to Nesquik said that it had appointed veteran insider Philipp Navratil, who had headed the Nespresso coffee unit, as Freixe's successor with immediate effect. The shock departure threatens more volatility for Nestle amid a tough consumer environment and the disruptive U.S. trade tariffs.

Nestle said Freixe's departure follows an investigation overseen by Chairman Paul Bulcke and Lead Independent Director Pablo Isla into an undisclosed romantic relationship with a direct subordinate, which breached the company's code of business conduct. "This was a necessary decision," Bulcke said in a statement. "Nestle's values and governance are strong foundations of our company. I thank Laurent for his years of service." The firm announced in June that Bulcke, its long-standing chairman, would stand down next year. 

The CEO's abrupt removal comes exactly one year after Nestle ousted his predecessor Mark Schneider, raising questions on its next course of action even though the company said it would not change course on strategy and targets."This new change is likely to keep afloat the question mark about the mid-term direction of the company," JP Morgan analysts said in a note to clients.

Nestle shares have fallen 17% over the past year, lagging its rivals and the broader market. The sudden exit is the latest management reshuffle at a global consumer goods and food company this year, including Nestle rival Unilever (ULVR.L), Diageo (DGE.L), and Hershey (HSY.N). Top management's conduct has come under intense scrutiny, particularly in the United States. Kohl's (KSS.N),  fired CEO Ashley Buchanan in May after an investigation found he had pushed for deals with a vendor with whom he had a personal relationship, after little more than 100 days in the position. Reuters

Minor Headlines 

• CEO apologizes for snatching a hat Kamil Majchrzak signed for a child at U.S. Open CNBC

  
  

• “The Long Walk” treadmill screening to test viewers with their own long walk while eliminating slowpokes Yahoo.News

  
  

• Syria exports first crude oil shipment in 14 years, official says Reuters 

  
  

• Equinor to inject nearly $1 billion into Orsted following US setbacks under Trump Reuters

  
  

• Brazil's Petrobras lowers jet fuel prices by 3.7% Reuters

  
  

• LayerX uses AI to cut enterprise back-office workload, scores $100M in Series B TechCrunch 

  
  

• Director Jim Jarmusch ‘disappointed and disconcerted’ by Mubi’s funding from Sequoia TechCrunch

  
  

• FTC chair warns Google about Gmail’s ‘partisan’ spam filters TechCrunch 

  
  

• Dollar under pressure as traders return after Labor Day break Reuters

  
  

• Brazil launching data center incentives next month to woo big tech, sources say Reuters

  
  

• UK competition watchdog begins initial probe into Greencore-Bakkavor deal Reuters

  
  

• China's Xi rolls out carpet for Ukraine war aggressors, sidelining Trump Reuters