| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an oceanic overview of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. Don’t Mock the Return of these Reptiles | I’ve imagined sea turtles in constant need of rescue ever since I read Russell Hoban’s 1975 novel Turtle Diary, which revolves around a plot to free two of the marine reptiles from the London Zoo. (It was made into a movie in 1985 starring Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley, with a screenplay adapted from the book by Harold Pinter.) So I was heartened by David Fickling’s column hailing the revived numbers of the creatures, in general. David says sea turtles have “become icons of the damage that we’re doing to our environment — a status they share with other charismatic species, like the humpback whale and polar bear.” But, he writes, “researchers led by Professor Graeme Hays of Deakin University in Melbourne this year compiled 61 datasets of nesting locations from around the world. They found just five sites where populations were declining. In 28, they were increasing — often dramatically.” These include loggerheads, hawksbills, green turtles (the species in Hoban’s book) and the Kemp’s ridley, which may be the most endangered of them all. A lot of the credit can go to humans. We are eating fewer sea turtles and have been actively helping them to propagate by watching over their nests and habitats. One celebrated species, however, hasn’t been so lucky: the immense leatherback. David writes: “Four of the 16 studies cited by Hays showed leatherback populations declining. At one site in Costa Rica, nest numbers fell from 1,500 in 1988 to 15 in 2018.” David quotes Hays saying, “They’re a real hard nut to crack, because they continually wander the oceans foraging for jellyfish. You can’t just have a small focal area for protection.” So there’s still lots to be done. Fun fact: British colonists once hunted Caribbean sea turtles to near extinction as ingredients for a rich soup. But so great was the demand that a “mock turtle soup” came to market, made with the meat from calf’s heads. What’s a Sea Turtle in Chinese? | Sea turtles are a social phenomenon in the People’s Republic of China — and they are human, not reptilian. Haigui, Mandarin for sea turtle, has the same sound as the words for “to return from overseas.” It thus became a term for students who went to the US and elsewhere for schooling — and then decided to repatriate. At one point, there were more than 370,000 Chinese in the US, the most from any country, in American universities. But those numbers have now declined to well below 300,000 in part because of the increasingly combative relationship between Washington and Beijing. (India is now the no. 1 source of overseas students in the US.) Might that change if President-elect Donald Trump follows up on his friendly overtures to China’s leader, Xi Jinping? He invited Xi to his inauguration (The Chinese president reportedly demurred). John Authers is optimistic. “Generally, foreign dignitaries don’t get invited to presidential inaugurals, and nobody in the US takes offense if they go about their business at home. So it’s the big gesture that counts, and that leads to the fascinating and teasing possibility that there’s some kind of grand treaty in mind that can be negotiated to head off conflict.” Karishma Vaswani gives Trump credit for trying to change the confrontational tone but says “future attempts need to be more than just empty gestures to make a real difference.” She says, “The alternative is continued misunderstanding, which, in the worst-case scenario, could lead to actual conflict.” In the meantime, the sea turtles continue to swim home. “US bankers are rubbing their hands at an expected boom in dealmaking under a market-friendly President-elect Donald Trump next year. But scratch the surface and it is apparent that the mergers and acquisitions to come are far more likely to be among smaller companies. Mega deals won’t lead the way.” — Paul J. Davies in “Mega Deals Won’t Lead M&A Rebound Under Trump.”  “The Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany has been running a project since the start of the Russia’s February 2022 invasion tracking the humanitarian, financial and military aid that Ukraine’s allies have committed and, separately, delivered. The latest update, published earlier this month, found that Europe had committed an impressive €241 billion ($253 billion) worth of support in total, compared with €119 billion for the US, by the end of October. … The disheartening part is the enormous gap between what Europe has pledged and actually delivered, which Kiel estimates at just €125 billion.” — Marc Champion in “Europe Needs to Swiftly Fulfill Its Aid Pledges to Ukraine.” Argentina and the $7 Big Mac. — Juan Pablo Spinetto A Trump strategy that may just work on Iran. — Marc Champion Labour is losing its way again. — Chaminda Jayanetti More coal? Thanks, China. — Javier Blas The slow-moving Honda-Nissan merger. — Gearoid Reidy Hedge funds: Keep out! — Marcus Ashworth AI robots will be made in Asia. — Catherine Thorbecke Walk of the Town: Foxes in Food and Folklore | Regular readers of this newsletter probably know I’m fascinated by the foxes of London. So, when I was in Japan, I had to visit the famous Fushimi Inari-Taisha with its 10,000 bright red spirit gates or torii. Tourists come in the tens of thousands (millions on big holidays) to take the obligatory souvenir photos and walk through the torii, which frame narrow paths of the hilly district of Kyoto.  Tourists at the famous red torii in the Fushimi ward of Kyoto. Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg But I came for the foxes. Inari is the Shinto spirit of rice — and also of business (hence the red gates, which are donations by business people in gratitude for commercial success). A deity that was originally female then male then both, Inari is attended by white foxes, who act as messengers and bearers of portents. You’ll see pairs of them at major intersections or at the entrances to shrines in the Fushimi area.  A messenger of Inari at the Fushimi shrine area. Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg I have an English mnemonic for the Japanese word for fox, kitsune. That would be “kit,” a young fox. As the Japanese would have it, there is also a dish called kitsune, which is a broth with udon noodles topped with a rectangle of fried tofu. Why does it have a vulpine name? The tofu is supposed to resemble the head of a fox. I don’t see it, but it’s deeply comforting.  Kitsune udon in Nara. Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg You can’t have everything. But enjoy the holidays.  ”But you said you wanted mock turtle soup!” Illustration by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Notes: Please send digestifs and feedback to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net. 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