Base metals shine in 2021, but gold and iron sufferBloombergMetals are heading for more drama after a tumultuous year dominated by supply squeezes, China’s property-led economic slowdown and a global energy crisis that hints at more disruptions to come. Last year saw copper hitting a record as the COVID-19 pandemic roiled supply and demand, but tin was the star performer as base metals marched higher. For now, soaring energy costs in Europe also continue to dominate the supply-side for base metals. Yesterday, base metals were mostly lower, with copper edging down 0.4 percent in London for a 24 percent advance this year. Iron ore gyrated around US$120 per tonne and was headed for a 25 percent decline last year.

Convincing the unvaccinatedUndertakers, rabbis join global fight promoting COVID shotsAPIn Germany, Lutheran pastors are offering COVID-19 shots inside churches. SHOTS IN CHURCHGerman pastor Christoph Herbst believes giving COVID-19 shots in surroundings that feel more familiar than medical settings may help. Caesar Thompson speaks with participants in the READI Chicago program about COVID-19 vaccines. I just don’t see the reasoning for me to get the vaccine.”She said the US government is pushing COVID-19 vaccines too hard. He has repeatedly booked and canceled COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

Victims react to Ghislaine Maxwell being found guiltyThe Guardian, LOS ANGELESA Manhattan jury’s decision to find Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking has left victims of the British socialite and her former boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, “relieved and grateful.”Maxwell was found guilty on five of six charges for her involvement in Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls. Prosecutors said that Maxwell “preyed on vulnerable young girls, manipulated them and served them up to be sexually abused.”A courtroom sketch shows Ghislaine Maxwell listening as the guilty verdict in her sex abuse trial is read in New York City on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters“I am so relieved and grateful that the jury recognized the pattern of predatory behavior that Maxwell engaged in for years and found her guilty,” said Annie Farmer, one of the victims who testified at the trial. “As the verdict was read, Maxwell struggled to stand, but said nothing,” Brown wrote on Twitter. Late on Wednesday, Maxwell’s brother, Kevin Maxwell, said the family stood by her and believed that she would be vindicated during the appeals process.

One is to allow royal women to keep their title and public duties when they wed outside the family. The second is to allow men from 11 former branches of the royal family abolished in post-war reforms to “rejoin” the direct line through adoption. Royal women have long walked a difficult path in Japan. The divine status of the imperial family was renounced after World War II following Japan’s militaristic sweep across Asia in the name of Emperor Hirohito. Since 1947, royal succession has been dictated by the Imperial Household Law, and issues surrounding it remain a delicate topic tightly bound with ideas of national identity.

Doctors sentenced over tax evasion chargesSUBSIDY SCHEME: A court said that a foundation allowed people who gave it money to apply for research, study or social welfare grants of up to 95 percent of the amountStaff writer, with CNATri-Service General Hospital superintendent Wang Chih-hung (王智弘) and 24 other military physicians on Wednesday were sentenced by the High Court to between two months and a year in prison in a tax evasion case. The physicians were among 27 people indicted on tax evasion charges in 2016, with the Taipei District Court finding them not guilty in the first trial. However, prosecutors appealed the decision and the High Court overturned the ruling, finding 25 of the defendants guilty of using a charitable foundation as a vehicle for tax evasion. The second trial found that the foundation allowed those who donated to get back most of what they gave and benefit from tax deductions. The tax evasion activity of the 25 defendants did not all take place in the same year and their intentions were separate from each other, so they are to be punished separately, the High Court added.

Starting at 14,720.25 points on Jan. 4, the TAIEX advanced 3,486.31 points this year, compared with an increase of 2,735.39 points last year. The TAIEX stood above 17,000 points on 130 of this year’s 244 trading days and above 18,000 points for five days, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) data showed. The TAIEX outperformed its Asian peers this year, with Japan’s Nikkei index gaining 5.33 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI index rising 4.17 percent, Singapore’s Strait Times index gaining 10.35 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rising 3.57 percent, commission data showed. PGIM holds an upbeat outlook for local stocks next year on the back of the nation’s strong exports, Yeh said. Local equities are likely to continue attracting investors next month on the back of strong corporate fundamentals, SinoPac said in a statement.

Proof of Beijing’s true characterBy Hong Tsun-ming 康駿銘Hard on the heels of the referendums in Taiwan, Hong Kong held its first legislative election since the electoral system was overhauled under the direction of Beijing. According to the new system, 40 of the 90 seats in the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) were elected by the 1,500-member Election Committee, which has only one non-establishment member. Even then, official statistics showed that there was an unprecedentedly low turnout of 30.2 percent, about half the turnout of the previous election. Since the protest movement objecting to extradition to China began in 2019, the deteriorating situation in Hong Kong has consistently demonstrated that China does not sit well with universal values, and that Hong Kong has been on the front line in the democractic battle against China. Hong Tsun-ming is director of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s Yilan County branch and a former citizen of Hong Kong.

Philippines lifts ban on open-pit mines‘SHORT-SIGHTED’: The revenue from open-pit mines would help the nation pay loans to fight the pandemic, an official said, while critics called the practice ‘destructive’AFP, MANILAThe Philippines has lifted a four-year ban on new open-pit mines, an official said yesterday, in a bid to revitalize the country’s COVID-19-battered economy that has been slammed by environmentalists as “short-sighted.”The move sees the government reverse a ban imposed in 2017, when the then-Philippine secretary of environment and natural resources blamed the sector for widespread ecological damage. Manila has since reversed course, encouraging mining investments to shore up government revenues as lockdowns and COVID-19 quarantine restrictions ravaged the economy. Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Wilfredo Moncano yesterday said that Philippine Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Roy Cimatu had signed an order lifting the ban on open-pit mining in the country. “We offered the mining [industry] as a potential contributor to the recovery of the economy,” Moncano said. Open-pit mining directly extracts minerals on the ground and differs from other methods that require tunneling or underground mining.

Vietnam’s GDP expands in Q4BloombergVietnam’s economic growth accelerated in the fourth quarter as manufacturing revived and exports extended their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic slump earlier this year. GDP rose 5.22 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier, up from a revised minus-6.02 percent in the third quarter, the Vietnamese General Statistics Office said yesterday in Hanoi. That compared with the median estimate of 3.7 percent for the fourth quarter in a Bloomberg survey of 21 economists. Other details from the statistics office include: Exports rose 24.8 percent this month from a year earlier, while imports climbed 14.6 percent. Manufacturing rose 10.9 percent and consumer prices rose 1.81 percent this month from a year earlier.

CYBERSTRATEGY: Legislature approves plan to launch digital ministryEVOLVING: The goal is to boost the government’s ability to deal with cybersecurity issues and step up Taiwan’s digital transformation, a Cabinet spokesperson saidStaff writer, with CNAThe Legislative Yuan on Tuesday approved the Cabinet’s plan to establish a ministry of digital development, as mapped out by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in her second inaugural address in May last year. A new law passed by lawmakers to establish the new ministry states that it would be in charge of planning the nation’s digital development policies in response to the political and economic challenges created by a rapidly evolving digital world. The ministry of digital development would be responsible for planning the government resources required in the fields of telecommunication and digital technology, and the infrastructure needed to promote innovation, as well as cultivating talent. The plan to establish a ministry of digital development aims to speed up Taiwan’s digital transformation and improve the government’s ability to deal with cybersecurity issues, Cabinet spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said. The MOST said that its role would in future be similar to that of the National Development Council, coordinating between ministries, industry and academia to guide software and hardware innovation in Taiwan.

Tigerair to apply for listing on TWSE main boardLOOKING AHEAD: The Taiwan Stock Exchange said that Tigerair Taiwan should be eligible under relaxed rules for companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemicBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterTigerair Taiwan Ltd (台灣虎航) has applied to the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) to list its shares on the main board, hoping to raise more capital before the international travel market recovers next year, the low-cost carrier said yesterday. Under the relaxed rules, the review committee focuses on an applicant’s financial results from every year except for the one affected by COVID-19, the exchange added. A Tigerair Taiwan Airbus A320 takes off from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in an undated photograph. Photo courtesy of Tigerair TaiwanTigerair Taiwan reported net profit of NT$981 million (US$35.43 million) in 2018 and NT$808 million in 2019, before reporting net loss of NT$1.37 billion last year. Of the firms that have applied under the relaxed rules, not many have been approved, Chen added.

CECC posts 19 imported, 14 new Omicron casesTRAVEL FOR SPORTS: Of the Omicron cases identified through genome sequencing yesterday, seven belong to a Taiwanese karate team that flew back from KazakhstanBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterThe Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 19 imported cases of COVID-19 and 14 newly confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Twelve members of the team have already tested positive for COVID-19, and were reported as confirmed cases on Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, genome sequencing results showed that 14 previously reported imported cases were infected with the Omicron variant, Chuang said, adding that a total of 48 imported Omicron cases have so far been identified in Taiwan. Among the 14 new Omicron cases identified yesterday, seven are members of the Taiwanese karate team who returned from Kazakhstan, he said. The karate team members would be interviewed to determine the possible causes of infection, he added.

“Self-reliance is the foundation for the Chinese nation,” President Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a speech released in March. A woman browses her smartphone at a booth displaying various chips developed by Beijing’s Tsing Micro during September’s China Beijing International High-Tech Expo. Photo: APWashington and Beijing need to “avoid that the world becomes separated,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in September. Visitors to a mall walk past a Huawei store in Beijing, China. “My country still faces a big gap in chip technology,” said industry analyst Liu Chuntian of Zero Power Intelligence Group.

China tightens rules on overseas listingsHEIGHTENED SCRUTINY: Authorities said that firms in industries in which foreign investment is banned would need approval from authorities for an overseas debutAFP, BEIJINGBeijing has tightened the rules on overseas listings by Chinese firms in a series of new regulations that increase scrutiny of companies seeking to raise funds on foreign stock markets. China has stepped up scrutiny of major overseas listings after a controversial New York initial public offering (IPO) by ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing (滴滴出行) went ahead this year, despite regulatory concerns at home. It came days after authorities proposed that companies seeking foreign IPOs would need to register with the securities regulator. The restrictions would make VIE structures “less attractive,” as well as “making foreign listings less appealing for Chinese founders and investors,” University of Hong Kong law professor Angela Zhang (張湖月) said. The rule would not affect companies listed overseas.

Japan maps out plan to release Fukushima waterReuters, TOKYOJapan’s government yesterday mapped out a plan to release contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant into the sea, including compensation standards for local industry and the compilation of a safety assessment report. Japan in April said that it would discharge more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water in stages after treatment and dilution, starting in about the spring of 2023. Storage tanks are pictured at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Oma, Japan, on Nov. 15. Photo: EPA-EFEEarlier this month, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) outlined detailed plans for the disposal, including building an underwater tunnel to release the water. Japan has said that the release is necessary to press ahead with the complex decommissioning of the plant.