Draft to expand eligibility for priority seats passesBy Yang Cheng-yu and Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter, with staff writerA draft amendment that would allow priority seats on public transportation to be given to “people with actual need” instead of only elderly people, women and children passed a legislative committee on Thursday. The amended version removes the words “elderly, women and children” to allow “people with actual need” to use priority seats, said Chien Hui-chuan (簡慧娟), director of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Social and Family Affairs Administration. Priority seats are pictured on a Taipei MRT rail car in an undated photograph. Article 58, Paragraph 2 of the act stipulates that people with disabilities and one of their necessary companions may also use priority seats. However, more assessments are needed before amendments can be made to order private venues to offer discounts to disabled people, he said.

Peace in Strait a consensus, MOFA says‘DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE’: The vigilance of the US and EU amid increased threats from authoritarian regimes shows that democracies are resolved to uphold order, MOFA saidBy Yang Cheng-yu and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNAMaintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is the consensus of democracies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, after a meeting of US and EU officials on the Indo-Pacific region. The US, the EU and other like-minded countries have over the past few months made many public statements about upholding peace and stability in the Strait, showing that cross-strait peace is a consensus among democracies, the ministry said. In this file handout image courtesy of the US Navy taken on August 27, 2021 the AI Arleigh-burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG 100) transits the Taiwan Strait during a routine transit. As a member of the “democratic alliance” responsible for the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan would continue to work with like-minded countries to uphold peace and stability in the Strait and the Indo-Pacific region, it added. In the US-EU statement, the two sides reiterated their concerns about human rights in China, particularly in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong.

Grimy ships switch from iron ore to food crops as Asia demand declinesBloombergDirty bulk ships used to carry iron ore are being scrubbed clean so that they can transport grain to Asia, in an unusual shift of cargoes prompted by a slump in demand for the steelmaking ingredient. China’s downturn in the housing market has weighed on iron ore, driving freight rates for bulk carriers down 50 percent from a year earlier. That has made it more attractive for some of the world’s biggest agriculture traders to book iron ore vessels for shipments of corn and soybeans. Large iron ore ships typically stay away from grain as it involves a time-consuming cleaning process to make the vessels safe for carrying food. The depressed iron ore trade this year could be pushing Baby Capes to seek “alternative employment,” said Ralph Leszczynski, head of research at shipbroker Banchero Costa & Co.

US company turning air pollution into fuel, bottles and dressesBy Lucie Aubourg / AFP, SKOKIE, IllinoisAt LanzaTech’s lab in the Chicago suburbs, a beige liquid bubbles away in dozens of glass vats. To date, LanzaTech has kept 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, while producing 190 million liters of ethanol, the company said. The company placed it in industrial conditions to optimize it in those settings, “almost like an athlete that we trained,” Kopke said. LanzaTech has also founded a separate company, LanzaJet, to use the ethanol to create sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Unlike bioethanol produced from wheat, beets or corn, fuel created from greenhouse gas emissions does not require the use of agricultural land.

HSBC to axe at least 200 senior operations managersReuters, HONG KONG and LONDONHSBC is cutting as many as 15 percent of its 2,000 senior operations managers worldwide, as it attempts to streamline its management ranks and reduce costs, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. The logo of HSBC is pictured on its headquarters at the financial Central district in Hong Kong on Aug. 4, 2020. The lender has been shrinking its sprawling global business for several years, downsizing in many regions and exiting some countries entirely as it tries to improve shareholder returns. The initiative, codenamed “project banyan,” follows HSBC’s last major redundancy plan in 2020, which targeted about 35,000 job cuts globally across all staffing levels. On Wednesday, HSBC announced a possible sale of its business in New Zealand and its plans to close 114 branches in the UK.

Musk delivers first Tesla truck; no update on pricingReutersTesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk delivered the company’s first heavy-duty Semi on Thursday to PepsiCo without offering updated forecasts for the vehicle’s pricing, production plans or how much cargo it could haul. Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk, right, speaks with Tesla Semi Truck Engineering senior manager Dan Priestly during a live-streamed unveiling of the Tesla Semi electric truck in Nevada, US, on Thursday. Photo: REUTERSHowever, industry experts remain skeptical that battery electric trucks can economically take the strain of hauling hefty loads for hundreds of miles. PepsiCo, which completed its first cargo run with the Tesla truck to deliver snacks for those attending the Nevada launch event, had ordered 100 trucks in 2017. Musk said the semi-truck has been doing test runs from Tesla’s Nevada factory to its plant in Fremont, California.

However, the volume represents a 28.5 percent plunge from November last year, as interest rate hikes and economic uncertainty slowed purchase decisions. Transactions in the first 11 months of this year fell 7 percent from a year earlier, and the pace of retreat has been widening each month, Chen said. Taiwan’s central bank has hiked interest rates three times this year and is widely believed to make another increase later this month. The housing market in southern Taiwan enjoyed a two-year boom on the back of investment and expansion plans of local chipmakers and international equipment suppliers. H&B Business Group (住商不動產) research director Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said the lack of consensus over house prices have also dragged transactions.

A picture of a memorial site for the victims of the Jonestown Massacre in November 1978 in Jonestown, Guyana. Bodies of more than 400 members of the Jim Jones’ sect “Temple of people” in Jonestown, where the Cult leader Jim Jones had established the Peoples Temple. Fitz Duke on Sept. 21 gestures at the entrance of Jonestown, Guyana. Forty-four years later, only a white slab in the overgrowth bearing the words “in memory of the victims of the Jonestown massacre” bears testament to what happened at the site. But, if children want to study that, or people want to visit as a tourist site, there is nothing,” she added.

China’s central bank says focus is on growthBloombergPeople’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Yi Gang (易綱) said the central bank’s attention is to be centered on economic growth, a sign policymakers might shift gear toward supporting economic recovery as the nation gradually eases COVID-19 controls. “Our focus is growth right now,” Yi said yesterday in a video speech given to a central bank conference in Bangkok. Photo: REUTERSThe central bank recently surprised market watchers by cutting the reserve requirement ratio for banks — unleashing more cash that banks can use for lending. Yi’s comments “confirmed the recent shift of policy focus to growth after the party congress” in October, Mizuho Bank foreign exchange strategist Ken Cheung (張建泰) said. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe and Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo attended the event.

Brain chip to start human trials in six months: MuskReutersElon Musk said on Wednesday he expects a wireless brain chip developed by his company Neuralink to begin human clinical trials in six months, after the company missed earlier timelines he set. “We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human,” Musk said during a much-awaited public update on the device. Neuralink’s last public presentation, more than a year ago, involved a monkey with a brain chip that played a computer game by thinking alone. Neuralink has repeatedly missed internal deadlines to gain FDA approval to start human trials, current and former employees have said. It received US regulatory clearance for human trials last year and has completed studies in four people in Australia.

Kao, Gou alliance in Hsinchu a risk for KoBy Shih Chia-liang 施佳良In Saturday’s local elections, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) secured its place as the third force in Taiwanese politics. As party chairman, Ko only has five legislators-at-large and 14 newly elected city councilors in his pocket. Furthermore, Kao seems to consider Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) her boss and superior, more so than Ko. As she assumes office, Kao is to become a chief administrative officer in Hsinchu, and head of a local TPP faction with resources at her disposal. Through TPP headquarters in Hsinchu, Gou could have the city government acting as his central headquarters, and providing him with access to TPP members and powerbrokers.

The Liberty Times Editorial: Election win a challenge for KMTCalm reigns at last as Taiwanese mull over the results of Saturday’s hotly contested nine-in-one elections. Why was there such a big difference between that poll and the local election results? Besides, opposition parties’ election strategies are more aggressive than they used to be, and they use hatred to mobilize and replace their own nominees when others are seen as better positioned to win. Chu and Ko both made gains in the local elections, but the reversal of fortunes that took place between 2018 and 2020 shows that there is no inevitable relation between this year’s local elections, and the presidential and legislative elections of 2024. The election results have shown the international community how unpredictable Taiwan’s lively democracy can be.

Election sets stage for tense 2024 presidential raceBloombergTaiwan is set for a more contentious presidential race focused on rising tensions with China, after low turnout in local elections contributed to the Democratic People’s Party’s (DPP) massive losses. The DPP won just five of 21 city and county races on Saturday. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held on to 13 seats, and captured the mayoral seats in Taipei and Taoyuan. For both parties, the results are certain to ignite internal jockeying ahead of the presidential election in 2024, when Tsai is to step down due to term limits. “However, Hou is long-favored as the next candidate in the party.”However, the economy could play a key role in 2024 if growth continues to slow.

Retired officer and convicted spy must return pension payments, court rulesStaff Writer, with CNAThe Supreme Administrative Court has upheld a ruling that a retired military intelligence officer must return pension payments totaling about NT$1.66 million (US$53,528) after being convicted of leaking military secrets to an intermediary who passed them on to China. The verdict against the retired lieutenant colonel, surnamed Chu (朱), cannot be appealed, the supreme court said on Nov. 24 after a review of the case’s ruling, which had been handed down by a lower administrative court. Retired Military Intelligence Bureau major Wang Tsung-wu is pictured at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on March 5, 2015. In its ruling, the Taipei administrative court said due to Chu’s conviction under the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces, his eligibility for a pension had been voided, a ruling that Chu then appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court. Lin, a retired military officer, had been recruited by another retired Taiwanese officer named Wang Tsung-wu (王宗武), who had been recruiting spies for China and helping identify Taiwanese spies in that country.

White supremacists, neo-Nazi groups and vandals have continued to use Hitler’s symbol to stoke fear and hate. RECLAIMING A SYMBOLOver the past decade, as the Asian diaspora grew in North America, calls to reclaim the swastika as a sacred symbol became louder. Sheetal Deo and her husband, Sanmeet Deo, on Nov. 13 hold a Hindu swastika symbol in their home in Syosset, New York. Photo: APDeo believes she and people of other faiths shouldn’t have to sacrifice or apologize for a sacred symbol simply because it is often conflated with its tainted version. They supported a new California law that criminalizes the public display of it, making an exception for the sacred swastika.