Reuters, WASHINGTONThe US Department of Health and Human Services on Sunday said that it is investigating a manufacturing defect in some initial COVID-19 test kits that prompted some US states to seek emergency approval to use their own test kits. The FDA on Saturday said that it would allow some laboratories to immediately use tests they have developed and validated to achieve more rapid testing capacity for the coronavirus. On Sunday, New York confirmed its first case of the disease. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement on Sunday that “upon learning about the test issue from CDC [the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], FDA worked with CDC to determine that problems with certain test components were due to a manufacturing issue. Hahn said that the “FDA has confidence in the design and current manufacturing of the test that already have [been] and are continuing to be distributed.”

BloombergIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former military chief Benny Gantz yesterday headed to their third match-up in less than a year, as Israelis burdened by election fatigue and political paralysis looked grimly at polls forecasting another deadlock. Two major developments have rippled through the body politic since Israelis last cast ballots in September. While these moves could have far-reaching implications, polls suggest they have not tilted the contest toward a clearcut verdict. Netanyahu built momentum in the last two weeks of the campaign, and his Likud party overtook Gantz’s Blue and White in polls after consistently trailing before. If the polls are borne out, then the fulcrum would shift to coalition negotiations that did not end the impasse in the previous two rounds of voting.

Top global brands, such as Apple, BMW and Sony, have been accused of getting supplies from factories using the forced labor, an explosive allegation that could reverberate in boardrooms across the world. “Uighurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of at least 83 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors,” the think tank said. “Some factories across China are using forced Uighur labor under a state-sponsored labor transfer scheme that is tainting the global supply chain,” it said. “Companies using forced Uighur labor in their supply chains could find themselves in breach of laws which prohibit the importation of goods made with forced labor or mandate disclosure of forced labor supply chain risks,” the report said. ‘SURPLUS’ LABOROfficially, the Chinese government has said it is transferring “surplus” Xinjiang labor to other regions in the name of poverty alleviation.

AFP, WASHINGTONIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday appeared to criticize US Senator Bernie Sanders, whose boycott of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has laid bare divisions among Democrats. “We don’t want Sanders at AIPAC. The map of Israel will change, the future of Israel will change, and it will change for the better,” Netanyahu said. Ex-military chief Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s rival in the election, did not mention Sanders in his own remarks by satellite to AIPAC, but vowed to rebuild support for Israel in the US. That is the Israel we know; that is the Israel we need,” Gantz said.

AFP, LAHORE, PakistanWith her flashing rings, green-streaked hair and “Hack the patriarchy” laptop stickers, Nighat Dad is a digital warrior. Advocates have denounced pervasive, sometimes deadly violence by men — usually male relatives — against women who break those taboos. Dad formed the Digital Rights Foundation, a think tank tackling digital rights through a gender lens, in 2012, winning her recognition as one of Time magazine’s next-generation leaders in 2015 and a Human Rights Tulip award in 2016. Callers range from celebrities to poor women in deeply conservative areas whose male relatives do not allow them to leave their homes. Now the helpline survives only by the grace of small grants from groups such as the Netherlands-based Digital Defenders Partnership, which supports rights advocates.

It is widely taken for granted that people in Taiwan speak Mandarin. Suppose a foreigner and a Taiwanese both speak English and Mandarin. I have heard foreigners asking: “Why do Taiwanese speak English to me while I speak Mandarin?”They have a point, certainly. According to that view, Taiwanese who prefer to speak English with Westerners who can speak Mandarin on Taiwan’s soil seem to lack cultural self-esteem. So speaking English is totally fine.

The COVID-19 outbreak in China has renewed the debate over whether Chinese should be allowed to use the National Health Insurance (NHI) system. It also means that Chinese enjoy the same healthcare benefits as Taiwanese as long as they are given a residency certificate for visiting their Taiwanese step-parent. According to statistics compiled by the National Health Insurance Administration, about 63,000 Chinese benefited from the rule change in 2015, which in turn increased NHI expenditure by NT$31.5 million (US$1.05 million at the current exchange rate). Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) recommended amending the act to raise the NHI premiums for those who do not live in the nation for at least 183 days annually. The proposals to rectify the problem deserve praise, but with the DPP having been the ruling party for almost four years, such calls are long overdue.

By Natasha Li / Staff reporterThe Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday revealed a NT$100 million (US$3.32 million) budget to improve infrastructure in shopping districts nationwide as it looks to stimulate the local economy amid a COVID-19 outbreak. “Put it this way, the coronavirus is providing us with a unique opportunity where shopping districts can take advantage of the current lull in business to shape up,” Small and Medium Enterprise Administration Director-General Ho Chin-tsang (何晉滄) told the Taipei Times by telephone. The NT$100 million budget would be mainly spent on upgrading existing public infrastructure within 20 selected shopping districts across the nation, Ho said. “Shopping districts should also focus on implementing more environmentally friendly facilities and equipment,” he added. While the ministry is still discussing the exact criteria, shopping districts that wish to participate would each have to submit a project plan for approval, Ho said.

By Liu Yu-ching and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerFollowing a record number of tourists last year, Penghu County’s Cimei Township (七美) plans to charge visitors a fee to help combat record amounts of trash and alleviate its soaring disposal costs. The township, famous for the Twin-Hearts Fish Trap (雙心石滬), said it plans to impose fees on tourist ferries after becoming one of the nation’s most popular tourist destinations, although such a move is at least a year away. The proposal still has to be reviewed by the township council, and, if passed, would provide a notice period for ferry operators, but the earliest it could be imposed would be next year, he added. However, some tourism operators criticized the idea, warning that it could reduce visitors. Nearly 700,000 to 800,000 people visited the Seven Beauties Tomb (七美人塚) in the township when the admission fee was NT$20 each, but fewer than 300,000 visited after the fee was raised to NT$30, the operators said.

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporterThe Taipei City Government yesterday rejected a rumor that Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has contracted COVID-19. Taipei City Government deputy spokeswoman Huang Ching-yin said that Ko had not been feeling well for two days, but he had not contracted COVID-19 and was not hospitalized. Ko said that his detractors and Chinese trolls had posted misleading remarks and spread a rumor that he had COVID-19. In other news, the city government said that a man who died on a street in Taipei on Sunday had not been quarantined. If a forensic pathologist suggests that the body be tested for COVID-19, specimens would be sent to the Central Epidemic Command Center, Chuang said.

As the summer is near, it is not a good idea for people to wear masks the whole day, college dean Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權) said. Scientists in the US have found that the severity and contagiousness of COVID-19 is close to that of the 1968 influenza outbreak, Chan said. College vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said that people should embrace social distancing measures to slow COVID-19’s spread. Taiwan can help minimize the threat by applying social distancing as used in other countries, Chen said. The policy authorizes station personnel to cancel large events at stations and ban large groups.

“If employees at one branch cannot work due to the outbreak, we will transfer staff from other branches to provide support. We cannot just shut down branches,” Teng said. CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) have implemented similar plans, the companies said. Shin Kong Financial, which is headquartered near Taipei Railway Station, has made a building in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) its second headquarters. CTBC Financial has not made specific plans for affected branches, but would comply with Central Epidemic Command Center instructions, Chiu said.

Shi made his wish come true when he founded the Chimei Museum in 1992 in his hometown, Tainan. In the video he recounts how the items he saw as a child piqued his fascination with collecting and made him determined to open a free museum of his own. In the film, Shi as a youngster is portrayed by a student from the same elementary school that he attended, and some scenes were filmed at the National Tainan Second Senior High School, which used to house the museum Shi loved as a child, the Chimei Museum said. The Chimei Museum is known for having the world’s largest collectionsof violins, as well as extensive weapons and sculpture collections, and deputy director Patricia Liao (廖婉如) said she is often asked why its collections are predominantly from Europe. The Chimei Museum has been open for 18 years, but hopefully the video will help the public realize its significance, she said.

By Shelley Shan / Staff reporterThe Travel Quality Assurance Association yesterday estimated that about 500 travel agencies would be forced to suspend operations in the first half of this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Many travel agencies are already facing severe challenges caused by declining revenue due to the outbreak, Wu said. “Our conservative estimate is that more than 500 travel agencies would temporarily cease business in the first half,” she said. “At least 1,500 travel agencies might be forced to place their employees on furlough. The disputes put many travel agencies in a bind, she said.

“However, as the novel coronavirus is highly contagious and more lethal than the flu, we believe our tests should be conducted in a BSL-3 lab,” Pan said. “As the genetic sequence we got is for the whole of the virus, we had to analyze the specific genes of the spike protein, a key protein that the coronavirus uses to invade human cells,” he said. It is important to find the spike protein to develop antigens for the vaccines, as the special protein induces immune responses in humans, he said. “Now, we have four different prototypes of the antigens and will run tests on them in the NHRI’s advanced lab,” he said. Adimmune aims to maintain its goal of running an animal test in the second quarter, Pan said.