Myanmar junta, coup critic vie for UN positionThe Guardian, BANGKOKThe UN faces a dilemma when its General Assembly convenes next week, after Myanmar’s military junta and the country’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) launched rival bids to fill the country’s seat. Myanmar’s military, which seized power in February, has sought to replace Burmese Ambassador to the UN Kyaw Moe Tun, an outspoken critic of the coup. The junta and the NUG, which was set up partly by ousted politicians, are believed to have submitted applications to the UN’s credentials committee. Burmese Ambassador to the UN Kyaw Moe Tun addresses the Human Rights Council at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 11, 2019. This could mean an empty seat, or it could allow Kyaw Moe Tun to continue on a provisional basis.

Taiwanese movies to be featured in London film festivalStaff writer, with CNAFifteen Taiwanese films are to be screened in cinemas across London later this month at the Queer East Film Festival, which is to showcase films from 15 Asian countries, its organizers have said. Veteran actor Chang Feng is pictured in a scene from director Tsai Ming-liang’s film Days. Wang said that Taiwanese LGBTQ+ films cover a wide range of topics, such as cross-gender issues, adoption, surrogate mothers and Taiwan’s White Terror era. Chou, former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) and Vita Lin (林杏鴻), founder of the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival, are to be among the panelists sharing their experiences and stories with people across Asia, the organizers said. Launched last year, the Queer East Film Festival seeks to facilitate a better understanding of the richness of queer Asian heritage and to bridge the cultural distance between the UK public and the Asian region, the festival’s organizers said.

Feminist love stories? Photo: AP“Feminist love stories are our genre,’’ Cohen says in an interview alongside West. But our perspective as documentary filmmakers is that it’s kind of like a gold mine.’’It’s an ongoing project. Cohen and West are currently editing another documentary about an extraordinary American woman they expect to release next year. And, yes, Cohen promises, this film, too, features what she calls a great feminist love story.

The foreigners on YouTube defending ChinaAFP, BEIJINGWith YouTube videos “debunking” allegations of human rights abuses and diatribes on Western “conspiracies” against China, an unlikely set of foreigners is loudly defending Beijing against international critics. Lee Barrett speaks on his YouTube channel, as seen on a computer screen in Beijing on Sept. 2. Their backgrounds are often in fields unrelated to current affairs or politics, while their videos blend scenes of everyday life with passionate commentaries defending China. His videos have featured tours sponsored by the government-run China Radio International, where he interviews other YouTubers about criticisms of China and explores rural development projects. It is difficult to quantify the influence of the YouTubers outside China, with many of their commenters claiming to be grateful Chinese.

F1 Saturday sprint ‘not fish, not meat’: Mercedes’ WolffReutersMercedes team boss Toto Wolff on Saturday dismissed Formula One’s experimental sprint format as “not fish, not meat,” adding that it was not doing much for the sport either. The 100km qualifying race was trialed for the second time at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but drivers struggled to overtake. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas drives during the sprint race of the Grand Prix of Italy in Monza, Italy, on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFEValtteri Bottas won the sprint for Mercedes, leading all the way, but the Finn was to start last yesterday due to engine penalties. “We don’t want gimmicks, we don’t want to cannibalize, we don’t want to affect the integrity,” he added.

The commission on Wednesday last week announced initial plans for erasing traces of authoritarianism from the memorial hall, starting with its “axis of worship,” or the 6.3m-tall bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in the main building. The front gate to Liberty Square frames the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on Oct. 28 last year. “The nation should not be spending so many resources to commemorate an authoritarian ruler,” the commission said, adding that original plans for the space did not even include a memorial hall. Under the party-state system created by Chiang, all political and military power was controlled by one individual, the commission said. The memorial should be given back to the people and reinterpreted to inspire education about the nation’s past, it added.

Han Kuang military war games are to begin todayStaff writer, with CNAThe Han Kuang exercises, the nation’s major war games, are to start today and run for five days. The drills are to include a military aircraft emergency takeoff and landing exercise on a regular roadway on Wednesday, featuring all three fighter jet models in Taiwan’s fleet, a military source said last week. An F-16V jet takes off from a freeway in Changhua County during the Han Kuang military exercises on May 28, 2019. Previously, emergency landing exercises have been held on sections of the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. The Han Kuang exercises have been held annually since 1984, including live-fire drills and computerized war games, to test Taiwan’s combat readiness in the event of a Chinese invasion.

Ticket uptick for food delivers: reportTRAFFIC VIOLATIONS: The National Audit Office said that deliverers last year ran red lights in 19,868 cases and exceeded the speed limit by 20kph to 40kph in 9,054 casesBy Hsieh Chun-lin / Staff reporterTraffic violations and accidents involving food deliverers increased by more than 3,000 cases over the past four years, a report released by the National Audit Office said. The agency compiled data on 101,992 food deliverers registered with Uber Eats Taiwan and Foodpanda Taiwan between October last year and February, and traffic accident data on the vehicles registered to food delivery service providers between 2017 and last year. Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei TimesLast year, 30,683 vehicles registered by service providers and driven by 29,378 food deliverers, or about 29 percent of all food deliverers, were involved in 50,224 major traffic cases or 50,841 individual traffic violations, the data showed. Some registered deliverers conveyed meals on unregistered vehicles, such as rental scooters or other private vehicles, while some unregistered drivers borrowed a deliverer’s Uber Eats or Foodpanda registration to deliver meals, the report said. The ministry said that food delivery service providers use motor vehicles to transport goods and get paid for it, so they should obtain motor transportation industry licenses or commission a legal motor transportation company to make the deliveries.

A self-made billionaire’s quest to save EvergrandeAFP, BEIJINGFrom rural poverty to real estate billions, the fortunes of Evergrande Group (恆大集團) chairman Xu Jiayin (許家印) tracked China’s runaway growth for much of the past two decades — but now he is battling to save his conglomerate from a quagmire of debt. They warned that Evergrande is “close to collapse,” with large losses looming for banks, bondholders and home buyers. Evergrande Group chairman Xu Jiayin speaks at an earnings conference in Hong Kong on March 26, 2019. In 2010, Xu bought an embattled Guangzhou soccer team, renaming it Guangzhou Evergrande and pouring money into world-class players and coaches. Without the country’s reform and opening up, Evergrande is not what it is today,” he said.

Auto parts suppliers’ sales mixed amid chip shortageBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterAuto parts suppliers last week reported mixed sales performances for last month, as shipments of gasoline-powered and electric vehicles continued to be affected by tight auto chip supply for tier-one parts suppliers and automakers. A worker assembles vehicle parts at a factory in Xinyu, China, on April 27 last year. “Generally, electric vehicle and electrification-related supply chain firms saw sales grow in August,” Yuanta analysts said in the note. The auto chip shortage has forced automakers worldwide to trim production, pushing passenger vehicle sales in China to fall 15 percent year-on-year to 1.45 million units last month, while sales of light vehicles in the US dropped 17 percent to 1.09 million units, Yuanta said, citing industry tallies. “Amid low car inventory levels in the US and China and with high used car prices, we believe slower-than-expected car sales are mainly owing to supply chain disruptions rather than a car demand decline,” they said.

Listed firms’ revenue up 11.97%SHIFTING DYNAMICS An imbalance in supply and demand during the pandemic resulted in a boost to the shipping industry, while other sectors also benefitedBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterThe combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange last month increased 11.97 percent year-on-year to NT$3.145 trillion (US$113.5 billion), the bourse said on Saturday. The exchange said in a statement that 661 firms reported revenue growth, while 292 reported a decline. The combined revenue of listed firms last grew 14.16 percent from August 2019, before COVID-19 was a factor, it added. Accumulated revenue for the 953 listed firms in the first eight months of the year reached NT$24.1 trillion, up 18.61 percent year-on-year, the exchange said, adding that the increase compared with the same period in 2019 was 16.45 percent. Firms in the shipping and transportation, plastics, and iron and steel industries reported the highest revenue increases during the eight-month period, the exchange added.

Credit card spending down 7.5% due to virus, electronic payments up 43%By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterCredit card spending in the nation fell for a second consecutive month in July, declining 7.5 percent annually to NT$335.4 billion, as consumers purchased less amid a local outbreak of COVID-19, the Financial Supervisory Commission said. In May, when the outbreak began, credit card spending rose 11.6 percent annually to NT$239.6 billion, data released by the commission on Thursday showed. However, credit card spending declined 9.19 percent to NT$215.3 billion in June, as the outbreak affected private consumption, the commission said. Although July’s credit card spending of NT$335.4 billion was down from a year earlier, it was the second-highest for that month, but the momentum came from tax payments, not regular spending, the commission said. For the first seven months, the nation’s cumulative credit card spending totaled NT$1.77 trillion, up 1.78 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.

Taiwan’s outstanding epidemic preparedness from last year, paired with its ability to meet the needs of the global supply chain, demonstrates that “Taiwan can help and is ready to help,” the Southern Californian groups said. Photo courtesy of the Taiwanese American Center of Northern California via CNA“Now is the time for the UN to accept Taiwan and for Taiwan to make a contribution,” they added. Taiwan is a force for good in the world, TECO in Los Angeles Director-General Louis Huang (黃敏境) said. “Not only does Taiwan need the UN, but the UN needs Taiwan, too,” the groups said, adding that the nation’s excellence in technology, healthcare and soft power, as well as its global trade status, can help the global organization. Representatives from eight Taiwanese expat community organizations in Northern California on Saturday issued a similar call at a news conference in San Jose.

Typhoon disrupts travel, cuts power to thousands of homes as it barrels northStaff writer, with AFP and CNATyphoon Chanthu yesterday unleashed powerful winds and heavy rain on eastern Taiwan, disrupting travel and cutting electricity to thousands of homes, but sparing the island a direct hit. Police officers remove a fallen tree from a road in Hualien County yesterday. The typhoon was packing sustained winds of up to 162kph, with gusts of up to 198kph, it said. People struggle to keep their umbrellas open among gusts of wind and rain brought by Typhoon Chanthu in Taipei yesterday. In a rare exception to the rule, not a single typhoon made landfall last year, the first time in 56 years.

MMA’s Belfort humbles Holyfield with TKO in firstAFP, MIAMIFormer heavyweight world champion Evander Holyfield on Saturday night looked all of his 58 years in a first-round technical knockout loss to mixed martial arts star Vitor Belfort. The American ring great regained his feet only to be sent to the canvas by a combination from Belfort. Holyfield (44-10 with two drawn and 29 knockouts), accepted the Belfort fight on eight days’ notice after Oscar De La Hoya tested positive for COVID-19. Holyfield said he was ready, having been preparing for a proposed comeback bout against Kevin McBride that did not come off. Asked after the fight if he was still interested in making a rematch with his old nemesis Tyson, Holyfield said: “Of course.”