By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday called on global organizations not to suppress the right to work of Taiwanese over political factors after the World Bank reportedly required Taiwanese staff to provide Chinese-issued travel documents. Headquartered in Washington, the World Bank is a part of the UN, but retains its independence, with goals to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement yesterday that the ministry is asking Taiwan’s international partners to push the World Bank to correct the practice. In a separate statement later yesterday, Ou said that after checking with the World Bank through its international partners, the ministry confirmed that the bank had corrected the improper practice of requiring Taiwanese staff to use PRC passports. The ministry affirms that the World Bank adheres to its own professionalism and principles, while protecting the rights of its Taiwanese staff, allowing them to contribute to the global community, she said.

By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterTaiwan is accelerating its progress in space technology after nearly three decades of development. The Ministry of Science and Technology in January announced the start of the nation’s third space program, which is to run until 2028. Led by the semi-official National Space Organization (NSPO), the program mainly focuses on developing high-resolution remote sensing satellites and synthetic aperture radar satellites, as well as fostering the domestic space industry. A relatively weak area of Taiwan’s space technology, rocket development seems more likely to succeed outside of government-led programs, especially as two domestic forerunners with complementary strengths have joined forces. The faculty at the Taoyuan-based NCU Graduate Institute of Space Science and Engineering has played an essential role in previous satellite programs.

Taiwan was ranked 59th of 61 countries in the annual Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) released by Germanwatch on Wednesday. Germanwatch ranked China 30th. India ranked ninth, but Reuters last month reported that PM2.5 levels in New Delhi reached 500 on some indices on Nov. 3. While the CCPI does not measure air pollution specifically, the UN Economic Commission for Europe says that poor air quality and climate change are closely linked. Perhaps it could be proactive and provide Germanwatch — which presents its reports at the annual UN Climate Change Conference — with more comprehensive data.

AP, SAVANNAH, GeorgiaA Georgia man who was videotaped slapping a female reporter’s rear on live TV was arrested on Friday on a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery. “The conduct displayed toward Alex Bozarjian during her live coverage of Saturday’s Savannah Bridge Run was reprehensible and completely unacceptable,” the Savannah television station said in a statement on Friday. The safety and protection of our employees is WSAV-TV’s highest priority.”Jail records showed that Callaway was booked on Friday. Video from Bozarjian’s live broadcast on Saturday last week posted online showed one of the passing runners appearing to swat her from behind. Callaway stepped forward earlier this week as the man who slapped Bozarjian.

To restrict the outflow of funds, China has placed strict controls on outward remittances and money transfers, a necessary means to maintain stability. Given these circumstances, there is certain to be an increasing and never-ending supply of illegal underground money transfer and remittance services such as those allegedly provided by Wu and his wife. Extrapolating from the Chiayi case, the inflow of overseas funds through similar underground channels across the nation probably amounts to hundreds of billions of NT dollars. These cases of underground money transfer and foreign exchange services suggest that a tremendous amount of overseas funds are flowing back to Taiwan for investment. Taiwan benefits from the tangible impact of global order transfers, returning businesses and rising domestic consumption, which helps boost the nation’s economy.

This week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a plan to make the continent carbon neutral by 2050. Europe’s airlines are spending 170 billion euros (US$189 billion) on new fuel-efficient aircraft, but these will still spew out carbon. Airlines do not even agree among themselves about whether to punish the business lounge elite or the weekend city breakers. When the environmental impact of a business is not priced in, there can be such a thing as too much freedom. Making flights more expensive would hurt those for whom 20 euros in new taxes, say, is the difference between flying and staying home.

Reuters, NEW DELHIA divisive citizenship bill has been signed into law in India, a move that comes amid widespread protests in the country’s northeast. Two people were killed and 11 injured on Thursday when police opened fire on mobs in Assam State torching buildings and attacking railway stations. Protesters have said that the law would convert thousands of illegal immigrants into legal residents. The new law lays out a path of Indian citizenship for six minority religious groups from the neighboring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday gave his assent to the bill, signing it into law, an official statement said.

AFP, WHAKATANE, New ZealandElite soldiers yesterday retrieved six bodies from New Zealand’s volatile White Island volcano, winning praise for a “courageous” mission carried out under the threat of another eruption. Efforts to locate the two remaining bodies were ongoing, with divers searching nearby waters after a corpse was seen floating in choppy seas on Tuesday, Bush said. New Zealand Special Operations Component Commander Rian McKinstry said he was “incredibly proud” of the team, who dealt with heat stress as they prepared the bodies to be airlifted out. “It was a unique operation, but unique operations are what organizations like the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron gets involved in,” he said. “Today was all about reuniting them with their loved ones,” she said, adding that she was on tenterhooks when the military team was on the volcano.

Some supporters of another Brexit vote blamed themselves for the crushing defeat. The main organization campaigning for a second referendum imploded, while the opposition Labour leader was ambivalent, pledging to stay neutral in another vote. Gina Miller, a prominent campaigner for a second referendum, was among those who accepted that there was no way back. Many campaigners said the fate of their movement was inextricably linked with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the least popular opposition leader in living memory. The most likely route to a second referendum would have been if Corbyn had become prime minister.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) could take back all but one of the districts it lost two years ago, based on an exit poll and early results. Johnson, like former British prime minister Theresa May, has consistently resisted pressure from the SNP-led administration in Edinburgh for another independence vote. Sturgeon made stopping Brexit and giving Scotland the right to dictate its own future the cornerstone of her party’s campaign. It held two more with increased majorities, suggesting that the exit poll projections would be borne out by results. If the result is broadly correct, more SNP supporters will be agitating for Sturgeon to demand an independence vote regardless of whether the British government acquiesces to one, a legal requirement.

AFP, JAKARTAIndonesia’s little-known glaciers are melting so fast that they could disappear in a decade, a new study has said, underscoring the imminent threat posed by climate change to ice sheets in tropical countries. “Because of the relatively low elevation of the [Papua] glaciers ... these will be the first to go,” said Lonnie Thompson, one of the authors of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week. Accelerating melt-off from glaciers and especially ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are driving sea level rises, threatening coastal megacities and small island nations. “Tropical glaciers are mostly smaller and so their response time to variations in climate change is faster compared with larger glaciers and ice sheets,” said Indonesia-based glaciologist Donaldi Permana, also an author on the study. While earlier estimates suggested that Papua’s glaciers have shrunk by about 85 percent in the past few decades, this week’s study said that glaciers, which once covered about 20km2 have shrunk to less than half of 1km2.

Anger over the errors cited in a US Department of Justice inspector general’s report of the Russia investigation has produced rare consensus from Democrats and Republicans, who otherwise have had sharply different interpretations of the report’s findings. The report said that the FBI was justified in investigating ties between the campaign and Russia, but criticized how the investigation was conducted. US Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who has recommended changes, said his office would conduct an audit of how the FBI applies for warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the bureau is making its own changes to ensure more accuracy and completeness in warrant applications. In Page’s case, officials suspected that he was being targeted for Russian government recruitment, though he was never accused by the FBI of wrongdoing.

AFP, MEXICO CITYThe Mexican Senate on Thursday ratified the modified North American free-trade agreement with the US and Canada after more than two years of arduous negotiations. New additions introduced on Tuesday to the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — which notably toughen the deal’s labor enforcement provisions — were rubber-stamped by 107 votes to one, making Mexico the first nation to sign the deal. “We’re already done it in Mexico: The president has signed it and the Senate has ratified the USMCA,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tweeted. It replaces the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which US President Donald Trump said had been “a disaster” for the US. The deal is a “historic act” for Mexico for its potential to create jobs, Mexican Senator Ricardo Monreal said.

Staff writer, with CNATaiwan and Nauru yesterday signed an aviation services agreement, marking the beginning of bilateral cooperation in air transportation between the two nations. Nauru Airlines last month sent representatives to Taiwan to discuss airline cooperation, such as extending its flight routes to Taipei, Tsai said. Nauru Airlines at present is the only commercial airline that flies from Taiwan to Nauru, with connections to Brisbane, Australia; Tarawa, Kiribati; Nadi, Fiji; and Majuro, the Marshall Islands. Nauru is looking forward to building a brighter future with Taiwan, Aingimea said. When Nauru experienced a financial crisis in the 1990s, it was Taiwan that helped revive the operations of Nauru Airlines,” he said.

By Jason Pan and Chen Yun / Staff reportersChinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Arthur Chen (陳宜民) yesterday apologized for pushing a female police officer during a protest at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Taipei on Friday last week. Footage from the incident appeared to show Chen asking the police officer for the name of her unit and then knocking her cap off before pushing her. Chen said he hoped that the incident would not obscure the message of the protest. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is considering revoking her party membership, DPP Taipei City chapter director Chen Cheng-te (陳正德) said. A decision on Yang’s membership would follow the outcome of an investigation by Taipei prosecutors, Chen said after presiding over a chapter executive committee meeting on Tuesday.