By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterTaipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) has launched a money transfer service for mobile devices, Bagel Pay, the nation’s first experimental “regulatory sandbox” application that deploys blockchain technology. The bank has teamed up with developer AMIS (帳聯網路科技) to provide the blockchain money transfer service. During the six-month experiment, Taipei Fubon customers can transfer funds to another person or company with an account at the bank or at Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), and vice versa, they said. Taipei Fubon said it is not charging a handling fee during the experiment and that it would be offering discounts to encourage its customers to use the service. If the experiment goes smoothly, the bank plans to utilize blockchain technology for other financial services, including lending and cross-border remittances, it said.

The city government earlier yesterday also fined state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), which operates the power plant, NT$3 million (US$98,338), because the plant has used 11.08 million tonnes of coal since the beginning of this year, exceeding the maximum of 11.04 million tonnes stipulated by the Taichung Autonomous Act for Coal Regulation (台中市管制生煤自治條例). “Electricity [from the Taichung Power Plant] is for everyone’s use ... I hope that the Taichung City Government will stop making things difficult for civil servants, as a steady electricity supply remains the people’s number one priority,” Shen said. Taipower has reduced coal use by 5 million tonnes over the past few years to reduce air pollution, Shen said, adding that the Taichung plant only contributes to one of the nation’s pollution problems. The company would nevertheless strive to lower the plant’s coal use to 12.6 million tonnes for next year, Hsu said.

The 5G smartphone is scheduled to go on sale in Japan in the first half of next year, Sharp said, adding that sales would depend on the progress of 5G technology development in the nation. In Taiwan, the government has designated next year the first of the 5G era and is to hold 5G spectrum auctions for local telecoms from Tuesday next week. Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信), another Hon Hai subsidiary, is among the five Taiwanese telecoms that plan to take part in the auction. After the Taipei event, the show moves to Taichung from Thursday next week to Dec. 16, Tainan from Dec. 19 to Dec. 23 and Kaohsiung from Dec. 26 to Dec. 30. The company’s five largest customers account for 89.6 percent of its sales, with Sharp making up 8.5 percent, FIH Mobile said.

Taiwan and the US share a solid trust in each other, and the ministry has not received any warning about bilateral relations, she said. Since 2017, US President Donald Trump’s administration has approved five arms packages to Taiwan, reflecting the US’ firm support of Taiwan, she said. Based on mutual trust and reciprocation, Taiwan would steadily and pragmatically continue to improve its partnership with the US, she said. Stilwell on Oct. 21 met with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) in Washington. The meeting was announced on the Web site of the US Department of State without the meeting venue being specified.

By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterThe Ministry of Education presented is Outstanding Award of Technological and Vocational Education yesterday at a ceremony in Taipei. The 15th iteration of the awards are the “highest honor” for students at technical and vocational schools, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said at the event at the Taipei City Youth Development Office’s Pop Plaza. Thirty-eight groups of 53 students from across the nation were recognized in two categories — Competition Excellence and Outstanding Technical Skill, he said. Awards in the former category are for students who perform well at international skills-based competitions, while the latter recognize inventions, professional licenses and achievements in other areas, Pan said. Chiu Wei-hsiang (邱緯翔), one of the winners in the Outstanding Technical Skill category, is a researcher in biomedical engineering, the department said.

The Yunlin County Government approved the application in just one day, even though the land use change contravened the Regional Plan Act (區域計畫法), he said. The county only fined the company NT$60,000 for illegal use of land and damage to the ecosystem, he said. Ye Yuan-zhi (葉元之), who is spokesman for Han’s campaign as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, said that Huang has no evidence of wrongdoing by Han. The only so-called evidence of Han improperly using his influence is records from meetings on the embankment project, Ye said. “We will not play along, because we know that Huang is doing this to get attention and to promote the NPP,” he said.

AFP, RIO DE JANEIROUS President Donald Trump on Monday announced plans to re-impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina, hitting back at what he called their “unfair” policies. “Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies,” which is hurting US farmers, Trump said on Twitter. “Effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum that is shipped into the US from those countries,” he said. Trump last year announced global tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, but later approved exemptions for some countries, including Argentina and Brazil — after they agreed to quotas. The Brazil Steel Institute said that it was perplexed by the decision.

Students’ average performance in reading, mathematics and science was largely stable in OECD countries last year, according to the results of the global test. The Paris-based policy’s forum said it was “disappointing” that there had been practically no improvement in OECD countries’ performance since it started the PISA project in 2000. It was all the more galling as per student spending in OECD member countries had risen more than 15 percent over the past decade, the report said. While important, funding was not everything, as demonstrated by the case of Estonia, which was the top-scoring OECD country in reading, despite education spending 30 percent less than the OECD average, the report said. Students’ social and economic background remained a leading factor for success at school last year, with the richest 10 percent of students in OECD countries reading at a level three years ahead of the poorest 10 percent, it said.

“Again, we’re seeing violent scenes that we don’t want to see anymore,” she told reporters after a weekly meeting with advisers. “There’s an overseas government that interfered with Hong Kong affairs, and that is most regrettable.”The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act requires an annual review by the US Department of State of the favorable trading status that the US grants to the territory. Lam is to visit Beijing on Dec. 16 and meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Hong Kong broadcaster Cable TV reported last night, citing sources. The government said she was targeted by a “violent mob” while on a trip to promote Hong Kong. Cheng, who returned home from Beijing yesterday, told reporters that she had suffered a bone fracture around her wrist and had an operation in London.

AFP, BARIYARPUR, NepalHindu worshipers yesterday began killing thousands of buffaloes in reputedly the world’s biggest animal sacrifice, held every five years in a remote corner of Nepal, despite efforts to end the bloodshed. The Gadhimai Festival started in the early hours amid tight security, with the ceremonial slaughter of a goat, rat, chicken, pig and a pigeon. Thousands of worshipers from Nepal and neighboring India have spent days sleeping out in the open and offering prayers ahead of the event in Bariyarpur village, close to the Indian border. An estimated 200,000 animals ranging from goats to rats were butchered during the last two-day Gadhimai Festival in 2014, held in honor of the Hindu goddess of power. However, animal rights advocates have said both government agencies as well as temple committees have failed to implement these rulings.

BloombergA report from Republican lawmakers said that the US House of Representatives’ investigation of US President Donald Trump failed to establish any impeachable offenses and instead paints a picture of “unelected bureaucrats” disagreeing with the president’s style, worldview and foreign-policy decisions. The findings are to be sent along with the Democratic report to the Judiciary Committee, which is to begin hearings this week to determine whether to bring articles of impeachment against Trump. “There is nothing inherently improper with Mayor Giuliani’s involvement, because the Ukrainians knew that he was a conduit to convince President Trump that President Zelenskiy was serious about reform,” the report said. “Their disagreements with President Trump’s policies and their discomfort with President Trump’s actions set in motion the anonymous, secondhand whistleblower complaint,” the report said. “For Democrats, impeachment is a tool for settling political scores and relitigating election results with which they disagreed.”

The brokerage system should be abolished to prevent migrant workers from being exploited, the association said at a news conference in front of the Ministry of Labor building in Taipei. The government should shoulder responsibility by including the protection of migrant workers’ rights in its public services, it said. The monopoly of placement agencies for migrant workers should be broken and replaced by a direct-hiring system in which a government-run agency directly employs workers from other nations, she said. Besides placement agencies, there are other channels in place for employers to hire migrant workers, it said. The importation of workers should operate on a free-market basis, while the ministry continues monitoring and checking the mechanisms in its bid to create a healthier environment for migrant workers, it said.

By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterLINE Biz+ Taiwan Ltd (連加網路) and iPass Corp (一卡通票證) yesterday announced that they would be forming a cross-border mobile payment alliance with four regional peers: Japan-based Line Pay Corp, Thailand-based Rabbit Line Pay Co Ltd, and South Korea-based Naver Corp and NHN Payco Corp. The collaboration would enable the companies’ 78 million users to make electronic payments at stores that accept Line Pay, Naver Pay, Payco or Rabbit Line Pay, LINE Biz+ Taiwan said. “We noticed that Japanese, [South] Koreans, Thais and Taiwanese visit to each others’ countries frequently. That would benefit the payment operators’ partnered stores as well, as they would be able to market their products or services to more clients, it said. Customers would not need to download new mobile apps or register another app, as the apps offered by the six operators would be connected automatically, LINE Biz+ Taiwan said.

Virginia Giuffre says she was trafficked by disgraced late US financier Jeffrey Epstein and forced to have sex with his friends, including the British prince, when she was 17 years old. I know what happened, and there’s only one of us telling the truth, and I know that’s me,” Giuffre told the BBC’s Panorama. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.”Last month, the prince gave an interview himself to the BBC. Giuffre told the BBC the picture was genuine and that she had given it to the FBI. “The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses.

AFP, TEHRANIran yesterday rejected as “utter lies” unofficial casualty figures given for street violence that erupted last month during demonstrations against a shock decision to hike fuel prices. Protests erupted in Iran on Nov. 15 after the announcement that gasoline prices were going up by as much as 200 percent with immediate effect. “They announced some numbers as well as some names... Their claimed numbers are sheer lies and fabricated,” he said in remarks aired on state television. US President Donald Trump yesterday said that Iran was killing thousands of people for protesting and urged the world to take more notice. “Not just small numbers which are bad, big numbers which are really bad, and really big numbers ...