South Korean GDP beats forecast with 0.3 percent growthBloombergSouth Korea’s economy grew more than expected at the beginning of the year, providing the central bank with breathing room while also highlighting ongoing risks to growth. Photo: BloombergThe data would be a welcome sign for BOK officials who are trying to balance taming inflation with economic growth. Keeping its key rate unchanged this month for a second straight meeting, the central bank said that economic growth this year might be slightly below its earlier 1.6 percent forecast. Meanwhile, equipment spending weighed on the quarterly data, contracting the most in at least two years. “Weak equipment spending suggests the IT [information technology] sector has yet to recover,” Ebest Investment & Securities Co analyst Woo Hye-young said.

CECC to be disbanded on Monday next weekCOVID-19 TO BE RECLASSIFIED: Vaccinations would continue to be provided, but starting from next week healthcare facilities could charge a registration feeBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterCOVID-19 is to be reclassified as a Category 4 notifiable communicable disease on Monday next week and the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is to be disbanded on the same day, the CECC said yesterday. After the center is disbanded, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is to carry out COVID-19-related response operations, it said. Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the center, said that after Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) visited the CECC yesterday afternoon, he has agreed to reclassify COVID-19 and allow the center to be disbanded on Monday next week. Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei TimesMonday next week marks the 1,197th day the center has been in operation, it said. CDC Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that vaccinations would continue to be provided at contracted healthcare facilities and vaccination stations, but starting from Monday next week, healthcare facilities could charge a registration fee.

NBCUniversal CEO quits amid relationship probeReutersNBCUniversal Inc CEO Jeff Shell has stepped down after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, following a complaint that prompted an investigation, parent company Comcast Corp said on Sunday. “I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret,” Shell said in a statement. “I’m truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down.”Shell, who had been with Comcast for about two decades, left immediately. NBCUniversal Inc CEO Jeff Shell speaks at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France, on June 22 last year. Photo: ReutersThe former chairman of NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment took over as CEO in 2020, replacing Steve Burke.

China tensions speed global trade shifts: shipping CEOBloombergPolitical tensions between the US and China are contributing to lower container shipments between the world’s two largest economies, on top of an already-underway reshaping of global trade, a major shipping industry executive said. “We are seeing a deleveraging of trade between the US and China,” Ocean Network Express Holdings Ltd CEO Jeremy Nixon said at the Capital Link Singapore Maritime Forum. “Many companies in the US are looking to reduce down the amount of imports they have got coming from China,” Nixon said. Tensions have flared over issues from Taiwan to the alleged spy balloon that was shot down over the US. Separately, global political frictions could cause turmoil in economic growth and inflation, European Central Bank Executive Board member Fabio Panetta said.

Powerchip expects revenue to fall 5%CONSERVATIVE: Demand outlook remains bleak this quarter, except some rush orders and insignificant demand for certain products, a company executive said Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電), which makes DRAM chips and driver ICs on a contract basis, expects revenue to decline up to 5 percent sequentially this quarter, extending a downtrend from the past three quarters as customers digest excessive inventory. Although customers remain conservative about placing new orders, they have been more willing to engage in price negotiations, a sign that demand for some applications has started to recover, Powerchip said yesterday. “We do not expect major changes in the second quarter in terms of revenue,” Powerchip president Brian Shieh (謝再居) told an online investors’ conference. “We believe the first and secondBy Lisa Wang

US security drive focuses on ChinaBy Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporterThe US has introduced an initiative to identify possible threats posed by China and develop plans to defend against them, US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said. Mayorkas on Friday announced the “90-day department-wide sprint” while delivering his first “state of homeland security address” at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations think tank. The initiative is to “assess how the threats posed by the PRC [People’s Republic of China] will evolve and how we can be best positioned to guard against future manifestations of this threat,” he said. US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas gives a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Friday. Photo: Screenshot from a livestreamWhile listing the security issues the US is confronting, he singled out threats posed by China as among the most serious and related to all of the department’s missions.

Japan fetes LGBTQ progress, demands moreReuters, TOKYOCheering, flag-waving crowds yesterday gathered in Tokyo for the first full Pride parade in four years, celebrating advances in LGBTQ rights, but also demanding that Japan join other advanced nations in legally recognizing same-sex marriage. It is the only member of the group that does not recognize same-sex marriage. People march during the Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade in Tokyo yesterday. Kishida in February fired an aide who sparked outrage by saying people would flee Japan if same-sex marriage was allowed, but the prime minister remains noncommittal about same-sex marriage, even as polls show 70 percent of the public in favor. The situation has long limited the talent pool for global firms, but even traditional Japanese companies find their international competitiveness endangered without diversity, including LGBTQ rights.

Japan puts military on alert fearing N Korean missileAFP, TOKYOJapan yesterday ordered its military to prepare to shoot down a North Korean ballistic missile after Pyongyang this week said it was ready to launch its first military spy satellite. Placing the satellite into orbit would require a long-range projectile, which North Korea is banned from launching because the UN views such exercises as tests of ballistic missile technology. Japanese Minister of Defense Yasukazu Hamada yesterday told the country’s Self-Defense Forces “there is a possibility of ordering destructive measures against ballistic missiles and others,” a statement from the defense ministry said. In 2012 and 2016, North Korea tested ballistic missiles that Pyongyang called satellite launches. A week ago Pyongyang said it had successfully tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, hailing it as a breakthrough for the country’s nuclear counterattack capabilities.

Ko also thanked the consular staff for their hard work, the sources said. Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je speaks to reporters in Washington on Friday. As the US-China conflict has escalated, Taiwan has become more important to the US, he said, adding that Hsiao agreed. Ko said he does not deserve all the credit for the meetings, as they were a result of Taiwan becoming more important to the US. As the US believes China to be its biggest threat, “it arranged its highest-ranking official in the region to handle the issue,” he said.

Xi, Putin share spirit of brutalityBy Joseph BoscoIn the 1930s, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met several times in each other’s countries to pledge their unified opposition to the post-World War I liberal international order. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), today’s most threatening world leaders, have also engaged in a series of exchange visits, the latest of which was last month with Xi’s visit to Moscow. Like Hitler and Mussolini almost a century ago, Putin and Xi detest the rules-based international system that has brought stability, peace and economic progress to much of the world. Like Hitler and Mussolini, Putin and Xi are kindred spirits in brutality and the inhuman treatment of people under their control. He served in the Pentagon when Vladimir Putin invaded Georgia, and was involved in Department of Defense discussions about the US’ response.

Singapore plans to execute man over 1kg of cannabisAFP, SINGAPOREA Singaporean man is scheduled to be hanged next week for conspiring to smuggle 1kg of cannabis in the city-state’s first execution in six months, rights groups said. Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, would be executed on Wednesday, according to a notice from the Singapore Prison Service that was received by his family and posted on social media by rights advocates. Amnesty International condemned the decision, calling it “extremely cruel.”Protesters hold candles during a candlelight vigil against the death penalty in Singapore on April 26 last year. Photo: EPA-EFE“If carried out, this execution would be in violation of international law and in stubborn defiance of continued outcry over Singapore’s use of the death penalty,” an Amnesty spokesperson said. The city-state has some of the world’s toughest laws against the use and sale of narcotics, saying that the death penalty remains an effective deterrent against trafficking.

Training on US weapons obligated by law: general‘KNIFE EDGE OF FREEDOM’: Washington works with its allies in the first island chain to ‘provide crisis response options,’ US Army Japan Commanding General Joel Vowell saidBy Lu Yi-hsuan and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writerUS law prescribes that it provide training for the military systems it sells Taiwan, although its military assistance differs from that it has provided Ukraine, US Army Japan Commanding General Joel Vowell said on Thursday. US Army Japan Commanding General Joel Vowell poses for an undated photograph. “We’ve historically had a military and State Department presence through AIT [American Institute in Taiwan], and that’s generally been as required by law,” he said. The US’ Taiwan Relations Act prescribes training to use the military systems purchased by Taiwan, he added. Asked the same question in another survey, 52 percent of Americans believed China’s territorial ambitions to be a critical threat.

Yemen crush kills at least 85, leaves hundreds injuredTRAGEDY: Authorities arrested three people after eyewitnesses said gunfire near a school where people were waiting to collect handouts caused panicAt least 85 people were killed and hundreds injured in a crush at a Ramadan cash handout in Yemen yesterday in one of its worst tragedies in the nation just as optimism was growing over its civil war. People stand outside a school at the site of a stampede in Sana’a, Yemen, yesterday. They fell on me, and I got hurt,” an injured child told Al-Masirah from his hospital bed. A Houthi security official speaking on condition of anonymity told reporters that at least 85 people were killed and “more than 322” injured, 50 of them seriously. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by the war’s direct or indirect causes, and millions pushed to the brink of famine.

Ko says he met with US national security officialsCONSENSUS? Ko told reporters in Washington that he had met AIT Chair Laura Rosenberger during a visit to AIT headquarters on Thursday last week and on Wednesday met with US security officials to discuss Taiwan’s national defense and cross-strait issues. Photo: CNAHowever, AIT Political-Military Affairs Director Matthew Tritle was seen at AIT headquarters during Ko’s visit. He said he told US officials at the meeting that while Taiwan should continue to focus on national defense, its priority should be economic growth, adding that he hoped the US would assist Taiwan in joining regional economic organizations. Ko also met with former AIT deputy director David Keegan at Johns Hopkins University, where Keegan is an adjunct lecturer in the Chinese studies program.

ChatGPT may put corporate secrets at risk, report saysBloombergCompanies using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT could be putting confidential customer information and trade secrets at risk, Israel-based venture firm Team8 said in a report. Photo: ReutersThere are also concerns that confidential information fed into chatbots could be used by AI firms. If these tools are fed confidential or private data, it would be difficult to erase the information, the report said. The document flagged three other “high risk” issues in integrating generative AI tools and underlined the heightened threat of information increasingly being shared through third-party applications. There is a “medium risk” that using generative AI could increase discrimination, harm a company’s reputation, or expose it to legal action over copyright issues, it said.