The annual event is known as the 2+2 talks because they involve the defense and foreign ministers of each country. They were attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) and Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles. Austin said that the allies would seek Japanese participation in joint operations in Australia, where the US has been rotating marines since 2011 through Darwin. Austin said that the US and Australia agreed to increase rotations of bomber task forces, fighter jets, and the US Army and Navy. “We agreed to enhance trilateral defense cooperation and to invite Japan to integrate into our force posture initiatives in Australia,” Austin said.

In contrast, across the Taiwan Strait, dissatisfaction with the Chinese government’s harsh “zero COVID” policy spawned a “Blank Paper Movement” across the nation. Demonstrators chanted slogans calling for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to step down. If the public is dissatisfied with the government, all it needs to do is to vote the governing party out of office. This is an issue that the KMT, or any political party in Taiwan, must address. Not content with attacking Taiwan’s performance in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic, the opposition resorted to undermining national defense in its desire to the win the elections.

TSMC unveils plan for second fab in ArizonaBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporter, with ReutersTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is more than doubling its US investment to US$40 billion as it plans to make 3-nanometer chips in 2026 at a second Arizona fab, adding to the chipmaker’s original plan of building a US$12 billion fab to make 4-nanometer chips in 2024. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s new wafer manufacturing facility under construction in Phoenix, Arizona, is pictured on Monday. “When complete, TSMC Arizona will be the greenest semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States producing the most advanced semiconductor process technology in the country, enabling next-generation high-performance and low-power computing products for years to come,” TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said in the statement. The chipmaker’s investment is a big win for Biden after supply-chain issues disrupted the US economy early in his presidency. “The occasion for the president’s travel is to mark a significant milestone that TSMC is reaching in bringing the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing back to the US,” US National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said.

Fewer companies willing to hike pay next year: surveySHIFT TO SERVICES: Restaurants, hotels and recreational facilities topped the list of sectors willing to raise compensation, replacing high-tech firms, which fell to No. However, only 12.6 percent of companies introduced across-the-board pay raises, as most companies limited the benefit to workers who met performance requirements. For this year, 44.2 percent of companies said they have no intention of adjusting compensation, yes123 spokesman Yang Tsung-pin (楊宗斌) said. The planned pay raise is mainly to attract and retain skilled workers, Yang said, adding that inflation is also a motivating factor. Pay hikes are forecast to average 4.1 percent, or NT$5,236, for entry-level staffers and NT$8,618 for supervisory positions, the job bank said.

Does religious faith lead to a happier, healthier life? LIFE-EXTENDING BENEFITSStudying the life-extending benefits of religious practice can therefore offer useful strategies for anyone — of any faith or none — to live a healthier and happier life. This healthier living may be the result of the religious teaching itself, which tends to encourage the principles of moderation and abstinence. SOCIAL CONNECTIONImportantly, however, the health benefits of religion remain even when the scientists have controlled for these differences in behavior, meaning that other factors must also contribute. Last, but not least, religious faiths can create a sense of purpose in someone’s life — the feeling that there is a reason and meaning to their existence.

US$10bn pending for defense: expertsBy Aaron Tu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerTaiwan might soon acquire Aegis-equipped warships or other in-demand weapons systems if reports are accurate that the US Congress plans to authorize US$10 billion of military aid to Taiwan, Taiwanese defense experts said. In Taipei, a defense official said on condition of anonymity that information about specific items is classified, adding that Taiwan continues to exchange views about its force planning with the US. Photo: ReutersTaipei and Washington should carefully consider which weapons Taiwan needs that cannot be developed or obtained independently, Institute for National Defense and Security Research analyst Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌) said. Defence International editor Chen Kuo-ming (陳國銘) said the significance of the reported increase in US military aid can be inferred from its scale, given that US aid to Ukraine is US$18 billion. The dramatic boost in aid also suggests that Washington believes that the risks confronting Taiwan are extremely high, he added.

India should speak out for TaiwanBy Sana Hashmi 胡莎娜India-Taiwan relations are at their strongest in history. With the COVID-19 pandemic subsiding and Taiwan’s re-opening, economic and people-to-people exchanges between India and Taiwan have resumed. While India is growing more proactive in embracing the idea of engaging Taiwan, the scope is still narrowly defined. India should be a part of the collective effort to maintain the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait. Similar behavior meted out to India by China should make it more compelling for India to speak out for Taiwan.

How good intentions and the rich created a dangerous creedTech billionaires seem intent on giving away a lot of money. This year alone he had, according to the Economist, funneled more than US$130 million into the movement via the FTX Future Fund, a non-profit organization that provides grants to projects aiming to secure humanity’s long-term future. Photo: ReutersThis strange convergence of a philosophy of philanthropic giving with a concern about existential risk to humanity’s future is intriguing. At one level, it could just be conscience-salving ethics-washing: making one feel good while earning colossal amounts of money financing the burning of the planet. Instead they want to be involved in some way and to see their money getting results and making a measurable impact.

FTX’s LedgerX attracts buying interest: sourcesBloombergLedgerX LLC, one of the few solvent pieces of FTX Group cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried’s crumbled conglomerate, is for sale and attracting interest from would-be buyers including cryptocurrency giants Blockchain Ltd and Gemini Trust Co, people familiar with the matter said. FTX Group CEO John Ray arrives at the bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 22. Representatives for LedgerX, FTX, Blockchain, Gemini and Kalshi did not respond to requests for comment. After FTX US purchased it last year, LedgerX sought approval for a controversial plan to clear crypto derivatives trades without intermediaries. CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam previously told US lawmakers that his agency is in daily communication with LedgerX amid the FTX turmoil.

Draft to expand eligibility for priority seats passesBy Yang Cheng-yu and Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter, with staff writerA draft amendment that would allow priority seats on public transportation to be given to “people with actual need” instead of only elderly people, women and children passed a legislative committee on Thursday. The amended version removes the words “elderly, women and children” to allow “people with actual need” to use priority seats, said Chien Hui-chuan (簡慧娟), director of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Social and Family Affairs Administration. Priority seats are pictured on a Taipei MRT rail car in an undated photograph. Article 58, Paragraph 2 of the act stipulates that people with disabilities and one of their necessary companions may also use priority seats. However, more assessments are needed before amendments can be made to order private venues to offer discounts to disabled people, he said.

Peace in Strait a consensus, MOFA says‘DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE’: The vigilance of the US and EU amid increased threats from authoritarian regimes shows that democracies are resolved to uphold order, MOFA saidBy Yang Cheng-yu and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNAMaintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is the consensus of democracies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, after a meeting of US and EU officials on the Indo-Pacific region. The US, the EU and other like-minded countries have over the past few months made many public statements about upholding peace and stability in the Strait, showing that cross-strait peace is a consensus among democracies, the ministry said. In this file handout image courtesy of the US Navy taken on August 27, 2021 the AI Arleigh-burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG 100) transits the Taiwan Strait during a routine transit. As a member of the “democratic alliance” responsible for the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan would continue to work with like-minded countries to uphold peace and stability in the Strait and the Indo-Pacific region, it added. In the US-EU statement, the two sides reiterated their concerns about human rights in China, particularly in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong.

Grimy ships switch from iron ore to food crops as Asia demand declinesBloombergDirty bulk ships used to carry iron ore are being scrubbed clean so that they can transport grain to Asia, in an unusual shift of cargoes prompted by a slump in demand for the steelmaking ingredient. China’s downturn in the housing market has weighed on iron ore, driving freight rates for bulk carriers down 50 percent from a year earlier. That has made it more attractive for some of the world’s biggest agriculture traders to book iron ore vessels for shipments of corn and soybeans. Large iron ore ships typically stay away from grain as it involves a time-consuming cleaning process to make the vessels safe for carrying food. The depressed iron ore trade this year could be pushing Baby Capes to seek “alternative employment,” said Ralph Leszczynski, head of research at shipbroker Banchero Costa & Co.

US company turning air pollution into fuel, bottles and dressesBy Lucie Aubourg / AFP, SKOKIE, IllinoisAt LanzaTech’s lab in the Chicago suburbs, a beige liquid bubbles away in dozens of glass vats. To date, LanzaTech has kept 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, while producing 190 million liters of ethanol, the company said. The company placed it in industrial conditions to optimize it in those settings, “almost like an athlete that we trained,” Kopke said. LanzaTech has also founded a separate company, LanzaJet, to use the ethanol to create sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Unlike bioethanol produced from wheat, beets or corn, fuel created from greenhouse gas emissions does not require the use of agricultural land.

HSBC to axe at least 200 senior operations managersReuters, HONG KONG and LONDONHSBC is cutting as many as 15 percent of its 2,000 senior operations managers worldwide, as it attempts to streamline its management ranks and reduce costs, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. The logo of HSBC is pictured on its headquarters at the financial Central district in Hong Kong on Aug. 4, 2020. The lender has been shrinking its sprawling global business for several years, downsizing in many regions and exiting some countries entirely as it tries to improve shareholder returns. The initiative, codenamed “project banyan,” follows HSBC’s last major redundancy plan in 2020, which targeted about 35,000 job cuts globally across all staffing levels. On Wednesday, HSBC announced a possible sale of its business in New Zealand and its plans to close 114 branches in the UK.

However, the volume represents a 28.5 percent plunge from November last year, as interest rate hikes and economic uncertainty slowed purchase decisions. Transactions in the first 11 months of this year fell 7 percent from a year earlier, and the pace of retreat has been widening each month, Chen said. Taiwan’s central bank has hiked interest rates three times this year and is widely believed to make another increase later this month. The housing market in southern Taiwan enjoyed a two-year boom on the back of investment and expansion plans of local chipmakers and international equipment suppliers. H&B Business Group (住商不動產) research director Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said the lack of consensus over house prices have also dragged transactions.