US senators introduce resolution to back Lithuanian efforts to boost Taiwan ties
US senators introduce resolution to back Lithuanian efforts to boost Taiwan tiesStaff writer, with CNA, WASHINGTONTwo US senators on Friday introduced a resolution to support Lithuania’s efforts to bolster its ties with Taiwan as China increases pressure on the Baltic state for improving its relations with Taipei. The resolution was proposed by US Senator Jim Risch, a Republican and a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation. The resolution commends Lithuania for boosting its ties with Taiwan, recognizes the bold steps it has taken to highlight the malign actions of China, and encourages nations around the world to support Lithuania and confront Chinese coercion. The resolution says China has blocked Taiwan from meaningfully participating in international organizations with the goal of diplomatically isolating the nation. It is the latest effort by Washington to support Lithuania’s improving ties with Taiwan.
Source:Taipei Times
November 06, 2021 16:09 UTC
Covid-19: Indonesia’s economic growth slows amid outbreak
Covid-19: Indonesia’s economic growth slows amid outbreakBloombergIndonesia’s economy decelerated in the third quarter as harsh lockdowns to contain a record spike in COVID-19 cases outweighed higher commodity prices and trade. That below the median estimate of 3.88 percent in a Bloomberg survey of economists and the government’s projection of 4.5 percent. People work in a tofu production facility in Jakarta, Indonesia, yesterday. Meanwhile, the global economic recovery improved, including in trade partner countries, while commodity prices rose, he said. Exports in the third quarter rose 51 percent from a year ago to US$61.4 billion, the statistics office said, while imports rose 47 percent to US$48.2 billion.
Source:Taipei Times
November 06, 2021 00:04 UTC
Cabinet approves bill to extend tax exemption for EVs
Cabinet approves bill to extend tax exemption for EVsStaff writer, with CNAThe Cabinet on Thursday approved a draft amendment to the Vehicle License Tax Act (使用牌照稅法) that would extend a tax exemption for electric vehicles (EVs) for four years until the end of 2025. Article 5 of the act stipulates that municipal, county or city governments can exempt electric vehicles from the tax until Dec. 31. The amendment would extend that exemption until Dec. 31, 2025, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement. The ministry also submitted a proposed draft amendment to the Commodity Tax Act (貨物稅條例) to the Cabinet for approval, Su said. The amendment would similarly extend a commodity tax exemption for electric vehicles and motorcycles, which expires on Dec. 31 this year, for another four years until the end of 2025.
Source:Taipei Times
November 06, 2021 00:04 UTC
Sudan military to free ministers
Sudan military to free ministersINCOMING ‘TECHNOCRATS’: An adviser said the military in Sudan has no problem with a return of the prime minister, but the pre-coup situation must not be reinstalledAFP, KHARTOUMSudan’s army chief on Thursday ordered the release of four civilian ministers detained since he led a military coup last month as international pressure mounted to restore the democratic transition. “The government formation is imminent.”Hours later, Sudan TV said that Burhan had ordered the release of four officials: Hashem Hassabalrasoul, Ali Geddo, Hamza Baloul and Youssef Adam. South Sudanese presidential adviser Tut Gatluak, who heads a mediation delegation, said that the order to free the ministers came after separate meetings with Burhan and Hamdok, who remains under effective house arrest. Sudan has since August 2019 been ruled by a joint civilian-military council as part of the now derailed transition to full civilian rule. On Thursday, small gatherings of protesters rallied in neighborhoods across Khartoum chanting: “Down with military rule.”
Source:Taipei Times
November 05, 2021 22:16 UTC
Chinese ex-official forced tennis star into sex: Peng
Chinese ex-official forced tennis star into sex: PengReuters, BEIJINGFormer world No. The Chinese State Council Information Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment, including for comment from Zhang. Discussions of the hashtag surged around the time of Peng’s post, but later plummeted as posts on the topic were deleted. While Peng’s Sina Weibo account remained available, with earlier posts visible, the comment and repost functions were disabled. Peng was the world No.1 doubles player in 2014, the first Chinese player to achieve a top ranking, after she and Hsieh, also No.
Source:Taipei Times
November 05, 2021 04:00 UTC
Bulgaria miners brace for shutdown
Bulgaria miners brace for shutdownAFP, STARA ZAGORA, BulgariaNikolay Dinev, 34, has worked as a coal miner for 12 years, but now faces an uncertain future as an EU-wide exit from coal is discussed at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The closure is inevitable,” Dinev told Agence France-Presse on the outskirts of the Maritsa East complex in central Bulgaria. Sheep graze in front of the Maritsa East II coal-powered plant in Kovachevo, Bulgaria, on Friday last week. Miners’ trade unions protested in the capital, Sofia, calling for the government to save the sector that employs about 30,000 people. The planned shutdown is likely to affect Bulgaria as a whole.
Source:Taipei Times
November 04, 2021 22:10 UTC
NSB’s Chen says no negotiation ‘under threat of force’
NSB’s Chen says no negotiation ‘under threat of force’By Aaron Tu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerTaiwan would not negotiate with China under the threat of force, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) told lawmakers yesterday. Chen cited the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例). “However, this government will never take part in a negotiation under the threat of military force, even if it had been duly authorized to do so,” Chen said, adding that Taiwan would by no means give up its pride. While a limited war over the Pratas Islands was part of the PLA’s strategic plan, the communist leadership rejected it following an internal debate, Chen said. It is the duty of soldiers to lay down their lives for the country if necessary, Chen said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 04, 2021 22:08 UTC
EU lawmakers arrive on first visit
The 13-person delegation is visiting Taiwan on a three-day trip, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Premier Su Tseng-chang, seventh right, meets members of a 13-person delegation from the European Parliament in Taipei yesterday. This year, the European Parliament has passed 12 resolutions friendly to Taiwan, showing that Taiwan-EU relations are becoming ever closer, Chang said. European Union Centre in Taiwan executive director Marc Cheng (鄭家慶) told the Taipei Times by telephone that while other European lawmakers have visited, this group got more attention due to the timing and nature of the visit. While the European Parliament is playing an increasingly important role in the bloc and can influence its budget, whether its resolutions can sway the EU’s overall policies remains to be seen, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 04, 2021 02:39 UTC
Facebook to scrap facial recognition, kill user data
Facebook to scrap facial recognition, kill user dataThe GuardianFacebook is to delete the “faceprints” of more than 1 billion people after announcing that it is shutting down its facial recognition system due to the “many concerns” about using the technology. In a statement, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said that it would shut down facial recognition on the platform over the coming weeks and delete 1 billion facial recognition templates. “Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate.”If users have opted into the face recognition setting, the faceprint used to identify them is to be deleted. If the face recognition setting is turned off, Meta said that there is no faceprint to delete. Complaints had also been filed with the US competition regulator and in 2012, a Facebook application to introduce facial recognition in the EU had to be withdrawn because no provision had been made to gain European users’ consent.
Source:Taipei Times
November 04, 2021 02:39 UTC
Gaming giant Epic to shut down Chinese version of ‘Fortnite’ following crackdown
Gaming giant Epic to shut down Chinese version of ‘Fortnite’ following crackdownAFP, BEIJINGUS tech giant Epic Games Inc has said it would shut down its popular survival game Fortnite in China, months after authorities imposed a series of strict curbs on the world’s biggest gaming market as part of a sweeping crackdown on the technology sector. “Fortnite China’s Beta test has reached an end, and the servers will be closed soon,” Epic Games said in a statement. The move brings an end to a long-running test of Epic’s version of Fortnite specifically created for the Chinese market, where content is policed for excessive violence. The Chinese test version was released in 2018, but Fortnite never received the government’s green light for a formal launch as approvals for new games slowed. The announcement about Fortnite was met with sadness from fans in China, who took to social media to mourn the loss of the game.
Source:Taipei Times
November 03, 2021 01:00 UTC
Military to intensify reservist training
Military to intensify reservist trainingBACKUP FORCE: Starting next year, reservists are to undergo two weeks of training, instead of five to seven days, and spend more time on combat training, an official saidStaff writer, with CNAThe military has finalized a plan to extend the length of reservist training from next year in the hope of improving the combat readiness of reserve forces, a military official said yesterday. The military is also to scale up reservist training by doubling the time spent on required combat training, such as rifle shooting, to maintain basic combat skills, he said. Reservist training includes specialty retraining, firearms training, combat training, combined training, and disaster prevention and relief training, which are necessary for combat operations and disaster relief, the ministry said. Presently, former soldiers undergo five days of reservist training every two years, while former officers undergo seven days of training. The training, which takes place at a military base near the reservist’s residence, aims to maintain their basic combat skills.
Source:Taipei Times
November 02, 2021 22:09 UTC
Chang to push CPTPP bid at APEC summit
Chang to push CPTPP bid at APEC summitStaff writer, with CNAPresident Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is hoping to use this year’s APEC leaders’ summit as an opportunity to push Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Tsai said she has asked Chang to seek backing for Taiwan’s entry into the 11-nation trade bloc. It would be the fifth time for Chang to attend an APEC forum as Tsai’s envoy. Although Taiwan is an APEC member, its presidents are prohibited from attending the leaders’ summit due to China’s opposition. Chang first attended an APEC forum on behalf of Taiwan’s president in 2006, during the administration of then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Source:Taipei Times
November 02, 2021 22:08 UTC
The Liberty Times Editorial: Casting off the ‘one China’ illusion
Over the past 50 years, China has distorted and abused its “one China” principle to block Taiwan’s integration into the international community. As a result, the facts, distortions and abuse of Resolution 2758 are being taken seriously. On Friday, the US government held a meeting to discuss specific strategies for increasing Taiwan’s international participation. From the perspective of international law, Resolution 2758 is a consensus resolution and is not legally binding. Former US ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft in August criticized Resolution 2758 for blocking Taiwan’s participation in the UN.
Source:Taipei Times
November 01, 2021 22:04 UTC
‘This is the age of waste:’ the show about our throwaway addiction
‘This is the age of waste:’ the show about our throwaway addictionIt is now 100 times more lucrative to mine gold from e-dumps than from the ground. After the stone age, the bronze age, the steam age and the information age, what material or innovation will most define the current era? “We are arguably living in the waste age,” says Justin McGuirk, the London museum’s chief curator, who has spent the last three years rifling through rubbish with co-curator Gemma Curtin to put together this timely show. “The production of waste is absolutely central to our way of life, a fundamental part of how the global economy operates. A general view shows used car tires on Sept. 17 at the Freetown waste management recycle factory in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Source:Taipei Times
November 01, 2021 22:03 UTC
Supply woes catch up to smartphones
Supply woes catch up to smartphonesBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterSmartphone makers shipped 331.2 million units in the third quarter of the year, down 6.7 percent from 354.9 million units per year earlier, as supply chain constraints began to take effect, market research firm International Data Corp (IDC) said in a report last week. Photo: Bloomberg“On top of component shortages, the industry has also been hit with other manufacturing and logistical challenges,” Popal said. Apple Inc regained the second position, with shipments increasing 20.8 percent to 50.4 million units on the early release of its iPhone 13 series. Shipments from Vivo Communication Technology Co (維沃) and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀) increased 5.8 percent and 8.6 percent to 33.3 million units and 33.2 million units respectively, the report said. Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo ranked third, fourth and fifth for shipments in the quarter with market shares of 13.4, 10.1 and 10 percent respectively.
Source:Taipei Times
October 31, 2021 22:02 UTC