Fuel prices rise NT$0.4 per liter today
Fuel prices rise NT$0.4 per liter todayBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterGasoline and diesel prices are to increase by NT$0.4 per liter today after global crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said in separate statements yesterday. Crude oil prices last week increased as an explosion at an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico affected output by about 700,000 barrels, while Saudi Arabia and Russia have decided to cut oil production next month, CPC said. Based on CPC’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil last week increased 3.84 percent from a week earlier, it said. Gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are today to increase to NT$29.5, NT$31.0 and NT$33.0 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$27.7 at CPC stations, and NT$27.5 at Formosa pumps, they said.
Source:Taipei Times
July 16, 2023 20:33 UTC
Ko’s Matsu argument irrational
Ko’s Matsu argument irrationalBy Chin Ching 秦靖Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) tries to give the impression that he has sympathy with the deep-green side of Taiwanese politics. Ko seeks to use this argument to distort the green camp’s call for “resisting China, protecting Taiwan” (抗中保台), and thereby ingratiating himself with the blue camp to attract their votes. Many Taiwanese believe in China’s Matsu and Guan Gong, the Chinese god of war, and that is an expression of freedom of religion. In that case, how can China’s Matsu and Guan Gong be the CCP’s fellow travelers, as Ko says? These fellow travelers of China always assume unilaterally that the Democratic Progressive Party government has been provoking Beijing.
Source:Taipei Times
July 16, 2023 18:34 UTC
Grocery bus caters to isolated German village
Grocery bus caters to isolated German villageAFP, LOHNE, GermanyIn the western German village of Lohne, where the only grocery store closed its doors earlier this year, residents do their food shopping on board a red-and-green supermarket bus that rolls into the main square once a week. Customers shop in an REWE grocery bus delivering daily needs in Lohne, Germany, on July 6. From Monday to Saturday, the supermarket bus covers a 600km route, stopping at 23 villages. The prices on board “are the same” as in the REWE supermarkets, said Joern Berszinski, who manages the supermarket bus. The bus project has not gone unnoticed in Germany, where nearly 2,000 supermarkets of fewer than 400m2 have closed over the past decade, EHI retail research group said.
Source:Taipei Times
July 16, 2023 11:05 UTC
UK’s China response lacking: report
UK’s China response lacking: reportThe GuardianThe UK’s approach to a “whole of state” assault by China on its economy, politics, civil infrastructure and academia is completely inadequate, an influential British parliamentary committee has found. The committee, which completed its inquiry into the Chinese threat in May, was scathing about the failure of the UK to wake up to the scale of the challenge. The government’s focus, was still dominated by short-term or acute threats, the report said. “It has consistently failed to think long term unlike China, which historically has been able to take advantage of this,” it said. This presents a serious commercial challenge but also has the potential to pose an existential threat to liberal democratic systems.”
Source:Taipei Times
July 16, 2023 04:46 UTC
Agencies offer cross-strait group tours despite ban
Agencies offer cross-strait group tours despite banBy Ting Yi and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerSome Taiwanese and Chinese travel agencies are allegedly offering fake self-guided tours in China, despite reciprocal bans on tourism groups issued by the two governments, sources said. A number of China-based travel agencies promoted China’s scenic attractions and packaged tours but refrained from giving out information on tour dates or price. The information on self-guided tours was later removed from the Web site. Group tours were allegedly being billed as self-guided tours with complimentary services to dodge regulations, he said, adding that such tourism packages could be legal depending on circumstances. The bureau is monitoring the situation and would impose sanctions on travel agencies that breached the ban, Lin added.
Source:Taipei Times
July 16, 2023 04:42 UTC
AC replacement subsidy bolstered
AC replacement subsidy bolsteredBy Lin Ching-hua and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Ministry of Economic Affairs has allotted an additional NT$3.3 billion (US$106.82 million) for its program subsidizing purchases of energy-saving air-conditioners and refrigerators after demand outpaced this year’s budget, an official at the ministry said yesterday. The program’s NT$8 billion budget was originally intended to help families exchange their old appliances for ones with the Grade 1 energy label over four years beginning this year, the official said. A previous iteration of the appliance replacement scheme ran into the same problem in 2019, compelling the ministry to change the budget plan, they said. The NT$2 billion already spent was estimated to have replaced 640,000 appliances and probably saved up to 383 gigawatt-hours this year, they said. The new funding means that an additional 1.7 million of the energy-wasting alliances could be replaced, increasing total energy savings to more than 1 terawatt-hours this year, the official said.
Source:Taipei Times
July 16, 2023 04:29 UTC
EDITORIAL : Dengue fever can be beaten
EDITORIAL : Dengue fever can be beatenThe number of local dengue fever cases has rapidly increased since the first case was reported on June 13, jumping to more than 300 cases in a month. The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) disease surveillance data on Wednesday confirmed 322 local dengue cases — the highest number for the same period since 2017. The reports have prompted experts to warn about secondary dengue (infection with another serotype after a previous infection), which is linked to greater risk of developing more severe symptoms, including dengue shock syndrome and dengue hemorrhagic fever. A 2015 study by the CDC and National Taiwan University on dengue hemorrhagic fever cases between 2003 and 2013 found that people aged 60 or older with DENV-2 were most at risk for developing dengue hemorrhagic fever after infection, and that fatality risk grows 10-fold in those aged 60 or older with diabetes and who have dengue hemorrhagic fever. No specific method exists to treat dengue fever and averting mosquito bites is the best way to prevent it.
Source:Taipei Times
July 15, 2023 17:08 UTC
Dancing spirit
Losing Taiwan ‘disaster’ for US: intelligence reportDECLINE: While giving China more clout, technology and access to the region, taking Taiwan would weaken the US and remove the only Chinese-speaking democracy, it said China winning control of Taiwan would be “disastrous for the US,” while Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and the Chinese Communist Party “are not being held sufficiently accountable for their actions,” Air & Space Forces Magazine cited an unclassified US Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) report as saying. The ONI brief, released under the signature of ONI Commander Rear Admiral Mike Studeman, reportedly says that the US and China “are engaged in an international struggle between competing visions.” “China is executing a grand strategy, and has been unified in pursuing it comprehensively and aggressively for many years,” the magazine last week citedBy Chang Pei-yuan and Jake Chung
Source:Taipei Times
July 15, 2023 09:20 UTC
Looking forward to a break
Nanya cuts capital expenditure by 19%FORECAST: The DRAM chipmaker said its average selling price would drop a little this quarter, but that supply and demand would begin to balance out in the fourth quarter Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday reduced its capital expenditure by about 19 percent for this year after posting its third straight quarterly loss last quarter, as chip prices dipped for the fifth quarter in a row due to oversupply and flagging demand. The New Taipei City-based DRAM chipmaker expects its average selling price to drop slightly this quarter from last quarter, following a low single-digit percent decline last quarter. “We have a mixed picture for the third quarter. Prices for some products are picking up mildly, while some are declining,” Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a virtual media briefing. The DRAMBy Lisa Wang
Source:Taipei Times
July 15, 2023 05:02 UTC
Coach recalls Brazil banning women’s soccer
Coach recalls Brazil banning women’s soccerAFP, SAO PAULO, BrazilDilma Mendes does not remember how many times she was arrested as a child. Playing soccer in Brazil. Ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup starting next week in Australia and New Zealand, where Brazil will be in action, Mendes recalled the lengths she went to in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a soccer player. Soccer coach Dilma Mendes, right, takes a training session at the Arena 2 de Julho Football School in Camacari, Brazil, on Wednesday last week. After retiring as a player in 1995, Mendes moved into coaching and helped unearth Formiga, a legendary former midfielder for the Brazil women’s team.
Source:Taipei Times
July 15, 2023 03:38 UTC
Two parties suggest gender equality amendments
A recent slew of sexual harassment cases shows that the existing laws are insufficient to help the victims, NPP Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said. The amendments should expand the definition of sexual harassment and extend the statute of limitations on sexual harassment of minors, he said. The NPP’s version of amendments demand that sexual harassment investigations at corporations include third-party individuals and a proportional number of female and gender equality experts as investigators, NPP Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said. The TPP caucus also urged local governments to establish local sexual harassment prevention centers to provide victims with legal assistance and mental health support. Legal measures and administrative policies help foster a friendly work environment, TPP caucus convener Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) said.
Source:Taipei Times
July 14, 2023 23:06 UTC
India’s Jaiswal credits skipper Rohit for steering him through Test debut
India’s Jaiswal credits skipper Rohit for steering him through Test debutReutersIndia batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal on Thursday thanked Rohit Sharma for talking him through his Test debut after the left-hander scored an unbeaten 143 against the West Indies in a sparkling opening partnership with his captain. The first India batsman to score a century on debut outside Asia in more than 21 years, he told reporters that Rohit’s insight and experience had been vital. India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal, left, hits a four as West Indies wicketkeeper Joshua da Silva watches on the second day of the first Test at Windsor Park in Roseau, Dominica, on Thursday. Photo: AFP“He kept telling me how to play on this wicket and where the runs will come from,” Jaiswal said. It was an emotional moment and I enjoyed it a lot,” he said of his first Test experience.
Source:Taipei Times
July 14, 2023 21:39 UTC
The world after a successful Chinese invasion of Taiwan
The world after a successful Chinese invasion of TaiwanFrom the proliferation of nuclear weapons to a loss of faith in democracy, six security experts analyze the impact a successful Chinese invasion of Taiwan would have on their countries and the globeBy Noah Buchan / Staff reporterNuclear weapons would proliferate. They then have to imagine the consequences of China’s successful invasion of Taiwan. On this page, we discuss some of the major points expressed by the analysts from Japan, South Korea, the EU, Australia and India. “[A successful Chinese invasion of Taiwan] would change Japan’s security environment fundamentally. Consequently, a successful invasion of Taiwan by China would change little in the burgeoning bilateral relationship, though it would have implications on a range of other issues.
Source:Taipei Times
July 13, 2023 16:39 UTC
Gou, Ko, Hou, Huang and housing
Gou, Ko, Hou, Huang and housingBy Yu Kung 愚工Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and former legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) have promised to attend a housing justice and judicial reform rally on Sunday on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. Gou is one of the richest people in Taiwan; Ko was the mayor of the most unaffordable city in terms of housing prices; while Hou and Huang have large real-estate holdings. Seeing this band of four at the rally is likely to trigger outrage at their supposed “support” of housing justice. Are Gou, Ko, Hou and Huang like this? They know that housing justice should be supported, but would they support it seriously?
Source:Taipei Times
July 12, 2023 21:41 UTC
Looking back
TSMC unfazed by Chinese controlsclosely monitored: The long-term impacts of the restrictions on pricing and supply in the international market would be watched closely, minister Wang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it did not expect any direct effect on its production caused by China’s latest export controls on two rare metals essential for making semiconductors. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs announced on Monday that exports of gallium and germanium are to require a license starting from Aug. 1 over security concerns, as Beijing and Washington tussle over the global market for chips. TSMC, whose clients include Apple Inc and Intel Corp, controls more than half the world’s output of the silicon wafers that are used to power everything from drip
Source:Taipei Times
July 12, 2023 18:42 UTC