Retired officers to depart for US to set up missionStaff writer, with CNARetired army major general Ni Pang-chen (倪邦臣) and retired navy captain Cheng Kuo-feng (程國峰) are to depart for the US today to establish a mission for the Veterans Affairs Council (VAC) that would oversee veterans’ affairs exchanges between the two countries. Ni has experience abroad, and is proficient in Spanish and English, the council said, adding that Cheng is also proficient in English, with a well-rounded military service in the navy. Both have passed the American Institute in Taiwan’s interview as well as English proficiency tests, it added. The long-term goal would be to establish official communication with the US Department of Veterans Affairs, with the expectation that the mission would serve as a channel for track two diplomacy, he said. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Nov. 26 announced that the council would establish a mission in the US.

French vehicle ads must promote greener optionsAFP, PARISVehicle advertisements in France are from this year required to include messages encouraging people to consider less-polluting travel alternatives as part of the government’s drive to rein in carbon dioxide emissions. Similar to mandatory reminders to eat healthy on food and beverage ads, the standardized messages are to suggest that drivers adopt more environmentally responsible options when possible. The ads are also required to include a vehicle’s carbon dioxide emission class, a new ranking system to inform consumers about the environmental impact that is part of a widespread climate action law approved by lawmakers in July last year. It’s the first time we’ve had such a direct message from the government,” Hyundai Motor France president Lionel French Keogh said. As part of the new French law, advertising for the most polluting vehicles — those that emit more than 123 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, including many popular SUVs — are to be completely outlawed from 2028.

Russia’s gas supplies to Europe are under scrutinyBy Florian Cazeres with Charlotte Causit / AFP, BERLINWith the arrival of winter in Europe and energy prices soaring, tensions are running high over the provision of gas from Russia — especially through the Yamal-Europe pipeline that runs through Poland and Belarus. Photo: ReutersIt delivers 30 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe each year, making it one of the most important vehicles for the provision of Russian gas to the continent. However, this means that it is more cost efficient for Poland to buy Russian gas from Germany. Meanwhile, Russian gas continues to flow to Europe through other major pipelines such as Nord Stream I and TurkStream. Some European states, such as Poland and Ukraine, have accused Moscow and Russian energy company PJSC Gazprom of cutting gas supplies to Europe to exert political pressure over these tensions.

Oil’s annual gains largest since 2009BloombergOil posted its biggest annual advance since 2009 as COVID-19 vaccination rollouts accelerated the reopening of economies, spurring global consumption, while crude production returned at a more moderate pace. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 55 percent for the biggest year-to-date gain in more than a decade. Brent, the global benchmark, rose 50 percent, the largest gain since 2016. Oil’s rally last year was also due to an energy crunch, prompted by shortages of natural gas and coal earlier this fall. Surging gas prices led to rising demand for alternative power generation in Europe and Asia heading into the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Agriculture key to Lithuania tiesBy Marcin Jerzewski 葉皓勤Lithuania, arguably one of the most vocal supporters of Taiwan in Europe, remains a target of Chinese tools of negative economic statecraft. Given that cereals constitute the largest export product of Lithuania to China, farmers and food producers have been hit particularly hard through the ongoing spat. The strong representation of Lithuanian food producers at the recently concluded international food show Food Taipei marks an important step in the right direction. Consequently, intersectoral cooperation between TAITRA, the Council of Agriculture, the National Development Council and other executive agencies is required for a holistic and nuanced approach to building ties. It is also important to recognize that incumbents from the ruling coalition notice the sensitivity of agricultural and food sector cooperation.

However, from next month, all COVID-19 tests would have to be paid for, the center added. Starting today, the monthly minimum wage for workers is to be raised by 5.21 percent from NT$24,000 (US$867) to NT$25,250, and the hourly minimum wage is to be lifted from NT$160 to NT$168. Ministry of Labor figures show that 2.45 million workers would benefit from the monthly and hourly wage increases. From earners of the minimum monthly salary, NT$581 would be deducted monthly from their paychecks, their employer would pay NT$2,033, and the government would cover the remaining NT$290. The minimum age for people who wish to claim full pensions under the Labor Insurance program is to be raised from 62 to 63 next year.

Base metals shine in 2021, but gold and iron sufferBloombergMetals are heading for more drama after a tumultuous year dominated by supply squeezes, China’s property-led economic slowdown and a global energy crisis that hints at more disruptions to come. Last year saw copper hitting a record as the COVID-19 pandemic roiled supply and demand, but tin was the star performer as base metals marched higher. For now, soaring energy costs in Europe also continue to dominate the supply-side for base metals. Yesterday, base metals were mostly lower, with copper edging down 0.4 percent in London for a 24 percent advance this year. Iron ore gyrated around US$120 per tonne and was headed for a 25 percent decline last year.

Convincing the unvaccinatedUndertakers, rabbis join global fight promoting COVID shotsAPIn Germany, Lutheran pastors are offering COVID-19 shots inside churches. SHOTS IN CHURCHGerman pastor Christoph Herbst believes giving COVID-19 shots in surroundings that feel more familiar than medical settings may help. Caesar Thompson speaks with participants in the READI Chicago program about COVID-19 vaccines. I just don’t see the reasoning for me to get the vaccine.”She said the US government is pushing COVID-19 vaccines too hard. He has repeatedly booked and canceled COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

Victims react to Ghislaine Maxwell being found guiltyThe Guardian, LOS ANGELESA Manhattan jury’s decision to find Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking has left victims of the British socialite and her former boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, “relieved and grateful.”Maxwell was found guilty on five of six charges for her involvement in Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls. Prosecutors said that Maxwell “preyed on vulnerable young girls, manipulated them and served them up to be sexually abused.”A courtroom sketch shows Ghislaine Maxwell listening as the guilty verdict in her sex abuse trial is read in New York City on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters“I am so relieved and grateful that the jury recognized the pattern of predatory behavior that Maxwell engaged in for years and found her guilty,” said Annie Farmer, one of the victims who testified at the trial. “As the verdict was read, Maxwell struggled to stand, but said nothing,” Brown wrote on Twitter. Late on Wednesday, Maxwell’s brother, Kevin Maxwell, said the family stood by her and believed that she would be vindicated during the appeals process.

One is to allow royal women to keep their title and public duties when they wed outside the family. The second is to allow men from 11 former branches of the royal family abolished in post-war reforms to “rejoin” the direct line through adoption. Royal women have long walked a difficult path in Japan. The divine status of the imperial family was renounced after World War II following Japan’s militaristic sweep across Asia in the name of Emperor Hirohito. Since 1947, royal succession has been dictated by the Imperial Household Law, and issues surrounding it remain a delicate topic tightly bound with ideas of national identity.

Doctors sentenced over tax evasion chargesSUBSIDY SCHEME: A court said that a foundation allowed people who gave it money to apply for research, study or social welfare grants of up to 95 percent of the amountStaff writer, with CNATri-Service General Hospital superintendent Wang Chih-hung (王智弘) and 24 other military physicians on Wednesday were sentenced by the High Court to between two months and a year in prison in a tax evasion case. The physicians were among 27 people indicted on tax evasion charges in 2016, with the Taipei District Court finding them not guilty in the first trial. However, prosecutors appealed the decision and the High Court overturned the ruling, finding 25 of the defendants guilty of using a charitable foundation as a vehicle for tax evasion. The second trial found that the foundation allowed those who donated to get back most of what they gave and benefit from tax deductions. The tax evasion activity of the 25 defendants did not all take place in the same year and their intentions were separate from each other, so they are to be punished separately, the High Court added.

Starting at 14,720.25 points on Jan. 4, the TAIEX advanced 3,486.31 points this year, compared with an increase of 2,735.39 points last year. The TAIEX stood above 17,000 points on 130 of this year’s 244 trading days and above 18,000 points for five days, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) data showed. The TAIEX outperformed its Asian peers this year, with Japan’s Nikkei index gaining 5.33 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI index rising 4.17 percent, Singapore’s Strait Times index gaining 10.35 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rising 3.57 percent, commission data showed. PGIM holds an upbeat outlook for local stocks next year on the back of the nation’s strong exports, Yeh said. Local equities are likely to continue attracting investors next month on the back of strong corporate fundamentals, SinoPac said in a statement.

Proof of Beijing’s true characterBy Hong Tsun-ming 康駿銘Hard on the heels of the referendums in Taiwan, Hong Kong held its first legislative election since the electoral system was overhauled under the direction of Beijing. According to the new system, 40 of the 90 seats in the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) were elected by the 1,500-member Election Committee, which has only one non-establishment member. Even then, official statistics showed that there was an unprecedentedly low turnout of 30.2 percent, about half the turnout of the previous election. Since the protest movement objecting to extradition to China began in 2019, the deteriorating situation in Hong Kong has consistently demonstrated that China does not sit well with universal values, and that Hong Kong has been on the front line in the democractic battle against China. Hong Tsun-ming is director of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s Yilan County branch and a former citizen of Hong Kong.

Philippines lifts ban on open-pit mines‘SHORT-SIGHTED’: The revenue from open-pit mines would help the nation pay loans to fight the pandemic, an official said, while critics called the practice ‘destructive’AFP, MANILAThe Philippines has lifted a four-year ban on new open-pit mines, an official said yesterday, in a bid to revitalize the country’s COVID-19-battered economy that has been slammed by environmentalists as “short-sighted.”The move sees the government reverse a ban imposed in 2017, when the then-Philippine secretary of environment and natural resources blamed the sector for widespread ecological damage. Manila has since reversed course, encouraging mining investments to shore up government revenues as lockdowns and COVID-19 quarantine restrictions ravaged the economy. Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Wilfredo Moncano yesterday said that Philippine Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Roy Cimatu had signed an order lifting the ban on open-pit mining in the country. “We offered the mining [industry] as a potential contributor to the recovery of the economy,” Moncano said. Open-pit mining directly extracts minerals on the ground and differs from other methods that require tunneling or underground mining.

Vietnam’s GDP expands in Q4BloombergVietnam’s economic growth accelerated in the fourth quarter as manufacturing revived and exports extended their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic slump earlier this year. GDP rose 5.22 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier, up from a revised minus-6.02 percent in the third quarter, the Vietnamese General Statistics Office said yesterday in Hanoi. That compared with the median estimate of 3.7 percent for the fourth quarter in a Bloomberg survey of 21 economists. Other details from the statistics office include: Exports rose 24.8 percent this month from a year earlier, while imports climbed 14.6 percent. Manufacturing rose 10.9 percent and consumer prices rose 1.81 percent this month from a year earlier.