Australia restricts medical evacuations of refugees
Under Australia’s immigration policy, asylum seekers intercepted at sea are sent to camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Independent lawmakers and the opposition joined forces in February to give doctors the right to order sick asylum seekers be sent to Australia if they required medical care. As a result, Morrison said the medical evacuation legislation is unnecessary and undermines Canberra’s border policy, designed to discourage asylum seekers from undertaking dangerous sea voyages to Australia. In 2016, Australia agreed a deal with former US president Barack Obama to offer refuge to up to 1,250 asylum seekers. Australia has rejected offers from New Zealand to take a further 150 asylum seekers, fearing refugees would use it as a “backdoor entry” to Australia.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 16:07 UTC
Democrats present case against Trump
AFP, WASHINGTONDemocrats in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday presented a forceful case for impeaching and removing US President Donald Trump from office in a report detailing “overwhelming evidence” of misconduct in office and obstruction. “President Trump and his senior officials may see nothing wrong with using the power of the office of the president to pressure a foreign country to help the president’s reelection campaign,” it said. Trump also pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate a “conspiracy theory” that it was Ukraine, and not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 US election, to benefit the Democrats, the report said. “President Trump’s ongoing effort to thwart Congress’ impeachment power risks doing grave harm to the institution of Congress.”In London for a NATO summit, Trump again accused the Democrats of playing a political game. “At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump,” she said in a statement.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 16:07 UTC
Porter tackled London attacker ‘instinctively’
AFP, LONDONA Polish kitchen porter who had a one-on-one fight with London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan on Tuesday said he acted on instinct by tackling him with a stick. Lukasz, who only wanted to give his first name, said he was recovering from stab wounds and coming to terms with the incident. Others joined in and, outnumbered, Khan tried to run outside, but was trapped. Khan went into the reception and the cloakroom before a showdown in the entrance hall. When Khan got outside, “the first one after him is Lukasz, shouting at everyone to get out of the way, get back,” Williamson said.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 16:07 UTC
Democracy spells the demise of colonialism
Some who came to Taiwan from China identify with Taiwan and have become Taiwanese, and some of them even support Taiwanese independence. However, there are plenty of others, like Kuo, who do not identify with Taiwan, but see themselves as its colonial rulers. They did so because they cannot accept how democracy lets everyone play an equal part in politics, which spells the end of colonial rule. The 1936 Xian Incident took place because Chiang Kai-shek sent troops to fight other Chinese instead of resisting the Japanese. In Chinese history, Chiang Kai-shek should be listed as a king who lost his country, but Chinese in Taiwan call him a national savior.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 16:07 UTC
EDITORIAL: Politicians sink to a new low
Spreading disinformation to influence public opinion is wrong, and yet it has always been a part of the politician’s toolkit. When Typhoon Jebi hit Japan on Sept. 4 last year, it forced Kansai International Airport to shut down, stranding thousands of passengers. The conflation of disinformation efforts and the suicide, and specifically the opposition’s political weaponization of the tragedy, are deeply problematic. Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, immediately posted a video criticizing the use of cyberarmies. If the Han camp is better financed in the presidential election than it was in the mayoral, would it be more “acceptable” to pay people to distort public opinion?
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 16:07 UTC
League drops its bid to transition to political party
All political parties are required to submit paperwork under the act to complete their registration as a legal entity before Saturday, Cheng said, adding that political groups should revise their charters before transforming into political parties. Ministry statistics showed that, as of Tuesday, 65 of 360 political parties on record had disbanded, while two parties had their registrations stricken and one had been abolished. Of the political parties, only the Democratic Progressive Party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and 44 others had completed the registration process. As the National Women’s League has decided not to become a political party, its NT$200 million (US$6.56 million) of ill-gotten party assets are to go to the government, Cheng said. Ministry protocols would determine how the ill-gotten assets in the league’s name would be processed, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC
Domestic travel subsidy program to be extended
Staff writer, with CNAThe Executive Yuan is planning to extend a domestic travel subsidy program launched earlier this year to the end of next month to boost travel and shopping during the Lunar New Year holiday, an official said yesterday. The program, which aims to boost domestic travel in fall and winter, has been met with a positive response and would encourage more travel during the Lunar New Year holiday if extended for another month, an Executive Yuan official familiar with the matter said. While the program was originally scheduled to finish at the end of this month, the government plans to extend it after hotels asked for the program to be prolonged, the official said. The ministry has issued 585,000 night market vouchers, but only 60 percent of them have been used, the official said. Of the government’s NT$100 million monthly budget earmarked for the vouchers, only about 60 percent has been used, the official said, adding that extending the expiration date of the vouchers and the subsidy program would likely encourage more travel and shopping.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC
Minister denies funding Yang’s ‘Internet army’
By Jason Pan / Staff reporterThe Ministry of the Interior does not run an “Internet army” or provide funding for such activities, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said yesterday in response to reporters’ questions about the scandal surrounding Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如). Yang has been accused of paying members of an “Internet army” NT$10,000 a month to post on popular social media platforms in an attempt to influence public opinion. Yang and a man surnmed Tsai (蔡), who used the same Internet Protocol address as Yang, have also been accused of insulting a public official. DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said the accusation that Yang is running a DPP Internet army was baseless, adding that many DPP officials had been among her victims. “So I have to take responsibility for Yang Hui-ju’s case?” Hsieh wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC
Influential Taiwan journal turns 25
The ministry celebrated the anniversary of the Journal of Biomedical Science at a news conference in Taipei, which was attended by the journal’s current and former editors-in-chief. The journal, launched by the ministry in January 1994, is the first international journal in biomedical science operated by a Taiwanese team, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Shieh Dar-bin (謝達斌) said. In research and experimental medicine, JCR ranked the Journal of Biomedical Science as No. 1 among 19 similar publications in Asia and 20th of 136 similar journals worldwide last year, said Chang Wen-chang (張文昌), its current editor-in-chief and chairman of Taipei Medical University’s board of trustees. In cell biology, the journal was ranked fourth among 18 similar publications in Asia and 49th among 193 similar publications worldwide, he said, adding that the field is more competitive for studies involving both animal and plant cells.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC
Grape King’s China unit disappoints
The supplier of probiotics and mycelium health foods had expected the Chinese unit to post 50 percent annual growth in sales, Grape King Bio chairman Andrew Tseng (曾盛麟) told a media briefing in Taoyuan. Shanghai Grape King was affected by lower orders from two of its major clients in China amid a slowing market dragged by stricter marketing regulations and falling consumer spending due to a US-China trade dispute, Tseng said. Sales in China have posted annual declines every month since April, with third-quarter sales falling more than 50 percent from a year earlier, Tseng said. Shanghai Grape King would also begin offering probiotics next year to diversify its product range, he added. Meanwhile, GK Bio International Sdn Bhd, a joint venture by Grape King and Malaysia-based All Cosmos Bio-Tech Holding Corp (全宇生技控股), would begin marketing Grape King’s products next year after gaining approval from Malaysian authorities, Tseng said.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC
Powerchip optimistic on demand for its sensors
Strong demand for complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors for handset cameras has boosted utilization rate at its 12-inch fabs to 100 percent this quarter, which could extend to next quarter, Powerchip said. DRAM chip demand would recover early next year, it added. “The demand for [CMOS image] sensors is also well ahead of what we can supply. Powerchip, previously known as Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技), primarily makes CMOS image sensors, DRAM chips and driver ICs used in flat panels for mobile phones for other firms on a contract basis. It operates three 12-inch fabs and two 8-inch fabs in Taiwan, as well as one 12-inch fab in China.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC
Google cofounders hand reins to Pichai
AFP, SAN FRANCISCOGoogle cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are stepping down from their roles at the helm of parent firm Alphabet Inc, and handing the reins to Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai, the company said on Tuesday. Pichai is to take over from Page as chief executive officer of the holding firm, a Silicon Valley titan that includes Google as well as units focused on “other bets” in areas including self-driving vehicles and life sciences. Page and Brin, who is Alphabet president, “will continue their involvement as cofounders, shareholders and members of Alphabet’s board of directors,” the company said. Pichai is likely to fill a void at the company as it faces antitrust investigations and controversies over privacy and data practices in the US and elsewhere. The move “ratifies that the [Google] founders have stepped aside almost entirely,” he added.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC
Privacy concerns causing change in online behavior
Thomson Reuters FoundationPrivacy concerns are pushing people to change their behavior online, according to an international poll published yesterday that found one in three avoid specific search terms or Web pages to elude tracking. “People and authorities are waking up to the impact of data collection,” online privacy expert Paul-Olivier Dehaye said in an e-mail. “People want to see an end to tech companies trampling over our right to privacy,” O’Carroll said. However, Edin Omanovic, advocacy director at London-based group Privacy International, said new laws were not always the answer. Of the nine countries surveyed, only Egypt has no specific data protection law, the French data watchdog CNIL said.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC
China’s ride-hailing slump hurts auto sales: Bernstein
BloombergThe use of ride-hailing apps is declining in China as operators scale back incentives for drivers, contributing to the slowdown in vehicle sales in the world’s biggest auto market, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co said in a report yesterday. Total daily active usage across ride-hailing apps in the third quarter of this year fell 6.3 percent from a year earlier, marking a fifth consecutive quarterly drop, Bernstein said, citing TalkingData figures. “Driver density is a key determinant of user wait times and the perceived convenience ride-hailing services offer,” Bernstein analysts, including Robin Zhu (朱鑌), wrote. Could the ride-hailing industry be ‘disrupted’ by the lesser availability up of cheap capital, before it can ‘disrupt’ car ownership?” it said. China’s auto market is experiencing a prolonged slump that has dragged down the global EV sector, as the country accounts for about half of the world’s sales of electric vehicles.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC
Candidates urged to make Taiwan business friendly
By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterThe Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC, 工商協進會) yesterday called on all presidential candidates to make Taiwan more business friendly, saying the government’s 2.72 percent projected GDP growth for next year lags behind the 3 percent global average. “All political camps should assign more importance to the opinions of business groups if they are serious about urging firms to move back to Taiwan,” CNAIC chairman Lin Por-fong (林伯豐) said after the group’s monthly gathering in Taipei. It is better to raise the cap on the number of foreign workers and implement different basic wage standards for domestic and foreign workers, he said. The association said it expects the government to pursue membership in regional trade blocs and secure trade agreement with foreign countries. It has invited major presidential candidates talk about their industrial policy before the election, Lin said.
Source:Taipei Times
December 04, 2019 15:56 UTC