Police officer buys Starbucks, receives cups labeled ‘PIG’
AP, GLENPOOL, OklahomaAn Oklahoma police chief said that an officer bought Starbucks for emergency services dispatchers working on Thanksgiving only to find that “PIG” was printed on the cups’ labels. The officer notified Kiefer Police Chief Johnny O’Mara, who called the store and spoke to a manager. The officer told KTUL-TV that the employee reached out to him personally and apologized, saying that it was a joke. In a separate joint statement, Starbucks and the Kiefer Police Department said that they are committed to using the incident as an opportunity to promote greater civility. Starbucks officials said that they would be meeting with Kiefer police officials to discussing ways to work together.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 16:07 UTC
Guatemala indicts another officer for genocide
Reuters, GUATEMALA CITYGuatemala’s human rights prosecutor on Friday indicted another former top military official for genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the bloodiest phase of the Central American country’s 36-year civil war. Judge Jimmy Bremer on Friday formally received the charges the prosecutors presented against the 76-year-old in a court in Guatemala City. Guatemala’s human rights prosecutor said that there were more victims and witnesses who could testify against him than in other processes. Guatemala’s human rights prosecutor accuses him of having planned one of the operations in the Maya Ixil region about 225km northwest of the capital. Giammattei also faced accusations of human rights breaches for the same incident, during which seven prisoners, but no government officials, died; he was later exonerated for lack of evidence.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 16:07 UTC
Three minors stabbed in Netherlands attack
AFP, the hague, netherlandsDutch police were hunting an assailant who stabbed three minors in The Hague’s main shopping street as people looked for bargains on Black Friday. Two teenage girls came running into the store after being stabbed, witnesses said. The stabbing took place not far from parliament, which is the seat of government for the Netherlands and home to many international organizations. The Netherlands has seen a series of terror attacks and plots, although not so far on the scale of those in other European countries. Dutch police on Monday arrested two suspected jihadists, one of them in The Hague, and charged them with planning a terror attack using suicide and car bombs.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 16:07 UTC
Communist China and total control
By Sushil SethUnder Xi Jinping’s (習近平) indefinite leadership of communist China, Beijing has apparently set itself a twofold goal. First: Xi is committed to enforce strictly the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with him as its leader for life. With Xi as the core leader, and the CCP his instrument, he personifies both the ruling party and the country. Thirty years on, with Xi as the party leader and the country’s president, the CCP’s control is even more pernicious in this digital age. Of course, it is understood by the CCP leadership that its claim about their infallibility is dubious and regarded as such in the outside world.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 16:07 UTC
Germany’s SPD holds party elections
The coalition deal was struck only last year following inconclusive parliamentary elections in 2017. The challengers are Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans, who have been highly critical of the coalition and are part of the left wing of the party. The leadership race was triggered by the departure of the SPD’s previous leader, Andrea Nahles, after the party’s poor showing in European Parliament elections. Cut off from its “social roots,” the party seems “too rarely an alternative” to Merkel’s CDU, he said. “The SPD cannot renew itself unless it is in opposition and has new people,” fellow political expert Klaus Schroeder said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 16:07 UTC
EDITORIAL: Being the right type of funny
The results of a study by National Taiwan Normal University researchers announced on Wednesday found that Taiwanese use humor infrequently and that certain humor types are linked to mental capacity and well-being. It abounds in Taiwan, with examples found in advertising, popular media and social media. The characters, Wu Dalang (武大郎) and his wife, Pan Jinlian (潘金蓮), are known for being unequal, despite “sharing a bed.”However, not all Taiwanese politicians use offensive humor. A more feasible association could be made between the “Chinese culture’s privileging of humility and interpersonal harmony” and the lack of aggressive humor in Taiwan. There is also a different history of the struggle for emancipation in Taiwan than there was for minority groups in the US.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 16:07 UTC
Surveillance industry must stop assisting state suppression
Just last month WhatsApp sued an Israeli surveillance company, the NSO Group, in a US court. The NSO Group has rejected the allegation. The University of Toronto’s CitzenLab has found that the Pegasus spyware is used in 45 countries. On the surface, it seems that constraining the global spyware industry could be impossible. Many say that constraining exports of such software would be folly, since Chinese surveillance companies would step in where Western companies bow out.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 16:07 UTC
Hong Kong Protests: HK framework not feasible: poll
A total of 93.6 percent said that if the protests are not effective, it would mean the “one country, two systems” formula had failed. Chinese University of Hong Kong professor Francis Lee (李立峯) announced in Taipei the results of the survey he and a team of researchers conducted about the “one country, two systems” formula. Lee and other academics at the university’s Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey conducted interviews by telephone and on location during the protests. The results showed that independence is not the unifying force behind the protests, Lee said. Respondents said that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) stepping down would not make a big difference.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 15:56 UTC
Prosecutors seek Australia’s aid in spy claims
Staff writer, with CNAThe Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is hoping for help from Australia as it investigates the allegations of self-confessed Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang (王立強), a Ministry of Justice official said yesterday. Prosecutors are also hoping that Australia would allow Taiwanese investigators to question Wang through online video conferencing, the official added. Both were released after questioning, but prosecutors on Tuesday barred them from leaving the nation pending further investigation. The Chinese couple have visited Taiwan several times in the past, and own two properties in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), which they have since leased, Taipei prosecutors said. Before Wang appeared in public, they were in Taipei looking at a potential investment opportunity related to property in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), prosecutors said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 15:56 UTC
Ko did not call self-rule supporters ‘trash’: TPP
Gou, Ko and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday shared the stage at a campaign event in New Taipei City to show their support for Gou’s aide and TPP legislative candidate Lee Chin-ying (李縉穎). As Ko arrived at the event later than Gou and Soong, he was the last to speak. He called on voters to support Lee Chin-ying, saying: “Giving Lee Chin-ying a chance means giving Taiwan and everyone a chance.”As everyone on stage began chanting slogans in support of Lee Chin-ying, Gou suddenly said he wanted to say something. Chairman Ko has never said ‘those pursuing Taiwanese independence are all trash.’”Ko only criticized a specific pro-independence advocate because his family has all immigrated to New Zealand, yet he still holds fundraising banquets in Taiwan every year, the statement said. Separately yesterday, Ko said he had never said that “those pursuing Taiwanese independence are all trash.”“Some of those people pursuing Taiwanese independence are liars, but not all of them are liars,” he said, adding that he still admires people who hold on to their beliefs, like Taiwanese independence advocate Su Beng (史明) did.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 15:56 UTC
Postal workers to protest subsidies
By Chen Wei-chi / Staff reporterTaiwan Postal Workers’ Union members are to march in Taipei today over what they say are unequal subsidies between employees hired before Chunghwa Post’s reorganization 16 years ago and those who joined later. Currently, the postal service employees about 11,000 transferred personnel and 14,000 hierarchical personnel, it added. Postal staff have few complaints regarding the difference in salary and the use of different salary systems, given the two kind of personnel are different to begin with, Chen said. However, many find it unacceptable that the work subsidy for the two sets of employees are different, despite doing similar work. This is why some working at Chunghwa Post would rather resign and work for Taipower or CPC when the opportunity arises, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 15:56 UTC
Uber to follow regulations
It would also work with the government by applying Uber technology in various transportation services, including yellow cabs, rental vehicles and designated driver services, Uber said. Over the past few years, local taxi drivers have protested drivers using the ride-hailing app who are not licensed taxi drivers. As a result, Uber began collaborating with vehicle rental operators, but that failed to solve the issue. Article 103-1 of the Transportation Management Regulations (汽車運輸業管理規則), dubbed the “Uber Clause,” was put into action on June 6, with a grace period for Uber drivers to acquire the required business and professional driving license to continue operating under the government’s multipurpose taxi program. There were about 12,000 Uber drivers in Taiwan before the clause went into effect, according to data from the Uber drivers’ self-help association.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 15:56 UTC
Wall St slips as US-China row weighs
While the S&P closed above its session low, selling intensified in the last hour of trading after the report on Huawei. All three of Wall Street’s major indices had registered record highs earlier in the week when hopes were higher for an imminent “phase one” trade deal. The US-China news gave “a little bit of a weaker tone” to Friday’s market, Jack Janasiewicz, a portfolio manager and strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston. For the week, the Dow rose 0.6 percent, the S&P gained 0.9 percent and the NASDAQ added 1.7 percent. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a 1.86-to-1 ratio; on NASDAQ, a 1.35-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 15:56 UTC
Man kills two, injures three on London Bridge
AFP, LONDONA man suspected of stabbing two people to death in a terror attack on London Bridge was previously convicted of terrorism offenses and released from prison last year, police said yesterday. Police named the suspect as 28-year-old Usman Khan, saying that they were not actively seeking others in relation to the incident. He was released from prison in December 2018 on license,” London Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said in a statement. “We believe that the attack began inside before he left the building and proceeded onto London Bridge, where he was detained and subsequently confronted and shot by armed officers,” Basu said. One man, wearing a suit and tie, was seen carrying a large knife away from the group.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 15:56 UTC
Groups rally over caretaker rights
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporterThe Taiwan International Worker-Employment Relationship Harmony Development Association yesterday called for a special law on foreign domestic workers to protect their rights and those of their employers. “The work foreign domestic workers perform is different from that of foreign factory workers. “However, a pregnant domestic worker cannot perform at-home caregiving tasks, even if she changes employer,” she added. A specialized law is needed on foreign domestic workers, who should be required to take regular pregnancy tests, to protect the rights of hardworking caregivers and their employers, Chien said. Foreign domestic workers’ labor rights are also protected by the Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別工作平等法), which stipulates than an employer cannot discriminate or fire them due to their pregnancy.
Source:Taipei Times
November 30, 2019 15:56 UTC