Cuba’s hurricane-hit tobacco sector struggles to its feet

25 days ago Taipei Times

Cuba’s hurricane-hit tobacco sector struggles to its feetAFP, SAN JUAN Y MARTINEZ, CubaCuban farmer Maritza Carpio, 62, is optimistic. The Category 3 hurricane was particularly rough on the Vuelta Abajo region — described as Cuba’s tobacco triangle. Trees were uprooted, roofs blown off, fields flooded and tobacco drying houses collapsed. Men in San Juan and Martinez, Cuba, on Tuesday work in a tobacco field near a tobacco drying house being rebuilt after it was destroyed by Hurricane Ian in September last year. A few kilometers from Carpio’s farm, 50-year-old Rafael Perez is adding the finishing touches to his own tobacco drying house, despite great obstacles finding materials.
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2022 Elections: KMT commissioner accused of vote-buying

2022 Elections: KMT commissioner accused of vote-buyingBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) Nantou County councilor candidate Tseng Tsung-kai (曾琮愷) on Tuesday filed a judicial complaint against Nantou County Commissioner Lin Ming-chen (林明溱) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly trying to buy votes for a KMT candidate in the Nov. 26 local elections. He has been campaigning for KMT county commissioner candidate Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華). Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Nantou County commissioner candidate Hsu Shu-hua speaks at a campaign event in the county on Tuesday last week. The incident constitutes an abuse of government funds, as Lin has allegedly contravened election laws by promoting KMT candidates and handed out gifts to buy votes for the KMT, Tseng said. DPP Nantou County commissioner candidate Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧) said Lin Ming-chen has organized more than 100 such KMT campaign rallies disguised as his “farewell tour,” which began last month.

4 months ago Taipei Times

China return to normal to take ‘at least a year’

A man is tested for COVID-19 at a nucleic acid testing site in Shanghai on Thursday, following an outbreak of the virus. However, maintaining “zero COVID” is becoming more disruptive and expensive, fueling expectations that Beijing must eventually shift and start reopening, domestically and internationally. It might also take much longer than some market analysts are expecting for domestic travel, private consumption and business activity to return to normal. Even if China reopens much more slowly and cautiously, it would continue to face problems. If deaths rose to the level of Australia after that nation eliminated strict controls, more than 800,000 Chinese would die.

4 months ago Taipei Times

S Korea seeks to counter drones

S Korea seeks to counter dronesMILITARY SPENDING: While South Korea aims to bolster its counterdrone measures, Kim Jong-un said that his government was setting new defense capability goals for next yearReuters, SEOULSouth Korea plans to spend 560 billion won (US$441.25 million) over the next five years to beef up its ability to fend off North Korean drones, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The plan was included in South Korea’s midterm defense blueprint for 2023-2027 after North Korean drones crossed into South Korea in the first such intrusion since 2017. South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, right, receives a briefing from a military officer during a visit to a unit of the air force’s Third Missile Defense Brigade in Seoul yesterday. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol chastised the military’s handling of the incursion, urging it to hasten the reinforcement of the drone units. As part of efforts to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, the ministry seeks to procure more stealth jets, which it said would bolster real-time strike capabilities against moving targets.

2 months ago Taipei Times

Taipei councilors tell Ko, Huang to apologize for expo

Taipei councilors tell Ko, Huang to apologize for expoBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporter, with CNATaipei city councilors yesterday asked Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and former deputy mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) to apologize to city residents for spending up to NT$106 million (US$3.3 million) on this year’s Taipei Expo, while avoiding a city council review. The Taipei City Government held the event at the Taipei Expo Park from Aug. 27 to Sept. 11. Then-Taipei deputy mayor Vivian Huang, front second right, and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, front right, attend the Taipei Expo on Aug. 26. Wu, along with DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Taipei City Councilor Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培), yesterday told a news conference in Taipei that Ko’s administration has poor financial discipline, and questioned whether Huang had ordered city departments to organize the expo. He urged Ko and Huang to respond to questions about moving money from the budgets of city departments for the expo.

4 months ago Taipei Times

EDITORIAL: Taiwan’s place in the Anthropocene

EDITORIAL: Taiwan’s place in the AnthropoceneThe days between Christmas and New Year’s offer the opportunity to take a step back and put the bigger picture into view. Taiwan’s greatest recent contribution to the world might be its high-tech products, such as semiconductors powering essential machinery worldwide. It has become a high-income country, like many others in Asia, a trend economists describe as a long-term eastward shift of global wealth. Its carbon emissions of 11.72 tonnes per capita per year, probably its longest-lasting contribution to the Anthropocene, ranked 21st, according to Worldometers. Taiwan must find a way to grow its economy without increasing its output of goods that are not worth it by Anthropocene standards.

2 months ago Taipei Times

Twitter lays off more moderators

Twitter Inc CEO Elon Musk speaks at a news conference in Boca Chica, Texas, on Feb. 10 last year. She said Twitter eliminated roles in areas of the company that did not get enough “volume” to justify continued support. The Twitter Inc logo is pictured at its corporate headquarters in San Francisco on Nov. 18 last year. Since taking over the company, Musk has overseen firings or departures of about 5,000 of Twitter’s 7,500 employees and instituted a “hardcore” work environment for those remaining. Twitter faces multiple lawsuits over unpaid bills, including for private chartered plane flights, software services and rent at one of its San Francisco offices.

2 months ago Taipei Times

India antitrust order would harm Android, Google says

India antitrust order would harm Android, Google saysReuters, NEW DELHIThe growth of Google’s Android ecosystem is on the brink of stalling in India due to an antitrust order that asks the company to change how it markets the platform, the US company has said in an Indian Supreme Court challenge. A man walks past a Google sign at the company’s annual technology event in New Delhi on Sept. 19, 2019. “Google will be required to make far-reaching changes to the Android mobile platform which has been in place for the last 14-15 years,” it said. Google licenses its Android system to smartphone makers, but critics say it imposes restrictions such as mandatory preinstallation of its own apps that are anticompetitive. The CCI in October last year ordered Google to not prohibit uninstalling of its apps by Android phone users in India — currently, users cannot delete apps such as Google Maps or YouTube from their Android phones when they come preinstalled.

2 months ago Taipei Times

Nigerians vote in tight three-way race

Nigerians vote in tight three-way raceNEW LEADER SOUGHT: Three candidates were regarded as front-runners to succeed two-term president Muhammadu Buhari, in an election that one voter said would be ‘different’AFP, LAGOS, NigeriaNigerians voted yesterday for a successor to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in a tightly fought race dominated by three political veterans. Photo: AFP“It’s going to be different this time, we have three people,” said Friday Ikwuako, 55, a school employee waiting to vote in Lagos’ affluent Ikoyi District. In 2019, hours before polls opened, the election commission postponed the vote by a week because of problems delivering election materials. About 400,000 police and troops were to be deployed around the country to protect the vote. Militants operate mostly in the northeast, bandit militias control rural communities in the northwest, and separatist assailants have targeted election commission offices and police in the southeast.

25 days ago Taipei Times

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