Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday announced that an occupied supermarket chain officials accuse of hoarding products would be folded into the state food distribution system.
Maduro said the 35 locations of the Dia a Dia grocery chain would be assimilated into the state grocery agency starting this weekend. He did not say if the change would be permanent, and stopped short of calling it an expropriation.
He accused the chain of “carrying out a war against the people,” referring to the government’s claim that right-wing business owners are purposely making shopping a nightmare by hoarding goods to cause the shortages and long lines that are plaguing Venezuela.
Photo: Reuters
Soldiers had occupied the Dia a Dia chain earlier this week, and on Friday the attorney general’s office announced the continued detention of Dia a Dia’s director.
Earlier, two executives of Venezuela’s largest drugstore chain, Farmatodo, were detained as part of an investigation by price-control authorities.
Many economists blame price and currency controls for causing the economic distortions plaguing Venezuela at a time when falling oil prices are battering its revenue.
The Caracas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services rejected government accusations that the private sector is the cause of the severe economic crisis, shortages and soaring inflation in Venezuela.
In a statement, it said the economic problems are the result of “an economic model, 21st-century socialism, which with its controls and obstacles has devastated the country’s private productive capacity.”
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”