FRANCE
Livestock industry falters
President Francois Hollande on Saturday called on retailers to give higher prices to livestock producers to help support them. The nation’s cattle, pork and milk sectors are in crisis due to stagnating prices and falling exports, with about 10 percent of the nation’s producers on the brink of bankruptcy, Minister of Agriculture Stephane Le Foll said on Friday. Farmers said a deteriorating international market, marked by a Russian food embargo, slowing Chinese demand and cheaper supply from other EU countries, has exposed long-standing pressures from business costs and retail consolidation in the nation.
AVIATION
Compensation offer rejected
Families of Germans killed in the crash of a Germanwings jet in the French Alps have turned down the airline’s compensation offer, demanding a higher amount of at least 100,000 euros (US$108,300), their lawyer said on Saturday. Lufthansa, the parent company of low-cost carrier Germanwings, announced on June 30 that it would offer compensation of 25,000 euros to the families of each of 72 Germans killed in the disaster in March. In addition, each of the victim’s immediate surviving kin — parents, children, adopted children, spouses and partners — would receive 10,000 euros. After the crash, Lufthansa offered aid of up to 50,000 euros per passenger to their relatives, independent of any eventual compensation payments. In addition, children and teenagers who had lost one or both parents are to receive support toward their education from a special fund of up to 7.8 million euros.
SOVEREIGN DEBT
Germans pan Greek bailout
More than half of Germans think the planned deal with Greece is bad and many would have preferred that the crisis-stricken country left the eurozone rather than getting the chance for further aid, according to an opinion poll. Lawmakers in Germany, the biggest contributor to eurozone bailouts, on Friday gave their go-ahead for the currency bloc to negotiate a third bailout for Greece that could total 86 billion euros (US$93.14 billion) over three years. In the YouGov survey seen by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, 56 percent of respondents said they thought the plan for such a deal with Greece was bad, with just over one fifth of those saying it was very bad. Only 2 percent deemed it to be positive while another 27 percent said they thought it was somewhat positive. The poll of 1,380 Germans showed there was a lack of enthusiasm in Europe’s largest economy about the result of Friday’s vote, Welt am Sonntag said on Sunday, adding that the poll showed 48 percent of Germans would have liked to see Greece quit the eurozone.
APPS
Suit against Uber proceeds
Uber Technologies Inc lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit over its claims to being safer than taxis. US District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco on Friday allowed the case to proceed, finding that the app-based ride-hailing service has advertised itself as “objectively and measurably safer” than competitors. Yellow Cab Co and 18 other taxi services that operate in Californian metropolitan areas including San Francisco and Los Angeles sued Uber in March, alleging it misleads customers about its background checks for drivers and driver safety. While letting the case move forward under a federal false advertising law, Tigar tossed the taxi companies’ unfair competition allegations and their demand for restitution under state law.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last