FAST FOOD
Plastic shards found in tea
McDonald’s Corp in Japan yesterday said it was investigating an incident involving a customer who was injured by plastic shards found inside a drink, the latest in a string of food contamination scandals. The company said it temporarily closed the outlet in Osaka this week, and sent a notice to 95 other restaurants that offer the kind of green tea latte frappe sold to the woman, who said she sustained injuries to her mouth. Dozens of pieces of plastic were found inside the beverage, a company spokesman said, adding that a plastic instrument used to make the drink may have been the source.
FINLAND
GDP grows unexpectedly
The economy unexpectedly grew in the second quarter, helped by an increase in exports of services, while investments and consumer spending remained weak. GDP increased 0.2 percent, according to data from Statistics Finland in Helsinki. Adjusted for working days, economic output was up 0.1 percent from a year earlier. Exports rose 0.5 percent last quarter, paced by a 1.5 percent gain exports of services. Imports plunged 5 percent, in part because of maintenance shutdowns in the chemical industry, according to the agency. Private consumption shrank 0.2 percent and gross fixed capital formation “was on par” with the previous quarter, the statistics office said.
GERMANY
Factory orders drop 1.4%
Factory orders dropped a larger-than-expected 1.4 percent in July compared with the previous month, dragged down by flagging foreign demand. The Federal Statistical Office yesterday reported that it revised June’s 2 percent increase downward to a rise of 1.8 percent, adjusted for seasonal and calendar factors. In July, domestic orders increased by 4.1 percent, but foreign orders decreased 5.2 percent. New orders from the euro currency area were up 2.2 percent, but new orders from other countries dropped 9.5 percent.
GAMBLING
Bwin accepts GVC offer
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment PLC has agreed to a buyout offer from GVC Holdings PLC of about £1.06 billion (US$1.62 billion), shifting its stance after the poker and sports betting firm had accepted an earlier offer from rival 888 Holdings PLC. GVC’s offer of £0.25 in cash and 0.231 new GVC shares works out to about £0.12964 per Bwin share based on the stock’s Thursday’s close. Bwin said GVC’s higher offer as well as its track record of integrating acquisitions and a higher expected cost savings were all factors for switching its allegiance from 888.
TECHNOLOGY
Wage settlement approved
A federal judge has approved a US$415 million settlement that ends a lengthy legal saga revolving around allegations that Apple Inc, Google Inc and several other Silicon Valley companies illegally conspired to prevent their workers from getting better job offers. The settlement of a class-action lawsuit will pay more than 64,000 technology workers about US$5,800 apiece. The approval granted on Wednesday by US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, dispenses with a case that exposed internal e-mails casting former Apple CEO Steve Jobs in an unflattering light. Koh had rejected a US$324.5 million settlement of the case reached last year as inadequate.
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
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