■Petroleum
Iraq lowers production goal
Iraq lowered its year-end production target by a fifth to 2 million barrels a day because facilities are not getting enough electricity supplies to power pumps and other equipment, the country's interim oil minister said. "This is our target," said Thamir Ghadhban, the US-appointed Ministry of Oil chief executive. Lowering the target from at least 2.5 million barrels a day is "related to power supply," Ghadhban said in an interview on the edge of a meeting of global and Middle East business and political leaders in Jordan, organized by the World Economic Forum. Iraq would produce as much as 1.5 million barrels a day by the end of this month, Ghadhban said last month. The country is producing 800,000 barrels a day now, he said yesterday.
■ Cuba's economy
Havana shuffle ministers
Cuba on Saturday replaced a key minister as part of a major reshuffling of an economic team that has thus far failed to revive its stagnant economy. A brief communique gave no reason for the naming of 39-year-old Central Bank vice president Georgina Barreiro Fajardo as Finance and Prices minister, replacing 69-year-old Manuel Millares. Cuba replaced its Transportation minister on Friday. The communist government has not commented on the island's economic situation since December, when it said last year had seen the weakest economic growth since recovering from an economic crisis sparked by the fall of its former benefactor, the Soviet Union. "After all these years, the economy has still not fully recovered and is now stagnating," said a Cuban economist, speaking on condition of anonymity. "You can expect more replacements in the economic team as he [Cuban President Fidel Castro] tries to get the economy moving again with younger blood," he added.
■ Automobiles
Carmakers want `car-mail'
Nissan Motor Co, Japan's third-biggest carmaker, will ally with Suzuki Motor Corp to sell a service that enables transmission of map data and emergency messages through a car-mounted device, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said. Suzuki, the nation's biggest maker of minicars, will install the devices in its automobiles starting with models to be introduced this year, the paper said, without saying where it obtained the information. Suzuki will be the first rival automaker to adopt the data and messaging system based on a format Nissan devised. Suzuki will initially offer the new device on its remodeled Wagon R mincar to be released late this year, the report said.
■ Unemployment
DC has low jobless rate
Washington-area businesses are hurting at a time when the US capital has one of the strongest economies in the nation, the Washington Post reported. The city's 3.4 percent unemployment rate -- nearly half the national rate in April -- hides the fact that Washington firms without connections to the US government are faring at least as badly as the those in the rest of the nation, the newspaper said. Only 7 percent of Washington businesses plan to hire more workers in coming months, compared with 20 percent nationwide, the Post said, citing a recent survey by Manpower Inc. Local telecommunications companies have cut payrolls by 9.5 percent in the year ended April, compared with a 5.8 percent reduction nationally, the Post said.
Agencies
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2