■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 HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from