■RETAILING
Wal-Mart hiring in US
As Wal-Mart Stores Inc opens about 150 new or expanded stores in the US this year, the company expects to hire about 22,000 people for new positions. Those positions include plenty of cashiers and stock clerks, but the world’s largest retailer will also be adding store managers, pharmacists and personnel workers. Earlier this year, the company shared more than US$2 billion with its workers through bonuses, profit sharing and payments into the company retirement plan. Wal-Mart has more than 2.1 million employees in the US and abroad.
■AVIATION
United Airlines seeks deal
United Airlines has asked Boeing and Airbus to propose bids for an order of as many as 150 jets in a deal that could be worth more than US$10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Yet “by staging a winner-take-all competition, United’s parent, UAL Corp, is hoping to obtain better terms than otherwise might be available,” the Journal said in its online edition, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.
■FRANCE
Unemployment rose in Q1
Unemployment rose sharply in the first quarter, reaching 8.6 percent of the active population as the nation suffers through its longest recession since the 1940s. Figures from national statistics agency INSEE released yesterday showed the French jobless rate jumped 1.1 percentage points from a revised 7.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. Finance Minister Christine Lagarde described the rise as “brutal” and blamed the worsening economy, which contracted by 1.2 percent during the first quarter.
■BANKING
Yuan bond offers planned
Standard Chartered and HSBC Holdings said yesterday that they would issue yuan-denominated bonds in China to support Beijing’s efforts to develop the local financial market. The locally incorporated unit of Standard Chartered has started preparations for up to 3.5 billion yuan (US$510 million) in bonds while HSBC has similar plans, the two said in statements on Wednesday. The lenders were the first two banks to announce such plans since the government said last month it would allow domestically incorporated foreign banks to sell yuan bonds in the mainland.
■AUTOMOBILES
Prius tops for Japanese
Toyota’s Prius was ranked the No. 1 selling vehicle in Japan last month, clinching the top spot in the domestic market for the first time. The revamped Prius debuted last month. Toyota Motor Corp sold 10,915 of the hybrid cars last month in Japan, more than a five-fold increase from April, data released yesterday by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. Honda’s new hybrid, the Insight, slipped to third place with 8,183 units sold after nabbing the top spot in April. That means for the second straight month, a hybrid car topped the sales rankings in Japan amid the growing popularity of green cars.
■ECONOMY
US, UK ratings affirmed
The US and UK’s top AAA debt ratings are backed by the nations’ fiscal strength and abilities to revive growth, Fitch Ratings said. “The US and UK can readjust their economies, reallocate resources and recover,” David Riley, head of sovereign ratings at Fitch, said at a conference in Sydney yesterday. Fitch has confidence in the countries’ “ability and track record to do the right thing,” he said.
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