■TELECOM
Saudi to block BlackBerry
Saudi Arabia’s telecom watchdog said on Tuesday that telecom companies in the kingdom must block an unspecified service for all BlackBerry users as of tomorrow. The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has asked “Saudi Telecom Co, Mobily and Zain Saudi Arabia to immediately stop the BlackBerry service for businesses and individuals in the kingdom starting Aug, 6,” it said in a statement. The ban would last until the kingdom’s three mobile phone operators “fulfill the regulatory requirements it has requested,” CITC said without elaborating on the nature of these requirements. The United Arab Emirates threatened on Sunday to ban some BlackBerry services unless its maker, Research in Motion, gives it access to encrypted messages.
■ FINANCE
S&P, Fitch scapegoats: CEO
The head of the company that owns global ratings giant Standard & Poor’s has hit back at accusations by a new Chinese credit agency that its Western counterparts caused the financial crisis. In an interview with the Financial Times, Harold “Terry” McGraw III, the chairman and chief executive of McGraw-Hill companies, said S&P, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings were being made scapegoats. “If you’re in a populist mood, you’ve got to find the villain,” McGraw told the newspaper during a trip to Beijing. Dagong Global Credit Rating (大公國際信評) chairman Guan Jianzhong (關建中) told the newspaper last month that the financial crisis erupted because rating agencies “didn’t properly disclose risk” and got too close to the clients they were assessing.
■ RETAIL
Adidas raises profit target
Sportswear maker Adidas AG has raised its full-year earnings forecast after the soccer World Cup helped drive up second-quarter revenue and profit. Adidas said yesterday that it now expects earnings per share for the full year of between 2.50 euros (US$3.30) and 2.62 euros , compared with a previous forecast of between 2.05 euros and 2.30 euros. The company, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, confirmed previously released second-quarter figures: an increase in net earnings to 126 million euros from 9 million euros a year earlier, and an 18.7 percent increase in revenues to 2.92 billion euros.
■ WATCHES
Swatch net profit up 54.5%
Swatch Group AG, the world’s largest watchmaker, reported a 54.5 percent rise in half-year net profit yesterday as sales recovered from a slump during the global downturn. Despite a strong Swiss franc and continued high gold prices, Swatch said it managed to increase net profits to 465 million Swiss francs (US$446 million) from SF301 million in the same quarter last year. Sales of its timepieces, which include brands such as Omega, Breguet and Longines, rose 22.1 percent to SF2.87 billion. The company said it expected a “strong” second half.
■ INSURANCE
Munich Re profit up 3.5%
Reinsurer Munich Re AG said its second-quarter net profit rose 3.5 percent as earnings from investments helped balance out the impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Munich Re said yesterday that its net earnings for the quarter climbed to 709 million euros from 685 million euros a year earlier. The company said the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the subsequent oil spill were the quarter’s most expensive single event. The company said it had a second-quarter profit on investments of 2.62 billion euros, up 19.7 percent.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues