■ COMPUTERS
Ellison blasts HP ouster
Billionaire Larry Ellison is blasting Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) decision to oust CEO Mark Hurd as cowardly and the worst personnel decision since Apple forced out Steve Jobs 25 years ago. Ellison, Oracle’s CEO and a friend of Hurd’s, issued a statement on Monday saying that the move to get rid of Hurd went against the best interests of HP’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners. Oracle is one of those partners. HP’s decision to go public with a sexual harassment claim against Hurd, even though a company investigation found no basis for the claim, was an act of “cowardly corporate political correctness” by a divided board of directors, Ellison said. HP repeated that the board voted unanimously for Hurd’s resignation.
■ AGRICULTURE
Canberra to appeal WTO
Australia yesterday said it would appeal a ruling that overturned a 90-year ban on New Zealand apple imports, saying it was based on legitimate disease fears. The WTO on Monday found Australia’s ban dating from the 1920s breached global rules, and challenged its reasons for blocking the fruit, but Canberra said there were “adequate grounds to appeal the decision.”
■ COMPUTERS
Nvidia leading DARPA team
Nvidia on Monday said it was leading a team awarded US$25 million by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create a chip that leaves today’s super computers in the dust. The Nvidia team was one of four granted DARPA research contracts aimed at making supercomputers a thousand times more powerful with technology from graphics processing units used to power realistic videogame action. Graphics chips break complex tasks into parts and handle them simultaneously while central processing units typically used in computers tend to projects in sequence, hurrying from start to finish in order.
■ ENERGY
South Korean firm finds oil
South Korea’s state-run petroleum company said yesterday it had discovered crude oil reserves in two blocks it is exploring in northern Iraq. The Maeil Business Newspaper said the reserves in the Bazian and Sangaw North blocks in the Kurdistan autonomous region were estimated to total 2 billion barrels, but the Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) said in a statement it was too early to estimate the size of the reserves. It said a formal announcement of the discovery would be made only after consultation with local authorities. The Bazian block, in which a KNOC-led South Korean consortium has a 100 percent stake, holds an estimated 1.27 billion barrels, the newspaper said, quoting sources at KNOC and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
■ FINANCE
KKR cancels sale of units
Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) said on Monday it had canceled plans to sell US$500 million of new common units, less than one month after it listed on the New York Stock Exchange. KKR, one of the biggest private equity firms in the world, with investments in retailer Dollar General Corp, hospital operator HCA and media company Nielsen, had announced plans to sell the units in May. The company did not provide a reason for the change.
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