■ AUTOMOBILES
GM's former CEO dies
Roger Smith, who led General Motors Corp (GM) in the 1980s and was the subject of Michael Moore's searing documentary Roger & Me, has died, the automaker said on Friday. He was 82. Smith died on Thursday in the Detroit area after a brief illness that GM did not identify. He was appointed chairman and CEO on Jan. 1, 1981, and led the world's largest automaker until his retirement on July 31, 1990. With Japanese automakers gaining momentum in the US as Smith's tenure began, he responded with GM's first front-wheel-drive midsize cars and formed a controversial joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp to manufacture cars in California. "[Smith] was a leader who knew that we have to accept change, understand change and learn to make it work for us," current GM CEO Rick Wagoner said in a statement.
■ AEROSPACE
Le Gall warns on dumping
The head of the European satellite launch group Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, warned the US on Friday against Chinese "dumping" in the market and suggested Washington should improve its ovesight. "Today, we see China has re-entered the market for commercial launches, using so-called `ITAR-Free' satellites designed and built without US technology," Le Gall told a space industry luncheon in Washington. "Coupled with cut-rate launch prices, China is working to flood the market with such satellites and I really think Europe and the US must rise together to address these issues which are very, very important," he said.
■ CHINA
Manufacturing expands
Manufacturing expanded at a faster pace last month, a government survey of purchasing managers released yesterday showed. The purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 55.4 from 53.2 in October, the statistics bureau said in an e-mailed statement. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. Of 20 industries surveyed, 19 of them, including clothing producers, transportation equipment manufacturers and energy processors, recorded a PMI of more than 50,the report said. The accelerating PMI reflected "China's rising investment in recent months," a researcher at the State Council Development and Research Center in Beijing said.
■ PHARMACEUTICAL
FDA clears antidepressant
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved long-term use of the antidepressant Cymbalta to help patients avoid a relapse into depression, Eli Lilly and Co said on Friday. Cymbalta, one of Lilly's biggest-selling drugs, was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004 to treat serious depression. The new FDA approval supports its use for "maintenance treatment" in adults. Lilly reported that Cymbalta had sales of US$1.3 billion last year, making it the company's fastest-growing drug.
■ COMPUTERS
Investors dump Dell stock
Shares of Dell Inc fell nearly 13 percent on Friday as investors took a pessimistic view on plans to re-ignite the computer maker's fortunes with a strategy that could lower profits in the short term. In Dell's first earnings conference call in more than a year, chief financial officer Don Carty told analysts that restructuring costs would cut into profits as the company seeks more acquisitions and layoffs and that a slower decline in component costs could also have an impact on its bottom line.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
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