VIETNAM
New airport planned
Lawmakers yesterday voted to build a controversial new US$16 billion airport near Ho Chi Minh City, as the country vies to become one of the world’s busiest aviation hubs. The project aims to ease airport congestion in the business hub and cater to an ambitious 100 million passengers and 5 million tonnes of cargo a year by 2050. If all goes to plan, the proposed airport in neighboring Dong Nai Province would turn the nation into a regional aviation hub.
? SMARTPHONES
Bacteria-free handset touted
BlackBerry might design a bacteria-free smartphone as it bids to become the secure mobile choice for the healthcare industry, chief executive John Chen (程守宗) said. “Healthcare workers have to be worried about one less thing to wipe down [with a bacteria-free handset],” Chen told reporters on Wednesday at a hospital north of Toronto where BlackBerry unveiled a clinical alerts pilot project. The Canadian mobile manufacturer is partnering with ThoughtWire and Cisco Systems Inc to provide nurses and doctors in a Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital unit with a portable messaging and alert system. BlackBerry is to provide the software and devices. A study published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology found that about 20 percent to 30 percent of germs transfer between a phone and a fingertip.
TEXTILES
Garment workers on strike
More than 300 Chinese workers at a garment factory that supplies international brands such as Uniqlo have been protesting for about two weeks what they say is a unilateral decision by the management to close down. The strike is one of more than 1,000 collective actions since January by Chinese workers, who are increasingly turning to group actions in fighting for their rights. Workers at Shenzhen Artigas Clothing & Leatherware said the management is forcing them to move to another factory and they demand a proper negotiation for the relocation. Officials at Lever Style Ltd, which manages Artigas, have refused to comment, while Uniqlo Co has issued a statement urging for a peaceful resolution. The Japanese retailer said it could terminate its contract with the supplier if the matter is unresolved. Workers said they would like to receive proper payouts, including back payments for social security, overtime work and unused holidays.
RETAIL
H&M shares fall
Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) said that the rising US dollar would have a “very negative” effect on garment costs in the second half, after the greenback drove second-quarter profitability to the lowest level in nine years. Gross margin narrowed to 59.4 percent in the three months through last month, Stockholm-based H&M said yesterday, missing the 59.8 percent estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg. The shares fell the most in more than a month in early Stockholm trading and were down 2.2 percent to 332.50 krona at 9:03am. The vendor of US$9.95 beach dresses and US$12.95 espadrille sandals said that its purchasing costs would be “substantially increased” because of the US dollar in the second half, as Asian garment costs are often linked to the greenback. That trend has hurt other apparel retailers like Associated British Foods PLC’s Primark chain. The currency has strengthened 7.9 percent against the euro and 5.5 percent against the krona this year.
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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