TELEVISION
NCC to mediate dispute
The National Communications Commission (NCC) on Monday said that it would mediate a dispute over copyright fees between cable TV provider Homeplus Digital Co and Yong Xin Multimedia Co, the Taiwanese agent for several well-known foreign channels. Yong Xin has notified Homeplus of its plan to cancel 12 channels, including HBO, Animax, Cinemax, CNN and Cartoon Network, on Friday next week, after negotiations on copyright fees with the cable TV operator hit a deadlock. The commission has received a request for mediation from Homeplus and would arrange a meeting as soon as possible between the two parties with the NCC also present, an agency official said. During the mediation period, signal transmission cannot be cut off, the official said. According to past practice, the two companies can continue negotiating if the mediation attempt fails, the official said. If negotiations ultimately fail, Yong Xin might have to remove the 12 channels and Homeplus would need to apply to adjust its channel lineup, the officials said. Homeplus has about 1.005 million subscribers, accounting for 22.48 percent of the market, NCC data for the first quarter of this year showed.
SOCIETY
Tsai travel report denied
Former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) office on Sunday denied a Chinese-language media report that she is planning to visit Japan. The China Times report was “inaccurate,” Tsai Shu-ching (蔡舒景), a spokesperson for Tsai Ing-wen, said in a statement. “There is currently no such plan as reported by the media outlet,” the statement said. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has not engaged in negotiations with its Japanese counterpart to arrange a potential trip to Japan by Tsai Ing-wen. Citing unnamed sources, the China Times reported that think tanks in the US, Europe and Japan have extended invitations to Tsai since she left office on May 20. With Japan being nearest to Taiwan of the possible destinations, it is most likely she would visit there first, it said. A Japan visit could be arranged by applying for a visa to visit relatives, following a precedent set by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who in 2001 traveled to Japan for the first time since leaving office in 2000, the newspaper reported.
CULTURE
Olympics event planned
The Taiwan Pavilion at the Cultural Olympiad in Paris is to host a “Win Together Glory Night” on Friday, featuring drag queen Nymphia Wind and other performers. The Ministry of Culture in a news release yesterday said that it had organized the event to pay tribute to the Olympic athletes who took the world stage to pursue the ultimate in physical fitness. The Cultural Olympiad is a multidisciplinary artistic and cultural program running alongside the Summer Games. The Taiwan Pavilion at Parc de la Villette is open to the public until Saturday from 5pm to 10pm. Other performers include DJ Elvis Lin (林貓王), TAI Body Theatre, DJ Swallow (妖嬌) and Les Petites Choses Production at the “Win Together Glory Night,” which is on the eve of the Cultural Olympiad’s conclusion. The event’s name was chosen to echo the theme of “Win Together” embodied by the Taiwan Pavilion, the ministry said. The Taiwan Pavilion’s daily program has been so attractive that long lines have formed outside before the venue opens at 5pm daily, it said.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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