■Airlines
US Airlines get relief funds
American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and bankrupt United Airlines, are each getting more than US$300 million in cash for reimbursed security costs, the government said on Wednesday. The US Transportation Security Administration said it had notified 66 US airlines that their cash reimbursements were being electronically transferred into their accounts. Federal law requires that the disburse--ments be completed by today. Nine of the carriers, including all the major airlines, signed agreements that limit compensation of top executives as a condition of receiving the assistance. Lawmakers agreed to reimburse airlines US$2.3 billion in security costs the carriers had paid the govern-ment since February of last year. Congress agreed to suspend that fee between June 1 and Sept. 30 to save the airlines an additional US$700 million. The fee helps pay for airport security mandated after Sept. 11.
■ Labor disputes
Parisians left stranded
France's government and labor unions broke off talks on funding future state pensions without an agreement, threatening an escalation of strikes that will leave Paris residents and commuters without public transport for a third day. Labor and Social Affairs Minister Francois Fillon presented his revised proposals after public workers staged a walkout Tuesday that brought the country to a standstill and rallied more than 1 million supporters in protest marches nationwide. In Paris, virtually no metro and commuter services were set to run yesterday as strikers voted to pursue their action. "We hope to generalize the strike that we started on May 13," said Marc Blondel, secretary general of Force Ouvriere, France's third-largest labor union.
■ Macroeconomics
Retailers' sales plummet
US retailers suffered a surprising drop in sales last month, data showed Wednesday, as American shoppers pared spending in the face of a sluggish, no-job recovery. Retail sales eased 0.1 percent from the previous month, defying Wall Street's expectations of a modest increase, after a 2.3 percent jump in March sales, seasonally adjusted figures showed. Consumer spending is critical because it accounts for two-thirds of US economic activity. "Overall, the report was a little softer than anticipated," said BMO Financial Group senior economist Sal Guatieri. "Still, it is not a bad pullback in retail sales, given the large increase the previous month. On balance, the numbers are indicating sluggish consumer spending largely because of the weakness in labor markets."
■ Labor disputes
Truckers end strike
South Korean truck drivers said on Wednesday they would go back to work following a seven-day strike that crippled the world's third-busiest port and resulted in estimated US$450 million in lost revenue. Truckers union head Kim Jong-in said members had endorsed a package of concessions offered by the government, and apologized to the nation for the strike. "We will return to work as soon as possible," Kim said. Wednesday's agreement, made public by the Labor Ministry, included govern-ment promises to cut income taxes for truck drivers, subsidize their fuel pur-chases and other benefits such as lower highway tolls. South Korea has incurred an estimated US$450 million in losses due to the strike at Busan port.
Agencies
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
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