■ Trade
Poultry imports banned
The nation has temporarily banned imports of poultry from South Africa to prevent bird flu and other epidemics, the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture said. The council made the announcement in a statement issued over the weekend, citing the fact that a large number of ostriches in various areas of South Africa's eastern Cape Province, such as Bedford, Cradock and Somerset, have died from bird flu. The country's poultry raisers should heighten their alert against a spread of bird flu-related epidemics, as other countries in Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and mainland China have also been affected by avian flu, officials with the council's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection said.
■ Energy
Thai firms to gear down
Siam Cement Pcl, Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl and other large Thai companies agreed with a government request to reduce their consumption of electricity, fuel and other energy by as much as 20 percent to trim surging imports. Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak today called a special meeting with executives from Siam Cement, the country's biggest cement maker, Charoen Pokphand and other companies after crude oil prices rose to a record on last Friday. The Thai government has spent 22 billion baht (US$531 million) to subsidize retail gasoline prices since January to prevent rising fuel costs from hurting economic growth and stoking inflation. Thailand, Southeast Asia's second-largest crude oil buyer, had a current account deficit of 19 million baht in April, its first monthly shortfall in two years, on rising oil imports.
■ Fiscal Policy
Bank to act on inflation
India's central bank governor said the monetary authority will seek to ensure price stability amid the fastest inflation in 3 and half years. He didn't give details. India's inflation, as measured by the rise in wholesale prices from a year earlier, unexpectedly accelerated to 7.51 percent in the week ended last month 24 from 6.52 percent in the prior week, the government said in a report last Friday. Inflation was higher than the bank had expected in its May monetary policy, Reserve Bank of India Governor Y.V. Reddy told reporters in the western city of Pune. He said basically, it appears that global factors played a critical part in this increase though the domestic factors such as liquidity overhang and monsoon conditions also played a role.
■ Investing
Buffet's bet cuts profits
Billionaire Warren Buffett's bet against the US dollar and his preference for cash over other investments caused Berkshire Hathaway Inc to post its smallest quarterly earnings since 2002. Net income at Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire, run by Buffett since 1965, fell 42 percent in the second quarter to US$1.28 billion, or US$834 a share, from US$2.23 billion, or US$1,452, a year earlier, the company said yesterday. The drop was caused by US$172 million of realized investment and currency losses, compared with a US$905 million gain a year earlier, when Berkshire sold most of its US Treasuries. Buffett, 73, is accumulating cash to make acquisitions, a strategy that also cut interest and dividend income 16 percent in the quarter. "You've got an avalanche of cash," Donald Yacktman, who manages US$1 billion at Yacktman Asset Management, said in an interview last week.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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