■ MINING
Tibet plans eco-friendly ban
Local officials in Tibet plan to ban the mining of gold, mercury, arsenic and peat to preserve mineral resources and protect the environment, state media reported yesterday. "Mercury and arsenic mining can pollute water supplies, peat mining can destroy wetlands and gold mining can ruin grasslands and rivers," Wang Baosheng, director of Tibet's Land and Resources Department, was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency. The report did not say when the ban would come into effect.
■ COMPUTERS
Energy initiative launched
Google and Intel are leading a consortium of major technology companies in an effort to sharply reduce the amount of power wasted by personal computers and servers. The energy-saving effort, announced on Tuesday, is called the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Companies agreeing to Climate Savers standards will try to build machines that are at least 90 percent efficient in their power use by promoting new technologies, setting new standards and encouraging more efficient use by consumers. The group envisions better power management in computers, roughly equivalent to taking 11 million cars off the highway.
■ BANKING
China's ICBC looks overseas
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (中國工商銀行, ICBC), the nation's largest lender, has applied for US and Russian banking licenses as it seeks to expand internationally, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing the bank's chairman. "We have applied to regulatory authorities in the US, Russia and other places to set up operations," Jiang Jianqing (姜建清) told the newspaper. ICBC is now one of the world's biggest banks by market capitalization. Only 3.1 percent of its pre-tax profits came from outside China last year.
■ BEVERAGES
Cucumber soda hits Japan
Japanese are staying cool as a cucumber this summer with "Pepsi Ice Cucumber" -- a new soda based on the crisp green gourd. The soft drink, which hit stores here on Tuesday, doesn't actually have any cucumber in it -- but has been artificially flavored to resemble "the refreshing taste of a fresh cucumber," said Aya Takemoto, spokeswoman of Japan's Pepsi distributor, Suntory Ltd. "We wanted a flavor that makes people think of keeping cool in the summer heat," Takemoto said. "We thought the cucumber was just perfect." The soda is on sale just for the summer and only in Japan and Suntory aims to sell 200,000 cases over the next three months.
■ TRADE
China hits back at US food
China has launched a crackdown on US food imports, seizing "rancid" pistachio nuts and vowing tough inspections in the wake of Washington's own offensive rejecting suspect Chinese food and drug ingredients. China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine told inspectors to step up checks of pistachio nuts from the US after a 20 tonne shipment was found to have rotting nuts infested with ants, Xinhua news agency reported late on Tuesday. The pistachio shipment would be destroyed, it said. Last week, China destroyed or returned nutritional supplement capsules and raisins from the US after detecting unacceptable levels of bacteria.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
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