title: Equinor drops plans for oil drilling off Australian coast

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Equinor ASA has dropped plans for oil drilling deep in the ocean off Australia’s south coast following a sustained campaign from environmentalists who said that the project posed too big a risk to the vast and unique marine ecosystem.

The Norwegian company would not drill the Stromlo-1 exploration well in the Great Australian Bight, because “the opportunity is not commercially competitive,” it said yesterday.

Lower oil prices and an outlook for plateauing demand amid a shift to electric vehicles, as well as concerns over climate change, have forced a rethink of many big-ticket energy projects.

On Monday, Canada’s Teck Resources Ltd pulled its application for a controversial US$850 million oil sands project, which was proposed at a time of US$100 oil and also faced pushback from environmentalists.

Australia’s government yesterday renewed its commitment to tapping the Bight.

“Many will find Equinor’s decision not to proceed with this oil exploration project in the Great Australian Bight extremely disappointing, and it is particularly hard for South Australia,” Australian Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia Keith Pitt said in a statement. “The Bight basin remains one of Australia’s frontier basins.”

Equinor earlier this month boosted its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, even as its production hit record highs.

Climate groups said that its plan to open up a new region to fossil fuel production was at odds with its aim to become the world’s most carbon-efficient oil and gas company.

“The decision is likely to have been driven by stronger carbon reduction targets of the European oil companies,” said Graeme Bethune, CEO of energy consultancy EnergyQuest. “Carbon costs are starting to bite and the European companies appear to be setting higher hurdles for oil projects than gas.”

PERMANENT PROTECTION?

Industry estimates suggest the Bight could hold the equivalent of 1.9 billion barrels of oil, making it a hugely prospective resource.

Other energy majors have struggled to make it stack up, with Chevron Corp and BP PLC walking away from projects in the area in the past several years.

“With three global oil giants abandoning their plans to drill in the Bight, the time for the government to give the South Australian community certainty and permanent protection for the Great Australian Bight has come,” the Australia Institute, a lobby group that researches environmental issues, said yesterday.

Sarah Hanson-Young, a Greens senator for South Australia, welcomed the decision, saying that it was good for tourism and the environment.

Three other companies also have interests in Bight exploration permits: Murphy Oil Corp, Santos Ltd and Bight Petroleum Corp. Karoon Energy Ltd relinquished its permit last year.

Equinor also holds an exploration permit for offshore Western Australia and said that it would continue with other ongoing activities in the country.

“We will engage with the federal and state authorities regarding our decision to discontinue the exploration program” for the Great Australian Bight, Equinor said.

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The government’s efforts to contain COVID-19 have seen schools opening late amid public warnings against visiting crowded places, and some people have called for major events to be postponed or canceled to prevent infection.

The annual Dajia Matsu Pilgrimage (大甲媽祖遶境) has become a topic of debate, as the nine-day procession attracts more than 1 million people.

People who participate in the pilgrimage usually travel together in close proximity and interact with businesses and other establishments along the way.

It often attracts older people, who are more susceptible to the virus.

Scheduled to begin on March 19, it is the largest religious event in Taiwan and the cost of postponing it would be drastic on many fronts.

Unlike pushing back a trade show, religious events lose much of their significance if they are held on an arbitrary date.

However, nothing can be worse than causing a new wave of infection, which has been reasonably contained in Taiwan.

Event organizers and the government can make all the restrictions and take all the precautions they want, but it would be almost impossible to have such a large number of people follow the rules, especially in the moment of religious fervor as they scramble to get under the palanquin.

Officials are even struggling to get people who are under self-quarantine to follow the rules. Unfortunately, that is just human nature. It is much safer not to take the risk at all.

The controversy over the pilgrimage erupted after Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), chairman of Jenn Lann Temple (鎮瀾宮), which organizes the pilgrimage, vowed not to cancel the procession and said: “Matsu will protect us.”

However, while the spotlight has been on the pilgrimage, it is only one of numerous Matsu processions in the nation. Many temples have canceled or downsized their processions, but others said they would press on.

For example, the Taoyuan Longde Temple launched an eight-day procession on Saturday and Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) was criticized for attending the packed opening ceremony — without a mask — and promoting the event on social media.

Cheng yesterday said that he would not attend a ceremony to be held by the procession today and called for Taoyuan’s major temples to postpone processions, and for any large events to follow the Centers for Disease Control’s advisory measures.

This should have been done last week and the pilgrimage probably should have been postponed.

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that “Matsu would prioritize the health of our people,” adding that he had told Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) to ask the organizers to postpone the event.

Hsu called for large-scale events to draw up plans for deferrals, while Yen and his associates visited other participating temples to discuss whether to continue with the procession.

Hopefully they will make the right call.

However, the spotlight should not be only on Dajia. Other events, while much smaller in scale, can be just as dangerous, and attendees and organizers should exercise common sense.

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title: EDITORIAL: Postpone mass events

people: 顏清標 徐國勇 蘇貞昌 鄭文燦


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Russia’s old ‘Trojan horse’ plays East against West

Spies, conspiracies and energy deals — there is a new Cold War feel to Bulgaria
Hidden away from the holiday resorts and quietly rundown villages on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast lies what locals refer to as “The Russian Complex.”

The 200 million euro (US$217 million) development was the pet project of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov for children and athletes.

Called Kamchia after the river nearby, it has a hotel, theaters, a cinema and a TV studio. It caters to 35 sports and includes an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

There is a school with a planetarium and a tribute to the Russian space program, replete with a giant mural of astronaut Yuri Gagarin.

However, what the complex cannot do is “host a spy headquarters,” managing director Nikolai Nedyalkov joked on a visit this month.

Kamchia has fallen on hard times since Western sanctions hit Moscow’s finances. One man, though, has his eye on it: Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov.

His interest says more about geopolitics than wellness, as Russian influence endures in Bulgaria, a country torn between loyalty toward its historical ally and its more recent status as a member of NATO and the EU.

Lavrov in December said that Kamchia is “unique,” the “ideal model of soft power,” and proposed taking it under Kremlin control.

The government in Sofia said there was no official request to change its status, yet that did not stop some Bulgarians from jumping on the idea that it could be used for training operatives.

Whatever happens next, Kamchia shows that Bulgaria remains a critical outpost at a time of heightened tension over espionage, energy security and corruption.

That historical role has become more precarious in recent months, as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flex their muscles in Europe’s most volatile region.

The problem for the US and Western Europe is that Bulgaria chooses to remain Russia’s biggest foothold in Putin’s orbit, because that serves the interests of the people who run the country, said Ilian Vassilev, former Bulgarian ambassador to Russia from 2000 to 2006.

“The main channels of Russian influence are a legacy of a Soviet-style power structure and corruption, which is the glue that holds Russian society together and Bulgaria’s too,” said Vassilev, 63, who was barred by Russia in response to sanctions over Moscow’s involvement in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. “Bulgaria has never had more geopolitical importance than today.”

Bonded by the Cyrillic alphabet, a similar spoken language and the Orthodox religion, Bulgaria has long been Russophile.

The nation was freed from Ottoman rule in 1878 in the Russo-Turkish war, an event marked by a national holiday every March 3. It was the closest ally of the Soviet Union during communism, nicknamed the 16th republic under former Bulgarian dictator Todor Zhivkov.

Russia’s ambassador to the EU in 2006, the year before Bulgaria joined the bloc, notoriously said that it would be useful to have a “Trojan horse” inside the alliance.

Indeed, Russia’s tentacles are everywhere. Bulgaria imports just about all of its gas through a contract with Gazprom that runs until 2022.

About one-third of Bulgaria’s gross power demand is met by a nuclear plant fed by Russian fuel, and the country wants to build a second plant with Russian reactors it already owns.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, the former firefighter who has run the nation on and off for the past 11 years, joined Putin and Erdogan at a ceremony on Jan. 8 to turn on the TurkStream pipeline that brings Russian gas under the Black Sea to Turkey and then connects with Bulgaria and Serbia.

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title: Virus exacting growing economic toll

content_text:
Virus exacting growing economic toll

ACROSS THE BOARD:While consumer and travel-related companies were the first to be affected, concerns are growing for all industries fed by a global supply chain
For big business, the effects of an outbreak of COVID-19 in China are exacting a growing toll worldwide.

Mastercard Inc and United Airlines Holdings Inc emerged as the latest companies to warn that sales and profit are getting hurt as the epidemic spreads meaningfully beyond its center in China’s Hubei Province. Growing outbreaks are emerging in other parts of Asia and in Europe.

The US credit card network cut its revenue growth forecast as the spread of infections puts off travelers. Chicago-based United scrapped its profit forecast for this year altogether, underscoring the unpredictable nature of the two-month-old health emergency.

With the spread of the coronavirus raising questions over whether it would be declared a global pandemic, businesses worldwide that are exposed to travel are clear targets.

Singapore Airlines Ltd on Tuesday pulled more flights from its schedule through the end of May, adding to a long list of airlines led by Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) that are cutting capacity as demand craters. Air New Zealand Ltd warned that its earnings would be hit, too.

However, the coronavirus has increasingly become a concern for any industry fed by a global supply chain.

In China, the biggest consumer market and a factory for the world, manufacturing facilities have closed and even some of the biggest cities have been put in lockdown.

That has disrupted production, logistics and sales for businesses that churn out modern-day essentials, from Procter & Gamble Co in the US to Germany’s Adidas AG and Australian vitamins maker Blackmores Ltd.

Royal Philips NV yesterday said that it expects a hit in the first quarter as it sells fewer consumer appliances in China and its supply chain gets snarled.

Nestle SA pushed back its target for sales growth as revenue from China, the Nescafe maker’s second-largest market, slows.

Pernod Ricard SA cut its forecast for full-year profit growth by about half, citing the effects of the coronavirus on sales of drinks, including Jameson whiskey in the key Chinese market.

Adidas last week said that business slumped 85 percent in China since the end of the Lunar New Year holiday.

One of the first warnings came from Burberry Group PLC, which scrapped its forecast for the year, warning that the coronavirus epidemic is cutting sales by three-fourths or more at stores in China.

Anxiety over a US-China trade war already made investors question if supply chains should be more localized and the virus outbreak has strengthened the argument for keeping operations close to home, Nikko Asset Management Europe Ltd global equities head William Low said.

The number of coronavirus cases in South Korea soared over the past week, rising from just dozens to more than 800, making it the most-infected country outside of China. Meanwhile, swathes of Italy are in lockdown.

The WHO called the increase in coronavirus cases outside of China “deeply concerning,” although stopped short of labeling the crisis a pandemic.

Either way, US consumer-goods giant Procter & Gamble late last week said that sales and earnings would be affected amid lower store traffic in China and beyond, with travel retail also getting hurt.

HP Inc on Monday flagged a “significant impact” to free cash flow in its second quarter because of production and manufacturing delays.

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title: LA tribute held for Kobe Bryant and daughter

content_text:
Vanessa Bryant weeps as she speaks during a memorial celebrating the life of her husband, Kobe, and daughter, Gianna, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, on Monday.Photo: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

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A tearful Michael Jordan on Monday remembered his “little brother” Kobe Bryant at a star-filled memorial in Los Angeles for the basketball great and his daughter, Gianna, who died with seven others in a helicopter crash last month.

“When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me died, and as I look in this arena, across the globe, a piece of you died,” Jordan said with tears streaming down his face.

“I promise you, from this day forward, I will live with the memories and knowing that I had a little brother,” added Jordan, widely regarded as the greatest NBA player in history. “I tried to help in every way I could. Please rest in peace, little brother.”

The public memorial — dubbed “A Celebration of Life for Kobe and Gianna Bryant” — was held at Staples Center, the arena where Bryant wowed fans for 17 years, and known as “the house that Kobe built.”

The 2/24 date carried special significance as it coincides with Bryant’s jersey number — “24” — and Gianna’s “2” jersey number.

Shaquille O’Neal also spoke at the ceremony, drawing cheers as he recalled the three NBA titles that he and Bryant won together.

“Kobe and I have pushed one another to play some of the greatest basketball of all time and I am proud that no other team has accomplished the three-peat the Lakers have done since Shaq-and-the-Kobe Lakers did it,” O’Neal said.

He also spoke of their well-known feuding, saying that even though “we fought, bantered or insulted each other with off-handed remarks,” there was mutual respect between the pair.

“Make no mistake. Folks thought we were on bad terms, [but] when the cameras were turned off, he and I would throw a wink at each other,” O’Neal said.

Beyonce, backed by a choir, opened the ceremony with one of Bryant’s favorite songs XO, followed by Halo.

“I’m here because I love Kobe,” said the singer, who was dressed in a golden suit — the color of the Los Angeles Lakers, Bryant’s team for two decades.

Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, paid a tearful tribute to her 41-year-old husband and middle daughter, saying she could not fathom life without them and describing Kobe Bryant as “my everything.”

“God knew they couldn’t be on this earth without each other,” she said in her first public remarks since the Jan. 26 crash. “He had to bring them home together.”

She spoke of her heartbreak at not being able to watch Gianna — who was 13 and one of couple’s four daughters —grow up and missing important moments of her life.

“I won’t be able to tell her how gorgeous she looks on her wedding day,” Vanessa Byrant said through tears, receiving a standing ovation for the tribute. “I’ll never get to see my baby girl walk down the aisle, have a father-daughter dance with her daddy.”

Earlier in the day, her lawyers filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the operators of the helicopter involved in the crash.

The lawsuit names Island Express Helicopters, Island Express Holding Corp and the estate of the helicopter’s pilot, Ara Zobayan, who was among the victims.

The US National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the exact cause of the crash, although preliminary findings showed no sign of mechanical failure.

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Virus outbreak: S Korea to test more than 200,000 church members

‘PUBLIC ANXIETY’:About 60 percent of the infections in South Korea have been linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, whose founder pledged to work with the authorities
South Korean health authorities yesterday said that they aim to test more than 200,000 members of a church at the center of a surge of new COVID-19 cases that has taken the country’s tally to 893.

South Korea’s fast-spreading outbreak has fueled fears that the coronavirus, which is believed to have begun in Wuhan, China, in December last year, is developing into a global pandemic.

About 60 percent of South Korea’s cases have been linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, where the first case was reported in a 61-year-old woman, but it is not known how she became infected.

Of 60 new cases reported yesterday, 16 were in the southeastern city of Daegu, where the church is located, and 33 from nearby North Gyeongsang Province, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

South Korea also reported its ninth death from the virus, a patient from a hospital in North Gyeongsang Province.

The leader of the church said it had agreed to provide authorities with the names of all its members in South Korea, estimated by media at about 215,000 people.

The government would conduct coronavirus tests on all members “as soon as possible” once it gets the information, the South Korean prime minister’s office said in a statement.

“It is essential to test all of the church members in order to contain the spread of the virus and relieve public anxiety,” the office said.

Vice Minister of Health Kim Kang-lip said the priority was to test about 1,300 of the 9,200 members of the Daegu church who are showing symptoms, which he said would be completed by today.

“We will make utmost efforts with the goal of stabilizing the situation in Daegu within four weeks,” he told a media briefing, adding that the government would trace all other Daegu citizens having symptoms for isolation and checks.

The church, which has faced public criticism of its handling of the outbreak, asked the government to ensure the personal details of its members did not become public.

The church founder and self-proclaimed messiah, Lee Man-hee, said the church was cooperating with the government to stop the outbreak and beside its members, it would also check people in church training programs.

“All of these will be implemented on the premise that the government takes steps to protect their personal information,” Lee said in a letter posted online.

North Gyeongsang Province has also seen surges in cases in the past few weeks, most from a hospital in Cheongdo, which was last week designated a “special care zone” along with Daegu.

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people: 陳其邁 陳時中

title: Taiwanese are all in this together

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There is a saying that a government trains an army for 1,000 days to be able to respond to a sudden, urgent need. This is a very good way to describe the function of the National Health Insurance Administration’s (NHIA) NHI-MediCloud system and the health insurance IC card.

As all Taiwanese stand together in the fight against COVID-19, the system allows frontline medical providers to immediately find out if a patient has traveled to China, Hong Kong or Macau, and permits masks to be sold through NHI-certified pharmacies as part of a mask rationing system.

The whole process treats epidemic prevention as a battle — and without the support of the NHI-certified pharmacies, it would be impossible to implement this policy.

Because of COVID-19, demand for masks has increased by the day, but the rationing system gives more people access to masks — and gives them fairer access.

Since the real-name system — where people provide their health insurance card to buy masks — took effect on Feb. 6, the Taiwan Pharmacist Association, the Pharmacist Association of ROC and 6,336 NHI-certified community pharmacies have been working hard to improve the situation: dividing the mask distributions into smaller packages, lining people up and issuing numbers to reduce wait times.

There are still long lines, but the enthusiastic and efficient service at the pharmacies has effectively reduced “mask panic.”

To make buying masks easier for people in the countryside, who might get up earlier, the NHIA has granted pharmacies more flexibility in setting their opening hours — from 7am to 10am — to address differences between urban and rural areas.

To further improve service, the NHIA has added functions in the system where pharmacies can add the hours that masks are sold and their telephone numbers, making it easier for the public to contact them.

Pharmacies issue number tickets, but flexible hours are necessary, as pharmacists still need time to dispense prescriptions.

As a result, the mask inventory of NHI-certified pharmacies would vary when people check.

The NHIA has improved its system functionality so that pharmacies can quickly check mask availability across the network.

The appearance of COVID-19 is just part of the reality people live in — there is no one to blame.

Taiwanese must address the outbreak in an effective and pragmatic manner, and work together to overcome it.

The reliance on a stable health insurance information system comes from having established an effective cloud information-sharing system for hospitals and clinics as part of the goal of promoting a tiered healthcare system, which we have been working toward over the past three years.

Following policy directions by Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), we all sacrificed a day during the Lunar New Year holiday and worked with the National Immigration Agency and the Centers for Disease Control to check lists of names of people entering Taiwan from Wuhan and other places in China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau, against medical information on their NHI cards.

Currently, 373,432 entries have been checked, giving hospitals and medical clinics a powerful tool in COVID-19 prevention.

Epidemic prevention cannot be handled by a single ministry. The government is a unit and it can unite to fight COVID-19.

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Like a natural woman

From ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ in cinemas to ‘Fleabag’ on television, realistic women are at last being shown looking back at the world that is looking at them
Film and television makers have never been shy about the female form. Hollywood always valiantly ensures audiences know what its leading ladies look like in underwear, and often without, while television heaves with the bosoms of pretty ingenues in period drama. Alas, anyone with a brain will know these portrayals are far from representative of how women look and act in real life. Tired of the disconnect? Good news: today’s hottest screen hits are proving that you can discuss women’s bodies honestly, and without sexualizing them, too.

Take Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the scorching period drama from the French film-maker Celine Sciamma released on Feb. 21. Having already generated a buzz, and plenty of awards, in France, adoring reviews suggest that it’s set to do the same here. Sciamma won praise for her depiction of young women’s sexuality in 2014’s Girlhood — a punchy snapshot of teenage life in the Parisian banlieues. Now she has turned her hand to a tale of lesbian passion in 18th-century Brittany.

The film follows a painter, Marianne (Noemie Merlant), who must complete a portrait of a young noblewoman, Heloise (Adele Haenel), in secret: Heloise has previously refused to pose for portraits in an act of rebellion against her forthcoming arranged marriage.

The “female gaze” is a term used in recent years to describe art that subverts the ubiquitous male perspective. Like many buzzwords, it is often misapplied — but not so in the case of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which is unmistakably made from a female vantage point and with a feminist sensibility. Indeed, its plot is a meta commentary on that fact: in order to paint Heloise secretly, Marianne has to memorize her features while posing as her walking companion — cue a slew of scenes involving a woman looking at another woman. Crucially, Heloise soon returns Marianne’s glances.

Their relationship provides a blueprint for what the female gaze should do in film-making, says Ginette Vincendeau, a professor of film studies at King’s College London. While warning that it’s simplistic to assume films by women will automatically be feminist, she says that Sciamma’s picture contains a good example of “the reciprocity of the female gaze” — or how it can counter the imbalance that is thought to corrupt the male gaze.

There’s more of an equal power relation between the person depicted and the person depicting, which is to me a feminist gesture,” she says.

Heloise and Marianne eventually work together on the portrait, a collaboration that Sciamma has said mirrors the film’s creative process. She and Haenel were until recently a couple; in an interview last week she insisted that the fictional dialogue between artist and subject reflects their “intellectual relationship” in real life.

So the film’s subject matter means it’s inevitably concerned with appearances. But it also offers a welcome study of the less superficial aspects of women’s bodies. At one point, Marianne wakes up in the night with agonising period pain. Meanwhile, a subplot involves Heloise’s maid, Sophie, who is pregnant but does not want to be. In one of the film’s most transfixing scenes, a local woman reaches up between Sophie’s legs to perform an abortion. As Vincendeau points out, these are heavily aestheticized portrayals rather than strictly “honest” ones, but nonetheless it’s refreshing to see women’s health (hardly a Hollywood trope) discussed on the big screen.

title: Like a natural woman


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Hong Kong’s Sarah Lee to defy critics, defend world titles

Sarah Lee is to defend her titles at this week’s track cycling world championships in Berlin after overcoming a dispute over Hong Kong’s anti-government protests that left her fearing for her Tokyo Olympics campaign.

The Hong Kong rider, who won women’s keirin and sprint gold at last year’s world championships, and keirin bronze at the 2012 Olympics, was caught up in a social media storm last year over comments perceived as backing the protests.

While she received plenty of support for embracing freedom of speech and speaking out for Hong Kong, Lee’s remarks also prompted calls from some for her to be banned from the sport.

The 32-year-old suspended her social media account in the wake of the controversy, while the Hong Kong Sports Institute — where Lee trains — declined to take action, saying: “There are no grounds for saying her comments had anything to do with the protest.”

Upon returning to Facebook three months later, Lee wrote that she had closed her account for “a lot of different reasons, among the biggest was that I did not want to see people abusing each other on the page, especially among Hong Kong people.”

“I have to say I have been struggling for a while, fearing there may be fabrication from the media, fearing people who may use their own words to interpret my sentences, fearing speculation made by people on the Internet, fearing getting involved in political turmoil, fearing it may affect the Olympic Games,” she wrote. “But in the end I don’t want to abandon it. I won’t back down because of these fears.”

Lee wrote herself into the history books by winning Hong Kong’s first ever Olympic cycling medal — only the third overall — with her keirin bronze at London 2012.

Voicing political views on Hong Kong is now fraught with risk for public figures in a territory that has become ideologically polarized.

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content_text:
Deadly riots during Trump visit

BRASS TACKS:The US president failed to strike a major trade deal, but he and Narendra Modi did announce defense deals worth US$3 billion, including a naval helicopter sale
US President Donald Trump throws flower petals during a wreath laying ceremony at Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Raj Ghat in New Delhi, India, yesterday.Photo: Reuters
India yesterday rolled out the red carpet for US President Donald Trump on the second day of a visit high on spectacular optics, but deadly unrest exposed religious tensions that his host is accused of stoking.

The violence in New Delhi on Monday just as Trump arrived began as a standoff between supporters and opponents of a new citizenship law, but degenerated into running battles between Hindus and Muslims, local media reported.

The law, which critics say forms part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda — which he denies — has sparked weeks of protests and violence, but the fatalities were the first since December last year.

The seven dead in Delhi’s northeastern fringes included a police officer.

More than 150 people were also wounded, police and hospital sources said, as the rioters armed with stones and even guns went on the rampage, setting fire to buildings and vehicles.

The authorities responded with tear gas and smoke grenades, sending in paramilitary security forces, shutting schools and banning the assembly of more than four people in the areas affected. Further rioting was reported yesterday.

The law has raised worries abroad — including in Washington — that Modi wants to remould secular India into a Hindu nation while marginalizing the country’s 200 million Muslims, a claim Modi denies.

A senior US official told reporters that Trump would raise concerns about religious freedom during his lightning visit, calling them “extremely important to this administration.”

Yesterday, Trump and first lady Melania Trump were given a ceremonial welcome with red-coated and turbaned mounted troops and booming cannons.

Shedding their shoes they then laid a wreath and showered petals at the open-air memorial where Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was cremated before they planted a tree, but then Trump and Modi got down to brass tacks.

However, Trump failed to strike any major trade deal with India at the end of a visit big on photograph opportunities but short on substance.

Speaking after talks in New Delhi with Modi, the US president said only that they had made “tremendous progress” toward a comprehensive agreement and that he was “optimistic we can reach a deal.”

While minor compared to his trade dispute with China, Trump has slapped tariffs on Indian steel and aluminium and suspended duty-free access for certain goods in an effort to cut the US$25 billion US trade deficit with Asia’s third-biggest economy.

Under pressure to deliver ahead of elections in November, he has pressed for greater access to the vast Indian market of 1.3 billion people for US dairy producers, makers of medical goods and for Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

But Modi, who has a lot in common with Trump with his “Make in India” mantra echoing Trump’s “America first” slogan, has responded with higher tariffs on US goods including US$600 million worth of Californian almonds.

Modi, speaking alongside Trump, said only that both sides “have agreed to start negotiating for a big trade deal.”

However, Trump and Modi did announce US$3 billion in defence deals, including for the sale of naval helicopters, proof of their deepening strategic alliance to counter the rise of China in the region.

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title: Deadly riots during Trump visit


content_text:
Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has died at the age of 91 after undergoing treatment in an intensive care unit following surgery, state television said yesterday.

Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years until he was ousted following mass protests in 2011.

He was arrested in April 2011, two months after stepping down, and was in prison and military hospitals until 2017, when he was freed after being cleared of charges of ordering the killing of protesters.

Mubarak had been sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the 18-day revolt.

An appeals court ordered a retrial and the case against Mubarak and his senior officials was dropped. He was finally acquitted in 2017.

He was, however, convicted in 2015 along with his two sons of diverting public funds and using the money to upgrade family properties. They were sentenced to three years in jail.

Many Egyptians who lived through Mubarak’s time in power view it as a period of autocracy and crony capitalism. His overthrow led to Egypt’s first free election, which brought in Islamist Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi lasted only a year in office after mass protests in 2013 led to his overthrow by then-defense chief General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who is now president. Mubarak-era figures, meanwhile, are gradually being cleared of charges, and laws limiting political freedoms have raised fears among activists that the old regime is back.

Mubarak had long maintained his innocence and said history would judge him a patriot who served his country selflessly.

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title: Egyptian ex-president Mubarak dies at 91


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Palestinians salvage items from the site of an Israeli airstrike east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday.Photo: AFP
A shaky ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad appeared to be taking hold early yesterday, ending a two-day round of violence that had threatened to disrupt next week’s Israeli national elections.

Musab al-Berim, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, said the ceasefire went into effect at 11:30pm on Monday, several hours after an earlier truce quickly unraveled.

Egypt and UN mediators had negotiated the new deal, and nearly an hour later things appeared quiet on both sides, he said.

During two days of fighting, Israeli aircraft pounded dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip while Islamic Jihad militants bombarded southern Israel with heavy rocket fire.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is locked in the final days of a divisive election campaign, ramped up his rhetoric.

He threatened Gaza’s Hamas rulers with a stepped-up operation if the rocket fire continued.

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title: Shaky truce appears to take hold after Israel-Gaza fighting


content_text:
HIV-positive SA women bullied into sterilization

COERCION:Some mothers, who were in extreme labor pain, were told that they would not receive medical assistance until they had signed the consent forms
Dozens of HIV-positive South African women have been sterilized without consent or after being pressured to agree just before giving birth, sometimes being told while in pain on their way to the operating theater, a report published on Monday found.

After investigating 48 specific cases, the independent Commission for Gender Equality found that doctors in several hospitals had sterilized women about to have caesarean sections after telling them that carriers of HIV — which causes AIDS if not treated — should not have children or that they would die if they had another baby.

“In some instances, complainants were given the forms while they were in extreme labor pain and were told that they would not receive medical assistance until they had signed the forms,” said the report, which concluded a five-year investigation into 48 cases brought to the commission by two civil rights groups.

OPENING THE LID

Commission chairwoman Tamara Mathebula said that it was “not clear how widespread this problem is in South Africa, but we are hoping that the recommendations of our investigation will open the lid to matters that are not yet known in full.”

South African Minister of Health Zwelini Mkhize requested an urgent meeting with Mathebula to discuss the report, his department said.

MOTHERS’ TESTIMONIALS

The report cited the testimonies of several mothers.

One said that she had been refused help with the birth if she did not sign the consent form.

Another said that she had not known that the consent form she was shown on the way to theater had included agreeing to sterilization.

A third said that she had signed a form while in pain on the way to have a caesarean section, and had not known what it meant to be sterilized, only finding out later from a private gynecologist that she could no longer conceive.

“The Complainants could not reasonably be said to have consented to the procedure,” the report said. “They were therefore forced and/or coerced into being sterilized.”

The WHO says that HIV-positive women have a 15 to 45 percent chance of infecting their baby during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding — but that this can be reduced to below 5 percent with interventions including antiretroviral drugs.

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title: Billion-year-old Chinese seaweed found

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Scientists have spotted in rocks from northern China what might be the oldest fossils of a green plant ever found, tiny seaweed that carpeted areas of the seafloor about 1 billion years ago and were part of a primordial revolution among life on Earth.

Researchers on Monday said that the plant, called Proterocladus antiquus, was about the size of a rice grain and boasted numerous thin branches, thriving in shallow water while attached to the seafloor with a root-like structure.

It might seem small, but Proterocladus — a form of green algae — was one of the largest organisms of its time, sharing the seas mainly with bacteria and other microbes. It engaged in photosynthesis, transforming energy from sunlight into chemical energy and producing oxygen.

“Proterocladus antiquus is a close relative of the ancestor of all green plants alive today,” said Tang Qing (唐卿), a Virginia Tech post-doctoral researcher who detected the fossils in rock dug up in Liaoning Province and lead author of the article in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

The first land plants, thought to be descendants of green seaweeds, appeared about 450 million years ago.

There was an evolutionary shift on Earth about 2 billion years ago from simple bacteria-like cells to the first members of a group called eukaryotes that spans fungi, plants and animals. The first plants were single-celled organisms.

The transition to multicellular plants such as Proterocladus was a pivotal development that paved the way for the riot of plants that have inhabited the world, from ferns to sequoias to the Venus flytrap.

Proterocladus is 200 million years older than the previous earliest-known green seaweed. It represents the oldest unambiguous green plant fossil.

Plants were not the first to practice photosynthesis. They had an ancestor that apparently acquired the photosynthesis cellular apparatus from a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria.

This ancestor of all green plants gave rise to two major branches; one of them includes some aquatic plants and all land plants, while the other — the group to which Proterocladus belongs — is made up exclusively of aquatic plants.

“Proterocladus antiquus is the sister of the evolutionary great, great grandmother of all green plants alive today,” Virginia Tech paleobiologist and study coauthor Xiao Shuhai (肖書海) said.

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title: Convicted Weinstein led away in cuffs

content_text:
Convicted Weinstein led away in cuffs

MARCH SENTENCING:While the producer’s lawyers said they would appeal, the sexual assault charge carries up to 25 years, while the third-degree rape carries four years
A courtroom sketch shows film producer Harvey Weinstein being handcuffed after his guilty verdict in his sexual assault trial at the New York Criminal Court in New York City on Monday.Photo: Reuters
Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault against two women and led off to prison in handcuffs on Monday in what his foes hailed as a landmark moment for the legal system and a long-overdue reckoning for the man vilified as the biggest monster of the (#)MeToo era.

The 67-year-old Weinstein had a look of resignation on his face as he heard the verdict: guilty on two charges, not guilty on a set of more serious ones.

While it was not the across-the-board victory that prosecutors and his accusers had hoped for, it could put the stooped and feeble-looking Weinstein behind bars for the rest of his life. The charges carry up to 29 years in prison.

New York City District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr saluted the women who came forward against the once-feared studio boss, saying they “changed the course of history in the fight against sexual violence” and “pulled our justice system into the 21st century.”

Weinstein’s lawyers said they would appeal.

“Harvey is unbelievably strong. He took it like a man,” defense attorney Donna Rotunno said. “He knows that we will continue to fight for him, and we know that this is not over.”

Another of his lawyers, Arthur Aidala, quoted Weinstein as telling as his legal team: “I’m innocent. I’m innocent. I’m innocent. How could this happen in America?”

The jury of seven men and five women took five days to find Weinstein guilty of raping an aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006 by forcibly performing oral sex on her.

He was acquitted on the most serious charges, two counts of predatory sexual assault, each carrying up to life in prison.

Both of those counts hinged on the testimony of Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein barged into her apartment, raped her and forcibly performed oral sex on her in the mid-1990s.

Judge James Burke ordered Weinstein taken to jail immediately.

Court officers handcuffed Weinstein and put their arms under his, leading him unsteadily out of the courtroom via a side door without the use of the walker he relied on for much of the trial.

He was later taken from the courthouse in an ambulance, strapped to a stretcher in his suit, and taken to a locked unit at Bellevue Hospital.

The judge said he would ask that Weinstein, who had been free on bail since his arrest nearly two years ago, be held in the infirmary at the city’s Rikers Island jail complex after his lawyers said he needs medical attention following unsuccessful back surgery.

Sentencing was set for March 11. The sexual assault charge carries up to 25 years in prison, while the third-degree rape count is punishable by up to four years.

The jury acquitted Weinstein of first-degree rape, which requires the use of force or the threat of it, and found him guilty of third-degree rape, which involves a lack of consent.

The verdict followed weeks of often harrowing and excruciatingly graphic testimony from a string of accusers who told of rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbation, lewd propositions and excuses from Weinstein about how the Hollywood casting couch works.

The trial was the first criminal case to arise from the barrage of allegations against Weinstein from more than 90 women, including actresses Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino. Most of those cases were too old to prosecute.

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title: CTBC to deploy NTU’s AI tech to improve services

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CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行) and National Taiwan University (NTU) on Monday signed a NT$10 million (US$328,926) deal to utilize the school’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology to enhance the firm’s consumer banking services.

The bank is to provide anonymized data to NTU’s AI Research Center and the IoX Center — which focuses on Internet of Things — for research on natural-language understanding, emotion recognition and microexpression reading, CTBC said.

The research on emotion recognition and microexpression reading could help bank staff read a client’s feelings or emotional state to provide better services, CTBC president James Chen (陳佳文) told a news conference in Taipei.

For example, when a camera-based recognition software finds that a client is feeling impatient, it would remind bank staff to greet the client quickly, Chen said.

Analysis of microexpressions could help companies capture more nonverbal information about applicants during job interviews, he added.

CTBC hopes its cooperation with the university would provide a new language-understanding solution, chief technology officer Titan Chia (賈景光) said.

“We utilized language understanding to improve our consumer support service last year and found it helpful,” Chia said.

CTBC, which receives more than 100,000 telephone calls from clients every month, has assigned a team to listen to phone records to check if employees managed to solve clients’ problems or properly market its products, he said.

“We could not manually finish reviewing all phone records and had to work overtime, but last year, we had AI screen those files first, so our employees only had to listen to records that were controversial,” Chia said.

“AI does not steal jobs from humans. Instead, new job opportunities emerge as we need people to train the machines to learn which marketing terms are appropriate,” he said.

The bank plans to utilize the new technology in its lending business, to combat money laundering and for “know-your-customer” compliance, he said.

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Illegal taxi drivers fined NT$8.5m by inspectors

EASILY RECOGNIZED:The public is advised to employ legal taxi services, as they follow the disease-prevention regulations, the Directorate-General of Highways said
Seventeen illegal taxi drivers were fined a total of NT$8.5 million (US$279,587) during a four-day nationwide crackdown that ended on Sunday, the Directorate-General of Highways said on Monday.

The highway authority launched the crackdown after a 60-year-old unlicensed taxi driver in central Taiwan apparently contracted COVID-19 from a passenger, a Taiwanese businessman based in China.

The driver later died and four of his relatives were also confirmed to have contracted COVID-19.

Cracking down on illegal taxi drivers has been a top priority of the directorate, the agency said, adding that on Wednesday last week, it instructed motor vehicle offices nationwide to intensify their efforts to curb illegal taxi services.

The offices on Thursday dispatched inspectors to key transport hubs, including airports, railway stations and bus stops, to look for illegal taxi drivers, it said.

The illegal taxi drivers who were caught would be punished in accordance with Article 77, Section 2 of the Highway Act (公路法) amid the nation’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it added.

The drivers would each be given the maximum NT$500,000 fine, while illegal taxi companies could face fines of up to NT$25 million, it said.

Legal taxi drivers can be easily recognized by their license plates which should have red lettering and numbers on a white background, the agency said.

The public is advised to use legal taxi services, as they follow the disease-prevention regulations, it said.

Ahead of the 228 Peace Memorial Holiday this weekend, the Freeway Bureau has urged drivers planning to use the nation’s freeways during the holiday to drive safely and heed traffic control measures.

The bureau said that 103 traffic accidents happened during the four-day 228 Peace Memorial Holiday in 2017, while 105 accidents occurred during the four-day holiday last year, adding that the holiday was just one day in 2018.

Analyses showed that the accidents were caused by drivers swerving in and out of traffic, as well as those who fail to maintain a safe following distance and heed the traffic ahead.

Research has shown that casualties in nighttime traffic accidents are two to three times those of daytime accidents, the bureau said.

If motorists need to drive at night, they should avoid driver fatigue by taking breaks in service areas and maintain a safe following distance, it added.

As many university students are to return to school after the holiday, drivers in central and southern Taiwan can avoid freeway congestion by taking the Sibin Expressway (Highway No. 61), the bureau said.

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A documentary film of composer Hsiao Tyzen is played at an exhibition held at Taipei’s Taiwan Music Institute on Monday to mark the fifth anniversary of his death.Photo: Ling Mei-hsueh, Taipei Times
An exhibition that opened on Monday in Taipei commemorates Taiwanese composer Tyzen Hsiao (蕭泰然, 1938-2015) by recounting his legacy and showcasing his belongings.

The Taiwan Music Institute is featuring more than 150 items on loan from Hsiao’s family in an exhibition called “Vagabond Homecoming — A Memory Exhibition of Taiwan Composer Tyzen Hsiao.”

Sections of the exhibition detail Hsiao’s life, his close relationships, his faith, his works and his awards.

Hsiao, a neo-romantic, won international acclaim for his compositions, which featured elements of Taiwanese folk songs and had a rich tonal style. He earned the reputation of being “Taiwan’s Rachmaninoff.”

Hsiao’s most widely performed large-scale pieces are Ode to Yushan; Formosa Symphony, opus 49; 1947 Overture for soprano, chorus and orchestra; Violin Concerto in D, opus 50; Cello Concerto in C, opus 52; and Piano Concerto in C minor, opus 53.

The Golden Melody Awards in 2011 honored Hsiao with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He won Best Composer in 1999, 2004 and 2010.

Born in Kaohsiung in 1938, Hsiao majored in music at National Taiwan Normal University from 1959 to 1963, before studying at Tokyo’s Musashino Academia Musicae from 1963 to 1967, where his focus shifted from piano performance to composition.

In 1977, Hsiao moved his family from Taiwan to the US, where, over the next 18 years, he composed some of his most famous pieces.

Returning to Taiwan in 1995, Hsiao premiered his famous 1947 Overture, while Ode to Yushan premiered four years later.

Hsiao had a stroke in 2002 and moved back to Los Angeles. In 2015, he died of lung cancer at the age of 77.

His music has touched many people, said Stephen Hsiao (蕭傑文), the composer’s second-eldest son.

“Even foreigners have felt the powerful passion of his music, because he dug deep into the roots of our soil and blood of being part of Taiwan,” he said.

The family members are thinking of donating the composer’s possessions — which are being archived — to Taiwan, Stephen Hsiao said.

“That’s something Dad would do, because his music belongs to the people... We are just archivers,” he said.

However, a donation would only happen once Taiwan is “independent,” he added.

The exhibition is open to the public until Aug. 30.

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title: ‘Taiwan’s Rachmaninoff’ celebrated in exhibition


content_text:
Virus outbreak: MAC urged to find Taiwanese who left Wuhan on Monday

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) must determine the number and identity of people holding Republic of China (ROC) passports who left Wuhan during a temporary lifting of the city’s lockdown on Monday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators said yesterday.

The Wuhan City Government on Monday morning announced an easing of the lockdown for non-residents or people who need medical treatment elsewhere, but a lack of consent from Chinese Communist Party officials led to the order being rescinded four hours later.

There was speculation that the move had been planned — that some had been informed in advance — to allow Chinese elites and Taiwanese businesspeople with connections to leave the city, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said.

“We have witnessed China having some very chaotic situations in its fight against the outbreak and Beijing has not been transparent in reporting developments to the outside world,” Chao said. “So it is very concerning to think that Taiwanese businesspeople might have left during that four-hour period and traveled to another city so that they could fly to Taiwan.”

The problem is a lack of transparency and misleading information, as immigration officials at local airports would not see from incoming passengers’ ROC passports that they had been to Wuhan, allowing them to break through the nation’s defenses against the virus, Chao said.

Taiwanese visitors and businesspeople can only enter China by getting a Taiwan Compatriot Permit from the Chinese government, because Beijing does not recognize the ROC passport.

To contain the virus, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) mandated that evacuees from Wuhan travel on special chartered flights, which have medical personnel in protective clothing and masks who can test the passengers and conduct the required quarantine measures and other restrictions after their arrival in Taiwan.

However, those who might have left Wuhan on Monday and plan to arrive in Taiwan via another city would have circumvented the disease-prevention efforts.

“We demand that MAC officials get in touch with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to find out the number and identity of those holding ROC passports who left Wuhan during the temporary lifting of the lockdown. If some of them are not accounted for and not tested for the virus, they might penetrate our containment measures and spread the infection in Taiwan,” Chao said.

DPP Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) questioned the quick reversal of Wuhan lockdown in a post on social media: “[Wuhan] lifted the lockdown on the city at 11:30am, then at about 3pm, the lockdown was reimposed... How many people with connections left the city during this period?”

The move has also sparked discussion over the past couple of days among Taiwanese on social media, with some claiming that Taiwanese businesspeople and wealthy Chinese in Wuhan were informed in advance, possibly the day before, and told by Chinese officials to prepare to leave via another city so that they could return to Taiwan.

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people: 趙天麟 王定宇 陳時中


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The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted modeling agency owner Chao Chung-ling (趙崇伶) on suspicion of defrauding people through an entertainment business by pretending to promote concerts for South Korean pop groups, Hong Kong star Andy Lau (劉德華), Taiwanese bands and Singaporean musician J.J. Lin (林俊傑).

It is the latest legal trouble for Chao, listed proprietor of Taipei-based FD Model Co, which has represented prominent foreigners working in Taiwan, such as Brazilian-Japanese model and actress Akemi Katsuki and Russian actress and show host Anechka “Annie” Marchenko.

The indictment accuses Chao of defrauding six people who invested NT$4.84 million (US$159,200) in her business after she told them that she was bringing Lau to Taiwan last year for a concert.

In 2018, she also sought other investors, claiming to be the promoter for a concert tour of South Korean boy band VIXX, it stated.

An investigation found that Chao pitched the VIXX concert tour to a businessman surnamed Shih (施) and his two associates, seeking to persuade them to invest NT$3.99 million in advance of the tour to reserve concert venues and to promote the shows.

In January last year, Chao sought an investment of NT$800,000 from a businessman surnamed Lu (盧), telling him that she was bringing Lau to Taiwan for a concert, but the event never took place, the investigation showed.

Prosecutors said that they found receipts for money transfers from investors, signed business agreements with Chao’s company, conversations recorded on the social messaging app Line and other documented evidence against her.

She was charged with fraud and forgery, the prosecutors said.

Chao’s representation of Marchenko and Katsuki also ended in financial disputes. Marchenko filed a lawsuit against Chao in February last year, but Chao did not show up in court.

Last year, Chao was sued by a group of investors, who said that they lost NT$40 million. They believed that Chao was the local concert promoter for South Korean boy band BTS and Lin.

Another businessman last year sued Chao after he invested NT$6 million in a series of concert dates for Taiwanese hip-hop band 911.

He said that none of the concerts ever happened, but that Chao has kept making excuses for why she cannot repay the money.

According to investigators, some investors said that Chao sought to resolve their money disputes through negotiations and repayment plans.

Others told investigators that Chao had issued veiled threats, claiming that she was related to a boss in the Bamboo Union, one of the biggest organized crime gangs in Taiwan.

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title: Model agency boss charged with fraud over pop concerts


title: Car rams into German carnival procession

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About 30 people, including children, were injured on Monday, when a car plowed into a carnival procession in the small German town of Volkmarsen.

Police arrested the driver, but declined to comment on a motive.

Prosecutors in Frankfurt said the 29-year-old suspect was a German national who faces charges of attempted homicide over the incident in the western state of Hesse.

The investigation was continuing “in all directions,” they said in a statement, after police stopped short of calling the incident an attack.

The drama came as Germany remained on high alert following a shooting spree on Wednesday last week by a far-right gunman in the city of Hanau, also in Hesse, who killed 10 people.

Eyewitness reports at the carnival parade described the driver plowing through a barrier in a silver car and driving straight through the crowd at high speed.

“It appears to have been an intentional act,” a local police spokesman told reporters, but said the incident was not being classified as an attack until investigators had more information.

About 30 people were injured, some of them seriously, prosecutors said.

The driver was also injured and was receiving medical care, they added.

Citing sources close to the investigation, Der Spiegel weekly said the driver had apparently “consumed a high level of alcohol.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her thoughts are with family of the victims, as she wished them “a speedy and complete recovery,” according to her spokeswoman on Twitter.

Hesse Premier Volker Bouffier said he was “shocked at the terrible act,” but added: “The circumstances surrounding this act remain unclear and I urge you not to speculate about possible motives.”

As in many parts of the country, residents in Volkmarsen were celebrating Rose Monday, a highlight of annual carnival festivities that sees adults and children dress up and attend parades where people play music and throw candies from floats.

Steffen Roettger said his two daughters were at the parade and called him right after the incident happened at about 1:30pm GMT.

“My 10-year-old was pulled aside and only narrowly avoided being hit,” he told NTV broadcaster.

He said the girl was “in shock” and needed medical attention after seeing people “lying around everywhere.”

“She won’t get those images out of her head in a hurry,” he said.

Elmar Schulten, a reporter for the local Waldeckische Landeszeitung newspaper, told the Bild daily that locals in the town of about 7,000 people were in disbelief.

“We always thought this kind of thing only happened elsewhere,” he said.

Images from the scene showed police officers and rescue vehicles next to a silver Mercedes hatchback, having apparently come to a halt outside a Rewe supermarket.

A pile of debris can be seen on the road next to the car, including a broken wooden cart, a knocked-over traffic cone and bottles of sparkling wine.

Several dozen people were pictured milling around on the sidewalk before the area was sealed off by police.

Police in Hesse announced on Twitter that all carnival parades across the state had been canceled as a precaution.

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Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, left, demonstrates correct hand washing technique during a visit to Taipei Municipal Shezi Elementary School in Shilin District yesterday.Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
As students nationwide returned to school yesterday, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) visited Taipei Municipal Shezi Elementary School to inspect disease-prevention measures and suggested that parents should take their children’s temperature before they leave to school on a daily basis.

Five lanes were set up at the entrance to the school about 7am and students had their temperature taken with a forehead thermometer before they were allowed to enter the campus.

There are more than 220,000 students in elementary and high schools in Taipei, and more if preschools are counted, Ko said, adding that yesterday’s situation was like a stress test to see if the preventive measures could be implemented smoothly.

The Taipei Department of Education has designated a contact person for schools to report problems or make suggestions, so that the measures can be adapted based on their feedback, he said.

To ensure a smooth entry, schools with more than 1,000 students should have at least 10 entrance lanes for temperature taking, he added.

To improve efficiency, parents should take their children’s temperature every morning and after they return home, and record the data in schools’ online systems, he said.

Asked whether he thought mass gatherings, such as the annual Dajia Matsu Pilgrimage, should be canceled to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Ko said that the pilgrimage could be modified to prevent the risk of mass infection.

For the Taipei Lantern Festival, participants were asked to wear masks and food stalls were banned, he said.

As there is no COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan, authorities can handle the handful of cases being confirmed, Ko said, but added that the healthcare system would break down if more than 200 cases are confirmed in one day, as has happened in South Korea.

“Taiwan is still in a dangerous situation, which can only be lifted when China takes control of its outbreak,” he said.

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title: Virus outbreak: Ko visits school as classes resume


content_text:
A tourist from Taiwan in Milan, Italy, yesterday wears stickers on her back explaining that she is not from China as Italy is hit by a COVID-19 outbreak.Photo: Reuters
Fresh deaths and a surge in new COVID-19 cases in Iran, Japan and South Korea yesterday fueled fears of a pandemic, as the disease took root in some of the world’s poorest, and worst-equipped, countries.

The rapid spread abroad came as the WHO announced that the epidemic had peaked at its epicenter in China, where it has killed more than 2,600 people and infected more than 77,000 others.

However, the situation has worsened elsewhere with nearly 2,700 other cases and more than 40 deaths globally, prompting restrictions on travelers from infected nations and national efforts to isolate suspected patients.

South Korea, Italy and Iran have each logged sharp increases in infections and deaths, while several Middle Eastern countries also reported their first confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Yet WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the virus could still be contained.

“For the moment we are not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this virus and we are not witnessing large-scale deaths,” Tedros told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday.

However, he added that countries should do everything they can to “prepare for a potential pandemic.”

Iran has emerged as a major hotspot with the death toll yesterday rising to 15 as three more people succumbed to the disease.

The country has been scrambling to contain the epidemic since last week when it announced its first two deaths in Qom, a center for Islamic studies and pilgrims that attracts academics from abroad.

Iran has confirmed 61 cases so far, making its mortality rate exponentially higher than anywhere else in the world and raising suspicion that many more people have contracted the disease there.

A WHO team was due to arrive in Iran yesterday.

Several neighbors have enacted measures to block arrivals from Iran, but the virus has already spread to Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East.

In China, 508 new cases were reported, with all but nine at the outbreak’s epicenter in central Hubei Province.

The death toll nationwide reached 2,663 after 71 more people died, the lowest rise in almost three weeks.

Reassured by the official numbers, the country is gingerly returning to business.

Beijing is seeing more vehicles on the street, factories are resuming work, Apple Inc is reopening several stores and some regions are relaxing traffic restrictions.

However, schools remain closed, the capital has a mandatory 14-day quarantine for returning residents, and authorities are keeping about 56 million people in Hubei under lockdown.

China’s National People’s Congress late on Monday also said that it would immediately ban the trade and consumption of wild animals, Xinhua news agency reported.

Scientists suspect, but have not proven, that the new coronavirus passed to humans from animals.

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title: Virus Outbreak: Deaths outside China increase pandemic fears


content_text:
Malaysian King Abdullah, center, hands out food packages to journalists camped outside the palace in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.Photo: AP
Rival political factions yesterday competed to win favor with Mahathir Mohamad after he plunged Malaysia into political turmoil by resigning as prime minister, reinforcing the likelihood that his shock move would strengthen his power.

Mahathir, who at 94 is the world’s oldest government leader, on Monday stepped down, but was immediately named as interim prime minister by Malaysia’s king — a role that carries all the authority of a permanent leader.

The move effectively broke apart an increasingly fragile and unpopular coalition that Mahathir had formed with old rival Anwar Ibrahim, 72, to win control of the government on an anti-corruption platform in 2018.

It also potentially freed Mahathir from a pre-election promise to hand over the reins to Anwar before his term ends in 2023.

“He has total freedom to decide as he pleases,” pollster Merdeka director Ibrahim Suffian said.

In one of his first acts as interim leader, Mahathir late on Monday disbanded his entire Cabinet, opening up political negotiations to form another government.

An official from Mahathir’s Bersatu party, which is trying to put together one alliance, said a group of senior members met with Mahathir yesterday.

The Democratic Action Party, part of a rival pact, also said it wanted Mahathir to stay in office.

“He is the person most likely to be the next prime minister,” Democratic Action Party lawmaker Ong Kian Ming said.

Whatever the outcome of coalition talks, it would mark yet another realignment of politics just two years after Mahathir made a stunning political comeback to topple former leader Najib Razak and bring down the party that had ruled for six decades — and which he had once led.

Mahathir, a former doctor, is credited with transforming Malaysia into an industrial nation from a rural farming backwater when he previously served as prime minister from 1981 to his retirement in 2003.

“Just another day in the office,” Mahathir said in a Twitter post that was accompanied by a series of photographs of him reading through paperwork in his government office.

Under Malaysia’s constitution, any lawmaker who can command a majority in parliament can stake a claim to form a government, which must then be approved by the king.

Yesterday and today, the king was to hold individual interviews with all 222 elected members of Malaysian’s lower house of parliament to assess who is likely to succeed, the palace said.

“For Malaysians, the trauma of uncertainty is hard to overstate,” an opinion piece in the New Straits Times said.

The political crisis comes at a particularly bad time for the Malaysian economy, after growth fell to a decade low in the final quarter of last year.

Tomorrow, Mahathir is scheduled to announce a stimulus package to deal with COVID-19.

Yesterday, the country’s stock market, the Bursa Malaysia, recovered slightly after falling to an eight-year low on Monday, while the ringgit also rose after hitting a near six-month low.

Mahathir and Anwar formed the Pakatan Harapan coalition to defeat the United Malays National Organisation and its Barisan Nasional alliance in 2018.

Anwar was Mahathir’s deputy prime minister when he was arrested and jailed in the late 1990s for sodomy and corruption, charges that Anwar and his supporters maintain were aimed at ending his political career.

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title: Mahathir bolstered, despite turmoil


content_text:
Virus outbreak: Fourth person from quarantined ship dies as Japan plans new measures

A fourth person has died in Japan after becoming ill aboard a cruise ship stricken by COVID-19, local media reported yesterday, as the government unveiled a new policy to tackle the outbreak.

Nearly 700 people on board the Diamond Princess, which spent two weeks quarantined off Japan, have tested positive for the virus.

Four people who were hospitalized after being taken off the ship have died, the latest a man in his 80s, local media reported.

The Yomiuri Shimbun said the man had tested positive for the virus and died of pneumonia.

Three others, all Japanese, have so far died after becoming sick on the ship.

Two were confirmed to have the virus, while the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare declined to comment on the diagnosis of the third.

Japan has come under increasing pressure over its handling of the ship, particularly after it emerged that some passengers allowed to disembark after testing negative were subsequently diagnosed with the virus.

Some of the disembarking passengers were not even tested during the quarantine period, the ministry has said.

Several health officials working on the ship have contracted the virus, but authorities have defended a policy of not uniformly testing those working on the boat.

“We are aware of the risks of them getting infected when they take off a mask or gloves, so we will have thorough measures to prevent infections under these circumstances,” Japanese Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Katsunobu Kato said, adding that no change in policy was planned.

Many nations have evacuated their citizens from the ship, with 450 Filipinos due to be flown home yesterday on two chartered flights.

Another 81 who have tested positive for the virus are to stay in Japan.

As the situation on the ship has come under scrutiny, infections have spiked inside Japan, with 156 cases, including one death.

“As we see patients whose infection routes are not clear in several regions in Japan, now is a crucial phase to prevent the spread of infection from happening on a huge scale,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.

“It is important that we contain the spread in Japan by slowing the speed of the increase of new patients as much as possible,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a Cabinet meeting on the outbreak. “To this end, we shall thoroughly strengthen measures against patient clusters.”

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title: Taiwan Business Quick Take

content_text:
EQUITIES

TAIEX closes little changed

The TAIEX closed little changed yesterday after an early 100-point plunge triggered by a poor showing by US markets overnight amid fears over an outbreak of COVID-19. The weighted index closed 5.36 points, or 0.05 percent, higher at 11,540.23 on turnover of NT$153.815 billion (US$5.06 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$11.28 billion of shares after a net sale of NT$26.34 billion on Monday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. “It seemed that the market got solid technical support at the 120-day moving average of about 11,439 points,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.

REAL ESTATE

Housing loans rise further

Housing loans and lending to the construction sector continued to increase last month, monthly data released by the central bank showed yesterday. Housing loans grew 6.16 percent year-on-year to NT$7.43 trillion, the bank’s tallies showed. The figure increased slightly by 0.18 percent from the previous month due to the effect of the Lunar New Year holiday, the bank said. Construction loans grew 12.75 percent year-on-year to NT$2.1 trillion last month. The number rose by just 0.48 percent from the previous month because of seasonal factors, the bank said.

INVESTMENTS

Foreign investments passed

The Investment Commission on Monday approved Samoa-registered Good Flavor Alpha Ltd’s application to invest NT$478 million to finance a Taiwanese enterprise making bread and other baked goods. It also approved a Hong Kong company’s plan to invest NT$360 million in a Taiwanese maker of computer and peripheral equipment and medical devices, as well as another Hong Kong firm’s investment of NT$224 million in a local chemical producer. In terms of outbound investment, Taichung-based Johnson Health Tech Co (喬山健康科技) received approval to invest ￥6.24 billion (US$56.4 million) to buy a 60 percent stake in Fuji Medical Instruments Manufacturing Co, the commission said.

FINANCE

SBI leads CoolBitX funding

Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings Inc is leading a group of investors participating in a Series B US$16.75 million funding round for CoolBitX (庫幣科技), a Taiwanese blockchain security company offering services to help crypto exchanges comply with more stringent international standards for collection of user information. Other participants in the fundraising include the National Development Fund, Japan’s Monex Group Inc and South Korean crypto exchange BitSonic, a CoolBitX press release said. SBI Holdings was among investors participating in the Series A US$13 million funding round in 2018, the company said.

PUBLISHING

‘Next Magazine’ closing

Taiwan’s version of the Chinese-language Next Magazine (壹週刊) is to cease online publication on Saturday, less than two years after closing its print edition and almost two decades after its launch. In a statement posted on its Web site last week, the publisher attributed the closure to a restructuring at its parent company, Hong Kong-based media conglomerate Next Digital Ltd (壹傳媒). The company said it would protect the rights of its employees, as well as subscribers, which would be given the choice of a cash refund or transferring their subscription to Taiwan’s Apple Daily Web site.

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title: ICDF is helping other nations with banana disease

content_text:
International Cooperation and Development Fund members meet with Guatemalan Minister of Agriculture Magister Oscar Bonilla, center, and other experts for a discussion on fighting banana disease at the office of the International Regional Organization for Plant and Animal Health in Guatemala on Feb. 5.Photo courtesy of the International Cooperation and Development Fund
With its five decades of experience, Taiwan is helping Central and South American countries fight fusarium wilt in bananas, and was involved in a video conference earlier this month attended by nearly 500 experts from 28 nations, the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) said yesterday.

The banana trade is vital to the economies of Central and South American countries, and the disease poses a great threat to their banana production, ICDF Deputy Secretary-General Alex Shyy (史立軍) told a news briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei.

The fungal disease, which devastates plants’ vascular systems, could be described as the “cancer” of bananas and spores can survive in soil for decades, a report by the Taiwan Banana Research Institute said.

Taiwan first identified the disease in bananas in Pingtung County in 1967, the institute said, adding that it destroyed nearly 4,000 hectares of banana trees in Pingtung and Kaohsiung in a few years, dealing a severe blow to the nation’s banana exports.

The disease was linked to soil degradation caused by the use of chemical fertilizers, the report said.

After Colombia last year reported its first case of the disease, Central America’s International Regional Organization for Plant and Animal Health (OIRSA) asked to work with the ICDF again, after the two fought citrus greening disease together, Shyy said.

Taiwan has an edge in fighting fusarium wilt because of certain disease-resistant banana strains developed by the institute, as well as research and testing techniques developed by National Taiwan University (NTU), he said.

Institute director Chao Chih-Ping (趙治平), NTU plant pathology professor Hung Ting-hsuan (洪挺軒) and OIRSA members joined the ICDF on a trip to inspect banana farms in Guatemala, Belize and Honduras from Feb. 2 to Feb. 14, Shyy said.

A video conference at OIRSA’s office in Guatemala on Feb. 5 also attracted more than 500 experts from 28 nations, including Colombia and Ecuador, as well as Caribbean countries, he said.

When it comes to sustainable banana production, the nation can proudly say: “Taiwan can help,” Shyy added.

In related news, the agency is helping the Marshall Islands employ hydroponics to improve its self-sufficiency with regard to food, despite having infertile soil and inclement weather conditions, Shyy said.

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title: Virus dimming spotlight on fashion’s big month

content_text:
A man wearing a mask talks on his mobile phone in front of a boutique in Hong Kong yesterday.Photo: AP
Fashion weeks in New York, London, Paris and Milan — at which the luxury industry shows off its fall womenswear collections at runway spectacles and showrooms for buyers — have been taking a hit from precautions to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Some brands have had to cancel shows because of quarantine measures. Those that chose to keep calm and stick to the schedule had to do so without the usual number of Chinese models, buyers and celebrity spokespeople whose social media posts and wholesale orders are key to promoting trends in China, the industry’s most important market.

Milan Fashion Week started to unravel on its final day, Sunday, as a surge of infections in the surrounding Lombardy region led to new quarantine measures.

Michael Kors canceled the launch event for a James Bond-themed collection at the behest of local authorities, while Giorgio Armani livestreamed videos of his show from an empty theater, having asked guests not to go the night before.

“The decision was taken to safeguard the well-being of all his invited guests by not having them attend crowded spaces,” a Giorgio Armani SpA spokesperson said.

Shoppers from China accounted for more than one-third of luxury purchases and two-thirds of the industry’s growth in the past several years, and concerns over the coronavirus’s spread are weighing on the sector.

Luxury companies’ global sales might be an average of 6 percent lower than previous forecasts this year, with companies heavily exposed to China suffering even more, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Luca Solca said.

He described this year as a probable “gap year” for the sector, saying that further cuts might be needed if the viral spread accelerates.

In Paris, where fashion week began on Monday evening, industry powerhouses including LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE’s Dior and Kering SA’s Saint Laurent are forging ahead, albeit on tenterhooks.

“We’re listening to the recommendations of health authorities and will share them with brands in case of any epidemic in France,” said a spokeswoman for the federation that organizes Paris Fashion Week’s schedule.

Several Asian brands, including Taiwan’s Shiatzy Chen (夏姿), canceled their Paris shows weeks ago, foreseeing insurmountable difficulties in safely transporting staff and products.

“We think it is the most appropriate action after deep thoughts and considerations,” Shiatzy Chen CEO Harry Wang (王子瑋) said.

The majority of brands have managed to show their womenswear collections as planned — including Burberry Group PLC in London, and Prada SpA and Kering’s Gucci label in Milan.

However, they are likely to suffer from lower visibility because of the absence of Chinese participants, as well as difficulty selling the collections to retailers who cannot participate in person.

Chinese retailers still want to order products to stock their stores later this year, anticipating that the virus’ spread will diminish with the arrival of warmer weather.

However, without being able to touch the products, managers might be less sure about what to order.

“We can place our orders from a distance when it’s a brand we already sell, since we already know the cuts and the material,” said Yiling Hong (洪藝菱), the founder of a Shanghai fashion boutique and matcha cafe called Canal Street (堅尼街). “It’s too much of a risk to try new brands.”

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content_text:
Afraid of being shunned, some Jews lead a double life

Israeli Avi Tfilinksi, a former Orthodox Jew, is interviewed in his apartment in Abu Ghosh on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Feb. 10.Photo: AFP
As the men wearing long black coats approached, Shmuel, a lapsed member of Israel’s Orthodox Jewish community, lowered his head to avoid being recognized.

Like those moving toward him on the Jerusalem sidewalk, Shmuel is part of a community known in Hebrew as haredi. Yet Shmuel, who is his late 30s and asked that his real name be withheld, said he stopped believing in God a decade ago.

He agreed to meet reporters at a bar, a place haredim cannot go for religious reasons.

He was there to meet other Orthodox Jews who doubt their faith, but want to continue appearing religious to avoid being shunned by their community.

“No one knows about me,” Shmuel said. “Not my wife, not my parents, no one.”

For his night out, Shmuel had swapped his traditional black felt hat for a sailor’s cap.

“My hat is in my bag. I’ll put it back on before going home,” he said.

Shmuel is part of a group known as Anusim — Jews who have inwardly renounced strict haredi practices.

The term, which translates as “the coerced,” historically comes from Jews forced to convert to Christianity during the Inquisition, but in the modern case, it reflects a sense of being obliged into Orthodoxy.

Yair Hass, who heads the Hillel association that supports people who leave religious communities, estimated the Anusim could number in the tens of thousands in Israel.

“The price to pay is so high,” for openly rejecting haredi life, Hass said, adding that Anusim risk being banished by their families and losing access to their children.

“So some decide not to leave... and have a double life,” he said.

The Anusim gathered at the dimly lit Jerusalem bar initially met on Facebook. Everyone used pseudonyms, underscoring their collective fear of being exposed, but when the community moved from a virtual world to the real one, the relationships grew warmer.

“There’s a good turnout tonight,” Shmuel said, smiling as he scanned the 20 Anusim in the bar, all appearing comforted to be with others enduring the relentless anxiety associated with a double life.

Shmuel said that his break from orthodoxy began when he started questioning the rules drilled in him since his youth.

“It no longer makes sense to me,” he said, confessing he now eats pork, in contravention of Jewish dietary laws.

While those at the bar might have inwardly renounced Orthodox precepts, many still looked devout. The men had thick, curly beards while the women wore long dresses and wigs covering their hair.

Avigail — also not her real name — tells her family she is going to meet friends before heading to the “underground” pub night.

“At a certain point, I wanted to die,” she said, referring to the stress of concealing her secret. “I was like, is it going to be like this for the rest of my life?”

Hass said that Anusim who are trying to stay in their community while privately craving an escape face an “almost untenable” situation.

“It is a society that punishes you very severely if you deviate from the path,” he said.

At his home outside Jerusalem, Avi Tfilinksi said that he was cut off from his six children after leaving Neturei Karta.

The strict sect views Israel as heretical, believing a true Jewish state should only be founded upon the messiah’s arrival.

He said his 12-year double life as a rabbi began to fracture when his mobile phone vibrated on Shabbat.

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countries: 臺灣 台灣

title: Orsted inks Taichung lease for wind farms

content_text:
Orsted Taiwan Ltd (沃旭能源) yesterday announced that it has signed a 20-year wharf lease with Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC, 臺灣港務) for the development of its offshore wind farms off Changhua County.

The company said that it has leased several wharfs and adjacent land at the Port of Taichung, which would be upgraded and serve as a construction base and warehouse for its upcoming southeast and southwest wind projects with a combined capacity of 900 megawatts.

“We plan to use the land to store essential components, such as pin piles, wind turbine towers and blades,” a company official surnamed Chan (詹) told the Taipei Times by telephone.

The company said that it also plans to set up an environmentally friendly operations and maintenance center at the port for its remaining projects due in 2025.

The center would be principally comprised of a green building and would also serve as a main base for the company’s operations throughout the Asia-Pacific region, it said.

“We also expect that during the operations and maintenance phase, our greater Changhua wind farms will create several hundred local direct and indirect jobs with our contractors and suppliers,” Orsted president for Asia-Pacific Matthias Bausenwein said in a statement, emphasizing the company’s resolve to participate in the development of a local supply chain for Taiwan’s offshore wind industry.

The company is developing four offshore wind sites off Changhua and holds a 35 percent stake in Formosa I (海洋風電), Taiwan’s first offshore wind farm, which was launched in November last year.

Separately on Monday, the Investment Commission approved additional investment by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) in two local offshore wind farm units.

CIP plans to inject NT$6.34 billion (US$208.54 million) into CI Changfang Ltd (哥本哈根基礎設施彰芳) and NT$581.1 million into Taiwan Wind Investment Co Ltd (台灣風能), the commission said.

Taiwan Wind is a joint venture CIP formed with Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) and Transglobe Life Insurance Co (全球人壽).

Last week, CIP secured US$3 billion to finance its 589-megawatt Chang Fang (彰芳) and Xidao (西島) wind farm projects.

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content_text:
NASA’s robotic InSight lander confirms quakes on Mars

‘MARSQUAKES’:The lander’s ground-motion sensor detected seismic activity that scientists said proved to be greater than that of the moon, but less than that of Earth
The dome-covered seismometer of NASA’s InSight lander is pictured on Mars on Tuesday last week.Photo: AP / NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech
NASA’s robotic InSight lander has for the first time established that Mars is seismically active, but do not call the shaking, rattling and rolling taking place on the Red Planet earthquakes. The proper term, fittingly, is marsquakes.

Scientists on Monday said that the lander, which touched down on the planet’s surface in November 2018 to begin the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, has since detected about 450 marsquakes, most of modest strength.

The Martian seismic activity recorded by the lander’s seismometer, a ground-motion detection sensor, was found to be greater than that of the moon, but less than that of Earth.

The Martian seismic activity generally arises from the planet’s long-term cooling from its molten beginnings in the formation of the solar system about 4.5 billion years ago.

“As the planet cools, it contracts, and then the brittle outer layers have to fracture in order to sort of maintain themselves on the surface. That’s kind of the long-term source of stresses,” planetary geophysicist and mission principal investigator Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California said.

The existence of seismic activity on Mars had long been suspected, but until now had not been definitively detected.

The location of some of the larger marsquakes was a region called Cerberus Fossae, which bears evidence of volcanic flows, faulting and fluvial flow — water on the surface — within the past 10 million years, considered recent in geological terms.

“Thus, this area still has activ ity at depth, perhaps including hot magma. This in turn shows that Mars has regional variability in activity, with some areas still quite active,” JPL planetary geophysicist and InSight deputy principal investigator Suzanne Smrekar said.

The researchers devised a magnitude scale tailored to Mars, but similar to the one used for earthquakes. The strongest of the quakes were a little less than magnitude 4, meaning they would be felt on the surface perhaps dozens of kilometers from the epicenter, but would probably not do much damage.

The scientists described two dozen marsquakes in a magnitude 3 to 4 range in findings published in the journals Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications.

The geological dynamics of Mars differ from Earth. Earth’s outer shell is divided into immense plates that move inexorably over a rocky inner layer above its core. Mars has no such plate tectonics.

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is situated on a flat region called Elysium Planitia just north of the Martian equator.

Its instruments also found that Mars, which unlike Earth has no global magnetic field, has a local magnetic field at the landing site 10 times stronger than expected.

InSight additionally is discovering new details about the complex Martian atmosphere.

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