■ENERGY
OPEC head warns on prices
Oil prices, which reached a new record last week, will keep rising if the dollar continues to fall and if oil producer Iran is attacked, the president of the OPEC said. “It’s not the supply and demand that is influencing oil prices now, prices go up with the falling dollar and the growing threat of war on Iran,” Chakib Khelil, who is also Algeria’s oil minister, told reporters on Saturday in Algiers. “If there is war and the dollar continues to slump, prices will go higher and higher.” Oil jumped as high as US$147.27 a barrel on Friday. Crude oil for delivery next month rose US$3.43 or 2.4 percent, to settle at US$145.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
■ENERGY
Minister calls for cuts
Japan must take steps to cut energy consumption and promote alternative resources to cope with rising oil prices, as it can’t regulate speculation in the oil market, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota said yesterday. “It’s hard to take measures that could alleviate the pain temporarily,” Ota said during a talk show on NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster. She gave no specific ideas on what Japan could do to combat the rise in oil prices. The climb in oil’s price is being sustained by growth in demand from emerging economies, Ota said. To curb the rise, it’s necessary to improve market fundamentals, such as investment in the infrastructure of oil-producing countries, she said.
■AGRICULTURE
Chinese trade deficit grows
China registered a US$7.57 billion trade deficit in agricultural products during the first five months of this year, up by more than 14-fold over the same period last year, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. China imported US$23.75 billion in agricultural products in that period, up 59 percent over last year, Xinhua said, citing the agriculture ministry. The nation exported US$16.18 billion in agricultural products during the period, up 12 percent over the first five months of last year, it said.
■TECHNOLOGY
Windows XP most common
Windows XP remains the most common computer operating system among Internet users, a survey conducted by a German marketing firm showed. The survey by Fittkau & Maass found that 75.8 percent of Internet surfers use Windows XP while only 13 percent use Vista Online, which has been on the market since early last year. Next in popularity come Windows 2000 (4.6 percent), Mac OS (3.8 percent) and Windows 98 and ME (both at 1.3 percent). Only 1.2 percent of surfers use Linux. The results were based on an Internet user survey of more than 100,000 German-speaking computer users.
■HOUSING
Broker urges rate hike end
Australia’s slowing home-lending market signals the central bank should avoid raising interest rates from a 12-year high, the nation’s largest mortgage broker said. Home-loan approvals fell 7.9 percent in May, the biggest drop in eight years, a report said yesterday. The decline suggests the Reserve Bank of Australia may not need to raise interest rates any further, said Paul Lahiff, managing director of Sydney-based Mortgage Choice Ltd. “Are we close to the top of the interest rate cycle? I think we are,” Lahiff told Sky News Australia yesterday. Traders have reduced bets on the Reserve Bank raising rates after the home-loan approvals report, and after a second measure showed consumer confidence fell to the lowest since 1992.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
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