■RETAIL
Tesco profits jump 11%
Britain’s biggest retailer, Tesco, said yesterday its net profit jumped by almost 11 percent during the group’s first half to more than £1 billion (US$1.8 billion) as it beat off economic woes. Tesco said in an earnings statement that profit after tax increased 10.9 percent to £1.038 billion in the six months to Aug. 23, compared with the same period last year. The supermarket giant also said it was on track to create 30,000 jobs this year.
■INSURANCE
Alico gets fund boost
A Japanese insurer that is a unit of troubled American International Group Inc (AIG) has received ¥90.7 billion (US$872 million) in additional funds to bolster its financial strength, the company said yesterday. Alico Japan said it received the money on Monday from its US parent, American Life Insurance Co, which is part of the AIG group, after the plunge in the price of AIG shares. As a result, Alico Japan’s capital base stands at ¥328.2 billion, it said in a statement. Alico Japan has been reassuring its clients that there will be no problems with their insurance policies.
■AUTOMOBILES
Toyota adds rear airbag
Toyota has developed a rear window air bag to upgrade protection for back-seat passengers, the company said yesterday. In the event of a rear-end collision, the air bag is ejected from the roof lining above the rear window and spreads like a curtain to protect the heads of the rear passengers, Toyota Motor Corp said in a statement. Toyota said the rear window curtain-shield air bag is the world’s first. The new safety gear will debut in the “iQ” compact four-seater vehicle, to be introduced later this year, Toyota said.
■TOYS
Bratz dolls annoy Mattel
Barbie-maker Mattel Inc filed court papers asking a federal judge to block MGA Entertainment Inc from making or selling Bratz dolls. Attorneys for Mattel filed the papers on Monday in Riverside, California, just over a month after a jury awarded the company US$100 million in damages in the fight over the pouty-lipped dolls. Judge Stephen Larson will hear arguments on the injunction request on Nov. 10.
■AVIATION
Boeing deliveries delayed
Boeing Co said yesterday it would reassess its 787 Dreamliner delivery schedule for the Japanese market once an ongoing strike ends, raising concern that a prolonged production halt could further push back deliveries. Japan’s two biggest airlines — Japan Airlines Corp and All Nippon Airways — have already announced expected delays in receiving the 787 jets because of a strike by Boeing machinists that came on top of an 18-month delay in the shipment of the planes. “Frankly, we do not know when the strike will end,” Randy Tinseth, vice president of Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division, said in Tokyo.
■AUTOMOBILES
Volvo cuts 1,400 jobs
Volvo, one of the world’s top heavy duty truck makers, said yesterday it would cut 1,400 jobs in Belgium and Sweden because of declining demand for its trucks in Europe. “The company will initiate negotiations with the unions regarding staffing level cutbacks of approximately 1,400 employees at the company’s plant in Ghent in Belgium and Gothenburg and Umeaa in Sweden,” Volvo Trucks said in a statement.
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
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