Read News 109.12.16 Global Focus and Trending Topics

December 16, 2020 (ROC year 109), a daily real-time online roundup of trending global news topics, covering technology, life, travel, transportation, industry and finance, business, corporations, stocks, foreign exchange markets, investment, real estate, automobiles, breaking news, sports events, entertainment gossip, art, design, politics, society, Taiwan, mainland China, cross-strait relations, weather, natural disasters, current affairs, and many other aspects.

The “Read News” section collects the headline events and brief summaries of the most important key news from around the world that deserve your attention in recent days, revealing the trajectory of social trends through the flow of quickly listed news events.

Global Focus Topics on December 16, 2020

• International and Social Focus
• Science and Technology
• Business and Investment
• Nature and Medicine
• Travel and Leisure

International and Social Focus

Internet management law attempts to pass again, sparing neither YT nor FB: After CTi News’s license renewal was rejected by the NCC (National Communications Commission), it moved to new media, but a recent NCC Facebook post seemed to hint that there will still be laws to regulate online speech in the future. The “Home God” revealed that the “Digital Communication and Broadcasting Act” is still trying to pass; in 2018, this law was suspended due to strong backlash over its excessive infringement on freedom of speech, and now it has come again this year. What a coincidence?

“Citizen Oversight Platform” accuses seven NCC commissioners of dereliction of duty: Former Government Information Office Director Chung Chin and others from the “Citizen Oversight Platform” went to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office to accuse seven commissioners including NCC Chairman Chen Yao-hsiang of violating the Constitution, dereliction of duty, and false accusation.

Suspected leak of interview records, Control Yuan criticized as an East Factory: Fifth-term Control Yuan members Chang Wu-hsiu and Kao Yung-cheng were suspected of leaking the interview records of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je and were referred by the Control Yuan to prosecutors for investigation. The Taiwan People’s Party criticized the Control Yuan for becoming a political “East Factory” to purge dissidents. The two involved parties, Kao Yung-cheng and Chang Wu-hsiu, were both nominated by President Tsai Ing-wen. The people’s trust in the Control Yuan and the ruling party has vanished, and Control Yuan President Chen Chu must take responsibility and explain publicly.

Shen Chih-hui’s “Wild Ginger Flower Movement” hunger strike against ractopamine pork: Kuomintang legislator Shen Chih-hui launched a hunger strike and sit-in outside the Legislative Yuan to protest the import of ractopamine pork. Hualien County Magistrate Hsu Chen-wei, Yunlin County Magistrate Chang Li-shan, Taipei City Councilor Lo Chih-chiang, and others came to show support. Today, Kuomintang think tank Vice Chairman Sean Lien came to visit. Sean Lien harshly criticized DPP officials for living it up and eating themselves “fat-bellied,” and felt sorry for Shen Chih-hui’s hunger strike protest.

Solar power falls short in 2020, nuclear-free 2025 also worrying: To implement a nuclear-free homeland by 2025, the Executive Yuan set a year-end phased target last year of a “solar 6.5GW (6.5 billion watts) attainment plan,” but due to policy contradictions between ministries, solar installation by the end of September this year was only about 5 GW, and the 6.5GW solar plan fell short. National Central University Chair Professor Liang Chi-yuan believes that a small, densely populated land is a difficult problem for Taiwan’s solar promotion. The long-term installation area for 14GW of solar requires 21,000 hectares of land. After deducting high maintenance costs, feeder lines, and scattered property rights and other factors unfavorable to solar installation, the short-term installation area must be 4,500 hectares, but there simply isn’t that much land.

Science and Technology

Black sandy granular material found in “Hayabusa2” sealed capsule: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on the 14th that black sandy granular samples exist in the sealed capsule returned to Earth by the probe “Hayabusa2,” possibly rock fragments collected from the asteroid “Ryugu.” The surface of “Ryugu” is black as coal, and it is hoped that organic matter indispensable to life will be found.

Google crashed last night, global netizens broke down! Official latest statement reveals the cause: Programs logged in through GOOGLE, such as YouTube and Gmail, suddenly became unusable last night, causing netizens worldwide to break down. However, Google’s latest official statement revealed the cause of the crash, stating that the situation was due to a problem with internal storage quota, which interrupted Google’s identity verification system for about 50 minutes.

Pornhub: Largest porn site deletes all videos of unverified users, responding to illegal content controversy: Last week, Mastercard, one of the world’s largest payment service providers, stopped providing services to the site due to Pornhub’s scandal. Nicholas Kristof described how Pornhub presented thousands of search results about underage girls, and told the stories of several rape and abuse victims who found videos recorded when they were assaulted online.

No one wants to buy Gogoro anymore? Scooter riders reveal the “fatal reason”: Gogoro sales hit a new low in November, with 5,815 units in a single month, a decline of nearly 70% compared with 18,530 units in the same period last year. If you think this is because the scooter market is saturated, you’d be wrong — overall gasoline scooters actually sold better, while the market share of electric scooters declined. This decline rate is frighteningly high.

Business and Investment

Wistron’s India plant vandalized: Morgan Stanley analysts Howard Kao and Sharon Shih issued a report pointing out that the fundamental impact of this matter should be limited. The key lies in how long production will be suspended and the possible changes in Wistron’s relationship with Apple after the incident. Wistron estimated the loss at NT$100-200 million. Earlier Indian media reported losses of 4.37 billion Indian rupees (about NT$1.671 billion). Wistron fell 3.22% on Tuesday, closing at 30.05