09.19.111 "Read the News" — A Quick Overview of the Day's Focus Issues

September 19, ROC Year 111 (2022 AD): a daily real-time online roundup of hot focus topics from global news events, covering technology, life, travel, transportation, industry and finance, business, companies and enterprises, stocks, foreign exchange markets, investment, real estate, automobiles, real-time news, art, design, politics, society, Taiwan, mainland China, cross-strait relations, weather, natural disasters, current affairs, and many other dimensions of intelligence.

The “Read the 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, letting you see the real-time context of society through the flow of news events listed quickly one by one.

International and Social Events

Taitung earthquake: Guanshan Township gravel plant and rice mill suffered heavy losses

The PLA is attempting to change the status quo of the Taiwan Strait through sea, air, and naval vessels. According to Japanese intelligence, an advanced PLA missile destroyer is currently “fixed” in a long-term position just outside Su’ao Naval Port, hugging the waters adjacent to our contiguous zone. By rotating vessels in shifts, it is “almost permanently stationed,” applying close-in pressure on us and attempting to create a new normal in the Taiwan Strait, already constituting a new type of military pressure on us different from PLA aircraft扰台.

Science and Technology

New Mars rock sample: Perseverance finds signs of ancient microbial life: NASA recently discovered organic molecules that play a key role in biochemistry from a delta environment on Mars very favorable for the emergence of life, meaning ancient microbial life may have existed. Although organic matter has been found on Mars before, this time the sample was found in the right place, and experts are full of confidence — though the conclusion must wait until the sample is brought back to Earth in 2033.

Following the delivery of the first 60kW “Helios” laser weapon to the Navy last month, Lockheed Martin announced yesterday that the first 300kW-class “Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense — High Energy Laser program” vehicle has also been officially delivered to the U.S. Army, and will undergo a series of field test trials.

Business and Investment

Countering Putin’s “gas cutoff” threat, Germany forcefully takes over 3 Russian refineries: The German subsidiary of Russian oil company Rosneft has been placed under trust management by the energy regulator, Germany’s Federal Network Agency (FNA). Germany will also take over control of its 3 refineries, among which the Schwedt refinery is Germany’s fourth-largest refinery, supplying 90% of Berlin’s fuel.

Adobe announced on the 15th that it would acquire web interface design startup Figma for about 20 billion. As this deal greatly surprised the market and Adobe’s stock price once plunged nearly 17%, Figma’s CEO, 30-year-old college dropout Dylan Field, immediately became the focus of attention in the tech world and media.

Nature and Medicine

Regarding COVID-19 sequelae, besides cough, fatigue, decreased stamina, and brain fog, physician Huang Xuan cited a Swiss study finding that young people who had not received three vaccine doses, 180 days after recovering from a confirmed infection, showed a “silent rise in bad cholesterol,” leading to increased BMI and higher future cardiovascular risk.

An oil-free diet is one of the big landmines of weight loss. There are 6 disadvantages of eating boiled meals long-term: first, easy constipation; second, hormonal imbalance; third, lack of fat; fourth, decreased bone density; fifth, lack of a sense of fullness and satisfaction; and finally, dry skin and dull hair.

Travel and Leisure

Starting at midnight on 9/19, CPC raised gasoline and diesel prices by 0.2 and 0.1 yuan respectively. Reference retail prices: “92 unleaded gasoline at 29.2 yuan per liter,” “95 unleaded gasoline at 30.7 yuan per liter,” “98 unleaded gasoline at 32.7 yuan per liter,” “premium diesel at 26.9 yuan per liter.”

Take out your jacket! “The weather changes starting tomorrow” — this day will dip to 22 degrees; next week there may be double typhoons again: Today (18th), affected by the peripheral moisture of Typhoon Nanmadol, the north and eastern half will have brief showers all day. From the afternoon of Monday, the north and northeast will feel noticeably cooler. On Tuesday, the high temperature will drop to 26 to 29 degrees, with lows of 22 to 23 degrees.