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

October 11, 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.

Focus Issues of October 11, 2022

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

International and Social Events

In a televised speech released earlier, Putin admitted that Russia had attacked Ukraine this morning, using long-range missiles to destroy some of Ukraine’s energy, military, and communications facilities. Putin further threatened that there would be a “severe response” in the future whenever Russian territory suffers a “terrorist act.” A serious explosion occurred on the Crimean Bridge the day before yesterday, but Putin has consistently accused it of being a Ukrainian “terrorist act.”

The Russia-Ukraine war may face new variables. Belarusian President Lukashenko said today (the 10th) that he has ordered the joint deployment of forces with Russia along the border near Ukraine, in response to threats to Belarus from Kyiv and Western authorities. He also warned Ukraine not to touch a single step of Belarusian territory, or it would face a response even more severe than the Crimean Bridge explosion.

On the Republic of China’s Double Ten National Day, when the Tainan City Government held its National Day flag-raising ceremony at the Siraya Square of the Yonghua Civic Center this morning, all DPP city councilors were absent.

Science and Technology

Monday (the 10th) was the Republic of China’s Double Ten National Day, and the National Museum of Natural Science specially shared a precious collection item that day: a Republic of China flag that had once gone to the moon aboard Apollo 11, sparking heated discussion. Some netizens exclaimed, “So cool! Happy birthday, Republic of China,” and “Extraordinarily meaningful.”

It is rumored that Taipower has begun investigating whether major electricity users in the semiconductor and traditional industries can cooperate with “emergency response measures” on weekends and holidays — that is, when electricity is insufficient, starting their in-house backup generators to help get through the power supply crisis and ease Taipower’s burden. Taipower responded that the current “emergency response measures” already cover weekends during their implementation period, and that Taipower is surveying, in advance, the willingness and ability of users who have already joined the measures to cooperate on weekends; participation is voluntary based on the electricity situation, and there is no mandatory allocation of reduction amounts.

Business and Investment

The United States is escalating its technology export controls on China, which will deal a severe blow to mainland China’s ability to develop everything from semiconductors and supercomputers to surveillance systems and advanced weapons. Bloomberg estimates that mainland China’s largest chip foundry, SMIC, may see its sales growth halved next year as a result; Gu Wenjun, chief analyst at mainland China’s “ICWise Research,” said the United States is determined to use chips as a tool to contain mainland China, and that the two countries “no longer have any possibility of reconciliation.”

As cross-strait relations heat up and fears of a conflict breaking out at any moment multiply, Bloomberg revealed that the United States has conducted war games and, in the worst-case scenario, is considering evacuating Taiwanese chip engineers first to reduce the impact on the global supply chain. The report sparked heated discussion, but analyst Lu Hsing-chih strongly disagreed, angrily criticizing the United States for what right it has to destroy TSMC’s facilities, and arguing that if the recent measures used to sanction mainland China’s chip industry were applied to TSMC, it would cripple the semiconductor industry — so why would it need to destroy TSMC?

Nature and Medicine

UHT milk and fresh milk have almost the same nutritional value; the biggest difference between them lies in their bacterial content. After the same high-temperature sterilization, fresh milk has only most of its bacteria removed, so it needs to be kept in the refrigerator, whereas UHT milk is almost completely sterile, so it has no problem with bacteria breeding or spoilage. Its caramel-like aroma also comes from the Maillard reaction caused by high temperature, not from added preservatives. The public is urged to “stop stigmatizing UHT milk.”

The Entomological Society of America recently released a new research report. Scientists observed a special predatory method of some mosquito larvae: they actually “shoot” their own heads, opening their mandibles to bite their prey fiercely. The scientists were astonished the first time they saw it, exclaiming that their “jaws nearly dropped.”

Travel and Leisure

Tower Bridge is a famous British landmark, but only lucky tourists get to witness its spans opening to let larger vessels pass. Recently, however, Tower Bridge opened for a tour boat flying multiple Republic of China flags, and the roughly 300 overseas compatriots aboard cheered.

A man who runs a youth hostel in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, is suspected of drugging a female guest who checked in alone, rendering her unconscious, and then sexually assaulting her; he was arrested by police on the 10th. The victim had not originally known she had been assaulted, and even stayed at the hostel again the same year, until police investigating other female victims in September discovered that the suspect had already succeeded many times using the same method. Based on the evidence police have obtained so far, it is feared that even more female guests have been victimized.