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

November 14, 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

Japan’s public-interest foundation, the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, conducted a questionnaire survey of 5,000 Japanese people aged 18 and over nationwide from August 26 to September 13 this year, asking whether Japan should send the Self-Defense Forces to join US forces in confronting the PLA if the CCP attacks Taiwan; as many as 74% of respondents “opposed” or “relatively opposed” it.

The Tsai administration is unsparing in instilling Taiwan independence consciousness in students. While implementing de-Sinicization in the senior high and junior high history and literature curricula through the 108 curriculum guidelines, its political intent has also penetrated elementary school textbooks. Fifth-grade social studies textbooks were required by the National Academy for Educational Research to place Taiwan history in the context of East Asian history, leading to the first time in history that the three major textbook publishers — Nani, Kang Hsuan, and Han Lin — simultaneously faced the dilemma of having their books returned and recompiled. Now the booksellers are wailing everywhere. Education Minister Pan Wen-chung stepped in today (the 12th) to smooth things over, stressing that this move is not de-Sinicization, but his explanation was vague, and the industry suspects the mastermind is still former Education Ministry chief secretary Chuang Kuo-jung.

Starting in July next year, newly hired civil servants and new teachers will have a separate new fund and will no longer participate in the existing public service pension fund, which will inevitably worsen the fund’s finances and bring forward the year it runs out. According to actuarial calculations, the civil service fund will for the first time show an annual shortfall as early as 2033, and the fund’s accumulated balance will begin to turn negative in 2046, after which the negative amount will rise year by year. In other words, the new pension system for new civil servants will affect the fund’s cash flow, and is estimated to bring forward the year the fund runs out by five years.

An explosion occurred on the 13th in a busy district of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city. Local officials said at least 6 people died and 81 were injured. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan characterized the incident as a “bomb attack” and said a woman may have carried it out.

Science and Technology

After the world’s richest man Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter, news emerged on the 1st that, in order to increase revenue, Twitter planned to charge accounts with official verification (commonly known as the blue check) US$20 (about NT$643) per month. As a result, all accounts subscribing to “Twitter Blue” uniformly received the blue check, causing a flood of official-verified “fakes” to appear on Twitter instantly, including Jesus and Musk.

Business and Investment

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which filed for bankruptcy protection on the 11th, suffered a hacker attack yesterday, with total funds outflow reaching US$662 million. European cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has confirmed the identity of the FTX attacker and frozen the related suspicious assets. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that SBF had previously misappropriated FTX customer funds for Alameda, and that executives of both Alameda and FTX were aware of it.

The G20 Leaders’ Summit series of events has another new highlight. Besides the market’s attention to the Biden-Xi meeting, Hon Hai (2317) Chairman Young Liu will deliver a keynote speech on the morning of the 14th. This is the first time since Hon Hai founder Terry Gou participated in APEC in 2016 that Young Liu attends an iconic international trade event on behalf of Hon Hai, and he also becomes the first Republic of China entrepreneur to participate in the G20.

Nature and Medicine

Dr. Micah Allen, a professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University, pointed out that in many different situations, brain activity is closely related to breathing rhythm. When inhaling, our brains are more sensitive to the outside world; when exhaling, the brain pays less attention to external stimuli. Breathing difficulties may lead to a higher risk of emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression, and breathing problems, respiratory diseases, and mental illness are also closely related.

Protein is an indispensable nutrient for the human body and can be divided into two types: animal and plant protein. So which is better? In response, nutritionists point out that it is recommended to consume both in a balanced way. Animal protein is well absorbed and has a high synthesis rate, and is a source of iron and vitamin D; plant protein contains dietary fiber and antioxidant phytonutrients, and has low saturated fatty acid content.

Scientists used computer models to examine 40 kinds of p53 protein in elephants and found that they avoid cancer in elephants in two ways. First, having many copies reduces the chance that a mutation will cause p53 to lose function; in addition, when cells are damaged, various molecular responses are triggered, and the various p53 copies in elephants also take different responses accordingly, making elephants particularly efficient at detecting and eliminating mutations.

Travel and Leisure

The “Majestic Princess” cruise ship, which had just finished a 12-day New Zealand voyage, carried 3,300 passengers and 1,300 crew, and more than 800 passengers were found to be infected, meaning about one-fifth of the people were confirmed positive. However, passengers had to take an antigen rapid test within one day before disembarking and only those testing negative could get off; all passengers infected with COVID-19 had been isolated.