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

December 3, 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 brief descriptions of the key news events around the world most worthy of attention that day, observing the real-time context of society through the flow of events listed one by one.

December 3 is the 337th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (the 338th in leap years), with 28 days remaining until the end of the year.

Focus Issues of December 3, 2022

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

International and Social Events

Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan was reported in October this year by New Party Taoyuan city councilor candidate Yu Chih-pin and others, alleging that his master’s thesis at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of National Development was suspected of plagiarism, with a similarity of 30.27% after comparison. NTU confirmed today that the school has completed its investigation, but did not confirm the result. It is understood that Cheng Wen-tsan’s master’s thesis advisor was Chen Ming-tung, and the oral defense committee members were Lin Chia-lung and Chou Chi-hsiang.

The “citizen judge” system will take effect on New Year’s Day next year. At that time, any citizen aged 23 or over will have the opportunity to sit on the bench with professional judges to jointly try and judge major criminal cases involving death. Courts have already sent out notices to candidate citizen judges on the 1st, with the first wave totaling 35,000 people. If you receive a “candidate citizen judge court appearance notice” again next year, you will need to reply or go to court to participate in the citizen judge selection.

The Vietnamese government issued a message demanding that the Republic of China cancel its “illegal” military exercises in the waters near Taiping Island in the Spratly Islands. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang issued a statement saying that the live-fire exercises in the waters around Taiping Island on November 29 “seriously violated” Vietnam’s sovereignty over the archipelago and “triggered tensions and complicated the situation in the East Sea.”

Science and Technology

LINE Corporation launched a service nationwide in Japan on the 1st. In addition to online medical consultations provided to patients through the messaging app, it can also deliver prescription medicines to their homes. Even if patients do not leave home, they can complete everything from consultation to picking up medicine. Amid concerns about the simultaneous spread of COVID-19 and influenza, the company is promoting its high convenience to more than 90 million messaging app users. The medicines specifically include those for colds, high blood pressure, rhinitis, and acne, as well as low-dose contraceptives. Delivery requires a 660-yen (about 34 yuan) usage fee plus a 440-yen shipping fee.

Business and Investment

The US ISM manufacturing index for November, released on Thursday (the 1st), came in at 49, falling below the 50 boom-or-bust line, lower than the market expectation of 49.8 and also below October’s 50.2. It was the first contraction since May 2020 and a new low, mainly because rising borrowing costs suppressed demand for goods, with the orders index declining for a third consecutive month. However, the price index fell to a two-and-a-half-year low, supporting the view that inflation continues to cool.

In Japan, amid rising prices for food and utilities, 12.3% of surveyed companies said they have paid or plan to pay temporary or monthly subsidies to employees as “inflation subsidies.” Including companies that answered “under consideration,” a total of 26.4% are positive about paying subsidies, and a trend of avoiding wage shrinkage for employees due to rising prices is gradually emerging.

Nature and Medicine

In response to “World AIDS Day,” the Keelung City Health Bureau and the health centers of its seven districts, in cooperation with the CDC’s “Home HIV Self-Testing Program,” allow the public to conduct self-testing through vending machines, online ordering with convenience-store pickup, or physical purchase, by paying a 200-yuan fee, combining privacy and convenience.

Travel and Leisure

American warehouse store Costco has a wide variety of products and often offers discounts, making it a great place to shop, and its prepared food area is also popular with customers. Unexpectedly, some people recently discovered that the beef roll, a hot seller for more than 20 years, has been discontinued, and the new item has been changed to a pork roll.