EZ News 09/13/23

Good afternoon, I'm _____ with today's episode of EZ News. **Tai-Ex opening ** The Tai-Ex opened marginally higher this morning from yesterday's close, at 16,578 on turnover of 1.5-billion N-T. The market staged a technical rebound on Tuesday on the back of increased investor interest in semiconductor stocks follow a rise on Wall Street overnight sparked by a more than 1-per cent increase on the tech heavy Nasdaq. **MND Releases Latest Defense Paper ** The Ministry of National Defense has released its first national defense report since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the report, the island's armed forces are learning from the war in Europe, and are boosting the asymmetrical warfare capabilities and adopting a whole-of-society approach in preparation for a potential cross-strait conflict. The military notes that as is being seen in the Russia-Ukraine war, China is also deploying hybrid warfare to target Taiwan through both military coercion (強迫) and non-traditional threats, including cyber and cognitive warfare. And the report says the military is responding to those actions by upholding its long-held "resolute defense and multi-domain deterrence" strategic guidance, and continuing to beef up its asymmetrical warfare capabilities in the face of a much stronger opponent. **Court Rejects Taipei's Initial Request to Freeze Kee Tai Assets ** The Taipei District Court has rejected a request by the Taipei City government to freeze 61.96-million N-T in assets (資產) belonging to Kee Tai Properties. The city government submitted the request to the court on Sunday, days after underground excavation work at a Kee Tai construction site in the Dazhi neighborhood caused one building to partially collapse and six others to incline to one side. According to the court, it chose to reject the request as Kee Tai is a publicly-traded company with authorized capital of 5-billion N-T, and has already agreed to transfer 100-million N-T into a fund for the affected households. **US Vows Support for Libya ** US President Joe Biden has promised emergency funds (資金) for Libya, after severe flooding killed an estimated 5,000 people. Thousands of people are still missing, with parts of some cities completely destroyed. Nick Harper reports from Washington. **Russian Warplane Crash ** The Russian military has announced that one of its warplanes crashed during a training mission in southern Russia without specifying the fate of its crew. The Defense Ministry says the Su-24 bomber went down Tuesday in an unpopulated area in the Volgograd region and rescue helicopters were deployed to the site. The ministry says that the aircraft wasn’t carrying any weapons. It didn’t say what might have caused the crash that caused no casualties or damage on the ground. The Russian air force has suffered a string of crashes that some observers have attributed to (將（某種狀況）歸屬於) a higher number of flights amid the fighting in Ukraine. **Simona Halep Suspended for Doping ** Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has been suspended (暫令停止參加活動) from professional tennis for four years for doping violations. The International Tennis Integrity Agency says the 31-year-old Romanian “committed intentional anti-doping rule violations” by failing a drug test during the 2022 U.S. Open and for irregularities in her Athlete Biological Passport. Halep had been provisionally suspended since October 2022. The four-year ban will run to Oct. 6, 2026. She plans to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. That was the I.C.R.T. news, Check in again tomorrow for our simplified version of the news, uploaded every day in the afternoon. Enjoy the rest of your day, I'm _____. -- Hosting provided by SoundOn