World News

PARIS – Hours after his latest prime minister was forced to resign — unable to form a cabinet that lasted more than a day — French President Emmanuel Macron was spotted walking alone by the Seine in the chilly autumn morning.

Bodyguards kept their distance ahead and behind as he wandered out through a wrought iron gate onto the stone embankment in a black overcoat.

The scene, captured from afar on video and shown on French TV, evoked images of Charles de Gaulle seeking solace in the wind-swept plains of Ireland after his resignation in the late 1960s — a leader retreating inward as his political era drew to a close.

Macron is president until 2027, but the resignation of Sebastien Lecornu, his fifth prime minister in two years, has raised the chances that the one-time golden boy of French politics fails to make it to the end of his final term.

Macron appeared determined to avoid that fate on Monday, giving Lecornu two days for last-ditch talks with the opposition to try to chart a path out of the morass.

By asking Lecornu to give it one last shot, Macron signalled his distaste for the only other options he faces – fresh parliamentary elections that could hand power to the far right, or his own resignation, a measure he has repeatedly ruled out.

As his options have narrowed, the unpopular Macron has become increasingly isolated domestically, watching erstwhile allies distance themselves as they seek to bolster their own chances of succeeding him in the 2027 election.

Nearly half of French people blame Macron for the current crisis, while 51% of them believe his resignation could break the stalemate, according to an Elabe poll for BFMTV on Monday.

“Macron now finds himself isolated, without direction or support. He must draw the consequences: either resignation or dissolution,” far-right National Rally lawmaker Philippe Ballard posted on X.

FAILED 2024 ELECTION DECISION SPARKED ONGOING CRISIS
Since last year’s failed gamble to call a snap legislative vote, which produced a hung parliament split between three ideologically opposed blocs, Macron has tried to muddle through with minority cabinets.

Determined to preserve his economic legacy of tax cuts and a pension overhaul at a time of growing investor concern about France’s yawning deficit, Macron has appointed premiers from an ad-hoc alliance of conservatives and centrists.

For over a year, these governments struggled to pass deficit-reduction measures. Two prime ministers fell over their inability to fix public finances, but the so-called socle commun — or “common platform” — endured.

That changed with the dramatic rebellion of Bruno Retailleau, the conservatives’ most high-profile figure, who late on Sunday publicly criticised Lecornu’s cabinet hours after it was named.

Macron is hoping Lecornu can lure back the conservatives to the table, giving him a lifeline. If not, he could appoint a left-leaning prime minister, but the Socialists’ insistence on a wealth tax and reversing the pension reform makes them a hard sell for other parties.

PRESSURE ON MACRON NOT GOING AWAY
Despite Monday’s appeal to Lecornu, the pressure on Macron is unlikely to let up.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN)quickly called for a dissolution of parliament and new elections. Polls show her party leads voting intentions.

“The RN benefits from the centre’s collapse and picks up protest votes, seeing dissolution as a unique opportunity to finally govern,” said political analyst Stewart Chau.

Calls for Macron’s resignation, once confined to the fringes, are now entering the mainstream.

“France’s national interest demands that Emmanuel Macron set a date for his resignation, in order to preserve the institutions and unblock a situation that has been unavoidable since the absurd dissolution,” said David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes and a rising conservative figure, on social media.

Macron has repeatedly said he intends to serve out his full term. But faced with few palatable options, he may yet choose to end his presidency with a dramatic gesture — just like de Gaulle, who stepped down in 1969. — Reuters

WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump’s regulators revamp bank rules, big lenders expect their capital requirements could fall, in a stunning victory for the industry which faced a big hike under former President Joe Biden, according to senior industry executives.

Aiming to cut red tape that Trump’s agency picks say is hurting the US economy, they are working on the most sweeping overhaul of US capital rules since the global financial crisis of 2008.

In addition to narrowing the “Basel Endgame” capital hikes which sparked unprecedented pushback from Wall Street banks, the Fed plans to reduce a capital surcharge levied on risky global banks, shrink a key leverage constraint, and overhaul annual tests that gauge whether lenders can withstand an economic shock.

The country’s largest lenders, which have lobbied hard for the long-sought review, are optimistic that the changes combined will result in their capital levels remaining flat or falling, said six industry and regulatory sources, including three top bankers.

That expected outcome, reported here for the first time, marks a dramatic turnaround for the industry which faced a 19% hike in 2023 under the draft Basel capital rules which proposed changes to how big banks gauge lending and trading risks.

While the Fed last September said that hike would be halved, the plan was never finalized and died with Trump’s election.

Big banks have long complained that capital rules are excessive and poorly calibrated, and that some of that cash could better serve the economy through lending. They also argue that they weathered the COVID-19 economic shock just fine.

Critics say efforts to chip away at the capital regime are dangerous, and could leave the industry vulnerable at a time when the outlook for the US economy is growing cloudy.

With big banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup together holding around $1 trillion in capital, even a small dip could free up billions of dollars for lending, trading, dividends and share buybacks.

“You’re going to see here the most aggressive streamlining or easing of bank regulations that we’ve seen certainly since Dodd-Frank and probably sometime before that,” said Ian Katz, managing director at Capital Alpha Partners, referring to the landmark 2010 post-crisis law that overhauled bank rules.

A Fed spokesperson declined to comment. The Fed’s new regulatory chief, Michelle Bowman, said last week that she wants the rules to “work well together” and did not necessarily expect capital to fall. Regulators will unveil a new Basel draft by early 2026, she added.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which are also working on the Basel draft, also declined to comment.

“America’s largest banks are the strongest in the world,” said Amanda Eversole, CEO of the Financial Services Forum which represents the country’s eight biggest banks. “Modernizing capital rules will let them put that strength to work – fueling growth for consumers, small businesses, and the economy.”

‘EXTREMELY CONSEQUENTIAL’
The sources, who declined to be identified discussing confidential regulatory issues, said they expect the new Basel draft to be broadly “capital-neutral” at a minimum. That means it would neither increase nor decrease system-wide capital, but change how it is distributed.

Trump’s pick for FDIC chair, Travis Hill, in January said “roughly” capital-neutral would be a “prudent starting point.”

To get there, regulators are expected to abandon a “dual stack” that would have required banks to comply with the stricter of two methods for measuring their risk capital which penalized banks with large trading businesses, and to ease a requirement to put capital aside for operational risks, like cyberattacks or lawsuits, two of the people said.

Capital reductions could then come as the Fed updates the “GSIB” surcharge to better account for economic growth, and as regulators tailor the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio, a risk-blind capital safety net, to each individual bank, three of the sources said.

After the industry sued the Fed in December, the central bank is also working to make its stress tests, which partly determine big lenders’ capital buffers, more transparent, likely helping them to optimize their results.

Two of the sources cautioned, however, that the regulatory discussions are ongoing and that Democrats on the Fed board may oppose changes that are too favorable to the industry.

Based on an analysis of industry materials, Washington-based group Better Markets, which advocates for tougher financial rules, estimates that banking system capital could fall by $200 billion if the industry secures all the relief it has been pushing for.

“It’s huge and extremely consequential,” said Phillip Basil, director of economic growth and financial stability at Better Markets. “It’s going to take a lot less to bring down a big bank.” — Reuters US

AMSTERDAM – Climate change and environmental degradation pose a direct threat to the natural resources that Europe needs for its economic security, the EU’s environmental agency said on Monday.

The European Environment Agency said biodiversity in Europe is declining due to unsustainable production and consumption, especially in the food system.

Due to over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution and invasive alien species, more than 80% of protected habitats are in a poor or bad state, it said, while water resources are also under severe pressure.

EUROPE’S FASTEST-WARMING CONTINENT
“The degradation of our natural world jeopardises the European way of life,” the agency said in its report: “Europe’s environment 2025”.

“Europe is critically dependent on natural resources for economic security, to which climate change and environmental degradation pose a direct threat.”

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent and is experiencing worsening droughts and other extreme weather events.

But governments are grappling with other priorities including industrial competitiveness, and negotiations on EU climate targets have stoked divisions between richer and poorer countries.

EU countries last week confirmed that the bloc will miss a global deadline to set new emissions-cutting targets due to divisions over the plans among EU governments.

“The window for meaningful action is narrowing, and the consequences of delay are becoming more tangible,” executive director Leena Yla-Mononen said.

“We are approaching tipping points – not only in ecosystems, but also in the social and economic systems that underpin our societies.” — Reuters

US President Donald Trump celebrated the suspension of talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves and said TV broadcasters should lose their licenses over negative coverage of his administration, adding fuel to a national debate over free speech.

Kimmel was embroiled in the effort by Trump and his supporters to punish critics of assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot with a rifle from afar while speaking to a crowd at a Utah university on September 10. Since then allies of Trump and Kirk have warned Americans to properly mourn the divisive figure or face the consequences.

The broadcaster ABC announced on Wednesday that it was yanking the late-night comedy show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” indefinitely. Writers, performers, former US President Barack Obama and others condemned Kimmel’s suspension, calling it capitulation to unconstitutional government pressure.

The American debate followed Trump to Britain on Thursday, when during his state visit he said Kimmel had been punished for saying “a horrible thing” about Kirk.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has used his office and the courts to attack unflattering speech about him that he has called defamatory or false. Throughout both his terms, Trump has threatened to rescind licenses for local broadcast affiliates of the national networks – licenses that are approved by the Federal Communications Commission, a nominally independent regulatory body.

Kimmel’s suspension came after owners of local TV stations had said they would stop broadcasting his celebrity-filled late-night show, and the FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to investigate Kimmel’s commentary about Kirk.

Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to the US, complained about receiving bad publicity from broadcasters, saying, “That’s something that should be talked about for licensing. … All they do is hit Trump.”

“I would think maybe their license should be taken away,” Trump said, although federal law prohibits the FCC from revoking a broadcaster’s license for negative coverage or other speech disliked by the government. “It will be up to Brendan Carr.”

Kimmel, a comedian who frequently lampoons Trump, said during his nine-minute opening monologue on Monday that allies of Kirk were using his assassination last week to “score political points.” Kirk, 31, was shot onstage while holding one of his frequent public debates with students over his political views in an event organized by his pro-Trump advocacy group, Turning Point USA.

A 22-year-old technical college student from Utah was charged with Kirk’s murder on Tuesday.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and do everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.

Trump countered that Kimmel was untalented, had bad ratings, and “said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”

“So, you know, you can call that free speech or not,” Trump said as he stood alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “He was fired for lack of talent.” ABC has not said that it fired Kimmel, who has not commented on his removal from air.

Viewership of late-night shows and traditional TV in general has declined as audiences shift to streaming and social media. “Jimmy Kimmel Live” averaged 1.57 million viewers per episode for the TV season that ended in May, according to Nielsen.

In the week since Kirk’s murder, Kimmel is the most famous American to face professional blowback for comments condemned by conservatives as disrespectful of Kirk, alongside media figures, academic workers, teachers and corporate employees.

Prominent Democrats said Trump was mounting an assault on free speech rights guaranteed in the US Constitution’s First Amendment. Republicans have said they are fighting against “hate speech” that can spiral into violence, and accuse some Kirk critics of trying to justify his murder.

OBAMA JOINS CHORUS OF CRITICS
Obama urged media companies not to capitulate to government coercion.
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama said in a statement.

Writers’ and actors’ labor unions called the targeting of Kimmel an unconstitutional attack on the right to disagree. The American Civil Liberties Union called it an unconstitutional attempt by the Trump administration to “silence its critics and control what the American people watch and read.”

Kirk’s death spurred an outpouring of grief among fans who saw him as a staunch advocate for public debate and conservative values. Others have challenged or derided Kirk’s support for right-wing politics and Christian nationalism and derogatory comments he has made about immigrants, African Americans, leftists and transgender people.

Hours before Kimmel’s suspension on Wednesday, Carr urged local broadcasters to stop airing the show.

Following Carr’s comments on the Benny Johnson podcast, two of the largest owners of local broadcasters – Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group, both of which have merger deals pending before the FCC – then announced they would preempt Kimmel’s show with other programming in response to Monday’s monologue.

ABC, owned by Walt Disney, announced it was suspending Kimmel’s show indefinitely. ABC owns eight local TV channels subject to FCC licensing, including broadcasters in the major markets of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia.

Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden made the decision to suspend Kimmel’s show, a source with knowledge of the matter said. — Reuters

WASHINGTON – The US economy is showing some strains after years of resilience, with domestic demand moderating and job growth slowing, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said inflation was on a path to meet the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, but there were some risks that could push it higher, largely as a result of tariffs imposed on imports by the Trump administration.

“What we’ve seen over the past few years is that the US economy has proven to be quite resilient. We do see now that some strains are beginning to show,” she told a regular briefing. “Domestic demand has been moderating in the US, and job growth is slowing.”

Kozack said the front-loading of imports early in the year in anticipation of tariffs had caused some volatility in economic activity in the first half, and tariffs were now adding to inflation risks.

As a result of the combined factors, she said, the IMF saw scope for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, although it should proceed cautiously, with an eye on emerging data.

She told a regular briefing that a downward revision in US employment data announced on Tuesday was a “bit larger” than the historical average.

The US government said 911,000 fewer jobs were likely created in the 12 months through March than previously estimated, suggesting that job growth was stalling before President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs on imports.

Such revisions could be driven by a variety of factors, including statistical issues and some related to response and survey errors, she said, adding the issue would be discussed during the scheduled IMF review of the US economy in November.

The Labor Department’s inspector general on Wednesday said it was initiating a review of challenges that the Bureau of Labor Statistics faces in collecting and reporting US economic data after it made large downward revisions to nonfarm payrolls and cut its inflation data collection.

Earlier sharp downgrades to May and June payroll figures angered Trump, prompting him to fire BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer and accuse her, without evidence, of faking the data. Trump has nominated E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to replace her.

Kozack refused to be drawn on the credibility of US data, saying only that the IMF strongly advocated for accurate, timely and reliable data from all its members.

“This kind of data transparency strengthens the credibility of economic management in all countries,” she said. — Reuters US

Confusion and conspiracy theories spread online after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during a university appearance in Orem, Utah, on Wednesday.

As the manhunt continued, online speculation, much of it baseless, emerged about the circumstances of the shooting and the identity of the shooter.

Online posts also shared fake headlines about the killing, or real headlines with fake timestamps to claim the media had advance knowledge of the plan. And social media users trying to get clarity from AI chatbots found they were misled.

Reuters has examined some of the viral rumors, conspiracies, and false information spreading online in the aftermath of Kirk’s death.

MISIDENTIFIED SUSPECTS
Video shared online in the aftermath of the shooting shows an older man being detained by Provo police and an officer holding a rifle, which the voiceover said belonged to the suspect. But there is no evidence the encounter was related to the Kirk shooting. The Utah Department of Public Safety did not respond to a request for comment.

One video posted within hours of Kirk’s shooting falsely identified a Black man 700 miles (1,126 km) away as having been arrested for killing Kirk. But the video is from June and shows the arrest of a suspect in a Santa Monica police officer shooting. The same video was shared by Fox News that month.

Other posts shared video of a man on the run after a gunman opened fire outside a casino in Reno, Nevada, on July 28, a shooting that killed three and injured three others. The posts claimed it was footage of Kirk’s shooter.

The image of a 29-year-old Washington state resident was shared in a series of posts baselessly suggesting the shooter is transgender. She told Reuters in a message the picture had been lifted from her X account without her knowledge, adding that she was in Seattle at the time of the shooting. She wrote earlier on Instagram, after her image circulated widely online, that she is not the shooter. At the time of writing, authorities have not said the suspect is transgender.

HEADLINE FAKES
Dark memes following the shooting included a fabricated CNN headline dated 2021 that quotes Kirk as saying, “If Somebody Ever Shoots Me Through The Neck During A Speech In Utah In 2025, I Lowkey Think That Rocks.”

There is no evidence Kirk ever made this statement. A CNN spokesperson said in an email, “This is a fabricated image and CNN never published a story with that headline.”

A screenshot of a genuine New York Times headline appearing in Google search results was used to suggest the media knew about the shooting in advance. The headline, “Charlie Kirk is Apparently Shot During Utah Valley University Event,” as it appeared in Google, was shared in an X post after the shooting and captioned, “NY Times 19 hours ago (last night 15 hours before shooting) is standard CIA pysop.”

An archive of the article shows the first post on the outlet’s live blog was published after Kirk’s shooting, at 3:02 p.m. ET.

The New York Times said in an email that the page went live at 3:01 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

This timestamp discrepancy in search engine results can happen when a web page provides a time zone different from the local time when it was published, or when multiple dates are listed on the page, a Google spokesperson said.

“Given the low resolution and incomplete screenshots, we’re not able to confirm if these are Google Search results,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We provide guidance to site owners about how they can help us identify the most accurate date and time to show in Search.”

AI CHATBOTS AMPLIFY CONFUSION
In the aftermath of Kirk’s shooting, Reuters found that both Perplexity’s bot account and xAI’s Grok chatbot provided incorrect responses to queries on X.

In response to a query beneath a clip condemning Kirk’s killing, Perplexity’s bot account incorrectly said the individual was describing a “hypothetical scenario” and that Kirk was “still alive.”

It also responded to a graphic released by the White House that featured a statement on the incident, saying that it appeared to be “fabricated,” incorrectly adding that there had been “no official confirmation” by the White House that Kirk had died.

Early online rumors falsely suggested that a man named Michael Mallinson had been detained by police. This was elevated by Grok, which cited unspecified “reports” that he was in custody. In later posts, Grok said Mallinson had been “falsely accused.” Mallinson could not be reached for comment.

Grok also labelled a real statement as fabricated, incorrectly saying that a screenshot of the statement released by Turning Point USA, the conservative student group founded by Kirk, appeared to be “fake.”

A spokesperson for Perplexity told Reuters, “Because we take the topic so seriously, Perplexity never claims to be 100% accurate. But we do claim to be the only AI company working on it relentlessly as our core focus.”

xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump’s short list of candidates to succeed Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve now includes his aide Kevin Hassett, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and current Fed Governor Christopher Waller.

Trump told reporters at the White House that the three men were the finalists for appointments to the Fed, adding he would consider Scott Bessent, too, but that the Treasury secretary was not interested.

Bessent, who was with the president in the Oval Office, confirmed his lack of interest.

“I had four,” Trump said. “Now I’m talking about three. He (Bessent) told me: ‘I’m not leaving’.”

The president has made clear he intends to install a Fed leader more aligned with his push for rapid interest-rate cuts, browbeating Powell for being “too late” to act on borrowing costs and for hurting home buyers with higher mortgage rates.

Powell’s Fed has kept rates on hold all year on concern that Trump’s tariffs could reignite inflation, although recently his concerns have shifted to center more on the slowing labor market.

The choice of a Fed chair will carry high stakes for financial markets, which closely watch Fed leadership changes for clues about the direction of interest rates, inflation policy and the central bank’s independence.

U.S. job growth weakened sharply in August and the unemployment rate increased to nearly a four-year high of 4.3%, the Labor Department said on Friday, confirming that labor market conditions were softening.

Powell last month noted downside risks to the labor market that “may warrant” a careful policy adjustment, remarks that financial markets and analysts took to mean he would likely support a quarter-point interest-rate cut in September.

That’s far short of the several percentage points of cuts that Trump has demanded.

Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, has been a reliable advocate for Trump’s tariffs and other policies, and agrees with Trump that the Fed has kept rates inappropriately high.

Warsh has repeatedly called for “regime change” at the Fed.

Waller, who ran the St. Louis Fed’s research department before Trump picked him to be Fed governor in 2020, would be an institutionalist pick.

Bessent released a barrage of criticism against the Fed on Friday and called for a full review of the central bank’s operations, from staffing to research to monetary policy. — Reuters

SYDNEY – New Zealand said on Wednesday it would introduce laws in November to fast track the approval process for new supermarkets in a bid to boost competition and bring in lower prices.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said her center-right government’s proposed rules will speed up and simplify the process to open or expand supermarkets in the country.

“We’re creating an express lane for new supermarkets to boost competition and deliver better deals for Kiwi shoppers,” Ms. Willis said in a statement.

Tough regulations and a slow approval process for new applications are blocking new competitors from gaining a foothold in the country’s grocery sector, dominated by Foodstuffs NZ and Australia’s Woolworths, Ms. Willis said.

Some respondents to a government-initiated feedback process on the sector have argued for the break up of Foodstuffs and Woolworths, Ms. Willis said.

But she said any decision “to restructure the supermarkets is not a decision that would be taken lightly” though a cost-benefit analysis will check the specific options for restructuring the duopoly.

“It would be a significant intervention that would carry costs and risks that would need to be rigorously weighted against the potential benefits to shoppers,” Ms. Willis said.

The government will instead streamline the entry of new supermarkets by appointing a single authority to oversee the entire process and also modify the foreign investment rules to clarify investment pathways.

Companies could be prosecuted if they misuse their market power to exclude or stamp out competitors, Ms. Willis said.

U.S. retailer Costco, which opened its only store in the country in Auckland in 2022, has informed the government that the initiatives to boost competition will help with the company’s future expansion plans in New Zealand, she added.

Five domestic companies have also expressed interest to enter the grocery sector. — Reuters

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia, Editor-in-Chief

HSINCHU CITY, Taiwan — Clusters of unobtrusive buildings greet you when you enter Hsinchu Science Park (HSP), also known as the heart of Taiwan’s Silicon Valley. Outside these modern buildings, there’s little indication that the world’s most important chips are being manufactured inside.

Taiwan produces around 60% of the semiconductors in the world, and over 90% of the most advanced chips. Most of these advanced semiconductors are manufactured by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company).

At the TSMC Museum of Innovation here, the company prominently displays the chips it has produced since it was founded in 1987, and how these are used in nearly all aspects of modern life — from home appliances and mobile phones to artificial intelligence (AI) and self-driving vehicles.

TSMC is the world’s largest producer of chips, and a top supplier for Apple and Nvidia. It also accounted for 9% of Taiwan’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year.

This puts TSMC right at the center of the so-called “Silicon Shield.” Experts have long noted that Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductor manufacturing could protect the island from China’s military aggression.

Despite geopolitical tensions, it’s “business as usual” for the over 600 companies that operate in HSP, officials said.

“(But) if there is a big conflict, if there is a war, that will be absolutely a very big problem for global supply chains,” HSP Bureau Associate Researcher Scott Huang told visiting foreign journalists.

China continues to assert its claim over Taiwan, which Beijing views as a breakaway province. It has threatened to annex the self-ruled island, by force if necessary, endangering Taiwan’s population and threatening the world’s most advanced semiconductor factories.

A possible China attack on TSMC’s facilities in Taiwan would severely affect chip supplies in the world, Mr. Huang said.

“Some scholars estimate that if there is a missile that hits TSMC from China, there will be no chip supplies for advanced manufacturing engineers for at least three years. That means nobody will have a new model of iPhone again for three years until those constructions, manufacturing productions, facilities recover,” Mr. Huang said.

Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) President Hsien-ming Lien said there are estimates that an attack on Taiwan would reduce around 6-10% of global GDP.

“It’s an enormous amount of money. It will affect all the top 10 technology companies (in the world), almost every one of them requires the TSMC chip… All your phones have their chips from TSMC. It’s going to be catastrophic,” he said during a separate briefing.

Mr. Lien said this is why Taiwan and other Asian countries are working to prevent this attack from happening.

“It’s a disaster nobody wants to actually see,” he added.

INNOVATION
Despite rising geopolitical tensions, Taiwan continues to focus its efforts on innovation development.

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) takes the lead not just in formulating science and technology policy but also in supporting and funding research, developing science parks, and promoting innovation.

NSTC Vice-Minister Chen-kang Su highlighted the unique ecosystem in Taiwan where there is close collaboration among the government, academe, research and industry.

The NSTC works with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the National Institute of Applied Research and with other industries to train professionals as well as to help the academe and research sectors transfer technology to the industry that will turn these technologies into commercial products.

It was ITRI that laid the groundwork for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and played a key role in the creation of TSMC. TSMC, which was founded by Morris Chang, had received early funding and support from ITRI, the Taiwanese government and private investors.

ITRI had also advocated for a science-based industrial park, which led to the establishment of the HSP, which in turn became the birthplace of TSMC.

Ambassador-at-Large and Digital Transformation Association (DTA) Chairman JR Chen said the science parks and industrial parks are the secret to Taiwan’s economic development.

“All these science parks or industry parks are a vital asset and competitive advantage of Taiwan’s economic development, and this is also the hidden center of global economy because most of the high-tech industries need support from all these science parks or industrial parks,” Mr. Chen told a group of visiting foreign journalists.

NSTC’s Mr. Su said at a briefing that there are over 1,150 companies located in science parks, which cover 5,194 hectares around Taiwan. In 2024, these science parks generated over $148 billion in revenues.

HSP’s Mr. Huang showed a photo of the science park when it was established in 1980, where there was only one building surrounded by “nothing, only rice fields.”

“We started from making PCs (personal computers), desktop, notebooks to semiconductors in the 1990s… With electronics, semiconductors and chipmaking, Taiwan firms really had a remarkable performance in the global market. For the advanced semiconductor sector, Taiwan enterprises really shine in the world, with over 95% (of the market),” he said.

HSP is home to the headquarters of TSMC and Mediatek, as well as over 620 companies in six industries, namely integrated circuits, optoelectronics, biotechnology, machineries, PC and telecommunications. The park itself now covers 1,467 hectares, employs around 178,000 and generates over $47 billion in revenue a year.

Meanwhile, NTSC is looking to expand Taiwan’s international cooperation in priority areas such as semiconductors, AI, security and surveillance, next-generation communications, and military.

“In addition to working with allied countries on industrial supply chains, we can also work with them to introduce new applications of these technologies. Areas of collaboration could be working with these countries to introduce new technology in AI and semiconductors to build local industries,” Mr. Su said.

Other policy focus areas include net-zero technology, quantum technology, space technology, precision medicine, and robotics.

NSTC currently has 18 science and technology liaison offices in 14 countries, including the US, Japan, Vietnam and India.

RISKS
Rising geopolitical risks such as the US-China trade war, Russia-Ukraine war and US tariffs are forcing Taiwan’s supply chains to undergo restructuring, according to DTA’s Mr. Chen.

“For the DTA, we still advocate that digital transformation (is needed) for all industries in Taiwan. This is still the foundation of resilience and advanced capabilities to tackle the issue of geopolitical risks,” he said.

Mr. Chen said companies can use AI to have real-time visibility and transparency or manage risks in the supply chain.

“Global diversification is very important. Right now, I think you cannot really have only one source of manufacturing or logistics,” he said.

“Though the main technology is from Taiwan, we’d like to collaborate with like-minded countries to work together to provide high-tech products for the world.”

For instance, TSMC has been expanding beyond Taiwan as it sees the need to diversify manufacturing and reduce supply chain risks amid these risks. It has already invested in semiconductor fabrication plants in Arizona in the US, and Kumamoto in Japan.

Mr. Chen also suggested that Taiwan firms continue to expand to other countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia or Eastern Europe.

“We need to develop domestic supply and critical components here in Taiwan but also we need to form alliances with like-minded countries to share research and development and other resources so that will make a resilient foundation for the high-tech industry,” he said.

‘DEMOCRATIC SUPPLY CHAIN’
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te had earlier called on semiconductor companies to stop buying from and selling to China and to only work with supply chains with companies from democratic countries.

“The so-called pure democratic supply chain is still a very challenging goal,” CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu said at a separate briefing. 

She noted that China controls more than 90% of the critical minerals needed for making chips, so it would not be possible to establish a democratic supply chain without the participation of non-democratic countries like China and Vietnam.

However, as China has become increasingly aggressive in recent years, Ms. Hsu noted some like-minded countries have been forging supply chains among themselves to ensure they would not be too dependent on China.

Taiwan has also been trying to diversify or de-risk its economic dependence on China, she added.

“Taiwanese companies used to invest hugely in China and right now they are already diversifying their supply chain. So back in 2010, out of every $100 that we invested overseas, $85 went to China. But in the past two years, China accounted for only less than 10% of our overseas investment,” Ms. Hsu said.

DTA’s Mr. Chen said Taiwanese firms have moved production of high-tech products from China to other countries not just due to political reasons and cost.

“After the new geopolitical order, they can’t think just about cost but also resilience and security of the product… Most Taiwanese high-tech companies not only stress cost effectiveness but trust worthiness,” he added.

WASHINGTON – Major automakers want Congress and the Trump administration to move faster to make it easier to deploy autonomous vehicles without human controls as new robotaxi tests expand.

Congress has been divided for years about whether to pass legislation to address deployment hurdles, while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has not moved quickly to rewrite safety rules or allow exemptions for up to 2,500 vehicles without human controls annually and ease other hurdles.

“The auto industry wants, it needs a functioning and effective auto safety regulator. We don’t have that today,” said Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on Thursday. “The agency isn’t nimble. Rulemakings take too long if they come at all.”

Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association Director Jeff Farrah urged Congress to pass long-stalled nationwide legislation to allow the United States to globally lead on AVs as China moves aggressively in the field.

“Right now we are fighting with one hand tied behind our back,” Farrah said. Companies have pushed for more action for years.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in April that a new department framework to boost autonomous vehicles would help U.S. automakers compete with Chinese rivals.

Earlier this month, NHTSA said it would speed reviews of requests from automakers to deploy self-driving vehicles without required human controls like steering wheels, brake pedals or mirrors.

Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, a Democrat, cited reports showing NHTSA has lost as much as 35% of its expert staff this year through layoffs and other exits, which puts the ability of the agency to function at risk.

NHTSA said “significantly fewer people have left” than Pallone suggested and that it remains “staffed to continue to conduct all safety- and mission-critical work” and is boosting its Office of Autonomous Safety.

Meanwhile, U.S. traffic deaths remain sharply above pre-COVID levels. Despite falling 3.8% in 2024 to 39,345, they are still significantly higher than the 36,355 killed in 2019 and double the average rate of other high-income countries.

“NHTSA is failing to meet the moment,” Insurance Institute for Highway Safety President David Harkey told lawmakers.

“In recent years, it has approached its job with a lack of urgency, using flawed methodologies that underestimate the safety benefits of obviously beneficial interventions,” he said.

NHTSA routinely fails to write regulations even when directed by Congress and has often gone years without a Senate-confirmed leader. – Reuters