EZ News 01/14/25

Good afternoon, I'm _____ with today's episode of EZ News. Tai-Ex opening The Tai-Ex opened up 86-points this morning from yesterday's close, at 22,574 on turnover of $5.6-billion N-T. Shares in Taiwan took a beating, plunging more than 500 points Monday, with selling sparked by steep declines on U.S. markets at the end of last week amid rising worries over the Federal Reserve's next move. The market opened up, but sell-off accelerated in the afternoon session, with weakness seen among other electronics heavyweights, dragging down the Taiex down to almost the day's low at the end of the session. Non-tech stocks moved lower in line with the broader market, with some exceptions in the petrochemical industry, which was boosted by higher international crude oil prices, after the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Russia's oil industry. Yunlin touts success in waste reduction -- by searching people's trash bags The Yunlin County government says it has reduced the county's overall trash volume by 7 percent after implementing a search policy. The Yunlin Environmental Protection Bureau says the county's waste output had risen to around 400 metric tons per day, and the local government has instructed waste management workers to search some residents' trash bags and refuse those that contained food scraps and other recyclable materials. Since implementing the policy, almost 20-thousand bags of trash hve been rejected, out of about 100-thousand. The bureau says Yunlin's monthly trash volume last November was 1,200 metric tons lower than in July, equivalent to (等值的；相等的) around 7 percent less trash per day. The bureau says currently, the county generates 360 metric tons of trash per day, which it hopes to reduce to 340 metric tons by the end of this year. NKorea Test Fires Projectile South Korea’s military says North Korea has test-fired at least one unidentified projectile toward its eastern waters in its second launch event of 2025. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday didn’t immediately provide (提供) more details. The launch followed North Korea’s first ballistic launch of the year last week. The North described that the test involved a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile designed to strike targets in the Pacific as leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further expand his collection of nuclear-capable weapons to counter rivals. Romania Protests Calling for Election Resumption Demonstrations were held in the Romanian capital on Sunday calling for a resumption (繼續) of presidential elections. The election was annulled in December by the Constitutional Court citing the illegal use of digital technology to influence the results. William Denselow reports from Brussels. British Declassified Documents Reveal Spy Details Newly declassified British documents show that Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t told details of her long-time art adviser's double life as a Soviet spy because palace officials didn’t want to add to her worries. The files about royal art historian Anthony Blunt are among a trove from the intelligence agency MI5 released Tuesday by Britain’s National Archives. They shed new light on the spy ring linked to Cambridge University who spilled secrets (洩漏祕密) to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Blunt confessed to espionage in 1964, but according to the files the queen was not given full details until 1973. Her private secretary reported that “she took it all very calmly and without surprise." Blunt was not publicly exposed as a spy until 1979. That was the I.C.R.T. EZ News, I'm _____. -- Hosting provided by SoundOn