Global Breaking News - Monday, December 23, 2024
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[Misc] (HL-20200223~20200229) Weekly Headlines Review
최고관리자 | 20-02-23 05:19
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(1) Trump again complains about 'Parasite' winning best picture Oscar
U.S. President Donald Trump complained again Friday that this year's best picture Oscar went to the South Korean movie, "Parasite," saying he likes to see the United States get honored. Trump originally aired his grievances about the Academy Awards the night before at a campaign rally in Colorado. This time he brought up the subject at another rally in Las Vegas. U.S. President Donald Trump complained again Friday that this year's best picture Oscar went to the South Korean movie, "Parasite," saying he likes to see the United States get honored. Trump originally aired his grievances about the Academy Awards the night before at a campaign rally in Colorado. This time he brought up the subject at another rally in Las Vegas. "This is really an incredible time, I'll tell you what, for our country," he continued. "I like to see things that we do get honored because nobody is doing what we do. Nobody can do it like us. We're the greatest country in the world again."
(2) Solar industry faces major setback
The country's solar industry is facing a major setback after the top two solar businesses shutdown all polysilicon plants in Korea, which will inevitably have an impact on the Moon Jae-in administration's initiative to grow its renewable energy sector. "We have decided to cease production of polysilicon, which recorded deficits for several years," Hanwha Solutions said after a board meeting Thursday. The announcement comes a week after its rival OCI, the country's leading and world No. 2 polysilicon manufacturer, said last week it would halt domestic production because it is unable to match the price of cheaper Chinese products. Polysilicon is considered to be fuel to the solar industry and is used to produce silicon ingot and wafer. The ingot and the wafer are used to develop the cell modules that are embedded in the solar generator. OCI locally produced 52,000 tons and Hanwha Solutions 15,000 tons a year of polysilicon, but all production stopped as of Thursday. Power bills account for 45 percent of the cost of producing polysilicon, which makes it difficult to compete with Chinese competitors as electricity rates in China are only a seventh of Korea's. This comes after the Chinese government drastically increased its generation capacity by building scores of nuclear power plants. However, Korea has been going in the opposite direction, with the Korea Electric Power Corp. under immense pressure to raise power prices to cover accumulated losses resulting from the government's efforts to phase out nuclear power plants. "The selling price of the polysilicon is nearly half the cost of production, so if we increase operations, our deficit will rise with it," a Hanwha Solutions official said. "So we plan to liquidate the business within the year's end. Just last year alone we suffered an 80 billion won operating loss." In 2008, a kilogram of polysilicon was $400, but in 2018, the price dropped to $17, further reducing to $7 this year. The break-even point for polysilicon is about $13 a kilogram. As a result, the company suffered a net loss of 248.9 billion won ($207.4 million) for 2019 after a net profit of 160.4 billion won the previous year, despite a sales increase, the company said in a regulatory filing Thursday. Sales rose by 5.05 percent to 9.05 trillion won last year from a year ago.
(3) US raises travel advisory for Korea over coronavirus outbreak
The United States on Saturday raised its travel advisory for South Korea, urging travelers to exercise increased caution amid the spread of the new coronavirus in the country. The State Department said its on website that the travel advisory has been raised from Level 1 to Level 2, which calls for exercising "increased caution" as opposed to "normal precautions." Level 3 means "reconsider travel," while the highest Level 4 means "do not travel." The measure comes after South Korea has reported 433 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus, including two deaths. "Many cases of COVID-19 have been associated with travel to or from mainland China or close contact with a travel-related case, but sustained community spread has been reported in South Korea," the State Department said in a notice. "Sustained community spread means that people in South Korea have been infected with the virus, but how or where they became infected is not known, and the spread is ongoing."
(4) 60% of Korean adults want to move to another country for better life
The increasing toughness of socio-economic competition, the cost of childbirth and child-rearing and other mundane activities for an "ordinary" life have made nearly 60 percent of adults here think of "moving to another country for a better life," a survey showed on Tuesday. Domestic job placement website Matching Platform revealed this based on an online survey of 4,229 adults. Those in their 30s were the most positive age group to the idea, with 66 percent of respondents interested in escaping from what they called "hellish reality." Next was those in their 40s (62.8 percent), followed by those in their 20s (56.4 percent) and those in their 50s (51.5 percent). The 30s and 40s groups are the socio-economic backbone of the country. So their dissatisfaction with life here could mean loss of steam for Korea Inc. to move forward. The biggest reason for departure was "lack of time to relax" (43.3 percent). Second was "to have a new experience" (43 percent), followed by "to live in a country with better welfare" (41 percent), "a sense of relative deprivation" (34.1 percent), "in pursuit of a better education environment for children" (18.6 percent) and "to start own business overseas" (17.2 percent).
(5) NTSB - Driver in fatal Tesla crash was playing video game
The National Transportation Safety Board says the driver of a Tesla SUV who died in a Silicon Valley crash two years ago was playing a video game on his smartphone while his vehicle was being controlled by a partially automated driving system. Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at the start of a hearing Tuesday that systems like Tesla’s Autopilot cannot drive themselves, yet drivers continue to use them without paying attention. “If you own a car with partial automation, you do not own a self-driving car,” Sumwalt said in opening statements. “This means that when driving in the supposed ‘self-driving’ mode, you can’t read a book, you can’t watch a movie or TV show, you can’t text and you can’t play video games.” The March 2018 crash involving a Tesla Model X SUV killed Apple engineer Walter Huang when it swerved and slammed into a concrete barrier dividing freeway and exit lanes in Mountain View, Calif. Just before the crash, the Tesla steered to the left into a paved area between the freeway travel lanes and an exit ramp, the NTSB said. It accelerated to 71 mph and crashed into the end of the concrete barrier. The car’s forward collision avoidance system didn’t alert Huang, and its automatic emergency braking did not activate, the NTSB said.
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