🧠📈🌏 — 🇯🇵 Nikkei Asia | Taiwan chip industry sails overseas amid supply chain shift | Investments elsewhere begin to pay off as China market matures | April 4, 2024:

"TAIPEI -- TSMC and Foxconn are not the only Taiwanese tech companies feeling compelled to expand abroad. Suppliers of chip and electronics tools, materials and plant builders are also venturing beyond the island as top clients undertake their biggest overseas expansion in decades.

Lai Ming-Kuen, general manager of facility builder Acter, said his company's Southeast Asian business surged 50% last year, outperforming its core markets of Taiwan and China. "This growth is expected to continue in 2024," Lai told Nikkei Asia.

Acter builds electronics plants and cleanrooms for tech companies like Foxconn, Delta Electronics, Wistron and ASE Technology Holding.

(...)

Geopolitical tensions, combined with a growing focus on supply chain resilience, have triggered a significant shift in the tech industry. After decades of concentrating production in China and Taiwan, electronic assemblers such as Foxconn, Quanta, and Wistron, along with major chip suppliers from TSMC to UMC, are setting up operations in new locations across Southeast Asia, Japan and even Europe.

China's lukewarm economy is another motivation for upstream suppliers to venture into new markets. The slowdown in Asia's biggest economy has intensified competition and price wars, according to industry executives. Expanding outside the country offers the potential for new growth. Frank Liang, general manager of C Sun, told Nikkei Asia that his company is looking to expand to Thailand and Malaysia, while also considering branching out to Japan."

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🇪🇨❌🇲🇽❗️ — The Conservative Government of Ecuador of Rafael Noboa declared the Mexican Ambassador in Quito, Raquel Serur Smeke, persona Non Grata, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry reported in a statement.

🇮🇷📰❗️ — Cover of Iranian State-aligned Tehran Times media for the ' International Quds Day':

The Storm is coming ⚡️⛈

➡️ Quds Day is the celebrated during the Last Friday of Ramadan, where peoples of the Muslim World join in protest against the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem since the Iranian Revolution

📆 The Last Friday of Ramadan (Jumu'atul-Wida) this year is on April 5, 2024 AD

🛢📈 JUST IN: BRENT Crude Oil Future over $91

🇬🇧🇮🇱 British prime-minister, Rishi Sunak, is being pressured even by fellow Torries to halt arms sales to Israel following the deaths of three British citizens in Gaza.

Sunak played for time on Wednesday night, telling the Sun that Britain will follow its “very careful export licensing regime,” as he declined to rule out ceasing arms sales in the wake of the “awful tragedy” that killed British military veterans John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby alongside colleagues from World Central Kitchen. But pressure to act is increasing from multiple fronts.

That’s the assessment of the food aid charity’s founder, José Andrés, who gave a red-hot interview to Reuters accusing Israeli forces of targeting the aid workers “systematically, car by car.” The celebrity chef said the IDF knew of his staff’s movements because they had clear communication with the charity. Israel insists the strike was a “grave mistake.” Nir Barkat, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, has told BBC News that Andrés’ comments were “nonsense.”

Is the U.K. itself now breaking the law? Because more than 600 lawyers, legal academics and retired senior judges — including former U.K. Supreme Court President Brenda Hale and ex-justices Jonathan Sumption and Nicholas Wilson — reckon it could be. They’ve signed a 17-page letter to the PM saying the U.K. is legally bound to act over the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza because the International Court of Justice ruled there’s a plausible risk of genocide being committed against Palestinians.

There’s more: They also argue ministers are falling “significantly short” of their obligations under international law over the sale of weapons to Israel and the suspension of aid to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, following Israeli claims of the agency’s links with Hamas. The Guardian splashes the story across its front page, while the i goes big on Gaza’s descent into further humanitarian crisis as aid groups suspend their operations in the strip after their colleagues’ deaths.

Though the Conservatives are far from united behind the position, there’s been a steady trickle of Tory MPs urging Sunak to halt arming Israel, including former minister Alan Duncan, David Jones, Flick Drummond and Paul Bristow, as well as Conservative peer Hugo Swire. With Cameron’s own former national security adviser Peter Ricketts also having backed the calls, it’s striking just how many of these figures are close to the former PM — who is himself seen in Westminster as having pushed No. 10 for a firmer stance against Israel’s actions.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/cameron-centre-stage-as-sunaks-israel-dilemma-deepens/

🇹🇷🪖⚠️ — Following Poland, Turkey has formally withdrawn from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe

➡️ Last November 2023, 🌐 NATO has suspended operations for the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe in response to Russia pulling out of the agreement

#BREAKING

🇺🇸🇺🇸📈⚠️ — Unusual M5.5* earthquake hits near New York City, with an epicenter near Lebanon, New Jersey

🇺🇸🇺🇸📈 — According to netizens' reports, the Earthquake in NYC lasted for 20 seconds

https://news.1rj.ru/str/BellumActaNews/118033

#BREAKING

📈🚀 JUST IN, GOLD spot reach a new All Time High, over $2324/oz!

🇺🇳🇺🇸📈📹 — Video: The Earthquake that hit New York City was felt live on camera during a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) session

🇷🇴🤝🇲🇩 Romanian prime-minister, Marcel Ciolacu, is in favor of the unification of Romania and Moldova, "regardless of however and whenever it happens".

In an interview for DC News, the premier, spoke of the great injustice done by history to Moldova for being separated from Romania but reiterated that the responsibility for the unification comes from Moldova and not Romania.

Although unionism might be dominant among the general population of Moldova, unionism certainly doesn't exist in the halls of Moldova's institutions of power. Last month, Action & Solidarity's senior politician, Igor Grosu, explained in an interview how the Republic of Moldova was "torn apart from Europe's body" in 1812. The historically correct statement would have been the "Republic of Moldova was torn apart from the body of the Principality of Moldavia", principality which chose 47 years after, to unite with Wallachia and form Romania. Funny thing is, in the historical and political context of 1812, the Principality of Moldavia, an Ottoman vassal, would not have been considered European by its peers. Only after the formation of Romania in 1862 or perhaps after the crowning of Carol I Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1866 would the country be considered European.

This mindset is dominant inside Action & Solidarity who look at Romania not as its mother country/brothers but as an open door for the European Union and its "limitless" financial potential. In 1859 the ruling classes of Moldavia and Wallachia knew that if they wanted to ensure the prosperity of the Romanian nation, they had to set aside their egos and differences. The union was virtually made by Moldavians who, as a testament to their commitment for the development and prosperity of the Romanian people, agreed to make Bucharest the capital, instead of Iași because the former was too close to the border with Russia and it represented a grave security risk.

Grosu complains that Russia is a threat, that Transnistria and Gagauzia are blackmailing his country but he doesn't seem to realise Romania is the only country capable and willing enough to put an end to Moldova's ethnic and territorial disputes. If there's anyone to come to Moldova's aid, Romania would be the one, not the U.S., Germany, the UK, Poland etc. PAS seems to remember Romania only when they need money to finance some project or when they want to boost trade with the EU.

So, if they really care about the fate of the inhabitants of Moldova, they should be unionist right? Well, in the interview mentioned at the beginning of the post, Romanian prime-minister, Marcel Ciolacu, took a jab at AUR president, George Simion, saying "I am pro-Union but I haven't been banned from entering the territory of Moldova". What would Romanian-Moldovan relations look like if Moldova banned the Romanian prime-minister from setting foot into the country? There's an obvious power imbalance at play and Chișinău would never dare to bite the hand that feeds it. Simion is pro-unification but unlike Ciolacu, he's a plain elected member of parliament, he cannot take revenge on Chișinău for his ban. Of course, Simion was banned under the pretext of alleged Russian ties but no one has been able to provide solid proof, just speculations.

🔗 https://www.dcnews.ro/ciolacu-sustin-unirea-republicii-moldova-cu-romania-ca-se-va-face-in-interiorul-ue-ca-vom-gasi-video_954813.html

🇲🇽🤝🇪🇨❗️ — Mexico grants asylum to former Leftist Ecuadorian vice president Glas, announces the Mexican Foreign Ministry!

#BREAKING

🇪🇨❌🇲🇽❗️ — Ecuadorian Army has militarized the exterior of the Mexican embassy in Quito in an attempt to prevent the departure of the former vice president and fugitive from Ecuadorian justice, Jorge Glas, to whom Mexico granted political asylum!

According to local media, units of Ecuadorian Army are preparing to INVADE the Mexican Embassy and arrest the Former Vice President of Ecuador!

🇪🇨❌🇲🇽❗️ — Jorge Glas was arrested at the Mexican embassy; the former vice president is now in the flagrancy unit.