**Tai-Ex opening **

The Tai-Ex opened flat this morning from yesterday's close, at 15,914 on

turnover of 2.1-billion N-T.

The market closed slightly higher on Tuesday, despite Taiwan Semiconductor

Manufacturing coming under heavy pressure and moving out of investor focus

after reporting disappointing sales for the first quarter.

**Global Parliamentary Group Slams Macron's Comments on Taiwan **

A group of cross-national parliamentarians have slammed French President

Emmanuel Macron for what it's describing as his "ill-judged remarks" that

sent a signal of "indifference (不重視)" over Taiwan.

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China is expressing it's "dismay" over

Macron's comment, which appeared in an interview with Politico and Les Echos.

Speaking in the interview, Macron suggested Europe should avoid being "caught

up in crises that are not ours" and said Europe cannot becom a "follower" of

either the United States or China on the issue of Taiwan.

According to the alliance, the comments are "severely out of step with the

feeling across Europe's legislatures and beyond."

**Two Tech Universities to Merger **

The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and the Hua Xia

University of Technology have agreed to a merger proposal.

When completed it will be the first merger (合併) between a public and

private university in Taiwan.

Under the merger plan, the private Hua Xia University will not enroll

students for the 2023-2024 academic year and will close after the 2025-2026

academic year.

Hua Xia says it will come up with severance and retirement packages for

employees on termination of employment, while the National Taiwan University

of Science and Technology will hire some of them for project teacher and

staff positions.

The plan still has to approved by the Ministry of Education.

**Brazil President Begins China Tour **

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is beginning a tour of China to

strengthen his country’s political and business ties with the world’s

second largest economy.

His trip comes just weeks after visiting President Joe Biden in the US.

Richard Kimber reports from Hong Kong.

**Iran President Reshuffles Cabinet **

State media says Iran President Ebrahaim Raisi has announced a Cabinet

reshuffle, replacing the minister of agriculture and the head of the planning

and budget office.

The country’s dire (危急的) economic conditions, including inflation of

nearly 50%, have contributed to widespread anger at the government.

It was the fifth Cabinet reshuffle in less than two years since Raisi came to

power.

Meanwhile, Iran has seen waves of anti-government protests since the

September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was detained by

the morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s strict Islamic dress

code.

The protests rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s ruling

Shiite clerics, marking a major challenge to their four-decade rule.

Iran has blamed the unrest on foreign powers without providing evidence.

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