The Tai-Ex opened down 79-points this morning from yesterday's close, at

21,824 on turnover of $5.2-billion N-T.

The market surged to another all time high on Thursday, to jump to just over

the 21,900 point mark.

Investors continued to rally (恢復,價格回升) around artificial-intelligence

development-related stocks.

Environment Minister Peng Chi-ming says the government is still hoping to

achieve (達到) zero waste.

He says new regulations on recycling will be drafted by the end of this year

Speaking at a legislative committee hearing, Peng said amount of stored

general waste increased from 210,000 tonnes in 2018 to 840,000 tonnes last

year.

That's largely due to an rise in the amount of packaging waste from online

shopping and food delivery.

According to Peng, the government is seeking to add five new incinerators.

He says the incinerators will bring the total number of waste incinerators

islandwide to 29 by the end of 2027.

The environment minister said that will increase the total waste processing

capacity from 6.81 million to 7-million tonnes per year.

And he went on to tell lawmakers that new regulations will also be drawn up

to promote recycling and reuse of certain products.

There are growing concerns about strains (菌株) of bird flu infecting

livestock and humans in the United States.

There have been at least three confirmed cases of people developing the H5N1

virus in recent months, including in the US states of Texas and Michigan.

Authorities, though, say the risk to the general public is still low.

Sally Patterson reports.

The U.N. says a fire at a displacement camp in eastern Congo has destroyed

around 50 makeshift tents.

The blaze left dozens of families without shelter (庇護所).

On Wednesday afternoon, the tents were reduced to ashes at the Mugunga

displaced people camp near the provincial capital Goma.

The United Nations said the fire is believed to have started during cooking

at the camp.

The UN says the same camp was hit by bomb attacks in early May, which killed

at least 18 people and injured 32 others.

The European Central Bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point,

moving ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The ECB cut its benchmark rate to 3.75% from a record high of 4% at a meeting

of the bank’s 26-member rate-setting council in Frankfurt.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said inflation had eased (緩解) enough for

the central bank to start lowering rates.

But inflation in the eurozone is expected to remain (保持) above the ECB’s

2% target into next year.

Lagarde declined to say how fast or how deep any future rate cuts might be.

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 _____.

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