This week we focus on unfolding drama in Asia Pacific as Japan courts Australia with a free trade deal and defense cooperation, remember the Srebrenica Massacre in Bosnia, look at intellectual property law changes in Taiwan, Taiwan’s HIV shelters and the first backlash against Uber in Asia.

  • On July 8th, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe visited Australia and addressed a joint session of Australia’s federal parliament, emphasizing the need for a closer Japan-Australia partnership, economically and militarily…
  • 19 years ago on July 11, the Bosnian Serb Army massacred more than 8,000 men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in what former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called the worst war crime on European soil since World War II…
  • Taiwan’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the government body responsible for patents and other registered intellectual property, is working on a proposal to amend existing laws which may make employers the default intellectual property owner of any work created by their employees…
  • Taiwan’s Harmony Home Association is a non-profit organization that operates shelters and temporary housing throughout Taiwan for patients affected with HIV. More recently, they have focused on helping migrant workers and recent immigrants in Taiwan find a place to stay when their working or living arrangements change for the worse…
  • Taxi drivers in Taiwan gathered on July 7th to protest the San Francisco based ride-sharing startup Uber, contesting its controversial business operating model of connecting passengers with amateur, unregulated drivers. The demonstration, however, went beyond just opposition against the car-service startup, but more of an outlet of the taxi industry’s brewing discontent towards government regulation in general…

(Feature photo of Srebrenica, by Julian Nitzsche on Wikicommons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

 

A well informed citizenry is the foundation of our modern society. Every week, our news team brings you the most important stories on current affairs, diplomacy, business and human rights, in Asia and around the globe. Not only can we be well informed, but better informed, about the relationship between our lives, our communities, and the common world.
The Debrief