Economist, May 26, 2018

choi

(1) Fertility treatment in Japan | A Corked Tube; No country resorts more to IVF -- or has less success.

Quote:

In Japan "Over 50,000 babies were born last year with the help of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) -- 5% of all births. Nearly a fifth of Japanese couples stuggle to have children, says the health ministry. Women are postponing marriage; social pressures mean there are far fewer babies born out of wedlock than in other rich countries. The upshot is that aorundd 40% of Japanese women who undergo IVF do so in their forties, twice as many as in Britain or France.

"In 2004, alarmed by the baby drought, the government began offering subsidies for IVF, which is not available under the public health-care system. The government is mulling extending them to unmarried couples.  Recipients get ¥150,000 ($1,362) towards their first attempt and a limited number of follow-ups. But that does not cover the full cost. Women older than 43 and couples earning more than ¥7.3m a year are ineligible. Many would-be parents end up paying ¥300,000-500,000 per attempt, says Akiko MATSUMOTO 松本 亜樹子 of the Fertility Information Network [(FINE) ファイン (katakana for FINE)], an NGO.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) About the title.
(i) There are test tubes with cork stoppers.
(ii) cork (vt): "to stop up with a cork  <cork a bottle>"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cork

(2) Taiwan's president | Hurry Up; Halfway through her term, Tsai Ing-wen has upset both business and workers.
https://www.economist.com/asia/2 ... usiness-and-workers

Note:
"LIKE a nervous candidate in a job interview, shy yet formal, she fielded questions ranging from how to handle Chinese infiltration to why she always wears trouser suits [pant suits in American English]. Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's usually plain-speaking president, marked her second anniversary in office with a rare live interview with a critical website. * * * [at the end of the article:] 'We've spent most of my first two years in preparation, including legal preparation, so in my presidency's next two years we will speed up the pace of implementation,' she said in her online interview."

2018 總統, 給問嗎? 沃草有限公司 Watchout Co, May 20, 2019 at 10 am (local time)  (webcast at the time, which was then published in YouTube.com)
https://ask.watchout.tw/special-editions/2018-president
("還記得在2016年《總統給問嗎》[a debate among presidential candidates Tsai, Eric Chu 朱立倫 (KMT) and James Soong 宋楚瑜 (親民黨)] 上問過的問題嗎？蔡英文總統在選前對公民的回答與承諾，經過兩年，實現了多少呢？即將屆滿施政兩週年，蔡英文總統在「施政期中考」交出的成績單，是否讓你滿意呢？  沃草延續過去降低公民參與政治門檻的精神，打造政治人物與公民直接互動的平台，開啟了特別企劃：2018《總統給問嗎》，邀請所有公民針對「關心的議題」對蔡英文總統留言或提問，我們將搜集整理這些內容，並邀請總統回覆「公民關心的議題」。 * * * 提問已於5月11日23:59截止")
(i) Currently with 14 employees, 沃草有限公司 was founded in 2013 by two activists 柳林瑋 and 林祖儀.
(ii) As you can see from the video at the bottom of the Web page, president Tsai read and chose the questions to answer.
(iii) In view of the fact that 蔡從未穿著裙子, one of the written questions she selected to answer was: 「總統，為何不穿裙子上班？」  Tsai: 工作時間長，穿裙子很不方便 or 麻煩 (depending on news reports)，而且夏天還要穿絲襪更痛苦！

(b) "the Taiwanese Public Opinion FoundationFoundation [(TPOC) 台灣民意教育基金會; 2016- ; founder 游盈隆 (PhD in political science from Univ of North Carolina and a DPP stalwart)] says 48% of her compatriots disapprove of her performance, against 39% in favour. She has lost ground especially with the young"
(c) "Yet on May 1st thousands of workers took to the streets, waving banners reading 'Fight for a higher salary.' "

Demonstrators on May 1, 2018 demanded 把基本工資一次漲足到月薪28000元，並且每年加薪10%.

(d) "Ms Tsai also promised to provide a proper accounting of the human-rights abuses committed during the KMT's long, harsh dictatorship, and to remove all monuments glorifying this era. But she has appointed a former member of a watchdog agency under the previous KMT administration to head the committee in charge of this project. This has upset some in her own party."

黃煌雄 (born in 1944 in colonial Taiwan; a member of DPP since the party's founding; 台灣大學政治學學, 碩士; 監察委員 (1999-2005 and 2008-2014); 促進轉型正義委員會主任委員 since its establishment on May 31, 2018, which has no KMT member due to its boycott)
(e) "Two ex-presidents (one from the DPP [陳水扁] and one from the KMT [李登輝]) and many prominent politicians, especially within the DPP, want her to permit a referendum on independence—something that would provoke a dire response from China. She is resisting"