Scheduled to die at 9pm, Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱) was instead executed at 10pm on Jan. 16. The media put the story in their news cycle and fanned it into a firestorm, repeating the gory details over and over. That is typical. The story is riveting, keeping many Taiwanese glued to its twists and turns.Hua
On the night of Jan. 16, death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), convicted for the double murder of his ex-girlfriend and her mother, was executed. It was the first execution carried out in Taiwan in five years, and the first since last year’s Constitutional Court Judgement No. 8 on the constitutional
In 2014, the administration of then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was rocked by the Sunflower movement protests and the growing wave of anti-nuclear demonstrations. Amid that turmoil, the night that the news was to run footage of the anti-nuclear demonstration, five people’s lives were used to regain
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Investors are seeking to protect portfolios from the potential economic fallout from US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans even as many on Wall Street doubt the situation would erupt into a sustained trade war that cripples assets.Announcements on tariffs have whipsawed markets this week, as inve
US President Donald Trump is not sure whether Spain is an emerging market or not — he recently asked if it was a “BRICS nation.” However, he is sure that tariffs on the EU are coming “soon,” a threat with added weight now that he has fired his opening salvo against Canada and Mexico — even taking in
US President Donald Trump is provoking a US constitutional crisis, claiming sweeping powers to override or bypass the US Congress’ control over spending in a brazen attempt to centralize financial power in the executive branch. If he succeeds, it would be a 21st-century coup — with power slipping fr
Taiwan is bracing for enormous challenges this year to sustain strong economic growth amid potentially escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and uncertain prospects for the local artificial intelligence (AI) sector after China’s DeepSeek debuted its first chatbot, stirring turmoil in the industry. With a m
Germany’s Weimar Constitution originated the semi-presidential constitutional system and was used as a reference for the drafting of the Republic of China’s Constitution.Under the Weimar Constitution, the president, who is directly elected by voters, does not directly lead the government’s bureaucra
What transpires when two anchor nations of the Indo-Pacific region are caught in the throes of political uncertainty and upheaval? When Japan, the bedrock of regional security, wrestles to stay aligned with an ally whose commitments are increasingly transactional? When South Korea, mired in politica
Max Weber is one of the most influential public intellectuals of the 20th century. His lecture “Politics as a Vocation,” delivered in 1919 and published in Max Weber’s Complete Writings on Academic and Political Vocations, examines the ethical responsibilities or what some might call the moral choic
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Since launching ChatGPT two years ago, OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman has maintained that his business is fueled by a few key ingredients: chips, data and money. The more of those three elements you shovel into his firm, like coal into a steam train’s furnace, the more powerful artificial
Thomas Edison, the autodidactic telegraph operator turned entrepreneur, is often considered the greatest inventor of all time, while Nikola Tesla, who worked for an Edison company in Paris before emigrating to the US, is barely remembered, except through Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle company. Yet it
US President Donald Trump on Saturday signed orders to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China effective from today. Trump decided to slap 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada as well as 10 percent on those coming from China, but would only impose a 10 percent tariff on Canadian ene
Taiwan faces complex challenges like other Asia-Pacific nations, including demographic decline, income inequality and climate change. In fact, its challenges might be even more pressing. The nation struggles with rising income inequality, declining birthrates and soaring housing costs while simultan
Taiwan’s undersea cables connecting it to the world were allegedly severed several times by a Chinese ship registered under a flag of convenience. As the vessel sailed, it used several different automatic identification systems (AIS) to create fake routes. That type of “shadow fleet” and “gray zone”
In 1624, Taiwan became embroiled in the Age of Sail competition between Dutch and Spanish colonial powers. During the rule of the Chinese Ming Dynasty loyalist Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), also known as Koxinga, and the subsequent rule by the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, Han Chinese culture was introduced to
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