Thu, Apr 09, 2026
DIFFERENCES: Pakistan, which helped mediate the deal, said it includes fighting in Lebanon, but Israel said it did not, launching a series of strikes on Beirut yesterday Iran, the US and Israel late on Tuesday agreed to a two-week ceasefire, an 11th-hour deal that headed off US President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash a bombing campaign that would destroy Iranian civilization, but yesterday, hours after the announcement, Iran and Gulf Arab countries reported new a
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday.The state-run oil company has worked with Mi
The government is encouraging telecoms to install more resilient undersea cables, buried deeper and reinforced with steel jacketing, to reduce their vulnerability to sabotage, Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jing (林宜敬) said yesterday.The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) this week released its f
North Korea fired yesterday multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea in its second launch event in two days, South Korea’s military said, hours after a senior North Korean official released crude insults against Seoul’s hopes for warmer relations.Several missiles lifted off from North
REMEMBERING DENG NAN-JUNG: Taiwan’s democratic way of life was built on the dedication and sacrifices of democracy advocates and the public’s collective courage, Lai said True peace can only be achieved by safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday at a memorial marking the 37th anniversary of democracy advocate Deng Nan-jung’s (鄭南榕) death.Lai said he hoped that through annual commemorative events, Taiwanese across generations can
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation.Cheng is visiting at a
CHINA MISSION: The KMT chairwoman says she is on a mission of peace and that while she supports defense spending, it has to be balanced with dialogue Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday pledged to channel the spirit of her party’s founder, Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), and seek reconciliation with China, offering praise at his tomb in China for the nation’s achievements following the communist revolution.In a moment fille
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) comments in China have harmed the nation’s legitimacy, government officials and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday, as the opposition leader visited the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing amid fanfare.Cheng is exp
SCHOOL SCANDAL: The DPP demanded that the city expand investigations, hold officials accountable for failures in oversight and reform background checks Taichung city councilors yesterday criticized the city’s Education Bureau for failing to ascertain the number of victims and issue disciplinary action over sexual assault cases at a local elementary school, but Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) argued that some of the victims were duplicates, and th
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday expelled former legislative assistant Chu Cheng-chi (朱政騏) from the party and revoked his preliminary nomination to run for a Taipei City council seat after he was indicted last week by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of contraveni
REUSE STRATEGY: Lawmakers asked Peng Chi-ming about the apparent conflict between the reduction policy and a separate plan to boost plastic manufacturing Engagement from microbusiness operators such as night market and street vendors is key in covering the last mile to reduce single-use plastic bags, Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming said yesterday.The legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee at a meeting addressed the iss
EASING STRESS: The program would broaden the eligibility requirements to include people cancers other than of the lung, head-and-neck or breast, a health official said The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday unveiled an NT$80 million (US$2.52 million) pilot program to provide free psychological counseling to people with cancer.The initiative, which would start in July at the earliest, would be a joint venture between the ministry and the Formosa Cancer Found
The K-12 Education Administration in collaboration with universities has launched online classes for high-school and vocational school students based on the Python programming language.The course would provide the economy with an artificial intelligence (AI)-literate workforce, the Ministry of Educa
People can support effort to conserve wildlife habitats in lowland hilly areas by donating at 7-Eleven convenience stores nationwide this month, the Society of Wilderness said yesterday.Lowland hills refers to natural environments at elevations up to 800m between mountains and urban areas — where hu
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSR) yesterday announced that it would add 30 trains over the Mother’s Day travel period from May 8 to 11, with tickets to go on sale at midnight tomorrow night.The additional services consist of 15 northbound and 15 southbound trains, it said in a statement.Early-bird
GEOPOLITICAL RELIEF: Technology stocks were the biggest winners from the surge, with Delta Electronics Inc hitting the 10 percent daily limit with a new trading record Taiwanese stocks surged sharply yesterday after the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that injected a burst of optimism into markets.The benchmark TAIEX climbed 1,531.56 points, or 4.61 percent, to close at 34,761.38, marking the second-largest single-day point gain on record, while the New
Innolux Corp (群創) is hiking prices for certain niche products to reflect material cost increases amid geopolitical conflicts and chip crunches, it said yesterday.The war in the Middle East has prompted price jumps for a wide range of key components and materials such as copper, indium and printed ci
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid.Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tu
Taiwan ranks second globally in terms of share of population with a higher-education degree, with about 60 percent of Taiwanese holding a post-secondary or graduate degree, a survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development showed.The findings are consistent with Ministry of the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) is leading a delegation to China through Sunday. She is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing tomorrow. That date coincides with the anniversary of the signing of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which marked
William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Following that logic, surrender — by any other name — would remain just as tragic.When two dogs face off, tucking in one’s tail means submission. There is an even more obsequious gesture: By rolling onto
ADVANTAGE: Bayern Munich, arguably the strongest team in Europe this season, produced a masterclass in the first half and could have been several goals ahead Luis Diaz and Harry Kane on Tuesday scored the goals that gave dominant Bayern Munich a crucial 2-1 UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg win away to Real Madrid. Kylian Mbappe’s strike 16 minutes from time gave record 15-time winners Real a lifeline at their Bernabeu home in a gripping batt
Kevin Durant on Tuesday scored 24 points against his former team to help inspire the Houston Rockets to a come-from-behind 119-105 victory over the Phoenix Suns. Durant, who was traded from Phoenix to Houston last year, received a mixed reception upon his return to Arizona, with sections of the Suns
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a
Kristyna Janku answered the phone to a police officer, not sure what she was going to hear. She had heard the rumors, the gossip, and was not sure what was true and what was not. The defender’s former coach, Petr Vlachovsky, who coached women and girls at FC Slovacko for almost 15 years and was once
ONGOING DISPUTE: US attorneys are still seeking to deport Salvadoran immigrant Abrego Garcia to Liberia, despite an agreement with Costa Rica to accept deportees The wife of a US soldier was released on Tuesday from a federal immigration detention facility where she had spent nearly a week after being taken into custody on a Louisiana military base.The detention of 22-year-old Annie Ramos, the Honduran born-wife of a US Army staff sergeant preparing to deplo
TOUGH ON CRIME: The top candidates vowed to take on extortion gangs and hitmen, with one saying she would establish courts with judges who conceal their faces A comedian, an autocrat’s daughter and a businessman who likens himself to a cartoon pig lead the polls ahead of Peru’s presidential vote on Sunday, but a crowded field leaves plenty of room for surprise.Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the polarizing late Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori and a perenn
Japan wants to significantly boost the number of women in the military by the mid-2030s, the Japanese Ministry of Defense has said, as it struggles to convince young people to enlist.Under a new target set this year, women should account for 13 percent of troops in the Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF
Sunflower movement superstar Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) once quipped that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could nominate a watermelon to run for Tainan mayor and win. Conversely, the DPP could run a living saint for mayor in Taipei and still lose. In 2022, the DPP ran with the closest thing to a livin
The problem with Marx’s famous remark that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, the second time as farce, is that the first time is usually farce as well. This week Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) made a pilgrimage to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “to confer, con
People Concerto (眾人協奏曲) began with a simple idea: take a step and hear a sound. Composer Chang Shiuan (張玹) then wondered what kind of music would emerge if a group of people moved together. But turning that notion into reality was much more complicated than Chang had expected, requiring collaborator
A: Isn’t the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival — a massive music event held every April — about to open in California?B: Yeah the festival is set to take place over two weekends, from April 10 to 12 and 17 to 19, US time.A: I heard this year’s main stage headliners include Sabrina Car
You might think knitting is only for grandmas, but surprisingly, many young people are embracing so-called “grandma hobbies.” On social media platforms, activities such as home cooking, embroidery and gardening are becoming popular among teenagers and young adults who are drawn to their relaxing and
★ Bilingual Story is a fictionalized account. 雙語故事部分內容純屬虛構。 Lucas was already on the ground before he fully understood what was happening. “Hurry! Kneel down!” someone shouted. The asphalt was warm against his knees. Around him, dozens of people lay flat in the narrow street outside Jenn Lann Te
Two moves show Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is gunning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party chair and the 2028 presidential election. Technically, these are not yet “officially” official, but by the rules of Taiwan politics, she is now on the dance floor. Earlier this month Lu confirmed in an interview in Japan’s Nikkei that she was considering running for KMT chair. This is not new news, but according to reports from her camp she previously was still considering the case for and against running. By choosing a respected, international news outlet, she declared it to the world. While the outside world likely paid little attention, domestically the message was unmistakable: She is moving on to a larger stage. Part of the dance is to leave options open before formally committing, and with the chair race due in late September, she has time. If something goes wrong in the meantime, or if power brokers in the party offer her a deal that provides more benefits than taking on the role of chair, she can pivot accordingly. Earlier this year, I suggested that strategically, she would be better off concentrating on her job as Taichung mayor until she is term-limited out of office in December next year. Taichung mayor is obviously a full-time job, and concurrently running the Taipei-headquartered party runs the risk of doing one or both jobs poorly and making mistakes that could imperil her shot at the presidency in 2028. The situation has changed. Current KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), knowing he is likely to face challengers of a higher caliber than the three relative nobodies already declared, has gone all in on appealing to the base. The base is more likely to turn out to vote in the chair election, so this makes some strategic sense in the short term.
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan. Last spring at Arunothai’s Jiaolian School, principal Wang Mingming (王明明) had forewarned me of the division between villages, saying, “We are not like the people in Mae Salong. They are rich. Because of the Taiwanese.” Arunothai has in recent years become split in its loyalties between Taiwan and China (see part one, “A tale of two schools,” on May 15), but in Mae Salong, links to Taiwan remain strong. Taiwan-funded monuments pay homage to the Lost Army, villagers wear T-shirts emblazoned with the Republic of China (ROC) flag and tea plantations grown Taiwan’s most famous tea varieties, including Dong Ding (“frozen peak”) Oolong, Oriental Beauty and Jin Xuan (Golden Daylily or Milk Oolong). Even the numerical classifications of the teas — Oolong No. 12 or No. 17, for example — are the same, and the shops resemble those found on Alishan. At the tomb of General Tuan Hsi-wen (段希文) — perched on a Mae Salong hilltop with a view of his ancestral homeland in China’s Yunnan province — a third generation villager wearing a vintage KMT army uniform, Yan Si-Chung (岩思中), greets visitors with sharp military salutes. “Both my father and my grandfather were soldiers in the KMT army,” the 44-year-old
| New Taipei City | 27-28 | 20% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Hsinchu City | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taipei City | 27-28 | 20% |  |
| Miaoli County | 24-26 | 10% | |
| Taoyuan City | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Keelung City | 27-28 | 20% | |
| Yunlin County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taichung City | 26-28 | 10% | |
| Nantou County | 25-26 | 10% | |
| Changhua County | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Chiayi County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Chiayi City | 25-27 | 10% | |
| Tainan City | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Kaohsiung City | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Pingtung County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Yilan County | 25-26 | 30% |  |
| Hualien County | 25-26 | 30% | |
| Taitung County | 25-27 | 30% | |
| Kinmen County | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Penghu County | 27-27 | 20% | |
| Lienchiang County | 27-28 | 20% | |
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