DEFENSE: The first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams tanks was delivered to Taiwan in December last year, while the remaining 28 tanks are expected to arrive early next year
A batch of 42 M1A2T Abrams tanks delivered by the US in July are beginning a month-long testing program today at a northern army base, including multiple live-fire drills using the tanks’ 120mm main guns, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The source said the US-made tanks were recent
Two gunmen yesterday opened fire at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killing 11 people and wounding multiple others in a “terrorist incident” aimed at a gathering for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in Australia. Emergency responders rushed at least 29 people to local hospitals from the beach, one of the bigge
Obesity is a chronic disease that can be treated with comprehensive and lifelong care, so people should not expect a one-time treatment through medication, the Taiwan Medical Association for the Study of Obesity said yesterday, as it released the 2025 Clinical Practice Guidelines on Adult Obesity in
Hong Kong’s oldest pro-democracy party yesterday formally decided to disband, its leader announced, following its annual meeting. The Democratic Party was founded in 1994, near the end of British colonial rule, when Hong Kong’s leading liberal groups merged. “We have officially announced the disband
Rhode Island’s Providence police have detained a “person of interest” in connection with the Brown University shooting that left two students dead and another nine people wounded at the US Ivy League school. Providence Chief Public Information Officer for Public Safety Kristy DosReis said a person o
‘GRIM CIRCUMSTANCES’: The changes to revenue allocation along with the blocking of the special defense budget have undermined stability and fiscal sustainability, Lai said
The Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan have decided on “no countersignature and no promulgation” of an amendment to a government revenue allocation law passed by the Legislative Yuan, sources said yesterday, which would be a first in the nation’s history.President William Lai (賴清德) would add
SPECULATION: Some people said the minister might have attended a banquet on the eve of the Pax Silica summit, but officials have declined to comment on the issue
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) was spotted near the American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) headquarters in Virginia on Thursday, although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US Department of State yesterday declined to comment.Several local news outlets yesterday reported that Lin
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday accused China of distorting the truth, after Beijing in a policy paper said “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory” and that it opposed “Taiwan independence in any form.” The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday held a news co
Cambodia yesterday shut its border crossings with Thailand, after Bangkok denied US President Donald Trump’s claim that a truce had been agreed to end days of deadly fighting.Violence between the two countries has displaced about half a million people on both sides.At least 25 people have died this
Chinese coast guard ships used powerful water cannons and blocking maneuvers against 20 Philippine fishing boats off a disputed South China Sea shoal, injuring three Filipinos and damaging two of their boats in a life-threatening assault, the Philippine Coast Guard said yesterday.Chinese coast guard
SUPER-POWERED: The first national cloud computing center would support the development of generative AI training models, and chip research and development
Taiwan yesterday launched its first national cloud computing center, demonstrating the government’s determination to join the global race to build sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and marking its first step to push for “10 Major AI Infrastructure Projects” to enhance economic resi
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Thursday said he believed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) could boost its US investment to more than US$200 billion and create 30,000 jobs in the process.In a televised CNBC interview, Lutnick was asked about the CHIPS Act, which he heavil
Beijing’s actions are “not conducive to regional peace,” US and Japanese defense chiefs said during a call after Chinese aircraft locked radar on Japanese jets near Taiwan, Tokyo said yesterday.The radar incident on Saturday last week came after comments by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on
‘FISCALLY UNVIABLE’: The new rules compromise fiscal discipline and would increase the economic burden on young people, Legislator Rosalia Wu said
The legislature yesterday passed amendments to suspend cuts to civil servants’ pensions, reversing a fiscal reform that aimed to reduce the government deficit.The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) caucuses together passed bills on the income substitution ratio of ci
Turkmenistan’s president hinted at possible political reforms yesterday, ahead of a rare international meeting he is hosting with the attendance of counterparts from Russia, Turkey, Iran and elsewhere.Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhamedov, whom critics said presides over an autocratic and opaque
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say
Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services.The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive
SECRET TRAVEL? Government agencies in Taiwan and Israel had little to say about reports that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu visited Israel this month
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, three sources familiar with the trip said, at a time when Taiwan is looking to the country for defense cooperation.Like most other countries, Israel only officially recognizes Beijing and not Taipei, and while senior Taiwa
The Ministry of the Interior has proposed amendments that would allow civil servants to visit relatives or attend funerals in China only if they are within third-degree kinship, with the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday saying that the proposed changes would help deter abuse of the regulatio
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that the US had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount between Washington and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.US forces took control of the merchant ship in the Trump administration’s latest push to increase
RSS