Fri, Feb 27, 2026
HIGH RANKS: Taipei Veterans General Hospital rose 34 places in ‘Newsweek’ magazine’s top 250 hospitals, while NTUH returned to the list after a three-year absence Researchers from National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), Academia Sinica and the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) platform for the early detection of pancreatic cancer.In a paper published this month in Nature Communications, the researchers
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday conferred the Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon on baseball legend Sadaharu Oh (王貞治), honoring his lifelong contributions to the sport in Taiwan and Japan.During the ceremony at the Presidential Office, Lai praised the 85-year-old icon as a “glob
Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s (黎智英) fraud conviction and prison sentence were yesterday overturned by a Hong Kong court, in a surprise legal decision that comes soon after Lai was jailed for 20 years on a separate national security charge.Judges Jeremy Poon (潘兆初), Anthea Pang (彭寶琴) and Dere
The Cuban government late on Wednesday said that the 10 passengers on a boat that opened fire on its soldiers were armed Cubans living in the US who were trying to infiltrate the island and unleash terrorism.The announcement came hours after Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six
WHOLE OF SOCIETY: The determination to fight for free and democratic institutions must be ingrained in all Taiwanese, from service members to civilians, the president said The armed forces must lean into technology, institutional reforms and resilience to maintain their deterrence capabilities amid complex threats and a rapidly shifting geostrategic landscape, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.The military needs updated training methods, strategies, equipment
BIG SPENDERS: Foreign investors bought the most Taiwan equities since 2005, signaling confidence that an AI boom would continue to benefit chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market capitalization swelled to US$2 trillion for the first time following a 4.25 percent rally in its American depositary receipts (ADR) overnight, putting the world’s biggest contract chipmaker sixth on the list of the world’s biggest companies
IMPRECISE: It was not disclosed that the maximum subsidy was NT$15,000 per person, which would not be enough to cover lost wages, a city councilor said The Taipei City Government yesterday said the private sector is flooding officials with inquiries about a proposal on seven-hour work days, amid criticism from city councilors that the municipality overpromised, but underdelivered.The comments came a day after Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) announ
The hotel and accommodation industry recorded 82.09 million guest stays last year, a 3.29 million increase from 2024 and surpassing pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, the Tourism Administration said yesterday.Taiwanese travelers accounted for 61.32 million of hotel stays, up from 59.86 million in 2024 an
BETTER CONDITIONS: Given Taiwan’s hot weather and the frequent rain, more indoor stadiums would mitigate many issues the baseball league is facing, the head said Taiwan needs to build more indoor stadiums in other major cities to sustain the growth of baseball, CPBL president Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said on Wednesday, ahead of the national team traveling to Japan tomorrow to compete in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournament.Taipei Dome “is the only
Taipei city councilors yesterday said Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and city government officials were undermining Taiwanese sovereignty and national identity after a display featuring Shanghai was given a prominent spot at the Taipei Lantern Festival.Chiang allowed a display with the signage “Sh
Former National Fire Agency (NFA) chief Huang Chi-min (黃季敏) was found guilty on seven corruption-related charges with a combined sentence of 55 years and eight months, although four other counts would be subject to a retrial, the Supreme Court said yesterday.The Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s
Taiwan and Japan have raised the lifetime limit on working holiday visas to two per person, up from one, under a revised agreement that took effect Feb. 1, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday.Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝), citing Cho, said the change was formalized between Taiwan and
Women in Taiwan must work an average of 59 additional days in 2025 to earn the same annual salary as men, one day more than in 2024, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Labor.Taiwan’s gender pay gap last year stood at 16.1 percent, meaning women earned 83.9 percent of men’s a
CROSS-STRAIT VISITS: MAC officials said that Taiwan has expressed goodwill, but Beijing has dismissed whatever the government does as seeking independence The government’s policy of banning top officials of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office from entering the country remains unchanged due to a persistent lack of goodwill from Beijing, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.MAC Deputy Chairman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) defended the government’s posit
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew on Wednesday affirmed the importance for Drew’s country to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan, US officials said.Rubio and Drew made the remarks in a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the Caribbean Comm
EXPANSION: Delta Electronics is planning to expand its capacity in Thailand, India and the US, and has visited Mexico to gauge potential future investment there Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said that it is optimistic about revenue this quarter and for the full year, as artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure continues to drive demand for its power and thermal management products.While the first quart
Airoha Technology Corp (達發科技), a supplier of network and communications chips, yesterday said that revenue would grow moderately this year, driven by rising demand for optical fiber chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and Ethernet chips for ground stations of low Earth orbit sate
AI BOOM: The adoption of Industry 4.0 and increased demand for cross-border operations from major chipmakers have driven demand, an ADI report said The computer and information technology (IT) service sector’s revenue in the fourth quarter of last year increased 8.5 percent year-on-year to NT$190.72 billion (US$6.1 billion), the highest for the October-to-December period on record, the Administration for Digital Industries (ADI) said yesterday.
After 37 US lawmakers wrote to express concern over legislators’ stalling of critical budgets, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) pledged to make the Executive Yuan’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget a top priority for legislative review. On Tuesday, it was finall
The South Korean government has announced that it is to construct large-scale nuclear power units and accelerate the development of small modular reactors between 2035 and 2038. However, the media reduced this development to a single sensationalized title — “Embracing nuclear power again after a dec
The US Supreme Court’s decision on Friday last week to strike down US President Donald Trump’s use of emergency tariffs was framed domestically as a constitutional correction. Yet its implications extend beyond US trade law. At a moment when Taiwan is recalibrating the meaning of its “silicon shield
MONACO OUT: Lazar Samardzic’s injury-time spot-kick advanced Atalanta in the Champions League, with PSG, Real Madrid and Galatasaray also moving ahead UEFA Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain have fought through a tougher schedule than any other side to reach the last 16 in this season’s competition, coach Luis Enrique said on Wednesday after they squeezed past AS Monaco.PSG were held 2-2 at the Parc des Princes in the second leg of their
Devin Vassell on Wednesday scored 21 points as the visiting San Antonio Spurs rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Toronto Raptors 110-107 for their 10th consecutive win in the NBA.San Antonio outscored Toronto 32-17 in the final period after trailing by 15 late in the third.De’Aaron Fox adde
Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka on Wednesday said that the relentless criticism aimed at his players has been damaging to their mental health and undermined their efforts at the T20 World Cup, where they were eliminated from the group stage by New Zealand.The tournament cohosts drew heavy flak from
BASEBALLJonathon Long injuredJonathon Long, an infielder in the Chicago Cubs organization, would be unable to join Taiwan at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) due to an elbow injury, the CPBL said in a statement yesterday. The body, which coordinates the national team, said it was notified by the Cub
ANOTHER LOOK: The previous investigation lasted three years, confirming just 56 of 367 complaints filed by adoptees, while 311 are to be carried over along with 300 new filings South Korea has relaunched a fact-finding commission into its past human rights violations, with a key focus on the extensive fraud and malfeasance that corrupted the nation’s historic foreign adoption program.The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the third in the country’s history, began accepti
‘JUDICIAL FARCE’: Anna Kwok said that her father’s conviction under the guise of national security was ‘transnational repression’ based on ‘guilt by blood’ A Hong Kong court sentenced the father of a wanted democracy activist to eight months in prison under the territory’s homegrown national security law, after he attempted to terminate her insurance policy and withdraw the funds.Kwok Yin-sang (郭賢生), 69, was found guilty on Feb. 11 for “attempting to d
As he watched the Boston Celtics play from the stands of TD Garden, one noise kept catching Adel Djellouli’s ear.“This squeaking sound when players are sliding on the floor is omnipresent,” he said. “It’s always there, right?”Squeaky shoes are part of the symphony of a basketball game, when rubber s
Before the last section of the round-the-island railway was electrified, one old blue train still chugged back and forth between Pingtung County’s Fangliao (枋寮) and Taitung (台東) stations once a day. It was so slow, was so hot (it had no air conditioning) and covered such a short distance, that the l
If Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back was the supreme document of the Beatles’ final moments together and of their dissolution, Morgan Neville’s Man on the Run is a kind of sequel.It begins in late 1969, just months after Savile Row rooftop concert. The Beatles have broken up. Paul McCartney has
Lori Sepich smoked for years and sometimes skipped taking her blood pressure medicine. But she never thought she’d have a heart attack.The possibility “just wasn’t registering with me,” said the 64-year-old from Memphis, Tennessee, who suffered two of them 13 years apart.She’s far from alone. More t
A: Harvard professor Robert Waldinger’s “7-day Happiness Challenge” includes: Day 1: Take stock of your relationships; Day 2: The secret power of an 8-minute phone call; Day 3: Small talk with strangers has big benefits.B: That’s not too hard. What’s next?A: Day 4: Why you should write a “living
A: Happy Lunar New Year. I wish you joy and health in the Year of the Horse.B: Thanks, you too. Actually, the Harvard Study of Adult Development claims that they’ve finally discovered the secret to living a happy life after 85 years of research.A: What is it? Money? Fame? Career?B: Nope, the key
Steam curls from a shallow iron pot as thin ribbons of beef turn from ruby to blush. Warishita — a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and mirin — goes in, and the room fills with a salty-sweet aroma. Tofu slips in beside mushrooms and greens, chopsticks hover and voices soften. More than a hot pot, “sukiya
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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