Wed, Oct 21, 2026
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: Persistent China Coast Guard patrols east of Taiwan are one of the most troubling recent developments, a US official said at a forum in Taipei Fifteen expulsions of Chinese vessels have been conducted on 12 separate occasions to remove them from waters near the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) so far this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday.The comment came as a CGA vessel was locked in an ongoing standoff with
Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for assessing potential earthquake damage and gauging the seismic coefficient of structures, officials and scientists said yesterday. The government and National Taiwan University’s Department of Civil Engineering trained the AI tool on
Japanese and US troops on Monday started one of their largest joint exercises focusing on the defense of Japan’s southwestern islands and showcasing advanced weapons systems in the face of growing tension in the region. Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) yesterday praised the inclusio
French protests largely died down after authorities on Monday rolled out tougher security measures, including targeted curfews, following cost-of-living protests over the weekend that degenerated into violence, vandalism and looting. An 11pm curfew was put in place in a few areas of Paris on Monday
ORIGINS: A Taiwanese doctor practicing in Japan said he no longer needed to cover the nationality label on his license with a sticker, as it used to confuse his patients Starting this month, Taiwanese professionals working in Japan can list “Taiwan” as their place of origin following Tokyo’s easing of rules on “nationality” in official licensing documents.The change was announced yesterday by the Japan-Taiwan Friendship Parliamentarians’ League in Tokyo. The license
‘REGRETTABLE’: The DPP blamed the downgrading of the sports minister’s credentials on China, while the KMT said the fault lies with host nation Japan Legislators across party lines yesterday voiced their support for Minister of Sports Lee Yang’s (李洋) decision to withdraw from the opening ceremony and other official events of the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on Sunday after the organizer downgraded his credential from a sports minister
IN THE COURTS: The number of people indicted in Chinese espionage investigations rose to 73 this year from six in 2020, while 163 people have been convicted, the NSB said China is stepping up transnational repression and “united front” operations against Taiwan, using surveillance, intimidation and violence to silence targeted Taiwanese, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report submitted yesterday to the Legislative Yuan.The legislature’s Foreign Affairs a
SHIFTING VIEWS: The proportion of respondents who said the DPP should be given a chance to govern the city rose to 48.7% , compared with 31.7% for the KMT Support for Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) in the Taipei mayoral race rose to 50.3 percent, while that of Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) fell to 33.3 percent, a Taipei Trust in Democracy Association poll released yesterday showed.Shen rose 9.8 percentage points from 40.5 p
The Democratic Progressive Party’s New Taipei City mayoral candidate, Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), yesterday proposed boosting tourism in the city’s Jinshan (金山) and Wanli (萬里) districts, while her Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) opponent, Lee Shu-chuan (李四川), campaigned on extending the MRT and accelerating
Twenty-eight Taiwanese entertainers publicly identified the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as their “motherland” around China’s National Day this year, including actors Wu Kang-ren (吳慷仁), Peter Ho (何潤東) and Nicky Wu (吳奇隆), the Economic Democracy Union said yesterday.Reposting messages from Chinese
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said its travel alert for France would remain classified as low risk, meaning exercise normal precautions, but advised people to steer clear of demonstrations.In France, student protests over school conditions and teacher shortages have spread into a wider c
Nine entertainers who turned themselves in and confessed to evading compulsory military service were given suspended sentences, the New Taipei District Court ruled yesterday.The entertainers were each ordered to pay NT$300,000 to NT$1.3 million (US$9,198 to US$39,857) to the national treasury and pe
CABINET INITIATIVE: Software defects and air traffic control communications outage show the importance of modernizing air traffic infrastructure, an official said The Executive Yuan has approved a NT$19.198 billion (US$588.59 million) investment to upgrade the nation’s air traffic management systems, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) announced the initiativ
WEATHER WATCH: With flu in an epidemic period and the peak season for respiratory diseases starting, expanded eligibility has been extended to Nov. 15, an official said Expanded eligibility for flu antiviral drug prescriptions funded by the government has been extended to the middle of next month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.Local flu activity is slowing, but it is still in the epidemic period, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo
A sea warning for Typhoon Champi might be issued tonight, while the storm’s trajectory would determine whether a land warning is to be issued tomorrow night, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday.As of 2pm yesterday, Champi was about 1,536km east-southeast of Taiwan proper’s southe
USUAL SUSPECTS: Export orders for goods related to the AI boom such as GPUs, ASIC-based systems, and other information and communication products surged Export orders last month rose 62.4 percent year-on-year to US$114.21 billion, the 20th consecutive month of increases and the highest monthly level on record, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service applications, the Ministry of Economic
GREAT DIVIDE: While almost half of homes are feeling the growth, much of that is from investment gains rather than wages, and many more are feeling worse off Almost half of Taiwan’s households have felt the benefits of this year’s strong economic growth, but investment gains rather than higher wages have been the main source of financial improvement, highlighting the uneven distribution of the boom, a survey by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) showed y
Zhen Ding Technology Holding Ltd (臻鼎), the world’s biggest printed circuit board (PCB) supplier, yesterday said it expects no near-term relief in the supply of PCBs, related components and materials, as demand remains driven by global cloud service providers’ (CSPs) investments in artificial intelli
The Cabinet must present more comprehensive and transparent energy subsidy frameworks to secure legislative support for its supplementary budget of NT$180.9 billion (US$5.55 billion) for this year, some of which would go toward offsetting the massive deficits of state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan and Taiw
Student protests have erupted in Paris, with school understaffing, overcrowded classrooms and poorly maintained buildings among the sources of discontent.When students have classes, but no one to teach them, problems such as insufficient educational resources and poor learning environments surface.
I picture a family in the bottom fifth of Taiwan’s income ladder. Households in that group lived on NT$397,000 (US$12,172) on average last year. That comes to about NT$33,000 a month. The richest fifth had 6.17 times as much, the widest gap in nearly 14 years. This family cooks rice in a Tatung elec
GROWING GLITTER: The Ivorian player, hot off a high-visibility performance at this year’s FIFA World Cup, is gaining the experience he needs playing for Los Blancos When Real Madrid splashed a club record 140 million euros (US$157.2 million) to sign Yan Diomande from RB Leipzig this summer, it was because of his clear potential to become one of the game’s stars, as showcased at the World Cup.That talent has begun to unveil itself in the past few matches, with D
HOME-FIELD WIN: The Rays beat the Guardians 7-3, earning their spot against the Brewers in the World Series and extending Cleveland’s finals drought Freddy Peralta threw 5-1/3 gritty innings, Junior Caminero and Yandy Diaz each hit a two-run homer and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) on Monday night to advance to the World Series for the third time in the franchise’s
Taiwan’s Lin Tzu-yu (林姿妤) won her second consecutive Asian Para Games women’s singles table tennis gold Tuesday, defeating compatriot Tian Shiau-wen (田曉雯) in the class 10 final.Lin prevailed 11-4, 11-7, 11-2 in just 13 minutes at the Aichi-Nagoya Games in Japan, completing a gold-silver sweep for Ta
The Detroit Red Wings begin a four-game western road trip today against the Seattle Kraken, and if they want any tips on handling a lengthy trek, they can ask their opponents.The Kraken just completed a five-game, nine-day trip that started on Oct. 9 with a 6-3 win in Detroit. Seattle went 3-1-1 awa
JOURNEY BEGINS: The spacecraft is due to arrive near Mars by August next year and collect at least 10g of material during its three years in the planet’s vicinity A Japanese spacecraft was yesterday on its way to one of Mars’ moons on a world-first mission to retrieve samples, potentially helping unlock the origins of the Solar System and life on Earth. The flagship H3 rocket carrying the uncrewed Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe blasted off into a pitch
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused the US of deliberately delaying the delivery of interceptor missiles to his war-torn country ahead of reported talks with a top US envoy yesterday. Relations between Kyiv and Washington have soured over military aid and intelligence sharing, with Zelen
The US government on Monday ordered its agencies to stop using artificial intelligence (AI) tools from Chinese start-up DeepSeek, as the countries race for dominance in the fast-moving sector. A notice from the US Department of Homeland Security announced the ban on products developed by DeepSeek —
We’ve all done it. Launched ourselves head first into a new regime — perhaps as the result of a new year resolution, recent breakup or aggressively unflattering photo. “You go all in and train five days a week,” says Elizabeth Davies, personal trainer and author of Training for Your Old Lady Body. “
The idea that we need to walk 10,000 steps a day originated not in medical research but in a 1960s marketing campaign for a pedometer, says Jack McNamara, senior lecturer in clinical exercise physiology at the University of East London. The round number was easy to remember and the idea caught on, d
It is always fun to join in a craze, like a Victorian going mad for penny farthings. Which is probably why, against my better judgment, I went to see Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster The Odyssey this summer, buying my ticket into the popular conversation along with everyone else. This year’s other di
After Taiwan and India signed a memorandum of understanding in 2024, Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor announced that roughly 1,000 Indian migrant workers could arrive as early as the end of this year. The policy immediately sparked fierce online debate, with supporters calling it a remedy for labor shorta
Sudden restrictions on Starshield — SpaceX’s military-grade version of the Starlink satellite Internet service and the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations and communication — alarmed the country’s military and government officials last week, with commanders reporting lost drones and disrupted mis
對話 Dialogue 華華：我家附近的市場開始賣菱角了，秋天真的到了！ Huáhuá: Wǒ jiā fùjìn de shìchǎng kāishǐ mài língjiǎo le, qiūtiān zhēn de dào le! 清清： 每年這個時候，我都會買一些回家吃。 Qīngqīng: Měinián zhège shíhou, wǒ dōu huì mǎi yìxiē huí jiā chī. 華華： 我很喜歡吃菱角，可是懶得剝殼。 Huáhuá: Wǒ hěn xǐhuān chī língjiǎo, kěshì lǎn de bōké. 清清： 我也是，所以我都直接買剝好的。
| New Taipei City | 25-30 | 40% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 23-31 | 20% |  |
| Hsinchu City | 24-30 | 20% | |
| Taipei City | 25-29 | 50% | |
| Miaoli County | 22-32 | 20% | |
| Taoyuan City | 25-30 | 50% | |
| Keelung City | 25-27 | 50% | |
| Yunlin County | 23-33 | 0% | |
| Taichung City | 24-33 | 0% | |
| Nantou County | 23-34 | 0% | |
| Changhua County | 24-32 | 0% | |
| Chiayi County | 24-33 | 0% |  |
| Chiayi City | 23-33 | 0% |  |
| Tainan City | 25-32 | 0% | |
| Kaohsiung City | 26-32 | 0% | |
| Pingtung County | 25-33 | 0% | |
| Yilan County | 23-29 | 30% | |
| Hualien County | 25-31 | 20% | |
| Taitung County | 25-33 | 20% | |
| Kinmen County | 25-31 | 0% | |
| Penghu County | 25-29 | 0% | |
| Lienchiang County | 23-27 | 30% | |
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