LONG LIFE: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 81.27 was higher than the global average of 73.5, with women outliving men by nearly seven years, official data showed
Taiwan’s average life expectancy climbed to 81.27 last year from 80.77 a year earlier, with Taipei recording the longest average at 83.98, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.Despite the year-on-year rise, Taiwan’s national average life expectancy had not yet returned to the pre-COVID-19 pea
Heavy rain brought by a low-pressure system and strong southwesterly winds triggered widespread flooding, landslides and damage across central, southern and eastern Taiwan yesterday, disrupting travel and prompting mass evacuations.As of 6pm yesterday, torrential rains had left one person dead in Ta
European leaders yesterday joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv for celebrations marking the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence Day as Russia pressed on with its four-year-old invasion of the country.With no significant changes on the front line for months and no apparent p
A US government plan to lease out millions of hectares of seabed near the Mariana Trench for deep sea exploration has drawn opposition from US territories in the Pacific, as US President Donald Trump’s administration remains locked in a race with China for control of critical ocean minerals.The Mari
‘UNITED’: Taiwan has increased military spending and improved wages and benefits for military personnel, Lai said, urging people to defend the nation together
Even in peacetime, forgetting war is dangerous, but Taiwan will uphold the spirit of those who were on the front lines of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis and not cede an inch of territory, President William Lai (賴清德) said in Kinmen County yesterday during an event marking the 68th anniversary of the
DELUGE: The Tainan City Government requested five mobile water pumps from the central government to supplement the 511 pumps it had already prepared
Torrential rain caused by the combined effects of southwesterly winds and a low-pressure belt battered southern Taiwan yesterday, causing widespread flooding across Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County.More than 2,300 people were evacuated as authorities warned of continued heavy rain through tomor
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) is implementing 14 measures to boost military recruitment as the number of new recruits declined for the second consecutive year.The armed forces recruited 18,900 people in 2023, 17,971 in 2024 and 17,113 last year, while the overall fill rate was 80 percent, 7
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday announced retaliatory tariffs on the US, after walking away from a “bad deal” on trade in a deepening rift between the longtime allies.Negotiations between the neighboring countries broke down on Friday in Washington, putting into force new 50 percent
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian yesterday defended a memorandum of understanding as the best way for the country to move beyond what he described as a situation of “neither war nor peace” with the US.“There is not a single provision in this agreement that amounts to capitulation,” Pezeshkian sai
FAIR? That the budget cuts affected the Legislative Yuan shows that they aimed to rein in government spending and were not targeted at the Executive Yuan, a legislator said
The legislature has suspended funding for overseas visits by lawmakers’ friendship groups after travel budget cuts, prompting mixed responses from the three major parties.The central government’s budget for this fiscal year was delayed for 351 days before the Legislative Yuan finally passed it on Fr
A US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace on Friday, in a move the US 7th Fleet said “demonstrates the US’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”The Chinese military tracked and monitored the patrol and reconnaissance aircraft throughout the transit
A fire and subsequent explosion in a residential area in Tainan early yesterday injured 15 people and damaged 68 homes, the Tainan City Fire Bureau said.The bureau said it received a report at 1:12am yesterday that a pile of waste in a vacant lot in Annan District’s (安南) Haidian Road had caught fire
US President Donald Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on certain Canadian goods, which took effect yesterday, delivered another blow to bilateral trade, renewing focus on Ottawa’s efforts to reduce dependence on its southern neighbor.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s strategy involves a search for new
‘UNWELCOME SPOTLIGHT’: Beijing is the leading green technology exporter, but it remains the world’s biggest greenhouse emitter, followed by the US, India and the EU
China is mulling a bid to host UN climate talks in 2028, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, as it seeks to burnish its reputation as a leader in the fight against global warming.Beijing has not yet made a final decision regarding the proposal for the COP33 summit, the sources said,
‘ALARMING’: Many of the officers being investigated were rising military stars, with good service records and grades in the military academy, anonymous sources said
Law enforcement officials have broadened a probe into a suspected network of Chinese spies, after the Kaohsiung branch of the High Court on Wednesday convicted two former military service members on espionage and corruption charges.The court sentenced an ex-army sergeant surnamed Fang (方) to 10 year
PACIFIC SOGO CASE: The ex-lawmakers involved had helped pressure the MOEA over Pacific Distribution’s ownership dispute through legislative oversight and amendments
The High Court yesterday acquitted a lawmaker, a former lawmaker and two associates in a bribery case involving efforts to help former Pacific Distribution Investment Co chairman Lee Heng-lung (李恆隆) regain control of Pacific SOGO, while upholding prison sentences for two former legislators.The court
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday called for the immediate release of two Hong Kong pro-democracy activists after Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance convicted them and the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China of subversion.The MAC expressed
China’s foreign and defense ministers yesterday met their Indonesian counterparts in Jakarta for talks seeking greater political and military cooperation days after a joint navy drill Taiwan blasted as a “provocation.”The talks marked “an important milestone in our bilateral relations,” Indonesian M
The UN’s most powerful body, the Security Council, met yesterday to hold another straw poll to gauge the popularity of a growing field of contenders to lead the embattled organization.UN Conference on Trade and Development Secretary-General and former Costa Rican vice president Rebeca Grynspan was
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