title: PRC studying Russia’s tactics, workshop told

content_text:
China is studying the tactics Russia is using in its war against Ukraine, a Ukrainian representative said at a workshop in Taipei yesterday, adding that Taiwan should plan its defense under the assumption that Beijing would employ similar methods in an invasion.

The workshop, titled “Ukraine & Taiwan: Hybrid Warfare and Democratic Resilience Strategy,” was organized by Taipei-based non-governmental organization Doublethink Lab. Representatives of the National Interests Advocacy Network (ANTS), a Ukrainian nonprofit organization working to support Ukraine’s democratic transformation and European integration, were invited to share lessons learned from the Russia-Ukraine war.

Kateryna Musiienko, head of foreign affairs at ANTS, said that the Russia-Ukraine war is the world’s first major “drone war,” with the extensive use of uncrewed aerial vehicles on both sides.

Kateryna Musiienko, head of foreign affairs at the National Interests Advocacy Network, is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo: screen grab from Kateryna Musiienko’s Facebook page

Russia leans heavily on Iranian Shahed Kamikaze drones and launched more than 34,000 from January to September, nine times more than the same period last year, Musiienko said.

Russia sees drone swarms as a cost-effective weapon, as a US$400 FPV drone can destroy a tank that costs US$2 million, she said.

In September, an average of 188 Shahed drones were launched, inundating the Ukrainian air defense system, she added.

The Russia-Ukraine war coincides with the era of “transparent battlefields,” in which slight military moves would be quickly detected and sabotaged by drones in real time, Musiienko said.

As such, Ukraine can quickly adapt and deliver strategies that would win the war, she said.

Musiienko said that Ukraine’s TB2 drones were effective in early 2022, but within months Russia’s layered air defense and jamming made them nearly unusable in strike missions. Ukraine subsequently used TB2s for reconnaissance tasks and smaller drones for attacks.

The “adaptation race” was also seen after Russia began using FPV attack drones in 2023. Ukraine later countered them with drone interceptors, prompting Russia to readjust again, she said.

As to the implications of the Russia-Ukraine war for Taiwan, Musiienko said that China is studying Russia’s war lessons to apply against Taiwan, from mass drone swarms and missile barrages to potential blockade tactics.

Taiwan must assume that these tactics would be used against it, she said.

Taiwan should also maximize asymmetric warfare capabilities, she added.

“Ukraine’s experience proved the value of the whole-of-society approach, fostering broad civil resistance and having territorial anti-drone units,” Musiienko said.

Taiwan and Ukraine should form technology partnerships in drones, cybersecurity, satellite communications and resilient infrastructure, she said, adding that the two nations should jointly cultivate next-generation talents skilled in defense technology and crisis management.

Andrii Ordynovych, a retired Ukrainian Air Force colonel currently working with the Ukrainian Freedom Fund, said that what Ukraine failed to achieve five years ago was to create a condition for Western democracies to be interested in the nation.

It should have placed Ukraine in a strategically important position, given that it has the largest gas storage capacity in Europe, he said.

Ordynovych highlighted the importance of building trust and partnerships with like-minded democracies when fighting asymmetric warfare.

“When the war first began with Russia taking over Crimea in 2014, we received only nonlethal security assistance. After the full-scale war began in 2022, we were not able to receive offensive-defensive hardware from Western politicians due to a general lack of confidence in the Ukrainian leadership,” he said. “However, once we showed democratic allies that we are highly responsible for getting security in Ukraine and would not misuse funds appropriated to us, we started getting Javelin and weapons that are defensive in nature, but have lethal effects. It was meant to be a clear indication to Russia that Ukraine is not going to be abandoned.”

Although the situations in Taiwan and Ukraine are different, Taiwan should be ready to fight asymmetric warfare by building efficient and feasible relationships with security partners, seeking to build a security pact similar to Article 5 of NATO with neighboring nations facing security threats from China, and using strategic communications to boost the public’s morale, he said.

The government and civilians should all be trained on the rules of engagement under various hypothetical scenarios, he added.

ANTS executive director Lyusyena Shum said that Russia is seeking to conduct “culture genocide” through the war with Ukraine, adding that ANTS is documenting destruction and damage of cultural artifacts.

More than 2,500 cultural infrastructure and facilities — including libraries, museums and theaters — have been damaged, about 1,600 of which are cultural heritage sites designated by the Ukrainian government and UNESCO, Shum said, adding that1,070 libraries were damaged or destroyed, with nearly 200 fully destroyed.

More than 230 Ukrainian writers and artists have been killed, with some of them being tortured to death, while 118 media workers have been killed by Russia, she said.

About 2,000 school libraries and 300 universities have also been damaged, she added.

Apart from stealing cultural artifacts, Russia has destroyed 4.5 million Ukrainian books, particularly targeting books published after the Ukrainian revolution of dignity in 2013, as well as those on the geography, culture and history of Ukraine, she said.


people: 鄭麗文 吳宗憲 賴瑞隆

content_text:
KMT to review suspension of Central Standing Committee member Ho Ying-lu

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday accepted an appeal to remand a decision to suspend Central Standing Committee member Ho Ying-lu (何鷹鷺) from her position on the committee, but said that until a new decision is reached, she is still “suspended from party duties.”

Ho made a video on Douyin (抖音) on Oct. 31 during a trip to Yanan, Shanxi Province, during which she wore a shirt with a profile picture of Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and said she hoped “Taiwan would return to the embrace of the motherland as soon as possible.”

The KMT Disciplinary Committee on Tuesday passed a resolution to suspend Ho. Yesterday it accepted Ho’s appeal to remand the decision for review as per party regulations, committee director-general Chang Ya-ping (張雅屏) said yesterday.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee member Ho Ying-lu speaks to reporters at KMT headquarters in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times

During an interview yesterday, Ho said she was brought up under the education of the “motherland” and that, while she was a lawful citizen of the Republic of China (ROC), she could not abandon or stop loving the “motherland,” adding that she hopes for peace across the Taiwan Strait.

Ho is a Chinese spouse who has obtained Taiwanese citizenship.

KMT Legislator Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), doubling as the KMT Culture and Communications Committee head, yesterday said that if party members’ acts or speech affected the party, the party would act accordingly.

Separately, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said the KMT should not only discipline its Central Standing Committee members, but should also discipline KMT Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) for his “one country, two regions” comments on Monday.

Lai said that everyone knew the “one country” in the comments referred to the People’s Republic of China, and that making such statements implicitly acknowledges that Taiwan is a “region” under China and that the ROC has “disappeared.”

Taiwan Society chairman Weng Ming-jang (翁銘章) yesterday said that the KMT is operating on double standards if it is only going to discipline Ho, but fails to discipline Hsiao or KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文).

Cheng had attended an event commemorating Wu Shi (吳石), a lieutenant general who was executed after being convicted of spying for the CCP during the White Terror era under the orders of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).

Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin and Chen Yu-fu


title: KMT’s Cheng Li-wun urges broader TPP collaboration

people: 黃國昌 鄭麗文

content_text:
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday called on Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) to broaden election and policy collaboration at a summit of the two party leaders in New Taipei City.

The KMT and TPP over the past year have deepened their collaboration from elections to the local level in a milestone of the nation’s democratic development, Cheng told a news conference.

The two parties should continue working together in elections for commissioners, mayors and local government councils to avoid competition that benefits the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), she said.

Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang, left, and Chinese Nationalist Party Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun shake hands in the first summit meeting between the two party leaders in New Taipei City yesterday. Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times

The opposition’s collaboration should be directed with an eye to aligning politics with the wishes of the public, which means the most immediately popular candidate should not necessarily obtain the leadership’s backing, Cheng said.

The KMT-TPP alliance’s main challenge is to win the local elections next year to ensure the continued survival of core democratic values and promote the opposition’s policies, she said.

The opposition parties must carve out a new path for their alliance by recognizing that their responsibility takes precedence over self-interest and that missteps of the past are not repeated.

Cheng said that she had little previous dealings with Huang, but is confident that the two share a common vision and belief about the future of the coalition.

The KMT and TPP’s collaboration would have to take a unique form, as Taiwan’s system of government is not fully presidential or parliamentary, she said, apparently referring to Huang’s comments suggesting the opposition strive to form coalition governments.

Asked whether the two parties have achieved a consensus regarding their China policy, Huang said that establishing foundational values and objectives would be more important than policy.

The DPP’s stance on Taiwanese independence is less important than finding ways to truly defend Taiwan’s way of life, Huang said.

Additional reporting by Shi Hsiao-kuang and Lin Che-yuan


title: Taiwan News Quick Take

content_text:
CRIME

Six detained for spying

The High Court on Tuesday night granted prosecutors’ request to detain six retired and active military personnel and a Chinese man indicted for leaking military secrets to China. The ruling can be appealed. A summary of the ruling read by a court spokesperson said the seven individuals were indicted on charges related to contraventions of the National Security Act (國家安全法), which carry a minimum prison sentence of five years. The court decided that given the seriousness of their alleged crimes and the potential flight risk, they were ordered to be detained for three months, the maximum allowed for defendants during a trial. One of the defendants, Yang Chien-hui (楊千慧), admitted to all the charges and was deemed unlikely to collude, so she would not be held incommunicado, while the remaining six suspects would be detained incommunicado. Earlier on Tuesday, the High Court Prosecutors’ Office indicted the seven for contravening the National Security Act, the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) and the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法). The defendants include a Chinese man named Ding Xiaohu (丁小琥), or Ting Siu Fu in Cantonese, who holds a Hong Kong passport, as well as six military personnel, identified as Wang Wen-hao (王文豪), Tan Chun-ming (譚俊明), Lu Fang-chi (呂芳契), Chiu Han-lin (邱翰林), Yang Chien-hui and Yang Po-chih (楊博智).

HEALTH

More flu cases expected

Taiwan could see a rise in influenza cases starting next month, with infections likely to peak at the Lunar New Year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. CDC spokesperson Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said that 93,247 people sought outpatient or emergency treatment for flu-like illnesses last week, a 9.1 percent drop from the previous week. However, 42 severe flu cases were reported last week, 10 of which were fatal, she said. Meanwhile, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) warned that neighboring nations, including China, South Korea and Japan, were also reporting rising numbers of flu cases. She highlighted Japan in particular, which logged nearly 1.5 times more cases last week than the week before. She urged travelers to get vaccinated before visiting Japan. Since last month, Taiwan has recorded 300 severe flu cases, resulting in 35 deaths, CDC data showed.

SPORTS

Penghu touts road race

The Penghu County Government on Monday announced an upcoming road race with a novel promotional gimmick — offering a 1kg grouper to each runner who crosses the finish line. The “Run in Penghu” race is to be held on Jan. 18 next year, with the goal of boosting winter tourism in the county, Penghu County Commissioner Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復) said. According to an announcement by the county government, participants would be able to sign up for a full 11km race or a more leisurely 5km route for adults or children. Registration, which opened on Tuesday, is limited to 500 spots for Penghu residents and 600 spots for nonresidents, at a cost of NT$200, the county government said. Each competitor who finishes their race would be given a prize of a 1kg grouper, although nonresident competitors would also be able to opt for a NT$500 voucher, Chen said. The 11k race is to begin in front of the Penghu County Government Building in Magong (馬公) and end at the Caiyuan (菜園) Soil and Water Conservation Classroom.


title: Orange rush

content_text: Students from Guangfu Elementary School hold placards showing oranges and tangerines produced in Nantou County’s Jhongliao Township alongside Nantou County Commissioner Hsu Shu-hua, back, center, and local farmers at a news conference in the county yesterday. The county government teamed up with FamilyMart and Yumei Food Co to allow people to buy fresh oranges and tangerines at FamilyMart convenience stores nationwide.


content_text: Members of Mataian River Basin Tribe Youth Alliance, Taiwan Statebuilding Party, New Power Party, Green Party Taiwan and Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party hold a news conference in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. They called for the central government to step in and take full control over the NT$30 billion (US$959.9 million) of funding for the recovery from the Mataian River barrier lake overflow in September.

title: Flooding failures


title: E Ink anticipates record-high revenue

content_text:
HIGH DEMAND: The firm is establishing new production lines in Taoyuan to cope with rapidly growing demand for electronic shelf labels in the US, UK and Europe

E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s largest e-paper display supplier, yesterday said it expects its revenue and net profit to hit historical highs in the next three years through 2028, fueled by rising uptakes of its new large signage, and robust demand for store shelf labels and electronic readers with color displays.

To cope with growing customer demand, E Ink plans to build a new production line, called H6, to expand capacity for large e-paper displays, such as 30-inch displays for indoor and outdoor signage, the company said.

Multiple production lines are planned, as the company’s board of directors approved a new capacity program totaling NT$3.37 billion (US$107.83 million) for acquiring land and leasing a manufacturing facility in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), it said.

E Ink Holdings Inc’s logo and e-paper products developed with industry partners are pictured at the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei on April 17. Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times

“We have a chance to see E Ink’s revenue and profit hit record highs in the next two to three years,” E Ink chairman Johnson Lee (李政昊) told investors via an online conference.

The e-paper displays used in signage would outgrow other business segments next year due to a lower base, Lee said.

E Ink is counting on a new e-paper display production line, dubbed H5, to bring extra growth next year, he said.

“We expect our large-e-paper module factory to be fully utilized next year. The module production line operated by our joint venture with AUO Corp (友達) will also be fully loaded,” Lee said.

The e-paper displays for electronic shelf labels (ESLs) would come next, as the major international retailers in the US, the UK and Europe are increasingly replacing paper labels with ESLs, Lee said.

US tariffs and labor shortages have prompted large-scale retailers to quicken their pace to install ESLs, he said.

This year, E Ink expects to ship 25 percent more ESL e-paper displays to 500 million units, compared with about 370 million last year, Lee said.

The growth would extend into next year, he added.

The company also expects growth from e-paper displays used in e-readers and e-notes, driven by replacement demand for those equipped with color displays.

The integration of artificial intelligence features into those devices is also boosting consumers’ interest, the company said.

E Ink’s revenue grew at an annual rate of 29 percent to NT$29.1 billion in the first three quarters from NT$22.49 billion.

Net profit surged 76 percent to NT$9.4 billion in the first three quarters from NT$5.35 billion in the same period last year, setting an all-time high. That surpassed the NT$8.87 billion the company reported for the whole year of last year.

Earnings per share climbed to NT$8.17 from NT$4.67 over the period, company data showed.

Gross margin rose to 56.44 percent from 47.84 percent a year earlier, according to the data.


title: Genius predicts smart glasses as next big platform

content_text:
FUTURE BET:  The company expects profit to increase due to the rapid growth in demand for smart glasses, although camera lenses would remain its core business

Genius Electronic Optical Co (玉晶光), which supplies camera lenses for Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday said smart glasses are poised to become the next personal computing platform after smartphones, presenting a significant opportunity and a major challenge for companies producing lenses and optical products.

The company said camera lenses for handsets remain the core of its business.

Still, the increasing demand for lenses for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications, as well as smart glasses, is expected to contribute to its revenue, it said.

The logo of Genius Electronic Optical Co hangs outside the company’s headquarters in Taichung on June 6, 2020. Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE

Genius is optimistic about the fourth quarter and expects its business to perform better than the same period last year, company chairman Jones Chen (陳天慶) told an online earnings conference.

As the fourth quarter is not a peak season for the industry, revenue is expected to be lower than in the third quarter, he said.

For next year, the company hopes for revenue and profit to surpass this year’s levels, given the rapid growth of smart glasses and deployment by AR customers, Chen said.

Genius’ revenue in the third quarter rose 62.06 percent quarter-on-quarter and 3.29 percent year-on-year to NT$7.74 billion (US$247.7 million) — the highest since the third quarter of 2023, the company said.

Cumulative revenue for the first three quarters of this year edged up 0.68 percent annually to NT$17.84 billion, it said.

Third-quarter net profit hit the highest in eight quarters at NT$1.42 billion, rising 488 percent quarterly and 2.6 percent annually, while total net profit in the first three quarters fell 27.3 percent year-on-year to NT$2.53 billion, the company said.

Genius earned NT$12.54 a share in the third quarter and NT$22.41 from January to September, it said.

Regarding trends in handset lenses, Genius president Lee Kuo (郭英理) referred to three aspects: smaller, thinner and wider-angle optimization.

The company’s main products remain handset lenses, while new areas such as those used in healthcare, retail, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) devices are still in the experimentation phase, Kuo said.

The company would make adjustments in line with customers’ needs, he said.

The company entered the periscope lens supply chain this year, focusing on periscope lenses with 8x optical zooms, Kuo said.

Given market demand for higher magnifications such as 10x, 12x or even 16x, Genius would continue to develop these lenses in collaboration with customers, he said.

While the VR market has been weak recently, smart glasses have seen strong demand and are expanding from consumer entertainment to professional fields such as industry, education and healthcare on the back of rapid AI development, Chen said.

The intention of well-known brands to build their smart glasses ecosystems presents a significant opportunity for Genius, he said, citing the development of products such as imaging lenses, miniature projectors, prescription lenses and miniature motion-sensing lenses.

Regarding US tariffs, Chen said Genius does not ship products directly to the US, so Washington’s tariffs have no direct impact on the company, although they have an indirect effect.

As for exchange rates, the company adopts natural hedging strategies, trying to use the same currency for accounts receivable and payable, and primarily conducting purchases in US dollars, he said.

The company is still evaluating the need for overseas expansion and has not made a final decision yet, he added.


title: Economy emerging from hardest phase, group says

content_text:
Taiwan’s economy appears to have emerged from its most challenging phase and is expected to improve next year, trade group Third Wednesday Club (三 三會) said yesterday, as easing global trade tensions following recent US tariff adjustments begin to take effect.

The local business community generally believes “the worst period linked to US tariffs is over,” and firms have gained experience navigating US trade policies, tariff changes and global supply-chain restructuring, group chairman Lin Por-feng (林伯豐) said on the sidelines of a monthly gathering in Taipei.

Companies that are pursuing transformation, investing in new product development and innovation, and remaining committed to research would be better positioned to capture growth opportunities, Lin said.

Third Wednesday Club chairman Lin Por-fong speaks to reporters in Taipei in an undated photograph. Photo: Taipei Times file photo

Citing his own company, Taiwan Glass Industry Corp (台玻), Lin said the firm is developing products such as fiberglass cloth and flat glass, and future performance would show whether these transitions prove successful.

Strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware benefits Taiwan’s exports of semiconductors, electronics and related products, and firms that recalibrate their business models to align production with sales are likely to see improved outlooks, he said.

However, Taiwan’s economic structure remains heavily concentrated in a few sectors, while private consumption and services have yet to fully return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, he said.

Green energy development has also progressed slowly, driving up the costs of energy transition, while a rapidly aging population and labor shortages pose risks to long-term growth, he added.

To address these challenges, the trade group yesterday urged the government to promote smart tourism, digital, cultural and creative industries, and upgrade local service sectors.

It also called on the government to expand Taiwan’s talent pool in AI, semiconductors and sustainable industries, while easing regulations to attract high-level foreign professionals.

Policymakers should also seek to maintain price stability and adopt prudent monetary policies to guard against asset bubbles, it said.

Energy self-sufficiency is another key focus, the group said, urging the government to extend the lifespans of nuclear power plants after completing assessments.

The government should also accelerate renewable energy and energy storage development, and support companies in adopting environmentally friendly and carbon-reduction technologies, it said.


title: Nvidia, Microsoft to invest in Anthropic

content_text:
Nvidia Corp and Microsoft Corp on Tuesday announced investments totaling US$15 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Anthropic PBC, creator of the Claude chatbot, amid frenzied spending on the technology and growing fears of a bubble.

AI chip powerhouse Nvidia committed up to US$10 billion, while Microsoft — which owns 27 percent of Anthropic rival OpenAI — pledged up to US$5 billion to the San Francisco-based start-up.

Microsoft also continues investing heavily in its own Copilot AI that runs on the company’s Azure platform.

The Anthropic logo is seen in this illustration taken on May 20 last year. Photo: Reuters

The deal was part of a sweeping agreement that saw Anthropic commit to purchasing US$30 billion in Microsoft’s cloud computing capacity and adopt the latest versions of Nvidia’s chip technology.

The joint announcements by CEOs Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, and Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) of Nvidia came just ahead of the opening of Microsoft’s annual Ignite developer conference.

“We’re increasingly going to be customers of each other,” Nadella said in an online video announcing the deal. “We will use Anthropic models. They will use our infrastructure, and we’ll go to market together to help our customers realize the value of AI.”

The investments mark a significant realignment in the generative AI sector, where competition has intensified between ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and rivals including Anthropic, but also Google, which released its latest Gemini model on Tuesday.

Anthropic was launched in 2021 by former OpenAI staff and positions itself as prioritizing safety in AI development. Its flagship product is the Claude chatbot and family of models.

Tech industry rivals, which also include Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Elon Musk’s xAI, have been pouring tens of billions of dollars into AI since the blockbuster launch of the first version of ChatGPT in late 2022.

Meanwhile, Nvidia has become a coveted source of high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) tailored for generative AI. The company’s GPUs, originally designed for gaming systems, have become the essential building blocks of AI applications, with tech giants scrambling to secure them for their data centers and AI projects.

Sources told CNBC that the fresh investment valued Anthropic at US$350 billion, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies. OpenAI was most recently valued at US$500 billion.

The massive investment in Anthropic comes a month after Nvidia announced it would pump as much as US$100 billion into OpenAI, building infrastructure for future generations of the technology.


content_text:
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday unveiled the country’s first Disney-themed aircraft, featuring a special livery and onboard items with characters from the upcoming animated film Zootopia 2.

At the unveiling ceremony at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, CAL chairman Kao Shing-hwang (高星潢) said the plane would primarily serve the Taoyuan-Los Angeles route, but would also be deployed on flights to Bangkok, Tokyo, Osaka and Ontario, California.

The plane’s maiden flight with its new look was scheduled to depart Taoyuan for Los Angeles at 4:55pm yesterday, CAL said.

China Airlines Ltd’s Disney-themed aircraft is pictured at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday. Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei Times

In addition to the exterior, items such as headrest covers and snack packaging also feature Zootopia 2 characters, it said.

CAL president Kevin Chen (陳漢銘) said the special livery would be in service for six months and that further collaborations with Disney are planned, as the carrier seeks to appeal to a younger air-travel market.

Earlier this month, CAL reported its cumulative revenue for the first three quarters of this year reached NT$154.98 billion (US$4.96 billion), an increase of 2.68 percent compared with the same period last year and setting a new record.

Over the same period, net profit was NT$11 billion, an increase of 6.1 percent year-on-year, and earnings per share came in at NT$1.81, also a record high for the period, the carrier said.

Zootopia 2 is scheduled to be released in Taiwan on Wednesday next week, according to Walt Disney Co.

For this quarter, CAL said the Christmas and New Year holidays are expected to boost travel demand and benefit its passenger business, while the fourth quarter is a peak season for cargo services and it is optimistic about continued growth in cargo revenue.

title: China Airlines launches Disney-themed aircraft


content_text:
TSMC unlikely to be affected by trade secrets leak: Pegatron chair

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is unlikely to be impacted if some of its technical secrets get leaked, Pegatron Corp (和碩) chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢) said yesterday.

Tung made the comment after local media reported that former TSMC executive vice president Lo Wei-jen (羅唯仁) allegedly took confidential data of the company’s most advanced 2 nanometer, A16 and A14 manufacturing process technologies before retiring from TSMC in July and was said to have joined Intel last month.

When asked by reporters about the case before attending a technology forum in Taipei, Tung said Taiwan’s semiconductor sector remains "globally competitive" and would not be seriously affected by "one or two individual incidents."

Pegatron Corp chairman Tung Tzu-hsien speaks at a technology forum in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA

He said that TSMC’s advantage stems from a manufacturing system that can adjust to the needs of dozens of different clients while consistently keeping yields high.

Even if manufacturing data were taken, it could only "serve as a reference at best" because other firms likely use different equipment and production-line configurations, making direct replication "nearly impossible," he said.

He added that TSMC’s market leadership in advanced processes has endured even as many Taiwanese engineers and former TSMC managers have helped build China’s semiconductor supply chain in recent years.

On Tuesday, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said its Intellectual Property Branch has initiated a probe into Lo’s actions.

According to local media reports, Lo allegedly asked his subordinates before retiring to brief him about the advanced technologies and took photocopies of confidential documents with him.

As of press time, prosecutors have released few details about the case. Local media reports said TSMC was collecting evidence in preparation for "action" against Lo.


content_text:
TSMC expansion pushes Taiwanese working in U.S. to record high

The number of Taiwanese working in the United States rose to a record high of 137,000 in 2024, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s (TSMC) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released Wednesday.

A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed.

Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid U.S.-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies, and pandemic travel restrictions, the DGBAS said.

A Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co facility under construction in Phoenix, Arizona, is pictured on Dec. 6, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

The figure has rebounded over the past three years as Taiwan lifted border controls and countries including the U.S. have convinced TSMC to manufacture chips in their territory, it added.

DGBAS Deputy Census Director Tan Wen-ling (譚文玲) said that the latest rise is closely tied to TSMC’s new fabs in the U.S. state of Arizona and Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, both of which began mass production at the end of 2024.

They drew not only TSMC staff but also workers from related suppliers to work overseas, Tan said.

The DGBAS data also indicated that China (including Hong Kong and Macau) remained the top destination for Taiwanese workers in 2024 with 231,000 people, or 34.7 percent of the total overseas Taiwanese workers.

Before the pandemic, however, more than 400,000 Taiwanese were employed there -- over 60 percent of the total -- but numbers fell amid U.S.-China tensions, tech disputes, and rising labor and compliance costs in China.

The U.S.’ share of Taiwanese workers, meanwhile, rose to 20.5 percent, while Southeast Asia accounted for 14.6 percent. Japan and South Korea together made up 12 percent, with the number of Taiwanese working in those two countries reaching a record 80,000, the data showed.

Tan said more Taiwanese are heading to Japan and South Korea -- particularly Japan, which is actively seeking foreign talent to counter its rapidly aging population and growing openness to overseas labor and investment.


content_text: People dine at a Japanese restaurant in Beijing yesterday. China yesterday suspended seafood imports from Japan after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks about Taiwan.

title: Seafood spat


content_text:
A report released on Monday by the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies warned that Taiwan must urgently reduce its dependence on imported energy, which China could exploit through “gray zone” tactics to force political concessions.

The report said that if Beijing succeeded in constricting Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, the nation could lose up to 50 percent of its power grid capacity. Such a shock would force Taiwan into a stark choice: maintain power for essential civilian infrastructure, or sustain industrial production, particularly in strategic sectors such as semiconductors.

The report urged Taiwan to improve energy resilience by diversifying LNG supply chains, expanding and decentralizing energy storage, reconsidering nuclear power, improving public-private cooperation to protect critical infrastructure, and engaging in joint cybersecurity training.

This year’s referendum on restarting a nuclear power plant failed due to a low turnout, suggesting a lack of broad social consensus on the nuclear issue, despite growing concerns about energy security.

Given the constraints, Taiwan must accelerate efforts to diversify its power grid. Even without the threat of Chinese coercion, the rapid expansion of the semiconductor industry is placing immense strain on the grid. The demand would only grow as artificial intelligence drives new energy-intensive investments, including data centers.

Taiwan has pursued energy transition since the first term of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), but progress has been hindered by practical and political obstacles. Geographic constraints and extreme weather limit where renewable and conventional infrastructure can be built. Bureaucracy and local opposition impede development in areas that are technically viable, while grid limitations and supply chain challenges slow installation even where conditions are favorable.

The government should move decisively to remove bureaucratic barriers and address local resistance through targeted incentives and investment. Energy infrastructure requires massive spending, but treating such investment as a matter of national security — rather than simply environmental policy — would help mobilize resources more effectively.

Public concerns about wildlife, fisheries and coastal ecosystems could be addressed through smarter design. Taiwan could adopt wind turbines with slower rotation speeds and higher visibility to reduce harm to birds and bats; place geothermal systems and LNG terminals in locations that avoid fish habitats; and install solar panels on rooftops and brownfield sites to avoid conflict with agricultural land. Increased investment in eco-friendly technology would help reconcile environmental protection with energy development.

Russia’s systematic targeting of Ukraine’s power grid has shown how energy systems can be weaponized. There is little doubt that Beijing would attempt similar tactics against Taiwan. For this reason alone, Taiwan should prioritize decentralizing and diversifying its grid using a broad mix of renewable and conventional energy sources rather than engaging in polarized debates over which technology should dominate.

Improving storage capacity is equally critical. Taiwan could expand the use of lithium-ion battery systems for overnight storage and develop long-duration storage in mountain caverns or at secure coastal sites. Such facilities would stabilize renewable output and buffer the system against disruptions.

Taiwan should also make “gray zone” coercion riskier for Beijing by clearly signaling that blockades or disruptions to shipping would be considered acts of war. If the US, Japan and other partners made similar declarations, China would find it difficult to apply pressure under claims of legal or non-escalatory action.

Taiwan must prepare for the very real possibility of a blockade. Improving energy, food and communications resilience is essential. Failure to prepare could leave the nation vulnerable to coercion long before help could arrive.

title: EDITORIAL: Building a secure energy supply


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Some universities in Taiwan are to begin their break late next month, resulting in the longest winter vacation in history. Meanwhile, China has been expanding recruitment for its “united front” activities disguised as tourism, organizing exchange groups targeting Taiwanese university students.

China has openly promoted and solicited sign-ups through student communities and other channels. By offering trips at extremely low prices — ranging from just NT$10,000 to more than NT$20,000 — the programs are exclusively meant for Taiwanese university students to travel to Shanghai, Beijing, Harbin and other cities in China for so-called “exchanges” over the winter break.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Mainland Affairs Council have repeatedly issued warnings about this. The ministry issued a notice to universities, instructing them to remind staff and students not to forward such promotions or participate in China’s “united front” activities.

While the ministry’s warnings are well-intentioned, it could take a much more proactive approach.

Effective countermeasures should draw on the experience of organizing youth camps during the winter and summer breaks in the past era of anti-communist and national salvation campaigns.

Winter and summer break programs for young students could be designed to be exciting, diverse and enriching — while keeping costs affordable, and ensuring that accompanying counselors and guides are professional — to attract Taiwanese university students, thereby replacing the low-price programs offered by China.

I am older than 70 now, but I am still unfamiliar with many corners of Taiwan and the culture. I believe that many fellow Taiwanese share similar regrets, each for their own reasons. The summer and winter break youth camps held by the China Youth Anti-Communist National Salvation Corps (中國青年反共救國團) are collective memories of our generation.

If the ministry could draw on that experience and organize similar programs, students could gain a deeper understanding of Taiwan’s history, geography and local culture, strengthening their sense of national identity, cleansing their mind and spirit, and training them in group living, all while stimulating the local economy.

Vincent Hong is a writer and technology industry retiree.

Translated by Kyra Gustavsen

title: MOE must counter ‘united front’


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In a talk at the Toronto International Festival of Authors, Taiwanese-American writer and translator Lin King (金翎) reminded her audience that Taiwan is the only remaining Chinese-speaking country in the world free from literary censorship.

It is only when authors are free from fear of repression, that they can create works with “genuine reflections and commentaries on life as they know it,” she said.

In an era when democracy appears to be in retreat, her words were of particular resonance.

In China, authors have no choice but to self-censor to get published. In Hong Kong, restrictions on speech and political red lines have pushed the literary ecosystem to the brink. In comparison, Taiwan’s literary freedoms are not just an institutional guarantee, but offer a precious and intangible cultural resource.

An ability to publish without fear of state control gives Taiwanese writers the space to freely and openly express their thoughts, King said.

In other Chinese-language contexts, such a luxury is little more than a memory.

King has translated not only Yang Shuang-zi’s (楊雙子) Taiwan Travelogue (台灣漫遊錄) — which has picked up multiple awards — but also The Boy from Clearwater (來自清水的孩子) by Yu Pei-yun (游珮芸) and illustrator Zhou Jian-xin (周見信), a comic book set during the White Terror era. She has afforded an international audience a glimpse at the depth of Taiwanese literature, and is able to capture the everyday with gentle precision, while also navigating deep historical traumas. The honesty in her writing is the sort which can only emerge from a free society, and is representative of perhaps Taiwan’s most persuasive form of cultural diplomacy yet.

However, she admits that the battle to show Taiwanese literature to the world would be long. Translated works make up only 3 percent of the English-language publishing market, and Chinese-language works are overwhelmingly dominated by Chinese authors. If translators and publishers want to see Taiwanese voices overcome language and market barriers, they need perseverance and a powerful vision.

The deeper question is this: As democracies around the world give way to division and anti-intellectualism, and in some cases re-embrace authoritarianism, how can Taiwan continue to make its voice heard?

As she noted in her talk in Toronto, King believes that in this context, it is more important than ever to tell stories about how to reject authoritarianism and achieve democratic ideals. Her call is both a message for abroad, and a reminder for at home.

Taiwan’s freedoms, built on the back of generations of resistance, must not be taken for granted. Taiwan’s literary traditions exist as a living, breathing embodiment of democracy. As long as these freedoms of expression continue to be cherished by authors and writers, Taiwan would persist as a beacon amid an otherwise dimming landscape of Chinese-language literature.

Steve Ho is a retired engineer.

Translated by Gilda Knox Streader

title: Importance of Taiwanese literature


title: Taiwan can help Japan’s tourism

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Following China’s “wolf warrior” attack on Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, with Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) threatening on social media to chop her head off, Beijing has doubled down through intimidation and coercion.

In addition to sending drones into Japan’s southwestern waters near Taiwan, China has employed its favorite tool: holding its tourists hostage by officially discouraging travel to Japan, all to attack Takaichi’s response in parliament to a question from the opposition on what satisfies a “survival-threatening situation” in which Japan’s defense forces would need to be deployed if China militarily assaults Taiwan.

Stephen Nagy, senior fellow at the Tokyo-based MacDonald Laurier Institute, said democracies that align closely with Japan such as Taiwan, the US and the EU need to work collectively to fill that economic gap left by Chinese tourist cancelations. They could start by promoting tourism to Japan as a joint public effort to blunt Beijing’s explicit economic coercion.

Nagy suggests that visa relaxations, travel deals and discounts for travelers from specific countries could help offset the deficit.

Taiwan’s main carriers have already been increasing flights. EVA Air added new routes from Taipei and Kaohsiung to Japan’s Kobe, as well as charter flights to Hakodate, Aomori and Matsuyama.

Apart from its cherry blossoms, Matsuyama shares the same characters as Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), originally built as Matsuyama airport in 1941.

Starlux derives more than half of its revenue from Japanese routes. Budget airline Tigerair is launching new flights next month from Kaohsiung and Tainan to Kumamoto and Okinawa, while its parent company, flag carrier China Airlines, is boosting flights between the two capitals.

Taiwan last year comprised the third-largest source of tourism to Japan, with more than 6 million. While China took second place, it still fell within the 6 million bracket, with South Korea taking the top spot at close to 9 million. With some promotion, Taiwan’s contribution could easily go up, given Japan’s popularity as a vacation and shopping spot among Taiwanese.

Apart from economic coercion, China has tuned up its malign disinformation campaign. Nagy said that “friends of Japan should call out disinformation against Japan to jointly push back against Beijing’s belligerence.”

He believes that only collective action could prove effective in raising the costs for Chinese intimidation, action that could come at an opportune time as China’s economy is facing downward pressure.

We have seen that already taking place with President William Lai (賴清德) on Monday calling out Beijing’s actions. Japanese and Taiwanese industry groups signed green tech and artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation pacts earlier this month, while the two governments signed a border information agreement prior to that. AI development has been a key focus of Lai’s presidency, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and other tech giants already expanding there make Japan an ideal partner.

Chinese coercion of Japan could actually work against its own interests. Tokyo-based defense expert Kosuke Takahashi said that this could push a stronger coalition against China, involving Japan, Australia, the Philippines, the UK and Canada.

There are already loud calls across Japan to expel Xue as persona non grata for his threats against Takaichi. Osaka Governor Hiroyuki Yoshimura, who is also leader of the Japan Innovation Party — a member of the ruling coalition — on Tuesday told reporters that he would boycott all activities hosted by Xue and demanded an apology.

Although Japan sent Masaaki Kanai, director-general of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, to Beijing this week, he conveyed that Tokyo would not retract Takaichi’s Taiwan comment. As more harassment from Beijing is expected, it is ever more important that Taiwan and other democratic Pacific countries come to Tokyo’s support to collectively push back on Beijing’s bullying.

Rath Wang is a senior policy fellow at Safe Spaces, a consulting firm based in Taipei and Washington focusing on Taiwan’s politics, media and civil society. He is a producer and host of political talk shows and podcasts, and has worked on political campaigns and advocacies in Taiwan, Japan and the US.


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After the passing of Japan’s 2015 security legislation, which expanded the role that the Japan Self-Defense Forces can play overseas, it has remained unclear whether a “Taiwan contingency” would constitute “a situation threatening Japan’s survival” — important because this would warrant mobilization for “collective self-defense” purposes under the legislation. The strategic fog has been lifted.

Japanese lawmaker Katsuya Okada asked Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in parliament whether a Chinese blockade of the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines would constitute a “threat to Japan’s survival.”

“If there is a naval blockade, that would indeed constitute a survival-threatening situation,” Takaichi responded.

This is the first time that Takaichi has made the explicit link between a Taiwan contingency and a potential Japanese existential crisis.

The real flashpoint occurred the next day, when Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) in a now-deleted post on social media wrote that “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off.” The threat, beyond being an overt violation of diplomatic norms, was a clear provocation to Japanese security. However, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has defended Xue’s post as a legitimate response to Takaichi’s dangerous signals to “Taiwan independence forces,” which has only exacerbated the situation.

In response to the post, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodged a protest, and Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara condemned it as “extremely inappropriate.”

On Tuesday last week, a panel of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party passed a resolution urging the government to take firm action, including declaring Xue persona non grata, if China failed to address the issue. US Ambassador to Japan George Glass also spoke out, calling the post a “threat” to Takaichi and all other Japanese, adding that Xue is “not so much a wolf warrior as an untrained puppy.” Earlier this year, the US Department of State also reaffirmed the importance of its cooperation with Japan on security in the region.

The threat against Takaichi was more than a slip of the tongue — it was a descent from the civilized to the barbaric. When opposition parties made a weak call for Takaichi to withdraw her remarks over “survival-threatening situations,” she refused, saying that “the government’s position is unchanged.”

Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi emphasized that Japan must make judgement calls responsibly based on all available information. Okada’s question was intended to test Takaichi’s boundaries, and it spotlighted a historic shift in Japan’s security strategy — former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s warning that “a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency” appears to carry official weight.

Within less than a month of taking office, Takaichi has drawn a clear red line for Japan’s security. Xue’s outburst has only brought the Japan-US alliance even closer, and any force with a mind to change the “status quo” in East Asia would be wise to tread lightly.

Japan’s strategic shift symbolizes that Taiwan’s security is now integrated into Japanese decisionmaking on what constitutes a “survival-threatening situation.”

As democracies, the best defense against “wolf warrior” threats is clarity. Xue’s incendiary rhetoric has, no doubt inadvertently, contributed to a new and emerging East Asian security order — one in which a Taiwan contingency is now also a contingency for the Japan-US alliance.

Wang Hui-sheng is a founding member of the East Asian Research Institute.

Translated by Gilda Knox Streader

title: Taiwan contingency affects US-Japan pact


title: EDITORIAL CARTOON

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Before 1945, the most widely spoken language in Taiwan was Tai-gi (also known as Taiwanese, Taiwanese Hokkien or Hoklo).However, due to almost a century of language repression policies, many Taiwanese believe that Tai-gi is at risk of disappearing. To understand this crisis, I interviewed academics and activists about Taiwan’s history of language repression, the major challenges of revitalizing Tai-gi and their policy recommendations.Although Taiwanese were pressured to speak Japanese when Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895, most managed to keep their heritage languages alive in their homes.However, starting in 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) enacted martial law

By Carissa Cheng 鄭友欣

“Si ambulat loquitur tetrissitatque sicut anas, anas est” is, in customary international law, the three-part test of anatine ambulation, articulation and tetrissitation. And it is essential to Taiwan’s existence. Apocryphally, it can be traced as far back as Suetonius (蘇埃托尼烏斯) in late first-century Rome. Alas, Suetonius was only talking about ducks (anas).But this self-evident principle was codified as a four-part test at the Montevideo Convention in 1934, to which the United States is a party. Article One: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government;


title: Climate finance must be linked to development

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For decades, the international community has operated under the illusion that climate action and development are different pursuits, each with its own goals, institutions and funding mechanisms. This approach has hindered progress on both agendas.

The world leaders in Belem, Brazil, for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) must recognize this and begin transforming the fragmented, underperforming climate-finance system into an integrated framework that delivers on climate and development objectives.

As they embark on this process, it is worth considering the main takeaways from Policy-Driven Climate and Development Finance: Strategies for Equitable Solutions, the forthcoming volume of essays that I edited.

While making the global financial architecture more equitable and efficient is a long-term project, delegates at COP30 can take important steps forward.

They must deliver a replicable and scalable model for climate finance that translates pledges into predictable flows, provides measurable results and allows for country ownership. This is necessary to narrow the climate-finance gap, especially because developing countries will require between US$5.1 trillion and US$6.8 trillion through 2030 to meet their nationally determined contributions, while their adaptation finance needs are 10 to 18 times greater than international public-finance flows.

A good example of this kind of model is the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, an ambitious blended-finance mechanism designed to unlock large amounts of public and private capital for the conservation and sustainable management of tropical forests. If this facility successfully channels annual payments to tropical forest countries, it will show how climate finance that is anchored in outcomes can preserve biodiversity, support local livelihoods and, crucially, advance development.

COP30 must also focus on efficiency. The climate-finance system is not only underfunded, but also fragmented. Developing countries are forced to navigate an ever-growing number of funds, each with its own procedures and reporting requirements. This bureaucratic thicket, coupled with cofinancing conditions and weak coordination among institutions, can delay projects for years, while too much money is wasted on transaction costs.

At the heart of this inefficiency lies the cost of capital. Green investments often come with high interest rates for developing economies. According to the International Energy Agency, the cost of financing green energy in developing countries can be two to three times higher than in advanced economies, significantly constraining the pace of the low-carbon transition. This disparity is less about project risk and more about structural biases, such as sovereign credit ratings that underestimate resilience, volatile currencies and persistent debt overhangs.

The G20 has recognized the problem and recently hosted a high-level dialogue with the African Union on debt sustainability, the cost of capital and financing reforms. The group must now deliver viable solutions: more dynamic and liquid local capital markets, financial instruments that reduce currency risk and derisking mechanisms that attract private investors on fair terms.

Multilateral development banks, for their part, should reform their mandates and risk frameworks to provide more capital, more cheaply and more quickly.

However, increasing efficiency also requires injecting a new sense of urgency into the process. For communities at risk of being displaced by floods and droughts, a year-long approval cycle for climate financing can turn a disaster into a catastrophe. COP30 must push for accelerated disbursement standards, simplified access procedures and other measures to streamline operations.

There is also the question of fairness. The majority of climate-finance flows are concentrated within the G20 and focused on mitigation. At the same time, developing countries are grappling with unsustainable debt burdens, which have narrowed their fiscal space and crowded out climate and development spending.

The 11 recommendations by the UN secretary-general’s Expert Group on Debt offer a roadmap for addressing this silent debt crisis. The proposed reforms cover three broad areas: restructuring and modernizing the multilateral financial system; providing borrowing countries with technical and capacity-building assistance; and encouraging borrowers to adopt more effective strategies for debt management. Implementing those recommendations would help low and middle-income countries redirect resources from debt service toward investment in sustainable growth.

Instruments such as debt-for-climate and debt-for-nature swaps can complement these efforts by ensuring that financial relief is linked to climate and environmental protection, and creating fiscal space for spending on development goals.

Integrated finance is the only viable path forward, because a government that invests in climate action such as resilient agriculture or green transport is also advancing development goals. The global financial architecture must reflect that reality.

COP30 can bring about a move in this direction. Governments can commit to incorporating climate and development finance into their budgets. International institutions can begin to streamline rules, align metrics and ensure transparency. Public and private actors can expand the use of innovative tools — from voluntary carbon markets to regional project platforms — that support local transformation.

No country should have to choose between fighting poverty and fighting climate change. The shortcomings of the climate-finance architecture must be addressed. Public financial flows remain indispensable not only for equity, but also for leverage — every dollar spent effectively can mobilize many more in private capital.

Whether COP30 is considered a success largely depends on its ability to maximize the impact of these flows on climate and development outcomes.

Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN special envoy on financing sustainable development and cochair of the Expert Group on Debt, is a former Egyptian minister of investment, a former senior vice president of the World Bank Group and former executive director of the IMF.

Copyright: Project Syndicate


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In government, politicians often mistake gestures for progress. It is disappointing to see British Secretary of State for the Home Department Shabana Mahmood succumb to that temptation.

The home secretary’s flurry of proposals are designed to signal purpose, but constitute a wish list of demands that her department cannot deliver.

Those fleeing persecution are given a five-year right to stay in the UK and can apply for settled status after that.

Mahmood wants refugees to stay initially only for a 30-month period and then review their status to see whether they will be allowed to remain for another 30 months.

After two decades in Britain, they could apply to stay permanently.

Denmark is held up as the model. A decade ago a center-left government there was under pressure, with a surging populist right and immigration dominating voters’ concerns. Danish Social Democrats claimed that getting tough on refugees helped the party win the election.

However, the reality was messier. Copenhagen stripped Syrians of protection, yet could not remove them, leaving people stuck in “deportation centers,” unable to work or live normally. The result was a permanently marginalized population in enforced limbo.

The British government now proposes to repeat this error, only at vastly greater scale.

Mahmood’s office aims to reassess tens of thousands of refugees every two-and-a-half years. With about 100,000 asylum claims annually — and many from countries that have a high grant rate — the system would soon need to conduct about 70,000 reviews each year.

The London-based Refugee Council says that the Home Office would need to review the status of 1.4 million people by 2035 at a cost of ￡872 million (US$1.15 billion). Yet this is the same state that cannot process the 50,000 appeals already in the line, where waits hover at about a year and tribunal judges are in short supply.

Building a new bureaucracy to adjudicate applicants’ status is not bold politics, but magical thinking.

Mahmood has said that she wants to change the European convention on human rights, not abandon it.

It is the Conservatives and Reform UK that talk of going it alone, but meaningful change cannot be made unilaterally. Any solo attempt would be self-defeating, risking Northern Ireland’s peace and undermining the post-Brexit deal with the EU.

Labour could achieve something substantial that voters care about and close the asylum hotels. Not by 2029, but by next year.

The Refugee Council says the math is simple: 40 percent of hotel residents come from five countries — Sudan, Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria — from where between 60 and 98 percent are granted asylum. A one-off scheme to give permission to stay for a limited period, subject to security checks, would empty hotels rapidly.

Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak did just this 2023. There would be no need to engage with a damaging arms race with the far right, which would see Labour lose progressive support, but it would solve the single asylum-related issue that the public cares most about.

In post-Brexit politics, it is hard to see how one out-Farages British Member of Parliament Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK. Yet that is what the Labour government is attempting to do.

Copying Reform UK’s cruelty on asylum lets Farage own the issue, outbid Labour and drive the debate rightward at no cost. Worse, Labour increases the salience of an issue that it cannot solve on its own — and gifts right-wingers the advantage, while setting itself up to look cruel and incompetent.

title: UK ministers cannot out-Farage the far right


title: Scotland advance to 2026 World Cup

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LATE DRAMA: Denmark were set to advance to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the 90th minute, but Kieran Tierney scored a goal three minutes into injury time

Injury-time wonder-goals by Kieran Tierney and Kenny McLean on Tuesday handed Scotland a stunning 4-2 win over Denmark to qualify them for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, while Spain also booked their ticket with a 2-2 draw against Turkey.

Belgium thumped Liechtenstein 7-0 to reach next year’s tournament as Switzerland and Austria ground out draws to secure their places in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Scotland’s late show in Glasgow means Steve Clarke’s side have qualified for the global soccer showpiece for the first time since 1998.

Soctland’s Scott McTominay, front, grabs the corner flag as teammates celebrate their fourth goal during their 2026 FIFA World Cup European qualification match against Denmark at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland, on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Level at 2-2 as the clock ticked past 90, Denmark were set to advance to the World Cup as Group C winners until Tierney curled in an exquisite finish from distance three minutes into injury time.

McLean then put the match beyond doubt as he lifted the ball over Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who was well off his line, from the halfway line on 98 minutes.

“That just sums up this squad,” captain Andy Robertson told the BBC. “Never say die. We just keep going right to the end and one of the craziest games.


title: Advocaat to become oldest coach at FIFA World Cup

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At the age of 78, Dick Advocaat is set to be the oldest coach at a FIFA World Cup after his Curacao team held out for a dramatic draw in Jamaica and qualified for their first finals appearance.

The much-traveled Advocaat has coached seven other national teams, including three stints in charge of his native Netherlands with whom he went as far as the World Cup quarter-finals in 1994. However, taking Curacao to the World Cup might be his greatest achievement.

The tiny island nation, a self-governing part of the Netherlands with a population of little more than 150,000, is the smallest country to qualify for soccer’s premier showcase.

Curacao players and fans celebrate their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification after a 0-0 draw with Jamaica at the National Stadium in Kingston on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Advocaat took charge of the team in January last year. However, he had to watch them complete the job from afar having left the squad shortly after they arrived in Jamaica at the weekend to return to his home in The Hague, the Netherlands, for what the Curacao federation said were “family reasons.”

Ahead of the match, Advocaat in a statement said: “It’s a very difficult decision to have to leave the boys here. I had to make this decision with a heavy heart, but family is more important than football. From the Netherlands, I will stay in close contact with the staff, and I have complete confidence in this group of players.”

It was 2am on Wednesday in the Netherlands when Advocaat sat down to watch the team, keeping in telephone contact with team manager Wouter Jansen, who passed his instructions on to assistant coaches Dean Gorre and Cor Pot at halftime, Dutch media reported.

Curacao led a charmed existence at a packed Independence Park as Jamaica hit the woodwork three times in the second half, although they did have their chances at the other end and kept Jamaica’s veteran goalkeeper Andre Blake busy.

The fairytale looked shattered in the fourth of the five minutes added on at the end of the game when Curacao substitute Jeremy Antonisse appeared to have brought down Isaac Hayden, and Salvadoran referee Ivan Barton immediately pointed to the spot.

However, the referee was quickly encouraged by the video assistant referee officials to check the incident on the small touchline screen and without hesitation reversed his own decision to the consternation of the crowd.

Curacao’s delight was confirmed minutes later when the final whistle blew to start their celebrations.

The oldest person to coach at the World Cup is German Otto Rehhagel, who was 71 years and 317 days old when he managed Greece in their final group game against Argentina in South Africa in 2010.


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Ambitious and confident, Japan aim to win World Cup

Japan have set themselves the ambitious target of winning next year’s FIFA World Cup, and coach Hajime Moriyasu believes they are making big strides in the right direction heading into 2026.

The four-time Asian champions have never gone past the last 16 at a World Cup, but a strong squad of Europe-based players and impressive recent results have convinced the coach that they can make history in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Japan beat Brazil for the first time last month and followed that up with convincing wins over Ghana and Bolivia to end the year on a high.

Japan head coach Hajime Moriyasu looks on during their training session ahead of a friendly match against Bolivia at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Moriyasu celebrated his 100th game in charge in Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Bolivia in Tokyo and thinks his team is shaping up nicely.

“Of course, it’s important to win when we’re on top, but the players showed tonight that we can win even when things aren’t going our way, which builds confidence,” he said. “I changed seven players from the team that started against Ghana, and we showed that we can still win and function effectively regardless of who plays.”

Japan stunned Germany and Spain at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar before losing on penalties to Croatia in the last 16.

They were the first team to punch their ticket to next year’s tournament and their only defeat in Asian qualifying came after they had secured their spot.

They have not had things all their own way this year, and a 0-0 draw with Mexico and a 2-0 loss to the US in September showed there was still work to be done.

However, they impressed in coming back from two goals down to beat Brazil 3-2 and looked assured in defense in keeping clean sheets against Ghana and Bolivia.

“I think the players have improved their ability to express the team’s playing style in both attack and defense,” Moriyasu said. “The fact that we’ve been able to spend a lot of time together over the past three months has increased our shared understanding.”

Crystal Palace’s Daichi Kamada has played a key role this year along with Eintracht Frankfurt’s Ritsu Doan, Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda and Real Sociedad attacker Takefusa Kubo.

Wataru Endo has done his part as captain, despite getting little playing time at English Premier League champions Liverpool.

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Zion Suzuki has emerged as a steady presence after enduring a torrid time at last year’s AFC Asian Cup.

Brighton & Hove Albion winger Kaoru Mitoma has featured little as he struggles with injury, while former Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu has barely played any soccer at all for the past two years.

Tomiyasu is still without a club after leaving the Gunners in July to focus on his rehabilitation from injury, but Moriyasu said this week that he is confident Tomiyasu would return in time for the World Cup.

Japan have only one more international window before Moriyasu has to pick his World Cup squad, and it has been reported that a March trip to play England at Wembley could be on the cards.

The coach said that he would likely wait until the last minute before finalizing his squad, and urged his players to make the most of their time.

“We finished the year with consecutive wins, but I want the players to go back to their clubs now and keep trying to raise their level,” he said. “You can be sure that other teams will be analyzing us so we need to keep improving our tactics and playing style so that we can outsmart them.”


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LeBron James on Tuesday made a winning start to his NBA-record 23rd season, returning after a near one-month injury absence in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 140-126 victory over the Utah Jazz.

James, 40, missed the Lakers’ first 14 games of the season with sciatica, but was quickly back into his rhythm before finishing with 11 points, 12 assists and three rebounds.

There was still time for James to bring up another milestone, his two three-pointers taking him past Reggie Miller for sixth place on the NBA’s all-time regular season three-pointers list.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James, center, shoots the ball against the Utah Jazz during their NBA match at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Photo: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images/USA Today

Luka Doncic, who led the Lakers scoring with 37 points, welcomed James’ return to the lineup.

“It’s been a long time since he played basketball, so I think for the first game back, he looked amazing,” Doncic said. “He’s gonna keep getting his rhythm, and he’s gonna help us a lot.”

Doncic was backed with 26 points from Austin Reaves, while Deandre Ayton added 20. Utah led by 11 points during the second quarter, but were blown away in the third as the Lakers poured in 37 points to open up a sizeable double-digit lead heading into the final frame.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons stretched their longest win streak since 2008 to 11 games with a 120-112 victory in Atlanta, Georgia, snapping the Hawks’ five-game win streak.

The Pistons, who lead the NBA Eastern Conference at 13-2, got 25 points and 10 assists from Cade Cunningham and 24 points with eight rebounds from Jalen Duren.

Jalen Johnson sparked Atlanta (9-6) with 25 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

At Brooklyn, Jaylen Brown scored 29 points and Payton Pritchard added 22 and 10 rebounds to spark the Boston Celtics in a 113-99 victory over the Nets.

Desmond Bane scored 23 points and reserve Anthony Black added 21 to lead the Orlando Magic over visiting Golden State 121-113.

Stephen Curry led the Warriors (9-7) with 34 points while Jimmy Butler added 33 in a losing cause.

At San Antonio, De’Aaron Fox scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half, and Harrison Barnes added 23 to spark the host Spurs over Memphis 111-101.

The Spurs (10-4) were without star big man Victor Wembanyama because of a left calf strain and guard Stephon Castle with a left hip flexor strain while Memphis star guard Ja Morant was sidelined by a right calf strain.

“We’re trying to do this as a collective. There’s no replacing Vic,” Barnes said. “Were just trying to find ways to win, share the ball, move the ball, that’s how we’ll do that.”

Barnes scored the first seven points in an 11-0 game-closing run to secure the victory.

“Harrison Barnes carried us through this. That’s just what a vet does,” Fox said. “It felt great winning the game with all the guys we have out.”

“We have a team, and we know that when one guy goes down, we have a number of guys that can step up. No one guy will take up the slack for one being out,” Fox added.

title: LeBron makes winning return for Lakers


content_text:
Taiwan yesterday clinched two silver medals at the Summer Deaflympics in Tokyo, following podium finishes for women’s 100m hurdler Hsu Le and shooting duo Hsu Ming-jui and Kao Ya-ju.

Hsu Le, the defending champion, made an impressive comeback from injury to finish second to Hungary’s Nikolett Gal with a time of 14.40 seconds.

Speaking after the race, Hsu Le said that although she was disappointed not to win gold, she was proud to return to the podium after a repeated strain on her left glute and thigh last year, which kept her out of training for six months.

Hsu Le holds the Chinese Taipei flag after winning a silver medal at the women’s 100m hurdles at the Tokyo Deaflympics yesterday. Photo: CNA

Meanwhile, Hsu Ming-jui and Kao were runners-up to India’s Abhinav Deshwal and Pranjali Dhumal in the mixed team 10m air pistol event.

On Tuesday, Wei Yu-tze secured Taiwan’s first medal at this year’s Deaflympics, taking silver in the men’s decathlon.

Taiwan has 76 athletes competing in 11 sports at the ongoing Deaflympics, which runs through Wednesday next week.

Hsu Ming-jui, second left, and Kao Ya-ju, second right, pose for a photograph after winning silver medals at the mixed team 10m air pistol event at the Tokyo Deaflympics yesterday. Photo: CNA

title: Taiwan collects two more silvers at the Deaflympics


content_text:
CLASH:  Trump denounced an ABC News reporter and threatened to have the network’s license pulled after she asked about the Khashoggi killing and Trump’s business dealings

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) knew nothing about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabian agents, offering a fierce defense of the visiting prince that contradicted a US intelligence assessment.

The controversy over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and US-based critic of the Saudi Arabian leadership, flared again in the Oval Office in front of cameras as the kingdom’s de facto ruler made his first White House visit in more than seven years, seeking to further rehabilitate his global image tarnished by the incident.

Trump later announced that he was designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, and the two sides announced agreements on arms sales, civil nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, left, holds US President Donald Trump’s hand during a meeting at the White House in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

US intelligence agencies concluded that MBS approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. The crown prince denied ordering the operation, but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.

“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him,” Trump told reporters, with MBS sitting beside him. “Things happened, but he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.”

Bin Salman said it had been “painful” to hear about Khashoggi’s death, but that his government “did all the right steps of investigation.”

“We’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that, and it’s painful and it’s a huge mistake,” he told reporters.

Trump denounced ABC News’ Mary Bruce as a “terrible reporter” and threatened the network’s license to broadcast after she asked whether it was appropriate for Trump’s family to be doing business in Saudi Arabia while he was president.

Before he could answer, she directed a question to MBS: “Your Royal Highness, the US intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist; 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? And the same to you, Mr President.”

After asking Bruce who she worked for, Trump called ABC “fake news,” adding that the Federal Communications Commission should look into suspending the network’s license.

Trump’s treatment of bin Salman prompted a rebuke from Khashoggi’s widow.

“Nothing [can] justify just a horrible crime ... because he’s controversial or he’s unliked by someone,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi said, adding that she wished Trump would meet with her so she could introduce him to the “real Jamal.”

During a formal black-tie dinner at the White House later on Tuesday, which was also attended by Portuguese soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and billionaire Elon Musk, Trump said he was “taking our military cooperation to even greater heights” by designating Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally, a status that provides a US partner with military and economic privileges, but does not entail security commitments.

US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June had made Saudi Arabia safer, Trump added.

A White House fact sheet said the two sides signed a Strategic Defense Agreement, which “fortifies deterrence across the Middle East,” makes it easier for US defense firms to operate in the country and secures “new burden-sharing funds from Saudi Arabia to defray US costs.”

Additional reporting by AP and AFP

title: Trump defends MBS in meeting


title: Russian barrage kills 19 in Ukraine

content_text:
ON ALERT: Romania deployed four jets when a drone entered its airspace during the attacks, while Poland dispatched aircraft as a preventive measure

A large Russian drone and missile barrage killed 19 people and injured dozens more in Ukraine overnight, officials said yesterday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Turkey for talks on finding a settlement that might end Russia’s invasion of his country.

The nighttime attack hit two nine-story apartment blocks in Ternopil, in western Ukraine, Ukrainian Minister of the Interior Ihor Klymenko said.

Emergency crews were sifting through the rubble in daylight to find any survivors, he said.

Rescuers work at an apartment building hit by a morning Russian missile strike in Ternopil, Ukraine, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

At least 66 people were reported injured, including 16 children.

Russia fired 476 strike and decoy drones, as well as 48 missiles of various types, at Ukrainian targets overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

“Every brazen attack against ordinary life indicates that the pressure on Russia [to stop the war] is insufficient,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.

The Ukrainian leader said he would meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later yesterday as part of his efforts to diplomatically isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin and bring more international pressure to bear on him.

“Foremost, we will discuss maximum capabilities to ensure that Ukraine achieves a just peace,” Zelenskiy said of his talks with Erdogan.

“We see some positions and signals from the United States, well, let’s see tomorrow,” he added, without elaborating.

Ternopil, about 200km from the Polish border, sits in a part of relatively peaceful western Ukraine where many people from the east and south moved to as they fled danger along the front line.

Almost 50 people were injured in Russian strikes on three other Ukrainian regions.

Two Eurofighter Typhoon jets and two F-16s were scrambled in Romania when a drone entered the NATO member’s airspace during the Russian attacks, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said.

The Polish military said that Polish and allied aircraft were deployed in the middle of the night as a preventive measure.

Poland’s Rzeszow and Lublin airports were closed temporarily to prioritize military aviation, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said.


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It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos.

The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far.

Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response.

The sculpture Kryptos by James Sanborn is pictured at the Central Intelligence Agency in McLean, Virginia, in an undated photograph. Photo: courtesy of CIA via AP

Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4 as he no longer had the “physical, mental or financial resources” to maintain the code.

In a sign of wide interest in Kryptos, which has inspired cultural figures including The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown, the code’s solution is on course to fetch more than US$240,000 in a sale due to end today.

So when two friends last month announced they had uncovered the last message held by Kryptos (“hidden” in ancient Greek), it invoked fury and concern from the auction house and Sanborn.

Jarett Kobek, a writer from Los Angeles, said the pair came across the code after he noticed a reference to Washington’s Smithsonian Institution, where Sanborn held his archives, in the auction catalog. He asked his friend Richard Byrne, who is based in the US capital, to take a look through the files.

“I took images of all the coding stuff in the files,” said Richard Byrne, a journalist and playwright.

A few hours later, Kobek called him and said: “Hey, you might have found something interesting,” he recalled.

Using Byrne’s photos and clues previously shared by Sanborn, Kobek unraveled the K4 message.

The two men decided to write to Sanborn to share their discovery — but instead of congratulations, they were met by alarm.

Sanborn asked them to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) in exchange for a share of the money raised in the auction, they said.

“The NDA is a total nonstarter,” Kobek said. “You are running an auction where what you are selling is intellectual property exclusivity.”

“If I take money from that sale, I feel like this would almost certainly make me party to fraud,” he said.

They last month went public with their discovery in a New York Times piece.

Sanborn, explaining his communication with the men, wrote in a public letter: “I was trying to save K4 from disclosure by any means possible. I had succeeded for 35 years after all.”

Kobek said the pair were keen to avoid disrupting the K4 auction.

“The last thing anyone wants to do is take money from an 80-year-old artist,” he said.

Even if they have no intention of revealing the code’s solution, the two men said the auction house has sent them cease-and-desist letters.

Sanborn has acknowledged his error in archiving the crucial information — but he downplayed the discovery.

He said the pair had “found and photographed five pieces of scrambled texts that I had accidentally placed in the archive boxes all those years ago.”

“The scrambled plain text was found, but without the coding method or the key. This is a very important distinction,” he separately told a news conference this month.

The discovery does not end the mystery of Kryptos, he added.

K5, with a “similar but not identical” coding system to K4, is also to be released after the current auction sale.

title: Reveal shakes auction of CIA cipher


content_text:
A Gustav Klimt portrait painting that helped save the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust on Tuesday sold for US$236.4 million, a record for a modern art piece.

Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold after a 20-minute bidding war at Sotheby’s in New York, where the flashiest item of the night was a solid gold, fully functioning toilet that went for US$12.1 million.

The 1.8m-tall portrait, painted over three years between 1914 and 1916, depicts the daughter of one of Vienna’s wealthiest families adorned in an East Asian emperor’s cloak. It is one of two full-length portraits by the Austrian artist that remain privately owned.

Gustav Klimt’s Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo: Sotheby’s via AP

The work was kept separate from other Klimt paintings that burned in a fire at an Austrian castle.

The colorful painting depicts the Lederer family’s life of luxury before Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938. Nazis looted the Lederer art collection, leaving only the family portraits, which were considered “too Jewish” to be worth stealing, according to the National Gallery of Canada, where the painting was previously on loan.

In an attempt to save herself, Elisabeth Lederer made up a story that Klimt, who was not Jewish and died in 1918, was her father. It helped that the artist spent years working meticulously on her portrait.

With help from her former brother-in-law, a high-ranking Nazi official, she convinced the Nazis to give her a document stating that she descended from Klimt. That allowed her to remain safely in Vienna until she died of an illness in 1944.

Sotheby’s declined to share the identity of the portrait’s buyer.

Later in the evening, an 18-karat-gold toilet by Maurizio Cattelan — the provocative Italian artist known for taping a banana to a wall — hit the auction block. Cattelan has said the 101kg piece, titled America, satirizes superwealth.

“Whatever you eat, a US$200 lunch or a US$2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise,” he once said.

title: Klimt portrait breaks record with US$236m sale


content_text:
First kiss was 20 million years ago, scientists say

Kissing did not begin with star-crossed human lovers but with the primate ancestors of great apes about 20 million years ago, a study published yesterday showed.

Researchers from the University of Oxford and the Florida Institute of Technology wanted to examine when kissing began, given that from an evolutionary standpoint it has no obvious survival benefit, and could spread disease.

Yet humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas all kiss, which strongly suggests the habit was inherited from a shared ancestor.

A man kisses a monkey at the Jaguar Animal Rescue Center in Puerto Viejo de Limon, Costa Rica, on Aug. 25, 2010. Photo: Reuters

Scientists in the study combined observations of primate behavior with data on evolutionary relationships to rewind the clock and try and date the first kiss.

“Using these two key pieces of information, we employed a modeling approach that allowed us to simulate different evolutionary scenarios,” said lead author Matilda Brindle of Oxford’s Department of Biology.

Running the model millions of times put that first smooch at 16.9 million to 21.5 million years ago.

The findings were published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

The scientists’ unromantic definition of kissing was “nonaggressive, mouth-to-mouth contact that did not involve food transfer.” That included sexual kissing, as well as platonic kisses such as those between family members or in friendly greetings.

How kissing emerged remains a subject of debate, as does why it persisted.

“Some people suggest sexual kissing is a useful way of assessing mate quality or suitability,” Brindle said. “Alternatively, kissing could be a type of foreplay, increasing sexual arousal and boosting the chance of fertilization.”

Platonic pecks are thought to be used to navigate complex social relationships or increase bonding, she said.

The study argued that Neanderthals and humans also likely locked lips, given evidence that they interbred and shared an oral microbe — a sign they swapped saliva — long after the two species diverged 450,000 to 750,000 years ago.


content_text:
Guinea-Bissau is to elect its next president on Sunday, seeking to turn the page on a tumultuous history of coups and unrest with a vote that nonetheless lacks the country’s main opposition.

About 860,000 voters are to choose between 12 candidates, including incumbent Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who is the favorite to land a second five-year term.

Voters in the west African nation are also to elect 102 members of parliament, which was dissolved by Embalo in December 2023.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo inspect the honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on July 10 last year. Photo: Reuters

It is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than 40 percent of its population living in extreme poverty.

Its recent history is marked by political crises including four coups, a string of attempted coups, and government collapses.

“Our parents fought to liberate this country, but the heirs have destroyed everything for personal gain,” said Djibril Sanha, a 30-year-old teacher in Bissau. “We don’t want to hear about violence or coups anymore. Enough is enough.”

The vote marks the first time in Guinea-Bissau’s history that the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which led the former Portuguese colony to independence in 1974, would be absent from the ballot.

PAIGC and its candidate Domingos Simoes Pereira, who also leads the Pai Terra Ranka coalition of parties, were disqualified by the Supreme Court.

While stability is the main issue, many of the nation’s 2.2 million citizens also want the next president to deliver better healthcare, education and infrastructure.

They are also demanding jobs and reforms to address poverty, corruption, drug trafficking and other problems.

Lucia Bird, an expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, doubts the legislative and presidential elections would bring greater stability given the country’s recent history.

As was the case in the 2019 presidential election, she fears there would be allegations of irregularities after the vote.

“In Guinea-Bissau, problems usually arise after elections”, said Bird, who directs the organization’s Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa.

Embalo’s main challengers are former president Jose Mario Vaz and opposition candidate Fernando Dias, who poses the biggest threat after receiving support from both PAIGC and Pereira.

Embalo and Vaz are the only heads of state in the past 30 years to complete their terms without being killed or overthrown.

With Pereira and his party barred by the Supreme Court for filing late applications, the opposition alleges “manipulation of the electoral process.”

Bird believes that Embalo is in a “strong position” to win a second term.

“This is partly explained by the fact that he was able to conduct his campaign without restrictions, unlike the [remaining] opposition, which faced significant limitations,” such as a lack of resources, she said.

title: Guinea-Bissau voters aim to turn page in election


title: World News Quick Take

content_text:
UNITED STATES

Concrete owl recovering

An owl found partially encased in concrete after it got inside a cement mixer in southwestern Utah is expected to fly free again after it was painstakingly cleaned by animal sanctuary workers who described the bird as a “fighter.” The great horned owl was found at the Black Desert Resort and arrived at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab earlier this month with its face, chest and right wing covered in dried concrete. After making sure the bird could breathe, workers spent days cracking apart the concrete using forceps and cleaning its feathers using toothbrushes, dish soap and their fingers. Two weeks later, it was able to fly again and is continuing its recovery in an aviary. “He’s a youngster, which may be why he ended up in a concrete mixer,” Bart Richwalski of the animal sanctuary said.

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary small animals manager Sierra Medlin examines the wing of an owl in Kanab, Utah, on Nov. 6. Photo: Best Friends Animal Sanctuary via AP

LEBANON

Israeli strike kills 13

An Israeli strike on the southern city of Sidon killed 13 people and wounded several others, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday. The Israeli military said it struck militants who it said were operating in a training compound in the crowded Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon. Hamas condemned the strike in a statement, saying it targeted an open sports field used by residents of the camp, adding that there were no military establishments in refugee camps in Lebanon.

NEW ZEALAND

Puberty drugs to be banned

The government yesterday said it was banning new prescriptions of puberty blocking drugs for young transgender people, in a move that critics warned could worsen the mental health of those affected. Doctors would no longer be able to prescribe gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues for gender dysphoria or incongruence to those seeking treatment and not already on the drugs, Minister of Health Simeon Brown said. The decision resulted from a health ministry finding of a lack of “high-quality evidence that demonstrates the benefits or risks,” he added in a statement. The ban takes effect from Dec. 19. The ban would have a devastating impact on the lives and well-being of transgender and gender diverse young people in New Zealand, Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa vice president Elizabeth McElrea said in a statement. “The ban will lead to worsening mental health, increased suicidality and dysphoria for gender diverse children and young people.”

JAPAN

Nuclear plant to be turned on

The government is set to approve the restart of the world’s biggest nuclear plant this week, local media reported yesterday. The resource-poor country pulled the plug on nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but it wants to revive atomic energy and reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant is expected to get approval from the Niigata Prefecture governor to resume operations, according to Kyodo News and the Nikkei business daily, citing unnamed sources.

MALAYSIA

Utility loses US$1bn to crypto

National utility firm Tenaga Nasional Bhd lost US$1.1 billion of power to illegal cryptocurrency mining since 2020 in thefts the Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation said posed a “serious threat to the national energy supply system.” Tenaga also uncovered 13,827 premises that were suspected of being illegal cryptocurrency mining hubs, the ministry said in a parliamentary reply filed on Tuesday.


content_text: Miss Estonia Brigitta Schaback competes in the Miss Universe national costume competition at Impact Challenger Hall in Nonthaburi Province, on the outskirts of Bangkok yesterday. Women representing 120 nations are competing in the 74th Miss Universe beauty pageant, which is to be held tomorrow.

title: On the hunt