title: Supply chain lessons from Japan

content_text:
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has led her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to a sweeping victory in a snap election over the weekend, securing 316 seats and a two-thirds majority in the Japanese House of Representatives. While major foreign media outlets have rushed to report on the landslide, Chinese state media has remained eerily silent, reflecting the reality of economic sanctions failing to achieve their intended political outcome.

In November last year, Takaichi’s statements on “a Taiwan contingency” elicited a multipronged response from Beijing in which it advised its citizens against traveling to Japan, barred aquatic product imports, deplatformed Japanese artists and weaponized rare earth supply chains. The approach has not only failed to undercut support for Takaichi, but served to highlight the importance of supply chain security for Japanese society as a whole.

According to a Feb. 6 report from Japan’s Kyodo news agency, after China tightened export controls on “dual-use” items with potential military uses at the start of the year, it has now relaxed restrictions for several rare earth exports. However, trade between the two nations continues to experience customs delays. This curious transformation could be interpreted as a gesture of goodwill from Beijing for Takaichi’s government in the run-up to the election, and an attempt to open up room for dialogue. Yet, by keeping supply flowing even as companies are made acutely aware of supply chain precarity, Beijing retains leverage for ongoing pressure.

Japan is far from inexperienced when it comes to these issues. Since China placed restrictions on rare earth exports to Japan following a 2010 boat collision incident near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — also known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan — Tokyo has been steadily reorganizing supply chains over the past 15 years. Beyond investing in Australian mines and French refineries, and developing alternative technologies such as amorphous alloys, 2022 saw the implementation of the Act on the Promotion of Ensuring National Security through Integrated Implementation of Economic Measures, together amounting to a multifaceted defense strategy of diversification, technological autonomy and institutional protections.

With the government taking on investment risk through its administration of the Japanese Organization for Metals and Energy Security and the private sector focusing on operational efficiency, reliance on China for metallic rare earths has dropped from 90 to 60 percent. However, challenges persist, with China expanding its rare earth export controls to include gallium, germanium, graphite and hundreds of other key materials late last year. It has further prohibited re-exports via third countries in an assertion of long-arm jurisdiction, presenting a major challenge that Tokyo urgently needs to overcome.

Japan has shown that if businesses and the government can offer alternative solutions and build strategic resilience, vulnerabilities to overreliance in supply chains can be significantly reduced. For Taiwan, there are three key takeaways.

First, supply chain reorganization is a long-term commitment. Requiring upwards of 10 years, it must establish dedicated institutions, and integrate resources from industry, the government and academia for strategic investment.

Second, technological advancements are the key to breaking away from overreliance. Taiwan should accelerate technological development programs for alternative materials, particularly the rare earth compounds and specialty gases required in semiconductor manufacturing.

Finally, regional cooperation is an important component of risk distribution. Working with like-minded emerging supply chain partners for refinement processes should be a priority. Supply chain security must be integrated into broader national strategic thinking; only when there is strategic autonomy can long-term industrial competitiveness and economic security be ensured.

Chiang Tai-chin is the director of the Japan Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research.

Translated by Gilda Knox Streader


title: Reflections for the lunar new year

content_text:
More than one month has passed since the Gregorian new year, yet there are still a few more days before the Year of the Snake comes to an end and the Year of the Horse begins. This is an exceptionally exciting moment — one could say it is time for the “Dance of the Golden Snake” (金蛇狂舞) as adrenaline surges in anticipation of the arrival of the Year of the Horse.

First, US President Donald Trump has set out to eliminate Chinese influence in the western hemisphere. On Jan. 3, he deployed troops to Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The country is now being run by acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, who is implementing US intentions — controlling oil exports, releasing political prisoners, and carrying out gradual reforms to avoid major upheaval and internal chaos. Unexpectedly, those said to have suffered the greatest from this operation were Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) family, who had allegedly monopolized Venezuelan oil at low prices — particularly Xi’s elder sister, Qi Qiaoqiao (齊橋橋). Trump is now expected to deal with Cuba, whose energy supplies have been cut off, in an attempt to resolve the unfinished business of former US president John F. Kennedy.

After Panama’s Supreme Court on Jan. 29 ruled that the concession held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings to operate ports at either end of the Panama Canal was unconstitutional, China threatened to impose political and economic sanctions on Panama, while CK Hutchison stated that it would seek compensation. This was the direct result of China’s interference in the sale of port management rights. CK Hutchison’s share price rose 0.69 percent that day, indicating that investors were unimpressed by China’s intervention. Meanwhile, several Central American countries are also in talks with the US about changing their policies toward Taiwan. It is clear that China’s Belt and Road Initiative is encountering difficulties in the region.

In the eastern hemisphere, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi dissolved the Japanese House of Representatives before sweeping the general election with the momentum of a tidal wave — securing an unprecedented victory for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which now controls more than two-thirds of the 465 seats, and is further allied with the Japan Innovation Party. It holds the power to take initiative on issues such as countering China, economic reform and constitutional revision.

However, Takaichi has not let the victory go to her head — she thanked Trump for his support and expressed gratitude to voters who turned out to cast their ballots amid snowstorms. After the election, she said she would fulfill her campaign promise of strengthening national defense, while indicating that the door to discussions with China would remain open.

With regard to how constitutional amendments would proceed — transforming Japan from a so-called “pacifist state” into a country capable of defending its own sovereignty — Takaichi would likely handle the matter with caution. Xi himself amended China’s constitution solely to facilitate his own lifelong dictatorship. On what grounds, then, could he criticize Japan?

Meanwhile, the artificial intelligence industry is driving global economic growth, despite concerns about a potential bubble. Taiwan’s stock market hit a new record high on Tuesday, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co shares reaching a new peak. However, the divergence between volume and price is somewhat insufficient.

The recent dramatic fluctuations in the prices of gold and silver are also unprecedented. After Trump took office last year, the sheer scale of his moves combined with uncertain economic policies led a lot of safe-haven capital to flood into gold, which sent gold prices soaring, and silver prices followed suit. That the price of gold would exceed US$5,000 was already unimaginable, but some experts believed it could even rise past US$20,000. However, extremes ultimately reverse — after climbing to nearly US$5,600, the price of gold suddenly crashed on Jan. 30, plunging 7 percent within just 40 minutes and leaving an untold number of investors facing margin calls and forced liquidation.

Swings in the price of silver were even more volatile. Bargain hunters — particularly older women in communist countries such as China and Vietnam — rushed in to buy on the dip. Bitcoin fell even more sharply at the beginning of this month, plunging more than 40 percent before managing to hold on at around US$60,000. Fortunately, relatively few investors and speculators were involved — otherwise, the resulting waves might have caused far more to suffer.

It is precisely the “Dance of the Golden Snake” that heightens people’s expectations for the coming Year of the Horse, while sharpening our sense of vigilance. Amid the charge of ten thousand galloping horses, one cannot help but wonder — at the Trump-Xi meeting rumored to be held in April, would Xi, the so-called “accelerator-in-chief,” feel as though he has been manipulated and outmaneuvered by Trump?

In reality, the alliance between the US, Japan and Taiwan is becoming increasingly consolidated. Faced with such a favorable international landscape, some within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have pushed themselves toward political extremes. What consequences might this bring? In the end, the path toward the light remains the shared aspiration of humankind.

Paul Lin is a Taipei-based political commentator.

Translated by Kyra Gustavsen


title: Taiwan is losing its appeal to migrants

content_text:
Last month, I asked dozens of Indonesian vocational school students in West Java whether they planned to work overseas after graduation. Nearly all raised their hands.

However, when I asked whether they wanted to work in Taiwan, only seven students kept their hands raised. Most said they preferred Japan or South Korea.

I then asked them whether they were aware that working in Japan or South Korea typically requires nearly a year of preparation and involves higher costs than working in Taiwan. Most nodded, and did not seem to mind.

Taiwan remains the top destination for migrant workers. Last year, 89,960 Indonesians migrated to Taiwan, far more than to Japan (19,970) or South Korea (7,448). Yet, the advantages that once drew migrants, such as quick placement, lower upfront costs and simpler requirements, resonate far less with younger Indonesians.

This popularity crisis has little to do with cross-strait relations. Japanese pop culture and the Korean Wave are reshaping how young Indonesians imagine work overseas, moving beyond economic motivations to embrace overseas work as a path to a new lifestyle.

Many parents now have the capital to cover the high placement fees required for Japan and South Korea, accumulated through years of overseas work, while the Indonesian government has curbed excessive recruitment charges.

Many young people are unaware that live-in care work in Taiwan, largely filled by migrant labor, continues to be excluded from the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法). While they often focus on the higher wages offered in Japan and South Korea, they overlook the fact that lower pay for domestic workers in Taiwan is closely linked to this exclusion.

If Taiwan wants to sustain its appeal as a destination for migrant workers, the most urgent step is to include live-in care workers under the aforementioned law. While other blue-collar workers, such as fishers, construction workers and factory laborers, are already covered, residential care workers remain excluded.

Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong face rapidly aging populations. These societies increasingly depend on migrant care workers to support older adults, allowing younger citizens to remain employed in higher-productivity sectors. Similar demographic pressures have intensified competition among East Asian countries for migrant care workers, prompting workers to choose destinations that offer the most appealing conditions.

Moreover, Taiwan relies on Indonesian care workers. The latest data from the Ministry of Labor showed that one in four migrant workers was employed in the care sector, and 82 percent of migrant care workers came from Indonesia.

Extending labor protections would guarantee regular rest days, allowing care workers time beyond their workplaces. Many have lived in Taiwan for years, yet have seen little more than Taipei Railway Station. Under the current legislation, rest days are entirely determined by employers, and it is not uncommon for care workers to receive as little as 12 hours off every two months.

Including care workers under the law would also enable fairer wages. Despite a rise in the national minimum wage to NT$29,500 last month, live-in care workers still earn NT$20,000 per month — unchanged since 2017.

As Taiwan becomes a super-aged society, it cannot afford to lose migrant workers to competing destinations. The stakes are even higher for a tech-savvy younger generation, whose online stories can rapidly shape migration choices, either reinforcing preferred destinations or amplifying accounts of harsh working conditions in Taiwan.

Vanny El Rahman is a doctoral researcher in Asia-Pacific regional studies at National Dong Hwa University.


content_text:
In a stark reminder of China’s persistent territorial overreach, Pema Wangjom Thongdok, a woman from Arunachal Pradesh holding an Indian passport, was detained for 18 hours at Shanghai Pudong Airport on Nov. 24 last year. Chinese immigration officials allegedly informed her that her passport was “invalid” because she was “Chinese,” refusing to recognize her Indian citizenship and claiming Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet. Officials had insisted that Thongdok, an Indian-origin UK resident traveling for a conference, was not Indian despite her valid documents. India lodged a strong diplomatic protest, summoning the Chinese charge d’affaires in Delhi and demanding

By Dorjee Phunchu Dinglow

Immediately after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) “Justice Mission” exercise at the end of last year, a question was posed to Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal regarding recent developments involving the exercises around Taiwan, and how he viewed their impact on regional peace and stability. His answer was somewhat perplexing to me as a curious student of Taiwanese affairs.“India closely follows developments across the Indo-Pacific region,” he said, adding: “We have an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region, in view of our significant trade, economic, people-to-people, and maritime interests. We urge all concerned

By Mukesh Kaushik

In the past 72 hours, US Senators Roger Wicker, Dan Sullivan and Ruben Gallego took to social media to publicly rebuke the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the defense budget. I understand that Taiwan’s head is on the chopping block, and the urgency of its security situation cannot be overstated. However, the comments from Wicker, Sullivan and Gallego suggest they have fallen victim to a sophisticated disinformation campaign orchestrated by an administration in Taipei that treats national security as a partisan weapon.The narrative fed to our allies claims the opposition is slashing the defense budget to kowtow to the Chinese

By Howard Shen 沈正浩

title: EDITORIAL CARTOON


content_text:
Will democracy govern capitalism, or be consumed by it?If the world cannot rein in the giant multinational corporations, global democracy is at risk of falling to rule by the extremely wealthy

Ongoing efforts to derail multilateral tax cooperation lie at the heart of a global program to replace democratic governance with coercive rule by the extremely wealthy — or what we call 21st-century Caesarism. Any strategy to counter this program therefore must recognize that taxing extreme wealth is essential to saving democracy.

Fortunately, there has been some progress here. The African Union continues to champion the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation; Colombia, Brazil, Spain and Tunisia have implemented progressive tax reforms; the French public has signaled strong support for a 2 percent tax on the ultra-wealthy; and a proposed California ballot initiative would enact a one-time 5 percent tax on billionaires’ net worth.

However, tax justice remains hotly contested. At the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/G20 Inclusive Framework negotiations early last month, more than 145 countries agreed to give big US multinationals a free pass. Having been compromised by power imbalances from the outset, the OECD/G20 process was easy for US President Donald Trump to hijack. Following intensive lobbying by Washington, large US energy, technology and pharmaceutical firms secured sweeping exemptions from the 15 percent global minimum tax that had been agreed in 2021 after a decade of painstaking negotiations.

Of course, the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework could not state its surrender openly. Instead, it suddenly “discovered” that the existing US tax regime is equivalent to Pillar Two of the original agreement, implying that other countries are barred from imposing additional taxes on multinationals headquartered in the US.

However, the two are not the same: The global minimum tax applies a country-by-country computation to determine the amount, whereas US rules apply to US-based multinationals’ total foreign profits. The latter allows companies to offset high taxes paid in some countries against zero taxes paid in others, thus restoring the advantages of zero-tax jurisdictions.

Not only does this new agreement fundamentally undermine the principle that multinationals should pay a minimum coordinated tax rate wherever they operate. It also grants US-headquartered multinationals a competitive advantage over other multinationals, all of which are still subject to the 15 percent global minimum tax.

The mechanism for this capitulation was revealing. Under threat of retaliation from the US, G7 leaders prenegotiated the new terms in June last year, and Inclusive Framework members rubber-stamped them last month to avoid picking another fight with Trump.

As Oswald Spengler warned a century ago about the collapse of democracy and the rise of Caesarism, “the forces of dictatorial money-economics” are dismantling the regulatory state and multilateralism. Trump’s aggressive neo-mercantilist strategy — unilaterally declaring punitive tariffs, threatening and imposing blockades, kidnapping national leaders, wielding aircraft carriers like privateer ships, and proposing “boards of peace” designed to re-establish colonial control — bypasses existing international institutions wherever it can. The goal is to appropriate resources and prevent perceived rivals such as China from accessing them.

No country should relinquish its sovereign right to tax multinationals and the super-rich. To surrender this prerogative is not only morally bankrupt and strategically misguided; it is also economically foolish.

To see this, consider Brazil’s economic recovery under President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, Spain’s robust growth under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, or Colombia’s growth since the introduction of progressive tax reforms by former Colombian minister of finance and public credit Jose Antonio Ocampo. These governments stood up to Trump and are leading a global democratic counterreactionary coalition. Their success provides powerful empirical evidence that progressive fiscal policies and enhanced state capacity correlate with positive economic indicators and greater social cohesion.

Many in Europe are coming to this realization, too. In France, the “Zucman Tax” — Gabriel Zucman’s proposed minimum 2 percent tax on the wealth of the ultra-rich — commands almost 90 percent public support and is dominating the national conversation. Although initially rejected by the French National Assembly, it is up for renewed debate this year.

Similarly, in December last year, Tunisia approved a new 0.5 to 1 percent levy on the worldwide assets (including real estate, stocks, bonds and cryptocurrencies) of residents with holdings worth more than US$1 million. In California, voters this year are to decide whether to impose a one-time 5 percent levy on billionaires’ wealth to fund healthcare, food assistance and education. Notably, this initiative is gaining support even from some billionaires. In New York, negotiations toward the Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation are to resume at the UN, a forum less vulnerable to corporate capture.

True, one of the Trump administration’s first acts was to withdraw from these talks, but the rest of the world decided to continue. The goal is to deliver a framework convention and two early protocols — one on the taxation of cross-border services and one on disputes — for approval by the UN General Assembly next year. The crucial question is how rights to tax the profits of multinationals should be allocated; also up for negotiation are new taxes on cross-border services (including digital ones), new commitments for countries to tax the super-rich, and better information exchanges between countries on beneficial asset ownership.

The current tax rules for multinationals, devised in the 1920s, are no longer fit for today’s digital economy. Negotiators in New York must seize this unique opportunity. They should abandon the fiction that a multinational enterprise is just a collection of independent entities — a conceit that big corporations use to shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions, thus abusing OECD guidelines. A unitary taxation approach is long overdue. The architecture starves governments of at least US$240 billion annually, forces local firms to compete on an uneven playing field, and leads to higher taxes on workers (whose income is less mobile), as countries try to offset lost revenues.

Multinationals’ global income should be apportioned to different jurisdictions on the basis of verifiable factors such as sales and employees, rather than on the outdated principle of “arm’s-length” transactions. The text of the tax convention should reflect this. Failing that, the deeply flawed rules would become entrenched, and the pursuit of “compatibility” with existing frameworks developed at the OECD would compromise both the ambition and the objectives of the UN Tax Convention.

The result would be another fruitless tweak to a failing system. If democracy is to prevail over Caesarism, we must tax extreme wealth — and we must do it fast.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is a former chief economist of the World Bank, a former chair of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers, university professor at Columbia University, and the author, most recently, of The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society. Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is a member of the Club of Rome’s Transformational Economics Commission and cochair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation.

Copyright: Project Syndicate


content_text:
Across Asia, the reaction to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s election triumph has been near unanimous: A stronger Japan is good for the region. Everyone, that is, except China.

Japan’s first-ever female prime minister secured a historic victory, handing her the strongest mandate of any leader in the country’s postwar era. The scale of this win matters far beyond Japan. Under Takaichi, Tokyo is increasingly viewed as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region — a stunning reversal for a country that once made Asia deeply wary of any resurgence in its military power. That shift is not happening because the region has forgotten the past. Rather, it is pragmatically trying to manage the present.

Japan’s occupation of much of Southeast Asia between 1941 and 1945 was marked by severe brutality. Beijing continues to invoke this history — and its own traumatic experience — to warn against any revival of Tokyo’s military role.

However, Asia’s middle powers are adapting. Two forces are driving that recalibration: A recognition that US President Donald Trump prizes self-interest and leverage over diplomacy and cooperation, and China’s increasing willingness to use coercion as a routine instrument of statecraft. As former Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Menon Rao has argued, a more transactional US foreign policy “inevitably increases the importance of allies like Japan in providing continuity and strategic ballast in the Indo-Pacific.”

Trump’s “America first” approach has left many Asian allies uneasy about his commitments on trade and defense. The US remains engaged, but that no longer comes with predictability. From India to Taiwan, governments have felt that volatility keenly. Last week, New Delhi came to an agreement on trade with Washington, but only after a bruising round of talks with the cards stacked firmly in the White House’s favor. Details are still being finalized, but few doubt which side emerged as the winner.

Meanwhile, Taipei has watched anxiously as its future is discussed as leverage in US-China diplomacy ahead of a potential meeting between the US leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). The lesson many regional capitals are drawing is that Washington’s support is conditional, and subject to seemingly fickle changes.

China is making that instinct to hedge more urgent. Whether through coercive trade measures, the harassment of vessels in the South China Sea, or the selective use of economic tools such as restrictions on tourism and critical minerals, Beijing has demonstrated how quickly it can punish behavior it dislikes.

Its sharp reaction to Takaichi’s comments last year — when she suggested that a crisis in the Taiwan Strait could directly implicate Japan’s security — underscores this reality. The fact that she has not walked those comments back, despite repeatedly saying she wants stable relations with China, is telling. Beijing’s pressure has instead backfired, strengthening public support in Japan for reducing economic dependence on the world’s second-largest economy, and boosting domestic resilience on rare earths and energy.

A more confident Tokyo complicates Beijing’s preferred regional order. For many of Asia’s middle powers, that makes Japan an appealing counterweight. South Korea is a case in point. Long skeptical of Japan’s rise because of historical enmity, Seoul has shown a noticeable shift. Takaichi’s recent “drum diplomacy” with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung was more than a viral K-pop moment. It signaled a willingness to set aside old hostilities and deepen cooperation.

This relationship would be a critical one to watch. South Korean ties with Japan have been marked by periods of close security cooperation, oscillating with sharp diplomatic freezes rooted in nationalism. Increasingly, there is a shared recognition in both capitals that they need a functional partnership to manage growing pressure from China and the persistent threat posed by North Korea.

This regional calculation is also reshaping Japan’s own security debate. Defense spending is rising to record levels, and the once-taboo discussion of militarization is moving into the mainstream. A Cabinet Office survey last year found that 45.2 percent of respondents now believe the Japan Self-Defense Forces’ size and capabilities should be strengthened. That was up from 42 percent in 2022, the last time the survey was conducted. China’s military power and activities in the region were cited as a key reason for the sentiment.

Takaichi now faces both opportunity and risk as she considers revisiting sensitive constitutional questions. She has long pushed for reform of the pacifist constitution, which was imposed by the US after World War II and never amended — but she would have to walk a fine line. Moving too cautiously would undercut her mandate, but moving too boldly could alarm neighbors. It would also feed into Beijing’s narrative that Japan’s military threat has merely been dormant.

For now, the wind is at her back. Her victory gives Tokyo rare political stability to play a larger part in a region squeezed between US volatility and mounting Chinese pressure. For much of Asia, that balance is not just welcome — it is increasingly essential. For China, that is precisely the problem.

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC’s lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

title: Everyone wants a stronger Japan, except China


content_text:
While world powers vie for mineral access, laborers die

When US President Donald Trump boasted that he had stopped the conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) — though fighting persists in the DR Congo, at appalling human cost — he made clear that his goals went beyond a long-sought Nobel Peace prize.

“They said to me: ‘Please, please, we would love you to come and take our minerals.’ Which we’ll do,” the US president said.

Now he is following through. On Monday last week, he launched a new strategic reserve plan, “Project Vault,” worth almost US$12 billion. Two days later, US Vice President J.D. Vance hosted a summit seeking to create a trade zone for critical minerals.

The US — and others — are trying to counter the dominance of Beijing, which was far quicker to grasp the strategic importance of such resources. Key to its plan is a deal touted as a way to bring the DR Congo’s wealth and create incentives for peace. Few on the ground are convinced. The deal does nothing to help the DR Congo build processing capacity and requires it to freeze its tax and regulatory regimes for a decade. The EU likes to portray itself as taking higher ground, but in December last year, the parliament and council agreed to weaken key due diligence rules.

The incredible resources of the DR Congo have been violently plundered over centuries for the benefit of richer nations and a handful of individuals on the ground. Four-fifths of the population live below the poverty line. Extraction has meant exploitation and danger. The week before the Washington gathering, at least 200 artisanal miners were crushed to death or suffocated when a coltan mine in Rubaya in the eastern DR Congo collapsed. It became a tomb, one survivor said.

As the journalist Nicolas Niarchos writes in his new book, The Elements of Power, “tech profiteers, politicians, and battery-makers have made a trade-off: Cleaner power at home for pollution and suffering elsewhere.”

Meeting climate goals would require many times the current production of materials such as lithium and cobalt. However, environmental despoliation, the eviction of communities and the exploitation of laborers, including children, are not the inevitable results of the necessary shift away from fossil fuels. The non-governmental organization Global Witness suggests that Trump’s mineral-hunger is better explained by their use in military technology. Tantalum, extracted from coltan, is essential to jet engines and missiles, as well as smartphones and laptops.

Just as growing conflict helps to drive demand, so demand is fueling conflict. Rubaya is part of the swathes of land seized by M23 rebels in the eastern DR Congo in the past few years, with mines there generating an estimated US$800,000 monthly, funding the insurgency. The group is backed by Rwanda (although Kigali denies it) and experts say Rwanda is selling far more coltan than it can produce, with smuggling across the border reaching unprecedented levels. The EU minerals deal with Kigali has been rightly criticized.

Natural resources are increasingly intertwined with security policies across the continent via Russian private military companies, the US promise of peace brokering and China’s infrastructure-for-resources model, the African Policy Research Institute said recently.

Its report suggests that resource demand could give African states leverage to negotiate more equitable partnerships that benefit their populations. However, that depends on institutional strength, regional coordination and transparency in deal-making — as well as determination not to compromise human rights, environmental standards or national sovereignty, it said. The DR Congo’s example is not encouraging.


title: Shiffrin suffers more Olympic heartbreak

content_text:
US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin on Tuesday suffered more Winter Olympic heartbreak, while Ukrainian athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych vowed to continue wearing a banned helmet depicting victims of the war with Russia.

On the ice in Milan, US figure skating sensation Ilia Malinin further burnished his growing reputation as he closed in on a second gold medal in his debut Games.

The US’ top team of Shiffrin and individual downhill champion Breezy Johnson were firm favorites to win the women’s team combined event in Cortina d’Ampezzo after Johnson topped the times in the morning’s downhill run, but Shiffrin stuttered through the slalom — her specialist event — and the US pair finished in a disappointing fourth place, with Austrians Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber claiming gold.

Mikaela Shiffrin of the US competes in the Winter Olympics alpine skiing women’s team combined slalom event in Belluno, Italy, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Defeat will sting for 30-year-old Shiffrin, who is the most successful World Cup skier of all time and came into the Games in red-hot form.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist had a point to prove after a disastrous showing at the 2022 Beijing Games, where she failed to win a single medal, but Shiffrin was a full second slower than Emma Aicher, whose session-leading time of 44.38 seconds gave Germany silver, while another US pairing, Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan, took bronze.

The American said she would learn from her disappointing run, which cranks up the pressure ahead of next week’s slalom, the final alpine skiing event of the Games.

“I didn’t quite find a comfort level that like allows me to produce full speed, so I’m going to have to learn what to do, what to adjust in the short time we have before the other tech races,” she said.

Shiffrin’s poor performance denied Johnson a second gold of the Games after she triumphed in the downhill on Sunday, when Lindsey Vonn suffered a broken leg in a brutal crash.

Vonn, 41, who had been expected to share star billing with Shiffrin at the Milano Cortina Games, revealed on Monday she had suffered a “complex tibia fracture” when she crashed in the downhill and would need “multiple surgeries to fix [it] properly.”

Away from the ski slopes, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Ukrainian skeleton racer Heraskevych from wearing a helmet that features pictures of sportspeople killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, but has allowed him to wear a black armband instead.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said the helmet contravened guidelines, but that the IOC would “make an exception to the guidelines to allow him to wear a black armband during competition to make that commemoration.”

Gestures of a political nature during competition are forbidden under the Olympic charter, though athletes are permitted to express their views in news conferences and on social media.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had defended Heraskevych’s right to wear the helmet, thanking him “for reminding the world of the price of our struggle.”

The athlete, who was one of Ukraine’s two flag-bearers in the opening ceremony in Italy, told reporters at the Cortina Sliding Centre that he had no intention of backing down.

“I used it in all trainings... I used it today, I will use it tomorrow, and I will use it on race day [today],” he told reporters.

Heraskevych said he disagreed with the IOC’s decision “because I truly believe that we didn’t violate any rules.”

In a strongly worded Instagram post he said: “Even though the IOC wants to betray the memory of these athletes, I will not betray them.”

Ukrainian Minister of Youth and Sports Matviy Bidnyi earlier this month said that Russia has killed “more than 650 athletes and coaches” since it invaded Ukraine.

In late-evening action, figure skater Malinin, unbeaten in individual competition for two years, performed his trademark backflip to top the standings in the short program of the singles competition, delighting the crowd.

The 21-year-old, with the team title already under his belt, is well placed to win gold after tomorrow’s free skating section.

Earlier, Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Klaebo added a seventh Olympic gold to his career haul as Norway stayed top of the medals table with six golds.

In the Olympic women’s ice hockey preliminary round, the US hammered reigning champions Canada 5-0.


content_text:
BEYOND BORDERS:  Anna Kwok called her father’s conviction ‘transnational repression’ based on ‘incoherent fiction,’ while a rights activist said it set a dangerous precedent

The father of a US-based activist wanted by Hong Kong authorities was yesterday convicted for attempting to deal with his daughter’s financial assets in the territory, in the first court case of its kind brought under a homegrown national security law.

Kwok Yin-sang’s (郭賢生) daughter Anna Kwok (郭鳳儀) is the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council. Authorities in 2023 offered HK$1 million (US$127,919) for information leading to her arrest and later banned anyone from handling any funds for her — widely seen as part of a years-long crackdown on challenges against Beijing’s rule following massive democracy protests in 2019.

Kwok Yin-sang, 69, is the first person to be charged under a Hong Kong law known as Article 23 that expands on a Beijing-imposed National Security Law, for “attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources” belonging to an absconder. He was accused of having attempted to obtain funds from an insurance policy under his daughter’s name. He pleaded not guilty.

Kwok Yin-sang, father of wanted US-based activist Anna Kwok, left, arrives at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court in Hong Kong yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Acting principal magistrate Cheng Lim-chi (鄭念慈) found Kwok Yin-sang guilty, saying he must have known his daughter was an absconder and he was attempting to handle her assets.

According to previous hearings, Kwok Yin-sang bought the insurance policy for his daughter when she was a toddler and she gained control of it when she reached 18 years old. The father last year wanted to cancel the policy and get funds from it, the court heard.

Kwok Yin-sang’s lawyer, Steven Kwan(關文渭), pleaded for a lesser sentence, saying there was no evidence to show his client was trying to get the money to send to his daughter. He suggested the judge consider a 14-day prison term.

During the closing submission, Kwan argued that section 89 and 90 of Article 23 should not apply in a case where a person was simply handling an insurance policy he had purchased a long time ago for his children.

“This ... is a form of prosecution based on family ties,” Kwan said.

While the maximum sentence for his charge is seven years of imprisonment, his case was heard at the magistrates’ courts, which normally hands down a maximum sentence of two years.

Kwok Yin-sang’s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 26.

Authorities have accused Anna Kwok of demanding foreign sanctions, blockade and engaging in other hostile activities against China and Hong Kong through meeting foreign politicians and government officials.

Her brother was also arrested for the same crime and is on bail.

“Today, my father was convicted simply for being my father,” she wrote on X. “This is transnational repression.”

She said his charge was founded on “incoherent fiction” and she had not received or sought funds from her father or anyone in Hong Kong, adding that the government’s actions would not discourage her from carrying on her activism.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said that punishing a father for his daughter’s peaceful activism is “an alarming act of collective punishment that has no place under international human rights law.”

Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokeswoman Joey Siu (邵嵐) said the conviction was apparently politically motivated.

“It also sets a dangerous precedent, designed to terrify and silence others who continue to speak out about Hong Kong issues from overseas,” she said in a statement.

title: Court convicts father of HK activist


title: Young Bangladesh voters primed for today’s polls

content_text:
DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT:  Parties have recalibrated their messages to reach young voters, taking campaigns online and investing heavily in content on Facebook and TikTok

Millions of young Bangladeshis are today to vote for the first time in a landmark election to determine the country’s leadership following a 2024 student-led uprising that ended former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic rule.

The vote is also to include a landmark referendum for sweeping democratic reforms, which the interim government says is designed to prevent a return to autocratic one-party rule

Young people aged 18 to 37 make up 44 percent of the country’s 129 million voters, with many saying they had never voted during Hasina’s 15-year iron-fisted tenure.

Election officials and security personnel transport ballot boxes and voting materials to polling centers in Dhaka yesterday, ahead of today’s elections. Photo: AP

Elections under the ousted prime minister’s rule were marred by allegations of widespread rigging and bans on opposition parties.

Faijullah Wasif, 33, a university official preparing to cast his first ballot, said he did not vote while Hasina was in power because he felt it would not make a difference.

“It was mainly because of fear and anxiety that I didn’t go,” he said. “I did not even feel interested.”

The demographic bulge of younger voters has forced parties to recalibrate their campaigns and messages.

The digital battleground has become central to the campaign and parties have invested heavily in online outreach, from Facebook videos to TikTok reels.

This election, Hasina’s former ruling Awami League has been barred.

Instead, the parties once crushed under her rule are running — the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies, and a coalition led by Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party.

Ashfah Binte Latif, 21, a student at Dhaka University, said her parents had told her stories of past elections, pre-Hasina, when polling day was celebrated like a festival.

“Now that we have managed to change the system, I am very excited,” she said.

The National Citizen Party, formed by the student leaders who spearheaded the uprising, have allied with Jamaat-e-Islami.

Latif said she expected more from the young student leaders, but she is still eager for change.

“We expected young people to lead us — and in many ways, they did,” she said. “If they fail, it’s a failure for all of the young.”

The spark that ignited the 2024 unrest started on university campuses by students opposed to a quota system in the civil service, which they said excluded them from jobs.

Meanwhile, the US is planning to offer Bangladesh’s next government US and allied defense systems as alternatives to Chinese hardware, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Brent Christensen said in an interview on Tuesday.

Following Hasina’s ouster in August 2024, she has taken refuge in New Delhi, allowing China to deepen its influence in Bangladesh as India’s presence wanes.

China signed a defense agreement with Bangladesh to build a drone factory near the India border, worrying foreign diplomats. Bangladesh is also in talks with Pakistan to buy JF-17 Thunder jets, a multirole combat aircraft jointly developed with China.

“The United States is concerned about growing Chinese influence in South Asia and is committed to working closely with the Bangladeshi government to clearly communicate the risks of certain types of engagement with China,” Christensen said.

“The US offers a range of options to help Bangladesh meet its military capability needs, including US systems and those from allied partners, to provide alternatives to Chinese systems,” he said, without offering further details.

Washington would work with whichever government is elected by Bangladeshi voters, the envoy said.

Additional reporting by Reuters


title: Buddhist monks finish 15-week peace walk

content_text:
A group of Buddhist monks — bearing a message of peace — walked into the heart of Washington on Tuesday, greeted by large, joyful crowds as they completed their 15-week trek from Texas.

In their saffron and maroon robes, the monks became fixtures on social media as they made their way through the southeastern US, along with their rescue dog Aloka.

Their mission to advocate for peace has resonated across a beleaguered country — and appeared especially welcome in a city at the center of political strife and power.

Monk Bhikkhu Pannakara, front, right, holds flowers as Buddhist monks participate in the Walk for Peace in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: AP

Thousands gathered along icy sidewalks to watch the monks’ quiet procession that began in late October.

In the afternoon, the monks stopped at the Washington National Cathedral, where they were joined by more than 100 other Buddhist monks and nuns.

“It is overwhelming for us,” the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, the group’s charismatic and soft-spoken leader, said on the steps of the cathedral.

Aloka, known as the “Peace Dog,” sits with monks as Bhikkhu Pannakara speaks to interfaith leaders at the Washington National Cathedral during the Walk For Peace in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

Flanked by dozens of faith leaders across traditions — including Washington Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde, who helped host the interfaith gathering — Pannakara was visibly moved by their shared cause for peace.

“This is the moment I will remember for the rest of my life,” he said. “And I hope you do the same.”

As the monks walked single-file down city streets, people cheered them. Some shushed the crowds, urging them to be silent and reverent, but the monks acknowledged the people’s enthusiasm with subtle nods and smiled at those calling out “Sadhu” — an expression in Buddhism that means “well done.”

Nearly 3,500 people packed American University’s Bender Arena for the monks’ first public stop in Washington, but no raucous sports cheers greeted them: Spectators remained silent as they walked into the arena, as a sign of respect for the monks and their quest for peace.

The trek has had its perils. In November outside Houston, the monks were walking on the side of a highway when their escort vehicle was hit by a truck. Two monks were injured; Venerable Maha Dam Phommasan had his leg amputated.

Phommasan, abbot of a temple in Snellville, Georgia, rejoined the monks near Washington and entered American University’s arena in a wheelchair.

Phommasan’s return was moving for Jackson Vaughn, 33, who has used a wheelchair since 2024. He has been traveling beside the monks for a week, since they came through his hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

“There are so many things happening in the world,” said Vaughn, who was among the crowd at the university entrance. “To see people gathering peacefully and setting an example, I think, is a wonderful thing.”

He was grateful to fellow travelers who helped him navigate icy roads.

“I have been on this journey of trying to find my independence,” Vaughn said. “But this really shows how connected we really are.”

The monks have been surprised to see their message transcend ideologies. Millions have followed them online, and crowds have greeted them at numerous venues, from a church in Opelika, Alabama, to City Hall in Richmond, Virginia.

Kristin Williams, 42, brought her two children, aged 8 and 10, to view the procession outside the cathedral.

“I wanted them to not just witness history, but witness the power of coming together,” she said. “The movement they’ve been building for the past couple of months has been really powerful to watch grow.”

More than 20,000 people on Tuesday tuned in to watch the live feed — logging on from places ranging from Jamaica and Germany to Sri Lanka and Thailand. Even as the occasional critic surfaced in the comments section, viewers seemed to heed the monks’ message as they wished that person to find peace.

Nineteen monks began the 3,700km journey from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 26. They came from Theravada Buddhist monasteries around the globe, led by Pannakara, who is vice president of the Fort Worth temple.

Long Si Dong, a spokesperson for the temple, said the walk is neither a political movement nor is it focused on advocacy or legislation.

“It’s a spiritual offering, an invitation to live peace through everyday actions, mindful steps and open hearts,” he said. “We believe when peace is cultivated within, it naturally ripples outward into society.”

Peace walks are a cherished tradition in Theravada Buddhism. Some of the monks have walked barefoot or in socks during parts of the journey, to feel the ground directly and be present in the moment.


content_text:
Sparks illuminate the soot-covered studio of Japanese swordsmith Akihira Kawasaki as his apprentice hammers red-hot steel, showcasing a millennium-old craft enjoying a resurgence in popularity.

Despite the rapidly graying, shrinking population of blademakers in Japan, their fine steel swords known as katana are amassing a new generation of fans, particularly younger women, on the back of pop culture.

Driving the sword boom of the past decade has been video game Touken Ranbu, where swords take on the form of handsome men, with more recent hits such as the US series Shogun and anime Demon Slayer also feeding the trend.

Swordsmith Akihira Kawasaki, right, steadies steel over an anvil while his apprentice, Toru Watanabe, hammers the metal to forge katana blades in Misato, Japan, on Jan. 9. Photo: AFP

“It’s really encouraging to see more young people who genuinely love swords and engage with them so deeply,” 57-year-old Kawasaki said.

Katana buffs “used to be exclusively male,” he said, with “these old men dismissive or quite scornful of younger people showing interest, condescendingly telling them: ‘You don’t know nearly as much about swords as we do.’”

“It was no fun community,” he added.

The 2015 release of Touken Ranbu has since turned some of its fans into serious admirers of the katana, the name given to the lightweight but extremely sharp Japanese sword with a curved blade.

Among them is Minori Takumi, 25, who began poring over blades showcased at museums after getting into the game as a teen.

“I was interested in finding out what similarities an actual sword has to its matching character” in the game, she said. “I found myself growing absorbed in the craft itself, especially the hamon” — distinctive, milky-white patterns along the hardened edge of a katana.

Her devotion ultimately changed her life when she joined the Bizen Osafune Sword Museum in western Japan’s Setouchi as a full-time curator.

The museum periodically displays the legendary sword Sanchomo, a national treasure purchased by the city in 2020 for more than US$3 million through crowdfunding.

Sanchomo is featured heavily in Touken Ranbu and whenever the museum exhibits it, “our visitor numbers skyrocket,” museum cultural guide Tumi Grendel Marian said, calling their demographic “about 80 percent female.”

“That’s, I think, the biggest impact we’ve seen within Japan,” Marian said, while international shows such as Shogun have helped “introduce a new generation of people to samurai culture and Japanese swords.”

The runaway success of Demon Slayer has also seen DIY buffs and craftsmen worldwide post YouTube videos recreating some of its characters’ outlandish katana, racking up millions of views.

Despite the boom, swordsmiths themselves are far from thriving.

Their numbers nationwide have halved to about 160 from nearly 40 years ago, with many in their 70s or 80s, according to the All Japan Swordsmith Association.

Young recruits are scared away in part by the unpaid, mandatory apprenticeship that lasts at least five years, said Tetsuya Tsubouchi, who heads the association’s business unit.

From repeatedly whacking steel with a heavy hammer to sitting sweat-drenched by a hearth for hours, the daily grind of blademaking is also not for the faint-hearted.

More fundamentally, “you can barely make ends meet” as a swordsmith today, with prices kept low by disdain for newly crafted swords among the industry old guard and collectors, 66-year-old Tsubouchi said.

“The view still exists within our industry that ancient swords are undeniably the best,” he said.

Kawasaki’s work is an exception, with his pieces selling for tens of thousands of dollars.

As well as Touken Ranbu fans seeking replicas of their favorite katana, practitioners of martial arts such as Iaijutsu value their practicality as weapons, he said.

What he really wants is the katana recognized not as an antiquity, but as a “masterpiece” of contemporary art.

Not all of his fellow swordsmiths see their work this way.

Some are content to produce quality products, “but never exercise creativity,” he said.

As long as this mindset prevails, the contemporary katana will continue to be undervalued, Kawasaki said.

“Unless we declare ourselves artists of steel, I doubt swordsmiths will ever be properly recognized,” he said.

title: Games helping Japanese swords forge new fan base


title: Australia charges two Chinese with foreign interference

content_text:
Australian police yesterday said they have charged two Chinese nationals with foreign interference, accusing them of spying on a Buddhist group at the behest of police in China.

The pair — a 25-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman — have each been charged with one count of “reckless foreign interference,” which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment.

Police said they they worked with a Chinese national charged in August last year for covertly gathering information on the Guan Yin Citta Buddhist group in Australia’s capital, Canberra.

They are alleged to have worked under the command of the Chinese Public Security Bureau, the country’s main domestic law enforcement body.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the Australian government to take care in its handling of the case.

“China urges Australia to handle the case prudently and properly, and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) told a news conference, denying knowledge of the specific details of the case.

The Australian Federal Police said they began investigating the case last year on a tip from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

Agency chief Mike Burgess said a “complex, challenging and changing security environment is becoming more dynamic, diverse and degraded.”

“Multiple foreign regimes are monitoring, harassing and intimidating members of our diaspora communities,” he said. “This sort of behavior is utterly unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.”

China’s sprawling security apparatus has long been accused of infiltrating community organizations as a way to keep tabs on expats and dissidents.

“Australia is not immune to foreign interference, and we should not expect this arrest will prevent further attempts to target our diaspora communities,” Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt said.

“Members of our culturally and linguistically diverse communities are more likely to be victims of foreign interference or transnational repression than to be offenders,” he added.

Led by the late Lu Jun Hong (盧軍宏), Guan Yin Citta claims to have millions of devotees worldwide.

Guan Yin Citta describes its goals as encouraging “people to recite Buddhist scriptures, practise life liberation and make great vows to help more people.”

Beijing considers it to be a “cult.”


people: 牛煦庭 林宜瑾 高金素梅 林岱樺 李慶華 顏寬恒 高虹安 馬英九 陳玉珍

content_text:
Notes from Central Taiwan: Institutionalizing corruption in TaiwanAs legislators across party lines face scandals surrounding assistant expenses, KMT-led legal revisions risk entrenching a system long plagued by abuse

The Taipei Times reported this week that “independent” Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), who aligns with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and 17 others were questioned after prosecutors searched her office over alleged corruption involving national security concerns tied to campaign finances and assistant expenses. Chin is notorious for her connections to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

On social media platforms there were the usual tiresome complaints from the pan-Blue side that the prosecutors were targeting opponents of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). But Chin has long been criticized by watchdog groups for failing to attend the legislature and failing to do much work on legislation. One would think that if the DPP were controlling the prosecutors, they would be going after more competent and influential targets. How is it that powerful faction heads and KMT higher ups still walk free?

Among other crimes, Chin was accused of embezzling fees intended for her assistants. This crime has become a sort of tradition among lawmakers at all levels and in all parties.

Independent Legislator May Chin, who aligns with the Chinese Nationalist Party, and 17 others were questioned this week after prosecutors searched her office over alleged corruption involving national security concerns tied to campaign finances and assistant expenses. Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times

For example, the Tainan District Prosecutors Office in October last year indicted DPP Legislator Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) for alleged embezzlement over NT$14 million of public funds intended for assistant salaries.

DPP legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) was indicted in June of last year for alleged embezzlement of over NT$14 million in legislative aide salaries by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office. Lin’s sister was also indicted for allegedly receiving NT$320,000 in assistant salary payments. Just last month Taipei City Councilor Chen E-jun (陳怡君) of the DPP was given seven years and 10 months for embezzling assistants’ fees (and bribery).

It seems intuitive that if the DPP was controlling the prosecutors, they would have ignored a DPP politician’s wrongdoing, especially in the DPP stronghold of Tainan. It’s almost as if the prosecutors are in fact independent.

The list of politicians from all parties indicted for this crime is long and decades old. KMT lawmaker Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) was indicted in 2023 for allegedly stealing NT$1.08 million in staff salaries through a proxy. Yen was eventually convicted of that crime, and claimed that he was being politically persecuted after being sentenced to 8 years and 4 months.

Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) was also indicted for this crime, but was recently acquitted after being convicted in the first trial. Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), who had been in two KMT spin-off parties before rejoining the party, was indicted in September 2018 by the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office — a city then under a KMT mayor — on charges of embezzling NT$5.23 million, an amount meant to pay for his legislative assistants’ salaries. Et cetera, et cetera.

This particular crime follows a similar pattern. Legislators “hire” family members, business associates, romantic partners, friends and so forth, as “assistants.” The public funds intended for assistant pay are then retained by the legislator. Public suspicion is triggered when the legislator displays their gains in public in the form of expensive cars and property acquisitions.

DECRIMINALIZING CORRUPTION

The recent response to this age-old problem by the KMT-controlled legislature was not to regulate the criminal practice, but to institutionalize it. Initially, KMT legislator Jessica Chen (陳玉珍) submitted a bill that critics said was an attempt to decriminalize the misuse of legislative aide funds. Chen was accused of attempting to protect Yen Kuan-heng, who is from a powerful central Taiwan family.

Decriminalizing corruption is an old pattern of the KMT. In the authoritarian era over 6,500 officials at all levels, from public school principals to presidents, were given discretionary funds. In 2006 well over NT$900 million a month went to such special funds.

For example, when Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was mayor of Taipei, he received a monthly “special allowance fund” of NT$340,000, NT$170,000 of which, along with his monthly paycheck of NT$150,000, went into his bank account each month. Ma was required only to submit “claim forms” detailing how that portion of his funds were spent. The other NT$170,000 was then issued as reimbursements after submission of receipts to the Ministry of Audit (today known as the National Audit Office). For many politicians it was routine to submit fake receipts and then claim that money as well. An executive order requiring receipts and auditing of all special funds went into effect on Jan. 1, 2007.

After Ma was indicted for abuse of these funds, he defended himself with several arguments, one of which was that it is the intent of the government that the funds be given as a subsidy to public officials. Ma reported the funds, his defense team argued, implying he didn’t intend to steal them. The court bought all his defense team’s arguments, and he was acquitted.

COMPLICITY

The key point was the intent of the rules. The purpose of the authoritarian government’s structuring of the discretionary funds was to ensure that most public officials at all levels were at least somewhat dirty, making everyone complicit in the KMT’s system. People waxing nostalgic for the Chiang Ching-Kuo (蔣經國) years have forgotten how completely corrupt things were in those days. The ability of legislators at all levels to doctor their payments to assistants is a relic of this era and this mindset.

Two decades later, we’ve come full circle. KMT Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) introduced a separate bill that amended the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法) to address the legislative aide salary issue. It was passed last month.

As revised, aides’ salaries are “lawmaker subsidies” provided each year from public funds. The new laws state that subsidies equivalent to five times a legislator’s annual remuneration will be given to cover aides’ salaries and employer’s labor costs mandated by law. However, the lawmakers themselves can then determine each aide’s wages. The legislature then makes the payments.

Surely a bill intending to regulate this common practice would have provisions regarding the hiring of family members and so forth, and would have created a salary structure ensuring fair pay. Legislative aides from the two major parties were highly critical of the bill, according to local media reports.

Instead, the revisions appear to treat the legislative salary subsidies as discretionary payments. This is an invitation for more of the same corruption so many legislators at all levels have been busted for. It ensures that even legislators who deal fairly with their aides are complicit in the criminality of the system, since many of them will be aware of other legislators who are stealing the legislative aide subsidies.

These KMT proposals and amendments should be viewed as part of a larger program of KMT obstructionism and attacks on good governance in Taiwan. Remember, the pro-China side wins if it wins elections, and it wins if pro-Taiwan governance fails.

Notes from Central Taiwan is a column written by long-term resident Michael Turton, who provides incisive commentary informed by three decades of living in and writing about his adoptive country. The views expressed here are his own.


people: 柯文哲 鄭麗文 陳玉珍 高虹安 黃國昌

content_text:
Despite strong structural advantages in November’s local races, internal splits, TPP negotiations and legal troubles could derail the party’s expected victories

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is entering the Year of the Horse with reasonable expectations of riding to victory in November’s nine-in-one elections, but there are concerns within the party that they could instead ride off a cliff. We cannot be sure what “unknown unknowns” are out there, but there are several key wildcards in the “known unknowns” category.

As explored in the last column, “The ugly math facing the DPP this election year” (Feb. 7, page 12), the KMT has significant advantages over the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in local elections. The DPP won only five chief executive posts of the 22 administrative regions in 2022, and of those, due to term limits in only Pingtung and Penghu are their incumbents allowed to run again.

The KMT won the last two local election cycles in landslides, winning 14 top spots in 2022. Currently, they hold 15 after the Miaoli County Commissioner was readmitted into the party last year, after having been kicked out for running as an independent against the party’s nominated candidate.

Chinese Nationalist Party Chair Cheng Li-wun gestures during a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting in Taipei. Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Liberty Times

Though it is never a certainty, more often than not incumbents are re-elected. The KMT is running six incumbents this year, and look strong in all of them. They are Lienchang County (aka Matsu), Nantou, Miaoli, Keeling and the big prizes of Taoyuan and Taipei cities.

WILDCARD ONE: INTERNAL SPLITS

The KMT also has a deep bench of local political talent, which is generally a good thing for the party, but conflicts are common as strong, ambitious and qualified politicians with a reasonable chance of winning vie to be the party’s nominee. Sometimes, as happened in Miaoli in 2022, these candidates bolt the party to run as independents. In places like Kinmen and Matsu the DPP will likely not bother running candidates, and in places like Miaoli and Nantou the DPP is at a serious disadvantage, so the more likely threat to the KMT is defectors from their own pan-blue camp.

The Tainan District Prosecutors Office in October last year indicted Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin I-chin for alleged embezzlement over NT$14 million of public funds intended for assistant salaries.

Photo: Wang Chieh, Taipei Times

This time around, Taichung, Hsinchu County and Hualien are facing bitter and contested primaries. While a split in Taichung looks less likely, Hsinchu County and Hualien are far less certain, and candidates running as independents in either, or both, would surprise no one.

There is little news coming out of Kinmen, but often independents or even smaller party candidates from deep blue/red parties like the New Party do well there. The “Tank of Kinmen (金門坦克),” Jennifer Chen (陳玉珍), declared she intended to run as county commissioner in 2024, but it is unclear if that is still the case.

WILDCARD TWO: THE TPP

There is also the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) problem. They are running candidates in New Taipei City, Yilan, Chiayi City and possibly Hsinchu City if Ann Kao (高虹安) rejoins the TPP. The KMT has already indicated that they will likely back Kao, and they might even get her to join the KMT, but that would sour the relationship with the TPP.

The two parties have recently been closely aligned in the legislature and in their messaging on issues. TPP voter support could be crucial in securing KMT victories in tight races. The leaders of both parties have pledged to enter “sincere” negotiations on running jointly backed candidates for city mayors and county commissioners.

That is easier said than done. It is not hard to see the KMT stepping aside for TPP candidates in Yilan or Chiayi City or even both, but New Taipei City is another matter. It is the nation’s most populous city and the mayorship is a viable stepping stone to running for president.

KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) has already declared that the KMT cannot be absent from the New Taipei City race, but the TPP’s candidate is TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), and he has already established his campaign headquarters and shows no interest in stepping aside.

The negotiations between the KMT and TPP will likely take place next month or April. Huang has been very pro-KMT, but complicating matters is the reappearance of TPP founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). Ko has leaned KMT, but has been more prickly and tougher with the KMT, and openly prefers the party keep something of an independent identity and not a “little blue” junior partner. Even more complicated, both Huang and Ko are facing legal problems, so it is not impossible one or the other may be in jail by the time negotiations are due.

WILDCARD THREE: ARRESTED CADRES

One potentially big challenge for the KMT in this cycle is that across the country, many of the leaders and top cadres in local party chapters are under investigation for voter fraud, including many who have pled guilty. During their attempts to recall DPP lawmakers last year, some copied party membership rolls and forged signatures, but were caught when it turned out many of those people were inconveniently deceased. The KMT has historically had the best get-out-the-vote machine, but how many of those key experienced cadres will be out of action? Will these fraud cases deter others from taking their place? These questions are too early to answer, but bear watching.

WILDCARD FOUR: CHINESE PROPAGANDA

Another variable is Chinese influence via organizations like the United Front Work Department (UFWD). In previous elections they have funneled campaign contributions through intermediaries, bought off local DJs and flooded social media with propaganda. The question is: has this helped the KMT? Most Taiwanese, especially those swing voters who decide elections, could easily see through the generally clumsy propaganda. It likely helped boost voter turnout among the deep blue base that already agrees with them by ginning up anger against the DPP, but only a truly gullible few were swayed by it.

This time, artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities are far more advanced, making it harder for average voters to distinguish what is real and what is not. This will be a problem across the political spectrum from domestic sources, but could the UFWD use these tools far more effectively this time? Or will they overplay their hand and cause a backlash?

WILDCARD FIVE: NATIONAL POLITICS

Broadly speaking, national politics plays a relatively minor role in local elections. In 2022, the DPP used the slogan “resist China, protect Taiwan” (抗中保台) to “smear red” (抹紅) KMT politicians as too close to China. Voters rejected this. Local politics is about potholes and playgrounds, not national identity.

However, national politics can tarnish a party’s brand, as happened in 2014. If the legislative deadlock continues, will this sway voters? This could cut both ways, depending on which side voters blame. If the US trade deal is rejected by the KMT-led legislature and local factories start closing, the KMT will be blamed.

The biggest wildcard in the “known unknowns” category is Cheng Li-wun herself. She is an ideological hardliner who proudly and unapologetically holds opinions far outside of the mainstream. Even powerful figures in the party have come out to disagree with her on certain points, and many in the party openly fret she is toxic for the party’s brand. She also has limited electoral experience and is juggling complicated primary politics, provoking concerns among the rank-and-file.

She deserves an entire column on her own.

Donovan’s Deep Dives is a regular column by Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文) who writes in-depth analysis on everything about Taiwan’s political scene and geopolitics. Donovan is also the central Taiwan correspondent at ICRT FM100 Radio News, co-publisher of Compass Magazine, co-founder Taiwan Report (report.tw) and former chair of the Taichung American Chamber of Commerce. Follow him on X: @donovan_smith.

title: Donovan’s Deep Dives: The KMT’s wildcard election year


content_text:
The letter from a soldier to his sweetheart offer an intimate picture of love during wartime

Highlights from a trove of more than 200 love letters that tell the story of a couple’s courtship and marriage during World War II are now on display digitally through the Nashville Public Library, offering an intimate picture of love during wartime.

The letters by William Raymond Whittaker and Jane Dean were found in a Nashville home that had belonged to Jane and her siblings. They were donated in 2016 to the Metro Nashville Archives.

Whittaker, who went by Ray, was from New Rochelle, New York. He moved to the Tennessee capital to attend the historically Black Meharry Medical College, according to the library’s metropolitan archivist, Kelley Sirko. That’s where he met and dated Jane, another student at the college.

Archivist Kelley Sirko on Feb. 9 looks at love letters between a Black soldier and his wife during World War II that are part of a digital exhibit in Nashville, Tennessee. Photo: AP

The pair lost touch when Ray left Nashville. In the summer of 1942 he was drafted into the Army. Stationed at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, he decided to reestablish contact with Jane, who was then working as a medical lab technician at Vanderbilt University.

‘A PLEASANT AND SAD SURPRISE’

The library doesn’t have Ray’s first letter to Jane, but it does have her reply. She greets him somewhat formally as “Dear Wm R.”

“It sure was a pleasant and sad surprise to hear from you,” she writes on July 30, 1942. “Pleasant because you will always hold a place in my heart and its nice to know you think of me once in a while. Sad because you are in the armed forces — maybe I shouldn’t say that but war is so uncertain, however I’m proud to know that you are doing your bit for your country.”

Jane then goes on to list — perhaps as a hint? — a string of mutual acquaintances who have gotten married recently, noting those who have had children or are rumored to be having children. She signs

A STORY IN LETTERS

“You can’t help but smile when you read through these letters,” Sirko said. “You really can’t. And this was just such an intimate look at two regular people during a really complicated time in our history.”

Sirko said Nashville archivists have not been able to locate any living relatives of Ray and Jane, so most of what they know about them is from the letters. The couple did not have any children, according to an obituary for Ray, who died in Nashville in 1989.

The donation also included a few photographs and Ray’s patch from the historically Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha.

Beyond a love story, the collection gives “this in-the-moment perspective of ... what it’s like just navigating certain racial issues, certain gender issues, their work, the life of a soldier, all of these things,” Sirko said. That’s why the archivists wanted to make it more accessible to the public.

LOVE AND DOUBTS

Just two months after the first letters, the romance has heated up. Ray has been assigned to Fort McClellan in Alabama, where he will help organize the reactivated — and segregated — 92nd Infantry Division, which went on to see combat in Europe.

In an undated letter from September 1942, he tells Jane, “I have something very important to tell you when I do see you and you will be surprise to know as to what it is.

“I might even ask you to marry me. One never knows.”

He teases her by saying that if he goes to officer training school, he will be able to “draw down a fat juicey salary” — about US$280 a month if he is married and US$175 if single.

“Really I can’t leave my excess amount of money to the government and must have someone to help me spend it,” he writes.

At first Jane is skeptical. “What makes you think you still love me?” she asks on Sept. 23. “Is it that you are lonesome and a long way from home. I’m sure I want you to love me but not under those conditions.”

A Sept. 24 letter from Ray is more serious. “Events are changing so rapidly these days that one can’t really plan for the future. But I am going to make a decisive decision in matters of most importances,” he writes.

Ray says that he had thought he and Jane could not be together because they lived so far apart. He says he dated other women but “I didn’t find the companionship and love that I so dearly wanted to find. All I ran into was trouble and more trouble.”

A ‘DARLING HUSBAND’

Soon Ray wins her over, and they are married on Nov. 7 in Birmingham.

In a letter from Nov. 9, Jane addresses Ray as “my darling husband.” She is rapturous about the marriage but sad that the couple has to remain apart for now. She has already returned to her job and family in Nashville while he has returned to the Army base.

“It’s a wonderful thing to have such and sweet and lovely husband. Darling you’ll never know how much I love you. The only regret is that we didn’t marry years ago... As it is now things are so uncertain and we are not together but such a few happy hours. But maybe this old war will soon be over and we can be together for always.”

She concludes, “Darling be sweet and write to me soon. I want a letter from my husband. Remember I’ll always love you. Always — from Your Wife”

title: Love letter from WWII


content_text:
▲許藍方點名3種事情，可能害陰莖永久變短。（示意圖／免費圖庫Unsplash）

記者柯振中／綜合報導

性學博士許藍方在節目中指出，男性陰莖「看起來變短」可分為暫時性與可能造成永久影響兩大類。她表示，多數情況屬於生理或情境因素，只要狀態改變就能恢復原本長度；但若涉及不良生活習慣或受傷，例如長期使用影響荷爾蒙的藥物，以及長期吸菸酗酒、不良，則可能對功能與外觀帶來長期影響。

生理因素影響

許藍方說明，氣溫下降時血管收縮，陰莖因血流減少而暫時縮短，屬正常生理反應；情緒緊張或壓力大時，同樣會因血管收縮讓視覺上變小。此外，若興奮程度不足，例如頻繁自慰後與伴侶親密時，勃起硬度與長度可能不如高度興奮時明顯。健身過程中血液優先流向肌肉，也會讓當下陰莖顯得較短，這些狀況通常可隨身體狀態恢復。

▲許藍方提醒，錯誤的生活習慣、自慰姿勢等情況，可能害陰莖永久變短。（示意圖／免費圖庫pixabay）

藥物與血管傷害

她提醒，若為追求肌肉量而長期使用影響荷爾蒙的藥物，可能干擾體內正常分泌，導致陰莖變短，這種變化可能不僅是一時的、而是永久的。長期抽菸與酗酒則會損害心血管健康，當血管功能受損，不僅影響硬度，也可能影響長度與性生活品質。若尚未造成嚴重傷害，及早改善仍有機會調整，但如果已長期抽菸、酗酒，變化可能就是永久的了。

受傷與勃起頻率

不當性行為姿勢或過度用力自慰，若造成陰莖受傷、結痂或纖維化，可能影響外觀與功能。她也提到，長期缺乏勃起，例如缺乏性生活、自慰次數減少或睡眠不足，都可能影響彈性與荷爾蒙分泌。睡眠品質與夜間勃起息息相關，對整體性功能十分重要。

視覺差異問題

此外，肥胖可能因腹部脂肪遮蔽，使陰莖視覺上顯得較短；脂肪組織與荷爾蒙變化相關，也可能間接影響狀態。若僅為視覺效果，適度修剪體毛或改善體態，都可能讓外觀更明顯。

許藍方強調，若發現自己似乎變小，不必過度焦慮，可先檢視是否屬於正常生理變化；若與生活型態或健康問題相關，及早調整仍有改善空間。最重要的是維持良好健康習慣與自信心態。

title: 做錯3件事「害陰莖變短」！性學博士提醒：可能造成永久傷害


title: 川普曝「我不喜歡她說話口氣」　所以對瑞士加徵39%關稅

content_text:
▲川普稱不滿瑞士領導人的說話口氣，所以加徵39%關稅。（圖／路透）

記者許力方／綜合報導

美國總統川普10日接受福斯財經台（Fox Business）節目專訪時分享，對等關稅政策中，他與瑞士政府交涉的軼事。他說，自己原本擬定對瑞士30%稅率，但因為不滿瑞士領導人在通話中說話的「口氣」，因此決定提高，最終調升至39%。

川普在庫德洛（Kudlow）節目中披露了對瑞士加徵關稅的原因。他提到，瑞士是一個非常漂亮的國家，以前不用付任何關稅，就把大量產品銷往美國，數量之多，令人不敢置信。

不滿通話語氣 稅率從30%拉高到39%

當時美方對瑞士存在約420億美元的貿易逆差，因此決定採取行動調整關稅。他說，最初僅打算課徵30%關稅，但在接到一通來自瑞士時任領導人的「緊急電話」後改變主意。

川普形容，對方雖然語氣客氣，卻態度強硬，不斷強調瑞士是「小國家」，難以承擔高關稅。他直言，自己不喜歡對方說話的方式，因此沒有調降稅率，反而將關稅提高至39%。

貿易協議後降至15% 投資承諾成關鍵

外界普遍認為，川普所指為已於去年底卸任的瑞士前總統凱勒蘇特（Karin Keller-Sutter）。不過白宮尚未正式說明相關細節。

美國與瑞士於去年11月達成貿易協議框架，瑞士承諾在2028年前對美投資約2000億美元，美方隨後同意將關稅自39%調降至15%。美國貿易代表辦公室也宣布，相關關稅條款已依協議落實。

▼瑞士前總統凱勒蘇特。（圖／達志影像／美聯社）

countries: 瑞士 美國


content_text:
記者蘇晟彥／台北報導

由 The Pokémon Company、GAME FREAK、KOEI TECO GAMES 企劃開發的慢活沙盒遊戲《Pokémon Pokopia》將在3月5日登場，作為寶可夢系列首款沙盒遊戲，同時也是今年第一款作品，寶可夢公司也在日前舉辦媒體試玩會，提供從故事開頭的單人線以及多人連線2個模式，給出約80分鐘左右的時間，就讓我們一起來看看這款被譽為今年最受期待的《Pokémon Pokopia》內容吧！

▼本次以慢活沙盒遊戲作為主打，必須說是今年絕對值得入手的新作。（圖／Pokémon Company提供）

相信有在關注寶可夢系列作品的玩家，一定對這款以「百變怪為主角」的「寶可夢動森」充滿濃厚興趣，本作的故事背景設定讓訓練加扮演一隻變成人類訓練家樣子的百變怪，在遇到巨蔓藤博士後，展開一段將尋找消散的寶可夢、重建建造、打造屬於自己專屬小鎮的故事。

在最初進行遊戲時，玩家可以自由搭配自己的外型（膚色、髮型、初始配件等等），進去遊戲後還是能收集相關服飾以及調整，因此建議不用太過糾結，選擇喜歡的色系就可以直接開始遊戲。操作方式則跟一般的沙盒遊戲雷同，透過Switch 2的方向鍵移動，一般的地形可以簡單跳躍，遇到狹窄地形百變怪就會從人形變回百變怪型態穿越，在後期會有「大跳」的技能可以穿越比較遠的距離；在完成一定的條件後，將逐步解鎖各種寶可夢身上的技能，將可以通過各種不同的地形（例如有些被堅硬岩石擋住、有些離島需要游泳技能），而百變怪在使用這些技能時也會變成該寶可夢的模樣，必須說，那個招牌的兩點一線配上各種超萌動作，記者光是在試玩的時候看著變身快龍飛翔的模樣就可以噗哧一笑了。

▼百變怪不管變成什麼寶可夢，都會維持「兩點一線」的笑臉，模樣爆炸萌。

▼本作扮演「指引者」的巨蔓藤將一路陪著玩家建造屬於自己的夢想樂園，除了巨蔓藤博士外，還有一些其他的「特殊寶可夢」。

在第一部分單人模式中，玩家只要跟著巨蔓藤博士給的指引，就可以一步一步學會各種建造城鎮的技巧，包含打造寶可夢的棲息地來吸引不同寶可夢進駐、完成寶可夢的「願望」來解鎖更多道具，或是透過每日任務來取得金幣解鎖更多配方，讓城鎮的元素元來越多。

簡單來說，在主線劇情中大致上是打造更多棲息地來獲得更多寶可夢、打造更多物品、環境來滿足寶可夢的願望，當沒辦法打造時就開始探索四周推進主線，根據官方資料，主線任務大約會落在40小時上下，但大家也知道，沙盒遊戲很考驗玩家自己的「極限」，像試玩會當天三組在試玩，每個人都有自己不同的玩法，有些人會很想要一探究竟、有些人則是想要快速解開所有任務，這部分就交給玩家自由選擇了。

在多人連線部分，則支援最多4位玩家，不管事鄰近主機、網路通訊都可以順利連線。這部分有點像是由主機開啟一個島嶼（類似伺服器概念），邀請3位好友前來，在島嶼上所獲得的物品將無法帶回到自己的遊戲中，僅能留在這個島嶼上。

在島嶼上將會有「共同任務」，像是帶來有工作屬性、可以使用水槍等等，只要完成任務，就能逐步打造夢想島嶼，相較下來，雖然東西無法帶回去，但勝在可以跟朋友一起闖關，也讓《Pokémon Pokopia》大大增加互動度。

▼能透過工作檯來製作各種道具來滿足棲息地、寶可夢的願望。

▼多人連線最多支援到4人。

簡單來說，在短短一小時半的體驗，必須說元素太多真的玩不完，體感上並沒有辦法像動森一樣自由度很高、手繪自己的相關配件，但各種寶可夢施放絕招、打造專屬自己的小鎮，相信對於系列愛好者來說，光是選擇要跟什麼寶可夢當朋友就會苦惱一陣子（貼心提醒，遊戲中並沒有「驅趕」的元素，因此如果棲息地打造下去，不想要讓他住進來，就破壞掉再重來吧！）

遊戲將在3月5日正式上市，Nintendo Switch2獨佔。

《Pokémon Pokopia》的企劃開發為The Pokémon Company、GAME FREAK、KOEI TECMO GAMES。This title is planned and co-developed by The Pokémon Company, GAME FREAK inc., and KOEI TECMO GAMES.

▼放上不同東西將可以打造不同棲息地。

title: 《Pokémon Pokopia》1.5小時搶先試玩！今年必玩的寶可夢遊戲


title: 黃偉哲慰勉春節執勤警民力　感謝守護台南治安交通

content_text:
▲黃偉哲赴歸仁、永康分局慰勞春節執勤警察及協勤民力，感謝守護台南治安與交通安全。（圖／記者林東良翻攝，下同）

記者林東良／台南報導

農曆春節將至，為感謝守護台南治安與交通安全的警察人員與協勤民力，市長黃偉哲11日晚間在警察局長林國清、義警大隊副大隊長黃坤山、大台南警察之友會理事長蔡明憲、台南市警察之友會理事長鄭丞焜、民防大隊長康銀壽、守望相助大隊大隊長宋俊明等人陪同下，前往歸仁分局及永康分局慰勞春節期間堅守崗位的警察、民防、義警、義交、巡守大隊與志工夥伴，表達誠摯感謝。

黃偉哲表示，今年度「加強重要節日安全維護工作」已正式啟動，特別在過年前夕向辛苦執勤的警察同仁及所有協勤夥伴致意。他指出，警務人員除平日執行掃毒、反黑、巡邏等重點工作外，年節期間更肩負護鈔及公司、住宅、廠房安全維護等任務，工作量與風險皆大幅提升。

他強調，農曆年前後往往是宵小闖空門與詐騙行為活躍時期，除了民眾自身提高警覺外，警方持續透過宣導與查緝行動，協助市民守住財產安全，是台南防詐的重要防線。

在交通安全方面，黃偉哲指出，交通成效不僅仰賴宣導，更需要適切執法與現場疏導，感謝交通警察與義交夥伴在各重要路口維持秩序與順暢，期盼年節期間持續守護市民行車平安。

警察局表示，今年春節安全維護工作以「治安平穩、交通順暢、民眾安心」為主軸，除持續打擊詐欺、查緝毒品、掃蕩黑幫外，也將針對大眾運輸場站、商圈、市集及人潮密集場所，加強警力部署與機動巡邏，強化安全聯防機制，防範突發危安事件。

此外，警方提醒，春節期間詐欺案件易發生，若民眾遇有可疑狀況，應立即撥打165反詐騙專線或110報案專線查證，避免落入詐騙陷阱，共同守護平安年節。

people: 黃偉哲 蔡明憲

taiwan-subdivisions: 歸仁 安平 永康


content_text:
記者楊智仁／綜合報導

Stern Pinball 宣布，將推出官方授權的《寶可夢》主題彈珠台，不過想入手恐怕得準備雄厚預算，雖然目前尚未公開實機外觀與玩法細節，但官方已率先公布售價與「即將推出」的上市時程。

根據 Stern 公布資訊，《寶可夢》彈珠台 Pro 版本售價為 6,999 美元（約新台幣 22 萬元），Premium 版本定價 9,699 美元（約新台幣 30 萬元），而限量版（Limited Edition）更高達 12,999 美元（約新台幣 40 萬元）。其中限量版僅生產 750 台鎖定高端收藏市場。

Stern 過去推出的限量彈珠台通常會加入獨特設計與收藏元素，例如 2024 年推出的《捍衛任務》主題彈珠台，售價同樣高達 13,000 美元，不僅擁有電影風格互動機關，甚至加入主角經典西裝布料等元素，主打高規格收藏價值。外界推測《寶可夢》版本也可能會加入特殊機關或主題設計，為高價定位提供賣點。

2026 年對《寶可夢》而言意義重大，適逢系列迎來 30 周年。任天堂與 The Pokémon Company 已預告將展開為期一整年的紀念活動，並將於 2 月 8 日在超級盃 LX 釋出全新廣告。此外，粉絲也可前往東京的《寶可夢》主題樂園朝聖，2 月 27 日的「寶可夢日」直播活動同樣備受期待。遊戲方面今年最受矚目的作品為開放世界新作《Pokemon Pokopia》，該作風格被形容融合《Minecraft》、《動物森友會》等元素，展現不同於以往系列作的建設與探索玩法。

title: 《寶可夢》彈珠台要來了！最高售價近40萬元、限量750台


content_text:
記者王靖淳／綜合報導

「樂天女孩」林穎樂平時會透過社群記錄生活，不吝嗇與粉絲分享私下日常，今（11）日她就在限動發文透露，自己最近收到太多讓她感到壓力的訊息，為此她嚴肅表示：「我不接受任何形式的情緒勒索、指責、道德綁架或施壓式支持。」

▲林穎樂。（圖／翻攝自Instagram／ninalin1231）

林穎樂進一步公開這些讓她感到窒息的訊息內容，其中包括粉絲抱怨「我買了很多你為什麼不理我」、「如果你不回我就不支持了」，甚至還有人質問「我發了這麼多你到底為什麼都不轉發。」面對這些排山倒海而來的「要求解釋、要求回應、要求被轉發」，她無奈地解釋：「我的IG訊息量真的很多，不可能每一則都看得到。」

▲▼林穎樂自爆收到太多讓她感到壓力的訊息。（圖／翻攝自Instagram／ninalin1231）

林穎樂表示，轉發與否會基於個人的考量，並非義務。她也直言，若訊息內容讓她感到不舒服，「我會選擇不回覆，甚至封鎖」，希望粉絲能還給她一個健康的網路互動空間，「希望大家可以理解謝謝你們。」最後，她也向一直給她鼓勵且不求回報的粉絲道謝，「能被這樣溫柔地支持，是我很大的力量。希望我們能一直用舒服的方式陪伴彼此，謝謝你們。」

title: 樂天女神罕見動怒：不接受任何情緒勒索！　公開IG私訊內容


title: 陳嘉瑩被判死　廢死聯盟晚間發文：「惡意」在台灣特別突出

content_text:
▲陳嘉瑩被判死刑，家屬3鞠躬感謝。（圖／記者陳以昇攝）

記者許力方／綜合報導

新北市土城清水派出所所長劉宗鑫遭女毒蟲陳嘉瑩拖行殉職，新北地院國民法官11日判處陳女死刑，劉家人當庭下跪感謝法官。外界關注廢死聯盟的回應，廢死聯盟晚間發文，雖未直接針對判決回應，但提及他們早已習慣了千篇一律的謾罵，且對於廢死議題的熱度與「惡意」，在台灣顯得特別突出。

新北地院選任國民法官審理劉宗鑫之死，11日依殺人罪判陳女死刑、褫奪公權終身，被視為可能是酒駕、毒駕肇事致人於死改依殺人罪判死首例，但本案並非毒駕直接造成，而是陳女故意衝撞護欄、以「虐殺」方式甩開依法執勤警員所致，上訴二審不一定能維持死刑。

台灣廢除死刑推動聯盟11日晚間，以「當仇恨成為日常，廢死倡議者的安全正在被忽視」為題發文，談及這次在東京區域會議中談及「廢死倡議者的安全」。聯盟成員說，在台灣打開粉絲專頁的留言、新聞媒體下的留言與標題，讓他們早已習慣了千篇一律的謾罵，包括「如果死的是你家人？」、「為什麼殺的不是廢死成員？」虛擬與實體是記的惡意與騷擾從未停歇。

▲廢死聯盟發文「在台灣死刑議題是排山倒海的仇恨」。（圖／翻攝廢死聯盟粉絲團）

聯盟指出，與同組的中國、日本、馬來西亞夥伴討論各國國情下，廢死倡議者的安全議題時，其它夥伴相當驚訝台灣成員面臨的網路、電話恐嚇與實體騷擾，這樣對於廢死的熱度與惡意在台灣特別突出。

「這是一個很大的對比」，聯盟稱，在中國、日本與馬來西亞，倡議者面對的是社會的靜默；而在台灣，面對的卻是排山倒海的仇恨。至於要怎麼面對惡意言論，成員稱，只能消極應對，盡量不去看那些留言，築起心牆，避免情緒被吞噬。

taiwan-subdivisions: 清水 新北市

countries: 台灣 中國 馬來西亞 日本

things: 廢死 死刑


title: 金曲歌王岳父涉貪被押！高金素梅協會爆詐領風波　羈押理由曝光

content_text:
▲協會助理張俊傑因涉貪污、加重詐欺等罪嫌重大，遭法院裁准羈押禁見。（圖／記者劉昌松攝）

記者黃哲民、董美琪／台北報導

無黨籍立委高金素梅近期捲入助理費、補助款與藥材案，檢調10日上午兵分多路，搜索高金素梅辦公室及其他共計30處場所，並約談18人。調查指出，高金素梅創立的台灣原住民多族群文化交流協會，疑似利用舉辦活動之名，向某多多媒體等廠商調用發票，墊高支出以詐領補助款。協會款項負責人、亦為金曲歌王Matzka岳父的張俊傑，經漏夜偵訊後，11日清晨因有逃亡及勾串滅證之虞遭檢方聲押禁見，北院今晚裁准羈押禁見。

北院指出，張俊傑涉犯貪污治罪條例第5條第1項第2款之公務員詐取財物罪，刑法第214條之使公務員登載不實罪；另涉及刑法第339條之4第1項第2款加重詐欺罪、商業會計法第71條第1款填製不實會計憑證罪、刑法第215、216條行使業務上登載不實文書罪，以及洗錢防制法第19條洗錢罪，已達犯罪嫌疑重大。

法院認為，本案共犯間之犯意聯絡及行為分擔仍多未明，有待檢察官釐清，且有相當理由認定被告有勾串共犯之虞。考量本案犯罪情節嚴重，危害社會治安甚鉅，且案發至今已有相當時日，案情晦暗危險性高，因此羈押被告及禁止接見、通信，符合衡平性原則，國家刑罰權之行使不會因羈押而受過度侵害。


content_text:
▲小隊長陳秋中移送北檢。（圖／記者劉昌松攝）

記者劉昌松、柯振中／台北報導

新北市刑大偵二隊小隊長陳秋中曾涉入88會館案，近日又被發現於上班時間多次前往該案關鍵人物「茶壺邱」邱庭鋒的店舖搬酒，因而與邱雙雙被新北市刑大帶回調查。陳秋中、邱庭鋒2人經過調查，被移送台北地檢署複訊，訊後檢方諭知邱、陳2人分別以30萬元、50萬元交保。

88會館風波牽動警界人事 關鍵人物再浮上檯面

根據調查，新北地檢署於2022年間偵辦郭哲敏涉賭博、地下匯兌等案件時，揭露郭哲敏曾招待檢警高層於「88會館」宴飲，引發警界人事大地震。其中，與檢警共同出席宴飲者，包含台北刑事圈知名商人「茶壺邱」邱庭鋒。

檢警追查發現，郭哲敏在案發前時常向邱庭鋒購買洋酒，並會找陳秋中前往邱的店舖搬貨。隨著88會館事件延燒，邱的店舖一度低調沉寂。

上班時間頻繁往來 疑涉不當往來

不過，近日檢調再度接獲情資，指出陳秋中仍多次前往邱的店舖搬酒，且調查發現陳在上班時間經常與邱接觸，相關行為引發疑慮，因此檢調單位將陳、邱2人帶回調查。

刑大強調主動自清 2人經北檢複訊交保

針對陳秋中涉偽造文書浮報加班費、逃漏稅等案，新北市刑大11日回應表示，此案為配合本局督察室自檢自清，主動報請新北地檢署偵辦。經詢問後，陳秋中、邱庭鋒均被移送台北地檢署複訊，經過檢方複訊，邱、陳2人分別以30萬元、50萬元交保。

title: 上班時間忙著搬酒涉偽造文書、逃漏稅！新北市刑警複訊後50萬交保


countries: 台灣 中國 馬來西亞 日本

taiwan-subdivisions: 新北市 清水

title: 陳嘉瑩被判死　廢死聯盟晚間發文：「惡意」在台灣特別突出


title: 金曲歌王岳父涉貪被押！高金素梅協會爆詐領風波　羈押理由曝光


title: 中共也只能叫囂了 他從北京1舉動看出：施壓日本籌碼沒那麼多

countries: 日本 台灣 中國

content_text:
日本首相高市早苗領導自民黨，在眾議院改選大獲全勝，親中派一敗塗地，讓中國大崩潰。中國外交部怒嗆，高市如果繼續「魯莽行事」，必遭日本人民和國際社會唾棄，再次要求高市收回「台灣有事」相關言論。對此，印太戰略智庫執行長矢板明夫直言，中國外交部這種回應，在面對國際現實時，並不能有效解決當前的外交僵局，反而讓交流變得更加緊張和困難。

矢板明夫11日深夜在臉書發文，「2月9日下午的中國外交部例行記者會，發言人林劍面對記者提問，就2月8日日本眾議院選舉中，高市早苗執政聯盟取得壓倒性勝利，做出正式回應。這場選舉結果，執政黨在眾議院的席次達到超過三分之二的絕對多數，高市將繼續擔任日本首相，並擁有更大的國會主導權。」

「林劍說，這次選舉是日本『國內事務』，但結果反映了日本社會一些『深層次、結構性的問題』，值得日本國內以及國際社會的人去深思。他還警告日本不要回到『軍國主義』道路，並且要求日本『恪守中日四個政治文件』，不要『背信棄義』。他特別再一次要求高市首相撤回她關於台灣有事的言論，並用強硬措辭表示，如果日本的『極右翼勢力』行事魯莽，將會遭到日本人民和國際社會的『迎頭痛擊』。 」

矢板明夫分析，「這段官方回應，實際上隱含了幾個值得注意的問題。首先，林劍一方面說選舉是『日本內政』，一方面卻又要求日本首相撤回她的發言，這明顯矛盾。選舉結果是日本國民用選票做出的選擇。高市首相在選前已公開談過涉台議題並且獲得支持，現在中國卻專門挑選這點要求她撤回，是明顯不尊重日本民意的表現。」

「其次，這場選舉後的反應顯示，日中兩國的外交對立將會長期化。這不是一兩次語言衝突造成的，而是結構性的矛盾。日本民意已經對安全、國防議題表達了更強烈的關注，選民在選舉中對高市的高度支持，就是一個證明。日本公民沒有因中國的強硬態度而退縮，反而用投票結果表達自己的立場。這意味著，日本不可能因為中國的外交恐嚇而改變方向。」

「再者，回頭看最近的貿易互動也很有意思。外界在選舉前曾注意到，中國一度對日本實施稀土出口限制等措施，但隨後又迅速撤回這些限制。這可能意味著，中國手上本來可以對日本施壓的『籌碼』，其實沒那麼多。當你用完手段還必須收回，那就很難再用類似策略來影響對方。相比之下，日本在國際政治與經濟布局上越來越自主，特別是在選舉後將繼續推動與台灣等國家的合作。 」

最後矢板明夫直言，「中國的這種外交回應更像是在對自己國家的領導人和國內輿論喊話。林劍提到『歷史教訓』和『軍國主義覆轍』等話語，是中國官方用來強調自身立場的固定模板。在面對國際現實時，那樣的發言並不能有效解決當前的外交僵局，反而讓交流變得更加緊張和困難。」


countries: 美國 台灣

content_text:
台裔球星卡洛爾右手骨折將開刀，不只因傷退出經典賽，能否趕上大聯盟開季也是未知數。（路透）

〔記者龔乃玠／台北報導〕經典賽美國隊台裔混血球星卡洛爾（Corbin Carroll）傳出壞消息，因打擊練習不慎傷到右手鉤骨，已確認骨折將接受手術，不只因傷退出經典賽，能否趕上大聯盟開季也是未知數。

卡洛爾去年生涯第2度入選明星賽，出賽143場，攻擊指數0.883，敲出31轟、84分打點，另有17支三壘安打為全大聯盟最多。中職會長蔡其昌去年7月曾赴美拜訪卡洛爾，不過他表明自己期待為美國出征經典賽，最終也入選美國隊30人名單，更被看好是先發外野手。

卡洛爾休季訓練時，在訓練機構巧遇經典賽台灣隊國手江坤宇。江坤宇就曾透露，「我們有在哈拉說，看能不能到美國再相遇。」可惜今天傳出卡洛爾因傷辭退經典賽，兩人相約美國再相遇的約定將無法實現。

title: 經典賽》震撼！台裔球星卡洛爾右手骨折將開刀 退出美國隊


content_text:
無黨籍立法委員高金素梅，涉嫌詐領助理費、違法輸入中國快篩試劑、利用協會詐領補助款，台北地檢署複訊後，聲押禁見高金的國會辦公室前主任、現任助理張俊傑（歌手Matzka的岳父），台北地院11日深夜10時35分裁准羈押禁見，裁定理由指出，「本案具體犯罪情形嚴重、危害社會治安甚鉅，犯案期間非短」，張俊傑涉嫌重大，且有勾串共犯之虞，故裁准羈押禁見。

北院裁定指出，張俊傑涉犯貪污治罪條例之「公務員詐取財物」、刑法「使公務員登載不實、行使業務登載不實文書」、「加重詐欺」、商業會計法「填製不實會計憑證」、洗錢防制法「洗錢」等罪，已達犯罪嫌疑重大的程度。

法官認為，本案共犯間是如何犯意聯絡、行為分擔等重要事實，都尚有未明，有待檢察官釐清，有相當理由足以認定張俊傑有勾串共犯之虞。

法官考量，本案具體犯罪情形嚴重，危害社會治安甚鉅，而本案犯行期間非短，距今已有相當時日，共犯間的犯意聯絡及行為分擔仍多有未明之處，案情晦暗的危險性仍高。

北院衡酌，不羈押張俊傑對於國家刑罰權的傷害，應大於羈押對張的權利侵害，符合衡平性原則，有羈押並禁止接見、通信的必要，因此裁准檢方的聲請。

高金素梅11日凌晨移送北檢複訊後，因感冒身體不適而獲檢方請回，近日將再行傳喚，但諭令她限制出境、出海。

title: 高金素梅親信張俊傑羈押禁見  北院裁定理由出爐


taiwan-subdivisions: 大甲 大雅 豐原

content_text:
台中市長盧秀燕今晚展開春安工作慰問，先後到大甲分局義里所、豐原與大雅分局慰勞員警。媒體詢問，台中市去年爆發非洲豬瘟，監察院今天彈劾4名市府官員，她僅回答，「謝謝。」

監察院彈劾台中市政府前農業局長張敬昌、前環保局長陳宏益、前動保處長林儒良、動保處組長周百俊等4人，處置非洲豬瘟災害重大違失，也移送懲戒法院審理。對此，盧秀燕並未回應。

盧秀燕今晚到大甲分局義里所致贈春節禮品與春節小紅包，她感謝警方在春節期間堅守崗位，稱讚他們都是市民英雄。媒體詢問，監察院今天彈劾4名市府官員，她低調不願回應，上車前往下個行程。

title: 台中爆非洲豬瘟4官員被彈劾 盧秀燕只回這2字


title: 民眾黨三蘆確定提名陳彥廷 周曉芸：不退黨繼續為選民服務

content_text:
民眾黨主席黃國昌三重蘆洲服務處主任周曉芸（右）晚間表示尊重結果，並指角色或許變了，但不會因此退黨，服務三蘆的心不會變，她將用行動證明「無論站在哪個位置，會繼續為選民服務」；陳彥廷則透過黨部轉述，目前不對外回應。（記者羅國嘉攝）

民眾黨中央稍早正式公告新北市三重、蘆洲選區提名結果，正式提名素人陳彥廷。民眾黨主席黃國昌三重蘆洲服務處主任周曉芸晚間表示尊重結果，並指角色或許變了，但不會因此退黨，服務三蘆的心不會變，她將用行動證明「無論站在哪個位置，會繼續為選民服務」；陳彥廷則透過黨部轉述，目前不對外回應。

民眾黨主席黃國昌「四大金釵」之一，現任三重蘆洲服務處主任周曉芸，近期投入黨內議員初選，卻爆冷門以些微差距敗給低調參選的素人陳彥廷，隨即提出複查。今下午黨中央完成程序後，確定提名陳彥廷。

周曉芸晚間發文指出，稍早黨中央，已正式公告新北市三重蘆洲選區提名結果，首先由衷恭喜陳彥廷獲得提名，這是民眾黨團隊共同努力的成果，也期待為三重蘆洲市民朋友們帶來真實改變。

對於此次初選結果，周曉芸坦言，「我完全尊重與肯定，也深深感謝他們在過程中，所承擔的壓力與決策考量。」但過程中有遺憾，就像過去許多夥伴曾經歷過的情境，結果不如預期時，心裡難免有不捨。但民眾黨走到至今不容易，每一步都是支持者，用信任與奉獻累積出來的，她選擇相信黨中央的決策，相信這是為了三蘆、為了民眾黨未來更好的佈局，讓素人參選在民眾黨是可以實現的。

周曉芸說，自己從2025年開始，在三重蘆洲經營地方，到設立服務處、走訪每一個里鄰宮廟、組建團隊，就是為了這一刻能為選民盡一份力。提名結果出來，角色或許變了，但服務三蘆的心不會變，她將繼續用行動證明「無論站在哪個位置，曉芸永遠是民眾黨的一份子，繼續為三蘆選民服務」。

至於獲提名的陳彥廷，民眾黨中央黨部轉述，陳彥廷表示目前「沒有要回應」，暫不針對提名過程或外界討論發表進一步說明。

taiwan-subdivisions: 新北市 蘆洲


references: 網友 臉書

content_text:
近年詐騙十分猖獗，許多政治人物都被詐騙集團盜照行騙，就連前民進黨立委高嘉瑜的照片也遭盜用。高嘉瑜今就發出自己被盜照的文章，直言「台灣人都知道我是靈魂歌姬，這詐騙集團肯定不是台灣人」。

高嘉瑜在臉書發文表示，自己的照片被詐騙集團盜用，還寫著「幫護理師找一台車，徵2024-2025的現代小車Venue，麻煩有車的同業報報，感恩」，並附上Line的ID。對此，高嘉瑜怒批，這詐騙集團肯定不是台灣人，台灣人都知道她是靈魂歌姬，不是護理師。

貼文曝光後，網友紛紛笑說，「怎麼那麼笨，歌后都不認識」、「誰不認識靈魂歌姬港湖胖虎」、「詐騙還這麼不專業，肯定剛入行的新手都不做功課的」、「台灣人都知道聽完妳唱歌，要去找護理師」、「自稱靈魂歌姬才是詐騙」、「找一組高階行動麥克風還比較有可能」、「他如果寫歌姬，那絕對是詐騙集團，而且還是黑心的詐騙集團」。

title: 美照遭詐騙盜用變護理師 高嘉瑜「神吐槽」笑翻網


content_text:
現年48歲的女星侯佩岑，2011年與圈外人黃柏俊結婚、育有二子，她事業版圖移往中國大陸多年，2025年參加陸綜《乘風2025》（《浪姐6》）備受矚目；她近日首次以主持人身分登上2026年《央視》春晚舞台，興奮直呼錄影時就像回家團員一樣。

侯佩岑首登《央視》春節聯歡晚會，受訪時分享心得直呼非常溫暖：「我在舞台上也特別感受到團圓，有長輩、有弟弟妹妹、有哥哥姊姊，就是很像回家，然後我們大家一起，無論今年你在四處奔波，在各地繁忙的日子裡面，還是要回到家裡見見長輩、親朋好友，跟大家一起慶祝，我覺得很溫馨。」

侯佩岑在本命年擔任《央視》春晚主持人，穿上一襲銀白色系的性感小禮服，上胸挖空設計露出豐滿上圍，狀態保養極佳；曾被懷疑「進廠維修」撞臉宋慧喬、伊能靜、溫嵐等女星，對此她沒有多加回應。F4成員之一的言承旭，近日現身央視大樓被拍，時隔8年重新站上春晚舞台，搭上巡演議題引起討論。

journalist: 記者 黃雅琪

title: 胸前挖空全看光！侯佩岑「首登春晚」嗨喊：很像回家｜東森娛樂


content_text: 台北物價壓力追平東京！根據線上資料庫平台Numbeo近日公布最新的全球生活成本指數（Cost of Living Index）排行榜，結果顯示，台灣生活成本指數為49.7，位居全球第57名，亞洲排名第10，整體高於日本，反映出台灣在亞洲地區的物價水準已有明顯上升，但實質購買力卻明顯落後於東亞鄰國，引發民眾對物價與薪資失衡的關注。本次生活成本指數以美國紐約市作為基準（指數100），涵蓋房租、食品雜貨、外食費與購買力等項目。台灣的綜合指數為49.7，在亞洲排名第10，高於日本的47.5（全球第66）。其中台北的指數為54.7，略高於東京的54.2，反映出台北生活開銷實際上與日本首都已不相上下。進一步檢視各項指標，台北在食品雜貨與餐廳價格的負擔上皆高於東京。台北民眾不論在超市採買或外食，都需承擔更高的開支。根據數據，食品雜貨價格指數台北為67.6，東京則為62.9；餐廳價格方面，台北為36.1，東京為35.4。然而，在薪資水準與消費能力的「當地購買力指數」方面，台北卻明顯落後。首爾購買力指數高達130.0，東京為117.8，而台北僅有81.5，新北市更低至75.0。儘管物價接近東京，但實際收入卻只能支應七成生活支出，形成體感貧窮的現實。不過，台灣在租金方面仍具有優勢。台北租金指數為19.6，遠低於新加坡的73.1、香港的63.1與東京的25.8，有助於在住房成本上緩和部分壓力。從全球排行來看，生活成本最高的前五名分別是百慕達（135.8）、開曼群島（115.6）、美屬維京群島（111.3）、瑞士（110.7）與索羅門群島（102.3），多為仰賴進口物資的離島或金融中心，物價居高不下。亞洲部分，新加坡以87.7成為亞洲生活成本最高國家，香港則以75.2緊追在後。南韓為61.6，澳門60.5。台灣則介於這些高指數國家與其他物價較低國家之間，例如泰國（38.0）、馬來西亞（34.0）與中國大陸（30.5）。總體而言，台灣正面臨「物價追上、薪資落後」的現象，尤其在大城市中，民眾日常支出壓力日增，購買力萎縮下，更顯現出台灣經濟體質與分配機制所需面對的結構性挑戰。

journalist: 甘仲豪

countries: 日本 台灣 開曼群島 香港 百慕達 美國 中國 索羅門群島 美屬維京群島 澳門 瑞士 泰國 新加坡 馬來西亞

taiwan-subdivisions: 大城 新北市

title: 台灣超越日本？全球生活成本排名出爐　台北生活成本高過東京「薪資難匹配」 | 國際 | CTWANT


content_text: 英國《金融時報》（FinancialTimes）先前報導，烏克蘭總統澤倫斯基（Volodymyr Zelenskiy）計畫於2月24日、俄羅斯全面入侵4週年之際，宣布舉行總統大選並同步就潛在俄烏和平協議舉行公投。不過，熟悉內情人士向路透社指出，在和平條件未明朗前推動相關程序，該時間表恐不切實際。報導引述參與規劃的烏克蘭與歐洲官員說法，指基輔已著手籌備選舉，並規劃與和平協議公投同日舉行。此舉被視為美烏談判中的一環。據悉，儘速籌辦選舉列入雙方正在敲定的20點和平框架之一。路透社揭露，消息人士表示，若烏克蘭未先與俄方就協議條款達成共識，且未取得美國與西方盟友提供的安全保障與停火安排，澤倫斯基難以依法啟動選舉與公投，「俄羅斯尚未同意任何協議，也未展現結束戰事的行動，如何推動選舉？」截至目前為止，烏克蘭總統府尚未就相關報導置評。在美方斡旋下，雙方近期於阿布達比舉行會談，但在東部頓巴斯地區地位問題上仍存重大分歧。俄方要求取得整個頓巴斯控制權；而烏方目前仍掌控逾5,180平方公里的土地，因此拒絕讓步，但不排除探討設立非軍事區或自由貿易區等替代方案。與此同時，俄軍在嚴冬期間仍持續攻擊烏克蘭能源設施。澤倫斯基日前表示，隨著美國國會期中選舉逼近，華府希望在6月前尋得結束戰爭的方案。路透社指出，美烏曾討論於5月舉行選舉與公投，但多名知情人士認為，在尚未達成和平協議且投票籌備繁複的情況下，該時程並不現實。此外，自2022年俄羅斯入侵以來，烏克蘭實施戒嚴令，依法禁止舉行選舉；多數民意亦反對戰時投票。針對這點，國會議員與專家已成立工作小組研擬修法方向。結合以上幾點，外界普遍認為儘管美國總統川普（Donald Trump）支持烏克蘭舉行選舉，相關安排仍面臨法律與政治層面的多重挑戰。

journalist: 陳頡

countries: 美國 英國 烏克蘭 俄羅斯

events: 公投 選舉

title: 傳澤倫斯基擬24日宣布舉行大選＋俄烏和平協議公投　知情人吐內幕 | 國際 | CTWANT


content_text: 主計總處11日公布114年薪資統計，全年每人每月經常性薪資平均為4萬7,884元，年增3.09％，創下26年來最大增幅；全年總薪資平均達76萬632元，年增3.91％，為近15年次高水準。主計總處表示，最低工資調升與企業加薪，是帶動薪資成長的主要動能。根據主計總處資料，若觀察單月表現，114年12月全體受僱員工經常性薪資平均為4萬8,400元，年增3.06％；加計獎金及加班費等非經常性薪資1萬4,092元後，單月總薪資平均為6萬2,492元，年增2.11％。經常性薪資中位數為3萬8,861元，年增3.09％。在本國籍全時員工方面，12月經常性薪資平均為5萬1,263元，年增3.11％，合計獎金及加班費後，總薪資平均6萬6,411元；全年每月經常性薪資平均為5萬643元，年增3.22％，全年總薪資平均為80萬6,448元，年增3.89％。部分工時員工12月經常性薪資平均為2萬940元，年增3.37％；全年每月經常性薪資平均為2萬612元，年增2.36％，全年總薪資平均26萬2,272元，年增3.15％。值得注意的是，全年經常性薪資低於平均數的員工比率升至69.74％，已連續4年上升，約七成受僱者薪資未達平均水準。在物價方面，去年消費者物價指數（CPI）漲幅降至1.66％。扣除物價因素後，114年實質經常性薪資年增1.4％，為5年來最大增幅；實質總薪資成長2.21％，創7年新高，顯示薪資成長已超越通膨，受僱者實質購買力明顯回升。此外，12月底全體受僱員工人數達856萬7千人，較上月增加5千人；全年平均受僱人數為852萬3千人，年增6萬6千人，增幅0.78％。

title: 114年薪資成長創26年新高！平均經常性薪資4.7萬元　近7成領不到 | 財經 | CTWANT


content_text: 腎臟功能不佳者在日常飲食中必須特別留意蔬果的選擇。腎臟科醫師洪永祥指出，許多深綠色葉菜雖然富含膳食纖維、植化素與維生素C，對一般人來說是有益健康的天然食材，但對於腎絲球過濾率（eGFR）低於45的患者而言，過量攝取高鉀食物可能造成血鉀濃度過高，進一步誘發肌肉無力、心律不整，甚至提早進入洗腎階段。洪永祥在《祝你健康》節目中說明，當腎臟功能衰退，鉀離子排出能力下降，就容易引發「高血鉀症」。因此腎功能不全者需控制鉀的每日攝取量，建議每日不超過1000毫克，並優先選擇每100公克鉀含量低於100毫克的低鉀蔬菜。他點名五種高鉀蔬菜應特別注意：川七：每100公克鉀含量達540毫克莧菜：530毫克草菇：500毫克菠菜：460毫克空心菜：440毫克這些蔬菜若大量食用，恐讓鉀攝取輕易超標。若實在想吃，洪永祥建議可以先汆燙處理，藉由水煮方式降低部分鉀含量，但即使如此仍應注意食用份量與頻率。除了蔬菜，高鉀水果同樣不可忽視，其中番茄與香蕉為常見代表。洪永祥提醒，這類水果含鉀量高，腎病患者應避免大量攝取，亦可諮詢營養師評估每日攝取上限。更需嚴格禁忌的是楊桃。洪永祥警告，楊桃含有尚未完全釐清的神經毒素，腎功能正常者可安全代謝，但對腎病患來說恐造成中樞神經毒性反應，症狀從持續打嗝、意識混亂，甚至可能昏迷或致命。無論是否進入洗腎階段，只要腎功能不佳，應完全避免食用楊桃及其相關製品。洪永祥強調，雖然蔬果攝取對健康至關重要，但腎臟病患的飲食需個別化處理，不能照搬一般營養建議。若不確定某些蔬果是否適合，應尋求專業醫療與營養諮詢，確保攝取安全、延緩病程進展。

journalist: 網編組

title: 腎病患者慎吃高鉀蔬果！　醫列5菜3果恐釀高血鉀風險 | 生活 | CTWANT


content_text: 無黨籍立法委員高金素梅涉嫌詐領助理費及原住民多族群文化交流協會補助款、違反醫療器材管理法，台北地檢署2月10日指揮法務部調查局搜索，約談高金素梅的張姓助理，時任助理現任屏東縣議員越秋女、台東縣議員陳政宗、花蓮縣議員簡智隆共18名涉案人士到案說明。檢方訊後聲押禁見高金素梅的助理張俊傑並於稍早被北院裁准。高金素梅於昨日晚間抵達台北地檢署複訊後，高金素梅在因應訊時向檢察官表示身體不適，因此檢察官諭知其限制出境出海，並視其身體恢復狀況擇期訊問，最後高金素梅在2名助理的攙扶下離開北檢。其餘被告包括協助原住民多族群文化交流協會辦理活動的某廠商負責人陳正順10萬元交保、涉詐領助理費部份人頭楊昀儒10萬元交保、助理利春仁10萬元交保、原音重現音樂社負責人張智傑、前助理高智偉50萬交保與限制出境出海、前助理林怡君50萬交保與限制出境出海、前助理露子吉尤50萬交保與限制出境出海、前助理呂俠50萬交保與限制出境出海、屏東服務處主任麥玲鳳10萬元交保。另外，較容易引起民眾關注的涉案人員部分，包含Matzka老婆雲雅舜涉及洗錢最後以50萬交保與限制出境出海、台灣原住民多族群文化交流協會周陳文彬以30萬交保與限制出境出海、越秋女、陳政宗、簡智隆及台東縣金峰鄉民代表高勤書訊問後被請回。周陳文彬過去曾為屏東縣議員，不過因為其在2018年競選期間賄選被查獲，最終被判刑4年定讞，後續由他的女兒周陳曉玟選上縣議員。此外，本案涉案程度較高的助理張俊傑為雲雅舜之父，也就是Matzka岳父因為疑似為原住民多族群文化交流協會實際負責人，並負責處理相關的款項，於訊後被檢方聲押禁見，也是本案目前唯一一個被聲押的被告，而稍早台北地院在召開聲押庭結束後裁准收押禁見。據了解，越秋女2022年九合一選舉期間，取得廈門寶太生物科技有限公（BIOTIME）生產的新狀病毒（2019-nCoV）抗原檢測試劑盒、N95口罩與酒精等防疫物資等，並再發送給古樓文化健康站以及丹林部落文化健康站11個地方團體和選民涉犯賄選，全案於去年8月由屏東地方法院宣判無罪。不過，在此案審理期間發現該批醫療物資為高金素梅所募集，國安站也懷疑這批醫療物資輸入台灣的過程並不符合相關規定，認為高金素梅涉嫌違反醫療器材管理法，因此報請北檢指揮檢察官偵辦，後續檢調也將進一步釐清是否涉及不法。除涉嫌違反療器材管理法外，高金素梅也被查出涉犯利用人頭的方式來詐領助理費，並疑似於2015到2018年間用原住民多族群文化交流協會名義以虛報演唱會等活動支出的方式向原民會、中油、台電等單位詐領相關的補助款項。

journalist: 翁靖祐

people: 高金素梅 陳正順 陳文彬

taiwan-subdivisions: 金峰 屏東縣 花蓮縣

title: 高金素梅涉貪案！金曲歌王Matzka岳父被檢聲押禁見　北院點頭了 | 社會 | CTWANT


content_text: 無黨籍原住民立委高金素梅涉嫌以人頭詐領助理費、非法輸入新冠快篩試劑、詐領協會補助款等三案，2月10日遭台北地檢署指揮調查局兵分30路搜索其住家和立法院辦公室。目前正在立法院會期間，根據憲法明定，立委非現行犯必須經立法院同意才能被逮捕，引發外界關注。高金是七連霸立委，在原住民選區屹立不搖，但如今也傳出涉案，因她長期在立法院青島二館，二館「風水不好」的魔咒似乎再度湧現。例如國民黨立委顏寬恒，國會辦公室也在二館。由於位在青島東路與林森南路口的青島二館距離立院院區最遠，加上還有不少立委連任失利的紀錄，也因此許多心存顧忌的立委不願進駐，多會以私下交換方式改往別處。最早是在2006年，當時民進黨立委張川田在任內，因積勞成疾過世，到了2009年，親民黨立委林惠官也因病辭世，兩人年紀都不算太大，又在任內過世，兩人辦公室都在二館。加上二館實在太偏僻，不少立委都對二館敬而遠之。也有一些形象良好的立委，辦公室在二館，但也未能連任成功，例如前立委高嘉瑜、吳育昇。因此許多立委剛上任時，辦公室在二館，不久後都紛紛搬離，如民進黨立委黃捷辦公室原本在二館，但因前立委洪申翰轉任勞動部長，黃捷搬到洪申翰位於一館的辦公室，該辦公室就留給王義川。還有如國民黨立委柯志恩、國民黨立院黨團總召傅崐萁，原本辦公室在二館，現在也都搬到中興大樓。會館大門對面也正對兩棟大樓間的夾縫，形成的「沖煞」，引發更嚴重官訟是非。(圖片來源／Google街景圖)位在青島東路與林森南路口的立法院青島二館建築僅有二層樓，由內往外看，右邊虎邊有疾管署高樓「壓制」，虎抬頭，會引發官訟是非、身體不好、開刀。大門正上方有3個長條型的窗戶，像在頭上插了3柱香拜拜，引發犧牲奉獻、病痛纏身的運勢。會館大門對面也正對兩棟大樓間的夾縫，形成的「沖煞」，引發更嚴重官訟是非。

journalist: 台中市名門命理教育協會創會理事長楊登嵙

people: 高金素梅 林惠官 張川田 顏寬恒 高嘉瑜 傅崐萁 洪申翰 柯志恩 吳育昇

title: 無黨籍立委高金素梅疑涉貪突遭搜索　「青島二館」風水魔咒再起 | 生活 | CTWANT


content_text:
【NOW健康 林郁敏／台北報導】你以為耳膜很堅固？其實只要一次重大衝擊就可能崩潰！很多人不以為意，賭它會自己好，結果卻輸掉了聽力。遭外力衝擊（如掌摑打耳光）或不當掏耳，極易造成外傷性耳膜穿孔，引發耳鳴、劇烈疼痛及聽力驟降。耳鼻喉科醫師警告，許多患者常存有「耳膜會自行癒合」的迷思，若因此疏於處置或照護不當，極易引發細菌感染，反使治療過程更為棘手。醫師強調，若穿孔在兩週內未見癒合跡象，應立即介入治療。若是輕、中度耳膜穿孔者，透過門診顯微耳膜再生手術即可修復。

耳膜結構由外中內三層組成 一旦穿孔往往是三層同時破裂

弘光耳鼻喉科診所院長、中山醫院耳鼻喉科主任醫師，同時也是博仁綜合醫院耳鼻喉暨頭頸部外科主任的許文龍醫師指出，外傷性耳膜穿孔常見於突發壓力變化或外力撞擊。近期就收治一名印尼移工，因與同鄉爭執遭到掌摑，當下出現耳痛、耳鳴及聽力下降，門診檢查發現耳膜破裂。

另一個案則是一名小琉球女性潛水教練，於潛水練習換氣時因壓力調整不當，導致耳膜充血並穿孔。此外，也曾遇患者因耳朵發癢反覆用手指搓揉耳道，造成氣壓改變，意外將耳膜「搓破」。

許文龍醫師說明，耳朵可分為外耳、中耳與內耳，耳膜位於外耳與中耳交界，若因壓力失衡破裂，聲音傳導便會受阻，出現耳鳴與聽力減退。事實上，耳膜破裂在某種情況是身體的保護機制，因為若壓力未釋放，反而可能直接傷及聽小骨或內耳神經，造成更嚴重損傷。

許文龍醫師進一步解釋，耳膜結構由三層組成，外層為扁平上皮細胞層，中層為纖維層，內層為黏膜層，三層皆具彈性。一旦穿孔，往往是三層同時破裂，雖具自我修復能力，但修復期間必須避免進水、挖耳或刺激，否則易引發繼發性感染。

耳膜穿孔逾兩週未癒合需積極治療 輕中度可採1門診手術

耳膜穿孔會自行痊癒嗎？許文龍醫師分析，治療上，初期可透過消炎、消腫與促進癒合的藥物保守治療，讓耳膜慢慢長回來；若超過兩週仍未癒合，則需積極介入，依破損程度不同，可選擇門診顯微耳膜再生手術、局部耳膜移植手術或中耳成形術，其中後兩者需住院進行。

目前臨床上最常應用於輕中度穿孔的是「門診顯微耳膜再生手術」，手術在門診局部麻醉下即可進行，先清除破損邊緣的纖維化組織與出血凝固物移除，再貼附人工耳膜，促進耳膜自行再生，手術過程約20至30分鐘，術後即可返家，不影響日常作息。

由於耳膜不同位置因血管供應差異，癒合速度也有所不同，治療過程通常每週1至2次，平均需12至16次觀察與調整，治療成效與年齡、體況、慢性病控制、破損位置及醫師經驗密切相關。值得注意的是，癒合過程中，耳膜可能出現結痂、再生或兩者並行的狀態，是否成功關鍵在於週邊血管能否順利長出。

最後，許文龍醫師提醒，日常預防仍是關鍵，避免耳朵進水、勿自行挖耳，若出現感染症狀應即時就醫，搭配抗生素、促進血管再生藥物及維他命補充，有助提升癒合品質。

# 首圖來源／Freepik

更多NOW健康報導▸對抗冬季乾癢全攻略 兩大族群適時補充健康油脂助改善▸髖關節退化成因分兩大類 醫揭10大風險因子、4大徵兆

taiwan-subdivisions: 成功 琉球 中山

title: 打耳光、掏耳朵！耳膜真的撐不住 小心耳膜三層一起破 | NOW健康｜健康數位內容第一品牌！


content_text:
澎湖縣長陳光復11日特別前往白沙鄉赤崁村，親手遞送「春節年菜關懷物資」給在地長者，並親切地與長輩閒話家常、詢問生活起居，並不斷叮嚀天氣變化大，要「呷飽飽、穿厚燒」。長輩們接過沉甸甸的餐食禮盒，臉上露出燦爛的笑容，感動之情溢於言表，場面熱絡且溫馨。

陳光復表示，春節期間(除夕至初三)，老人餐食服務將暫停四天，為了讓獨居長者能安心過年，縣府啟動「擁抱獨老、愛不打烊」關懷計畫，準備了560份春節年菜關懷物資，提前將年節所需的生活與飲食物資，備妥並親送到家，讓長者在停餐期間生活飲食無虞，安心過年。

陳光復說，澎湖目前提供餐食服務的志工共有130位，除過年期間外，天天提供最溫暖貼心的服務，讓獨居長者守護的工作更加緊密。今日陳光復也特別向第一線志工致謝，肯定他們是澎湖最溫暖的人文風景，並感謝他們的辛勞。

陳光復強調，縣府團隊會持續做長者最堅實後盾，不僅在年節期間推動「愛不打烊」計畫，未來也將投入更多資源，完善各項長照政策，期盼長者都能健康生活、平安長壽。

journalist: 地方中心／澎湖報導

taiwan-subdivisions: 白沙 澎湖縣

title: 陳光復慰問送餐志工 啟動春節「擁抱獨老」關懷物資發送


taiwan-subdivisions: 澎湖縣 白沙

title: 陳光復慰問送餐志工 啟動春節「擁抱獨老」關懷物資發送


content_text:
（中央社華盛頓11日綜合外電報導）彭博（Bloomberg News）今天報導，知情人士透露，美國總統川普正私下評估是否退出「美墨加貿易協定」，為美國、加拿大與墨西哥三方的關鍵重新談判再添不確定性。

根據不具名知情人士，川普已詢問幕僚為何不應退出「美墨加貿易協定」（USMCA），但他未明確表態將退出。

「美墨加貿易協定」是川普在他第一個總統任期內簽署，以取代1992年簽訂的「北美自由貿易協定」（NAFTA）。

一名白宮官員表示，任何相關宣布都將由川普本人發布。這名官員在發給路透社的電郵中指出：「除非總統親自宣布，否則任何關於總統可能採取的行動皆屬無端臆測。」（編譯：陳正健）1150212

countries: 墨西哥 美國 加拿大

title: 彭博：川普私下評估退出美墨加貿易協定 | 國際