content_text: Tourists take pictures among tulips blooming in Taichung’s Jhongshe Flower Market yesterday. More than 50 tulip varieties — totaling 250,000 blooms — are on display in rotation until the middle of next month, Jhongshe Flower Market chairman Lai Chi-wen said.

title: ’Tiptoe through the tulips’


content_text:
Japan to invest in energy, industrial projects: Trump

SUPPLY CHAIN:  One of the projects is a power plant in Ohio that would be the largest natural gas-fired generating facility in history, with a capacity of 9.2 gigawatts

US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday announced three projects valued at US$36 billion to be financed by Japan, including an oil export facility in Texas, an industrial diamonds plant in Georgia and a natural gas power plant in Ohio.

The projects are the first investments under Japan’s US$550 billion US investment pledge as part of a trade deal that cut Trump’s tariffs on Japanese imports to 15 percent, Trump said on Truth Social. He gave few details about the projects.

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in a statement that the Portsmouth, Ohio power plant, valued at US$33 billion, would be the largest natural gas-fired generating facility in history with a capacity of 9.2 gigawatts.

US President Donald Trump, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrive on board the US Navy’s USS George Washington aircraft carrier at the US naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, on Oct. 28 last year. Photo: AFP

The facility, to be operated by SB Energy Corp, a subsidiary of Japanese tech investor Softbank Group Corp, would increase baseload power at a time of fast-growing electricity demand from data centers built to power artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

The White House said Japan would invest in the US$2.1 billion Texas GulfLink LLC deepwater crude oil export facility off the Texas coast.

“This project is expected to generate US$20 billion — US$30 billion annually in US crude exports, secure export capacity for our refineries, and reinforce America’s position as the world’s leading energy supplier,” Lutnick said.

Texas GulfLink, which is being developed by Sentinel Midstream LLC, confirmed that it was part of the initiative and was “honored to be a trusted partner with the US Department of Commerce and the government of Japan.”

Trump said the Texas investments would include a liquefied natural gas project, but Lutnick’s statement and a White House fact sheet did not mention LNG.

Lutnick said the third major project in Georgia was a synthetic industrial diamond manufacturing plant that would satisfy 100 percent of US demand for synthetic diamond grit, a critical input for advanced manufacturing and semiconductor production. The US currently relies largely on China for such supplies.

The high-pressure synthetic diamond plant, valued at about US$600 million, will be operated by Element Six Ltd, the White House said in a fact sheet. The industrial diamond company is a unit of De Beers Group, the world’s largest diamond producer.

It was unclear how much of the projects’ costs would be funded by Japanese entities and under what conditions. Under an earlier US-Japan agreement, profit from the projects was due to be shared 50-50 between the US and Japan until Japan’s initial investment costs were recouped, after which profit would be split 90-10 in favor of the US.

The administration’s announcements followed meetings last week between Lutnick and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ryosei Akazawa, where they worked out remaining issues before deals could be announced.

“All of these projects involve Japan and the United States working together to build supply chains in strategically important fields,” Akazawa told reporters in Tokyo yesterday.

He also said that Japan would continue to work with the US for more investment deals, adding that Tokyo has pledged investments of up to US$550 billion before the end of Trump’s current term in office.

While declining to comment on the estimated timing for forthcoming deals, Akazawa said he, as a negotiator, “would keep in mind that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s planned US visit [in March] would be fruitful.”

Multiple Japanese firms expressed interest in the three initial projects, according to the Japanese government, including Noritake Co as an off-taker for the diamond project, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd and Nippon Steel Ltd as suppliers for the crude oil export facility project, and Hitachi Ltd and Toshiba Corp for the power project.

Japan’s investment package would consist of equity, loans and loan guarantees from state-owned agencies Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance.


content_text:
European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde is expected to step down from her role before her eight-year term ends in October next year, the Financial Times reported.

Lagarde wants to leave before the French presidential election in April next year, which would allow French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to find her replacement together, the report said, citing an unidentified person familiar with her thoughts on the matter. It is not clear yet when she might exit, the report said.

“President Lagarde is totally focused on her mission and has not taken any decision regarding the end of her term,” an ECB spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde addresses the media following the ECB’s Governing Council meeting at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, on Feb. 5. Photo: Reuters

Lagarde has been linked with an early departure from the ECB before but sought in June last year to quash talk that she is planning to head the World Economic Forum, saying she is “fully determined to deliver my mission and I’m determined to complete my term.”

She told Bloomberg Television more recently that she is “not a quitter,” while saying that she was surprised to learn on accepting the ECB role in 2019 that the job carried a term of eight years rather than five.

However, speculation ramped up again, following the announcement that Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau will leave his post prematurely, offering Macron the opportunity to replace him before elections next year that could be won by the far right.

A decision on Lagarde’s job would typically be taken in the summer before her term ends. But European governments might choose to fast-track finding a successor to avoid having to deal with Marine Le Pen or her protege, Jordan Bardella.

Spain is prepared if Europe accelerates its timetable, Spanish Minister of Economy Carlos Cuerpo said this week, highlighting his country’s desire “to play a leading role in the new Executive Board once the opening vacancies are renewed.”

Bank for International Settlements general manager Pablo Hernandez de Cos of Spain is among the front-runners to take over from Lagarde, along with former Dutch central bank president Klaas Knot, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Bundesbank president Joachim Nagel and Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel have also expressed an interest.

There is certainly no consensus on when to deal with succession at the ECB, however. Austrian Minister of Finance Markus Marterbauer said on Monday that he backs maintaining the standard timeline to appoint Lagarde’s replacement.

His German counterpart, Lars Klingbeil, struck a similar note.

“The ECB has timetables, and we are going to stick with them and — as always — find a good solution,” he said.

French Minister of Finance Roland Lescure declined to answer that question, saying simply that Lagarde is “obviously a great president of the ECB.”

title: Lagarde has not decided on term end, ECB says


title: Meta deepens Nvidia ties with chip pledge

content_text:
Meta Platforms Inc has agreed to deploy “millions” of Nvidia Corp processors over the next few years, tightening an already close relationship between two of the biggest companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

Meta, which accounts for about 9 percent of Nvidia’s revenue, is committing to use more AI processors and networking equipment from the supplier, according to a statement on Tuesday. For the first time, it also plans to rely on Nvidia’s Grace central processing units (CPUs) at the heart of standalone computers.

The rollout will include products based on Nvidia’s current Blackwell generation and the forthcoming Vera Rubin design of AI accelerators.

The NVIDIA logo is pictured at its corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in May 2022. Photo: Courtesy NVIDIA/Handout via REUTERS

“We’re excited to expand our partnership with Nvidia to build leading-edge clusters using their Vera Rubin platform to deliver personal superintelligence to everyone in the world,” Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said in the statement.

The pact reaffirms Meta’s loyalty to Nvidia at a time when the AI landscape is shifting. Nvidia’s systems are still considered the gold standard for AI infrastructure — and generate hundreds of billions of US dollars in revenue for the chipmaker. However, rivals are now offering alternatives, and Meta is working on building its own in-house components.

Nvidia’s AI accelerators fetch an average of US$16,061 apiece, according to a recent IDC estimate. That means 1 million of the chips would cost more than US$16 billion — and that does not account for the higher price of newer versions or the other Nvidia equipment that Meta is buying.

Meta was already the second-largest buyer of Nvidia products. It accounted for a total of about US$19 billion in the last fiscal year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Nvidia’s vice president of accelerated computing Ian Buck said the two companies are not putting a dollar figure on the latest commitment or laying out a timeline.

Buck said that only Nvidia is able to offer the breadth of components, systems and software that a company wishing to be a leader in AI needs. Still, it is reasonable for Meta and others to test out other alternatives, he said.

Meta has already projected record spending for this year, with Zuckerberg saying last year that the company would put US$600 billion toward US infrastructure projects over the next three years. Meta is building several gigawatt-sized data centers around the country, including in Louisiana, Ohio and Indiana. One gigawatt is roughly the amount of energy needed to power 750,000 homes.

Buck stressed that Meta will be the first large data-center operator to use Nvidia’s CPUs in standalone servers. Typically, Nvidia offers this technology in combination with its high-end AI accelerators — chips that owe their lineage to graphics processors.

This shift represents an encroachment into territory dominated by Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

It also provides an alternative to some of the in-house chips that are designed by large data-center operators, such as Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services.

Nvidia CPUs will be increasingly used for tasks such as data manipulation and machine learning, Buck said.

“There’s many different kinds of workloads for CPUs,” Buck said. “What we’ve found is Grace is an excellent back-end data center CPU,” meaning it handles the behind-the-scenes computing tasks.

“It can actually deliver two times the performance per watt on those back-end workloads,” he said.


content_text:
BY 2035: Robotics and ‘physical AI’ are the foundation for a value chain that will be more diverse and deeper than the first wave of AI products, the analysts said

The market for artificial intelligence (AI)-powered robots and autonomous machines has the potential to balloon into a trillion-dollar opportunity by 2035, orders of magnitude bigger than it is now, according to a team of Barclays PLC analysts.

Autonomous vehicles, which are already relatively advanced, will lead the way, followed by drones and then more complicated general-purpose humanoid robots, the analysts wrote in a report on Tuesday titled “The Decade of the Robot.”

“Advances in brains, brawn and batteries are pushing AI-enabled robotics to an inflection point, setting the investment agenda for the next decade,” wrote the team led by Zornitsa Todorova, head of thematic fixed-income research at Barclays.

A Waymo autonomous car drives itself in Miami, Florida, on Jan. 21. Waymo, a US autonomous driving technology company best known for developing self-driving cars, announced that it would welcome the first public riders into its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Miami from Jan. 22. Photo: EPA

The development of robotics and other real-world, “physical AI” marks a paradigm shift from digital-focused AI, one that lays the foundation for a “value chain” that will be more diverse and deeper than the first wave of AI products, they said.

While China currently dominates humanoid and industrial robot deployment, the Barclays analysts identified close to 200 public issuers that could be involved in the theme over the next decade, including 100 with at least one corporate bond outstanding.

“We see automakers emerging as potential major participants, alongside growing deployment of robotic systems across warehousing, logistics and retail,” they wrote.

Examples include Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s use of Nvidia Corp’s Omniverse to “virtually retool factories with minimal disruption” and Tesla Inc’s focus on robots during its fourth-quarter earnings call.

The team highlighted the software and hardware underpinning the technology, including semiconductor and infrastructure providers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Samsung Electronics Co and Nvidia Corp. They also flag “robotic hardware and motion systems that perform physical tasks,” along with batteries, which “provide the energy backbone for these platforms,” citing Chinese manufacturers like EVE Energy Co (億緯鋰能) and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (寧德時代).

The Barclays analysts also point to a group they call enablers, which are companies that either build full robots, like Tesla, or “shape the broader ecosystem” by developing technology, like Amazon.com Inc.

A shift toward physical AI is already showing in large-scale logistics and retail operations at companies such as Amazon and Walmart Inc. They said Amazon has more than 1 million robots operating in its fulfillment network, “which is likely still only a fraction of the long-term potential.”

title: Robots pave way for trillion-dollar market: Barclays


title: Fed officials say boost from AI could raise neutral rate

content_text:
Some US Federal Reserve officials have begun suggesting in recent days that productivity growth from artificial intelligence (AI) could mean higher interest rates, a view that would put them at odds with US President Donald Trump’s administration and its nominee to lead the US central bank.

“I expect that the AI boom is unlikely to be a reason for lowering policy rates,” Fed Governor Michael Barr said on Tuesday in remarks prepared for a speech in New York.

Barr’s comments followed remarks from Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson, who said in a Feb. 6 speech that “all other things being equal, persistent increases in productivity growth are likely to result in an increase in the neutral rate, at least temporarily.”

Federal Reserve Board Governor Michael Barr speaks about “Artificial Intelligence and the Labor Market” to the New York Association for Business Economics in New York Cityon Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

AI and productivity are likely to take on increasing importance this year in debates over interest rates as Trump continues to put pressure on the Fed to reduce borrowing costs.

The central bank cut its benchmark rate three times last year, but held it steady at its policy meeting last month. It is not expected to cut rate before midyear, according to futures traders.

Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to take over as Fed chair when Jerome Powell’s term expires in May, has echoed administration officials in arguing AI could unleash a productivity boom that will allow for non-inflationary growth, and lower rates to accompany it.

In his speech on Tuesday, Barr outlined several reasons why that may not be the case.

“Demand for capital would rise because of the strong business investment required to take advantage of the technology, putting upward pressures on interest rates,” he said. “And household savings could fall due to expectations of stronger real wage growth and thus higher lifetime earnings, also putting upward pressure on interest rates.”

The Fed’s benchmark rate now lies in a range between 3.5 percent and 3.75 percent. Several Fed officials see that as close to neutral for the economy, and have cited that as a reason to slow or stop rate cuts.

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, speaking to reporters later on Tuesday after an event in San Jose, California, said an AI-induced acceleration in productivity growth would dictate a higher neutral rate in “the standard model” because “the demand for investment would rise relative to the supply of savings.”

However, the San Francisco Fed chief said any analysis would be far from clear-cut.

“Maybe it raises the neutral rate a little bit,” she said. “We need to be a little humble about what we think the impact on the neutral rate will be.”


title: ‘Bank of Flowers and Trees’ redefines investment

content_text:
HERITAGE:  After a chance encounter with a monk, Kuo Chun-yin came to believe ‘meaningful change does not require grand achievements,’ and began planting trees

In a small town in central Taiwan, a “bank” has redefined the meaning of returns. Measured not in money, but in trees, flowers and restored ecosystems, its returns show that nature can be the most rewarding long-term investment.

“Sowing a single seed is enough to plant hope,” said 60-year-old Kuo Chun-yin (郭俊銀), founder of Bank of Flowers and Trees (花樹銀行).

Nestled at the foot of Bagua Mountain in Changhua County’s Dacun Township (大村), the 0.8 hectare park serves as Kuo’s headquarters for a form of wealth that transcends money — physical well-being of the community and ecological heritage.

Bank of Flowers and Trees founder Kuo Chun-yin poses for a photograph in Changhua County’s Dacun Township on Monday. Photo: CNA

“I believe that community-building should start with protecting local plants and seeds, conserving native ecosystems, and promoting healthier ways of eating,” he said.

A wet wipe manufacturer by trade, Kuo embarked on this second calling 25 years ago, believing that lasting change starts when residents take responsibility for their surroundings.

This philosophy crystallized during a 2007 family cycling tour when he witnessed a Buddhist monk silently planting trees along the South Link Highway.

After speaking with the monk about the fleeting nature of human existence, he came to believe that “meaningful change does not require grand achievements” and began planting trees to contribute to society.

The following year, Kuo sought to fix irrigation problems on his father’s farmland, which had fallen into disuse as his father aged, and began planting seedlings.

As the Bank of Flowers and Trees took shape, Kuo introduced a foster system that allows visitors to leave plants in his care for up to three years at no cost, after which they may reclaim the trees or let them remain in the park.

Recalling the project’s early days, Kuo said some friends joked that the site might turn into a “flower and tree graveyard,” as he had little experience caring for plants left by others.

Today, however, the campus of Bank of Flowers and Trees is nearly at full capacity, with over 10,000 trees representing more than 400 species, Kuo said.

The return of the Atlas moth — once common in the area but drastically reduced due to habitat destruction — to the park indicates the success of Kuo’s conservation efforts and shows that the area has achieved true ecological diversity and balance.

The park has always been open to the public free of charge and generated no income. Its operations are sustained by profits from his wet wipe factory, he said.

Over time, Kuo began developing food products from edible plants grown on-site — such as the moringa tree, known for its high carbon-absorption capacity and nutrient- rich “superfood” properties — benefiting the environment as well as human health.

In recent years, Kuo has been “opening branches” in Penghu and Nantou counties, partnering with like-minded communities to replicate the model.

Kuo envisions these offshoot sites as blueprints for a burgeoning nationwide network, where “every household has a garden and greenery.”

“When people experience the healing benefits of nature, they are more willing to take part, enhancing both environmental quality and public health,” Kuo said.


content_text:
Ultra-high-end Patek Philippe timepieces made from precious metals are driving a sustained recovery in the used watch market.

Patek Philippe watches were the biggest gainers in the latest Bloomberg Subdial Watch Index, which tracks the 50 most-traded watches by transaction value. They included a 26-place jump for the white gold Patek Philippe Nautilus Perpetual Calendar, while the Patek Philippe Rose Gold Travel Time Chronograph returned to the benchmark.

Though the Swiss luxury watchmaker has only seven models in the list — the remainder are all Rolex — the latest sales picture “represents a material disruption” to the latter’s dominance, said Alexander Nussbacher, head of data at UK-based watch trading platform Subdial. “Rolex still leads in volume, but Patek is driving growth.”

A Patek Philippe 5236P-010 In-Line Perpetual Calendar watch is displayed in the window of a Bucherer AG luxury watch boutique in New York on Aug. 3 last year. Photo: Bloomberg

The index was reshuffled this month for this year with a clear tilt toward pricier models, after prices in the secondary market for luxury timepieces jumped to their highest level in more than two years last month.

“High-priced watches are driving returns in the index overall,” Nussbacher said.

Along with the Patek Philippe model, the Rolex Lady DateJust Bimetal also made it back into the index.

Meanwhile, a separate index tracking pre-owned Patek Philippe prices has gained 18 percent since the start of last year, compared with a 10 percent rise in the Rolex index, according to Subdial.

Subdial also said the steep rise in raw material prices including gold and silver was affecting the market. Gold models were among those jumping most in the latest rankings.

title: Top Patek Philippe timepieces drive second-hand trade


content_text: People watch water buffaloes at the Qingtiangang grassland in Yangmingshan National Park in Taipei’s Shilin District on the second day of Lunar New Year yesterday. As the buffaloes are wild animals, people are urged to maintain a distance of at least 20 meters from them in areas without fences and to avoid touching or teasing them.

title: Steer clear


content_text: People shop for rice cookers at a department store in Taipei yesterday. The period around the Lunar New Year is a good time for families to clean and renovate, with many people buying new home appliances to greet the new year.

title: Lunar new gear


content_text:
MEN’s FREESKI BIG AIR:  Norway’s Tormod Frostad found an extra gear under the most intense pressure to post a winning total of 195.50 to top the podium

Japanese teenager Ami Nakai on Tuesday set the pace in the Olympic women’s figure skating competition as freestyle skier Tormod Frostad soared to gold in an all-time classic big air final.

Nikai, 17, upstaged teammate Kaori Sakamoto at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, while Alysa Liu of the US rounded out a powerful top three after the short program.

Sakamoto is searching for an elusive gold at her final Winter Games, but faces a stiff challenge from a new generation of Japanese stars including Nakai and Mone Chiba.

Japan’s Ami Nakai performs in the Winter Olympics women’s single skating short program in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

The 25-year-old Sakamoto, a relative veteran in the sport, won both of her segments in the team event earlier in the Games as Japan took silver behind the US.

She remains well placed ahead of what promises to be a titanic battle in today’s free skate, but her young teammate has the advantage.

Nakai’s sparkling, circus-like skate to La Strada by Nino Rota stole the show in Milan, earning her a personal-best 78.71 points.

Three-time world champion Sakamoto, who won Olympic singles bronze in Beijing four years ago, is lying in wait on 77.23 points.

World champion Liu scored 76.59 followed by Mone and Russian Adeliia Petrosian, competing at the Milano Cortina Games as a neutral.

Nakai punched the air in delight having nailed her elements, including a difficult three-and-a-half-rotation triple axel.

She said she felt like she was “dreaming” at her first Winter Olympics.

Asked about today’s free program, she said: “I want to make sure I land the triple axel and then enjoy the performance until the very end of it.”

“The Americans push me with their difficult jumps, including the triple axel, but at the same time, they’re all very nice people, so I just want to enjoy my time with them on the ice,” she added.

Norway’s Frostad found an extra gear under the most intense pressure to win the men’s freestyle skiing big air gold at a snow-swept Livigno.

The 23-year-old posted a remarkable winning total of 195.50 to top the podium, with Mac Forehand of the US just behind him on 193.25. Austria’s Matej Svancer took bronze with 191.25.

Forehand moved into the gold medal position with only Frostad left to ski in the third run, but the Norwegian scored a staggering competition-high 98.50 to reclaim top spot.

“The level was just insane,” Frostad said.

“It feels crazy. I’m beyond happy to showcase my skiing,” he said.

Earlier, Norway’s Jens Oftebro won his second Nordic combined gold medal of the Games, adding the large hill to the normal hill title.

The 25-year-old could make it a treble when he and his compatriots defend their crown from the 2022 Beijing Games in the team combined today.

On the speedskating track in Milan, Canada’s women won team pursuit gold, while Italy claimed victory in the men’s event.

France celebrated biathlon gold in the men’s 4 x 7.5km relay, which took them to a new national record of 16 medals at a Winter Games.

Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic all won their men’s ice hockey playoff matches to progress to the quarter-finals.

Away from the action, ski star Lindsey Vonn said “being back on home soil feels amazing” after returning to the US having undergone four operations on the broken leg she suffered in a horrific crash in the women’s downhill.

The 41-year-old had been in hospital in Italy since her heavy fall on Feb. 8.

Norway have a huge lead at the top of the medals table, with 14 golds and 31 overall. Hosts Italy are in second spot with nine golds and a total of 24 medals.

title: Japanese teenager Nakai sets the pace


title: Man who ‘ruined’ basketball to step down

content_text:
Sports fans have criticized Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politician Hsieh Dien-lin, calling him “the man who ruined Taiwan basketball” for being embroiled in numerous controversies and his cited failures and negligence as chairman of the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA).

Hsieh said he would step down in May as chairman of the CTBA, while Keelung Council Speaker Tung Tzu-wei, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has declared his candidacy to head the governing body.

Hsieh is the current Changhua County Council speaker and his family is a powerful political dynasty in the county, starting with his grandfather being elected to the Taiwan Provincial Assembly in the 1980s.

Chinese Taipei Basketball Association chairman and Changhua County Council Speaker Hsieh Dien-lin speaks to reporters in an undated photograph. Photo: courtesy of the Changhua County Council via CNA

Online quarrels and political disputes have led to fans urging Hsieh to resign from the CTBA immediately and prompted New Power Party (NPP) Chairwoman Claire Wang to point out problems and failures at the CTBA, saying that “Hsieh is the man who ruined Taiwan basketball.”

Saying Hsieh was elected CTBA chairman in 2018 and then again for a second term in 2022, Wang wrote: “So when Hsieh took charge, it [the CTBA] had the biggest game-fixing scandal [in 2023] in the Super Basketball League [SBL],” with players colluding with gambling syndicates to manipulate odds and profit from betting.

The scandal resulted in the prosecution and court conviction of 14 players last year, who all received lifetime bans from basketball.

“The CTBA as governing body also had problems when putting together the national squad to compete in major Asian tournaments, did not obtain proper training sites, was unable to secure basic insurance to cover injuries and had communication issues with star players,” Wang said.

She pointed to upcoming regional qualifiers that were moved to another country, with governing body FIBA citing “political issues.”

“People had good enthusiasm supporting the game after seeing investment in new clubs, and several new professional circuits launched. It seemed to usher in a new era for Taiwan basketball,” she wrote. “Instead, the CTBA under Hsieh lacked competency and provided no leadership to coordinate and take charge, resulting in the leagues splitting, competing for players, venues and fans. Some clubs disbanded, others jumped to rival leagues, creating confusion due to changing schedules and playoff formats.”

It led to a chaotic situation, with many people calling for the SBL, Taiwan Professional Basketball League and the P.League+ to be merged into one league, but nothing had been done so far, and the three circuits are still competing against each other, while the CTBA has failed in its job as the game’s governing body and has failed the current generation of star players, she said.

She compared it with Taiwanese baseball, with large corporations injecting funds and attracting more fans.

“We should be entering a ‘golden era’ for basketball in Taiwan, but teams are facing more and more issues,” she said. “The situation is mainly due to Hsieh ... Hsieh did not even fulfill the basics of his duty — he did not attend any SBL news conferences, but he would never miss out on glamorous events featuring cheerleaders, including their rehearsals and corporate dinners where they were performing. People have reported that Hsieh would fully participate in these events as head of the CTBA,” she said.

She also cited complaints filed by fans requesting that the Ministry of Sports conduct a probe into Hsieh’s conduct, adding that the CTBA breached its legal requirement to convene an annual general assembly last year, which it scheduled three times, but did not achieve a quorum on the number of attending members.

Quoting members who received a mailed notification and traveled to attend the failed meetings, Wang said Hsieh did not even appear at these three events.

“The first meeting was held in Changhua County, but Hsieh did not show up. It later emerged that he was drinking heavily at a feast the previous night and was still feeling the effects the next day. He was also a no-show at the second meeting in Taipei and the third attempt, with people later learning that Hsieh was on a trip to Japan, leading to utter disbelief and condemnation,” Wang said.

Hsieh responded to the criticism and complaints on Facebook.

“Myself as CTBA chairman cannot solve all the problems. I have put much effort into this job,” he wrote.

Hsieh continued to court controversy by getting into online disputes with basketball fans, who directed their questions and complaints to his Facebook page, which elicited his anger and resulted in online tirades that he blamed on an aide who was hired to manage his social media accounts, but fans cited previous occasions when Hsieh admitted that he was drunk when responding to and arguing with his detractors.


title: Gauff, Rybakina cruise into last 16

content_text:
Coco Gauff on Tuesday bounced back from her shock early exit in Doha last week with a comfortable victory over Anna Kalinskaya in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, while Elena Rybakina opened her campaign with a dominant win.

The American, who lost to lucky loser Elisabetta Cocciaretto in her opening match in Qatar, made no such mistake against Kalinskaya, easing through the second-round tie 6-4, 6-4.

Gauff is to face Belgian Elise Mertens in the last 16 of the WTA 1000 event.

Coco Gauff of the US returns to Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya in their Dubai Championships women’s singles match in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

The two-time Grand Slam champion created headlines earlier this week for comments about anti-immigration policies in the US, saying: “I don’t think people should be dying in the streets for just existing.”

Gauff struggled at times in Dubai, serving 12 double faults, but broke Russian Kalinskaya’s serve six times to emerge victorious from a scrappy encounter.

“It wasn’t the prettiest one, but it was enough for today,” said Gauff, seeded third. “It was pretty windy. I was just trying to adjust — both of us were struggling with consistency on the court.”

Australian Open champion and top seed Rybakina put on an imposing display as she brushed past Kimberly Birrell 6-1, 6-2 in just 60 minutes.

“Overall, I’m happy with the result, with the match, and now I just need to rest and prepare for tomorrow,” Rybakina said after getting back to winning ways following a quarter-final exit in last week’s Qatar Open.

The Kazakh is to take on Croatian lucky loser Antonia Ruzic in the last 16, following her 6-1, 6-7 (2/7), 6-1 victory over Anastasia Zakharova.

Mirra Andreeva and Belinda Bencic were both beneficiaries of second-round walkovers.

Russian teenager Andreeva, who received a first-round bye, is to face Romanian Jaqueline Cristian for a quarter-final place after Daria Kasatkina pulled out of their match with a hip injury.

In-form Czech youngster Sara Bejlek, who won a title in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, also withdrew with an abdominal injury, handing Bencic a spot in the third round.

The Swiss player is to face seventh seed Elina Svitolina, who progressed to the round-of-16 after her opponent, Paula Badosa, retired after losing the opening set.

Fourth seed Jessica Pegula of the US cruised through with a 6-4, 6-0 thrashing of Varvara Gracheva and is to face compatriot Iva Jovic.

Alexandra Eala beat sixth seed Jasmine Paolini 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) to set up a meeting with Sorana Cirstea.

The tournament in Dubai, one of 10 WTA 1000 events, has been severely hit by the withdrawals of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek.

Second seed Amanda Anisimova had also been given a walkover on Monday after her second-round opponent Barbora Krejcikova pulled out.

Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko, who reached the Qatar Open final last week, also withdrew ahead of the tournament, citing an elbow injury.

In the women’s doubles, Peangtarn Plipuech of Thailand and Rutuja Bhosale of India defeated Eri Hozumi of Japan and Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien 7-5, 6-2.

Additional reporting by staff writer


title: Carlos Alcaraz battles into second round

content_text:
Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday made a triumphant return to action following his Australian Open success as he beat Arthur Rinderknech 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in the first round in Doha.

Alcaraz, who became the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam with his victory in Melbourne, saw off the 30th-ranked Rinderknech in two closely contested sets.

“It was really difficult. Arthur is a really dangerous player. Nobody wants to play against him in the first round,” Alcaraz said. “I’m happy with the level. I’m happy that I got through difficult moments in the match. I’m happy that I stayed calm and positive, and played great tennis.”

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz returns to Arthur Rinderknech of France in their Qatar Open men’s singles match in Doha on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

The world No. 1 is to face another Frenchman in the second round, 60th-ranked Valentin Royer.

Alcaraz took the first set after breaking in the fifth game, but faced dogged resistance from Rinderknech, who brought up his first break points of the match with the top seed serving to force a tiebreak in the second set.

The Spaniard saved both and then closed out victory in the tiebreak, ripping a forehand down the line on match point.

Alcaraz’s chief rival Jannik Sinner is on the other side of the draw. No player other than Alcaraz or Sinner has won a tour-level title at an event featuring both of them since Andrey Rublev lifted the trophy in Madrid in May 2024.

Rublev booked his place in the second round with a straightforward 6-4, 6-3 victory over Dutchman Jesper de Jong.

Alcaraz, who lost in the quarter-finals on his Qatar Open debut a year ago, could face one of three former champions in the draw, Karen Khachanov, in the last eight if he gets past Royer.

Seventh seed Khachanov needed three sets to overcome Japanese lucky loser Shintaro Mochizuki, while Stefanos Tsitsipas downed Tunisian wild-card Moez Echargui to line up a meeting with 2023 winner Daniil Medvedev.

Jiri Lehecka, who knocked Alcaraz out of last year’s tournament, swept past Jenson Brooksby of the US in straight sets in his opening match.


content_text:
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday recovered from a shambolic start as Desire Doue inspired a comeback from two goals down to beat AS Monaco 3-2 in the principality in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League playoff.

US star Folarin Balogun opened the scoring after just 55 seconds and found the net again on 18 minutes to put Monaco in control against their French Ligue 1 rivals at the Stade Louis II.

Vitinha then missed a chance for the reigning European champions to reduce the deficit when he had a penalty saved and last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele came off injured before the half-hour mark, but his replacement Doue sparked the comeback.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Desire Doue, front, scores against AS Monaco in their UEFA Champions League playoff first leg at Stade Louis II in Monaco on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

He scored and then helped set up Achraf Hakimi for the equalizer just before halftime, and Monaco then had Aleksandr Golovin sent off right at the start of the second half.

Doue then got the winner on 67 minutes.

“He is an incredible player and a different player. I am very pleased for him because he deserved it,” PSG head coach Luis Enrique told broadcaster Canal Plus. “There is pressure on us to win and we like that pressure, but there are difficult moments in games that are hard to overcome.”

The result keeps the tie alive going into the return leg in Paris on Wednesday next week, but PSG are now strong favorites to seal a place in the last 16.

They came into the game having been knocked off top spot in the French league last weekend following a defeat at Stade Rennais, with RC Lens replacing them at the summit.

However, they are a huge 20 points clear of Monaco, who find themselves languishing in eighth due to an inability to put together a consistent run of form.

Nevertheless, Monaco notably held Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus at home during the league phase, and also won 1-0 at home to PSG in Ligue 1 in November last year.

This time they went in front as Balogun headed in from close range from a Golovin cross for the fastest goal ever conceded in a European tie by PSG.

Monaco were in dreamland as they doubled their advantage when Balogun played a quick one-two with Maghnes Akliouche before running through to finish past goalkeeper Matfei Safonov.

A shock result appeared on the cards, with PSG’s title seemingly very much on the line, all the more so when Vitinha’s penalty was saved by Philipp Koehn after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was brought down by Wout Faes.

That was the fourth penalty out of their past five in the Champions League that PSG had failed to convert, and things got worse for them when Dembele — who had been a doubt and has had an injury-hit season — had to come off.

Yet his withdrawal really turned out to be a blessing, as Doue entered the fray and had a devastating impact.

The standout performer in PSG’s 5-0 demolition of Inter in last season’s final had been on the pitch barely two minutes when he controlled Bradley Barcola’s pass in the penalty area before smashing a left-foot shot low into the far corner.

The leveler then came four minutes from halftime when a Doue shot was parried by Koehn, with Hakimi controlling the loose ball before applying the finish.

Monaco’s grip on the game was really gone within three minutes of the restart as Russian playmaker Golovin saw red following a video assistant referee check of his challenge on Vitinha, granting PSG the extra man.

The visitors took advantage as Warren Zaire-Emery laid the ball off for Doue to score his second of the night and make it 3-2 midway through the second half.

“I just did my job. We are pleased because the most important thing in games like these is just to win,” Doue told Canal Plus.

PSG will hope to finish off the tie next week, with the winners facing either Barcelona or Chelsea in the next round.

It is a big ask now for Monaco, although they will likely be relieved to be heading to Paris with just a one-goal deficit after playing for so long with 10 men.

title: Doue inspires PSG comeback win in Monaco


content_text:
Dutch midfielder Noa Lang on Tuesday scored a brace as Galatasaray thumped Juventus 5-2 in a pulsating contest in Istanbul in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League playoff.

In a nerve-shredding atmosphere, Luciano Spalletti’s Juventus actually led 2-1 at halftime after Teun Koopmeiners replied to Brazilian midfielder Gabriel Sara’s opener with a brace of his own, but Colombian fullback Juan Cabal was dismissed for two bookings in a calamitous second half as Lang’s brace and goals from Davinson Sanchez and Sacha Boey sunk the Old Lady, who faced a miserable return to Turin.

“We took several steps backwards,” moaned Spalletti, whose team had been rejuvenated since he took over in late October last year with Juve seventh in Serie A and languishing outside the playoff spots in the Champions League after failing to win any of their first three matches.

Galatasaray’s Noa Lang, front right, scores against Juventus in their UEFA Champions League playoff first leg in Istanbul, Turkey, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

“We finished the first half badly, we tried to sort things out, but we lacked personality and character,” the 66-year-old said. “Obviously the sending off weighed heavily on us, but we also played our part... We didn’t realize the danger in what we were doing.”

This was Juve’s joint-second heaviest defeat in European competition, after their 7-0 humbling by Wiener Sport-Club, who currently play in Austria’s regional leagues, back in 1958.

Sara opened the scoring with a slick left-footed strike from just inside the penalty area on 15 minutes, but that lead was short-lived.

Gala goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir could only parry Khephren Thuram’s powerful header into the path of the onrushing Koopmeiners, who tapped in the leveler just a minute later.

Koopmeiners then picked out the top corner from the edge of the penalty area on 32 minutes after a clever exchange with US midfielder Weston McKennie.

That was as good as it got for the visitors.

Okan Buruk’s Turkish champions ran riot after halftime as Lang pounced on a loose ball to level on 49 minutes.

Sanchez nodded Gala ahead on the hour mark as the home fans ramped up the volume.

Juve complained of an unfair dismissal in their 3-2 defeat to Serie A leaders Inter at the weekend, but they could have no issues with Cabal’s sending off on 67 minutes.

Lang bagged his brace shortly afterward as he pounced on the loose ball after Victor Osimhen robbed centerback Lloyd Kelly inside his own penalty area.

Substitute Boey ensured Gala would take a commanding lead to Turin next week as he lashed home from five minutes from time.

title: Galatasaray rout 10-man Juventus 5-2 in Istanbul


content_text:
Serhou Guirassy on Tuesday scored a goal and laid on another as Borussia Dortmund beat Atalanta BC 2-0 at home in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League playoff.

Despite a late arrival delaying kickoff and just one recognized centerback, Dortmund controlled the match from start to finish. The in-form Guirassy headed Dortmund in front early and then set up Maximilian Beier’s goal late in the first half to give the German side the advantage ahead of next week’s return leg in Italy.

“It was a perfect start, but a weird evening,” Guirassy told Amazon Prime. “We were in traffic for an hour and 15 minutes, and only had 10 minutes to get ready and get on the pitch after we arrived, so it was nice of course to get the header after three minutes.”

Dortmund midfielder Julian Brandt told reporters a 2-0 lead was “still dangerous” ahead of the second leg in Bergamo, Italy, but praised his side’s focus despite the pre-match setbacks.

“A lot is working for us now. Even in difficult situations, we’re managing it. We were able to convert the stress into energy when we started. It sharpened us up a bit today — but it shouldn’t become the norm,” Brandt said of the late arrival.

Atalanta arrived on time, but were out on their feet in defense and disjointed in attack, missing injured midfielder Charles de Ketelaere’s attacking spark.

Despite a run of six straight Bundesliga victories, Dortmund were hit with a defensive crisis, with Nico Schlotterbeck, Niklas Suele, Emre Can and Filippo Mane all out injured. Head coach Niko Kovac handed 18-year-old Luca Reggiani a first senior start alongside Germany defender Waldemar Anton, Dortmund’s last centerback standing.

Bursting back into form after a long dry spell with five goals in three games, Guirassy wasted no time continuing his streak. With three minutes gone, the Guinean nodded in a Julian Ryerson cross to give Dortmund the lead on three minutes.

Dortmund doubled their lead just before halftime when Guirassy delivered a pass across the face of goal for Beier to tap home.

title: Serhou Guirassy guides Dortmund past Atalanta


title: Bowlers, selectors panned after Aussie exit

content_text:
Critics yesterday hammered Australia’s bowling lineup and selection “stuff-ups” after the country’s shock Men’s T20 World Cup exit in the group stages.

The 2021 champions were knocked out of the World Cup in Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe qualified after their match against Ireland was rained off without a ball being bowled.

Australia captain Mitchell Marsh plays a shot against Sri Lanka in their Men’s T20 World Cup match in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, on Monday. Photo: AP

The washout gave each side one point and left Australia unable to catch up.

Their campaign has been widely attacked as “shambolic.”

Australia lost leading pace bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood to injury, while captain Mitchell Marsh missed the first two games after being hit in the groin in training and suffering testicular bleeding.

Their pace attack has been a “shadow of former glories” without Hazlewood, Cummins or Mitchell Starc, who has retired from the format internationally, the Australian newspaper said.

Looking back on happier days, the paper recalled that Australia won five and drew one of their six T20 internationals from September 2024 to October last year.

“The trouble is that a host of players who had been central to those series wins have fallen off a cliff when the stakes are at their highest,” it said.

It cited “major drops” in output by Cameron Green, Tim David, Josh Inglis, Xavier Bartlett and Ben Dwarshuis, with series losses against India and Pakistan.

The paper attacked selection “stuff-ups,” too, criticizing the inclusion of Cooper Connolly as being like “throwing a lamb to the slaughter.”

Test great Steve Smith was left out despite being in terrific form top of the order in the Big Bash League and his expertise in playing against spin bowling.

He flew in as cover last week and was formally added to the Australia squad at the weekend, after their surprise loss to Zimbabwe on Friday last week.

“We still haven’t had a compelling answer as to why he wasn’t yet in Colombo for the match against Zimbabwe, five days after Marsh was injured in the nets,” the Australian said.

Then Smith was left out for the must-win game against Sri Lanka on Monday which saw an Australia middle-order collapse as they lost by eight wickets.

“We don’t have that bowling depth, and that’s really shown,” former Australian cricketer Brad Hogg told British sports radio station Talksport.

We really weren’t prepared enough for this particular World Cup, and we probably deserve what we’ve got at this stage,” he said.

Selectors and coaching staff will likely be under pressure over Australia’s performance, Hogg said.

“They’ve got to plan. They’ve got to look at their depth of bowling here in Australia, especially when we lose Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc. What’s our next generation going to look [like] — that’s probably going to be the big question,” he said.


content_text:
Nepal on Tuesday beat Scotland by seven wickets in a Men’s T20 World Cup Group C dead rubber in Mumbai, Indai, as the Himalayan side signed off from the tournament with a memorable victory.

Both teams were already packing their bags after the West Indies and England had sealed progress to the Super Eight, but that did not stop Nepal’s fans from turning up in numbers to create a party atmosphere at the Wankhede Stadium.

Chasing 171 for their first victory of the tournament, Nepal got there with four balls to spare thanks to Dipendra Singh Airee’s explosive unbeaten half-century off 23 balls.

Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee plays a shot against Scotland in their Men’s T20 World Cup match in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday. Photo: AP

“First of all, I would like to thank the fans. They came to India and to Mumbai and supported us a lot. Our confidence also increased... I am very happy,” Airee said after picking up the player of the match award.

“In the last World Cup, we didn’t win a single match, so that’s why this win is very important for us,” he added. “It is one of my best innings, especially while chasing.”

Nepal looked to be cruising at 74-0 in nine overs with Kushal Bhurtel’s brisk 43 off 35 deliveries setting the tone, but Michael Leask had other ideas.

The Scotland spinner took three swift wickets to leave Nepal wobbling at 98-3.

Leask conceded only 10 runs in his first three overs, but he went for 20 in his last over as Airee welcomed him back with two massive sixes to raise the volume at the Wankhede.

Airee’s fireworks display included four fours and three sixes while he was joined at the other end by Gulsan Jha (24 not out), who hit the winning runs before Nepal took a lap of honor around the ground.

“The atmosphere was incredible, we always knew it would be a tough game against Nepal, with the crowd behind them, but a lot of credit has to go to Airee. The way he’s come out and played, he’s changed the whole tempo of the game,” Scotland skipper Richie Berrington said.

Earlier, Scotland had posted a competitive 170-7 after being put in to bat, with opener Michael Jones blazing to 71 off 45 balls.

title: Nepal wrap up T20 World Cup campaign with a win


title: Sara Duterte announces presidential run

content_text:
‘COST OF DEFECTION’:  Duterte’s announcement could be an effort to keep allies in line with the promise of a return to power amid political uncertainty, an analyst said

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte yesterday announced she would run for president of the Southeast Asian nation of 116 million in 2028.

Duterte, who is embroiled in a bitter feud with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, was impeached last year only to see the country’s Supreme Court throw the case out over procedural issues.

Her announcement comes just days before her father, former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, begins a pretrial hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands over crimes against humanity allegedly committed as part of a brutal crackdown on drugs.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte gestures during a news conferfence in Manila yesterday. Photo: AP

“I offer my life, my strength and my future in the service of our nation,” the 47-year-old vice president told a news conference where she assailed Marcos’ record. “I am Sara Duterte. I will run for president of the Philippines.”

Sara Duterte accused Marcos of corruption in her brief speech, saying he had failed to live up to his word during the short-lived alliance that saw them storm to a landslide victory in the 2022 presidential election.

“In the first few months of our terms, I already saw Bongbong Marcos Jr’s lack of sincerity regarding the promises made during the campaign, as well as his sworn duty to the nation,” she said, using Marcos’s nickname.

Ateneo Policy Center senior researcher Michael Henry Yusingco said the campaign announcement was a “big risk,” but that Sara Duterte’s solid base of support in the family stronghold Mindanao gave her a real advantage.

“Conventional thinking would say she has the best chance of winning. Survey numbers are in her favor,” he said, adding that her father’s physical absence might discourage supporters.

Cleve Arguelles, president of Manila-based WR Numero Research, said that Sara Duterte’s public declaration could be more about keeping allies in line at a time of political uncertainty.

“By projecting an inevitable 2028 run, she raises the perceived cost of defection — reminding politicians in Congress that her faction could still return to power,” he said.

The announcement was aimed at drawing “a clear line among those who are with her or against her, given the ICC and the impeachment” cases, agreed Jean Franco, political science professor at the University of the Philippines.

Philippine presidents are limited to a single six-year term, which eliminates Marcos from the field.

The Marcos administration was now likely to become more openly hostile, Yusingco said.

“Behind the scenes, they’ll probably push for her impeachment,” he said.

Sara Duterte has seen the impeachment bid against her revived in the past few weeks, with members of the Philippine clergy filing a case against her on Monday last week, one of three logged within days.

Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Sara Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the presidential race.

Meanwhile, a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos were tossed out by the Philippine House of Representatives justice committee, which said they lacked the necessary substance.

Marcos still faces his own headwinds, with the archipelago nation roiling over a scandal involving bogus flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.


title: Wealthy Americans top ‘golden visa’ surge in NZ

content_text:
Wealthy Americans are dominating applications for New Zealand’s “golden visa,” driven by a love for the country’s natural beauty and entrepreneurial spirit, as well a desire to escape US President Donald Trump’s policies.

New rules for the Active Investor Plus visa came into effect in April last year, lowering investment thresholds, removing English-language requirements and cutting the amount of time applicants must spend in the country to establish residency from three years to three weeks. Successful applicants can only purchase homes in New Zealand worth more than US$5 million.

Immigration New Zealand said the new scheme offering residency to wealthy foreigners has attracted 573 applications, representing 1,833 people. Before the changes, the visa attracted 116 applications over two-and-a-half years.

Residential houses in Wellington are pictured on July 1, 2017. Photo: Reuters

The most recent government data showed that investors from the US made up nearly 40 percent of applicants, followed by China and Hong Kong. Since August last year, the number of applications from China more than doubled, from 45 to 95.

The remaining top 10 countries in order included Germany, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea tied, and the UK.

There are two categories of “golden visa” in New Zealand. Most have applied under the “growth” category, which requires a minimum NZ$5 million (US$3 million) investment over three years. A smaller group applied under the “balanced” category, which sets a minimum investment of US$10 million over five years. The previous scheme required an investment of US$15 million.

Courtney and Jim Andelman, a couple from California who run a venture capital firm, were, alongside their twin daughters, the 100th family to be granted a visa.

The visa provided an opportunity for the family to spend more time in New Zealand — a country Courtney Andelman fell in love with during a backpacking trip 30 years ago, and a chance to “give back” to the community, she said.

The visa was also good for business, she added.

“This is not just about fun and games and having a chance to live in one of the most amazing countries on the planet — this is also a really smart investment scheme. It’s smart for us,” she said.

New Zealand was an “underserved” market with “incredible entrepreneurial habits, history and technologies,” she said.

The family has invested in venture funds and is also eyeing up companies for direct investment. They are particularly interested in New Zealand’s “deep-tech” industry, including artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnologies.

The couple have decided not to buy a home in New Zealand, in part because the US$5 million price tag is too hefty, and because they do not want to add strain to the housing market. Meanwhile, they would split their time between New Zealand and Santa Barbara, where they live.

“We feel a real responsibility to participating, not just in one country, but in both countries,” Courtney Andelman.

Robbie Paul, the chief executive of Auckland-based venture capital firm Icehouse Ventures, has worked with more than 30 people who have applied for a golden visa. He helps applicants fulfill their visa requirements by assisting with their investments in New Zealand.

Many of the Americans Paul has worked with have said the visa provides an opportunity to escape the Trump administration.

“I’ll put it this way, never in my time in New Zealand, did I have an applicant reference [former US presidents Joe] Biden or [Barack] Obama ... and then, absolutely, a lot of references to people’s feelings towards MAGA and Trump,” he said.

New Zealand had become an appealing option for those investors because it is English-speaking, political stable, beautiful and “very connected to the world,” Paul said.

It is not the first time New Zealand has attracted the interest of Trump-weary Americans and other wealthy foreigners seeking to make New Zealand their “bolthole” at a time of societal division.

After Trump’s first election victory in 2016, visits to the country’s immigration Web site soared almost 2,500 percent. After the US Supreme Court ruled there was no constitutional right to abortion — upending the landmark Roe v Wade ruling — visits to New Zealand’s immigration site quadrupled to 77,000. After Trump’s 2024 election win, there was a surge of interest from the US in New Zealand’s property market.

Billionaires acquiring residency or citizenship in New Zealand have been subject to controversy in the past. After Peter Thiel, the billionaire cofounder of PayPal, was granted citizenship in 2017 despite spending only 12 days in the country, then-New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern tightened the rules on investment visas.

Ardern also banned foreign home ownership in 2018, because of concern that foreign buyers were driving up prices during a housing crisis.

The government last year announced that while the ban largely remains, holders of a “golden visa” would be able to buy homes valued at more than US$5 million.

At the same time wealthy investors are flocking to the golden visa, New Zealand citizens have been leaving the country in record numbers in the past few years, due to a weak economy, high living costs and high unemployment.

However, the most recent migration statistics released this month show signs of improvement, with 66,300 citizens departing last year compared with 67,200 in 2024.

The Active Investor Plus visa scheme has generated US$3.39 billion investment in New Zealand, Immigration NZ said.

New Zealand Minister of Immigration Erica Stanford said the new visa settings are helping to open up investment in New Zealand.

“International investment is critical for lifting productivity, supporting jobs, and helping New Zealand businesses to expand,” she said in a statement.


title: China’s dancing robots spark tech curiosity

content_text:
NOT YET THERE:  While the show was impressive, it failed to demonstrate their ability to move in unstructured environments, such as a factory floor, an expert said

Dancing humanoid robots on Monday took center stage during the annual China Media Group’s Spring Festival Gala, China’s most-watched official television broadcast. They lunged and backflipped (landing on their knees), they spun around and jumped. Not one fell over.

The display was impressive, but if robots can now dance and perform martial arts, what else can they do?

Experts have mixed opinions, with some saying the robots had limitations and that the display should be viewed through a lens of state propaganda.

People watch as robots dance during Lunar New Year celebrations marking the Year of the Horse in Beijing yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Developed by several Chinese robotics firms, the robots performed a range of intricate stunts, including martial arts, comedy sketches and choreographed dance moves alongside human performers.

Clips circulating online quickly drew comparisons with last year’s Lunar New Year broadcast, which also featured dancing robots, but with noticeably simpler movements.

Kyle Chan — an expert in China’s technology development at Brookings Institution, a Washington-based policy organization — said that Beijing uses public robot performances to “dazzle domestic and international audiences with China’s technological prowess.”

“Unlike AI [artificial intelligence] models or industrial equipment, humanoid robots are highly visible examples of China’s technological leadership that general audiences can see on their phones or televisions,” he said.

Pointing to intensifying competition in the tech space between China and the US, Chan added: “While China and the US are neck-and-neck on AI, humanoid robots are an area where China can claim to be ahead of the US, particularly in terms of scaling up production.”

Georg Stieler, the head of robotics and automation at the global technology consulting firm Stieler Technology and Marketing, also emphasized the symbolism of China’s prime time broadcast.

“What distinguishes the gala from comparable events elsewhere is the directness of the pipeline from industrial policy to prime-time spectacle,” Stieler said in a statement.

Comparing this year’s performances with last year’s — when viewers saw “fundamentally a single choreographic mode” with limited motions including walking, twisting and kicking — Stieler said that one key signal of China’s robot progress is “the ability to run large numbers of near-identical humanoids in synchronized motion with stable gaits and consistent joint behavior.”

However, “stage performance does not equate to industrial robustness, yet,” he added.

What the robots did was the result of being trained for a routine “hundreds or thousands of times — you could not just tell them to change direction or do something completely different.”

“These dance motions involve very little environmental perception and are essentially imitation learning plus a balance-keeping controller. That has little bearing on reliability in unstructured environments, a prerequisite for factory-grade deployment. Also the progress in dexterity is not as fast as in locomotion,” he added.

The unveiling of China’s latest generation of robots underscores the country’s broader technological ambitions.

By the end of 2024, China had registered 451,700 smart robotics companies, with a total capital of 6.44 trillion yuan (US$932.15 billion), according to state data.

Major government projects such as “Made in China 2025” and the 14th Five-Year Plan, have made robotics and AI key Beijing priorities.

Morgan Stanley projects that China’s humanoid sales will more than double to 28,000 units this year; and Elon Musk has said he expects his biggest competitor to be Chinese companies as he pivots Tesla toward a focus on embodied AI and its flagship humanoid Optimus.

“People outside China underestimate China, but China is an ass-kicker next level,” Musk said last month.

Marina Zhang (張越), a technology professor at the University of Technology Sydney, said that such a visible showcase likely hints at a new phase in China’s manufacturing masterplan, “where robotics becomes a linchpin in the shift from low-cost assembly to high-end, smart manufacturing.”

Additional reporting by Reuters


content_text:
Surprise shark caught on camera in Antarctica’s near-freezing waters

An ungainly barrel of a shark cruising languidly over a barren seabed far too deep for the sun’s rays to illuminate was an unexpected sight.

Many experts had thought sharks did not exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica before this sleeper shark lumbered warily and briefly into the spotlight of a video camera, researcher Alan Jamieson said this week.

The shark, filmed in January last year, was a substantial specimen with an estimated length of 3m to 4m.

A sleeper shark swims into the spotlight of a video camera off Antarctica in January last year. Photo: Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish, Kelpie Geoscience via AP

“We went down there not expecting to see sharks, because there’s a general rule of thumb that you don’t get sharks in Antarctica,” Jamieson said.

“And it’s not even a little one either. It’s a hunk of a shark. These things are tanks,” he added.

The camera operated by the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, which investigates life in the deepest parts of the world’s oceans, was positioned off the South Shetland Islands near the Antarctic Peninsula. That is well inside the boundaries of the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, which is defined as below the 60° south latitude line.

The center yesterday gave The Associated Press permission to publish the images.

The shark was 490m deep where the water temperature was a near-freezing 1.27°C.

A skate appears in frame motionless on the seabed and seemingly unperturbed by the passing shark. The skate, a shark relative that looks like a stingray, was no surprise as scientists already knew their range extended that far south.

Jamieson, who is the founding director of the University of Western Australia-based research center, said he could find no record of another shark found in the Antarctic Ocean.

Peter Kyne, a Charles Darwin University conservation biologist independent of the research center, agreed that a shark had never before been recorded so far south.

Climate change and warming oceans could potentially be driving sharks to the southern hemisphere’s colder waters, but there was limited data on range changes near Antarctica because of the region’s remoteness, Kyne said.

The slow-moving sleeper sharks could have long been in Antarctica without anyone noticing, he said.

“This is great. The shark was in the right place, the camera was in the right place and they got this great footage,” Kyne said. “It’s quite significant.”

The sleeper shark population in the Antarctic Ocean was likely sparse and difficult for humans to detect, Jamieson said.

The photographed shark was maintaining a depth of about 500m along a seabed that sloped into much deeper water.

It maintained that depth because that was the warmest layer of several water layers stacked upon each other to the surface, he said.

The Antarctic Ocean is heavily layered, or stratified, to a depth of about 1,000m because of conflicting properties including colder, denser water from below not readily mixing with fresh water running off melting ice from above.

Jamieson expects that other antarctic sharks live at the same depth, feeding on the carcasses of whales, giant squids and other marine creatures that die and sink to the bottom.

There are few research cameras positioned at that specific depth in antarctic waters. Those that are can only operate during the southern hemisphere summer months, from December through February.

“The other 75 percent of the year, no one’s looking at all, and so this is why, I think, we occasionally come across these surprises,” Jamieson said.


title: Vatican declines to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’

content_text:
The Vatican will not participate in US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” initiative, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s top diplomatic official, said on Tuesday, adding that efforts to handle crisis situations should be managed by the UN.

Pope Leo, the first US pope and a critic of some of Trump’s policies, was invited to join the board last month.

Under Trump’s Gaza plan that led to a fragile ceasefire in October last year, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.

Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful as he leaves his residence in Castel Gandolfo on the outskirts of Rome to return to the Vatican on Tuesday. Photo: AP

The board is today to hold its first meeting in Washington to discuss Gaza’s reconstruction.

Italy and the EU have said their representatives plan to attend as observers as they have not joined the board.

The Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States,” Parolin said.

“One concern is that at the international level it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted,” he said.

Many rights experts say that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory’s affairs resembled a colonial structure. The board has also faced criticism for not including a Palestinian representative.

Countries have reacted cautiously to Trump’s invitation, with experts concerned that the board could undermine the UN. Some of Washington’s Middle Eastern allies have joined, but its Western allies have so far stayed away.

The Gaza truce has been repeatedly violated with hundreds of Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers reported killed since it began.

Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 72,000 people, caused a hunger crisis and internally displaced Gaza’s entire population.

Multiple rights experts, academics and a UN inquiry say it amounts to genocide. Israel calls its actions self-defense after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in a late 2023 attack.

Leo has repeatedly decried conditions in Gaza. The pope, leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, rarely joins international boards. The Vatican has an extensive diplomatic service and is a permanent observer at the UN.


content_text:
The desire of Chinese and Americans for exchanges and cooperation would not change regardless of how bilateral relations evolve, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a reply to Iowa friends ahead of an expected meeting with US President Donald Trump in April, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

“The hope of US-China relations lies in the people,” Xi wrote on Monday in response to a Lunar New Year’s greeting from Iowa businessman Luca Berrone, whom he first met in May 1985 when he led a delegation from Hebei Province to its “sister state” of Iowa to learn about food production.

Xi in 2022 said in a Lunar New Year’s greeting to Sarah Lande, another friend from his Iowa trip, that the world required stability in US-China ties, which were strained during the COVID-19 pandemic.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk on the sidelines of an APEC summit in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30 last year. Photo: Reuters

US-China relations had a tumultuous 2025, with Trump in October threatening to impose additional 100 percent tariffs on imports from China, but it also saw a revival in people-to-people ties as Trump’s threatened TikTok ban pushed American Internet users onto Chinese app Xiaohongshu (小紅書, also known in English as RedNote).

“Chinamaxxing,” or the online trend of adopting Chinese cultural habits, also surged in popularity among the US’ Gen Z, influenced by the growing perception of China as a technological superpower.

High-level bilateral ties appeared to stabilize after Xi-Trump talks in South Korea in October led to a one-year extension of a trade truce. Trump agreed to trim tariffs in exchange for Beijing committing to crack down on the illegal fentanyl trade, resume US soybean purchases and pause rare earth export controls.

The two then had a surprise phone call earlier this month that touched on Taiwan and other security issues.

Trump said that Xi also discussed how China would consider increasing its purchases of US soybeans, of which Iowa is a top producer.

Trump last month said he is planning to visit China in April, adding that Xi would travel to the US toward the end of the year.

title: Xi offers Iowa friends reassurance over exchanges


content_text:
DEBILITATING ILLNESS:  Higher temperatures due to the climate crisis and invasive mosquitoes mean the tropical disease could expand further northward in Europe

An excruciatingly painful tropical disease called chikungunya can now be transmitted by mosquitoes across most of Europe, a study has found.

Higher temperatures due to the climate crisis mean infections are now possible for more than six months of the year in Spain, Greece and other southern European countries, and for two months a year in southeast England, it said.

Continuing global heating means it is only a matter of time before the disease expands further northward, the scientists said.

A worker sprays pesticide to prevent the spread of chikungunya in Nice, France, on Oct. 10 last year. Photo: AFP

The analysis is the first to fully assess the effect of temperature on the incubation time of the virus in the Asian tiger mosquito, which has invaded Europe in the past few decades.

The study found the minimum temperature at which infections could occur is 2.5°C lower than previous, less robust, estimates, representing a “quite shocking” difference, the researchers said.

Chikungunya virus was first detected in 1952 in Tanzania and was confined to tropical regions, where there are millions of infections a year. The disease causes severe and prolonged joint pain, which is extremely debilitating and can be fatal in young children and older adults.

A small number of cases have been reported in more than 10 European countries in the past few years, but large-scale outbreaks of hundreds of cases hit France and Italy last year.

“The rate of global warming in Europe is approximately double the rate of global warming at global scale and the lower temperature limit for virus spread matters a lot, so our new estimates are quite shocking. The northward expansion of the disease is just a matter of time,” said Sandeep Tegar of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) and lead author of the study.

“Twenty years ago, if you said we were going to have chikungunya and dengue in Europe, everybody would have said you were mad: These are tropical diseases. Now everything’s changed. This is down to this invasive mosquito and climate change — it really is as simple as that,” Steven White, also a researcher at the center.

“We’re seeing rapid change and that’s the worry. Up until last year, France had recorded 30-odd cases of chikungunya over the last 10 years or so. Last year, they had over 800,” he said.

The virus was carried by travelers from French overseas territories in the tropics where there were outbreaks, including Reunion.

The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), which bites during the day, is moving northward across Europe as temperatures rise. It has been detected in the UK, but is not yet established. There are costly vaccines for chikungunya, but the best protection is to avoid being bitten.

“This study is important because it indicates that transmission [in Europe] might become even more evident over time,” said Diana Rojas Alvarez, who leads the WHO’s team on viruses transmitted by insect and tick bites.

Chikungunya can be devastating, with up to 40 percent of people still experiencing arthritis or very severe pain after five years, she added.

“Climate has a huge impact on this, but Europe still has the chance to control these mosquitoes from spreading any further,” she said.

Community education on removing the still water where mosquitoes breed is one important tool, while wearing long, light-colored clothing and using repellent prevents bites.

Health authorities also need to set up surveillance systems, she said.

The study, published in the Journal of Royal Society Interface, used data from 49 earlier studies on chikungunya virus in tiger mosquitoes to determine the incubation time across the full range of temperatures for the first time.

The study found the cut-off temperature for transmission is 13°C to 14°C, meaning infections can occur for more than six months of the year in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, and for three to five months of the year in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and a dozen other European countries.

The minimum temperature was previously estimated at 16°C to 18°C, meaning there is a risk of chikungunya outbreaks in more areas and for longer periods than previously thought.

The new work gives much more detailed information on the areas at risk.

“Identifying specific locations and the months of possible transmission will enable local authorities to decide when and where to take action,” Tegar said.

Outbreaks in Europe are sparked by infected travelers returning from tropical regions and being bitten by local tiger mosquitoes, which then spread the disease. Until now, Europe’s cold winters have stopped tiger mosquito activity and acted as a firebreak for the disease from one year to the next.

However, scientists are starting to see all-year-round tiger mosquito activity in southern Europe, meaning chikungunya outbreaks are likely to amplify as the continent warms.

The UKCEH team is investigating this issue.

“Our intuition is that we’re going to get much bigger outbreaks because you don’t have this natural firebreak,” White said.

There have not yet been any local transmissions of chikungunya reported in the UK, but there were a record 73 cases among people who contracted the virus abroad from January to June last year, almost three times higher than in the same period in 2024.

“It is important there is continued action to try to prevent the tiger mosquito from establishing in [the UK] because this highly invasive species is capable of transmitting several infections that can cause serious health conditions including chikungunya, dengue and Zika viruses,” White said.

title: Study warns of spread of chikungunya


title: Israeli minister pushes ‘migration’ of West Bank

content_text:
Israel’s far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich said he would pursue a policy of “encouraging the migration” of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported yesterday.

“We will eliminate the idea of an Arab terror state,” Smotrich said at an event organized by his Religious Zionism Party late on Tuesday.

“We will finally, formally and in practical terms nullify the cursed Oslo Accords and embark on a path toward sovereignty, while encouraging emigration from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria,” he said..

Machinery demolishes a Palestinian building near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank yesterday. Photo: Reuters

“There is no other long-term solution,” added Smotrich, who lives in a settlement in the West Bank.

Since last week, Israel has approved a series of measures backed by far-right ministers to tighten control over the West Bank, including in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords, in place since the 1990s.

The measures include a process to register land in the West Bank as “state property” and facilitate direct purchases of land by Jewish Israelis.

The measures have triggered widespread international outrage.

On Tuesday, the UN missions of 85 countries condemned the measures, which critics say amount to de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory.

“We strongly condemn unilateral Israeli decisions and measures aimed at expanding Israel’s unlawful presence in the West Bank,” they said in a statement.

“Such decisions are contrary to Israel’s obligations under international law and must be immediately reversed,” they said.

“We underline in this regard our strong opposition to any form of annexation,” they said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on Israel to reverse its land registration policy, calling it “destabilizing” and “unlawful.”

The West Bank would form the largest part of any future Palestinian state. Many on Israel’s religious right view it as Israeli land.

Israeli non-governmental organization have also raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government, which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem’s borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967.

The planned development, announced by the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing, is formally a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin, or Adam, settlement situated northeast of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

The Israeli government has fast-tracked settlement expansion, approving a record 52 settlements last year. Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.

About 3 million Palestinians live in the territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967.


content_text:
To escape war, Muscovites flock to high culture, art

In front of Moscow’s ornate Bolshoi Theatre, its soft yellow lights illuminating a snowstorm in the Russian capital, Valentina Ivakina had come to “escape today’s problems.”

It is a knowing reference to the war that has been raging between Russia and Ukraine for the past four years, with Muscovites increasingly turning to culture and art to detach from the reality of the conflict, unleashed by the Kremlin’s February 2022 offensive. Concert halls are packed, the famed Tretyakov Gallery is teeming even on a midweek afternoon. A Marc Chagall exhibition at the Pushkin Museum: sold out.

Museum attendance in Moscow, which competes with Saint Petersburg as Russia’s cultural capital, jumped 30 percent last year, Mowcow Deputy Mayor Natalya Sergunina said.

People look at The Appearance of Christ Before the People by Russian painter Alexander Ivanov at the Tretyakov gallery in central Moscow on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Ivakina has spent much of the winter bouncing from show to show.

On a stormy evening, the 45-year-old marketing specialist was heading to a Sergei Prokofiev opera at the Bolshoi’s historic stage. The night before, at its New Stage, she was at a ballet based on an Anton Chekhov work. A week ago, the theater.

“It’s a certain attempt to escape reality,” she said, standing on the glittering square in front of the Bolshoi, as she talked about having “fewer opportunities to go somewhere and leave the country.”

Russians have become accustomed to alluding about the war in code, avoiding specific phrases or opinions that could land them years in prison under military censorship laws.

Usually a single phrase — “the context” — is enough to know the underlying topic of conversation.

The conflict, launched when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, has become Europe’s deadliest since World War II, killing tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Immediately hit with sanctions, Russia has been pushed off the world stage — athletes banned, artists’ shows canceled and tourist visas harder to obtain.

At home, the state has pushed the war into daily life — promoting the army, soldiers and masculine narratives of “patriotic values” as core Russian values.

Those who openly oppose are liable to arrest and prosecution.

“There seems to be very few things left to cling to,” said Viktor Chelin, a photographer coming out of the Chagall exhibition, titled “The Joy of Earthly Gravity,” with his wife.

Trips to the museum are “a kind of silent conspiracy,” he said.

“You walk around and understand that you’re united with others by the admiration of a certain beauty,” he said.

“Something enormous happened in Russia, which we are all afraid of. We close our eyes to it, but try to live and maintain and certain normality,” said Chelin, 30.

Wearing a cap pulled low, he talked about “the feeling, as they say, of a feast in time of plague,” a reference to the 1830s play by Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s national poet, written during a cholera epidemic.

He and his wife moved to Georgia for two years after Russia launched its offensive, before returning to Saint Petersburg.

They are now regular visitors to the grand Hermitage Museum, housed in the former palace of the czars.

“We’re not even going to see specific works of art, we’re grounding ourselves, as if we’re connecting to something familiar,” he said.

Sociologist Denis Volkov of the Levada Center — designated a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities — said escapism is prevalent across Russia.

“People don’t want to follow events, they don’t want to get information about what’s happening on the battlefield,” he said.

“There’s been a continuous desire to cut down the flow of bad news, to filter it out somehow, not to discuss it with relatives or friends. Perhaps that’s where this surge in interest in culture comes from,” he said.

However, he added that the mindset also chimes with the line being put out by the authorities — that life in Russia continues as normal, despite the war.

“Festivals, parties, concerns — it reflects the authorities’ policy that life goes on. They fight somewhere over there, and here we live our lives without worry,” Volkov said.

Outside of the Chagall exhibition in Moscow, former piano teacher Irina refutes the idea of trying to escape from the war.

In her short fur coat and bright pink lips, she said she is well aware of “everything that’s happening in the world, and where black and white lie.”

“We live with it, yes, we live with it,” she said. “We often go to all the exhibitions that nourish us and lift our spirits.”


content_text:
In a landmark case for the deeply Catholic country, a Polish bishop was to go to trial yesterday for allegedly covering up acts of pedophilia committed by priests in his diocese.

This is the first case in which a high-ranking church hierarchy has faced criminal charges for failing to inform authorities of church abuse by clergy.

“This is a spectacular case, and, in Polish realities, essentially unprecedented,” said Artur Nowak, a lawyer, publicist and writer who appeared in a watershed documentary about sexual abuse in the Catholic church in Poland.

Prosecutors said that Tarnow bishop Andrzej Jez was aware of two cases of priests abusing underage altar boys. One of the priests in the southern Polish city, Stanislaw P. — whose last name has been withheld due to Polish privacy laws — is believed to have abused 95 children, and committed sexual crimes against 77.

It was one of the largest cases of sexual abuse reported in the Catholic church in Poland — with incidents going as far back as the 1980s, in every parish where P. had served.

Neither clergyman was charged — the former’s victims were not able to precisely determine when the abuse took place, while the second priest, Fr. Tomasz K., claimed poor health, and the case was dropped. Stanislaw P., however, was ultimately stripped of his priesthood by the church.

In previous cases of alleged church cover-ups, prosecutors had declined to open investigations into church officials — arguing that the criminal code did not contain provisions requiring law enforcement to be notified in cases of abuse.

However, a 2017 amendment to the code made it obligatory to notify law enforcement immediately in cases of sexual offenses committed against children under 15.

The local curia denies the accusations against bishop Jez, writing in a statement on Tuesday that “the authorities of the Tarnow diocese made a dozen or so reports to law enforcement over the past years, implementing a ‘zero tolerance’ policy.”

Nowak, however, said that “by filing an indictment against such a high-ranking prelate, the prosecutor’s office must have had solid evidence.”

“If they had doubts, they wouldn’t have taken the case to court,” he added.

Zbigniew Cwiakalski, from the bishop’s defense team, declined to comment ahead of the trial.

With 88.8 percent of Poles feeling a “sense of belonging” to the Catholic church, the country had, until recently, seemed to be bucking the broader European trend toward secularization.

However, an increasing number of abuse scandals coming to light, popular pushback against the country’s strict abortion laws, and concern over the church’s involvement in politics contributed to a steep decline in the number of practicing Catholics, even if they remain nominally Catholic.

Last year, Poland’s Center for Public Opinion Research CBOS found that only 34 percent of Poles said they attended weekly Mass — down from almost 70 percent in the early 1990s.

Church abuse scandals have even touched former Polish pope John Paul II. His role in the downfall of the communist regime earned him world renown, but investigations into his time as archbishop of Krakow in the 1960s and 1970s accused him of neglecting to report known cases of child sexual abuse.

In 2021, the Vatican intervened, barring three Polish bishops from celebrating Mass in public and mandating that they leave their dioceses and pay into a fund for victims, over allegations of negligence.

title: Polish bishop first to face trial over abuse cover-up


content_text:
OSCAR CONTENDER: The success of the film has drawn even more visitors to Shakespeare sites, such as his childhood home and his wife’s family home

On a cloudy winter’s day, visitors stream into what was once William Shakespeare’s childhood home in Stratford-upon-Avon and the nearby Anne Hathaway’s cottage, family residence of the bard’s wife.

Hathaway’s cottage is one of the settings for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Oscar best film contender Hamnet, and the movie’s success is drawing a new wave of tourists to Shakespeare sites in the town in central England.

Shakespeare’s Birthplace is the house the young William once lived in and where his father worked as a glove maker, while Hathaway’s cottage is where he would have visited his future wife early in their relationship.

A statue of William Shakespeare stands outside Shakespeare’s Birthplace, his childhood home, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, on Monday last week. Photo: Reuters

Typically, about 250,000 visitors, from the UK, Europe, the US, China and elsewhere, walk through the locations each year, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust said.

The charity looks after Shakespeare heritage sites, which also include Shakespeare’s New Place, the site of the Stratford home where the bard died in 1616.

Visitors are flocking in this year thanks to Hamnet, the film based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, which gives a fictional account of the relationship between Shakespeare and Hathaway, also known as Agnes, and the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet in 1596.

“Visitor numbers have increased by about 15 to 20 percent across all sites since the film was released back in January. I think that will only continue as we go throughout the year,” said Richard Patterson, chief operating officer for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

“They particularly want to look [at] Anne Hathaway’s cottage and the specifics around how the family engaged in the spaces and the landscape in and around the cottage... You can see why he would have been inspired,” he said.

Hamnet has 11 nominations at Sunday’s British BAFTA awards, including best film and leading actress for Jessie Buckley, who plays Agnes. It also has eight Oscar nominations, with Buckley seen as the front-runner to win best actress.

Hamnet is set in Stratford-upon-Avon and London although it was not filmed in Stratford.

It sees Paul Mescal’s young Shakespeare fall for Agnes while teaching Latin to pay off his father’s debts. The drama, seen mainly through Agnes’ eyes, focuses on their life together and grief over Hamnet’s death, leading Shakespeare to write Hamlet.

“Shakespeare ... is notoriously enigmatic. He writes about humanity, about feeling, about emotion, about conflict, but where do we understand who he is in that story?” said Charlotte Scott, a professor of Shakespeare studies and interim director of collections, learning and research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

“And that’s driven people creative and otherwise for hundreds and hundreds of years. Where is Shakespeare’s heart? And this is what the film I think has so beautifully opened up,” she said.

Little is known about how the couple met. Shakespeare was 18 and Hathaway 26 when they married in 1582. Daughter Susanna arrived in 1583 and twins Judith and Hamnet in 1585.

The film acknowledges the names Hamnet and Hamlet were interchangeable back then. While grief is a dominant theme, audiences also see Shakespeare in love and as a father.

“A lot of people will see this film not necessarily having ... had any kind of relationship with Shakespeare,” Scott said.

“So people will come to this film, I hope, and find a new way of accessing Shakespeare that is about creativity, that is about understanding storytelling as a constant process of regeneration, but also crucially, looking at it from that kind of emotive angle,” she said.

title: ‘Hamnet’ boosts tourism at bard’s heritage sites


content_text: People in costume react during a performance of the “Decapitation of Death,” a ritual marking the end of carnival, in Jedlinsk, Poland, on Tuesday. All the roles in this open-air spectacle, performed in the town square on the eve of Ash Wednesday, are played by men.

title: Victory over death


content_text:
▲張嘉峻提醒，相關研究顯示，戴入耳式耳機僅1小時，耳道內的細菌量就會顯著增加。（示意圖／unsplash）

文／CTWANT

許多民眾習慣使用藍牙耳機，有時一戴就是數小時，但耳鼻喉科醫師張嘉峻提醒，長時間戴入耳式耳機，恐讓耳道變成高溫潮濕的「溫室」，讓細菌與黴菌快速滋生，可能引發外耳道真菌感染。

張嘉峻在臉書粉專發文分享，常常聽到學生或上班族反映耳朵癢、悶悶的，懷疑是不是「耳屎太多塞住了」，進一步詢問後發現，不少民眾習慣藍牙耳機不離身，一戴就是好幾個小時，但如果長期使用，小心耳朵可能悄悄「發霉」。

張嘉峻指出，入耳式耳機其實就像個「塞子」，會將耳道完全密封；相關研究發現，戴上耳機僅1小時，耳道內的細菌量就會因為高溫、悶熱、潮濕而顯著增加，甚至有研究顯示細菌增長率可達數倍至10多倍，成為細菌與黴菌最愛的「溫室」。

張嘉峻提到，若發現耳朵出現3種情況，包括「耳內奇癢無比，甚至半夜癢醒」、「耳道流出帶有異味的液體」、「聽聲音好像隔著一層膜，悶悶的」，可能是外耳道真菌病，此時千萬別用棉花棒亂挖，那只會把黴菌孢子推得更深，甚至刮傷耳道，進而引發更嚴重的發炎或蜂窩性組織炎。

張嘉峻建議，如果有長期戴耳機的需求，應該讓耳朵適度放風，每戴50分鐘就摘下耳機，讓耳道呼吸通風；也要記得定期清潔耳機套，用酒精消毒，並保持乾爽；若耳朵開始感到不適，記得找耳鼻喉科醫師檢查。

延伸閱讀▸ 武廟主委噴射性嘔吐波及賴清德！他曝「忍不住，歹勢啦」 醫揭6大原因▸ 男子開車2小時參觀2億豪宅嘆：永遠買不起 22天後幸運變屋主▸ 原始連結

title: 耳機「戴1小時」細菌量就暴增！醫點名3情況：恐是真菌感染


taiwan-subdivisions: 高雄市 高雄

title: 笑中帶淚！0台詞動畫《喵的奇幻漂流》亞洲首演　星空下冒險啟航

content_text:
▲《喵的奇幻漂流》草地音樂會將在3月14、15日於高美館草坡展開亞洲首演。（圖／高雄春天藝術節、財團法人高雄市愛樂文化藝術基金會提供）

記者許宥孺／高雄報導

高雄春天藝術節草地音樂會從2010年即成為藝術節開幕指標性節目，今年最受矚目的是主打療癒人心、來自拉脫維亞的國際獲獎作品《喵的奇幻漂流》；一隻黑貓、一隻拉不拉多狗，再加上水豚、環尾狐猴和蛇鷲，組成洪荒世界裡的同盟，全片沒有一句台詞，音樂與畫面卻說盡一路的驚險與溫暖。當動物們登上高美館草坡巨型螢幕，搭配高雄市交響樂團的現場震撼樂音，讓觀眾在笑與淚中感受到滿滿療癒。 榮獲奧斯卡、凱薩電影獎與金球獎「最佳動畫長片」三冠王的電影《喵的奇幻漂流》，將於3月14、15日晚上7點在高美館草坡展開亞洲首演。由高雄市交響樂團現場演奏，搭配全片電影同步巨幕放映，原作曲暨指揮-里哈德斯‧扎柳佩（Rihards Zaļupe）親自登台，帶領現場大小觀眾走入一場橫越大自然力量與情感的奇幻航程。

▲《喵的奇幻漂流》描述黑貓為了在洪水過後為了生存，與其他動物結盟共存。（圖／高雄春天藝術節、財團法人高雄市愛樂文化藝術基金會提供）

《喵的奇幻漂流》情節設定在被洪水淹沒的世界，一隻傲嬌黑貓為了生存，意外與拉布拉多、水豚、環尾狐猴及蛇鷲登上一艘漂流小船。這幾隻失去家園的動物，展現出各自的天性本能，細膩描繪不同物種從戒備到彼此信任、攜手度過洪荒世界的過程，展現生命最純粹的溫度與勇氣。 《喵的奇幻漂流》全片特別之處在於無對白、無人類角色，以純粹的畫面與音樂展開劇情並訴說情感，導演金茲‧齊巴洛迪斯（Gints Zilbalodis）透過流動的影像節奏與音樂氛圍，引領觀眾進入一個「沒有語言，卻充滿共鳴」的世界。這是一齣富有生命意義的電影，隨著樂團現場的震撼音響與電影畫面交織，將引領觀眾體驗這段關於漂流、共生與希望的感動人心旅程。

▲《喵的奇幻漂流》全程0台詞，故事溫暖令人動榮。（圖／高雄春天藝術節、財團法人高雄市愛樂文化藝術基金會提供）

將親自到高雄指揮草地音樂會的音樂家里哈德斯‧扎柳佩出生於拉脫維亞，是位備受讚譽的作曲家、製作人與打擊樂演奏家；他的音樂創作橫跨多種類型：交響樂、宗教音樂到電影配樂，展現出他兼具古典底蘊與現代感的音樂語彙。他曾為多部國際矚目的電影譜寫原創配樂，包括 2018 年的《異教之王》（The Pagan King）與 2019 年的《1906》；其中，《喵的奇幻漂流》更讓他憑藉細膩而富有詩意的音樂語境，在國際樂壇嶄露頭角。


content_text:
記者吳奕靖／高雄報導

年節時刻同時也是親朋好友歡聚敘舊的時候，在這個團圓的日子，高雄市長陳其邁特別拿出學生時期的老照片，重溫雄中求學時期的的青澀回憶，並與市民朋友分享自己從年輕至今念念不忘的高雄在地好滋味。不過最讓人意外的是他的雄中畢業紀念冊上的14字留言。

▲陳其邁翻出老照片，細數高中時光 。（圖／記者吳奕靖翻攝）

翻開高中時期的相片冊，陳其邁一一指著照片中的青澀少年，如數家珍地說：「這位現在是教授、這位是工程師，我們到現在都還有聯繫。」陳其邁也笑著說，雄中通常比較精靈古怪，高中時期同學們遲到時，為了躲避教官責罰，除了會翻牆進入校園，還想到混入打掃校外人行道的同學群中，拿著掃把悄悄一起進入學校。

談及高中趣事，陳其邁回憶，當時有堂課讓大家昏昏欲睡，遇到鄉音比較重的老師說「知道的同學站起來」時，自己常聽成「10號同學站起來」，因此莫名其妙地站了好幾次，一學期後才從同學口中得知是自己誤聽，這段插曲也成為班上的笑談。

但是讓人疑問的是畢業紀念冊上面的14字留言，為何會是「大泉本是同班鳥，大考來時各自飛」到底是什麼意思？陳其邁尷尬的笑著說，那是製作同學寫的，不是出自他的手筆，所以他也不清楚，而詢問陳其邁40年的雄中同屆同學，他說當時大家都很搞怪，所以也無法理解，至於「泉」這個字是不是台語發音的「很會扯話」，同學說他當時很安靜，應該不是這個意思。

▲陳其邁品嘗從小吃到大的美食，回味在地好滋味與老交情 。（圖／記者吳奕靖翻攝）

▲翻開高中時期相片冊，陳其邁如數家珍地一一叫出同學名字。（圖／記者吳奕靖翻攝）

細數少年時代喜愛的美食，陳其邁如數家珍，娓娓道來那些念念不忘的好滋味與老交情。他表示，因為老家住在國民市場附近，許多店家都是從小吃到大，從主顧互動變成老友之交。像自己愛吃辣，「川味牛肉麵」老闆還會特製加入花椒的「邁邁版」牛肉麵，店家的獨門麻辣醬更令他難忘，甚至在辦公室也特別擺放一罐，搭配各種菜餚都很美味。

陳其邁補充，自己吃牛肉麵的標配，是走過一甲子的「雲家檸檬大王」，酸酸甜甜的滋味，剛好能舒緩牛肉麵的麻辣感，同時補充維生素C；而附近的「冷熱飲之家」也是他的一直吃到現在的老味道，紅豆湯、綠豆湯，以及紅豆湯加湯圓，都是必點的懷舊品項。

陳其邁歡迎國內外旅客春節期間到高雄走春，在感受高雄暖冬熱情的同時，也別忘了用在地美食填飽五臟廟。他也邀請大家前往愛河灣及16至18號碼頭，親身感受串起老中青三代集體記憶的「超人力霸王」迷人魅力，帶著「超人」的加持，為新的一年迎來事事「馬上好、馬上成功」的吉兆。

taiwan-subdivisions: 高雄市 成功 高雄

title: 陳其邁雄中青澀照曝！自爆「陳三歲」黑歷史　14字對聯超搞笑


title: 陳佩琪諷賴清德「單身狗」　柯文哲「求生欲」爆發：不要引誘我批評她

countries: 台灣 中國

people: 柯文哲 賴清德 黃國昌

content_text:
▲民眾黨創黨柯文哲、黨主席黃國昌以及市黨部主委的立委邱慧洳，與議員參選人吳怡萱、許甫，初三到萬華龍山寺參拜。（圖／記者陳家祥攝）

記者陳家祥／台北報導

民眾黨創黨主席柯文哲妻子陳佩琪昨在臉書表示，賴總統在西洋情人節PO了一張自己和狗狗的合照，似把老婆比喻成狗，若是她會覺得不可原諒；陳還說，賴把自己弄得像單身狗一樣，很不尊重另一半。針對陳的言論引發熱議論，柯今（19日）被問及此事時，突「求生欲」爆發，對現場記者說，「你們千萬不要引誘我批評陳佩琪，這個不然連早餐都沒得吃」。

陳佩琪昨在臉書分享情人節當天柯文哲的粉色西裝穿搭，是十多年前做的， 但先生覺得太眩太年輕，都不敢穿出去。陳說，情人節那天要去圓山站發春聯，天氣暖如夏，才被逼穿上那件去亮相，「當天她也挑了一件粉色洋裝， 鏡頭下看起來就如同夫妻穿情侶裝一樣的搭嘎耶」。

接著陳佩琪話鋒一轉，指意識形態明顯的民進黨和賴清德，應該不喜歡中國故事衍生出來的七夕情人節，而是喜歡西洋情人節，只是賴總統在西洋情人節這天竟PO了一張自己和狗狗的合照，相信大家都很納悶怎麼這樣。

「2月14日是人過的情人節，也不是什麼狗狗節或寵物節的，結婚30多年的夫妻，竟把自己的老婆比喻成狗，這要是我，是會覺得實在不可原諒。」陳佩琪說，很奇怪，賴總統在當市長、行政院長或副總統時，也從不見有PO狗狗照片或發佈一些愛狗的文章，當了總統卻突然喜歡養起狗來？愛到PO出來當情人疼？

陳佩琪直言，台灣少子化嚴重，政治人物都鼓勵年輕人結婚生子，「總統卻把自己弄得像單身狗一樣，真的非常不尊重另一半耶」。

針對夫人陳佩琪在臉書的發文引發熱議，柯文哲今被問及此事時，似乎心中警報大響，趕忙對現場記者說，千萬不要引誘他批評陳佩琪，這個不然連早餐都沒得吃，「我已經回答妳問題，千萬不要引誘我批評陳佩琪」。