Lantern Festival to include Taiwan’s World Expo pavilionBy Chung Li-hua and Hollie Younger / Staff reporter, with staff writerTaiwan’s Tech World pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, is to be recreated in Chiayi County for a temporary exhibition from March 1 to 15 during the Taiwan Lantern Festival, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) announced today. The pavilion in Osaka attracted more than 1.16 million visitors at last year’s World Expo, showcasing Taiwan’s scenic beauty and cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology. A screen displays animations at Taiwan’s Tech World pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, on April 22 last year. The three exhibits — Life Theater, Nature Theater and Future Theater — would maintain their original essence, he added. Construction of the original pavilion cost NT$2 billion, TAITRA said.

Vietnamese man sentenced to over 8 years for animal killingsStaff writer, with CNAThe Taichung District Court last week sentenced an undocumented Vietnamese migrant worker to eight years and two months in prison for illegally hunting and selling a stray cat and an endangered leopard cat. On March 13 last year, Ban killed a stray cat and sold it through Pham to a buyer, with the two together reaping NT$1,500 in proceeds. Ban shot and killed a leopard cat — a protected species in Taiwan — on April 19 last year, and again asked Pham to find a buyer. The following day, Pham's Vietnamese girlfriend, surnamed Nguyen, delivered the leopard cat carcass to a buyer and collected NT$3,000. Nguyen later received deferred prosecution, while Pham was sentenced in November last year to one year in prison for contravening the Wildlife Conservation Act.

Instant noodle purchase wins NT$10m invoice lotteryBy Cheng Chi-fang and Hollie Younger / Staff reporter, with staff writerThere were 17 winners of the NT$10 million (US$316,641) Special Prize in the November-December uniform invoice lottery, one of whom only purchased a NT$23 cup of instant noodles, the Ministry of Finance said today. There were 17 winners of the NT$10 million Special Prize with the receipt No. 13965913, and 20 winners of the NT$2 million Grand Prize, receipt No. One lucky winner in Taichung’s Nantun District (南屯) snagged the top prize after spending just NT$23 on instant noodles at a 7-Eleven on Jingcheng Road, it said. One was also issued at a PXMart in Taichung’s East District (東區), with the winner purchasing vegetables, instant noodles and yogurt, it added.

Taipei, Nvidia to sign HQ contract before LNY: mayorStaff writer, with CNAThe Taipei City Government and Nvidia Corp are to sign a contract before the Lunar New Year allowing the artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer to build its Taiwan headquarters in the Beitou Shilin Technology Park, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said today. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, front row, third left, attends a Taipei MRT groundbreaking ceremony this morning. The Taipei City Government is scheduled to review the land rights plan and royalties for the contract with Nvidia today. Once the review is complete, there would also be a subsequent valuation review, negotiations and contract signing procedures, with the final signing to take place before the Lunar New Year, Chiang said. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) wrapped up a four-day visit to Taiwan earlier this week, during which he attended a year-end party for Nvidia Taiwan staff and met with major suppliers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Ukraine cities attacked by RussiaReutersRussian forces attacked Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, its second-largest city of Kharkiv and other centers early yesterday, officials said, triggering fires and dealing new blows to energy infrastructure. The strikes injured four people, officials in the two largest cities said. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the attacks targeted energy infrastructure and called for tough decisions to keep heating systems from freezing. The attacks also coincided with talk of a moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure adopted by both Russia and Ukraine at the request of US President Donald Trump. Russia said the ceasefire ended on Sunday, while Ukraine said it was to continue for a week from Friday last week.

The Chinese Communist Party justifies its dictatorial rule today by pointing to this era of domestic weakness and foreign invasions. Travel bans were lifted on six British China hawks (mostly Conservative Party members). He secured visa-free travel for Britons traveling to China for less than 30 days — good news for the Chinese hospitality industry. China would use the site to replace six existing buildings that together occupy more space and are perhaps more difficult to monitor. At the end of 2023, China was responsible for 0.2 percent of foreign direct investment in the UK.

‘Two suns’ in a replay of historical Chinese plotBy Li Jung-shian 李忠憲It has become clear what kind of people former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) are. Other TPP backers still favor Ko, arguing that his assessment of the milk policy was accurate and accusing Ko critics of being against the white camp or manipulated by the pan-green camp. While it seems obvious that Ko’s remarks widened the gap between the blue and white camps, it has also provoked a significant power struggle among TPP supporters. The comparison to a power struggle in ancient China works for Ko, too. The Chinese palace drama will continue, revealing the cruelty and unpredictability of political reality, which is often more astonishing than fiction.

Workers in rural India powering AI revolutionAFP, BENGALURU, IndiaTending crops by day and then logging on for a night shift of data labeling, 27-year-old Chandmani Kerketta is part of a rising rural Indian workforce helping power an artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. The work is basic, but essential for machine learning — data labeling, annotation and quality checks. Artificial intelligence data labeler Chandmani Kerketta poses for a photograph at her family farm in Parchuttu, India, on Jan. 15. “In Jharkhand, farming is everything.”Anju Kumari, 25, another rural AI worker in Jharkhand using a national fiber-optic cable network laid by Indian Railways, said the job had provided her with a pathway to a wider world. Cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai host major international players, but India’s AI push is also expanding into more remote regions.

The purge was not just an anti-corruption campaign, but also a blatant political security operation. For Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the military is not professional armed forces, but the final insurance policy of his regime. Serving as the first vice chairman of the CMC, Zhang was only subordinate to Xi, while Liu controlled the commission’s pivotal joint staff affairs. Both being investigated at the same time showed that Xi has completely lost trust in the chain of military command. It lies in recognizing that when the CCP uses its military as a political tool, uncertainty over regional security only increases.

China is losing more than just two ports in PanamaBy J.P. Spinetto / Bloomberg OpinionThe Panamanian Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday last week invalidating Hong Kong–based CK Hutchison Holdings’ contract to operate two key ports at either end of the Panama Canal caps a month marked by high-profile strategic defeats for Beijing in the region. However, the ruling in Panama might prove the most consequential setback of all. The canal remains one of the world’s most strategic infrastructure assets, handling about 5 percent of global trade. China is the largest user of the waterway after the US, quietly building a string of assets around it, even if the canal itself remains firmly under the independent control of the Panama Canal Authority. After becoming the first Latin American country to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Panama under President Jose Raul Mulino has moved back toward its historically close alignment with Washington.

China is using its dominance in rare earths as a bargaining chip in its trade negotiatons with the US and the EU. As of last year, it controlled 60 to 70 percent of global rare earth mining production and more than 90 percent of processing capacity. Tokyo on Monday said that rare earths have been found in sediment from ocean depths of 6,000m. To promote mining, processing and manufacturing of rare earths in India’s eastern and southern states, New Delhi has listed rare earths alongside semiconductors as a strategic sector. Taiwan, which has limited access to domestic rare earths, imports 90 percent of its supplies, with 95 percent of that from China.

Artificial intelligence and the future of educationBy Pinelopi Koujianou GoldbergThe rapid progress of large language models (LLMs) over the past two years has led some to say that artificial intelligence (AI) would soon make college education, especially in the liberal arts, obsolete. From this perspective, education — and especially higher education — plays a more important role than ever. Students need to understand the underlying concepts and logic, rather than mastering every step of the execution. At the same time, evaluation based on personal interaction raises legitimate worries about bias. Some say that AI would reduce the need for formal education by providing information and personalized guidance on demand.

Taiwan-US ties under Trump 2.0By Sumit KumarIn the first year of his second term, US President Donald Trump continued to shake the foundations of the liberal international order to realize his “America first” policy. However, amid an atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability, the Trump administration brought some clarity to its policy toward Taiwan. The Trump administration has many reasons to feel pleased, because the change in Taiwan’s defense strategy would boost the US’ defense and military industry. The US National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy also accorded importance to peace and security in the Taiwan Strait. The first year of the second Trump administration was marked by a hybrid policy of transactionalism and strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan.

Citibank forecasts boost in investment activityBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterCitibank expects investment activity across the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen further this year, supported by resilient equity markets, accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) investment and rising cross-border capital flows, the global bank’s senior executives said yesterday. Kenneth Chow, Citi cohead of Asia equity capital markets, told an online news conference that investor sentiment has turned more forward-looking after a strong rally in regional equities. From left, Citibank executives Ling Zhang, Vikram Chavali, Jan Metzger, Ho-Yin Lee and Kenneth Chow attend the Investment Banking 2026 Outlook event yesterday. Citi has raised more than US$30 billion for Taiwanese clients since 2020 from global capital markets to support their growth. Jan Metzger, Citi’s head of Asia-Pacific banking, capital markets and advisory, said that overall deal activity has rebounded sharply.

SpaceX combines with xAI at US$1.25tn valuationBloombergElon Musk is combining Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) and x.AI Corp (xAI) in a deal that values the enlarged entity at US$1.25 trillion, as the world’s richest man looks to fuel his increasingly costly ambitions in artificial intelligence (AI) and space exploration. The deal gives SpaceX a valuation of US$1 trillion, and xAI a value of US$250 billion, people familiar with the matter said. Photo: APThe combined company’s valuation was announced to employees in a memo on Monday, some of the people said earlier. XAI raised funds at a US$230 billion valuation last month, while SpaceX was set to go ahead with a share sale in December at a valuation of about US$800 billion. The billionaire acquired social media platform Twitter in late 2022, renamed it X, then merged the site with his artificial intelligence start-up xAI in a US$33 billion deal.