Japan PM mulling snap election in coming weeksAFP, TOKYOJapanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is considering calling a general election in the coming weeks to capitalize on strong public support for her government, media reports said yesterday. Takaichi became Japan’s first female prime minister in October last year, and her Cabinet is enjoying an approval rating of about 70 percent. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gestures during a speech at a New Year’s reception in Tokyo on Tuesday. That would mean an election would be “highly likely to be held in early to mid-February,” the Yomiuri said. Ties have deteriorated since Takaichi suggested last year that Japan could intervene militarily if China ever launched an attack on Taiwan.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said the US must own Greenland, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from occupying the strategically located and minerals-rich territory. “We emphasize once again our desire for the US contempt for our country to end,” the Greenlandic party leaders said. A 3D-printed miniature of US President Donald Trump and the Greenland flag are pictured on Friday. Greenland’s parliament last met in November last year and had been scheduled to meet again on Feb. 3, according to its Web site. There is no sum of money from Trump that would persuade Greenlanders to join the US, two Greenlandic lawmakers said.

China’s ‘inevitable’ not acceptedBy Noa WynnTaiwan has been living on borrowed time according to outside predictions for longer than most countries have existed. What they usually miss is that Taiwan’s resilience comes from historical memory about what happens when you accept someone else’s version of your inevitable future. When Xi invokes blood and kinship as justification for unification, Taiwanese already know what those appeals are worth. Each military drill does not make unification seem more inevitable, but rather confirms why Taiwan spent decades fighting for the right to determine its own future. The colonization, the massacres, the decades of authoritarian rule, all of it was supposed to be permanent and inevitable, too.

The Greenland alarm is sounding. Frederiksen has tried hard to push back against Trump’s latest claims to Greenland, but the language she used is telling. Trump does not care about alliances and security is not his primary goal in Greenland. For a possible timeline to US action on Greenland, assume it might come before November’s midterm elections to Congress. At the same time, we do not yet have a replacement world “order,” just the grisly death throes of the last one.

EDITORIAL: Being experts amid cyberthreatsCyberattacks originating in China that targeted Taiwan’s critical energy infrastructure increased 10-fold last year, the National Security Bureau said on Sunday last week, underscoring the growing cyberthreat facing the nation’s essential services. It identified four primary tactics: exploitation of hardware and software vulnerabilities, distributed denial-of-service attacks, social engineering and supply chain infiltration. Addressing hardware and software vulnerabilities is more challenging. Modern medical equipment requires regular software updates and can be compromised regardless of how updates are delivered. While cyberthreats continue to escalate, defensive technologies are advancing in parallel and public awareness of malicious activity is improving.

EVA pilot suspended for striking first officerEVA Airways on Saturday said that it had suspended a pilot and opened an investigation after he allegedly lost his temper and punched the first officer several times as their plane was taxiing before takeoff at Los Angeles International Airport. According to a report published on Thursday by The Reporter, the incident occurred after the flight’s Malaysian first officer tried to warn the Taiwanese pilot, surnamed Wen (文), that he was taxiing faster than the speed limit of 30 knots (55.6kph). After alerting the pilot several times without response, the first officer manually applied the brakes in accordance with standard operating

Holger Chen indicted over threat to ‘behead’ presidentBy Wang Ting-chuan and Jason Pan / Staff reportersThe New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted Internet influencer Holger Chen (陳之漢) for allegedly calling for the decapitation of President William Lai (賴清德) during a live stream in October last year. While Chen was commenting on Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “decapitation strike” exercises around Taiwan, he allegedly segued into a specific threat to cut off Lai’s head, prosecutors said. I have waited for it day and night.”Internet personality Holger Chen, center, speaks to reporters in Taipei on Oct. 7 last year. “A military ‘decapitation’ operation is clearly not the same as calling to ‘behead’ the nation’s president,” prosecutors said. Chen’s remarks were sufficient to instill fear in any ordinary person, regardless of whether they are the president, they said.

The real meaning of the Puma Shen affairBy Chu Meng-hsiang 朱孟庠After staging military exercises around Taiwan last week, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) once again launched a ruthless repression campaign against Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋). This is not merely personal intimidation, it is a direct challenge to Taiwan’s sovereignty and democratic system. For Taiwan, the so-called “Puma Shen phenomenon” is not merely a matter of a single legislator being threatened — it epitomizes how a democratic nation confronts infiltration and transnational repression by an authoritarian regime. On one hand, civil society has rallied around the slogan “We are all Puma Shen,” demonstrating both clarity and resistance. “We are all Puma Shen” is more than just a slogan, but a democratic society reinforcing its own identity in the face of authoritarian oppression.

TSMC’s revenue comes in at high end of predictionsBy Lisa Wang / Staff ReporterTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to a TSMC statement. To cope with strong AI chip demand, TSMC plans to speed up its 2-nanometer chip production in Taiwan and to quicken its chip manufacturing technology upgrade at its fabs in Arizona, it said. KGI expected the chipmaker to make NT$475.89 billion net profit last quarter, higher than the consensus of NT$454.67 billion, according to a KGI report released on Monday. Gross margin was expected to reach 61.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, exceeding TSMC’s guidance of between 59 percent and 61 percent, the KGI report said.

China widens attack on Japan’s ‘nuclear threat’SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarinesBloombergChina is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi speaks during the 28th ASEAN Plus Three Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 27 last year. Asked about China’s claims regarding Japan’s nuclear ambitions, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said: “I’d like to state that there is absolutely no truth to such claims.”The three nonnuclear principles refers to Japan’s long-standing commitment to not possess, produce or permit the entry of nuclear weapons. A record 45 percent of respondents said the armed forces should be bolstered, but they were not asked whether Japan should acquire nuclear weapons.

Go star Hsu Hao-hung wins awardsStaff writer, with CNATaiwanese go ace and Asian Games gold medalist Hsu Hao-hung yesterday was named “Mr Popular” and the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the sport last year at an annual awards ceremony in Taipei. In a public round, Hsu won 151 of 630 votes (32.5 percent) to narrowly defeat fellow 9-dan professional Hsiao Cheng-hao for the most popular player award. Go pro Hsu Hao-hung poses alongside trophies at the annual Taiwan go awards ceremony in Taipei yesterday. Cheng Yu-hao, a 13-year-old who turned professional in 2023, was voted Rookie of the Year by his peers. Eligibility for the award was restricted to players who turned professional after 2021.

Trump’s China strategy evolvingBy Juan Fernando Herrera RamosFor Taiwan, the intensifying confrontation between the US and China is often discussed through arms sales, military exercises and diplomatic statements in the Indo-Pacific region. China has invested heavily in Venezuela as a strategic partner, securing access to energy resources and political backing in international forums. Honduras’ decision in 2023 to sever ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing was widely seen as part of China’s strategy to further shrink Taiwan’s diplomatic space. The package was approved amid heightened Chinese military activity around Taiwan, signaling that US commitments to Taiwan are being reinforced even as tensions rise. The arrest of Maduro therefore matters in Taipei not because it concerns Venezuela itself, but because it illustrates a broader shift in US strategy.

Martinelli sorry for shoving BradleyGOALLESS DRAW: The closest either team came to scoring before the late altercation was when Conor Bradley hit the crossbar after chipping the goalkeeperAP, LONDONArsenal winger Gabriel Martinelli on Thursday apologized to Conor Bradley after bundling the injured Liverpool defender off the field in the final seconds of their 0-0 draw in the Premier League. Martinelli, clearly frustrated, walked up to Bradley, dropped the ball on him and then pushed the defender outside the playing surface. Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli reacts during an altercation in stoppage-time of their Premier League game against Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium in London on Thursday. “Let’s hope for the best, but I fear the worst for Conor Bradley,” Liverpool manager Arne Slot said of Bradley’s injury. Photo: APCommentating on Sky Sports, former England and Manchester United defender Gary Neville called Martinelli’s behavior “absolutely disgraceful.”Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta defended Martinelli, saying “probably he doesn’t know” Bradley was injured.

Court tries online predator accused of sadistic crimesAFP, HAMBURG, GermanyA German juvenile court yesterday started the so-called “White Tiger” trial in which a man is accused of multiple sadistic online crimes, including coercing a 13-year-old to die by suicide. The case shines a spotlight on the dark world of sadistic online exploitation, where predators seek out vulnerable youths and manipulate them to commit acts of self-harm, violence against themselves or animals, or to kill themselves. “White Tiger” allegedly found vulnerable children and adolescents in online chats or gaming forums, and then developed a bond to groom them. He is accused of encouraging them to produce pornographic content, and using the material to coerce and extort them, among other allegations. An FBI investigator said that he had shared the identity of “White Tiger” with German law enforcement more than two years before the suspect’s eventual arrest.

Syria announces ceasefire with Kurdish fightersAFP, DAMASCUSThe Syrian Ministry of Defense yesterday announced a ceasefire in Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between the army and Kurdish fighters forced thousands of civilians to flee. Kurdish fighters were given until 9am yesterday to leave those areas, while the Aleppo governorate said Kurdish fighters would be sent, along with their light weapons, to Kurdish areas further east. There was no immediate comment from Kurdish forces in response to the government statements. Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April. Turkey, which shares a 900km border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.