By Agnes Lee 李淑娟“No one makes their own way, not really. You’ll need to marry well,” says wealthy Aunt March in the latest film adaptation of Little Women to a niece who aspires to greater self-fulfillment. The dialogue between a publisher and an aspiring novelist is shown as a tug-of-war between the contemporary social expectations and feminist ideology. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, raised by her mother and her mother’s female partner after her parents’ divorce, was — until last week — the youngest world leader, and a new mother herself. We need to be able to build a world in which we can all fulfill our aspirations for who we want to be.

BloombergPresident Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) landslide election victory has reinforced a winning run for Taiwan’s financial markets. Foreign investors bought a net NT$10.75 billion (US$358.91 million) of local stocks, the most in almost a month, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. “Investors will pay attention to beneficiary stocks in the short-term,” Mega International Investment Services Co (兆豐投顧) chairman Shelly Lee (李秀利) said. A gauge of tourism stocks was the worst performer, ending 2.63 percent lower, amid concerns that the election result would further worsen cross-strait ties. “Taiwan stocks tend to rise after an election, as uncertainty is removed,” President Capital Management Co (統一投顧) chairman Li Fang-kuo (黎方國) said.

By Sarah Wu / Reuters, HONG KONGBefore the Hong Kong protests began in June last year, Chris Ngai spent most of his free time playing World of Warcraft and finding new cocktail recipes. They are also at the forefront of the ever-experimenting Hong Kong pro-democracy movement as it looks for more effective forms of protest. “The movement has been thriving on its ad-hoc character,” said Ma Ngok (馬嶽), a political scientist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Labour Department records show that 25 new unions registered last year, compared to 13 in 2018. Traditional unions in Hong Kong are seen by residents primarily as clubs for hobby classes, banquets and retail discounts.

“Stable domestic demand, alongside robust external demand, underpins our positive outlook,” ANZ economists Bansi Madhavani and Raymond Yeung (楊宇霆) said in a report. Madhavani and Yeung expect domestic demand to add 1.5 percentage points to Taiwan’s GDP this year, and external demand to contribute another 0.6 percentage points, the report showed. Global semiconductor sales might register growth of 5.9 percent this year following a 12.8 percent decline last year, ANZ said. Cross-strait relations might cloud issues for the tourism sector, ANZ said. The New Taiwan dollar could trade at NT$30 to the US dollar as ongoing currency and capital flows reflect optimism, ANZ said.

By Eduardo Thomson, Ezra Fieser and Stephan Kueffner / BloombergIt is called Italy Plaza, a vast traffic circle in the Chilean capital, Santiago. The area, which demonstrators have renamed Dignity Plaza, is coated in layers of graffiti, with most shops looted and shuttered. While the most violent protests have for now dissipated, these forces continue to gnaw away at social cohesion and could once again spark unrest unexpectedly and suddenly. They just guarded from Italy Plaza to the rich neighborhoods.”Vargas’ father, a former factory worker, collects a monthly disability pension of just 80,000 pesos (US$103). Protests morphed into the biggest social unrest since at least former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.

Researchers in the US have created the first living machines by assembling cells from African clawed frogs into tiny robots that move around under their own steam. When damaged, living robots can heal their wounds, and once their task is done they fall apart, just as natural organisms decay when they die. Each design is then tested in a virtual environment, to see, for example, how far it moves when the heart cells are set beating. As heart cells spontaneously contract and relax, they behave like miniature engines that drive the robots along until their energy reserves run out. They used tweezers and cauterizing tools to sculpt early-stage skin and heart cells scraped from the embryos of African clawed frogs, Xenopus laevis.

AFP, MONTREALThe Canadian government has yet to decide whether it will assume the security costs associated with the decision by Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, to split their time between Canada and England, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday. The couple caught the world off guard last week when they announced their intention to step back from frontline royal duties. “We obviously are always looking to make sure, as a member of the Commonwealth, we play a role,” Morneau said. Canadian media have estimated that protecting the couple and their son, Archie, would cost about US$1.3 million per year. Canadian taxpayers have traditionally contributed toward security costs when members of the British royal family visit the country.

By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterA team of researchers at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) yesterday unveiled artificial intelligence (AI) tools for making audio and visual materials for advertisements, saying it could help businesses save time and costs. Through a government-funded program, the team spent two years developing AI tools that use deep-learning models and social media analysis to produce images with designated objects and context, he said. Liu Yi-wen (劉奕汶), an associate professor of electrical engineering, also develops tools for mimicking human voices to sing songs. The AI toots, he said, could help small and medium-sized businesses save money on ad development. The team is in discussion with Asustek Computer, United Microelectronics and KKBOX, as well as startups, about technical cooperation.

Reuters, SHANGHAIChina must end the construction of all new coal-fired power plants to meet long-term climate goals in the most economically feasible manner, a study coauthored by a government-backed research institute said on Monday. China has more than 1,000 gigawatts of coal-fired power, accounting for about 60 percent of total installed generation capacity. “Well-designed policies can help lower the cost of coal-power deep decarbonization,” said Jiang Kejun (姜克雋), research professor with the government-backed Energy Research Institute. China should also change the role of coal-fired power in its energy system. By reducing the total operating hours of each plant, China could make coal-fired power a “peak load” supplier during periods of high electricity consumption, rather than the main “baseload” power source.

The planet, named “TOI 700 d,” is relatively close to Earth — 100 light years away, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced at the annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. “TESS was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars,” NASA astrophysics division director Paul Hertz said. Star TOI 700 is small, about 40 percent of our sun’s size and only about half as hot. It remains to be seen what TOI 700 d is made of. A third simulation predicted an all-land world, where winds flow from the planet’s dark side to its light one.

AFP, MADRIDThe Spanish Congress of Deputies was yesterday to vote on whether to confirm Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez as prime minister at the helm of the country’s first-ever coalition government. Sanchez, who has stayed on as a caretaker prime minister since inconclusive elections last year, is seeking to be reappointed for another term. He wants to form a minority coalition government with hard-left party Podemos. On Sunday, Sanchez lost a first confidence vote, having failed to win backing from an absolute majority in the 350-seat lower chamber. He yesterday faced a second vote, in which he needs just a simple majority to remain prime minister.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and all the legislative candidates acted appropriately by suspending their campaign activities. Chung also insinuated on the same political talk show that the AIT’s gesture was part of the US’ strategy against China. If Beijing wants to influence the elections in its favor, this is totally the wrong way to do it. Mudslinging and negative campaigning are quite common before elections in Taiwan, national and local, and the ugliness so far has not been surprising. However, there are lines that should not be crossed.

AFP and Reuters, PARALIMNI, CyprusA Cypriot court on Tuesday handed a British teenager a four-month suspended prison sentence after convicting her of falsely accusing a dozen Israeli tourists of gang rape. The teen has said that she was coerced into withdrawing her complaint that she was raped on July 17 last year by a group of Israeli youths in Ayia Napa, a holiday resort popular with teenagers. She fled in distress to her own hotel and was examined by an in-house doctor, who called the police. Twelve Israeli youths who were detained for questioning were swiftly released after the woman recanted her accusation. The case has drawn a harsh spotlight on Cyprus, which is popular with British vacationers, and calls to boycott the island.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT:Reuters, MANILAThe Philippine government would take over the capital’s water distribution services if the two largest water firms refuse to accept the terms of new contracts that would be offered to them, the presidential spokesman said yesterday. Maynilad Water Services and Manila Water Co serve a combined 16 million customers under 25-year concession deals signed in 1997, but Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has labeled the agreements “onerous and disadvantageous” for ratepayers. “The chief executive is giving the water concessionaires the option of accepting the new contracts minus the onerous provisions without any guarantee of not being criminally prosecuted together with those who conspired to craft the very onerous contracts,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told a news conference. “Should Maynilad and Manila Water refuse to accept the new agreements, the president will order the cancelation of their present water contracts [and] order the nationalization of water services in their respective areas of operation,” Panelo said. Last month, the state water regulator canceled a 15-year extension of the water utilities’ concession after pressure from Duterte.

Every election is important and the main characteristic of these elections is generational change. Five years ago, Justin Trudeau, then 43, became prime minister of Canada; in 2017, Emmanuel Macron, then 40, was elected president of France; the same year, Jacinda Ardern, then 37, became prime minister of New Zealand; and last year, Sanna Marin, 34, became prime minister of Finland. Surely all the education and training they received were undertaken with the intent that they should be the nation’s leaders. Given the wisdom of voters, why should they not make the best of this opportunity for these candidates and themselves? As people around the world condemn the CCP and Hong Kong police for their violence and cruelty against young protesters, candidates on the KMT’s legislator-at-large list have expressed their support for Hong Kong’s police force.