“He also called for support for the PFP from pan-blue camp voters if they are disappointed by the KMT’s performance,” she said. “For moderate voters fearing that the DPP would seize an absolute majority in the Legislative Yuan again, he said that they should really consider supporting the PFP,” Liu said. Evelyn Tsai (蔡沁瑜) and Ann Kao (高虹安), also former Gou aides, are legislator-at-large candidates for the PFP and the TPP respectively. Gou’s team and the PFP would further integrate campaign resources in the days remaining before the elections, so voters would see a different PFP, she said. PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), its presidential candidate, and Yu started canvassing votes nationwide yesterday, the party said.

A UH-60M Black Hawk on Thursday crashed in New Taipei City, killing eight of the 13 military personnel on board. He would develop cultural, educational and recreation industries in the area, Han told reporters outside the National Palace Museum in Taipei following a tour of it. He visited the Taipei museum to consult former National Palace Museum director Chou Kung-shin (周功鑫) about problems at the southern branch, Han said. National Palace Museum Deputy Director Huang Yung-tai (黃永泰) said that Han contravened the institute’s rules by talking to the media outside the museum. The museum bans all campaign-related activities on its grounds, Huang said, adding that museum staff tried to stop the mayor, but to no avail.

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporterCentral Taiwan’s air pollution problems need to be solved scientifically, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) told reporters as he stumped for the Taiwan People’s Party yesterday in Taichung. Ko, chairman of the party, was responding to reporters’ questions about the city’s air quality, which reached “unhealthy” or “very unhealthy” levels on the air quality index over the weekend. However, while the plant’s capacity was reduced to less than 30 percent over the weekend, air pollution was still serious. “Is Taichung Power Plant or the sixth naphtha cracker complex [in Yunlin County] the main cause of air pollution?” Ko said. While millions of people are exposed to long-term air pollution and an increased risk of lung cancer, the government acts as if it can do nothing about it, Ko said.

Staff writer, with CNAA UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter on Saturday airlifted a hiker with acute mountain sickness, two days after the helicopter crash that killed eight military officers, the air force said yesterday. The government had previously announced that it had grounded all of its Black Hawks pending safety checks after the fatal crash. However, an air force official said yesterday that the grounding only applies to Black Hawk helicopters conducting routine missions and that the air force still has a number of the helicopters ready at all times for emergency rescue missions. In 2010, Taiwan purchased 60 Black Hawk helicopters from the US at a cost of NT$84.67 billion (US$2.81 billion at the current exchange rate), with 30 assigned to the army, 15 to the Ministry of the Interior’s National Airborne Service Corps (NASC) and 15 to the air force’s Air Rescue Group. In February 2018, an NASC Black Hawk crashed while transporting a patient from Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) to Taitung, while the helicopter from Thursday’s incident was from the Air Rescue Group.

Sandra Yu (余湘): I joined the PFP in 2000, but used to think I was far removed from politics. Yu: In the past, I was a boss, a CEO, I was very aggressive — if I said something, it had to be done. My reactions in the past were swift and decisive, but now as a running mate I walk in Soong’s footsteps. I do not see it as a career in politics, I see it as the course of life. Taiwanese parties only think about election victories, and use whatever ill-conceived method they can think of to achieve this, even going after their own members.

“I would say it’s pretty unlikely, hopefully unlikely” that he would retire, Brady told reporters. I’ve loved playing for this team for two decades and winning a lot of games. It was the earliest post-season exit for Brady and the Patriots in a decade. We want it gritty, we want it dirty,” said Henry, who carried 34 times for 182 yards and a touchdown. “I’m so proud of this team,” Tannehill said.

By Tsai Tsung-hsien, Wang Chun-chung and Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writerPresident Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is seeking re-election for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), yesterday returned to the campaign trail. Tsai’s first campaign stop on “Super Sunday” ahead of Saturday’s elections was Nantou County’s Puli (埔里) and Guosing (國姓) townships, where she visited temples and stumped for DPP Legislator Frida Tsai (蔡培慧). If the DPP does not win a legislative majority, it would be difficult for it to advocate policies and reforms, so it needs the help of all voters, she added. Tsai later shared the stage with former premier William Lai (賴清德), her running mate, and six DPP legislative candidates at a rally in Tainan to boost morale in the party ranks. Tsai next traveled to Taoyuan before she wrapped up the day with an evening rally in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊).

By Jason Pan / Staff reporterA coalition of pro-Taiwanese independence and localization parties, led by the 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign, yesterday appealed for voter support nationwide as their members marched through downtown Taipei in a final show of force ahead of Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections. Members of the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), the Taiwan Action Party Alliance (TAPA), which hope to secure enough party votes to get some of their legislator-at-large nominees into the legislature, and the Free Taiwan Party also took part in the march, which started in the afternoon with a rally in front of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) headquarters in Taipei. Wu, who receives a generous pension from government as a retired general, was a top guest at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army military review, attended a key meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People and listened to an address by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Wang said. “We call on all voters to reject KMT presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and not to vote for all of the ‘pro-China parties’ in this election, including the KMT, the People First Party (PFP), the New Party and the Taiwan People’s Party,” he said. By late afternoon, the participants reached the 228 Memorial Park and then headed to the Taipei Guest House to pay tribute to former chief of the General Staff, General Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴), and seven other officers who died on Thursday after a military helicopter crashed in the mountains of New Taipei City.

By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterThe nation’s new car sales rose 1.1 percent last year from a year earlier, thanks to aggressive promotional campaigns by dealers last month, a report released on Thursday by online market researcher U-Car said. The government’s tax break program that encourages owners to trade in old vehicles for new ones also helped boost car sales last year, the report said. Car sales totaled 439,836 units, up from 435,135 in 2018, although sales of imported cars increased by an annual 6.42 percent to 209,949 units, making up 47.7 percent of the total, U-Car said, citing Directorate-General of Highways data. Last month alone, car sales rose 12.8 percent from a month earlier and 9.4 percent from a year earlier to 45,925 units on the back of strong sales of best-sellers, such as the new Toyota Corolla Altis sedan and new sport utility vehicle models including the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and Nissan Kicks, the report showed. It sold 35,793 cars, up 4.1 percent annually and accounting for 8.1 percent of total sales.

By Wu Su-wei / Staff reporterSaturday’s elections will be a “generational battle,” film director Wu Nien-jen (吳念真) said yesterday as he urged voters to support New Power Party (NPP) legislative candidates. People who were born in the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s should be society’s “backbone,” but many candidates are from older generations, he told a campaign event in Taipei, adding that the younger generation should “step up.”Wu, who has appeared in campaign videos endorsing the NPP’s Claire Wang (王婉諭), who came into the national spotlight after her daughter was murdered in Taipei in 2016, and Kao Yu-ting (高鈺婷), said people his age would feel “more at ease” if people like Wang and Kao are in the legislature. In other developments, Formosa Alliance Chairman Lo Jen-kuei (羅仁貴) said a campaign team has been canvassing for votes as it travels from Taipei to Kaohsiung, having started on Wednesday and is due to arrive in Kaohsiung on Friday. The pro-Taiwanese independence party has nominated 12 district candidates and six at-large candidates. Additional reporting by Yu Chao-fu

AFP, ZAGREBCroatia was to elect a new president yesterday in an uncertain vote where the conservative incumbent — trying to unite a fractured right wing — faced a serious challenge from a former leftist prime minister. Center-right Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic is campaigning on a “real Croatia” ticket, while her rival, former Croatian prime minister Zoran Milanovic, has promised a “normal” liberal democracy of equal citizens. If Grabar-Kitarovic fails to win the presidency, it would deal a heavy blow to the HDZ, whose moderate Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic faces parliamentary elections later this year. “We should come together as in 1990,” before the country declared independence from Yugoslavia, Croatia’s first female president told her supporters in Zagreb. “There is no ‘real Croatia’ ... rather a Croatian republic for all, equal citizens,” the 53-year-old told a campaign rally in Zagreb.

Reuters, HONG KONGScuffles erupted between police and protesters in Hong Kong yesterday, with dozens of arrests made, after thousands marched near the border with China, shouting pro-democracy slogans and venting their anger at mainland Chinese traders. The demonstrators in Sheung Shui took aim at so-called “parallel traders” from China who buy vast amounts of duty-free goods in Hong Kong and take them back to the mainland to sell at a profit. Locals have said that it pushes up prices, overcrowds neighborhoods and adds to growing tensions between Hong Kong residents and mainland Chinese. After the march ended, protesters dressed in black and wearing masks remained in the area, despite calls from organizers to disperse immediately. The protest movement is supported by 59 percent of the territory’s residents polled in a survey conducted for Reuters by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute.

The only way for a church to survive is to join the state-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement and become part of the ideological state apparatus. Equally important is that Beijing completely rejects Wang’s efforts to preach and practice the principle of Christian spiritual sovereignty in society. Independent church movements have given Pastor Wang, or people with a similar theological background, a social space to reconcile piety with activism. Moving away from focusing exclusively on spiritual cultivation, the taking up of civic duties represents an attitudinal change among today’s Chinese Christians. For Chinese Christians, the Maoist regime had nothing to offer but trouble.

Staff writer, with CNAAn upgraded version of the YouBike rental service is to be tested publicly in Taipei’s Gongguan (公館) shopping area for three months starting on Wednesday next week before the city considers replacing all YouBike bicycles, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Thursday. During the trial run, 1,800 new YouBike stands would be installed at 102 stations to accommodate 500 new bikes as part of its “YouBike 2.0” system, the department said in a news release. It chose the area near National Taiwan University for the trial site, as it is the most popular YouBike stop nationwide, it said, adding that the city would use the results of the test to draft plans to expand the new system. However, the new system is not compatible with the existing stations, it added. The new bikes will be painted white and yellow instead of the orange and yellow of the current bikes, the department said.

It said that emerging-market and developing economies (EMDEs) had pushed their borrowing to a record US$55 trillion in 2018. EMERGING ECONOMIESUnlike the richer nations already mentioned, the 100 EMDEs across Africa, Asia and South America covered by the report were affected by rising private-sector debt coupled with higher government borrowing. BRITISH SITUATIONBritain’s main market in shares has struggled to make any headway over the past three years while Brexit uncertainty dominated. Some analysts have argued that the IMF and World Bank are over-cooking their analysis after missing the last financial crash — seeing danger around every corner. After three rate cuts last year, the US economy starts this year with the base rate back to between 1.5 percent and 1.75 percent.