Venezuela says it launched talks with US to restore ties
Venezuela says it launched talks with US to restore tiesAFP, CARACASVenezuela on Friday said it had launched talks with the US on restoring diplomatic ties, days after US forces deposed Nicolas Maduro as its president. Venezuela said it would be reciprocating by sending a delegation to Washington. It’s a whole different Venezuela,” Trump said, adding that companies would only deal with Washington, not Caracas, when exploiting Venezuela’s oil resources. Trump earlier said that oil companies promised to invest US$100 billion in Venezuela, whose oil infrastructure is creaky after years of mismanagement and sanctions. State-owned oil company PDVSA confirmed that one vessel was returning to Venezuelan waters, describing it as the “first successful joint operation” with Washington.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:50 UTC
President Lai unveils AI goals, plans
“AI changing the world is no longer a future prospect — it is happening right now,” so cultivating AI talent is extremely important, Lai said. President William Lai speaks at an AI talent forum in Taipei yesterday. Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei TimesAI is bringing an industrial revolution, meaning a complete overhaul of talent development and ways of living, he said. The government unveiled its new 10-year AI development initiatives last year, Lai said. Through cooperation between government, industry and academia, Taiwan could use AI to achieve economic transformation, Lai said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
Taiwan in Time: Reviving an ancestral song
A photo of late Kipatauw elder Pan Hui-yao, who provided the melody to the reconstructed version of the Ritual Song for the Various Peoples of Tamsui. After lunch, the guides revealed that the song was first recorded in 1722 by a Qing Dynasty official and later reconstructed in 2003 during the Ketagalan cultural revival movement. The Ritual Song for the Various Peoples of Tamsui as shown in Huang Shu-chung’s book, Records of the Mission Across the Taiwan Strait, published in 1736. In 2001, the Taiwan Pingpu Indigenous Association was formed to advocate for official recognition. Wu wanted to include a ritual song in the following year’s event in Sandiao, but he could not find anything besides the one recorded by Huang in 1722.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
Pope Leo voices concern over East Asia tensions
Pope Leo voices concern over East Asia tensionsStaff writer, with CNAPope Leo XIV, leader of the Holy See, Taiwan’s sole diplomatic ally in Europe, during his annual New Year’s address on Friday expressed concern over rising tensions in East Asia and called for peaceful dialogue. Ambassador to the Holy See Anthony Ho, left, shakes hands with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican on Friday. Photo courtesy of the ROC Embassy in the Holy See via CNAIn response, the pope expressed his gratitude. Pope Leo XIV in his speech warned that war is once again prevailing, lamenting that global peace increasingly relies on force rather than justice. He also noted the escalation of tensions in East Asia, but did not specify a particular region.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
Humanoid robots pour coffee, fold laundry, but very slowly
Humanoid robots pour coffee, fold laundry, but very slowlyBy Samantha Kelly / BloombergAt the CES trade show in Las Vegas for the past week, robots poured coffee, played table tennis, dealt poker hands and folded laundry — all within a few meters of one another. Human-inspired robots, aptly called humanoids, have emerged as the tech industry’s big bet on what comes next. An LG CLOiD robot stands on stage during an LG Electronics news conference at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Monday. It then slowly loaded a single piece of clothing into a washing machine — almost painfully slowly. More compelling uses might present themselves in settings such as hospitals, where robots could handle repetitive laundry work at scale.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
Pharmacy workers key to societal resilience
Pharmacy workers key to societal resilienceBy Huang Jin-shun 黃金舜The issue of societal resilience has become increasingly prevalent in the past few years, particularly as international political and economic conditions have been changing at a rapid pace. The government and civilians are indispensable parts of the response, as only through effective public-private collaboration can the goal of societal resilience be achieved. The pandemic was a major test of societal resilience for all nations. However, beyond mutual trust, resilience and the collective cooperation of Taiwanese, the success was also informed by the painful lessons learned from the SARS outbreak of 2003. At the end of 2024, I proposed policies such as encouraging pharmacists to obtain emergency medical technician certification and relaxing regulations so that trained pharmacists could be classified as emergency medical responders under the Emergency Medical Services Act (緊急醫療救護法).
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
Xi Jinping says ‘We Are Family’
Xi Jinping says ‘We Are Family’By John Robert JamiesonIn 1979, US band Sister Sledge sang We Are Family. “When every small family is warm and thriving, China as the big family will prosper,” Xi said. Are they in the family to which Xi is referring? Has Taiwanese identity really solved the Chinese family conundrum? If Taiwanese are Chinese, then their small, striving families could be easily welcomed back into the big family.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
The end of China’s one-child policy, 10 years later
The end of China’s one-child policy, 10 years laterOne woman’s decisions might have strangled China’s birth rates permanentlyBy Yi FuxianJan. 1 marks a decade since China repealed its one-child policy. Illustration: Kevin SheuAfter the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Song, who had by then been promoted to State Councilor, convinced China’s newly appointed president, Jiang Zemin (江澤民), to strengthen the one-child policy. For example, though the 2000 census showed a fertility rate of only 1.22, the figure was revised upward to 1.8. When observers credit Peng as a reformer, they typically refer to the proposal on loosening the one-child policy that she submitted in 2004 on behalf of official demographers. Yi Fuxian (易富賢), a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spearheaded the movement against China’s one-child policy.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
Italy backs EU-Mercosur trade deal after 25 years of talks
Von der Leyen said the successful vote sends “a strong signal” of the EU’s economic clout and stability “in the face of an increasingly hostile and transactional world.”Farmers in Milan, Italy, on Friday pour milk from a tanker to protest the EU-Mercosur trade deal. “At a time when trade and dependencies are being weaponized, and the dangerous, transactional nature of the reality we live in becomes increasingly stark, this historic trade deal is further proof that Europe charts its own course and stands as a reliable partner,” Von der Leyen said. A delay last month to the signing of the Mercosur deal had infuriated Lula and led experts to worry that a last-minute stumble would wreck the EU’s credibility. Still, Macron said the potential economic gains of the Mercosur deal are limited and do not justify the risks it poses to EU agriculture. His office said that the deal would only add 77 billion euros by 2040 — 0.5 percent of the EU’s GDP.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
Japan PM mulling snap election in coming weeks
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.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
Greenland parliament to meet early to discuss US threat
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.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
China’s ‘inevitable’ not accepted
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.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
The Greenland alarm is sounding. Europe needs to listen
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.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
EDITORIAL: Being experts amid cyberthreats
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.
Source:Taipei Times
January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC
Bear back riding
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
Source:Taipei Times
January 09, 2026 20:15 UTC