Taiwan passport rises three spots in global ranking
Taiwan passport rises three spots in global rankingStaff writerThe Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Two Taiwan passports are pictured in Taipei on Sept. 4, 2020. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway followed with their visa-free access to 185 destinations. The passports of Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq ranked bottom three respectively, granting visa-free access to 24, 26 and 29 destinations.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:17 UTC
Care policy to add 30,000 hospital beds: MOHW
The government’s Inpatient Integrated Care Trial Program has since 2022 provided publicly funded care, giving patients’ families more freedom, while medical staff can focus on other duties, Shih said. Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei TimesThe project has been positively received over the past three years, with medical staff providing favorable feedback, such as having a reduced workload, he said. The ministry plans to provide NT$250 million (US$7.9 million) to expand the project and provide service for 30,000 beds, the ministry said. National Taiwan University Hospital superintendent Yu Chung-jen (余忠仁) said that medical staff shortage was a systemic problem and that the introduction of a foreign workforce would reduce the workload of family members and hospital staff. The current care model was designed on the premise that one person could care for multiple patients, but in practice, that ideal has been challenging to achieve, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:17 UTC
Tehran warns neighbors it could strike US bases
Tehran warns neighbors it could strike US basesReuters, DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, and DOHATehran has warned neighbors hosting US troops that it would hit US bases if Washington strikes, a senior Iranian official said yesterday, as Iran seeks to deter US President Donald Trump’s threats to intervene on behalf of protesters. People in Tehran yesterday attend the funerals of security forces personnel killed in protests. Trump has been openly threatening to intervene in Iran for days, although without giving specifics. US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it had so far verified the deaths of 2,403 protesters and 147 government-affiliated individuals. An Iranian official on Tuesday said that about 2,000 people had been killed.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:17 UTC
Legislature’s impeachment hearings begin
The hearings, launched by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators, are to continue today. Democratic Progressive Party caucus chief executive Chung Chia-pin speaks at a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said at the hearing that Lai damaged the separation of powers, and his alleged conduct was enough for impeachment. The opposition is using impeachment proceedings to make the president to appear before the Legislative Yuan regardless, he added. The sponsor of the motion would explain the grounds for impeachment, and Lai would be invited to give a 15-minute speech followed by questioning.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:17 UTC
Crane collapses on train in Thailand, killing 32
Crane collapses on train in Thailand, killing 32AFP, NAKHON RATCHASIMA, ThailandA crane at a China-backed high-speed rail project in Thailand yesterday collapsed onto a passenger train, causing it to derail, killing at least 32 people, authorities said. Recovery workers stand next to the wreckage of a train that derailed when a construction crane collapsed in Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima Province yesterday. The incident happened at a construction site that is part of a more than US$5 billion project backed by China to build a high-speed rail network in Thailand. Theerachote Rujiviphat, an engineering consultant adviser on the high-speed project, said that Italian-Thai Development was solely responsible for the crane collapse. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said authorities must determine the cause of the crane collapse and hold those responsible to account.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:17 UTC
Tong Yang reports net profit of NT$3.904 billion
Tong Yang reports net profit of NT$3.904 billionBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterTong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業), a maker of automotive plastics, sheet metal parts and cooling products, yesterday reported net profit last year was NT$3.904 billion (US$123.43 million), or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$6.43, the second-highest in the company’s history. Tong Yang in 2024 posted record profit of NT$4.38 billion, or EPS of NT$7.4. A man looks at a Tong Yang Industry Co automotive bumper at an auto parts trade show in Taipei in an undated photograph. For the whole of last year, pretax profit decreased 13.3 percent from the previous year to NT$4.792 billion, or NT$7.87 per share, Tong Yang said. Tong Yang supplies auto components for global brands through original equipment manufacturing or aftermarket (AM) channels.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:16 UTC
Chinese customs restrict Nvidia chips
Chinese customs restrict Nvidia chips‘BASICALLY A BAN’: Sources said the wording governing H200 imports from officials was severe, but added that the regulations might change if the situation evolvesReutersChinese customs authorities told customs agents this week that Nvidia Corp’s H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips are not permitted to enter China, three people briefed on the matter said. US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday gave a formal green light to China-bound sales of the Nvidia chips with conditions, despite concerns among many China hawks in Washington that the chips could supercharge the Chinese military and erode the US’ advantage in AI. Nvidia would need to certify that there are enough H200s in the US, while Chinese customers must demonstrate “sufficient security procedures” and cannot use the chips for military purposes. Chinese technology companies have placed orders for more than 3 million H200 chips priced at about US$27,000 each, far exceeding Nvidia’s inventory of 700,000 chips, sources said last month. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said the firm was ramping up production of H200 chips amid robust demand that was driving up the price to rent the H200 chips sitting in cloud computing data centers.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:16 UTC
Gallant annual profit reaches 19-year high
The signages of Gallant Precision Machining Co and Gallant Micro Machining Co are pictured at a booth at a semiconductor trade show in Taipei on Aug. 19 last year. In addition, accelerating development of new AI chips among major chipmakers is expected to help boost demand for semiconductor components and equipment, Gallant Precision said. Gallant Micro Machining Co (均華), Gallant Precision’s 58 percent-held subsidiary, specializes in supplying chip sorters and die bonders for advanced packaging technologies such as CoWoS, it said. Semiconductor equipment made up about half of Gallant Precision’s revenue in the third quarter of last year. The company redirected its resources to semiconductor equipment manufacturing from flat-panel equipment in 2023.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:16 UTC
Leadtek expects revenue decline
Leadtek expects revenue declineBy Meryl Kao / Staff reporterLeadtek Research Inc (麗臺), a distributor of graphics cards, artificial intelligence (AI) workstations and AI servers, yesterday said that it expects revenue this quarter to decline from last quarter due to a seasonal slowdown before rebounding in the second quarter. The company’s revenue last quarter fell 43 percent year-on-year to NT$927.97 million (US$29.34 million), but full-year revenue last year rose 3.78 percent annually to NT$4.45 billion, company data showed. Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei TimesLeadtek’s first-quarter revenue over the past three years ranged from NT$774.09 million to NT$939.82 million, company data showed. Revenue is expected to rebound in the second quarter, thanks to stabilized supply of Nvidia Corp’s RTX 50-series and RTX PRO 6000 graphics cards, a Leadtek source said by telephone. A recent surge in memory prices has had limited effect on Leadtek, as consumer graphics cards account for a relatively small share of its revenue, they said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:16 UTC
Taiwan Total Personal Wealth to grow annual 6% through 2029
Total personal wealth in Taiwan is projected to grow at an average annual rate of about 6 percent from last year through 2029, reaching about NT$279 trillion (US$8.82 trillion), CTBC Bank senior vice president John Yang (楊子宏) told a news conference in Taipei. The expansion reflects Taiwan’s deepening role in the global technology supply chain, which has bolstered corporate earnings, equity valuations and private wealth, Yang said. Photo: CNA“Succession sits atop the list of concerns among high-net-worth individuals, both young and old,” Yang said. The number of high-net-worth individuals is forecast to climb from an estimated 123,000 last year to 155,000 by 2029, the study showed. About 74 percent of high-net-worth individuals hold overseas assets, while an additional 14 percent plan to invest abroad, it showed.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:16 UTC
ASE unit purchases factory to expand assembly capacity
ASE unit purchases factory to expand assembly capacityStaff writer, with CNAASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) subsidiary Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) has acquired factory buildings and attached equipment from solar energy developer United Renewable Energy Co (聯合再生) for about NT$2.8 billion (US$88.52 million). Photo: CNAIndustrial sources said that SPIL would use the space to expand its capacity to meet robust demand amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom. ASE Technology is expecting an order backlog for AI-related advanced 3D chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging services, industry sources said. The firm in January last year inaugurated a new plant in Taichung’s Tanzi Technology Industrial Park (潭子科技產業園區) to secure more CoWoS capacity. ASE Technology posted consolidated sales of NT$645.39 billion for last year, up 8.4 percent from a year earlier, company data showed.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:16 UTC
Olympic medalist dies in Switzerland avalanche
Olympic medalist dies in Switzerland avalancheAP, BERN Olympic medalist dies in Switzerland avalancheSnowboarder Ueli Kestenholz, who won a bronze medal in the sport’s first Olympic race, died after being trapped in an avalanche, the Swiss ski federation said on Tuesday. Swiss snowboarder Ueli Kestenholz poses for a photograph at the Shiga Kogen ski resort in Japan on Feb. 9, 1998. The avalanche started at an altitude of 2,400m for unknown reasons, Valais police said in a statement. Recent posts on his Instagram account included film of Kestenholz paragliding and landing on frozen lakes near St. Moritz. “To enjoy those rare moments when nature‘s wonders align you need to be ready to drop everything and go!” he wrote.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:13 UTC
Brentford’s Igor Thiago eyes FIFA World Cup berth
Brentford’s Igor Thiago eyes FIFA World Cup berthAFP, LONDONBrentford striker Igor Thiago has already made English Premier League history: Now the Brazilian hopes to take his unlikely success story to the FIFA World Cup. Brentford’s Igor Thiago reacts during their English Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur at the Gtech Community Stadium in London on Jan. 1. Gabriel Jesus, Richarlison, Philippe Coutinho, Juninho and Robinho are among the other Brazil forwards to have played in the Premier League. Thanks to Thiago’s scoring spree, Brentford have climbed to fifth place in the Premier League, sparking unexpected dreams of UEFA Champions League qualification. Already linked with a move to Premier League leaders Arsenal, he has been catapulted into contention for a place in Brazil’s World Cup squad.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:13 UTC
Chloe Kim ‘good to go’ for Winter Olympics
Chloe Kim ‘good to go’ for Winter OlympicsAFP, LOS ANGELESUS snowboard star Chloe Kim on Tuesday said she would be fit to compete at next month’s Winter Olympics in Italy despite sustaining a shoulder injury last week. Kim revealed she had suffered a torn labrum in a training fall in Switzerland, and while she would not be able to train before the Olympics, she would be fit to compete. Gold medalist Chloe Kim of the US celebrates on the podium during the women’s halfpipe medal ceremony at the FIS Freestyle World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland, on March 29 last year. Photo: ReutersThe snowboard star said her labrum injury was at the less serious end of the spectrum, allowing her to take part in the Olympics. The Milan-Cortina Olympics are to take place from Feb. 6 to 22.
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:13 UTC
Under the spotlight
Gilgeous-Alexander rescues ThunderMOTHER KNOWS BEST: Warriors’ coach Kerr said his 91-year-old mother criticized him for his attitude toward officials that led to his ejection from Monday’s game Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Wednesday rescued the Oklahoma City Thunder with a game-tying buzzer-beater before finishing with 46 points in a 129-125 overtime victory against the Utah Jazz. The reigning NBA champions looked to be heading for a third straight loss after the Jazz inched into a 114-112 lead following Lauri Markkanen’s layup with just three seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. However, NBA Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander drained a superb 13-foot jump shot to tie it up at 114-114 as the buzzer sounded to send the game into overtime. Gilgeous-Alexander then took over in the extra period with nine points as the Western
Source:Taipei Times
January 14, 2026 17:13 UTC