2 mn readThe second presidential debate for the 2024 U.S. election, scheduled to be hosted by ABC News on September 10, has stirred controversy as Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign team seeks to alter the debate rules, including keeping microphones on throughout the debate. Have the Democrats forgotten who first called for muting mics?
2 mn readThe Republic of China on Taiwan is currently not a member of the United Nations and, as such, has long been unable to participate in the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Health Assembly (WHA), both bodies functioning under the UN. However, between 2009 and 2016, Taiwan participated as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei.” Since May 2017, due to obstruction by mainland China authorities, Taiwan has been unable to attend WHO meetings in any observer capacity. Nevertheless, Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare, Tai-yuan Chiu, recently led a delegation in an action group to represent Taiwan’s interests. The group held a press conference at the Geneva Press Club in Switzerland, where, responding to Eat News correspondent, Minister Chiu unequivocally stated his insistence on using “Republic of China” or “Taiwan” for joining the WHA, showing no willingness to accept other names.
5 mn readOn the evening of May 21, the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China continued to deliberate on bills related to parliamentary powers proposed by the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). Civic groups called on the public to go to the Legislative Yuan to protest against the parliamentary empowerment bills proposed by the KMT and TPP camps and to surround the Legislative Yuan.
4 mn readThe gravest chapter in Japan’s history, my friend, experienced journalist Paul Huang, revealed, isn’t the Nanjing Massacre or the subject of comfort women, but rather the Bombing of Tokyo. This historical period, spanning from March to May in 1945, culminated in approximately 100,000 fatalities due to American air strikes, a strategy involving the controversial use of incendiary bombs on unarmed civilians.
2 mn readThe Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC), responsible for the affairs of the Republic of China’s overseas citizens, has recently been publishing advertisements frequently on the social media platform Twitter, and now spends more than US$1,000 a month to purchase Twitter’s gold checkmark. What’s amusing is that Twitter’s gold checkmark is designated for “businesses,” not the “government organizations” specific grey checkmark, and the latter does not require payment to Twitter.
2 mn readThe President of the Republic of China, Tsai Ing-wen, set off on March 29 to visit two of the ROC’s diplomatic allies in Central and South America – Belize and Guatemala, with stopovers in New York and Los Angeles the United States. The Financial Times reported three weeks ago, citing several informed sources, that President Tsai will deliver a speech in New York and receive the Global Leadership Award from the right-wing think tank Hudson Institute. However, according to an investigation by The Eat News, Tsai administration donated more than US$600,000 (approximately NT$18,280,608) to the Hudson Institute between 2016 and 2021.
3 mn readOn March 21, 2023, LSE IDEAS, the foreign policy think tank of the London School of Economics and Political Science, published an article titled “Countering United Front Work: Taiwan’s Political Warfare System,” written by Mariah Thornton, a Ph.D. student in the Department of International Relations at the LSE. When the article was first published, Ross Feingold, the former Asia Chairman of Republicans Abroad, identified some errors, including changing the year of the Republic of China government’s retreat to Taiwan from 1949 to 1947 and the establishment of a new government called the “Republic of China” in Taiwan by the KMT after losing the Second Chinese Civil War. Although these errors have been corrected and republished, I still found some oversights in the article.
8 mn readSince the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the international community has been quick to condemn it. However, according to formerly secret Russian military documents recently released by the Ukrainian Intelligence Service, when Belarusian dictator and Putin’s ally Alexander Lukashenko was facing massive protests over the use of “election fraud” to extend his presidency back in 2020, Putin originally planned to invade and occupy Belarus to avoid the overthrow of Lukashenko’s regime. Putin’s regime has been working to support Lukashenko and cool the opposition since then. Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a candidate for the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, answered questions about the situation in Belarus during a session with Eat News at an online event.
9 mn readThe Russian invasion of Ukraine, now ongoing for over 10 weeks, has caused deaths and injuries to Ukrainian and Russian soldiers and civilians and has also led to a global price spike. Being closest to the war zone, Eastern Europe has been most directly affected. In an exclusive interview with Eat News, Danilo Türk, former president of Slovenia from 2007 to 2012 and current president of Club de Madrid, the world’s largest forum of former heads of state, analyzes recent elections in Slovenia, Serbia, Hungary, and France.
5 mn readIt has been more than a month since Russia invaded Ukraine. Although Ukraine is fighting alone and has received material support from Western democracies, including military weapons, Russian troops continue to encircle Kyiv east, south, and north. Taiwan, which is in a similar situation to Ukraine, is also listed as a “tinderbox” by the international media. In an interview with Eat News, Alfons López Tena, a former member of the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary and a former member of the Catalan Parliament, said that Taiwan should be worried but also breathe a sigh of relief.
