Post office, driver’s license changes comingSHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operatorsBy Shelley Shan

METRO RAMPAGE: Foreign offices offer condolences after deadly stabbingStaff writer, with CNASeveral foreign representative offices in Taiwan have offered their condolences after a deadly knife attack in Taipei on Friday left three dead and injured several others. The Czech Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei on Facebook wrote that it was saddened by the news of the attack in the capital. “We extend our sincere condolences and stand with the families and loved ones of those affected,” the Czech office said. A person lays flowers near Exit M7 at Taipei Main Station yesterday to pay tribute to victims of Friday’s knife attack. Photo: CNAThe Canadian Trade Office in Taipei in a Facebook post said it was shocked and saddened by what happened.

The bigotry storm of Miss FinlandBy Hugo Tseng 曾泰元The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. When Dzafce deployed it, she aimed a direct insult at the global Chinese diaspora and the wider Asian community. Understanding this arsenal of bigotry — from anatomical insults such as slope-head to cultural slurs such as banana (implying the person is “yellow on the outside, white on the inside”) — is crucial. Hugo Tseng has a doctorate in linguistics, and is a lexicographer and former chair of the Soochow University English Department.

Kenyan girls still suffering genital mutilationAFP, NAROK, KenyaMasai women erupted with mocking heckles as a community elder, wrapped in a traditional red blanket, claimed that female genital mutilation had all but stopped in their community in southern Kenya. One local nurse said about 80 percent of girls in the area are still affected, despite the practice being made illegal in 2011. Female genital mutilation (FGM) has survived decades of pressure to end it, from British colonialists, and later Kenyan and global non-governmental organizations. “We don’t circumcise girls, because the culture has changed,” Masai elder Moses Letuati, 50, said before admitting one of his four daughters was cut. One young Masai man said he had friends who still believed in FGM, but said girls were no longer cursed — a form of social control used by elders — for refusing it.

A scene from Baode Temple’s 1996 enshrinement ceremony at its new site in Taipei’s Beitou District. The following piece (Taiwan in Time: “Echoes of Kipatauw: Century of displacement and erasure”), examines the community’s displacement under Japanese rule. After settling in Fanzaicuo, the Pan family established a private shrine in 1944, reportedly off limits to Han residents. A study by Liang Ting-yu says that Baode Temple’s “Indigenous” lion is different from conventional ones. After its demolition in 2010, Baode Temple is now housed in a metal shack atop the Fanzai ditch.

Trump renames national arts center after himselfAFP, WASHINGTONUS President Donald Trump’s name was affixed to the Kennedy Center in Washington on Friday, one day after his hand-picked board members voted to rename the arts venue in spite of legal questions. Workers stand in front of newly added lettering for US President Donald Trump’s name at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Friday. “Today, we proudly unveil the updated exterior designation — honoring the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and the enduring legacy of John F. Kennedy,” the center wrote on social media, along with photos of the lettering. Landmarks like the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and indeed the Kennedy Center were all named after their deaths. He has stamped his mark on the Kennedy Center since the start of his second term as part of an assault on cultural institutions that his administration has accused of being too left-wing.

ANALYTICAL ENGLISH 解析英語(常春藤)Study Finds Your Breath Can Identify You (2/2)呼吸模式如指紋 可精準辨識身分（下）By 常春藤解析英語 Ivy EnglishContinued from yesterday（延續自昨日)The study also uncovered a correlation between breathing patterns and mental well-being. Participants with higher scores on anxiety questionnaires exhibited shorter inhalation periods and more frequent breath pauses during sleep. “We intuitively assume that how depressed or anxious you are changes the way you breathe,” says one researcher involved in the study. What problem did scientists previously face when trying to measure breathing patterns? The way you breathe affects how depressed or anxious you are.

Zabystran claims Czech men’s first World Cup winReuters, PARISJan Zabystran on Friday stunned prerace favorite Marco Odermatt in the Val Gardena super-G to become the first male skier representing the Czech Republic to win a FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup race. Czech-born Jan Hudec won two World Cup races, in 2008 and 2012, but was then competing for Canada. Czech Republic’s Jan Zabystran celebrates after his run at the men’s super-G event of the FIS Alpine skiing World Cup in Val Gardena, Italy, on Friday. Photo: Reuters“I was hoping that some day I could make it to a World Cup podium, but before that I was just hoping to take part in a World Cup race. Odermatt, now on 685 points, extended his overall World Cup lead over Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen to 383 points and snatched the lead in the super-G standings from Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr with 225 points.

Hong Kongers celebrate once-in-a-decade festivalAFP, HONG KONGChanting villagers parade a giant effigy through the alleys of rural Hong Kong before setting it ablaze in a once-in-a-decade ceremony to ward off bad luck and appease their ancestors. Residents of Kam Tin decked out their northern corner of the city with towering flower boards and a vast bamboo stage for the Taoist Jiao festival which dates back over 300 years. People burn a paper effigy of the Ghost King during the decennial Jiao Festival of Kam Tin in Hong Kong on Friday. Lai Chi-ming, center, a bamboo scaffolding worker who coplanned the theater altar for Jiao Festival in Kam Tin, Hong Kong, works on the bamboo structure on Thursday Photo: AFPThe multi-day festival is one of Hong Kong’s longest-running traditional events, and features lion and dragon dances, Cantonese opera, and puppet shows. The netting was hung from bamboo scaffolding encasing several tower blocks.

Honduran vote officials have US visas revokedAP, TEGUCIGALPAThe administration of US President Donald Trump restricted visas for two Honduran election officials, citing interference in the Central American country’s special vote count. The US Department of State in a statement on Friday said it revoked the visa of Mario Morazan, a magistrate of the Honduran Electoral Justice Tribunal, and denied a visa application from Marlon Ochoa, a member of the Honduran National Electoral Council. Due to the narrow margin between the two leading candidates, electoral officials have carried out a special revision of 2,792 ballot boxes that show alleged inconsistencies and errors. Officials began the special vote count on Thursday after more than a week of the count being paralyzed. This is the latest example of the Trump administration weighing in on Honduran affairs throughout the election.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights yesterday said that at least five Islamic State group members including a cell leader were killed in the strikes overnight. Trump also has taken pains to emphasize the attack was the work of the Islamic State — not Syria’s new government. Palmyra is outside the control of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has promised to join a US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State. During his first term, Trump ordered strikes on Syria twice in a bid to take out then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons program. It also marked the first time a Syrian president has visited the White House since the country’s independence in 1946.

It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold War. Until now, only one company has mastered EUV technology: ASML, headquartered in Veldhoven, Netherlands. ASML built its first working prototype of EUV technology in 2001. No EUV system has ever been sold to a customer in China, ASML told Reuters.

The five died in Tuffah, an eastern neighborhood in Gaza City, said Rami Mhanna, managing director of Shifa Hospital. Displaced Palestinians stand next to destroyed houses in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. Also on Friday, US President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff was planning to host in Florida top officials from Middle Eastern countries mediating the Gaza ceasefire, according to a US official. In the worst-case scenario, including renewed conflict and a halt of aid, the whole Gaza Strip is at risk of famine. The Israeli military agency in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, known as COGAT, on Friday said that it strongly rejected the findings.

The poll also looked at the public’s evaluation of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), and perceptions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the political intentions of KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文). That is, the trend is less a symptom of her victory than her victory was a symptom of the trend. If the trend Yang identified is real, then the CCP and the KMT are doing their job well, while Lai and the government are not. In Taiwan, one manifestation of this “high emotion” aspect is the fracture of resolve that Yang identified. Lo warns that Lai and the DPP have “fallen short in speaking to the emotions of these voters.”

What factors will channel the AI boom? Larger models, trillion-token training runs and record-breaking capex (capital expenditure) cycles have reinforced a sense of uninterrupted acceleration. As AI moves from experimentation to real-world applications, the limits imposed by the physical world, capital markets and political systems clearly matter more than its theoretical potential. The third constraint, capital, operates in a more subtle way. The constraint comes not from weak investor sentiment, but from the strategic pressure enthusiasm creates: different firms pursue different conceptions of value because their business models and cost structures demand it.