The Tai-Ex opened up 30-points this morning from Friday's close, at 45,841 on
turnover of 10.9-billion N-T.

The market lost ground last Friday, on profit taking ahead of the nearest
technical resistance around 46,000 points as Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing gave up its earlier gains.

A delegation of 13 lawmakers is slated to travel to to Japan later this month
to attend the Asian Pacific Parliamentarians’ Union 54th General Assembly and
88th Council Meeting.

The delegation will be led by Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang.

The event this year will held under the themes of inter-parliamentary
cooperation to maintain (維持) a free and open economic order and strengthen
regional supply chain resilience.

Taiwan hosted the Asian Pacific Parliamentarians’ Union General Assembly last
year.

A Starlux Airbus A350-1000 featuring livery by renowned Japanese artist
Hajime Sorayama has arrived at Taoyuan International Airport.

The aircraft, named "Airsorayama Gold," is at the airport ahead of its
commercial debut flight (首航) on the carrier's Taipei-Tokyo route later this
week.

Starlux says it is the second plane in the airline's "Starlux Airsorayama"
art project, which showcases Sorayama's signature metallic aesthetic.

The new aircraft features a gold-themed livery and the airline says it
complements its first Sorayama-designed jet, the "Airsorayama Silver."

The aircraft is scheduled to enter commercial service on Starlux's
Taipei-Narita route starting Thursday.

KOREA HOURS BEFORE DRILLS DUE TO BEGIN

US President Donald Trump has ordered Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to scale
back annual joint military exercises with South Korea, posting on Truth
Social just hours before the drills were due to begin that they send a
message he called hostile to North Korea.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were set to run for eleven days and
involve (使參與) around eighteen thousand South Korean troops alongside American
forces stationed on the peninsula.

The announcement came days after North Korea's eleventh ballistic missile
test of the year, and a day after President Trump posted a photograph of
himself alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Reporter Nick Harper in Washington says Trump also linked the decision to
South Korea's refusal to support the American-led campaign in Iran.

Thieves have stolen four works attributed to Sicilian Renaissance painter
Antonello da Messina from a regional museum in the city of Messina in Sicily.

According to local news, the theft occurred on Saturday during the Italian
Ferragosto holiday.

The thieves bypassed (繞過、避開) alarm systems in the evening, taking three
panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych and a double-sided panel of the Virgin
Mary and the dead Christ.

The museum was closed on Sunday while investigators gathered evidence.

The theft comes just days after police in the northern Italian city of Parma
announced that they had recovered three stolen artworks by Renoir, Cézanne
and Matisse worth about $11.5 million US dollars.

Five people have been detained in the March theft in Parma province.

The Tai-Ex opened up 82 points this morning from yesterday's close, at 46,104
on turnover of 10.5-billion N-T.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Ugandan immigration officers have
withheld the passports of three Taiwan travelers and demanded that they
produce Chinese passports, citing the country's "One China principle."

According to the minister, three encountered the officers on arriving at
Entebbe International Airport on Wednesday.

They were eventually allowed to enter Uganda.

However, the foreign ministry says immigration officers refused to return
their Taiwan passports unless they produced passports issued by China in
which entry stamps could be placed.

Taiwan's representative office in Somaliland, which is responsible for
affairs involving Uganda, and the Taiwanese business association in the
country immediately provided assistance to the travelers.

The foreign ministry is advising Taiwan nationals to carefully assess (評估)
the necessity and potential risks of traveling to Uganda and to postpone
planned visits for the time being.

North Korea has threatened to exercise its right to self-defense in a
statement that slammed the upcoming U.S.-South Korean military drills as a
war rehearsal.

In a statement carried by state media Friday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry
called the U.S.-South Korean training “a rehearsal for an aggressive war”
that is triggering a different level of instability in the region.

North Korea also said the drills would be of a “more serious provocative
(挑釁的) nature and dangerousness than last year" and involve all the military
assets and war-fighting modes of the U.S. and South Korea.

The U.S. and South Korea have described the training's scope this year as
similar to past years.

They say the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises are meant to strengthen their
alliance’s capability and reiterate that the drills are defensive in nature.

READINESS STRETCHED THIN

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claims the American military can maintain
its naval blockade on Iran indefinitely by rotating aircraft carriers in and
out of the Strait of Hormuz.

The carrier currently enforcing the blockade has been at sea for a record two
hundred consecutive days, prompting growing concern among lawmakers in
Washington about crew welfare.

A replacement vessel is now on its way from the Pacific to relieve it — a
move Washington hopes will undermine (破壞) any Iranian assumption that the
deployment is unsustainable.

James Gooderson, our reporter in Washington, says the carrier rotation is
exposing the strain the war in Iran is placing on the US Navy's global
posture, with the departure of a vessel from the Pacific leaving China with
greater freedom to project power in the region.

Vietnamese authorities have seized a large shipment of ivory illegally
shipped from Africa.

The haul includes 221 pieces of elephant ivory weighing over 1,193 kilograms.

It was displayed to the media on Wednesday in Gia Lai province.

Vietnam is a major hub for the illicit wildlife trade, with much of the
contraband transshipped (轉船 / 換船) to China.

Inspections last week found the ivory hidden in sawn timber in a shipment
from the Republic of the Congo.

The illegal cargo also contained animal bones often used in traditional
medicine.

A criminal investigation has been launched.