Ukraine has developed a reputation as a master of drone warfare, which has helped an otherwise-outgunned Kyiv hold out for more ‌than four ‌years against Russia.

I n a small, crowded room in Taipei, Pan Chien-chin is trying to keep a drone hovering steadily. Imagining himself flying a plane, he gently nudges controller joysticks to guide the insect-like device as it hums through the air. Cheers break out as Pan, who has never flown a drone before, steers it around a rectangular course marked by traffic cones without crashing. Around him are about two dozen fellow trainees, all signed up for the same course: Taiwan's first civil defence drone training programme. "The war in Ukraine has really changed how drones are used," says Pan, 48, a food company worker. "It's like giving myself another skill, something I can use if it's ever needed one day," he adds.

Vision-language models (VLMs) often struggle with culturally specific content -- a challenge largely overlooked by existing benchmarks that focus on dominant languages and globalized datasets. We introduce TAIWANVQA, a VQA benchmark designed for Taiwanese culture to evaluate recognition and reasoning in regional contexts. TAIWANVQA contains 2,736 images and 5,472 manually curated questions covering topics such as traditional foods, public signs, festivals, and landmarks. The official benchmark set includes 1,000 images and 2,000 questions for systematic assessment, with the remainder of the data used as training material. Evaluations on state-of-the-art VLMs reveal strong visual recognition but notable weaknesses in cultural reasoning.

World's largest chipmaker does not rule out price rises as costs increase The world's largest chipmaker has told the BBC that inflation is pushing up the cost of doing business, and did not rule out price rises. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) makes the most advanced chips designed by companies such as Nvidia, AMD and Apple, so any increase in pricing could ripple through to the cost of AI infrastructure, and potentially over time, the prices customers pay for their electronic devices. However, the firm's chief financial officer, Wendell Huang, said it would not introduce sudden fourfold, fivefold price rises. We reflect our value, he said, pointing to its technology leadership and manufacturing excellence. In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview, Huang also denied that the AI boom was a bubble and that the firm's global expansion was due to geopolitical pressure.

Taiwan's economy is booming thanks to AI. For Li, an engineer at Taiwanese computer giant ASUS, the AI boom sweeping Taiwan has made it an exciting time to work in tech. Taiwan is a semiconductor powerhouse, producing about 90 percent of the most advanced chips used to power leading AI models such as ChatGPT and Claude. Still, Li worries that the spoils of Taiwan's AI windfall are not being shared equally. "Most industries unrelated to tech don't seem to be feeling the benefits, so it doesn't feel evenly distributed at the moment," Li said, explaining that many of his former classmates working outside of tech do not appear to be doing as well.

An undergraduate student first spotted the translucent species off the coast of Taiwan. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. These are some of the ingredients that come together to make, a newly identified species of sea slug, or nudibranch, found swimming in Taiwan. "Taiwanese divers call it'sesame' in Chinese and it is also small like a sesame seed, hence the name," researchers explain in a statement .

Enes Kanter Freedom says Taiwan is the center of the global technology race and remains a key unresolved issue after the Trump-Xi summit produced no new discussions on chips or AI.

The Trump-Xi Beijing summit exposed deepening U.S.-China Cold War realities, with Taiwan tensions, Iran divisions and AI competition defining the rivalry's dangerous trajectory.

Russian rescuers work in a heavily damaged house following an air attack at an undisclosed location in the Moscow region. Moscow - A huge wave of almost 600 Ukrainian drones attacked Russia overnight, killing three people in the Moscow region and one in the Belgorod region, authorities said on Sunday. Air defenses shot down 556 drones overnight across the country, Russia's defence ministry said, with another 30 drones neutralized after dawn in one of the largest Ukrainian barrages of the conflict so far. These interceptions -- far above the few dozen more often reported -- took place across 14 Russian regions, as well as the Crimean Peninsula annexed from Ukraine and the Black and Azov seas, the ministry added, with the region around the capital among the worst-hit. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

As Trump visits Beijing for his first China trip since 2017, the U.S. and China are accelerating toward a new Cold War centered on AI, chips, data and digital control.