TAIPEI  CITY  –  Taiwan’s former presidential candidate Ko Wen-je has been charged for allegedly accepting bribes and misusing political donations. Ko was indicted by prosecutors on Thursday following probes into alleged corruption in the redevelopment of a shopping centre in Taipei during his time as mayor of the Taiwanese capital and campaign finance irregularities during his 2024 presidential run.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said in a statement that it was seeking a sentence of 28 and a half years in prison for Ko, who is accused of accepting T$17.1 million ($522,392) in bribes and embezzling donations of more than T$68 million. Prosecutors also announced charges against several members of Ko’s Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) over the misuse of political donations.

Ko, who served as mayor of Taipei from 2014 to 2022, previously denied wrongdoing in a real estate development case following his arrest in August, though he acknowledged the misreporting of campaign funds. A Taipei court ruled the following month that Ko, a surgeon by training, should be released from custody as prosecutors had not met the standard of there being a “high possibility” he committed a crime.

Ko, who came third in January’s presidential election with about 27 percent of the vote, had been widely seen as a contender for the presidency in 2028. The TPP, which Ko co-founded in 2019, holds eight seats in the 113-member Legislative Yuan. The party has worked with the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang to pass a series of controversial legal changes that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party says are aimed at restricting President William Lai Ching-te’s ability to govern the island. (Al Jazeera)

Photo: Ko Wen-je speaks during a media conference ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections in Taipei. (Reuters)

KYIV –  United States President Joe Biden has labelled as “outrageous” a Russian Christmas day attack on Ukraine’s power grid, promising a “surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine”. Moscow launched more than 170 missiles and drones on Ukraine on Wednesday, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The strikes, which killed an energy worker, hit a thermal power plant and prompted Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas morning. “The United States will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in its defense against Russian forces,” the outgoing president said in a statement. “The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardise the safety of its grid,” Biden added.

The strikes on Ukrainian fuel and energy sources included 78 air, ground and sea-launched missiles as well as 106 Shaheds and other types of drones, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones, with 52 more drones being jammed. “Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhumane?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X. “The target is our energy infrastructure.” This was the 13th large-scale strike on Ukraine’s energy system this year, the latest in Russia’s campaign targeting the power grid during winter.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Thursday that it had thwarted a plan by Ukrainian intelligence to kill senior Russian officers and their families in Moscow, according to the state-run TASS news agency. Earlier this month, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service in Moscow when a bomb attached to an electric scooter exploded. Russia on Thursday said five people had died in Ukrainian attacks and from a falling drone in the border region of Kursk and North Ossetia in the Caucasus last Wednesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday cautioned that Russia would respond to Ukraine’s attacks, carried out with Western missiles and drones. Russia targets only military facilities and infrastructure and “it’s not in our rules to strike civilian targets,” Lavrov said.

Ukraine officially celebrated Christmas on December 25 for the second time, after the government last year changed the date from January 7, when most Orthodox believers celebrate, as a snub to Russia. Nearly 200 people paraded through the centre of Kyiv, singing Christmas carols. The Christmas day attack also targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, located near the Russian border. At least seven strikes sparked fires across the city, regional head Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. At least three people were injured, local authorities said. Attacks continued overnight, with the Ukrainian military announcing on Thursday it shot down 20 drones out of 31 launched by Russia. Outnumbered Ukrainian forces are now on the back foot across the front line in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions further south, ceding ground to better-equipped Russian troops. Both sides are racing to secure an advantage before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised a swift end to the conflict. This has led to concerns that Washington might push Kyiv into accepting a settlement favourable to Moscow. (Al Jazeera)

Photo: A rescuer from the State Emergency Service works to put out a fire in a private house after a drone attack in Kharkiv. (AFP)

Several members of parliament recently asked questions about how the government calculates its tax on each liter of fuel but the government still has not given any clear answers. The leader of the faction of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Rabin Parmessar, made it clear that “the government is not transparent because it does not provide clear information to parliament.” Due to the lack of transparency, the legislators made a rough calculation and concluded that the government earns between SRD 17 and SRD 18 as a result of the value added tax and the government take. Finance and Planning Minister  Stanley Raghoebarsing pointed out that the government earns about SRD 10 per liter via the  government take but made it clear that he was not planning on providing the exact figures to parliament. MP Parmessar explained that the numbers from the minister indicate that about 40 million liters of fuel are sold every month and that this means that the government earns at least  SRD 600 million per month. He slammed the government for its lack of full transparency and made it go that he would stick to this issue until the government has provided the correct information.

The legislator from the opposition explained that specific information such as the deal with the oil companies is missing and that the government has often been asked to divulge this information. President Chandrikapersad Santokhi has made it clear that “this information can’t be shared.” But MP Parmessar reminded the government that the Constitution clearly states that the economy and the natural resources must serve the nation. He strongly disapproved of the fact that the Santokhi administration refuses to share the contents of the agreements with the oil companies. MP Parmessar urged parliament to compel the government to disclose the vital information and reminded parliament that there are legal tools that make it possible to also discuss sensitive information. 

The former minister of Home Affairs (BIZA), Bronto Somohardjo, has often asked President Chandrikapersad Santokhi how the investigation that is being carried out at BIZA by the Central Audit Division (CLAD) is going and if he could read the report but his request still has not been granted. “I have thought long and hard because of the statements made by President Santokhi and the minister of Finance and Planning. I have come to believe that Santokhi is possibly misusing the name of the attorney general (AG) for personal gain. At the meeting that I had with the president on October 16th, he told me that the CLAD had presented a preliminary report within 3 days. He had also told me that the preliminary report was for his eyes and those of the Finance minister only. But he also indicated that AG Garcia Paragsingh insisted that he had to hand over the report. Now I wonder if the AG had actually asked to be given the report or if the president had lied again. I also wonder if he wanted to give her the report to incriminate me and to take me out of the political game,” said Bronto who added that he was shocked to hear the president’s statements.

Bronto Somohardjo pointed out that the CLAD had not found anything which is why he is puzzled by the fact that the investigation is ongoing. He has sent a letter to the president, demanding that his name be cleared. “I have hired several lawyers and a forensics accountant to fight these accusations.”

BEIJING – China’s cotton production saw a significant increase in 2024, driven by technological advancements and improved cultivation techniques, particularly in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The country’s cotton production rose to 6.164 million tonnes in 2024, a 9.7 percent increase from the previous year, with northwest China’s Xinjiang leading the growth, official data showed Wednesday.

The national growth was driven by increased planting area and improved yield efficiency. China’s total cotton planting area expanded by 1.8 percent from 2023, while the yield per unit area saw a significant jump of 7.8 percent year on year, reaching 2,172 kg per hectare, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This improvement in productivity played a crucial role in boosting the country’s overall cotton output.

Xinjiang, China’s largest cotton-producing region, saw a 3.3 percent increase in planting area to 2.45 million hectares. In contrast, cotton planting areas in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins decreased by 1.6 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively. Wei Fenghua, an official with the NBS rural department, cited stable target prices in Xinjiang as a key factor in encouraging farmers to increase cotton cultivation. Xinjiang’s cotton yield per unit area rose by 7.6 percent to about 2,324 kg per hectare, benefiting from favorable weather conditions throughout the growing season. China is the world’s leading cotton consumer and producer, and Xinjiang accounts for nearly 90 percent of the country’s total cotton production. The region’s dominance in China’s cotton production has steadily increased in recent years, leveraging its natural advantages and improved irrigation infrastructure. (Xinhua)

Photo: A cotton harvester is at work in Shawan City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua)