**Tai-Ex opening **

The Tai-Ex opened down 29-points this morning from yesterday's close, at

17,190 on turnover of 5.1-billion N-T.

The market moved sharply higher on Tuesday to close at a 14-month high after

Wall Street rallied overnight.

Tuesday high came as buying remained focused on tech heavyweights due to

continuing optimism (樂觀) over the development of artificial

intelligence-related products.

**MND Releases New Revised Civil Defense Handbook **

The Ministry of National Defense has released a revised version of its civil

defense handbook.

The moved comes after the original version was heavily criticized for being

out of date when it was published in April of last year.

According to the ministry's All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency, the updated

version of the handbook has almost doubled (加倍) its content and been

expanded from 28 pages to 48 pages.

Agency head says Shen Wei-zhi, the new version consists of two main parts -

"peacetime preparation" and "wartime responses" - and has far more

descriptions of civil defense concepts and more detailed suggestions on how

to respond to different types of emergencies.

The original version focused more on identifying which government agencies

were responsible for doing what during wartime.

**Premier Declares War Drugs **

Premier Chen Chien-jen is declaring war on recreational drugs.

Speaking at an event marking the conclusion of the government's "Eighth Wave

Anti-Drug Program," Chen cited marijuana as being the main target of recent

crackdowns (打擊；鎮壓).

According to the premier, over 6,000 kilograms of illegal drugs have been

seized over the past three months and that includes 900 marijuana plants,

while 56 drug factories have also been shut down.

Chen went on to describe recreational drugs as being the "root of all evils"

and stressed that President Tsai Ing-wen attaches great importance to drug

prevention and control operations.

***US House Resolution to Overturn Gun Regulation **

From the US…..

The House has pushed through a resolution to overturn (改變, 推翻) a new

federal gun regulation.

AP correspondent Norman Hall reports.

**AI Used to Record Beatles Song **

Paul McCartney says artificial intelligence has been used to extract (取出)

John Lennon’s voice from an old demo to create “the last Beatles record,"

decades after the band broke up.

McCartney told the BBC on Tuesday that the technology was used to separate

(分離) the Beatles’ voices from background sounds during the making of

director Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series “The Beatles: Get Back.”

He said the new song is set to be released later this year.

McCartney didn't identify the name of the demo, but the BBC and others said

it was likely to be an unfinished 1978 love song by Lennon called “Now and

Then.”

That was the I.C.R.T. news,

Check in again tomorrow for our simplified version of the news, uploaded

every day in the afternoon.

Enjoy the rest of your day, I'm _____.

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