The Tai-Ex opened up 16-points this morning from yesterday's close, at 28,723

on turnover of 5-billion N-T.

The market closed lower on Tuesday after Wall Street fell overnight as

heavyweight tech stocks lost ground from last week's big gains, but the

downturn was limited due to government-led funds picking up large cap stocks

to minimize volatility.

The Ministry of National Defense's Political Warfare Bureau says it

identified 46 pieces of disinformation related to China's military exercise

on Monday and Tuesday.

According to the bureau, the disinformation mainly focused on attacking the

Lai administration's policies, slandering (誹謗) the armed forces, and

eroding (逐漸毀壞) trust in the United States.

Defense ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang says that every major Chinese military

exercise since August 2022 has combined military and non-military actions

aimed at influencing public opinion here in Taiwan, as well as in neighboring

countries and Taiwan-friendly countries.

President Lai Ching-te urged the public in a social media post to be mindful

of disinformation accompanying the exercise.

Lawmakers have passed amendments to the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act.

The revisions increase penalties for for high-value fraud and also offer

sentence reductions for offenders who voluntarily surrender to authorities

and pay full restitutions (歸還,賠償) to their victims.

Under the amended Act, judicial and prosecutorial authorities are also

authorized to notify financial institutions and virtual asset service

providers to flag bank accounts, e-payment accounts, credit cards and virtual

asset accounts suspected of being linked to fraud.

And the amendments also add new penalty tiers (等級).

Those found guilty of high-value fraud exceeding 10-million N-T face a prison

sentence of up to 10-years

While for fraud cases exceeding 100-million N-T, the statutory prison term

has been increased to 7 years.

US President Donald Trump says the US has struck an alleged drug loading dock

inside Venezuela, marking the first strike on Venezuelan soil in his

months-long pressure campaign against the government of Nicolas Maduro.

Toni Waterman has more from Washington.

Italy’s Parliament has approved the government’s 2026 budget, which

includes deficit-cutting measures.

The budget aims to reduce the 2026 deficit to 2.8% of GDP, aligning with the

European Union's demands.

Premier Giorgia Meloni's conservative coalition won the final vote on

Tuesday.

Meloni describes the budget as serious and responsible, focusing on families,

work, businesses and health care.

However, the center-left opposition criticizes it for not addressing poor

salaries and high taxes.

About 25% of the budget’s funding comes from the financial sector, with tax

hikes on banks and insurance companies.

The European Central Bank warns these levies (課稅) could reduce credit flow.

Police in Germany say thieves stole tens of millions of euros worth of

property from safety deposit boxes inside a bank vault that they drilled into

during the holiday lull (暫時平靜[).

Some 2,700 bank customers were affected by the theft at the bank branch

Monday in Gelsenkirchen.

Investigators believe the theft to be worth somewhere between 10 and 90

million euros.

German news agency dpa reported that the theft could be one of Germany’s

largest heists (搶劫).

That was the I.C.R.T. EZ News, I'm _____.

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