
AI-generated summary
Zakaria was recently appointed as the White House Press Secretary. However, shortly after taking office, he was questioned by foreign media due to his lawyer qualifications. His first press conference only accepted questions from three reporters and was short, causing dissatisfaction within the White House.
The picture shows the new White House Press Secretary Zakaria hosting his first press briefing after taking office on the 13th. (AP)
White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has been under scrutiny for less than a week after taking office because of her qualifications as a lawyer. Foreign media reported that Zacharia has been fired. When asked about the matter, U.S. President Donald Trump admitted that he had asked Zacharia to reconsider the job, saying "maybe it's not the right fit for her."
The new White House Press Secretary (Spokesperson) Katie Zacharia hosted her first press briefing on the 13th, but after reading the Trump administration's "achievements" according to the script, she only accepted questions from three reporters, and the whole session ended in less than 15 minutes. Some White House officials and advisers criticized her performance. Although Trump immediately said that he thought Zakaria was "very good", Zakaria was still involved in controversies such as poor performance in the first press conference and questions about his lawyer's qualifications.
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Foreign media quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Zakaria has been dismissed from her position and no longer serves as press secretary. When Trump was asked about the matter on the 16th, he said that this job may be harder than Zachariah originally imagined and had asked her to reconsider the job. Trump also said that "maybe this job is not suitable for her" and complained that the media was too harsh on her. He said that he would let Zakaria make her own decision and would talk to Zakaria when he returned to the White House.
Compared to Trump's claim that Zachariah would make his own decision, foreign media reports such as The New York Times and CNN pointed out that Zachariah had been fired. If this is true, Zachariah also set a record for the shortest term of a White House press secretary.
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
The White House will appoint a new press secretary to replace Zakaria in the next few days
Likely · Within days

Tainan urban railway undergrounding and the new Tainan Station reached the opening of the first train at 6:30 this morning. Transportation Minister Chen Shikai, Tainan Mayor Huang Weizhe, Legislator Chen Tingfei and others bid farewell to the last train from the old station and boarded the first southbound Xin Ziqiang train from the new station. The Railway Administration pointed out that the project cost more than 41.2 billion yuan, with a total length of 8.23 kilometers, and the elimination of 9 level crossings and other facilities.

The Legislative Yuan passed the amendment to the Elderly Welfare Act on the third reading, which stipulates that the central government will subsidize the health insurance premiums for seniors aged 65 and above whose comprehensive income tax rate does not reach 20%, triggering a backlash from medical groups. Media person Zhan Lingyu questioned whether this was a way to buy votes for the policy, pointing out that premium-free coverage for the elderly would jump from 5% to more than 80%, and the new expenditure would be passed on to people aged 15 to 64, with each person paying more than 3,000 yuan per year. This undermines the spirit of mutual aid in health insurance, increases the financial burden, and may lead to generational injustice.

Statistics from the Ministry of the Interior show that after Chiang Wanan took over as mayor of Taipei, in addition to a brief increase of 31,205 people in 2023 due to the restoration of household registration after the epidemic, there was a decrease of 21,017 people in 2024 and a sharp decrease of 51,362 people in 2025. The total loss in the two years was more than 72,000. In the first nine months of 2026, there was a further decrease of 20,653 people, bringing the total loss to 92,000 people. The natural increase turned negative and the social decrease continued to expand, indicating that the capital outflow has not stopped and is accelerating.

The Legislative Yuan passed the third reading of amendments to Article 22 of the Elderly Welfare Law yesterday, which stipulates that the health insurance premiums for those over 65 years old whose income tax rate does not reach 20% will be subsidized by the central government. The Ministry of Health and Welfare estimates that among the approximately 4.85 million senior citizens in Taiwan, approximately 4.03 million are eligible for exemption, which requires an annual allocation of approximately NT$40 billion, which is likely to grow gradually.

The House Select Committee on China released hundreds of pages of documents from NSF OIG investigations into unreported cases of research theft, accompanying a report titled 'How to Stop China’s Theft of Taxpayer-Funded Research' that rejects claims by universities that tighter security rules threaten academic freedom. The NSF declined to comment.

KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Chiang Wanan said he had given Zhao Shaokang a boost and called for rationality within the party. Taoyuan Mayor Zhang Shanzheng supported Zhao Shaokang, questioning the unwiseness of demanding expulsion from the party for visiting candidates from different political parties, and emphasized that the media should have the confidence to accommodate different voices. Chen Yixin, chairman of the Party Central Committee's Cultural Communication Committee, called for focusing on the overall situation and preventing internal disputes from affecting the election campaign.