Fri, Aug 07, 2020
RULES WANTED: An NCCU professor said it remains to be seen whether NTU is behind the times or if the problem would be fixed by improved communication National Taiwan University (NTU) has limited student attendance at university affairs meetings and attempted to influence articles written by student reporters, NTU Students’ Association president Yang Tzu-ang (楊子昂) said yesterday. Yang told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei that a petition calling for student reporters to be allowed to attend one of the meetings on Oct. 24 was launched on Wednesday. A student reporter who had been critical of NTU after a meeting last year had been called in by the university to “have a chat,” which was an attempt to force the student to alter their article, the association said. NTU has been conservative about sharing information and it could even be said that it is resisting, as it has refused to allow livestreams of the meetings and has barred student reporters from post-meeting news conferences, Yang said. Yang said that she did not understand what the university was afraid of and it should not rigorously control students’ efforts to understand how NTU makes decisions. “Is the university dismissive of students, or is there something that would not stand up to public scrutiny?” she asked. Yang called on NTU president Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) to respond to the appeals and “shoulder the responsibility that NTU has as a university to educate its students.” NTU must stop oppressing student journalism and not attempt to alter students’ reporting, the association said, adding that it should work with students to establish a clear set of rules, standards and procedures that would recognize student journalism while ensuring that student journalists are notified of events and retain the right to conduct interviews. NTU is sidestepping the issue of it selectively overlooking student reporters and trying to isolate them, Yang said, referring to NTU on Wednesday saying that it had issued a notice on the matter. “It might seem like the university
The Chinese government should tackle its internal problems before pointing fingers at others, given that it has become a “global troublemaker,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said yesterday, after Beijing criticized a planned visit to Taiwan by US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. Azar’s delegation is to arrive on Sunday, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. After the US Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday announced that Azar would lead a delegation to Taiwan “in the coming days,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said that Beijing had voiced its serious concerns about the trip to Washington and called on the US to stop any government-to-government interaction with Taiwan. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) accused the Democratic Progressive Party of scheming with the US for its own political interests, which were “dangerous and detrimental” to the common benefits of people across the Taiwan Strait. Asked about those remarks, Ou told a briefing at the ministry in Taipei that Taiwan is a sovereignty nation and that China has no right to intervene in its interactions with the US or other like-minded countries. Beijing should look at its own problems before it criticizes other countries, she said. The Chinese government has become a global troublemaker, as its concealment of the initial COVID-19 cases led to a global pandemic that now has 18 million confirmed cases and 700,000 fatalities, she said. China continues to provoke disputes with other nations, including Taiwan, Japan and India, while expanding its military establishments in the South China Sea, which not only sabotages the “status quo,” but causes regional tension, she said. Internally, it continues to suppress the freedoms of its citizens in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, as well as the religious freedoms of Christians and Muslims, Ou said. The Chinese government should
French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday visited shell-shocked Beirut, pledging support and urging change after a massive explosion devastated the Lebanese capital in a disaster that has sparked grief and fury. “Lebanon is not alone,” Macron wrote on Twitter on arrival, before pledging that Paris would coordinate international relief efforts after the colossal blast killed at least 137 people, wounded thousands and caused massive damage. However, Macron also warned that Lebanon — which is already mired in a deep economic crisis, in desperate need of a bailout and torn by political turmoil — would “continue to sink” unless it swiftly implements reforms. Macron visited Beirut’s harborside blast zone, now a wasteland of blackened ruins, rubble and charred debris where a 140m-wide crater has filled with seawater. Macron’s visit to the small Mediterranean country, France’s Middle East protege and former colonial-era protectorate, was the first by a foreign head of state since Tuesday’s explosion. Two days on, Lebanon was still reeling from a blast so huge it was felt in neighboring countries, its mushroom-shaped cloud drawing comparisons with the Hiroshima atom bomb. Offering a glimmer of hope amid the carnage, a French rescuer said there was a “good chance of finding ... people alive,” especially a group believed to be trapped in a room under the rubble. “We are looking for seven or eight missing people, who could be stuck in a control room buried by the explosion,” the colonel leading a rescue team told Macron as he surveyed the site. According to several officials, the explosion was caused by a fire igniting 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer stored for years in a ramshackle portside warehouse. Even as they counted their dead and cleaned up the streets, many Lebanese were boiling with anger over a blast they see as the most shocking expression yet of their leadership’s incompetence. “We can’t bear
Bells tolled in Hiroshima, Japan, yesterday for the 75th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing, with ceremonies downsized due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the city’s mayor urging nations to reject selfish nationalism and unite to fight all threats. Thousands usually pack Peace Park in the center of the city to pray, sing and offer paper cranes as a symbol of peace, but entry was sharply limited, and only survivors and their families could attend the memorial ceremony. The city said the significance of the anniversary of the bombing that killed 140,000 people before the end of 1945 had prompted its decision to hold the ceremony despite the spread of the virus, while taking strict precautions. “On August 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb destroyed our city. Rumor at the time had it that ‘nothing will grow here for 75 years,’” Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said. “And yet, Hiroshima recovered, becoming a symbol of peace.” At 8:15am on Aug. 6, 1945, US B-29 warplane the Enola Gay dropped a bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” and obliterated the city with an estimated population of 350,000, where thousands more died later from injuries and radiation-related illnesses. Yesterday, as cicadas shrilled in the heavy summer heat and the Peace Bell sounded, the crowd stood to observe a moment of silence at the exact time the bomb exploded. “When the 1918 flu pandemic attacked a century ago, it took tens of millions of lives and terrorized the world because nations fighting World War I were unable to meet the threat together,” Matsui said. “A subsequent upsurge in nationalism led to World War II and the atomic bombings. We must never allow this painful past to repeat itself. Civil society must reject self-centered nationalism and unite against all threats.”
ALEX AZAR: The first visit by a head of the Department of Health and Human Services would strictly observe the CECC’s special regulations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar is to lead a delegation to Taiwan — the highest-level visit by a US Cabinet official since the two sides cut formal relations in 1979. The plan was announced yesterday morning by the US Department of Health and Human Services and confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Beijing has expressed its concerns to Washington, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said later yesterday. Taiwan and the US only issued statements saying that the visit would happen “in the coming days.” MOFA said that due to security concerns, it would not disclose Azar’s schedule, except to say that he would visit President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) — which is headed by Chen — and meet with Taiwanese health experts. Azar’s trip marks the first visit to Taiwan by an HHS secretary, the first Cabinet member to visit in six years and the highest-level visit by a US Cabinet official since 1979, the department said in a news release. The visit is part of a US policy to send high-level US officials to Taiwan to reaffirm bilateral ties under the US’ Taiwan Travel Act, which was signed into law by US President Donald Trump in 2018, it said. The last publicly known visit by a US Cabinet official was by then-US Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy in 2014, the Central News Agency reported. “I look forward to conveying President Trump’s support for Taiwan’s global health leadership and underscoring our shared belief that free and democratic societies are the best model for protecting and promoting health,” Azar was quoted as saying in the department’s statement. “This trip represents an opportunity to strengthen our economic and public
‘THE APOCALYPSE’: The blast leveled buildings that were within several hundred meters, with video showing a ball of fire, smoke and a gigantic white shockwave Rescuers yesterday searched for survivors in Beirut after a cataclysmic explosion at the port sowed devastation across entire neighborhoods, killing more than 100 people, wounding thousands and plunging Lebanon deeper into crisis. The blast, which appeared to have been caused by a fire igniting 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate left unsecured in a warehouse, was felt as far away as Cyprus, about 240km to the northwest. Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud described the explosion as “an apocalyptic situation” that he estimated might have made 300,000 people temporarily homeless and would cost the country in excess of US$3 billion. The scale of the destruction was such that the Lebanese capital resembled the scene of an earthquake, with thousands of people left homeless and thousands more cramming into overwhelmed hospitals for treatment. “A massacre. I saw people screaming, covered in blood, homes broken, glass shattered, roads that look like Hiroshima or like a tsunami hit,” said Elie Zakaria, a resident of a neighborhood close to the port. In those areas, the amount of destruction caused by the long years of civil war between 1975 and 1990 was achieved in a second by a blast that leveled buildings within a radius of several hundred meters. A resident of Mar Mikhail, one of the most affected neighborhoods, said she saw bodies strewn in the middle of the street, apparently thrown off balconies and rooftops by the blast. Many people were watching and filming with their phones after an earlier and smaller explosion was heard in the port and ignited a fire. The resulting footage, which was widely shared on social media, shows a ball of fire and smoke rising above Beirut and a white shockwave engulfing everything around it. The mushroom-shaped explosion — which seismologists said was logged as the equivalent of a magnitude 3.3 quake — and the scope of the damage drew
NEW CASE REPORTED: A man who returned from South Africa on a flight with the nation’s 460th and 461st cases has now tested positive for the disease The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that there is no need to test all arrivals to the nation for COVID-19, a policy the Executive Yuan supports. The center reported one new imported case, bringing the nation’s tally of confirmed cases to 477. The new case is a Taiwanese man in his 60s who on July 25 returned from South Africa, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC’s spokesman. The man had returned to Taiwan on the same flight as cases Nos. 460 and 461, reported on July 27, Chuang said. On July 24, the three had shared a taxi to the airport in South Africa, Chuang added. Upon their arrival in Taiwan, the man did not show any symptoms and was sent to a disease prevention hotel, Chuang said. On Monday, the man began experiencing diarrhea, muscle aches and fatigue, after which health authorities arranged for him to be tested, Chuang said. The man has been hospitalized, and since he went directly to a disease prevention hotel upon his arrival and did not come into contact with friends or relatives, no one is shown as having had contact with him, the center said. The center has identified 31 people as having had contact with case Nos. 460 and 461, and as of yesterday, two of them had shown suspected symptoms of COVID-19, including case No. 477, who tested positive for the disease, and another who tested negative, the center said. National Taiwan University Hospital pediatrician Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎), a member of the CECC’s expert advisory panel, said the panel has discussed many of the recommendations it has received, including universal testing of all citizens and testing of all inbound travelers. However, before implementing any policy, the center must consider its cost effectiveness, Lee said. For example, lockdowns would be “very
The Ministry of Culture on Tuesday announced the winners of the 44th Golden Tripod Awards for publications, with Cite Publishing chairman Ho Fei-ping (何飛鵬) receiving a honorary award. More than 1,300 works were submitted for this year’s competitions in the categories of magazines, books, digital publishing and government publications, the ministry said. Across the four categories, 20 awards were given to 28 works, it said. In comments quoted by the ministry, the judges praised Ho for his accomplishments as a pioneer in his field. Ho has cofounded many publications including Business Weekly, PC Home and Business Next, the ministry said, adding that Ho continues to work hard to improve Taiwan’s publishing environment. Ho has helped others in the field grow, it said. Lai Hsiang-yin (賴香吟) was one of four winners in the literature category. Her winning work, Love Before Dawn: Scenes from Japanese Taiwan (天亮之前的戀愛: 日治台灣小說風景) in October last year won the Taiwan Literature Award, presented by the National Museum of Taiwan Literature in Tainan. Famed illustrator Jimmy Liao (幾米) won in the category for children’s and youth books for his work I Hope that One Day You Will Understand (但願有一天你會懂), published by Locus Publishing. Commonwealth Magazine won the award for magazines on finance and current affairs, while Anke (安可人生) won in the lifestyle magazines category. Fountain, published by the General Association of Chinese Culture, won the award for best magazine on arts and humanities. In the digital publishing category, Commonwealth Parenting won the digital innovation award for its audiobook mobile app. The works that competed for this year’s awards were rich and diverse, with their subject matter ranging from personal life to international topics, Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te (李永得) said. This year, the number of entries increased from last year, indicating that authors and publishers are continuing to bring readers the nation’s knowledge, emotions and culture, he said. The ministry is
BENEFITING THE DISADVANTAGED: French-born Priest Yves Moal said that he had no problems securing funding for the new store in just two days Hualien County’s Yuli Township (玉里) on Wednesday celebrated the reopening of a second-hand store and redistribution center for disadvantaged and poor residents after the store burned down in February. The center was founded by Catholic priest Father Yves Moal. Speaking at the ceremony, Moal said the successful reconstruction of the store was possible “due to the generosity of the Taiwanese people,” which had not changed since he arrived in Taiwan as a 25-year-old. Due to the public’s concern for the less fortunate, the amount necessary for rebuilding the facility had been raised within just two days, he said. Moal shared the story of receiving a letter from a small girl who donated NT$15, adding that “this sum is equal to several hundreds of millions.” Moal, who received Republic of China citizenship four years ago, said in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese): “I am Taiwanese,” adding that he is proud of his compatriots. The ceremony was attended by former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and his wife, Lo Feng-ping (羅鳳蘋), who are Catholics. “Father Moal is a living saint,” Chen said, adding that the priest, who has devoted 55 years of his life to Taiwan, embodied all the good sides of the nation and is “a Taiwanese priest hailing from France.” Chen and Lo also took part in a sale for the benefit of Yuli’s disadvantaged and poor residents. Bishop Philip Huang (黃兆明) of the Hualien diocese also attended the ceremony and blessed the new center. The ceremony coincided with Moal’s 80th birthday, which was also celebrated with a large cake. Moal also expressed the hope that the local community would soon be able to fund and build additional facilities for the town’s homeless residents, as they also “have the right to have a safe place to stay.”
Passengers on Taipei’s MRT metropolitan railway system are required to wear masks for the duration of their trip with immediate effect, regardless of whether they can maintain social distancing, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. Anyone who fails to comply to the rule — which was reinstated after several foreign nationals tested positive for COVID-19 after returning to their home countries from Taiwan — would be denied service and fined of up to NT$15,000, it said. Three foreign nationals, two from Japan and one from Thailand, were diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning from Taiwan in June, last month and this month, officials have said. Contact tracing for two of those cases, involving a Japanese student and a Thai worker, has been completed, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said on Wednesday. There was no risk of community spread from those three cases, the center said. However, the case of a Japanese engineer, who tested positive on Sunday after returning to Japan, is still being investigated, as is the case of a Belgian man who tested positive last week in Taiwan, the CECC said. The CECC reiterated that people should wear masks in enclosed spaces, including medical care centers, schools, religious centers, markets, performance and entertainment centers, on public transportation, and in areas with large crowds. The center said that many people had stopped wearing masks in most spaces once the nation’s disease situation had eased. Compulsory mask wearing on Taipei’s MRT was relaxed on June 7, after no new domestically transmitted cases had been reported since April 12, according to CECC data. Since then, passengers have not been required to wear masks on the MRT if they could maintain social distancing of at least 1.5m to other passengers. However, wearing masks for the duration of their trips has remained obligatory for
From Tuesday next week, citizens applying for a passport for the first time would be able to do so at their nearest household registration office, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. The service would make the process more convenient for applicants, who would receive their passports about eight working days after filing their application, the ministries said in a news release. First-time passport applicants who want to use the e-Gate clearance system at Taiwan’s international airports could enroll for the service at the same time, the MOI said. Passport applications are currently accepted at the MOFA’s Bureau of Consular Affairs in Taipei, and its branch offices in Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hualien and Chiayi. At present, first-time applicants who are unable to submit their application in person, must first apply for an identity verification document at their local household registration office, before an authorized travel agent or a family member can submit the passport application on their behalf. Applicants for e-Gate clearance are also required to submit application in person, either at the National Immigration Agency, the bureau or an international airport. The new all-in-one service is part of a collaborative effort by the two ministries, the MOFA said. People who apply for passports at household registration offices between Tuesday next week and Dec. 11 would automatically be entered for a lottery drawing to be held at the end of the year, it added.
RIFT: Incumbent and newly appointed members of the Examination Yuan panned its release of a statement defending itself and calling for support against its abolition Amid calls for its abolition, the Examination Yuan yesterday issued a statement urging people to respect its constitutionally ordained right to independently oversee the national examinations of civil servants — but the move drew flak from several incumbent and newly appointed members. The Examination Yuan is now headed by Wu Chin-lin (伍錦霖) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), while Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村), the newly appointed Examination Yuan president and a former minister of education, is to assume office, along with other newly appointed members, on Sept. 1 for the next four years. Many lawmakers across party lines have renewed their calls to abolish the Examination Yuan and the Control Yuan — two of the five branches of government — when the Presidential Office nominated new members for the two bodies. During the Legislative Yuan’s review last month of nominees for the Examination Yuan, Huang said that he was prepared to be its last president. Abolishing the Examination Yuan, or attempting to undermine the independence of the power of examination, will result in officials being appointed not because of ability, but because of personal preferences, trampling on the rights of the disadvantaged, setting back government efficiency and damaging administrative neutrality, the Examination Yuan said in a statement. Since the first examination was conducted in 1950, national exams have been held as the standard for the recruitment of civil servants, evidence that the public agrees with Article 85 of the Constitution, which states: “The selection of civil servants should be based on the results of open competition via an examination system,” it said. The policy of selecting talent via public examinations guarantees the rights of the disadvantaged and allows ease of transition for people from different social strata, it said. The Examination Yuan’s efforts to ensure fair competition for civil servant positions have resulted in the abolition of
A new park for incubating start-ups is to be opened in Tainan next year to connect local start-ups and incubators to the global market, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday at a Cabinet meeting. Government agencies will allocate NT$10 billion (US$338.95 million) over the next four years to promote start-ups: NT$5.4 billion from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), NT$2.7 billion from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, NT$1.5 billion from the council and NT$400 million from the Ministry of Education, council officials said, as they presented a report on promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. The new park for incubating start-ups in Salun (沙崙) area is open in June next year, it said. It will be connected with other incubators, such as MOST’s Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) at the Taipei Arena and the Start-up Terrace in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), to help local start-ups access the global market, it added. Taiwan has nearly 4,000 tech start-ups in different clusters across the nation, including 312 at the TTA, council data showed. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has instructed local and central governments to step up collaborative efforts to foster the next iconic industries that would guide Taiwan’s development, just as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has over the past 33 years, Executive Yuan spokesman Ting Yi-ming (丁怡銘) told a news conference. Ting quoted Su as saying at the meeting that he had visited a company in Sijhih District (汐止), New Taipei City, on Tuesday that develops smart glasses utilizing augmented-reality (AR) technology, which can be used in disaster relief, distance learning, distance medicine and help with COVID-19 prevention. Using TSMC as an example of government investment, Su said the company began as a start-up and has emerged as one of the top 10 companies in the world. Taiwan’s strength in fostering
A Ministry of Justice motion to amend the Civil Code and set the legal age for marriage at 18 has been passed by an interdepartment committee and is expected to be forwarded soon to the Executive Yuan for approval. The motion states that the current age of majority — 20 years old — was set 91 years ago and is not applicable to modern society. The age of majority for criminal and administrative penalties is set at 18 years old, and only the Civil Code still sets it at 20, it says. The amendment would unify the age of majority across different sets of laws and make it the same as 170 nations worldwide, the ministry said. Article 980 of the Civil Code states that males and females cannot marry before they turn 18 and 16 respectively, while Article 973 states that males and females cannot be engaged before 17 and 15 respectively. The proposed amendment would allow men and women to marry at the age of 18 and could set the engagement age at 17, the Executive Yuan said. This would allow men and women to decide for themselves whether they want to be married at the age of 18, or get engaged at 17 without having to get the consent of their parents or guardians, the Executive Yuan said. Executive Yuan officials said the decision to raise the engagement age for females stemmed from concern that agreeing to such an arrangement might affect their right to study or to work. Civic groups applauded the motion and urged the Executive Yuan to swiftly pass the amendment so that it could be entered into the roster for debate at the Legislative Yuan.
Executive Yuan spokesman Ting Yi-ming (丁怡銘) yesterday rebutted accusations by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) had worked to ensure that banking executive Jason Liao (廖燦昌) last year landed the job of chairman of state-run First Financial Holding Co and its subsidiary First Commercial Bank. Liao resigned from both posts after he was indicted on Thursday last week in connection with charges of fraud against Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (FAT) chairman Chang Kang-wei (張綱維), which implicated several of the nation’s leading banks, including Taiwan Cooperative Bank. KMT members held a briefing earlier yesterday alleging that Su personally endorsed Liao for the two top financial posts, despite criticism about bad debts and mismanagement when Liao was chairman of Taiwan Cooperative Bank. They said that Su had cast aside all doubts and questions and promoted Liao to the two plum posts in the financial sector. Ting said that Chang negotiated the loans with Taiwan Cooperative Bank in 2016, during the transition from the KMT government to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government. “Su could not have known of the financial irregularities relating to the case, which started in 2016, leading to a probe into bad loans at FAT and the indictments this year,” Ting said. “The scandal did not result from Liao’s appointment as chairman of First Commercial Bank,” he said. Taipei prosecutors also indicted Land Bank of Taiwan chairman Hwang Bor-Chang (黃伯川) and several other people on charges of embezzlement, breach of trust, fraud and contravening the Banking Act (銀行法) and the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) in connection with the case. Chang allegedly defrauded several banks of about NT$3.59 billion (US$121.68 million at the current exchange rate). The KMT members also charged that Liao in 2017 was also embroiled in the financial scandal involving Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co, alleging that he extended illicit
PAYING OFF: Discounts at hotels, amusement parks and other entertainment venues sparked a rise in shoppers and visitors to tourist attractions, a DGBAS official said The consumer price index (CPI) last month declined 0.52 percent from a year earlier, as cheaper oil products continued to push down transportation costs and businesses cut prices to stimulate sales, a report released yesterday by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said. It is the sixth consecutive month that the inflationary gauge posted a retreat, but the agency dismissed concerns over deflation, saying that the pace of contraction is slower than June’s revised 0.77 percent decline. “International oil prices have stabilized and might gain considerable traction moving forward as demand picks up,” DGBAS Senior Executive Officer Chiou Shwu-chwen (邱淑純) told a media briefing in Taipei. The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for US manufacturers last month improved further from 52.6 to 54.2, which would help fuel consumption, Chiou said. PMI values above 50 suggest an expansion, while readings below the threshold indicate a contraction. Transportation and communications costs last month fell 5.09 percent, as international oil prices dropped 18.41 percent from a year earlier, while telecommunication charges fell 3.26 percent, the report said. Education and entertainment costs fell 1.94 percent, as hotels cut room rates by 12.04 percent, and theme parks and other entertainment venues lowered admission rates by 17.96 percent to attract customers, it said. Their strategy seems to have paid off, as visits to tourist attractions and shopping activity spiked, backed by the government’s Triple Stimulus Vouchers, Chiou said. Clothing prices increased 1.57 percent as retailers offered fewer discounts on summer garments, while miscellaneous items increased 1.34 percent as jewelry and accessories grew more expensive, the report said. Health and medical expenses rose 0.86 percent to reflect upward adjustments in registration fees and copayments, it said. Food costs inched up 0.78 percent, as higher fruit prices canceled out lower vegetable prices, it said. Core CPI — a more reliable long-term tracker of consumer prices because it excludes
BIG TRENDS: The company expects remote learning and working from home to boost revenue this quarter by more than 10 percent to nearly NT$20.6 billion Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter reached another record high, benefiting from strong demand for display drivers used in laptops, tablets and gaming monitors as people under COVID-19 lockdowns learn and work from home. Second-quarter net profit grew 20 percent annually and 15.63 percent quarterly to NT$2.56 billion (US$86.77 million) from NT$2.13 billion last year and NT$2.21 billion in the first quarter. Earnings per share jumped to NT$4.2 from NT$3.5 last year and NT$3.63 in the first quarter. The Hsinchu-based chip supplier expects work-from-home and remote learning to continue trending as COVID-19 lockdowns resume around the world. The trend should help boost Novatek’s revenue this quarter by more than 10 percent on a quarterly basis to between NT$20 billion and NT$20.6 billion, from a high of NT$18.61 billion for last quarter, Novatek president and vice chairman Steven Wang (王守仁) told investors during a teleconference. Novatek expects gross margin this quarter to fall to between 31.5 and 33.5 percent from 33.48 percent in the second quarter. “Due to continuing lockdowns, people still need to work from home and students have to study online, so the momentum behind the sale of driver ICs for large displays should extend from the second quarter into the third,” Wang said. Demand for system-on-a-chip solutions for TVs is also picking up as the industry enters its peak season this quarter, Wang added. With demand for smartphones rebounding, shipments for Novatek’s advanced touch controllers with display driver integration (TDDI) for handset displays should increase significantly during this quarter, Wang said. “We are seeing mobile phone demand bounce back for the end of July,” Wang said. To reduce manufacturing costs, more mobile phone makers this year have adopted LCD panels — instead of high-definition, but pricey OLED panels — for new 5G phones, which has helped propel demand for Novatek’s TDDI, he said. Novatek
Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) yesterday posted total revenue of NT$91.4 billion (US$3.10 billion) for last month, a 4.5 percent growth from June and the second consecutive month of month-on-month growth as market demand recovers from the impact of COVID-19. However, the largest industrial conglomerate’s aggregated revenue contracted 27.7 percent from a year earlier. All four major subsidiaries of FPG posted month-on-month revenue growth. Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC, 台塑), the group’s flagship company, posted NT$15.71 billion in revenue, a 6.4 percent increase from June and a 10.2 percent decrease from a year earlier. FPC spokesman Jerry Lin (林勝冠) said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that rebounding demand for PVC pipes for agricultural purposes in India raised prices for PVC products by 10 percent last month from June, offsetting a weakness in demand from PVC factories in India due to city lockdowns. Also strongly affected by a COVID-19-related fall in demand for petroleum products, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC, 台塑石化) posted a revenue of NT$33.53 billion, an increase of 4.5 percent from June’s NT$32.09 billion. On an annual basis, the oil refiner’s revenue contracted 41.2 percent. FPCC pokesman Lin Keh-yen (林克彥) attributed rising oil prices to growth in FPCC’s revenue. Average Dubai crude prices increased US$2.5 a barrel last month from June, causing FPCC’s products to be sold for an average of US$5.9 per barrel more compared with the preceding month. FPCC refined 12.69 million barrels of crude oil last month, down 1.5 million barrels in June, the company’s filing with the exchange showed. Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) posted revenues of NT$21.7 billion, a 4.6 percent increase month-on-month, but an 11.4 percent decrease from a year ago. Nan Ya chairman Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) said in a regulatory filing that most product categories had seen growth, as many nations around the world started phasing out COVID-19
US President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday last week announced it would impose sanctions on the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a vast paramilitary organization that is directly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and has been linked to human rights violations against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The sanctions follow US travel bans against other Xinjiang officials and the passage of the US Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which authorizes targeted sanctions against mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials, in response to Beijing’s imposition of national security legislation on the territory. The sanctions against the corps would be implemented through the 2016 Global Magnitsky Act, which empowers US authorities to freeze the corps’ assets in US jurisdictions and prohibit US individuals and companies from doing business with the organization and its members. Due to the extensive reach of the corps’ business interests, these sanctions would significantly up the ante in the strategic standoff between the US and China. Mao Zedong (毛澤東) created the corps in 1954, recruiting 175,000 former soldiers demobilized at the end of the Chinese Civil War, including members of the communist and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) forces. The corps was initially a farming militia tasked with cultivating and developing sparsely populated regions of Xinjiang, such as the Taklamakan and Gurbantunggut deserts. However, in addition to tilling the land, its members trained as a reserve military force to defend China’s remote frontier region against the then-Soviet Union. Over the years, the corps evolved from its farmer-settler origins into a multibillion dollar commercial enterprise. Primarily made up of Han Chinese, it has more than 3 million members, which is about 12 percent of Xinjiang’s population. According to reports from the Uyghur Human Rights Project, the corps runs a parallel government in the region, with its own courts and prison system, schools, hospitals
It has long been the case that many artists can create works of art and literature, but not earn a living from it. As a result, art circles and the public have been discussing whether to create “art banks” to improve the arts and culture sector. It has even become a topic in the Kaohsiung mayoral by-election campaign. Kaohsiung has a lot of heavy industry. If the city wants to transform itself and develop a “sunshine economy,” with high output value and low pollution, it must improve its “design skills.” Art is the foundation of all kinds of design. To improve Kaohsiung’s design skills, the city needs to establish an arts and culture industrial chain. One possible way is to create an art bank. An art bank would establish a credit guarantee fund to provide loans to artists, who would put their works up as collateral. This would be an open and transparent procedure to prevent corruption. If an artist were unable to repay a loan, the bank would auction off the collateral works and return the money to the fund. To ensure a sustainable cash flow, a reliable evaluation system is needed, which would also offer an opportunity to establish a corresponding evaluation market and cultivate the required expertise. Community galleries could be created through government investment and by artists, communities and local residents buying shares in the galleries and participating in their operation and management. Artworks would be continually exhibited and sold in the galleries in combination with regularly organized auctions. Works that remain unsold following an auction could be bought and collected by the credit guarantee fund for lease, sale or auction. Community galleries would also make art more accessible to residents and students, enhancing their appreciation of art and design. The art bank would function with transparent pricing to allow artists to both create and
At the end of last month, Paraguayan Ambassador to Taiwan Marcial Bobadilla Guillen told a group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators that his president had decided to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan, despite pressure from the Chinese government and local businesses who would like to see a switch to Beijing. This followed the Paraguayan Senate earlier this year voting against a proposal to establish ties with China in exchange for medical supplies. This constituted a double rebuke of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) diplomatic agenda in a six-month span from Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in South America. Last year, Tuvalu rejected an offer from a group of Chinese firms to build artificial islands that would help the nation deal with rising sea levels. The Pacific nation refused because it viewed the offer as an attempt to diminish Taiwan’s influence in the region, something that Tuvalu’s government flatly rejected. These developments are just some examples of how the CCP’s influence has diminished worldwide, motivated by an anti-China sentiment driven in no small part by the US trade dispute and by what many consider to be the Chinese government’s lack of candor in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has paralyzed economies and caused more than 700,000 deaths worldwide. It is notable that since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) defeated then-Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-Yu (韓國瑜), the KMT’s candidate in January’s presidential election, the Chinese government has not been able to retaliate by snatching another of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies. This did not seem out of the question before the elections, given that the CCP had managed to lure two of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the Pacific within one week just a couple of months before. That and the reports of Chinese officials promising the Haitian government interest-free loans in exchange for a diplomatic switch, made the loss of another ally
‘CRIMINAL ACT’: The UCI said it ‘strongly condemns’ Dylan Groenewegen’s ‘dangerous behavior,’ which left Jakobsen in critical condition and injured other cyclists Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen was in a coma on Wednesday, in “serious” condition, after he was thrown into and over a barrier at 80kph in the conclusion to the opening stage of the Tour de Pologne. Footage showed 23-year-old Jakobsen, of the Deceuninck-Quick-Step, racing elbow-to-elbow with fellow Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen of Jumbo-Visma as both men frantically tussled in a tight sprint to the line in Katowice. However, Jakobsen came off worst, somersaulting over the barriers before colliding with a photographer after Groenewegen had veered suddenly to the right, squeezing his rival into the security wall. “His condition is very serious. His life is directly threatened,” Tour de Pologne doctor Barbara Jerschina told Polsat Sport. “Unfortunately, it is a serious head and brain injury. He has lost a lot of blood,” Jerschina said. Governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) said they strongly condemned the “dangerous behavior” of Groenewegen. Deceuninck-Quick-Step team boss Patrick Lefevere described Groenewegen’s move as a “criminal act.” Later Wednesday, Jakobsen’s condition was described by hospital officials as “serious,” but “stabilized.” “The patient was transported in serious condition, he was placed in a cerebral coma. His condition has stabilized. He has multiple injuries to his head and chest,” said Pawel Gruenpeter, a neurologist at a hospital in Sosnowiec in the south of the country. “He will be in an intensive care unit and will undergo craniofacial surgery. The intervention of specialists in jaw and plastic surgery will be necessary. The time of the operation will depend on the patient’s state of health,” he told TVP Sport television. The incident comes a year to the day after the death of 22-year-old Belgian sprinter Bjorg Lambrecht, who died after falling and hitting a concrete structure in last year’s Tour de Pologne. Groenewegen went on to win the stage, but was later disqualified with the stricken Jakobsen declared the winner. The UCI said
Researchers at New Zealand’s University of Otago are hailing a “breakthrough” in the fight against drug cheats with a non-targeted test for designer steroids which they hope can be deployed in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Otago professor Alison Heather, who led the development of the test, said it would detect designer anabolic steroids before anti-doping authorities were aware they even existed. “It’s a breakthrough in that it’s a non-targeted test, so we don’t need to know the structure for what we’re fishing for in order to be able to detect a designer anabolic steroid,” Heather said. She first considered developing the test in 2004 when she started researching the use of tetrohydogestrinone, the drug developed by the BALCO laboratory in San Francisco, nicknamed “The Clear,” Heather said. American sprinter Marion Jones was one of many high-profile athletes who ultimately admitted to using it. Heather said that the drug had been used by athletes for about seven years before testers were even aware it existed. “We called it a designer steroid because it had a structure that nobody knew about,” she said. “If nobody knows about it, there’s no fingerprint for mass spectrometry, so it goes undetected. Since then I was thinking that we need a non-targeted test,” she said. The new test did not search for specific markers, but focused on detecting changes at the cellular level. “All anabolic steroids ... activate a common pathway inside the cell, so I have exploited that pathway to build the test,” Heather said. “If they want to have an anabolic effect in their body they have to activate the cellular pathway, and our test will pick up any drug that activates that anabolic pathway,” she said. “So for once we’re on a level footing. We don’t need to wait for somebody to have some anomaly in their blood work saying, ‘hey they’re
Having clinched a Western Conference top seed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday began experimenting for the postseason and found they still have some work to do. In their first game since taking the top spot, the Lakers were routed 105-86 by the Oklahoma City Thunder, never leading for the first time all season. Chris Paul scored a game-high 21 points and Italian forward Danilo Gallinari added 19 as the Thunder, 42-25, stayed one game behind Utah for fourth in the West. Three-time NBA champion LeBron James led the Lakers with 19 points and 11 rebounds in 30 minutes on the court, while Anthony Davis had nine points, eight rebounds and five assists. “Some things we need to continue to work on,” James said. “We’ve been out 4 1/2 months.” “When you put in the hours, put in the reps, you can’t worry too much. You’ve got to go get it,” he added. Everyone on the Lakers’ roster played as the purple and gold looked to the playoffs by testing combinations and talent to see who might work well together when needed later in the Orlando bubble, where games resumed last week after a four-month COVID-19 hiatus. “We have some guys who are new to the system,” James said. “We’re just trying to fit everybody in, do it on the fly, but at the same time get our legs back underneath us.” In other games, the Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets each could have clinched an Eastern Conference playoff berth with a victory, but both were beaten by title contenders. Fred VanVleet scored a game-high 21 points and matched Kyle Lowry’s game-high 10 assists to spark the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors over Orlando 109-99. The Magic fell to 32-37, leaving them a half-game behind the Brooklyn Nets, who, in seventh-place, fell to
Major League Baseball (MLB) is cracking down on COVID-19 safety protocols, mandating that players and staff wear face coverings at all times, including in the dugouts and bullpens, except for players on the field of play. The league on Wednesday sent a memo to teams outlining changes to its 2020 operations manual after outbreaks on the Miami Marlins and St Louis Cardinals led to 21 postponements in the first two weeks of a shortened 60-game season. The memo says that personnel that repeatedly or flagrantly breach the protocols could be banned from the season and postseason. That includes those who do not wear face coverings while watching from the dugout. Although such measures were suggested in MLB’s operations manual, some players have continued to not wear masks, offer high fives, spit and breach the protocols in other ways during games. Umpires are also being instructed to wear masks at all times, except when it would make it unfeasible for them to do their jobs. Compliance officers have been appointed for each team, and they have been charged with enforcing protocols outlined in the operations manual in an effort to keep baseball’s season running. Players and staff must wear face coverings at all times at team hotels and in public places while on the road. On team buses and airplanes, personnel must wear surgical masks or N95/KN95 respirators. At hotels, teams have been instructed to provide a large private room — a ballroom, for instance — where staff and players can get food and other amenities, while having enough space to maintain distance. Players are discouraged from talking to each other or facing each other if their mask is pulled down while eating. If players want to leave the hotel, they must first receive approval from the team’s compliance officer. While in their home cities, players and staff are banned from visiting
VIRUS CONSPIRACIES: A US official said that news sites sharing false reports appear independent from Moscow, but actually connect the Kremlin to state-funded media Russia is using an online operation to stir up confusion around the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Department of State said in report on Wednesday. A Russian-backed misinformation cycle spreads false information online through state officials and state-funded media reports by infiltrating US social media conversations and leveraging a deceptive Internet framework of Web sites, the report said. The Kremlin’s efforts have most recently focused on conspiracy theories around the pandemic, the report said. “Russia is playing a significant role in creating and spreading misinformation and propaganda around many topics,” said Lea Gabrielle, head of the department’s Global Engagement Center. The department named more than half-a-dozen Web sites that it accused of serving as “proxies” for Russia to peddle conspiracy theories about the pandemic that have been widely spreading and hotly debated across social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The online news sites appear independent from the Russian government, but in reality serve as a “connective tissue” between the Kremlin and state-funded media that often promote the same misinformation, Gabrielle said. “That’s what makes them effective,” Gabrielle said. “It’s difficult for the average person online to look at these sites and know the Russian affiliation.” Russia has regularly denied claims from the US that it is behind online disinformation campaigns, last week calling similar assertions “persistent phobia.” The Web sites that the department identified on Wednesday have promoted theories that allege COVID-19 was created in a laboratory as a bioweapon, that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is plotting to use the pandemic as an excuse to microchip people and that plans for a vaccine for the novel coronavirus are a ploy for pharmaceutical companies to make money. “Russia has a long history of spreading disinformation around health and science issues,” Gabrielle said. “The Russian disinformation ecosystem exploits fear and confusion,” she said. While building up a following on Facebook and
LOCKDOWN WOES: The chief executive of Samaritans of Singapore said that lack of support amid lockdowns can bring about ‘overwhelming feelings of negativity’ Singapore is monitoring a spate of suicides and attempted suicides involving migrants, which has heightened concerns over the mental health of thousands of low-paid workers confined to their dormitories amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, Singapore sealed off sprawling housing blocks where its vast population of mainly South Asian workers live in crowded bunk rooms, in an effort to ring-fence a surge in cases of the novel coronavirus among the workers. Four months on, some dormitories remain under quarantine, and even migrants who have been declared virus-free have had their movements restricted and face uncertainty over their jobs. Rights groups say that this has taken a heavy toll on workers, pointing to incidents where migrants have been detained under the Singapore Mental Health (Care and Treatment) Act after viral videos showed them teetering precariously on rooftops and high window ledges. In a graphic incident on Sunday reported widely in local news, a 36-year-old migrant was pictured bloodied at the foot of some stairs in his dormitory after self-harming. The Singaporean Ministry of Manpower on Wednesday said that it was monitoring recent suicides and attempted suicides involving migrant workers in dormitories and working with its partners to enhance mental health support programs for them. The ministry said it had not observed a spike in suicides among workers compared with previous years. Such incidents tended to stem from family issues, which might be exacerbated by the distress of not being able to return home due to COVID-19 restrictions, it said. Authorities have said they expect to lift quarantines on all dormitories this week, with the exception of some blocks serving as quarantine zones. However, employers’ power to limit workers’ movement outside dormitories even if declared virus-free and fears over servicing high debts taken to secure jobs in Singapore are also feeding depression among migrants, rights groups say. “Many of the workers now
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong (FCC) yesterday said that reporters in the territory were experiencing “highly unusual” visas problems, and called on the US and China to stop using the media as a political weapon. Journalists have been caught up in US-China tensions, with both sides placing limits or expelling reporters from their territories in the past few months. Now the spat is filtering into Hong Kong, a regional press hub nominally in charge of its own immigration policies. The FCC said in a statement that multiple media firms had reported delays getting visas in recent months. “The delays have affected journalists of multiple nationalities and in some cases have prevented journalists from working,” it said. “The delays are highly unusual for Hong Kong, a city with historically robust press protections.” Hong Kong’s government has not explained any change to its policy, despite multiple inquiries from media. In mainland China, where the press is heavily censored, foreign journalists must apply for specific visas and face routine harassment. However, reporters only need a regular business visa to work in Hong Kong. Multiple news organizations are now reporting issues getting or renewing visas for staff — something they have not experienced before. The New York Times last month was the first to go public with its difficulties, saying that it would relocate some of its Hong Kong staff to South Korea after multiple delays and at least one outright rejection. The difficulties come as Washington and Beijing clash over reporter credentials. The administration of US President Donald Trump placed visa and headcount restrictions on some Chinese media in the US, all of whom are state-controlled. Beijing responded with restrictions, including expelling a group of reporters from multiple US firms who were also banned from working in Hong Kong. On Tuesday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “necessary and timely countermeasures” would
I didn’t expect to spend more than three minutes out of my car, yet the sun was so brutal I put on my hat before approaching the seawall. Beimen (北門) is the flattest and most sun-baked part of Tainan. It lacks trees and people. In wintertime, the weather is often delightful. It wasn’t yet mid-morning in the hot season, however, and I felt like a leaf shriveling in the desert. Atop the seawall but facing inland, I could see dozens of the rectangular ponds which account for a significant percentage of Beimen’s “land” area. Some, no doubt, were dug to produce salt by evaporating seawater. In a few, paddlewheel aerators were kicking up spray, but I didn’t notice as much evidence of fish farming as I’d expected. Taiwan is lush and crowded, but the lack of greenery and human activity here bordered on the eerie. Back in the car and moving north on Provincial Highway 17, I passed Nankunshen Daitianfu Temple (南鯤鯓代天府), then turned left. Willing to give my heat endurance another test, I parked at Beimen Important Wetland (北門重要濕地) and set out on foot. The wetland is substantial but spoiled. The Ministry of the Interior’s “Ramsar Citizen” Web site admits only small portions of it are natural wetland, much of its 1,791 hectares being abandoned oyster farms and collapsing salt pans. The trash alongside Jishuei River (急水溪) looked like it’d been dumped there by humans, not carried in by the tide. Building Expressway 61 through the heart of the wetland can’t have been good for local ecosystems. After five sweltering minutes down by the water’s edge, I left, feeling utterly unimpressed. I still had high hopes for Shuangchun Coastal Recreation Area (雙春濱海遊憩區). I’d been before, years ago, and knew I could at least expect some shade. Since my previous visit, the recreation area
“For years now, I’ve been saying that I feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, with talking cards all over saying off with my head.” As her life has grown increasingly surreal, the journalist Maria Ressa has gained a newfound sympathy for the dazed girl in Wonderland. In the course of her Zoom interview, she also claims to feel like one of the characters in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, benumbed by a constant stream of media stimulation. She feels like Cassandra as well, doomed to speak truths that fall on deaf ears. And she sometimes feels like Sisyphus, he of the unending boulder-push. These days, she finds it all too fitting to think of her life in grandly literary or mythological terms. In the time since Rodrigo Duterte was elected president of the Philippines in 2016, Ressa has found herself locked in a good-and-evil struggle of Campbellian proportions. As the co-founder and CEO of the Filipino news outlet Rappler, she’s been one of the major bulwarks against his brutal regime, reporting on the extrajudicial killings and aggressive misinformation campaigns in spite of state-sponsored intimidation to the point of open threats. Ramona Diaz’s new documentary A Thousand Cuts captures this unfolding conflict as Duterte ramps up his opposition and files cyber-libel charges against Ressa, one in a handful of lawsuits that could place her in prison for up to an entire century. You’d probably start to see yourself as a tragic hero of Grecian legend, too. As Ressa and Diaz congenially crack each other up via videochat, however, they hardly seem like our final line of defense against the encroaching spread of fascism. The two women share a friendly, warm dynamic that began under more tepid terms back in 2004. Diaz had just completed her debut feature, an Imelda Marcos documentary that led
The lure of the massive Chinese market has led Hollywood to readily self-censor its films to please Beijing, according to a new report by Pen America, an anti-censorship group. Screenwriters, producers and directors in the huge US film industry are changing scripts, deleting scenes and altering other content, afraid of offending Chinese censors who control the gateway to the country’s 1.4 billion consumers, according to the report released Wednesday. The actions include everything from deleting the Taiwanese flag from Tom Cruise’s bomber jacket in the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick, to removing China as the source of a zombie virus in 2013’s World War Z. But it also means completely avoiding sensitive issues including Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong politics, Xinjiang and the portrayal of LGBTQ characters, the report said. Faced with blacklisting and other punitive measures, Hollywood producers are even censoring films not targeting the Chinese market, in order to not impact others planned for Chinese theaters, Pen America says. “Steadily, a new set of mores has taken hold in Hollywood, one in which appeasing Chinese government investors and gatekeepers has simply become a way of doing business,” the report said. LUCRATIVE MARKET Pen is a global organization which speaks out for the protection of freedom of expression for writers and artists worldwide. It says Beijing enforces one of the world’s most restrictive censorship systems, and numerous members of the group’s China arm have been jailed, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), who died in 2017 while serving an 11 year prison sentence. Censorship is now centralized under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department, which decides whether a foreign film gets access to what is soon to be the world’s largest movie market. Only a handful of foreign films are released in China each year. The market’s importance is clear. Hollywood films like Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far
A: Thirty seconds to go until the results come in. Have you got your lottery tickets at the ready? B: Yep. I’m starting to feel a bit nervous. A: Me too. I have butterflies in my stomach. Here we go. B: Eight … 19 … 37. Yes! I’m on a roll! A: I haven’t had a single one of my numbers come up yet. B: I just need a 6 or a 15 and I’m in the money! Come on, come to papa! Argh, no: I’m all out of luck. A: Oh well: nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ll put the kettle on. Let’s drown our sorrows with a cup of tea. A: 再三十秒就要開獎了。準備好你的彩券了嗎？ B: 準備好啦，我開始覺得有點緊張了。 A: 我也是，覺得非常緊張，開始囉。 B: 八號……十九號……三十七號，太棒了！真是好運連連。 A: 我的號碼一個都還沒開出來。 B: 只要再開出一個六號或十五號，我就有獎金了！快點快點，快來我這裡吧。喔不︰我的好運都用光了。 A: 好吧︰不入虎穴，焉得虎子。我去燒一壺水，讓我們來借茶澆愁吧。 (Edward Jones, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩譯) English 英文: Chinese 中文:
A: OK then, tell me what you would do if you hit the jackpot. B: First things first, I would buy a beautiful mansion with a large landscaped garden, including a hedge maze, and a large lake with a family of white swans. A: Wow, you’ve really thought it through in detail. What next? B: Next, I will found a television company called Happy News TV. It will cover only positive and uplifting news stories. There’s too much negative news in the world today, so I want to spend my money spreading happiness. A: I like the idea, but I think there’s actually no such thing as positive or negative news, just truth and untruth. （Edward Jones, Taipei Times） A: 不然，告訴我如果你中了頭獎會怎麼做呢？ B: 首先，我要買一間美麗的豪宅，要有一個大型景觀花園，包括一座用樹籬笆做的迷宮，和一個大湖，裡面還有一群白色的天鵝。 A: 哇，你想得好仔細。接下來呢？ B: 接下來，我要創立一家叫快樂新聞的電視台，專門報導正面的、振奮人心的新聞。現在的世界裡，已經有太多負面新聞了，所以我想把錢花在散播歡樂上。 A: 我喜歡這個主意，不過我覺得事實上沒有所謂的正面或負面的新聞，只有真相與非真相。 （台北時報張聖恩譯） English 英文: Chinese 中文:
The long wait is finally over, as the Taipei Area reopens for large concerts. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, dozens of shows at the venue were forced to be canceled this year. After the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) relaxed its restrictions across public venues on June 7, applications to hold events at the multipurpose stadium are once again being accepted. Singer Eric Chou will become the first to perform at the Taipei Arena as it reopens, bringing back his Deluxe concert tour with two shows on Saturday and Sunday. On Aug. 15, online retailer PChome Online will stage a concert at the venue to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Those who shop on the platform will have a chance to win tickets to the show, featuring A-lin, 831, MJ116 and many more artists. This year’s Super Slippa summer music festival will also return to the Taipei Arena on Aug. 22 and 23. Held annually by Taiwanese supergroup Mayday, the festival, featuring over a dozen singers and groups, is set to rock the venue again. (Eddy Chang, Taipei Times) 長久的等待終於結束了！台北小巨蛋即將重新開放舉辦大型演唱會。受到武漢肺炎（新冠病毒，COVID-19）爆發影響，今年在該場館有幾十場演出被迫取消。中央流行疫情指揮中心自六月七日起放寬公共場所的限制，這座多功能體育館隨後亦恢復處理活動申請。 歌手周興哲將成為解封後首位攻蛋的藝人，「你，好不好」巡演再次回到小巨蛋，本週六、日一連熱唱兩場。線上零售商網路家庭為了慶祝二十週年，則預計於八月十五日，在此場地舉辦「PChome狂禮88演唱會」，超狂陣容包括A-lin、八三么、頑童MJ116等多組藝人，在該平台消費就有機會抽門票。 而今年的「超犀利趴」夏日音樂節，也將於八月二十二、二十三日再次唱回小巨蛋。這項由台灣天團五月天發起的年度音樂盛會，將有十幾組歌手及樂團輪番上陣，勢必再度嗨爆小巨蛋。 （台北時報張聖恩〉
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