People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
The report said Soong fell to his knees before Chang when the conversation came to a water-resources budget slashed by the central government, but it did not say whether Soong was asking or apologizing to Chang for something. Apparently stricken with grief, Soong criticized the budget cut as a shameful act, the report said.
PHOTO: CHUANG YU-FENG, TAIPEI TIMES
Both the blue and green camps are wooing the independent Chang's support in next year's presidential election.
Chang is a former member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) but was expelled from the party in 1997 for running in the commissioner's election in defiance of party orders. Chang has since built a formidable power base in Yunlin.
Commenting on Soong's kneeling down, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official said yesterday that Soong was at his wits end.
"Since the most recent poll showed the DPP's support rate is on the rise, while the Lien-Soong ticket's support rate is suffering, Soong's falling on his knees simply showed that he was at his wits end," DPP deputy secretary-general Lee Chin-yung (
Gao Jyh-peng (
"Facing mounting calls for Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS