■ Legislature
Arms bill rejected again
The Procedure Committee yesterday rejected the long-stalled arms procurement plan, for the 30th time, as well as the confirmation of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) nominees for the Control Yuan. The pan-blue dominated committee voted down the two bills yet again. However, it did place the proposed amendments to the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), amendments to the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan (司法院組織法) and the special flood-control bill proposed by the People First Party (PFP) caucus on the legislative agenda. The committee also elected three conveners to take turns chairing the weekly meeting. They are Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip William Lai (賴清德), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) and PFP caucus whip Lin Hui-kuan (林惠官).
■ Diplomacy
Lee's speech confirmed
The National Press Club in Washington confirmed on Monday that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) will give a speech at the club on Oct. 20. A club official said Lee will also take questions from the audience after his speech. In addition, the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), which is in charge of Lee's itinerary while in Washington, has also arranged for him to give a brief speech at a luncheon on Capitol Hill. David Lee (李大維), the nation's representative to the US, said Monday that he will act according to the protocol for greeting former heads of state set up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs two years ago. Lee will also probably meet with Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski in Anchorage before he flies to New York, Washington and Los Angeles. Lee visited the US in 1995 and spoke at his alma mater, Cornell University, triggering vehement protests from Beijing. After retiring in 2000, he again visited Cornell in June 2001.
■ Weather
Typhoon may head this way
Typhoon Longwang, the 19th typhoon this year, has increased its intensity to that of a medium typhoon and it will be clear in about three days whether it will affect the country, the Central Weather Bureau reported yesterday. It is uncertain yet whether Longwang, still 2,100km away, will affect the nation because the high pressure over the Pacific Ocean is not stable. The situation will be clearer by Friday. If Longwang moves toward Taiwan, a warning could be issued on Sunday, the bureau said.
■ Education
Foreign students in Taichung
More than 200 students from 36 countries have been studying Chinese language and culture at Providence University in Shalu (沙鹿) Township, Taichung County, since the beginning of the month, university officials said. The school has the number of foreign students of any university or college in the central Taiwan, according to the university, whose Chinese Language Education Center (CLEC) began enrolling students in 1996. One of the CLEC students, Alexander Oxmar Ramireg Bazan from Paraguay, said he is grateful to his government giving him chance to study at the university. Cyntia Bahiana Esinolamonges, also from Paraguay, said she had been warmly greeted at the airport by a CLEC teacher and students from the Spanish language and culture department. The kindness of Taiwanese people was her first impression of the country, she said.
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
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