There will be no fireworks show during the Double Ten National Day celebrations this year due to a lack of funds and out of respect for the victims of a deadly earthquake that struck Tainan earlier this year, the organizing committee of the celebration said on Thursday.
The fireworks shows will be canceled for the second year in a row to save on spending, Deputy Minister of the Interior Hua Ching-chun (花敬群) said.
Another reason for the cancelation of the show is to honor the victims of the earthquake in February, which killed 117 people, the committee said.
Last year, the fireworks show was also canceled to commemorate the victims of the 2014 Kaohsiung gas explosions, which left 32 people dead and 321 injured.
The show is among the highlights of each year’s National Day celebrations. It is staged in a different city or county each year.
The ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei on Oct. 10 will aim to create a heartwarming atmosphere, as opposed to a mighty and majestic one, and will seek to convey the message that the government is standing with its people, Hua said.
This year, there will be 10,000 seats at the ceremony, up from 8,000 last year, Hua said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will be among the guests who will be invited to the ceremony, which will feature various performances, he said.
This year’s celebrations will mark the Republic of China’s 105th birthday.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching