SOCIETY
Prime view of Jupiter
Astronomy buffs will have a chance to find out what is happening with the great red spot on Jupiter when the planet moves closest to Earth and reaches its brightest today, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said yesterday. The opposition of Jupiter, which occurs when the Earth comes between the sun and the largest planet in the solar system, will offer the best view of Jupiter this year, it said. The great red spot is a persistent high-pressure region in the atmosphere of Jupiter, producing an anticyclonic storm, the largest in the solar system, and has been continuously observed since 1830. The opposition will take place at 11:28pm, although Jupiter will be visible to the naked eye all night, weather permitting, the museum said. The planet will remain relatively bright until the middle of this month, it added. Those interested in getting a closer look should visit the museum between 7pm and 9pm on Saturdays this month to use its telescope, it said.
ENTERTAINMENT
LGBTQ films in Bangkok
The Taiwan LGBTQ Film Festival in Bangkok opened on Saturday with a screening of Small Talk (日常對話), a documentary by Huang Hui-chen (黃惠偵) detailing her relationship with her mother. After the screening, a forum was hosted by Jay Lin (林志杰), founder and chief executive of Taipei-based Portico Media and founder of LGBTQ streaming platform GagaOOLala, to highlight the steps that Taiwan went through to legalize same-sex marriage. The week-long festival was curated by Chen Yen-lin (陳彥霖), Alliance Francaise de Bangkok and the Documentary Club, and aims to highlight the development of Taiwan’s LGBTQ rights and same-sex-marriage legislation. Films in the festival include Blue Gate Crossing (藍色大門), Queer Taiwan (酷兒台灣), Tale of the Lost Boys (他和他的心旅程), Juliets and I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (黑眼圈), a 2006 Malaysian-Taiwanese romantic drama written and directed by Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮).
TOURISM
Kinmen carnival announced
Kinmen’s nine-week summer tourist carnival, focusing on the local fauna, landscape, battlefields and ceramics industry, opens on July 1, with new activities every week until the end of August, the Kinmen County Government said. First up is to be a birdwatching tour to spot migratory blue-tailed bee-eaters on their way south, it said. The carnival would also involve Jiangong Islet (建功嶼), which is connected to Kinmen by a walkway accessible only at low tide, will allow visitors to see horseshoe crabs in the intertidal zone on either side, it added. Battlefield tourism is to be highlighted in August at the Liuyu camp, a converted military base that now offers firefights in an indoor laser tag facility. A tour of the Kinmen Ceramic Factory, the nation’s only government-owned kiln, will give visitors a chance to learn how to mold, glaze and paint porcelain, it added.
CRIME
Teen drug offenses decline
The number of teenagers arrested for drug offenses has dropped over the past three years, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said. There was a 27.95 percent annual decline last year to 6,886, compared with 9,558 in 2017 and 9,583 in 2016, it said on Wednesday. The decline can be attributed to the efforts of the ministries of education and justice to raise awareness about the dangers of drug abuse, it said. The National Police Agency has launched a new anti-drug campaign featuring online educational videos and more random spot checks at places frequented by teenagers, it said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
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