■ EDUCATION
Minister mum on dispute
Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城) yesterday declined to comment on National Chengchi University’s refusal to renew the teaching contract of former Ministry of Education secretary-general Chuang Kuo-rong (莊國榮), who drew strong criticism as a ministry official for comments about then-presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and for his handling of the name change of National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. The university said it would not renew Chuang’s contract on Wednesday, citing “gender discrimination” and “indecent speech” as the reasons. The university said a profane comment Chuang made one week before the election about Ma’s father was inappropriate. Chuang had earlier also called Ma “a weakling” and insinuated that Ma and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) were homosexual. After losing his contract, Chuang said he hoped the ministry would stand by him.
■ BIOLOGY
Unknown beetle discovered
A biologist at Kenting National Park in Pingtung County has spotted an unknown species of longhorn beetle, sources at the park administration said yesterday. The sources said that a new species of longhorn beetle was first found in 2003 by Chung Yi-ting (鍾奕霆), a researcher at the park’s Houbihu Service Station, and that Chung spotted the same species a second time earlier this year. Several taxonomists who had examined the specimen said the latest longhorn beetle of euryclytosemia genus may be a new species. The park administration has decided to request assistance from other experts around the world to certify the findings. Currently, only one species of the euryclytosemia genus has been spotted in Taiwan.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
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
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
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
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