WEATHER
Cold weather to hover
A cold air mass kept temperatures low nationwide yesterday, with the mercury falling as low as 12.3oC in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Tamsui District (淡水) early in the morning, the Central Weather Bureau said. Daytime highs ranged from 21oC to 22oC in northern Taiwan, 24oC to 25oC in central Taiwan, and 25oC to 27oC in southern Taiwan, the bureau said. Highs nationwide could increase by about 1oC today, according to forecasters. The lows are expected to rise by about 4oC across Taiwan proper tomorrow, followed by increasing chances of rain, the bureau said.
SOCIETY
Taipei named 2016 WDC
The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) in Canada announced yesterday that Taipei has won the World Design Capital (WDC) designation for 2016. City officials say they expect the event to help transform Taipei’s landscape while boosting tourism by 5 more percent. Taipei was the only contender in this year’s competition. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said Taipei is the second city in Asia to be selected as a WDC after Seoul, and the city government will launch a series of renovation projects to transform the city. The government will plant more trees along major streets and join efforts with private organizations to renovate old communities, such as the Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area, while building design centers in Neihu (內湖) and Dazhi (大直) districts to attract personnel in related industries. The city will hold a series of design exhibitions and forums in 2016, and expect to generate NT$9.6 billion (US$326 million) revenue from tourism, Hau said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Aerial film stays on top
The documentary Beyond Beauty: Taiwan From Above (看見台灣) has maintained its box office momentum since opening on Nov. 1, earning more than NT$62 million to date, according to its distributor, Activator Marketing Co. The film, directed by Chi Po-lin (齊柏林), has made more than NT$30 million in Taipei alone, including NT$7.04 million this past weekend, Activator said. Beyond Beauty became the highest-grossing documentary in the nation’s box office history on Nov. 10, and has now emerged as the third best-selling Taiwanese-made film this year, trailing only gangster comedy David Loman (大尾鱸鰻) and comedy Zone Pro Site (總舖師). The documentary consists of aerial shots of Taiwan’s landscape, featuring the nation’s beautiful scenery and mountains, as well as pointing out the rivers and coastlines being destroyed by human activities and natural disasters.
TECHNOLOGY
Robot teams win in Jakarta
Taiwanese students racked up eight awards at the just-concluded World Robot Olympiad in Jakarta, Indonesia, including a gold medal in the college category, the Esun Robot Association said on Monday. The gold was won by three National Chung Hsing University students who beat 18 other teams. A team from National Formosa University won fifth place in the college category. This was the first year that a college category was included in the competition and the teams had to develop robots that had to move different color balls to specific areas, as if they were supplying raw materials to several colonies on Mars. Teams from Taiwanese elementary schools placed third and eighth in the regular category, where robots were built to solve a given challenge. The Olympiad opened on Friday last week and closed on Sunday.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
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