CULTURE
Macau Orchestra to visit
The Macau Orchestra is to perform in Taiwan for the first time during a concert tour opening today, performing works by Rachmaninoff and other masters. Led by artistic director and principal conductor Lu Jia (呂嘉), the orchestra will hold concerts in Taipei today, in Hsinchu on Saturday, in Greater Kaohsiung on Monday and in Greater Taichung on Tuesday, said the tour’s promoter, New Aspect, Environment, Culture & Creation. Taiwanese pianist Rueibin Chen (陳瑞斌) is to join the orchestra in performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, while Chinese pipa player Zhang Hongyan (章紅艷) is to perform Little Sisters of the Grassland, a Chinese pipa concerto composed by Liu Dehai (劉德海), Wu Zuqiang (吳祖強) and Wang Yanqiao (王燕樵).
CULTURE
NY to show Taiwanese films
Four Taiwan-produced films will be screened at the upcoming 37th Asian American International Film Festival in New York, with each showing a different side of Taiwanese society. The films include director Cho Li’s (卓立) The Rice Bomber, based on the true story of Yang Ju-men (楊儒門), a man who planted 17 rice-filled explosive devices in Taiwan in 2003 and 2004 to protest what he saw as the government’s neglect of farmers. Also to be shown are director Chang Tso-chi’s (張作驥) A Time in Quchi, a film about a boy who comes of age while visiting his grandfather in rural Quchi in New Taipei City, and US director Henry Chan’s (陳發中) romantic comedy 100 Days, which concerns a career-obsessed man who returns to his hometown after his mother’s death, only to run into his childhood sweetheart. The black-and-white short A Breath From the Bottom by director Chan Ching-lin (詹京霖) is also to be screened at the festival, which takes place from July 24 to Aug. 2.
SOCIETY
Charities report missions
Taiwanese charity groups traveled to remote areas of Sri Lanka and Mongolia earlier this month to provide medical services to people in the countries, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which covered part of the missions’ costs. The Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps provided free treatment for people in southern Sri Lanka on a July 5 to 13 medical mission, Department of NGO International Affairs director-general Ray Mou (牟華瑋) said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Bliss and Wisdom Cultural Foundation sent a mission to Mongolia from July 6 until Thursday last week, Mou said. During its trip, the mission provided clinical services, basic checkups and seminars on health education.
SOCIETY
Global affairs camp to open
A summer camp aimed at increasing young people’s understanding of international affairs and the development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is to be held next month in Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The ministry is commissioning the Taipei-based Ming Chuan University to organize the five-day camp, which is to begin on Aug. 13, said Ray Mou (牟華瑋), director-general of the ministry’s Department of NGO International Affairs Lectures. The camp will include discussions on topics such as eradicating poverty, encouraging sustainable development and gender equality, he said, adding that visits to local NGOs would also be part of the itinerary. The camp is open to those aged 18 to 35, and proficiency in English is required, as it is an all-English-language program, Mou added. This is second year that the camp is being conducted solely in English.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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