CULTURE
Changhua calls for artwork
An art competition in Changhua County has begun soliciting submissions in six categories: oil and watercolor painting; 3D crafts; photography; digital arts; calligraphy and seal engraving; and Chinese ink and gouache painting. The first prize in each category at the 18th Huangsi Art Exhibition is to be a trophy and NT$100,000, while the best of the six first prizes is to receive the Huangsi Award and an additional NT$300,000, the Changhua County Government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau said. The bureau will accept submissions from Republic of China citizens from March 24 to April 5. Since 2000, artists from all walks of life and of all ages have taken part in the competition, the bureau said, adding that last year’s winner in the 3D crafts category was an inmate at a local jail.
CRIME
Police detain pickpockets
Five South Korean nationals caught pickpocketing at the Taipei 101 shopping mall on Saturday have been detained and held incommunicado, Taipei District Court officials said. A court judge upheld a request for their detainment by Taipei district prosecutors, who said the South Koreans could pose a flight risk. Police said they had been on the trail of a group of South Korean pickpockets after receiving several reports of thefts during the Lunar New Year holiday in late January and early last month. A special team was organized to probe the case, police added. On Jan. 29, three members of the group stole more than NT$30,000 from people near Taipei Railway Station, dividing up the spoils on the spot and leaving Taiwan soon after, police said. When they learned that the three suspects had returned to Taiwan on March 3 with two other women, the team began following them, leading to their capture, police said.
CRIME
Authorities kill drug dealer
A Taiwanese man suspected of drug dealing in Indonesia was shot dead by local authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Sunday. The man, surnamed Kao (高), was killed by Indonesian police while resisting arrest, the ministry said, adding that an accomplice surnamed Liu, who was also seen at the scene of the crime, was arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs. The ministry confirmed the incident after receiving information from the nation’s representative office in Indonesia. As of press time last night, further details about the death and arrest of the Taiwanese have yet to be established. The ministry said it respects the ongoing investigation by Indonesian authorities, adding that further information would be disclosed after its completion.
GENDER EQUALITY
Women feel ill-treated: poll
Women in Taiwan still do not feel they are generally treated fairly in the workplace, particularly after they get married or become pregnant, the results of an online survey released by 1111 Job Bank on Monday showed. Among the married women or women with children surveyed in the poll, 47 percent said they had been treated in an unfriendly manner by their bosses or colleagues after they got married or became pregnant. The survey also found that 74 percent of the polled women changed their career plans because of marriage or pregnancy, with more than half changing jobs to better adjust to family life and one-fifth resigning to become full-time mothers. The survey questioned 1,111 women who are married or have children from Feb. 17 to Friday last week. A total of 809 valid samples were collected, with a margin of error of 2.96 percentage points.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
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