WEATHER
Temperature to fall
Temperatures tomorrow are to fall as low as 16°C as seasonal winds from the northeast intensify, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The north is to see the greatest effect, with daytime temperatures of up to 23°C, bureau forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. Temperatures in central and southern Taiwan could fall to 17°C and 19°C respectively from daytime highs of 25°C to 27°C, Lee said. The system could continue to affect conditions around the nation until Saturday, but its strength is expected to fade after tomorrow, sending temperatures higher. Yesterday, a cloud system moved north from southern Taiwan, causing scattered rainfall around the nation and heavy rain in mountainous areas. Daytime temperatures were about 23°C in the north and rose up to 27°C in central and southern Taiwan, the bureau added.
ENTERTAINMENT
Taipei 101 to host party
Taipei 101 is for the first time to host a “#Party101 Jazz Night Lounge Party” on its first floor office lobby on New Year’s Eve. In addition to jazz performances, virtual-reality games and photograph sticker machines, hundreds of bottles of whiskey, thousands of bottles of craft beer, soft drinks and various light refreshments are to be offered to partygoers. Only 1,010 guests would be able to attend, of which 500 could pay extra to watch the New Year fireworks from the building’s viewing platform. Tickets are to go on sale on Dec. 1. The skyscraper is also to hold its annual fireworks show, which is to feature 16,000 fireworks and its “T-Pad” LED lighting system measuring 100.8m by 168m on the building’s north side.
POLITICS
Chang eyes presidency
Former premier Simon Chang (張善政), who advised Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates in Saturday’s nine-in-one elections, on Monday said he is considering running in the 2020 presidential election as an independent candidate. The 64-year-old, who serves as chairman of the Taiwan Mobile Foundation, said that he began to consider joining the race when people asked him to run for president while stumping for candidates in Saturday’s local elections. Chang was vice premier under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) from Dec. 7, 2014, to Feb. 1, 2016. Chang then served as premier until May 20, 2016.
ARTS
Cheang to fly to Venice
Taiwanese multimedia artist Cheang Shu-lea (鄭淑麗) is to represent the nation at the 58th Venice Arte Biennale, the first female artist to be chosen since 2015, the Taiwan Fine Arts Museum said on Monday. Cheang is to be the first woman to represent the Taiwan pavilion since the nation began to send a single artist to the biennale in 2015, according to the museum’s press release. Cheang said in a statement that her piece, titled 3x3x6, was inspired by the exhibition venue, Palazzo delle Prigioni, which was a Venetian government prison in the 16th century. The work addresses the theme of crime and punishment, as well as modern imprisonment and surveillance devices, and 10 historical figures imprisoned due to their sexual orientation are included in the piece to highlight transgender issues, the artist said. The 58th Venice Arte Biennale is to take place from May 11 to Nov. 24 next year, according to the exhibition’s Web site.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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