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.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
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