SOCIETY
Events commemorate WWII
A series of events yesterday were held to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the suffering of thousands of prisoners of war (POWs) in Taiwan during that bloody conflict. The Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society, dedicated to researching the history of former POW camps in Taiwan during WWII and the stories of the surviving inmates, hosted the 13th Far East Prisoner of War Day event in the SPOT-Taipei Film House. More than 60 people attended the event. The half-day program included a presentation on Allied Forces’ air raids in Taiwan between 1943 and 1945, given by Taiwanese military aviation historian Chang Wei-bin (張維斌). Society director Michael Hurst gave a presentation on stories of POWs in Taiwan. Hurst, a Canadian who has dedicated more than two decades to studying the history of POW camps in Taiwan, said a remembrance week for POWs is to take place in November, which would feature a wreath-laying ceremony at the site of a former POW camp in New Taipei City.
CULTURE
Cartoonist recognized
Renowned cartoonist Loic Hsiao (蕭言中), who has released more than 30 comic books, is to receive the special contribution award at the 11th Golden Comic Awards, the Ministry of Culture said on Friday. Hsiao, 55, achieved success as a cartoonist in 1985, selling more than 500,000 copies of his debut Short Circuit in Childhood, the Taiwan Comic Digital Museum said. He has also written, acted in and directed more than 20 theater productions, and last year held a world tour to exhibit his unique portrayals of celebrities and people painted with a Chinese calligraphy brush, the museum said. The ministry also announced the list of 24 works nominated for this year’s Golden Comic Awards. The winners are to be announced at a ceremony on Sept. 28, the ministry said.
RESTAURANTS
McDonald’s trims menu
McDonald’s on Friday said that it would stop serving seven items on its menu at restaurants in Taiwan, starting on Aug. 26, due to lackluster sales. The items to be discontinued are the Angus beef burger, the thousand island shrimp burger, the 1+1=$50 menu’s spicy chicken burger meal, Shake Shake Chicken Bites, McCafe’s passion fruit-lemon smoothie and hot milk tea, and Happy Meal chicken bites. The US franchise also announced that from Aug. 26, its Taiwan-based restaurants are to introduce several new items, including a smoked chicken sandwich and a honey lemon smoothie.
CRIME
Woman charged
A woman earlier this week was indicted for allegedly occupying a person’s home and discarding their furniture without the owner’s permission after squatting in the property in Taoyuan for nearly a year. The 58-year-old woman, surnamed Chang (張), redecorated the home and moved in before being discovered almost by accident, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said. The property, which was bought by the owner, surnamed Lee (李), in 1984, had been unoccupied, they said. Chang, who lived nearby, noticed that the house had been left empty for a long time and allegedly entered the home without permission in June last year. It was not until April that Lee realized something was wrong when a neighbor complimented her on how well the house had been decorated, prosecutors said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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