SOCIETY
Photographer wins awards
Taiwanese photographer Tzeng Chin-fa (曾進發) won nine awards, including two golds, at the Moscow International Foto Awards on Monday. Tzeng, from Miaoli County, on Tuesday said that a photograph of his 90-year-old mother using an old sewing machine won a gold award in the people and culture category. The image was part of his series Traditional Cultural Skills In Disappearance, which also features people preparing traditional food, weaving and performing a traditional face-threading treatment. His other gold-winning photo was of a couple, dressed in wedding outfits, standing at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan. Tzeng also won five silver and two bronze awards at the contest. Last year, he won 28 prizes at the awards, the most among Taiwanese competitors.
TRAVEL
Passport ranks 31st
Taiwan’s passport ranked 31st on a list of the world’s most “powerful” passports, offering its holders visa-free access to 146 destinations, according to the Henley Passport Index for the third quarter issued on Wednesday. Taiwan moved up one spot from the second quarter, the latest survey by British consulting firm Henley & Partners showed. The index includes 199 passports and 227 travel destinations. The passports were ranked based on the number of destinations to which they give holders visa-free access. Taiwan shared 31st with Mauritius and Saint Lucia. Japan remained No. 1 for the fourth consecutive year, with holders of its passport having access to 193 destinations without a visa, followed by Singapore with access to 192 locations, and South Korea and Germany tied at third with 191, the survey showed.
SOCIETY
Fukuhara finalizes divorce
Japanese table tennis star Ai Fukuhara and her Taiwanese husband, table tennis player Chiang Hung-chieh (江宏傑), on Thursday formally announced their divorce, bringing an end to their four-year marriage. In a statement released by their management company, HIM International Music, the pair said they had finalized divorce proceedings and agreed to joint custody of their two children. The high-profile couple, both 32, married in Tokyo in 2016. They have a three-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. Fukuhara, a two-time Olympic medal winner, retired from competitive table tennis in 2018 following the birth of her daughter. She was Japan’s top female table tennis player and at one point ranked world No. 4.
DEFENSE
Institute signs MOU
The Institute for National Defense and Security Research signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a Czech think tank to strengthen exchanges and cooperation on research in security and national defense, it said on Wednesday. The institute, established by the Ministry of National Defense, said in a statement that it signed the MOU on June 30 in a virtual ceremony with the Czech Republic’s European Values Center for Security Policy (EVC). Representatives from the two think tanks who attended the ceremony included institute chief executive Lin Chen-wei (林成蔚) and deputy chief executives Po Hung-hui (柏鴻輝) and Ou Hsi-fu (歐錫富), as well as EVC director Jakub Janda and Richard Kraemer, head of its Taiwan office that is to open in Taipei, the statement said. Janda said that Taiwan and the Czech Republic have common values of democracy, and the EVC would share European perspectives with the institute to deepen bilateral cooperation.
The military yesterday unveiled a locally made powered exoskeleton suit, a mechanized wearable system designed to be used in wartime or during post-disaster rescue and relief missions. The 10kg lower-body exoskeleton, which is designed to boost the strength and endurance of its users, can move at 6kph, said Jen Kuo-kuang (任國光), the project manager and a member of the military’s top research body, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology. The exoskeleton delivers the right torque at the right time to assist knee flexion and extension to reduce the energy needed to cross terrain, squat, or kneel for its wearers, and
The nationwide level 2 COVID-19 alert, which is set to expire on Monday next week, is to be extended, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday. Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), told reporters before heading to a meeting at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei that the COVID-19 alert level “will not be lowered on November 2,” but he did not say how long the extension would be. Taiwan has been under level 2 alert, the third-highest on the nation’s four-tier scale, since July 27. The CECC yesterday reported eight new COVID-19 infections — six imported
Support for the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has for the first time overtaken the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), making it the nation’s second-largest political force, the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation said yesterday, as it released the results of its latest public opinion survey. The foundation’s survey on political support and the referendums in December found that 17.6 percent support the TPP, compared with 16.2 percent for the KMT, a lead of 1.4 percentage points and the highest ever recorded for the party. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held firm at the top at 27.1 percent, although a close 26.6 percent of respondents
SEXUAL VIOLENCE: The justice ministry is looking at the examples and experiences of other nations to serve as a reference for drafting new regulations, an official said Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜) and independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) yesterday called for more severe punishment for people convicted of producing “deepfake” pornographic videos. Kao and Huang are two of the victims in an ongoing investigation into a “deepfake video” case, in which YouTuber Chu Yu-chen (朱玉宸), 26, also known as Xiaoyu (小玉), was last week listed as a suspect for allegedly using deepfake technology to create and sell sexual videos featuring the likenesses of female politicians, online influencers and celebrities. Deepfake pornography is made by superimposing facial images of people onto existing pornographic videos using
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