ASTRONOMY
Museum touts sky events
A month of exciting celestial events awaits astronomy buffs, with two meteor showers and ideal conditions for two planet viewings from tomorrow, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said yesterday. Sky watchers can start with the Southern Delta Aquariid shower, which is to peak on Sunday, the museum said, adding that up to 25 meteors per hour are expected to be visible in skies to the southeast from 8pm nightly. On Aug. 12, the Perseid meteor shower — one of the three most prolific of the year along with the Quadrantids in January and the Geminids in December — would, weather permitting, allow the viewing of nearly 100 shooting stars an hour, with the best time to see them starting at about 10pm, the museum said. Saturn and Jupiter next month will reach their brightest points of the year when they are in opposition, or at their closest to Earth, it said. The gas giants will be at opposition on Monday and Aug. 20 respectively, it said. The events will be visible with the naked eye, weather permitting, and livestreams would be available on the museum’s YouTube channel, it said.
DIPLOMACY
Dunn named AIT spokesman
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday announced Ed Dunn as its new spokesman. Before joining the AIT, Dunn was a member of the US Department of State’s Lawrence S. Eagleburger Fellowship, and worked at a global strategic communications and public affairs consulting firm, it said. He was the public affairs officer at the US embassy in Tallinn and deputy spokesperson at the US embassy in Jakarta, the AIT said, adding that Dunn’s other overseas tours include Guangzhou, China, and Islamabad. In Washington, he served as the acting director of the state department’s Office of Digital Engagement and as a Pakistan desk officer, it said. A native of Minnesota, Dunn has a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Chinese from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and studied US-China relations at the Johns Hopkins-SAIS Hopkins Nanjing Center, it added.
CULTURE
Exhibition to open today
An exhibition featuring photographs by 67 local artists from the 1930s to 2010 is to open today at the National Center of Photography and Images in Taipei. Curated by Albert Huang (黃建亮), Emerging Taiwanese Cultural Landscape is the second exhibition focused on Taiwanese photography to be held at the center, which officially opened in April, the center said. The exhibition includes 350 photos selected from the collections of the center and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung, it said. The exhibition, divided into “The Place,” “The Everyday,” “Rituals” and “Events,” aims to reflect different experiences and present Taiwan from a local perspective, it said.
TRANSPORTATION
TRA policy to remain
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said it would continue waiving fees for passengers canceling tickets, despite a COVID-19 alert on Tuesday being lowered from level 3 to level 2. The TRA started waiving the fees in May, when the alert was upgraded from level 2 to 3. On Tuesday, it resumed most of its rail services, except those that operate only at weekends, as well as tourism train services. From Tuesday, people were again allowed to board Tzuchiang Express trains with electronic tickets or monthly passes. However, sales of tickets without reserved seats are still suspended, it said.
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
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
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
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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