SPORTS
Universiade athletes named
The Taiwan team attending the FISU World University Games is this year to include at least 11 Olympians, some of whom won medals at the Games, the Sports Administration said on Thursday. Athletes have already been selected to compete in gymnastics, archery, judo, rowing and taekwondo at the Chengdu Universiade, which was postponed from last summer to June and July this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said. Selection of the other athletes would be completed by the end of April, before the team’s formal registration on May 25, it added. Those already chosen include gymnast Lee Chih-kai (李智凱), judoka Yang Yung-wei (楊勇緯), archer Tang Chih-chun (湯智鈞), table tennis player Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) and taekwondoin athlete Lo Chia-ling (羅嘉翎), Sports Administration Deputy Director-General Hung Chih-chang (洪志昌) said.
SPORTS
Baseball series delayed
A series of exhibition baseball games scheduled for next month between Taiwan and Japan has been postponed due to concerns about outbreaks of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) said on Wednesday. The CBPL and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball Organization discussed the matter and pushed back the series in the interest of the players’ health, CPBL commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said in a statement. Further discussions would be held to choose a new date for the series, which was scheduled for March 5 and 6 at the Tokyo Dome, he said.
SOCIETY
Matsu pilgrimage date set
The annual procession of the sea goddess Matsu enshrined at Jenn Lann Temple (鎮瀾宮) in Taichung’s Dajia District (大甲) is to start on April 8, the temple said on Tuesday. The news came after the Central Epidemic Command Center earlier in the day announced an easing of COVID-19 restrictions. On Tuesday, when this year’s Lantern Festival was held, Yen Ching-biao (顏清標), the head of Jenn Lann Temple, used moon blocks — a divination tool — to ask Matsu when the nine-day procession should start. The annual procession is to begin at 11pm. Tens of thousands of worshipers are expected to follow the Dajia Matsu as it travels 340km through Taichung, Changhua County, Yunlin County and Chiayi County, before returning to the temple on April 17, organizers said. As part of its COVID-19 prevention efforts, the temple is asking participants to avoid the traditional practice of crawling under the icon’s palanquin to receive Matsu’s blessing.
ARTS
First Matsu Biennial starts
The inaugural Matsu Biennial, featuring 39 artworks and eight projects centered around the theme “Island Brew” (島嶼釀), has begun and runs through April 10. The biennial has been curated in part around the Matsu Islands’ transition from a military administration, and a number of the projects are in former army facilities. All of the works were created locally by 41 creative teams. Aside from Taiwanese artists, the art-making consortium also includes international members, such as Canadian visual artist Liam Morgan and French-born sound artist Yannick Dauby. As the evolution of space and sustainable reuse form the core of the biennial’s works, organizers have set out to make the festival part of a 10-year mission to document the islands’ transformation.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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