EDUCATION
Curriculum draws criticism
The Ministry of Education yesterday defended changes it made to school curriculum guidelines in 2019 that have resulted in some well-known authors being excluded from English textbooks in favor of more domestic content. In a recent article that was widely shared online, a person identifying themselves as a high-school English teacher said that classic texts by Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King Jr and William Shakespeare were removed from student textbooks under the updated guidelines. Publishers replaced them with lessons on Taiwan-related topics such as “roadside banquets,” Matsu pilgrimages, flying fish season on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and 7-Eleven, the teacher said. The ministry yesterday said that the changes emphasized the practical use of foreign languages, as well as their “immediacy” and relevance to daily life. The ministry said its guidelines had asked publishers to select content that “proceeds from issues related to daily life,” and gradually expands to focus on broader social issues.
SOCIETY
Ship runs aground
A Cameroon-registered freighter that began drifting after losing power near Jibei Islet (吉貝) in Penghu County has run aground in waters north of Baisha Township (白沙), but all nine sailors aboard the vessel are accounted for, Taiwanese authorities said yesterday. The Maritime and Port Bureau said it received a report early yesterday that the 499-tonne Hai Shou freighter was drifting in waters off Jibei, the biggest island north of Penghu’s main island, after losing power due to a mechanical failure. The vessel had originally set sail from Taichung without cargo on board and was heading for Kaohsiung, but it lost power soon after leaving the central Taiwan port, the agency said. In an update later, the port agency said that despite dropping anchor, the vessel had continued drifting, buffeted by strong winds and had run aground in waters 0.4 nautical miles (741m) north of Penghu’s Baisha Township. The vessel’s nine crew members, all nationals of Myanmar, were rescued by a National Airborne Service Corps helicopter yesterday afternoon after the captain gave the order to abandon the ship. They are all in good condition and being put up at the Sheng Kuo Hotel in Magong City, the agency said.
POLITICS
MOFA conveys condolences
The government yesterday expressed its condolences over the death of Kuwaiti monarch, Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al Sabah, who passed away on Saturday aged 86. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it has instructed representative to Kuwait Tan Kou-ting (譚國定) to convey condolences from the government and Taiwanese to the Kuwaiti authorities over the monarch’s passing. Although Taiwan does not have official diplomatic relations with the Middle Eastern country, it has operated the Taipei Commercial Representative Office in Jabriah, in the Kuwaiti province of Hawally, since 1986. Kuwait University has provided annual scholarships to an undisclosed number of Taiwanese students from National Taiwan University and Nation Chengchi University to study Arabic. Currently, nine Taiwanese students are studying Arabic at Kuwait University. Meanwhile, one Kuwaiti student has been studying for a master’s degree at Ming Chuan University under a Ministry of Education scholarship since 2019.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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
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
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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