ARTS
Duck to return to Kaohsiung
Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s famous yellow rubber duck is set to return to Kaohsiung late this month for its first appearance in the southern port city since it floated around Glory Pier (光榮碼頭) 10 years ago, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said yesterday. The giant yellow rubber duck is to bob around Love River Bay from Jan. 27 to Feb. 25, Chen said at a press event. He said the city government had applied in September for the duck to return for this year’s Kaohsiung Lantern Festival, which began earlier last month and is to run until Feb. 28. Hofman approved the request after visiting and inspecting the bay, during which time he expressed surprise at how the city had progressed over the last decade, Chen said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
SEISMICITY
Earthquake hits Yilan
A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan at 5:57am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter of the temblor was in Yilan’s Suao Township (蘇澳), 14.2km south-southeast of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 47.4km, the agency’s Seismology Center said. The earthquake’s intensity was highest in Yilan, where it measured a three on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of two in Hualien County and New Taipei City. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. In other news, the Central Weather Administration yesterday said that today the weather would remain cool in northern and northeastern Taiwan, with highs of 17°C to 19°C predicted. It is expected to be as high as 22°C to 24°C in central and southern Taiwan. Occasional showers were forecast for Taipei and New Taipei City, the northern coast in Keelung, and eastern Taiwan, while the other areas could see cloudy or sunny skies, it said. People living south of Hsinchu and the outlying islands of Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu have a higher chance of seeing the sunrise, while areas north of Taoyuan and the eastern half of Taiwan are expected to have a cloudy sky during the sunrise, it added.
SOCIETY
Man and son drown
A father and son drowned early on Saturday in a campground in Miaoli County’s Jhoulan Township (卓蘭), the county’s fire bureau said. The bureau said it received a report at 12:45pm from a campground owner that their surveillance camera record showed that a father in his 30s and his two-year-old son had fallen into the pond inside the campground at about 8am. A search and rescue operation later found the father and son in the water without vital signs and they were pronounced dead after being admitted to the hospital. The size of the pond was about 400m2 and three-meters deep. The campground owner said the father and son went to the area with other family members on Friday night, but right before they were about to have lunch at about noon on Saturday, they found the father and son had disappeared and asked the campground owner to check their whereabouts using the surveillance cameras. The police said that based on their initial investigation, the father, surnamed Hsieh (謝), took his son to the pond on Saturday morning and found that his son had fallen into the water when he was preparing fishing gear and jumped into the pond to rescue the child.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to