Taiwanese film featured
Taiwanese LGBTQ film Who’ll Stop the Rain (青春並不溫柔) directed by Su I-hsuan (蘇奕瑄) is being featured in the 31st Mardi Gras Film Festival in Australia and premiered in the country on Saturday. The film is “a powerful story about two girls who fall in love while fighting for creative freedom in post-martial law Taipei,” the festival said. Su at a Q&A session after the premiere said that the movie was inspired by a 1994 student strike organized by the Chinese Culture University Department of Fine Arts students which focused on fighting for freedom of personal expression. The film’s English title is taken from an anti-war song by American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival, Su said, adding that in the film, rain symbolizes society and the establishment and echoes the rainy season in which the events occur. “We may not be able to stop the rain or shake up the system, but we can decide how to face the rain,” Su said. The annual film festival is one of Australia’s largest and among the top five queer film festivals globally, the festival said on its Web site. This year’s festival runs from Thursday last week to Thursday next week in Sydney and March 1 to 14 Australia-wide on demand.
WEATHER
Cold front coming
The weather is forecast to be warm and mostly sunny nationwide through the middle of this week, but the arrival of a cold front is expected to bring temperatures down starting on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Daytime temperatures yesterday reached highs of 26°C to 27°C in northern and eastern Taiwan and 28°C to 30°C in other parts of the country. Overnight temperatures were forecast to drop to lows of 15°C to 18°C in Yilan and areas north of Tainan in the south, and 19°C to 20°C in Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung, the weather agency said. The dry and mostly sunny conditions are expected to continue through Wednesday, with daily highs ranging from about 25°C to about 30°C, it said. However, from Thursday, a cold front is expected to bring gradually cooler weather to northern Taiwan, the CWA said. As the system moves south, other parts of Taiwan is also forecast to get cooler on Friday and Saturday, it said, adding that in northern and northeastern Taiwan, temperatures are forecast to drop to about 15°C, with a chance of scattered rain showers.
CRIME
Taroko receives bomb threat
Taroko National Park Headquarters received a bomb threat on Saturday, which said eight remote-controlled bombs would be set off if a ransom was not paid, the park administration said. The bomb threat, which came to nothing, demanded NT$40 million (US$1.27 million) and was sent to the e-mail address listed on the park director’s Facebook account. It was signed off “Kao Min-lin (高閔琳),” Hualien police said, adding that the name was the same as that of the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau director-general. The name has also been used in previous blackmail incidents. The police said they reported the case to the Criminal Investigations Bureau, adding that although no bomb was found, patrols of the area are to be increased. Police also said that the e-mail was sent from an overseas IP address and that they suspected the sender to be a Chinese surnamed Zhang (張) who previously studied in Taiwan. Zhang was also the main suspect in other similar incidents of threats being sent to tourist spots and institutions in Taiwan, including several directed at Taroko National Park in May last year.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
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