ASTRONOMY
Bright comet on Saturday
Comet C/2023 A3, the brightest this year, is anticipated to reach its peak luminosity on Saturday, as it reaches its closest point to Earth, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The window of time to view the comet — discovered in January last year by the Tsuchinshan Observatory in China — is to last until the end of this month, it said. Stargazers should look out to the western horizon after sunset if they want to catch a glimpse, it said. While the comet is visible to the naked eye, using binoculars or a small telescope can improve a person’s viewing experience, it said. The comet could post an apparent magnitude of minus-2, equivalent to Mercury, it said. Since the comet has an orbital period of several tens of thousands of years, its upcoming appearance makes it a once-in-a-lifetime viewing opportunity, the museum said, citing data from NASA. Astronomical buffs can also look forward to the year’s largest full moon on Thursday next week, the museum said. The supermoon would be at its fullest at 7:26pm, when it would be about 357,000km from Earth, it said.
FOOD
One more dies of poisoning
A food poisoning incident in Taitung County has left one more person dead, bringing the death toll to four, the Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital confirmed on Saturday. The victim was a 59-year-old woman surnamed Yang (楊), who fell into a coma on Sept. 18, the hospital said. Before her death, she had been treated with tracheal intubation to keep her alive. However, Yang’s family had a meeting with doctors on Friday and decided to take her off life support as she had not shown signs of improvement, the hospital said. The food poisoning incident was traced back to the death of an 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾), who died on Sept. 17 after eating glutinous millet dumplings that she had made. That evening, several relatives and friends, including Yang, who came to her wake, and ate leftover dumplings and other items in Tseng’s kitchen later exhibited symptoms such as vomiting and convulsions. Three more people subsequently died, while nearly a dozen people were hospitalized for treatment. The dumplings were later discovered to contain a high level of terbufos — a hazardous chemical compound found in some pesticides. Only Yang’s younger sister, 53, remains hospitalized for treatment, the hospital said. Taitung prosecutors on Saturday said they were still investigating the case, without disclosing any further details.
ENTERTAINMENT
Ariel Lin wins in Busan
Taiwanese actress Ariel Lin (林依晨) on Sunday won best actress in a leading role at this year’s Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards in Busan, South Korea. Lin won the award for her performance in the Taiwanese television drama Imperfect Us (不夠善良的我們). Lin gave a teary speech in Korean, saying the award was “a great motivation for both me and the work.” She added in English that: “I truly believe that a good script can let people feel understood, it can be very inspirational, and it can show people what truly important things” are. The theme song for the series, Learn to Live Again (善良的我們), composed by Singaporean singer Tanya Chua (蔡健雅), won best original song. Having won the award with her first composition for a drama series, Chua said the award “means so much to me.” Imperfect Us had been nominated for five awards — the most for this year’s event, including best Asian contents, best male supporting actor and best writer. The awards, now in its sixth year, is organized by the Busan International Film Festival and South Korea’s National IT Industry Promotion Agency, according to its official Web site. The event aims to “increase audience engagement and showcase a diverse range of audiovisual content,” it says.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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