JUDICIAL YUAN
Acting president named
Justice Shieh Ming-yan (謝銘洋) has been appointed acting president of the Judicial Yuan amid bottlenecks in the legislature’s confirmation process of new justices, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said. President William Lai (賴清德) named Shieh, who has been a justice since 2019, the provisional head of the top judicial branch in accordance with the Judicial Yuan Organization Act (司法院組織法), Kuo said on Friday. Shieh’s appointment came a day after seven justices, including Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) and his deputy Tsai Jeong-duen (蔡炯墩) stepped down on Thursday after completing their eight-year terms. Kuo urged the legislature to begin the confirmation process of the seven justice candidates appointed by Lai on Aug. 30, saying their taking office would enable “the normal operations of the Judicial Yuan.” Lai selected National Taiwan University law professor Chang Wen-chen (張文貞) and former lawmaker Yao Li-ming (姚立明) to replace Hsu and Tsai respectively, along with five other justice candidates, but these nominations still await legislative approval. Shieh, 67, is one of the eight remaining justices at the Judicial Yuan whose primary responsibility is to preside over Constitutional Court cases.
PHILIPPINES
US$150,000 donated
Taiwan on Thursday donated US$150,000 to the Philippines to help those affected by Tropical Storm Trami. Representative to the Philippines Wallace Chow (周民淦) announced the donation at a ceremony at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines, where Philippine Representative to Taiwan Cheloy E. Velicaria-Garafil accepted the donation on behalf of the Philippine government. The move followed Taiwan’s donation of 500 tonnes of rice on Tuesday to the Philippines in the aftermath of the storm, which left at least 139 people dead and 21 unaccounted for, and caused economic damage of more than 4 billion pesos (US$68.53 million). Velicaria-Garafil thanked Taiwan for the donation and said that the help was was especially moving as it came about the same time as Typhoon Kong-rey swept across Taiwan. The Manila Economic and Cultural Office would transfer the donation to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for use as disaster relief, she said. Taiwan has promised to donate 2,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines by the end of the year and as of Tuesday, the Philippines has received 1,500 tonnes of rice. The remaining 500 tonnes are scheduled to arrive later this month.
ISF Gymnasiade
Record medals won
Taiwanese athletes completed their participation in the 2024 Gymnasiade in Bahrain on Thursday with a record 79 medals, including 35 golds. A total of 119 Taiwanese athletes competed in 19 different sports at the U18 games, with strong performances from the judo team, which won seven golds, one silvers and four bronzes. Wu Chun-you (吳俊佑), who competed in the para-athletics event, received a “sporting spirit award” from the International School Sport Federation (ISF), becoming the first Taiwanese athlete to win such honor. Sports Administration Director Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) said the event provided young Taiwanese athletes with invaluable experience in international sporting competitions. Prior to the event, Taiwan’s best performance at the Gymnasiade had been 68 medals, including 24 gold, Chinese Taipei School Sport Federation head Hu Chien-feng said.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
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