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.
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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