WEATHER
Sea warning likely today
A sea warning is likely to be issued today as a tropical storm southeast of Taiwan approaches, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The Tropical Storm Hagupit, which was 750km east of the nation’s southern tip at 2pm yesterday, was moving at 20km per hour in a northwesterly direction, the bureau said. The Hagupit storm might cause surging waves starting today, the bureau said. Tropical Storm Sinlaku, which formed yesterday afternoon south of China’s Hainan Island, is not expected to affect Taiwan, but would move toward southeast China and Vietnam over the next few days, forecasters said.
CRIME
Chinese dredgers detained
The Coast Guard Administration yesterday said that it arrested eight Chinese crew members aboard a China-registered vessel that was caught dredging sea sand in waters around the Penghu archipelago. The Hai Sheng 877 was intercepted at about 5am on Thursday after it was spotted illegally operating 56 nautical miles (104km) southwest of Cimei Township (七美). Coast guard personnel seized nearly 600 tonnes of sea sand. The crew members were turned over to the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office in Kaohsiung pending further investigation. The coast guard said that from January to this month, its personnel chased 2,988 Chinese dredging vessels found to be operating illegally in Taiwanese waters.
CULTURE
Miaobei festival scheduled
A festival featuring top orchestras and theater groups from across the country is to be held in Miaoli County for the first time in October to promote the appreciation of culture in the area. The Miaobei Arts Festival — scheduled for Oct. 2 to Dec. 20 at the Miaobei Arts Center — aims to attract locals and visitors from across the country to visit Miaoli, center artistic director Lin Chia-ying (林佳瑩) said. Some of the groups that are to perform include the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the Godot Theatre Company and the Shining Youth League of Tang Mei Yun Taiwanese Opera Company, Lin added. Information on performance times and scheduling can be found on the Miaobei Art Center’s Web site.
ENTERTAINMENT
VR projects go to Venice
Two local virtual reality (VR) projects — Great Hoax: The Moon Landing and Jiou Jia (Home) — have been included in the “Venice VR Expanded” section of this year’s Venice Film Festival. The two projects would be among 44 immersive works from 24 countries to be presented online during the 77th Venice International Film Festival, held Sept. 2 to 12. The comedy Great Hoax: The Moon Landing, by Taiwanese film director John Hsu (徐漢強) has been shortlisted for an award with 30 other immersive projects. The 17-minute film, a collaboration with Argentinian VR, film and animation studio 3dar, allows the viewer to play an astronaut faking a moon landing, while listening to the directions of a film director. Jiou Jia (Home), a collaboration by Taiwanese director Hsu Chih-yen (許智彥) and Funique VR Studio, was selected to be presented in the out-of-competition section with eight other works. The 18-minute film portrays a summer afternoon when various family members return to the family property to visit their grandmother.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
A new message broadcast on the Taipei MRT’s Wenhu (Brown) Line urging passengers to yield their seats to those in need, not necessarily elderly people, would be extended to other MRT lines and public transportation in the capital, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday. Chiang was responding to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a news conference at Taipei City Hall promoting healthy walking. Several disputes over priority seats on public transportation have recently been reported, sparking debate about who qualifies to sit in them, as most of the cases involved elderly people asking young people to give up their