WEATHER
CWB issues warning
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday issued this year’s first thunderstorm warning for Pingtung and Taitung counties, which was received by some people as good news amid a prolonged dry spell. While sporadic rain was forcast for northern Taiwan, the bureau cautioned residents in Pingtung and Taitung about likely thunderstorms and heavy rain in the afternoon. Meanwhile, farmers in Taichung said they were happy that heavy rain fell in the city’s mountainous areas, although it only lasted about 25 minutes. Former CWB Weather Forecast Center director Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that more moisture from southeastern China is to reach Taiwan from Sunday to Wednesday next week, which might be the prelude to the plum rain season that usually starts in May or June. However, the moisture might not entirely alleviate the water shortage situation, Wu said.
EDUCATION
Schools listed in ranking
Thirty-five Taiwanese universities were listed in the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, the only school ranking taking into account performance toward reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals. National Cheng Kung University in Tainan and National Taiwan University in Taipei were the nation’s only schools in the 101-to-200 bracket, the survey showed. China Medical University, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology and Tunghai University were in the 301-to-400 bracket, it showed. Fifteen of the nation’s universities were in the 401-to-600 bracket, six in the 601-to-800 bracket, three between 801 and 1,000, and one in the 1,000-plus group, it showed. The ranking included 1,115 universities from 94 countries and regions worldwide. The ranking, which has been published annually since 2019, assesses school’s sustainability efforts based on indicators in four areas: research, stewardship, outreach and teaching. The 17 global goals, set by the UN in 2015 and due in 2030, include eradication of hunger and poverty, as well as the elevating the quality of education. Russia had the most institutions in the ranking (75), followed by Japan with 73. Last year, 24 Taiwanese universities were represented in the survey.
ART
Classics staged in Taipei
The Taipei Philharmonic Opera Studio is to stage a version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne featuring puppetry and dialogue in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) and songs in German. The program, scheduled for May 4 to 6 in Taipei’s Zhongshan Hall, is also to include Joseph-Maurice Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges, the studio said in a news release on Monday. The studio is collaborating with Taiyang Theatre Co for the Mozart opera and Unique Puppet Theater for the Ravel piece, the studio said. Operas have always combined sound and visual arts, and the addition of puppetry would enrich the experience, Opera Studio music director Chiu Chun-chiang (邱君強) said. Taiyang Theatre Co artistic director Robin Ruizendaal said that puppets have a wider range of movement than stage actors. Opera director Chen Cheng-hsu (陳昶旭) said that Bastien und Bastienne evokes the emotional insecurity that is a near-universal experience for people in love, and the studio’s performance is meant to give a Taiwanese flavor to the 18th-century piece. L’Enfant et les Sortileges, which involves inanimate objects coming to life to take revenge on an unruly child, is a story that should resonate with families in the audience, he said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street, a neighboring apartment building tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the site with water to stabilize the groundwater level and then added dirt and cement to stabilize
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