ENTERTAINMENT
Mayday to play 8 shows
Photo courtesy of B’in Music
Mayday has announced plans to hold eight concerts in Taoyuan, including a special New Year’s Eve concert. The concerts titled “Mayday Now-Here Re: Live 2022-2023” are to be held at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium from Dec. 23 to Jan. 8, with fans invited to welcome in the New Year with the band on Dec. 31, the band’s agent, B’in Music, said in a statement released on Monday. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Saturday for those using E.Sun Bank credit cards, and at 11am for everyone else.
COVID-19
Premier contracts virus
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has tested positive for COVID-19 after feeling unwell, Cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said yesterday. Su felt ill after spending the morning at the Legislative Yuan, and went home to quarantine for seven days with mild symptoms after a COVID-19 rapid test came back positive, Lo said. Due to Su’s absence, the legislative caucuses decided to postpone the afternoon legislative session. While in quarantine, Su would be working virtually, Lo added. Su met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Central Epidemic Command Center on Saturday, Presidential Office spokesperson Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said. Tsai is in good health and her medical team would continue to observe her, Chang said.
SOCIETY
PFP’s Hwang Yih-jiau dies
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that it had no reason to suspect foul play in the death of former People First Party (PFP) legislator Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交), but did not say whether he had taken his own life. Hwang was found by paramedics with no vital signs at 5:11pm on Monday after receiving a report that a man had fallen from the 11th floor of an apartment building on Wende Road in Taipei’s Neihu District (?湖). He was pronounced dead at Tri-Service General Hospital after efforts to resuscitate him failed. He was 69 years old. PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) said he was deeply shocked to learn of Hwang’s passing. Prior to being a lawmaker from 1999 to 2012, Hwang was a spokesman for the now-defunct Taiwan Provincial Government. He also held positions at the Government Information Office, which was dissolved in 2012.
TRAVEL
Fair to offer overseas deals
The Taipei International Travel Fair is to take place from Nov. 4 to 7 at the Nangang Exhibition Center, the Taiwan Visitors Association announced on Monday. The fair is to be the biggest of its kind since Taiwan reopened its borders on Thursday, the association said. The expo’s 1,200 booths would include tourism firms from countries such as Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, as well as airline companies and hotels, it said. They would be selling travel items such as plane tickets, tour packages, food and lodging vouchers, and tickets to shows and theme parks at discount prices, the association said. Early-bird tickets priced at NT$150 are available today only at kiosks in Family Mart, 7-Eleven, Hi-life and OK Mart outlets, as well as via KKday, Klook and udn’s ticket sales Web site. Regular tickets cost NT$200. Those unable to get an early-bird deal can buy tickets at a 10 percent discount from tomorrow to Nov. 3. Medical professionals, firefighters and police officers would be given free entry to show gratitude for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, the association said. Another 10,000 free tickets would be distributed to blood donors at Taipei’s 17 blood donation locations from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5, the association said.
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.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
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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