WEATHER
Unstable weather forecast
A front north of Taiwan is forecast to bring unstable weather to the country for a week, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Much of Taiwan could see intermittent rain or thundershowers in the next few days, with parts of the country likely to experience heavy or torrential rain, the bureau said. People should take an umbrella or raincoat when going outdoors, it said. Hot weather is also forecast, with temperatures across the country expected to reach 30°C to 33°C, it said. Mountainous areas in the south could have even higher temperatures, it said. Typhoon Guchol, the third so far this year, as of 2am yesterday was 1,050km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving northward, the bureau said, adding that its trajectory indicated it would not directly affect Taiwan. However, Keelung, the Hengchun Peninsula and Lienchiang County would likely have high swells, it said.
EMERGENCY SERVICES
Couple rescued from sea
A Taiwanese man and his Singaporean partner were rescued unharmed after being dragged out to sea while paddleboarding in Taitung County yesterday, the Coast Guard Administration said. It is suspected that the pair, both in their early 40s, were caught in a current and were unable to make it back to shore due to exhaustion, the coast guard said. The woman was about 10m from shore and her partner 50m out when they were rescued, it said. Rescue personnel threw a lifebuoy to the woman and swam to the man, it said, adding that the two were brought back to shore by 7:06am. They were not sent to hospital, it said.
SPORTS
Fourth grader wins gold
Cheng Yu-chieh (鄭宇傑), a fourth-grade student on the taekwondo team of Hualien County’s Jiali Elementary School, won gold at the National Junior Taekwondo Championship on Saturday last week. The school’s taekwondo coach, Yen Hsiang-ping (閻祥玶), on Tuesday said that Cheng only received his black belt at the beginning of this year. He performed really well in his first performance at a national competition and demonstrated maturity beyond his years, Yen said. He showed no fear, even after losing the first engagement in the final, he said. His calm in the face of an initial setback and his ability to follow instructions demonstrated that he can perform well under duress, he said, adding that Cheng had made the final by winning two bouts without dropping a point.
ENTERTAINMENT
‘Dao V2.0’ announced
U Theatre is to mark its 35th anniversary this year with a new version of its 2017 piece Dao, showcasing the troupe’s signature tai chi-infused moves and visceral drumming. Dao was inspired by the “vivid and energetic” strokes that make up the collection of works by calligrapher Tong Yang-tze (董陽孜), titled The Sayings of Laozi and Zhuangzi, said Huang Chih-chun (黃誌群), U Theatre’s artistic and musical director. The revamped version, Dao V2.0, is an “upgraded” version of the original, featuring two completely revamped acts that focus on tai chi to better embody the philosophies of Chinese philosophers Zhuangzi (莊子) and Laozi (老子), U Theatre founder and director Liu Ruo-yu (劉若瑀) said. Dao V2.0 is scheduled to be performed at the National Theater in Taipei from Sept. 22 to 24, at the National Taichung Theater on Nov. 25 and 26, and at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) on Dec. 9 and 10.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
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