CULTURE
Taiwan festival to begin
The annual Taiwan Plus cultural festival in Japan is to be held in Kyoto for the first time on Saturday and Sunday, showcasing the Taiwanese religious icon Mazu and featuring live performances by popular music acts, an event promoter said yesterday. The festival, which celebrates the rapport between Taiwan and Japan, would include an exhibition about the sea goddess enshrined in Fengtian Temple in Hsinkang, Chiayi County, the Kyoto City Tourism Association said. There would also be live music shows, featuring Taiwanese folk singer Chen Ming-chang (陳明章), Hakka pop singer Hsieh Yu-Wei (謝宇威) and Puyuma Family Band, an indigenous band whose members have won more than 10 Golden Melody awards. During the event, the Taiwanese artists would also collaborate with their Japanese counterparts, such as the Style Kyoto Orchestra and conductor Kimbo Ishii, the association said. Other well-known participants include Kyoto Tachibana Senior-High School marching band and Japanese Noh music performer Tatsunori Kongo, it said. Besides music, a bazaar featuring Taiwanese food and culture from about 100 local brands would offer delicacies including bubble milk tea, pastries, beer and jam, it said. The event is to run from 11am to 6pm.
EDUCATION
Teacher suspended
The Taichung Bureau of Education said it has fined and imposed a four-year teaching ban on a preschool teacher who threatened a child with scissors, while also ordering the school that employed her to halt new enrollments for one year. The bureau said it received a tip-off earlier last month and contracted an outside investigator on April 22 to examine the case. The investigator’s report said that the teacher forcibly held down a child with special needs, threatened a child with a pair of scissors and made children run laps around a track as a punishment. After a meeting on the situation on Tuesday last week, the bureau said it had fined the female teacher NT$400,000 and banned her from working at educational institutions for four years.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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