POLITICS
Taipei mayor to visit US
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) plans to visit New York, Boston and Philadelphia on an official 11-day trip to the US, which starts on Wednesday. The visit would focus on municipal exchanges, a source in the Taipei City Government said. Chiang is to stay in New York for three days, during which he plans to visit Times Square to learn about pedestrian-friendly policies and Citi Field baseball stadium to gather information that could help improve Taipei Dome operations. He is to travel to Boston on Sunday, and meet local city officials at the Massachusetts State House on Monday during the day and deliver a speech titled “Global Taipei: Bridging Tradition and Innovation” at the John F. Kennedy Jr Forum at Harvard University in the evening. Chiang is to visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the following day, before taking a train to Philadelphia for additional municipal-related activities. He is scheduled to fly back to Taiwan on Saturday next week.
SOCIETY
Crane falls in Kaohsiung
One Vietnamese worker was killed and one Taiwanese worker was badly injured at a construction site in Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山) yesterday morning after a tower crane collapsed, the city’s fire bureau said. First responders found the Vietnamese man’s body under the collapsed crane, with no vital signs, and an unconscious Taiwanese man with multiple bone fractures, the bureau said, adding that it received a report about the incident at about 9:40am. The Taiwanese man, who was the operator of the tower crane, was injured after it fell to the ground and has been hospitalized, Kaohsiung City Labor Affairs Bureau chief secretary Pi Chung-mou (皮忠謀) said. All work at the construction site has been ordered to stop for an investigation into the deadly incident, Pi said. The Labor Affairs Bureau would work with Vietnam’s representative office in Taiwan and help the family of the Vietnamese man make necessary arrangements, including claiming compensation for the work-related death, Pi added.
SPORTS
RCBIC to begin next week
The Kaohsiung Respect Culture Breaking International Championships (RCBIC) are to take place at the Kaohsiung Music Center on Saturday and Sunday next week, featuring Canadian breakdancer B-Boy Phil Wizard, who won the gold medal for men’s breaking in the Paris Olympics last month, the event organizer said. The competition has a total prize of NT$1.5 million (US$46,963) and would have team battles, individual men’s and women’s categories, a category for individuals younger than 15 years old and a new all-style individual category for the first time, the Kaohsiung Sports Development Bureau said. The event would also feature judges and top breakers from the Paris Games, the bureau added. Renowned South Korean breakdancer B-Boy Hong 10 and Menno from the Netherlands, who are three-time Red Bull BC One world champions, are also to participate in the event. Japanese breakdancer B-Girl Ayumi, a competitor in the women’s breaking competition at the Paris Olympics, would serve as a judge. Known for her smooth moves and impressive musicality, Ayumi remains a top-ranked breaker at the age of 40. Another judge is South Korean breakdancer Virus, who is known for integrating crutches into his breaking, the bureau said in the statement.
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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