SEISMOLOGY
Temblor strikes off Hualien
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck off Hualien County at 4:26pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was at sea, 8.5km southeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.9km, CWA data showed. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, was highest in Hualien and parts of Nantou County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured 3 in parts of Yilan County, Taichung and Changhua County, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries following the quake, which the CWA said was an aftershock of the earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale that rocked the Hualien area on April 3.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei Kings
SPORTS
Lin re-signs with Kings
Former NBA star Jeremy Lin (林書豪) has exercised a one-year option with the New Taipei Kings and would play with the team in the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) inaugural 2024-2025 season. Lin made the announcement yesterday via his Instagram account, saying he was “re-signing with the Kings” and excited to play alongside his younger brother and other teammates. Last year, Lin signed a one-year deal with the Kings with an option for a second year. “As the saying goes, getting to the top isn’t easy, staying there’s even harder. It won’t be easy defending the title, but we’re excited for the challenge,” Lin wrote.
EDUCATION
Youth phone use high: poll
More than 85 percent of Taiwanese senior-high school students use social media, while cellphone and computer games were the most popular devices for Internet use by students at lower levels, a survey released yesterday showed. The survey, commissioned by the Ministry of Education and conducted in March to April last year by National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University’s Research Center of Humanities and Social Sciences, was based on 4,937 responses from students in elementary school grades 4 to 6, junior-high school (grades 7 to 9) and senior-high school (grades 10 to 12). It found that 59.7 percent of elementary-school students had a smartphone, compared with 87 percent of junior-high students and 91.8 percent of senior-high school students. In response to the survey results, the ministry said it had developed a program in 2019 to promote media and digital literacy education for elementary and junior-high school students. The program — a subsidized three-year pilot version of which was launched at 18 schools in 2022 — aims to help young students evaluate sources of information, develop healthy social media habits and avoid online fraud and bullying, it said.
CULTURE
‘Sounding Light’ premieres
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre held an overseas premiere of the nature-inspired 2020 work Sounding Light (定光) during a tour in Germany, which concluded in Dresden on Saturday evening, local time. Sounding Light, one of four works by Cloud Gate artistic director Cheng Tsung-lung (鄭宗龍) that the dance troupe plans to present to overseas audiences this year, was staged at the Hellerau-European Centre for the Arts in Dresden. The acclaimed dance troupe first performed Sounding Light at the Festival Kunstfest Weimar on Aug. 24. The two-city tour in Germany marked Cloud Gate’s first performance in Weimar in 21 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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