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.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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