Radio Taiwan International
Date: 18 October, 2019
By: Leslie Liao

The third annual World Music Festival kicked off at Taipei’s Dajia Riverside Park on Friday. The three-day event is meant to encourage cultural exchange in Taiwan.

The festival will feature over 20 performances by musicians from Canada, Japan, India, Latvia, Spain, and Mexico, as well as performers from Taiwan. 90% of the groups from overseas are coming to Taiwan for the first time.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2019/10/18
By: By Daniel C. ’20 and Dhirpal S. ’20, Taipei American School

Taipei American School will participate in the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition with a student invention that can detect agricultural contaminants in produce.

Taipei American School (TAS), an international school based in Shilin district, will be participating in the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition in Boston from October 31 to November 4.

Representing Taiwan, the TAS students from the synthetic biology course will present a project on the detection of agricultural contaminants such as pesticides and heavy metals. The experiment team used synthetic biology to design DNA constructs that produce metal and pesticide binding proteins. These consist of numerous metal and pesticide binding proteins linked to different colors. After further testing on these constructs, they hope to find a visible concentration of the proteins so people can see the colored stains created by these proteins. Potentially, consumers would be able to dip their produce into the solution and observe a change in color, indicating the presence of metals and pesticides.

In coordination with the experiment team, the human practice team aims to raise public awareness about the harmful effects of agricultural contaminants on the environment and living organisms. Students have tackled this problem by creating surveys and infographics, contacting farmers and distributors, and reaching out to government officials through a policy brief.    [FULL  STORY]

Owner will be fined after raid on illegal breeding farm

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A total of 226 dogs and cats are looking for new homes after a raid on an illegal breeding farm in Central Taiwan’s Yunlin County, reports said Friday (October 18).

A member of the public alerted the authorities to the presence of the farm in the township of Beigang, the Central News Agency reported.

Seven days after the official declaration that the animals have been impounded, they will all go up for adoption.

Police first applied for a warrant before they raided the facility, situated in the countryside and guarded by ferocious dogs, according to the report.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/18
By: Elaine Hou and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, Oct. 18 (CNA) Taiwan has received confirmation that it will remain a part of the American visa waiver program (VWP), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced on Friday.

MOFA said in a statement that the confirmation came in an Oct. 15 letter from the American Institute in Taiwan, which it said demonstrated the success of the countries' efforts to strengthen law enforcement cooperation.

The ministry did not explain what led to the confirmation, but the U.S. typically conducts periodic inspections to ensure that VWP members are following the required protocols.

Taiwan joined the VWP in November 2012. Following an inspection in 2014, its membership was extended in 2015, the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]

ANTI-KMT TACTICS? Sources close to Han said a visit to the US may not have helped, as President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration might have engaged in ‘petty actions’

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 19, 2019
By: Wang Jung-hsiang and Dennis Xie  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday said he would not travel to the US in his capacity

as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, citing a busy campaign schedule at home in the run-up to the Jan. 11 election.

Han made the announcement on the sidelines of a campaign event in Pingtung County yesterday afternoon.

Visiting the US would take at least two weeks and with the presidential election only 84 days away, he is under enormous time pressure, as he has several campaign destinations in Taiwan proper, as well as in Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, Han said.

His campaign team had to reluctantly leave out a US trip so he could engage more grassroots voters in Taiwan, Han said.    [FULL  STORY]

TOURIST TRAP? Another incident at the Taipei attraction this week has highlighted its growing reputation for price gouging and it might be getting a bad reputation among foreign visitors

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 18, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Taiwanese netizens were buzzing with discussion and negative talk about Taipei’s Shilin Night

Market (士林夜市), after a woman reported yesterday that she was ripped off when buying grilled beef cubes.

In a posted message on the Web site Baoliao Gongshe, the woman said she visited Shilin Night Market on Wednesday and ordered two portions of grilled beef cubes, which cost her NT$600.

“The vendor did not put up a price list, and I ordered two portions, thinking the price would be around NT$200, which was what I paid for grilled beef cubes at other similar vendors. But I was shocked when the proprietor told me to pay NT$600,” the woman said.

“I had this item at other places, so I thought it would be the same prices as others, a small portion for NT$100 and a large portion for NT$200. That was why I did not ask for the price beforehand,” she added.

“As the food was already prepared and done with, I reluctantly paid the money… But I did not enjoy eating the beef cubes, due to feeling that I was cheated,” she said.

One person wrote, “Maybe it was the way you dressed, the vendor thinks you were a tourist.”
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 17 October, 2019
By: Shirley Lin

Lawmakers from Germany, France, and the UK have officially launched the Formosa Club, a group backing Taiwan and its democracy.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said that European lawmakers have seen how China has been putting pressure on Taiwan, and how it has endangered both cross-strait relations and regional peace and stability. Members of the Formosa Club hope to unite together and help Taiwan attain meaningful participation in international organizations.    [FULL  STORY]

Forbes
Date: Oct 16, 2019
By: H I SuttonContributor 

Vietnamese fishermen recently may have gotten a big surprise: an 11,000-ton submarine surfacing

among their boats. The incident reportedly occurred in September but has only recently come to light via social media. The Chinese Navy Jin Class ballistic missile submarine was said to have been operating near the Paracel Islands. The islands, known as Xisha in Chinese, are in a strategic location in the South China Sea. They are controlled by China but also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

The Jin Class is the newest missile submarine in the Chinese arsenal. Six have been built and are already the backbone of China’s at-sea nuclear deterrent. The submarines are based near Sanya on the island of Hainan, about 190 miles northwest of the Paracel Islands.

Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines can operate submerged for months at a time and stay hidden beneath the waves throughout their patrol. Surfacing next to another country's vessel is unusual and suggests that something has gone wrong. Something serious enough to warrant sacrificing its main asset: stealth. This is not the type of submarine you would expect to be used to send a message.
[FULL  STORY8]

Most of the island felt the quake

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/17
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A magnitude 5.4 quake struck under the Pacific east of Taiwan Thursday (October 17) evening, but most of the island except the southern end felt the tremor, the Central Weather Bureau reported.

The temblor struck at 7:44 p.m., 16.5 kilometers under the ocean and 83.6 km east of the Hualien County Government building.    [FULL  STO-RY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/17

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) After a four-year ordeal in which a rapidly-growing tumor deformed his face,

Michael Mahusay is smiling again following a series of surgeries at Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital.

At a press conference on Thursday marking the end of his treatment, Mahusay, a 26 year-old from the Philippines, said he first discovered the bone-textured mass on his upper left jaw in 2015.

Within two years, the tumorous growth had fundamentally altered his life: he had trouble eating and speaking, and had to cover his face with a bandanna in public.

(Michael Mahusay [center] as seen after his surgery/Photo courtesy of Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital)

Finally, his girlfriend left him, taking their young son, Mahusay said.    [FULL  STORY]