■ Weather
Tapei sets heat record
The temperature in Taipei reached 36.4?C at 12:57pm yesterday, marking the highest reading in the city so far this year, the Central Weather Bureau reported. Since before Tropical Storm Mindulle began to affect the country last week, the meteorologists had been warning of high temperatures, with highs of 36?C forecast for the western and southern parts of the country. Last Thursday at the height of the storm's onslaught, temperatures in Taichung City and Taichung County reached 39.9?C around noon, for a record high in a century in that area.
■ Disaster Relief
KMT donates blankets
Under the instruction of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), the party will today deliver goods such as blankets and flashlights to aid residents of Tungshi Township in Taichung County, which was one of the hardest-hit areas by Typhoon Mindulle. In addition, the party had also instructed local party branches to help out with the region's disaster relief work, KMT spokeswoman Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said.
■ Disaster Relief
Donations needed
A number of organizations are continuing to call on the public to donate money and goods towards disaster relief efforts. The Executive Yuan has issued a statement calling for donations to be wired to the Chunghwa Post account 19595889, and for material goods, such as imperishable foods and clothing, to be donated to the Taiwan Red Cross. To learn where to send goods, call the Red Cross at (02) 2362-8232, ext. 32. The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan is also asking for donations to assist its local churches in aiding the needy in afflicted areas.
■ Defense
Fighters in fly-by shocker
Three Mirage 2000-5 fighters made a fly-by over the Sun Yat-sen Freeway's "Jenteh Runway" on a training mission prior to the annual "Han Kuang" -- or Han Glory -- military exercise, which is an exercise involving all branches of the nation's military. The three fighters took off from their base in Hsinchu and flew over the "Jenteh Runway" at an altitude of approximately 70m to 100m at low speed. Neither the Ministry of National Defense nor the Air Force General Headquarters would confirm the activity, but there were numerous eyewitnesses to the event. The "Jenteh Runway" is designed to serve as a temporary airfield when necessary as well as another five "runways" in Chungli, Huatan, Chiayi and Matou. These were included in the design of the freeway in 1970 to act as emergency runways in the event of war. The "Han Kuang" military exercise begins on July 20.
■ Education
Colleges to raise tuition
About 20 percent of colleges and universities in the nation will raise their tuition fees by 5 percent to 7 percent in the coming school year, even though the Ministry of Education announced last month that colleges and universities with budget surpluses over the past three years will not be able to raise tuition fees. According to ministry statistics released yesterday, 57 colleges and universities, private or public, have submitted official documents to seek permission to increase tuition, claiming that they did not have budget surpluses in the past three years. With a 5 percent tuition hike, students who go to public colleges will have to pay about NT$1,500 more per semester and students who go to private colleges will have to pay more about NT$3,000 per semester, beginning this fall.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods