■ Transportation
MRT tries out voice system
The Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) began a six-month trial run of a voice-guided system at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall MRT station to better assist visually impaired commuters. If the test is successful, a more complete system will be installed in all MRT stations, according to the company. The new voice-guided system includes a broadcast speaker, an infrared ray sensor, a Braille board and a service bell speaker. The infrared ray sensor will broadcast the message, "visually impaired passengers who need help please stay on the right side, and press the service bell to talk to our staff members," when it senses approaching passengers. The company urged visually impaired or disabled passengers not to hesitate to ask for help at MRT stations if needed.
■ Society
Offensive map removed
A publisher has withdrawn tourist maps from CKS International Airport showing a pop singer with a profanity on her T-shirt, the company said yesterday. The free map of Taipei shows singer Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄) wearing a pink sleeveless T-shirt with the words "dirty white slut" printed on it in gothic letters, a pink cap and hot pants. The words seemed to refer to promiscuity. The map's publisher, the Vision Group, said there had been no complaints about the slogan, but it had still decided to remove the maps from the airport. "The person responsible for issuing the map didn't understand English, but when we saw the picture, we thought it better to withdraw it from circulation," a company spokeswoman said. The map is still available at some hotels in Taipei, though. "We have no right to interfere with the hotels, they make their own decision about the map," she said.
■ Politics
CCP officials `chat' with Li
Writer and independent legislator Li Ao (李敖) yesterday told the press that Chinese authorities had "visited him for a chat" after his first speech in China on Wednesday during which he championed freedom of speech and took repeated swipes at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In his speech to an audience of about 500 people at Peking University on Wednesday, Li advised the 69 million members of the CCP to relax and stop "wearing a poker-face." Li told the press yesterday that his second speech to an audience at Tsinghua University today will go ahead as scheduled, as will the pungency of the content of his speech.
■ Health
Flu-shot campaign starts
Free inoculations for selected people will begin this week, drawing on the 2.15 million doses of influenza vaccine purchased earlier this year, the Department of Health said yesterday. Health officials said that the medicine is similar to last year's, and that they hoped to see a higher inoculation rate than the 60 percent achieved last year. The free shots are offered to medical personnel, children, rare-disease patients as well as workers in the poultry or livestock industries. Officials from the health department's Center for Disease Control reminded those involved in raising, slaughtering or shipping poultry and livestock to receive inoculations. The inoculation rate last year for this industry was the lowest in the country at 59.9 percent, while those in the medical care and quarantine industries had the highest rate at 88 percent. Hospitals and clinics will provide shots to the general public for between NT$400 and NT$500 each.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
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