■ WEATHER
Another tropical storm forms
Another tropical storm has formed following the departure of its predecessor Linfa last week, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. Wang Yao-hua (王耀華), a CWB weather forecast specialist, said tropical storm Nangka was close to Luzon in the Philippines and was moving to the northwest. As of press time, the storm was about 1,200km away from Pingtung County, Wang said. “We estimate that the storm is likely to hit Luzon,” Wang said. “It may weaken after it passes land.” Starting tomorrow, the storm may be guided by a high pressure system from the Pacific Coast to move north, he said. Chances of rain are high nationwide on Friday and Saturday.
■ HEALTH
Frying oil under scrutiny
The Department of Health (DOH) has asked local health bureaus to monitor the frying oil used in fast food outlets after checks found that some big name chains did not change their oil on a daily basis. DOH official Liu Fang-ming (劉芳銘) said Taipei County consumer protection officials found one fast food restaurant that only changed its oil twice a week. Officials voiced concern that the continued use of frying oil at high temperatures could result in the release of carcinogenic substances. Liu said the DOH had asked local health officials to “include the checking of frying oil as one of the priorities in monitoring food safety.” At present no law exists stipulating how often oil should be changed. Officials can only determine if the texture of the oil has become unhealthy by viewing its color, foam formation and turbidity. Health authorities can, however, impose a fine of between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000 on food operators if they are found to be using substandard oil and take no action to address the situation after being warned.
■TRANSPORTATION
China names date for flights
China has proposed Aug. 31 as the date for the launch of regularly scheduled cross-strait flights, but Taiwan wants it brought forward, a spokesman for the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) confirmed yesterday. “Taiwan and China have yet to decide on the start date for the 270 regular two-way flights per week,” said Yeh Yung-ching (葉永清), a CAA section chief. Commenting on a report that the CAA and Taiwanese carriers have agreed that ticket prices for cross-strait flights will be lowered by about 15 percent, Yeh said the CAA had urged airlines to reduce prices in response to widespread complaints about ticket costs. Taiwan and China reached an agreement in April in their third round of negotiations to increase the number of cross-strait flights from 108 to 270 per week but a date for the implementation of the plan has not been decided.
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