WEATHER
Cold weather on the way
A cold surge of wintery weather will hit the nation on Friday night, with temperatures in the north likely to fall as low as 9?C, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said the first strong continental cold air mass would arrive tomorrow and be at its strongest between Friday night and Saturday morning, with the mercury dropping to 9?C. The bureau predicted a low of 11?C for Taipei, though it cautioned that the forecast could be revised downward in the coming days. Temperatures yesterday rose slightly to between 20?C and 21?C in the north and between 23?C and 24?C in central and southern areas, while nighttime temperatures ranged between 17?C and 20?C, the bureau said.
EDUCATION
Speech club seeks members
The recently formed Taiwan Student Speaking Association is seeking more students interested in practicing their English-language speaking skills. The association meets at every other Monday from 6pm to 7pm at the e-cafe on the third floor of the National Taipei College of Business’ administration building in Taipei (No. 321, Jinan Rd Sec. 1). Students give short speeches of about 20 minutes, preferably in English, but Mandarin is acceptable, and then take questions from the audience. The group’s next meeting is on Monday, before taking an extended break for the New Year and Lunar New Year holiday period until March. Potential speakers and listeners are encouraged to attend. Admission is free. For more information, contact David at q028jc@gmail.com or 0955-091-717, or Ina at inaandjill@hotmail.com
MILITARY
Plane swap with US planned
The US will give Taiwan a vintage B-26 Invader that will become part of a museum display, in return for an F-5E warplane and an F-5F, military sources said on Monday. The B-26 is scheduled to arrive at Kaohsiung Harbor on Jan. 9 and will be put on display at an air force museum in Greater Kaohsiung after being decorated with the decals once used by the “Black Bats” squadron, the sources said. The “Black Bats” operated from 1958 until 1974 on clandestine military intelligence-gathering missions.
SOCIETY
Alishan stamps to be issued
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Alishan Forest Railway, Chunghwa Post Co will issue commemorative sheets of postage stamps and hold a Dec. 25 issuing ceremony at Pei-men Station in Chiayi City. Alishan is a popular mountain resort and tourist attraction among both local and foreign visitors. According to the Chunghwa Post, the stamps, in NT$5 and NT$25 denominations, will feature the narrow-gauge mountain railway and the trains that run on it. The sheets will also bear a gold emblem on the left top corner to mark the 100 years of the forest railway.
MILITARY
Some personnel can’t vote
About 13,000 military personnel will not be able to return to their residences to cast their ballots in the Jan. 14 elections because they will be unable to leave their posts, Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Colonel David Lo (羅紹和) said yesterday. The number represents 6 percent of the nation’s military forces, Lo said. The military has outlined a plan of personnel rotations for the elections, Lo added, saying that the rotation will take place at noon on Jan. 14 to allow as many essential personnel to cast their votes as possible.
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