WEATHER
La Nina influences patterns
Taiwan is still under the influence of La Nina this winter, which will result in lower rainfall and colder temperatures than average this month and next, the Central Weather Bureau said. Average temperatures are expected to be about 17?C this month and 20?C next month, the bureau said. Average temperatures for February have fluctuated between 16.8? and 18.1?C for the past 30 years, while the average March temperature ranges between 18.8? and 20.7?C, bureau data show. La Nina results in the cooling of ocean temperatures in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific, said Chia Hsin-hsing (賈新興), chief of the bureau’s long-range forecast section. Meanwhile, the bureau said the rain forecast for northern Taiwan this month and next is 100mm and 150mm respectively. The average precipitation ranges from 69.7mm to 217.7mm in northern Taiwan in February and 133.2mm to 190mm in March.
TOURISM
Yangminshan park has app
Yangmingshan National Park is offering visitors a new application service that provides information on attractions, transport and maps for the suburban Taipei mountain area, officials said yesterday. The new app is based on an online map and GPS location system and offers maps of trails and cycle paths, as well as the latest information on the park, officials said. Users can also access information in offline mode. The app is available free from the Apple app store and Android Market, officials said. Meanwhile, the park has also introduced free Internet Wi-Fi hotspots in nine areas, including the Qingtiangang and Yangmingshuwu visitor centers, as well as the park’s headquarters. The park is planning to launch an English version of the app by the end of the year in order to serve the growing number of foreign visitors, officials said.
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