WEATHER
Taipei temperature peaks
The temperature in Taipei climbed to 36.3oC yesterday afternoon, the highest in the city so far this year and on par with the temperature recorded on March 18 in Taitung, weather forecasters said. The Central Weather Bureau said Taipei’s 36.3oC was the highest temperature recorded in Taiwan yesterday, followed by 35.6oC in Banciao, 34.5oC in Tamsui, 33.7oC in Taichung and 33.4oC in Chiayi. However, forecasters said that a weather front was expected to reach the nation last night, bringing rainfall and possible cooler weather to northern Taiwan, with highs expected in the low 30s. The chances of rain would increase throughout the week and temperatures are likely to drop, they said.
CULTURE
Malraux Seminar to open
French government and company officials are to attend a seminar in Taipei to share their experiences regarding the development of the film, TV, radio and publishing sectors in France, Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture said recently. The 11th Malraux Seminar, to be held from today to Wednesday, is to cover topics including film-rights trading, international film co-production, e-publishing challenges, French TV and radio production trends, and government subsidies and policies, the ministry said. Jointly conducted by the ministry and the French Office in Taipei, the seminar has invited speakers from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, the national film agency Centre national du cinema et de l’image animee, electronic media regulator Conseil superieur de l’audiovisuel, film company Gaumont and publishing group Editis, according to the ministry.
COMMUNITY
Mangoes help victims
Organizers of a mango festival held in Taipei yesterday invited the public to buy mango products to raise funds for victims of domestic violence. The festival was the first of its kind held at the Yongkang International Marketplace in downtown Taipei, a popular tourist spot famous for its mango shaved ice. Mango ices were available for sale at the Yongkang Park, with proceeds going to The Garden of Hope Foundation to help domestic-violence victims. Twenty boxes of high-quality mangoes were also auctioned at the festival with the base bidding prices of NT$20,000 (US$668) per box. Auction prices topped NT$200,000 per box several times, organizers said. A total of NT$1.2 million was raised from the festival yesterday and 30 shops in the marketplace have agreed to place donation boxes in their shops to raise funds for abused woman and children, the foundation said.
AGRICULTURE
Residents start farming
Residents of Kinmen County began work as leisure farmers on Saturday in a local government program that promotes the farming of organic produce. Launched last year, the “Happy Farm” program operated by the county’s agricultural research institute allows residents to lease land made available by the institute, which has set aside 60 plots totaling two hectares for the farmers. Those who joined the program last year harvested their crop at the end of last month and have decided to continue farming their 30 or so plots, while some new faces appeared on Saturday to take over the remaining plots. Each plot measures 10m long and 2m wide. At an event held on Saturday, some leisure farmers showed the strawberries and water spinach they grew to county officials visiting the farm.
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