ASTRONOMY
Year’s biggest moon coming
The biggest and brightest full moon of the year will appear early tomorrow morning, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said yesterday. The moon is to reach its closest proximity to Earth this year at 1:43am, when it will be 357,000km away, the museum said. If there are good weather conditions, stargazers will be able to see the moon easily at any point between 5:59pm today and 5:41am tomorrow, it said. Compared with other full moons this year, today’s moon will be about 30 percent brighter than usual, museum researcher Chang Kuei-lan (張桂蘭) said. However, it will be difficult to notice this moon’s difference in size compared with other full moons in just one observation, Chang said. She suggested that to to get a better sense of the difference, astronomy buffs should look at images of other full moons throughout the year as a basis for comparison.
BUSINESS
Starbucks opens in Kinmen
Starbucks opened its first store in Kinmen yesterday, in a bid to establish its franchise on the nation’s outlying islands after two failed previous attempts. The outlet is the US coffeeshop chain’s only store on the islands, but its 317th outlet nationwide. To mark the opening of the store at the Wind Lion Plaza next to Kinmen Airport, Starbucks unveiled three commemorative mugs and take-away cups displaying the county’s architecture, including the Guningtou Battle Museum and swallow-tail roofs that are a unique Fujianese architectural feature. The new outlet is also selling a limited number of Kinmen Wind Lion postcards. Starbucks previously operated two stores in Penghu, but they closed shortly after opening. A day earlier in Kinmen, President Chain Store Corp, which operates the nation’s 7-Eleven convenience stores, inaugurated its 17th outlet in the county.
POLITICS
Shen exits Taipei race
Less than two months after announcing his decision to run in the Nov. 29 Taipei mayoral election, former legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) on Friday announced that he is dropping out of the race. Shen broke the news in a mass message broadcast on the social networking app Line. The independent candidate said he is “terminating my campaign with immediate effect” due to a knee injury and a lack of momentum for his mayoral bid. Although he is well-liked in some circles for his reputation as an outspoken and fair-minded politician, opinion polls have consistently shown the 74-year-old commanding support rates of just 8 percent to 15 percent, trailing the two main contenders, independent Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Sean Lien (連勝文).
TOURISM
Thailand waives visa fees
Taiwanese visitors to Thailand will not have to pay for tourist visas starting from yesterday until Nov. 8, the Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei announced on Friday. The normal price of a tourist visa for Thailand is NT$1,200 for Taiwanese passport-holders. Thailand is a top travel destination for Taiwanese and the fee waiver is expected to benefit more than 30,000 travelers per month during the three-month period, according to the Thai Tourism Authority. The authority advised Taiwanese travelers that they will still need to apply for visas at the Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei during the fee-waiver period, adding that fees for business visas and temporary residence permits are still in place.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard