ENERGY
Power use hits record
Warm temperatures on Monday drove peak power consumption this year to a new high and reserves to a new low, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) said. Power consumption hit 30.29 million kilowatts at 4:01pm, beating the previous high of 30.23 million kilowatts, recorded on Monday last week, the state-run utility said. Operating reserves reached 5.03 percent, triggering an “orange” warning, Taipower Department of System Operations official Cheng You-tsai (鄭有財) said. It was the second time since 2005 that Taipower has issued an orange warning in April. The first time was last year. An orange warning indicates operating reserves have fallen below 6 percent.
SOCIETY
Brazilian office touts ties
Samba music, soccer and capoeira performances are just some of the experiences Brazil hopes to share with Taiwan, Commercial Office of Brazil to Taipei Director Fabio Franco said. At the office’s launch of a “cultural corner” on Monday, Franco said he hoped to introduce as many cultural elements as possible to boost people-to-people exchanges. The corner is a symbol of improved Taiwan-Brazil ties, and Taiwanese are welcome to participate in other similar activities to learn that the country offers more than just beautiful beaches and sunshine, he said. Filipe Simoes and Silvano Manuel Da Silva, who teach Brazilian martial arts in Taiwan, said they look forward to sharing the spirit of the sport, also known as Brazilian jiujitsu. “The sport is not about just fighting against each other, it’s about controlling your mind,” Simoes said, adding that he is interested in promoting the sport in the nation. People can call (02) 2835-7388 to learn more about the activities.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,