WEATHER
Tropical storm approaching
Sea and land warnings are expected to be issued tomorrow and Wednesday as Tropical Storm Talim makes its way toward Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Talim, this year’s 18th tropical storm over the Pacific, was yesterday about 2,310km from Taiwan’s southernmost tip, Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and moving west-northwest toward the Bashi Channel at 25km per hour, the bureau said. If it continues on its current path, Talim will likely affect the weather starting on Wednesday and a sea warning could be issued tomorrow, followed by a land warning tomorrow or Wednesday, bureau forecaster Yen Tseng-hsi (顏增璽) said, urging the public to take precautions. Chances are high that the storm could strengthen into a typhoon and its effects on Taiwan would depend on whether it veers north, he said.
ARTS AND CULTURE
Taiwanese VR wins in Venice
A virtual reality (VR) work created by a Taiwanese professor and a US artist has won an award at the 74th Venice Film Festival. La Camera Insabbiata, an installation that allows viewers to lose themselves in a fully interactive and immersive animation journey, was awarded the prize On Saturday for the Best VR Experience. The VR installation was created by Huang Hsin-chien (黃心健), an art professor at National Chengchi University’s College of Communication, and US singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson, according to a statement released yesterday by the university. It was a difficult process for Huang, because his father was in a hospital intensive care unit during the production period and died one day after Huang returned to Taiwan from the US, the university said.
CITIZENSHIP
French priest naturalized
French Catholic priest Father Maurice Poinsot was granted Republic of China citizenship yesterday without having to give up citizenship of his home country and said he would like to be buried in Hualien County’s Yuli Township (玉里), where he has worked for most of his 58 years in Taiwan. Poinsot, 85, was presented with a national identity card, household registration certificate and permanent residency card at a ceremony at Yuli’s Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. Poinsot began missionary work in Yuli when he was 27 years old, Hualien County Government Civil Affairs Department head Hsiao Ming-chia (蕭明甲) said, adding that he had become fluent in local languages, including Mandarin, Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka and the language of the Amis people, and had assimilated into local society. Poinsot is also the coauthor of an Amis-French dictionary, which has helped other missionaries learn the Amis language and remains an important reference, Hsiao said.
ROADS
Falling rocks injure two
Two people were on Saturday injured by falling rocks as they were driving along Provincial Highway No. 8 in Hualien, the Sincheng Police Precinct said. A 35-year-old Japanese man named Hiroyuki Shirai, who was riding a bicycle, sustained head injuries with heavy bleeding and was rushed to the nearby Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital, police said. A Taiwanese woman was riding a scooter when she was struck by falling rocks near Hualien’s Tunnel of Nine Turns, police said, adding that she sustained minor abrasions to her right shoulder. The bruises were treated on-site and she was later taken to Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital for further checks, police said.
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