WEATHER
Banciao hits fall record high
New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) yesterday experienced the hottest day since the beginning of autumn, the Central Weather Bureau said. Even though Saturday is Qiufen, the autumnal equinox in East Asian calendars, temperatures throughout the nation remained high. The temperature reached 37°C at 2:17pm in Banciao, making it the hottest recorded temperature this month nationwide and the second-hottest recorded temperature for September in Banciao since the installation of temperature sensors in the district in 1972. In Taipei, a high of 36.9°C was recorded at 12:23pm, making it the fourth-hottest September temperature since records began. The heat is primarily due to southeasterly winds that are circulating around the nation, which are to remain until Thursday, when a weak front and seasonal northeasterly wind is to move in, bureau forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said.
TOURISM
Peach launches flights
Japan-based budget airline Peach Aviation yesterday said it is to launch its inaugural Taoyuan-Sapporo flight service today and Taoyuan-Sendai flights tomorrow, amid efforts to increase its market presence in Taiwan. Round-trip flights to Sapporo are to occur every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, while those to Sendai will be available on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the airline said. The schedule will apply to flights from today to Oct. 28, which is peak season for travel to Japan, the airline said. Starting next summer, the carrier is to also offer daily flights between Kaohsiung and Okinawa, CEO Shinichi Inoue said earlier this month. “Taiwan is central to Peach’s goal of becoming a ‘bridge in the sky’ in Asia,” Inoue said, adding that the company plans to double the size of its fleet of 19 by 2020.
SOCIETY
Kansas inks license MOU
Taiwan and the US state of Kansas on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on driver’s license reciprocity that allows license-holders from either side to obtain a local license without having to take local tests, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Denver said. The MOU, which went into effect immediately, makes Kansas the 24th state with which Taiwan has signed a driver’s license reciprocity agreement, the office said in a statement. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it would continue to work with other US states to provide the same convenience to their residents.
LOTTERY
Receipt prizes unclaimed
Four NT$10 million (US$331,225) uniform invoice lottery prizes remain unclaimed, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday, urging invoice holders to claim their prizes. The four outstanding sales invoices issued in the May to June period have the number 99768846. The receipts were issued at the Hankyu Uni-President Mall in Taipei for a NT$690 purchase; at a National Petroleum Co gas station on Roosevelt Road in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) for NT$1,000; at a FamilyMart on New Taipei City’s Jingping Road for a NT$148 purchase of cold noodles and tea eggs; and at a Wellcome supermarket in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe (中和) for a NT$15 coffee. The ministry said there are also four outstanding receipts for the NT$2 million prize. The outstanding receipts bear the number 83660478. People who have winning receipts have until Nov. 6 to claim their prizes.
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