FISHING
EU to assess ‘yellow card’
An EU delegation is to evaluate the effectiveness of measures to stop illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Taiwan, an EU official said on Thursday. The European Commission in October 2015 gave Taiwan a “yellow card” and warned that the nation was at risk of being identified as uncooperative in the fight against unregulated fishing. The EU official, who asked not to be named, said the withdrawal of the yellow card would depend the measures implemented to curb illegal and unregulated fishing. Taiwan’s fishing regulations have since improved, Council of Agriculture deputy head Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said.
WEATHER
Tropical storm brings rain
A tropical depression east of the Philippines is this year’s 20th tropical storm, the Central Weather Bureau said. As of 2pm yesterday, Tropical Storm Khanun was 530km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west-southwest. Rain is expected in northern, eastern and southern Taiwan with extremely heavy rain possible in some eastern parts of the nation today and tomorrow, although the tropical storm is not expected to make landfall, the bureau said.
TRANSPORT
Wyoming ink license deal
Taiwan and Wyoming have signed a reciprocal agreement that allows licensed drivers to get a license in each other’s territory without taking written and road tests, a media release issued by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said on Thursday. The agreement takes effect immediately. Wyoming is the 25th US state to have entered into such an agreement with Taiwan.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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