WEATHER
Depression to bring rain
A tropical depression that formed in the South China Sea on Monday could bring rain over the next two days, although no direct impact is expected, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The depression about 500km southwest of Taiwan’s southernmost tip is moving west-northwest at 11kph, and is carrying sustained winds of 54kph with gusts of up to 82kph, the bureau said. The depression is to strengthen a front from the southwest, bringing showers and thunderstorms to southern and southeastern Taiwan until tomorrow, while eastern and northeastern Taiwan could see intermittent rain and thunderstorms, the bureau said. Northern Taiwan could also experience heavy rain this afternoon.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Concern over extraditions
The nation has expressed its concern to the EU after the Prague High Court upheld a lower court’s decision to send eight Taiwanese fraud suspects to China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The suspects were arrested in Prague in Jan. 12 last year for their alleged involvement in telecommunications fraud targeting Chinese, ministry deputy spokesperson Joanne Ou (歐江安) said. A Prague district court in August last year ruled that the suspects were to be extradited to China, after Chinese authorities guaranteed that the suspects would be tried fairly and would not be subject to capital punishment. The suspects appealed to the Prague High Court, which last month upheld the decision, Ou said. The suspects are considering other legal remedies and proceedings are still ongoing, she added. The ministry has also expressed its concerns to the EU that the suspects’ rights might be infringed upon if they are sent to China.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
US transit stop ‘consistent’
Arranging transit stop visits by “Taiwan authorities” is consistent with Washington’s “one China” policy, the US Department of State said on Monday. In response to requests for comment on President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) plan to transit through the US later this month, a department spokesperson said via e-mail: “The United States facilitates, from time to time, representatives of the Taiwan authorities to transit the United States. Such transits are undertaken out of consideration for the safety, comfort, convenience and dignity of the passenger and are in keeping with our one China policy.” Tsai is to make the stopovers before and after visiting Haiti, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, and Saint Kitts and Nevis from Thursday next week to July 22, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. It did not disclose the US cities, but some media have reported that she would stop in New York and Denver.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Corruption pact signed
Taiwan and Belize yesterday signed an agreement to cooperate on fighting corruption as they push for a closer partnership ahead of the 30th anniversary of their diplomatic ties in October. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Belizean Governor-General Colville Young witnessed the signing at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. The two nations have collaborated on medical care, vocational training, trade and investment, and would continue to work together on sustainable development to address the challenges brought by climate change, Tsai said. Young said that the friendship would not just last 30 years, but for an eternity because the two nations are as close as family. Young and his delegation arrived yesterday for a four-day visit.
DEFENSE
Shen Yi-ming takes top job
Vice Minister of National Defense Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴) on Monday took office as chief of the general staff in a ceremony presided over by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), replacing Li Hsi-ming (李喜明), who retired the same day. A graduate of the Republic of China Air Force Academy in 1979 and the US’ Air War College in 2002, Shen has served 37 months as air force commander, promoting joint operations training and disaster prevention and rescue, the Ministry of National Defense said. Air Force Commander Chang Che-ping (張哲平) is to fill the vacancy left by Shen, while Air Force Deputy Commander General Hsiung Hou-chi (熊厚基) is to fill the vacancy left by Chang, with immediate effect, the ministry said. As commander-in-chief of Taiwan’s armed forces, Tsai said that she has ordered Shen to help carry out a blueprint for defense and warfare training, nurture military talent, and lay the foundation for the reform of the nation’s defense forces. Shen was also ordered by Tsai to promote regional peace, security and stability.
PHILANTHROPY
Taipei donates to initiative
The government has donated US$500,000 to a non-governmental organization that advocates for victims of sexual violence and aims to rebuild communities devastated by the Islamic State group. In a ceremony at the US Institute of Peace in Washington on Friday last week, Representative to the US Stanley Kao (高碩泰) made the donation to Nadia’s Initiative. The group, founded in 2016 by Nadia Murad, advocates for victims of sexual violence and aims to rebuild communities in crisis, especially the Yazidi ethnic minority in Iraq persecuted by the Islamic State. Murad last year received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on the initiative.
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,