Residents of Lanyu (蘭嶼), also known as Orchid Island, breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as Typhoon Jelawat picked up speed and turned east after quickly passing by the east coast.
Jelawat’s approach had brought strong winds to the outlying island, with gusts reaching level 16 on the Beaufort scale. It did not cause as much damage as last month, when the island was devastated by Typhoon Tembin.
The Central Weather Bureau said this was because Jelawat had only approached the east of Lanyu, blowing northerly winds across the island. When Tembin hit, it blew southerly winds across the island, destroying its harbor, gas station and supermarket because they were facing the wind, the bureau said.
Yen Tzu-yu (顏子矞), an elementary-school teacher in Lanyu whose Facebook photos brought attention to the damage caused by Tembin, said schools and government offices on the island were closed yesterday.
No casualties were reported in other parts of the nation either, according to the Central Emergency Operation Center, but flights to Taitung and Lanyu were canceled all day yesterday.
At 5:30pm yesterday, the center of the typhoon was 340km east of Hualien. It was moving northeast at 28kph. The bureau forecast Jelawat would move to 170km northeast of Naha by 5pm today. Bureau forecaster Lin Hsiu-wen (林秀雯) said the bureau had lifted the sea warning at 8:30pm.
As the typhoon accelerates toward Okinawa, the bureau warned that the storm’s circumfluence and the northeast monsoon could still bring heavy or extremely heavy rainfall to the nation’s northern and northeastern regions today. However, the weather would turn better this afternoon, she said, adding that the dry air that follows the storm would help stabilize the weather in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival tomorrow.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS