■ Environment
Coolness monitors wanted
Environmentalists from the Homemaker's Union and Foundation yesterday urged the public to take a thermometer with them whenever they visit a government agency and report any office with air-conditioners set below 26?C. They said the public could report to the foundation at 02-236-86211 and it would publicize the energy-wasting government agencies, which they said are supposed to set a good example. A Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker said 300 million units of electricity could be saved over the summer if consumers set their air-conditioners just 1?C higher.
■ Society
Anniversary celebrations set
The Ministry of National Defense will hold a series of activities before and after the Anti-Japanese Aggression Victory Day next Thursday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of that day, ministry officials said yesterday. On Wednesday, a military band parade will be held at the courtyard of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in the afternoon, and a concert will be held at the hall at night. A historical play titled A Heart of Steel will be staged at a Taipei cultural center on the nights of July 8 and 9. It is hoped that the activities will help the public remember the days when all the people united around the nation to fight the invading Japanese army during the eight-year anti-aggression period, the officials said. With the changing times, "the cause of the war may be forgiven, but the lesson of history must never be forgotten," they said.
■ Diplomacy
Nicaraguan official to visit
Nicaraguan Vice Minister of Health Israel Kontorovsky is due to arrive on Monday for a five-day visit, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The aim of Kontorovsky's visit is to gain an understanding of Taiwan's success in stamping out malaria and its measures to prevent enterovirus and the spread of dengue fever, the spokesman said. While here, Kontorovsky will meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) as well as officials from the Department of Health and Academia Sinica members. Kontorovsky, who assumed the post last December, is considered to be very friendly toward Taiwan.
■ Trade
Tainan chief pushing fruit
Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) is scheduled to leave for Japan on Monday to promote fruit exports. Su will visit Tokyo and Osaka. He will preside over a Taiwanese fruit sampling activity in Osaka on July 7. At a news conference at Tainan County Hall, Su said Tainan's mango exports to Japan are expected to grow substantially this year, following the inauguration of two fruit-disinfecting facilities. In the near future, oranges, tangerines, pomelos and star fruit are also expected to be exported to Japan as long as they go through quarantine before shipment, he said. He said Taiwan's fruit exports are now on the right path. "It was a wrong choice to only export fruit to China," he said. He said the government should also try to open markets in Europe.
■ Society
Wheelchairs to be donated
The Japanese social welfare group Kousaikai will donate 90 wheelchairs to nine of its counterparts in Taiwan next week. About 600 members of the group will travel to Taipei, where a ceremony to present the wheelchairs will be held on Wednesday. Taiwan has received 78 wheelchairs so far.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
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