■ Society
Woman reunited with father
With only two blurred photos and vague hints from her mother, Emily Yan (楊芸莉), a Taiwanese-born US citizen, met her biological father in Tainan on Saturday after a hiatus of 40 years. Yang, a bank clerk, was helped by a Banciao policeman in her quest to track down Tu Lung-yi (杜龍一). She told journalists at her father's Tainan home that her mother left Tu and moved to the US when she was only three years old telling her he was dead. Her mother changed her name after she remarried and the little girl's only impression of her biological father was two family photos.
■ Weather
Cold snap on the way
The Central Weather Bureau forecast a chilly weekend yesterday as a cold front is expected to affect the nation on Thursday. Overall, the temperature in regions north of Taichung could potentially drop to 8oC. Temperatures in the south, on the other hand, are expected to slide to approximately 10oC. According to the bureau, the cold front is composed mainly of dry air. Should its humidity gradually increase as it approaches land, snow could fall on mountains higher than 3,000m above sea level. Meanwhile, wet conditions are expected to continue until tomorrow when a stationery front which has hovered over the nation since last week gradually moves away. Showers will mostly occur in northeastern regions of the country.
■ Environment
Tainan pulls in spoonbills
A total of 759 black-faced spoonbills are spending the winter on the Tsengwen Estuary in Tainan County, the Wild Bird Society of Tainan reported yesterday. The world census of the endangered birds was initiated by the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society, with Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Macau taking part. Since the Tsengwen Estuary provides a wintering ground for most migratory birds, the result of the survey has attracted attention. The Wild Bird Society of Tainan and the Black-faced Spoonbill Association in Tainan County conducted this year's census over the weekend and counted 705 of the rare birds on the first day and 759 birds on the second day. Neither number matched the record figures for spoonbills recorded previously.
■ Crime
Cops target betel nut vice
Police have stepped up inspection of roadside betel-nut stalls after some betel nut sales girls were caught providing "drive-through" sex services to customers, local television reported yesterday. They have increased patrols on Highway No. 19 in Tainan County after some betel nut sellers launched a "drive-through" prostitution service to passing car drivers, several cable TV channels reported. The police discovered that when a car pulled up and the driver lowered his window, some betel nut girls pushed their upper bodies through the window, allowing the car driver to fondle her breasts as she handed over the betel nuts, the reports said. For a higher fee, the betel nut girl would jump into the front seat of the car and perform oral sex on the driver. "We have stepped up patrols on Highway No. 19 to crack down on prostitution. We are now checking the ID cards of every betel nut seller to make sure it is a proper business, not a front for selling sex," a policeman said on ETTV.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
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