■WEATHER
EPA warns of poor air
The nation can expect poor air quality today because of a dust storm in northern China, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday. The EPA said the sandstorm had affected weather in the southern part of Xinjiang Province and several provinces in northern China since Saturday last week and that it was moving toward eastern China. The EPA added that a cold air mass arriving today, as forecast by the Central Weather Bureau, could bring some of the dust with it. However, based on weather simulations, the density of the dust in the air mass may not be as high as in China, it said, adding that it could further be diluted by rain.
■FILM
‘Au Revoir Taipei’ wins again
A Taiwanese romantic comedy, Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北), won the Jury Award on Sunday at the Deauville Asian Film Festival in France. It was director Arvin Chen’s (陳駿霖) second award for the film, which won the Best Asian Film Award at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival last month. The film’s success in Berlin has attracted European attention to the film, which was nominated in the feature film category at the Deauville festival. Au Revoir Taipei shared the award with the South Korean film Paju, directed by Park Chan-ok. The Best Film Award went to Judge, directed by Liu Jie (劉傑) of China. Malaysian director Charlotte Lim’s My Daughter won the International Critic’s Award. A total of nine films produced in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and India were nominated for awards at the festival.
■SPORTS
Taekwondo team wins
A Taiwanese taekwondo team scored impressive wins on Sunday at the German Open in Hamburg, taking two gold, three silver and three bronze medals. The two gold medals went to Chao Yu-chin (趙宇擎) and Tsai Hsiao-ju (蔡曉茹), both from Taipei County’s Shulin Senior High School — the alma mater of two Olympic taekwondo athletes — Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) and Sung Yu-lin (宋玉麟). Students from Shulin High School also won three silver and two bronze medals in the competition. A student from Yulin Junior High School, also in Taipei County, took the third bronze medal. The Taiwanese team was composed of students from the two schools. Shulin Mayor Chen Shi-rong (陳世榮), who has taken taekwondo teams from his city to competitions in the Netherlands, Germany and Austria over the past few years, attributed the team’s performance this year to Shulin’s efforts to nurture taekwondo athletes.
■CRIME
Taichung buys lie detector
The nation now has its first high-tech polygraph chair after the Taichung District Prosecutors Office bought the chair from a US company to boost the accuracy of polygraph tests, local reports said. The office recently purchased the chair from Indiana-based Lafayette Instrument Co, the reports said. “The equipment is designed to be highly sensitive and it can detect very small physical reactions,” said Lee Chin-ming (李錦明), an investigator at the prosecutor’s office and one of the nation’s few polygraph experts. Lee said the Criminal Investigation Bureau and the Ministry of Justice have polygraph chairs, but the sensor is either in the seat or the footpad, and suspects often move their bodies when sitting on the chair to affect the test results. The new polygraph chair has three sensors — in the seat, arms and the footpad — which can minimize the impact of these deliberate moves, Lee said.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
Nearly 800 Indian tourists are to arrive this week on an incentive tour organized by Indian company Asian Painted Ltd, making it the largest tour group from the South Asian nation to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The travelers are scheduled to arrive in six batches from Sunday to Feb. 25 for five-day tours, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The tour would take the travelers, most of whom are visiting Taiwan for the first time, to several tourist sites in Taipei and Yilan County, including tea houses in Taipei’s Maokong (貓空), Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Ximending (西門町) areas. They would also visit