GOVERNMENT
Drivers face phone fines
Drivers caught using hand-held digital devices while driving could be fined up to NT$3,000 starting next month, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. An amendment to a statute governing traffic safety that cleared the Legislature earlier this year is designed to clamp down on drivers using hand-held devices such as mobile telephones and computers, a transport official said, adding that the law would require drivers to focus on traffic, even while waiting at red lights. Drivers caught using such devices for dialing numbers, listening to music or phone calls or any other function that hampers driving safety would face a maximum fine of NT$3,000. The penalty for motorcyclists was set at NT$1,000. Cyclists and pedestrians will not be affected by the laws. However, a grace period is likely to be implemented to familiarize drivers with the new regulations, the official said.
AVIATION
Plane veers off runway
All 227 people aboard an Eva Airways plane were reported safe after the aircraft veered off the runway during landing at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) yesterday, transport officials said. The A-330 commemorative Hello Kitty plane, which was arriving from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, broke two edge lights and damaged the gravel surface when it skidded off the runway at 12:43pm, airport officials said. All passengers were unhurt, but the airport was forced to close until 1:32pm, causing disruptions to eight flights. The plane skidded for 220m before the pilot managed to bring it under control and return to the runway, airport authorities said. They added that the cause of the problematic landing is being investigated by the Aviation Safety Council.
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
‘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
When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was wooing leaders from across Africa with a banquet on Wednesday night, King Mswati III of Eswatini was notably absent. That is because the kingdom — about the size of New Jersey and with just 1.2 million people — is one of Taiwan’s remaining dozen diplomatic allies. That means Eswatini does not participate in Xi’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the centerpiece of China’s diplomatic outreach to Africa, which was held in Beijing this week. The landlocked nation, which sits between Mozambique and South Africa, is the last holdout in Beijing’s seven-plus decade mission to make Africa
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