WEATHER
Typhoon Fitow to bring rain
Tropical Storm Fitow has been upgraded to a typhoon and is expected to bring heavy rain to northern and northeastern Taiwan over the weekend, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. As of 2am yesterday, Typhoon Fitow was centered about 940km east of Taiwan’s southernmost tip of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving in a north-northwesterly direction at a speed of 12km per hour. The storm is packing maximum sustained winds of 119 kph, with gusts of 155kph, and is expected to strengthen, the bureau said. Fitow’s current projection suggests that it is not likely to make a landfall on Taiwan, but its outer rim, combined with seasonal winds from the northeast, could bring heavy rain over the weekend, forecasters said. On its current path, the typhoon is expected to pass closest to Taiwan tomorrow, according to the bureau’s latest bulletin.
FISHING
Chinese vessel seized
Kinmen Coastal Patrol Corps officers seized a Chinese fishing vessel during an overnight sweep of vessels encroaching into Kinmen’s maritime territory on Thursday to fish, a spokesman for the corps said yesterday. The Chinese fishing boat, the Min Long Yu No. 61154, from Fujian Province, was caught in waters close to islets that are part of Kinmen, the corps said. The vessel was towed to Kinmen’s Liaoluo Harbor earlier in the day, where its 10 crewmen were to face an investigation into their activities, it added.
The vessel was one of more than 50 Chinese fishing boats that sneaked into Kinmen waters late on Thursday, using the cover of night, wind and high seas, according to the Kinmen Coastal Patrol. Since August, when China’s seasonal fishing ban along its coasts was lifted, Chinese fishing boats have frequently been discovered entering Taiwan-controlled waters to fish, the corps said.
SOCIETY
Job quitter lands offer in US
A University of Missouri graduate who used a dance video to quit her job with Taiwanese company Next Media Animation has gotten an offer to work on the Web site of a daytime talk show. Marina Shifrin of Chicago became an Internet sensation after her choreographed performance to Kanye West’s Gone was posted on YouTube. She was a guest on Thursday on Queen Latifah’s talk show on the Fox Network. The host asked Shifrin if she wanted to work as a digital content producer on Latifah’s Web site. At first Shifrin thought Latifah was joking, but the host insisted she was serious. Latifah said a short interview would happen backstage. The show ended without disclosing whether Shifrin had taken the position.
SPORTS
Sports day under review
The Legislative Yuan has passed the first review of an amendment to the National Sports Act (國民體育法), which designates Sept. 9 as the country’s national sports day, when all public sports facilities will be open to the public free of charge. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純), who proposed the amendment, said it is aimed at encouraging the general public to participate in various types of physical activity and exercise, to foster sporting habits among them. Under the proposal, students below senior high school level should exercise for least 150 minutes per week, in addition to their regular physical education class. The proposal, adopted by the Education and Culture Committee, will next go to the floor for approval.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
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