WEATHER
Rainy week forecast
The Central Weather Bureau said it expects a rainy week due to the influence of a weather system from the southwest. From yesterday to Thursday, central and southern Taiwan will be hit by heavy showers and occasional thunderstorms, the bureau forecast on Sunday, adding that other parts of the nation would also see showers or thundershowers, but on a smaller scale and for shorter periods. The wet weather would bring temperatures slightly down from a recent heat wave, during which the mercury routinely rose as high as 36°C. The bureau expects temperatures to range from 24°C to 33°C across the nation. Although the weather will cool down a little, people residing in central and southern Taiwan should take precautions against possible flooding caused by sudden downpours, the bureau, which expects the wet and cooler weather to continue until Sunday.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Women outnumber men
Women outnumber men in the nation’s six special municipalities, with the ratio the lowest in Taipei, where there are 92 men for every 100 women, the Ministry of the Interior said. In its latest report on the country’s population structure at the end of last month, the ministry identified the six cities with more women than men as Taipei, New Taipei City, Hsinchu, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Chiayi, which together accounted for about 55 percent of the nation’s total population. Men outnumbered women in the nation’s 16 other cities and counties, the ministry said. The nation’s total population was 23.46 million at the end of last month, up 0.12 percent from the end of last year, mainly because births exceeded deaths in the first six months of the year.
ENVIRONMENT
Heat wave killed fish
The recent searing summer heat could have killed thousands of fish, found yesterday along a section of the Keelung River close to the Taipei Grand Hotel, an environmental protection official said. Josh Arsenault, a Taipei resident, said he spotted thousands of “white dots” in the river while riding a bicycle in the Dajia Riverside Park in Zhongshan District (中山) yesterday afternoon and later found out they were dead fish. He said the dead fish were concentrated in a stretch at least 0.5km long. Yang Wei-hsiu (楊維修), a senior engineer at the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection, said the dead fish were flathead grey mullet, which require high oxygen content for survival. Yang said that the recent heat wave apparently drove down oxygen levels in the river and suffocated the fish. He said the city government had dispatched personnel to remove the fish bodies, which would be burned at an incinerator.
EDUCATION
Taiwan wins three golds
Taiwanese students won three gold medals and one silver at this year’s International Biology Olympiad, which concluded in Denmark on Sunday. Taiwan’s medal haul ranked fifth overall in the event, behind China, the US, Singapore and South Korea. It ranked first at last year’s Biology Olympiad with four gold medals. This year, the gold medal winners were Lin Po-han (林柏翰) from National Chiayi Senior High School and Wu Meng-hsin (吳孟忻) and Lee Po-sheng (李柏陞) from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School. The silver medal winner was Hung Hsueh-yu (洪學宇) from National Tainan First Senior High School. Individually, Lin ranked eighth in the competition and Wu finished ninth. Because of their high finishes, the medal-winning students are to be eligible for university admission and awarded NT$200,000 and NT$100,000 in prize money for the gold and silver medals respectively, according to Ministry of Education rules.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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