WEATHER
Temperatures to drop today
Yesterday’s warm and sunny weather are to give way to rain and lower temperatures today as seasonal winds from the northeast pick up, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The change would be more pronounced in the north and northeast, where highs are likely to slide from nearly 30°C to about 20°C, the bureau said. Lows in those areas are expected to drop by up to 3°C today, while the chance of rain would increase from about midday, forecasters said. Elsewhere, highs could fall by 3°C to 6°C and lows by up to 3°C, the bureau said. The bureau also warned there could be strong winds east and north of Tainan, particularly in open and coastal areas. The cool weather is to ease again on Wednesday and warm temperatures should return before Saturday, it added.
TRAVEL
East Rift Valley in bloom
In the East Rift Valley in Taitung County, field after field of garden cosmos flowers are blooming at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday. The pink and white blossoms stretch across 20 hectares in Luye Township’s (鹿野) Rueilong Village (瑞隆) and are expected to remain in bloom at least until the end of the holiday on Feb. 10, Luye Mayor Lee Kuo-chiang (李國強) said. The best views for visitors driving through the township are along the Er Ceng Ping Canal (二層坪水圳), off Provincial Highway No. 9, he said. Motorists may use makeshift parking places in the fallow paddies near the fields to prevent congestion on the winding country roads, he said. Apart from the fields in Rueilong, there are also 13 hectares of sunflowers at the Rice County School, a tourist attraction in neighboring Guanshan Township (關山), Lee said.
DEMOGRAPHY
Working-age population falls
The working-age population fell to a record-low 72.52 percent of citizens at the end of last year, indicating a growing burden on the workforce, Ministry of the Interior data published on Saturday showed. The working-age population, defined as people aged 15 to 64, was 17.11 million at the end of last year, the lowest since 2012, the ministry said. Meanwhile, people older than 65 accounted for 14.56 percent of the population, while children aged up to 14 made up 12.92 percent, the data showed. It meant that Taiwan’s aging index, defined as the ratio of citizens older than 65 to those aged up to 14, rose to 112.64, an 83 percent increase from 61.51 at the end of 2008. Over the 10-year period, the population younger than 15 shrank by 4.03 percent, while the population older than 65 grew 4.13 percent, the ministry said.
CRIME
Online betting arrests made
Kaohsiung police on Friday arrested 10 people and seized NT$623,000 (US$20,263) in a raid on a gambling ring that was allegedly running an online operation, the city’s Yancheng Precinct said yesterday. Police also seized 18 mobile phones, 36 computers, tablets and laptops, five monitors and other electronic devices. They said that the online gambling ring was operated on the scale of a company, with various business divisions, including a control room, and promotional and customer services sections. Clients were solicited on social media and could place bets once they bought at least NT$1,000 of online credit, with payments made via a third-party service provider, police said. Since the gambling Web site was established in October last year, it had processed more than NT$250 million in bets and the operators made a profit of about NT$47.7 million, police said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
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