TRAVEL
Warning issued for NZ
The Centers for Disease Control on Friday issued a level 1 travel warning for New Zealand over a measles outbreak, urging those wishing to visit the nation to exercise caution, especially people with children who are not vaccinated or are younger than one. In the year to Thursday, 1,214 people have been infected, making it New Zealand’s worst measles epidemic since 1997, Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said. The outbreak is mainly concentrated in Auckland, with 1,007 of the confirmed cases reported there, Lo said. Anyone planning to visit should receive all vaccinations at least two weeks before departure, the centers said.
TOURISM
Brunei flights planned
Four charter flights are to fly from Brunei to Kinmen County in late November as part of efforts to promote tourism to the islands, the Kinmen County Tourism Department announced earlier this week. The local government has been working to attract visitors from nearby nations, the department said. In addition to Brunei, charter flights are also planned from Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, it added. Department director Ting Chien-kang (丁健剛) said that the charter flight plan was proposed earlier this year. With assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, it was agreed that Royal Brunei Airlines would operate the Brunei-Kinmen charters, Ting said, adding that getting Brunei to agree to the flights has been a breakthrough. The national carrier restarted direct flight services to Taiwan in December last year after a 15-year hiatus.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Energy exchanges urged
A German climatologist said that his country is willing to share with Taiwan its experience transitioning to renewable energy and hopes that the two sides could foster exchanges on research into climate change and its effects. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director emeritus of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, made the comment on Tuesday at the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taipei, where he met with Minster of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) to discuss exchanges on the issue of climate change. Taiwan’s location and vulnerability to natural disasters makes it an ideal spot for climate research, he said, adding that Germany is hoping to establish exchanges with Taiwan on renewable energy. Chen said that Taiwan could definitely learn from Germany to help advance the nation’s sustainable development.
SOCIETY
Life-saving Lab to compete
A five-year-old golden Labrador that helped save lives after a magnitude 6 earthquake in Hualien last year is heading to France to compete in the annual World Championship for Rescue Dogs, the Taichung Fire Bureau said on Friday. Tie-hsiung (鐵雄, “Iron Hero”) in November last year passed the qualifying round with 280 out of 300 points in a simulated search and rescue operation that required him to find people buried under rubble, bureau chief Tseng Chin-tsai (曾進財) said. Tie-hsiung and his trainer, Lee Chun-sheng (李俊昇), along with another dog named Wonder and four other trainers, are to represent Taiwan at the event in Paris from Tuesday to Sunday next week, Tseng said. While in Europe, the team is also to take part in a mantrailing training program at the German Search and Rescue Dog Association, Tseng added.
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
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
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