WEATHER
Temperatures to drop
The weather is expected to become cooler, with sporadic rain in some areas tomorrow and on Wednesday due to a stronger northeasterly monsoon and the arrival of a frontal system, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Showers are forecast in the nation’s north and east tomorrow and on Wednesday, while the weather in central Taiwan would change from mostly cloudy to sporadically rainy, the bureau said. Temperatures reached 30°C to 32°C in western Taiwan yesterday, and 27°C to 29°C in the east, the bureau said. Wu Te-jung (吳德榮), a professor at National Central University’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, said that as the frontal system moves south toward the nation, clouds would build up over the north of Taiwan, bringing the temperatures there down today, he said. The front is expected to reach Taiwan tomorrow, and it would send the mercury to as low as 15°C to 16°C on Friday, and would also bring rain, the meteorologist said.
HEALTH
Swine fever carcass found
Tests on a pig carcass found in Kinmen County’s Lieyu Township (烈嶼) came back positive for African swine fever, the Central Emergency Operation Center for African swine fever said on Saturday. The last time a dead hog was found washed ashore in the township was on Feb. 3, and it also was found to have the disease, the center said. Lieyu is on an island separate from Kinmen’s main island and is less than 5km away from Xiamen, China. To ensure that the disease had not spread to the seven active hog farms in Lieyu, quarantine personnel were dispatched to collect tissue samples for African swine fever testing, the center said. All tests came back negative. To date, 12 pig carcasses that washed ashore in Kinmen have tested positive for swine fever.
ASTRONOMY
Meteor shower to peak
Stargazers in Taiwan are to have a good chance to view the Lyrid meteor shower when it peaks on Wednesday, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. Observation conditions should be fair after 10:30pm tomorrow and before dawn on Friday, the museum said. Astronomy buffs can expect to see 23 shooting stars per hour during the peak, compared with an average of 18, thanks to less light interference from a crescent moon, the museum said. The Lyrid meteor shower is also known for producing bolides — extremely bright shooting stars that are brighter than Venus, it said. The museum said that it would broadcast the event live on its Web site. The meteor shower would be visible to the naked eye if the weather is good, it added.
SOCIETY
Restaurant offers hope
A Taipei restaurant that offers work opportunities to Hong Kongers seeking political asylum in Taiwan opened for business yesterday. The restaurant in the Gongguan (公館) area is called “Aegis” in English. Its Chinese name (保護傘) refers to the umbrellas that have been adopted as symbols of political resistance in Hong Kong. In a Facebook post on Thursday, it thanked its supporters “for never giving up or deserting us, and always staying true with your support and help.” The project is being led by Daniel Wong (黃國桐), a Hong Kong lawyer and politician who provided volunteer legal services to protesters arrested during the Hong Kong protests last year. Wong, a Kowloon City district councilor and member of the Hong Kong Election Committee, said at a recent forum that Hong Kongers are not asking for help from Taiwan’s government, but hope the country can provide refuge for those who need it.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS