HEALTH
Group calls for donations
The Taiwan Blood Services Foundation on Saturday called on the public to donate blood, as the nation’s supply of blood has fallen below the officially designated safe level of seven days. A shortage of all blood types has reached critical levels particularly in Taipei and Tainan, the foundation said. In Hsinchu and Kaohsiung, there is a shortage of type O blood, while in Taichung, types O and AB are in short supply, it added. Liu Chun-hong (劉俊宏) of the Taipei Blood Center, which is run by the foundation, said the low supply could be due to increased demand from people with cardiovascular disease and gastrointestinal bleeding. Blood transfusions in Taipei in September rose by 6,000 bags from a year earlier, Liu said. One of the reasons could be the postponement of major surgeries at hospitals earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, adding that there was also high demand in October and last month.
RESTAURANTS
Ice Monster to close shop
Ice Monster, a Taipei chain store that sells shaved ice desserts, yesterday said that it would temporarily close its shop on Yongkang Street due to slow business caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The store, the first in the chain, would close by the end of this year, but those on Songgao Road and in the Ximending (西門町) area would remain open, the company said in a statement. Yongkang Street is a popular tourist area that normally attracts foreign visitors. However, since the beginning of this year, several businesses in the Yongkang Street commercial circle have been forced to close or readjust, the Taipei Dongmen Yongkang Business Circle Development Association has said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Taiwanese film wins award
The Taiwanese comedy I WeirDO (怪胎) on Saturday won the best film award at the London East Asia Film Festival, the biggest Asian film festival in the UK. Written and directed by newcomer Liao Ming-yi (廖明毅), the movie tells the story of two lovers who have obsessive compulsive disorder. It has been touted as the first feature film in Asia shot entirely on an iPhone. The film has won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema’s NETPAC Award at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea, as well as the Crystal Mulberry Award and Purple Mulberry Award at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. It also won the Audience Award at Canada’s Fantasia International Film Festival and an Honorable Mention Award at the New York Asian Film Festival.
WEATHER
Temperatures to drop
Temperatures in most of northern Taiwan are expected to fall to 13°C this week with the approach of a seasonal northeasterly wind system, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The wind system began affecting Taiwan late last night, sending the mercury down to 14°C to 16°C degrees in northern and central parts of the nation until Wednesday, the bureau said. In low-lying and coastal regions, as well as in areas close to the mountains, the temperature is expected to dip to lows of 13°C, bureau forecaster Wang Pin-hsiang (王品翔) said. In eastern and southern parts of the country, lows will hover around 17°C to 18°C, he said. The cold and wet weather in northern Taiwan is likely to last until Friday, after which the mercury would rise again and the rain would stop, he said. However, another cold wave would arrive on Saturday, bringing cold and rainy weather to northern Taiwan again, he said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
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