UNITED STATES
Senators support Tsai
US senators Robert Menendez and James Inhofe, who cochair the US Senate Taiwan Caucus, on Tuesday sent joint letters to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canadian Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan to express their support for awarding a prize to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Washington-based Halifax International Security Forum (HFX). Their support comes after Politico reported that the Canadian government allegedly warned the forum’s organizers that it would withdraw funding if they award Tsai the John McCain Prize for Leadership in Public Service during the forum’s annual summit in November. Pressed by Canadian lawmakers to comment on the matter, Trudeau on April 14 said that the Canadian “government has supported and provided funding to the Halifax Security Forum throughout our time in office, and the minister has participated every year and will continue to” do so.
INVOICE LOTTERY
Cloud receipts incentivized
The Ministry of Finance on Thursday said it would increase the number of prizes awarded to cloud receipt holders in the uniform invoice lottery for March and last month. The ministry aims to encourage people to ask for digital receipts instead of paper ones, Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) said. In the draw, to be held on May 25, the number of NT$500 prizes awarded to cloud receipt holders would be increased to 1 million from 600,000 in previous draws, Su said. As of the end of March, cloud receipts accounted for 38.4 percent of all electronic receipts, Su said, adding that the ministry aims to increase the share to 40 percent by the end of this year. The ministry would also introduce a new NT$800 prize in the draw for July and August exclusively for cloud invoice holders, Su said.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Senate backs WHO bid
The Czech Senate on Wednesday voted 58 to zero to approve a resolution supporting Taiwan’s participation in all meetings, mechanisms and activities of the WHO. The bill urged the Czech government to express its support for Taiwan’s bid to participate in the WHO and highlighted the successful cooperation with Taiwan in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil, who visited Taiwan in August last year despite a warning from Beijing, shared the result of the vote on Twitter on Thursday. In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the senate for approving the resolution, saying it was another sign of support from the Czech legislature.
INDONESIA
Maskless pranksters fined
A US-based Taiwanese YouTuber and a Russian influencer were yesterday ordered off the Indonesian island of Bali after recording themselves defying mandatory mask-wearing. Clips of the video posted two weeks ago by Josh Paler Lin (林啟晨) and a Russian friend show the two duping supermarket guards with a painted mask. Lin’s YouTube channel specializes in prank videos. Although first-time offenders against Bali’s mask-wearing rule face a fine of 1 million rupiah (US$69) for foreigners and deportation after a second offense, Indonesian police said they wanted them removed from the island immediately. The pair had shown remorse and apologized in an Instagram video posted by Lin. “I made this video to entertain people because I’m a content creator and it’s my job to entertain people,” Lin said. “However, I did not realize that what I did could actually bring a lot of negative comments.”
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
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