A fire broke out early yesterday at a Taipei restaurant that offers work opportunities to young Hong Kongers who have fled the territory amid a crackdown on protesters, the Taipei Fire Department said.
No injuries were reported, it added.
Forty-one firefighters and more than a dozen fire engines were dispatched to extinguish the blaze at the Aegis restaurant near Xinsheng Road after it was reported at about 4am, it said.
The fire was extinguished at 4:12am, the department added.
Security camera footage from the site did not show any suspicious activity ahead of the fire, police said, adding that the incident is under investigation.
The restaurant’s operator later wrote on Facebook that the fire caused extensive damage.
“Machines, goods, furniture and ingredients were all destroyed in the fire, with heavy losses,” they said, adding that service has been suspended until further notice.
The Aegis was opened in April last year by Daniel Wong (黃國桐), a Hong Kong lawyer and politician who provided free legal services to demonstrators detained during protests in 2019.
The initially peaceful protests, which later turned destructive and violent, were sparked by proposed legislation that would have allowed the Hong Kong government to extradite criminal suspects detained in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan for trial in China.
The bill was later withdrawn by the government.
Beijing in June last year imposed a National Security Law on Hong Kong, saying that it was necessary to restore order in the former British colony.
Many of those involved in the protests have since fled Hong Kong as they fear further erosions of the territory’s freedoms granted by Beijing under the “one country, two systems” formula.
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS