WEATHER
Week to bring summer heat
The nation is to experience warm summer weather in the coming week, with occasional afternoon showers or thunderstorms, said Daniel Wu (吳德榮), a professor of atmospheric science at National Central University and a former director of the Central Weather Bureau’s Weather Forecast Center. Today, tomorrow and Friday would be mostly sunny with occasional cloudy weather in the afternoons and intermittent showers, he said, adding that high temperatures would be 34°C to 36°C in the south and 32°C to 33°C in the north. However, on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, the weather would likely become less stable due to greater moisture, bringing occasional showers or thunderstorms, and lowering the mercury by 1°C or 2°C.
POLITICS
DPP passes resolutions
A meeting of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Election Committee, convened by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in her capacity as party chairperson, passed two resolutions yesterday. The first resolution suggested candidates for November’s local elections, recommending that the party’s Central Executive Committee recruit Hsu Ting-chen (徐定禎) as its candidate for Miaoli county commissioner, DPP Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) as its candidate for Yunlin county commissioner and Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) as its candidate for Taichung mayor. The second one recommended that the Central Executive Committee consider recruiting mayoral candidates in Keelung and Hsinchu City, instead of holding a party primary, “given the particular electoral concerns in the two constituencies.”
EXCHANGES
Tsai speaks at NATWA event
The North America Taiwanese Women’s Association (NATWA) is playing an important role in facilitating exchanges between Taiwanese and people living in North America, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the association’s annual convention yesterday. In a prerecorded video, Tsai thanked the association for promoting Taiwan in North America and said she was looking forward to more association events related to the economy, society and culture. The association, which is a non-profit organization devoted to enhancing women’s dignity, contributing to democratic development in Taiwan and networking with women’s organizations worldwide, was established in 1988, and has more than 1,000 members in the US and Canada. With Taiwan-US relations improving, Tsai said she hoped the association would foster more exchanges between the two.
SOCIETY
Taoyuan sweep arrests 43
Taoyuan police on Saturday said that over the past week, they conducted a crackdown on “criminal elements,” leading to the arrest of 43 alleged gangsters. The sweep also seized five handguns and rifles, 190 bullets, and evidence that those detained belong to major crime syndicates and local gangs, police said. The suspects were allegedly involved in extortion, protection rackets and loan-sharking, they said. Separately, Tainan police said they conducted a sweep on Saturday that resulted in the arrest of 39 suspected gang members and other criminals. Part of the same two-week nationwide crackdown on organized crime, Tainan police said they busted seven criminal groups allegedly involved in extortion, protection rackets, loan-sharking and illegal drug trafficking. More than 300 pouches of narcotic coffee powder mix were seized in one of the raids, they said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
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