GOVERNMENT
VP discharged after surgery
Vice President William Lai (賴清德) was yesterday discharged from Taipei Veterans General Hospital after undergoing surgery for a herniated disk on Sunday, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said. After seeking medical attention for acute lower back pain, Lai was found to have herniated disks in his spine, requiring an hour-long microsurgery, Chang said, adding that Lai expressed thanks to hospital staff and to the public for messages of support. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) wished him a speedy recovery.
PARKS
Plaque vandalism probed
A hiker could face a fine and be banned from climbing mountains in Hualien County’s Taroko National Park after he was seen holding an uprooted plaque marking the north peak of Chilai Mountain (奇萊山). On Sunday, images of the hiker appeared on social media showing him waving his middle finger at the camera and holding the plaque aloft after apparently ripping it out of the ground. If found liable for the damage, he could be ordered to pay compensation, fined NT$3,000 and banned from receiving hiking permits for the park’s mountains, park recreation director Nieh Shih-chao (聶士詔) said. The case has been referred to the National Park Police for investigation, Nieh said. The suspect denied that he caused the damage, saying that he had found the marker lying on the ground and wanted to take a photograph with it.
HOSPITALITY
Latte artist awarded
Barista Lin Shao-sing (林紹興) won third place in the latte art competition of the Milan World Coffee Championships, which concluded on Saturday in Milan, Italy. Lin placed third after three rounds of competition, starting with baristas making latte art. Lin and 11 others reached the semi-final, where they each made one matching set of free-pour macchiatos and two matching sets of free-pour latte patterns. Lin and five others advanced to the final, where they were judged on creativity, visual attributes, contrast in patterns, and in forming identical patterns in the matched sets of free-pour lattes and matched set of designer lattes. Lin placed behind South Korean barista Rora and the event’s champion, Carmen Clemente of Italy.
CRIME
Fraud nets jail term
A founder of the Taiwan Civil Government, which claims the nation is legally under US jurisdiction based on the terms of Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II, was on Friday sentenced to 19 years in prison and fined NT$2 million (US$67,540) for defrauding NT$100 million from about 300 people. Julian Lin (林梓安), secretary-general of the group, was sentenced by the Taoyuan District Court after she was convicted of profiting through fraud and money laundering. Taoyuan prosecutors began investigating the group in 2018 after receiving complaints of fraud. In 2018, prosecutors indicted six suspects for alleged contraventions of the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例) and Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法). Lin’s husband, Roger Lin (林志昇), was also charged before he died in a fall at his home in 2019. Three others received sentences ranging from 10 months to 2.5 years, and fines ranging from NT$100,000 to NT$400,000. One other person was not found guilty. The rulings can be appealed.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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