A tropical storm has formed in the Pacific Ocean, but whether it would affect Taiwan remains to be seen, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
Tropical Storm Mawar, as of 8am yesterday, was about 3,420km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 13 kilometers per hour (kph), the bureau said.
The storm was carrying maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of 108kph near the center, and is expected to move north-northwesterly.
It is unlikely to affect Taiwan’s weather in the short term, as it is still far away, the bureau said.
Daniel Wu (吳德榮), a former Weather Forecast Center director at the bureau, who is an adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University, said Mawar has strengthened east of the Philippines and is expected to become a typhoon.
However, Mawar’s path in the next 10 days is uncertain, and whether it hits Taiwan remains to be seen, he added.
Due to an approaching cloud system, wet weather is forecast to return today, with showers or thunderstorms forecast overnight.
From Wednesday to Saturday, sunny skies would prevail in the country, and temperatures are forecast to rise, coupled with brief scattered rainfall in the afternoon, Wu said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
RSS