DIPLOMACY
Tuvalu minister lands today
Tuvaluan Minister of Justice, Communication and Foreign Affairs Simon Kofe is to arrive in Taiwan today for a six-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Kofe would witness the signing of three bilateral deals between Taiwan and Tuvalu during his stay, the ministry said. The agreements would pave the way for cooperation between the two sides in the areas of diplomat training, technical exchanges and mutual legal assistance, the ministry said. In addition to meeting with government officials, Kofe would also meet with representatives of Taiwanese enterprises developing submarine cables and other communication networks, it said. Kofe is hoping to learn from Taiwan’s experience, as his country is working to improve its digital infrastructure, the ministry said. Tuvalu is an important Pacific ally of Taiwan, and the two countries have developed close partnerships in the areas of information technology, agriculture, fisheries, clean energy and public health, it added. Tuvalu established diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979.
FOOD SAFETY
More truffles fail testing
Another shipment of fresh truffles imported from Europe recently failed a customs inspection as it was found to contain excessive levels of a heavy metal, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. The agency said that 3.5kg of truffles imported by Taipei-based iTaste International Co from Spain were destroyed after they failed safety tests. The fungus was found to contain cadmium at a concentration of 3 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg), compared with the legal limit of 2mg/kg, it said, adding that it was the seventh shipment of truffles iTaste has imported since last year that were found to be substandard. Taiwan imported 1,844kg of fresh truffles in 321 batches from different places of origin last year, of which 29kg from nine shipments was substandard, the agency said. iTaste had imported 23kg from six of the nine batches: a 2kg shipment from France, a 4kg shipment from Bulgaria and four shipments from Italy that totaled 17kg, it said. As a result, the agency said it has raised the inspection rate to 100 percent for all iTaste truffles imported from Italy and has tightened similar checks on iTaste’s truffles from other countries.
ECOLOGY
Fishers paid to pause
The Tainan Agricultural Bureau is offering fishers subsidies for voluntarily pausing their fishing operations in a bid to conserve fisheries in the seas near Taiwan and cut carbon emissions. From 2003, the Fisheries Agency has decreased ship fuel subsidies while rewarding fishers for voluntarily pausing their operations to alleviate the ecological pressures on the fish habitats off Taiwan proper, the bureau said. More than 900 Tainan-based fishing boats participated in the voluntary pause every year after 2018, saving 4,300 kiloliters of fuel and 11,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, it said. Eligible fishers include operators of boats that have gone to the sea at least 90 times, logged at least 270 operating hours and refrained from fishing for at least 120 days since Sept. 1 last year, it said, adding that subsidies would be offered until Aug. 31. The subsidies do not apply to live fish transports, largehead hairtail transports, fishing boats used for tourism and boats used for harvesting in exclusive fishing right fisheries, it said. Any eligible fishing boat, sampan or raft that has paused operations would receive at least NT$20,000, with operators of bigger vessels receiving more, it said.
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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