SOCIETY
Gas leak hospitalizes 14
Three people were in a critical condition following a carbon dioxide leak at an onshore construction site for an offshore wind farm in Changhua County yesterday morning that resulted in 14 people being hospitalized. The leak occurred as workers were filling 200 cylinders with carbon dioxide, the Changhua County Fire Bureau said. First responders found three workers who were experiencing cardiac arrest in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park (彰濱工業區), the bureau said. Doctors resuscitated a man surnamed Chien (簡), whose heart had stopped beating, the Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital said. A man surnamed Wang (王) with lacerations on his head was hospitalized, while a man surnamed Pan (潘), who was comatose when he arrived at hospital, had regained consciousness and was being treated for inhalation of unknown substances, a hospital spokesperson said. Changhua County Fire Bureau personnel said it was about 10am when they received a report about the incident at the construction site, where workers were erecting a voltage reduction station.
Photo courtesy of Red Bull
MEDIA
Chunghwa boss faces claims
Chunghwa Telecom Co chairman Kuo Shui-yi (郭水義) was yesterday accused of special breach of trust for allegedly paying more than NT$400 million (US$12.5 million) to help ELTA TV cover a NT$500 million fee to obtain exclusive rights to broadcast the Paris Olympics in Taiwan. ELTA secured the rights after also receiving NT$80 million from the Sports Administration, meaning it paid only NT$20 million for the rights, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Yang Chih-tou (楊植斗) said, while filing a complaint against Kuo with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for contravening the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法). Before the Olympics started, ELTA also collected NT$18 million in fees from Taiwan Public Television Service and Chinese Television System to broadcast the Games and provide footage to domestic news channels, Yang said. He said he believed that Kuo acted in contravention of his duties with the intention of benefiting himself or a third party, causing Chunghwa Telecom to engage in unlawful transactions that were inconsistent with its business practices, and resulting in the telecom incurring significant economic losses.
SPORTS
B-Boy makes major final
Breakdancer Sun Chen (孫振), also known as B-Boy Quake, has become the first Taiwanese to reach the final of The Notorious IBE, a major hip-hop dance gathering in the Netherlands. Quake lost to Colombian B-Boy Alvin in the men’s solo final in Heerlen on Sunday, capping off his historic run at the three-day breaking competition. It was “the stage I watched since I was little,” he wrote on Instagram after the final battle. Sun had outdanced Alvin 2-0 in the pre-qualifiers for an Olympic Qualifier series in Budapest in June. The B-Boy from Hsinchu has solidified his reputation as a trailblazer for Taiwanese breakdancers by appearing this year’s Games, which hosted breaking for the first time in Olympic history. He failed to advance to the quarter-finals in Paris, but in the Netherlands demonstrated how he had taken his moves to the next level in just one week. Sun also competed in the five vs five crew battle as a member of City4Crew, but they were ousted in the quarter-finals. He is next to compete at Outbreak Europe in Slovakia and the World Battle in Portugal.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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