MILITARY
Pilot returns to cockpit
A fighter pilot who ejected safely after his Mirage 2000 lost power last month, with the jet crashing in waters off Hsinchu County, has returned to flying, the air force said on Friday. Captain Hsieh Pei-hsun (謝沛勳) has been restored to flight status after making every effort to be back in the cockpit safeguarding Taiwan’s airspace, the air force wrote on Facebook, with the post including a video of Hsieh discussing the experience of his path to recovery. The pilot was rescued by coast guard personnel after the single-seat jet lost power during a training operation on Sept. 10. He was hospitalized with minor injuries. He was part of a flight mission on a twin-seat Mirage-2000 on Tuesday, sources familiar with the matter said. Hsieh has logged 795 flight hours, including 509 hours flying the French-made fighters, the air force said after the incident last month.
RESEARCH
New fish species reported
A marine research station on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) has discovered its first new fish species, nearly four years since its establishment, the National Academy of Marine Research said this month. The new species — Fusigobius taipinensis — was found by a joint team from the academy and National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU) that was searching for cryptic species in the Gobiidae family, it said. The fish is the first Gobiidae species discovered in waters around Taiping since a permanent research station was established on the South China Sea island in late 2020, it said. The new species lives in coral reefs about 20m deep near Taiping Island and has also been found, albeit in smaller numbers, in waters around Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) off Taiwan’s southwest coast, it said. The 3cm to 6cm transparent fish have many yellow spots on their body and two dark black dots on their dorsal fin, which the academy said helped researchers identify them as a distinct species. NTOU professor Chen I-hsiung (陳義雄) said that Gobiidae, or gobie, is the largest family of reef fish and forms a large portion of the world’s tropical marine fish fauna. Of the more than 2,000 species within the gobie family, more than 260 can be found in waters around Taiwan, Chen said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Max streaming to launch
Warner Bros Discovery is to launch its Max streaming service in Taiwan on Nov. 19 as part of plans to expand into the Asian market, the US media company said in a statement last week. Max would be launched in Taiwan, as well as Hong Kong and five Southeast Asian countries — Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines — next month following the successful introduction of the service in the US, Latin America and Europe, said J.B. Perrette, chief executive officer and president of Global Streaming and Games at Warner Bros Discovery. The firm offers its HBO Go streaming service in seven markets, with content similar to that available on HBO TV. “Max brings together unparalleled quality content from iconic brands like HBO, Discovery, the DC Universe, Harry Potter, AFN and Cartoon Network, as well as Hollywood blockbusters, all in one place,” he said. More details about pricing would be announced in the coming weeks and would vary by country and provider, the company said. The monthly subscription for HBO Go in Taiwan is NT$150, while the basic plan for Netflix is NT$270 per month, the same as Disney+, which entered the Taiwan market in November 2021.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about