POLLUTION
‘Red’ air alert issued
The Ministry of Environment issued “red” air quality alerts in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang counties yesterday morning, as northeasterly winds brought to Taiwan particulate matter from China. According to the ministry’s Air Quality Monitoring Network, red levels — which indicate “unhealthy” air conditions — were recorded at monitoring stations in Shimen (石門) and Wanli (萬里) districts in New Taipei City, and Songshan District (松山) in Taipei as of 9am. Taiwan was experiencing widespread “orange” status conditions, or air quality that was “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” in cities and counties of Hsinchu, Miaoli, Yunlin, Chiayi, Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Penghu, the air quality network said. The ministry said it had told local environmental protection bureaus to initiate emergency response measures, such as strengthening pollution controls at large factories and construction sites. A dust storm in Inner Mongolia on Friday had blown particulate matter eastward and northeasterly winds were now carrying those particles to Taiwan, the ministry said.
Screen grab from the Ministry of Environment’s Web site
DIPLOMACY
NZ officials visit Taiwan
New Zealand cross-party parliamentarians are in Taiwan for a visit that began yesterday and is to continue until Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release. The delegation is from New Zealand’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Taiwan. It is jointly led by New Zealand member of parliament (MP) Stuart Smith — the senior whip of the National Party — and Labour Party MP Tangi Utikere, the ministry said. The delegation also includes MP Jamie Arbuckle — the NZ First Party whip — ACT Party MP Cameron Luxton, Labour Party MP Helen White, and National Party MPs Greg Fleming and Hamish Campbell, it added. Representative to New Zealand Joanne Ou (歐江安) is accompanying the delegation for the trip, the ministry said. The parliamentarians are to meet President William Lai (賴清德) and attend banquets hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), it said.
SOCIETY
Shilin sinkhole filled
A sinkhole that appeared at the intersection of Wenlin Road and Meilun Street in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) on Saturday has been filled, and the affected road has been reopened, the city government said yesterday. The city’s New Construction Office said that inspection and repair work on the sinkhole — which was about 1m long, 1m wide and 20cm deep — began soon after people reported the cave-in on Saturday afternoon. Taipei police said a report was received at about 4pm, with witnesses saying it was continuing to expand. Inspectors excavated the hole to a depth of about 1.6m, where they found that the underlying soil was dry, with no signs of water seepage or leaks. Inspections by various pipeline units also revealed no abnormalities and ground-penetrating radar scans of the surrounding area confirmed their findings, it said, adding that the road was refilled and reopened to traffic before midnight. The authorities would continue to monitor and assess the condition of the road, and further investigate the cause of the sinkhole, it said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
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