WEATHER
Tropical disturbance
A tropical disturbance off the southeastern coast of the Philippines might become the first typhoon of the Western Pacific typhoon season this year, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday. The storm lacks a visible center, and how it would develop would only become clear today and on Monday, the agency said, adding that it was not yet possible to forecast the system’s effect on Taiwan. A tropical disturbance is a tropical weather system made up of organized showers and thunderstorms that lasts for at least 24 hours and does not have closed wind circulation.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Administration
EVENTS
Ivy Next Star sign-up begins
Ivy English is to host its Ivy Next Star Contest, it said yesterday. The event would be open to people older than 18 who have English teaching experience, including in-person classes or online courses, and who share the educational ideals of company, it said. For the first stage, applicants must make a self-introductory video with a three-minute teaching demonstration using Ivy English course materials, it said. For the second stage, they would be required to post a teaching demo on a subject designated by Ivy English to a social media platform, it said. The final round would be held live at the CTS studio on Aug. 2. where contestants would do a 15-minute teaching demo on a subject randomly selected from the company’s archives, it added. Registration for the event is to close at 5pm on June 30.
SOCIETY
Zoo to close for 10 days
Taipei Zoo is to close from June 18 to 27 for annual maintenance, the zoo said yesterday. That would include updates and repairs to indoor and outdoor animal enclosures, tree trimming and building cleaning, it added. The anti-slip flooring in the king penguin exhibit would also be improved, the red-crowned cranes’ habitat would be redesigned, and perches for siamangs, macaws and toucans in the Tropical Rainforest Area are to be renovated, it said. The zoo added that it would also clean building exteriors, repair signage and rest areas, resurface roads, maintain boardwalks, trim trees and clear drainage systems. Since 2019, Taipei Zoo has closed for 10 days every June to carry out comprehensive maintenance to speed up repairs and reduce disruptions to the animals before the summer break. The zoo would also hold staff training to enhance animal care, service quality and the visitor experience, it said.
CRIME
Court allows tycoon to travel
The Taipei District Court on Tuesday granted former CTBC Financial Holdings Co vice chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) permission to travel to China for three days to handle baseball-related matters, setting bail at NT$150 million (US$5.01 million), despite the criminal charges he is facing and being barred from leaving Taiwan. Koo on May 13 was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison for his role in a building purchase scandal. Koo had been banned from leaving the country for eight months, but as he was serving as president of the Baseball Federation of Asia and executive vice president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, Koo appealed to lift the travel restriction from Thursday to today so he could visit China to prepare for two upcoming baseball tournaments. The Asian Baseball Championship and the Women’s Baseball Asia Cup are scheduled to take place in China in September and October respectively. He said he was also invited to visit Shanghai for baseball activities and planning discussions.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
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