DEFENSE
US eyes missile delivery
The Pentagon is “working very urgently and expeditiously” to ensure that Taiwan has the capabilities needed for self-defense, a US Department of Defense nominee said on Tuesday, adding that the Pentagon is working urgently to expedite the delivery of 100 Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems. During a US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Austin Dahmer, nominee for assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and forces, was asked about the progress of the Harpoon missile systems sale approved during US President Donald Trump’s first administration in 2020. US Senator Ted Budd said that only a few of the 100 systems approved have been delivered so far and asked how the Pentagon plans to ensure timely completion of the deal. Dahmer said he had visited the Harpoon production line in Missouri to understand the broader challenges facing the US defense industrial base.
Photo: screen grab from US Department of Defense Web site
DIPLOMACY
Tsai to speak in Berlin
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to visit Berlin and address a conference next week, her office said yesterday. Tsai, who left office last year, is to leave for Berlin on Saturday and speak on Monday at the Berlin Freedom Conference, the office said. “Former President Tsai hopes this trip will help deepen cooperation and exchanges between Taiwan and Germany, as well as with like-minded democratic countries in Europe,” it said in a statement. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tsai’s trip. Tsai has already visited Europe since stepping down, including the UK and France.
SOCIETY
Man reunited with gold bars
A 67-year-old man has been reunited with seven gold bars worth an estimated NT$5 million (US$161,530) found in a park in Miaoli City yesterday morning. The Miaoli City Office said it received a report of a pile of valuables left in a flowerbed near the Martyrs’ Shrine Plaza in Maolishan Park. Staff dispatched to the site discovered seven gold bars, along with NT$60,000 in NT$1,000 bills and more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,403), the office said. An insurance certificate found at the scene led police to a jewelry store, which confirmed that the man, a Miaoli resident living alone, had purchased the gold bars in August, it said. After being contacted at a phone number provided by the jewelry store, the man told police that he had spent the previous night sleeping in the park and had forgotten to take his valuables with him when he left in the morning. The man said he carried the gold and cash with him because he feared they might be stolen if left at home, local police said. Miaoli County Social Affairs Department Director Chang Kuo-dong (張國棟) said social workers would visit the man to offer assistance and advise him on safer ways to store his assets.
SPACE
Satellite to launch next week
Taiwan’s first Formosat-8 satellite is expected to lift off on Tuesday next week at 2:18am Taiwan time, the Taiwan Space Agency announced on Tuesday. The agency said the satellite would be carried by a rocket on the Transporter-15 mission, after a month of preparations by staff who have gone to the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Named the “Chi Po-lin Satellite” (齊柏林衛星) after the late Taiwanese documentary director known for recording Taiwan through aerial imagery, it would be the first of eight satellites to make up the first Taiwan-made satellite constellation, the agency said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
Taiwan next year plans to launch its first nationwide census on elderly people living independently to identify the estimated 700,000 seniors to strengthen community-based healthcare and long-term care services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said on the sidelines of a healthcare seminar that the nation’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate have made the issue of elderly people living alone increasingly pressing. The survey, to be jointly conducted by the MOHW and the Ministry of the Interior, aims to establish baseline data and better allocate care resources, he
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