WEATHER
Cooler weather incoming
Low temperatures would be more prevalent throughout this week when the strongest cold front observed so far this fall arrives today, independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said. The front today would bring rain to windward locations in northern, northeastern and eastern Taiwan, he said. Atmospheric moisture would be the highest tomorrow due to seasonal northeasterly winds, and is expected to bring sporadic and brief showers to northern, northeastern and eastern parts of the nation, he said. Central and southern Taiwan would be comfortably warm tomorrow, with cooler temperatures in the early morning and the evening. Atmospheric moisture would ease up by Wednesday or Thursday, bringing chances of lighter rain to the north coast off Keelung, the eastern parts of the Taipei area and the northeastern parts of Taiwan, which would make northern Taipei cool to cold, Wu said.
Photo provided by the Central Weather Administration
SOCIETY
Woman bitten by cobra
A 41-year-old woman was bitten by a cobra on the top of her right foot as she exited a public library in Taichung’s Longjing District (龍井) yesterday, police said. She was transported to a hospital, where she received anti-venom and remains under observation, the hospital said. Firefighters and contractors working with the Taichung Agriculture Bureau captured and removed the 30cm-long snake at the scene. Library director Chen Chiu-hua (陳秋華) said that staff fully inspected the building and confirmed that no other snakes were present. Police said the woman was bitten just as she activated the automatic door to exit the library. The snake might have emerged from a drainage channel near the library, police said.
DIPLOMACY
Legislators depart for US
Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), leading a 14-member cross-party delegation, yesterday departed from Taoyuan International Airport on a nine-day trip to the US and Paraguay, Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in South America. They are to begin the trip in Detroit with a Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce of North America event to get a feel for the needs of overseas Taiwanese businesses, Chiang said, adding that the delegation would also meet with US representatives and senators to deepen bilateral ties. The group would then travel to Paraguay, an important ally of the Republic of China since 1957, he said. The trip follows visits to Taiwan over the past year by the presidents of the Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies and Senate.
SOCIETY
Fire sends 17 to hospital
A parked motorcycle in Changhua County burst into flames early yesterday morning, sending thick smoke throughout a nearby building and resulting in 17 nearby residents being taken to hospitals, the Changhua County Fire Bureau said. The bureau said it received a report at 3:45am of a parked motorcycle on fire under the sidewalk overhang of a five-story building. Fifteen firetrucks, 11 ambulances and 52 firefighters were dispatched to the scene, it said in a statement. After the fire was extinguished in about an hour, the firefighters sent 17 people suffering from smoke inhalation to local hospitals, Changhua City Mayor Lin Shih-hsien (林世賢) wrote on Facebook. The eldest of the people sent to a hospital was 73 years old, while the youngest was 11 months old, the fire bureau said. It said it was investigating the cause of the fire to determine who was responsible.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
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