WEATHER
Cool and rain for 228
Cooler temperatures and scattered rain showers are forecast for northern and central Taiwan for the 228 Peace Memorial Day weekend, beginning today, independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said. The arrival of a front last night should bring occasional showers and cooler temperatures to northern and central Taiwan today, he said. Similar conditions are expected tomorrow. From Sunday afternoon through Monday, there should be drier and warmer weather across Taiwan, he said. According to the Central Weather Administration (CWA), temperatures in northern and central Taiwan should remain in the low to mid-20s today and tomorrow, before rising into the upper-20s on Sunday. In the south, temperatures should hover in the upper-20s throughout the three-day holiday weekend, the CWA forecast showed.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Administration
HOLIDAYS
Pingsi readies for festival
Traffic controls are in place for crowds during the Pingsi Sky Lantern Festival at Pingsi Junior High School today and Shihfen Square next Tuesday, according to authorities. As the annual festival is expected to draw large crowds, traffic controls would be enforced on City Route 106 and the Shihfen (十分) section of Provincial Highway 2C from 10am to 11pm on both days, the New Taipei City Transportation Department said. All vehicles would be subject to the restrictions, with exemptions granted to residents with a valid permit and vehicles transporting lanterns, it added. The department advised taking a train to Pingsi or Shihfen stations or using shuttle buses, which depart from Taipei Zoo, Keelung Station and Shuangsi Station, among others. Shuttle services begin at 9am on the event days. One-way fares range from NT$15 to NT$50 depending on the route, while the return trip is free of charge, Lee said.
DIPLOMACY
New ambassador picked
The government has approved the appointment of Amino Chi (紀欽耀), formerly representative to Los Angeles, as its ambassador to Belize, replacing Lily Hsu (徐儷文). Chi, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles since 2023, returns to Belize for the third time in his diplomatic career, after previously serving as first and third secretary at the embassy there, an announcement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. His other overseas postings have included the UK, Malaysia and Miami. Hsu, who has headed the embassy in Belize since 2023, returns to serve at the Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs. Jason Ma (馬博元), deputy head of mission at Taiwan’s representative office in the EU and Belgium since 2024, fills the representative position in LA.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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