■ Weather
CWB issues sea warning
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued a sea warning for typhoon Damrey yesterday, anticipating rough seas in the Bashih Channel and torrential rain for southern and southeastern Taiwan for the next several days. The tropical storm, with a radius of 200km, was centered 340km south-southeast of Taiwan's southernmost tip of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) at 5pm yesterday, moving in a west-northwest direction toward Taiwan at a speed of 12kph, CWB meteorologists reported. Damrey, the 18th typhoon reported in the Pacific this year, is forecast to continue moving toward the South China Sea over the following two days and to directly affect the Bashih Channel area. The eastern part of Taiwan as well as the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at the southernmost tip of Taiwan were expected to begin experiencing heavy rain by nightfall yesterday when these areas came under the influence of the typhoon, while the northern and northeastern parts of the country are forecast to see rain starting today.
■ Society
Women upset with figures
Nearly 75 percent of Taiwan's career women are unsatisfied with their figure, but only 12 percent regularly exercise to improve their figure and health, a poll showed yesterday. According to the poll of 1,782 career women by the E-Woman Weekly, 74.6 percent are unsatisfied with their figure. Of those, 55 percent are unhappy about their thighs, and the rest don't like their abdomen or their behind. However, only 12 percent of Taiwan's career women regularly exercise, 31 percent occasionally exercise and 57 percent never exercise. Reasons for not doing exercise were laziness (65 percent) as well as being too busy and lacking an exercise partner. When asked what kind of exercise they do, 42 percent said window shopping, 21 percent mentioned using Hula Hoops and 10 percent said walking and hiking.
■ Religion
Religious terms suggested
A civic group yesterday resurrected its call for the government and media to support a campaign to change what they say are discriminatory Chinese translations for terms related to Islam and Judaism. The Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan yesterday requested the government and media replace the commonly-used Chinese translation for the religion of Islam, hui chiao (回教), with yisilan chiao (伊斯蘭教) and Muslim, hui chiao tu (回教徒), with muslin (穆斯林) because hui has a connotation of paganism. The foundation also called for substituting the Chinese characters 尤太 (you tai) for the currently used characters for "Jew", 猶太 (also you tai). The foundation said that you (猶) with the "dog" radical refers to a type of monkey and has the connotation of stinginess.
■ Education
More students study abroad
More than 30,000 Taiwanese students went abroad to study last year, nearly 80 percent of whom opted to go to English-speaking countries, according to tallies made public yesterday by the government. A total of 32,525 Taiwanese students applied for visas for academic purposes with foreign representative offices in Taiwan last year, up 23.6 percent over the 2003 figure, but down by 3.7 percent from the peak number posted in 2002, statistics compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) show. The US attracted the largest number of students -- 14,054 -- while the UK and Australia came second and third, luring 9,207 and 2,246 students from Taiwan, respectively.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
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