President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday paid another visit to areas of Hualien that were devastated by Tuesday’s earthquake and ate dinner with evacuated residents temporarily being sheltered in the county’s indoor stadium, where the president also planned to stay overnight.
The president continued to command units responding at collapsed building sites and stopped at an ad hoc command center for the rescue effort at the Yun Men Tsui Ti (雲門翠堤大樓) commercial and residential complex for a briefing, before a late afternoon visit at an elementary school, that has been turned into a temporary evacuation shelter.
In the evening, Tsai visited the Hualien County Stadium, which is also being used as a temporary shelter.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Tsai had dinner at the stadium and expressed her concerns over the plight of Hualien residents whose lives have been disrupted, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said.
Tsai received updates from Ministry of National Defense Deputy Chief of Staff Chen Pao-yu (陳寶餘), who is heading the military’s disaster relief efforts in Hualien, on the number of casualties and the still missing and on the telecommunications situation in Hualien, Huang said.
The president promised to deploy machinery to tear down unstable and collapsed buildings and requested that the military provide hot showers, meals and warm clothing for search-and-rescue teams and by earthquake victims, Huang added.
Tsai is extremely concerned about the progress of search and rescue efforts, Huang said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS