WEATHER
Temperatures to drop
The weather is expected to become cooler, with sporadic rain in some areas tomorrow and on Wednesday due to a stronger northeasterly monsoon and the arrival of a frontal system, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Showers are forecast in the nation’s north and east tomorrow and on Wednesday, while the weather in central Taiwan would change from mostly cloudy to sporadically rainy, the bureau said. Temperatures reached 30°C to 32°C in western Taiwan yesterday, and 27°C to 29°C in the east, the bureau said. Wu Te-jung (吳德榮), a professor at National Central University’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, said that as the frontal system moves south toward the nation, clouds would build up over the north of Taiwan, bringing the temperatures there down today, he said. The front is expected to reach Taiwan tomorrow, and it would send the mercury to as low as 15°C to 16°C on Friday, and would also bring rain, the meteorologist said.
HEALTH
Swine fever carcass found
Tests on a pig carcass found in Kinmen County’s Lieyu Township (烈嶼) came back positive for African swine fever, the Central Emergency Operation Center for African swine fever said on Saturday. The last time a dead hog was found washed ashore in the township was on Feb. 3, and it also was found to have the disease, the center said. Lieyu is on an island separate from Kinmen’s main island and is less than 5km away from Xiamen, China. To ensure that the disease had not spread to the seven active hog farms in Lieyu, quarantine personnel were dispatched to collect tissue samples for African swine fever testing, the center said. All tests came back negative. To date, 12 pig carcasses that washed ashore in Kinmen have tested positive for swine fever.
ASTRONOMY
Meteor shower to peak
Stargazers in Taiwan are to have a good chance to view the Lyrid meteor shower when it peaks on Wednesday, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. Observation conditions should be fair after 10:30pm tomorrow and before dawn on Friday, the museum said. Astronomy buffs can expect to see 23 shooting stars per hour during the peak, compared with an average of 18, thanks to less light interference from a crescent moon, the museum said. The Lyrid meteor shower is also known for producing bolides — extremely bright shooting stars that are brighter than Venus, it said. The museum said that it would broadcast the event live on its Web site. The meteor shower would be visible to the naked eye if the weather is good, it added.
SOCIETY
Restaurant offers hope
A Taipei restaurant that offers work opportunities to Hong Kongers seeking political asylum in Taiwan opened for business yesterday. The restaurant in the Gongguan (公館) area is called “Aegis” in English. Its Chinese name (保護傘) refers to the umbrellas that have been adopted as symbols of political resistance in Hong Kong. In a Facebook post on Thursday, it thanked its supporters “for never giving up or deserting us, and always staying true with your support and help.” The project is being led by Daniel Wong (黃國桐), a Hong Kong lawyer and politician who provided volunteer legal services to protesters arrested during the Hong Kong protests last year. Wong, a Kowloon City district councilor and member of the Hong Kong Election Committee, said at a recent forum that Hong Kongers are not asking for help from Taiwan’s government, but hope the country can provide refuge for those who need it.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
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