DEFENSE
Tsai names vice minister
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has appointed Po Hung-hui (柏鴻輝), deputy chief executive officer of the Institute for National Defense Security Research, as the new vice defense minister in charge of policy at the Ministry of National Defense. Po, a retired air force lieutenant general, graduated from the Republic of China Air Force Academy in 1981 and the Air Command and Staff College of National Defense University in 1994, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said in a statement on Friday. He has served as the head of Taiwan’s defense mission in the US, director of the Political Warfare Office at the Air Force Command, chief of the general staff of the Air Force Command, and administrative deputy minister at the ministry, Lo said. Po had been serving at the institute since he retired from the military in 2018, Lo added.
HEALTH
Vaccine parity for migrants
Migrant workers are to receive the same treatment as Taiwanese in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Joanne Ou (歐江安) said on Friday. The representative offices of Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam issued a joint appeal on Tuesday last week for migrant workers to be added to the priority list of people to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Ou said the ministry discussed the situation with the Central Epidemic Command Center on Friday last week. “We were told that migrant workers are not treated differently from Taiwanese nationals in principle,” she said, adding that the ministry would arrange for the representatives of the four countries and health officials to discuss the issue.
DIPLOMACY
Haiti ‘unlikely’ to switch ties
Ties between Taiwan and Haiti would remain solid, despite the political turmoil in Haiti following the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise, a former Taiwanese ambassador to the Caribbean nation said. Asked whether Haiti could switch allegiance to China after the assassination on Wednesday, Yang Cheng-ta (楊承達), ambassador to Haiti from 2005 to 2008, said he believed that the interim government’s priority would be to bring stability to the country. Yang said he does not believe Beijing would try to poach Taiwan’s diplomatic ally amid the chaos that Haiti is in. Even if the Chinese government did succeed in lobbying the interim government to ditch Taipei, the question is whether the new Haitian government would follow through with that decision, he added. Most importantly, Yang said that relations between Taiwan and Haiti have remained strong for years, and all bilateral cooperation programs are running smoothly.
ENVIRONMENT
Wild animal rescues drop
The number of wild animals being rescued has dropped to a record low following the implementation of a level 3 COVID-19 alert, a nonprofit veterinary clinic affiliated with the Wild Bird Society of Taoyuan said. Compared with the 315 animal rescue calls from April 18 to May 18, the number of calls dropped by 81 to 234 from May 19 to the end of last month, the clinic said. The number of calls has dropped by more than 100 from the same period in previous years, it said. Veterinarian Wu Chia-ying (吳珈瑩) said most callers report roadkill, and with traffic reduced due to the alert, the number of roadkill calls has also decreased.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its