WEATHER
CWB mulls sea warning
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) could issue a sea warning for Typhoon Mawar as soon as Monday and does not rule out issuing a land warning based on how the storm develops, it said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the typhoon was moving west-northwest with maximum sustained winds of 209kph and gusts of up to 262kph, CWB data showed. It could get stronger and be pushed north on Monday, when it is expected to reach waters southeast of Taiwan, but the timing remained uncertain, bureau forecaster Yen Chih-chun (葉致均) said. The typhoon is to head toward Taiwan until Tuesday, when it might suddenly reverse course and head in a northeast direction, away from Taiwan, the bureau said. However, the US-based Global Forecast System said the storm could make another sharp turn west and make landfall in southern Taiwan on Sunday next week.
DEFENSE
PLA planes breach ADIZ
Thirteen Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft breached Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) during the 24-hour period that began at 6am on Thursday, including two BZK-005 drones that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait. The combat and reconnaissance drones crossed the median line at Taiwan’s southern end and continued flying in a southeastern direction for some distance before turning back, the flight paths released by the Ministry of National Defense yesterday showed. There were also incursions by six J-16 jets, two H-6 bombers, one Y-9 electronic warfare aircraft, one KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft and a Z-9 anti-submarine helicopter, all of which flew along the southern boundary of the ADIZ. In addition, eight other PLA planes and 11 vessels were seen in airspace and waters around the nation during the 24-hour period, the ministry said. The military scrambled jets and deployed air defense missile systems in response to the aircraft and vessels operating in the vicinity, the ministry said.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Debt stops lawmakers’ visit
Negotiators’ continuing failure to reach an agreement to lift the US debt ceiling forced the US House of Representatives’ new China committee to postpone a planned trip to Taiwan, committee chairman Mike Gallagher told reporters on Thursday. The House adjourned on Thursday and was not due to return until June 5, four days after June 1, when the US Department of the Treasury said the government could run short of funds to cover all its expenses. Several members of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party were to have left for Taiwan this weekend. As talks between the House and White House continued, House members were told to be prepared to return to the Capitol to vote on potential legislation to raise the debt limit with 24 hours’ notice.
SOCIETY
Two more bodies found
The Pingtung County Bureau of Fire and Emergency Services on Thursday found two more bodies in the search for three missing members of a 10-person river tracing group swept away by a surging waterfall on Saturday last week, raising the death toll to four, with one person still missing. The group was exploring a section of Flying Dragon Waterfall (飛龍瀑布) in Wutai Township (霧台). As they were climbing down a cliff, five people were swept away after torrential rainfall caused a water surge. The other five were stranded on the cliff and rescued by a helicopter the following morning.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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