WEATHER
Taoyuan hit by heavy rain
Taoyuan yesterday morning was hit by heavy rain due to a low-pressure system that brought unstable weather, and more rain was expected as extremely heavy rain warnings were in effect for Taoyuan and other areas in northern Taiwan. A weather station in Taoyuan’s Dayuan District (大園) had accumulated 128mm of rain as of 11:30am yesterday, the most anywhere in Taiwan, Central Weather Bureau data showed. The bureau’s heavy rain alert was also in effect for Taipei and Hsinchu City, and Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, as well as for Yilan County in the east, Taichung, and Changhua and Nantou counties in central Taiwan, and Chiayi City, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and Yunlin, Chiayi and Pingtung counties in the south. A heavy rain warning is defined as 80mm of rainfall over a 24-hour period or more than 40mm in one hour.
HEALTH
Mpox travel notice issued
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Tuesday raised a travel notice relating to mpox for China and Thailand following surges in cases of the disease there, advising people to practice precaution when traveling to the two nations. The nations join 38 others on the Level 1 watch list — the lowest in the CDC’s three-tier travel alert system. The list also includes South Korea, Australia, the US and Japan, CDC spokeswoman Tseng Shu-huai (曾淑慧) said. The CDC on Tuesday confirmed 14 mpox cases last week in Taiwan, bringing the total to 280 since the disease was designated a Category 2 communicable disease in June last year. The new cases were in New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu County, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and the ages of the people ranged from 20 to 60, Tseng said.
DIPLOMACY
Letter of intent signed
Taiwan and Guatemala on Monday signed a letter of intent at the Customs Administration in Taipei to promote cooperation in customs matters. The Customs Administration said the letter of intent was signed by Customs Administration Director-General Peng Ying-wei (彭英偉) and Marco Livio Diaz Reyes, head of the Guatemalan Superintendency of Tax Administration. The agreement is aimed at paving the way for the two nations to deepen bilateral customs cooperation through expertise and information sharing to more effectively crack down on criminal activity, the agency said. A long-term diplomatic ally, Guatemala signed a free-trade agreement with Taiwan in 2005 and a Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Authorized Economic Operator in 2021.
TOURISM
People chosen for campaign
A total of 15 groups and individuals, including a chef and YouTubers, have been selected to stay overnight in the Presidential Office Building as part of a government campaign to raise the nation’s global visibility. The campaign drew submissions from nearly 100 groups worldwide, Presidential Office spokesperson Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) said on Monday. Running from next month to December, the program would give participants the chance to spend a night in the historical setting, and explore cities and counties that showcase Taiwan’s diverse attributes, Lin said. The selected participants include people from Canada, the US, Japan, Slovakia, France, the Netherlands, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Israel, said Lee Hou-ching (李厚慶), secretary-general of the General Association of Chinese Culture, one of the campaign’s organizers.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS