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.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
A new message broadcast on the Taipei MRT’s Wenhu (Brown) Line urging passengers to yield their seats to those in need, not necessarily elderly people, would be extended to other MRT lines and public transportation in the capital, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday. Chiang was responding to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a news conference at Taipei City Hall promoting healthy walking. Several disputes over priority seats on public transportation have recently been reported, sparking debate about who qualifies to sit in them, as most of the cases involved elderly people asking young people to give up their