FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Medic team to aid Ukraine
A volunteer medical team composed of Taiwanese members of the North American Taiwanese Medical Association is to leave for Ukraine today to provide medical services for local residents. Led by physician Tsai Jung (蔡榮), the 11-member team is to stay in Ukraine until Wednesday next week. Aside from providing humanitarian aid, the team would show that Taiwan stands with Ukraine, physician Lin Jung-sung (林榮松) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Legislative Speaker You Si-kun praised the team’s efforts and said that they demonstrate the “Taiwanese spirit.” United Microelectronics Corp founder Robert Tsao (曹興誠) has donated NT$10 million (US$313,735) to support the kindness of the team. Ukrainians have united to defend their country against Russia’s aggression, which should inspire Taiwan to come together in the face of the threats posed by China, Tsao said.
TRANSPORT
Umbrella-sharing launched
The Taipei MRT system yesterday launched an umbrella-sharing service across its stations, allowing people to rent umbrellas and return them at different sites. A total of 266 umbrella service sites have been set up at the MRT’s 117 stations, operator Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said. The rental fee is NT$19 for the first hour, NT$29 for the second, with a 24-hour cap of NT$39, it said. If the umbrella is not returned after one day, an additional NT$20 would be charged every 24 hours thereafter, it added. If the user has not returned the umbrella after 14 days, or an umbrella is vandalized or lost, the user would be charged NT$799, it said. Users can select various payment methods after downloading the Raingo app on their smartphone or tablet and registering by providing personal information such as a phone number and e-mail address, it said. Users who register successfully before the end of this month and enter a special discount number would receive two coupons, each one allowing them to rent an umbrella free for a 24-hour period, it added.
RETAIL
Eslite to open largest store
Eslite Spectrum is to open its largest branch in Asia at the Yulong City mall in New Taipei’s Sindian District (新店) on Sept. 28, it announced yesterday. In a press statement, the leisure and lifestyle retailer said the 19,000 ping (62,810m2) branch is to occupy B1 to the 4th floor at the mall, and would feature almost 250 vendors. The branch is to hold a soft opening ahead of its formal opening on Sept. 28, the company said. Eslite said it expects the Sindian branch to become its highest-earning location, and to help make up for profits lost when it closes its branch in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) in December. The company has previously said that when the Xinyi store closes, it would move the location’s designated 24-hour bookstore branch to its store in Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. Eslite added that it is planning to start the phased opening of a new branch in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯) in October, which at 7,500 ping, would be its largest store in central and southern Taiwan.
LEISURE
Cijin Beach closed
The Port of Kaohsiung’s operator on Sunday closed off Cijin Beach (旗津海水浴場) pending cleanup, one day after beachgoers reported finding tar balls washed up in a swimming area and along the shoreline. Taiwan International Ports Corp said the beach would be closed for at least three days to complete the cleanup before the forecast arrival tomorrow of Typhoon Saola. After closing off the beach at 6am, contract workers managed to clean up about 12kg of tar balls from the beach by the afternoon, leaving only scattered traces behind, the operator said. The pollution could have leaked from the container ship Angel, which sank about 5km outside the harbor on July 21, but further investigation was needed to confirm the source, it said.
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
President William Lai (賴清德) should backpedal from his new “two-state theory” and return to the “one China” principle in line with the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, to foster and rebuild mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday. Hsiao made the remark after the Chinese government on Friday revealed guidelines saying that its courts, prosecutors, and public and state security bodies should “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession crimes by the law, and resolutely defend national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.” The Democratic Progressive Party’s “kneejerk” reaction every