AVIATION
Chinese drone delays flights
A Chinese drone was on Tuesday morning detected for the first time near Matsu Nangan Airport in Lienchiang County and disrupted two flights, airport director Weng Ting-huang (翁丁煌) said. The army’s Matsu Defense Command notified the control tower that a Chinese drone was seen 5 nautical miles (9.3km) from the airport at about 9am, Weng said. The tower immediately notified a UNI Air aircraft approaching the airport of the drone’s presence, delaying its landing. The drone hovered near the airport for about 20 minutes before it left, after which the UNI Air plane was approved for landing, 30 minutes behind schedule. A second UNI Air flight scheduled to depart later was also delayed, Weng said. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) has set up drone detection systems at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and Kaohsiung International Airport, CAA Deputy Director-General Lin Jiunn-liang (林俊良) said. No such system has been installed at Lienchiang’s airports, but the current systems would still have difficulty detecting drones 10km away, he said.
SOCIETY
Rare snake caught for venom
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Ministry of Agriculture officials recovered a hundred-pace snake from a home in Taitung’s Yanping Township (延平), a CDC official said yesterday. The Deinagkistrodon acutus, which is listed as a threatened species, is a venomous snake found in mountainous parts of eastern and southern Taiwan. After receiving a report of the snake yesterday morning, the CDC sent officials to recover it and bring it to a lab in Taipei to produce antivenom, said snake expert Tsai Wei-yi (蔡緯毅), who caught the animal. “If you look closely, you can see that its nose has been injured. It lunged at me when I caught it, but only as a warning,” he said. “Usually a hundred-pacer will not try to bite you, unless it feels threatened.” The CDC keeps venomous snakes at its lab for up to 10 years, and they are replaced as they age, CDC official Chiang Wen-che (江玟徹) said, adding that it has four hundred-pacers in its inventory. “This species is relatively rare. It has already been seven years since I last made the trip to Taitung to retrieve” one, he said. Despite the snake’s rarity, the CDC must have antivenom on hand at all times, he said, adding that venom is taken from the snake twice a year.
JUDICIARY
Court to look at injunctions
The Constitutional Court is on Wednesday next week to hold a preparatory hearing about injunction applications seeking to pause enforcement of government oversight laws that went into effect on Wednesday last week, the Judicial Yuan said on Tuesday. The Judicial Yuan, which oversees the Constitutional Court, said that stakeholders would be summoned to the court to present their views. They include the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus, President William Lai (賴清德) and the Executive Yuan. All parties submitted injunction applications and petitioned the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of the amendments last week. Representatives from the Legislative Yuan are also expected to be summoned, the Judicial Yuan said. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party, which together form a majority in the legislature, passed the amendments to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) and the Criminal Code on May 28. The court has agreed to review the DPP caucus’ petition against the legislation, but has not yet decided on those filed by the Executive Yuan and the president.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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