DIPLOMACY
US delegation arrives
A US congressional delegation is visiting Taiwan for five days to meet with President William Lai (賴清德) and other senior officials, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. US Representative Marilyn Strickland leads the delegation that also includes her Democratic Party colleagues Julia Brownley, Jill Tokuda and Jasmine Crockett, the ministry said in a news release. During their visit from yesterday through Thursday, the congresswomen would also be invited to a banquet hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) “to exchange views on important issues on Taiwan-US relations, cross-strait and regional peace and security,” the ministry said. Since the delegation is comprised entirely of female lawmakers, the ministry said it “also looks forward to engaging in talks on women’s participation in political and public life.” Aside from Tokuda, all the other members of the delegation are making their first visit to Taiwan, it said.
MILITARY
AI used in communication
The army yesterday released video clips of artificial intelligence (AI) news anchors’ multilingual coverage of two rounds of live-fire artillery exercises held in the country this week as part of its effort to enhance communication with the international community. The two 90-second-long videos featured AI news anchors speaking in English, Chinese and Japanese about two rounds of artillery firing drills conducted in Hsinchu County’s Kengzikou (坑子口) shooting range and Taichung’s Jianan Beach (甲南海灘) on Wednesday and Thursday last week, the Ministry of National Defense said in a news release. The two drills featured M109A2 and M110A2 howitzers, the ministry said. They were staged only two weeks after the conclusion of the military’s annual Han Kuang military exercises. The ministry has said that troops need to continuously enhance their combat readiness. The application of AI technology to covering the nation’s military drills in three widely used languages “is aimed at enhancing communication with the international community by sharing information relating to Taiwan’s national defense situation,” it said.
CRIME
Drug shipment prevented
Thai law enforcement authorities have stopped about 11.8kg of heroin, discovered in a shipment of meat grinders and meatball makers, that was to enter Taiwan, at a dock in Bangkok, the Thai authorities said on Saturday. The drugs, worth NT$32.67 million (US$1 million) were found in Bangkok’s Khlong Toei District on Wednesday, Thai Department of Customs Director-General Theeraj Athanavanich told a news conference. The Thai Seaport Interdiction Task Force, which included agents from the Department of Customs and Armed Forces Security Center of the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, found 32 blocks of heroin hidden in the motors of a meat grinder and three meatball makers, Athanavanich said. The drugs were found when Thai customs personnel identified a suspicious shipment to Taiwan as they were intercepting exports potentially at risk of drug smuggling, he said. The seized drugs have been handed over to the the Thai Ministry of Justice’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board and the Royal Thai Police’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau for further investigation, and it was later discovered that the drugs came from a drug trafficking ring in Thailand’s Phetchabun Province, he said. The Taiwanese Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau is also pursuing accomplices in Taiwan.
The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts yesterday apologized for forbidding children from copying paintings by freehand drawing, saying it welcomes visitors to make sketches of paintings on drawing tablets or sketchpads. The museum issued the remark after a museumgoer nicknamed “Mickeyelk Gesner” on Thursday posted on Facebook that her son had been sketching a painting by Pablo Picasso on a tablet computer at the exhibition “Capturing the Moment” on Wednesday when a museum worker told him to stop drawing. “The staff told us, ‘Only taking photos is allowed. No copying. This is a rule,’” she quoted the worker as saying. Physician Lee Chia-yan
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 5:06pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The earthquake occurred offshore, 38.3km south-southeast of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 9km, CWA data showed. The quake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, was highest in parts of Yilan County, where it measured a “weak 5” on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale. The temblor recorded an intensity of 4 in parts of Hualien, Taoyuan and New Taipei, and 3 in parts of Taichung, Nantou, Taipei, Hsinchu and Miaoli, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage
China’s travel booking platform ctrip.com has removed the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Shanghai from its listings after the chain’s Paris venue banned the Chinese national flag during the 2024 Summer Olympics, sparking an Internet furor. The story — which had garnered 110 million views on Sina Weibo — had since been removed from the platform’s list of most popular posts. On Monday, a Chinese influencer known as Instructor Zhang (張教官) accused the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Paris of refusing his request for the Chinese flag to be displayed at the venue in a video uploaded to TikTok. A person purported to be a
HUGE UPGRADE: Once Terminal 3 is completed, the airport’s passenger service capacity would expand to 82 million travelers per year from 37 million, an official said The north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 is scheduled to begin operations in the middle of next year, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said yesterday. The Terminal 3 project was launched as the number of air travelers accessing the nation’s largest international airport each year has already exceeded the combined capacity of terminals 1 and 2. The two existing terminals were designed to be accessed by 37 million air travelers per year. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, about 48.36 million accessed the airport in 2019. The airport operator yesterday organized a field trip for reporters to see Terminal 3 construction