Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/16
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, July 16 (CNA) The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued a sea warning for Tropical Storm Danas late Tuesday, adding that a land warning is likely at noon Wednesday.

As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, the system was located 600 kilometers south-southeast of Taiwan's southernmost tip, moving in a northwesterly direction at a speed of 11 kilometers per hour toward the Bashi Channel, the CWB said.

It was packing maximum sustained winds of 65 kph and gusts of 90 kph, according to the bureau. 
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 17, 2019
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

A memorial whistle was blown yesterday for Railway Police Bureau officer Lee Cheng-han (李承翰),

who was stabbed to death on July 3, as the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) announced that conductors and station staff would be given self-defense courses, and that pepper spray would be given to conductors.

All trains departing at 11:40am — when the pallbearers at Lee’s funeral service in Chiayi were scheduled to lift up his casket — blew their whistles for about three seconds in a salute to the slain officer.

Lee was stabbed during a confrontation with a Ziqiang Express (自強號) passenger who had refused to pay the full fare, leading the train’s conductor to call the bureau for assistance.

The incident led the TRA to open a review of the safety equipment carried by its onboard personnel.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 16, 2019
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter6

A tropical depression east of the Philippines is likely to strengthen into a tropical storm, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday, adding that the chances of showers would be high tomorrow in eastern and southern regions as the depression passes through the Bashi Channel before entering the South China Sea.

The storm is expected to take shape this morning, the bureau said, adding that it would be named Danas if it strengthens inot a tropical storm.

The tropical depression was moving west at 25kph.

There are two variables that could affect the movement of the system, the bureau said.

If a Pacific high-pressure system continues to weaken, the tropical depression would come closer to Taiwan, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Council of Agriculture is expected to mass produce Trichogramma in order to contain future FAW infestations

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/15
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s fall armyworm (FAW) emergency response center said on Monday (July 15) that tiny Trichogramma wasps have proven effective in suppressing the growth of fall armyworms.

Furthermore, they can be mass produced in the future to prevent and contain the invasive species. The center said as of Sunday that a total of 206 FAW cases had been reported and confirmed across Taiwan, not including Chiayi City, with all FAW cases found in corn plants.

Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) said Trichogramma, a natural enemy of FAW, have suppressed the expansion of FAW. He expected the government would mass produce Trichogramma to contain FAW infestations in the future.

Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Director-General Feng Hai-tung (馮海東) said Trichogramma has been used to contain American sugarcane borers and corn borers. He added the parasitic Trichogramma can prevent the hatching of FAW eggs and disrupt the life cycle.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/15
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, July 15 (CNA) Three former directors-general of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) have been given heavier administrative punishments than they received last December in the wake of a fatal train crash.

According to a final report released by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) on Monday, Lu Chieh-shen (鹿潔身), who was in charge of the TRA when a Puyuma train derailed and killed 18 passengers in October 2018, will be given a major demerit and a demerit, instead of only a major demerit.

Lu ignored the longstanding problems with the Puyuma trains' air compressors that played a major role in the crash, the report said.

It was because of malfunctioning air compressors that the driver of the ill-fated train, You Chen-chung (尤振仲), turned off the automatic train protection (ATP) system, which when on prevents trains from speeding.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 15 July, 2019
By: Natalie Tso

US Congressman Michael McCaul says that US arms sales to Taiwan will help Taiwan defend itself from the threat of China. He is one of the Congressmen who met with President Tsai Ing-wen during her stopover in New York. He made the comment during an interview on Fox News on Sunday.

When asked what China thinks of President Tsai’s trip to the US, McCaul said he thinks China is probably depressed about the United States’ current support for Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Han Kuo-yu wins the KMT presidential primary by 44% – he will be running up against Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan's 2020 election.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/07/15
By: Brian Hioe

Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) was announced as the winner of the Kuomintang (KMT) presidential primary today.

Han won by overwhelming margins, garnering 44.80 percent of the vote. Foxconn founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), a major contender against Han for the nomination, obtained 27.73 percent of the vote, while former New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) only received 17.9 percent.

The KMT determined its presidential candidates through telephone polls, and the results are then confirmed by the party’s standing committee. Unlike the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the KMT does not include mobile phones in its phone polling process, which likely resulted in the sample size skewing older.

Han’s victory by a large margin came as a surprise as Gou was catching up in the polls last week.

He has benefited from constant media exposure since his rise from obscurity to superstardom in the months before the 2018 nine-in-one local elections. Gou, on the other hand, poured resources into campaign advertising last month, drawing on his wealth as Taiwan’s richest man.
[FULL  STORY]

Filipino indicted for homicide by Taiwan prosecutors after deaths of 8 fishermen

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/15
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Filipino fishery worker was indicted on Friday (July 12) for murder after a killing spree on the high seas resulted in the death of eight members of a fishing vessel.

The fisherman has been identified as Aurelio Fronda and is alleged to have fatally knifed two crew members and wounded two other fishermen aboard the Wen Peng (穩鵬號). Fronda was the chief officer on the ship, which is registered in Pingtung County’s Donggang township.

After the two crewmen were fatally stabbed and another two were wounded, eight more fishery workers jumped overboard to escape the attack, according to Manila and Economic Cultural Office (MECO) Chairman Angelito Tan Banayo. Only two of the eight who jumped overboard were rescued, leaving the remaining six lost and sea and presumably drowned.

The attack is said to have taken place at 3 a.m. on Feb. 20, approximately 1,540 nautical miles from Port Louis, Mauritius. The ship had a crew of 24, including three Taiwanese, 10 Filipinos, and 11 Indonesians, according to the Taiwan Fisheries Agency.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/15
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, July 15 (CNA) Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) will represent the opposition

Kuomintang (KMT) in the 2020 presidential election, after beating his closest challenger, former Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), by nearly 20 percent in the party's primary.

Announcing the results at a press conference in Taipei Monday, KMT Vice Chairman Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said Han's support rate averaged 44.805 percent in the five different polls that were conducted nationwide July 8-14.

Gou, the runner-up, received an average 27.73 percent support in the polls, which was conducted by five independent polling organizations and collected a total of 15,185 valid samples via landline phone calls, Tseng said.

Among the other contenders, former New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) gained an average 17.90 percent support rate, former Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) 6.02 percent, and National Taiwan University professor Chang Ya-chung's (張亞中) 3.54 percent.
[FULL  STORY]

South China Morning Post
Date: 14 Jul, 2019
By: Laurie Chen  

• Announcement of ‘regular operations’ comes just days after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen hosts reception for UN representatives in New York
• Timing of defence ministry’s statement is a clear warning to Taipei, observer says

Air and naval forces from the People’s Liberation Army will conduct routine drills close to the Taiwan Strait in the coming days, Beijing said on Sunday, less than a week after Washington approved the sale of US$2.2 billion worth of military equipment to Taipei.

The exercises are part of the military’s regular schedule, the Ministry of Defence said in a short statement.

“The drills are routine arrangements according to the annual plans of the military force,” it said, without elaborating.

The announcement also came after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday held a reception in New York for permanent representatives of the United Nations at the self-ruled island’s de facto embassy in the city. The meeting, which was open to the media, was the first of its kind as Taiwan’s leaders have previously been prohibited from making public appearances during transit stops in the US.    [FULL  STORY]