Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/03
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Aug. 3 (CNA) The FormoSat-7 satellite group, a U.S.-Taiwan collaboration that could be launched by the end of this year, will greatly improve the world’s typhoon prediction capabilities, the deputy head of the Central Weather Bureau said Friday.

The FormoSat-7 project, which will contain a constellation of six satellites, will help gather intensive data at sea between latitudes 30 degrees north and 30 degrees south, said Cheng Chia-ping (程家平).

That mostly tropical area is where many storms form and thanks to the low inclination of the satellites, with just 24 degrees between their position and the equator, more crucial information could be collected, he told CNA.
[FULL  STORY]

Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/08/02
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said she believes transitional justice is helping to free

Taiwan’s indigenous peoples from 400 years of suppression and disregard, although at a slow pace.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Austronesian Forum in Taipei, which fell on Aboriginal Day in Taiwan, Tsai said her administration will continue to work towards promoting the need for understanding between different ethnic groups.

According to Tsai, she fully understands that 400 years of suppression cannot be reversed after only two years after the country began to seek transitional justice, but change is happening.

The Austronesian Forum brings together the heads of state and envoys from 13 countries and areas in Pacific region.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/08/02
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Taipei’s Public Transportation Office (PTO) will install solar-powered smart bus stops at selected spots across the city in recent days as a part of a pilot program, the agency announced in a news release on Wednesday (August 1).

The PTO said that it has been pushing to convert as many traditional bus stops into smart ones as possible, but as some bus stops are not connected power lines due to location factor, it is trying out two types of smart bus stops which utilize solar power.

One of the two models, when fully charged, can operate for 14 days without sunlight. The stop’s running display can show up to 4 bus routes at once.

The other model can operate for 30 days without sunlight when fully charged, with the running display being able to show a maximum of 8 bus routes at once.

The battery status of these bus stops can be monitored remotely, and their display units are products of electronic paper technology, which is the first application of its kind, the agency said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/02
By: Hao Hsueh-chin and Ko Lin 

Taipei, Aug. 2 (CNA) An importer from Taiwan won the bid for the most expensive coffee beans auctioned by the Best of Panama (BOP), a blind coffee tasting competition organized and run by the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP) on July 20.

The bidding for the Elida Geisha Green Tip Natural, a variety of coffee cultivated by the Lamastus Family Estates in Panama’s Boquete town, closed at US$803 per pound, the highest per-pound price ever paid at the coffee auction.

Wang Hsin-chun (王信鈞), the winning bidder, said Thursday as many as 250 buyers placed bids for a limited quantity – 100 pounds – of the exquisite coffee from Lamastus.

Wang, who runs a coffee supply business based in Taichung, said the growth in coffee consumption has created about NT$70 billion (US$2.27 billion) worth of business opportunities a year in the local market.    [FULL  STORY]

IT’S PERSONAL: The incident is important to Taichung residents as 77.3% of survey respondents knew about it, which might affect a close mayoral race, a professor said

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 03, 2018
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

The East Asian Olympic Committee’s decision to revoke Taichung’s right to host the first

East Asian Youth Games inadvertently raised public support for Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung’s (林佳龍) re-election bid, a Cross-Strait Policy Association survey showed yesterday.

The survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday, about a week after the committee’s decision was made.

Chinese committee members made the suggestion in response to a proposed referendum to change the name of the national sports team from “Chinese Taipei” to “Taiwan” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which they said would expose the Games to “political uncertainty.”

The survey among Taichung adults found that 77.3 percent of the respondents knew the city’s right to host the Games was revoked.    [FULL  STORY]

Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/08/01
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

The government is thanking the U.S. for recognizing Taiwan’s importance as part of the Trump Administration’s Indo-Pacific initiative.

Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said they are now working on a series of ideas to put forward to U.S. officials.

The statement comes after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned the importance of the U.S.’ partnership with Taiwan at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum hosted by the U..S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C. earlier this week, and is in line with a more vociferous line taken by the Tsai administration in thanking its international partners for their recognition.

Pompeo told the audience that Taiwan’s economic and democratic development have worked together to make the island “a high-tech powerhouse.” He also said the U.S. has important partnerships with Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.    [FULL  STORY]

 

Chiayi man arrested after walking a crocodile on a leash to protest the Animal Protection Act

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/08/01
By: Renée Salmonsen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Around 1 p.m. August 1 a Chiayi crocodile breeder, Juan Mao-

sheng (阮茂盛), led a large crocodile around on a leash outside of the Executive Yuan in protest of animal protection legislation that restricts the sale of crocodiles.

Juan said that his father began raising crocodiles in 1982 and then passed the business on to him. The current Animal Protection Act in Taiwan however forbids the buying and selling, breeding, and slaughtering of crocodiles, making Juan’s business illegal.

Juan and a friend drove from Chiayi to Taipei to today with the crocodile tied up in the trunk to protest the Act, according to CNA.

Passersby immediately notified the police upon seeing 45-year-old Juan walking an alligator on the sidewalk along Bei Ping East Road (北平東路).     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/01
By: Liu Chien-pang and CNA intern Wang Szu-chi

Taipei, Aug. 1 (CNA) Thirty-five beef noodle shops have been selected for the next

round of competition in the 2018 Taipei International Beef Noodle Festival, and the winners will be announced in September, the Taipei City government said Wednesday.

Awards will be given in eight categories in the finals of the competition, which started with 50 participating shops, the city government said.

The shops with the best service quality, atmosphere, flavor, cost-performance ratio, soup, noodles, and eco-friendly operations will receive awards in September, while a special prize will be given to the shop voted as the people’s choice, city officials said.
[FULL  STORY]