Taiwan faces rolling power outages again today, May 17

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021 Phillip Charlier 1 Comment

Taipower informed consumers via a text message alert at 8:10 pm this evening that there was insufficient power in the national grid and areas will face rolling power outages from 8:50 pm. The insufficient supply is reported to have happened due to a coal-fired power unit at the Xingda (Hsinta) power plant being shut down at 12:54 pm due to a combustion management system module failure. Although the fault was repaired, and the power unit was restarted at 2:29 pm,

Violent Crimes

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment convenience store, surgical masks, violence

A convenience store clerk in New Taipei City was sent to hospital after being beaten up by a man who refused to comply with the requirement to wear a mask and register his name and phone number when visiting the store, today, May 17. At around 7:00 am this morning a 50-year-old man, named Lai, entered a High Life convenience store in Tucheng District, without wearing a surgical mask. A 22-year-old clerk named Zhuo requested he put on a mask

wreck of crashed vehicle wrapped around tree

Traffic Accidents

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment Taichung City

Two men were cut out of the mangled wreck of a vehicle without vital signs and were later declared dead at the hospital, after a single vehicle accident in Taichung City this afternoon, Sunday, May 16. The 43-year-old driver, named Wu, is suspected to have lost control of his vehicle at high speed while negotiating a curve on Dafeng Road, in Dali District, slamming into a tree on the central traffic separator. The Toyota SUV was left wrapped around the

Fire

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment Nantou County, wildfire

A team of firefighters was flown to a landing point in a remote area of Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range, and faced a further 5-hour hike to reach a fire on Dashuiku Mountain today, May 16. Chiayi Forest Management Office dispatched the team after a fire was reported at around 4:00 am this morning from the Yushan (Mt Jade) Weather Station. As it would normally take three days to hike to the remote location, it was decided to dispatch a helicopter

composite image of Taipei 101 and people shopping in supermarket

Business and Economy

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021 Phillip Charlier 1 Comment COVID-19, pandemic

People stayed away from normally crowded areas including Taipei City’s Xinyi District, and popular tourist hotspots such as Jiufen, but supermarkets in residential districts around Greater Taipei were crowded with people who waited in cues for up to an hour to stock up on such survival essentials as toilet paper and instant noodles, today, Saturday, May 15. The crowded supermarkets versus empty streets phenomena appeared after the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported 180 new cases of COVID-19, leading to

overturned sand dredger in the Taiwan Strait

Marine and Fisheries

May 15, 2021May 15, 2021 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment marine search and rescue, sand-dredging, Taiwan Strait

Five people were plucked from the water, but one was later declared dead, and three more are missing after a Chinese sand dredger capsized around 60 nautical miles southwest of Qimei Island this morning, May 15. Taiwan Coast Guard Administration (TCGA) dispatched several patrol boats, and the National Airborne Service Corps sent a helicopter after a notification from the the National Rescue Command Center at 4:36 am. The rescued crew members were flown to the Chiayi Airport where they were

Business and Economy

May 14, 2021May 14, 2021 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment Kaohsiung City, legal

The owner of a high-end teppanyaki restaurant in Kaohsiung City won an appeal to the Supreme Court, effectively reducing her penalty to a commutable prison sentence of 5 months from a previous 1 year, 6 month sentence for the crime of passing off duck liver as genuine foie gras, yesterday, May 13. The legal saga began at lunchtime on September 19, 2016, when a man named Lu (盧) took his wife to the Cardial restaurant on Longde Road, Gushan District,

Business and Economy

May 13, 2021May 13, 2021 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment Ministry of Economic Affairs, power supply

Full power capacity should be restored by 9:40 pm, ending a series of blackouts around Taiwan, the Minister of Economic Affairs said at an emergency press conference this evening, May 13. The announcement was made after island-wide power rationing in the form of rolling blackouts plunged millions of households and businesses into darkness for up to one hour at a time from 3:00 pm this afternoon. The power rationing was implemented after a power grid accident at the Xingda (Hsinta)

Business and Economy

May 13, 2021May 13, 2021 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment power supply

An accident at the Kaohsiung City Xingda (Hsinta) thermal power plant caused island-wide rolling blackouts this afternoon, Thursday, May 13. Executive Yuan spokesperson Luo Bin-cheng said today (13) that the Xingda Power Plant has been shut down due to an accident and the power supply capacity of the system is insufficient. It is expected that the emergency rolling power outages will be implemented at 3 pm today. Taipower will do its best to repair it. And report to the public after finding

Costco supermarket empty shelves and crowds of shoppers

Business and Economy

May 13, 2021May 13, 2021 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment COVID-19, New Taipei City

People rushed to supermarkets this evening, Wednesday, May 12, to stock up on supplies of products such as instant noodles, toilet paper, and disinfectant alcohol after the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) raised the epidemic alert warning to Level 2, and the mayor of New Taipei City hinted that a city-wide lockdown could happen. CECC Director Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) told the media this morning that Taiwan could soon be under an epidemic warning Level 3, after 16 cases tested positive

Wu'er Kaixi and Brian Hioe at Snowball Community event, 2021.

International

May 12, 2021May 21, 2021 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment Chinese Communist Party

“China has successfully managed to use its market and its people as a hostage to blackmail the world,” Wu’er Kaixi, an ethnic Uyghur activist who took part in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, said at a Snowball Community event recently hosted in Taipei. “One of the reasons the Chinese regime has been able to play that game is that the world let them,” Wu’er Kaixi said, adding that this was the message he has been repeating for the last

Author: Phillip Charlier

Taiwan faces rolling power outages again today, May 17

Convenience store clerk beaten up by customer who refused to comply with epidemic control measures

2 men killed in high-speed single-vehicle crash in Taichung City

Firefighters airlifted to central mountains, hike 5 hours to fight forest fire

Business, tourism districts ghost towns, but supermarkets packed with crowds after epidemic warning raised to Level 3

Chinese sand dredger capsizes in Taiwan Strait, 4 rescued, 1 dead, 3 missing

Food scandal: Restaurateur who passed off duck liver for foie gras has prison sentence commuted

Full power should be restored by 9:40 pm: Ministry of Economic Affairs

Power plant shutdown leads to island-wide rolling blackouts

Supermarket shelves emptied of epidemic survival products as residents fear possible lockdown

How the west enables a tyrannical regime in China: a Uyghur exile speaks freely in Taiwan