Taiwan shuts down ahead of Typhoon Champi, nearly 1,000 flights cancelled

Almost all of Taiwan shut down on Friday ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Champi, which is forecast to bring strong winds and torrential rain, and though the storm is weakening it could still make direct landfall on the island. At one point a super typhoon and one of the strongest storms in the Pacific this year, Champi was still packing gusts of around 191 kph near its centre, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA). The storm was about 220 km east of Taiwan, the CWA said. The storm’s forecast track shows it will pass just off northeastern Taiwan, turn north toward the…