■ Politics
Lawmaker returns to KMT
Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) announced his return to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday after a 12-year absence. Saying that he felt like he was "coming home," Lee said his main reason for quitting the KMT to become a founding member of the New Party was his opposition to the policies of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). The lawmaker's announcement brought an end to weeks of speculation after he announced on May 18 that he would leaving the People First Party (PFP) because of its poor performance in last month's National Assembly elections. He blamed the poll results on the PFP's leaders decision to make friendly gestures toward the pan-green camp.
■ Cross-strait Ties
Lawmakers back TV plea
A total of 45 lawmakers released a joint letter yesterday urging the European satellite operator Eutelsat to continue leasing its satellite to a US-based Chinese-language TV station so that it can broadcast pro-"democracy programs" into China. At a press conference held in the Legislative Yuan, Liu Ying-chuan (劉鶯釧), a representative of the New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) station, urged Eutelsat to continue leasing its satellite to his company so that it can continue broadcasting free TV programs in China. Liu claimed that NTDTV's programs, designed to unveil "the realities in China," are being hindered by the Chinese authorities and that Eutelsat is planning to end its year-old deal with NTDTV under pressure from Beijing. The company has gained support for its plea from 93 members of the US Congress, 73 European lawmakers, as well as 25 members of the Canadian parliament.
■ Diplomacy
French delegation to visit
A five-member French delegation headed by Christian Bataille, the chair-man of a Taiwan-friendly group in the French National Assembly, will arrive in Taipei tomorrow for a six-day, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. The group will visit David Chung (鍾榮吉), vice speaker of the Legislative Yuan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) and Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), as well as other officials. They will also tour economic and cultural establishments such as the No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant and the National Palace Museum. Bataille, a socialist, last visited Taiwan in January 2003 to attend conference on Asia-Pacific security. The other members of the group include three of Bataille's colleagues in the National Assembly -- Michel Voisin, Albert Facon and Jacques Houssin -- as well as Delphine Bataille, a provincial councilor.
■ Health
Pet import rules changed
New regulations for the inspection and quarantine of imported cats and dogs take effect on Monday to prevent rabies from entering the country, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said yesterday. The bureau revised its inspection and quarantine guidelines in February. The new rules stipulate that cats and dogs imported from infected areas must have blood samples examined by certified laboratories at least 180 days before their entry. Bureau officials said that Taiwan has had no documented cases of rabies since 1961. They warned people not to buy animals from unidentified sources and encouraged people to report smuggling activities through the hotline: 0800-039131.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching