■ Politics
KMT in no rush on arms
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday said that it would only begin reconsidering the arms-procurement package in September at the earliest, when the new session of the Legislative Yuan begins. The caucus made the remarks after reports that John Tkacik, a research fellow in China policy at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, criticized Taiwan's "pro-China pan-blue alliance" for blocking the arms-procurement package during a hearing at the US House of Representatives recently. He suggested that the US government should not deal with the alliance. Tkacik said the US should sell offensive weapons to Taipei, as it was in the US' interest that Taiwan be able to make pre-emptive strikes on Chinese military bases likely to attack Taiwan. Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), director of the KMT's Policy Committee, said the KMT had not received information on the matter from the US and that the party was under no pressure. People First Party Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁芳), however, said Tkacik was "rude" to suggest that the US government stop dealing with pan-blue political figures.
■ Animal Welfare
Green light for rescue center
The Council of Agriculture has agreed to allot NT$1.4 million to Tainan City to establish cetacean rescue facilities at the Yentien Cultural Village (鹽田文化村). The village's exhibition hall for whales and dolphins currently serves as a rescue center for beached sea mammals but has only simple equipment such as inflatable swimming pools. Wang Chien-ping (王建平), a professor at National Cheng Kung University who has been a central figure in volunteer rescue missions, lobbied the city government for the new facilities. The city then referred the matter to the council. The new facilities, which will include a permanent indoor pool, will be the nation's third facility for sea mammal rescue, the other two being in Ilan County and at the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Pingtung County.
■ Employment
Dress matters to employers
Most employers judge job-seekers on first impressions, with approximately 86 percent of personnel managers paying a good deal of attention to dress during job interviews, according to the results of a survey released yesterday. The survey by 9999 Pan Asia Job Bank showed that 49 percent of personnel managers would turn down an interviewee with ability but who was "inappropriately dressed." While 86 percent of respondents thought that employee dress should reflect a corporate image, 76 percent said a person's appearance and dress reflected his or her personality. Sixty-one percent of respondents agreed that "improper dress would affect performance and results," compared with 39 percent who disagreed.
■ Politics
Wang to `spare no effort'
Outgoing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday said he would "spare no effort" in meeting the needs of his party. A day earlier, Wang tendered his resignation to KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) after losing the party chairmanship election on July 16, and despite being invited by chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to serve as his deputy. Wang did not say whether he would accept Ma's offer, saying only that he was willing to perform his duty as a KMT member and to serve as a volunteer for the party.
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