■ TRAVEL
UK changes cash allowance
The British government announced a new upper limit on the amount of cash that travelers can carry with them when entering the UK from non-EU countries or when they travel from the UK into non-EU countries, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said yesterday. From June 15, travelers will not be allowed to carry more than 10,000 euros (US$13,437) in cash into or out of the UK if they are traveling from a non-EU country or leaving the UK to travel to a non-EU country, the bureau said. Travelers who carry more than the maximum amount will be required to fill out a declaration form.
■ POLITICS
Pension hike proposed
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday that his caucus would next Monday propose an increase in the monthly pension for elderly farmers from the existing NT$5,000 to NT$6,000. The controversial issue was discussed at the party's caucus meeting yesterday, but no consensus was reached as some of its members said that the government should place a priority on advancing the national pension program instead of increasing farmers' pensions.
■ SOCIETY
Marriage brokers banned
Lawmakers agreed on Thursday to an amendment to the Immigration Law (入出國及移民法), putting an end to the controversial interracial marriage broker industry. Effective immediately, cross-border marriage brokers will be banned from doing business. To help combat international human trafficking, a special clause was added to the amendment allowing the issuance of a work or residence permit to foreign victims of sexual abuse or human trafficking during the investigation into their cases in Taiwan. The amendment also eased regulations governing residency for foreign-born Taiwanese children who have Taiwanese nationality.
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
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
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