■ POLITICS
Video exposer offered prize
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) yesterday urged an Internet user named XDite, who discovered President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had pre-recorded at least two of his weekly video addresses, to come forward and receive a prize — a Japanese detective novel — as a reward for his “keen observation.” XDite, who does not want to be publicly identified, has asked an outspoken pan-green supporter, Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如), to pick up the prize instead. But Wang said he hoped “XDite” would appear in person “so the Presidential Office could better understand his or her views.” The Presidential Office said Ma’s weekly online video program, which debuted on Saturday, would provide two-way Internet communication between Ma and the public. XDite’s “discovery,” however, has sparked debate among Web users about whether Ma was misusing the videos by recording them in advance.
■ ECONOMY
Ma meets Japanese author
President Ma told global strategist Kenichi Ohmae yesterday that they share a common view on the importance of the Chinese market and that this perspective is manifested in his administration’s cross-strait policies. In a meeting with the Japanese business consultant at the Presidential Office, Ma said his administration had adopted measures to improve relations with China after an eight-year lag in participation in the booming economic activities across the Taiwan Strait. Ohmae, the author of The Mind of the Strategist and The End of the Nation State, told Ma that China’s economic development had entered a new stage last year, with rising labor costs and reduced exports, which he said could affect Taiwan’s economy. Cautioning Taiwan about the developments, Ohmae suggested Taiwanese businesspeople take advantage of China’s strong domestic demand by applying their specialties in marketing there.
■ DIPLOMACY
Boats donated to Gambia
Taiwan’s donation of four navy patrol boats to Gambia is a good example of cooperation with diplomatic allies, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said yesterday. Hsia said he visited Gambia at the end of last month to attend a ceremony hosted by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, at which four retired Taiwan-made navy patrol boats were formally donated to the African country. “President Jammeh was very pleased with the donation, as Gambia finally obtained patrol boats for its navy,” said Hsia, explaining that the patrol vessels would help monitor illegal activities along the Gambian coastline. Taiwan will also help train Gambian personnel to operate and maintain the vessels, Hsieh said. He said Taiwan had also launched a four-year agricultural program this year to help the African country increase its food production and self-sufficiency, particularly in rice production.
■ SOCIETY
Cooking demo planned
The International Food Cultural Exchange has invited the public to a Japanese cuisine cooking demonstration in Taipei by Takuro Kamobayashi, Japan’s Interchange Association’s master chef on July 31. Kamobayashi is expected to teach two dishes — oyako don and green tea mochi. The event will be held on the third floor of Eslite Bookstore in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) from 3:30pm to 5pm. The cooking demonstration is free, the organizer said, adding that the seats were limited and would be available on a first come, first served basis.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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