POLITICS
Group says candidates fail
The Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare yesterday said the candidates for the Nov. 27 special municipality elections lacked dedication to the welfare and development of Taiwan’s youth. The evaluation accompanied the release of the results of its evaluation of candidates’ election promises and youth-friendliness based on several criteria. Those included community involvement, cultural and recreational activities, employment policies and education and learning for those between ages 12 and 24, the civic group said only Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) of the Democratic Progressive Party passed the test — just barely — while all the other candidates failed. “In general, the 11 candidates lack sincerity in improving conditions for youth and lack imagination in how to develop them,” alliance secretary-general Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said.
WEATHER
Warm temperatures forecast
Temperatures dropped to a low of 15.1°C in Chiayi City early yesterday, but the Central Weather Bureau forecast that temperatures would gradually rise as seasonal winds from the north will weaken over the next two days. The mercury in Tamsui (淡水), Taipei County, reached 15.7°C early yesterday. The bureau said temperatures across Taiwan were set to rise because of the weakening northeast monsoon, but reminded people in central and southern Taiwan to be aware of large differences between day and night temperatures. The bureau forecast that temperatures in northern and northeastern Taiwan would climb to a high of 24°C or 25°C over the next two days, while daytime temperatures in central and southern Taiwan will surge to between 27°C and 29°C. Nighttime temperatures will drop as low as 18°C or 19°C, it said.
TOURISM
Taitung County offers cash
Hoping to offset the impact of the closure of a major roadway to the area, the Taitung County Government said it would offer a cash incentive to travel agencies that bring over 1,000 tourists to the county this month. “The travel agencies will be given an award of NT$30,000 for bringing at least 1,000 visitors who stay one night, have two meals and visit three scenic spots in Taitung between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30,” Taitung County Commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭) said. “The more people they bring, the higher the award they will receive.” Huang said his goal is to draw 300,000 tourists per month to the county, famous for its natural mountain and ocean landscapes, hot springs and Aboriginal cultures.
SOCIETY
World Expo pavilion returns
A pavilion featuring Taiwan’s natural landscape and culture has finished its stint in China as the World Expo in Shanghai comes to an end on the weekend. However, it will reappear in northern Taiwan next year. The Hsinchu City Government won a tender in September to purchase the pavilion, bidding almost NT$500 million (US$16.4 million). After it is disassembled and shipped to Taiwan, it will be reassembled in Hsinchu. It is expected to open to the public on Oct. 10. Taiwan External Trade Development Council Chairman Wang Chih-kang (王志剛) said the pavilion’s management team earned NT$160 million from the sky lantern-shaped pavilion after selling it to Hsinchu City. The money will be used to construct a more advanced exhibition hall in Taiwan, which he said Taiwan needed to remain on a “par” with venues in Shanghai and Beijing.
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