POLITICS
Tsai opens Taichung office
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) opened up her first campaign office in Greater Taichung yesterday, seeking to cap off a near success late last year. Tsai is attempting to continue gains made by DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), who narrowly lost to Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) in the special municipality elections in November last year. Accompanied by Su, Tsai declared that the DPP would aim to win all four of Greater Taichung’s urban districts “to mark a historic moment for the party.” The Greater Taichung office is Tsai’s second after the first opened in Taipei. Tsai expects to open her campaign headquarters, possibly in September, in Banciao District (板橋), New Taipei City (新北市).
ARTS
Cloud Gate star wins award
Cheng Tsung-lung (鄭宗龍), Cloud Gate 2’s resident guest choreographer, has won an award at an international competition in Rome for his latest creation, On the Road, the Council for Cultural Affairs said yesterday. On the Road, based on Cheng’s observations and contemplation of life’s journeys, won Best Group at Premio Roma Danza’s 1st International Choreographic Competition on Wednesday last week. The annual Premio Roma Danza festival, now in its 10th year, is organized by the Italian National Dance Academy, ImPulsTanz--Vienna International Dance Festival, the Washington Ballet and the Arena of Verona Foundation. The Best Group award will give Cheng a chance to stage his piece across Italy for three months later this year, the council said, adding that On the Road was so well-received that Cheng has been invited to serve as a guest teacher at the Italian National Dance Academy for six months.
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