POLITICS
Group wants legislature TV
A Taiwanese watchdog is advocating the establishment of a public TV channel dedicated to live and recorded broadcasts of the legislature, saying this would lead to greater legislative transparency. Taipei-based Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) said on Sunday it would lobby for the TV channel after the new legislature is elected next month. Legislative and presidential elections will be held on Jan. 14 and the new legislature will be sworn in on Feb. 1. “Although Taiwanese now can watch legislative sessions via the Internet, a TV channel is needed for people like the elderly who seldom use the Internet,” CCW director Chen Chien-fu (陳建甫) said. “This will allow them to see how the legislators are performing.”
WEATHER
Prepare for storms: Chen
Vice Premier Sean Chen (陳?) said yesterday that the tropical storm that battered the Philippines over the weekend could serve as a warning to Taiwan. “It is rare for the Philippines to be hit by a storm as late as December,” Chen said, adding that Taiwan should not be lax, but should instead make preparations to mitigate the impact of disasters. Chen said that when he first checked the situation of tropical storm Washi, the death toll in the Philippines was 59, but the latest reports showed the number had reached nearly 700. In addition, more than 1,000 people were reported missing.
SOCIETY
Marriages rose 19.7%
Inspired by the celebration of the Republic of China’s (ROC) centennial this year, more Taiwanese tied the knot than they did last year. A total of 146,416 couples married in Taiwan in the first 11 months of this year, representing a year-on-year increase of 19.7 percent, tallies compiled by the Ministry of the Interior showed. Of these nuptials, about one out of every 7.5 involved a foreign spouse. A total of 19,622 ROC citizens wedded people from abroad, including 12,316 from China, Hong Kong and Macau, 4,432 from Southeast Asia and 2,874 from other countries and areas, the tallies showed. The number of cross-cultural marriages increased 0.8 percent in the January to November period over the same period of the year before. The ministry found that the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu had the highest rates of cross-cultural marriages, at 27 percent, while Taitung County had the lowest rate, at 11.1 percent.
DIPLOMACY
British delegation visits
A delegation led by British Member of Parliament Andrew Rosindell is visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The group of eight Conservative Party youths is expected to call at the Mainland Affairs Council, the Forestry Bureau, the Bureau of Foreign Trade, the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and the College of International Affairs at National Chengchi University. They will also visit many sites, including the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101 and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. During their visit, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷) will host a luncheon for them. Rosindel has visited Taiwan twice and has worked to promote closer ties between the UK and Taiwan. The group he leads is composed mainly of the younger leaders from the Conservative Party. This trip aims to give the delegation a better understanding of cross-trait relations and the political, economic and social landscape in Taiwan, as well as to promote exchanges.
ECONOMY
Ma to establish committee
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) reportedly plans to invite experts from the public and private sectors and academia to join an ad hoc committee to be established under the Presidential Office with the aim of helping Taiwan better face global financial volatility, Vice Premier Sean Chen (陳?) said yesterday. The task force, to be formed in the coming week, is the result of a pledge announced by Ma during a televised presidential debate on Saturday in which he said that in the face of a possible second global financial storm since 2008, the new group is essential to help Taiwan deal with the possible impact. Chen said the task force “is a constructive decision in the face of growing uncertainties at home and abroad.”
HEALTH
Cancer fear widespread
People in Taiwan fear being diagnosed with cancer and generally have little confidence in the effectiveness of existing cancer therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment, according to the results of a survey released yesterday. The survey conducted by Yuva Cell Bank, a Taipei-based private cell storage and management center, shows that more than 80 percent of respondents said they worried about getting cancer, with more women (85 percent) expressing fear than men (77 percent). Only 26 percent of respondents were aware that cancer is not incurable, while 43 percent said they did not know it could be cured. The survey concluded that people in this nation are not well informed about cancer, despite statistics showing that it was the major cause of death last year, taking the lives of nearly a quarter (24.8 percent) of the people who died.
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