TRAVEL
More Japan budget flights
Japanese low-cost carrier Vanilla Air is to become the 13th budget airline serving Taiwan when it launches flights between Taiwan and Japan on Dec. 22. Previously known as AirAsia Japan, when it was jointly owned by All Nippon Airways (ANA) and AirAsia, Vanilla Air was recapitalized in June and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of ANA. The airline is to initially operate a daily round-trip flight between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Narita Airport in Tokyo, but expects to increase its services to Taiwan in January, according to a plan it submitted to Taiwan’s aviation regulator. The carrier is to rejoin a crowded budget airline market that has grown to 12 participants since Singapore-based Jetstar Asia first launched a Taipei route in 2004.
DIPLOMACY
Official moves to Indonesia
Taiwan’s representative to Israel, Chang Liang-jen (張良任), is to be transferred to Indonesia to serve as the head of the Taipei Economic and Trade Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Both positions are de facto ambassadorships, but the title of ambassador is used only internally because of a lack of diplomatic ties with the host countries. The ministry praised Chang, who has been posted in Israel since January 2010, for promoting bilateral relations. He has overseen five agreements between the two countries covering visa exemption, aviation, youth exchange, and cooperation in water resources, and on small and medium-sized businesses. Chang has previously served as representative to Hong Kong, vice minister of the Mainland Affairs Council and deputy defense minister.
DIPLOMACY
Gambian cadets to end term
Gambian cadets studying at local military academies have not been ordered to leave Taiwan immediately after the two countries cut diplomatic ties recently, but is to instead be allowed to stay until the end of the current semester, the Ministry of National Defense said. “They are expected to depart for home before the end of the year,” said Ko Wen-an (柯文安), a senior official at the ministry’s Office of Deputy Chief of General Staff for Intelligence, of the 26 Gambian cadets. Ko added that three Taiwanese intelligence instructors stationed in the Gambia to help train the West African state’s personnel are scheduled to return early next month. The military mission is collaborating with Taiwan’s embassy in handling personnel withdrawal, Chen said, adding that some military equipment and supplies is to be shipped back to Taiwan.
CULTURE
Jimmy going to Mexico
Jimmy Liao (幾米), one of Taiwan’s most famous illustrators, is to be featured at the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Mexico, as Taiwan joins the fair for the first time this year. Liao is scheduled to hold an autograph session next Saturday and talk about his creations on Dec. 2 at the fair, the Taipei Book Fair Foundation said. He has been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, becoming the first Taiwanese illustrator to be nominated for the prize. Seventeen books by Liao are currently available in Spanish. A Taiwan pavilion, using a design based on Liao’s work as its main visual, is to also be set up to showcase more than 400 children’s books, comics, other illustrated publications, e-books and e-reading devices, the foundation said. The fair runs from next Saturday to Dec. 8.
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:
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
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