DIPLOMACY
Swaziland group founded
Lawmakers from Taiwan and African ally Swaziland look forward to closer ties after the establishment of a bilateral parliamentary friendship group yesterday. Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said that the group would look at education in Swaziland and encourage exchanges of young people from the countries. Forty-three Taiwanese lawmakers have said they will participate in the new group. Hung said that Swazi children have a lot of interest in Taiwanese culture. She praised the country for its environment and hospitality. Swazi House of Assembly Deputy Speaker Ester Dlamini hailed the creation of the group as an important step in bilateral diplomacy. Dlamini said Taiwan has helped Swaziland a lot, especially in terms of education and culture, and that many Swazi students are studying in Taiwan.
DIPLOMACY
US representative to visit
US Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is to visit Taiwan this week to learn more about the development of bilateral relations, Taiwan’s foreign and economic policies and its ties with China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan today on a four-day visit to meet with government officials and representatives from the private sector to discuss issues related to Taiwan-US ties, the ministry said. Johnson, who is currently a member on the Science, Space and Technology Committee in the US House of Representatives, is a long-time friend of Taiwan’s, the ministry said. A member of the Taiwan Caucus of the US House of Representatives, she is supportive of the US’ commitment to Taiwan’s security and the idea of a bilateral free-trade agreement, the ministry said.
CULTURE
Four films go to Berlin
Four Taiwanese films are to be screened at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, including Taiwan-based Malaysian director Tsai Ming-liang’s (蔡明亮) new film Journey to the West (西遊). The Taiwanese-French production, starring Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng (李康生) and French actor Denis Lavant, will be shown in the festival’s Panorama program, the Taipei Film Commission said. It is to be joined by Taiwanese director Cho Li’s (卓立) The Rice Bomber (白米炸彈客) and Burmese-Taiwanese director Midi Z’s (趙德胤) Ice Poison (冰毒). The three latter films are to make their world premieres at the festival, which is to run from Feb. 6 to Feb. 16. They are part of a lineup of 36 films from 29 countries that have been selected for the Panorama program, which is designed to provide insights into contemporary world cinema. In addition, Taiwanese director Chen Yu-hsun’s (陳玉勳) comedy Zone Pro Site (總舖師) is to have its European premiere in the festival’s Culinary Cinema program, the commission said. A total of 13 Taiwanese film companies will participate in the European Film Market from Feb. 6 to Feb. 14, it added.
HEALTH
First Dengue case reported
This year’s first case of locally acquired dengue fever has been reported in the Fengshan (鳳山) area in Greater Kaohsiung, the city government’s Department of Health said on Tuesday. The case involves a 52-year-old man who began developing symptoms of high fever and headache, and was transferred to Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital after his condition did not improve following treatment at a local clinic. The patient had visited friends in neighboring Pingtung County and it was not certain whether the man was infected there or in Kaohsiung.
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
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
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