ECONOMY
Greater China forum to start
Entrepreneurs from Taiwan, China and Hong Kong are set to attend the start of an economic forum in Taipei on Wednesday that is the fifth such event held since Taipei and Beijing signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in 2010. Under the theme: “Cooperate for innovation to share prosperity,” participants at the forum are to exchange ideas on how to foster cooperation and innovation among various industries, as well as discuss ways to complement and integrate Taiwan, China and Hong Kong’s resources and strengths to create new economic and trade opportunities for the Greater China area. The event is to feature two panel discussions in which 10 guest speakers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Zhejiang, China, will share their ideas. Former Straits Exchange Foundation vice chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) and former China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits president Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) are expected to attend.
DIPLOMACY
Shen hosts US banquet
Representative to the US Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) on Thursday entertained US Congress members and diplomats at a banquet in Washington that featured Taiwanese delicacies on the menu and showcased the nation’s folk art. During the dinner, Shen called for a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of a stabbing rampage on a Taipei Mass Rapid Transit car a day earlier. He also expressed gratitude on behalf of the government for the concern US authorities have shown over the incident. Shen’s guests at the historic Twin Oaks Estate dined on dishes prepared by renowned Taiwanese chef Hsu Kai-tun (許凱敦) and drank kaoliang liquor from Kinmen County. Among those in attendance were Congressional Caucus on Taiwan cochair Gerald Connolly, US House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce and US representatives George Holding and Alan Lowenthal. Other guests included former US ambassador Edward Perkins and Joseph Donovan, managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan’s Washington office.
WEATHER
Rain to keep soaking nation
Most areas of the nation should brace for a rainy week as a weather front continues heading toward the country today, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Parts of northern and eastern Taiwan could see intermittent rain today, while the north and mountainous areas in central and southern parts of the nation could experience brief thunderstorms in the afternoon, the bureau forecast. From tomorrow to Friday, the stationary front could bring sporadic showers or thunderstorms to most of the country, it said, adding that brief rainshowers may persist across Taiwan until after Saturday. Temperatures are forecast to range between 23oC and 33oC throughout the week in the north; 24oC and 32oC in central Taiwan; 24oC and 34oC in the south; and from 23oC to 34oC in the east, bureau data show.
CHARITY
‘Zongzi’ donations begin
As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, charities across the nation have begun providing disadvantaged families with zongzi (粽子, glutinous rice dumplings). A temple in Greater Taichung distributed 30,000 zongzi to 600 disadvantaged and low-income families in the city yesterday, while in Taoyuan County’s Pingjhen Township (平鎮), community development associations jointly launched a charity program aimed at distributing zongzi to the needy.
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