POLITICS
KMT plans congress
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) announced yesterday that it will hold its annual national congress on Sept. 14 in Chiayi. The party plans to use the event to drum up support for its nominees for the Nov. 29 seven-in-one local elections, Organizational Development Committee head Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said. The party is also expected to use the congress to retroactively confirm the appointments of Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) as vice chairmen. Under a party charter amendment adopted during the last congress in November last year, the national congress has become an annual event, rather than a biannual one.
WEATHER
Rammasun bringing rain
Tropical Storm Rammasun is expected to start affecting the nation tomorrow, bringing rain to most parts of the country, but it will not make landfall, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was centered about 1,360km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving westward at 26kph. It is packing maximum sustained winds of 108kph, with gusts reaching 137kph, the bureau said. The bureau said ships operating on waters east and southwest of Taiwan, as well as near Green Island (綠島) and Lanyu (蘭嶼), should also be on alert. The storm is not likely to bring any respite to the steamy temperatures the nation has faced in recent days, the bureau said, adding that daytime highs could hover between 34oC and 36oC nationwide through the weekend.
DIPLOMACY
France to further exchanges
France will continue to advance exchanges with Taiwan based on the current unofficial ties between them, Bureau Francais de Taipei acting director Philippe Wieber said yesterday during a Bastille Day celebration in Taipei. His office will continue to promote bilateral exchanges. Both France and Taiwan share many values, such as democracy and human rights, although some differences continue to exist on issues such as the death penalty, he told the reception that included several government officials and foreign envoys based in Taipei. Where they do not see eye-to-eye, France and Taiwan are working to exchange their views, he said, adding that in the meantime, they have seen increasing academic and cultural exchanges in recent years. Wieber hosted the reception because Bureau France de Taipei Director Olivier Richard is currently in France, the office said.
CULTURE
Jazz in Daan park
Music fans are in for a treat this weekend, as the annual Taipei Jazz Festival hosts a series of free outdoor concerts in Taipei on Saturday and Sunday. Jazz musicians from Taiwan and abroad will perform at Daan Forest Park, including pianist Chang Ka-ya and Our Piano Trio from Taiwan, along with US trombonist Alan Ferber’s quartet and Canadian trumpeter David Smith, who is now based in New York, the organizers said. Gilad Dobrecki, an Israeli percussionist who has been named one of the world’s top percussionists by Jazziz magazine, will also take part. The shows start at 3pm on Saturday and 4:30pm on Sunday. A complete listing of performers and concert times can be found on the festival’s Web site (www.taipeijazzfestival.com). The festival is sponsored by the Taipei Department of Culture Affairs.
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