In a move to defend himself, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Wei Kuo-yan (魏國彥) yesterday penned an article in the Chinese-language United Daily News explaining the purpose of his recent trip to the EU, while saying that “his hard work has paid off.”
Chiu’s move came after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said that the minister spent at least NT$2.2 million (US$72,843) of taxpayers’ money on his three trips in the past three months to the EU, the US, Kiribati and Australia, while a source familiar with the Environmental Protection Administration said that Wei traveled first-class on all his trips.
Saying that Wei left the country just days after the Greater Kaohsiung pipeline explosions and was not even in the country when the tainted lard oil scandal erupted, Chiu said that Wei should step down for turning a blind eye to the pain suffered by the public, while calling him the “man on the moon.”
In his article, Wei said that he had been visiting “high-ranking officials” in the EU to demonstrate Taiwan’s commitment to carbon reduction and the accomplishments it has achieved in this field.
He also said that he was burdened with an “environmental diplomatic” mission to boost Taiwan’s profile in the international community, through promoting the nation’s environmental protection work.
“All three trips had been arranged secretly and my visits were carried out in a low-profile manner. However, some mocked my trips as hiding ‘untold secrets.’ During my three visits overseas, I met with quite a few high-ranking officials. It shows that my hard work has paid off and that to me is a source of comfort,” he said.
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
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