WEATHER
Cold front approaching
The weather is to remain mild today, but a new cold air mass is approaching, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Daytime maximum temperatures in the north and northeast of the nation today could rise by up to 2°C to about 20°C, while the center and south could see highs of between 21°C and 25°C, forecasters said. Mostly cloudy to sunny skies are expected nationwide, with limited showers in the east and mountainous areas of the north of the nation, it said. Increased moisture could bring more rain to eastern Taiwan, the bureau said. However, a strong cold air mass is expected to approach from tomorrow and it will be at its strongest between Thursday and Friday, driving temperatures down to lows of around 10°C in the north, the bureau said.
SOCIETY
Free entry for young readers
The Taipei International Book Exhibition is to offer free admission to visitors under 18 for the first time this year to encourage reading among children and teenagers. Young readers can get free tickets by showing their national ID cards or other identifying documents, the Taipei Book Fair Foundation said. This year’s show is the first to feature a Man Booker prize winner, the foundation said, adding that Eleanor Catton, the New Zealander author of 2013 Man Booker Prize winner The Luminaries, is scheduled to meet with fans and sign autographs at an event on Feb. 13. The fair is set to include a graphic novel section for the first time and graphic novels from Taiwan and several other nations, including New Zealand, France and Germany are to be on display. The book exhibition takes place at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1 and 3 from Wednesday next week through Feb. 16.
TRAVEL
MOFA issues warnings
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is urging Taiwanese to avoid travel to several states in Myanmar because of clashes between government forces and ethnic minorities. The ministry raised the travel alert to “orange” for the states of Kachin, Shan, Kayin and Mon, after tensions heightened between the military and armed groups affiliated with ethnic minorities. The ministry also urged Taiwanese to avoid travel to Mindanao in the Philippines because of clashes between the government and anti-government militants. Last week, Philippine police came under attack in Maguindanao Province by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. In light of the fighting and the occasional abduction of foreigners by militants, the ministry said it would keep the travel alert for Mindanao at “orange.”
ENTERTAINMENT
Katy Perry to perform
US pop superstar Katy Perry is set to give her first performance in the nation in April. The singer, known for her eclectic wardrobe, is scheduled to hold a concert at the Taipei Arena on April 28, according to her Taiwan Facebook fan page. Ticket sales will be announced on the fan page once all the details are confirmed, organizers said. The singer announced a series of Asian stops on her Twitter account on Thursday last week, including Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. “Just when you thought the #PrismaticWorldTour was over, I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be bringing it to ASIA this April and May!” she tweeted. “I’m thrilled to bring the Prismatic World Tour to some of my favorite places in Asia,” Perry said in a press release issued on Friday last week.
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