WEATHER
Tropical storm should pass
The chances of tropical storm Nida sweeping through Taiwan is low, but eastern and southern parts of Taiwan should be on guard against heavy rain over the next two days due to the storm’s periphery affecting the nation, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. As of 8pm yesterday, Nida was 350km south of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), on the southern tip of Taiwan, and was moving northwest at 24kph. The bureau said that Nida was expected to move toward China’s Guangdong Province. Rain was predicted for Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as southern Taiwan last night, the bureau said.
SPORT
Runner dies near finish
A man taking part in a 9km run collapsed and died just 200m from the finish line on Saturday night. The 37-year-old man, a Hsinchu resident identified by his surname, Lin (林), was taking part in the Miaoli Starlight Charity Marathon sponsored by the Chinese Taipei Triathlon Association. About 4,000 people took part in the event, which started at 7pm on Saturday. Lin said: “I can’t take it anymore” and collapsed about 200m from the finish line, witnesses said. First aid personnel performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and rushed him to hospital, he did not recover consciousness. Lin’s family said he often rode bicycles and had no unusual physical conditions. His family said they did not know what caused Lin’s death. Association head Lee Che-ching (李哲欽) said the run had a supply station and a first aid station every 3km. The temperature was “suitable” for running in the evening, he added, expressing regret over Lin’s death.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Premier vows bridge funds
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) on Saturday pledged that he would coordinate with agencies to provide financial support for the Kinmen Bridge project. Lin also said the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau needs to supervise the project closely to ensure it is on schedule. Lin made the comments during a visit to Kinmen, where he did an inspection tour of the project and was given a briefing on its progress. Construction of the 5.4km bridge began in 2011 and is to connect Kinmen and Lieyu. However, construction has been suspended since the government terminated its contract with the builders on June 29. The bureau said it terminated the contract because poor management meant the project was seriously behind schedule, adding that it is inviting new tenders for the project and is scheduled to select a winning bidder on Aug. 31. If the construction resumes on Oct. 1, the project is expected to be completed by March 30, 2020, it said.
BIRDWATCHING
Roseate tern seen in Penghu
Birdwatcher Lin Lien-shou (林連守) yesterday said he saw a roseate tern when taking photographs at Chikan Port in Baisha Township (白沙) in Penghu. Lin said a tag on the bird’s leg with a serial number led him believe the bird came from Australia, where research is being conducted on the species’ migratory routes. It is uncertain whether the tern, an adult, would breed in Penghu before possibly flying to Australia, Lin added. Lin said several conservation areas across the archipelago have become rest stops for migratory birds. The little tern, the black-headed gull and the greater crested tern have been regularly spotted in the area.
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