WEATHER
Temperatures to rise
The Central Weather Bureau yesterday forecast clear skies and hot weather across the nation until Friday, as weakened northeasterly winds give way to an Indian summer. Today and tomorrow, daytime highs are expected to reach 34°C in the north and 32°C to 33°C in the center and south, it said. The bureau forecast that northeasterly winds will strengthen again over the weekend, bringing cooler weather to the north and northeast of the nation. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Administration said that ultraviolet radiation nationwide reached Level 7 yesterday. Readings of Level 6 and Level 7 mean people get sunburn if they are exposed to the sun for 30 minutes, the agency said. It cautioned the public to avoid outdoor activities between 10am and 2pm and to wear protective clothing and use sunscreen if they go outdoors.
TOURISM
Bureau mulls easing rules
The Tourism Bureau yesterday said that it is considering working with other government agencies to extend the legal duration of stay for independent Chinese tourists to boost the stagnating tourism industry. Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Hsi-tsung (張錫聰) said the bureau hopes that the 15-day limit can be extended to 30 days. The bureau will discuss the issue with the National Immigration Agency and the Mainland Affairs Council, Chang said, adding that the same proposal was raised two years ago, but was not accepted. The agencies would also review other constraints on independent Chinese tourists, such as requiring them to have a at least the equivalent of NT$200,000 in their bank accounts or bank cards, he said. The number of Chinese tourists visiting the nation last month fell 37.8 percent annually to 214,764, according to bureau data.
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