WEATHER
Temperatures to rise
Cold weather persisted throughout yesterday as a cold air mass from China continued to affect the nation, the Central Weather Bureau said, adding that temperatures would rise today. The mercury reached a low of 13.9oC in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) early yesterday, 14.3oC in Yilan County’s Suao Township (蘇澳) and 14.5oC in Keelung, bureau data showed. Beginning today, the mercury is expected to rise as the cold air mass weakens, with most areas seeing cloudy to sunny skies, the bureau said. Highs today could reach 21oC to 23oC in the north, 24oC to 26oC in central and eastern areas, and 25oC to 27oC in southern and southeastern regions, the bureau said. However, the bureau issued a warning to residents in central and southern areas of significant temperature fluctuations between daytime and nighttime hours. On Sunday, strengthening northeasterly winds could cause temperatures to fall again in northern and northeastern areas, the bureau said.
EDUCATION
Universities make top 150
Two universities have been listed among the world’s most international universities in the annual Times Higher Education rankings released on Wednesday. Among the 150 universities on the list, National Tsing Hua University was ranked 144th and National Taiwan University 148th. The world’s most international universities rankings take into consideration international staff, students and coauthors, as well as the institutions’ international reputations. National Tsing Hua University received an overall score of 34.4, while National Taiwan University scored 32.3. Topping the list was the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich with an overall score of 97.1.
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