SOCIETY
Award’s selection starts
The selection process for the ninth President’s Cultural Awards began yesterday and is to run through July 15, the organizer said. This year’s awards are divided into five categories — cultural endeavor, humanitarian contribution, youth creativity, Aboriginal hope and social reform, the General Association of Chinese Culture said. The trophies were designed by renowned album cover designer and four-time Grammy Award nominee Xiao Qing-yang (蕭青陽), the association said. The winners — to be announced in October — are to receive their awards from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in a ceremony held the following month, it said. Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said the purpose of the awards is to highlight Taiwanese values. He expressed the hope that the new arrangements this year, including the award categories and trophy design, would give the awards a fresh look.
AIRLINES
CAL opens A350 US route
China Airlines (CAL) on Sunday used an Airbus A350 on a route to North America for the first time, flying the aircraft between Taipei and San Francisco. Since the first of 14 A350s it had ordered was delivered in October last year, CAL has been using the aircraft exclusively for long-haul European routes to Amsterdam, Vienna and Rome. Three more were delivered at the end of last year. A total of nine flights between Taipei and San Francisco are to be offered per week, with another two flights added to the route from June 28, the airline said in a statement. CAL said it also plans to begin flying the A350 between Taipei and Vancouver in August. The remaining 10 A350s are scheduled to be delivered by the end of the year.
SOCIETY
Julie Kuo bids for Miss USA
Julie Kuo (郭瑞筠) became the first woman of Taiwanese descent to compete in the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas on Sunday, although she failed to progress to the final five. Kuo was born in Tainan and emigrated to Hawaii with her family when she was 10. The 23-year-old plays the violin and won the Miss Hawaii title in November last year. Before taking part in the pageant, she expressed hope that the world could see Taiwan through her appearance in the pageant. Miss District of Columbia Kara McCullough, 25, won this year’s Miss USA.
INTERNET
Asian Silicon Valley touted
Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday said at a forum to promote the Internet of Things (IoT)-focused Asian Silicon Valley initiative said that the plan is integral to the nation’s future economic development. The forum in Taoyuan was attended by more than 200 people, including officials responsible for making policies in the sector, representatives of the IoT industry and investors. Chen said that because the initiative contains several major elements that would integrate the nation’s strength in hardware and software and promote innovation, it would play a key role in promoting economic development. Access to capital is always a crucial factor in determining whether start-ups succeed or fail, Chen said. The National Development Fund would provide financial support through its start-up angel fund project and small business innovation program to help develop innovative enterprises, Chen 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
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