TRANSPORT
Taipei tests autonomous bus
A self-driving bus, the EZ10, was tested early yesterday morning on a closed road in Taipei. The city government said the driverless bus is to be tested on a closed 463m section of Xinyi Road’s exclusive bus lane between Fuxing S and Dunhua S roads from 1am to 4am every day until Saturday. Data about road conditions are to be collected so the vehicle technology becomes familiar with road conditions and can react to incidents. The tests could also help the city formulate new transportation policies. The EZ10 can hold 12 passengers and is battery-powered. The city is to invite focus groups during the last two days of testing to give feedback and raise awareness about possible “smart” transportation solutions, the Taipei Department of Information Technology said. The bus can run at a maximum speed of 40kph for 14 hours on one battery charge, the city government said. The bus is made by French Easymile company and uses US-made light sensors and a Taiwanese-made computer system.
OBITUARY
Liu Wen-hsiung dies at 62
People First Party (PFP) Deputy Secretary-General Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) died on Monday at Keelung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. He was 62. Liu was taken to the hospital on July 21 at about 1:20am after collapsing at his home in Keelung. He had no vital signs when he arrived at the hospital and had been in a coma since. Liu’s family said he had been vomiting after drinking and lost consciousness. The Presidential Office conveyed condolences to his family, with Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) describing Liu as a very special friend. Liu, who served in the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2008, was one of PFP Chairman James Soong’s (宋楚瑜) most important aides.
DIPLOMACY
Delegation meets Ed Royce
A Legislative Yuan delegation met with US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce in California on Monday to exchange views on a wide range of issues. The delegation, consisting of members of the US Senate’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, discussed arms sales to Taiwan and the nation’s participation in international organizations during the one-hour meeting. They also touched on measures to rescue human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who has been detained in China since March 19. US President Donald Trump’s Taiwan policy, the situation in Asia and cyberattacks were also discussed, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) said on Facebook. The delegation is also to visit Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and the US Pacific Command in Hawaii.
LOTTERY
Eleven special prize winners
Eleven people won the invoice lottery NT$10 million (US$330,513) special prize for May to June, while 11 people won the NT$2 million grand prize, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Winners can claim their prizes from Sunday to Nov. 6, the ministry added. The special prize winning number is 99768846. The grand prize winning number is 83660478. The NT$200,000 first prize winning numbers are 70628612 and 87596250 as well as 97294175. Of the 11 special prize invoices, two were issued by FamilyMart convenience stores, both in New Taipei City’s Zhonghe District (中和) for purchases of NT$20 and NT$148 respectively.
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