MILITARY
Bases ban Chinese phones
Chinese-branded cellphones are banned on military bases throughout Taiwan, Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said yesterday. “Taiwan’s military personnel are banned from using any smartphones manufactured by Chinese brands,” Yen said while answering questions from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應). Tsai had raised concern over the issue following a ban by the US Department of Defense on sales of Chinese phones made by Huawei Technologies and ZTE on US military bases around the world. “It is also clearly stipulated in the procurement regulations that any handsets purchased by the military must come with proof of product origin and brand name,” Yen said.
WEATHER
Dawu sees year’s hottest day
The weather around Taiwan was largely sunny and muggy yesterday, with Taitung County’s Dawu Township (大武) registering the highest temperature recorded this year after being hit by foehn winds, the Central Weather Bureau said. The mercury soared to 37.4°C at 11:01am in the town, the highest seen anywhere in the nation this year, bureau data showed. The approach of a weather front is to bring occasional showers to all parts of the nation today and tomorrow, and push temperatures lower, it said. The bureau forecast highs of 25°C to 27°C for northern Taiwan today, about 6° to 10° lower than yesterday. Daytime highs for Taipei today are to fall to 25°C from yesterday’s 35°C, while highs in other areas are expected to fall to below 30°C, the bureau said.
AGRICULTURE
Farm culls 2,279 geese
A goose farm in Yunlin County was found to have been infected with avian influenza subtype H5 and 2,279 birds on the farm were culled, the 68th case of poultry farm infection this year, the Council of Agriculture said on Sunday. Several geese on the farm in Sihu Township (西湖) were confirmed to have contracted the virus, the council’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Inspection and Quarantine said in a news release. Officials called on all poultry farm operators to keep their birds warm and their coops well ventilated as temperatures vary considerably between daytime and nighttime. Farm operators should also keep their poultry from coming into contact with local wild birds and migratory birds, the bureau said.
SPORTS
Archery teams take gold
Taiwanese archers clinched five gold and two silver medals at the Gymnasiade in Morocco on Sunday. Taiwan’s struck gold in the recurve mixed team event (Tang Chih-chun (湯智鈞) of New Taipei Municipal Mingder High School and Chang Jung-chia (張容嘉) of Hualien County’s Physical Education High School). The duo managed to beat Ukraine 6-0 in the finals, taking three straight sets (40-34, 39-35, 39-36). The boys’ recurve team, represented by Chou Li-chun (周立郡), Lin Tzu-hsiang (林子翔) and Tang, also won gold after beating a team from the Ukraine 5-4. Another gold was won by Taiwan’s female recurve team after beating France 6-2 in their final showdown on Sunday. Tang also won gold in the individual boy’s recurve event with a come-from-behind 6-4 win over Lin. Su Szu-ping (蘇思蘋) took gold in the individual girl’s recurve tournament, topping Chang 6-0. The Gymnasiade is an international multi-sport event organized by the International School Sport Federation for athletes aged 14 to 18.
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
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
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