DIPLOMACY
Abe thanks Tsai for support
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday expressed on Twitter his gratitude for the sympathy and support extended by Taiwanese and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in the wake of heavy rain, flooding and landslides that killed at least 151 people in Japan. Abe wrote in Chinese that he is thankful for the sincere condolences and is grateful for the prompt assistance and donations from Taiwanese. The warm support of Taiwan in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami is unforgettable, he said. Abe’s response came after Tsai extended her condolences in Japanese, saying that Taiwan is ready to provide any assistance. The president also expressed the hope that survivors will recover soon and that the areas hit by the disaster will be restored as soon as possible. Taiwan is also afflicted by frequent heavy rains and understands the severity of such disasters, Tsai said. Taiwan has pledged to donate ¥20 million (US$179,920) to Japan for flood relief, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday.
DEVELOPMENT
MOU signed on AI, robotics
The Hsinchu Science Park and the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with India’s Karnataka State to promote bilateral exchanges in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. The document was signed by Hsinchu Science Park director-general Wayne Wang (王永壯), CTSP director-general Chen Ming-huang (陳銘煌), and Karnataka Center for e-Governance chief executive officer Shri K. Nagaraja. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Representative to India Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) and Gaurav Gupta, the principal secretary of the Karnataka Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science and Technology. Speaking after the ceremony, Wang said he hopes to promote exchanges between academics and entrepreneurs in Taiwan and Karnataka and help Taiwanese firms gain access to the growing Indian market to create new business opportunities in Bengaluru, especially in the field of information technology. Chen said he also hopes to see cooperation in robotics. The MOU enables the two nations to institutionalize an industrial collaboration mechanism and platform, which, in turn, would help enhance ties in the fields of industry, investment and technical cooperation on an equal and mutually beneficial basis, Tien said.
ENVIRONMENT
US official in Taiwan
Jane Nishida, principal deputy assistant administrator at the US Environmental Protection Agency, yesterday arrived in Taiwan to promote bilateral cooperation, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement. Nishida is to meet with government officials and students today to promote the International Environmental Partnership (IEP), a long-time collaboration between the US agency and the Environmental Protection Administration, the statement said. The AIT did not disclose when Nishida would be leaving Taiwan. Through the IEP, the US and Taiwan have addressed issues related to environmental education, electronic waste management, air pollution, mercury monitoring, and remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater, the statement said. Nishida has more than 30 years of environmental experience at the federal and state government levels, and with international and non-governmental organizations. She has visited Taiwan several times to promote the IEP, the AIT said.
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