WEATHER
CWB downgrades storm
Tropical Storm Yutu was downgraded to a tropical depression yesterday morning, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said. As of 8am yesterday, Yutu was 490km west-southwest of the nation’s southernmost tip, moving slowly northward. It had maximum sustained winds of 54kph, with gusts reaching 83kph, CWB data showed. CWB forecaster Cheng Chuan-fang (程川芳) said that as the strength of the storm fades, the weather is expected to become dry with temperatures across the nation forecast to recover from today to 27°C to 28°C. However, with northeasterly winds expected to set in again, wet and cooler weather is expected from Wednesday next week, Cheng said.
SOCIETY
Lai Hsiang-lin discharged
Taipei Department of Labor Commissioner Lai Hsiang-lin (賴香伶) was discharged from hospital yesterday after being attacked in her office on Wednesday. Vowing to keep fighting for labor rights, Lai thanked those who wished her a speedy recovery, but added that she was sad and shocked that the suspect, a man identified as Lee Ming-yen (李明彥), resorted to violence. Lai said she and her department had worked hard on Lee’s complaint and promised to improve communication with society. In a post on Facebook yesterday morning, Lai said that resorting to violence is never acceptable. Hsiao Sheng-huang (蕭勝煌), Lai’s doctor and superintendent of the Renai branch of Taipei City Hospital, said her condition was stable, but post-traumatic stress could be a factor and further observation would be necessary. Hsiao said he was not sure when Lai could return to work.
TRANSPORTATION
Rail link nears completion
The first phase of the Danhai Light Rail Transit in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) is to be completed this year and is to begin operations in June next year, New Taipei Metro Corp said. With construction of the Green Mountain Line expected to be completed by the end of December, a digital wallet service is to be introduced when the line begins operations in June, the company said. Nine mobile payment services are being considered, it said. Construction of the light-rail system, the first of its kind in northern Taiwan, began in November 2014 with the goal of easing traffic congestion in the area, which has had rapid population growth.
SOCIETY
Phones trump exercise: poll
More than 85 percent of children and young people in Taiwan use cellphones and they spend more time on mobile devices than they do exercising, a survey released on Tuesday showed. Among the 85.2 percent of youth who have a cellphone, 95.5 percent use a smartphone, according to the poll released by Cyber Angel’s Pick, a non-profit organization that focuses on Internet safety for young people. The survey, conducted among students from grade 3 to their first year in university, found they spent 26.39 hours per week on average on mobile phones, 24.32 hours surfing the Internet and 13.68 hours watching television, while only 8.05 hours per week were spent exercising. Among respondents who had a smartphone, 56 percent usually surf the Internet unsupervised, the poll found. The poll showed that students go online mainly to watch movies (75.9 percent), listen to music (71.3 percent) and visit social media sites (65.8 percent). The poll collected 16,169 valid samples from students at 57 elementary schools, 30 junior-high schools, 57 senior-high schools and 46 universities.
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