SPORTS
Marathon has military theme
This year’s Kinmen Marathon weekend, which tomorrow is to culminate in half and full marathons, has a military theme, with army vehicles leading the runners and bringing up the rear, the Kinmen County Government said. The annual event, which expects to attract more than 8,000 runners from 19 countries this year, is to open with a 5km run today, and concludes with an 11.2km run and the marathons tomorrow, the municipality said. Samuel Mungara Kamiti of Kenya, last year’s men’s marathon champion, and Chen Ping-feng (陳秉豐) of Taiwan, last year’s men’s half-marathon winner, would be back this year to defend their titles, it said. The Kinmen Defense Command has thrown its support behind the event and would deploy light tactical wheeled vehicles to lead the runs and have military trucks follow the runners to pick up participants who are too slow or drop out, it added.
ASTRONOMY
Tuesday to see supermoon
Tuesday night, on the day of the Lantern Festival, is to see the biggest full moon of the year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Thursday, adding that it would be a supermoon — when a full moon coincides with the celestial body’s closest approach to Earth in its monthly orbit. The moon will rise at about 5:29pm and be at its fullest at 11:54pm, museum assistant researcher Lee Chin (李瑾) said. It is the first time since 1900 that a supermoon will rise during the Lantern Festival and the next occurrence would not be until 2081, the museum said. Three full moons this year are categorized as supermoons, but Tuesday’s will be biggest, as the moon will be at its closest point to Earth this year, it said.
DIPLOMACY
Marshalls’ envoy meets Tsai
New Marshallese Ambassador to Taiwan Neijon Rema Edwards yesterday presented her credentials to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who welcomed Edwards and said that Taiwan is willing to work in various areas to establish a closer relationship with the Pacific ally and help create a path to sustainable development. Tsai said she is delighted at the progress in relations between Taiwan and the Marshall Islands over the past two years and hopes that ties between the nations would continue to expand. Marshallese President Hilda Heine has given strong support to Taiwan’s attempts at international participation and can see Taiwan’s determination to be a part of the international community, Tsai said. Edwards succeeds Frederick Muller, who served as ambassador to Taiwan from 2015 to last year. Taiwan and the Marshall Islands established diplomatic relations in 1998.
DIPLOMACY
Ministry apologizes over flag
The Ministry of Labor on Thursday apologized for placing the Philippine national flag upside-down on two advertisements at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. In a statement, the ministry said that the error was made on two light boxes in the airport’s arrival area that were advertising the official labor consultation hotline. The picture of the Philippine flag showed the blue and red stripes upside down, which indicates a state of war, the ministry said, apologizing to the Philippines for the error. The advertisements have since been replaced. The royal blue stripe on the upper half of the Philippine national flag symbolizes peace, truth and justice, but if the flag is turned upside down with the scarlet stripe for patriotism and valor on top, it suggests that the country is in a state of war, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 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