The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it has inked a reciprocal driver’s license agreement with Indiana, making it the 32nd US state to enter into such a deal with Taiwan.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago Director-General Eric Huang (黃鈞耀) on Wednesday signed the agreement with Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Peter Lacy on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the foreign ministry said.
The agreement enables citizens on both sides to obtain a license without having to take a driving test after completing a written exam, the foreign ministry said.
More than 15,000 people have benefited from such agreements with other US states, it said.
Since September last year, the office has also signed similar agreements with the state governments of Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota, bringing the number of US states that have entered into such an agreement with Taiwan to 32, the foreign ministry said.
The achievement demonstrates the solid friendship between Taiwan and the US, especially with this year marking the 40th anniversary of the US’ Taiwan Relations Act, it said.
To commemorate the anniversary, the office in Washington on Wednesday held a reception at the US Capitol Building, which was attended by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, US Senator Bob Menendez, US representatives Eliot Engel and Michael McCaul, and 22 other senators or representatives, the foreign ministry said.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives on Wednesday held a subcommittee hearing on China’s growing influence in Asia and the US, hosted by Brad Sherman, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and Nonproliferation.
The Republic of China flag was displayed on a notice for the hearing.
Attendees raised concerns about China’s economic tactics to achieve its political goals.
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