WEATHER
CWB issues heat warning
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday issued a “yellow” heat warning — signifying temperatures of more than 36oC in a single day — for Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taitung County. Daytime temperatures in Taipei stayed high due to the city’s location in a basin where heat is not easily dispelled, the bureau said. A lack of conditions to disperse heat also resulted in high daytime temperatures in Kaohsiung, it said. As for Taitung, the high temperatures were caused by foehn winds, which are hot, dry and strong downslope winds. Elsewhere in the nation, daytime temperatures ranged between 32oC and 34oC yesterday, similar to the previous day.
SOCIETY
Thirty-seven win millions
Thirty-seven people became instant millionaires in the March-April uniform invoice lottery, 18 of whom won the NT$10 million (US$317,430) special prize, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The number of winners who won the special prize was the second-highest on record. The bimonthly uniform invoice lottery system is managed by the ministry to encourage consumers to collect their purchase receipts as part of government efforts to prevent tax evasion by retailers. The winning number for the NT$10 million special prize was 03802602 and the winning number for the NT$2 million grand prize was 00708299. Winners can claim their prizes from Thursday until Sept. 5, the ministry said.
TRANSPORT
TRA to sue train makers
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) on Sunday said that the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) would file lawsuits to seek restitution from Sumitomo Corp and Nappon Sharyo Ltd — the Japanese manufacturers of Taiwan’s Puyuma Express — for the derailment of the express train in Yilan last year, which killed 18 people and injured more than 200 people. After the deadly accident, the contractors first admitted that they had made mistakes in the maintenance manual for the express train, but now say it was TRA’s poor maintenance that led to the accident, Lin said. The TRA has detained a guarantee fund of NT$430 million that was supposed to be given to the contractors, Lin said, adding that the agency would file lawsuits if they still refuse to offer compensation through the negotiations.
TRANSPORT
Driver fatally hit by two cars
A driver who ran out of gas on a freeway in New Taipei City died after he was struck twice by passing vehicles after running to the middle of the road to seek help, police said. The incident took place in the early hours on Monday last week on the southbound section of the Wuyang Elevated Freeway, which connects the city’s Wugu District (五股) and Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅). Police said the driver stopped on the freeway shoulder after running out of gas and then ran to the middle of the road, into oncoming traffic, hoping to get help. His wife, who remained in the passenger seat, told police that her husband wanted to try and stop a passing vehicle to borrow some gas, after placing an emergency triangle behind his car. The man’s vehicle broke down at the 37.6km marker of the freeway. He was first struck by a car, thrown to the outer lane, and moments later, run over by another passing driver in a sports utility vehicle. Authorities said the man died of severe head injuries and multiple fractures.
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