EDUCATION
Schools prepare for heat
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday said he has asked the city’s schools to adjust their schedules for outdoor classes when temperatures exceed 36°C, to prevent students from getting sunburned. Asked whether schools would cancel lessons on days with extreme heat, Hou said there should be a central-government policy that county and municipality governments could follow. Teachers determine whether to reschedule outdoor classes based on the day’s temperature, New Taipei City Education Bureau Deputy Director Liu Ming-chao (劉明超) said. There is no policy to cancel classes based on a specific temperature, as sometimes the apparent temperature was high despite a lower measured temperature, he said. As other mayors and commissioners have expressed a desire for the Ministry of Education to establish policy on the issue, the department would bring it up at a July 21 meeting of education departments heads with the ministry.
DIPLOMACY
Representative appointed
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday said that Lou Chen-hwa (羅震華), a counselor at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Saudi Arabia, is to head the Taiwan Representative Office in Somaliland. Although the east African nation is not recognized by the international community and has no official diplomatic ties, it has 22 representative offices, and Canada, Denmark, Djibouti, Ethiopia, the EU, Turkey, the UK and the UN have established representative agencies there. Taiwan on Wednesday announced that it and Somaliland in February had agreed to establish representative offices in their respective nations. Once the offices are set up, the two sides would cooperate in agriculture, mining, fishing, energy, public health, education and information technology, the ministry said.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Surge caused capsizing
An unexpected wave surge on Friday caused a vessel to capsize, critically injuring three soldiers during a navy landing drill, the military said yesterday, citing the initial findings of an investigation. A craft with seven Republic of China Marine Corps 99th Brigade personnel aboard at about 9am overturned off Zuoying District’s (左營) Taoziyuan (桃子園) beach in Kaohsiung. As of yesterday, three of the soldiers were in intensive care units with pulmonary edema, a condition caused by an abnormal amount of fluid in the lungs, the navy said. The navy is looking at ways to prevent similar incidents and to improve safety during training exercises, the Navy Command said. All seven soldiers are experienced and elite combatants, the navy said.
SOCIETY
Former politician dies
Former Examination Yuan president Chiu Chuang-huan (邱創煥) on Thursday died at the age of 94, his daughter Chiu Pei-lin (邱珮琳) said. Chiu Chuang-huan was one of many young Taiwanese politicians recruited into the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and local government in the 1970s and 1980s under a policy initiated by then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) to promote more Taiwanese to high-profile government posts. Chiu was born on July 25, 1925, in Changhua County. He held many government and party posts, including minister of the interior, vice premier, senior adviser to the president, Examination Yuan president, Taiwan provincial governor and KMT vice chairman. On Feb. 11, he was admitted to a hospital with pneumonia and died at his home on Thursday, his daughter said.
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
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