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.
‘ANGRY’: Forgetting the humiliations and sacrifices of ‘the people of the Republic of China’ experienced disqualified Lai from being president, Ma Ying-jeou said Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday criticized President William Lai (賴清德) over what he called “phrasing that downplayed Japan’s atrocities” against China during World War II. Ma made the remarks in a post on Facebook on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Ma said he was “angry and disappointed” that Lai described the anniversary as the end of World War II instead of a “victory in the war of resistance” — a reference to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The eight-year war was a part of World War II, in which Japan and the other Axis
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday announced a ban on all current and former government officials from traveling to China to attend a military parade on Sept. 3, which Beijing is to hold to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. "This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Republic of China’s victory in the War of Resistance [Against Japan]," MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a regular news briefing in Taipei. To prevent Beijing from using the Sept. 3 military parade and related events for "united
‘OFFSHORE OPERATIONS’: Also in Dallas, Texas, the Ministry of Economic Affairs inaugurated its third Taiwan Trade and Investment Center to foster closer cooperation The 2025 Taiwan Expo USA opened on Thursday in Dallas, Texas, featuring 150 Taiwanese companies showcasing their latest technologies in the fields of drones, smart manufacturing and healthcare. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the event’s organizer, said the exhibitors this year include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn), the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer; AUO; PC brand Asustek Computer; and drone maker Thunder Tiger. In his opening speech, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said he expected Texas to become a world-class center for innovation and manufacturing as US technology companies from Silicon Valley and Taiwanese manufacturers form an industrial cluster
A 20-year-old man yesterday evening was electrocuted and fell to his death after he climbed a seven-story-high electricity tower to photograph the sunset, causing a wildfire on Datong Mountain (大同山) in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林), the Taoyuan Police Department said today. The man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was accompanied on an evening walk by a 20-year-old woman surnamed Shang (尚) who remained on the ground and witnessed the incident, capturing a final photograph of her friend sitting atop the tower before his death, an initial investigation showed. Shang then sought higher ground to call for help, police said. The New Taipei