WEATHER
Mercury to drop in north
Seasonal northeasterly winds are expected cause temperatures to drop 6°C to 10°C in northern Taiwan today, forecasters said. Daytime temperatures are forecast to fall below 20°C in the north, about 6°C to 7°C lower than yesterday, the Central Weather Burea said. However, meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that temperatures in the north might plunge today by about 10°C from a day earlier due to the seasonal winds. In central and southern Taiwan, the effects of the weather system would be less severe, with daytime highs hovering around 26°C and 29°C respectively, the bureau said. The wind system would bring not only cool air, but also occasional showers in the north and east of the country, the bureau said.
DIPLOMACY
Thai newspaper lauds Tsai
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was named as one of the world’s 24 extraordinary women by a Thai newspaper yesterday. The English-language Bangkok Post cited her leadership in containing the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan and her government’s promotion of gender equality. It praised the Tsai administration’s quick response following the outbreak of the disease at the beginning of last year. The article titled “Tsai’s leadership makes its mark in Taiwan,” attributed the successful containment of the virus to the government’s launch of “one of the world’s most effective pandemic response protocols.” Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) yesterday said that Tsai thanked everyone in Taiwan for working together to combat COVID-19, adding that being named on the list shows again that Taiwan has been recognized by the world.
SPORTS
Wang’s record made official
Taiwanese Eddie Wang (王冠閎) has been officially recognized by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) as the holder of the junior world record in the men’s 200m butterfly short course, the Chinese Taipei Swimming Association said in a news release on Sunday. The association said that on Thursday last week it received the official notification from FINA recognizing Wang’s record of 1 minute, 49.89 seconds, which he accomplished during the International Swimming League season in Budapest in November last year. The 19-year-old is the first Taiwanese to gain FINA recognition for a world swimming record, Wang’s coach Huang Chih-yung (黃智勇) said. Wang said that he would not get too carried away by FINA’s recognition, as he is training for the Tokyo Olympics, which are only about four months away.
POLITICS
Chiang discusses HK arrests
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has long supported Hong Kong’s democracy and rule of law and it is regrettable that the territory’s National Security Law could become a tool for curbing dissidents, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday. He made the remarks after 47 Hong Kong democracy advocates were on Sunday detained under the legislation. Chiang said that this might affect people’s expectations for democracy in the territory, as well as undermine Hong Kongers’ confidence in the Chinese Communist Party’s governance. Democracy and rule of law should be maintained in Hong Kong, he said, adding that the latest developments would affect the overall development of the territory.
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