HEALTH
Monkeypox case reported
A second monkeypox case was reported yesterday after a man declared symptoms of the disease when arriving from the US, said the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The patient, a 30-year-old Taiwanese, visited the US from May to this month and began experiencing symptoms — swelling of the testes, running a fever, swollen lymph nodes in the groin, rashes and diarrhea — as early as July 3, the CDC said. The global monkeypox outbreak, with the first cases reported in the UK in May, has amounted to 9,664 confirmed cases. Taiwan has reported two imported cases of the disease. South Korea has reported one imported case of monkeypox, while Singapore has reported three imported cases and one domestic. The CDC said it has issued a category 2 travel alert for 49 nations, adding that Taiwanese who visit these nations should avoid social contact as much as possible. The CDC added that it is stepping up measures to procure vaccines.
EDUCATION
NTU candidates unveiled
National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Presidential Election Committee yesterday announced the final roster of nine candidates to head the nation’s most prestigious university for the next four years. The nine candidates are all NTU faculty — head of the office of research and development Lee Pai-chi (李百祺); former acting president Kuo Tei-wei (郭大維); College of Engineering dean Chen Wen-chang (陳文章); College of Law professor Chen Tsung-fu (陳聰富); College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science dean Chang Yao-wen (張耀文); NTU Hospital Yunlin branch superintendent Hwang Juey-jen (黃瑞仁); Department of Library and Information Science professor Huang Mu-hsuan (黃慕瑄); Department of Electrical Engineering professor Benson Yeh (葉丙成); and NTU Cancer Center superintendent James Yang (楊志新). The committee said the candidates would be invited to give a speech on their vision for NTU starting late next month and the University Affairs Committee would begin accepting recommendations and endorsements for the candidates in early September. The University Affairs Committee would complete background checks on candidates in September, meet and discuss with candidates at length their ideas on running the university, and arrange one-on-one interviews with the candidates starting in October. The university expects to have a president-elect by Oct. 8, it added.
HEALTH
Taipei to roll out kids’ jabs
Taipei began accepting online appointments yesterday for COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 6 months to 5 years, in preparation for the rollout of the Moderna brand for that age group next week. About 8,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine for young children are available on the city’s booking Web site through 5pm today and vaccinations are to begin on Thursday next week, said Chang Hui-mei (張惠美), a section head in the Taipei Department of Health. Appointments can also be made at 12 hospitals in Taipei, which would be offering 1,000 shots for young children, also starting on Thursday next week, she said. In addition to the Moderna vaccine, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 is to be administered from Monday next week to July 24, she said. The current round of reservations also includes 62,000 doses of the Novavax, Medigen and Pfizer-BNT vaccines for adults and children, she said. As of Monday, 91.39 percent of the population had received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, including 76.0 percent in the 5-to-11 age group.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on