Announcing its latest measure to attempt ot boost the birthrate in Taipei, the city government said yesterday it would set up more than 100 childcare centers next year to ease the burden on parents.
Taipei City’s Department of Social Affairs Commissioner Shih Yu-ling (師豫玲) said the city government already offers childcare services at public daycare centers and several women’s centers. This will be supplemented next year by private daycare centers and childcare services provided by child welfare organizations, she said.
The childcare centers will be set up in local districts for the convenience of local residents. The centers will offer a safe environment for children to play and learn, while parents will be encouraged to visit the centers to exchange childcare experiences with teachers or other parents, Shih said.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said the program, together with the birth subsidy plan, was aimed at easing parents’ burden and he encouraged families to make use of the free service.
He said his policy would be more effective in increasing the birthrate than that proposed by Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rival in next month’s mayoral election.
Hau promised to give a NT$20,000 subsidy to Taipei residents who give birth next year. Families with children under five years old and an annual net income of below NT$1.13 million (US$35,000) would also receive a monthly subsidy of NT$2,500.
Su has proposed a NT$20,000 subsidy for parents who have their first baby and NT$30,000 if they have a second. He also promised to give a monthly subsidy of NT$2,500 to families with one child under the age of six. Families with two or more children would receive a NT$2,500 monthly subsidy for their first child and NT$3,000 for each additional child.
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:
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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