POLITICS
CEC appointments approved
The legislature yesterday approved the appointment of five new commissioners to the Central Election Commission (CEC), paving the way for the commission to go ahead with preparations for the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections. Three of the five commissioners, Kuo Yu-ying (郭昱瑩), Duan Chung-min (段重民) and Chai Sung-lin (柴松林), are incumbents whose two-year terms had expired, while Lin Tsyr-ling (林慈玲) and Chen Wen-sheng (陳文生) are new appointments. Lin is currently deputy minister of the interior and Chen is a university professor. The new appointments bring the the number of commissioners to 11, in accordance with the law. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators left the legislative floor before the vote. However, prior to departure, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said most of the five appointees were “on the Chinese Nationalist Party’s [KMT] side” and the DPP would not bother to oppose the appointments.
MEDIA
Fake bloggers to be fined
The government plans to fine bloggers who make false claims or exaggerate the effectiveness of products on behalf of companies as the number of consumer disputes soars, authorities said yesterday. The legislature on Monday started revising a law to make it possible to fine bloggers and other reviewers up to 10 times the payment they receive for engaging in false advertising, the Fair Trade Commission said. Media said some bloggers are paid up to NT$70,000 per review, which are often disguised as simple journal entries, while in fact they talk up products and services to lure customers. One recent dispute involved a blogger who received an average of 140,000 hits a day and fabricated photographs to exaggerate the effect of beauty products, reports said.
SOCIETY
Go’s Hsieh wins Honinbo
Taiwanese go prodigy Hsieh Yi-min (謝依旻) captured the title at the 30th Women’s Honinbo tournament on Monday to become the first female go player to win the event five years in a row and be awarded an Honorary Honinbo. Hsieh said in January that she would try to win 10 consecutive titles at the Honinbo. In Monday’s final, Hsieh defended her title with a 3-1 victory over challenger Mukai Chiaki, whom she also defeated in the Honinbo finals last year. Hsieh, who lives in Japan, has been the Honinbo champion since 2007. Her victory this year made her the first female go player to receive an Honorary Honinbo title, which is given to players for winning five consecutive tournaments.
SOCIETY
Teens walk for orphans
Twenty-two high-school students from three continents joined local students in Changhua County on Monday to walk 100km to raise funds for orphans in Africa. The students from Japan, the US, Canada, Kenya and Swaziland joined 75 Taiwanese to complete the walk, organized by the International High School Youth Leadership Conference at Changhua High School. The trek includes trips to local temples to ask for donations from the public. Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) pledged to donate NT$10,000 if the students reach their goal. Janine Maxwell, the founder of Heart for Africa — a nonprofit organization that brings sustainable technologies to rural African villages — is one of those joining the project and she described the good will of the students as priceless.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
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