The New Power Party (NPP) legislative caucus yesterday held its first meeting, with members reaching a consensus on the division of labor to promote amendments in line with the party’s focus on progressive changes.
The caucus pledged to promote various bills, including amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), which had met resistance in the last legislature.
The party’s “transitional justice” task force is to be convened by Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐), with his team working on reclaiming ill-gotten party assets and supervising changes to high-school curriculum guidelines — an issue that sparked serious controversy last year.
A task force on “returning rights to the people” is to be headed by Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal, who is to push for changes to the Referendum Act, the recall act and other related laws.
Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) and Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), a lawyer and NPP candidate who lost in the contest for Hsinchu City’s legislative seat to the Democratic Progressive Party’s Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), are to be in charge of a team on legislative reforms.
NPP caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) is to be in charge of drafting laws against media monopolization and oversee the operations of the National Communications Commission.
NPP Chairman and Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) is to lead a team that deals with the institutionalization of the presidential transition of power, with a public hearing set to be held on Friday.
Huang said he would also convene a “non-nuclear homeland” team, which plans to send a request to Taiwan Power Co after the Lunar New Year holiday for the caucus to visit the Second Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) and review plans for the power plant’s retirement and its storage pools for spent fuel rods.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a