■HEALTH
Breastfeeding bill drafted
Taiwan is to protect the right of nursing mothers to breastfeed in public, with hefty fines for those who try to stop them as part of a campaign to promote the practice, officials said yesterday. The government’s Bureau of Health Promotion is drafting a bill that would impose a penalty of up to NT$30,000 for anyone attempting to prevent breastfeeding in public, a bureau official said. “Public breastfeeding is a global trend and we want to ensure a better environment for mothers to nurse their babies,” said the official, who works for the bureau’s women and children affairs’ division. The bill will require final approval by the legislature. The rule came after an outcry over an earlier incident when five women were forced to leave a museum in Taipei after they were found to be openly nursing their babies. The bureau said it would air a commercial featuring mothers nursing their children in various public places, including a department store and a train station, to promote the concept.
■EVENTS
Pet Carnival planned
The fifth annual Pet Carnival will be held by the non-profit Animals Taiwan between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10 in Taipei. The event will run from 1pm to 9pm at the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi New Life Square in Xinyi District (信義), the event organizer said. The festivities will include performances and contests as selling pet-related items. More information can be found by visiting www.animalstaiwan.org or phoning (02) 2833-8820. Those interested in being volunteers at the Pet Carnival can also contact Animals Taiwan’s volunteer coordinator Lilian Lim at lilian@animalstaiwan.org.
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
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