SOCIETY
Ma accepts nuclear petition
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) accepted a petition on nuclear safety presented yesterday by officials from the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association during a climate change forum. Ma was presiding over the closing ceremony of the forum, at which the activists raised their concerns. Association secretary-general Yang Mu-huo (楊木火) said the government should ensure the safety of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which according to experts could be crippled in the event of a tsunami. According to the four-page petition, based on a report conducted by professors from National Cheng Kung University, the 12m seawall protecting the plant would be useless in the face of a major tsunami.
SOCIETY
Summer activities cut back
About 40 percent of parents are reducing their budgets for their children’s summer activities because of the rising costs of living, a survey said yesterday. Twenty-three percent of parents said they would not send their children to summer camp this year, the survey found. When arranging summer activities, 76 percent of parents said their top consideration was the “content,” or what the activity involved, while 44 percent said they look at the costs involved. Family travel is the most popular summer activity, favored by 56 percent of parents, followed by private tuition and classes. The poll by the King Car Education Foundation surveyed 1,152 parents and 1,201 fourth to sixth-grade students.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
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