SOCIETY
Pride parade route unveiled
This year’s Taiwan Pride Parade, an annual celebration by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, is scheduled to be held on Saturday in Taipei, the organizer said yesterday. Participants are to split up along two separate routes after setting off from Xinyi Road Sec 1 at 2pm. They are to converge on Zhongshan S Road, the Taiwan LGBT Pride Community said. The theme of this year’s parade is “no age limit,” and members of the LGBT community and its supporters are invited to take part to jointly explore how age and gender are hindering people from freely expressing themselves when living their lives, the organizer said.
EDUCATION
Parents eye US education
Seventy-five percent of Taiwanese parents are considering sending their children abroad for their university education, with the US remaining the top destination, according to a survey conducted by HSBC. When given the choice of where they would be willing to send their children to study, 60 percent of respondents chose the US, while the UK and Germany each received the support of 38 percent, the survey found. The global survey conducted earlier this year in 16 nations interviewed 300 Taiwanese parents with at least one child younger than 23. Though Taiwanese respondents indicated that they would like to send their children abroad to study, cost could be a barrier. An international student in the US is expected to spend more than US$165,000 in total university tuition and living expenses over four years, HSBC said. In the UK, the cost is approximately US$120,000. By comparison, it is more economical to attend a Taiwanese university, which costs about US$44,000 over a four-year period, HSBC said.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said a magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan yesterday was an independent event and part of a stress-adjustment process. The earthquake occurred at 4:47pm, with its epicenter at sea about 45.4km south of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 5.9km, the CWA said. The quake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in several townships in Yilan and neighboring Hualien County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the CWA said. Lin Po-yu (林柏佑), a division chief at the CWA's Seismological Center, told a news conference
RSS