Nine Taipei City councilors from across party lines yesterday announced an alliance to promote gender equality and said they would monitor and question Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on policies concerning LGBT rights, independent Taipei City Councilor Chiu Wei-chieh (邱威傑) said.
The other councilors are the New Power Party’s Lin Ying-meng (林穎孟), Lin Liang-chun (林亮君) and Huang Yu-fen (黃郁芬); the Social Democratic Party’s Miao Po-ya (苗博雅); the Democratic Progressive Party’s Wang Min-sheng (王閔生), Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) and Wang Shih-chien (王世堅); and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Dai Hsi-chin (戴錫欽).
As the final version of the Executive Yuan’s “enforcement act of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748,” which would recognize marriages between two people of the same sex who are at least 18 years old, is expected to go into effect on May 24, the alliance said it would make sure the city government protected those rights.
With Ko to report on his administration’s performance tomororw, Lin Ying-meng would ask him whether the household registration administration is ready to cope with the new regulations, as well as other gender equality policies, such as setting up baby changing stations in men’s public restrooms, she said.
Three alliance members were elected from the Daan-Wenshan (大安-文山) constituency, which is usually viewed as having more voters with traditional values, Miao said.
This indicates that support for gender equality is not “poison to votes” and more politicians should speak up to protect gender equality, she said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan