POLITICS
Race switch rumored
Former minister of transportation and communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), who had said he would contest this year’s Taipei mayoral election, has been convinced by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to run for mayor of New Taipei City, a party insider said yesterday. Tsai, who is Democratic Progressive Party chairperson, spoke with Lin yesterday, the source said, adding that Lin also received telephone calls from other top DPP officials who urged him to run as the party’s candidate against New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Lin was moved by Tsai’s continual prodding, with the two having conversed on the matter several times before, the source said. The DPP is expected to finalize the details and make an official announcement on Wednesday, the source added.
SOCIETY
Population decline continues
The nation’s population continued to decline last month, with the number of people falling 1.2 percent year-on-year, household registration data released by the Ministry of the Interior yesterday showed. The total population stood at 23,186,278 at the end of last month, down by 301,231 from the same month last year and a drop of 0.8 percent, or 189,036 people, compared with six months earlier, the data showed. The month also had the most deaths — 21,033 — in the past six months, exceeding 20,000 for the first time in the past year. The 10,943 births last month, a crude birthrate of 5.74 per 1,000 people, brought the number of live births in Taiwan to 67,149 in the first six months this year, down 9 percent from the same period last year. Taiwan’s population shrank for the first time on record in 2020, with 165,249 births and 173,156 deaths, previous data showed.
EMPLOYMENT
Online services expanded
Migrant workers in Taiwan and their employers can now check online to track the progress of their employment-related documents, the Ministry of Labor said on Wednesday. The new system has a multilingual user interface that makes it easier for migrant workers to navigate the Web site in their native language and check the status of their work permit applications and employment renewal records, the ministry said. Migrant workers can also download some employment documents from the site, it said. With the launch of the new system, migrant workers can easily track and obtain their certificates of employment and employer transfer records online, once they log into the system, the ministry said. Employers can log in on the Workforce Development Agency’s (www.wda.gov.tw) application system to access foreign worker application documents, it said.
TRAVEL
Holiday flights announced
Bookings for 1,030 flights connecting Taiwan and its outlying islands from Sept. 8 to 12, which covers the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday weekend, are to open at 9am on Monday, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday. To satisfy customer demand around and during the days off on Sept. 9 to 11, 96,172 seats would be available on flights between Taiwan proper and Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, the CAA said. There would be 53,288 seats on 552 flights on Taiwan-Penghu routes, while Taiwan-Kinmen and Taiwan-Lienchiang routes would have 33,384 seats on 338 flights and 9,500 seats on 140 flights respectively, it said.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
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