UN RESOLUTION 2758
Canada backs Taiwan
The Canadian House of Commons on Wednesday unanimously passed a motion stating that UN Resolution 2758 does not establish the People’s Republic China’s sovereignty over Taiwan and does not determine the nation’s right to participate in the UN or other international organizations. The motion was proposed by Bloc Quebecois President Yves Perron, who said it was unanimously agreed upon by all parties before the meeting was convened. Parliament members would speak up with allies around the world to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations, including the WHO and the International Civil Aviation Organization, Perron said. China is manipulating the implications of the resolution to legitimize its military actions in Taiwan’s territorial airspace and waters, he said.
LABOR
MOL seeks to raise fines
Upcoming amendments would seek to increase maximum fines for creating an unsafe work environment from NT$300,000 to NT$1.5 million (US$9,305 to US$46,526) in hopes of preventing occupational accidents, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) said yesterday. The draft amendments to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法) seeks to prevent construction accidents by strengthening contractors’ safety management, raising the maximum penalty and disclosing more information about businesses that breach safety standards, Occupational Safety and Health Administration Director-General Tzou Tzu-lien (鄒子廉) said. It would also require property owners to implement risk evaluation and prepare a budget for safety measures, he added. Subcontracting is common in the construction industry, yet most contractors do not perform their duty to ensure occupational safety, Tzou said. Renting venues and equipment without disclosing risks could lead to occupational accidents, he added.
DIPLOMACY
Poland, Fiji envoys named
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Jeff Liu (劉永健) is to be the new representative to Poland, while former ambassador to Nauru Joseph Chow (周進發) is to serve as the envoy to Fiji for the second time. Liu, who has served as the ministry’s spokesman since January last year, would take up his post following envoy Sharon Wu’s (吳尚年) return to Taipei in August, a Cabinet announcement released on Wednesday said. Liu’s previous overseas posts include India, New York, Washington and New Zealand. Meanwhile, Chow worked at the ministry’s Taipei headquarters after diplomatic ties with Nauru were severed. His previous overseas posts include Nauru and Australia.
WEATHER
Heavy rain expected
The northern and eastern parts of Taiwan are expected to experience heavy rain until tomorrow as Typhoon Yinxing approaches, the Central Weather Administration said on Wednesday. As Yinxing was predicted to veer further west and to be closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon to this evening, heavy rain is expected along the Keelung north coast and eastern Taiwan, with isolated instances of extremely heavy rain in Yilan, agency forecaster Chang Cheng-chuan (張承傳) said. Seasonal winds are likely to weaken today, but rain is to persist, bringing down temperatures in the north and northeast until it rebounds to about 27°C tomorrow. The next wave of northeasterly winds is to pick up on Sunday and is expected to bring rain across Taiwan until Wednesday next week, Chang said.
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
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