ASTRONOMY
Comet to be visible today
Comet Lemmon, believed to be the brightest comet of the year, is expected to reach its peak brightness today, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The comet is gradually approaching the sun and brightening, with its luminosity forecast to peak today before fading rapidly after passing perihelion on Saturday next week, the museum said in a statement. The comet can be observed with binoculars and might even be visible to the naked eye under favorable conditions, it said. For the best view, check the skies within about an hour after sunset, at about 6pm, from a wide, dark location with minimal light pollution, it added.
Photo: Reuters
SOCIETY
Taipei housing data released
About 17 percent of people 60 or older in Taipei last year lived in three-generation households, 5.8 percentage points lower than five years ago, a Taipei Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics report released yesterday showed. Ninety-nine percent of residents aged 60 or older lived in ordinary residential housing, about 72.8 percent of whom were homeowners, 5.4 percentage points lower than five years ago, while 17.2 percent lived in a house owned by a family member, a 3.5 percentage point increase, the report showed. Most lived with their children or other family members, with 41.1 percent living in a dual-generational household, while 24.7 percent lived with a spouse or partner, followed by three-generation households at 17 percent. About 9.8 percent lived on their own, up by 3.5 percentage points from five years ago, and 7.4 percent lived in four-generation households, or with a caregiver or other family member, up 1.6 percentage points from the previous survey.
DIPLOMACY
Manila picks new office head
The Philippines has named women’s rights advocate Corazon Padiernos as its new representative to Taipei, saying she would lead Manila’s efforts to bolster bilateral ties with Taiwan. Prior to her appointment as officer-in-charge of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), Padiernos had served on the office’s board of directors, and oversaw its tourism and agriculture sectors, it said. “MECO warmly welcomes Chairperson Padiernos and looks forward to her leadership in further strengthening the partnership and people-to-people ties between the Philippines and Taiwan,” the office said. Padiernos succeeds Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil, who was last month named as the new secretary-general of the Philippine House of Representatives.
CRIME
Police seize heroin shipment
Police in Taiwan and Malaysia seized 4.21kg of heroin smuggled in mobile phone casing shipments, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said on Tuesday. The main suspect, a man surnamed Wang (王), 41, was identified as a member of Thento Union, a Taiwan-based international criminal organization. After Taiwanese and Malaysian law enforcement learned of a cross-border drug transport operation, Taiwanese personnel intercepted the shipment containing NT$20 million (US$652,955) of heroin hidden beneath the bottom panels of boxes of mobile phone cases and disguised to evade X-ray detection, said Chang Chao-hsiung (張詔雄), head of the first investigation team of the bureau’s International Criminal Affairs Division. To avoid detection, the gang used international express freight services to complete customs declarations and shipped the heroin to a claw machine shop in Keelung, police said.
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
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