POLITICS
TPP attacked for comments
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) has encountered criticism in recent days for lobbying to raise the lunch allowance for legislators while cutting other government budgets, saying their NT$100 stipend is “not even enough to buy a McDonald’s meal.” People online have started calling Chang “French Fry Bro” (薯條哥) over his proposal to increase funds for lawmakers’ lunches. One Taipei resident, surnamed Liu (劉), told reporters that lawmakers are “cutting so many budgetary items, impacting government and society, yet they want to increase their own meal stipend. But it is not needed, as they are all very well-off and already enjoy lots of perks and subsidies.” Earlier this week when Chang chaired a meeting examining the budget, he said they had recently ordered fast food for lunch when budget review meetings were extended into the afternoon. “But each McDonald’s meal was missing some items,” Chang said. “So we need to boost funds for meals, and should have no problem adjusting this,” he said, suggesting to add NT$10 or NT$20 to the budget. Chang later said that legislators usually order lunch boxes, but at that time, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) wanted to treat everyone to something different, so he ordered from McDonald’s.
CRIME
Rail trespasser sentenced
The Changhua District Court has sentenced a man to three years and two months in prison for trespassing on a railway crossing while riding his motorcycle. The court found the man, surnamed Lai (賴), guilty of an offense against traffic safety, according to the verdict issued on Jan. 14. The ruling said that in June last year, the man raised the gate to cross the railway crossing as warning bells were sounding and warning lights were flashing in an attempt to catch a train at Ershui Station (二水) in Changhua County. The ruling said that the driver of the approaching train saw the trespasser when he was about 60m away and managed to ring the warning bell and hit the brakes in time. Lai was seen speeding off on his motorcycle to the other side, ramming into and breaking the lowered gate. The court said that if the train had hit Lai, it could have derailed and/or caught fire, posing a significant danger. The ruling can be appealed.
ENTERTAINMENT
Local films at Berlin festival
Three Taiwanese movies have been shortlisted for this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, which takes place from Feb. 13 to Feb. 23. The drama Eel (河鰻) by Chu Chun-teng (朱駿騰) has been nominated for the Perspectives section, the drama Silent Sparks (愛作歹) by Chu Ping (朱平) for the Panorama section, and the satire The Trio Hall (三廳電影) by Su Hui-yu (蘇匯宇) for the Forum section. Tricia Tuttle, director of the festival, said on Tuesday at a press event that 14 feature-length films had made the Perspectives section, which is dedicated to debut films. Notably, five of the productions were directed by women and two of them by nonbinary directors, she said. The new category brings together filmmakers with audacious ideas from around the world and is eclectic in styles and themes, Tuttle said. This year’s edition of Berlinale is set to be the first under the leadership of Tuttle, an American, who became the festival’s director in April last year. Previously she was with the British Film Institute (BFI) overseeing the BFI London Film Festival.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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