Charity workshops in Taiwan lost their holiday orders after budget cuts, but Taichung's city government says it will step in and buy the boxes instead.

• Taiwan's Presidential Office cancelled Mid-Autumn gift box orders it had placed with groups employing disabled and disadvantaged workers.
• The cancellations came after the legislature cut the office's discretionary budget.
• In Taichung alone, four groups lost orders worth close to NT$400,000 — over a thousand boxes.
• Mayor Lu Shiu-yen said the city will buy the same number of boxes so the groups get through the holiday.
• Lu also attacked Premier Cho Jung-tai for saying budget cuts stopped him from visiting flood-hit areas in the south, calling it painful for disaster victims to hear.

Outlook: The fight between the opposition-controlled legislature and the ruling government over slashed budgets is spilling into public services, with local governments picking up the slack ahead of the Mid-Autumn holiday.