Yunlin County magistrate candidate Chang Chia-chun has put forward a cash childcare policy — good news for families with children, and also a piece of policy manoeuvring ahead of the election.

• Children aged 0 to 6 with household registration in Yunlin would receive NT$1,000 a month, or NT$12,000 a year.
• The pitch extends from "encouraging people to have children" to "helping them raise them", covering the years before primary school when costs are heaviest.
• The payment would stack on top of existing central government and county childcare and daycare subsidies, and would be accompanied by an expansion of public daycare and parent-child spaces.
• The falling birth rate has been framed as a national security issue, and it also bears on local government's ability to retain young people.

Other stories in focus today: a Taipei City councillor revealed that a 10-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a man who had paid her mother for sex, and that she had still not been placed in care 240 days after the case was reported, prompting the city government to launch emergency judicial protective placement; torrential rain caused disaster in southern Taiwan, with Lai Ching-te announcing flood relief payments of up to NT$30,000 and activating agricultural loss assistance; the tainted-oil scandal involving the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene widened to include black sesame oil, and the Taipei City government convened a cross-departmental press conference; friction resurfaced in the KMT-TPP alliance, with the KMT's Taipei branch restricting Chiang Wan-an from campaigning individually for TPP candidates.

Outlook: With the election approaching, the various camps can be expected to compete in raising the stakes on childcare and post-disaster relief policies.