In today's news, with Paz and Nancy:

More women in local councils, Chinese pandas are going home, and a once-in-a-lifetime comet in the sky!

Stay tuned and we'll tell you more about these stories, coming up next!

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台灣在地方議會中有更多女性代表

Taiwan Sees More Female Representation in Local Councils

Do you know who makes the decisions that affect your community (社區)?

In Taiwan, each city and county (縣) has a local government (政府) and council (議會).

Local governments and councils are responsible for many policies (政策) and services we use every day.

Like education, public safety…

Health and social services, parks…

Public transportation and… traffic!

It's important to have a government that represents (代表) all the people who live in a community.

Children, adults, elderly, men, women… all of them have different needs.

In Taiwan, female representation in local councils is increasing!

In November last year, Taiwan held the 9-in-1 local elections to fill many seats in local councils (補地方議會的許多席位).

Out of 3,048 local public representatives (代表人) elected, 901 were women.

Taipei City reports the highest female representation, with almost 50 percent of elected officials being women!

台北市的女性代表比例最高，幾乎 50% 的民選官員是女性！

Other counties and cities with the highest female representation over 30-percent are Hsinchu City, Tainan, New Taipei City, and Keelung.

Having more women in leadership positions promotes gender equality.

讓更多女性擔任領導職務可以促進性別平等。

They can make decisions that help address the needs of everyone.

A more diverse and inclusive government (多元化和包容性的政府) can help every citizen.

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愛丁堡動物園將大熊貓送回中國

Edinburgh Zoo to Return Pandas to China

Pandas are one of the cutest animals in the world.

They are a vulnerable species endemic to China.

它們是中國特有的易危物種。

They are also China's national treasure (國家寶藏).

All living pandas belong (屬於) to the Chinese government.

No one else can own one (擁有一個).

China lets some governments borrow pandas as a mark of respect between their countries.

中國允許一些政府借用大熊貓，以示兩國之間互相尊重。

Having a panda can boost the status (提高地位) of a zoo.

Each zoo has to pass a test to be allowed to keep one, and it can cost a lot of money.

Since 2011, pandas Yang Guang and Tian Tian have lived in Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland.

They are the only pandas living in the U.K.

And, well, they won't be living there after this year.

That's because Edinburgh Zoo is returning Yang Guang and Tian Tian in October.

The zoo says caring for the pandas is too expensive (昂貴的).

It costs around ?750,000 pounds (英鎊) a year… or more than $27,800,000 NT!

Another reason the zoo plans to return the black-and-white bears is because they could not mate (交配).

The zookeepers hoped the pandas would mate and have babies.

But they gave up after trying for ten years.

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一生只有一次，綠光彗星將出現在天空中

Green Comet to Make a Once-in-a-Lifetime Appearance in the Sky

For the first time since the Stone Age (石器時代), a green comet will be visible (看得見) in the sky in 2023.

The comet is officially called C/2022 E3 (ZTF).

But, we'll just call it "the green comet".

It was discovered by astronomers (天文學家) in March last year.

It was about 640 million kilometers away from the Sun, inside of Jupiter's orbit (木星的軌道).

NASA believes it came from the edge of the Solar System, in a place called the Oort Cloud.

美國太空總署認為它來自太陽系的邊緣，一個叫做奧爾特雲的地方。

They have been watching it travel closer and closer to the Inner Solar System (內太陽系).

The green comet will be closest to the sun tomorrow (1/12).

That's around 160 million kilometers from the Sun.

The closest the comet has come since the last Ice Age (冰河世紀)!

Astronomers say it might be visible to the naked eye at night, appearing like a green blob (斑點) in the sky.

And it will be observable with binoculars or telescopes.

它可以用雙筒望遠鏡或望遠鏡觀察到。

They say it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (一生一次的機會) to see the green comet.

NASA says the comet will approach (接近) the Sun around January 12th this year.

And it will be the closest to the Earth on February 2nd.

The next time to see it will be in at least 50,000 years.

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So, in today's News Bites:

In November last year, Taiwan held the 9-in-1 local elections to fill many seats in local councils.

Out of 3,048 local public representatives elected, 901 were women.

Having more women in leadership positions promotes gender equality.

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China lets some governments borrow pandas as a mark of respect between their countries.

Since 2011, Chinese pandas Yang Guang and Tian Tian have lived in Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland.

But the zoo says caring for the pandas is too expensive.

So, they plan to return the pandas to China this year.

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And,

For the first time since the Stone Age, a green comet called C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will be visible to us.

It will be closest to the Sun tomorrow, and to Earth on February 2nd.

Astronomers say it might be visible to the naked eye at night, appearing like a green blob in the sky.

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And that's all for today's episode of News Bites!