Kaohsiung's mayor asked Taichung for emergency pumps during heavy flooding, and the cross-party help was welcomed on both sides — a rare bright spot in Taiwan's divided politics.

• Heavy rain left parts of Kaohsiung underwater, and Mayor Chen Chi-mai phoned Taichung asking for 3-inch and 6-inch water pumps.
• Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen sent 27 pumps south and said more would follow if needed, with the line that Taiwan is one island and party colors do not matter in a disaster.
• Lu praised Chen for picking up the phone and asking for help instead of making excuses, calling it the right instinct for a leader in a crisis.
• A separate row is brewing over the legislature cutting NT$30 million from the presidential office budget, which killed a plan to buy Mid-Autumn cakes from 37 sheltered workshops that employ disabled workers.
• Taichung will buy up the cancelled orders from the five affected local groups, with Lu pointing out that the central government is sitting on a record NT$3 trillion budget and still could not solve it.

Outlook: Cleanup in Kaohsiung continues while the budget fight over cuts to central government spending looks set to widen.