Promoting water safety educationBy Lin Cheng-wu 林政武When I read the article “Schools should teach students about water safety” published in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), it reminded me of my childhood. As there were no computers, mobile phones and other electronic products back then, my friends and I often went to the beach for fun during the summer holiday. As a splash in the water is exciting and can cool the heat of summer, children never take safety to heart. Schools have been promoting water safety in recent years, while the government has been introducing students to the dangers of playing water sports aside from in swimming pools via forums, videos, class meetings and discussions. Overall, as a schoolteacher, I think schools have done ample in terms of water safety education.

Outrage over coach’s jail sentence for underage sexABUSE: The victim testified that when abroad, her coach would criticize any bad performances and ‘punish her’ by forcing her to have sex with him in his hotel room A prominent archery coach surnamed Ni (倪) yesterday was handed a two-year, nine-month prison sentence for abusing his authority and having sex with an underage girl in his charge in a second ruling by the High Court. The court filing said that Ni pressured the victim to have sex when she was a junior-high student and an aspiring archer. The affair continued until she had enrolled in university. The Hsinchu District Court in the first ruling last year had convicted Ni on eight counts of abusing his authority and sexual misconduct against the victim, who was identified as “Siao Ting (小婷)” toBy Yang Kuo-wen and Jason Pan

Fed likely to hike rates to 22-year highMORE THAN 99% CERTAIN: Most FOMC members believe further rebalancing of supply and demand is needed to ensure US disinflation will continue, analysts said After pausing last month, the US Federal Reserve is widely expected to hike interest rates again on Wednesday, adopting its most restrictive monetary stance for 22 years despite recent signs of slowing inflation. After 10 consecutive hikes in just over a year, the Fed halted its aggressive campaign of monetary tightening last month to give policymakers more time to assess the health of the US economy, and the impact of recent banking stresses on lending conditions. In the weeks since, positive upgrades to economic growth and cooler inflation data have reinforced the likelihood that the Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee

NHI to cover advanced liver cancer treatmentADJUSTING STANDARDS: A study showed that the median overall survival with the combination therapy was 5.8 months longer than with another treatmentBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterA treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer, is to be covered by National Health Insurance (NHI) from Tuesday next week, the National Health Insurance Administration said yesterday. Medical Review and Pharmaceutical Benefits Division head Huang Yu-wen (黃育文) said the policy covering atezolizumab plus bevacizumab combination therapy is expected to benefit 2,072 people with advanced liver cancer, allowing them to save about NT$3 million (US$95,688) in annual medical expenses. In 2019, the NHI included three types of immune checkpoint inhibitors — nivolumab, pembrolizumab and atezolizumab — for the treatment of eight types of cancers, including liver cancer. Photo: CNAHowever, immunotherapy for liver cancer was removed from the list the following year, as NHI funding is limited and studies at the time suggested that its efficacy was not significantly better than targeted therapy, Huang said. Huang said that as the combination therapy has been adopted as the standard first-line therapy for treating advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in clinical treatment guidelines, and considering the clinical evidence and benefits to people with liver cancer, the Pharmaceutical Benefit and Reimbursement Scheme Joint Committee on June 15 approved the inclusion of the treatment in the NHI system.

Man sentenced to five months in jail for poisoning waterBy Wang Ting-chuan and Jason Pan / Staff reportersThe New Taipei City District Court has sentenced a man to five months in jail for allegedly putting rat poison in a water storage tank over a disagreement with a tenant, causing illness and skin rashes to a family. The man, surnamed Hung (洪), can pay a fine in lieu of jail time, the court said. Yang reported the incident to police, and lab testing found that the particles contained the ingredients of rat poison. Police gathered some of the discarded contents, which lab tests confirmed to contain the components of rat poison, it said. We still suffer from the fear that the water tank could be contaminated by rat poison,” she said.

And the government has yet to announce when the water release will begin. Photo: AP“If you ask me what I think about the water release, I’m against it. Katsumasa Okawa, who runs a seafood business in Iwaki, says those tanks containing contaminated water bother him more than the treated water release. “I think the treated water release is unavoidable.” It’s eerie, he adds, to have to live near the damaged plant for decades. Local fishing was returning to normal operation in 2021 when the government announced the water release plan.

foodpanda won “Best Companies to Work For” in 2023 HR Asia AwardsFocusing on Diversity and Inclusion, Work-life Balance, and Career Developmentfoodpanda Taiwan won “Best Companies to Work For” in the 2023 HR Asia Awards. This recognition underscores the company’s commitment to creating an ideal work environment, concentrating on diversity and inclusion, work-life balance, and career development. At foodpanda, employees are inspired to exchange innovative and creative ideas. The winners of the 2023 HR Asia Awards for Best?Companies?in Asia have been announced, and foodpanda has made it to the list for the Taiwan region. “Winning the 2023 HR Asia Awards for Best Company to Work For is a significant milestone for us.

The Liberty Times Editorial: Let Taiwanese democracy shineFormer president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), under the auspices of his Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, invited a group of 37 teachers and students from five universities in China to visit Taiwan for a summer exchange program that lasted from July 15 until Sunday. People can judge for themselves whether the itinerary arranged by Ma for the visitors has informed or misinformed them about Taiwan. In contrast, Chinese media have said nothing about Qin’s mysterious absence. The main players in the Sunflower movement were university students, just like the Chinese students who have just concluded their visit to Taiwan. The topic of Taiwan’s Sunflower movement also brings to mind the democracy movement that shook Beijing and other parts of China in 1989.

Anti-green alliance is a ragbagBy Chen Wen-ching 陳文卿Let us imagine a situation where a man is dining at a restaurant. To put it more straightforwardly, the non-green alliance is rife with conflicts and contradictions between the groups of which it consists. The so-called non-green alliance might soon end up in a series of self-contradictions. Before the alliance has a chance to confront the pan-green camp, it might well start consuming itself. If the non-green alliance is against “anti-communism” or against “anti-unification,” Taiwanese must express their opinions on these issues.

Notes from Central Taiwan: Do exchanges reduce tension with China? Politicians like former president Ma Ying-jeou believe that exchanges across the Taiwan strait are a panacea for peace. The group from China is almost certainly apart of Beijing’s “united front” operation against Taiwan. Taiwan’s universities once hosted thousands of PRC students as well. People-to-people exchanges cannot reduce tensions because tensions are caused by the desire of CCP elites to kill Taiwanese (and their own people) to annex Taiwan.

Rising crude drives local gasoline and diesel prices higherBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterGasoline and diesel prices are to increase by NT$0.3 and NT$0.4 per liter respectively today after global crude oil prices continued to rise last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said in separate statements yesterday. Saudi Arabia and Russia’s cooperation in cutting crude oil production also helped support oil prices, it added. Other factors, such as a decline in Russia’s crude oil exports, a lower-than-expected drop in US crude inventories and disappointing second-quarter GDP data from China, also boosted crude oil prices last week, Formosa said in a separate statement. Based on CPC’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil last week increased 0.08 percent from a week earlier, it said. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$28.1 at CPC stations, and NT$27.9 at Formosa pumps.

Lai, Ko ratchet up campaigningBy Chen Chien-chih and Lo Hsin-chen / Staff reportersVice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday attended a series of events for supporter groups as they ratchet up their campaigns. Lai launched a supporters’ club of religious groups in central Taiwan, with more than 500 organizations participating in the event in Taichung. Vice President William Lai, front, center, gestures during a launch of a club in support of his election campaign for president in Taichung yesterday. Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je, front, center, gives a thumb-up during a group photo with supporters in Pingtung yesterday. Photo: CNAThe DPP is a peace-loving party, Lai told the group, adding that it fought for Taiwan’s democracy and would fight for peace.

Youth is China’s economic futureBy Nancy QianIn May this year, China reported that unemployment among those aged 16 to 24 had reached a record-breaking 20.8 percent, with the high-paying, high-skilled jobs that university graduates are trained for growing scarcer. Chinese students and their parents are finding this new economic reality difficult to accept, given the tremendous sacrifices they have made for higher education. All this is done with the expectation of enjoying future security in a rapidly growing economy — except that economic growth has waned. Young women tend to suffer more than young men in the labor market. To stem the reversal of its economic fortunes, China must address the root of the problem: the lack of high-paying, high-skilled jobs.

Taiwan should regulate TikTokBy Roger Wu 吳哲文As next year’s presidential election gets closer, there are increasing concerns in Taiwan regarding the issue of election interference by China. These users regard TikTok as a source of news, information and entertainment, with other Chinese apps like Xiaohongshu becoming main amusement sources in people’s daily lives. TikTok and Douyin even pose a threat to national security and privacy due to loopholes in data security. If Beijing is capable of doing this, who can ensure that it would not use TikTok as a tool, waging a larger scale of public opinion warfare against Taiwan? Furthermore, the controversy over the draft digital intermediary service act has meant that the government has had to shelve it, missing the opportunity of regulating Chinese apps such as TikTok.

Copper stills at the Suntory Yamazaki Distillery produce whiskey in the town of Yamazaki, between Kyoto and Osaka, on March 27. Yamazaki Distillery senior general manager Takahisa Fujii speaks in an interview at the distillery in the town of Yamazaki in Japan’s Osaka Prefecture on March 27. The Yamazaki Distillery welcomes dozens of visitors from Japan and abroad each day, but those hoping to stock up on aged varieties come away disappointed. A street leading to the Suntory Yamazaki Distillery in the town of Yamazaki in Japan is pictured on March 27. Judith Ly, a German visitor to the Yamazaki Distillery, said she makes an exception for Japanese whiskey.