DIPLOMACY
Graham sends warning
If the US fails to back Ukraine enough in the war against Russia, that would send a signal to China that it could take Taiwan, US Senator Lindsey Graham said during a visit to Kyiv on Friday. Graham, a Republican, said after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that US President Joe Biden should send more weapons to Ukraine in addition to the more than US$35 billion of weaponry and military hardware already provided. “There can be no backing off of helping Ukraine because if we fail here, there goes Taiwan,” Graham told reporters. “If you’re running for president, as a Republican or Democrat, I don’t know how you can make the argument that we’re stronger against China if we pull the plug on Ukraine — that makes zero sense. What I want the Chinese to see is that invading a neighbor is not as easy as it looks.” “The best way to protect Taiwan and world order is for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to lose,” he added.
SOCIETY
Children swept out to sea
A 12-year-old boy has been found dead and a female junior-high school student remains missing after the two were swept out to sea in separate incidents along the east coast yesterday, local authorities said. Emergency services in Hualien County at about noon received a report of a child at sea. Coast guard personnel rescued the boy, surnamed Chou (周), but failed to locate a second boy, surnamed Lee (李), who was also missing. Lee, Chou and a third boy had been playing on the shore when Chou was swept into the sea by a strong wave, police said. Lee jumped in the water to rescue him, while the other boy ran home to call for help. Lee was later found unresponsive with a head injury. Meanwhile, authorities continued to search for a female student, surnamed Liu (柳), who went missing after being swept into the sea while walking along the shore in Yilan County.
DIPLOMACY
NZ lawmakers to visit
Two New Zealand lawmakers are to visit Taiwan from today through Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. They are to meet with senior officials to discuss issues of mutual concern, it said. Brooke Van Velden, deputy head of ACT New Zealand, and James McDowall, ACT spokesperson for Immigration, Defense, Tourism, Internal Affairs, Economic Development, Civil Defense, and Research, Science, and Innovation, are members of the New Zealand All-Party Parliamentary Group, which was formed in March to promote exchanges with Taiwanese lawmakers. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Taiwan-New Zealand economic cooperation agreement.
SOCIETY
Body of river tracer found
The remains of a river tracing group member swept away by a surging waterfall in Pingtung County last weekend were recovered on Saturday, rescuers said. The remains of the man surnamed Hsiao (蕭) were spotted on Friday, but search-and-rescue personnel were unable to retrieve the body until the next day due to poor weather conditions, the county’s Bureau of Fire and Emergency Services said. The incident occurred at the Flying Dragon Waterfall in Wutai Township (霧台) on May 20, when five of the 10-people group were swept away by surging waters triggered by heavy rainfall. The remaining members of the group were stranded on a cliff and rescued by a helicopter the following morning.
‘OBNOXIOUS MAN’: The KMT’s Chen Ching-hui moved into Chung Chia-pin’s path atop the podium and reached for him before he grabbed at her legs with both hands Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) yesterday said he slipped and lost his balance, and did not know who was around him, after jumping onto the speaker’s podium at the legislature in Taipei. He apologized after a collision with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽), who moved to intercept him as he mounted the podium. There was pushing and shoving when the session started in the morning as KMT lawmakers attempted to block access to the podium to shield Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) so he could preside over the session. Video footage showed Chung step on a chair and
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight
Television presenter Mickey Huang (黃子佼) yesterday was indicted for allegedly possessing sexually explicit videos involving minors. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Huang after the High Prosecutors’ Office found deficiencies in its initial probe and on April 19 returned the case for further investigation. Earlier last month, Huang had been given two years of deferred prosecution. Prosecutors said that they found in their latest investigation that Huang had been a member of the online forum “Chuangyi Sifang” (創意私房) since Feb. 12, 2014. He purchased sexually explicit videos involving minors, and had downloaded images and videos that featured the breasts and sexual organs of young