US sends troops to evacuate embassy staff as Taliban claim fall of Kandahar

The US will send troops to evacuate personnel from Afghanistan, as the Taliban Friday claimed the capture of second city Kandahar, capping an eight-day blitz that has left only the capital and pockets of other territory in government hands.The US announcement came hours before a Taliban spokesman tweeted the fall of Kandahar – the movement’s spiritual birthplace and the scene of days of fierce fighting.“Kandahar is completely conquered. The Mujahideen reached Martyrs’ Square,” a Taliban spokesman tweeted on an officially recognised account, referring to a city landmark.The claim was backed up by a resident, who told AFP government forces appeared to have withdrawn en masse to a military facility outside the southern city.The government has now effectively lost control of most of the country, following an eight-day onslaught by the Taliban that has caught the US by surprise, even as it pushes forward with a troop withdrawal due to be completed by the end of the month.As the insurgents swept across more territory, Washington and London moved to quickly pull out their embassy staff and other citizens from the capital.“We are further reducing our civilian footprint in Kabul in light of the evolving security situation,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, while noting the embassy would remain open.“This is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not the wholesale withdrawal,” he said.The Pentagon said 3,000 US troops would be deployed to Kabul within the next 24 to 48 hours, underscoring that they would not be used to launch attacks against the Taliban.UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said London would send 600 of its own troops to evacuate its nationals and “support the relocation of former Afghan staff who risked their lives serving alongside us”.Price said the US would also start sending in daily flights to evacuate Afghan interpreters and others who assisted the Americans and are fearful for their lives due to the Taliban’s sweeping offensive.‘Laid down their arms’After being under siege for weeks, government forces on Thursday pulled out of Herat – an ancient silk road city near the Iranian border – and retreated to a district army barracks.“We had to leave the city in order to prevent further destruction,” a senior security source from the city told AFP.A Taliban spokesman, however, tweeted that “soldiers laid down their arms and joined the Mujahideen”.Herat resident Masoom Jan told AFP the city’s fall had been abrupt, saying the Taliban “entered the city in rush. They raised their flags in every corner.”On Thursday, the interior ministry also confirmed the fall of Ghazni, about 150km from Kabul and along the major highway to Kandahar and the Taliban heartlands in the south.“The enemy took control,” spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai said in a message to media, adding later the city’s governor had been arrested by Afghan security forces.Pro-Taliban Twitter feeds showed a video of him being escorted out of Ghazni by Taliban fighters and sent on his way in a convoy, prompting speculation in the capital that the government was angered with how easily the provincial administration capitulated.A security source told AFP that Qala-i-Naw, capital of Badghis province in the northwest, also capitulated on Thursday.Piling pressureAs the rout unravelled, three days of meetings between key international players on Afghanistan wrapped in Qatar without significant progress Thursday.In a joint statement, the international community, including the US, Pakistan, the European Union and China, said they would not recognise any government in Afghanistan “imposed through the use of military force”.Price called for a negotiated solution and reiterated US President Joe Biden’s frustration at the deteriorating situation, saying Afghan government forces outnumbered the Taliban by more than three to one after billions of dollars of US support over two decades.Facing pressure at home, Biden was blasted by the top Republican in Congress on Thursday for his “reckless policy”.“Afghanistan is careening toward a massive, predictable, and preventable disaster,” senator Mitch McConnell said in a statement.The conflict has escalated dramatically since May, when US-led forces began the final stage of a troop withdrawal due to end later this month following a 20-year occupation.Pro-Taliban social media accounts also boasted of the vast spoils of war their fighters had recovered in recent days, posting photos of armoured vehicles, heavy weapons and even a drone seized by the insurgents at abandoned military bases.In the past week, the insurgents have taken over a dozen provincial capitals and encircled the biggest city in the north, the traditional anti-Taliban bastion of Mazar-i-Sharif, which is now one of the few holdouts remaining.Fighting was also raging in Lashkar Gah – another pro-Taliban heartland in the south.Late Thursday, a security source told AFP government forces there were also considering evacuating to nearby Camp Bastion, one of the largest US bases in the country.Hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the fighting that has enveloped the country.In recent days, Kabul has been swamped by the displaced, who have begun camping out in parks and other public spaces, sparking a fresh humanitarian crisis in the already overtaxed capital.


Kyiv claims battlefield gains as Russian gas shutdown hits Europe markets

Ukraine made its boldest claim yet of success on the battlefield in its week-old counter-offensive against Russian forces in the south, while European markets reopened on Monday in free-fall after Russia kept its main gas pipeline to Germany shut.
After days of declining to give details about their new offensive, Ukrainian officials posted an image online of three soldiers raising a flag over a town in Kherson province, a southern region occupied by Russia since the war's early days.
The image of the flag being fixed to a pole on a rooftop, purportedly in Vysokopyllya in the north of Kherson, was released as President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukrainian forces had captured two towns in the south and one in the east. In an overnight address, he did not identify the locations.
After months of enduring punishing Russian artillery assaults in the east, Ukraine has at last begun its long-awaited counter-attack, its biggest since it drove Russian forces away from the outskirts of Kyiv in March.
Ukraine had kept most details of its new campaign under wraps, banning journalists from the frontline and offering little public commentary in order to preserve tactical surprise. Russia has said it has repelled assaults in Kherson.
In a rare acknowledgment from the Russian side that the Ukrainian counter-offensive was spoiling Moscow's plans for territory it has seized, TASS news agency quoted a Moscow-installed official in Kherson as saying plans for a referendum to annex the region to Russia had been put on hold due to the security situation.
Mark Hertling, a retired former commander of US ground forces in Europe, said Kyiv's aim appeared to be to trap thousands of Russian troops on the east bank of the vast Dnipro River, destroying bridges the Russians now use for supplies and would need to escape.
Russia had left "a force in Kherson, with a river at their back & limited supply lines", and Ukraine was hitting them with "precision weapons, confusing a RU force that already has very low morale and poor leadership," Hertling tweeted.
Reversing gains
Zelensky's announcement that a town had been captured in the east was also notable, a suggestion Ukraine was taking advantage of pressure in the south to try to reverse some of the gains Russia made elsewhere in recent months.
In his evening address on Sunday, Zelensky tempered his announcements of success with a warning to European countries that they could face a cold winter.
Moscow blames Western sanctions it says have interfered with repairs of equipment for forcing it to halt the flow of gas through Nord Stream 1, its main pipeline to Germany. Russia was due to reopen the pipeline on Saturday but has said it will stay shut indefinitely.
"Problems with gas supply arose because of the sanctions imposed on our country by Western states, including Germany and Britain," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
European countries call the gas cut-off blackmail. They say they are finding alternative sources of gas and are already ahead of targets in filling up storage tanks for winter.
Countries led by Germany have rolled out multi-billion euro packages of support for consumers and businesses, which last week helped drive European gas prices back down sharply from record highs.
Bleak winter
But the weekend news about Nord Stream's extended shutdown sent prices soaring once again on Monday, with the main European benchmark up by as much as 35%, bringing fears of a bleak winter for consumers and businesses across the continent.
Germany's DAX share index was down well over 2%, the Euro sank below 99 US cents for the first time in decades, and the pound was not far off mid-1980s lows against the dollar as Liz Truss was announced as Britain's next prime minister.
Speaking shortly beforehand, Kremlin spokesman Peskov was scathing about Truss, saying it was hard to imagine relations getting any worse, but that a worsening could not be ruled out, given what he called anti-Russian rhetoric from Britain.
"I don’t think that we can hope for anything positive," he said.
Peskov also said Moscow planned to retaliate for the latest Western move: a proposed cap on the price of Russian oil exports from December designed to reduce Moscow's main source of income.
In Russia, which has effectively banned independent media since President Vladimir Putin launched his "special military operation" in February, a judge revoked the license of liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta, one of the last unofficial voices.
The ruling was "a political hit job, without the slightest legal basis", said its editor, Dmitry Muratov, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize for the paper's fight for free speech.
Novaya Gazeta was founded 30 years ago with Nobel Peace Prize money won by the previous Russian laureate - former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who was buried at the weekend. Putin did not attend his funeral, a final symbolic snub of the man who presided over the breakup of the Soviet Union, when Ukraine was the most populous of 14 states to gain independence from Moscow.
With fighting shifting to southern Ukraine, international attention has focused in recent weeks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, captured by Russia but still operated by Ukrainian engineers and hooked to Ukraine's power grid.
Both sides accuse each other of risking nuclear catastrophe by shelling near the plant. Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom said the final working reactor block of the Zaporizhzhia plant disconnected from Ukraine's grid on Monday after Russian shelling disrupted power lines. There was no immediate comment from the Russian side.


Israeli prime minister lands in Bahrain in first visit

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett arrived in Bahrain’s capital Manama on Monday in the highest-level visit since the countries established relations under a 2020 US-sponsored deal based in part on shared worries about Iran.Bennett will meet with Bahraini Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, his office said.“The leaders will discuss additional ways to strengthen bilateral ties… especially the advancement of diplomatic and economic issues, with an emphasis on technology and innovation,” it said in a statement.The two-day trip to Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Gulf headquarters, comes amid heightened tensions after missile attacks on the neighbouring United Arab Emirates by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis. Israel also normalised ties with the UAE in 2020.Speaking to reporters before take-off, Bennett said he hoped the visit would be a “message of goodwill… and a shared stance against common threats”.Israel has stepped up cooperation with the Gulf states. Manama hosted Israel’s defence minister on Feb 2 and has said an Israeli military officer will be posted in Bahrain as part of an international coalition.The outreach by Bahrain’s Sunni Muslim monarch has been criticised by an opposition led by the Shiite majority. The country has seen protests in solidarity with the Palestinians.There were brief protests in several Shiite villages ahead of Bennett’s visit, activists told Reuters. Footage and photos posted on Bahrain’s dissolved opposition group al-Wefaq’s social media accounts showed dozens of protesters marching, chanting slogans and holding up Bahraini flags.Israel has offered to cooperate with its new Gulf partners on air defence, but has not specified whether this might include selling the short-range rocket interceptor Iron Dome.Such sales in the past have been subjected to questions of whether the systems would be secure and not be shared with Israel’s enemies. There has also been concern it would pose a commercial challenge to US defence exports.But a US official saw no problem in Washington were Israel to go ahead with Iron Dome sales in the Gulf.“There’s a lot of interest in Iron Dome” in the region, said the official, who could not be identified by name.


Body of young girl found at landslide site, raising toll to 25

The search and rescue team found another body at the site of a tragic landslide at Father’s Organic Farm, Gohtong Jaya near Batang Kali, at 11.15pm last night before the fifth day of search operations was called off at midnight.
The body was that of a girl, estimated to be between five and seven, raising the total number of bodies found to 25.
When the landslide struck the campsite at 2.42am last Friday, there were 94 people, including children, at the farm. Twenty-five died, 61 escaped and eight are still missing.
Meanwhile, Selangor police chief Arjunaidi Mohamed said police had recorded the statements of 53 individuals to assist in investigations into the tragedy, including the operator of the campsite, two workers, victims who escaped the tragedy and their families.
According to data gathered by the disaster operation centre, 29 of the 94 who were at the campsite on the day of the tragedy were children.


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Over 2.5 million teenagers fully jabbed

A total of 2,589,925 individuals or 82.3% of teenagers had completed their Covid-19 vaccination as of yesterday.Based on data from the CovidNow website, 2,755,745 individuals or 87.6% of adolescents have received at least one dose of vaccine.As for the adult population, 95.6% or 22,390,580 individuals have completed their vaccination while another 97.8% or 22,914,289 have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.A total of 36,028 vaccine doses were administered yesterday with 2,244 as first doses, 4,325 as second and 29,459 as booster jabs, bringing the cumulative number of vaccine doses administered under the National Covid-19 Immunisation programme to 51,938,646.


North Korea reports 15 more deaths from ‘fever’ amid Covid outbreak

North Korea on Sunday reported 15 additional deaths from “fever” after the country recently announced its first-ever cases of Covid-19 and ordered nationwide lockdowns.State media KCNA said a total of 42 people had died, with 820,620 cases and at least 324,550 under medical treatment.Leader Kim Jong Un has said the outbreak has caused “great upheaval” in North Korea.KCNA reported that “all provinces, cities and counties of the country have been totally locked down and working units, production units and residential units closed from each other.”Despite activating its “maximum emergency quarantine system” to slow the spread of disease through its unvaccinated population, North Korea is now reporting large numbers of new cases daily.North Korea confirmed Thursday that the highly contagious Omicron variant had been detected in the capital Pyongyang, with Kim ordering nationwide lockdowns.It was the government’s first official admission of Covid cases and marked the failure of a two-year coronavirus blockade maintained since the start of the pandemic.“The spread of malignant disease comes to be a great upheaval in our country since the founding of the DPRK,” Kim said Saturday, referring to North Korea by its official name.North Korea has a crumbling health system – one of the worst in the world – and no Covid vaccines, antiviral treatment drugs or mass testing capacity.It has previously turned down offers of Covid vaccines from China and the World Health Organization’s Covax scheme, but both Beijing and Seoul have issued fresh offers of aid and vaccines.The KCNA report did not specify whether the new cases and deaths had tested positive for Covid-19, but experts say the country will be struggling to test and diagnose on this scale.The US and South Korea have warned that Kim is preparing to conduct another nuclear test – which would be the regime’s seventh – and that it could come any day.Analysts have warned Kim could speed up his nuclear test plans in a bid to distract North Korea’s population from a disastrous Covid-19 outbreak.


How did RM2.5 million pop up, Rafizi questioned again as Invoke asset saga continues

PKR's Rafizi Ramli is now being quizzed on the origin of some RM2.5 million which he said was injected into Invoke Solutions, the non-profit, party-linked company under which he declared some RM17 million worth of shares as his own.
Bersatu's Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said the PKR leader's statement that he had invested RM2.5 million from his own savings into Invoke in 2016 was puzzling as there had been no such cash in his keep when he declared his wealth a year earlier.
Rafizi earlier said that apart from what he had earned, he was also paid some RM400,000 as compensation by Petronas, and had earned lucratively in sterling pounds when he worked in the UK.
Checks of his 2015 asset declaration showed that none of these were included.
That asset declaration showed he had about RM1.3 million in the form of deposits in various accounts, including some RM644,000 in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), RM460,000 in Tabung Haji and RM212,000 in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB).
His latest asset declaration, meanwhile, showed his cash deposits at RM1.18 million, including an increase in his EPF to RM1.1 million, and a decrease in Tabung Haji to RM12,000, while the amount for ASB was no longer listed.
Latiff asked where Rafizi had gotten RM2.5 million as the money was not there in 2015.
"What is the source of this money, and why was it not declared in the statutory declaration dated March 10, 2015?
"Rafizi often brags that he is a certified accountant. Let me tell him here, 'Rafizi, the numbers don't add up'," Latiff said in a statement.
This comes just days after Rafizi angrily dismissed questions surrounding his asset declaration, which saw his wealth mutiplying several times in just seven years.
On Nov 9, annoyed at questions thrown at him during a press conference, Rafizi lashed out his critics and accused them of not understanding finance and the workings of a company.
He also mocked a journalist from MalaysiaNow for seeking clarification on his wealth, and claimed that those in the room would not understand his explanation.
"I don't think most of you guys understand any of it, either," he said in remarks that later drew criticism on social media, with many saying he had been "arrogant".
Rafizi, the PKR deputy president who is vying for the Pandan seat at the Nov 19 polls, came under scrutiny following his declaration of assets in which he listed RM16.7 million in shares from Invoke as part of a total of RM19.67 million in assets owned.
Latiff had taken Rafizi to task for listing the RM16.7 million worth of shares as his own, and reminded him that none of the staff at Invoke had been allocated shares despite a promise he made five years ago. Rafizi later acknowledged that his staff were not allocated the shares, and promised they would be rewarded once the company was listed.
Latiff today said that Rafizi's answers only led to more serious questions.
He called for the PKR leader to be investigated under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 as well as the Statutory Declaration Act 1960.
"I call on the authorities to take this matter seriously as Invoke had sought and received a lot of support from the public, including in funds," he added.


New infections at 571 as death toll up by 4

Another 571 Covid-19 cases were recorded yesterday, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 5,029,908.
There were 551 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 4,981,603.
There are now 11,431 active cases, of which 10,812 or 94.6% are undergoing home quarantine.
Meanwhile, 0 (0%) are at quarantine centres while 585 (5.1%) have been hospitalised.
A total of 34 are in ICU with 15 in need of respiratory assistance.
Four more deaths were reported, taking total deaths to 36,874.


Satellite imagery shows Antarctic ice shelf crumbling faster than thought

Antarctica's coastal glaciers are shedding icebergs more rapidly than nature can replenish the crumbling ice, doubling previous estimates of losses from the world's largest ice sheet over the past 25 years, a satellite analysis showed on Wednesday.
The first-of-its-kind study, led by researchers at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles and published in the journal Nature, raises new concern about how fast climate change is weakening Antarctica's floating ice shelves and accelerating the rise of global sea levels.
The study's key finding was that the net loss of Antarctic ice from coastal glacier chunks "calving" off into the ocean is nearly as great as the net amount of ice that scientists already knew was being lost due to thinning caused by the melting of ice shelves from below by warming seas.
Taken together, thinning and calving have reduced the mass of Antarctica's ice shelves by 12 trillion tons since 1997, double the previous estimate, the analysis concluded.
The net loss of the continent's ice sheet from calving alone in the past quarter-century spans nearly 37,000 sq km (14,300 sq miles), an area almost the size of Switzerland, according to JPL scientist Chad Greene, the study's lead author.
"Antarctica is crumbling at its edges," Greene said in a Nasa announcement of the findings. "And when ice shelves dwindle and weaken, the continent's massive glaciers tend to speed up and increase the rate of global sea level rise."
The consequences could be enormous. Antarctica holds 88% of the sea level potential of all the world's ice, he said.
Ice shelves, permanent floating sheets of frozen freshwater attached to land, take thousands of years to form and act like buttresses holding back glaciers that would otherwise easily slide off into the ocean, causing seas to rise.
When ice shelves are stable, the long-term natural cycle of calving and re-growth keeps their size fairly constant.
In recent decades, though, warming oceans have weakened the shelves from underneath, a phenomenon previously documented by satellite altimeters measuring the changing height of the ice and showing losses averaging 149 million tons a year from 2002 to 2020, according to Nasa.
Imagery from space
For their analysis, Greene's team synthesized satellite imagery from visible, thermal-infrared and radar wavelengths to chart glacial flow and calving since 1997 more accurately than ever over 30,000 miles (50,000km) of Antarctic coastline.
The losses measured from calving outpaced natural ice shelf replenishment so greatly that researchers found it unlikely Antarctica can return to pre-2000 glacier levels by the end of this century.
The accelerated glacial calving, like ice thinning, was most pronounced in West Antarctica, an area hit harder by warming ocean currents. But even in East Antarctica, a region whose ice shelves were long considered less vulnerable, "we're seeing more losses than gains," Greene said.
One East Antarctic calving event that took the world by surprise was the collapse and disintegration of the massive Conger-Glenzer ice shelf in March, possibly a sign of greater weakening to come, Greene said.
Eric Wolff, a Royal Society research professor at the University of Cambridge, pointed to the study's analysis of how the East Antarctic ice sheet behaved during warm periods of the past and models for what may happen in the future.
"The good news is that if we keep to the 2 degrees of global warming that the Paris agreement promises, the sea level rise due to the East Antarctic ice sheet should be modest," Wolff wrote in a commentary on the JPL study.
Failure to curb greenhouse gas emissions, however, would risk contributing "many meters of sea level rise over the next few centuries," he said.


WTO postpones decision on Covid-linked patent waiver

World Trade Organization (WTO) members agreed Friday to push back Saturday's deadline on whether to expand an agreed patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccines to tests and treatments, drawing fierce criticism from NGOs.
During WTO's ministerial meeting in June, all 164 members finally agreed after two years of bruising negotiations to temporarily lift patents on Covid-19 vaccines.
The idea was to boost global production and help address the glaring inequity in access to the jabs.
The agreement granted developing countries the right to produce Covid vaccines for five years "without the consent of the right holder".
But it fell short of initial demands for the waiver to apply to all countries and to cover Covid tests and treatments.
Under the terms of that deal, WTO members had six months to decide whether to extend the measures to also "cover the production and supply of Covid-19 diagnostics and therapeutics".
Since then however, it has been stalemate.
Members have spent months wrangling and hours this week alone debating a factual statement on the need for extending the looming deadline, according a Geneva-based trade official.
In the end, the WTO's Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) managed to agree to recommend to the WTO general council meeting next week to "extend the deadline". That agreement came just a day before time ran out Saturday.
A previous, longer version of the text had suggested a six-month extension, but the final version made no reference to a timeline.
Public interest groups, already harshly critical of the original deal for not going far enough, were outraged by the decision.
"We are nearly three years into the Covid-19 pandemic," Max Lawson, co-chair of the People's Vaccine Alliance, said a statement.
"As many as seventeen million people are estimated to have died in the time that the WTO has bickered over intellectual property rules for tests and treatments.
"To say that more time is needed to consider the issue is utter nonsense," he added.
"WTO members have decided to let another year pass without making any meaningful contribution to the fight against Covid-19."


‘Like sardines in a can’: Ex-inmates detail ‘dehumanising’ experiences in Singapore jails

A report by a rights group appears to have shed some light on the circumstances in prisons throughout the city-state, which has been under international scrutiny lately over its use of the death penalty for drug mules, most recently Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam who was executed despite an outcry over his limited mental capabilities.The Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), in its report titled “‘You Don’t See the Sky’: Life Behind Bars in Singapore”, interviewed 36 former inmates: 27 males, eight females and one transgender female.The majority of its respondents were of Malay or Indian ethnic origin. More than half had been to a drug rehabilitation centre in the island republic, with a “significant number” having served prison sentences for drug-related offences.Respondents were questioned about the prison conditions, how they were treated within the prison system, and how they felt about both.The report described Singapore’s prison system as “extremely regimented”, with inadequate and dehumanising cell conditions.One of the prisoners said they had been kept “like sardines in a can” with up to four inmates placed in cells measuring approximately 2.5m X 2.5m, including the space needed for a toilet.“They (prisoners) sleep on hard cement floors and are only issued straw mats to lie on. There was barely enough space between one person and the next when everyone lay down to sleep,” the report said.This was far below the guidelines by the British organisation National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, as well as the Mandela Rules which specify the standards in cell size, occupancy, bedding, lighting and ventilation.The TJC report also claimed that Singapore prisons practise what it described as “extrajudicial punishment” like caning, solitary confinement, and denial of yard time.“Prisoners were not allowed to exercise in the cells, and activities such as counselling, family visits, work programmes and recreation are not guaranteed rights,” it added.According to the report, facilities such as ventilation and fans are not provided. Respondents in the interview also told TJC that the lack of room, absence of mental stimulation and interrupted sleep made them feel like they were “going crazy”.A former convict also spoke of a deterioration in mental health which he blamed on the cell conditions.“Sometimes what you need is a private space to cry, to let out your emotions. It’s impossible inside there,” he said.Another respondent said frustration and restlessness over the confined space led to prison fights among inmates.The report also cited instances in which inmates’ privileged correspondence including their communication with their lawyers was forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.TJC said Singapore’s incarceration system had failed to meet its objectives of rehabilitation and care, and criticised its campaign to give more opportunities to former convicts.“The state narrative surrounding incarcerated persons, including the Yellow Ribbon Project – which only showcases success stories of rehabilitated individuals – excludes the experiences of those who have been traumatised and abused by a system which shows scant respect for their dignity and rights,” it said.


DAP man claims 'ethnic discrimination' at national schools

A month after calling for an end to the Malay monopoly in the civil service, a DAP man has now trained his guns on government-run national schools, saying they practise discrimination against non-Malays.
"Apart from the quality of education, the phenomenon of ethnic discrimination of non-Malays is pretty apparent at national schools," said Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy.
Ramasamy claimed that "difficulties" had been placed in the teaching of Tamil and Mandarin under the Pupils' Own Language programme at national schools, resulting in non-Malay children losing interest in mother-tongue education classes.
He also proposed that the authorities make it compulsory for non-Malay students to attend the language classes.
"Such a measure could have addressed the current bifurcation of the two-system of education to some extent," he said.
Last month, Ramasamy urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to reform the civil service, saying the sector is currently dominated by the Malays due to what he said were policies implemented by former leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He also claimed that a "covert racial discrimination" was hindering the prospect of promotions for non-Malays in the public sector.


Biden sees ‘chaos’ as US presses Taliban to let Afghans leave

US President Joe Biden said Wednesday it had been impossible to leave Afghanistan without chaos, as the US pleaded with the victorious Taliban to allow safe passage for people to flee.Amid desperate scenes at the Kabul airport where US forces are racing against the clock to evacuate tens of thousands of people, Biden stood by his decision to end the 20-year US war in Afghanistan.“The idea that somehow there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” Biden said in an ABC News television interview.The Biden administration had long promised an “orderly drawdown” of America’s longest war, where the president says US forces no longer have any national interest in fighting in a protracted conflict.Biden, in the ABC interview, said that he hoped the thousands of US troops sent back to Afghanistan for the evacuations would be out by Aug 31, the deadline he set to end the war.But for the first time he said they could stay longer, adding: “If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay to get them all out.”The president, who has acknowledged that he was stunned by the swift collapse of the US-backed Afghan government, ordered the takeover of the Kabul airport to run evacuations.He said the Taliban were cooperating on letting Americans get out but added: “We’re having some more difficulty having those who helped us when we were in there.”Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman voiced alarm at accounts of harassment and checkpoints for Afghan nationals, despite the Taliban’s promises not to carry out reprisals.“We have seen reports that the Taliban, contrary to their public statements and their commitments to our government, are blocking Afghans who wish to leave the country from reaching the airport,” Sherman told reporters.US diplomats and military officials “are engaging directly with the Taliban to make clear that we expect them to allow all American citizens, all third-country nationals and all Afghans who wish to leave to do so safely and without harassment”, she said.Aircraft have been packed cheek to jowl with Afghans fearing for their lives, with deaths reported after people crawled onto jets and fell upon takeoff.Sherman said that the future US relationship with the Taliban was at stake and also vowed to watch carefully their promises to ensure the rights of women and girls – who were barred from education and outside employment during the Islamists’ draconian 1996-2001 regime.“The Taliban are hoping to create a government in Afghanistan. They seek legitimacy. We are all watching their actions,” she said.“We’ll use every economic, diplomatic and political tool we have to hold the Taliban to their words.”Limits outside airportDefense Secretary Lloyd Austin promised the US would evacuate as many people as possible but acknowledged the limitations with the Taliban in charge except at the airport.“We don’t have the capability to go out and collect large numbers of people,” Austin told reporters.The evacuation will go on “until the clock runs out or we run out of capacity”.More than 4,800 people including US citizens and Afghans have been evacuated since troops secured Hamid Karzai International Airport, where the US embassy has been temporarily relocated.But tens of thousands more Afghans are expected to seek to leave for fear of Taliban retribution including interpreters for the US military, workers for US NGOs and media outlets and women’s rights activists.Third-party nationals have faced severe problems, with the Netherlands saying its first evacuation flight returned without a single Dutch or Afghan national as US troops blocked them from entering the airport.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday renewed an offer for his country to help protect the airport, an offer he first pitched directly to Biden in June.


Indonesia parliament ratifies criminal code that bans sex outside marriage

Indonesia's parliament on Tuesday approved a criminal code that bans sex outside marriage with a punishment of up to one year in jail, part of a raft of legal changes that critics say undermine civil liberties in the world's third-largest democracy.
The controversial new laws, which apply to Indonesians and foreigners alike, also include a ban on insulting the president or state institutions and expressing views counter to state ideology.
Legislators hailed the passage of the criminal code that the Southeast Asian nation has been discussing revising since declaring independence from the Dutch.
"The old code belongs to Dutch heritage... and is no longer relevant now," Bambang Wuryanto, head of the parliamentary commission in charge of revising the code told lawmakers.
The approval comes even as business groups warned it could harm Indonesia's image as a tourism and investment destination.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, has seen a rise in religious conservatism in recent years with legal experts suggesting the new laws around morality, and a separate article on customary law will reinforce discriminatory and sharia-inspired bylaws at the local level.
Opponents of the bill have highlighted articles they say are socially regressive, will curb free speech and represent a "huge setback" in ensuring the retention of democratic freedoms after the fall of authoritarian leader Suharto in 1998.


Daily caseload tops 3,100

Another 3,175 Covid-19 cases were recorded today, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 2,792,035.Another 2,977 patients recovered, bringing total recoveries to 2,720,399.Meanwhile 229 are in the ICU, including 200 confirmed Covid-19 patients.A total of 99 are in need of respiratory assistance including 68 confirmed Covid-19 cases.Of the 3,175 cases reported today, 60 (1.9%) are in Category Three and above. The remaining 3,115 (98.1%) are in Category One and Two.


Healthcare lessons from the Covid-19 crisis

Health experts are urging authorities to rethink their approach to tackling outbreaks such as Covid-19 which, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, is continuing to surge across much of the world despite the massive push for vaccinations.Speaking to MalaysiaNow on the takeaways from the pandemic so far, they said the Covid-19 crisis had exposed the limitations and weaknesses of healthcare policies.Dr Salvatore Chirumbolo, a clinical biochemist from the University of Verona in Italy, the first European country to be hit by the pandemic last year, said one fundamental lesson was to focus on treating positive cases with symptoms over the tracing of contacts alone.“Contacts comprise a huge number of people who will not develop an illness compelling them to be hospitalised,” he told MalaysiaNow.“The awkward consideration that such people ‘might’ be hospitalised forces politics to arrange lockdowns and restriction measures.”Adding that this strategy was “completely failing”, he said the alternative was to catch those with early symptoms of Covid-19 and to treat them at as early a stage as possible.“This would reduce the overload on public healthcare and hospitals,” he added.In December last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that worse pandemics could lie ahead, urging the world to “get serious” about preparing for such events.“This pandemic has been very severe,” WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan said. “It has spread around the world extremely quickly and it has affected every corner of this planet, but this is not necessarily the big one.“We need to get ready for something that may even be more severe in the future.”Malaysia recorded a daily high of over 20,800 Covid-19 cases last week and a record 360 deaths on Sunday.More than 1,000 patients are currently in the ICU with hundreds in need of breathing assistance.Putrajaya said on Aug 5 that it would begin using the number of new cases with serious symptoms as an indicator for states’ transition into the later phases of its National Recovery Plan, replacing the indicator of new cases alone.Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz who has been tasked with coordinating the recovery plan said the number of new cases had become less relevant given the country’s vaccination rate as most cases were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic which reduced the burden on the public healthcare system.Salvatore said in the post-Covid era, authorities would need to enlarge and enhance what he called peripheral caregivers.They will also need to rapidly assess patients’ conditions and reach anyone in need of prompt treatment, he said, adding that private healthcare providers should work with the public sector to provide a network of caregiving utilities.“Expand the caregiving expertise to single, authorised and endowed physicians in any area of the country to hamper the progression of infections from the first week of symptoms,” he said.“Prevention of hospitalisation and intensive care is the priority, aside from vaccination.”In many countries, the pandemic has also exposed the realities of healthcare systems that are underfunded and understaffed by underpaid, overworked health practitioners.Salvatore said authorities should focus on increasing the network of physicians, practitioners and caregivers to treat people at the onset of illnesses, especially infectious viruses such as Covid-19.“They can access and operate on people immediately when symptoms arise, either face to face or, more simply and feasibly by remote or telehealth.”M Mohan, the director of local health service provider Click2Health, said aside from a revamp of primary care, authorities should work towards the creation of a streamlined medical record.“The records are scattered everywhere,” he said. “If doctors want to know a patient’s medical history, how would they manage the patient and prescribe medication without medical records?”He suggested a platform similar to Putrajaya’s MySejahtera app which would give doctors easier access to patients’ medical records, adding that some developed countries have begun to explore this idea despite concerns over privacy.On a more widespread approach, he said people should be educated about the importance of staying in good health, given the number of Covid-19 deaths with comorbidities.“People need to take charge of their health,” he said.“Now everyone blames the government, even though they are not taking care of themselves or eating properly.“We don’t have that mindset of individual responsibility for our own health.”This, in the end, would be the long-term solution to easing the strain on the healthcare system, he said.


Academic warns against calls for king to depart from constitution in hunt for new PM

A political scientist has hit back at those who lay out the criteria for the Agong to choose the next prime minister, in the wake of calls from opposition leaders and sympathisers questioning the imminent appointment of Ismail Sabri Yaakob to the top post.Wong Chin Huat, from Sunway University’s Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia, said the Federal Constitution makes it clear that the Agong’s choice should be based on the confidence of the majority of MPs.“Don’t use the lame excuse as this is an extraordinary circumstance that requires extraordinary measures,” Wong said in a statement.“When you can break the rules this time this circumstance is extraordinary enough, next time others can also break the rules for another circumstance that they think is extraordinary too.”Wong Chin Huat.His comments come as opposition supporters take to social media and online petition websites to call for a “unity government” that will include Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders.Former Bersih chairman Ambiga Sreenevasan is leading one such campaign, questioning the validity of Perikatan Nasional MPs’ support for Ismail after the coalition insisted that its support was subject to the exclusion of corrupt politicians from any new administration.On Tuesday, MalaysiaNow quoted a PKR source as saying that the opposition’s prime ministerial nominee Anwar Ibrahim was pushing for a “unity government” after it became clear that his coalition could not muster enough support from MPs.‘Don’t follow rules only if it suits you’Wong said the constitution merely requires the Agong to appoint an MP who is likely to command the most support from fellow MPs.“It does not require or allow the king to choose the best leader.“To ask the king to choose the best leader in one’s eyes even if he doesn’t command a majority is undermining both parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy,” he added.He said the current hunt for a new prime minister, following the resignation of Muhyiddin Yassin this week, put to test Malaysia’s system of parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy.He said any argument suggesting that the king depart from following this provision would be against the principles of constitutional monarchy limiting the powers of the Agong.“We need to uphold the due process even if the outcome is not to our liking.“Integrity is not abiding by rules only when it suits us,” said Wong.


Anwar plays down talks with Umno, assures no more jumping from PKR

PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim today played down his recent admission that his party had been in talks with Umno to forge an alliance, saying discussions are still at an early stage.“We are in the midst of initial discussions,” he said, adding that it was his right to enter into discussions with anyone.“I had negotiated with Dr Mahathir before,” he told reporters at a press conference, on the back of intense speculation that PKR and Umno are in talks to forge cooperation at the next polls.“I do not deny such a possibility (for cooperation). But please don’t speculate that there is an understanding reached,” he said.He said any cooperation will be based on “common perimeters”, such as on the status of Islam, Malay rulers and the national language.“We are not going to compromise on the principles and values that we have adopted,” he said.“If they are agreeable, they are welcome.”But he said PKR remains committed to its “comrades” in Pakatan Harapan.‘No more jumping’He also rejected speculation that more MPs would be quitting his party following the recent move by three MPs to declare themselves as independents friendly to the ruling bloc.“Now they have three. Even if they get six, it is not enough to achieve a majority,” he said, referring to the PKR MPs from Kuala Langat, Tebrau and Julau who recently quit the party.Anwar said he had just attended a virtual meeting with PKR’s 35 MPs, adding that all of them had given their commitment to remain in the party.He also insisted that the Perikatan Nasional bloc has lost the majority to rule.The opposition leader also repeated claims that government agencies such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) were being used as a weapon to blackmail politicians into crossing over.“If they jump, the probe will be closed. If not, you will continue to be tortured,” he said at the press conference in Petaling Jaya.He said he had also requested a meeting with MACC chief Azam Baki on the matter.


Syed Saddiq says taken to court because he did not support Muhyiddin

Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman told the High Court today that he was taken to court because he did not support Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister at the time.
The former Bersatu Youth chief said the request for him to support Muhyiddin to avoid being charged in court was "wrong".
He said this during re-examination by his lawyer Gobind Singh Deo on the second day of the proceedings to defend himself against four charges of abetting criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of property and money laundering.
Gobind: What do you mean when saying it's something ‘wrong’?
Syed Saddiq: It’s the request to support Muhyiddin Yassin (as prime minister). Even though I have nothing personal against him (Muhyiddin), but if that (act of supporting Muhyiddin) will stop the prosecution, it is wrong. This was informed (to me) by the investigating officer who investigated me and raided my house. He was with me every day when I was being questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). The investigating officer said, MACC is a ‘political tool’ whenever the government changes and I am a victim of political persecution. That is not right and I hope this is corrected.
Gobind: If you did not support Muhyiddin (at the time), you would be prosecuted, that is what you are saying? As far as you are concerned that is wrong?
Syed Saddiq: Yes, that is wrong.
At yesterday's proceedings, lawyer Haijan Omar referred Syed Saddiq to a transcript of an audio recording allegedly containing a conversation between the latter and a senior MACC official known as Ihsan.
In the transcript, Ihsan was said to be trying to persuade Syed Saddiq to support Muhyiddin, in addition to informing him that MACC became a "tool" whenever there was a change of government.
When questioned by Gobind, the former youth and sports minister said his testimony in court was true and not an afterthought.
Meanwhile, Syed Saddiq agreed with deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin that former Bersatu Youth assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali had transferred RM120,000 from a Maybank account in the name of Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise (ABBE) to his (Syed Saddiq’s) Maybank account.
Asked by Wan Shaharuddin whether it was Rafiq Hakim who transferred the money because he was the account owner of ABBE, Syed Saddiq replied, "Correct."
The Muda president also agreed that he had not shown any expense receipts for his 14th general election (GE14) campaign in the Muar parliamentary constituency to Rafiq Hakim and had not informed the latter that the RM120,000 was a reimbursement for campaign expenses.
When asked by Gobind why he did not show the receipts or inform Rafiq Hakim about the expenses for the GE14 campaign, Syed Saddig said Rafiq Hakim was not involved in his campaign and had only lent his account to deposit the RM120,000. Syed Saddiq, 30, was charged as the then Bersatu Youth chief of abetting Rafiq Hakim, who was entrusted with RM1 million in funds belonging to the wing, in committing criminal breach of trust by misappropriating the funds at CIMB Bank, Menara CIMB KL Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 2 on March 6, 2020.
He was also charged with misappropriating RM120,000 from the Maybank Islamic account belonging to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise by causing Rafiq Hakim to dispose of the money at Malayan Banking, Jalan Pandan 3/6A, Taman Pandan Jaya between April 8 and 21, 2018.
He also faces two counts of engaging in money laundering activities, namely two transactions of RM50,000 each believed to be proceeds from unlawful activities, from his Maybank Islamic account to his Amanah Saham Bumiputera account at a bank in Jalan Persisiran Perling, Taman Perling, Johor Bahru, on June 16 and 19, 2018.
The trial before judge Azhar Abdul Hamid continues tomorrow.


Taiwan opens Guyana office in push against China’s regional influence

Taiwan has opened a representative office in Guyana, the Taipei foreign ministry said on Thursday, drawing praise from Washington which has been worried about growing Chinese influence in Latin America, Reuters is reporting.The former British colony is strategically located next to strife-torn Venezuela, a major Chinese ally with which Guyana has an ongoing bitter territorial dispute.Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had signed an agreement with Guyana’s government on Jan 11 to open a Taiwan office, in effect a de facto embassy for the island that China claims as its sovereign territory with no right to its own diplomatic ties.The Taipei ministry said the office had begun initial operations on Jan 15, noting that Guyana was a country with rich mining and oil resources and its capital Georgetown was the seat of the secretariat for the Caribbean Community, or Caricom.Foreign Minister Hugh Todd said what is being set up is a trade and investment office in Georgetown to “create space” for the private sector in Taiwan and Guyana to do business.He stressed that: “Guyana is not recognising Taiwan as an independent state. Guyana is not establishing diplomatic relations with Taipei.”The US embassy in Guyana said it applauded the agreement. “Closer ties with Taiwan will advance cooperation and development in Guyana on the basis of shared democratic values, transparency, and mutual respect,” it said in a statement.Taiwan only has formal diplomatic relations with 14 countries worldwide but maintains unofficial relations with 57 UN member states via its representative offices.Washington has been angered by China slowly luring away Taiwan’s support in South America until Paraguay is now the island’s sole remaining ally in the region.In 2018, the US attacked El Salvador’s decision to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of China, saying the change was of grave concern to Washington and warning that China was offering economic inducements to countries in need in order to gain dominance.


Kenyan suspect in religious cult deaths dies in custody after hunger strike

A Kenyan accused of involvement in the deaths of hundreds of members of a starvation cult has died after a 10-day hunger strike in police custody, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Joseph Buyuka was among 30 people, including self-styled pastor Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church, in custody over the deaths of 337 followers of the church.
"The police believe that these individuals... played significant roles in the offences leading to the deaths and illegal disposal of bodies in Shakahola (forest)," court papers said of Buyuka and four others arrested with him.
Authorities have exhumed most of the bodies from the forest in southeast Kenya since April.
Jami Yamina, senior prosecution counsel, said Buyuka had died two days ago at a hospital in Malindi, about 116km from the port city of Mombasa where he had been taken from a nearby prison.
"He died... (due to)... complications from hunger strike and starvation, but we will await postmortem report," Yamina told a court in Mombasa.
"Two other suspects... have also been taken ill. Police believe it is related to their hunger strike."
Mackenzie is accused of ordering his followers to starve their children and themselves to death so they could reach heaven before the end of the world.
He handed himself over to police in April and was denied bail last month. The other suspects were arrested later after authorities started the exhumations.
He and the others have not yet been required to enter a plea.
Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki had expressed concern in May that some of Mackenzie's rescued followers were refusing food. One of them had died, he said at the time.


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Waitress fired for not getting Covid jab over pregnancy fears

A New York City waitress says she was fired from a popular restaurant after choosing not to get the Covid-19 vaccine for fear it might hurt her chances of getting pregnant, reports the New York Post.Bonnie Jacobson, 34, who has been married since October 2019, stressed that she’s not an anti-vaxxer and fully supports people being inoculated, but said she wants to wait for more research on the coronavirus vaccine’s possible effects on fertility.The vaccines currently available haven’t been tested on pregnant women, but also haven’t been shown to affect pregnancy and are viewed as generally safe.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that getting vaccinated is “a personal choice for people who are pregnant”.Staff at Jacobson’s restaurant became eligible for the shot earlier this month. Shortly after, management said the vaccine would be “mandatory” for all employees. The only exception to that policy would be “if your own personal health or disability prohibits you from obtaining this vaccination”.The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in December that companies could require workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19, but employment lawyers said they hadn’t heard of a case like Jacobson’s before.“This particular subject is a really hot topic right now,” employment attorney Felicia Ennis told the station, adding, “I haven’t heard of a company taking that extreme of a step.”Meanwhile, a former Detroit news anchor who worked at the country’s first black-owned television station died on Tuesday, a day after receiving the Covid-19 jab.CBS Detroit reported that Karen Hudson-Samuels, 68, a producer and news director was found dead in her home by her husband. Her cause of death is not yet known.Her husband said, “We suspect it may have been a stroke, but the normal side effects of the vaccine may have masked that.”


Ex-contractor jailed 14 days, fined RM1,000 for flouting quarantine order

A former contractor was sentenced to 14 days in jail and fined RM1,000 today for failing to self-quarantine as ordered by the health ministry after returning from Sabah where he had gone to vote in the recent state election.Magistrate Muhammad Nazrin Ali Rahim handed down the sentence on Md Syafrizan Salleh, 32, after he pleaded guilty to the offence. His jail term will begin today.The court also ordered the father-of-two, who hails from Papar, Sabah, to be jailed another seven days if he fails to pay the fine.“You should have acted responsibly and understood that the self-quarantine was necessary after you returned to the peninsula from a high-risk area, to ensure that you were really healthy and would not infect others because if you were (Covid-19) positive, it would have had an impact on the lives and safety of others,” Nazrin told Syafrizan.Syafrizan was alleged to have violated the order issued by the health ministry on Sept 29 to quarantine himself at Bangunan Pentadbiran Persiaran Penapisan Sungai Udang in Melaka.He was charged under Section 24 of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988, which provides for a jail term of up to two years, a fine or both.Prosecuting officer ASP Nora Yaacob appeared for the prosecution while Syafrizan was represented by a trainee lawyer.Outside the court, Nora said Syafrizan returned to Kota Kinabalu on Sept 26 to vote in the state election. When he returned to the peninsula, he was to self-quarantine for 14 days from Sept 28 to Oct 11 under the home surveillance order and to wear the pink wristband.She said based on investigations, Syafrizan had instead left the quarantine centre to work and buy daily necessities.


China hits back at VP Harris, says US ‘selfish’ over Afghanistan

China on Tuesday held up America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan as an example of Washington’s “selfish” foreign policy, hitting back at Vice-President Kamala Harris’ accusations of intimidation in Asian waters.During a trip to Singapore Harris took aim at Beijing for making claims to “the vast majority of the South China Sea” as she sought to reassure regional allies of America’s commitment to Asia and binding international rules.China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin snapped back, accusing the US of hiding behind rhetoric of a rules-based global order to defend its own “bullying, hegemonic behaviour”.“The current events in Afghanistan clearly tell us what the rules and order the US speaks of are,” he told a regular press briefing.“The US can wantonly conduct military intervention in a sovereign country and does not need to be responsible for the suffering of the people in that country,” Wang said.“In order to defend ‘America first’, the US can arbitrarily smear, suppress, coerce and bully other countries without paying any price,” he added.“This is the order the US wants… but who will believe them now?”


Radio silence from Umno MPs after Anwar sworn in as PM

Umno leaders and members previously on the front line of criticism for their president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi appear to have gone silent following the appointment of Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister, leaving questions about their current stance on forming the government with their long-time foe.
Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein, for one, had said in the aftermath of the election that he was ready to be sacked by his party if BN decided to work with PH.
In his latest post on Facebook, however, the BN treasurer-general was congratulating Anwar on his appointment as prime minister.
"May you carry out this trust and responsibility for the sake of the people and the country," he said.
Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob, meanwhile, who had also stated his readiness to be sacked, has made no further mention of the matter.
Taking to social media after Anwar's swearing-in ceremony at Istana Negara, he voiced appreciation for those who had supported his administration and congratulated Anwar on his appointment.
"I pray that this new government will be able to maintain political stability and economic sustainability," he said.
Their comments and the silence of others follows a meeting of the Umno Supreme Council on Wednesday night, where it was decided that the party would not join any unity government led by Perikatan Nasional (PN).
Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan said the decision had been unanimous.
Previously, many BN members and component party leaders had said that they would not work with PH.
They also urged Zahid to step down following the coalition's worst ever election performance at the Nov 19 polls.
Zahid was among those who were present at the palace when Anwar took his oath of office as prime minister.
Aside from PH, Anwar also has the support of MPs from BN, Gabungan Parti Sarawak, Warisan, Muda, Parti Bangsa Malaysia and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah.
On social media, many users questioned the change of stance by BN politicians in comments ranging from mockery to criticism.
"The mouth says one thing, the heart says something else," Facebook user Mahmad Amran said in a post on Ismail's account last night.
"Nice U-turn, Datuk Seri," user Jamal Bahar added.
There were also comments from users who said they did not want such leaders in the new Cabinet.
"I hope you don't take any position (in the Cabinet)," said Facebook user Nik Hafeez.
"Thank you lah Datuk for holding fast to your principles," user Mohd Hamim said in a post laced with sarcasm. "You've been steadfast."


1,196 new cases, 997 recoveries

Another 1,196 Covid-19 cases were recorded today, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 105,096.Selangor recorded 392 new cases, of which 237 or 60.5% were from clusters and close contact screening.This was followed by Kuala Lumpur (202; 155 from clusters and close contact screening), Johor (194; 171 from clusters and close contact screening) and Sabah (186; 139 from clusters and close contact screening).Negeri Sembilan had 39 new cases, Penang 37, Kelantan 31, Perak 30, Kedah 27, Melaka 23, Labuan 12, Pahang nine, Putrajaya six, Terengganu five and Sarawak three.One new workplace cluster was detected: Jalan Sedco in Tawau and Kalabakan, Sabah. Of the 26 individuals screened for Covid-19, 14 tested positive.Active cases stand at 20,233 with 111 in the ICU and 50 in need of respiratory assistance.Another 997 patients were discharged, bringing total recoveries to 84,411.However, one more death was reported, pushing the virus toll to 452.


What RM100 means to the hardcore poor

There are certain things that only the poor in the country will thoroughly understand and appreciate.What can you buy with RM100 these days? Well, for a rich man, probably two slices of cheesecake and two coffees at Starbucks or Coffee Bean.However, for a poor family like mine, it can feed us for a week. Sounds impossible for some? Well, that is the reality.We do not have our meals at restaurants or hotels. Instead, we use the money to buy rice and other essentials which are cooked at home and can last us several days.I grew up in a very poor family in Gemas, Negri Sembilan, and truly know how valuable RM100 is to a family like mine.My father was an odd-job worker and my mother washed dishes at a restaurant near our home. We struggled, but we were happy and through my parents’ hard work, I managed to get a sound education.Having encountered such hardships, I find it rather upsetting and painful to read how some quarters are ridiculing the RM100 additional aid recently announced by our prime minister.As I mentioned earlier, RM100 may be pittance to some, but for the hardcore poor, it means an extra week or more with food.People like my family and I understand the hardship of earning RM100 and we would like to take this opportunity to thank the prime minister for this additional aid.That extra RM100 will go a long way for us. Also, as far as I can remember, families in my village used nothing but cooking oil sold in polybags. In fact, I never saw a single bottle of cooking oil until I finally left my kampung to pursue my studies.This is also something my family is very grateful for. The subsidy for the 1kg polybag cooking oil will certainly help those in the lower income groups.Overall, as someone who comes from a hardcore poor family, the announcement by our prime minister is greatly welcomed and will go a long, long way for us.There is no point in making it an issue as those quarters, especially the opposition parties, will never understand the plight of the hardcore poor.This is something “orang miskin” like us appreciate and understand, and once again, we would like to take this opportunity to say a big heartfelt thank you to our prime minister.The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


Mariupol siege appears over as Ukrainian defenders emerge from ruins

More than 250 Ukrainian fighters surrendered to Russian forces at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol after weeks of desperate resistance, bringing an end to the most devastating siege of Russia’s war in Ukraine and allowing President Vladmir Putin to claim a rare victory in his faltering campaign.Reuters saw buses leave the steelworks, where defenders had held out in a complex of bunkers and tunnels, overnight and five arrived in the Russian-held town of Novoazovsk, where Moscow said the wounded would be treated.What will happen to the fighters was unclear, although the Kremlin said Putin had personally guaranteed the prisoners would be treated according to international standards.The denoument of a battle which came to symbolise Ukrainian resistance took place as Russia’s invading forces struggled elsewhere, with troops retreating from the outskirts of Kharkiv in the northeast.On the international front, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said Sweden and Finland will on Wednesday hand in their respective applications to join Nato, abandoning their long-standing policy of neutrality over concerns about Putin’s wider intentions.Their leaders expressed optimism they could overcome Turkey’s objections to them joining amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at smoothing their path into the 30-nation alliance.Their move will bring about the very expansion of the Western alliance Putin invoked as one of the main justifications for what he terms his “special military operation”.City in ruinsThe complete capture of Mariupol is Russia’s biggest victory since its Feb 24 invasion and gives Moscow total control of the Sea of Azov coast and an unbroken stretch of eastern and southern Ukraine.But the port city now lies in ruins, and Ukraine believes tens of thousands of people were killed under months of Russian bombardment and siege.Russia said at least 256 Ukrainian fighters had “laid down their arms and surrendered”, including 51 severely wounded. Ukraine said 264 soldiers, including 53 wounded, had left.Russian defence ministry video showed fighters leaving the plant, some carried on stretchers, others with hands up to be searched by Russian troops.While both sides spoke of a deal under which all Ukrainian troops would abandon the huge steelworks, many details were not yet public, including how many fighters still remained inside, and whether any form of prisoner swap had been agreed.Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar told a briefing that Kyiv would not disclose how many fighters were inside the plant until all were safe.“The ‘Mariupol’ garrison has fulfilled its combat mission,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a statement.“The supreme military command ordered the commanders of the units stationed at Azovstal to save the lives of the personnel.”President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive.”Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Kyiv aimed to arrange a prisoner swap for the wounded once their condition stabilises, but neither side disclosed terms for any specific deal.Natalia, wife of a sailor among those holed up in the plant, told Reuters she hoped “there will be an honest exchange”. But she was still worried: “What Russia is doing now is inhumane.”In a statement on Monday, the Azov Regiment, the main Ukrainian unit that had held out in the steelworks, said it had achieved its objective over 82 days of resistance by making it possible to defend the rest of the country.The regiment, now part of Ukraine’s territorial defence forces, originated as a far-right militia, and Moscow has portrayed defeating its fighters as central to its stated objective of “de-Nazifying” Ukraine. Russia blames them for mistreating Russian speakers, one of its war justifications, which Kyiv and its Western backers call a bogus pretext.High-profile Russian lawmakers spoke out against any prisoner swap. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house, said: “Nazi criminals should not be exchanged.” Lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, one of Russia’s negotiators in talks with Ukraine, called the evacuated combatants “animals in human form” and said they should be executed.The UN and Red Cross say the true death toll from the siege is still uncounted but it is certain to be Europe’s worst since the 1990s wars in Chechnya and the Balkans.For months, Mariupol’s residents were driven into cellars under perpetual bombardment, with no access to food, fresh water or heat, and bodies littering the streets.Two strikes – on a maternity ward and a theatre where hundreds of people were sheltering – became worldwide emblems of Russia’s tactic of devastating population centres.Thousands of civilians are believed to have been buried in mass graves or makeshift pits in gardens, and Ukraine says Moscow forcibly deported thousands of residents to Russia.Moscow denies targeting civilians or deporting them. operation”.Ukraine advancesElsewhere, Ukrainian forces have been advancing at their fastest pace for more than a month, driving Russian forces out of the area around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.Ukraine says its forces had reached the Russian border, 40km (25 miles) north of Kharkiv. They have also pushed at least as far as the Siverskiy Donets river 40km to the east, where they could threaten supply lines to Russia’s main advance in the Donbas.Russia is still pressing that advance, despite taking heavy losses.In Brussels, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that if reports were true, the Russian army had suffered “impressive losses” while invading Ukraine and it was unclear how long it could sustain its campaign.


QC files appeal notice against High Court decision dismissing bid to represent Najib

UK Queen’s Counsel (QC) Jonathan Laidlaw has filed a notice of appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision to disallow his application to represent Najib Razak in his final appeal against his conviction of misappropriating RM42 million in SRC International funds.
The notice of appeal was filed at the Federal Court on Aug 22 through his solicitors, Messrs Shafee & Co.
In the notice, Laidlaw appealed against the decision made on July 21 by judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid, who rejected the lawyer’s application without costs.
The appeal was made pursuant to provisions under Section 19 of the Legal Professions Act 1976.
Lawyer Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee, when contacted, confirmed the matter. On July 21, Kamal said Laidlaw had failed to prove that he had special qualifications or experience in conducting criminal trials and appeals such as the charges against Najib, which involve Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009, Section 409 of the Penal Code and Section 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
On May 31, Najib filed an application to allow Laidlaw to represent him in the SRC International appeal on several grounds, saying among others that the QC possessed special qualifications, experience and expertise not available among the advocates and solicitors in Malaysia.
In the notice, Laidlaw sought to be admitted and registered to practise in the High Court in Peninsular Malaysia, to act as Najib’s lead counsel in the SRC International appeal at the Federal Court and all other causes or matters related to the appeal.
On Tuesday, the apex court upheld the 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine on Najib for misappropriating RM42 million in SRC International funds.


Nato concerned about China's 'opaque' military buildup, Blinken says

Nato allies are concerned about China's rapid and opaque military buildup and its cooperation with Russia, and discussed concrete ways to address the challenges posed by Beijing on Wednesday, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"The members of our alliance remain concerned by the PRC's (People's Republic of China) coercive policies, by its use of disinformation, by its rapid, opaque military buildup, including its cooperation with Russia," Blinken told a news conference after a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the Western defense alliance.
"But we also remain committed to maintaining a constructive dialogue with China wherever we can and we welcome opportunities to work together on common challenges."
Blinken's remarks came after Moscow said Russian and Chinese strategic warplanes, including Tupolev-95 long-range "Bear" bombers, conducted joint patrols over the Sea of Japan and East China Sea and US ally South Korea said it had scrambled fighter jets as two Chinese and six Russian warplanes entered its air defence zone.
They also came after a Pentagon report said China would likely have a stockpile of 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 at its current nuclear buildup pace, underscoring mounting US concerns about Beijing's intentions for its expanding arsenal.
China and Russia alarmed the US and its allies by announcing a "no limits" strategic partnership with Russia in February, just days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
South Korea and its neighbor Japan have since developed closer ties to Nato, attending the June Nato summit as observers and South Korean firms shipped armaments to Russian neighbor and Nato member Poland this year.
Blinken said that while Nato continues to be focused on maintaining unified support for Ukraine, members also want to boost the alliance's resilience by considering new challenges, including those posed by China.
"What we talked about today is, again, making sure that we are working to adapt in concrete ways to meet the challenge," Blinken said without elaborating.
The US and its allies recognise there is a competition to shape the world beyond the Cold War divisions
"There's a recognition that there's also in many ways, what Europeans call a systemic rivalry between China and many of our countries," Blinken said. "But there's also a recognition that wherever possible, we have to find ways to cooperate on the really big issues."


China has been spying from Cuba for some time, US official says

China has been spying from Cuba for some time and upgraded its intelligence collection facilities there in 2019, a Biden administration official said on Saturday, following a report about a new spying effort underway on the island.
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that China had reached a secret deal with Cuba to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island roughly 160km from Florida, but the US and Cuban governments cast strong doubt on the report.
The Biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the media's characterisation "does not comport with our understanding", but did not specify how the report was wrong nor address in detail whether there were efforts by China to build a new eavesdropping facility in Cuba.
The official said the issue predated Joe Biden's presidency, as had Beijing's efforts to strengthen its intelligence collection infrastructure worldwide.
"This is an ongoing issue, and not a new development," the official said. "The PRC (People's Republic of China) conducted an upgrade of its intelligence collection facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well-documented in the intelligence record."
Asked for comment, an official at China's embassy in Washington pointed to Friday's statement by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson who accused the US of "spreading rumors and slander" with talk of a Cuba spy station, and of being "the most powerful hacker empire in the world."
The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio dismissed the Journal's report as "totally mendacious" and called it a US fabrication meant to justify Washington's decades-old economic embargo against the island. He said Cuba rejects all foreign military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Attention surrounding alleged Chinese spying from Cuba comes as Washington and Beijing are taking tentative steps to soothe tensions that spiked after a suspected Chinese high-altitude spy balloon crossed the US before the US military shot it down off the East Coast in February.
That includes a trip to China that US officials say Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning for June 18. Washington's top diplomat had earlier scrapped the visit over the spy balloon incident.
The Biden administration official said that despite the former administration of Donald Trump being aware of the Chinese basing effort in Cuba and making some attempts to address the challenge, "we were not making enough progress and needed a more direct approach."
The official said US diplomats had engaged governments that were considering hosting Chinese bases and had exchanged information with them.
"Our experts assess that our diplomatic efforts have slowed the PRC down," the official said. "We think the PRC isn't quite where they had hoped to be."


It’s no rocket science, Umno ‘court cluster’ embarrassed Malaysia, says top PAS spokesman

The top spokesman for PAS has denounced the “court cluster” politicians as an embarrassment to the nation, as the Islamist party steadily distances itself from the Umno faction aligned with former prime minister Najib Razak and his deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, under whom a historic ceasefire between the two largest Malay political blocs was inked three years ago.PAS information chief Khairil Nizam Khirudin even indicated that the party could convene an extraordinary muktamar (general assembly) to reevaluate Muafakat Nasional, the 2019 charter that saw PAS and Umno agreeing to cooperate after decades of bitter rivalry for the Malay vote.“The whole world knows how we were embarrassed when faced with cases of corruption and abuse of power that took place during the previous Barisan Nasional rule, which was punished by the people in the 14th general election,” Khairil said in a short conversation with his counterpart from Bersatu, Wan Saiful Wan Jan.“And these are the same people who are seen disturbing the country’s political stability,” he said, in a clear reference to charges against Najib related to the 1MDB scandal.PAS information chief Khairil Nizam Khirudin.Najib, Zahid and several Umno politicians who were part of the previous BN government earned the nickname “court cluster” over the hundreds of criminal charges slapped against them since 2018.Late last year, the appeals court said the RM42 million in Najib’s personal account, for which he was convicted and sentenced to 12 years’ jail, was a “national embarrassment”.“There was no national interest when RM42 million was transferred into Najib’s accounts, only national embarrassment,” appeals court judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil had said when reading a strongly worded statement on Dec 8.The “court cluster” group was also behind the downfall of the Perikatan Nasional government led by Muhyiddin Yassin during the peak of the Covid-19 crisis last August.More recently, Zahid and Umno leaders aligned with him are said to be planning a series of state elections, following Umno’s victory in Melaka.Khairil, who repeated PAS’ strong objection to any move to dissolve state governments in order to hold elections, said the crimes committed by the court cluster were well documented, and that it would be wrong to return them to power.“(To know about) the court cluster, it’s no rocket science. We can access information about it everywhere. Malaysia’s dignity is at stake because of the actions of these leaders,” he said, adding however that not all in Umno should be painted with the same brush.Khairil said PAS’ cooperation with other parties was based on the general principle set out by its Shura council, which is made up of its senior Islamic scholars.He said any decision to break ties with Umno over disagreements with the court would go through a similar process of consultation among party leaders.“If you ask when is the turning point for PAS (to break ties with Umno), it will have to go through procedures, which means these things will have to be considered, and if there are strong calls, maybe a special muktamar can be held to renegotiate before the outcome is submitted to the Shura to decide on the policy,” said Khairil.Khairil’s remarks came five days after a similar rebuke from PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, who protested attempts by Umno leaders at forcing state elections.“We know that the ones responsible for this strategy are the court cluster, those who lost the 14th general election, those who have no positions. Not everyone in Umno.“If you have morals, fight it out in court, don’t burden the people.“Here, they are causing trouble for the people with elections. They want to save themselves, so they trouble the people. If they are in the right, they should not be afraid to fight their charges in court,” Hadi said last Friday, ahead of a retreat with Bersatu leaders.


Kuala Nerus MP sacked from PAS central committee

Kuala Nerus MP Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali has been sacked from his position as a PAS central committee member, the Islamist party’s president confirmed today.While Abdul Hadi Awang did not reveal the specifics surrounding Khairuddin’s dismissal, he referred to the issue of party discipline when speaking on the matter, Utusan Malaysia reported.“In our party we have discipline,” he was quoted as saying to reporters in Marang. “Those who don’t adhere can have their positions changed, be assigned somewhere else, or have their membership suspended or be sacked.”Khairuddin, who lost in the party elections last November, was appointed to the central committee alongside two others, Zuhdi Marzuki and Nik Abduh Nik Aziz.A source said Khairuddin belonged to a small faction of PAS leaders who want the party to continue cooperating with Umno.PAS is part of Perikatan Nasional, the coalition led by Bersatu chief Muhyiddin Yassin.Hadi had several times stressed that Muafakat Nasional, a charter signed by PAS and Umno in 2019 when the two were in the opposition, should also include Bersatu.Two months ago, an audio clip of a conversation surfaced, purportedly showing Khairuddin criticising Hadi’s move to ditch Umno.Khairuddin served as plantation industries and commodities minister in Muhyiddin’s cabinet, but was dropped by Ismail Sabri Yaakob when he took over last August.


Zahid says ready to publish RoS approval letter on Umno's no-contest motion

Umno says it will publish the letter from the Registrar of Societies (RoS) approving an additional motion that the posts of president and deputy president will not be challenged in the its elections this year.
Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he would ask the party’s secretary-general Ahmad Maslan to see to this so that all Umno members are informed.
Zahid, who is also the rural and regional development minister, said he hoped the letter from the RoS could put an end to any polemic against the motion approved during the 2022 Umno general assembly in January.
"The Umno general assembly is the party’s highest decision-making body and the rules and constitution were adhered to, so the decision is final and we will end the polemics against the resolution," he told reporters yesterday.
Zahid on March 4 said Umno had received a letter from Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail regarding RoS’ decision on Friday.
Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob had reportedly asked Zahid to produce the letter from the RoS following the controversy over the additional motion passed at the Umno general assembly.
Speaking yesterday, Zahid urged Umno leaders against trying to topple the coalition government, to ensure that the party remains relevant and strong so that it will be accepted by the people again, especially ahead of the six upcoming state elections.
"The government and Malaysia Madani must be defended, and all those who will lead Umno at the Supreme Council, Wanita, Youth and Puteri levels must work as a team so that we are not threatened.
"We don't want outside elements to come in because there are plans to challenge and bring down the existing leadership and government," he said.
He also reminded the delegates who would be voting to choose candidates who are able to strengthen the party and do not have an agenda to create rivalries within the party.
"We celebrate diversity of opinion but the party can no longer afford to have several camps with different agendas," he said.


Over 12 million adults given Covid booster shot

A total of 12,055,099 individuals or 51.5% of adults had received a Covid-19 vaccine booster dose as of yesterday.According to the CovidNow portal, a total of 22,925,835 individuals or 97.9% of adults have completed their vaccination, while 91.1% or 23,202,575 individuals have received at least one dose of vaccine.In terms of adolescents, a total of 2,788,874 individuals or 88.6% have completed their vaccination, while 2,867,944 or 99.1% have received at least one dose.Yesterday, a total of 30,194 doses of vaccine were dispensed – 257 as first doses, 449 as second shots and 29,488 as booster jabs,This brings the cumulative number of vaccine doses administered under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme to 63,635,620.According to the health ministry’s Github portal, seven deaths due to Covid-19 were reported yesterday, with Pahang and Kelantan recording two cases each and one case each in Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Terengganu.


Homeowners watch for arsonists in US wildfires

Smoke from the vast wildfires blazing out of control across the far western US has drifted eastwards right across the continent and the Atlantic Ocean and is now reaching as far as Europe.The dramatic effects will probably soon be observed worldwide. But on the ground in the Pacific states, the people living with the smoke and flames in their own backyards are creating many much smaller human dramas.A lot of people suspect that arsonists are the cause of a lot of the fires.The New York Post reports one incident that could have turned deadly.In a video posted on Facebook, an Oregon woman armed with an automatic handgun confronts a man she has discovered near her home.“What are you doing on my property?” Kat Cast shouts as she holds her gun at the ready. “Did you light anything on fire?”She sees the man has matches in his hand and forces him to the ground at gunpoint.When the unidentified man tells her that he was “just passing through”, she demands to know why he’s holding the matches.“I smoke,” he replies.Cast asks to see his cigarettes. The man admits that he has none.She calls the police and keeps her gun on the terrified suspected arsonist until the cops arrive and haul him away in handcuffs.She declined to comment to the Press.“I will not put my family in danger by exposing myself any more than what I have already,” she wrote on Facebook.“If I need to do this again to protect my family and my neighbours, I will in a heartbeat do it again, except this time I will not be as nice as I was.”


No more hiding soon, politicians told on links with tycoons

Politicians will soon find it difficult to conceal their ties with donors and businesses who fund their activities as internet users become increasingly proficient in navigating the online world to unravel such ties, an observer warns.This comes in the wake of photographs shared in recent weeks of several top politicians arriving in Sabah ahead of the state election on Sept 26.Their appearance on the campaign trail sparked talk of their friendships with tycoons, including those who have in the past made headlines due to suspicious business activities.Jayum Jawan of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) said many now have easy access to information previously unavailable to the public.He added that the details of the election being revealed on social media were only a glimpse of what would come in the “politics of the future”.“In the future, election campaigns will be more open, and those elected will find themselves under constant scrutiny by the public,” Jayum, of UPM’s faculty of humanities, management and science, told MalaysiaNow.A recent blog post by a veteran activist offers perhaps the clearest example of how politicians have embraced tycoons with questionable pasts.Hishamuddin Rais, a former detainee under the Internal Security Act, recalled how a businessman once jailed for criminal breach of trust (CBT) hosted a buka puasa event attended by Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders at a hotel in Petaling Jaya, weeks after the coalition’s historic victory at the 2018 polls.In its election manifesto, PH had pledged to fight corruption in political funding.“The Pakatan Harapan government will ensure funding of politics in our country is transparent and free from corrupt practices. A new Political Financing Control Act will be introduced for this purpose,” the manifesto read.But Hishamuddin in his post said he was shocked to discover that the event organised by Amanah president Mohamad Sabu at the Hilton Hotel was sponsored by controversial businessman Abdullah Ang.Ang, the managing director of the Malaysian Overseas Investment Corporation, was convicted of CBT and sentenced to eight years in prison in December 1986.In 1989, The Malay Mail reported that Ang was given “super VVIP” treatment in jail, complete with the use of facilities such as a fridge, carpet, video games and a waterbed.But it was his purported “get-out-of-jail card” which gained him particular infamy, with reported sightings of him in and out of prison during his term behind bars.Two years before his release date, he was photographed in Kuala Lumpur without a prison escort, visiting, among others, a clothing factory owned by his family.Attempts by MalaysiaNow to obtain a response from Ang and Mohamad, better known as Mat Sabu, have so far failed.Speaking to MalaysiaNow, Hishamuddin said the country’s political culture now resembled that of the US, where billionaire businessmen with personal interests often find themselves in the company of powerful politicians.For him, though, there is a difference in the level of sophistication.He said politically connected tycoons in the US are more interested in getting the government to draw up policies that will indirectly benefit their business plans.“Here in Malaysia, we are still trying to get government projects and contracts. These businessmen support them and, in return, demand contracts.“It’s like a film production where tycoons write the script and voters are merely extras to complete the democratic process.”Most friendships between politicians and tycoons remain under wraps, although some are widely known.Perhaps the most famous of these is the link between former prime minister Najib Razak and Low Taek Jho, the Malaysian financier still on the run from authorities worldwide due to his involvement in the 1MDB scandal.Others include the well-known association between former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and billionaire tycoons Syed Mokhtar Albukhary and Vincent Tan.Mahathir was often seen using Syed Mokhtar’s Albukhary Foundation in Kuala Lumpur as his office while Tan, who owns Berjaya Group, threw birthday parties for the veteran leader.In recent times, though, PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim has been on the radar due to his association with tycoons.One such businessman is Vinod Sekhar, the head of Petra Group.A recent photograph making the rounds shows Anwar arriving at Kota Kinabalu in a private jet bearing the word “PetraTara”.A photo making the rounds of PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim disembarking from a jet linked to businessman Vinod Sekhar. Photo: FacebookPetra and Tara are the names of Vinod’s children.An airport source confirmed with MalaysiaNow that Anwar boarded the aircraft on Sept 5 and 6.Anwar Ibrahim with Vinod Sekhar in a picture posted by the businessman in July. Photo: FacebookRequesting anonymity, the source said Vinod, who has openly declared himself a supporter of Anwar, had accompanied the PKR leader on the jet to Sabah.According to Petra Group’s website, the company is a conglomerate “involved in industries that include green sustainable technologies, infrastructure development, media and entertainment, advisory services, information and communication technology, marketing communications services, food and beverage, a research institute and a charitable foundation”.In 2005, the Kuala Lumpur High Court declared Vinod a bankrupt.The authorities accused him at the time of leaving the country without settling his debts, and of sitting on the boards of 25 companies without approval from the Insolvency Department as required under the Bankruptcy Act.Attempts to contact Vinod have so far failed.


US approves Pfizer vaccine storage at normal freezer temperature

Frozen vials of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine may be stored at temperatures commonly found in pharmaceutical freezers for a period of up to two weeks, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday.The move loosens a previous requirement that the vaccine should be stored at ultra-low temperatures, between -80 to -60 degrees Celsius.“The alternative temperature for transportation and storage will help ease the burden of procuring ultra-low cold storage equipment for vaccination sites and should help to get vaccine to more sites,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.The FDA said it would update its fact sheet for health care providers accordingly.Pharmaceutical freezers commonly operate at around -20 degrees Celsius.The move came after Pfizer submitted a request based on its research on the vaccine’s stability under the warmer temperature.The Pfizer vaccine is based on new technology that uses synthetic mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) molecules to deliver the genetic instructions for human cells to create a part of the coronavirus.The mRNA molecules are encased in particles of fat to protect them, but they still degrade more quickly than traditional vaccines and so require stricter storage measures.Once thawed, the vials can be stored at fridge temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for up to five days.They can be kept at room temperature for no more than two hours.


Czech malls to restrict free WiFi to deter teens from lingering

New coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic reached a daily record of 4,500 on Tuesday, the health ministry said.Data shows the country now has the highest number of cases per 100,000 in Europe, surpassing even Spain.The government has already reimposed restrictions on public events after relaxing them during the summer, including banning outdoor gatherings of more than 20 people.“If the government does not launch new measures next week, there is a real threat that by the end of October, healthcare capacity will be completely clogged,” Interior Minister Jan Hamacek said. “We cannot allow that to happen.”Nearly 1,500 people are currently hospitalised with Covid-19, six times higher than a month ago, including 326 in intensive care, an increase of more than five times.Secondary schools have also been closed as teenage infection numbers have been rising.The government is looking for new measures to slow the spread of infections and planners are hoping they may have found an effective one.From this week, shopping malls and cafes in the capital Prague and other major cities have been told to restrict their free WiFi availability.This, it is hoped, will deter teenagers from spending too much time at the mall, where reasoning and threats have failed.If successful, and numbers start to fall, the measure could well be adopted by worried governments around the world, regardless of what their children say.


Daily cases top 5,700

Another 5,726 Covid-19 cases were recorded today, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 2,442,224.Another 5,607 patients recovered, bringing total recoveries to 2,340,390.Meanwhile 598 are in the ICU, including 512 confirmed Covid-19 patients.A total of 308 are in need of respiratory assistance including 219 confirmed Covid-19 cases.Of the 5,726 cases reported today, 97 (1.7%) are in Category Three and above. The remaining 5,629 (98.3%) are in Category One and Two.