To GPS and Sarawakians, we are sorry for any hurtful remarks, says DAP

DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke has apologised to the people and government of Sarawak in an attempt to convince GPS to change its mind and back Pakatan Harapan (PH) as the coalition continues its search for the majority needed to form the government.
"I have informed the premier that if there is any statement ever made by any DAP leader that offends the government and the people of Sarawak, I on behalf of DAP make a public apology.
"I hope today's meeting will open a new chapter to build understanding and cooperation for the sake of a more developed and progressive Malaysia," Loke said after meeting Sarawak Premier Abang Johari Openg today.
Loke travelled to Sarawak as Malay rulers gather at Istana Negara for a meeting called by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, who is seeking their views to break an impasse over the appointment of the prime minister.
GPS has committed 23 seats alongside six from neighbouring GRS to Muhyiddin Yassin, giving the Perikatan Nasional chairman the edge over PH's 82 seats alongside possible additions from independent MPs as well as Warisan's three seats.
GPS leaders have repeatedly said they will not cooperate with PH, citing statements made against the Sarawak government when the coalition held federal power after the 2018 election.
In 2019, then DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng who was also the finance minister famously said that Sarawak under GPS would go bankrupt in three years, a statement defended by state DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen earlier this year.


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2020, a roller-coaster ride for education

From the resignation of its minister to the closure of schools nationwide due to the Covid-19 outbreak, education has seen a tumultuous 12 months as the year 2020 draws to a close.As early as Jan 2, the country was shocked by the resignation of Maszlee Malik as education minister while Pakatan Harapan (PH) still held power in Putrajaya.The portfolio was taken over by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the second time the veteran statesman had held the post following his first appointment to the job in the Cabinet of Abdul Razak Hussein.Not long after, the education minister changed yet again following the collapse of PH, triggered by Mahathir’s resignation as prime minister.Radzi Jidin, PH’s former deputy minister of economic affairs, was appointed to take over the position after Perikatan Nasional, led by Muhyiddin Yassin, took over Putrajaya.The education sector subsequently saw a reshuffle of its calendar as the government struggled to deal with the fallout from Covid-19. Schools, colleges and universities were eventually closed and all classes shifted online.Here are some of the highlights of the education sector in this year of the pandemic:UPSR, PT3 cancelledFor the first time in Malaysia’s history of education, the government announced in April that the UPSR and PT3 examinations would be cancelled.This followed the implementation of the movement control order (MCO) in March, which brought school sessions to a halt although the government pledged that it would not jeopardise students’ development.Radzi, who was by then education minister, said a new method would be put in place to replace those exams, specifically for students seeking entry to full boarding schools, the Mara Science Junior College, and technical schools.SPM, SVM and STAP postponedThe SPM, Sijil Vokasional Malaysia (SVM) and Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia (STAM) examinations, meanwhile, were postponed to the first quarter of next year.Admission to institutions of higher learning for basic programmes, matriculation, diplomas and degrees was likewise delayed.Tuition centres shut downTuition centres were also affected, with many owners saying they could no longer afford to stay open given the drop in student numbers after schools were ordered to close.MalaysiaNow previously reported that the three-month MCO saw many tuition centres forced to shut down, especially in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.Even the owners of well-known centres which had been in operation for decades were willing to sell their businesses for as low as RM7,000 just to pay their teachers and cover the cost of their utilities.The locations of tuition centres listed for sale included Cheras, Pudu, Damansara, Bandar Tun Razak, Subang Jaya and Shah Alam.Online degreesWhere online degrees were once scorned for their lack of pedigree, they became the norm as universities shifted their courses from physical to virtual classrooms.The development gave rise to the question of whether the quality and qualifications of graduates who earn their degrees online would eventually be perceived as on par with those who attended traditional lectures.Internet access and online learningIn June, Universiti Malaysia Sabah student Veveonah Mosibin made headlines after a video of her climbing a tree in order to reach an internet signal went viral, catching the attention of Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, among others.The incident opened the eyes of many to the need for better infrastructure facilities, especially in the rural areas of Sabah and Sarawak.Rocky road for private schools and kindergartensMany parents feeling the pinch from salary cuts and retrenchments this year moved their children from private to public schools, leaving institutions of private education in the lurch as the Covid-19 pandemic took its toll on them as well.Many were forced to close down due to financial problems.A similar situation unfolded with private kindergartens which had struggled to pay their teachers and support staff due to a decline in number of students.


EC told to implement Undi 18 by December, minister says

The Election Commission (EC) has been instructed to implement Undi 18 by Dec 31 this year in compliance with a court order last Friday, law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said today.“The EC has been asked to implement, in its power, whatever is necessary as ordered by the judge in Sarawak,” he told a press conference after visiting the EC in Putrajaya today.Last Friday, the Kuching High Court ordered the EC and the government to implement Undi 18 by Dec 31 this year.Judicial commissioner Alexander Siew How Wai made the decision after allowing the judicial review application brought by five Malaysian youths seeking the immediate enforcement of a Federal Constitution amendment to lower the minimum voting age from 21 to 18.Wan Junaidi said the government had yet to decide whether to file an appeal against the court’s decision and that as such, the order still had to be followed.“It has yet to be decided, it needs in-depth discussion with the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and the decision of the Cabinet,” he said.Wan Junaidi said another issue that arose after Parliament amended the Federal Constitution to lower the age of voting as well as candidacy was the fact that several states had yet to amend their state constitution to allow 18-year-olds to contest in elections in their respective states.He said thorough discussions on this issue must also be held between the EC and the AGC to find suitable solutions should the states object to lowering the candidacy age.


India's outsourcing giants cut hiring, disheartening for economy, students

India's outsourcing giants are slashing hiring and getting projects done with existing workers, a rare pullback that could weigh on the economy and affect engineering students who have seen information technology as the sector of choice for decades.
The slowdown, triggered by global uncertainty in demand, is unprecedented in an industry that is one of the biggest hirers in India's services sector since the 1990s and provides an assured career path and prosperity to hundreds of thousands of students each year.
"Weak IT hiring could be for two different reasons: short-term negative demand shock or a long-term displacement resulting from labour-saving technologies," said Rohit Azad, an economics professor at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.
"The impact of weak hiring would depend on which is the primary cause driving it. A negative multiplier effect in the immediate would be there nevertheless," Azad added.
The IT sector accounts for about 8% of India's GDP versus less than 1% about 30 years back, according to Rishad Premji, the chairman of Wipro, one of the country's IT giants.
Overall, the Indian tech sector employs over 5.4 million people, according to trade group Nasscom, although the number is dominated by the IT sector. About 290,000 new jobs in the tech sector were created in the financial year that ended in March, but Nasscom warned of "global headwinds" in the current year.
With IT employees seen as big spenders on everything from cars, durables and second homes to travel and entertainment, they are likely to have had some effect on the sluggish 0.5% sequential growth in private consumption in January-March.
"Some slowdown in IT hiring intentions could contribute to the flat-lining in consumption that is already underway," said HDFC Bank Principal Economist Sakshi Gupta.
There are pockets of optimism elsewhere in the services sector - especially in accounting, where there is a surge in hiring. But the numbers are still dwarfed by the IT industry.
Recession fears
IT firms, which count global heavyweights such as Apple, Citigroup and American Express among its clients, went on a hiring binge during the pandemic that fuelled a digital services boom.
However, things changed this year as recession fears gripped the world and the collapse of three US regional banks and the forced sale of Europe's Credit Suisse to UBS left the global financial industry shaken, making IT clients across sectors cut spending.
"The post-pandemic phase saw companies ramping up production to meet new demands in the market, leading to a growth in hiring across IT companies. This boom, however, soon fizzled out in the face of the global economic crisis and a looming recession," said Sachin Alug, the CEO of staffing firm NLB Services.
NLB sees a 20-25% drop in IT employee additions in the first half of the current financial year, while TeamLease Digital expects a 40% decrease for the entire year.
Jobs portal Naukri.com's parent Info Edge flagged in May that its recruitment business was seeing "cautious" spending by IT customers.
IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services said this month it had "recalibrated" its hiring after a drop in attrition. It added 22,600 people in the last financial year, taking its overall headcount to 614,795.
Infosys, another IT giant, warned in April its annual revenue growth would hit a six-year low and refrained from its usual practice of setting a target of fresh hires at the start of the financial year.
"We have a lot of bench with us. They are ready to move into production projects," Infosys CFO Nilanjan Roy said at the time.
Nasscom declined comment on the hiring slowdown.
Doom and gloom
The dismal outlook is worrying many students as the IT sector typically absorbs 20-25% of the 1.5 million engineers who graduate every year in India and was a rare bright spot during the pandemic, when most other industries put hiring on ice.
"Normally, on-campus hiring is easier than off-campus. This year, that kind of flipped," said Gautam, an engineering student in Punjab state, who declined to be identified further. "Some people had their internship revoked or full-time (job offers) revoked too due to cost-cutting."
He said some of his classmates have decided to study further as they have lost hope of finding a job.
IT firms such as LTIMindtree and Wipro have been accused by an employee's union of trying to cut costs by deferring joining dates and slashing starting salaries.
That has "surely left applicants concerned about future prospects", said staffing firm Xpheno's co-founder Kamal Karanth, who highlighted how current hiring activity was "under a third of what was recorded in the buoyant peak".
LTIMindtree did not respond to a request for comment.
Wipro did not directly address the accusations but said the environment was different from a year ago.
"The race to hire ahead of demand has been replaced by a more measured approach in light of the declining attrition rates and the ongoing economic uncertainty," it said.
No plan B
India's engineers might find it hard to find jobs even beyond the IT sector as startups too have been laying off employees in recent months due to a funding squeeze.
"Even if a few startups do absorb freshers, they would skim the cream off the top, and not match the high volume intakes that the IT services and product enterprises do," Karanth said.
Some industry veterans said Indian students may be better off looking at other industries.
"We have significantly different opportunities that are better sustainable as career paths" than two decades back, venture capital firm Siana Capital's founder Siddharth Pai said.
Pai highlighted sectors such as financial services, consumer goods, specialised manufacturing, medicine, law, chartered accounting and other services as more viable options.


Sri Lanka to default on debt, no money for fuel, minister says

Sri Lanka is expected to be placed into default by rating agencies on Wednesday after the non-payment of coupons on two of its sovereign bonds, while the energy minister said the country had run out of money to pay for fuel.An economic crisis unprecedented in the country’s history since independence in 1948 has led to a critical shortage of foreign exchange, that saw it miss two coupon payments on sovereign bonds on April 18.Sri Lanka has already said it is unable to make the coupon payments, and a 30-day grace period ends on Wednesday.S&P has said the ratings on the bonds, maturing in 2023 and 2028, have already been cut to ‘default’ and the country’s overall rating could be further cut to ‘D’ on confirmation of the non-payment after the grace period ends.Sri Lanka currently has no dollars to pay for petrol shipments, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera told parliament, appealing to people to stop queuing for the next two days.A petrol shipment has been at Colombo port since 28 March but the government has been unable pay, he added.“There aren’t enough dollars available to open letters of credit,” he said.“We are working to find funds but petrol will not be available at least until the weekend. The very small reserve stock of petrol is being released for essential services like ambulances,” he said.Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Wednesday the country had secured US$160 million in bridge financing from the World Bank, but it was not clear if the funds could be used for fuel payments.“The statistics have gone haywire,” he said. “But the reality is we don’t even have US$1 million.”Hit hard by the pandemic, rising oil prices and populist tax cuts, Sri Lanka’s dire economic situation has led to spiralling inflation and shortages of essential supplies, bringing thousands of onto the streets in protest.Violence between pro- and anti-government factions and police left nine dead and more than 300 injured last week, and was followed by the resignation of former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.


Negotiation council to resolve PH-BN seat overlaps ahead of state polls

Negotiations between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) on the overlapping of nine state seats to be contested in the upcoming six state elections will be resolved by the coalition government negotiation council soon.
PH communication director Fahmi Fadzil said the matter was not an issue, adding he believed that it would be resolved amicably.
"Negotiations will be done internally, and when there is a decision (on the remaining nine seats) which ones belong to PH and BN, then they (BN) are free to decide to field candidates from any of its component party in that seat and likewise for PH," the communication and digital minister told reporters after attending the ConnectAsia 2023 Seminar at the Royale Chulan Damansara in Kuala Lumpur.
Fahmi, however, did not disclose which state seats overlapped between PH and BN.
On Sunday, it was reported that Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said discussions on the seat distribution had been concluded at the BN-PH negotiation committee, except for nine seats.
The six states facing elections soon are Kedah, Penang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Terengganu and Kelantan.
Meanwhile, commenting on the statement made by PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man that the coalition government will be at risk of falling if the state election results are in favour of Perikatan Nasional, Fahmi described it as defying the order of the Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.
"The Johor Sultan has said to stop (politicking). As an elderly, senior party leader, it is not nice for him to say that unless Tuan Ibrahim intends to defy the order.
"After all, some leaders have also said before, and I repeat, that this is state elections. Any decision in the state elections will not affect any seats at the federal level," he added.


Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel draws retaliation

Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired more than 10 rockets into Israel on Friday, prompting retaliatory shelling in a major escalation between the Iran-backed Shiite movement and Jewish state.A flareup along the border this week has seen Israel carry out its first air strikes on Lebanese territory in seven years and Hezbollah claim a direct rocket attack on Israeli territory for the first time since 2019.“This is a very dangerous situation, with escalatory actions seen on both sides over the past two days,” the United Nations peacekeeping force in the border region, Unifil, said in a statement calling on “parties to cease fire and maintain calm”.Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into open ground near Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms border district.It said the attack came in response to Israeli air strikes on south Lebanon Thursday which where the first since 2014.An AFP correspondent in south Lebanon said he heard several explosions and saw smoke rising from around the Shebaa Farms.The Israeli military said more than 10 rockets were fired, most of which it intercepted, while the rest landed in open areas.It released video of multiple vapour trails in the skies and said it was “currently striking the launch sources in Lebanon” but did not elaborate.‘Escalation’Unifil reported an “artillery response from Israel in the Shebaa Farms area”, following the Hezbollah rocket attack.An AFP correspondent in south Lebanon reported artillery fire by Israeli forces on the Shebaa farms and outside the town of Kfarchouba.A series of rocket attacks have been launched from Lebanon towards Israel since Wednesday, but with the exception of Friday’s salvo, they have remained unclaimed.Before Thursday, Israel’s last air strikes on Lebanon dated back to 2014 when warplanes struck territory near the Syrian border.They had not targeted Hezbollah’s south Lebanon strongholds since the militants fought a devastating conflict with Israel in 2006.Lebanon condemned Thursday’s strikes by Israeli as an “escalation” that could mark a change of tactics by Israel, while Unifil urged restraint.Israel has warned repeatedly that it will not allow a power vacuum and a deepening economic crisis in Beirut to undermine security on its northern border.The Israeli military said it “views the state of Lebanon as responsible for all actions originating in its territory, and warns against further attempts to harm Israeli civilians and Israel’s sovereignty”.


Updates: Who gets Putrajaya?

Malaysians enter the fourth day of waiting to learn which coalitions will form the new government following the inconclusive results of the Nov 19 polls.


Bright lights ahead for one-time rubber plantation turned city?

From humble rubber plantation to the third city in the state of Selangor, Subang Jaya is brimming with potential, an economist says following its elevation from municipality today.Yeah Kim Leng, who is attached with Sunway University, said its status as a city could see Subang Jaya receiving higher allocations for development and infrastructure which in turn would allow it to reinforce and maintain its position.“Economically, it has achieved a higher status where generally it will attract more people and therefore higher growth and an enhanced market,” he told MalaysiaNow.“It could sustain more business in terms of volume and diversity, and would be a good address to have for business owners.”Subang Jaya started out as a rubber plantation and developed into a residential township in the 1970s.Once anchored only by the Subang Parade shopping centre and the Subang Jaya Medical Centre – now known as the Sime Darby Medical Centre – it was recognised as a municipality in 1997 and received the green light from the Cabinet to be accredited as a city late last year.“Economically, it has achieved a higher status where generally it will attract more people and therefore higher growth and an enhanced market.”Yeah said it had the potential to attract new industries and provide more job opportunities which would also determine the income profile of its residents.“It all depends on what its natural advantages are and its focus for growth,” he added, suggesting new growth areas like IT, e-commerce and research and development.But he cautioned that this would need proper planning as failure to do so could end up accentuating income inequality.HousingOn room for growth in the property market, Yeah said this would depend on the availability of land as Subang Jaya had been seeing active development for the past few years.He said higher demand coupled with scarcity of land could result in more high-rise buildings.“We will probably be seeing more vertical developments in Subang Jaya,” he said.Ng Seing Liong, former president of the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association, said Subang Jaya had been in demand for about a decade now due to the spillover effect from neighbouring Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.Even without proper data on property demand over the past six months, he predicts that interest in the Subang Jaya area will likely continue given its accessibility to these cities.“Subang Jaya is still considered affordable by KL city folks,” he told MalaysiaNow.He said its new status as a city would give rise to expectations of systematic cleanliness, well-connected accessibility and efficient infrastructure and amenities.“A good public transportation system must be one of its main goals as people will be expecting it,” he added.But in any case, he said, the Subang Jaya council had been performing well so far with no reason for this not to continue.Noraini Roslan.Noraini Roslan, who was announced as mayor of Subang Jaya today, said the main agenda for the city would be laid out in its strategic plan for 2020-2025.“The transformative commitment to sustainable urban development will continue to be integrated, with social, economic and environmental elements remaining the main dimensions,” she said.


PN ready to take on Umno 'arrogance' after 'wasteful' budget process, says Azmin

Perikatan Nasional (PN) information chief Mohamed Azmin Ali today labelled the budget presentation last week an exercise in futility following the prime minister's move to dissolve Parliament, paving the way for a year-end election widely expected to take place amid the annual monsoon-season floods.
Azmin, a member of the Bersatu Supreme Council, said the recent political developments showed that Umno had failed to empathise with the people and to stand with them amid the challenging economic and weather-related conditions.
"The tabling of Budget 2023 was in vain – a waste of time and energy for the members of the public service who had worked hard to prepare it.
"Our priority should be helping the people overcome the current challenges and restart their lives on more secure footing," he said in a statement.
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the dissolution of Parliament on Oct 10, saying this would return the mandate to the people to elect a stable, strong and respectable government.
PN later said while it maintained its view that now was not the right time to hold a general election, it would respect Ismail's decision, in line with the constitution and the consent obtained from Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.
In his statement today, Azmin said PN would not be intimidated by Umno's "stubbornness and arrogance".
"PN will participate in the election, determined to continue its agenda of caring for the people and raising their dignity alongside that of the country.
"PN is committed to taking steps to generate national wealth, drive sustainable economic growth, provide quality job opportunities, improve people's living standards and ensure shared prosperity."


Court sets April 7 for appeal linked to sexual misconduct suit against PM

The Court of Appeal will hear on April 7 an appeal by a former staff member of Anwar Ibrahim against the High Court's dismissal of his bid to strike out several paragraphs from the prime minister's defence in a sexual assault suit filed in July 2021.
The date was fixed during case management yesterday, at which Anwar was represented by Navpreet Singh and Muhammed Yusoff Rawther, by Mahajoth Singh.
Yusoff, who sued Anwar for allegedly assaulting him four years ago, had filed to strike out several paragraphs from Anwar’s defence in September 2021.
He sought to strike out six accusations against him, including those in which the veteran politician mentioned two individuals who are now deceased.
On Sept 9, however, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected his application and ordered him to pay RM3,500 in costs.
Yusoff filed a notice of appeal against the decision later that day.
He said in his suit that the alleged incident had occurred at Anwar’s home in Bukit Segambut about 10 days before the PKR leader won the Port Dickson by-election on Oct 13, 2018.
He is seeking a court declaration that Anwar had committed the sexual assault, as well as general, exemplary and aggravated damages for suffering trauma as well as physical, psychological and sociological disturbances as a result of the alleged incident.
Yusoff first made the allegation against Anwar in a statutory declaration in November 2019, followed by a police report.
During an investigation by Bukit Aman under Section 354 of the Penal Code which deals with criminal force to outrage modesty, police subjected Yusoff to a four-hour polygraph test at Bukit Aman. Anwar meanwhile refused to take the test.
On Jan 14, 2020, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, then under Tommy Thomas, said it would not press charges against Anwar due to "insufficient evidence" and "contradictions" in facts.


Najib to apply for stay of SRC’s civil case pending criminal appeal

Najib Razak will apply for a stay of proceedings in a civil suit filed by SRC International Sdn Bhd against him for alleged breach of trust and breach of statutory duty in relation to the RM4 billion Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) loan to SRC.The former prime minister’s counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee said this was because his client wanted the criminal case involving SRC which is at the appeal stage at the Court of Appeal to be completed before proceeding with the civil suit.“We have informed the court that we are filing for a stay of proceedings of the civil suit until the full disposal of the criminal case. The court has set Nov 4 for the next case management,” he told Bernama after a case management today, conducted online before High Court judge Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin.On July 28 last year, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail and fined him RM210 million after finding him guilty of seven charges of criminal breach of trust (CBT), money laundering and abuse of position involving RM42 million in SRC funds.On May 7, SRC under its new management filed legal action against Najib and its former directors Suboh Md Yassin, Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and Che Abdullah @ Rashidi Che Omar.SRC, a subsidiary of 1MDB, as a plaintiff in the writ of summons alleged that the defendants had conspired and committed breach of trust. It also claimed that the former prime minister had abused his power and obtained personal benefits from SRC funds as well as misappropriated the funds. Najib was SRC’s emeritus adviser from May 1, 2012 until March 4, 2019.SRC, which is now wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc), is seeking a declaration that the defendants are liable to pay the loss of investment funds as a result of the use of the loan amount in addition to claiming general damages, exemplary, additional and interest, costs and other appropriate relief provided by the court.


'Defending Malays is bullsh*t', Umno Supreme Council member quotes leaders at late-night meeting

At least two Umno Supreme Council members have given a glimpse of what transpired at a late-night meeting chaired by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on Wednesday, which led to the decision to back Anwar Ibrahim for the top office despite the party's repeated stance against working with the Pakatan Harapan leader.
Dira Abu Zahar, who is also an assemblyman in Melaka, was apologetic in an Instagram post, saying she had "tried her best".
"I'm not racist. I am just anti-DAP," she wrote.
She then revealed that several Umno leaders believed to be those aligned with Zahid had rubbished an argument during the meeting for the party to defend the Malays – a decades-long battle cry for Umno.
"It is still ringing in my ears, I can still see, the voices of the Umno leaders who disparaged the interests of Malay-Muslims in Malaysia at the Supreme Council meeting yesterday.
"'There is no need to take care of these Malays. All this is bullsh*t," she said without naming the leaders.
Another Supreme Council member, Armand Azha, uploaded an emoji of two hands clasped alongside a Malaysian flag.
There has been almost complete silence from Umno leaders and MPs despite strong statements in the wake of Zahid's declaration of their support for Anwar as prime minister.
The protests came to a head after a letter written by Zahid, committing the coalition's 30 MPs in support of Anwar, based on his "mandate" as BN chairman.
The letter was in conflict with BN's earlier statement that it would remain neutral in the tussle for the top office between Anwar and Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin Yassin.
At a late-night meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 22, Zahid had faced calls to step down, and had to be removed from the conference room after being accused of unilaterally committing MPs' support for Anwar.
MPs including former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein had previously said they were ready to be sacked for not toeing the party line.
Anwar was sworn in as prime minister yesterday, becoming the country's 10th leader and the fourth in under three years.
He said at his first press conference as prime minister that a motion of confidence would be tabled in December to put to rest the question of his support and legitimacy.


New cases dip below 1,700 as 4 more deaths reported

Another 1,627 Covid-19 cases were recorded yesterday, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 4,853,523.
There were 2,379 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 4,794,004.
There are now 23,121 active cases, of which 22,115 or 95.6% are undergoing home quarantine.
Meanwhile, 0 (0.0%) are at quarantine centres while 963 (4.2%) have been hospitalised.
A total of 43 are in ICU with 27 in need of respiratory assistance.
Another four deaths were reported, including one who was brought in dead. Total deaths stand at 36,398.


CM, prominent Sarawakians welcome historic bill on MA63

Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg today thanked MPs across the political divide for putting aside their differences and uniting to pass amendments to the Federal Constitution to bring it in line with the government’s commitment to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).Speaking at an event in Krian today, he said the amendments contained in the bill showed that the supremacy of law was preserved.“I welcome the amendments, especially to Article 160(2) which clarifies the MA63 agreement in the definition (of the federation) including its annex, the IGC,” he said, referring to the Inter-Governmental Committee report.He added that the amendment would strengthen the position of Sabah and Sarawak in the Federation of Malaysia.Sarawak Federation of Chinese Associations president Richard Wee meanwhile said the amendments were a step in the right direction.Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said the amendments would provide greater momentum for the resolution of long-overdue matters related to MA63.“It is the first step towards the devolution of power vested in MA63 which outlines the rights and autonomy of both Bornean states,” Wee said.“I look forward to an increase in momentum in resolving all matters concerning the amendments to ensure that what is rightfully ours is returned to us.”The Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2021 was passed with a two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, receiving the support of all 199 MPs present.This was only the second time in the Dewan Rakyat’s history that MPs voted unanimously in support of a bill to amend the constitution, after the Undi 18 bill in 2019.In 2019, Pakatan Harapan sought to amend the constitution for the same purpose but did not obtain the two-thirds support needed in the Dewan Rakyat.Petros chairman Hamid Bugo said yesterday’s move was commendable but that executing the law was what mattered the most.“In executing any law, the spirit of it is more relevant than the letter,” he said.Meanwhile, Abang Johari who is also chairman of the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak said the coalition would continue to fight for the rights of Sarawak.“We will continue to fight for and defend the rights that have been decided in MA63 through the legal process,” he said.


Britain says China has closed unofficial police stations in UK

British Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said on Tuesday China had closed reported "police service stations" at sites across the UK, and that an investigation had not revealed any illegal activity by the Chinese state at these sites.
Britain has previously said reports of undeclared police stations in the country were "extremely concerning" and that any intimidation on British soil of foreign nationals by China or other states was unacceptable.
China has denied operating any such stations and issued a statement contesting Tugendhat's remarks via its embassy in London, saying the accusations of running police posts in the UK were a "complete political lie".
British police have investigated claims made by the non-governmental human rights organisation Safeguard Defenders that such police stations were operating at three British sites, Tugendhat said in a written statement to parliament.
"I can confirm that they have not, to date, identified any evidence of illegal activity on behalf of the Chinese state across these sites," he said.
"We assess that police and public scrutiny have had a suppressive impact on any administrative functions these sites may have had."
The Chinese government has previously said there are centres outside China run by local volunteers, not Chinese police officers, that aim to help Chinese citizens renew documents and offer other services.
US federal agents arrested two New York residents in April for allegedly operating a Chinese "secret police station" in the Chinatown district of Manhattan. China had said it firmly opposed what it called "the US's slanders and smears".
The British government has said it was aware of about 100 such stations around the world.
"The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office have told the Chinese Embassy that any functions related to such 'police service stations' in the UK are unacceptable and that they must not operate in any form," Tugendhat said.
"The Chinese Embassy have subsequently responded that all such stations have closed permanently. Any further allegations will be swiftly investigated in line with UK law."
Asked about Tugendhat's statement, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in London said in a statement translated from Mandarin by Reuters:
"There is simply no existence of so-called 'overseas police posts.' The facts have proven that the so-called 'overseas police posts' is a complete political lie, and politicians who speculate on this topic are purely in political manipulations.
"The Chinese government urges the UK government to stop spreading false information, to stop generating hype and slandering China."


North Korea accused of hacking Pfizer for Covid-19 vaccine data

North Korea has attempted to steal Covid-19 vaccine technology from US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, according to South Korean intelligence officials.South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency privately briefed lawmakers about the alleged attack on Tuesday, reported local news agency Yonhap.Allegedly, there have also been break-in attempts at other vaccine developers. While many of the attacks failed, Microsoft has warned that some have been successful.It is currently unclear what, if any, data was stolen. The BBC has asked Pfizer to comment but it has yet to respond.North Korea closed its borders in January last year soon after the virus began to emerge in China and has yet to report a single case of Covid-19. However, Pyongyang is due to receive two million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in the coming weeks.In November, Microsoft said at least nine health organisations including Pfizer had been targets of digital intrusion by state-backed hackers in North Korea and Russia.The US tech giant said North Korean groups called Zinc and Cerium, and a Russian group nicknamed Fancy Bear, were responsible.The Kremlin has denied targeting other countries’ vaccine research.Since the start of the pandemic, several governments have been deploying their hackers to gain an advantage. Some of this has been intelligence gathering and some of it the theft of intellectual property in order to play catch-up.North Korea is a closed society but one with advanced cyber-units, which have been willing to target other countries not only for secrets but even just for money.Last year in the UK, the British National Cyber Security Centre threw a protective shield around vaccine research.This year, the focus has shifted more towards protecting the supply chain and rollout of vaccines from disruption.


Muslim women’s group welcomes ruling against Selangor’s Islamic criminal laws

Muslim women’s group Sisters in Islam (SIS) has welcomed the Federal Court ruling declaring as unconstitutional a provision criminalising unnatural sexual intercourse in the Selangor shariah law, saying it will prevent overzealous religious officers from implementing criminal laws which come under the purview of the civil laws.“The persecution by religious enforcement officers under shariah criminal law has led to discrimination, humiliation, violence and injustice such as seen in raids on private premises (private homes, hotel rooms and others),” the group said.It gave as example the case of two women in Terengganu who were sentenced to six lashes by the state shariah court in 2018 after they were charged with having a homosexual relationship.Yesterday, a nine-member bench led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat unanimously held that Section 28 of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995 is void, as it relates to a matter that falls under the federal list in the Federal Constitution, under the Parliament’s power to enact laws.The section makes it an offence under the state’s shariah laws for any person to perform sexual intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, with a fine of not more than RM5,000, a maximum three-year jail term or whipping not exceeding six strokes upon conviction.Tengku Maimum said state legislatures have no power to make laws on matters that are included in the federal list.SIS said the decision should not be seen as undermining the religion of Islam or the Malay rulers who are the heads of Islam in their respective states.“On the other hand, the decision of the Federal Court clarifies the process of enacting laws, especially shariah criminal laws that are seen as going against the spirit of federalism as provided for by the Federal Constitution, the highest law in Malaysia,” it added.SIS said the decision clearly spelt out the limited powers of state assemblies in enacting Islamic laws.It said those charged with criminal laws in the shariah courts had faced difficulty getting legal services as their offences were related to religion.“As a result, many chose to plead guilty without going to trial to avoid embarrassment and humiliation as a result of prosecution under Islamic laws,” said SIS.SIS said laws enacted under the shariah system are not divine, but a result of human interpretation of the Quran, which in turn was adapted as part of the legislation process in the state assemblies.“Islamic values such as justice, dignity and love among fellow humans can be upheld by either the Islamic legal or civil legal system.“The court decision does not weaken Islam in Malaysia. It puts the Islamic and civil legal systems that we have in parallel, where previously there were some uncertainties,” said SIS.


In rare public spat, Zelensky criticises Kyiv mayor over emergency centres

In a rare public spat involving Ukrainian leaders, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday criticised the mayor of Kyiv for doing what he said was a poor job setting up emergency shelters to help those without power and heat after Russian attacks.
In the wake of crushing Russian missile strikes against the power-generating system, Ukraine has established thousands of so-called "invincibility centres" where people can access heat, water, internet and mobile phone links.
In an evening address, Zelensky indicated that Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko and his officials had not done enough to help.
"Unfortunately, local authorities have not performed well in all cities. In particular, there are a lot of complaints in Kyiv... To put it mildly, more work is needed," he said, saying the level of services available in many Kyiv centres was not good enough.
"Please pay attention – the people of Kyiv need more support... a lot of (them) have been without power for 20 or even 30 hours. We expect quality work from the mayor's office."
Zelensky also criticised those who he said had lied in their official reports, but did not give details. More than 4,000 centres have been set up so far.
The remarks were unusual since Zelensky has sought to cultivate an image of national unity during the war and usually showers officials with praise.
Klitschko, a 51-year-old former professional boxer, was elected mayor of Kyiv in 2014. There was no immediate reaction from his office.


No tree but lemang aplenty as Orang Asli villagers keep Christmas spirit alive

In a small wooden hut nestled among the foothills of a forest in Perak, a group of boys build a wood fire on the hard earthen ground.Above the flames, they arrange hollow green bamboo tubes filled with glutinous rice or lemang which they place on a makeshift rack to cook. As they work, the smoke from the fire weaves its way out of the hut and the heat sends beads of sweat running down their faces.Still, they wait, keeping a careful watch over the lemang to make sure that it is well cooked.The traditional dish is often associated in the country with the Muslim celebration of Hari Raya. But in this small village in Perak, it is the centrepiece of a feast cooked for families returning home for Christmas.In a small house across the way, the village women are busy preparing the rest of the festive meal. The clang of pots and pans fills the air as chicken and pork are cooked in turn.Women cook chicken and pork in a bamboo hut at Kampung Pos Slim.The road leading to Kampung Pos Slim is narrow and winding, leading through a zigzag course on the way up to Cameron Highlands.The village itself is located beside a river, over which a wooden bridge stretches, connecting the main road to the settlement.Here, about 500 Semai Orang Asli live in wooden houses scattered throughout the area. Several families are Muslim but the majority are Christians.Bah Alang Sekena, the village chief or tok batin, said the Orang Asli in Kampung Pos Slim have been Christians for a long time, since at least his parents’ generation.“Like other Christians, we celebrate Christmas,” he told MalaysiaNow. “But we celebrate it according to our own culture.”Bah Alang Sekena, the village chief or tok batin of Kampung Pos Slim.As members of the Semai diaspora who live and work elsewhere make their way back to the village for Christmas, the communal cooking picks up pace, reaching a crescendo at about noon.Food is prepared and cooked out in the open, where family after family comes to collect their portion.The Christmas party, as Bah Alang calls it, is held a few days before Christmas Day itself.“We want to honour God and to respect him, just like a child respects his father,” he said.While Christmas celebrations are proceeding in the village, they are less lively than they were before Covid-19 hit.Villagers perform a dance for this year’s Christmas celebration.There is no Christmas carolling or house-to-house singing this year. Small gatherings are held but most families are celebrating the season in their own homes.There are also no visits back and forth with the other villages in the area.“We can’t visit other villages like we did before,” Bah Alang said.As the sun goes down, the village children perform a dance while the elders enjoy the Christmas music playing through a set of speakers.Despite the Covid restrictions and the smaller numbers allowed in one place, the mood is lively and cheerful.Bah Alang said most of the Orang Asli had avoided contact with outsiders throughout the pandemic. They are also always on the lookout for the authorities.The villagers’ main concern is the fines of up to RM1,000 issued to those who breach Covid SOPs. Bah Alang said many of those who were issued compounds could not read or write and had been fined for failing to register themselves before entering shops and other public venues.The construction site of a new church being built in Kampung Pos Slim.This Christmas, the village pastor is not around but his assistant Henry Asmadi has been left in charge of the festivities.The village is for the most part devoid of the trapping associated with Christmas but a spirit of joy is evident among the settlers.Far from the bustle of cities and the neon lights of malls, with no Christmas tree in sight, the Orang Asli prepare to mark the season, with joy and with rest.“Many of us work at the quarries nearby,” Henry, 18, told MalaysiaNow. “On Christmas Day itself, we rest.”


Trash bags full of cash, 'my man' Jho Low in newly released FBI papers involving Hollywood icons

Previously undisclosed documents by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have revealed a trove of details about fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho and his relationship with mega stars such as actor Leonardo DiCaprio and socialite Kim Kardashian, according to a report by Bloomberg Businessweek.
The business weekly reviewed the documents in question, including FBI accounts of interviews with the celebrities on their ties with Low, who has been portrayed as the mastermind of the billion-dollar 1MDB scandal.
In an account of an interrogation in April 2018, DiCaprio was said to have been questioned about the start of his relationship with Low, who financed his 2013 movie "The Wolf of Wall Street".
DiCaprio, who met the businessman in 2010, said they had met in a nightclub and that he was told that Low's money came from "an unknown 'whale of whales' in Abu Dhabi", the report said.
The actor was also asked about discussions he was said to have had with Low on one of the businessman's companies, and an email he had sent to a potential investor describing Low as "my friend" and the "CEO" of the company in question.
The report however noted that according to the FBI account, DiCaprio had no recollection of the talk or the email.
But despite DiCaprio's hazy memories of some events, the report said the FBI investigation showed a close relationship between the two, with thousands of BlackBerry messages and emails collected between them and their associates.
It said DiCaprio had introduced Low as "my man" while Low called DiCaprio "Ldogg", adding that even their mothers had met.
"I was working for him," DiCaprio was quoted as telling a grand jury.
"And that business also translates into being social. And so we saw each other more, and there was more interaction."
FBI investigators also asked DiCaprio about when he became aware of the suspicions surrounding the businessman, noting in the documents that the actor "lives in a world of rumours".
"He did not take any of them seriously until the main negative news stories about Low came out and his team told him it was now serious," they were reported as saying.
The documents also noted an incident in which Low had allegedly promised to donate a piece of art by Roy Lichtenstein for a fundraiser planned by DiCaprio – an artwork that never turned up.
"DiCaprio started to distance himself from Low after this. He was embarrassed," the FBI agents wrote.
Kardashian meanwhile said in an interview in February 2019 that Low had given her US$100,000 for fireworks at her wedding to basketball player Kris Humphries, and offered her a piece of work by Jean-Michel Basquiat some years later.
She also recounted an incident in which she and several others, including "Wolf of Wall Street" co-producers Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland, were at a Las Vegas casino with Low.
She said she had tried to turn over her winnings of US$350,000 to Low at the end of the night, but that the businessman had told her to keep the chips.
She was given US$250,000 in what she told the FBI was a garbage bag filled with US$100 bills, and the other US$100,000 in another garbage bag of cash during a later trip to Las Vegas to party with Low.


Johor blames high Covid numbers on backlog in cases

The Johor state health and environment committee says the high number of Covid-19 infections recorded in the state yesterday was due to a backlog in cases.Johor recorded 2,785 new cases yesterday, the highest daily figure since the pandemic hit the country last year.Committee chairman R Vidyananthan said 57.9% or 1,613 of the newly reported cases were cases that had been more than four days.“The delay is due inaccurate or incomplete information provided, which makes it difficult to locate cases and carry out investigations in the field,” he said.“On average, daily Covid-19 cases have been between 1,500 and 1,700 a day in the last two weeks,” he added in a statement.As of yesterday, the total number of Covid-19 cases in the state was 128,666 with 1,774 deaths recorded.Vidyananthan said an increase of cases in clusters also contributed to the rise with 10 new clusters reported yesterday involving five industrial clusters, two community clusters and three institution-linked clusters in Johor Bahru, Kulai, Kota Tinggi and Kluang.“Industrial clusters accounted for 72% of the active clusters involving 12,201 cases. The high number of positive close contacts, amounting to 1,228 cases, was recorded yesterday thus indicating weaknesses in compliance with existing SOPs,” he added.


Guan Eng fails in suit against daily, MCA leader

The Penang High Court today dismissed a defamation suit filed by former finance minister Lim Guan Eng against MCA vice-president Tan Teik Cheng and the English daily, The Star.
Lim, who is also former DAP secretary-general, filed the suit in March last year over Tan's opinion piece published in the Letter to the Editor section of The Star demanding Lim to explain himself over a claim that RM4 million from the federal treasury given to a Chinese primary school in Johor came with a condition to change its name.
Judicial commissioner Quay Chew Soon in his decision ruled that the comment made by Tan in the opinion piece was not defamatory and ordered Lim to pay RM20,000 to Tan and RM30,000 to the newspaper in costs.
"After a full trial, I dismissed the plaintiff's claim. The statement is not defamatory. The plaintiff is a politician and a senior leader in DAP, which was participating in the Johor state election when the impugned statement was made. DAP is known to be a political adversary of MCA.
"A reasonable man would accept that politicising a Chinese primary school is what a politician, such as the plaintiff, and anyone from DAP, may do under the circumstances. In fact, the plaintiff agreed that he made political speeches about DAP's contribution to Chinese primary schools," he said.
The judge said that it is also an agreed fact that the plaintiff, in the run-up to the Johor state election, stated that during his tenure as the finance minister, he had allocated RM4 million to the Chinese primary school in Johor.
"These, to my mind, are acts of politicising. There is nothing therefore in the allegation of 'politicising' that had the tendency to expose the plaintiff to hatred, ridicule or contempt in the mind of a reasonable man or would tend to lower him in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally.
"The impugned statement, when read as a whole, is merely a call for Lim to explain the allegations which had arisen in the course of the Johor state election and which he had not denied," he added.
Lim was represented by Simon Murali and Kok Yuen Lin; Tan by Ng Kian Nam, Tan Paik Hong, and Law Quan Wei; and The Star by Abdullah Abdul Rahman and Deanna Ternisha.


Democrats forge ahead to impeach Trump, again

US Democrats said Sunday they would push to remove President Donald Trump from office during the final days of his administration after his supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol, with some Republicans supporting the move.Trump could face a historic second impeachment before the Jan 20 inauguration of Democrat Joe Biden, at a time when the US is hit by a surging pandemic, a flagging economy and searing division.House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, said there would be a resolution on Monday calling for the cabinet to remove Trump as unfit for office under the Constitution’s 25th amendment.If Vice President Mike Pence does not agree to invoke the amendment, “we will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation” in the House, Pelosi said.“As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action,” she added.Trump was already impeached once by the Democratic-controlled House in December 2019 for pressuring the Ukrainian president to dig up political dirt on Biden.He was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate.Though time is running short, Democrats likely have the votes in the House to impeach Trump again and could draw increased Republican support for the move.But they are unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump in the 100-member Senate and remove him from office.‘Incitement to violence’Authorities are seeking to arrest more Trump supporters who violently stormed the Capitol on Wednesday after the president held a rally outside the White House repeating false claims that he had lost the election to Biden due to fraud.Trump’s immediate resignation “is the best path forward,” Republican Senator Pat Toomey told CNN on Sunday, adding, “That would be a very good outcome.”Toomey said that since losing the Nov 3 vote, Trump had “descended into a level of madness and engaged in activity that was absolutely unthinkable, and unforgivable.”Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the first Republican senator to demand Trump’s resignation, saying, “I want him out.” House Republicans, including Adam Kinzinger on Sunday, have echoed that call.The article of impeachment is set to charge Trump with inciting Wednesday’s violence, which left five people dead.Hundreds of off-duty police on Sunday lined Constitution Avenue in Washington and saluted as a hearse rolled slowly by carrying the body of Brian Sicknick, the police officer who died in the attack on the Capitol.Capitol security has been stepped up, with a seven-foot-tall (about two meters) black metal fence erected around the historic building. Extremists have threatened new action in coming days both in Washington and state capitals.Trump goes quietOne reason Democrats might pursue conviction, even after Trump leaves office, is to prevent him from ever being able to run again for federal office.The president is reportedly furious over Pence’s rejection of Trump’s vocal pressure to somehow intervene in the Congressional confirmation on Wednesday of the election result.Trump has gone largely silent in recent days – making few statements and holding no news conferences. Twitter, his favored public platform, has banned him for language that could incite violence.He plans to travel to Texas on Tuesday in one of his final trips as president to highlight his claims of building a border wall to keep immigrants from Mexico out of the US.Senate rules mean the upper chamber would likely be unable to open an impeachment trial before Jan 19, and Toomey said he was unsure it was constitutionally possible to impeach someone once out of office.Some Democrats, for their part, have expressed concern that a Senate trial would overshadow and hamper Biden’s efforts to quickly lay out his agenda, starting with the fight against the coronavirus and the need to support the economy.“Let’s give president-elect Biden the 100 days” at the start of his term to deal with the most urgent issues, Democratic House whip James Clyburn told CNN.“Maybe we’ll send the articles sometime after that.”But Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a centrist Democrat whose vote could be crucial in the new, evenly divided Senate, told CNN an impeachment after Jan 20 “doesn’t make any common sense whatsoever.”


Tuan Ibrahim quizzes govt on scrapping projects that haven't begun

PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man today questioned the government's claim of as much as RM2 billion saved through the scrapping of flood mitigation projects, saying that in some cases, these projects had yet to begin.
Speaking during the debate on the Supply Bill 2023 in the Dewan Rakyat, the Kubang Kerian MP referred to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's announcement last week of the termination of six flood mitigation projects.
Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said the country could save RM2 billion of the RM15 billion allocation for flood mitigation, the procurement of which must be done through tenders.
He said the six projects would be retendered by June, naming the flood mitigation plan for Sungai Johor, Kota Tinggi; the construction of a dual-purpose reservoir for flood mitigation and raw water supply source at Sungai Rasau and Sungai Klang; and the development of the Sungai Golok Integrated River Basin Phase 3 in Kelantan.
Tuan Ibrahim, the former environment and water minister, asked how these projects would be ended given that they had yet to begin.
"Tambun (Anwar) mentioned Phase 3 of the  Sungai Golok Integrated River Basin. Phase 2 hasn't even begun yet, and a contractor has yet to be appointed for Phase 3.
"How will savings be made from this?" he asked.
Likewise, he said, no contractor had yet been appointed for the dual-purpose reservoir at Sungai Rasau.
"This hasn't been carried out yet and is still under the finance ministry," he said, urging Anwar to clarify the matter in the Dewan Rakyat.
"During the last session, the prime minister saw the allocation of RM1 billion given as most of these delayed projects were from the Ninth Malaysia Plan," he said.
Tuan Ibrahim also advised against any changes to the plans implemented by the previous administration, saying these always lead to losses for the country.
"If we postpone these projects, the government will suffer losses instead of saving because the costs will increase and bring effects every time the flood season hits.
"The country loses RM6 billion to RM7 billion every time there are floods," he said.


Meta axes another 10,000 jobs in new round of cuts

Facebook owner Meta announced a fresh wave of job cuts on Tuesday, part of what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the company's "year of efficiency" as the US tech sector continues to downsize.
In an email to employees, Zuckerberg said Meta would shed 10,000 jobs over the next few months, targeting middle management, and that 5,000 other roles would remain unfilled.
The cuts follow a cull of 11,000 positions announced by the company in November that started a wave of similar jobs cuts across big tech companies, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft, but not Apple.
With the second announcement, the California-based company will have rid itself of roughly 25% of its workforce in just four months.
"This will be tough and there's no way around that. It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success," Zuckerberg said.
The first victims will be Meta's recruitment department as the company officially puts an end to the hiring spree that came when big tech ramped up operations to meet high demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
In subsequent months, tech and business departments will also be affected and "in a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes," Zuckerberg said.
In January, the multibillionaire Meta founder warned that further pain was coming when he told analysts the company's "management theme for 2023 is the 'Year of Efficiency'" and that he would focus on making the company "a stronger and more nimble organisation."
Meta had suffered a rough 2022 amid a souring economic climate, which forced advertisers to cut back on marketing, and Apple's data privacy changes, which have reduced leeway for ad personalisation.
"For most of our history, we saw rapid revenue growth year after year and had the resources to invest in many new products. But last year was a humbling wake-up call," Zuckerberg wrote.
"I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years."
Leaner, faster?
The company is also under pressure for making a huge gamble on the metaverse, the world of virtual reality that Meta believes will be the next frontier online.
"Zuckerberg promised investors that 2023 would be a year of efficiency for Meta and he needs to make good on that," said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg.
"Meta knows it needs to downplay its farfetched and costly metaverse ambitions, and highlight the work it's doing in the near term to improve its core services as new threats, like AI, rise," she added.
In another blow to the metaverse promise, Zuckerberg said early analysis showed that engineers collaborating in person with colleagues were more efficient than those working remotely.
He said the company was "focusing on understanding this further," but that "in the meantime, I encourage all of you to find more opportunities to work with your colleagues in person."
The problems last year sent the company's share price down by an astonishing two thirds over 12 months, but the stock has recovered in 2023, with investors satisfied by Zuckerberg's pledge to run a leaner company.
Meta's share price shot up by more than 7% after the announcement of the latest job cuts.
Meta's chief executive said he "will make our organisation flatter by removing multiple layers of management" which would mean many managers will be ordered to become "individual contributors."
Zuckerberg explained he was pleasantly surprised by the benefits of running a more tightly organised operation where "many things have gone faster" with the elimination of lower priority projects.
"A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster. People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling," he said.


Report on Batang Kali landslide to be ready by end of the month, says minister

The report on the Batang Kali landslide tragedy is expected to be completed at the end of the month and will be presented to the Cabinet before being finalised for further action.
Public Works Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi said in a statement that his ministry, through the Public Works Department (JKR) in collaboration with relevant government agencies, was preparing the final draft report.
"I understand that many parties, including the families of the affected victims, want to know or get the final report of the incident, therefore I assure that JKR is doing its best to complete this process," he said.
Nanta said among the elements that were taken into account in the completion of the report were soil investigation tests in the field and laboratory as well as data analysis.
"It is important that data from this test is analysed to determine the failure mechanism by various experts including from the aspects of geology and geotechnical engineering," he said. The tragedy which occurred on Dec 16, 2022 at about 2.30am involved 92 victims. A total of 61 survived while 31 died after a landslide buried the Father's Organic Farm camping area in Batang Kali.
The incident claimed the lives of 18 adults and 13 children.


PH choice Johari Abdul elected as Dewan speaker

Former Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul has been elected as Dewan Rakyat speaker, winning 147 votes in the House against former home minister Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad who obtained 74.
Johari was nominated by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on behalf of the government while Radzi was nominated by Perikatan Nasional secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin, representing the opposition.
The motion to appoint a new speaker was made as soon as the first meeting of the first term of the 15th Parliament convened at 10am today.
Dewan Rakyat secretary Nizam Mydin Bacha Mydin said he had received letters proposing the names of Johari and Radzi from Anwar and Hamzah on Dec 5.
As more than one name was submitted, a written vote was held among the MPs, in line with Meeting Rule 4 (3).
Former speaker Azhar Harun, who held the role since July 13, 2020, stepped down effective Dec 18.
Lanang MP Alice Lau and Cameron Highlands MP Ramli Md Nor were elected as deputy speakers with 146 and 148 votes respectively.
PN candidate Masjid Tanah MP Mas Ermieyati meanwhile received only 74 votes.


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Tough road for DAP towards ballot box in Johor

As political parties continue to jostle for support in the run-up to the Johor election on March 12, analysts say DAP may witness a drop in support similar to the outcome of the recent polls in Melaka and Sarawak where many Chinese voters reversed the endorsement given at the 14th general election (GE14) four years ago.At the Melaka election on Nov 20 last year, Barisan Nasional (BN) component MCA pulled off a comeback in two seats – Machap Jaya and Kelebang – after facing rejection from voters at several previous general elections.MCA also won the 2019 by-election in Tanjung Piai, wresting the seat from Pakatan Harapan (PH).At GE14, meanwhile, MCA president Wee Ka Siong defeated Johor DAP chief Liew Chin Tong in the tussle for the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat although the state itself fell to PH for the first time.In Johor, some voters who spoke to MalaysiaNow were lukewarm about DAP, which was previously seen as commanding the undivided support of the Chinese community.Chan Lay, who will vote in the state constituency of Perling this Saturday, said he no longer trusted DAP as many of its promises were not fulfilled.“They lied about the Foon Yew school issue, and about abolishing toll,” the 66-year-old said.He was referring to the Foon Yew High School which became the subject of controversy after a visit by former prime minister Najib Razak as part of his campaign for the Johor election.DAP’s Damansara MP Tony Pua had lashed out at the school for welcoming Najib who was convicted of corruption in 2020, sentenced to 12 years’ jail and fined RM210 million.Chan, who makes a living selling cakes and kuih around the Perling area, said he had voted for PH in 2018. This time, though, he said he was more inclined to support BN.Political analyst Oh Ei Sun said such sentiments remained despite the passing of two years since PH had held administrative control.“There is undeniably a huge chunk of Chinese voters who are disenchanted or disappointed with DAP and PH for not having delivered on some long standing demands,” Oh, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, told MalaysiaNow.Nevertheless, he said not many were prepared to throw their support behind either BN or Perikatan Nasional (PN) instead. As a result, he said, most of these would choose to sit out the state election instead of turning out to vote.But political fatigue is not the only challenge in Johor for PH and DAP.Another resident in Perling who wished to be known as Heng said he was still undecided about whether to head to the polling centre given the high number of Covid-19 infections reported each day.However, he said he would continue to support DAP because of the corruption issues surrounding BN.“The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission would act swiftly if DAP politicians are involved in graft because BN still holds power at the federal level,” he said.“So let’s give the government at the state level to the opposition.”But while he still supports DAP, Heng said he does not trust Liew, the party’s leader in Johor, whom he described as an outsider.Liew lost the Ayer Hitam seat to Wee at GE14 with a margin of only 303 votes.While he retained his post of DAP chairman in Johor, he was also embroiled in fights between different camps in the state chapter.He previously warned that infighting would affect DAP’s chances at the ballot box in Johor.In the town of Yong Peng, Chinese sentiments were veiled with most unwilling to discuss political matters with outsiders.But a low turnout is likely to affect DAP’s prospects, as was the case in Melaka.Ong, a mechanic in the town who spoke to MalaysiaNow, said he would not go out to vote on Saturday.Describing this as a “silent protest”, Oh said such voters would be targeted by parties like Warisan and Muda who offer themselves as a third force.Najib meanwhile is favoured by large businesses while SMEs are split between BN and DAP.MCA is contesting 15 seats in Johor while DAP is fielding candidates in 14. This will see clashes in all of the seats involved except for Puteri Wangsa where DAP is giving way to the candidate from Muda.PN meanwhile is fighting for a share of the Chinese vote as well, with its chairman Muhyiddin Yassin attempting in a recent speech to allay concerns over Islamist party PAS.Muhyiddin, who was prime minister from March 2020 to August 2021, said PAS had not spoken of hudud at any point of his administration.But Oh said that PN’s Chinese component party Gerakan had yet to win over the community’s vote, saying it would have to work hard to prove itself as a viable option.


Russia and China threaten to create global 'danger and disorder', says UK's Sunak

Britain cast China as representing an "epoch-defining challenge" to the world order, in an update to its foreign policy framework published on Monday which declared that the UK's security hinged on the outcome of the Ukraine war.
In the refresh of Britain's blueprint for security and international policy, the government warned of China’s deepening partnership with Russia, and Moscow’s growing cooperation with Iran following the invasion of Ukraine.
Only first released two years ago, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Britain's Integrated Review (IR) had been updated to take account of events, with the hardening of language and positioning towards Beijing and Moscow.
But the decision to still not describe China as a threat was likely to disappoint many in Sunak's governing Conservative Party, who also believe his vow to spend an extra US$6 billion (about RM27 billion) on defence is insufficient to support Ukraine without leaving Britain vulnerable.
"What could not be fully foreseen in 2021 was the pace of the geopolitical change and the extent of its impact on the UK and our people," Sunak wrote in a foreword to the IR.
"Since then, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, weaponisation of energy and food supplies and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric, combined with China’s more aggressive stance in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, are threatening to create a world defined by danger, disorder and division."
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told parliament on Monday China's size and significance connected it "to almost every global issue".
"We cannot be blind to the increasingly aggressive military and economic behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party, including stoking tensions across the Taiwan Strait," he said.
The unveiling of the update has been choreographed to coincide with Sunak's visit to San Diego to agree the next steps in a landmark defence agreement, AUKUS, with US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
Of Britain's extra defence spending, £3 billion will go towards nuclear projects, including help for Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, part of efforts to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.
When it was first published in 2021, the Integrated Review described China as a "systemic competitor" - a term some in Sunak's party said was mealy-mouthed.
"China under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses an epoch-defining and systemic challenge with implications for almost every area of government policy and the everyday lives of British people," the updated document said.
"It has pursued rapid and opaque military modernisation with huge new investments, militarised disputed islands in the South China Sea, and refused to renounce the use of force to achieve its objectives with regard to Taiwan."
While it outlined that Britain would step up its national security protections and boost work with partners in the region, the government said its preference remained for better cooperation and understanding with Beijing.
"But we believe that this will depend on the choices China makes, and will be made harder if trends towards greater authoritarianism and assertiveness overseas continue," it said.
Russia threat
While saying tensions in the Indo-Pacific "could have global consequences greater than the conflict in Ukraine", Britain said Russia still remained the most acute threat.
"What has changed is that our collective security now is intrinsically linked to the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine," the IR added.
Britain and other Western countries have scaled up their pledges of military aid for Ukraine this year, with promises of tanks and armoured vehicles, as well as longer-range weapons.
On the other hand, they have expressed concern at support for Russia being potentially offered by China and Iran.
"China’s deepening partnership with Russia and Russia’s growing cooperation with Iran in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine are two developments of particular concern," the IR said.
With Sunak under pressure to do more to help the defence ministry combat inflation and replace weapons sent to Ukraine, two billion pounds will go towards replenishing and increasing conventional stockpiles and investing in munitions infrastructure.
He also outlined an "aspiration" to increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product in the longer term.


Court instructs Anwar to file defence in sexual assault suit by Sept 28

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has given Anwar Ibrahim until Sept 28 to file his defence against a suit by his former staff, accusing the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman of sexual assault last year.The court also gave Muhammed Yusoff Rawther until Oct 13 to file a reply to the defence.The decision was made by deputy registrar Ida Mas Liza Maarof during case management for the suit today, with the next session fixed on Oct 29.On July 15, Yusoff, 28, filed a suit containing shocking and explicit details of an incident at Anwar’s home in Bukit Segambut, which he said took place about 10 days before the politician won the Port Dickson by-election on Oct 13, 2018.He said he had suffered serious trauma as well as physical, psychological and sociological disturbances as a result of the incident.Yusoff is seeking a court declaration that the PKR leader had committed the sexual assault, as well as general, exemplary and aggravated damages which include the cost of the therapy sessions he is currently attending.Yusoff said he worked at Anwar’s bungalow office in Bukit Gasing, Petaling Jaya, where he was also given accommodation, and was tasked with conducting research on policy matters, preparing speeches, as well as handling correspondence with foreign dignitaries and business leaders.He has separately filed civil suits against Anwar’s two aides seeking compensation for injuries and defamatory remarks.Yusoff claimed that Anwar’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak had assaulted him some seven months after the alleged sexual assault incident.Yusoff first made the allegations against Anwar in a statutory declaration in November 2019. A police report was subsequently lodged, followed by weeks of investigation by Bukit Aman under Section 354 of the Penal Code which deals with criminal force to outrage modesty.During investigations, the police subjected Yusoff to a four-hour polygraph test at Bukit Aman. Anwar meanwhile refused to take the test.On Jan 14, 2020, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, then under Tommy Thomas, said it would not press charges against Anwar due to “insufficient evidence” and “contradictions” of facts.Three days later, Anwar said he would file a defamation suit against Yusoff over his Nov 19 statutory declaration although he later decided against this.


EU fines Moody’s €3.7 million over conflicts of interest

Europe’s markets watchdog announced on Tuesday a €3.7 million (US$4.3 million) fine against five European entities of Moody’s credit ratings agency over breaches of conflict of interest rules.The violations involved the US-based agency’s operations in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, according to the European Securities and Markets Authority.The biggest fine – €2.7 million – was imposed on Moody’s UK.The violations include delivering new ratings in violation of a ban on issuing them on outfits in which a credit rating agency shareholder exceeds a 10% ownership threshold and/or is a board member.The other breaches include failing to disclose conflicts of interest and inadequate internal policies and procedures to manage shareholder conflicts of interest, the regulator said.“All the breaches were found to have resulted from negligence on the part of Moody’s,” the watchdog said in a statement.


Without PN and Malay support, it's not a unity govt, says Bersatu

Bersatu says the government to be formed by Anwar Ibrahim is not a unity government as Perikatan Nasional (PN) is not part of it.
Bersatu deputy president Ahmad Faizal Azumu said PN which he described as the coalition representative of the Malays, was not part of the government to be formed between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN).
"Anwar became prime minister not with the support of the majority, but through political arrangements with BN despite his campaign promise to the people that he would not join forces with BN which is embroiled in scandals and corruption.
"This is unlike Muhyiddin Yassin who refused to work with Zahid or drop the corruption charges against him during his time as prime minister," he said in a statement.
The proposal for a unity government was made by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah in order to break the political impasse following the results of the 15th general election.
Gabungan Parti Sarawak, which initially threw its support behind PN, said after an audience with the king that it would comply with Sultan Abdullah's decree.
Umno meanwhile said it would support the proposal for a unity government but not one led by PN.
The palace, in announcing the king's consent for Anwar to be made the prime minister, had made no mention of a unity government in its statement.


Now, PT3 exam to be scrapped

The Form 3 Assessment (PT3) exam will be abolished starting this year, the second major examination to be scrapped after the Standard Six UPSR paper was done away with last year.Education Minister Radzi Jidin said his ministry would instead implement summative assessments and empower the final test of the academic session.He said in the absence of PT3, students would be assessed through three methods, namely classroom assessments, physical activity, sports and co-curricular assessments and psychometric assessments.“Even though there is no central assessment (PT3), Form One, Two and Three students will sit for an end-year test using the question bank provided by the education ministry for all subjects,” he said at a media conference to announce the PT3 abolishment today.The PT3 exam was introduced in 2014. However, it was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.MORE TO COME


Pfizer says anti-viral pill cuts risk of severe Covid by 89%

A trial of Pfizer Inc’s experimental anti-viral pill for Covid-19 was stopped early after the drug was shown to cut by 89% the chances of hospitalisation or death for adults at risk of developing severe disease, the company said on Friday.The results appear to surpass those seen with Merck & Co Inc’s pill molnupiravir, which was shown last month to halve the likelihood of dying or being hospitalised for Covid-19 patients also at high risk of serious illness.Full trial data is not yet available from either company.Pfizer said it plans to submit interim trial results for its pill, which is given in combination with an older antiviral called ritonavir, to the US Food and Drug Administration as part of the emergency use application it opened in October.The combination treatment, which will have the brand name Paxlovid, consists of three pills given twice daily.The planned analysis of 1,219 patients in Pfizer’s study looked at hospitalisations or deaths among people diagnosed with mild to moderate Covid-19 with at least one risk factor for developing severe disease, such as obesity or older age.It found that 0.8% of those given Pfizer’s drug within three days of symptom onset were hospitalised and none had died by 28 days after treatment. That compared with a hospitalization rate of 7% for placebo patients. There were also seven deaths in the placebo group.Rates were similar for patients treated within five days of symptoms – 1% of the treatment group was hospitalised, compared with 6.7% for the placebo group, which included 10 deaths.Antivirals need to be given as early as possible, before an infection takes hold, in order to be most effective. Merck tested its drug within five days of symptom onset.“We saw that we did have high efficacy, even if it was five days after a patient has been treated… people might wait a couple of days before getting a test or something, and this means that we have time to treat people and really provide a benefit from a public health perspective,” Annaliesa Anderson, head of the Pfizer programme, told Reuters.The company did not detail side effects of the treatment, but said adverse events happened in about 20% of both treatment and placebo patients.“These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of Covid-19 infections, and eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalizations,” Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said in a statement.Infectious disease experts stress that preventing Covid-19 through wide use of vaccines remains the best way to control the pandemic, but only 58% of Americans are fully vaccinated and access in many parts of the world is limited.Pfizer’s drug, part of a class known as protease inhibitors, is designed to block an enzyme the coronavirus needs in order to multiply.Merck’s molnupiravir has a different mechanism of action designed to introduce errors into the genetic code of the virus. Merck has already sold millions of courses of the treatment, which was approved this week by UK regulators, to the US, the UK and others.Britain said earlier this month it had secured 250,000 courses of Pfizer’s antiviral.Pfizer is also studying whether its pill could be used by people without risk factors for serious Covid-19 as well as to prevent coronavirus infection in people exposed to the virus.


Italian woman accidentally gets 6 doses of Pfizer vaccine

A 23-year-old Italian woman was under observation in a hospital in Tuscany after receiving six doses of the Pfizer vaccine in error, news agency AGI reported Monday.The woman was in good condition after receiving fluids and paracetamol following the injection Sunday, AGI reported.Instead of injecting just one dose into the arm of the student, a nurse mistakenly injected the entire vial, the equivalent of six doses.Previous studies to test overdoses of the Pfizer vaccine were limited to four doses, AGI wrote.The incident has been reported to Italy’s medicine regulator.Overdoses of the Pfizer vaccine have previously been reported in the US, Australia, Germany and Israel.


Flight ticket cartels behind soaring umrah costs?

Industry players have pointed the finger at parties involved in the resale at higher prices of flight tickets to Mecca and Medina as one of the factors behind the increase in the cost of performing the umrah or the so-called lesser pilgrimage.
Razali Mohd Sham, president of the Association of Umrah and Hajj Travel Agencies, said such activities had been detected as far back as five years ago.
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said agents would buy tickets to Mecca from airlines at wholesale prices, thus preventing umrah agencies from buying the tickets themselves.
The tickets would then be kept and resold at nearly double the price.
"They will sell the tickets at the last minute, at cut-throat prices," he said.
"Even in February, they will have begun their sale of tickets, little by little."
Umrah package prices are expected to hit RM10,000 per person in the near future, from the current level of about RM8,000.
Razali said travel agencies would find that tickets to Mecca and Medina could not be purchased through the airline systems, adding that it was understood that they had been bought in advance.
Checks nevertheless revealed that some flights to Mecca or Medina were almost empty, despite the system showing that seats had been purchased.
"Say there are 70,000 seats available for sale," he said.
"They buy about 50,000. So there are only 20,000 spots left."
Razali said his party had recently met with the tourism, arts and culture ministry to discuss the issue.
He said meetings had also been held with airlines, but that no further action had been taken.
He suggested that the umrah ticket purchasing system be upgraded.
"They should make it a condition that the passenger's name is required for the purchase of tickets," he said.
"If there is no name, the ticket should not be sold."  Nearly 300,000 pilgrims from Malaysia head to Mecca and Medina every year.
MalaysiaNow previously reported that the numbers showed no sign of abating despite the rising costs.


Between mining and logging, Tasik Chini’s fate hangs in the balance

Eagles soar overhead and gibbons call to each other from the trees around Tasik Chini as Abang casts his nets over the side of his small boat.A soft breeze rustles the leaves, making ripples on the surface of the water. From time to time, Abang pulls in his nets to check on his catch.Abang, an Orang Asli from the Jakun tribe, has been catching fish at the lake, the second largest freshwater lake in the peninsula, since he was five years old. He also works on his family’s rubber plantation in Kampung Gumum.He used to paddle about the lake in a traditional rowboat. Now, though, he uses a modern boat with an engine.He and several other Orang Asli families in the area depend on the lake and the surrounding forest for their survival.But while his methods may have been modernised, other developments leave him missing the good old days.For instance, his daily catch is nowhere near as good as it was a decade ago.Another Orang Asli from the Jakun tribe pulls in his nets to check on his catch of fish as a bird wings its way overhead.“Before, we could catch many fish, all of them big. But now, we get only a handful of fish each week and they are all small,” he told MalaysiaNow.He said things began changing after the start of mining activities in the area.This is a problem for him as the fish he catches goes towards feeding his family. Anything extra is sold to the other villagers.Fishing is not the only thing that has changed with time – tourism activities in the area have gone from bad to worse with the onslaught of Covid-19, and the villagers fear the worst will soon arrive if the lake’s ecosystem is left unattended.Pak Karim stands in the shallow waters near the banks of Tasik Chini, next to his boat which has remained largely idle since the beginning of the lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.Pak Karim, a boat operator at Tanjung Puput, said the mining activity in the vicinity had marred the natural landscape.“We are worried that tourists won’t want to come here anymore because the view is gone,” he said.“The water in the lake has also become cloudier due to sediment. We used to be able to bathe here and drink the water, but not anymore.”Like many others in the tourism industry, Pak Karim has had a rough year thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. The lack of tourists left him unable to earn any money at all.Even the little he earned on the side by ferrying students to school, he lost when schools were closed under the movement control order.He recalled how, before the pandemic struck, tourists from all over the world would visit the lake and the Orang Asli villages around it.But all that might be only a thing of the past, even after the Covid-19 crisis subsides. The lake has been getting smaller and more and more cloudy due to mining and logging activities in the area.Tractors and other heavy machinery stand stationary at Tasik Chini.Maketab Mohamad, a researcher who has been studying the lake for 30 years, said the Tasik Chini ecosystem began failing with the construction of a dam in 1995.“The issue that emerged was the construction of the dam at Kuala Sungai Chini that was related to the regulation of water in the lake.“Many Orang Asli were upset because the quality of the water was affected,” Maketab told MalaysiaNow.The dam was built ostensibly to prevent the water level from dropping, Maketab said, adding however that nature has its own system for taking care of itself.He said many water guava plants had died because they were submerged in water for too long.“There was also the problem of mines, although at that time there was only one,” he said.“Mining activities fluctuated based on market demand for the manganese and iron ore mined in this area.”The issue, he said, was the maintenance of the mines. Lack of maintenance would cause solids and sediment from the mines to settle in the lake – something that Pak Karim said he had witnessed himself.Maketab said problems occurred with floods, where water from the lake would spill over into the mining pool and cause a carryover of dirt and solids from the mining area.A man walks across a dried-up patch of earth near a mining area at Tasik Chini.“It takes about a month for the water to subside,” he said. “A lot of silt can be carried over in that time.”There was also an effect on the size and depth of the lake, which gradually became smaller and more shallow, he said.According to one model, he said, Tasik Chini would only last several more years before being downgraded to a swamp and then completely drying up.He hailed the conservation efforts by the state government but said these need to be monitored.“Replanting trees needs to be an ongoing effort, not just for the media spotlight,” he said, referring to the state’s initiative to set out trees and creepers in affected areas.“Before this, we planted trees in non-hostile, non-acidic locations. Even that took five years. They must monitor what happens during those five years, and see what happens after that.”MalaysiaNow understands that previous replanting efforts were also destroyed by mining activities.There are 14 mines with licences, only two of which have yet to expire. While the expiry of the licences comes as good news for the Orang Asli, it is understood that mining activities will be ramped up towards the end of the licensed period.Awang Alok, the tok batin or leader of Kampung Gumum, hopes for a complete stop to all mining activities.Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said work often continues into the night, disturbing what little peace they have left.“If their licence ends, let it end. Don’t renew it. That is my hope.”


Greece arrests 5 migrants for burning down own camp

Greek police have arrested five migrants over the huge fire on Lesbos island which destroyed their own overcrowded camp last week, according to the BBC.The Greek government claimed the Moria camp migrants were angry over isolation rules imposed to curb the coronavirus outbreak and had started the blaze themselves.Migrants denied that, blaming hostile locals for setting fire to their tents.The Moria camp was initially designed to house 3,000 but at the time it was destroyed it was having to cope with more than 12,000.It was squalid and unhealthy, as well as being prone to outbursts of violence.Following the levelling of Moria, about 800 who fled the blaze have now been moved to a new temporary camp.The vast majority are still sleeping rough wherever they can.The Greek government aims to shelter all of the 12,000 in the new camp, though it acknowledges that most are reluctant to go there. After the squalor of Moria most want to go elsewhere in Europe.Migrants fear the new camp will become permanent. They are not happy on their Greek island home, seen by tourists as idyllic.“These people are desperate, they do not want to live in army tents and will do anything to escape the camp and the island and get to Europe, especially Germany,” a local told the BBC World Service.Greece has accused wealthier northern EU nations of failing to share their burden as columns and boatloads of migrants continue to arrive in their country, mostly from the Middle East and Africa.Central and eastern Europe members of the EU reject the idea of being forced to take in any quota of migrants.The German government has now agreed to take in 1,553 of the migrants displaced from Moria, but so far they are the only country to offer to take any at all.