PM announces ‘difficult decision’ to allow more EPF withdrawals

The government has succumbed to calls for further withdrawals from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) despite warnings by the retirement fund itself after months of resisting calls by a group of politicians led by former prime minister Najib Razak.Announcing the decision today, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said contributors would once again be allowed to withdraw up to RM10,000, similar to the earlier rounds permitted at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.Ismail however said this was a difficult decision as it involved savings meant for the people’s old age.“Although the government is giving permission for this special EPF withdrawal, I appeal to contributors to maintain their savings unless the situation is really desperate,” he said, adding that the government felt the decision was a middle-ground solution.Ismail’s announcement comes in the wake of incessant calls by politicians aligned with Najib as well as PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim, both of whom made EPF withdrawals a campaign issue at the newly concluded Johor state election.The EPF had responded to such calls last December by pointing out that the country’s social protection had been pushed to the limit after a series of earlier withdrawals due to the Covid-19 crisis.The fund said the approach of using EPF savings during emergencies was worrying as members were left with insufficient savings for their retirement.


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Death by bureaucracy

I’ve been an anti-death penalty activist for 10 years. In this time, I’ve tried my best to observe and document the application of capital punishment in Singapore, and to support the families of death row inmates as they navigate the system. When people ask me about this work, I tell them that one of the most horrifying things about the death penalty is how utterly administrative it all is.There’s no better case to illustrate this clinical cruelty than what’s happening with Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam and his family right now.In a letter dated Oct 26, Nagaenthran’s family received the worst news: the Singaporean authorities had scheduled his execution for Nov 10, just a little over two weeks away.“We will facilitate extended visits with him on a daily basis… until Nov 9, 2021 (Tuesday),” read a letter, from the Singapore Prison Service, addressed to his mother.“Please contact the officers listed in paragraph 12 to let them know if you and/or your family members will be travelling to Singapore to visit your son.”Nagaenthran’s family live in Malaysia. Although Singapore has launched Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) with multiple countries, allowing fully vaccinated individuals to travel without having to quarantine, there is no such arrangement with our neighbour to the north. The notice of Nagaenthran’s execution thus came with pages of Covid-19 travel guidelines and requirements.On Oct 28, I was put in touch with Sharmila, one of Nagaenthran’s sisters. As if having to deal with news of her brother’s imminent execution wasn’t enough, she was overwhelmed by all the rules for pandemic travel. When I asked if I could take a look at the full letter from the prison, she sent me photos of 10 pages – most to do with Singapore’s Covid-19 requirements for travellers.This is how things will go for the family to come to Singapore to see Nagaenthran before his scheduled execution:They first have to figure out who in the family will be able to travel to Singapore (the prison said that they can facilitate travel and stay for up to five people), which involves working out who’s able to apply for leave from work at short notice. They also have to make sure that anyone who travels is fully vaccinated (which, thankfully, they are).Once decided on a travel date, they have to apply for entry approval via an online form. There needs to be one form per traveller.Once the entry approval application is submitted, they have to inform the prison officer right away. (I assume that this is so that the prison officer can make sure that the application is prioritised and approved.)Once entry approval is granted, they have to pre-pay for the PCR test that they will have to take in Singapore before they leave. It costs $125 per person.They have to book return flights (or whichever method of travel they might prefer) from Malaysia to Singapore.Once their flight is booked, they have to fill a health declaration form via the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s SG Arrival Card e-Service. This declaration has to be made not more than three days before travel.They will also have to do a pre-departure Covid-19 PCR test at an approved facility in Malaysia, not more than 48 hours before travel.They have to buy travel insurance, just in case they test positive for Covid-19 while in Singapore and end up having to get treatment or recover in isolation here.They have to find and book accommodation from a list of hotels approved to cater to people who have to serve Stay-Home-Notices (SHN). Under Singapore’s current Covid-19 rules, travellers from Malaysia are required to serve a 10-day SHN. They will have to pay for this accommodation themselves.They have to download and activate TraceTogether on their phones. If their phones are not compatible with TraceTogether, they will have to put down a $50 deposit (per person) to get TraceTogether tokens at the airport for the duration of their stay in Singapore.Once in Singapore, they will need to arrange their own transport from the airport to the hotel where they are doing their SHN. Due to the tight timeline, they will be under SHN conditions during their entire stay in Singapore.While here, they have to do an antigen rapid test (ART) for Covid-19 every day. If the result is negative, they will be granted an exception from regular SHN rules so that they can go to the prison to visit Nagaenthran from 10am–12pm and 2pm–4pm every day until Nov 9. They can only go straight from the hotel to the prison, and back again. They will not be allowed to go anywhere else, nor meet anyone else.Since they are “strictly prohibited” from taking public transport during this time, they will have to figure out, and pay for, their own SHN-approved transport to and from prison.They will also have to figure out their own meals and get them delivered, since they won’t be able to leave their SHN accommodation.If the execution does take place – which, barring a miracle, it will – they need to have funeral arrangements sorted out. This means having an undertaker to deal with all the procedures necessary to repatriate Nagaenthran so he can be buried back home.Once back in Malaysia, they will have to adhere to Malaysia’s Covid-19 travel rules: from those entering Malaysia from Singapore, a seven-day home quarantine is required.Even just on the face of it, this is a lot to deal with – especially when people are already upset and stressed out by the knowledge that their loved one is going to be hanged. But within each step can come other complications: for instance, when I rang hotels this morning, I found that many of the SHN rooms were already fully booked. Some of the staff, trying to be helpful, would tell me that they had vacancies from Nov 7, or Nov 12, implying that perhaps travel plans could be revised. But that isn’t an option for Nagaenthran’s family; they’re already running out of time. I called 10 hotels before I found one that could accommodate Nagaenthran’s brother when he arrives on Monday, ahead of the rest of the family coming in over the next week.Nagaenthran’s family could never have navigated all this themselves. I’m not saying this to inflate my, or anyone else’s, importance. I mean they literally could not have sorted all this out by themselves. The entry approval application form, for example, required a “requestor” with a National Registration Identification Card (NRIC) or Foreign Identification Number (FIN), which none of the family have, since they are neither Singaporeans, nor holders of long-term visas for Singapore. (I ended up having to put myself down as requestor on their behalf.)There are also things that, while not disastrous, just add extra steps to an already mind-boggling array of tasks. The letter from the prison provided the contact details of two officers, assuring the family that they would “try to guide and assist you with the arrangements as far as they can”.Since I’ve been handling almost all these arrangements for the family, Sharmila gave me the number of one of these officers. I also emailed them, cc-ing Sharmila, introducing myself as someone helping the family during this time, and asking some questions about what the prison can or can’t facilitate, so I can have a better idea of what we will need to prep for their stay in Singapore, and what might already be taken care of.I didn’t get a reply to my email, and my WhatsApp texts were left on read. The prison officer told Sharmila that they will only speak to family members. They gave Sharmila answers to my questions, which she then relayed to me.Although I was the “requestor” who put down my NRIC and email address to apply for entry approval on behalf of Sharmila’s brother, the response was emailed to Sharmila instead – she then had to forward me the email, so I could click on the link to pre-pay for his PCR test. It wasn’t that big a deal, but seemed counter-productive when the whole point of me helping out was to reduce the amount of matters on Sharmila’s plate.It also made me wonder: if the prison service doesn’t like that someone is helping the family with all these arrangements, why not handle these things themselves? Yet, when I asked if the prison service could facilitate SHN transport to and from the prison, their response (to Sharmila) was that transport has to be arranged by the family.Then there’s the issue of cost. The 10-day SHN hotel room for Nagaenthran’s younger brother alone cost almost S$2,000, or about RM6,200. Add in all the other costs of flights, accommodation, food, transport, and the funeral arrangements, and we’re looking at perhaps somewhere in the vicinity of S$10,000. Nagaenthran’s family wouldn’t have been able to afford this; when I spoke to Sharmila, she told me that various family members initially considered opting out of coming to Singapore – even if it would likely be their last chance to meet Nagaenthran – because they were worried about how they would pay for it all. It was only after I assured her that we could help them cover costs that the family decided that perhaps four or five of them would come down.Luckily, people have been kind and generous. I put up a crowdfunding call for support on Friday afternoon; within 24 hours, we raised over $17,000. It was far more than the goal I had in mind, and has actually come as a relief, since things are costing more than I’d expected.All this admin and bureaucracy needs to be done, and done in such a rush, for no other reason than the fact that the Singaporean state has decided that it wants to execute someone now. This is what abolitionists mean when we say that there is no murder more pre-meditated than capital punishment; what could be more pre-planned than a killing announced via an official letter accompanied by nine pages of procedural guidelines?Usually, at this desperate juncture of a capital case, I’d be thinking about human rights standards and advocacy messages, and talking to the family about how comfortable they might be with public campaigning. This time, all the conversations I’ve had with Sharmila have been about passports and forms and vaccination certificates and travel itineraries; the need to get all the logistics sorted out, as quickly as possible, has crowded out opportunities and headspace for deeper discussions about the problems and issues.Yet there are issues, beginning with the fact that Nagaenthran was found by experts to have borderline intellectual functioning, as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). His IQ is only 69. During his trial, he said that he didn’t know what the contents of the bundle he was carrying had been, and that he’d been threatened to transport it.The judge didn’t believe him, pinging him for inconsistent statements and ultimately deciding that the statements he made during police interrogation – during which he would have had no access to legal counsel to advise him of his rights or look out for him – were the most credible. There are valid, important questions about how much his intellectual disability affected his decision-making, and his capacity to give clear, coherent statements.They say that justice must be tempered with mercy. But the death penalty regime neither delivers justice, nor does it show mercy. Nagaenthran – a man with borderline IQ who was arrested with 42.72g of heroin when he was only 21, and who has already spent over a decade on death row – is the proof. What his family is going through now shows us, clear as day, how chillingly inhumane capital punishment is; an entire system of administration bent towards the goal of ending a life.Kirsten Han is a freelance journalist from Singapore. This article was first published in online newsletter We, The Citizens.The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


Russia falls into recession

Russia has entered a recession, nine months after launching its offensive in Ukraine as Western sanctions weigh on the economy, according to official data published on Wednesday.
Gross domestic product shrank 4% in the third quarter, according to a preliminary estimate by the national statistics agency Rosstat.
As that follows one of the same size in the second quarter, Russia now meets the technical definition of a recession with two consecutive quarters of falling GDP.
The 4% drop in economic output between July and September was less than the 4.5% contraction many analysts had expected, however.
The contraction was driven by a 22.6% plunge in wholesale trade and a 9.1% drop in retail trade.
Meanwhile, construction grew by 6.7% and agriculture 6.2%.
Russia's economy has been struggling under a myriad of problems.
Western sanctions have limited exports and imports, including of key manufacturing components and spare parts.
Companies have also been suffering from a lack of staff as a partial mobilisation has taken several hundred thousand men out of the workforce.
Despite a contracting economy, Russia's unemployment rate stood at 3.9% in September, according to Rosstat.
As a result, the Russian economy has become even more dependent upon energy exports, which have accounted for about 40% of federal government revenue.
According to the office of Boris Titov, the presidential commissioner for entrepreneurs, about a third of the 5,800 Russian companies recently surveyed had suffered a drop in sales in the past months.
The September mobilisation of 300,000 military reservists has impacted a third of companies, according to that same survey, the daily Kommersant said.
"The situation has continued to deteriorate, it's no surprise," said Dmitry Polevoy, director of investments at Locko Invest in Moscow.
Worse to come?
Yet the Russian economy has so far survived Western sanctions better than many economists expected.
On Nov 8, the central bank predicted gross domestic product would contract by 3.5% this year.
The IMF and the World Bank are respectively estimating a fall in Russian GDP of 3.4% and 4.5%.
The resilience of the  economy is due in large part to the surge in global energy prices following the offensive in Ukraine and a restrictive monetary policy.
After Russia was hit by Western sanctions, the  central bank drastically raised the key rate from 9.5% to 20% in a bid to counter inflation and prop up the ruble.
The Bank of Russia quickly reduced it thereafter and last month left it at 7.5% in what governor Elvira Nabiullina called a sign of "adaptation" by the economy to a "new reality".
But many analysts believe things are going to get worse for Russia's economy before they improve.
"GDP could contract even more sharply, by up to 7%" in the fourth quarter, Polevoy told AFP.
Valery Mironov at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow said sanctions were having a delayed impact on the Russian economy.
"Problems are clearly already present, but in reality we're seeing their effects being pushed back to 2023," he said, as the government has taken steps to support companies.
Central bank governor Nabiullina said last week that the Western sanctions were powerful and warned "their impact on the Russian and global economy shouldn't be underestimated."


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Daily caseload just over 3,000 as death toll up by 5

Another 3,037 Covid-19 cases were recorded yesterday, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 4,963,216.
There were 3,198 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 4,898,917.
There are now 27,711 active cases, of which 25,737 or 92.9% are undergoing home quarantine.
Meanwhile, 0 (0.0%) are at quarantine centres while 1,868 (6.7%) have been hospitalised.
A total of 106 are in ICU with 53 in need of respiratory assistance.
Another five deaths were reported, including two who were brought in dead. Total deaths now stand at 36,588.


Sam Ke Ting's charge illegal, lawyer tells appeals court

Clerk Sam Ke Ting's conviction for reckless driving resulting in the death of eight teen cyclists cannot stand as the charge against her is defective, the Court of Appeal was told today.
Her lawyer, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, submitted that there was a duplicity of the charge as the public prosecutor had included two distinct offences, namely reckless driving and driving in a dangerous manner.
"This is erroneous. Only one offence is allowed in law to be framed in the charge," he said.
Hisyam was submitting in Sam's appeal against the High Court decision which convicted her of reckless driving and sentenced her to six years in jail and a fine.
He argued that his client had been prejudiced due to "a failure of justice" as she had been convicted of a charge not recognised in law. "The High Court judge convicted Sam of 'reckless or dangerous driving'. The appellant (Sam) did not get what the law says she should get," he said before a three-member bench comprising justices Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Hashim Hamzah and Azman Abdullah.
Sam, 27, was initially acquitted and discharged without being called to enter her defence by the Johor Bahru Magistrate's Court on Nov 18, 2019, on a charge of reckless driving causing the death of the teenagers who were riding on modified bicycles, commonly known as basikal lajak.
The eight teenagers killed in the incident were Mohamad Azrie Danish Zulkefli, 14; Muhamad Shahrul Izzwan Azzuraimie, 14; Muhammad Firdauz Danish Mohd Azhar, 16; Fauzan Halmijan, 13; Mohamad Azhar Amir, 16; Muhammad Harith Iskandar Abdullah, 14; Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Marudin, 14 and Haizad Kasrin, 16.
Sam was charged with committing the offence at Jalan Lingkaran Dalam, Johor Bahru, Johor at 3.20am on Feb 18, 2017. Sam was 22 years old at the time of the incident.
On Feb 18, 2021, High Court judge Shahnaz Sulaiman allowed the prosecution's appeal and remitted the case back to the Magistrate's Court for Sam to enter her defence on the reckless driving charge. On Oct 10, 2021, the Magistrate's Court discharged and acquitted Sam at the end of the defence case, after which the prosecution appealed to the High Court.
On April 13 last year, High Court judge Abu Bakar Katar allowed the prosecution's appeal and convicted Sam of reckless driving. Sam was sentenced to six years in jail and fined RM6,000.
Sam appealed to the Court of Appeal and on April 18 last year, the appellate court allowed her application to stay the execution of the jail sentence and fine, and released her on bail of RM10,000 with one surety pending the hearing of her appeal.
In today's appeal hearing, Hisyam also argued that in the Magistrate's Court, the prosecution's case was that of reckless driving, but when the case went up before the first High Court judge, the prosecution's stand changed to dangerous driving.
Another of Sam's lawyers, Harvinderjit Singh, submitted that what happened on that day was an "emergency situation", adding that the situation was created by the victims and not Sam.
The teenagers had been riding on modified bicycles at 3am illegally, he said, adding that the finding of prima facie against Sam by the first High Court was wrong.
The court fixed April 11 to resume hearing after deputy public prosecutor Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Abdul Rahman said he would take two hours to submit.


Deeper meaning to Thaipusam

Thaipusam, which falls on the month of the Tamil calendar Thai, is an auspicious event for Tamils, the descendants of the Dravidian race.
It falls either in January or February, according to the English calendar.
Thaipusam is essentially a celebration to pay homage to the Tamil god Lord Murugan, and not confined to just sacrifices and rituals.
These are important and give form and meaning to Tamils across the globe, but the meaning of Thaipusam goes beyond the rituals and sacrifices.
The fever and passion linked to Thaipusam is all about remembering the glorious past of the Tamils, harking back 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, long before the advent of the Indo-European migration to parts of the Indian subcontinent.
The traditional Tamil gods, Lord Muruga and Siva, are closely identified with the beginnings of Dravidian/Tamil civilisation.
Much later, these gods came to be included within Hinduism as propagated by the Brahminical religious order.
While it is difficult to differentiate between the elements of Dravidian worship and the present Brahminical ideology of Hinduism, the Tamils think and act on grounds that their culture, language and religion predate the arrival of the Indo-European, sometimes referred to as the Aryans.
The pride in Thaipusam, both conscious and unconscious, is predicated on the thought that the worship of Lord Muruga is something immemorial.
It goes beyond the Brahmincal cultural and religious order that was superimposed much later.
Essentially, the worship of Lord Muruga is about remembering the Tamil past, the originality of their god and, most importantly, the phenomenon that gives them meaning and identity in the present world.
Thaipusam outwardly might have the appearance of past rituals in worship, the nature of human sacrifices and others.
However, in particular societies where Tamils are an ethnic and discriminated minority, Thaipusam holds a special significance.
It is about asserting their cultural and religious rights in an environment that might not be friendly or cordial to the propagation of their culture, language and religion.
Thaipusam is seen through the rituals and sacrifices to Lord Muruga as something needed to dignify the community.
Thaipusam is as much about the past as it is about the present.
In a sense, Thaipusam provides the Tamils the room and space otherwise not available to exert their cultural and religious rights.
Lord Muruga with his vel (spear) is seen as the epitome of the sacrifice required by the Tamils to propagate themselves as a race guided and protected by their supreme God.
The sound of chants Vetri Vel Muruganku represent the loyalty and devotion of Tamils to their supreme being, Lord Muruga.
When all else fails, Lord Muruga with his omnipresence is there to guide the Tamils, in both the spiritual or material sense.
Equating Thaipusam merely to the mundanity of rituals and the forms of sacrifices misses the powerful meaning that the celebration has for the Tamils, their survival against the odds, and most importantly, their existence in the world today.
P Ramasamy is Penang deputy chief minister II and the assemblyman for Perai.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


UK govt refuses to hand over WhatsApp messages to Covid inquiry

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government on Thursday said it would not hand over internal WhatsApp messages requested by a public inquiry into its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and instead seek a legal challenge against the demand.
The inquiry, ordered by the government itself in 2021 and chaired by a former judge, had given the government a 1500 GMT deadline to hand over the documents.
But the Cabinet Office said the Covid-19 inquiry was going beyond its remit and that the WhatsApp messages and other records it was requesting were "unambiguously irrelevant".
"The Cabinet Office has today sought leave to bring a judicial review," the office responsible for overseeing the operation of government said in a letter to the inquiry after the deadline passed.
"We do so with regret and with an assurance that we will continue to cooperate fully with the inquiry before, during and after the jurisdictional issue in question is determined by the courts."
A judicial review is a legal challenge to the lawfulness of a decision by a public body, including a public inquiry.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson had ordered the inquiry to look into the preparedness of the country as well as the public health and economic response after Britain recorded one of the world's highest total number of deaths from Covid.
With a national election expected next year, the detailed examination of decision-making could create political headaches for Sunak, who was finance minister during the pandemic.
"These latest smoke and mirror tactics serve only to undermine the Covid inquiry. The public deserve answers," said Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party.
A spokesman for the inquiry said its chair Heather Hallett had received the Cabinet Office's judicial review claim and that it would provide further updates on Tuesday during a preliminary hearing.
On Thursday, a spokesman for Johnson said pandemic-era messages and notebooks had been handed to the government and urged them to be passed to the inquiry. The government said it had received WhatsApp material from Johnson, but none from before May 2021, owing to security changes on his devices.
'Absurd' demand
Sunak said earlier on Thursday that the government was confident in its position.
"We've been long cooperating with the inquiry," Sunak told reporters on the sidelines of a summit in Moldova, adding it was important to learn the lessons of the pandemic.
Hallett had relied on Section 21 of the Inquiries Act to compel the government to turn over the information, meaning a failure to do so could amount to a criminal offence.
However, lawyers representing the Cabinet Office said in court filings that the inquiry only had the power to compel the production of relevant material, but had asked the government for irrelevant material including two years' worth of WhatsApp messages between Johnson and 40 different individuals.
The Cabinet Office said it had previously told the inquiry that the documents sought included "comments of a personal nature about identified or identifiable individuals which are unrelated to Covid-19 or that individuals' role in connection with the response to it".
It also said the concept of relevance could not cover all government business and policy areas during the two-year period covering the pandemic.
"That would be absurd," the Cabinet Office said. "It would also mean that the Inquiry would be utterly swamped with material of no value to its work."


Russia says tide turned on Covid wave, but deaths at record high

Russia said the nationwide workplace shutdown it ended this week had helped turn the tide on a wave of Covid-19 cases, even as officials on Tuesday reported the largest one-day death toll of the pandemic so far.All but a handful of Russia’s 80-plus regions on Monday ended a “non-working” period from Oct 30 to Nov 7 that was ordered by President Vladimir Putin, the toughest nationwide restriction since the early months of the pandemic.The health minister told a televised government meeting on Tuesday that the increase in the number of patients receiving medical care had slowed last week for the first time since the beginning of August, though he said it remained “quite high.”“Undoubtedly, the fall is due to the… non-working days, the regional measures. These measures have turned the tide, and it is very right that a number of regions – five regions – have decided to extend the regime of days off,” the minister, Mikhail Murashko, said.He said there were 1.36 million people under various kinds of medical supervision or treatment for Covid-19.The government coronavirus taskforce reported a record one-day death toll of 1,211 and reported 39,160 new cases in the last 24 hours, down from a peak of 41,335 on Saturday.In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said this coming week would be crucial for the capital and that it would be clear by the end of it what measures needed to be kept on. He said he hoped the situation would be more or less stable.Many regions that have lifted the workplace shutdown will now require visitors to present a QR code on their mobile phones when visiting cafes, restaurants or shopping centres to prove they have been vaccinated or previously had the virus.


Klang MP not happy PM didn’t include him to inspect flood areas

DAP’s MP in Klang, among the areas which bore the brunt of the heavy floods which ravaged Selangor along with several other states, is not happy that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob did not inform him of a visit to check on flood victims in his constituency.Charles Santiago said Ismail’s office should have allowed him to accompany the prime minister, adding that failure to do so showed he is not “interested… about what’s actually happening on the ground”.“Walking into evacuation shelters and having brief conversations with flood victims may be comforting to the people but it isn’t enough,” Santiago said.Santiago said not including him in the prime ministerial visit was against the “Keluarga Malaysia” concept, the tagline used by Ismail to reach out to political foes since coming to power in August.“Without collaborating with my office, Adun (assemblymen) and Ahli Majlis MPK (council members) goes against the spirit of Keluarga Malaysia, which the PM preaches and is totally unbecoming of a man who holds the top job in the country.”


Don’t lag in reopening borders, Muhyiddin urges govt

Muhyiddin Yassin today defended the proposal of his National Recovery Council (MPN) to reopen the country’s borders this month in order to restore the tourism, trade and economic sectors still struggling in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.The former prime minister said this was an important step to restoring Malaysia’s economic standing to pre-pandemic levels, adding that it was also possible thanks to the success of the national vaccination programme.“I see no reason to delay the decision to reopen our borders, given that other countries who lag behind ours in vaccinating their citizens have already done so,” he said in his debate on the royal address in the Dewan Rakyat today.He also referred to data from research bodies such as the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research showing that the country’s economic recovery was gaining in strength.He said Malaysia had succeeded in attracting over RM220 billion in approved investments last year for the manufacturing and services sector, whereas the index for the services sector, particularly for wholesale and retail sales, commercial bank loans and Islamic banking, were also in the positive range throughout 2021.“Nevertheless, these numbers are lower than the figures before (the pandemic), showing that we need two or three years before the economy is fully restored,” he said.He also took former prime minister Najib Razak to task for his claims that the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government during his administration had been wasteful in announcing RM600 million in assistance and economic stimulus packages.“His accusation was very insensitive towards the people who, along with businesses, suffered many hardships throughout the pandemic,” the Pagoh MP said.“Many people I met had thanked the PN government for the assistance they received, including cash aid of RM17 billion channelled to the people just last year.”He said the economic packages announced during his time in government had contributed 3.7 to 4.0 percentage points to the GDP in 2020, adding that they were among the biggest contributors to economic recovery at that point.“I am at a loss over the attitude of the Pekan MP,” he said. “When I as prime minister gave aid of hundreds of billions of ringgit to the people and to businesses during times of hardship, I was said to have been wasteful.“But when he was prime minister, tens of billions of the people’s money was lost just like that, and it was not considered wasted.“Perhaps because he made a profit, it was not a waste for him.”


Nazri re-declares support for Muhyiddin

Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz today retracted his decision in January not to support Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, following a series of criticism by the veteran politician against Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.Nazri told Astro Awani today that he was declaring support for Muhyiddin.“With this decision, the withdrawal of support that I made earlier is cancelled,” Nazri, who is currently in Europe, told the news channel.Nazri revoked his support for Muhyiddin at a press conference on Jan 12.His decision came days after Umno’s Machang MP Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub announced he was no longer supporting Perikatan Nasional (PN), in the wake of a campaign by Zahid to quit the ruling coalition.Nazri told MalaysiaNow last month that he had been tricked into withdrawing his support by Zahid, whom he claimed had orchestrated the move and then failed to retract his support for PN as well.“He lied. Otherwise why would I want to withdraw my support for no reason? I honestly feel I was tricked,” he said.He also said his present stand was to adhere to the decision made at the Umno general assembly earlier this year for the party to remain with the PN government until the 15th general election.“I follow my party’s decision,” he said. “I am a party man, so I will follow.”


Najib gave RM8.4 million in cheques between 2011 and 2012, bank officer tells court

The Kuala Lumpur High Court was today told that Najib Razak issued 38 cheques for RM8.4 million from his personal account as payment to 18 individuals, six political entities and six companies between 2011 and 2012.
AmBank (M) Bhd senior manager (cheque processing centre division) Badrul Hisam Mohamad, 48, said the individual recipients of the cheques included former land and cooperative development minister Kasitah Gaddam and former human resources minister Richard Riot Jaem, each amounting to RM100,000.
The 36th prosecution witness also confirmed that RM1,428,250 in cheques was given to six companies; RM4,670,000 to five Umno branches and divisions; RM200,000 to the Tun Razak Barisan Nasional branch; and RM2,107,600 to 18 individuals, from Najib's personal AmBank account ending with number 694.
"Najib issued a cheque for RM200,000 that was paid to Pekan Umno, RM170,000 to Pekan Umno Wanita, RM1.9 million to Selangor Umno Wanita, RM2 million to Selangor Umno, RM400,000 to Machang Umno and RM200,000 to the Tun Razak Barisan Nasional division.
"Among the companies that received the cheques from Najib were Qalif Umar Creative (RM130,000), Semarak Konsortium Satu Sdn Bhd (RM274,750), Gading Emas Management Services (RM50,000), Fanisa Consultancy And Services (RM95,000) and Two One Holidays Malaysia Sdn Bhd (RM178,000)," he said. Badrul said this when reading out his witness statement during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Deepa Nair Thevaharan in the Pekan MP’s trial for the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion in funds from 1MDB.
Referring to the scanned copies of the cheques by AmIslamik Bank Bhd, Jalan Raja Chulan branch, for Najib's account ending with the number 694, Badrul said he was able to identify Najib's signature because the signature was recorded in the signature database system which he had to refer to for comparison and verification purposes.
Meanwhile, when cross-examined by lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed, representing Najib, the witness said that the bank would contact the customer to confirm the transaction if the payment for a cheque issued amounted to more than RM20,000.
"We, at the cheque processing division, do not make the call personally, but the officers at the AmBank branch will decide to contact the customer directly or through the relationship manager who handles the customer's account," he said.
Najib, 69, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow.


PKR leaders condemn Maria Chin for walkout over Najib

PKR leaders have reacted angrily to Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah’s protest walkout at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday during a speech by Najib Razak to debate the 2021 budget.Maria was labelled “stupid” and “dumb” for her action, with PKR Youth’s vice-chief Syed Badli Shah Syed Osman urging the former Bersih 2.0 chairman to resign for criticising the ex-prime minister.“How dumb is this YB,” Syed Badli said in a post on Twitter. “It would be better for you to resign instead of walking out.”After her walkout, Maria took to Twitter to express her dissatisfaction with Najib whom she said was convicted of corruption over former 1MDB unit SRC International but debated the bill “as if nothing had happened”.“Najib Razak has been convicted of corruption. But today, he attended as BBC chief and debated the 2021 budget as if nothing had happened.“I PROTESTED and have WALKED OUT! #NotMyNewNormal,” she wrote.PKR Youth secretary Ahmad Syukri Razab also criticised Maria for her boycott of Najib.“For me, MPs who boycott and walk out of the Dewan while Najib Razak is speaking are stupid,” he wrote on Facebook.In July, Najib was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined RM210 million after he was found guilty of seven charges of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering RM42 million belonging to SRC International.Najib, who is Pekan MP, is appealing against his jail term and fine.MalaysiaNow previously revealed that Najib, together with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, had written to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in support of PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim becoming prime minister.


Russia says it thwarts major attack in Ukraine but loses some ground

Moscow said on Monday it had thwarted a major offensive against its forces in eastern Ukraine, but Ukrainian officials dismissed the report and both sides said the Ukrainian military had advanced elsewhere along the front line.
It was unclear whether the attacks represented the start of Ukraine's long-heralded counteroffensive against Russia's invasion, and Ukrainian officials sidestepped questions on the matter.
Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine had attacked on Sunday morning with six mechanised and two tank battalions in southern Donetsk, where Moscow has long suspected Ukraine would seek to drive a wedge through Russian-controlled territory.
"On the morning of June 4, the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the South Donetsk direction," the defence ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram at 1.30am Moscow time (2230 GMT).
"The enemy's goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front," it said. "The enemy did not achieve its tasks, it had no success."
Asked to comment, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said: "We do not have such information and we do not comment on any kind of fake."
Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said Russian assertions about a Ukrainian counteroffensive were meant to distract attention from losses Moscow is taking around the long-contested eastern city of Bakhmut.
In a Telegram post, Maliar said Ukraine was "shifting to offensive actions" in some areas along the front line but dismissed suggestions this was part of a major operation.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Reuters on Monday that Ukraine now had enough weapons for a counteroffensive but declined to comment when asked whether it had begun.
Further north near Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces were reported to have been "moving forward" by the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
An armed forces video showed Russian positions under fire and Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said Ukrainian forces had retaken part of the settlement of Berkhivka, north of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, calling it a "disgrace".
Prigozhin's private Wagner army captured Bakhmut last month after the longest battle of the war and handed its positions there to regular Russian troops.
A purported radio address by Russian President Vladimir Putin was broadcast to three regions bordering Ukraine telling residents Ukrainian forces had crossed the border, mobilisation had begun and they should flee, independent media reported.
"All of these messages are an utter fake," Russian state-owned news agency RIA cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
Kyiv denies sending any troops into Russia but pro-Ukrainian forces have repeatedly crossed into one of the regions, Belgorod, in recent days and on Sunday said they had captured some Russian soldiers.
'Tough fight going on'
Russia's defence ministry released video of what it said showed several Ukrainian armoured vehicles in a field blowing up after being hit.
Reuters was able to confirm the location of two clips near Velyka Novosilka, a village west of Vuhledar in the southern part of Donetsk province, by the road layout, terrain, trees and other foliage that matched satellite imagery of the area. Reuters could not independently verify the other clips or the date the videos were filmed.
"There is a tough fight going on," wrote prominent Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, who blogs under the name War Gonzo, saying Ukrainian forces were attacking in the area.
The defence ministry said Russian forces killed 250 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured combat vehicles.
Reuters was not able to verify the figures. Both sides have exaggerated casualties suffered by the other.
The daily report from Ukraine's General Staff said only that there were 29 combat clashes in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces of eastern Ukraine.
Fightback
Russia now controls at least 18% of internationally recognised Ukrainian territory and has claimed four more regions of Ukraine as Russian territory after annexing Crimea in 2014.
For months, Ukraine has been preparing a fightback which officials in Kyiv and CIA Director William Burns have said will pierce Putin's hubris.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Saturday that he was ready to launch it, but tempered a forecast of success with a warning that it could take some time and come at a heavy cost.
The success or failure of the counteroffensive, expected to be waged with billions of dollars worth of advanced Western weaponry, is likely to influence the shape of future Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.
Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb 24 last year in what the Kremlin expected to be a swift operation, but its forces suffered a series of defeats and had to move back and regroup in swathes of the country's east.
For months, tens of thousands of Russian troops have been digging in along a front line that stretches for around 1,000km, bracing for a Ukrainian attack expected to try to cut Russia's so-called land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula.
The Kremlin says the West is fighting a hybrid war against Russia to sow discord and ultimately carve up its vast natural resources, allegations that Western leaders deny.
Ukraine casts the invasion as an imperial-style land grab by Russia and vows to eject every last Russian soldier.


Promotion for 50% of 'exemplary young officers', says top cop

At least 50% of exemplary young police officers will be promoted to senior roles to lead the force, says Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain.
He said the matter had been discussed with Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
"This is important so that groups of officers do not retire at the same time. At least there will be continuity of longer serving officers who will then take up the higher positions in the force," he said at a meeting with chief editors of media agencies at Bukit Aman yesterday. He said the decision to promote these officers came after they were faced with situations where several heads of departments went into retirement in the same year.
On the salary increment for lower ranked officers, Razarudin said the matter had been taken up for review with the Public Service Department (PSD) director-general.
"We will look into it and discuss it with the PSD. One of the matters for review is the salary.
"For example, RM2,500 is considered adequate for a lower ranking officer in a rural area but when they are transferred to Kuala Lumpur, they become the 'urban poor'," he said.
Razarudin said some of these officers in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bharu also had to share rooms with others due to high rental.
"These (lower ranked) officers have to budget their expenses as they are not from rich backgrounds but are mostly just normal people," he said.


New US summer camp for Orthodox Jews bans anyone vaccinated

With Covid-19 vaccines being deemed safe for children as young as 12, some summer camps are talking about the possibility of a mask-free summer for vaccinated children and staff.But one Jewish camp being planned for the summer is taking a different approach: barring any vaccinated camper or staff from attending at all, reports the Times of Israel.“We regret that we will be unable to accept campers or counselors who have already received any of these injections,” says the camp website.Advertisements for Camp Hikon in upstate New York, appeared just days after a private school in Miami made news for discouraging teachers from getting the vaccine and telling children they were not to have contact with vaccinated people.The developments suggest that anti-vaccination sentiment and Covid misinformation are taking new forms in Jewish communities where scepticism and non-compliance with public health regulations has been high.Naftali Schwartz, the self-described “health coach” with no formal training in medicine or public health who is launching the camp, said the rule is unlikely to keep anybody away.“Because of the kinds of demographic that I’m drawing from, most people who are coming will not have taken the vaccine,” Schwartz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.Drawing on a debunked theory spread by the anti-vaccination movement, the camp’s website cites the “experimental nature” of the vaccines.According to the theory, living in close quarters with vaccinated people could “enhance” the spread of the coronavirus.Schwartz said he made the rule because of “suspicious symptoms that occur to unvaccinated people who have spent a lot of time in the company of vaccinated people.“It’s also been reported to me from parents of my to-be campers that this is a real thing and it’s worrisome,” he said.Anti-vaccine sentiment is persistent in pockets of the Orthodox Jewish community, which suffered from an outbreak of measles in 2019 after a child who had traveled to Israel spread the disease among other unvaccinated children in Brooklyn and upstate New York.The outbreak was brought under control after New York City’s health department imposed fines on parents who refused to vaccinate their children and threatened to close religious schools that allowed unvaccinated children to attend.


Global factories struggle for momentum amid patchy demand

Sluggish global demand deepened the decline in manufacturing activity across Europe and the US and remained a major challenge for many of Asia's big exporters, business surveys for May showed on Thursday.
Purchasing managers' indexes (PMIs) for the euro zone moved further below breakeven despite factories cutting prices for the first time since September 2020. In Britain, output fell for a third month in a row and new orders declined at the fastest pace in four.
In the US, manufacturing contracted for a seventh straight month as new orders continued to plummet amid higher interest rates, but factories boosted employment to a nine-month high.
And while PMIs from China and Japan showed swings in factory activity to growth last month, they stood in contrast to weak indicators from South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan, where declines continued.
Compiled by S&P Global, Thursday's HCOB final manufacturing PMI for the euro zone fell to 44.8 from April's 45.8, just ahead of a preliminary reading of 44.6 but below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction for an 11th consecutive month.
An index measuring output, which feeds into a composite PMI due on Monday that is seen as a good guide to economic health, dropped to a six-month low of 46.4 from 48.5.
"The weakness in demand in the manufacturing sector, which has become increasingly evident since the beginning of the year in falling PMI readings, has now led the surveyed companies to reduce their production for the second month in a row," said Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank.
"The decline in new orders from home and abroad signals that the weakness in output is likely to persist for several more months."
The decline was broad based with activity falling in the currency union's four biggest economies - Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Factories cutting prices as the costs of production dropped at the fastest pace since February 2016 failed to stem a fall in demand.
That price drop will likely be welcomed by policymakers at the European Central Bank who have failed so far to get inflation back to target despite embarking on their most aggressive policy-tightening programme in the Bank's history.
Inflation was 6.1% last month, over three times the ECB's goal, official data showed on Thursday.
The story was much the same in the US, where the monthly Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing PMI fell to 46.9 last month from 47.1 in April. The seven-month run below the key 50 threshold indicating contracting activity is the longest since the Great Recession.
The persistent weak readings in the PMI support analysts' expectations that the US economy will slip into recession this year. But there have been several periods, including the mid-1990s as well as mid- and late-1980s when prolonged readings of the PMI below 50 were not accompanied by a recession.
Asia diverges
The patchy set of Asian PMIs pointed to an uneven recovery from the pandemic, particularly in China, and clouds the outlook for growth in the region.
"The PMI surveys suggest that China's economic recovery was still ongoing in May, albeit at a slower pace. Waning fiscal support weighed on construction activity," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, analyst at Capital Economics.
"But manufacturing output ticked up and the service sector is still seeing decent gains, suggesting that Q2 GDP growth may not be as bad as many fear."
China's Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing PMI rose to 50.9 in May from 49.5 in April.
The reading surpassed expectations of 49.5 in a Reuters poll, a stark contrast to a deeper contraction in activity seen in the official PMI released on Wednesday.
But China's business confidence for the coming 12 months fell to a seven-month low amid concerns over global economic prospects, the Caixin survey showed.
Japan's final au Jibun Bank PMI rose to 50.6 in May, its first reading above the 50.0 threshold since October, as the economy's delayed re-opening from pandemic curbs lifted demand.
However, separate data released on Wednesday showed Japanese factory output unexpectedly fell in April.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's PMI stood at 48.4 in May, slumping into its longest spell of contractionary readings in 14 years, as slowing global demand hit output and orders.
Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan also saw factory activity shrink in May, while that of the Philippines expanded, the surveys showed.
India's factory activity expanded at the quickest pace since October 2020, a sign strong demand and output were supporting Asia's third-largest economy.


Cops probing report of vandalism at Ipoh mosque

Police are investigating a report that a message was scrawled in red spray paint on the wall of a mosque at Taman SPPK, Pasir Puteh in Ipoh yesterday.Ipoh police chief ACP Yahaya Hassan said the report was lodged by a mosque committee member at 9.07am yesterday.“The complainant noticed the message ‘jangan buka bunyi terlalu kuat’ (don’t increase the volume of the loudspeaker) painted on the wall near the main entrance when he and his wife arrived at the mosque at about 5.15am.“No one else was seen around the compound at that time,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.The complainant who is the mosque muezzin said that a few Quran verses would be played over the loudspeaker for 10 minutes every morning before the early dawn call to prayer is recited.The case is being investigated under Section 295 of the Penal Code for defiling a place of worship which provides for a maximum of two years in prison or a fine or both, upon conviction.


Human rights groups call for China Winter Olympics boycott

More than 180 organisations have called on governments to boycott Beijing 2022 because of reported human rights abuses against ethnic minorities.China’s treatment of its own citizens has been the subject of mounting criticism across the world and the World Uyghur Congress has described the event as “a genocide Olympics”.But Canadian Dick Pound, the longest serving member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said barring athletes from participating in the event would be “a gesture that we know will have no impact whatsoever”.He told the BBC, “The decision on hosting is not made with a view to signalling approval of a government policy.”The coalition of campaigners composed of groups representing Tibetans, Uighurs, residents of Hong Kong and others, has issued a joint open letter calling for a boycott of the Games to “ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese government’s appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent”.“It is unfortunate that history is repeating what happened 82 years ago with the Nazi Olympics in 1936″ said Dorjee Tseten of Students for a Free Tibet, one of the groups that signed the letter. “Hosting the Games in Berlin helped legitimise Hitler’s genocide against the Jewish people and bolstered the Nazi regime.”Zumretay Arkin of World Uyghur Congress said: “Our sufferings were completely dismissed by the IOC. It’s now up to the governments to show some decent humanity by boycotting a genocide Olympics.”But Pound dismissed the criticism. “We’re trying to steer a middle course here using sport as a means of communication even in the worst of times.”He accepted some countries may consider a diplomatic boycott but insisted it should not extend to athletes.“There are all kinds of ways that states can signal disapproval but cancelling a sport competition really doesn’t make sense. It does not change the conduct, so why would we sacrifice our athletes and their dreams in a gesture that we know will have no impact whatsoever?”When asked about the letter, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said he was “fully confident the Beijing Winter Olympics will be a splendid event”.


Heavy rains leave 10 dead, hundreds of thousands displaced in China

Ten people have died in central China as torrential rains lashed Hunan province, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands, state media reported.The downpours, which began on June 1, have forced the evacuation of around 286,000 people, with more than 2,700 homes collapsed or seriously damaged, the official Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.As of Wednesday, 10 people were killed and three were missing, Hunan provincial official Li Dajian said, according to the agency.“Heavy rains have caused the water levels of rivers and lakes to rise significantly,” the provincial government said in a statement on Thursday.“The whole province at all levels is responding actively and making every effort to prevent (disasters).”The rains have impacted almost all of Hunan province with some weather stations reporting “historic levels” of precipitation, Xinhua said.It cited local authorities as saying 1.79 million people have been “affected”, without providing details.Authorities have sent tents, foldable beds, food and clothing to the stricken areas, Xinhua added.Floods are fairly common in central and southern China, where the humid summer often brings heavy rains.China experienced its worst floods in a decade last year when deluges in central regions killed more than 300 people.Scores died in floods and mudslides in the worst-hit city of Zhengzhou, where residents also became trapped in subway carriages, underground car parks and tunnels.Experts believe that disaster was likely made worse by human-induced climate change.


Germany plans return to work from home as infections rise

Germany is preparing a return to working from home under draft legislation seen by AFP on Sunday, as the country tries to tackle an unprecedented wave of coronavirus cases.The reintroduction of the rule, which was lifted at the beginning of July, comes as Germany faces a growing fourth wave of the virus.Infections and deaths have been climbing steeply since mid-October, in an outbreak blamed on Germany’s vaccination rate of just over 67% – still leaving a large share of people more vulnerable to infection and severe disease.At 289 cases per 100,000 people, the recorded incidence of the coronavirus reached a new high in Europe’s most populous country on Sunday, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) health agency.“The coming wave will overshadow all the previous waves,” Saxony state premier Michael Kretschmer, whose region is currently amongst the worst hit, told German weekly Bild am Sonntag.Under the draft plan, employers in Germany would be forced to offer the option to work from home in the absence of a “compelling business reason” to come to the office.Anyone going into work would also be asked to show they were protected against the virus or had tested negative.The German government is also working up plans to limit access to certain events to those who have both been vaccinated or recovered from a coronavirus infection, and can present a negative test, according to reports in the German media.The new package of measures is being drafted in close consultation with the parties seeking to form the next German government, the Social Democrats, the Greens and the liberal FDP.Their joint legislation will be presented to the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, for approval on Thursday, before being signed off by the upper house on Friday.The German government and regional leaders also come together virtually on Thursday to coordinate their response.


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Birds and the bees about more than just biology, say activists

A prominent social activist has called for a more comprehensive approach to sex education amid statistics showing that tens of thousands of underage girls in the country are believed to get pregnant every year, leading to cases of abortion and baby dumping.Speaking to MalaysiaNow, Marina Mahathir said sex education should go beyond the biological aspect of sexual reproduction with students exposed to other topics as well.These include the emotional changes that adolescents experience, issues linked to gender identity and equality, and preventive sex education.“Biology is only one part of sex education,” she said.“Although it is important, we need to talk about what happens when people have sex, including babies and STDs and, of course, how to prevent those.”“Biology is only one part of sex education.”Recent research indicates that as many as 18,000 teenagers in Malaysia are believed to get pregnant each year.Former women, family and community development minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail previously said that over 1,000 cases of baby dumping had been recorded from 2010 to May 2019.But such numbers are not new.Children’s rights advocate James Nayagam said the education department had planned to introduce preventive sex education, also known as community health education, some 25 years ago due to the rising number of social issues among youth even then.The proposal had aimed to inform minors about the consequences of unprotected or unplanned sex, the use of contraceptives such as condoms and pills, and alternatives to abortion, among others.However, the plan never materialised.Nayagam said religious groups were unhappy about the proposal and had opposed it, saying it would encourage minors to have sex.“Young people grapple with all sorts of feelings in their relationships, and they are not taught how to deal with them.”Marina said peer pressure in particular often forces children to conform to the norms within a group in order to be accepted.“Boys may feel pressured to have a sexual experience, even with a sex worker, in order to feel manly while girls may feel they have to conform to certain ‘feminine’ norms like dressing and behaving a certain way in order to attract boys.”Likewise, she said, many young people copy the behaviour they see within their families or in the media regardless of the values involved.Nayagam meanwhile voiced concern over situations in which young girls end up as victims.“The age of girls going for abortions is getting lower and lower,” he said.“I have come across girls who are 13 or 14 going for abortions three times a year.”He urged parents to engage their children in conversation about sex to prevent them from picking things up from the wrong sources.“I come from an older generation where we don’t talk about sex. But now, with my children I have to, there’s no choice.”


Economists see positivity for capital markets in Tengku Zafrul’s reappointment

The re-appointment of Tengku Zafrul Aziz as finance minister reflects positivity for capital markets, businesses and the people at large as it instils a sense of confidence on policy continuity, says Bank Islam Malaysia chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid.He said with the former banker remaining in the Cabinet, there would be policy continuity and clarity on the country’s fiscal policy direction.“This means the government’s stand on the prevailing fiscal policy is likely to be expansionary as the country’s economy is still negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he told Bernama.During his tenure, Zafrul was also appointed as National Recovery Plan (NRP) coordinating minister to monitor the implementation of strategies and assistance measures as well as to take proactive steps in dealing with the Covid-19-triggered health and economic crisis.He was also in charge of the Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (Laksana).Afzanizam said Zafrul’s re-appointment was crucial especially with the country still struggling with the pandemic.“The appropriate measures in particular on the right stimulus to be prescribed are critically important to ensure that the Malaysian economy will able to recover swiftly,” he added.Overall, he said it was a positive move by the prime minister as there would be a presence of technocrat such as Zafrul heading the ministry.On other portfolios, he said the appointment of Khairy Jamaluddin as health minister was also a good choice as he has a proven track record in the science, technology and innovation ministry regarding the vaccination programme.“In that sense, it should allay concerns among the general public on our struggle to combat the pandemic spread and to engineer a swift economic recovery going forward,” he said.He said it was important to ensure that the economy would be reopened fairly soon with an eye on the state of healthcare capacity and the spread of Covid-19.Universiti Malaya senior lecturer Mohammad Tawfik Yaakub said the reappointment of Zafrul as finance minister was a clear signal that he had shown excellent performance before and should be retained to continue the economic recovery process planned by the government.“The appointment of Khairy as health minister is right and appropriate.“I expect the people to welcome this appointment as we need a young person of calibre who can handle the Covid-19 pandemic in our country regardless of politicking to ensure the health and safety of the people,” he said.They said a special minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Sabah and Sarawak affairs was also proof that the new government was mainstreaming the voice of Borneo.Tawfik however said there would be no “honeymoon” period for the Cabinet as it faces stiff challenges and obstacles in terms of health, economy and politics.“The Cabinet must restore the people’s confidence immediately through a new and extraordinary strategy to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and the economy.“This is actually an important formula for creating political stability and key recovery that needs to be given immediate attention by the government,” he said.Tawfik also described the Cabinet as a peace Cabinet to ease internal political tensions between the component parties that form the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.“For me, this Cabinet should be given the opportunity to prove that they are capable of carrying out more stern and aggressive tasks,” he said.


Najib’s son withdraws bid to suspend High Court’s decision on unpaid taxes

Mohd Nazifuddin, the son of former prime minister Najib Razak, today withdrew his application to suspend the High Court’s decision ordering him to pay RM37.6 million in unpaid taxes to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN).Lawyer Wee Yeong Kang, representing Nazifuddin, said this followed the Court of Appeal’s decision yesterday allowing his client’s application for an interim stay of the summary judgment obtained by LHDN regarding the tax payment.“During the online case management proceedings today conducted before deputy registrar Rini Triany Muhamad Ali, the court allowed us to withdraw the application filed on April 22 with the freedom (to re-file the application) and without cost,” he said when contacted by Bernama.The proceedings were also attended by lawyer Athari Faris Ammerry Hussein, representing LHDN.The High Court on July 6 last year ordered Nazifuddin to pay RM37.6 million in unpaid taxes to LHDN after allowing the board’s application to enter a summary judgment against him in its tax arrears suit seeking to recover the unpaid amount from him between 2011 and 2017.Yesterday, the Court of Appeal allowed the applications by Nazifuddin and his father for an interim stay of the summary judgment obtained by LHDN pending their leave to appeal at the Federal Court.


Attacks across Ukraine as dozens die in Russian invasion

Invading Russian forces pressed deep into Ukraine as violence spiralled Thursday, claiming dozens of lives and raising the prospect Moscow will march on Kyiv as the West imposed punishing sanctions in response.In a day of intense fighting, Russian missiles and shelling rained down on Ukrainian cities, forcing civilians to seek shelter on metro systems, with others displaced by deadly airstrikes.Across Ukraine, at least 68 people were killed, including both soldiers and civilians, according to an AFP tally from Ukrainian official sources.Moscow’s forces seized a key strategic airbase near Kyiv as well as the scene of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a vast area still heavily contaminated with radioactive material.Witnesses told AFP that Russian paratroopers wrested control of the Gostomel airfield after swooping in with helicopters and jets from the direction of Belarus.“The helicopters came in and then the battles started. They were firing machine guns, grenade launchers,” resident Sergiy Storozhuk said.The airfield could now provide a strategic staging post for Russian forces to ferry in troops who could then launch an assault on government buildings and the presidency in Kyiv.Western intelligence has said that Russia is seeking to mass “overwhelming force” around the Ukrainian capital and that Moscow has established “complete air superiority” over Ukraine.Elsewhere, Russian ground forces moved into Ukraine from the north, south and east, forcing many Ukrainians to flee their homes as the sound of bombing reverberated.Moscow’s defence ministry said its forces had “successfully completed” their objectives for the day, earlier claiming to have destroyed over 70 Ukrainian military targets, including 11 airfields.Olena Kurilo was among 20 wounded after a blast sent shards of glass from her windows in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuguiv.“Never, under any conditions will I submit to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. It is better to die,” the 52-year-old teacher said, her face swathed in bandages.Fall of ChernobylUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there was now a “new iron curtain” between Russia and the rest of the world, like in the Cold War.US President Joe Biden announced export controls against Russia to cut off more than half of the country’s high-tech imports, alongside sanctions on Russian elites he called “corrupt billionaires”, and banks.He earlier said the G7 group of wealthy nations had agreed to impose “devastating” economic sanctions.Biden once again said additional US forces were not heading to eastern Europe to fight in Ukraine, but would defend “every inch” of Nato territory.Weeks of diplomacy failed to deter Putin, who massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders in what the West said was Europe’s biggest military build-up since World War II.Air raid sirens sounded over Kyiv at daybreak after the city’s main airport was hit in the first bombing of the city since World War II.The city declared an overnight curfew but said underground stations would remain open throughout to serve as bomb shelters.Zelensky called the attack on Chernobyl “a declaration of war on all of Europe” while 18 people were killed at a military base near the Black Sea port of Odessa in the deadliest single strike reported by Kyiv.Ukraine also said a military plane with 14 people on board crashed south of Kyiv and that officials were determining how many people died, while a transport plane crashed in Russia killing the crew.Ukrainian forces said they had killed “around 50 Russian occupiers” while repulsing an attack on a town on the frontline with Moscow-backed rebels, which could not immediately be confirmed by AFP.‘Significant economic risk’In the Ukrainian village of Starognativka near the frontline where separatists have faced off against Kyiv’s forces, official Vladimir Vesyelkin said missiles had rained down since the morning and power was out.“They are trying to wipe the village off the face of the earth,” he said.Ukraine said Russian tanks and heavy armour crossed the border in several northern regions, in the east as well as from the Kremlin-annexed peninsula of Crimea in the south.The fighting spooked global financial markets, with stocks plunging and oil prices soaring past US$100.IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said the unrest carried “significant economic risk” for the world, but Putin insisted he did not seek to undermine the global economic system.In a televised address, Putin justified the assault as a defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics in eastern Ukraine.The Kremlin earlier said the leaders of the two separatist territories had asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv after Putin recognised their independence on Monday.A conflict between the separatists and government forces has dragged on since 2014, killing more than 14,000 people on both sides.Nato said it had activated “defence plans” for allied countries but alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said there were no intentions to send Nato forces into Ukraine.Russia has long demanded that Ukraine be forbidden from ever joining Nato and that US troops pull out from Eastern Europe.In the Baltics, Lithuania declared a national emergency and Latvia banned three Russian TV channels that were broadcasting in the country, saying they posted a “threat to national security”.Demonstrators took to the streets of European capitals to condemn Russia but a small anti-war protest in Moscow was quickly shut down by police and monitors said over 1,400 people were detained across the country.The first Ukraine refugees have begun to trickle into Hungary and Romania.


Alcohol factories told to close throughout lockdown period

The government today said that all factories producing alcoholic beverages will have to close throughout the two-week lockdown period.Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said while factories involved in the production of food and beverages had been given permission to continue operating, this was only for those involved in essential needs.“Breweries are not included in the category of essential needs,” he said in a statement.Under the lockdown to continue until June 14, only essential services and sectors given permission by the government are allowed to remain open.Businesses given the green light to continue operating must close by 8pm.This came amid a fierce spike in Covid-19 infections which hit a daily high of over 9,000 cases and 98 deaths last week.


Electric vehicles, green enough to help save the environment?

As environmental concerns rise amid reports of extreme weather conditions and mass deforestation in some of the world's largest jungles, attention has turned to the oft-asked question of what more can be done in terms of conservation efforts.
Throughout the world, people have been urged to "go green", and Malaysia is no exception.
In its budget for 2022, for instance, the government announced a series of incentives for electric vehicle (EV) owners, proposing full exemptions on import duties, excise duties and sales tax for EVs as well as road tax exemptions of up to 100%.
It also announced individual income tax relief of up to RM2,500 on the cost of purchase and installation, rental and hire purchase of facilities as well as the payment subscription fees for EV-charging facilities.
EVs, long touted as a cleaner alternative to petrol engine vehicles, appear key in efforts to reduce carbon emissions, especially in a country such as Malaysia where there are an estimated five million active road users in the Klang Valley alone.
But questions remain on how much real impact they have in efforts to save the environment.
Aerospace engineer Mohd Izmir Yamin said the main weakness of EVs was the pollution generated in the mining process of lithium materials for batteries.
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said the disposal of these batteries was also a problem.   Nevertheless, he said, this did not mean that EVs should be completely rejected.
In fact, he added, the government's move to exempt duties for EVs in the 2022 budget was a good decision.
"It was a smart move if you take into account the EV ecosystem and plans for the future," he said.
But Izmir, whose aerospace company Independence-X Aerospace develops drone systems and works with renewable energy sources like hydrogen and thorium, said other questions remained about Malaysia's use of EVs.
"If EVs only run on batteries, what about charging stations and battery disposal? And if they're hydrogen EVs, what about the hydrogen filling stations?"
Automotive expert Chips Yap meanwhile raised concerns about EVs' use of electricity, saying the power plants themselves contribute to carbon emissions.
"If demand for electricity rises as more EVs come into use, these plants will be working harder and emissions will go up," he said.
He said EV users would also have to consider the battery pack which replaces the oil tank in normal vehicles.
For one thing, he said, the production of these batteries requires rare materials. For another, they can emit up to 150kg of carbon dioxide for every one kilowatt per hour (kWh) of battery capacity.
In order for an EV to travel 500km, he said, it would need a battery pack with a storage capacity of 60kWh, adding nine tonnes of carbon dioxide to the vehicle production.
"This would have a negative impact in terms of the environment," he added. "But this is rarely brought up by those who promote EVs."
Still, Yap said, Malaysia as a member of the international community should think of ways to help further the environmental agenda.
If EVs are not a viable short- or medium-term solution, he said, the government could impose stricter regulations on carbon emissions from combustion engines.
Car makers could support such efforts as they already have more advanced technology in terms of carbon emission standards.
"But if Malaysia does not raise its standards, there is also the danger that we will become a market where only old technology can be used," Yap said.
"In time, that may prove expensive as no one makes engines to old standards."
Izmir meanwhile spoke of alternative technology in hydrogen EVs such as the Toyota Mirai, and the nuclear EVs once conceptualised in the Ford Nucleon.
He believes that EVs will have replaced petrol consumption in about five years' time.


Choose someone young, Hasni says on Johor MB candidate

Johor Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Hasni Mohammad today suggested that a young candidate be chosen to lead the state despite being named by Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as the coalition’s choice of menteri besar during the campaign period for the polls.In a statement, he said he appreciated the trust placed in him throughout the election which saw BN sweeping 40 of the 56 seats in the legislative assembly.“Given the support and position of the youth who play an important role in the development of Johor, and for the sake of the long-term prosperity of the state, I suggest that the party leaders choose a young person to lead,” he added.Hasni had contested and won the Benut state seat in the March 12 election in Johor.He said earlier today that Zahid would have an audience this afteroon with Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar on the appointment of the menteri besar.“This is the normal process. After the Election Commission has announced the election results, the (Umno) president will have an audience (with the sultan),” he told reporters when met at the Johor Umno headquarters.He later said that Sultan Ibrahim would decide on the menteri besar candidate this evening.Hasni, who had been Johor menteri besar since February 2020, said in his statement that the Johor government under his leadership had done its best to make the state resilient in facing the challenges of Covid-19.“Insha Allah under the new leadership, Johor will become more prosperous,” he added.


National average grade for SPM 2020 best in 5 years

The national average grade (GPN) for SPM 2020 candidates improved to 4.80 compared to 4.86 in 2019, the best results for the last five years despite the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Education Minister Radzi Jidin said today.“A smaller GPN indicates better performance,” he said in a live announcement today, adding that the SPM 2020 results continued the trend of improvement in GPN.He said the results showed that 43 out of 83 subjects had seen an improvement in score. A total of 39 subjects saw a decline while one subject remained unchanged.“For SPM 2020 candidates, there are five core subjects which showed improvement namely Mathematics, Science, Pendidikan Islam and Pendidikan Moral.“Bahasa Melayu and English recorded a decrease,” he said.He added that the gap between the SPM results at rural and urban schools also increased, from 0.44 in 2019 to 0.3 in 2020.“The performance of candidates from urban and rural schools shows improvement, but the improvement of candidates from rural schools is higher than urban schools candidates,” he said.Radzi also said that the percentage of candidates who are eligible to receive the SPM certificate increased by 1.96%, with 88.68% of 401,105 candidates who sat for the examination to receive the certificate, from 86.72% out of 389,498 candidates in 2019.The first session of SPM 2020 took place from Feb 22 to March 25, while the second session took place from April 6 to 23, involving a total of 401,105 candidates.


Ex-diplomat, son detained over cannabis plantation in Janda Baik

A former diplomat with a “Datuk” title and his son have been detained on suspicion of growing 102 cannabis trees in the compound of a house in Kampung Sum Sum, Janda Baik in Bukit Tinggi, Bentong.The cannabis plantation is said to be the biggest in the country so far.Pahang police chief Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the 78-year-old diplomat was arrested at his house in Janda Baik at about 6.10pm on May 21 while his 53-year-old son was arrested at a house in Shah Alam, Selangor, at 5.30pm yesterday.During the raid at the house on an eight-acre plot of land in Janda Baik, police also found dried plants suspected to be cannabis, two glass bottles of suspected cannabis oil, coconut oil, and a modified bamboo stick believed to be used for cannabis consumption.“The suspected cannabis liquid costs about RM250 per bottle based on the market value. It was believed to be processed in the house to be sold to their contacts.“The value of the 102 cannabis trees seized is RM61,200 where each tree is valued at RM600. In fact, this can be said to be the largest seizure of cannabis plants in the country so far,” he said in a press conference at the Bentong district police headquarters today.Ramli said during the investigations, the first suspect revealed that he had used several drops of a liquid believed to be cannabis oil mixed in drinks over the past three years.“Preliminary investigations of the second suspect, who tested positive for drugs, found that he had been involved in drug activities since 2013, in addition to planting the banned substance since 2015,” he said.Ramly said the police did not rule out the possibility that the remote location of the house had made their activities easier to conceal. Investigations are still underway to determine who the substance was sold to and how it was marketed.The former diplomat has been remanded for seven days from May 22, while a remand application against his son will be made today to assist in the investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act (ADB) 1952 and Section 6B of the ADB 1952.


US official says will respond forcefully if North Korea holds nuclear test

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on Tuesday there would be a strong and clear response from the US, South Korea and the world if North Korea were to conduct a nuclear test.“Any nuclear test would be in complete violation of UN Security Council resolutions (and) there would be a swift and forceful response to such a test… I believe that not only ROK and US and Japan but the entire world will respond in a strong and clear manner,” she told a news conference after talks with her South Korean counterpart, Cho Hyun-dong, in Seoul. ROK is the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.“We are prepared and… we will continue our trilateral discussion (with South Korea and Japan) tomorrow,” Sherman added.Her remarks come after South Korea and US forces fired eight surface-to-surface missiles early on Monday off South Korea’s east coast in response to a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea on Sunday.US and South Korean government authorities and North Korean experts have been saying for weeks that there are signs of new construction at Punggye-ri, North Korea’s only known nuclear test site, and that Pyongyang could soon test a bomb. The North has not tested a nuclear bomb since 2017.The International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi on Monday said North Korean building work expanding key facilities at its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon is advancing.Reclusive North Korea has been suffering from its first-ever outbreak of Covid-19 in the past month, with the country reporting a total 4,198,890 people with fever symptoms as of Monday. North Korea has not confirmed the total number of people testing positive for the coronavirus, with experts saying the announced figures could be under-reported.Pyongyang has so far refused any help offered by Washington and Seoul, even as the World Health Organization says the Covid-19 situation there is getting worse.“The ROK and the US and others have offered humanitarian response that has yet to be accepted but we hope that (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un will be focused on helping his people to meet this challenge of Covid-19 which we have all faced and will return to the negotiating table are rather than taking provocative and dangerous and destabilising actions,” Sherman said.


Denmark ‘lends’ Germany 55,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine

Denmark said Tuesday it would give 55,000 doses of its AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to the neighbouring German state of Schleswig-Holstein after dropping the jab from its vaccination programme amid concerns about side effects.“Following a request from the minister-president of Schleswig-Holstein, the government has decided to put 55,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine at the disposal of the border regions,” the Danish foreign ministry said in a statement.“The vaccine doses will be returned upon an agreed timeframe,” it added.Denmark was the first country in Europe to suspend the use of AstraZeneca’s jab in its vaccination rollout in March, after reports of rare but serious cases of blood clots among those who had received the vaccine.The Danish Health Authority announced on April 14 it was dropping the vaccine from Denmark’s vaccination programme altogether, citing “a potential cross-reaction between the vaccine and a low platelet count”.It said the decision was “contextual”, noting that “the majority of the population at risk has been vaccinated and the epidemic is under control”.Denmark is continuing its immunisation campaign using the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, but said it might re-introduce the AstraZeneca jab at a later date “if the situation changes”.The country has a stockpile of some 200,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.Germany, which has recommended the AstraZeneca vaccine only for people aged 60 and over, is struggling to rein in a third Covid wave.The World Health Organization and Europe’s medicines watchdog have meanwhile recommended that countries continue using the Anglo-Swedish shot, insisting it is safe and effective and that the benefits outweigh the risks.


Govt to consider new act on elections during pandemic

The government will be studying a proposal to formulate a specific act on the election process to curb the spread of Covid-19.Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions) Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof said it could not be denied that elections such as the Sabah state election in September which involved large gatherings had resulted in a spike of Covid-19 cases in the country.“Elections are under the jurisdiction of the Election Commission and I am unable to provide further information on whether a by-election or a general election can or cannot be held, but the government is always monitoring.“If need be, create a specific act. The government is studying and making proposals,” he said during question time at the Dewan Rakyat today.He was replying to Jalaluddin Alias (BN-Jelebu) on whether the government would draft an act to shorten the campaign period or on a new campaign method to contain the spread of Covid-19.Redzuan said the current mechanism of national crisis management had succeeded in controlling Covid-19 infections and preventing health facilities such as hospitals and clinics from being burdened with the high number of cases.He said the mechanism included the implementation of the movement control order, conditional movement control order, enhanced movement control order and recovery movement control order with SOPs focusing on health protocol practices and the new normal.He said this in response to the original question by Fong Kui Lum (PH-Bukit Bintang) on the government’s measures to curb the outbreak.


Najib given until end-May to file application for Queen’s Counsel

Najib Razak’s application to admit a Queen’s Counsel (QC) from the UK to represent him at his final appeal in the RM42 million SRC International case must be filed at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur by the end of May.Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamarul, who confirmed the matter, said if the application was unsuccessful, the former prime minister could appeal to the Federal Court.“Meanwhile, the hearing of the main appeal will be fixed after the conclusion of the QC application.“The defence will write to the court to inform it of suitable dates for the QC to attend the hearing of the main appeal by April 18.“The defence is also seeking an extension of time for the filing of a petition of the main appeal by another two weeks. However, the court instructed them (the defence) to file a formal application by April 11,” he told reporters after the online proceedings conducted before Federal Court deputy registrars Wan Fatimah Zahara Wan Yussof and Siti Hajar Mustaffa today.On Jan 25, law firm Messrs Shafee & Co submitted a six-page letter to the secretariat of Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat on Najib’s intention to appoint a QC to assist him in complex issues and legal questions in his SRC International appeal at the apex court.On Dec 8, 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction, 12-year jail term and RM210 million fine for misappropriating RM42 million in SRC International funds.Justice Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, who led a three-member bench comprising justices Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, dismissed Najib’s appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision on July 28, 2020.Najib subsequently filed a notice of appeal to the Federal Court.


Toronto man charged with 96 offences related to child sexual assault

A 31-year-old Toronto man is facing 96 charges related to sexual assault of children in person as well as on social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, police in Canada said on Wednesday.
The charges against Daniel Langdon include 39 counts of sexual assault, 39 counts of sexual interference, as well as allegations of making and possessing child pornography, Toronto Police said in a statement.
Victims were aged between seven and 17. Police have declined to say how many children were targeted or provide information about the victims to protect their identities.
Police allege that Langdon, who they believe was operating alone, used several email addresses and social media platforms, as well as altered photos that made him look younger.
Authorities started working on a child luring and sexual assault investigation last year which led to Langdon's arrest in February.
Police searched his home and recovered child sexual abuse material as well as evidence indicating that he sexually assaulted a seven-year-old child at a Toronto park.
Toronto Police detective Vijay Shetty told a news conference that Langdon was previously charged with possessing and creating child pornography in 2016, but declined to provide more details of that incident.
Langdon appeared in court on Feb 8 and was remanded in custody, police said. He is scheduled to appear in an Ontario court on Thursday.
The investigation is still ongoing and police believe there are more online and in-person victims across Ontario, Canada's most populous province.
A representative for Langdon could not immediately be located to seek comment.


Biden to ask Americans to wear a mask for his first 100 days

US president-elect Joe Biden has said he will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office to curtail the spread of coronavirus.He told CNN he believed there would be a “significant reduction” in Covid-19 cases if every American wore a face covering.In the interview he said, “The first day I’m inaugurated, I’m going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just 100 days, not forever.”Constitutional experts say the US president has no legal authority to order Americans to wear masks, but Biden said during the interview he and his vice-president Kamala Harris would set an example by wearing face coverings.The president’s executive authority does cover US government property, and Biden told CNN he intended to exercise such power to order masks to be worn in all federal buildings.He said, “Transportation, interstate transportation, you must be masked, airplanes and buses, et cetera.”US airlines, airports and most public transit systems already require all passengers and workers to wear face coverings but many refuse often causing fights to break out between passengers.While many, particularly in Asia, regard mask wearing as an uncontentious, sensible and socially responsible approach to the pandemic, this is not the case for many Americans.The issue of whether to wear a mask has become very politicised in the US, with many refusing to wear them because they regard doing so to be a sign of having socialist leanings, and being ordered to wear one as part of an effort to overthrow treasured individual American liberties.The Trump White House has always rejected calls from American health experts to mandate masks in transportation as “overly restrictive”.


US judge dismisses suit against Saudi prince in Khashoggi murder

A US judge dismissed Tuesday a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his alleged role in the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Washington federal judge John Bates accepted a US government's stance that Prince Mohammed, who was designated prime minister of Saudi Arabia in September, enjoys immunity in US courts as a foreign head of state.
Bates said the civil suit filed by Khashoggi's widow Hatice Cengiz and his activist group DAWN made a "strong" and "meritorious" argument that Prince Mohammed was behind the murder.
But he ruled that he had no power to reject the US government's official stance, submitted in a formal statement to the court on Nov 17, that the prince had immunity as a foreign leader.
Even if the prince was named prime minister just weeks ago, the US government's executive branch "remains responsible for foreign affairs, including with Saudi Arabia, and a contrary decision on bin Salman’s immunity by this Court would unduly interfere with those responsibilities," Bates said.
He said the "credible" allegations of the murder, the timing of prince's being named prime minister, and timing of the US government's submission, left him with "uneasiness."
But Bates said he had no other choice in the case.
US intelligence blamed prince
Prince Mohammed has been the kingdom's de facto ruler for several years under his father King Salman.
One of the prince's most vocal critics, Khashoggi was a journalist and activist based in the US when he travelled to Turkey with his fiancee to obtain documents for their marriage from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
After he entered the consulate Khashoggi was seized and murdered by a team of agents of the Saudi regime, his body dismembered and disposed of.
Activists seeking to hold the crown prince accountable for the Khashoggi murder voiced dismay.
"Today is a dark day for victims of transnational repression," said Khalid Aljabri, a US-based doctor and son of a former Saudi intelligence official.
US President Joe Biden "has put dissidents at greater risk while confirming to dictators that his human rights policy is nothing but hot air."
A Saudi court in 2020 jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years over the killing.
Last year, Biden declassified an intelligence report that found Prince Mohammed had approved the operation against Khashoggi, an assertion Saudi authorities deny.
The murder deeply strained ties between Washington and Riyadh.
But driven by the needs of Middle East politics, particularly the threat from Iran, and Saudi Arabia's power over oil markets, Biden traveled to the country in July in a move seen as partially aiming to put the murder case behind.
Nevertheless, while there Biden made mention of it in his talks with the crown prince, calling the murder "outrageous."


Activist urges foreign minister to intervene in execution of autistic Malaysian ahead of Deepavali

An activist has appealed to Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah to intervene in the scheduled execution of a mentally disabled Malaysian on death row in Singapore, in light of the country’s recent appointment to the United Nations Human Rights Council.Angelia Pranthaman, president of NGO Sebaran Kasih, said while it was inhumane to execute a person who is intellectually disabled, it was “extra cruel” to do so during the festival season of Deepavali, which falls on Nov 4.She also hit out at “antiquated” penitentiary systems which continue to employ the death penalty.“Sebaran Kasih is requesting the intervention of ministers and governments to withhold Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam’s execution. At the very least, his sentence and verdict must be re-evaluated, considering his state of mind,” she said.Nagaenthran was convicted in 2011 of illegally importing 42.72g of diamorphine and sentenced to death under Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act.Rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) revealed on Thursday that his mother had been informed in a letter from the Singapore Prison Service dated Oct 26 that her son would be executed on Nov 10.According to LFL, Nagaenthran suffers from mental disabilities and possesses an IQ of 69, with his condition diagnosed and certified by a qualified Singapore-based psychiatrist.Angelia, whose own brother is also on death row in Singapore’s Changi prison for trafficking in 51.84g of diamorphine, said Malaysia’s representatives at the country’s recent seating at the United Nations conference had mentioned that priority must be given especially to vulnerable people.“It’s time that Malaysia starts walking its talk,” she said. “We urge the minister of foreign affairs to interfere and to appeal to stop this execution and change Nagaenthran’s death sentence to life in prison.”Angelia said when her brother, Pannir Selvam, was given an execution date, Liew Vui Keong who was law minister at the time came forward to help her family.“He went the extra mile to talk to his Singapore counterparts and contacted the law minister of Singapore, with the backing of other higher Malaysian authorities to do something about it.“Saifuddin Abdullah was working on behalf of Putrajaya to try to convince the Singapore government to spare Pannir’s life. Can we have our current government step forward to appeal to Singapore to spare Nagenthiren’s life now?”Urging the government to play an active role in caring for its citizens, including those on death row in foreign countries, she said Malaysia must remember its values and prioritise the lives of its citizens regardless of the circumstances.“For that, we have to look into how we can help all Malaysian death row inmates, whether here or overseas, and eventually the abolition of the death penalty in our land.”