Sri Ram never found guilty of prosecutorial misconduct, court told

The High Court today heard that no court had found former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram guilty of prosecutorial misconduct that he should be disqualified from conducting the 1MDB audit report tampering trial of former prime minister Najib Razak.Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said this during the hearing of the Pekan MP’s application to disqualify Sri Ram from leading the prosecution team in Najib’s ongoing trial before justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan.“That should be the threshold of the application right now – whether he (Sri Ram) has committed prosecutorial misconduct, to which my answer is that he has not.“The evidence he presented in all the trials that he handled as a representative of the prosecution was relevant and admissible,” he said.Akram added that the point of bias raised in the application had also been adjudicated, thus making it res judicata or a matter decided.He referred to a WhatsApp conversation between Sri Ram and former attorney-general (AG) Mohamed Apandi Ali in 2018, which Najib had claimed indicated bias in seeking for Apandi to charge him.“It was a conversation between two buddies. We can see from the tone of the whole conversation. He (Apandi) started his message to Sri Ram with ‘bro’. From there, the conversation went on,” said Akram.He said Najib had also submitted in his written submission that Sri Ram was involved in the 1MDB-related investigations, causing him to pre-judge the culpability of the applicant.“His power to supervise investigations conducted by the investigating officer (IO) in his capacity as a senior deputy public prosecutor cannot be misconstrued as having taken over the investigation itself,” he said.“The applicant failed to show any evidence that Sri Ram was indeed involved in the investigations against him. As such, the allegation that Sri Ram had taken over the investigations is without basis.”Najib’s lead counsel, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, responded that the present disqualification bid did not seek to nullify the whole 1MDB audit trial so far, merely to see that the proceeding is conducted without bias.“The disqualification we seek here is not punishment of anybody or Sri Ram, but to meet substantive fear of bias, on the matter of predetermination of guilt of Najib by Sri Ram.“It is protection for the parties and the public, as well as for the wider interest of justice,” said Shafee.After hearing submissions from both parties, Mohamed fixed Feb 15 for a decision.This is Najib’s third attempt to recuse Sri Ram from prosecuting in the 1MDB-linked criminal cases. One application was filed in another 1MDB case before a different judge and the second was through a civil proceeding.On June 12 last year, Najib filed an application to recuse Sri Ram, supported by two affidavits, one filed by Najib and the other by Apandi.Najib, 67, and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy are on trial for charges of tampering with the 1MDB audit report.The Pekan MP is charged with using his position to order amendments to the final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee to avoid any action against him, while Arul Kanda is charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments to the report to protect Najib from being subjected to action.


Who blocked oil money to Sarawak? Ex-AG taken to task for blaming Petronas

A political analyst has rejected a claim by former attorney-general Tommy Thomas blaming the non-payment of billions of ringgit owed to Sarawak by Petronas on the national oil company.Instead, James Chin said the greatest stumbling block to promises by Putrajaya to settle payments related to Sarawak’s oil and gas revenues were the Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders themselves.“I disagree with him that the stumbling block to increasing the oil and gas cash payment to Sarawak came from Petronas,” he told MalaysiaNow.“In fact, the people blocking it were actually Mahathir and Lim Guan Eng,” he said, referring to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the finance minister who served for 22 months under the previous government.James ChinHe also accused Mahathir of not intending to keep the promise.The comments are the latest in a series of reactions over Thomas’ version of key political events in his autobiography “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness”.The book reveals, among others, Thomas’ secret five-year ambition to become the attorney-general, and the top-level discussions that took place under the PH government up to the political crisis which saw the collapse of the coalition.In his book, Thomas accused Petronas of being the “greatest stumbling block” to the PH’s government promise to increase cash payments on oil revenues to Sarawak and Sabah from 5% to 20%.The pledge was part of PH’s 2018 general election manifesto.Thomas claimed he had reminded Mahathir of the promise, saying amending laws for the purpose would be “as easy as pie”.The year after PH’s election victory, the Sarawak government, under the rule of Gabungan Parti Sarawak – a group of parties which exited the Barisan Nasional coalition following its election defeat – imposed a 5% sales tax on Petronas’ petroleum products under the state’s Sales Tax Ordinance 1998.The move would mean Petronas paying some RM2 billion, which the national oil company said was unconstitutional.Thomas claimed he refused a request by then-managing director of Petronas Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin that Putrajaya back a suit by the company to challenge the move.Thomas said Petronas then approached Mahathir and Lim.“Lim Guan Eng, noted for his persistence, telephoned me, and asked me to get the federal government to intervene. I stood my ground. The minister was not happy. Neither was Petronas,” Thomas wrote.In March 2019, the Kuching High Court ruled that the two states had the right to impose the sales tax.But it was only after the federal government changed hands under Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin that Putrajaya agreed to settle the RM2 billion sales tax, and to speed up other oil-related demands from Sarawak.‘MA63 committees nothing new’Thomas in his book also praised PH for setting up several committees on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), a document that spells out the terms for Sarawak and Sabah’s entry into the newly formed Malaysian federation that year.He claimed that the three committees formed by PH to look into the implementation of MA63, which among others gives Sarawak and Sabah autonomy in several key sectors, marked the first time the problems faced by the two states were discussed.“It was a major coup for the PH government to have pioneered serious efforts to improve relations, which had deteriorated over time,” Thomas, who was a co-chairman of the MA63 constitutional committee, wrote in his book.But Chin said the idea of setting up such committees was nothing new.He said it was former prime minister Najib Razak who first started the initiative to set up a federal-level committee on MA63.“And he was the one who declared a national holiday on Sept 16 to recognise Sabah and Sarawak in the formation of Malaysia,” he said.Chin said despite many meetings, PH failed to resolve the most contentious issues on the states’ territorial jurisdiction as well as autonomy on oil and gas.He said a problem with giving control over oil and gas to Sarawak would lead to similar demands from other oil-producing states such as Sabah, Kelantan and Terengganu.He said Petronas would then have to include the state governments when entering into joint venture agreements with foreign oil companies.“It could cause the federal government to lose a major portion of its development expenditure from Petronas,” he added.


Eyes on Russia's ally Belarus as Ukraine's neighbour moves troops

Russia's ally Belarus said on Wednesday it was moving troops and military hardware to counteract what it called a threat of terrorism, amid signs Moscow could be putting pressure on its loyal client to open a new front in the war against Ukraine.
President Alexander Lukashenko, who relied on Russian troops to put down a popular revolt two years ago, has allowed Belarus to serve as a staging ground for Russia's invasion of their neighbour, but has so far kept his own army from joining it.
But recent weeks have seen increasing signs of involvement in Belarus from Moscow, culminating on Saturday when Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu flew unannounced to the capital Minsk. He and Belarusian counterpart Viktor Khrenin signed ammendments to the two countries' security cooperation agreement, without disclosing the new terms.
Thousands of Russian troops have been deployed in Belarus since October, Ukraine says, and Belarus authorities have increasingly spoken of a threat of "terrorism" from partisans operating from across the border. Lukashenko has ordered his military to compile information about reservists by the end of this year.
In the latest move, on Wednesday, the Belarus Security Council, quoted by state news agency BelTA, said troops and hardware would be moving in the country over the next two days. Access to some roads and transport links would be restricted, and imitation weapons would be used for training, it said.
It gave no details about the number of troops or types of hardware that would be moved, the location of roads and transport links that would be shut, or of the nature of the training exercises. Residents in the capital Minsk said there were no outward signs of unusual activity there.
Calculus changing
In the past, some Western diplomats have been skeptical that Belarus would join the war, noting that it had a comparatively small military, and that Moscow would be wary of provoking public opposition that would weaken Lukashenko for little gain.
Ukrainian officials have also said they think Russia did not have enough troops in Belarus to assault from there yet, and action near the border could be intended instead as a decoy.
The Institute for the Study of War think tank said this month it believes Belarus is conducting an "information operation aimed at fixing Ukrainian forces on the border".
But some analysts say the flurry of activity in recent weeks could also be a genuine sign Belarus might send troops.
"Belarus has actually been preparing to join the war on the Russian side for a few months. Every capability that they would need to go to war has been tested," Konrad Muzyka, a Belarus expert with Poland-based defence think-tank Rochan Consulting, told Reuters, describing drills on mobilising troops and even running the post office in war time.
"We cannot exclude the possibility that a decision has been made that Belarus could join the war. I don't know whether this has happened, but from a military indicators point of view, everything is pointing towards Belarusian armed forces taking a more belligerent stance."
Within Ukraine, officials were working on Wednesday to restore power after damage in the latest barrage of Russian missile strikes, launched on Monday hours after apparent Ukrainian drone strikes on two airbases deep inside Russia.
Ukraine has not directly claimed responsibility for the drone strikes but has celebrated the apparent demonstration of newfound capability to penetrate hundreds of kilometres into Russia's air defences.
Russia launched its "special military operation" in February saying Ukraine's close ties with the West posed a security threat. Kyiv and its allies say the invasion was an illegal war of aggression. Tens of thousands have died in the war, including at least 6,700 civilian deaths counted by the United Nations. Russia denies intentionally targetting civilians or committing atrocities on occupied territory.
In the latest international documentation of such allegations, the UN human rights office released a report on Wednesday detailing 441 civilians it said were killed by Russian forces in executions and attacks early in the war in the northern Kyiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
The actual number of victims in the three regions was likely to be much higher, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said. The report looked at the period from the invasion's start on Feb 24 until early April, when Russian forces were driven from those areas.
The Russian foreign and defence ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Many of the bodies documented in the new report bore signs that the victims might have been intentionally killed, the report found. As of the end of October, OHCHR was still trying to corroborate an additional 198 alleged killings of civilians in the three regions.


Nasa to deflect asteroid in test of ‘planetary defence’

In the 1998 Hollywood blockbuster “Armageddon,” Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck race to save the Earth from being pulverized by an asteroid.While the Earth faces no such immediate danger, Nasa plans to crash a spacecraft travelling at a speed of 24,000kph into an asteroid next year in a test of “planetary defence.”The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is to determine whether this is an effective way to deflect the course of an asteroid should one threaten the Earth in the future.Nasa provided details of the DART mission, which carries a price tag of US$330 million, in a briefing for reporters on Thursday.“Although there isn’t a currently known asteroid that’s on an impact course with the Earth, we do know that there is a large population of near-Earth asteroids out there,” said Lindley Johnson, Nasa’s planetary defence officer.“The key to planetary defence is finding them well before they are an impact threat,” Johnson said. “We don’t want to be in a situation where an asteroid is headed towards Earth and then have to test this capability.”The DART spacecraft is scheduled to be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10.20pm Pacific time on Nov 23 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.If the launch takes place at or around that time, impact with the asteroid some 6.8 million miles from Earth would occur between Sept 26 and Oct 1 of next year.The target asteroid, Dimorphos, which means “two forms” in Greek, is about 525 feet in diameter and orbits around a larger asteroid named Didymos, “twin” in Greek.Johnson said that while neither asteroid poses a threat to Earth they are ideal candidates for the test because of the ability to observe them with ground-based telescopes.Images will also be collected by a miniature camera-equipped satellite contributed by the Italian Space Agency that will be ejected by the DART spacecraft 10 days before impact.‘A small nudge’Nancy Chabot of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which built the DART spacecraft, said Dimorphos completes an orbit around Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes “just like clockwork.”The DART spacecraft, which will weigh 1,210 pounds at the time of impact, will not “destroy” the asteroid, Chabot said.“It’s just going to give it a small nudge,” she said. “It’s going to deflect its path around the larger asteroid.”“It’s only going to be a change of about one percent in that orbital period,” Chabot said, “so what was 11 hours and 55 minutes before might be like 11 hours and 45 minutes.”The test is designed to help scientists understand how much momentum is needed to deflect an asteroid in the event one is headed towards Earth one day.“We are targeting to be as nearly head on as possible to cause the biggest deflection,” Chabot said.The amount of deflection will depend to a certain extent on the composition of Dimorphos and scientists are not entirely certain how porous the asteroid is.Dimorphos is the most common type of asteroid in space and is some 4.5 billion years old, Chabot said.“It’s like ordinary chondrite meteorites,” she said. “It’s a fine grain mixture of rock and metal together.”Johnson, Nasa’s planetary defence officer, said more than 27,000 near-Earth asteroids have been catalogued but none currently pose a danger to the planet.An asteroid discovered in 1999 known as Bennu that is 1,650 feet wide will pass within half the distance of the Earth to the Moon in the year 2135 but the probability of an impact is considered very slight.


Govt collects nearly RM1 billion under revised MM2H programme

The government's move to tighten the conditions for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme last year has not only curbed spying activities but also increased the country's monetary value compared to the previous five years, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said that despite a decline in the number of applications and approvals, the financial value recorded for the one-year period was nearly RM1 million, which is equivalent to the value recorded in five years from 2015 to 2019.
"...in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 3,900 applicants, but with the new conditions, the number of applications is approximately 2,000, which is a 50% decrease.
"However, because we have tightened the application requirements such as an RM1 million in fixed deposit, there are currently 375 applications that have been approved, which means that there is RM375 million in the country's money market.
"Apart from that, we have given another 800 applications pre-approval, which requires them to complete one or two more documents including a health screening, and once approved, there will be RM800 million in our banking system," he said during the question-and-answer session.
He said this in reply to a question from Hasni Mohammad (BN-Simpang Renggam) about the rationale for the latest changes made to the MM2H programme.
Saifuddin Nasution said that in addition to having RM1 million in a fixed deposit, MM2H programme applicants must also have RM1.5 million in liquid assets.
"Participants must also undergo and pass security vetting. Previously, some of them were found to have been involved in spying activities. That's why we need to tighten the conditions," he said.
According to him, the government's move to change the relevant conditions, coupled with the current country's political stability and the ability of the people to speak multiple languages, has also attracted retirees from countries such as Japan, South Korea, the US, Canada and Australia to participate in the programme.


Booster shots might be needed, health expert says on virus variants

An epidemiologist today said a booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine may be needed to improve effectiveness and offer protection against variants of the virus which have cropped up over the past year.Dr Andrew Kiyu Dawie Usop, chairman of the Sarawak Covid-19 Vaccine Advisory Group, said additional doses may be needed as some of the vaccines might not be enough to curb more contagious variants such as the South African (B.135), UK (B.117) and Brazilian (P.1) variants.“The effectiveness of the vaccine is not because of the efficacy of the vaccine,” he said at a talk organised by the Sarawak Development Institute on the state vaccination campaign in Kuching.“It is because of the mutations of the virus. Some of these variants are more infectious.”He added that the efficacy of the current vaccines vary against these variants.“For example, the Pfizer vaccine has the same efficacy with the UK variant while the South African variant is more efficacious and reduces antibody levels in the body.”He said some vaccines might not be effective enough to substantially reduce the rate of transmission or serious disease, adding that factors such as the variants and compliance with non-pharmaceutical intervention measures must be taken into consideration.“Efficacy of the vaccine is what was measured during clinical trials. Effectiveness, this requires constant follow-up with people who have been vaccinated.”He said this was also the case for flu vaccines, where annual jabs are required.


Selangor continues to fare worst in daily virus spikes despite SELangkah app

Questions are being asked about the effectiveness of a Covid-19 contact tracing app used in Selangor as the state continues to report the bulk of daily cases despite forming its own task force to fight the pandemic under the leadership of former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad.MalaysiaNow has learnt that despite the introduction of SELangkah in May 2020 – just two weeks after Putrajaya launched the MySejahtera contact tracing app for the whole country – it is facing problems getting accurate data and other details on Covid-19 infections in the state.Selangor, with a population of over six million, is spread over an area of about 8,000 sq km. By comparison, Kuala Lumpur, just 3% of Selangor’s size, has a population of two million and is the most densely populated part of the country.Yet, Selangor has generally recorded the highest number of new Covid-19 cases as the country battles a sharp spike in daily infections.Yesterday, Selangor led the way again, recording 1,145 cases compared to Kuala Lumpur with 619 cases.Since the pandemic hit Malaysia, Selangor has reported over 70,000 cases with 168 deaths, while Kuala Lumpur registered about 27,000 cases with 45 deaths.Selangor has generally recorded the highest number of new Covid-19 cases as the country battles a sharp spike in daily infections.On Jan 29, when daily cases shot up to a record 5,725, more than half – 3,126 – were infections from Selangor.Dzulkefly had said the spike in cases in the state was due to a backlog of screenings involving factory workers and prisoners, as well as those done at private medical facilities which were not reported earlier.Even so, the huge spike turned attention to the SELangkah app, developed by Selangkah Ventures Sdn Bhd, a company whose majority 60% ownership was bought by the state through Selgate Healthcare Sdn Bhd which is owned by the Selangor government.A check of Selangkah Ventures’s website reveals only a page of information about the company, with no details of its portfolio and organisational structure.Checks also revealed that the remaining 40% of the company is owned by Aime Healthcare Sdn Bhd, whose CEO is Dr Helmi Zakariah, the app’s developer.Several posts on social media have questioned the close political connection among those tasked by the state government to supervise the battle against Covid-19.Others linked them to an Islamic NGO seen as close to Amanah although MalaysiaNow has not been able to independently verify these claims.Two months after it was launched, the Putrajaya Amanah division hailed SELangkah as a local achievement and even backed a call by a Bumiputera business group to boycott the federal government’s MySejahtera app on the basis that it was jointly developed with a US-based company.Dzulkefly has in recent times stepped up criticism of the health ministry, accusing it of not sharing critical data on virus infections.The claim is not new, and as far back as October last year, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had explained that Selangor’s request for “raw data” could not be fulfilled to ensure standardisation in data interpretation.Noor Hisham had said it was likely that the state’s data interpretation would be different due to the different systems used.He also questioned the data privacy of SELangkah, although Selangor officials have assured that its data is encrypted.He said the use of SELangkah would hamper coordination in tracing Covid-19 infections.Dzulkefly, a non-medical doctor who did his PhD in toxicology, has so far snubbed repeated requests by MalaysiaNow to respond to questions and claims surrounding Selangor’s Covid-19 spike.


Approval for PN issued on Aug 7, says RoS

The Registrar of Societies (RoS) says Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) registration was approved effective Aug 7 under the political category, in line with the provisions of the Societies Act 1966 (Act 335).Referring to claims that information on PN’s registration was not on the record, the RoS said the party was given a registration certificate numbered PPM-019-14-07082020, approved and signed by the RoS.“The party’s registration certificate, logo and constitution were signed and presented to PN as soon as its registration was approved,” it said in a statement.PKR Youth vice-chief Syed Badli Shah Syed Osman had reportedly claimed that checks on the RoS website failed to show that PN was a registered entity.But the RoS said the approval of any organisation would be automatically updated in the system every two months.“The approval status of PN will only appear on the website in early October, as it was issued in August,” it said.It added that a specific search of the eROSES system would show the date on which PN received approval.However, it said this information could only be accessed by the party’s secretary.


Only 5-10% of Covid-19 cases from manufacturing sector, says Azmin

Only 5% to 10% of the total number of Covid-19 cases are from the manufacturing sector, International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said today.He said data confirmed by the health ministry showed that 75% of Covid-19 cases today were sporadic, which means the virus is in the community, while another 25% came from various clusters including workplace clusters covering the manufacturing sector.“Therefore, it is not true to put the blame on the economic sector, especially the manufacturing sector,” he told reporters after visiting the Setia City Convention Centre vaccination centre (PPV) in Shah Alam today.He said when the government decided to allow several economic sectors to operate, there was the probability of Covid-19 infection occurring in these sectors, unlike the education and social sectors which were completely shut down.The decision, however, was made in the economic interest of the people, Azmin added.“The economic sectors, especially those involving essential goods and services, we decided that some of them must be allowed to protect the economic well-being of the people.“When there are (economic) activities, the probability (of Covid-19 infection) certainly exists but the number is not as large as announced (from the total number of cases) because the virus is already sporadic, and that is why we call for the pandemic to be overcome jointly by adhering to strict SOPs,” he said.Azmin said Malaysia is part of a global supply chain and the government does not want any disruption to the supply of food, basic necessities and public health items such as sanitiser and other pharmaceutical products.Meanwhile, he said the Public-Private Partnership Covid-19 Industry Immunisation Programme (Pikas) for now involves the manufacturing sector, adding that the government will focus on the construction and tourism sectors in the near future.He also announced that a total of 16,564 workers had received their vaccination shots in Penang, Johor and Selangor through Pikas from June 16 until yesterday.


Remember why Najib sacked me, Muhyiddin tells Mahathir

Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Muhyiddin Yassin today dismissed claims by Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he had failed to block the advance of former prime minister Najib Razak’s bid to return to power.He also reminded Mahathir that he had been sacked as deputy prime minister during the administration of Barisan Nasional (BN) because he opposed Najib’s wrongdoings.“Why say now that I failed to block Najib? I opposed them, I fell from power because I was against what they did – corruption and abuse of power,” the National Recovery Council chairman said when met by reporters after meeting with the Chinese community in Gambir, Tangkak.Mahathir in yet another letter today had said that Muhyiddin, during Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) tenure in Putrajaya, had wanted to become prime minister and turned his back on voters in order to accomplish his ambitions.The Langkawi MP also referred to the Sheraton Move which saw the downfall of PH and Muhyiddin replacing Mahathir as prime minister.He urged all who were against kleptocracy to support Pejuang in order to restore the government for the interests of the people.Speaking today, Muhyiddin said Najib had already been brought to court and found guilty in the SRC International case which saw him sentenced to jail for 12 years and fined RM210 million.Najib, the Pekan MP, is appealing his case at the Federal Court.Muhyiddin and Mahathir have been seen as at odds since the Sheraton Move which also saw the latter sacked from Bersatu, the party he helped found together with Muhyiddin.Mahathir went on to form Pejuang, which will be contesting an election for the first time in Johor on March 12.Pejuang and Bersatu are expected to clash in a number of seats come election day.PN, which includes Bersatu, is contesting all 56 seats in the state assembly while Pejuang is fielding candidates in 42.


Victory in the bag for GPS but can Abang Jo beat Tok Nan’s record?

Sarawak heads to the polls today in what is expected to be a landslide victory for the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition, which is contesting all 82 seats in the massive state legislative assembly.But while victory is all but certain for GPS, an analyst says it remains to be seen whether its chairman Abang Johari Openg will be able to top the 72 seats won by the late Adenan Satem in the 2016 election.Sarawak politics observer James Chin of the University of Tasmania said the results would be very close.“GPS will gain more than 60 seats,” he said.“They can get more than that if they can swing the mood of the voters to vote for them,” he told MalaysiaNow.A total of 1.2 million voters are eligible to vote today, with the Election Commission expecting a 70% voter turnout.The Sarawak legislative assembly was dissolved on Nov 3 after the king consented to the revocation of the extended state of emergency.Before the dissolution of the state assembly, GPS had held 68 seats – 47 belonging to Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), 11 to Parti Rakyat Sarawak, seven to the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP), and three to Progressive Democratic Party.On the opposition bench, SUPP splinter Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) had held six seats while Sarawak DAP held five and Bersatu one. There was also one seat held by an independent and one vacant.PBB, the lynchpin party of GPS, is expected to make a clean sweep of the Malay and Melanau majority seats this time around – 26 out of the total 47 seats being contested by its candidates.Meanwhile, the tussle between PSB, led by Wong Soon Koh, and Pakatan Harapan – particularly its component DAP – could result in DAP losing one of the seven seats it had won in 2016, Chin said.The seven seats were Pending, Padungan, Kota Sentosa, Pujut, Bukit Assek, Tg Batu and Pelawan.“I predict that DAP will not be able to hang on to all seven seats,” Chin said. “This time, it will be fewer than that.”For Chin, the real contender to GPS is PSB.In any case, he added, the election this time around will be a referendum on Abang Johari’s performance as chief minister.In early voting on Dec 14, a total of 89% or 18,141 individuals turned out to cast their ballots.


What we believe in

“Aku tengok Kak Nisa dengan Kak Nur tak pakai tudung semua, tapi baik. Macam tak percaya.”I laughed at Adni’s disbelief at the people who had helped him. It was a simple statement, but it reflected the way he had been raised and what he was taught to believe in.Adni was a kampung boy. But unlike Lat’s famous Kampung Boy, he did not experience a life that allowed him to see those who did not wear tudungs as people who could be nice. Neither did it let him perceive a life out of the Islamic context as an acceptable path of value.Islam was the main theme of his kampung life, but it was also a life without a father, and a mother who stayed in his mind even after her death.It was also where he was unable to finish school, and forced into a life that froze his perception of the world through only an Islamic lens. His life in the kampung was a struggle that shortened his reach towards understanding life outside the microcosm of a Muslim kampung, and it shaped the way he carried himself when he had to integrate into the foreign cosmic of the city.Having been raised in a suburban family, I did not have much exposure at first to the ways of others, just like Adni. My family is a modern, practising Muslim family. My life as an adolescent was a few hours a day in religious school – the rest was filled with the contemporary pop chants and games that I felt were much more entertaining that the tedious religious life to which I was reluctant to submit.My measure of life’s worth at the time was what could best entertain me, and what was worthy was the joy of an un-Islamic life.But unlike Adni, I was able to perceive and bend my beliefs from the people and circumstances I had experienced. Boarding school was an opportunity for me to be included in a melting pot where I faced others who were raised out of a suburban climate. I had classmates from a kampung life who spent their post-class boredom in the mosque. Imagine how baffled I was to learn that a teenager my age would rather be in a mosque than enjoy an evening nap.Still, I had a hard time believing that anyone other than myself could have a different mindset as a teenager and go as far as to say that an Islamic route could be fulfilling. Although I had the opportunity to face such people, I made the mistake of invalidating their experiences and beliefs.Boarding school was not the only moment of exposure I had. As soon as I finished my secondary education, I was so determined to fulfil my vision of becoming a medical graduate that I ended up in a kampung.I believed that my achievements deserved a great career pathway, and a scholarship placed me there – in a kampung so secluded from the rest of the country that I could easily travel a few miles and find myself in another nation.The small college in that kampung was dissatisfactory, but I soldiered through my bitterness. I still complained because a suburban boy who does not complain is not really a suburban boy.But the complaining reflected me as well. It reflected my inability to see the worthiness of life outside of the context of a modern lifestyle. I look back at kampung college me with disappointment as the only satisfaction I hoped for then was a chance to get out of there.I was still a downer when I left that kampung college for medical school. I was stuck on invalidating the experiences of close acquaintances so that mine could be the beacon of righteousness. I thought that to be good was to be progressive and modern. To be useful was to abandon what I deemed conservative, and any trace of life before there was anything modern.That was my belief for the longest time – until I found myself invalidating my own experiences and beliefs. I failed medical school after thinking that I deserved to be there and to stay until the title was mine. I found myself continuing my studies in a career that I thought was beneath my past achievements, yet I enjoyed it. I found that people had bent my past beliefs about them.Just as Adni was surprised to find that a woman who wore no tudung could still be nice, I could see my old self thinking that a woman who wore one could never be progressive. I have since moved on from that belief, and now believe in the validity of anyone’s perception and stand without the need to deny the experiences that shaped their beliefs.Adni experienced a life that made him believe in the need to live life according to the way he had been taught in his kampung. He found himself in struggles that could even strengthen his beliefs. I had no right to say that his were wrong just because I experienced a different lifestyle. The only thing I had the right to say back to his remark was: “Itulah orang” – an addition to his experience without invalidating the people he had faced and who formed his perceptions.Just as Adni will continue to meet people who will shock him by their kindness although they do not wear tudungs or are not Muslims, we too will meet people who challenge our beliefs with a righteousness that goes beyond any one belief but is still just as valid as our own experiences. We can only hope that invalidation of belief will not be a part of our experience with them.Until then, semoga kita terus berbakti.


China confirms first case of UK virus variant

China has confirmed its first case of a new coronavirus variant that was recently detected in Britain, health officials said.The new strain, which experts say potentially spreads faster than the original variant, has prompted travel restrictions on the UK by more than 50 countries – including China, where the coronavirus first emerged late last year.The first patient in China with the new variant is a 23-year-old woman from Shanghai who arrived from Britain on Dec 14, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control said in a research note published Wednesday.She was hospitalised on arrival as she showed mild symptoms. Health experts conducted a genetic sequencing of her test samples on December 24 “due to travel history from the UK and abnormalities in nucleic acid test results”,” the China CDC said.The patient was found to have a strain different to those found in Shanghai or Wuhan earlier, and further testing confirmed it was the variant known as B.1.1.7 that has been spreading in the UK since October.Health authorities have carried out contact-tracing, the CDC statement added.China suspended direct flights to and from Britain indefinitely on Dec 24 because of the new strain.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the new variant “may be up to 70% more transmissible than the original version of the disease”.But there is no evidence so far to suggest that infection with the new variant is more likely to lead to a severe case of Covid-19 or increase the risk of death.


Floods claim fourth victim in Kelantan

The body of a man who was reported missing on Feb 27 was found behind a shop in Kampung Jelujuk near Rantau Panjang, in Pasir Mas yesterday evening.Pasir Mas district police chief Mohd Nasaruddin M Nasir said the victim, Ahmad Faizal Zulkefli, 26, was reported to have fallen into the floodwaters. He was discovered at 3.30pm.He said a search operation was mounted by the Kelantan fire and rescue department’s scuba unit and firemen from the Rantau Panjang police station.“The body was sent to the Rantau Panjang health clinic for further action and the victim’s family has been informed of the discovery,” he said.He said this latest incident was the second case involving a death due to floods in Pasir Mas and the fourth in the state.


Sorry.


Japan ramping up its military in an increasingly perilous neighbourhood

Tokyo is planning to develop its own advanced stealth fighter and longer-range anti-ship missiles to counter China’s growing military power and ambitions in the region.Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government approved a ninth consecutive rise in military spending on Monday, to fund the projects, reports Reuters.Suga is continuing the controversial military expansion pursued by his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, to give Japan’s forces new planes, missiles and aircraft carriers with greater range and potency against potential foes in the neighbourhood.On Monday, Japan’s Joint Staff tweeted that warplanes were scrambled on December 18 in response to a suspected intrusion into its airspace over the Sea of Japan, bordering the Korean peninsula and Russia. They did not go into details.Japan is reportedly buying longer-range missiles and considering arming and training its military to strike land targets in China, North Korea and other parts of Asia.The planned Japanese stealth fighter is expected to cost around US$40 billion and be ready in the 2030s. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will develop the aircraft in partnership with US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.Japan will also begin the development of a long-range anti-ship missile to defend the Okinawan island chain to its southwest.Other big-ticket items on the shopping list are six Lockheed F-35 stealth fighters, including two short-takeoff and vertical-landing variants that will operate from a converted helicopter carrier.The navy plans to build at least two compact warships that can operate with fewer sailors than conventional destroyers, easing pressure on a navy struggling to find recruits in an ageing population.


'The arms are not there': Less than 50% of kids vaccinated against Covid-19

A total of 1.76 million or 49.8% of children aged five to 11 had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine as of yesterday, says Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.
He said of the total, 1.5 million or 42.3% had completed their vaccination while 1,030 children in the moderate-to-severe immunocompromised category within the same age range had received a third dose.
However, Noor Azmi said the percentage was still low compared to the number of vaccination facilities provided for that group.
"It's been almost six months since we launched the Covid-19 vaccination programme for children. The staff are doing a good job, the response and cooperation from state governments is also good, and the response from private clinics is encouraging.
"But the arms are not there," he said when replying to Wong Chen (PH-Subang) in the Dewan Rakyat today. Noor Azmi said the health ministry was still continuing its efforts to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated, including through electronic and social media.
To date, he said, there were still 926 private premises that provide vaccination facilities and 14 off-site vaccination centres.
Meanwhile, for children who missed their second dose of vaccine, he said parents can contact the nearest health clinic to make an appointment for a second dose.


NZ govt reverses move to introduce bill to lower voting age

The New Zealand government backtracked on Monday on introducing legislation to lower the voting age to 16 in the country's general elections, saying it does not have the required numbers for the bill to pass in parliament.
Any change in electoral law will require the support of 75% of parliament members and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said his government does not have that level of backing in parliament.
But Hipkins said he would introduce a bill to lower the voting age for local government elections as that would only require a regular majority in the parliament.
"Giving the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds is something that I do support and I'm happy to see progressed," Hipkins said during a media conference.
New Zealand's highest court in November ruled the country's current voting age of 18 was discriminatory, saying it was inconsistent with the country's Bill of Rights, which gives people a right to be free from age discrimination when they have reached 16. The case was brought by youth advocacy group Make It 16.
Jacinda Ardern, who was the prime minister then, had said the government would draft legislation to reduce the voting age, which could then be put to a vote in parliament. The Green Party offered its support but the main opposition National Party, said it would oppose it.


Low Omicron efficacy behind delay of Pfizer jab for kids under 5, report says

US health regulators delayed the review of Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine for children under five years of age because its two-dose regimen did not work well against the Omicron variant, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it needed more data on the vaccine, delaying its decision for using the vaccine in children six months through four years of age for at least two months.An early look at data showed the vaccine to be effective against the Delta variant during testing while that was the dominant strain, but some vaccinated children developed Covid-19 after Omicron emerged, the report said, citing people familiar with the FDA’s decision.However, since the overall Covid-19 cases were low, the small number of Omicron cases made the vaccine appear less effective in an early statistical analysis, the report added.The FDA did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.Pfizer and BioNTech had submitted data on the first two doses of a planned three-dose regimen earlier this month at the request of the FDA. Pfizer did not disclose efficacy data.The submission was surprising because in December, the companies said early trial results of the two low doses of the vaccine fell short of expectations, and the clinical trial was amended to test a three-dose version.


Nine years on, families urge new search for MH370

Families of those on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared mysteriously nine years ago, called on the government on Sunday to allow US seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity to mount a new search for the missing plane.
The fate of flight MH370 became one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
In 2018, Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity to search for the aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to US$70 million (RM313.32 million) if it found the plane. But its operation came up short.
The firm's search came after Malaysia, China and Australia ended a fruitless two-year, A$200 million (US$135.36 million, RM604.91 million) underwater hunt in January 2017 after finding no trace of the plane.
On Sunday, Voice370 – a grouping of relatives of those aboard the plane – said Ocean Infinity hoped to embark on a new search as early as this summer and urged the Malaysian government to accept any proposals from the firm on a conditional fee basis, such that the firm would only be paid if successful.
"Ocean Infinity, over the last 12 months have made real progress working with many people to further understand... the events in 2014," Voice370 said in a statement, following a memorial event to mark the ninth year since MH370's disappearance.
"Ultimately, this has greatly improved their chances of conducting a successful search."
Ocean Infinity and the transport ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But in a message to families read out at the memorial event, Transport Minister Anthony Loke vowed not to "close the book" on MH370, adding that due consideration would be given to future searches if there was "new and credible information" on the aircraft's potential location.
Debris confirmed or believed to be from the MH370 aircraft has washed up along the African coast and on islands in the Indian Ocean.
Malaysian investigators previously drew no conclusion about what happened aboard the flight, but did not rule out the possibility that the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course.


‘Quite impossible’ to be injected with empty syringe, says Selangor health department

Selangor health director Dr Sha’ari Ngadiman today said it was “quite impossible” for anyone to be injected with an empty syringe, following claims of this by a man which have gone viral on social media.Sha’ari said vaccination centres always ensure that the health ministry’s SOPs are followed and that the vaccination process is at the optimum level.“We wish to emphasise that various checks are in place as part of the best practices determined by the health ministry and improvements are made from time to time,” he said in a statement on the Selangor health department’s Facebook last night.He added that several guidelines must be followed throughout the vaccination process, including the requirement for those administering the vaccines to be from a pool of qualified and trained personnel who have been formally appointed by the department.Sha’ari said at least two personnel must be at every station to see to the vaccine administration.“One person acts as the vaccinator while the other will prepare the vaccine and be the witness while the vaccine is being administered.“The staff preparing the vaccine will extract the vaccine into a special syringe according to the prescribed dosage before handing it over to the vaccinator or placing it in a special container near the vaccinator,” he said, adding that this person must also ensure that all empty syringes are removed.“Before administering the vaccine, it is the vaccinator’s responsibility to ensure that the type of vaccine is for the recipient as tagged during the registration process,” he said.The inoculation procedure must follow the intramuscular injection technique, and once the vaccine has been administered, the emptied syringe will be thrown into a sharps disposal container placed near the vaccinator, he said.“With strict adherence to these measures, it is quite impossible for a recipient to be vaccinated with an empty syringe,” he said.


Fighting rages in Sudan's capital as army tries to cut off supply routes

Fierce battles broke out on Tuesday across Omdurman, the western part of Sudan's wider capital, as the army tried cut off supply routes used by its paramilitary rivals to bring reinforcements into the city.
The army launched air strikes and heavy artillery, and there were ground battles in several parts of Omdurman, witnesses said. The RSF said it had shot down a fighter jet, and residents posted footage that appeared to show pilots ejecting from a plane. There was no immediate comment from the army.
Conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted on April 15, bringing daily clashes to the capital, triggering ethnically-motivated killings in the western region of Darfur, and threatening to drag Sudan into a protracted civil war.
The RSF quickly took control of swathes of the capital and has brought in extra fighters from Darfur and Kordofan as the conflict has deepened, transferring them across bridges from Omdurman to Bahri and Khartoum, the other two cities that make up the wider capital across the confluence of the River Nile.
Residents said Tuesday's clashes in Omdurman were the heaviest for weeks, and that as the army tried to gain ground it was also fending off an RSF attack against a police base.
"There's been very heavy bombardment for hours, air strikes, artillery and bullets. It's the first time for us that there have been continuous strikes at this level from every direction," said Manahel Abbas, a 33-year-old resident of Omdurman's Al-Thawra neighbourhood.
The conflict broke out amid disputes over an internationally-backed plan for a transition towards civilian rule, four years after the overthrow of long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir during a popular uprising.
Saudi Arabia and the US brokered several ceasefire deals at talks in Jeddah that were suspended last month after both sides violated the truces.
In a move that could escalate conflict in western Sudan, tribal leaders from South Darfur on Monday declared their allegiance to the RSF. The RSF originated in the Arab militias that helped crush a rebellion in Darfur after 2003, before developing into a national and officially recognised force.
Nearly 2.8 million people have been displaced since the start of the fighting in mid-April, including almost 650,000 who have crossed into neighbouring countries, according to the latest UN figures.


Dyson supplier ATA charged with labour law violations

Malaysia has charged Dyson supplier ATA IMS with four violations of labour law on accommodation for workers as it investigates complaints of forced labour, authorities said on Saturday.The step comes after British home appliance maker Dyson said last month it was severing relations with ATA, and ending its contract within six months, after an independent audit of the company’s labour practices and accusations by a whistleblower.“The complaints were mainly on allegations of appalling working and living conditions and foreign workers being forced to work excessive overtime hours,” the labour department told Reuters in an email response.“It is too early to make any conclusion on the allegations.”The department, which inspected the company in February, May and July, added that the four charges were for violations of minimum standards for worker accommodation.The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges.Reuters reported on Nov 25 and Dec 5 that ATA’s mostly migrant workforce did overtime in excess of the monthly legal limit of 104 hours, and worked on Sundays.ATA, which makes parts for Dyson vacuum cleaners and air purifiers, has said all overtime was voluntary, and that it paid double for work on Sundays and triple on public holidays.The company has taken steps to ensure no recurrence, it added, saying it had begun a policy of zero overtime on Sunday that led to the resignations of nearly 300 workers in the first week of December.Police are also investigating ATA over claims that a former worker was beaten by police after being taken to a police station where he was questioned about sharing information on working conditions with activists.ATA has dismissed the accusations by the worker, Dhan Kumar Limbu, as unsubstantiated and “unlikely to have taken place”.


Umno reaffirms support for PM Anwar until end of term

Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan says the party remains committed to supporting the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister until the completion of his term for the sake of the country’s political stability.
He said this was in line with the resolution reached at the party's annual general assembly last month.
"When we support this government, it means Anwar is the prime minister whom we have (until the end of his term)… so that the country will be stable," he told reporters in Bangi yesterday.
Ahmad, who is also the deputy finance minister, said this following the decree of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah who said yesterday that he wanted Anwar to be the last leader appointed during his reign as king.
Ahmad, who is also the Pontian MP, urged other MPs to respect Sultan Abdullah's decree and ensure political stability in the country.
Ahmad said the country’s political situation had stabilised with the formation of the coalition government, which obtained the backing of 148 MPs constituting more than a two-thirds majority.
"Since the general election (in) 2004, only now do we have this much of a majority," he said.  During his royal address in Parliament yesterday, Sultan Abdullah welcomed the consensus reached by the government, which he said was in line with his desire for the formation of a stable and strong government.
The Agong also congratulated Anwar for being appointed as the 10th prime minister and the Cabinet members on their appointment, and urged all parties to accept and respect the results of the 15th general election.


HSBC to pay US$1.9 billion to settle money-laundering accusations

HSBC has avoided a legal battle that could further dent its reputation and undermine confidence in the global banking system by agreeing to pay US$1.9 billion to settle a US money-laundering probe.Europe’s largest bank will pay the biggest penalty ever imposed on a bank after facing accusations it transferred funds through the US from Mexican drug cartels on behalf of countries under international sanctions, such as Iran, the Associated Press reports.Banks have been facing greater scrutiny since the financial crisis of 2008. A succession of unearthed banking scandals has highlighted lax oversight and a culture of arrogance and entitlement.Last year, a US Senate investigation concluded that HSBC’s ineffective controls meant it became involved in money laundering and terrorist financing. HSBC affiliates also ignored US government bans on financial transactions with Iran and other countries.Mexico sent around US$7 billion in cash to the US through HSBC. US regulators said such a large amount indicated illegal drug money.Also, HSBC’s US division provided money and banking services to banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh thought to have funded al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, the Senate report said.HSBC conceded that its anti-money laundering measures had been inadequate.“We accept responsibility for our past mistakes,” said HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver. He promised that HSBC would continue to strengthen its compliance policies and procedures.The settlement means the bank will avoid prosecution in the US.


Asian palm oil buyers seek stable export policies from producers

The Asian Palm Oil Alliance (Apop), a body of palm oil buyers, want producing countries to make sure they have stable export policies after changes last year caused volatility in the trading of the tropical oil, the head of the group said.
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are currently members of the Apop and the alliance wants to add more buyers, Atul Chaturvedi, the Apop chairman, said at the annual meeting of member countries in Kuala Lumpur late on Monday.
Importing countries have built refineries to process crude palm oil, but producers are imposing higher export duties on crude palm oil than for refined and making the buying of refined palm oil cheaper than the crude grade, Chaturvedi said.
"The higher duty on crude palm oil is keeping refineries idle in importing countries. Producers need to think about this duty structure, which is hurting buyers," he said.
Dorab Mistry, the director of Indian consumer goods company Godrej International, told the gathering that key producers Indonesia and Malaysia need to realise that Asian countries are their most trusted buyers and that they make purchases without creating trouble for the industry.
The sudden change in export polices such as ban on the exports imposed by Indonesia last year not only disrupts supply chains in importing countries, but also hurts producers and they should think about buyers while making sudden changes, Mistry said.
Indonesia, the world's biggest exporter of palm oil, last year surprised buyers by banning palm oil exports, which forced buyers to secure supplies from rival Malaysia at a record high price and look for alternatives such as soyoil and sunoil.
Furthermore, major producers tend to respond more to demands from buyers in Europe rather than pay attention to the needs of Asian purchasers, said Ajay Jhunjhunwala, president of the Solvent Extractors' Association of India.
"European Union accounts for less than 9% of the global palm oil imports. Asian buyers account for around 40%, but producers try to comply with EU's demands and ignore Asian buyers," he said.
The EU in December passed a deforestation law that requires companies to produce a due diligence statement and provide "verifiable" information that commodities, including oil palm, were not grown on land deforested after 2020, or risk hefty fines.


Floods affect close to 70,000 people nationwide

A total of 67,214 people had been affected by floods across five states as of this afternoon, a sharp increase from the figure of 56,159 reported this morning.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Armizan Mohd Ali said 469 relief centres had also been opened so far.


Selangor proposes only essential economic sectors to open under EMCO

The Selangor government proposed to the National Security Council (NSC) yesterday that only essential economic sectors be opened until the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) in the state has been lifted, says Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari.Taking into account the increasing daily cases of Covid-19 recorded in Selangor, he said the recommendations submitted to the NSC included maintaining the closure of certain economic and industrial sectors until the EMCO is lifted.The EMCO in Selangor which will run until July 16 involves 34 mukims or sub-districts in eight districts, namely Petaling district, Hulu Langat, Sepang, Gombak, Kuala Langat, Klang, Kuala Selangor and Hulu Selangor.Amirudin said discussions with the NSC also included permission for the electrical and electronics (E&E) sector to operate in EMCO areas from July 7, as approved by the international trade and industry ministry where, according to the ministry, E&E and its supply chains are significant and critical sectors.“The reason being that Malaysia is the world’s main E&E chain – if things get stuck here, the whole chain of E&E business is also affected. So we also (need to) take into account such things,” he said at a press conference today after visiting Taman Murni, which has been under EMCO since June 30.Amirudin said the implementation of EMCO in Selangor was one of several drastic measures taken by the state government to stop the spread of Covid-19, apart from expediting the vaccination of the people.He said the daily number of Covid-19 cases in Selangor jumped to 4,400 today, the seventh day of EMCO, compared with 4,152 cases reported yesterday, as a result of close contact detection activities and health screening, especially for individuals with symptoms.He added that Selangor is expected to move to Phase Two of the movement control under the National Recovery Plan in August or September, once it has met the key threshold value indicators set by the government for transition between phases.He said the vaccination rate in Selangor could reach 10% within a week, but that the number of cases in the state is still high with the health system affected by the use of beds in the ICU.


Climate change made South Asia heatwave ’30 times more likely’

The punishing heatwave that scorched India and Pakistan in March and April was made 30 times more likely by climate change, experts in quantifying the impact of global warming on extreme weather events said in a rapid-response report Monday.Before the onset of human-caused climate change, the chances of such an event occurring would have been roughly once every 3,000 years, senior author Friederike Otto, a scientist at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute, told AFP.Global warming to date of 1.2 degrees Celsius has shortened the so-called return period for extreme heat of similar duration and intensity in South Asia to once-a-century, she and colleagues in the World Weather Attribution (WWA) consortium found.But as the planet continues to heat up, the interval between such killer heatwaves will shrink even further.If Earth’s average surface temperature rises another four-fifths of a degree to 2C above preindustrial levels, “a heatwave like this one would be expected as often as once every five years”, they concluded.A 2C world is an unsettlingly plausible scenario: current national commitments to curb carbon pollution under the Paris Agreement would see global warming of 2.8C.“Whether today’s most impactful heatwaves could have occurred in a pre-industrial climate is fast becoming an obsolete question,” said Otto.“The next frontier for attribution science is to inform adaptation decision-making in the face of unprecedented future heat,” she said by email.“This means the most important aspect of our study is what it says about a 2C world.”The March-April period was the hottest on record for that time of year in Pakistan and India.It will be months before the full toll of lives lost and economic damage can be calculated, including hospitalisations, lost wages, missed school days, and diminished working hours.More than 90 deaths have been directly attributed to the heatwave, but earlier hot spells over the last decade suggest that number will climb far higher, perhaps into the thousands.One impact was immediate.The withering heat combined with 60 to 70% less rain than usual turned what promised to be a bumper wheat crop in India into an agricultural disaster.‘Existential threat’As a consequence, India last week blocked millions of tonnes earmarked for sale abroad, pushing up global prices already hit hard by war-torn Ukraine’s crippled wheat exports.The unprecedented duration of the heatwave, which saw power outages as temperatures soared into the high 40s, suggests climate vulnerable countries are racing against the clock to prepare for a climate-addled future, the report said.Already today, “the limits to adaptation are being breached for a large, poor population of the region,” cautioned Islamabad-based climate scientist and co-author Fahad Saeed.“One can imagine how bad it would be even for a 1.5C-warmer world,” he said, referring to the aspirational Paris treaty target for capping the rise in global temperatures.Any warming beyond 1.5C, he added, would pose an “existential threat” for vulnerable populations without access to air conditioning or other ways to keep cool.The new report – which calculated the average of daily maximum temperatures in March and April across a large swathe of northwestern India and southern Pakistan – may underestimate the frequency of such heatwaves, today and in the future, the authors noted.Indeed, an assessment by Britain’s Met Office using somewhat different methods concludes that warming to date increased the likelihood of the India/Pakistan scorcher 100-fold.Scientists have long predicted such impacts, but only recently has more data, better models and increased computing power made it possible to calculate to what extent is a particular weather disaster is made worse by global warming.The WWA determined, for example, that the heatwave that gripped western North America last June – sending temperatures in Canada to a record 49.6C (121F) – would have been “virtually impossible” without human-induced climate change.“As long as greenhouse gas emissions continue, events like these will become an increasingly common disaster,” said Otto.Heatwaves, she noted, are today the deadliest of extreme weather events.


Russia warns of ‘explosive’ virus surge

Russia warned on Wednesday of an “explosive” spread of the Delta coronavirus variant in the country that was made worse by a sluggish vaccination campaign leading to rapidly rising infections and deaths.Citing increases in cases of coronavirus in all Russian regions, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova called for stronger restrictive measures and speeding up of inoculations.“Last week the death rate linked to Covid increased by 21.3% compared to previous months,” Golikova said, as the country records thousands of new cases and hundreds of deaths every day.“The situation has become explosive,” said Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who has taken a leading role in Russia’s response to the pandemic.He said that more than 50,000 new infections had been recorded in the Russian capital, the epicentre of the country’s outbreak, over the past two weeks, calling it a pandemic high.The highly infectious Delta variant, which first appeared in India, represents nearly 90% of new cases in Moscow, Sobyanin said.He said that the city has 20,000 beds available for coronavirus patients, more than half of which are occupied.Russian authorities have stepped up measures to encourage a populace suspicious of coronavirus vaccines to get inoculated.Last week Sobyanin announced mandatory vaccinations for 60% of service sector workers by Aug 15.The city has also introduced an anti-Covid pass for dining out starting June 28, allowing only residents who have been vaccinated, were sick in the past six months or can present a recent negative PCR test into restaurants.Although free jabs have been available to Russians since December, just 20.6 million out of a population of about 146 million have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the Gogov website which tallies Covid figures from the regions and the media.Russia is among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with the sixth-highest number of cases in the world, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.


Waitress arrested after cutting off boss’ penis following ‘repeated rapes’

Barcelona police have arrested a waitress after she allegedly cut off the penis of the man who runs the bar she worked at.The man is in hospital and is facing an investigation into repeated sexual assaults against the woman, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia has reported.Following the incident at the bar 10km north of Barcelona, another employee called the  emergency services, local television network La Sexta reported. The unnamed employee said this was not the first time the woman’s boss had sexually abused the waitress.The bar owner was taken to hospital along with his member. It was not immediately clear if doctors managed to successfully reattach his amputated male appendage.The unnamed woman then turned up at a local police station at around midnight on Monday, saying her boss had tried to rape her. She told officers she had picked up a large kitchen knife to fend him off and had cut off his penis, local press reported.The cops took the woman into custody, pending an investigation into her accusations against the man.She alleged she had suffered repeated rapes by the bar owner, who “forced her to have non-consensual sexual relations” with him multiple times.She said the Monday night violence was the first time she had found the strength to say no and defend herself.The names of the parties involved have not been disclosed but they were described as natives of Bangladesh in their 40s, who had been working together at the El Sibarita de la Barca bar for around six months prior to the incident.The pair had a romantic relationship despite the man having a wife and children in Bangladesh, unnamed sources told La Vanguardia. They allegedly spent so much time together that the neighborhood believed “that they were a formal couple”.The woman reportedly had told the man she wanted him to leave his wife, but he had refused, La Sexta reported.Sources say the woman’s version of events had changed several times and that she had contradicted herself, leading police to believe she may have planned the incident.Euro Weekly News reported that the man has been arrested for the crime of sexual assault.Police are aiming to determine whether or not there were possible crimes against sexual freedom involved.


10,109 SPM 2022 candidates obtained straight As

A total of 10,109 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2022 candidates obtained excellent grades A+, A and A- results in all subjects, education director-general Pkharuddin Ghazali said today.
Announcing the 2022 SPM examination results in Putrajaya, he said this year a better national average grade (GPN) score of 4.74 was recorded compared to 4.86 last year.
A lower GPN value indicates better candidate achievement.
“A total of 373,974 candidates sat for SPM 2022.
"In addition, 75,322 candidates obtained average results with at least a grade C for all subjects," he said.
Pkharuddin said a total of 342,742 or 91.6% of the 2022 candidates were eligible to receive certificates compared to 88.1% or 336,630 candidates last year.
"This is the best achievement since the certification requirement was introduced and for the first time, over 90% would be awarded," he said adding that the requirement set in 2013 was that candidates must obtain at least a pass in Malay Language and History subjects.
Pkharuddin said the achievement gap between urban and rural areas had also narrowed by 0.03 points to 0.43 in 2022 compared to 0.46 in 2021.
"As for the GPN score according to school categories, there was a marked improvement in religious secondary schools as 5.71 was recorded compared to 6.10 in 2021.
"This is the first time that the public religious secondary school sector has achieved a GPN of below 6.0," he said, adding that the GPN score for state religious secondary schools in 2022 was 4.60 compared to 4.80 in the previous year.
When asked about the factors that have contributed to the improvement in the SPM 2022 results, Pkharuddin said the candidates were more prepared with the standard secondary school curriculum (KSSM) introduced by the education ministry.
"This is the second year of the new KSSM format, so the teachers and students would probably have the past year's references to be better prepared.
"The improvement in the SPM 2022 results can also be linked to History as a core subject which recorded an improved performance," he said.
Beginning with SPM 2021 examination, all subjects tested are based on the KSSM that was introduced in 2017.
Through the new format, the education ministry also included the results of students' oral skills achievement through speaking and listening tests for Malay Language and English Language subjects.


Of Ninja Saga and modern nostalgia

Whenever my brothers were away at boarding school, I used to sneak into their room and read their collection of GempakStarz magazines. Imagine Dewan Siswa, but for the cool kids, not the nerds. Comics comprised most of the pages, but I also enjoyed the column providing walkthroughs to questions on videogames received from readers.To learn how to catch Deoxys in Pokemon Emerald or how to get a non-playable character to fall in love with you in Harvest Moon, first you would have to write to the magazine about it. And then the waiting would begin. From the moment you began writing your question to the moment it was answered would stretch several weeks of being unable to progress through a level, or of fighting the same monster again and again – until you have the answer you need posted in the column. That is, if your question was entertained. If not, the cycle of writing and waiting for a reply would begin again, or you would give up and focus on SPM instead.Around the same time, the Facebook frenzy also began. Kids my age without a computer would spend most of their money at cybercafes, browsing through pages to poke random strangers or pour out their hearts. I too was guilty of partaking in the Facebook craze – not to seek friends, but to play the games that had caught the attention of masses of impressionable young ‘uns.There was Plants vs Zombies and Farmville, but most of all, there was Ninja Saga. If you played that, you could proudly say you were the coolest of all the cool kids.GempakStarz, cybercafes, Ninja Saga – these no longer appear in conversations unless to reminisce about how the youth were in the late 2000s to early 2010s. The GempakStarz company has yet to fold, cybercafes can probably still be found, and Ninja Saga – well, it died out along with Java programming a few months ago.But even if they still exist, they are better off as a memory. That is how nostalgia is, in this case modern nostalgia of the 21st century.I live in a period of transition in which my life is divided between two generations. I can access the internet to find any answer I want about a game, but I still enjoy reading the gaming column in GempakStarz magazines. Ninja Saga pales in comparison with the video games I have played since, but there is still a fondness attached to the memories of having lived in the era of both.In the same way, my father recalls fishing in padi fields and the elders of his generation playing in the kampung and being taught to read the Quran by a strict ustazah who would cane them for their mischief. What they have within them is a life lived in the past. They lived through a period in which they too experienced change. From a life in the old world where owning a radio could see you summoned to court, to a newer old in which being a cinema entrepreneur was to own a television, they too lived a life of transition.In the same way I might now find it less fulfilling to read old comic magazines or play games based on Javascript, I am sure that they would not enjoy running around in the kampung or getting caned either, what with their bad knees, arthritis and sciatica. But having those memories is enough for them, just as mine are enough for me. What they have is a nostalgia for a time when things were simple; what I have is a nostalgia of the modern world for when my entertainment was simpler.As long as we have lived a life with perceptions that are unattainable in our current moment, we will have something to be nostalgic about. It does not really matter whether life in the 2000s was comparable to life in the 1960s. What stays with us is how we felt when we went through those moments. It does not matter either if I am a young person reminiscing about a younger me, or if I am someone old reminiscing about a younger life.In looking back at what we lived, it feels good, too, to be able to know how things have changed, and to feel something about the change. It feels good to be angry at how REXKL Cinema burned down only to be gentrified into a hangout spot for vegans and pricey coffee-sipping hipsters, or at how Pekan Kajang is now even more packed with cars now than it was before.All those things are to be remembered, along with the feelings that come with remembering, whether it was a life back in the days or life in the modern days.


Sorry.


GE15, a decisive moment for young voters

Much has been said about the importance of young and first-time voters in the upcoming general election as youth participation is expected to be at the highest ever and, potentially, the most decisive vote.
Undoubtedly, young Malaysians are tremendously important in elections but I would like to talk about why GE15 is tremendously important to young Malaysians.
Not since the Merdeka generation has Malaysia experienced such a transformational moment in our history. The decision we make now will set our nation on a course that will determine our collective destiny – a destiny that the younger generation and their children will inhabit.
The world is undergoing a period of dramatic change.
There are tectonic shifts in the global economic order taking place, the likes of which we have not seen since the end of World War II, and Malaysia – indeed the Asean region as a whole – will either prosper enormously as an independent leader in Southeast Asia, or become a pawn in the power game of global economic actors who see us as a strategic point in the East-West competition for markets, resources and influence.
No political coalition in Malaysia fully grasps what is at stake more than Perikatan Nasional (PN). PN’s manifesto, unveiled last week, sets the groundwork upon which Malaysia can build a truly independent future and become a strong, economically sovereign leader in Asia.
Muhyiddin Yassin, the chairman, and PN members have identified the most important key focus areas that will enable Malaysia to successfully face the challenges that will define the reality of the younger generation for years to come.
Issues like food security, for example, will only increase in urgency and importance over the coming decades. The coalition recognises that a country that cannot feed itself is perpetually vulnerable and subject, which is why it has prioritised the establishment of six mega hubs for food production and distribution at strategic locations throughout Malaysia to ensure the sovereignty of our food supply.
PN also understands that it is not enough for Malaysia to position itself as a link in the supply and value chains of Western multinational companies; it must develop its own private sector powerhouses.
The PN manifesto include plans for how micro, small, and medium-sized businesses can not only survive but thrive, growing into Malaysian-owned multinational corporations that will help uplift the entire region economically.
Implicit in the PN platform is a vision of Malaysia as a force to strengthen regional cooperation, trade and solidarity which anticipates and can fortify us against the inevitable pressures that will be brought to bear on Southeast Asia as Western nations ramp up what many are calling a new Cold War to contain China.
The independence of every individual nation in this region will be empowered by regional economic cohesion, and PN is providing the necessary leadership to ensure that these bonds will flourish.
Young voters are electing their future in the election. While current concerns such as inflation, cost of living and the value of the ringgit are uppermost in the minds of older voters who want instant relief, and may incline towards short-term remedies, the youth must think long-term.
PN is the only party that addresses these immediate concerns with solutions that will not only resolve them in the near term but which also build permanent structural resistance against these problems emerging in the future.
The long-hailed Western “pivot to Asia” is underway, and that puts Malaysia squarely in the crosshairs of potentially predatory investors, lenders and multinationals if we are not proactive in developing our economic independence.
In this regard, one of the greatest threats to our economic and political sovereignty is corruption.
When leaders prioritise their own personal enrichment over the best interests of the nation, they can sell their people into slavery.
Unchecked greed in the public sector almost inevitably leads to private sector domination over policy and the subjugation of the economy to the interests of powerful players. Muhyiddin is one leader who has always taken a stand against corruption, sometimes even to the detriment of his own career.
He always places loyalty to the people above party and politics. Integrity is the only vaccine that can inoculate government from the virus of corruption.
GE15 is not just going to decide who will govern Malaysia for a single term – it is determining what Malaysia will be for young voters and their children for their lifetime.
The youth are not just electing a government on Nov 19 – they are laying the cornerstone for the kind of country they want to live in. And PN’s platform provides the strongest foundation for a vibrant and prosperous future.
Azril Mohd Amin is CEO of Institut Masa Depan Malaysia.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


Malaysia’s Omicron caseload rises to 245

A total of 245 Covid-19 cases of the ultra contagious Omicron variant have been detected in Malaysia so far, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.Of these, 233 were import cases while 12 were local transmissions.Khairy said 157 or 64.08% were travellers returning from the umrah pilgrimage.“A total of 44 cases were confirmed as Omicron through full genome sequencing at the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) while seven local transmissions in Sarawak were confirmed as Omicron by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,” he said at a press conference.“Of the 44 import cases, 29 were from Saudi Arabia, five from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), five from Kazakhstan, three from the UK and one each from the US and Tanzania.”Khairy said another 72 Omicron cases were confirmed by the IMR earlier, 59 of which were from Saudi Arabia.In a related development, Khairy said the government had decided to suspend travel for the umrah pilgrimage for a month beginning Jan 8.During this time, he said, the health ministry would conduct risk assessments and study several issues, particularly related to the SOPs.“The health ministry together with the related agencies will update the SOPs for umrah including setting conditions for booster shots, the management of cases and close contacts, as well as monitoring the health status of pilgrims in Saudi Arabia,” he said.He said those returning from the pilgrimage would also be ordered to undergo quarantine.“The health ministry has held discussions with the transport and tourism ministries, to find a way to reschedule the trips and flights delayed due to the government’s decision,” he added.Khairy also denied that the government was targeting travellers from Saudi Arabia for monitoring.He said the decision was made given that many Omicron cases had originated from the country.“Of the 1,842 positive cases recorded among travellers at the KLIA entry point during the last week of 2021, 1,558 were from Saudi Arabia,” he said.The country with the second highest number of positive cases was Turkey, with 84, followed by the UAE and the UK with 50 and 47 each.


Bangladesh extends lockdown to combat Covid-19 Delta surge

Bangladesh on Monday extended its strictest lockdown to July 14 to combat a surge in Covid-19 cases led by the highly contagious Delta variant, with areas bordering India reporting the most infections.Bangladesh reported 153 deaths due to Covid-19 on Sunday, its biggest daily rise since the pandemic began. Its total death toll stands at over 15,000 with heading for one million infections.Hospitals are overwhelmed, particularly in districts bordering India, where the Delta variant was first identified. Bangladesh sealed its border with India in April, but trade continues.A surge in cases had prompted the government to order a week of tight controls on Thursday, with army troops patrolling streets to ensure public compliance.Factories are allowed to operate while observing health protocols, and all offices and transportation remain shut except essential goods carriers and ambulances.All measures have been extended, the government said in a statement. The shutdown has sparked an exodus of migrant workers from the capital Dhaka to their home villages, many walking in the absence of public transport.Many workers are finding it difficult to survive without any income coming in.“During the lockdown, there is no work. If this continues, I don’t know how I’ll feed my family,” said Mohammad Manik, father of two, who works as a day labourer at a kitchen market in Dhaka. “It is not the coronavirus but hunger that will kill us.”Bangladesh received 2.5 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine from the US under the Covax global-sharing scheme over the weekend. It also received two million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China.Bangladesh’s vaccination drive suffered a blow after India stopped exports of the AstraZeneca shot in response to a record surge in domestic infections.Only 3% of Bangladesh’s population of 170 million have been vaccinated.RepublicWorld.com reports that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sent over 2,600kg of mangoes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a goodwill gesture that has been dubbed “mango diplomacy”.According to local reports in Bangladesh, the mango shipment arrived at the India-Bangladesh border on Sunday. From there, it will be delivered to Modi’s residence.The “mango diplomacy” move comes at a time when Bangladesh has reportedly expressed dismay with India due to the delay of Covid-19 vaccines.Earlier in June, India’s Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami had said that the country was looking forward to resuming the export of Covid-19 vaccines to Bangladesh.However, there is no clarity regarding dates yet.In March, India gifted Bangladesh with 1.2 million free doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.


Hong Kong democracy vigil leader detained on Tiananmen anniversary

Hong Kong police detained one of the organisers of the annual vigil commemorating Beijing’s deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown, as authorities sought to prevent any show of pro-democracy people power on Friday’s sensitive anniversary.About 7,000 officers have been placed on standby to stamp out any attempt to hold a mass candlelight vigil that Hong Kongers have attended in their thousands each anniversary for the past three decades.The first arrest came early Friday morning when lawyer Chow Hang-tung, one of the few remaining prominent democracy activists not already in jail or in exile, was detained by four police officers outside her work.Chow, 37, is one of the vice-chairs of the Hong Kong Alliance which organises the annual vigil.Police confirmed two people – Chow and a 20-year-old male – had been arrested on suspicion of publicising an unlawful assembly through social media posts.“Their online remarks involved advertising and calling on others to participate or attend banned public activities,” senior superintendent Law Kwok-hoi told reporters.Huge crowds have traditionally gathered in Hong Kong to mark the anniversary of Chinese troops crushing peaceful democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.Hundreds were killed in the crackdown, by some estimates more than 1,000.Public commemorations of the event are forbidden on the mainland.Under a “One country, two systems” policy that was meant to give Hong Kong more freedoms, the city was the only place on Chinese soil where large-scale commemorations were tolerated and the huge crowds massed each year in Victoria Park.But, after months of huge and often violent democracy protests in 2019, China has carried out a sweeping campaign to silence dissent and enforce “patriotism”.Park sealed offAuthorities banned this year’s gathering citing the coronavirus pandemic – although Hong Kong has not recorded an untraceable local transmission in more than a month.Hundreds of police officers sealed off Victoria Park on Friday afternoon and conducted frequent stop and searches in the streets nearby.Last year’s vigil was also denied permission because of the pandemic, but thousands defied the ban and rallied inside the park anyway.Authorities have warned in recent days that the subversion clause of a powerful new security law imposed on Hong Kong could be used against those marking the Tiananmen anniversary.Beijing imposed the law a few weeks after last year’s Tiananmen rally and it has transformed the city’s once freewheeling political landscape.More than 100 pro-democracy figures have been arrested under the law, mostly for political views and speech. Most are denied bail and face up to life in prison if convicted.Creative resistanceHowever, China has been unable to quash all dissent, and Hong Kongers were planning creative ways to mark Friday’s anniversary.“A regime can ban an assembly but it can never ban the indelible grievances in people’s hearts,” Lee Cheuk-yan, a now jailed democracy activist and the current head of the Hong Kong Alliance, wrote in a message posted on his Facebook page on Thursday.Activists have called on residents to light candles in their own homes or neighbourhoods come Friday evening, or post commemoration messages on social media.“Turn on the lights wherever you are – be it torchlight on your phone, real candles or electronic candles,” Chow wrote on Facebook just hours before her arrest.Clara Cheung was among a small group of artists who gathered near Victoria Park on Thursday evening.She brought 64 white flowers – representing June 4 – and laid them on the street.“We need to find a new way to express ourselves,” she told AFP.Pro-Beijing politicians have suggested that calls to “End one party rule” and “Bring democracy to China” – both common chants at Tiananmen vigils – could now be deemed subversion, one of the crimes in the broadly worded national security law.The security legislation has also been combined with a campaign dubbed “Patriots rule Hong Kong” aimed at purging from public office anyone perceived to be disloyal.‘Full accounting’In mainland China, the Tiananmen anniversary is usually marked with an increase in online censorship and the square in Beijing being cordoned off.There was tight security at the square on Friday, with police checking the IDs of people at each point of access, according to an AFP journalist in Beijing.China often faces international criticism for its campaign to stifle remembrance of the crackdown.On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for “a full accounting of all those killed, detained, or missing”.Taiwan’s foreign ministry said “the students of Tiananmen and Hong Kong must not be erased nor forgotten”.


No final decision yet on ending or extending emergency, say PH trio in advisory committee

The three opposition representatives in the Independent Special Committee to advise the Agong during the virus emergency today said that no decision has been finalised on extending or ending the emergency period, to be presented to the king ahead of the scheduled deadline of Aug 1.In a statement, PKR’s Saifuddin Nasution, Amanah’s Dzulkefly Ahmad and DAP’s Loke Siew Fook said since being appointed to the committee earlier this year, they had conveyed their views on a range of subjects, from the vaccination efforts and daily death tolls to hospital facilities, the economy and the effect on the lives of the people.“We also conveyed our stand that the approach of ‘government intervention’ in the form of the movement control order (MCO) and emergency are two different issues in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic,” they said.“Our position is that there is no need for a state of emergency. Instead, a stricter MCO would be the best approach.”They also reiterated their call for Parliament to be reconvened as a form of checks and balance in line with the principle of parliamentary democracy.Parliament and state assembly sittings have been suspended since the declaration of emergency early this year.The Independent Special Committee, chaired by former chief justice Arifin Zakaria, was formed under the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021 which came into force in January.The committee comprises MPs from the government and opposition as well as health experts and those from related fields.


Negeri Sembilan fishermen urged to postpone activities at sea

The public and maritime community especially fishermen have been advised to be vigilant or to postpone their activities at sea and along the beach in Negeri Sembilan in view of the poor weather conditions.Melaka and Negeri Sembilan Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency director Haris Fadzillah Abdullah said this is because the high-tide phenomenon is forecast to hit the coastal areas of the state until Jan 5.He said strong north-easterly winds winds and choppy seas with waves of up to 1.5m which could pose a danger to small boats are also expected in the waters off Negeri Sembilan.“Most of the fishermen registered in the state are Class A fishermen who use small boats. However, if the situation is urgent and they must go to sea, they must always take appropriate safety measures such as wearing safety jackets and ensuring that their boats are in good condition.“They must also carry with them a personal locator beacon to facilitate (response) in the case of an emergency and contact the state’s maritime operations centre at 06-3876730 or 999 which operates 24 hours for immediate assistance,” he told Bernama today.Haris said the agency is actively conducting patrols around the state’s waters to ensure the safety of the maritime community and the public.The Malaysian Meteorological Department yesterday issued a continuous rain warning at danger, severe and alert levels for Johor, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Sabah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Perak, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya until Jan 4.


US, South Korea, Japan hold missile defence exercise with eye on North Korea, China

The US, South Korea and Japan participated in a ballistic missile defence exercise off Hawaii's coast last week, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, reviving combined drills with an eye on North Korea as well as China.
It was the first time the three countries have held such drills since 2017, after relations between Seoul and Tokyo hit their lowest in years in 2019 amid renewed historical disputes dating to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has vowed to improve relations with Japan and deepen the US alliance to better deter North Korea, including by expanding or resuming joint drills.
The missile warning and ballistic missile search and tracking exercise took place Aug 8-14 during the multinational Pacific Dragon drills, and demonstrated the three countries' commitment to respond to challenges posed by North Korea, protect shared security and bolster the rules-based international order, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The participants shared tactical data link information in accordance with a trilateral information sharing agreement, the statement said.
US-led joint missile defence measures have been a sore point with China, which retaliated economically against South Korea's 2016 decision to host a US military Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery.
Beijing says the THAAD radar can penetrate its territory and has called on Yoon to honour assurances made by his predecessor to not to increase THAAD deployments, participate in a US-led global missile shield or create a trilateral military alliance involving Japan.
Yoon has said those do not represent formal agreements and that Seoul is not bound by them.
South Korea's ministry of defence also confirmed on Tuesday that its troops would resume long-suspended live field training during their joint military drills with the US to be held from Aug 22 to Sept 1.
The two sides have scaled back combined military drills in recent years due to Covid-19 and efforts to lower tensions with the North, which has accused the exercises of being a rehearsal for invasion.


MPs allowed to remove face masks while debating

MPs are now allowed to remove their face masks when debating, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Harun said today.He said this was decided after obtaining the views of the health ministry which carried out a Covid-19 risk assessment in Parliament.“However, all MPs must immediately put on their face mask once they are done speaking,” he said when announcing the matter.On RTK Antigen and RT-PCR screening tests, Azhar said no individual on the Parliament grounds had tested positive for Covid-19 in the current session so far.MPs were previously not allowed to remove their face masks while speaking or debating, with Azhar also encouraging them to double mask.