Govt lacks economic direction as PM 'busy with new partners', says Azmin

Former international trade and industry minister Mohamed Azmin Ali has criticised the government's handling of the economy, saying it appears to lack a clear direction amid increasing challenges on the local front.
He also said that many among the low- and middle-income groups were becoming increasingly frustrated with the situation.
"When the overnight policy rate was raised on May 3, the cost of loan repayments rose as well.
"Foreign investors also appear to be lacking in confidence because there is no comprehensive economic policy," he said in an interview with MalaysiaNow.
Foreign investors were recently reported to have sold RM4.19 billion worth of shares on Bursa Malaysia in the first six months of the year.
On July 5, meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia closed at 1,389.90 points, down 2.59 points.
Azmin also criticised a recent statement by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in the Dewan Rakyat that he would be willing to "flip-flop" on policy U-turns if this would benefit the people.
Azmin, the former PKR deputy president, said this was a serious statement.
"When the government admits that it is an administration that flip-flops, foreign investors worry that their investments will be affected," he said.
"And if the foreign investors leave, job opportunities for the youth will also suffer."
He likewise criticised Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli over the drop in stock exchange and ringgit value, saying the currency slump was making Malaysia increasingly uncompetitive.
"Among the major components of the country's imports are 'intermediate goods'. Some of these are quality raw materials that are not available in the country. We will install and add value before re-exporting.
"So when these goods become more expensive, we will not be able to import," he said.
Azmin said that Anwar, as the prime minister, should be responsible for looking after foreign and local investors.
"He should not give negative impressions," he said, referring to Anwar's recent comment on attempts by a "rich gang" to topple his government.
"If he is really being threatened by the rich, he should give proof of this to the authorities."
Adding that Anwar should step down if he is rejected by both the rich and the poor, Azmin said the prime minister appeared "too busy these days taking care of his new partners in the coalition government".
"He has to balance between Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and DAP," he said.
"He has lost focus and cannot concentrate on matters related to the economy, international relations, and the needs of the people."


Daily cases dip again to 3,380

Another 3,386 Covid-19 cases were recorded today, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 2,761,472.Another 3,547 patients recovered, bringing total recoveries to 2,688,925.Meanwhile 273 are in the ICU, including 202 confirmed Covid-19 patients.A total of 159 are in need of respiratory assistance including 86 confirmed Covid-19 cases.Of the 3,386 cases reported today, 46 (1.4%) are in Category Three and above. The remaining 3,340 (98.6%) are in Category One and Two.


Indonesia Constitutional Court dismisses petition to change voting system

Indonesia's Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit seeking a change to the country's election ballot system, clearing a hurdle that could have complicated an election just eight months away.
Indonesia is set to hold simultaneous legislative and presidential elections in February 2024.
The case, brought by several politicians including from the ruling Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), had sought a return to the closed ballot system, which had fueled concern about political interference in next year's polls.
A bench of eight judges on Thursday rejected the petition 7 to 1. Indonesians currently vote directly for individual lawmakers and will continue to do so in future polls.
Reading the judgement, one judge, Suhartoyo, said the open system was not without its flaws but was more inclusive and democratic, while the closed system lacked transparency, limited public participation and was prone to nepotism.
Responding to the decision, PDI-P legislator Arteria Dahlan said the party would abide by the ruling.
"We have to admit the court's review is very comprehensive. We respect the court decision," he said.
Critics had said changing the current open system would have taken the world's third-largest democracy back to the era of authoritarian rule, when only heads of political parties were empowered to appoint lawmakers.
Eight out of nine parties represented in parliament, including those allied with the ruling PDI-P, had denounced the petition.
The timing of the case, just eight months out from next year's simultaneous presidential and legislative elections, had raised eyebrows in the Southeast Asian nation, with speculation the case could be used to engineer an election delay.
The case was one of a series of unusual legal moves that analysts say point to attempts to extend the tenure of President Joko Widodo, who was first elected in 2014, and ends his second and final term in 2024.
Jokowi, as the president is known, has denied that he is seeking to extend his time in office beyond the two-term limit and recently stated that he would not do anything that would "tarnish democracy".


Indonesia arrests nearly 500 human trafficking suspects in crackdown

Indonesian police have this month arrested nearly 500 suspects involved in the trafficking of more than 1,500 victims, officials said Tuesday, as Jakarta cracks down on human smuggling.
Indonesia is one of the largest migrant worker-exporting nations in Southeast Asia, with hundreds of thousands from the poorest parts of the archipelago nation leaving the country every year through unofficial routes in search of higher-paying work.
Several shocking cases have highlighted the issue of human trafficking in the country in recent years and police created a human trafficking task force this month to ramp up efforts to stem the exploitation of Indonesians.
National police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan told AFP authorities had rescued 1,553 victims in the last two weeks before they were trafficked out of the country.
"Within a short period of time, we managed to rescue this many people, but there are more people who have already left Indonesia," he said.
Between June 5 and 18, police arrested 494 suspects and five major traffickers were still "being hunted down", he said.
Many of the victims were rescued from illegal shelters on course to be trafficked as maids, boat crew or prostitutes, with several cases of child exploitation also included.
The United Nations says between 100,000 and one million people are sold into sex work or forced into labour every year in Indonesia.
International alarm is growing over internet scams in the region that are often staffed by trafficking victims tricked or coerced into promoting bogus crypto investments.
Jakarta has moved to increase probes, prosecutions and convictions for human trafficking, and has made efforts to repatriate victims trafficked to other Southeast Asian nations.
In the past year, Indonesia has rescued more than a thousand of its nationals working in online scams in Myanmar and Cambodia as the country tries to get a grip on the widespread problem.
Human trafficking is also a domestic problem across Southeast Asia's biggest economy, a sprawling nation of more than 17,000 islands.
In one of the worst cases in recent years, at least 57 people were found caged on a palm oil plantation in North Sumatra last year.
They were lured to an alleged drug rehab facility and then put to work on the plantation.


The delusional gloaters among us

An explosion of delusion and naivety appears to have afflicted a large section of the population over the past 48 hours. It is the same kind that greeted the downfall of the Barisan Nasional government in 2018.
Then, many celebrated the victory as a personal triumph, as if what had happened was a revolution of epic proportions and that from that moment on, every aspect of our lives would only get better.
But the months that followed were a wake-up call for many chest-thumping politicians and their followers to the reality of politics and governance, as not a single meaningful reform was achieved.
This time around, we see many among us surrendering to an orgy of gloating and cheering over the misfortunes of Najib Razak – deserving as he is of the situation that he must now endure as he ponders his fate without the comforts of family and freedom.
Some of these gloaters are politicians who, just a year ago, were secretly approaching Najib and his like-minded court cluster friends in the hope of bringing down the government in the midst of the pandemic.
But when it became apparent that Najib had no chance of escaping the charges against him, he was conveniently treated as a leper.
There are also a handful of narcissistic politicians and self-styled activists who have no qualms about crediting themselves with 1MDB exposures without the slightest acknowledgement of the massive work done by the officers of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
The post-jailing frenzy also went up a notch with a campaign for a petition – online, of course, for such is the mark of "warriorhood and struggle" these days – calling on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to deny Najib a pardon.
At best, the petition sounds like an insult to the Agong's intelligence, with claims that Malaysians have had to live with "indignity" due to the 1MDB scandal, and that keeping Najib in jail would "help us to uplift our heads high once again".
Is that all it takes to undermine our pride in this nation? Other countries have experienced worse scandals and oppression but that is no reason for their citizens to bow their heads in shame.
We don't even have to get into the argument about the Agong's constitutional right to exercise his power in the way he sees fit. It is plain ignorance to expect him to perform his duty based on the digital numbers of an online petition.
Let us be real. Najib's incarceration was not the endgame for the fight against corruption, just like putting someone behind bars for sodomy will not wipe out homosexuality from the face of the earth.
It would do Malaysians good to stop the ugly gloating and let the law take its course like any civilised justice system should.
It would be even better if politicians, whose survival depends on the public believing that they are whiter than white, keep their mouths shut and let justice take its course.
Abdar Rahman Koya is CEO and editor of MalaysiaNow.


270,000 children below 12 infected with Covid-19 from July to December 2021

A total of 270,000 children under the age of 12 were infected with Covid-19 between July and December last year, says Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.He said of the total, 63 children succumbed to Covid-19 and based on a study at 14 government hospitals nationwide, 174 cases of multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MISC) were detected over the same period.“Fifty-six percent or 100 of the MISC cases involved those aged between five and 12 with a 4% fatality rate,” he said while appearing as a guest on Bernama TV today.Noor Azmi, who is also the chairman of the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force for Children (CITF-C), said it was important for children to be vaccinated as they are at risk of complications due to Covid-19 due to MISC which leads to inflammation and complications to various organs, as well as long Covid-19.The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Kids (PICKids) kicked off on Feb 3, targeting 3.6 million children aged five to 11.It also aims to ensure that the infection risk in schools can be contained, preventing clusters among schoolchildren.As of yesterday, a total of 206,748 or 5.8% of children aged five to 11 had received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine.


World not adequately prepared for disasters, report says

Earthquakes, floods, storms – the world is not adequately prepared to face increasing disasters, said a report published Tuesday calling for a rethink on global risk management.
Since 1990, more than 10,700 disasters have affected over six billion people worldwide, according to data from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
In 2015, the international community adopted global goals to lower casualties and damage by the year 2030 by investing in risk evaluation and reduction, as well as disaster preparedness, in a declaration known as the "Sendai Framework."
However it is "highly unlikely we will meet the Sendai Framework goals by 2030 given current trends," said a report by the International Science Council, which includes dozens of scientific organisations.
Floods and storms, which have been exacerbated by climate change, top the list of disasters and account for 42% of the total.
The cascading disasters are "setting back hard-won development gains in many parts of the world," the report says.
"Far too little attention and investment is put to long-term planning and prevention, from strengthening building codes to adopting hazard alert systems," said Peter Gluckman, president of the ISC.
This lack of preparedness comes even as the international community is quick to mobilise after disasters like the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria, he added.
Mami Mizutori, UN special representative for disaster risk reduction said "the multiple challenges of the last three years have laid bare the fundamental need for greater global readiness for the next disaster."
"We need to reinforce our infrastructure, communities, and ecosystems now, rather than rebuild them in the aftermath," she added.
The report additionally drew attention to resource allocation issues. For example, only 5.2% of aid for developing countries for disaster response between 2011 and 2022 was dedicated to risk reduction. The rest was allocated to relief and post-disaster reconstruction.
The ISC calls for the widespread deployment of early warning systems, noting that 24 hours' notice of a storm could reduce damage by 30%.
A report released in late January by the UN General Assembly also noted that countries were not on track to meet goals under the Sendai framework.
Not only is the number of people affected by disasters each year increasing, but so is the direct damage, which reached an average of US$330 billion (RM1.47 trillion) per year during the 2015-2021 period.


Pakistan likely to need Covid-19 jabs from arch-rival India

Pakistan plans to launch its immunisation programme against Covid-19 next week, starting with health workers getting shots of a free China-made vaccine.Next door, arch-rival India began one of the world’s biggest inoculation drives against the disease in mid-January.India makes about 60% of global vaccines and has begun shipping millions of free doses to friendly neighbours in the region, in what is being described as “vaccine diplomacy”. Many believe this is a counter to growing Chinese influence in the region.Pakistan is not a recipient. The two nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. They came to the brink of war again in 2019 over the disputed territory of Kashmir and the situation there is still tense.Pakistan plans to inoculate at least 70% of its 220 million people against Covid free of cost. Regulators have given emergency use approval for three candidates – the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made in India, the China-made Sinopharm and Russian-developed Sputnik V.Almost 90% of vaccines administered in Pakistan come from India. Most of these are distributed through Pakistan’s state-funded immunisation programme which targets 14 million new-borns and pregnant women every year. The children are given jabs against 10 diseases while mothers are inoculated against tetanus.But could politics interfere in India’s distribution of its Covid-19 vaccines when much of the underdeveloped world worries whether they will receive vaccines any time soon?“India already has got so many vaccine orders from all over the world. We have cordial relations with vaccine makers across the border. We will try our best to get supplies, but it will take time,” Usman Ghani of Sindh Medical Stores, a leading Karachi-based importer of vaccines told the BBC.An Indian foreign ministry spokesman has said he was not “aware of any request for India-made vaccines” from Pakistan.Ghani said, “We will harm ourselves if we don’t cooperate on vaccines.”


Umno to field Bung Moktar, Salleh Said in Sabah polls

Umno is fielding its Sabah chief Bung Moktar Radin and former Sabah chief minister Salleh Said Keruak in the state election on Sept 26.Bung, who is Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, said he would be contesting the Lamag seat, which is one of 13 new state seats in this election.Salleh meanwhile will contest the Usukan seat.In total, Umno will be fielding candidates in 31 seats although former chief minister Musa Aman is not on the list.“Musa did not seek to be a candidate of Umno and BN,” Bernama reported Bung as saying at a press conference in Kota Kinabalu today.Sabah Umno leader Abdul Rahman Dahlan is also absent from the list of candidates.Seventy-three seats will be contested in the upcoming election, including the 13 seats created following the redelineation exercise.Bung said the candidates were selected from among qualified individuals who were seen as possessing the potential to win the seats they would contest.“The candidates were picked based on their background, their being people-friendly and, most importantly, their being accepted by the people and having the potential to win,” he said.According to him, 95% of the Umno candidates are new faces. The party will also be fielding two women candidates.The full list of candidates is as follows:1. Akram Ismail (Banggi)2. Harun Durabi (Bengkoka)3. Sufian Abdul Karim (Pitas)4. Mohd Arsad Bistari (Tempasuk)5. Salleh Said Keruak (Usukan)6. Jasnih Daya (Pantai Dalit)7. Yakub Khan (Karambunai)8. Jumat Idris (Darau)9. Mohd Reduan Aklee (Tanjung Aru)10. Shahelmey Yahya (Tanjung Keramat)11. Mohd Tamin @Tamin Zainal (Pantai Manis)12. Ag Lahap Ag Bakar (Bongawan)13. Kamarlin Ombi (Lumadan)14. Sani Miasin (Sindumin)15. Raime Unggi (Kemabong)16. Abdul Wahab Abdul Ghani (Telupid)17. James Ratib (Sugut)18. Suhaimi Nasir (Gum-Gum)19. Mokran Ingkat (Sungai Manila)20. Mohamad Hamsan Awang Supian (Sungai Sibuga)21. Hazulizah Md Dani (Sekong)22. Juhari Janan (Kuamut)23. Bung Moktar Radin (Lamag)24. Jafry Ariffin (Sukau)25. [email protected] Momen [email protected] (Tungku)26. Halid Harun (Kunak)27. Abdul Manan Indanan (Sulabayan)28. [email protected] Awang (Balung)29. Chaya Sulaiman (Kukusan)30. Andi Muhammad Surady Bandy (Tanjung Batu)31. Junaidi Sahat (Paginatan)


Myanmar insurgent group says razed military base near Thai border

A prominent ethnic insurgent group captured and burned down a military base in eastern Myanmar near the Thai border early Tuesday morning, an official from the group said.Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb 1 coup, triggering an uprising that has seen security forces mount deadly crackdowns against protesters.The anti-coup movement has garnered broad support across the country, including among some of Myanmar’s armed insurgent groups which have for decades been fighting the military for more autonomy.One of the most vocal opponents, the Karen National Union (KNU), has clashed with the military in their territory along Myanmar’s eastern border for weeks.On Tuesday, fighting broke out in Karen state near the Salween river, which demarcates part of the border, with residents on the Thai side reporting hearing gunfire and explosions coming from inside Myanmar.“Our troops captured the Burmese military camp,” KNU’s head of foreign affairs Padoh Saw Taw Nee told AFP, adding that the fighting took place around 5am and the camp had been “burnt down”.“We could hear from the other side, we could hear the bullets,” said Hkara, a long-time resident of Mae Sam Laep inside the Thai border, who is ethnic Karen and only has one name.“We saw five or six Burmese soldiers run down to the river and then we saw KNU shoot them but it was very dark.”Last month, after the KNU overran a military base in the same region, the junta responded with multiple air strikes at night – the first use of air offensives in Karen state in over 20 years.Some villagers had already left their homes for other towns in fear of retaliation from the Myanmar military, Hkara said.“Nobody dares to stay… they ran early this morning already when the fire fighting started,” she told AFP.Clashes have intensified in Karen state in recent weeks, displacing more than 24,000 civilians, including some 2,000 who crossed the river to seek refuge on the Thai side.An estimated one-third of Myanmar’s territory – mostly in its border regions – is controlled by a myriad of rebel groups, who have their own militias.The KNU has vocally condemned the military putsch, and have said they are sheltering at least 2,000 anti-coup dissidents who fled urban centres of unrest.Security forces have killed more than 750 civilians since Feb 1, according to a local monitoring group tracking the death toll.The junta has a much lower figure and blames the violence on “rioters”.


Don't dance with wolves, Anwar told as old spat with mentor continues

Six years ago, PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and veteran leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad put aside decades of enmity, joining forces to take on then prime minister Najib Razak ahead of the historic election in May 2018.
But today, after a series of events including the collapse of the first Pakatan Harapan (PH) government on the back of a promised handover of power that never took place, it appears that the truce is over.
With Anwar at the head of another PH-led government and Mahathir on the political sidelines after a failed bid at the Nov 9 polls last year, the skirmishes have resumed over a variety of issues, from Malay rights and the cost of living to the appointment of Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as deputy prime minister.
For political observer A Kadir Jasin, however, the stakes are much higher on one side than they are on the other.
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, the veteran journalist said it was not politically wise for Anwar to keep up the conflict with his former mentor.
"If this continues, Anwar could lose everything while Mahathir won't lose a thing," he said.
"Mahathir is free to say whatever he wants because he no longer holds any position or power."
Mahathir, who joined hands with PH in 2017 under his party at the time, Bersatu, contested the 15th general election on a Pejuang ticket.
He failed to defend his Langkawi seat, losing his deposit along with the rest of the Pejuang candidates.
Several months later, he announced his exit from the party alongside 12 other members, joining Malay party Putra instead.
Since then, he and Anwar have tangled over the cancellation of the Malay Proclamation event, the government's treatment of the Malays in general, and the state of the economy.
Mahathir has also accused his one-time protege of stifling dissent and running a cruel dictatorship while Anwar has made allusions about Mahathir's family wealth – an issue currently the subject of a threatened lawsuit.
Kadir said Anwar should refrain from speaking on the matter if he had no proof.
"Enough dancing with the wolves, whether it's an old wolf or a young wolf," he said.
"If he doesn't want to lose to Mahathir, who already lost at GE15, and if he has the necessary proof, he should just take action against him.
"The people will surely back him," he added.
Former senior editor Zin Mahmud meanwhile said Anwar should not entertain Mahathir's jibes.
Zin, who was with Utusan Malaysia, said it was a waste of time and a distraction from the administrative matters that require Anwar's attention.
"The older generation like myself who have already lived through one era of fights between Anwar and Mahathir are tired of this kind of behaviour," he said.
"Mahathir's era is over. He has already been rejected at the polls."
Ahmad Atory Hussain of Universiti Sains Malaysia meanwhile said the GE14 truce between the two leaders had been short-lived, ending with the collapse of the government after 22 months.
"Mahathir will continue to say what he wants, whether on a party platform or as an individual," he said.
"This conflict between them will only end when one of them is no longer around."


How ready is Malaysia for a global food crisis?

As a child, Mohamad Afifuddin Zahlan would follow his father down to the padi fields outside their house.There, he would spend long hours sloshing through mud and emerge covered in leeches from his knees down.But once he finished school, he stopped going down to the fields. Now, he and his three siblings are employed in the private sector and have neither the time nor the inclination to continue the agricultural tradition handed down from their grandfather to their father.His father is 70 years old and his days of working in the fields are long over. With no one left to help him, he has had no choice but to rent out the 12 acres of his land to others.“If the crops are stricken by disease or pests, the returns are not worth it,” Afifuddin told MalaysiaNow. “It’s also difficult to find labourers.”Afifuddin, who is in his 40s, is one in a generation of farmers’ children who no longer work the land.His father inherited the 12 acres from his grandfather, who had divided his original 30 acres among his children before his death.But a shrinking interest in farming among the younger generation is one of the obstacles in the way of self-sufficiency in the local agricultural sector.Self-sufficiency refers to a country’s ability to produce enough food products to meet domestic needs.The issue gained new currency following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which recently prompted the United Nations’ World Food Programme to warn of an impending global food crisis due to disruptions in production and exports.In Malaysia, much of the country’s development took place during the first administration of Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was dubbed the “Father of Modernisation”. However, the focus was placed on the heavy industry, with less attention given to agriculture.MalaysiaNow previously reported that structural issues related to food security such as land use policies and a failure to develop the padi industry were still hampering the country, resulting in a lack of interest among the younger generation in agricultural activities.In light of the continuing war in Ukraine, the question is how prepared Malaysia is in terms of food security should the crisis persist.For economist Geoffrey Williams, the answer might be “not enough”.Williams, from Malaysia University of Science and Technology, said Malaysia still imports 60% of its food needs.A 2019 breakdown shows that Malaysia only produced 46% of its vegetables, 70% of its rice, 61% of its fruits and 25% of its meat that year.“A big part of the problem is the regulation of imports and the issuance of APs (approved permits) to import,” Williams said.“Of course, we need to regulate quality, health and safety, but opening up and liberalising the food markets is essential for supply and prices to respond.”There is also the matter of monopolies and cartels which further limit the domestic market, affecting staple foods such as rice and sugar and pushing prices higher than they should be.For Williams, deregulating and opening up the food markets could help resolve this issue as well.Chee Yoke Ling, executive director of international research and advocacy organisation Third World Network, agreed that Malaysia is not ready to face a food crisis on a global scale.Speaking to MalaysiaNow, she said while the government should tackle the needs of domestic food production, land use and agricultural policies continue to favour commodity exports.They also fail to appreciate the role of small-time farmers who provide rice, vegetables and fruits, she said.“Where farmers are successful in even exporting their produce, we see more and more destruction of farm land for industrial parts and urban expansion,” she said.“Just look at recent cases in Perak, where private developers were given state land that had been successfully farmed for decades but were bulldozed in a matter of days.”The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic two years ago also exposed Malaysia’s weaknesses in food security as the movement control orders placed restrictions on the country’s supply chains.Problems such as climate change have likewise affected global food production, with even countries that normally export food suspending exports to meet domestic needs.Most recently, Indonesia banned the export of palm oil products due to domestic shortages, pushing vegetable oil prices to new highs.Malaysia is the world’s second-largest exporter of palm oil after Indonesia, and this, too, has exacerbated its struggle for self-sufficiency as much of its land is used for plantations instead of staple crops such as rice.Teresa Kok, a former primary industries minister, had proposed the planting of bamboo to replace oil palm.But Williams said the soaring prices of palm oil would make it difficult to switch to any other crop at the moment.“Malaysia has enough land for palm and agriculture, but the incentives in the agricultural industry are very poor due to the licensing, concessions and restrictions on market access,” he said.“These must be fixed first instead of thinking about land use.”Chee meanwhile said it would be a good idea to stop the use of land for oil palm in order to preserve the environment, forest and rain catchment areas.“It is also a good idea to convert part of the existing plantation land for the growing of crops for food,” she said.“It is equally important to stop destroying food production land for property development and industrial use that can be done elsewhere.”


Thousands march in Pakistan Shiite procession as virus cases soar

Thousands of Shiite Muslim devotees – many not wearing masks – gathered in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore for a religious procession on Tuesday, fanning fears about the spread of the coronavirus after similar crowds were blamed in neighbouring India for its own surge.The federal government had issued a notice banning mass gatherings commemorating the death of Prophet Muhammad’s companion and son-in-law Imam Ali, but local negotiations with religious leaders failed.Religious events staged in India in recent weeks, including the Kumbh Mela attended by millions of pilgrims, have been held responsible for spurring one of the worst crises of the pandemic to date, closely watched by Pakistan with growing anxiety.“I have attended this procession every year for as long as I can remember,” said Ali Kazmi, 28, who took part in Lahore, where officials estimated between eight and ten thousand worshippers participated.“They try to stop Shiite mourning ceremonies and processions using different excuses. It is (coronavirus) today, before that it was the issue of security. It’s all excuses.”Members of Pakistan’s Shiite sect make up around 20% of the Islamic republic’s 220 million population. Smaller processions were also held in major cities across the country.Dressed in black, devotees chanted slogans and slapped their chests in unison while others whipped themselves with blades.“We reject any restriction imposed on mourning ceremonies. Your local elections can take place, your markets are open, your government meetings are happening,” said Pakistan’s Shiite Ulema Council in a statement ahead of the rally.An official from Lahore’s police department said they attempted to negotiate with clerics and religious leaders over the procession, who refused to back down.Security however was still provided.Pakistan is struggling to contain a third wave of infections, with more than 800,000 cases and 18,000 deaths declared.Only a small fraction of its population has been vaccinated.Pakistani authorities have largely avoided clamping down on religious activities in recent months.Mosques have remained open throughout the month of Ramadan, with few adhering to social distancing guidelines during huge nightly gatherings of worshippers.However, private gatherings, shops and restaurants have faced tight restrictions, with the army mobilised to help enforce rules.The government has also announced a ban on travel between provinces and imposed closures on hotels and tourist spots for more than a week over Eid celebrations, which usually spur the mass movement of people around the country.


India police probe hotel conman for 603-night free stay

Indian police are investigating a suspected fraudster who spent nearly two years in a five-star hotel without paying after reportedly bribing staff to fix records, local media said Thursday.
Ankush Dutta booked a room at Roseate House hotel in New Delhi on May 30, 2019 and was supposed to check out the next day.
But he extended his stay for 603 nights until he left out on Jan 22, 2021, leaving behind unpaid bills of US$70,000 (about RM325,500).
"Accounts were falsified to conceal the actual outstanding dues," the police complaint read, quoted by the Indian Express newspaper.
Hotel managers also filed a police complaint against several employees for conspiracy, forgery and cheating, with officials saying they suspected staff members were bribed to manipulate in-house software systems.
Roseate House officials could not immediately be reached for comment.


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New cases continue to hover over 22,000

Another 22,597 Covid-19 cases were recorded today, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 1,685,510.Selangor recorded 5,814 cases, Sabah 2,834, Sarawak 2,427, Kedah 2,162, Penang 1,920, Johor 1,896, Kelantan 1,289, Kuala Lumpur 1,111 and Perak 1,061.Terengganu recorded 739 cases, Pahang 579, Negeri Sembilan 345 and Melaka 269.Perlis recorded 98 cases, Putrajaya 48 and Labuan five.Active cases stand at 268,548 with 986 in the ICU and 451 in need of respiratory assistance.Another 19,492 patients recovered, bringing total recoveries to 1,401,160.However, 252 more deaths were reported, pushing the virus toll to 15,802.


Daily caseload dips to 20,900 as 34 more deaths logged

Another 20,923 Covid-19 cases were recorded yesterday, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 4,122,004.There were 25,467 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 3,844,766.There are now 242,487 active cases, of which 235,596 or 97.2% are undergoing home quarantine.Meanwhile, 1,159 (0.5%) are at quarantine centres while 5,430 (2.2%) have been hospitalised.A total of 302 are in ICU with 198 in need of respiratory assistance. ICU utilisation throughout the country stands at 56.9%, with Covid ICU utilisation at 34.2%.Another 34 deaths were reported, including eight who were brought in dead. Total deaths now stand at 34,751.


Azmin to lead trade and investment mission to Saudi Arabia, UAE

International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali will lead a trade and investment mission to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from tomorrow until May 4.The mission is part of the international trade and industry ministry’s (Miti) efforts to promote business opportunities and strategic partnerships between Malaysia and the West Asian region.The mission is aimed at keeping the momentum of economic relations between Malaysia and both countries, following the official visit of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in March, Miti said in a statement today.Miti said the mission is expected to reinforce the value proposition of Malaysia as the preferred investment destination and trading partner by boosting the confidence of the business communities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.“Both these countries are among the most important trading and investment partners in West Asia and Malaysia hopes to elevate this deeply rooted partnership to a more strategic level in the sphere of quality investments and diversified trade,” it said.During the visit to Saudi Arabia, Azmin will meet minister of commerce and chairman of the board of director of the General Authority of Foreign Trade, Majid Abdullah Alkassabi, and Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar I Al Khorayef.In the UAE, Azmin will be meeting Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri and Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi.Azmin is also expected to meet other senior ministers of both countries.The meetings will discuss key bilateral issues and collaboration in areas of mutual interest, including bilateral and regional economic cooperation, finance and post-pandemic economic recovery measures.“Azmin will brief his counterparts in Saudi Arabia and the UAE on the newly minted National Investment Aspirations (NIAs), a forward-looking growth framework that will form the basis for comprehensive reforms of Malaysian investment policies.“NIAs will be central to Malaysia’s new investment direction, offering various opportunities for investors from Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” said Miti.Besides the official meetings, Azmin will also conduct one-to-one business meetings with prominent Saudi and Emirati companies, as well as potential investors, to further explore new business opportunities and collaboration in the oil and gas, healthcare, and retail industries.Azmin will also witness the signing of a memorandum of business exploration between UEM Edgenta Bhd, a subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, and Asma Advanced Solutions LLC in Riyadh.This MoU signifies a strategic venture by a Malaysian company in the healthcare support services and integrated facility management market in Saudi Arabia.In 2020, the kingdom was Malaysia’s second largest trading partner and largest source of import in the West Asia region.Total trade between both countries was recorded at RM20.27 billion (US$4.83 billion) with Malaysia’s exports to Saudi Arabia amounting to RM4.13 billion (US$0.99 billion) and imports value at RM16.14 billion (US$3.84 billion). Main investments from the kingdom include chemicals and chemical products, food manufacturing, electronics and electrical products, and textiles.The UAE was Malaysia’s largest trading partner and largest export destination in the West Asian region for 2020. Total trade between both countries stood at RM20.59 billion (US$4.92 billion) with total exports to the UAE amounting to RM8.49 billion (US$2.03 billion), while imports were at RM12.10 billion (US$2.89 billion).The main source of investments from the UAE were in the machinery and equipment sectors, halal pharmaceutical and food manufacturing.Azmin will be accompanied by a small delegation of senior officials from Miti, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority and the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation.The mission will be subjected to strict Covid-19 preventive SOPs as agreed upon by Malaysia’s health ministry and National Security Council, as well as by the Saudi and UAE governments.


Mayoral candidate in Romania wins polls after dying of Covid-19

A candidate for mayor in southern Romania who recently died of Covid-19 was re-elected by a landslide in local elections, Anadolu Agency reports.Ion Aliman, a member of Romania’s Social Democratic Party (PSD) who was running for mayor of Deveselu village for the third time, won the election with roughly 64% of the vote, according to results released Monday, the BBC reported.Romanian officials said Aliman’s name could not be removed from ballots after he died on Sept 15 in the capital, Bucharest.They added that a new election will be held in the village.A video circulating on social media showed a group of villagers gathering around Aliman’s tombstone.“He took the side of the village, respected all the laws. I don’t think we will see a mayor like him again,” a resident of the village told a local TV channel, the BBC reported.The election victory in Deveselu was considered good news for PSD, which lost seats to the centre-right USR-PLUS alliance in many city councils across the country.Another candidate for mayor in Romania, Neculai Ivascu, who died from liver disease in 2008 before elections in Voinesti, was honoured by local voters.


Umno’s ‘icons of shame’ still in control despite lessons of 2018, say party veteran, analyst

Recent statements by Umno Youth leaders against their president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi are a reminder that promised reforms to “rejuvenate” the party never took place, with observers saying it should have initiated reforms in 2018 after its historic fall from power in the election that year.Social scientist Mahadee Ismail said the youth wing should not blindly follow actions by the party’s top echelons, adding that leaders who have been compromised by scandals and accusations of corruption should not stay in control.“The changes should have taken place immediately after Barisan Nasional’s (BN) defeat in the 14th general election,” the Universiti Putra Malaysia academic told MalaysiaNow.But on the contrary, he said, those who became the public’s “icons of shame” have remained in powerful positions in the party.“This should not have happened. The public is laughing at these icons,” he said, without specifying who he meant.Zahid recently came under attack from several state and division Umno Youth leaders who urged him to make way in the wake of revelations that he had backed PKR president Anwar Ibrahim to topple the Perikatan Nasional government which Umno supported following the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan administration last year.“The changes should have taken place immediately after Barisan Nasional’s defeat in the 14th general election.”Zahid had been slapped with dozens of corruption, criminal breach of trust and money laundering charges, but continued to win the presidency, replacing Najib Razak who relinquished his posts following Umno’s defeat in 2018.But Najib, whose involvement in the 1MDB scandal was widely blamed for Umno’s loss, has continued to wield influence in the party through his loyal supporters.An Umno veteran said the party would be staring at a worse defeat in the next general election if it failed to embrace reforms.Othman Desa, who heads the Umno Veterans Club, said Umno should have emerged stronger after suffering defeat.“It cannot plunge into the same hole twice,” Othman, who once served as political secretary to former prime minister Abdullah Badawi, told MalaysiaNow.He also said Umno members should love their party beyond individual loyalties.“Not much has changed, even as Malaysians have changed.”But Mahadee said Umno is in the grip of warlords who have long kept younger leaders at bay.He said other political parties had given greater leadership positions to its youth, but not Umno.“Not much has changed, even as Malaysians have changed.“How long more should the old guard remain in power?” he asked.At least three senior Umno Youth leaders have openly called for a shake-up of the party’s leadership, in an apparent move to back the protests against Zahid in what is seen as a growing disenchantment with their president’s move to support Anwar.Federal Territories Umno Youth chief Mohamed Nizham Abdullah Hamidi said Umno’s top leadership must be revamped, while the wing’s leaders from Pontian and Seremban, Helmi Buang and Zool Amali Hussin openly called for Zahid’s removal.Mahadee said Umno is increasingly distancing itself from the younger generation, noting that millions of new voters would be from the youth following the amendments to bring down the minimum voting age to 18.“I feel it is only in slogans, but nothing in action.”He said the youth leaders in Umno are best placed to reflect the sentiments of the younger generation.“People are more knowledgeable and educated and the Umno leadership should wake up to the need for critical changes in the party, especially in ridding the party of negative icons that people are not happy with,” he added.Mahadee said any move to rejuvenate the party should begin by calling for the removal of “leaders who have passed their time”.“I feel it is only in slogans, but nothing in action,” he said, referring to calls at past Umno general assemblies to make the party more appealing to the younger generation.“Umno Youth should continue its demand to be given a bigger say in the party, greater representation in the Supreme Council, and to be in the top posts,” Mahadee said.


Doctor, 3 others in Kelantan arrested over fake vaccination cards

Kelantan police have arrested the doctor of a private clinic in Kota Bharu and three individuals to facilitate investigations into the issuance of fake Covid-19 vaccination cards.Kelantan police chief Shafien Mamat said the doctor, who is in his 60s and the owner of the clinic, was arrested on Jan 17 while the three individuals who were vaccine recipients were arrested on Sunday following a raid at the clinic.“All four of them have been released on police bail but further investigations into the case are still ongoing under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating,” he said in a statement.Shafien said they carried out the raid after receiving a report on the issuance of fake vaccination cards by the clinic on Sunday.Based on the report, he said the Kelantan health department had received four complaints from different sources regarding the issuance of fake vaccination cards by the clinic between Oct 1, 2021 and Jan 11.Further checks found that the four individuals who were said to have received Covid-19 vaccine jabs did not have a vaccination record in the MySejahtera application, Shafien said.“Vaccination cards and other related documents were also seized during the raid.“People who have any information related to fake vaccination cards are asked to come forward and lodge a police report at the nearest police station,” he added.


Anwar meets BN leaders as clock ticks towards Istana deadline

Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders, led by Anwar Ibrahim, have been in discussion with Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders at a hotel next to the Umno headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, as the clock ticks towards the 2pm deadline set by Istana Negara to gather enough numbers to form the next government.
This comes after Sarawak's GPS and Sabah's GRS threw their support behind Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Muhyiddin Yassin, with most BN MPs set to defy their chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who yesterday warned them that he has the last say on any collaboration with other parties to form the government.


No letters received yet on audience with Melaka governor, says aide

Istana Melaka has yet to receive a letter from any political party seeking an audience with the Yang Dipertua Negeri, Mohd Ali Rustam, over claims that the current state government has lost its majority to govern, the governor’s special secretary Nur Azmi Ahmad says.He said Ali had been under self-quarantine since Sept 30 after coming into close contact with Covid-19 positive individuals.“Thus far, no letter has been submitted to him,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.State Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Adly Zahari was previously reported as saying that his party would seek an audience with Ali in the near future, to submit a letter informing him that the state government, under Chief Minister Sulaiman Md Ali, had lost its majority.This comes after four state assemblymen declared that they had lost confidence in the chief minister’s leadership and withdrew their support for him.The assemblymen are former chief minister Idris Haron (BN-Sungai Udang), Nor Azman Hassan (BN-Pantai Kundor), Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Independent-Pengkalan Batu) and Noor Effandi Ahmad (Bersatu-Telok Mas).


Majority of Japanese unhappy with progress of booster shots, survey shows

Most Japanese think the rollout of booster shots against Covid-19 is too slow and many give mixed reviews to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s handling of the pandemic, including last week’s decision to ease border rules, a poll showed.Anger over the Japanese government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic helped sink the administration of Kishida’s predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, and Kishida faces a crucial election for the upper house of parliament in July.About 73% of respondents to a Kyodo news agency opinion poll over the weekend felt Japan’s rollout of booster shots has been far too slow, though 54.1% approved of how the government had tackled the coronavirus overall.Only 14.4% of the population has received booster shots even though nearly 30% of the country is 65 or older and at greater risk without the protection of the booster.Kishida, who has repeatedly promised to accelerate the booster programme, told a news conference last week he has yet to receive his booster, but should get one early in March.The booster programme has picked up steam in recent days, with more than 700,000 shots a day – nearing Kishida’s goal of one million by the end of February. Still, February became the deadliest month of the pandemic for Japan on Saturday, with 3,033 deaths so far this month.Nearly half of respondents to the two-day telephone survey said it was “too early” to loosen border controls, which have among been the strictest among wealthy nations but were slammed by businesses and educators, a move set to take place in stages from March 1.About 45.7% said the decision, which will open borders to foreigners except for tourists, came too early, Kyodo said, while 34.9% said it was “appropriate” and 16.3% saw it as too late.Overall, Kishida’s support rose slightly to 56.6% although disapproval of his government edged up 2.2 points to 27.4%.


Ukraine on edge after Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, region's towns shelled

Russian artillery fired at Ukrainian towns across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant overnight, local officials said on Sunday, adding to residents' anguish as reports of shelling around the plant fuelled fears of a radiation disaster.
Russia's defence ministry said there was more Ukrainian shelling of the plant over the past 24 hours, just a day after Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations of targeting Europe's biggest nuclear plant, which has prompted grave international concern.
Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said it had no new information about attacks on the plant.
Captured by Russian troops in March, but still run by Ukrainian staff, the complex on the southern front line of the war has been one of the major hotspots in the six-month conflict.
The US State Department said in a statement on Sunday that Moscow did not want to acknowledge the grave radiological risk at the Zaporizhzhia plant and had blocked a draft agreement on nuclear non-proliferation because it mentioned such risk.
Regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said on Telegram on Sunday that Russian forces struck residential buildings in the region's main city of Zaporizhzhia, about a two-hour drive from the plant, and the town of Orikhiv further east.
On Saturday, Starukh told Ukrainian television that residents were being taught how to use iodine in case of a radiation leak.
Ukraine's military reported shelling of nine more towns in the area on the opposite side of the Dnipro river from the plant in its daily report, while the Russian RIA news agency quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying its air force struck a Motor Sich plant in the region where helicopters were repaired.
Russian authorities said they had downed a Ukrainian drone which planned to attack the nuclear-waste storage facility at the plant, according to RIA.
Reuters could not verify those reports.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said nine shells fired by the Ukrainian artillery in two separate attacks landed in the nuclear plant's grounds.
"At present, full-time technical personnel are monitoring the technical condition of the nuclear plant and ensuring its operation. The radiation situation in the area of the nuclear power plant remains normal," he said in a statement.
The United Nations and Kyiv have called for a withdrawal of military equipment and personnel from the plant to ensure it is not a target.
Continent at risk
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Russian forces had turned the plant into a military base, putting the whole continent at risk, and had no business being there.
"Russian military must get out of the plant," he said on Twitter.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is waiting for clearance for its officials to visit the plant, which the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Thursday should be "very, very close". Two of the plant's reactors were cut off from the electrical grid last week due to shelling.
On Ukraine's eastern front, Ukrainian forces halted the latest Russian attempt to advance on the city of Sloviansk in Donetsk province, Kyiv's military said in its daily report.
Ukrainian troops also repelled Russian attempts to attack in three directions, including in the area of Bakhmut and the coal-producing town of Avdiivka, it added in an afternoon update.
Having taken Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk weeks ago, Moscow's forces have focused on Bakhmut in their push to extend control over the Donbas region. According to regional governors, Sloviansk and the city of Kramatorsk, also in Donetsk province, were shelled by Russian forces overnight, but there were no reports of new casualties.
Reuters could not verify those accounts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted that both the Donbas region and the city of Donetsk in the past had celebrated annual holidays in the last weekend of August. "Ukraine will never forget anything," he said in his nightly video address.
President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Russia's neighbour on Feb 24, saying a "special operation" was needed to demilitarise the country and remove perceived security threats to Russia.
Ukraine and the West have dismissed this as a baseless pretext for an imperialist war of conquest that has killed thousands, displaced millions, turned cities to rubble and threatened the global economy with an energy and food supply crisis, sending prices soaring.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said Kuleba would travel to Sweden on Monday followed by a trip to the Czech Republic on Tuesday as part of Kyiv's efforts to cement international support for Ukraine and push for more sanctions pressure on Russia.
In Prague, he will attend an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers that will discuss new sanctions on Moscow and an EU-wide visa ban for Russians. Zelensky called for such a ban earlier this month, but so far it has found support mainly from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, which all share a border with Russia.


Ungku Aziz dies at 98

One of Malaysia’s best known academics and social critics, Royal Prof Ungku Abdul Aziz Ungku Abdul Hamid, has died. He was 98.Ungku Aziz, who served as vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya from 1968 to 1988 during a critical period of student protest movements, was the brain behind the establishment of pilgrims fund Tabung Haji and Angkasa, the apex body governing cooperatives nationwide.His daughter, Zeti Akhtar Aziz, is the former governor of Bank Negara Malaysia.Ungku Aziz, who was related to the Johor royal family, received the title “royal professor” in 1978, and wrote more than 50 books and monographs on Malaysia’s socio-economic issues.He also served as consultant to several international bodies as well as the United Nations and Unesco.Born to an English mother and a father of Malay-Circassian descent, Ungku Aziz received his early education at the Batu Pahat Malay School.He later attended Raffle College before furthering his studies at Universiti Malaya, which was then in Singapore.He received his PhD from Waseda University in Tokyo.


99 missing in US condo collapse

A large-scale rescue operation was continuing Thursday evening at the site of a collapsed 12-storey condominium block in Surfside, Miami, where authorities said at least one person was killed, 10 injured and nearly 100 missing.The building collapsed just after midnight local time from unknown causes.Police have launched a homicide inquiry, according to Sally Heyman, a county commissioner who represents Surfside.“It’s the unimaginable,” Daniella Levine Cava, the Miami-Dade mayor, said. “A massive search and rescue mission is under way. We are going to do everything we can possibly do to identify and rescue those who have been trapped in the rubble.”More than 80 fire-rescue crews attended the scene in Surfside, a small, oceanfront city just north of Miami Beach. Early video of the aftermath of the collapse showed a boy being pulled from the wreckage, one of 35 people rescued alive, the Miami-Dade commission said.“They brought dogs who can sniff for survivors in the rubble,” Eliana Salzhauer, a Surfside commissioner, told the Miami Herald. “They aren’t turning up very much. No one is celebrating anyone being pulled out.”Salzhauer confirmed earlier reports that recent construction work on the roof had taken place and said residents told her a building inspector had visited the property on Wednesday. But she said it was too soon to speculate on the likely cause.Jimmy Patronis, a Florida cabinet member and the state’s fire marshal, told reporters that crews had heard noises as they sifted through the wreckage. “The rescuers are hearing sounds from the rubble. It’s kind of hit or miss. You get into the zone where you are so passionate and so focused and so determined to make sure you are doing everything possible to save a life in an event like this,” he said.Earlier, Frank Rollason, the director of the county’s emergency management department, said workers believed that they had rescued all reachable survivors.“Everybody who is alive is out of the building,” he told the Herald.


Military on standby to evacuate fire-threatened towns in western Canada

Ottawa prepared Friday to send military aircraft and other help to evacuate towns and fight more than 100 wildfires in western Canada fuelled by a record-smashing heat wave.According to wildfire officials, at least 143 fires were active in British Columbia, 77 of them sparked in the last two days. Most were caused by lightning strikes.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would convene an incident response group later in the day to address the emergency needs of the province, adding that he already spoke with British Columbia’s premier, as well as local mayors and indigenous chiefs in communities under threat.“We will be there to help,” he told a news conference.That will include military helicopters and possibly Hercules turboprop transport planes, Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan earlier told public broadcaster CBC.“Canadian Forces are ready to support residents,” he said in a Twitter message.Roughly 1,000 people have already fled the wildfires in British Columbia, and authorities are searching for many who have gone missing.The village of Lytton, 250km northeast of Vancouver, was evacuated Wednesday night because of a fire that flared up suddenly and spread quickly.The fire came a day after the village set a Canadian record-high temperature on Tuesday of 49.6 degrees Celsius.Fatalities have been reported in Canada’s westernmost province, but an official toll has yet to be released, as members of the British Columbia coroner service headed into hotspots on Friday to begin investigating.“Today our thoughts are mostly with families that are grieving, that are facing terrible loss,” said Trudeau.“But of course, we also have to reflect on the fact that extreme weather events are getting more frequent and climate change has a significant role to play in that.”Lytton resident Jeff Chapman told the CBC he witnessed his parents die in the fire that engulfed the town.With only minutes to react, the elderly couple sought shelter from the smoke and flames in a trench in their backyard, as Chapman ran for safety at nearby rail tracks.From that vantage, he said he saw the fires sweep across and destroy most of the town.His distressed voice could be heard pleading for help over the crackling flames in a video on CBC. The ground, he said, was too hot to go back for his parents.Meanwhile, a heat wave that stretched at the beginning of the week from the US state of Oregon to Canada’s Arctic territories has started moving eastward, late Thursday touching parts of Ontario in central Canada.British Columbia also warned Friday of flooding from melting mountain snow caps and glaciers under the heat dome, which occurs when hot air is trapped by high pressure fronts, heating the ground.


India approves 2 Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use

India has authorised the emergency use of two coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and by local pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech, the country’s drug regulator said Sunday.“The… vaccines of Serum Institute (AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine) and Bharat Biotech are being approved for restricted use in emergency situations,” the Drugs Controller General of India, VG Somani, said at a briefing.Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the fast-track approvals were “a decisive turning point to strengthen a spirited fight” that “accelerates the road to a healthier and Covid-free nation”.India is the world’s second most-infected nation with more than 10.3 million cases and almost 150,000 deaths, although its rate of infection has come down significantly from a mid-September peak of more than 90,000 cases daily.The approval is expected to kick off one of the world’s biggest vaccination drives in the country of 1.3 billion people.The government has already been holding nationwide drills ahead of the mass inoculation drive and 96,000 health workers have been trained to administer the shots.Somani added to reporters after the briefing that the drug regulator would “never approve anything if there is the slightest safety concern”.“The vaccines are 100% safe,” he said, adding that side effects such as “mild fever, pain and allergy are common for every vaccine”.The Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest manufacturer of vaccines, has said it is making between 50 and 60 million doses a month of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine.Serum Institutes chief executive Adar Poonawalla tweeted after the approvals that the vaccine would be “ready to roll out in the coming weeks”.


Talks still open for PH, BN seats, Salahuddin says ahead of state polls

Negotiations for state legislative assembly seats in the six states that will face elections are still open even though Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) have agreed that the incumbents from the 14th general election (GE14) will be retained.
Amanah deputy president Salahuddin Ayub said such matters usually happen in any seat allocation process before an election.
"In general, the seats won by the party that contested in GE14 are usually not touched.
"However, it is open to discussion. It is inevitable if they want to discuss the division of seats, it is normal in any seat negotiation process," he told reporters in Seremban yesterday.
Salahuddin said the negotiations also involved Amanah in Negeri Sembilan.
"Whether or not we get (seats), it depends on the outcome of negotiations that are being held cordially," he said.
PH has 20 state seats while BN holds 16 in Negeri Sembilan.


Bersatu to sit out Sarawak polls

Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin today announced that the party will not contest in the Sarawak state election next month.Muhyiddin, who is also Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman, said Bersatu decided on this following a recent meeting with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) chairman Abang Johari Openg.“Although we believe we can win in certain areas, Bersatu will not contest in Sarawak out of respect for the wishes of the GPS leadership. This move is to ensure that the party that is already in Sarawak can score an excellent win,” he said at a press conference after opening the third delegates meeting of the Pagoh Bersatu division in Muar today.Muhyiddin also said Bersatu had chosen to stay out of the contest because it believed GPS had the ability to win and that GPS had supported the PN-led federal government when he was the prime minister.However, he said Abang Johari had indicated that he might consider having friendly parties like PN fight alongside GPS in the 15th general election (GE15).“The most important thing to emerge from the meeting (with Abang Johari) is GPS’ view on the need to retain existing seats,” he said.The Election Commission has set Dec 6 for nomination, Dec 14 for early voting and Dec 18 for polling in the 12th Sarawak state election, which will see 82 seats up for grabs.On the resignation of Bersatu vice-president Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen as Melaka PN chairman and Melaka Bersatu chief, Muhyiddin said his successor would be named soon.Muhyiddin, the MP for Pagoh, said it was honourable of Rafiq to step down and allow the state party leadership to be reshuffled after the Melaka state election.“It is clear he is giving way to a new leadership and this is an honourable move. I will decide on his replacement or any other changes in a few days’ time,” he said.Yesterday, Rafiq announced that he was relinquishing his state posts with immediate effect to make way for a new leadership so that they would have enough time to prepare for GE15.Asked on Umno’s proposal for GE15 to be expedited, Muhyiddin said he had asked Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to hold discussions to determine a suitable time to hold the election.“I have informed the prime minister to hold discussions to determine a suitable time. Maybe at the prime minister’s level, in accordance with the constitution, it will be raised with Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.“But I am sure considerations will be given to the situation and the cooperation forged among political parties under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to stabilise the political situation,” said Muhyiddin.On Nov 21, Umno deptuty president Mohamad Hasan, who is Rantau state assemblyman in Negeri Sembilan, said that it would be appropriate for GE15 to be held soon.


Japan to extend virus emergency until month before Olympics

Japan will extend a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas on Friday until just a month before the Olympics, in a move that is likely to fuel concerns over whether the Games can be held safely.Tokyo and nine other parts of the country are currently under emergency orders which mostly involve closing bars and restaurants early and banning them from selling alcohol.The emergency was supposed to expire at the end of May in most places, but the government now says it needs more time to control a fourth wave of infections.“The overall level (of infections) continues to be very high,” Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of coronavirus response, said Friday.“Considering this situation, we believe it is necessary to extend the state of emergency measures.”On Friday, the government’s advisory panel approved an extension until June 20, just over a month before the pandemic-postponed Olympics open on July 23. A formal announcement is expected later.The move comes with Japan’s public still firmly opposed to holding the 2020 Games this summer. In recent weeks, leading businessmen and even a newspaper sponsoring the Olympics have called for the event to be cancelled.But organisers and Japanese officials say the Games will go on, citing extensive rulebooks aimed at keeping participants and the public safe.‘Olympic strain’On Thursday, Naoto Ueyama, chair of the minor Japan Doctors Union, warned the Games could produce a “Tokyo Olympic strain” of coronavirus and urged a cancellation to prevent a “disaster”.Haruo Ozaki, head of the larger Tokyo Medical Association with more than 20,000 members, said organisers would have to bar all spectators at a “minimum”.Overseas fans have already been banned, and a decision on domestic spectators is expected late next month.Even under the current state of emergency, sports venues in Japan are allowed to seat 5,000 spectators or 50% capacity, whichever is smallest.Officials have been trying to drive home the message that the Games are on and will be safe, announcing recently that the vast majority of those in the Olympic village will be vaccinated.Despite the negative polling and warnings against the Games, protests against the event tend to attract just a few dozen people.Australia’s softball team is expected to arrive next week to start training in Japan, and Japanese athletes and Olympic staff will start receiving vaccines from June 1.They will be jumping the queue in Japan’s slow vaccine rollout, with jabs currently only available to medical workers and the elderly.Just over 6% of the population has so far received a first dose, with less than 2.5% fully vaccinated.The slow pace has piled pressure on Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who was appointed after Shinzo Abe’s resignation last year and faces an election in the autumn.Japan has seen a comparatively small virus outbreak, with around 12,500 deaths, enabling it to avoid harsh lockdowns.But Suga’s government has faced criticism for its pandemic response, and polls show strong dissatisfaction with the vaccine rollout in particular.


Chinese TV stars cut ties with Nike as Xinjiang backlash builds

Two Chinese stars cut ties Thursday with Nike for registering concerns over forced labour in Xinjiang while H&M faced calls for a boycott, as a backlash brews against Western firms speaking out on human rights.At least one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been held in camps in Xinjiang, according to right groups, where authorities are also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.It is one of the world’ top cotton-producing regions feeding many Western garment brands with textiles.China denies the allegations of abuses, insisting labour camps are in fact training programmes and work schemes have helped stamp out extremism and raise incomes.Chinese TV stars Wang Yibo and Tan Songyun on Thursday said they would end all promotional partnerships with Nike, after a company statement was pumped around social media noting it was “very concerned” by the allegations of forced labour.Their move followed a blizzard of outrage on China’s tightly controlled social media aimed at Nike over the statement published last year.Tan’s manager said she “resolutely opposes any bad behaviour of smearing and making rumours about China”, with Wang’s agent making a similar statement.Hours earlier Swedish clothing giant H&M’s products vanished from major Chinese shopping sites in apparent retaliation for its decision to no longer source cotton from Xinjiang, while state media shared calls for a boycott of its stores.Nike and H&M both made their statements last year, but the criticism only reached fever pitch this week after Western countries lined up to sanction several key officials from Xinjiang over alleged rights abuses.An outraged China struck back with tit-for-tat sanctions as a war of words erupted between Beijing and several European nations.Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Thursday issued a cryptic tweet accusing unnamed parties of seeking to find forced labour and repression where there was none, as “repression is what they have done for over a century”.She did not directly mention Xinjiang.State media on Wednesday lashed out against what they called H&M’s “lies” and “ulterior motives”, while a department store in Xinjiang’s Urumqi city demanded an apology from the company in a statement on Thursday.H&M’s brick-and-mortar stores have also disappeared from search results in a popular Chinese map app owned by Baidu.H&M China in a statement on Wednesday night said it “does not represent any political position” and remains committed to long-term investment in China.Nike did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.


How the world has sped up vaccine approvals

Britain has become the first Western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine for general use, giving the green light to the Pfizer/BioNTech drug.As authorities in the US and Europe probe other candidates, here is how countries have sped up their approval procedures to face up to the pandemic.Britain: ‘rolling reviews’Britain was able to approve the Pfizer vaccine after the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gave its all-clear.The MHRA used a “rolling review” process from June to assess the vaccine in record time.Teams of scientists had worked “around the clock” on different aspects of the safety assessment, often tackling several topics in parallel, MHRA chief June Raine said.Health Secretary Matt Hancock and others claimed that Britain’s departure from the EU had allowed it to approve the vaccine faster than its continental neighbours.“Unlike the EMA (European Medicines Agency), they can ask questions as they go and obtain responses faster as a single agency,” said Penny Ward, professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London.Raine insisted that “no corners whatsoever have been cut” in the vaccine approval process.EU: accelerated proceduresThe Amsterdam-based EMA, which regulates medicines across the 27 EU countries, has also turned to a “rolling review” process for safety and effectiveness data from Covid-19 vaccine developers.All three of the most advanced candidates – Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford/Astrazeneca – have been subject to the scheme for several weeks already.According to the EMA, the accelerated procedures are granted for medicines “that fulfil an unmet medical need on the basis of less complete data than normally required.”The normal pipeline for vaccines would see all the data collected and submitted at the very start of the authorisation process.An EMA decision on Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine is expected “by Dec 29 at the latest”, while a ruling on Moderna’s version should follow by Jan 12.It is up to the European Commission in Brussels to issue the final green light.US: advisory committeeBoth Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have requested emergency use authorisation (EUA) for their Covid-19 vaccines from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).But the American process is slower than the British one and involves a public consultation.The FDA carries out its own analysis of the vaccine and calls on an independent advisory committee.“The FDA process is a completely transparent process with independent experts commenting and asking questions and recommending or advising the agency,” Moncef Slaoui, scientific advisor to Washington’s Operation Warp Speed (OWS) program, said Wednesday.The advisory committee is scheduled for a Dec 10 meeting on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and for Moderna on Dec 17.FDA decisions on the two drugs should follow those meetings. If the agency approves them, the vaccines could be available in the US – the world’s hardest-hit country with more than 270,000 deaths – in December.Russia: simplified procedureTesting on medical products under development is carried out by the Russian health ministry’s “scientific centre for evaluation of medicines”.According to its official vaccine website, “unlike many countries, there is a system of state testing, using comparable medications, a double-blind study and other control tests independent of the developers”.President Vladimir Putin ordered the government to simplify procedures for state registration of some medicines, so as to speed up approval for a vaccine.Testing on the country’s Sputnik V vaccine began in mid-February, and on Aug 1 the first and second phases of clinical trials were complete.Authorities approved the inoculation on Aug 11 before Phase 3 trials had even begun. The large-scale study is now complete, but results have not been made public.Putin has told authorities to begin “large-scale” vaccinations among at-risk populations from next week.The drugs should be made generally available to the Russian public in early 2021.China: Last-stage trials and emergency useChina has four coronavirus vaccines in Phase 3 trials – typically the last step before regulatory approval – but has not released much of its data.Although regulators have yet to approve China’s vaccines for mass distribution, the country has approved some advanced candidates for emergency use, giving jabs to people ranging from state employees to international students since July.Nearly a million people have already taken an experimental vaccine by Sinopharm, the company said in November. Another firm, Sinovac Biotech, earlier said almost all its employees and their families had voluntarily taken its vaccine.China has also been ramping up its vaccine production capacity, with health officials expecting the country will be able to produce 610 million doses annually by the end of the year.It is expected to raise this capacity to at least one billion doses annually next year.In November, the state-run Global Times reported that China’s coronavirus vaccine producers had been working out plans for international transportation. President Xi Jinping has pledged to make any potential vaccine developed by China available for the “global public good”.


China readying US$143 billion package for its chip firms in face of US curbs, sources say

China is working on a more than US$143 billion (about RM629 billion) support package for its semiconductor industry, three sources said, in a major step towards self sufficiency in chips and to counter US moves aimed at slowing its technological advances.
Beijing plans to roll out what will be one of its biggest fiscal incentive packages over five years, mainly as subsidies and tax credits to bolster semiconductor production and research activities at home, said the sources.
It signals, as analysts have expected, a more direct approach by China in shaping the future of an industry which has become a geopolitical hot button due to soaring demand for chips and which Beijing regards as a cornerstone of its technological might.
It will also likely further raise concerns in the US and its allies about China's competition in the semiconductor industry, say analysts. Some US lawmakers are already worried about China's chip production capacity build up.
The plan could be implemented as soon as the first quarter of next year, said two of the sources who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to media.
The majority of the financial assistance would be used to subsidise the purchases of domestic semiconductor equipment by Chinese firms, mainly semiconductor fabrication plants, or fabs, they said.
Such companies would be entitled to a 20% subsidy on the cost of purchases, the three sources said.
The fiscal support plan comes after the US Commerce Department passed in October a sweeping set of regulations, which could bar research labs and commercial data centres' access to advanced AI chips, among other curbs.
The US has also been lobbying some of its partners, including Japan and the Netherlands, to tighten exports to China of equipment used to make semiconductors.
And US President Joe Biden in August signed a landmark bill to provide US$52.7 billion in grants for US semiconductor production and research as well as tax credit for chip plants estimated to be worth US$24 billion.
With the incentive package, Beijing aims to step up support for Chinese chip firms to build, expand or modernise domestic facilities for fabrication, assembly, packaging, and research and development, the sources said.
Beijing's latest plan also includes preferential tax policies for the country's semiconductor industry, they said.
China's State Council Information Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Likely beneficiaries
The beneficiaries will be both state-owned and private enterprises in the industry, notably large semiconductor equipment firms like Naura Technology Group, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc China and Kingsemi, the sources added.
Some Chinese chip shares in Hong Kong rose sharply after news of the package. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) added more than 8%, sending its daily gain to nearly 10%. Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd closed up 17%. Mainland markets were closed when the report was published.
Achieving self-reliance in technology featured prominently in President Xi Jinping's full work report at the Communist Party Congress in October. The term 'technology' was referred to 40 times, up from 17 times in the report from the 2017 congress.
Xi's call for Chinato "win the battle" in core technologies could signal an overhaul in Beijing's approach to advancing its tech industry, with more state-led spending and intervention to counter US pressures, analysts have said.
The US sanctions published in October have caused major overseas-based chip manufacturing equipment companies to cease supplying key Chinese chipmakers, including Yangtze memory Technologies Co (YMTC) and SMIC, and makers of advanced artificial intelligence chips to cease supplying companies and laboratories.
The world's second-largest economy has launched a trade dispute at the World Trade Organization against the US over its chip export control measures, China's commerce ministry said on Monday.
China has long lagged the rest of the world in the chip manufacturing equipment sector, which remains dominated by companies based in the US, Japan, and the Netherlands.
A number of domestic firms have emerged in the past 20 years, but most remain behind their rivals in terms of ability to produce advanced chips.
Naura's etching and thermal process equipment, for example, can only produce 28-nanometer and above chips, relatively mature technologies.
Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co Ltd (SMEE), China's only lithography company, can produce 90-nanometers chips, well behind that of the Netherlands' ASML, which is producing those as low as 3 nanometers.


Pfizer asks US to authorise Covid pill

US pharmaceutical company Pfizer on Tuesday asked regulators to authorise its Covid pill after it was shown to cut hospitalisation or death by nearly 90% among newly-infected high risk patients.The move comes a few weeks after Merck also approached the Food and Drug Administration seeking a green light for its antiviral capsule against the coronavirus.Experts see the oral medications as an invaluable addition to vaccines in the fight to end the pandemic.“With more than five million deaths and countless lives impacted by this devastating disease globally, there is an urgent need for life-saving treatment options,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.“We are moving as quickly as possible in our effort to get this potential treatment into the hands of patients.”Pfizer is seeking an emergency use authorisation (EUA) on the basis of positive interim results from a mid-to-late stage clinical trial of hundreds of people, which enrolled Covid-positive non-hospitalised adults at high risk of progression to severe disease.The data showed an 89% reduction in Covid hospitalisations or death when the treatment started within three days of symptom onset, with no deaths in the treatment group. Similar results were seen within five days of symptom onset.Side-effects occurred in about one-in-five patients in both the treatment and placebo groups, and were mild in intensity.The treatment is given over five days.Pfizer has said it will deliver 180,000 courses of its Paxlovid pill this year and at least 50 million by next year.On Tuesday it announced a deal with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to sub-licence production for supply in 95 low- and middle-income nations covering around 53% of the world’s population.Paxlovid is a combination of a new molecule, PF-07321332, and HIV antiviral ritonavir.Both belong to a class of antivirals called “protease inhibitors,” which block the action of an enzyme critical to viral replication.President Joe Biden’s administration is set to announce that it is purchasing 10 million courses of the pill, the Washington Post reported.The US is also buying 3.1 million courses of the Merck pill, Molnupiravir.Given the timeline between application for an EUA and subsequent authorization, it could be available by late this year or early next.


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Webs of deceit woven to entrap children

In a poll carried out by the UN children’s protection arm Unicef, 87% of Malaysian 18-year-olds admit to having friends that engage in “risky online behaviours”.Nearly 90% of the nation’s girls and 75% of boys reported receiving unwanted sexual comments and requests while exploring the web.Young people are generally more tech-savvy than their parents about finding their way around the internet, but their developing experience of the adult world may not yet be enough for them to be able to detect when predators are lurking in the web behind their screens.Teens today use social media for everything, across all their connected devices, but keeping in touch with loved ones as well as making new friends and building relationships comes first for many youngsters.During the pandemic, forced to isolate at home with their family, the internet has often been the only way they can maintain and expand their social circle and build friendships.Nearly 90% of the nation’s girls and 75% of boys reported receiving unwanted sexual comments and requests while exploring the web.Predatory adults are aware of that. They make it their business to know their way around the web enough to find vulnerable teens and stalk, groom and sexually exploit them.The Unicef report says that online groomers can be strangers or people known to the intended victim.Once an intended victim has been identified, groomers hide their true intentions with attention, flattery and, when they can get close enough – gifts.When their trap has been set and the bait taken, groomers set up meetings where they can try to achieve their real aim: to sexually exploit their victims.Sometimes they are successful.One survivor who wanted to be known only as Andrea recently shared her trauma online on social media and agreed to speak with MalaysiaNow.“You’re not only groomed for sex, but you’re also groomed to keep quiet,” she said.“My parents were working most of the time, so apart from holidays and festivals there wasn’t much family time. After school, I spent most of my time on the internet.”Andrea was approached on Facebook by a man who said he was five years older than her.“I was alone at home and felt kind of safe to have someone other than my family to count on.”Predators are patient and it took a while but eventually Andrea and her unseen groomer developed a friendly rapport which eventually turned into an intimate relationship.After meeting up a couple of times, she was pressured into sexual activities with him.“I didn’t know what I was doing. He took me to a hotel for a date and insisted that I kept it a secret from my friends and family. He had sex with me even though I was resisting.”After the incident, the man gave Andrea a ride home.She never spoke to him again as she ignored his texts and didn’t answer his calls.“You’re not only groomed for sex, but you’re also groomed to keep quiet.”She kept her guilty secret for years but eventually told her parents about it and received treatment for the post-traumatic stress and depression the incident had caused.“When I finished the treatment, I decided to share my experiences on Twitter to try and get some closure and to let young people know about this threat. Children and parents need to know there are people like that on social media.”A Malaysian child-sex offenders register was launched in 2019 which contains the names of at least 3,000 paedophiles.Ecpat International is a global network of organisations that works to end the sexual exploitation of children. It released a report which lists Malaysia as a sex tourism destination and an “exporter” of sex predators to neighbouring countries.Child welfare organisations want to tighten laws such as the Children’s Act 2001 to limit the likelihood of predators successfully preying upon the underaged.But as Andrea can attest, deterring persistent online predators is not so easily done.The internet is everywhere and connecting with just about anyone you desire is only a click away.The Big Bad Wolf appears in several cautionary tales for children and has become a generic archetypical menacing predator.For some, he can become all too real.Andrea is a survivor now and is becoming a guide and teacher.She shudders as she describes her experiences to MalaysiaNow.“They’re always out there, and all we can do now is teach kids about them.”


Liverpool want fan apology, UEFA say 2,800 fake tickets scanned

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has demanded an apology over the treatment of the club’s fans after the French government blamed “massive” ticket fraud for the chaotic scenes that marred Saturday’s Champions League final against Real Madrid in Paris.The demand came as UEFA and the French football federation (FFF), at a crisis meeting on Monday at the French sports ministry, estimated that 2,800 fake tickets were scanned at the final, according to a source.The FFF weighed in further on Tuesday, releasing a statement saying that 35,000 people without tickets or with false tickets had descended on the Stade de France for the final.Having deployed 1,650 security and ticketing staff, 25% higher than a sold-out home France match, the FFF said that 110,000 people went to the stadium “based on information collected from various public and private operators”.The FFF concluded that around the stadium, there were “35,000 extra people in possession of counterfeit tickets or without tickets” and they “caused public disorder by blocking the gates to the stadium and preventing some holders of real tickets from entering before the kick-off of the match scheduled for 9pm”.The French government has faced a barrage of criticism over policing of the match, which saw thousands of Liverpool fans with tickets struggle to enter the Stade de France.Tear gas and pepper sprayKick-off to the match, which Real Madrid won 1-0, was delayed by 36 minutes to allow supporters extra time to access the stadium after being funnelled into overcrowded corridors and hit with tear gas and pepper spray from police.Werner, part of the US-based Fenway Sports Group that owns Liverpool, said in a leaked letter sent to French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera on Monday that he was left in “utter disbelief” at her comments about the chaos.Oudea-Castera initially blamed Liverpool for helping to cause the mayhem, telling a French radio station that the club failed to properly organise its supporters who went to Paris.After the crisis meeting at the sports ministry on Monday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin defiantly insisted that ticket scams and the behaviour of Liverpool fans was to blame.“I am writing to you today out of utter disbelief that a minister of the French government… could make a series of unproven pronouncements on a matter of such significance before a proper, formal, independent investigation process has even taken place,” Werner wrote in his letter, leaked to the local Liverpool Echo newspaper.“Your comments were irresponsible, unprofessional, and wholly disrespectful to the thousands of fans harmed physically and emotionally,” the Boston-based chairman added.“On behalf of all the fans who experienced this nightmare I demand an apology from you, and assurance that the French Authorities and UEFA allow an independent and transparent investigation to proceed.”Oudea-Castera later said she had not yet received any correspondence from Liverpool, but offered up a partial apology.“We had Liverpool fans who were all above board, whose evening was ruined with some even unable to watch the match,” she said.“There, we clearly owe them an apology.”‘Incredibly dangerous’European football’s governing body has announced that Portuguese politician Tiago Brandao Rodrigues will head up an independent probe.French authorities are also opening an investigation, Oudea-Castera saying that the aim was to “establish the accuracy of the facts, the volumes, traffic or no traffic, the origin of this traffic, and what happened exactly”.The chaos inevitably brought back painful memories for Liverpool, a club haunted by the 1989 Hillsborough disaster which cost the lives of 97 people in a stadium crush.Then, as at the weekend, police initially blamed ticketless fans but they were exonerated after a lengthy legal fight.In his letter, Werner called the events in Paris “incredibly dangerous for all who attended” and urged against “a blame game strategy via press conference”.“I have received countless emails from Liverpool supporters who were frightened to death, and subject to police harassment, pepper spray and tear gas,” he added.Darmanin said that there had been 30,000 to 40,000 Liverpool fans with counterfeit tickets or without tickets outside the Stade de France.According to authorities, that contributed signficantly to the swelling of the crowd outside the gates to France’s national stadium, leading to huge, slow-moving queues and a massive bottleneck.But the numbers put forward have been contested, including in France, where the head of a large supporters group, present at the stadium on Saturday, called them a “lie”.French security services warned authorities of the risk of fans without tickets or with fake ones two days before the game, according to a document seen by AFP Tuesday.The scenes tarnished the image of the French capital, raising questions about its ability to host major sporting events as it gears up for the 2024 Olympics, as well as the 2023 Rugby World Cup.All eyes will turn to the next match at the Stade de France on Friday, when France kick off the defence of their Nations League title at home to Denmark.Paris transport unions called Tuesday for a new strike to coincide with that match, hailing the “success” of their action at the weekend that contributed to the disorder at the Champions League final.


Beijing punishes officials as Delta outbreaks hit more regions

Beijing has punished regional officials for failing to curb a Covid-19 outbreak that’s seen nearly 1,000 infections across the country in less than a month.The government has long held local officials accountable for virus outbreaks, accusing them of failing to enforce precautions and restrictions.More than 30 officials nationwide, ranging from mayors and local health directors to the heads of hospitals and airports, have been punished for negligence and mishandling local outbreaks, according to the state-backed Global Times.The country is dealing with its broadest outbreak of Covid since it crushed the virus that first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.This resurgence is complicating Beijing’s strategy of keeping the virus out of the country entirely, Bloomberg reports.The eastern city of Yangzhou issued warnings to five officials for mishandling mass testing that “allowed the virus to continue spreading”.That city has now overtaken nearby Nanjing, where the delta-driven outbreak first started, as the biggest hotspot in China, with 308 confirmed cases reported as of Monday.Six patients are in intensive care and if any of them die it would be China’s first Covid death in more than six months.The latest resurgence has spread across more than half of the mainland’s 31 provinces.Though the majority of China’s billion-and-a-half-plus population is vaccinated, authorities are not taking the chance of relying on inoculations and instead have fallen back on their standard tactic of mass testing and targeted lockdowns to halt the virus in its tracks.Wuhan has also seen infections again after the virus was brought under control there in early 2020.Fearing it could spread further and draw unwanted worldwide attention, local health authorities tested the city’s 11.3 million residents this weekend. They found nine locally transmitted infections.The central province of Henan is facing a rise in infections as it continues to recover from flooding that killed more than 300 people in July.Concerns are high that the area’s manufacturing sector, including Hon Hai Precision Industry’s massive iPhone production plant in Zhengzhou, and SAIC Motor Corp, China’s biggest automaker, could be at risk if the virus continues to spread and shutdowns or other stringent control measures are implemented.Health officials expect to bring the outbreak under control within three weeks if containment measures are dutifully carried out – as seems likely after Beijing’s purge.In a commentary published over the weekend, a former health minister scorned the idea of “learning to co-exist with the virus”, the approach being increasingly adopted by many western economies and some previously Covid Zero countries like Singapore, who will instead rely on vaccinations to limit the virus’s damage.Business Standard reports that the spread of the delta variant is threatening China’s financial outlook, with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase downgrading growth forecasts for the third quarter and full year.“As the outbreak unfolds, China’s domestic demand will weaken, and the overall inflation pressure will decline,” said Xing Zhaopeng, senior China strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group.


US forces launch space unit in South Korea amid North's growing threats

US Forces Korea launched a new space forces unit on Wednesday as the allies ramp up efforts to better counter North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.
The US Space Forces Korea is the second overseas space component of the US Space Force and is tasked with monitoring, detecting and tracking incoming missiles, as well as bolstering the military's overall space capability. It will be led by Lt Col Joshua McCullion.
US Forces Korea commander Gen Paul LaCamera said the unit would enhance the US ability to ensure peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia.
"The US military is faster, better connected, more informed, precise and legal because of space," LaCamera told a ceremony at Osan Air Base in the South Korean city of Pyeongtaek.
Seoul and Washington are seeking to boost security cooperation to deter North Korea, which this year has tested intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US mainland.
South Korea's air force also set up its own space unit this month to bolster its space power and operation capability together with the US Space Force.
US officials have expressed concerns over rising security activity in space by major rivals, including China's development of hypersonic weapons and Russia's test of anti-satellite technology last year.
Beijing has warned Seoul against joining a US-led global missile shield, and criticised the Thaad US missile defence system installed in South Korea.
Seoul's defence ministry said the creation of the US space component had nothing to do with South Korea's participation in existing missile defence programmes.
Around 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea under a mutual defence treaty forged after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The US Indo-Pacific Command and Central Command set up their space units last month in Hawaii and Florida.