KUCHING, Sept 19 — Air quality in Lubok Antu deteriorated as its Air Pollutant Index (API) rose to 178 by 8am on Saturday, from 106 at 10pm the previous day.

According to the Natural Resources and Environment Board’s API Status for Sarawak, Sri Aman, Lundu and Tebedu also recorded increases in API readings.

The API in Sri Aman, Lundu and Tebedu stood at 161, 157 and 119, respectively, by 8am. 

These were four points, 15 points and 10 points higher than their respective 10pm readings.

Air quality in Kapit and Kanowit improved slightly, with API readings declining to 126 and 186 by 8am from 153 and 200 at 10pm respectively.

The API reading in Serian also increased by one point to 168 by 8am.

Air quality monitoring stations that recorded slight declines in API readings were Kuching, from 170 at 10pm to 168 by 8am; Samarahan, from 165 to 163; Sibu, from 162 to 160; Sarikei, from 156 to 152; and Bintulu, from 157 to 151.

Air quality in Bario deteriorated as its API entered the ‘Moderate’ zone, rising to 60 by 8am from a ‘Good’ reading of 29 at 10pm.

Other locations that recorded ‘Moderate’ air quality were Samalaju, Miri, Industrial Training Institute (ILP) Miri, Limbang and Lawas.

Limbang was the only location in the ‘Moderate’ category to record an increase in API, rising from 59 to 64. Meanwhile, the API in Samalaju fell from 100 to 82, Miri from 87 to 80, ILP Miri from 70 to 65, and Lawas from 69 to 62.

The 8am API Status showed no latest data for Mukah, which recorded an ‘Unhealthy’ reading of 139 at 10pm.

The API reading in Betong remained unchanged at 168.

An API reading of 101 to 200 is classified as ‘Unhealthy’, while readings from 51 to 100 are categorised as ‘Moderate’, and 0 to 50 as ‘Good’. — The Borneo Post

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 — Google’s consumer AI model Gemini hacked multiple systems through guessing login credentials, the company told AFP yseterday, the latest case of rogue AI cybersecurity transgressions, which have generated safety concerns.

The hacks, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, took place in May and were discovered by Google in July.

“In a standard evaluation, the model found public information online and guessed credentials to access websites it thought were part of the test,” Heather Adkins, Google’s vice president of security engineering, told AFP in a statement.

“In all three of these instances, the model stopped,” Adkins added, without specifying which organisations were breached.

“We ensured the three entities were made aware, and we worked with our training partner on the changes they’ve now made to their testing processes.”

In July, two OpenAI models escaped the closed environment they were meant to stay in, got onto the internet on their own and broke into the internal systems AI platform Hugging Face.

The incident fed worries that AI giants cannot keep their own models under control, as similar episodes have been reported at Anthropic and China’s Moonshot AI.

“These events highlight the importance of training powerful AI models to act responsibly,” Adkins emphasised. — AFP

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — As of 9am today, 20 areas nationwide are recording unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) readings.

According to the Malaysian Air Pollutant Index Management System (APIMS) portal, Kuching and IPD Serian in Sarawak recorded the highest reading at 169.

Six other areas in the state also registered unhealthy API levels: Samarahan (163), Sri Aman (162), Sibu (159), Sarikei (152), Bintulu (135) and Kapit (118).

Two areas in Perak logged unhealthy readings: Seri Manjung (164) and Tanjung Malim (113). 

Over in Selangor, the affected areas are Shah Alam (157), Petaling Jaya (139) and Johan Setia (113).

In addition, two areas in Kuala Lumpur registered unhealthy levels: Batu Muda (155) and Cheras (155), along with Putrajaya (154).

Unhealthy API readings were also recorded in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan (151); Larkin, Johor (139); Bukit Rambai, Melaka (111); and Tawau, Sabah (108).

Meanwhile, 37 areas recorded moderate readings, while another 10 areas registered good readings.

An API reading of zero to 50 indicates good air quality, 51 to 100 (moderate), 101 to 200 (unhealthy), 201 to 300 (very unhealthy) and 301 and above is hazardous. — Bernama

MADRID, Sept 19 — Shakira will kick off on Friday evening a marathon twelve-concert run in Madrid, bringing an end to both her world tour and the Colombian superstar’s eight-year absence from Spain.

The 49-year-old Hips Don’t Lie and Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) singer will take to a temporary 50,000-seater “Shakira stadium” erected in the south of the Spanish capital up till October 11, according to events giant Live Nation.

With no other European tour dates announced, Madrid’s authorities are expecting a significant economic windfall from her grand return, after welcoming fellow Hispanic superstar Bad Bunny in May and June for a series of 10 gigs.

Shakira has not performed in Spain since 2018, several years before her separation from former Spanish footballing great Gerard Pique was made public in 2022.

She embarked on a world tour in February 2025 to promote Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women no longer cry), an album inspired by her breakup with the legendary Barcelona defender which won her a fourth Grammy award.

Across her decades-long career, Shakira has sold more than 95 million records worldwide and performed at both the opening ceremony and final of the 2026 Fifa World Cup.

Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) was also the official song for the 2010 tournament in South Africa, the first-time world football’s premiere showcase was held on the continent.

Her return to Madrid also comes after she paid a €7.3 million fine (RM34.2 million) in November 2023 as part of an agreement with the Spanish courts, in which she pleaded guilty to avoid having to stand trial for tax fraud.

In the high-profile affair, Shakira also paid the Spanish taxman €17.45 million to settle her affairs in the country. — AFP

LONDON, Sept 19 — Publishing house HarperCollins UK said yesterday it would no longer publish the back catalogue of British comedian and best-selling children’s author David Walliams after he faced accusations of harassing female staff.

“I can confirm that HarperCollins will no longer be publishing David Walliams’s backlist,” a spokesman said in a statement sent to AFP.

The move came after the publisher announced in December it would not publish any new titles by Walliams, saying it “takes employee wellbeing extremely seriously”.

The Daily Telegraph had published an investigative article in December claiming a junior employee at the publisher had complained about Walliams’ conduct, prompting an internal investigation.

As a result, one employee agreed a financial settlement and the publisher advised staff not to visit Walliams at home and to work in pairs, the Telegraph wrote.

Walliams’s agent said at the time that the author strongly denied inappropriate behaviour.

His website has since been shut down and his X account with two million followers has not been updated since December.

Walliams rose to fame as co-star of the BBC sketch comedy series Little Britain with Matt Lucas. As a children’s author, he sold over 60 million copies.

He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal in 2017 for charity fundraising efforts including swimming the length of the River Thames.

Between 2008 and 2025, he wrote a series of children’s books published by HarperCollins including The Boy in the Dress. Some were televised and he became one of the UK’s best-selling children’s authors.

In 2022 his reputation was mired by a Guardian investigation that found he was recorded making derogatory sexual remarks while judging contestants on television show Britain’s Got Talent. — AFP

OSLO, Sept 19 — Norway’s King Harald V has been entombed within a ship-shaped sarcophagus carved from a carbon dioxide-absorbing ancient rock, the palace revealed yesterday.

Next to no details of the late monarch’s final resting place had previously come to light in the wake of his funeral in Oslo on September 9 and death aged 89 on August 28.

Installed in the royal mausoleum at the Akershus fortress, the sarcophagus is fashioned from olivine, a greenish rock dating back some 400 million years mined in western Norway, the palace said in a statement.

The coffin’s shape nods both to ancient boat-burial traditions, such as those practised by the Vikings, and the late king’s love of the sea, the palace added.

A two-person design, the sarcophagus also has space for Harald’s widow, Queen Sonja.

“The greenish olivine stone can absorb and sequester carbon dioxide, a property that the designers chose as a symbol of King Harald and Queen Sonja’s love of nature and their concern for future generations,” the palace said.

In life, the late king was known to make light of what his coffin might look like.

“I hope it has good padding so that our stay will be comfortable. We’re going to be staying there for a while, after all,” Harald joked.

The 20-million-kroner (RM8.5 million) sarcophagus lies next to two others.

One, in white marble, holds the remains of the current ruling dynasty’s first king, Harald’s grandfather Haakon VII, and his wife Queen Maud. The other, in dark green bronze, houses Harald’s parents, King Olav V and Crown Princess Martha. — AFP

SEPTEMBER 19 — House arrest is not a get-out-of-jail free card.

That is why, as I wrote in Conditions for Najib’s house arrest to reflect govt’s resolve to fight corruption and abuse of power, Najib remains a prisoner, but serving his prison sentence under house arrest.

House arrest is not provided by law in Malaysia. But it can be enforced under the existing provisions of the Prison Act 1995 (Act 537).

First, since under Section 2 of the Act defines “prison” as “any house, building, enclosure or place, or any part thereof, declared to be a prison under Section 3”, the place or any part of it where the former prime minister is to serve his house arrest can be declared a prison.

Section 3 of the Act empowers the Home Minister to declare, by notification in the Gazette, “any house, building, enclosure or place, or any part thereof, to be a prison” for the purposes of the Act.

Second, under Section 12 of the Act, the Commissioner General of Prison may make and issue order, to be called Commissioner General’s Standing Orders, not inconsistent with the Act or of any regulations made under the Act.

Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is pictured at the Kuala Lumpur High Court Complex on August 27, 2026. — Picture by Firdaus Latif

Third, under Section 26(1) of the Act, a prisoner is deemed to be in the lawful custody of the Officer in Charge of the prison and therefore subject to prison discipline and to all written laws relating to prisons or prisoners and to the Commissioner General’s Standing Orders during the period of his imprisonment, whether or not he is within the precincts of a prison.

Accordingly, during the period of his house arrest, Najib should be deemed to be in prison and “shall be subject to all the same incidents as if he were actually in prison”.

Fourth, under Section 43 of the Act, the Commissioner General “may, at any time if he thinks fit, release on licence and on such conditions as may be specified in the licence, a prisoner serving any term of imprisonment.

The Commissioner General may also, “at any time… modify or cancel the conditions in the licence”.

Fourth, under Section 67 of the Act, the Home Minister may publish in the Gazette such regulations as may be necessary or expedient for the good management and government of prisons, and for carrying out or achieving the objects and purposes of the Act.

Accordingly, regulations made by the Minister may provide for Najib’s house arrest.

Regulations are subsidiary legislation, but law, nonetheless. They have the force of law, not unlike the Movement of Control Orders (MCOs) which were made under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) to prevent the spread of the Covid-19.

Call Najib’s house arrest a CMO, if you like.

So, while there have been concerns and regrets expressed over Najib’s conditional pardon that allows the former prime minister to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest, the same can be enforced under provisions of the Act.

That makes Najib’s house arrest a rule of law sentence.

Not a get-out-of-jail free card.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

SEPTEMBER 19 — The duty to prevent dangerous pollution does not begin when a neighbouring government sends a letter. Malaysia should prepare an international claim over transboundary haze wherever the evidence establishes Indonesia’s failure to meet its obligations. Anger should become a legal strategy with identified breaches, defensible evidence and realistic remedies.

The Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre activated its highest regional haze alert on August 26, 2026. Its monitoring has also recorded smoke drifting from Kalimantan towards Sarawak. That supports investigation. It does not, by itself, establish Indonesia’s legal responsibility for every Malaysian loss.

The legal foundation already exists. Malaysia and Indonesia are parties to the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. Its provisions address monitoring, prevention, preparedness and emergency response. Article 4(2) requires prompt responses to requests for relevant information or consultations where transboundary haze originates within a party’s territory. Article 12(4) requires a prompt decision and notification on an offer of assistance.

These obligations do not await a formal protest. But neither does the treaty make Indonesia automatically liable whenever smoke crosses a border.

The central question is whether Indonesian authorities exercised the diligence required by international law. In Pulp Mills, the International Court of Justice explained that due diligence involves appropriate regulation, vigilant enforcement and administrative supervision of public and private operators.

Malaysia should therefore investigate specific failures. Were known fire risks addressed before the dry season? Were recurring violations investigated? Were enforcement orders implemented? Were warnings followed by reasonable preventive measures?

People travel on a river boat as thick haze from forest and land fires blankets Benua Melayu Darat village in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on September 16, 2026. Toxic haze has shrouded parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore for weeks as Jakarta struggles to contain fires that have scorched large tracts of Borneo and Sumatra, with the smoke drifting across the region. — AFP pic

Indonesia must have an opportunity to supply evidence of its response. Extreme weather and difficult terrain matter to the assessment. So does evidence that reasonable precautions were available but neglected.

Private plantation fires need not be treated as government acts. A state can instead be responsible for its own failure to discharge regulatory duties. The Court’s 2025 climate advisory opinion reinforces that distinction, although it does not decide this haze dispute.

Malaysia should take four practical steps.

First, Wisma Putra and the Attorney General’s Chambers should issue a substantiated notice of claim. It should identify the obligations allegedly breached, request records and consultations, and reserve Malaysia’s right to reparation. Emergency cooperation should continue.

Second, independent experts should connect fires, pollutant transport and Malaysian exposure. Satellite observations must be tested against ground measurements and atmospheric modelling. Domestic pollution sources and scientific uncertainty must be included. A hotspot is an investigative lead, not proof of who started a fire.

Third, quantify losses caused by the alleged breach. Additional treatment, monitoring and emergency expenditure should be supported by records. The Court’s 2018 Costa Rica–Nicaragua compensation judgment recognised environmental damage as compensable, while requiring a sufficiently direct and certain causal connection. Malaysia must explain what injury adequate diligence would have prevented or reduced.

Fourth, secure a lawful route to a binding decision. The haze treaty provides consultation or negotiation, not compulsory adjudication. An ICJ case requires a valid basis of jurisdiction. Malaysia should propose a special agreement, arbitration or a bilateral claims commission with independent experts and binding awards.

Unclos deserves separate examination if evidence establishes relevant marine pollution. Smoke passing above the sea is insufficient. Jurisdiction, procedural requirements and exceptions must be addressed before litigation is threatened.

An initial ninety-day programme should produce an evidence dossier, a provisional loss account and a reasoned proposal for settlement or adjudication. These are proposed administrative targets, not treaty deadlines.

Any implicated Malaysian companies should face the same scrutiny. Nationality cannot become an excuse for selective accountability.

Malaysia already has legal tools. It needs the discipline to use them. The absence of a protest cannot erase an existing duty; the absence of a serious legal strategy would be harder to explain.

* Dr Shahrul Mizan Ismail is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

SEPTEMBER 19 — Today, online scams are no longer an issue that only affects people who are considered “naive” when it comes to technology. In an increasingly digital world, anyone can become a target, including educated individuals, professionals, active social media users and people who regularly conduct online transactions. Every day, more stories of cybercrime victims are being shared on social media. Some lose their savings to investment scams, others fall victim to fake job offers, while some unknowingly provide their banking information after receiving calls from individuals impersonating bank officers or government authorities. 

This raises an important question: why do people continue to fall victim to scams despite the growing number of awareness campaigns? One reason is that online scams today do not simply exploit weaknesses in technology; they also exploit human vulnerabilities. Scammers do not necessarily need to hack into sophisticated computer systems or use highly complex technology. Instead, they may simply need to make someone feel afraid, excited, greedy, sympathetic or pressured into making a decision without thinking carefully.

We often hear comments such as, “How could they fall for a scam? They’re educated,” or “They work and use computers every day. How could they possibly get scammed?” This perception needs to change. Becoming a victim of a scam does not necessarily mean that a person is unintelligent or does not know how to use technology. Scams are designed to manipulate the way people make decisions. 

For example, someone may be highly proficient in using online banking applications but still fall victim to a phone call claiming that there is a suspicious transaction involving their account. A professional who regularly uses email and social media may also be influenced by a message impersonating their supervisor and demanding an urgent payment. When people are placed under pressure or panic, they tend to focus on solving the immediate problem rather than questioning whether the information they have received is actually legitimate.

This is why digital literacy should not be measured solely by a person’s ability to use technology. More importantly, it involves the ability to evaluate information, identify signs of manipulation, verify information and make safe decisions. The challenge becomes even greater as technology continues to evolve. In the past, scam messages could often be identified through obvious spelling mistakes, unusual language or suspicious links. Today, this is no longer necessarily the case. Scam messages can appear professional, use the identity and branding of legitimate organisations, and even be tailored to the recipient’s circumstances.

The author argues that preventing scams requires more than personal vigilance: digital literacy, family support and open sharing of scam tactics can help protect entire communities. — Pexels pic

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) also has the potential to make scams even more convincing. AI can be used to generate more polished messages, create fake images and, in some cases, produce voices or other content that resemble real individuals. This means that we can no longer rely on simple indicators such as, “If the language looks strange, it must be a scam.” Instead, users need to develop a more important habit: pause before you act. If you receive a message urging you to make a payment, provide personal information or click on a link, do not act immediately. Verify the information through official channels and contact the relevant organisation using a telephone number obtained from its official website or other trusted sources, rather than using the contact details provided in the suspicious message.

This is where the role of the family becomes particularly important. In many families, individuals who are more digitally confident often become the first point of reference when parents, siblings or relatives receive suspicious messages. “Is this really a message from the bank?” “Can I trust this number?” or “They said my account will be blocked if I don’t make the payment now.” These questions may seem simple to some of us. However, for individuals who are less familiar with digital scams and their tactics, such situations can create confusion and panic. 

This is where our knowledge can become a form of protection for others. We should not make fun of or blame someone for asking questions. Instead, we should encourage a culture within our families where people feel comfortable asking for a second opinion before making a transaction or sharing personal information. It is far better to ask ten questions before making a transaction than to make one decision that results in the loss of thousands of dollars.

Another behaviour we need to change is the way we share information about scams. We often share stories about scams only after someone has become a victim. These stories then become topics of discussion on social media such as how the victim was deceived, how much money was lost and how the scammer carried out the scheme. Such sharing is important, but education should take place before an incident happens, not only afterwards. If we learn about a new scam tactic, we should share that knowledge with our parents, family members, friends and communities. Rather than simply saying, “Don’t fall for scams,” explain how the scam works. 

For example, if scammers are impersonating bank officers, discuss what information they typically request, how they create a sense of urgency or fear, and what steps can be taken to verify the caller’s identity. In this way, we are not merely giving warnings; we are helping others develop the ability to make safer decisions.

We should also not be afraid to admit when we have been scammed. Shame can cause some victims to delay telling their families or seeking help. They may fear being scolded, judged as careless or blamed for sharing their money or personal information. In reality, delaying action only gives scammers more time to exploit the situation. Being a victim is not something to be ashamed of; what matters is acting quickly, seeking help and learning from the experience. A victim’s experience can also help others recognise the same tactics before they become the next victim.

Ultimately, breaking the chain of cybercrime is not simply about making sure “I don’t get scammed.” It is also about making sure that “the people around me don’t become victims.” In a digital world where scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, our knowledge and willingness to help others can become an important layer of protection. Sometimes, a simple reminder, a second opinion or a few minutes spent checking information can make the difference between someone staying safe and losing their hard-earned savings. So, stay informed, pause before you act, verify before you trust, and never hesitate to share what you know.

* Dr Nur Syazwani Ahmad is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences, Centre for Foundation Studies in Science, Universiti Malaya, and can be reached at syazwani.ahmad@um.edu.my 

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

SEPTEMBER 19 — A parent walks into a private clinic with a coughing child due to bad haze. The consultation is brief. Several medicines are prepared. Only at the payment counter does the parent learn that the bill exceeds RM100.

The amount may be entirely reasonable. A doctor’s expertise has value, clinics have operating costs and medicines are not free. The troubling part is not necessarily the final figure. It is that the figure appears only after the consultation has ended, the medicines have been packed and the patient is standing at the counter with little practical room to reconsider.

This is a familiar situation in Malaysian healthcare. Patients may not be told clearly which medicines will be supplied, what each one is for, how much each item costs or whether a cheaper generic is appropriate. Some return home to discover that they already have similar fever, cough or allergy medicines that have not expired. The household medicine cabinet grows, money is wasted and unused products eventually become a disposal problem.

If fish, vegetables and chillies at a market carry visible prices, why can a patient still struggle to see the price of medicine at the point of care? The comparison is deliberately uncomfortable. Consumers are usually most vulnerable when they are unwell, anxious or caring for a sick child. That is precisely when transparency should become stronger, not weaker.

Of course, medicine is not a bunch of chillies. A doctor cannot recommend treatment according to price alone. Diagnosis, dosage, age, weight, allergies, interactions and clinical risk must come first. A long price list on a wall cannot replace professional judgment. Yet medical complexity is not a convincing reason to keep costs obscure. It is a reason to explain them better.

The author argues that patients should know the cost of medicines before they are dispensed, making price transparency and informed choice part of fair healthcare. — Unsplash pic

Malaysia has already recognised this problem. The Price Control and Anti-Profiteering (Price Marking for Drug) Order 2025 came into force on May 1, 2025. It sought to require medicine-price information at community pharmacies and specified private healthcare facilities, allowing consumers to make more informed choices.

The legal position, however, is not straightforward. On May 21, 2026, the High Court granted a stay on enforcement while a judicial review brought by medical and dental groups proceeds. It would therefore be unfair to accuse every clinic without a visible price list of breaking a rule whose enforcement has been suspended. But a legal pause need not become an ethical pause. Regardless of the court outcome, the underlying question remains: should patients know the cost before they are expected to pay?

Clinics have legitimate concerns. A practice may carry hundreds of medicines in different brands, strengths, formulations and pack sizes. Supplier prices change. A technically correct list can still be incomprehensible to the ordinary patient. The final bill may include consultation, procedures, tests and consumables, not medicines alone. Compliance also creates administrative work, particularly for small general practices already managing staff shortages and rising costs.

These objections challenge the design of price transparency, not its purpose. A policy that produces a dense spreadsheet pinned behind a counter will satisfy paperwork more than patients. What people need is not every price in the building. They need the prices of the items being offered to them, presented before those items are dispensed.

Evidence suggests that formal rights do not automatically become usable rights. A 2021 study of 680 consumers in Malaysian private healthcare settings found that only 15.9 per cent said they always obtained an itemised bill, even though awareness of the entitlement was high. A right that depends on a sick or anxious person knowing the correct question to ask is a weak form of protection.

A better system would make clear information the default. Before medicines are packed, a clinic could provide a short paper or digital summary listing the medicine name, purpose, quantity, unit price and total price, together with a generic alternative when clinically appropriate. The patient would then be able to ask a question, accept the supply or explain that the same medicine is already available at home.

One simple question from the doctor or dispensing staff could prevent considerable waste: ‘Do you still have any of these medicines at home, and are they still within their expiry dates?’ This is not merely a cost-saving gesture. It encourages medicine reconciliation, reduces duplication and gives the clinician a clearer picture of what the patient may already be taking.

Patients should also be able to ask whether all the medicines are necessary and whether they may take a prescription to a pharmacy of their choice. This does not transfer clinical decision-making from doctor to patient. The doctor remains responsible for recommending safe and appropriate treatment. The patient gains the ability to understand and consent to the purchase that follows.

Price transparency must also extend beyond medicine. Clinics should display the consultation fee or explain the applicable range, identify charges for common procedures and provide an itemised receipt automatically rather than only when requested. Where an exact total cannot be known in advance, a reasonable estimate and an explanation of possible additional charges would still be better than silence.

The Health Ministry and the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry should work with medical associations, pharmacists and consumer groups on a single national format that is simple enough to use at the counter. Small clinics should receive free digital templates or software support. Receipts should state where a patient can seek clarification or lodge a complaint. Transparency should be designed as part of care, not imposed as an awkward poster on the wall.

Consumers have responsibilities too. Patients should bring a list or photograph of medicines already at home, check expiry dates, disclose allergies and ask four basic questions: What is this medicine for? Is every item necessary? Is there a suitable generic? What will the estimated total be? Polite questions are not an accusation against a doctor. They are participation in one’s own healthcare.

The goal is not to turn the consultation room into a supermarket aisle or to encourage patients to choose the cheapest treatment regardless of need. It is to prevent illness from becoming a moment when ordinary consumer rights quietly disappear.

Visible prices will not cure a cough. They can, however, treat another weakness in the healthcare experience: the feeling of being powerless at the counter. Patients should not have to choose between trusting their doctor and protecting their household budget. A fair system must allow them to do both.

* Dr Azanin Ahmad is a Senior Lecturer with the Marketing Department, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — There are treasures wherever we look: from vinyl records to vintage dolls. Every corner reveals another nostalgic surprise.

There’s a Ghostbusters original soundtrack album from Japan on one shelf. Hanging nearby is a bootleg plaque of Tintin au Vietnam (no such book exists; Hergé never wrote an adventure featuring everyone’s favourite boy reporter in Vietnam).

Every new piece of memorabilia we discover is a test of trivia or a call to investigate; every revelation more satisfying than we could ever imagine.

I even spot the iconic Classic Black Kit-Cat Clock, first made in the USA in the 1950s. Slight creepy with its rolling eyes and wagging tail, but that’s if you even see it.

Blink and you’d miss it; there are so many mementos to catch your eye.

Which is the appeal of General Store in Kuchai Lama, a shop that offers collectibles, crafts and coffee in a café setting.

Bric-a-brac galore, from Batman posters to skateboards. — Picture by CK Lim

There is bric-a-brac galore, from Batman posters to skateboards. But exploring the curated goods further will have to wait; first: coffee, please.

We take the safe route: a long black and flat white. Just enough caffeine to wake us up properly. It’s early enough for a weekend that, though the sunlight is pouring in through the windows, we still remember the comfort of our pillows.

Long black and flat white. — Picture by CK Lim

Coffee consumed, time for food. The menu here is full of bountiful bakes, from sourdough breads and focaccia to cakes, doughnuts and pastries. So many choices.

In the end, we decided on lighter items since we have an early brunch appointment afterwards.

So instead of a massive focaccia sandwich stuffed with tomatoes, rocket and cheese, we went for a more minimalist platter of espresso walnut sourdough bread with butter.

Espresso walnut sourdough bread with butter. — Picture by CK Lim

The dark coffee flavours really come through each slice of bread; the nuggets of walnuts add a tender crunch. Spread the thin discs of butter and every bite feels almost indulgent.

Croissant or chocolate fudge cake? Perhaps something savoury: so the cheese sausage twist it is. Flaky and substantial enough to tide us over till brunch.

Cheese sausage twist. — Picture by CK Lim

The real draw might be to let your eyes wander even as you sip your coffee slowly. Every angle, every turn, promises new discoveries.

On one concrete pillar, Nippon nostalgia abounds, from a framed print of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy to stickers of Godzilla and the Tokyo Tower.

Across the room, a “widescreen” pegboard acts as the backdrop for an eclectic assortment of contemporary collectibles and retro ephemera: Purple Rain by Prince, a vertical print of The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Star Wars figurines, a poster of the 1962 epic Western How the West Was Won and more.

Nippon nostalgia: Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy (left), Godzilla and Tokyo Tower (right). — Picture by CK Lim

Where else might Betty Boop share the same space as Bruno race cars?

Such decorative flourishes create an ambience appropriate for all manner of creative activities. Just the weekend before, our barista tells us, there was a group journaling session. Other gatherings run the gamut from social chess clubs to tattoo art events.

More than a third place, then. More than coffee, collectibles and cakes, General Store is a place for the community. A true community café.

Betty Boop, Bruno race cars and more decorate the pegboard. — Picture by CK Lim

General Store

1-3, Dataran Loka, 

Jalan Kuchai Lama, 

Taman Continental, KL

Open Mon–Fri 10am–6pm, Sat & Sun 9am–8pm

Phone: 012-232 8373

Web: https://www.generalstore.my/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/generalstore.my/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/generalstore.com.my/

For more food fables and café chronicles, visit Life for Beginners.

* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.

* Follow us on Instagram @eatdrinkmm for more food gems.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — Edison Chen is heading back to the big screen after nearly a decade away — and his comeback is taking shape in Penang.

The 45-year-old Hong Kong actor was unveiled on September 17 as the previously mystery co-lead opposite Anthony Wong Chau-sang in the upcoming Chinese New Year comedy Temple of Wishes, currently shooting in Malaysia.

Chen joined Wong and fellow actor Samuel Pang at the film’s lensing ceremony in Penang, where his appearance drew cheers from those gathered, according to The Star.

“It’s really been a long time, so I’m very excited to start filming. I’ll do my best and continue to work hard. Thank you, everyone,” Chen said at the event.

The Malaysian-directed production, helmed by Peiji, had previously announced Wong as its lead while keeping its second male star hidden as a silhouette on promotional material, according to Penang Today.

That mystery was finally put to rest at the ceremony, confirming Chen’s return after years in which he largely stepped back from film and television to focus on his fashion business and family.

The project also reunites Chen and Wong, who previously appeared together in the Infernal Affairs franchise and 2005 street-racing hit Initial D. Their latest pairing has already generated buzz online, with Penang Today citing reports of clips from the ceremony circulating on Xiaohongshu.

Budgeted at RM10 million, Temple of Wishes follows two struggling men who begin operating a temple centred on granting wishes.

Principal photography began on September 7 and is expected to continue until September 30, with filming planned across Penang and Kuala Lumpur, as well as Hengdian in China and Bellagio, Italy, according to Penang Today. The film is reportedly set for release on February 6, 2027, the first day of Chinese New Year.

For Wong, the shoot also marks a return to Penang roughly a decade after filming the thriller Insomnia there.

“Penang is not only beautiful. The food is also irresistible. I’ve eaten so much that I’ve gained weight. I’ll have to lose weight next,” the 65-year-old joked, according to The Star.

Pang, meanwhile, said it was his first visit to the state and that he had already taken to its food.

“I’m very grateful to the director for giving me the opportunity to work with Anthony and Edison again,” he said.

Penang State Tourism and Creative Economy Committee chairman Wong Hon Wai also welcomed the production, describing it as an opportunity to showcase the state through film, Penang Today reported, citing state government publication Buletin Mutiara.

He highlighted Penang’s mix of beaches, rainforest, heritage locations and colonial-era architecture, as well as its multilingual production environment.

The project lands as Penang continues to court major international shoots. Netflix’s upcoming Mark Wahlberg film The Big Fix has also selected the state as one of its filming locations.

But for Hong Kong cinema fans, Temple of Wishes carries another draw: the sight of Chen and Wong sharing the screen again years after their crime-thriller and street-racing collaborations — this time swapping gangsters and mountain passes for a festive comedy about granting wishes.

KANGAR, Sept 19 — Four men, including a civil servant, were arrested for allegedly staging the disappearance of a Toyota Vellfire to facilitate an insurance claim following financial problems faced by one of them.

Padang Besar police chief ACP Mohd Shokri Abdullah said the suspects, aged between 32 and 45, were arrested in raids at three locations in the Padang Besar and Arau districts at about 5.15pm Thursday.

He said the main suspect, a 42-year-old civil servant in Perlis, had travelled to Kuala Lumpur on July 16 to attend a course, using his wife’s black Toyota Vellfire.

“On July 17, at about 8am, the suspect lodged a police report claiming that the vehicle had gone missing in Sungai Besi,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Mohd Shokri said investigations found that the reported loss was believed to have been staged by the main suspect and his 45-year-old brother to facilitate an insurance claim.

The vehicle was believed to have been taken to a workshop in Kaki Bukit, Padang Besar to be dismantled, with valuable components collected for sale, he said.

He said two other men, both aged 32, were also believed to have assisted in the plan.

“All four suspects are currently detained to assist in the investigation and have been taken to the Cheras District Police Headquarters in Selangor for remand proceedings,” he said.

Mohd Shokri said the case was being investigated under Section 379A of the Penal Code for the theft of a motor vehicle or any of its component parts, which carries a jail term of between one and seven years and a fine upon conviction.

He said police viewed seriously any attempt to misuse police reports for personal gain or profit, as such actions compromised investigations and wasted enforcement resources. — Bernama

SUNGAI PETANI, Sept 19 — A 22-year-old man claimed he was robbed of RM30,000 in company funds by four men in an incident yesterday.

Kuala Muda District Police Chief ACP Hanyan Ramlan said preliminary investigations indicated that the incident occurred at about 4.30pm yesterday near the Sungai Petani Court Complex here.

“However, the victim only lodged a police report at the Sungai Petani Police Station at about 7am today.

“The victim claimed that he was approached by four men travelling in a car, before a struggle broke out between him and one of the suspects, who was armed with a folding knife,” he said in a statement today.

Hanyan said the victim told police that the suspect attempted to stab him during the struggle, but he managed to wrest the knife away before stabbing the attacker.

“The victim also claimed that the suspect’s accomplices struck him, causing him to fall to the ground, before the group fled with the company money kept in the car and one of his bank cards.

“The complainant only came forward to lodge a police report the following day, before the incident went viral on social media,” he said, adding that the case was being investigated under Sections 395/397 and 182 of the Penal Code.

Hanyan said further investigations were underway, and witnesses to the incident were urged to come forward to assist in the probe.

“The victim will also be sent to hospital for a medical examination after claiming to have sustained injuries in the incident,” he said. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called on the people to play their part in addressing the increasingly worrying haze situation, while the government continues to seek solutions in the interest of all.

In a Facebook post, Anwar said he also performed special prayers (solat hajat) with members of the congregation after Friday prayers at Surau Nur Perdana, Precinct 10 in Putrajaya, yesterday, seeking Allah SWT’s help for the country to recover from the disaster soon.

The prime minister also urged the public to use energy wisely.

“I also want to urge all of us to manage our energy consumption as prudently as possible at this time so that each of us can play our part, while I, on behalf of the government, continue to work to safeguard and protect everyone,” he said.

Earlier, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Dr Zulkifli Hasan called on all mosques and surau nationwide to hold special prayers and offer supplications for Allah SWT’s protection from the haze affecting the country.

The call follows haze affecting several areas, with the public advised to take measures to reduce health risks arising from air pollution.

According to the Malaysian Air Pollutant Index Management System portal, 32 areas nationwide recorded unhealthy Air Pollutant Index readings as of 5pm today, with Sarawak recording the highest number of affected areas at eight, namely Kuching (174), Samarahan (167), Serian IPD (166), Sibu (162), Bintulu (161), Sarikei (155), Sri Aman (154) and Kapit (153). — Bernama

KUANTAN, Sept 19 — The Pahang State Enforcement Unit (UPNP) suspects that more than 7,000 hectares of the Tasik Bera Permanent Forest Reserve have been illegally cleared for commercial crops such as oil palm and rubber.

UPNP chief Saifullah Muhammad Ali said the matter was detected during integrated enforcement operations carried out in the area since Sept 14, involving 160 officers and personnel from UPNP, the Pahang State Forestry Department, the Pahang Department of Wildlife and National Parks, and the Bera District and Land Office.

“In addition, we also obtained security assistance from the Bera district police and the General Operations Force 7th Battalion,” he said.

Saifullah said UPNP also suspected that illegal syndicates from outside Pahang were manipulating the Orang Asli community to clear large tracts of land under the guise of customary land and roaming areas for the community.

He said some areas had only about six Orang Asli houses, yet the detected land clearing covered up to 404.68 hectares.

On Sept 15, police arrested five individuals for allegedly obstructing enforcement officers during an operation at the Tasek Bera Conservation Forest Reserve.

Bera police chief Supt Zulkiflee Nazir reportedly said the suspects, a man and four women aged between their 30s and 60s, were arrested to assist investigations under Section 186 of the Penal Code.

He said that while UPNP and several other agencies were conducting enforcement operations under the National Forestry Act 1984, a group of individuals was found setting up barricades and provoking enforcement officers carrying out their duties. — Bernama

* Editor’s note: UPNP is the Malay abbreviation of the Unit Penguatkuasaan Negeri Pahang.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — Indonesia looks forward to deepening its longstanding friendship and cooperation with Malaysia, building on nearly seven decades of diplomatic ties, said Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Raden Datuk Mohammad Iman Hascarya.

He said the two countries had built a close friendship and strong cooperation over the past 69 years, rooted in shared history, culture and kinship.

“We look forward to deepening this partnership and creating even more opportunities for both our countries and our peoples,” he said at a reception marking Indonesia’s 81st Independence Day here on Friday.

Minister of Higher Education Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir represented the Malaysian government at the event.

The ambassador also extended Indonesia’s warmest wishes to the Malaysian government and people in conjunction with Malaysia Day, which was celebrated earlier this week. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — The decision to grant a conditional pardon to former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak should not be regarded as a decision by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim or Pakatan Harapan, PKR Wanita chief Datuk Seri Fadhlina Sidek said.

Fadhlina, who is also Education Minister, said the granting of a pardon is within the jurisdiction of the King as provided for under the Federal Constitution.

“We must be honest with the facts. The granting of a pardon is the prerogative of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as provided for under the Federal Constitution. Wanita PKR respects the decision and upholds the institution of the Constitutional Monarchy.

“Political differences should not lead us to obscure the position of the Constitution or portray this decision as though it were a decision by the Prime Minister or Pakatan Harapan,” she said in a Facebook post yesterday.

Fadhlina said the conditional pardon granted to Najib would naturally elicit various reactions, acknowledging the disappointment and anger felt by some quarters.

She said the government nevertheless has a responsibility to provide an explanation to the people, stressing that respecting the decision to grant the pardon does not mean that PKR’s stance on corruption and abuse of power has changed.

“We should not pretend that these feelings do not exist. The people have the right to voice their views and seek an explanation. The government still has a responsibility to explain to the people,” she said.

Yesterday, His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia granted a conditional pardon to Najib, allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest until Aug 23, 2028, subject to the payment of a RM50 million fine.

The Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department said the order was decided at the 64th Meeting of the Pardons Board for the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya held at Istana Negara this morning. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have been urged to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into a performance video containing elements deemed insulting to the institution of the Malay Rulers, Malaysia and the Rukun Negara.

National Unity Minister Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang said appropriate action should be taken in the event of any violation of the law, with the investigation taking into consideration all relevant and applicable legal provisions, including the Penal Code, Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, Sedition Act 1948 and any other relevant laws.

He said such firm action is crucial to serve as a reminder that the freedom enjoyed by every citizen comes with the responsibility to respect the law, national institutions and social harmony.

“Rukun Negara is not merely a pledge recited at official functions. It is the national ideology and philosophy, and a guide in building a united nation.

“It was proclaimed on Aug 31, 1970, with the primary goal of forging strong unity among Malaysians,” he said in a statement shared on Facebook yesterday.

Earlier, a video posted on Instagram by ‘The Fever Kinetic Theatre’ went viral after it was found to contain elements deemed insulting to the institution of the Malay Rulers, Malaysia and the Rukun Negara.

Aaron also described the act in the performance as irresponsible, excessive and unacceptable.

He stressed that freedom of artistic expression and speech should not be used as an excuse to belittle national institutions, provoke or engage in actions that could potentially undermine social harmony.

“There is no room for any party to make light of matters concerning the institution of the Malay Rulers, national sovereignty and the foundations that shape life in our country.

“Malaysia is a country that practises Parliamentary Democracy and Constitutional Monarchy, with His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as the Head of State,” he said.

In this regard, Aaron urged all parties, including artists, content creators and social media users, to exercise the freedom they have responsibly.

Meanwhile, in a separate post, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Dr Zulkifli Hasan said the performance video constituted a breach of proper conduct and a social wrongdoing that undermined the bonds of harmony in Malaysia’s multi-racial society.

He said the organisers should issue a public apology, while the authorities and relevant agencies must conduct a thorough investigation and take firm legal action without compromise against any party that insulted the foundations of the country.

“Artistic platforms should uplift the soul and unite the people, not divide them. Stop exploiting moral values for cheap popularity, and focus on building the nation based on truth, propriety, and strong moral and religious values,” he said. — Bernama

LOS ANGELES, Sept 19 — Duncan Sheik, the singer-songwriter who turned one of the defining soft-rock hits of the 1990s into an unlikely second act as the Tony-winning composer of Spring Awakening, has died. He was 56.

Sheik died Thursday from organ failure, his mother Suzanne Sheik told The New York Times, according to the Associated Press.

For casual listeners, Sheik remained synonymous with Barely Breathing, the quietly insistent single from his 1996 self-titled debut that spent 55 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 16 and earning him a Grammy nomination.

But his most enduring impact may have come a decade later, when a musician who considered himself a Broadway outsider helped blow open the sound of the American musical.

With lyricist and playwright Steven Sater, Sheik created the score for Spring Awakening, the rock-inflected adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s provocative 19th-century play about adolescent sexuality, repression and tragedy.

“We wanted to shake things up a bit. And we just set out to make this really cool piece of theatre,” Sheik told the Associated Press in 2007.

The gamble worked. Spring Awakening opened on Broadway in 2006 and ran for more than 860 performances, winning eight Tony Awards, including best musical, as well as the Grammy for best musical show album. Its original cast became a launching pad for performers including Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr., Lilli Cooper and Gideon Glick.

Sheik had been determined from the outset that the score should not sound like conventional musical theatre.

“I’m happy to do this musical, but I only want to do it if the music in the play is the kind that I and my peers can get behind stylistically and relate to and enjoy,” he recalled telling Sater in a 2006 AP interview.

That instinct became something of a mission. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 2015, Sheik said: “I love Stephen Sondheim. But it’s my mission to make sure that the theatre is paying attention to what the rest of the world is listening to.”

He continued testing that divide between pop and theatre with American Psycho, his musical adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel. The production reached Broadway in 2016 but closed after fewer than 90 performances.

Sheik nevertheless remained fascinated by the mechanics of writing songs that could operate both as music and drama.

“When you’re writing a song for the theatre, it has to accomplish all this other stuff,” he told AP in 2013. “It has to work in tandem with all these other agendas and creative impulses.”

Raised between South Carolina and New Jersey, Sheik began playing guitar as a child and counted Talk Talk, David Sylvian and Nick Drake among his influences.

His later work included Whisper House, Legerdemain and his 2022 album Claptrap. Spring Awakening, meanwhile, returned to Broadway in an acclaimed Deaf West Theatre revival in 2015 and remains one of the defining musicals of its generation.

For an artist who once approached Broadway as an outsider, Sheik ultimately helped change what Broadway could sound like.

WARSAW, Sept 19 — Russian authorities have seized the businesses and assets of Swiss food giant Nestle and three French groups, a move the Kremlin defended yesterday as a justified measure against firms representing “unfriendly countries” that back Ukraine.

A decree signed by President Vladimir Putin transferred the Russian operations of Nestle, French retailer Auchan and the former Leroy Merlin DIY chain, now known as Lemana Pro, to a company called LEV Management.

The decree, issued late Thursday, also covers the Russian subsidiaries of French logistics group FM Logistic.

France late yesterday called on Russian authorities to “reverse this decision”.

Investigative outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that LEV Management was created only at the end of 2025, and is headed by a Russian interior ministry general. It had no known business activity.

It was the latest move by Russia against Western firms in response to a barrage of sanctions over its war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year.

Most Western companies quickly sold their Russian operations and holdings after the Ukraine invasion, or at least isolated them, as sanctions have made trading in most goods difficult.

Others remained, citing concerns for their employees or citizen’s well-being, but often sharply scaling back their operations.

Russia has since made it difficult for firms to leave, requiring presidential authorisation for deals, or seizing the assets outright.

Assets at risk 

In a short statement, Nestle said it was “committed to taking all necessary steps to protect its rights and ensure continuity of business operations in the interests of all stakeholders, particularly its employees”.

“The company is assessing the situation and its options,” it added.

Nestle has six factories and Russia and employs around 7,000 people, mainly for coffee, pet care, infant nutrition and confectionary products, a spokesperson said.

Jean-Philippe Bertschy of the Swiss investment bank Vontobel said he expected the financial impact to Nestle would be small “given Russia’s limited contribution to group sales”.

He said Russia now accounted for just over one per cent of the group’s sales, down from around two per cent before the Ukraine war.

It has suspended “the vast majority of sales, non-essential imports, advertising and capital investment”, he said, while continuing to supply essential food items.

“This practice has historically often been a precursor to a forced sale or effective expropriation of operations in the market,” said analysts at the brokerage Jeffries.

“This was the case already for Danone and Carlsberg for example in 2023,” they wrote, estimating that a write-off of Nestle’s Russia business, including money it had not been able to repatriate, could cost the Swiss firm around one billion francs (RM4.97 billion).

Nestle shares dropped 2.6 per cent on the Zurich stock exchange yesterday.

Auchan and Leroy Merlin are both controlled by France’s Mulliez family, which also owns the Decathlon sports retailer.

Auchan’s Russian subsidiary said yesterday that it had requested “clarifications” from the authorities over Putin’s decree.

The French foreign and economy ministries said in a joint statement late yesterday that France “condemns” the move, and urged Moscow to go back on its decision.

Auchan’s subsidiary is one of Russia’s main retailers, with 241 stores in the country, including 62 hypermarkets, and over 33,000 employees according to its website.

“Once the corresponding information has been received, we will be able to provide more detailed comments,” Auchan Retail Russia said a statement to Russian news agencies.

The latest seizure echoes a string of other forced asset transfers, including Moscow’s 2023 takeover of Danone’s Russian business, which was later sold to a nephew of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. — AFP

COPENHAGEN, Sept 19 — Danish global shipping giant Maersk said yesterday it had ordered 26 large container vessels as part of an ongoing fleet renewal.

The vessels are expected to be delivered in 2029 and 2030, the company told AFP in an email.

Maersk, the world’s second-biggest container shipping group, did not disclose which shipyards would build the vessels, nor the value of the contracts.

“The vessels will have a capacity of 18,600 TEU (20 foot equivalent unit) and will be equipped with dual-fuel engines able to operate on liquified gas,” the company said.

In mid-August, Maersk raised its full-year earnings guidance as it reported a doubling of profits in the second quarter, driven by strong demand in Asia in particular.

Its profits rose even as the ongoing Mideast war throttled tanker and cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for oil, gas and other crucial industrial products. — AFP

:::

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 — Some companies are talking less about their climate commitments, while others are shifting the goalposts or quietly letting targets lapse.

In President Donald Trump’s second term, major American businesses are bending with the political winds and stepping back from environmental commitments in line with what scientists say is required to prevent the worst consequences of human-caused global warming.

Climate Week NYC, which begins tomorrow, is an annual jamboree of civil society, governments and companies on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“It’s probably the biggest year I’ve had companies saying, ‘Well, we haven’t got anything to announce, so you know, I’m not sure we’ll be on stage,’” Helen Clarkson, CEO of the Climate Group, which organises the event, told AFP.

“We’re seeing ‘green hushing’ is definitely increasing, and that’s a real challenge because I think if we all give in to this idea that the word climate should never be spoken, that is a lost battle.”

The explosion of AI data centres looms large over the trend, as US tech companies rush to finance private gas plants to power them.

Earlier this year, Meta left the Climate Group’s RE100 — a voluntary pledge by leading companies to source all their electricity from renewables — fuelling speculation that other tech giants could follow.

It’s not just Big Tech, though.

Dylan Tanner, executive director of InfluenceMap, a think tank that tracks corporate climate policy and lobbying, said automakers were among the worst offenders.

“Many car manufacturers with sales in the US have weakened their EV production targets in recent years, no longer putting their push to electrify within clearly defined timeframes,” he said.

In January 2021, for example, GM set a target of 100 per cent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035.

While it technically maintains this target, the company this year backed the Trump administration’s weakening of a fuel economy rule to a level that would require no further improvement.

“GM believes that the EV transition must account for market and consumer realities... Ultimately the market will determine how quickly the EV transition occurs,” the company wrote in a comment supportive of the rule.

First wave, then backlash 

Tanner, who has tracked this topic since 2015, said few companies supported climate policy action at first, but momentum grew after the 2015 Paris Agreement and landmark legislation in Europe and in the US under former president Joe Biden.

A backlash to that first wave of high-ambition commitments began around 2023, with Trump bringing “a tailwind for some of the negative actors,” he said.

Pushback came from the fossil fuel sector and companies reliant on it, such as utilities, but also the US Chamber of Commerce, Tanner said.

Just this week, the chamber praised the Trump administration’s rule to remove curbs on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

In 2020 retail giant Walmart committed to cutting emissions by around a third by 2025 and two-thirds by 2030 from a 2015 baseline. But in a 2024 report it acknowledged it would miss the first target as well as its recycling goals.

Also in 2020, Google pledged to run on carbon-free energy by 2030, in what CEO Sundar Pichai heralded as a “moonshot.” But by 2024 it had stopped claiming its operations were carbon neutral, and this year it acknowledged its emissions were still rising.

Beverage giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi have changed the baseline years for their emissions reduction targets and weakened their ambitions.

Even companies whose climate policies have held steady — as with Apple under InfluenceMap’s scoring — have drastically reduced their public engagement.

Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists said there was a clear limit to corporate climate action.

“I think it’s pretty clear that voluntary commitments and announcements are always going to be insufficient and we actually do need mandatory public policies on the books,” she told AFP.

“Without those policies... we just get this whiplash effect where companies are just swinging in the wind as politics change.” — AFP

LONDON, Sept 19 — Brentford exposed Chelsea’s defensive problems to inflict a damaging 3-0 defeat yesterday that gives Xabi Alonso plenty to ponder over a three-week international break.

After a promising start to life under the former Real Madrid coach, Chelsea have picked up just one point from their last three league games.

Goals from Jaidon Anthony, Igor Thiago and Fabio Carvalho took unbeaten Brentford above their west London neighbours and up to third in the table.

Chelsea had quickly earned the reputation as the Premier League’s great entertainers under Alonso with their opening four games containing 19 goals.

But the loss of Joao Pedro to a knee injury subdued the Blues’ free-flowing attack as Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers were comfortably kept in check by the Bees.

Alonso said after last weekend’s 2-2 draw against Hull he was hoping for more “boring” games going forward.

Brentford’s players celebrate on the pitch after the English Premier League football match between Brentford and Chelsea at the Gtech Community Stadium in London on September 18, 2026. — AFP pic

The Spaniard sought control as he made four changes in all, handing Jordan Henderson his first Chelsea start against the 36-year-old’s former club.

Alonso got his wish during a flat first half in which neither goalkeeper was seriously tested, but Brentford were the more threatening side in the second period.

The visitors’ frailty from set-pieces led to the opening goal when Jannick Schuster rose highest to meet Mikkel Damsgaard’s corner and Anthony was left with a simple task to head into an unguarded net just after the hour mark.

Chelsea’s response was muted and as they pushed forward in search of an equaliser, Alonso’s men were picked off on the counter-attack.

Kevin Schade should have scored the second goal himself when played clean through on Emi Martinez.

But even after the Argentine goalkeeper spread himself to save, the rebound fell kindly for Thiago to end his goal drought.

The Brazilian netted 25 times last season, earning a shock call-up to Carlo Ancelotti’s World Cup squad as a result.

Thiago has looked shorn in the early weeks of the campaign and tore off his shirt in celebration after netting for the first time in the Premier League this season.

Chelsea have conceded at least twice in all five league games under Alonso and there was further punishment to come in stoppage time.

Schade’s low cross was deflected into the path of Carvalho who fired high past Martinez to leave Brentford boss Keith Andrews yelling into the night sky in delight.

Brentford, who also beat Tottenham 3-0 on the opening weekend of the season, sit behind only defending champions Arsenal and Manchester City at the top of the table.

By contrast, Chelsea were handed another reminder of the gap Alonso must bridge to make them title contenders once more. — AFP

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 — US President Donald Trump said yesterday that his eldest son had reimbursed a Kremlin-linked Russian businessman who paid for two days of wedding celebrations in the Bahamas in May.

Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Trump confirmed on Monday that their “dear friend” Umar Kremlev “very generously hosted two incredible nights.”

The lavish gift sparked questions about ethics and foreign influence.

“It’s totally allowed but as I understand it, he paid him back,” Trump said when an AFP reporter asked him in the Oval Office if it had been appropriate for his son to accept the gift.

“I guess a friend of his gave him a wedding party. That’s very common, I’ve heard of many people giving wedding parties. I’ve given many parties.”

Pressed on the fact that Don Jr. had not previously mentioned paying back Kremlev, Trump replied: “When I heard the story, I asked about it and he said ‘No, I’m paying him back, Dad,’ and that was a while ago, so I’ve heard he’s paid him.”

The wedding payment first emerged after the ProPublica investigative website reported that Kremlev footed the bill for the parties, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Trump said at the time that he did not know Kremlev. He did not attend the wedding, saying he was too busy with talks on the Iran war.

Don Jr. and Bettina Trump had confirmed the gift in a joint Instagram post in which they defended it.

“It’s unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is or where they come from,” the post added.

Kremlev is head of the International Boxing Association (IBA), with which the International Olympic Committee severed links after repeated warnings over financial governance and ethical concerns.

Russian President Vladimir Putin presented Kremlev with the “Order of Friendship” award in April 2026, according to an IBA press release, which featured a photo of Putin and Kremlev shaking hands.

The IBA website also featured photos of Donald Trump Jr. on stage with Kremlev at an event in Istanbul in September 2025.

ProPublica posted a group photo from the wedding that it said showed the top of Kremlev’s head.

According to Russian investigative media outlet Proekt, Kremlev is a Tajik native who worked as a mid-level boxing promoter and cultivated links with the Federal Protective Service (FSO), whose role is to protect high-level officials in Russia.

Kremlev is also a member of the pro-Kremlin Night Wolves biker club, it reported.

The Night Wolves rode en masse to Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula just after it was annexed by Russia in March 2014, and members have also fought side by side with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

During his first term, President Trump faced an investigation into alleged collusion between his 2016 election campaign and Russia, which the Republican billionaire branded a “witch hunt.” — AFP

COPENHAGEN, Sept 19 — An agreement due to be signed by Denmark and Greenland with the US on strengthening security in the autonomous Danish territory is “good for Nato and Europe,” Denmark’s prime minister said yesterday.

Mette Frederiksen said the deal “strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic area,” adding that it was expected to be signed on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next week.

She said the agreement “recognises the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom (of Denmark) and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination.”

Once signed, the agreement will have to go through the necessary parliamentary procedures to enter into force, according to a statement from Frederiksen’s office.

Trump said yesterday that he had struck an “infinite” deal with Denmark to give the US control over Greenland’s security and bar foreign adversaries from setting up bases there.

“I am pleased to announce that the US of America has entered into an Agreement with The Kingdom of Denmark, and Greenland, that gives the US permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

“From now on, no US adversary can EVER have a base in Greenland, have a military presence in Greenland, or make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval.”

“It is gratifying that we are about to enter into an agreement that ensures and strengthens the security of Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark, the US and the Western alliance,” said Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the head of Greenland’s government.

It “recognises Greenland’s interests and our place in international cooperation,” he added.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington needed to control Greenland for strategic reasons, alarming Nato ally Denmark and sparking fierce pushback from the alliance.

Several media outlets have reported that the US wants to open three new military bases in southern Greenland, in addition to the Pituffik base it already has in the north of the territory. — AFP

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 — US President Donald Trump said yesterday he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing them of spreading “fake news” about his administration.

The 80-year-old Republican — who has long had a fiery relationship with the media — warned that other outlets could face a similar fate but did not say which ones.

The move by Trump drew immediate accusations that it was unconstitutional and would be thrown out by the courts, while the impacted news outlets said they would not be cowed.

“I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW...and Politico...from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Trump did not say what prompted the move but added that “media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the US.”

Later in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters: “I think that somebody has a right to keep them away if they’re going to write false stories all the time.”

Asked if any particular stories had sparked the ban, he replied: “It’s really just cumulative stories over the last two years.”

“You get sick of it,” he said. “They purposely write negative news, and they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration.”

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host who has brought in tight restrictions at the Pentagon, backed Trump’s new ban and accused the outlets of having “endangered troops” with unspecified stories.

‘Illegal assault’ 

Journalists for broadcasters CNN and MS NOW — which was until recently known as MSNBC — and Politico remained on White House premises following Trump’s announcement.

Reporters for the two TV news channels could still be seen broadcasting from their stations on the White House driveway.

CNN said Trump’s ban was an “illegal assault” on US press freedom, adding that its reporting was “fair and accurate” and was protected under the US Constitution.

Politico vowed yesterday to “vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them.”

The White House Correspondents Association — the independent body representing journalists covering the presidency — said it “stands in defence” of the journalists “who are being singled out for doing their jobs.”

Both of Trump’s White House terms have seen him lash out repeatedly at media whose coverage displeases him.

He has filed multiple defamation suits against news outlets, attacked the press on Truth Social and verbally assaulted several reporters, notably women, including CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins.

‘Flatly unconstitutional’ 

But it is rare for US presidents to outright bar news outlets — although Trump banned CNN reporter Jim Acosta in his first term, a ban which a court subsequently overturned.

Last year, Trump barred The Associated Press from some events because of the news agency’s decision to continue referring to the “Gulf of Mexico” — and not the “Gulf of America” as decreed by Trump.

It has also put stricter controls on journalists in Trump’s second term, including taking control of which outlets can cover events as part of the “pool” admitted to tight spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One.

Trump’s surprise announcement yesterday comes at a time when his approval ratings are at record lows and his Republican Party risks losing control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.

The war in Iran and rising prices, particularly at the gas pump, are among the factors that have contributed to his sinking political fortunes.

Bruce Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said a ban on the media outlets would be “flatly unconstitutional.”

“The First Amendment is clear that once the White House invites in some journalists, it can’t ban others because it doesn’t like their reporting,” Brown said. “This is textbook viewpoint discrimination and will be quickly struck down by the courts if challenged.” — AFP

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 — Nvidia boss Jensen Huang and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman are among tech leaders expected to attend a White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, a US official said yesterday.

“It’ll be a very popular and hot-ticketed event,” the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk, Apple head Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai will also attend.

Their presence comes as artificial intelligence is set to loom large in the talks between the two leaders, with the US and China the two dominant powers in the AI race.

The AI debate in the US remains dominated by the idea that the country’s leading developers — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta — cannot afford to slow their pace of innovation, whatever the risks, for fear that China will pull ahead.

China, long seen as trailing the US on cutting-edge AI, has been closing that gap fast.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang records an interview ahead of an AI conference at Dumfries House in Cumnock, Scotland, on September 17, 2026. — AFP pic

Washington has long tried to slow China’s progress with export controls on the advanced chips needed for cutting-edge AI, blocking access to top-end US semiconductors such as those made by Nvidia.

Despite their bitter rivalry, hope remains that the two superpowers can agree on something regarding the technology when the leaders meet in Washington.

But anything ambitious, such as agreeing to slow development or craft global safeguards, is likely out of reach.

The call for safeguards has been amplified by dire warnings from industry insiders about the threat the technology poses to humanity.

Jacob Coxon, a former AI researcher at Anthropic, set off the latest round of alarm by describing how those building the technology “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei published an essay soon after urging caution and a slowdown in development.

Altman and Musk lent their support to that idea, as did Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, who himself has called for a US-led global regulatory body for the technology.

US President Donald Trump this week dismissed fears over AI as a hoax and is urging American AI companies to keep advancing to stay ahead of China.

According to analysts, Chinese policymakers have been more focused on immediate risks, from deepfakes to child safety.

However, the country’s spy agency chief warned this week that the technology could jeopardise national security. — AFP

RIYADH, Sept 19 — Explosions were heard in Riyadh today, an AFP journalist reported, after an air raid alert was issued by Saudi Arabian authorities, who have been regularly targeted in recent days by attacks from pro-Iranian Houthis in Yemen.

“The area is under a hostile aerial threat,” a message received by residents of the Saudi capital read.

This is the first time the capital has been directly affected since the conflict in neighbouring Yemen intensified in July. — AFP

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 — The US yesterday lifted sanctions on Eritrea imposed in 2021 over the deadly conflict in neighbouring Ethiopia, as Washington seeks to “advance US regional interests” in a country that borders the strategic Red Sea.

The US imposed the sanctions in November 2021, which targeted the Eritrean Defence Force and President Isaias Afwerki’s political party, the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, as well as other players in the authoritarian state.

Eritrean troops were accused of committing atrocities during the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, in which they backed the Ethiopian federal army. That war ended in late 2022 with the signing of a peace deal between Addis Ababa and Tigray rebels.

The US sanctions had been renewed each year under a presidential declaration of a “national emergency,” including last year by President Donald Trump.

But yesterday, the US Treasury published a notice saying that the national emergency had “expired.”

The State Department said Trump had chosen not to renew the measures targeting Eritrea “to advance US regional interests.”

The conflict left at least 600,000 people dead, and sparked a major humanitarian crisis. Several hundred thousand people remain displaced.

A State Department told AFP that while the parties’ implementation of the deal to end the war had been “uneven,” the US felt it was “time to adapt our foreign policy to current realities and collaboratively engage with both countries to advance US interests.”

Eritrea’s Horn of Africa location could be key amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, as the Red Sea has become a key oil shipping route with the Strait of Hormuz blocked.

Tensions have once again been mounting in Tigray, raising fears of a return to armed conflict. — AFP

SEPTEMBER 19 — Some auteurs, like Takashi Miike, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Michal Winterbottom, are effortlessly prolific, churning out a new feature every couple of years with factory-like regularity. 

Some directors, like Hong Sang-soo, who’s made 35 films in 30 years, are even beyond prolific. And then there are directors like Na Hong-jin.

Ever since his breakthrough with 2008’s The Chaser, Na has taken his own sweet time between projects. 

While The Chaser established his mastery over the gritty Korean thriller and The Yellow Sea pushed that kinetic violence to near-unbearable extremes with bigger set-pieces, it was 2016’s The Wailing that solidified him as a modern master. 

That film, a terrifying, hallucinatory masterpiece of supernatural dread and rural paranoia, remains my absolute favorite of his work. 

Now, a full decade later, Na has finally returned with Hope, a film that is as utterly unhinged as it is technically extraordinary.

On paper, Hope arrives with a massive reputation, billed as having the biggest budget in Korean cinematic history at a reported US$40 million (RM163 million). 

But let’s put that into perspective for a second. In the bloated ecosystem of contemporary Hollywood, US$40 million is practically pocket change. 

It’s what American studios spend on a mid-tier studio comedy, a couple of superhero reshoots, or marketing campaigns alone. 

Yet, what Na Hong-jin manages to wring out of that price tag puts US$200 million Western blockbusters to absolute shame.

The author argues that Na Hong-jin’s ‘Hope’ sacrifices narrative depth for extraordinary action craftsmanship, delivering a technically audacious, if flawed, showcase of pure genre filmmaking. — Plus M Entertainment pic

Unsurprisingly, critical reactions out of its early screenings have been intensely divided. 

This is a true “love it or hate it” movie in the purest sense. If you walk into the cinema expecting a complex, intricate narrative with layered plot twists, political allegory, or heavy emotional subtext, this film is simply not for you.

In terms of pure narrative, Hope is, quite frankly, a “nothing” film.

Set in Port Hope, an isolated Korean seaside village near the Demilitarized Zone, the story kicks off when local police officers investigate a series of mysterious attacks on livestock. 

That single incident quickly spirals into a relentless, nightmare siege against an unknown, terrifying alien entity lurking in the surrounding wilderness. 

And... that is essentially it. 

The plot doesn’t branch out into multi-layered investigative detours or deep character backstories. It is a straight line of pure, visceral survival from start to finish.

Where Hope becomes an absolute “everything” film, however, is in its pure action craftsmanship.

Much like George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, Na treats narrative merely as an ignition key to start a two-hour plus engine of kinetic mayhem. 

If you have any experience with making films, or even a passing appreciation for the mechanics of cinema, you will spend the entire runtime marvelling at the sheer technical achievements on display here. 

Working alongside legendary cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo (The Wailing, Parasite), and his longtime editor Kim Sun-min, Na constructs set-pieces that feel like they shouldn’t logically exist.

The editing, in particular, is a masterclass. In an era where fast cuts are often used to hide cheap stunt work, the rhythm of Hope’s editing is astonishingly precise. 

Every cut carries physical momentum, every transition makes absolute sense despite the chaotic mood, and the audio design works in tandem with the visual cuts to create a sensory assault that leaves you breathless. 

Long tracking shots weave seamlessly into fast reaction cuts, building a sense of escalating panic that never sacrifices spatial clarity.

That said, the film isn’t entirely without its stumbles. For one, the visual effects are a notable letdown. 

Despite the record-breaking domestic budget, the film’s CGI unfortunately looks pretty cheap and distracting. 

When the alien threats move out of the murky shadows and into full view, the digital rendering lacks the weight and texture of the practical sets surrounding it, creating a frustrating clash between top tier physical filmmaking and undercooked VFX.

Even more distracting, though, is a sudden, jarring shift towards the end. 

Right when the film should be barreling toward a clean, visceral finish, it stumbles into lore-building territory. 

A giant alien ship suddenly crashes to Earth, and out of nowhere, the alien dialogue becomes subtitled when it was previously completely incomprehensible. 

Hints of backstory are abruptly dumped on the audience in what is clearly a move to set up a sequel should the box office numbers justify it. 

I get the business rationale behind franchise building, but if Na had just kept this one minimalist, lean, and all-action all the way to the end, it would have been absolute perfection.

As the polarising reactions have proved, Hope will unfortunately alienate casual moviegoers who prioritise script density, seamless CGI, and elaborate exposition over raw visual storytelling. 

hoBut for those of us who appreciate genre cinema elevated to the level of pure, unadulterated craft, Na Hong-jin has delivered an audacious, heart pounding triumph that proves why he is still worth waiting a decade for.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

THIMPHU, Sept 19 — Atop a steep hillside near Bhutan’s capital Thimphu, an arrow slices through the air and slams into a wooden target with a thud, prompting a round of celebratory song.

Traditional archery is Bhutan’s national sport and has a storied history, but some fans fear for its future as development and safety concerns eat away at space for archery ranges.

Played with a bamboo bow and arrows, the sport evolved from hunting and military traditions and is now a key part of cultural events, as well as a popular weekend activity.

But it is a sport that requires space and flat terrain, which are in growing demand, particularly in the capital.

“Since now our development is coming up, archery grounds are occupied by residences, so it’s very difficult to get a play ground,” lamented archer Sonam Dorji, who works at a conservation group, as he competed in an all-day tournament.

Bhutanese archery is played in teams that vary in size depending on whether the game is friendly or competitive.

Each team sets up at one end of the range and aims at small wooden targets up to 145 metres away.

Players wear the country’s traditional striped “gho” belted knee-length robe, complete with knee-high socks, though footwear is of the modern variety, ranging from trainers to hiking boots.

Archers get two arrows per go, and the first team to get 25 wins. A hit anywhere on the target earns points, along with an obligatory celebratory song and shuffling dance.

Play is relatively raucous — often enhanced by consumption of beer or the local tipple ara — with taunts and shouts of encouragement part of the fun.

Teammates often stand either side of the target and shout guidance or wave to try to guide incoming arrows, jumping aside at the last minute to avoid injury.

Archers wearing leather finger guards wait for their turn during a match on a mountain in Thimphu, Bhutan on August 29, 2026. Played with a bamboo bow and arrows, the sport evolved from hunting and military traditions and is now a key part of cultural events, as well as a popular weekend activity. Some fans fear for its future as development and safety concerns eat away at space for archery ranges. — AFP pic

The sport has been struggling for years to compete with the growing popularity of alternatives like football, said Sangay Phuntsho, who had travelled several hours from Wangdue Phodrang to Bhutan’s second city Paro for an all-day competition.

“Times change,” he told AFP in between shots at the target.

“We have a lot of other options now with sports... young people normally they prefer to play advanced games like football.”

‘Stronger safety measures’ 

The country’s archery association said the declining number of ranges was also due to safety concerns over the rising use of more powerful compound bows.

“Development and increasing pressure on land are contributing factors, but safety has also become a major concern,” said Pema Tenzin, general secretary of the Bhutan Archery Federation.

“Given the power and speed of compound bows, their use in long-range grounds, particularly in densely populated areas, requires much stronger safety measures.”

The federation and Bhutan’s Indigenous Games and Sports Association are working with the country’s Olympic committee to find land to establish more ranges “in a safer and more organised setting”, he added.

Archers celebrate after hitting the target during a match in Thimphu, Bhutan, on August 29, 2026. Traditional archery, Bhutan’s national sport, is facing shrinking space for ranges amid development and safety concerns. — AFP pic

Jamyangla, who like many Bhutanese uses a single name, said he encouraged his son to take up the sport, but the lack of ranges made it hard for him to learn.

“He doesn’t have enough grounds to test his ability,” the 48-year-old power company employee said, calling for government support to set up national-level tournaments and additional ranges.

He rejected safety concerns about the sport, though injuries are reported each year, including a man who survived an arrow to the heart earlier this year.

Officials and some opponents of the sport warn that the tradition of drinking while playing makes an already risky sport all the more dangerous.

But players like Sonam consider it part of the fabric of Bhutanese life.

“We are getting more social cooperation and getting to know each other and know more about our people,” he said.

“It is our national game which has come down from our forefathers... we have to preserve (it).” — AFP

NEW DELHI, Sept 19 — Five baby orangutans abandoned in an Indian forest have exposed a “massive” exotic wildlife trade, with traffickers smuggling increasingly rare species into the country, experts say.

They warn of a growing multi-million-dollar trade in endangered animals, including apes smuggled through war-torn Myanmar to feed demand among wealthy Indians seeking exotic status symbols to flaunt on social media.

“There have been several instances of exotic wild animals being found or seized across the country, said Sumanth Bindumadhav of Humane World for Animals India. “The scale is massive.”

Critically endangered orangutans are native only to Indonesia’s Sumatra island and Borneo, which it shares with Malaysia and Brunei.

Yet the five tiny orangutans were found by rangers in Balasore, in India’s eastern Odisha state.

Aged around one-and-a-half years old, they are being cared for at a zoo. Indonesia has requested their return.

Bindumadhav’s group, in a June 2026 report, detailed what it called a “rising trade in exotic wildlife”, demonstrated by a “steep increase in seizures” that reflected a “surge in illegal trade”.

The report estimated India’s exotic-pet market at US$42.6 million in 2024.

Orangutans and gibbons, small apes, were being “increasingly trafficked into India” from South-east Asia’s rainforests, it added.

‘Alarming scale’

A senior official at India’s Wildlife Crime Control Bureau said “thousands of social media influencers” were promoting exotic species as pets online, fuelling demand among followers.

“It is a huge market,” said the official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. “Rich people keep them in their homes.”

Under a government voluntary disclosure scheme, more than 40,000 people had registered exotic animals by February 2021, government data shows.

The figure is likely only a fraction of those in private hands, analysts say.

“This is a figure from only those who registered themselves, so the true volume of it is potentially much larger and remains unknown,” said Bindumadhav.

“The true scale of it is actually quite frightening.”

Former India head of global anti-wildlife-trade group TRAFFIC Shekhar Kumar Niraj said the surge in trafficking was also linked to a “rising number” of animals held in private hands.

“Private zoos have violated laws at a very alarming scale across the country,” said Niraj.

“Primates are very popular in zoos because they are very intelligent, like to interact with humans, the kind of thing zoos want.”

Indian federal authorities did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

The World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India) documented 56 seizures involving about 4,000 exotic animals in 2022 alone.

In October 2025, Mumbai customs officers arrested a passenger carrying two endangered gibbons stuffed inside a checked bag.

Other seizures in Mumbai last year included lizards, tree-climbing possums and dozens of venomous vipers.

In 2024, forest officials recovered a trafficked orangutan from a flat in Maharashtra state.

But such seizures represent only a fraction of the trade, experts warn.

‘Porous border’

“The scale of it is much, much bigger than what we see actually based on the seizure data,” said Jimmy Borah of the environmental advocacy group Aaranyak.

Experts have previously raised concerns over Vantara, a vast wildlife rescue and conservation centre in Gujarat founded by Anant Ambani, son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, over its intake of endangered species.

Vantara has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

In August, it said it was taking “bold steps to reset its operations”, had withdrawn all applications to import live animals, and named former head of the global wildlife watchdog CITES, John Scanlon, to chair its governing council.

Exactly how the orangutans were brought to Odisha — more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) by sea, and 7,000 kilometres by land (4,500 miles) — is not clear. Police have launched a criminal investigation.

Experts say that in addition to airports and formal cargo routes, the land border between Myanmar and India’s northeast is a key trafficking route.

“The northeast is important for seizures of live exotic animals, linked to cross-border movement from Southeast Asia,” said Dipankar Ghose of WWF-India.

Authorities have seized other exotic primates in the region in recent years, smuggled on jungle routes across the frontier.

“We are talking about miles and miles of a very porous border,” said Borah of Aaranyak. — AFP

OIAPOQUE, Sept 19 — Indigenous chief Wagner Karipuna gazes worriedly at the tranquil river flowing past his village in the Brazilian Amazon as he imagines the nightmare scenario of an oil spill being carried here by the tides.

His village, Manga, is located around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the centre of Oiapoque, a town bordering French Guiana that has been buzzing since Brazilian oil giant Petrobras began offshore exploration in the region a year ago.

The state-run company announced in August that it had identified signs of oil in a well about 175 kilometres (109 miles) off the coast of northern Brazil’s Amapá state.

Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is seeking re-election on October 4, promptly visited the area, calling the oil a “passport to the future”.

Reaching Oiapoque requires travelling 600 kilometres (370 miles) from state capital Macapá, part of it along a red dirt road riddled with potholes. Makeshift wooden bridges are used to cross waterways.

Many streets in the town have no pavements and are lined with low-rise buildings with run-down facades, although numerous construction projects are underway.

Thais Pereira de Souza, 32, poses for a photo with her son in front of their home in the Nova Conquista neighborhood in Oiapoque, Amapa state, Brazil on September 4, 2026. Residents are caught between hopes of an economic boom and fears of an oil spill. — AFP pic

‘Disappointed’ with Lula 

While many residents are excited about a potential oil bonanza in their poverty-stricken town, Karipuna is far from convinced.

“In the event of a spill, we will inevitably be affected. Water has no borders,” said the 57-year-old chief.

He fears an “immense disaster” if an oil leak off the coast is carried into the Curipi River, which runs alongside his village of 1,800 inhabitants.

Petrobras has said its analyses do “not indicate the probability” of oil “reaching the coast in the event of a spill”.

“There is no such thing as zero risk in offshore exploration,” Jean Paul Prates, who headed Petrobras in 2023-2024 and now chairs the energy and natural resources thinktank Cerne, told AFP.

“It is a low-probability risk, but with potentially high consequences.”

Boats anchored along the banks of the Oiapoque River in Oiapoque, Amapa state, Brazil, on the border with French Guiana, on September 3, 2026 where residents are closely following the oil exploration off the coast of the Amazon, a controversial project promoted by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is seeking reelection in October 2026. — AFP pic

Karipuna says he is “disappointed” with Lula, who presents himself as a defender of the environment and Indigenous peoples.

Lula has said that while he is against fossil fuels, he believes the world cannot live without them yet, and that oil can finance the transition to clean energy.

Karipuna said he is already feeling the impact of oil exploration because of “the noise from planes and helicopters”, which he said scares away birds and game.

His concerns are shared by Joelso Mendonca, vice president of a group of nearly 400 traditional fishermen.

“If there is an oil spill, nobody is going to want to buy our fish,” the 50-year-old said, while repairing his net in a stilted shack on the riverbank.

Petrobras told AFP it had “maintained continuous dialogue” with civil society and Indigenous communities.

Regarding air traffic, the company said it had made “adjustments” following consultations with Indigenous leaders.

‘Starting from scratch’ 

While some see the potential oil as a curse, Jacqueline Cadete considers it a “sign from God”.

The 45-year-old evangelical pastor moved to Oiapoque at the end of 2025, attracted by oil “opportunities” after living abroad for many years in French Guiana and metropolitan France.

According to a study by the National Industry Observatory, more than 50,000 jobs could be created in Amapá.

And any royalty payments Petrobras will have to make once production begins could provide a considerable windfall for local authorities.

Oiapoque mayor Inacio Monteiro Maciel speaks during an interview with AFP in Oiapoque, Amapa state, Brazil on September 3, 2026. — AFP pic

However, Petrobras president Magda Chambriard announced in August that production was not expected to begin for another “six or seven years”.

In the meantime, Mayor Inacio Monteiro Maciel is “very optimistic” about the future, even though the city will have to “practically start from scratch” in terms of infrastructure and social policies.

More than half of the roughly 28,000 inhabitants recorded in the town’s 2022 census receive Bolsa Familia, a benefit paid to Brazil’s poorest households.

But the city has experienced an influx of newcomers in recent years, which has “intensified” since Petrobras began drilling, the mayor said.

He estimates that 40,000 to 45,000 people already live in Oiapoque.

‘The new Dubai’ 

The mayor said that a rise in “real estate speculation” has pushed many families out of the city centre into new peripheral neighbourhoods, where conditions are often precarious.

A fisherman carries a fishing net in Oiapoque, Amapa state, Brazil on September 3, 2026 where residents are caught between hopes of an economic boom and fears of an oil spill. — AFP pic

In a neighbourhood called Nova Conquista, 32-year-old Thais Pereira de Souza lives in a tiny house with a corrugated metal roof, without water or electricity, alongside her husband, her two sons and her pregnant daughter-in-law.

They are crammed into a single room with two mattresses and two hammocks, after they were no longer able to afford their studio apartment in the city centre.

She expects “life to improve” thanks to the oil.

Lilma Campos, president of Oiapoque’s Commercial and Industrial Association, anticipates a “radical change” but prefers to keep her feet on the ground.

“Just because oil has been found, some people think this will become the new Dubai, but we really don’t know what’s going to happen.” — AFP

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — As mankind looks towards the wider solar system, Planetarium Negara is seeing renewed public interest in space exploration, with immersive exhibits and experiential programmes bringing a new generation closer to the final frontier, three decades after it first opened its doors.

The renewed interest comes as major global space initiatives, including plans to return humans to the Moon and eventually venture to Mars, bring space exploration closer to the public imagination.

For Planetarium Negara, these developments offer an opportunity to help Malaysians understand how they connect to and potentially contribute to humanity’s next journey beyond Earth.

Planetarium Negara director Mohd Zamri Shah Mastor said that while its core mission — to raise public awareness and spark interest in astronomy and space science — has remained unchanged since 1994, today’s visitors seek more engaging and experiential ways to connect with the subjects.

“Lately, the initiatives by major global space players are being heard by people in Malaysia.

“These include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s ongoing Artemis programme to return humans to the Moon by 2028, as well as its Mars Sample Return effort to bring Martian rock and soil samples back to Earth.

“In fact, Planetarium Negara itself hosted a programme in March focused on the Moon, while also marking Malaysia’s commitment to the Artemis Accords — a set of principles guiding the peaceful and sustainable exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond.

“So perhaps they see Planetarium Negara as the closest place where they can associate themselves with these initiatives and learn more about them.

“And we hope that we can fulfil the public’s interest or what they want to find out about space,” he told Malay Mail in a recent interview here.

Mohd Zamri Shah said Planetarium Negara also hopes to reach more students in higher learning institutions and encourage them to consider careers in the space sector.

Mohd Zamri Shah said the recent introduction of new immersive exhibits had helped drive a noticeable increase in visitors to the institution from the second half of 2025 through the first half of 2026, with roughly 300,000 people visiting annually.

“Maybe the exhibits we had in the past were not as immersive as they are now, and people started coming after we introduced something new here.

“We also started engaging people through social media, encouraging them to take part in activities like stargazing, which they really liked, with many asking questions and requesting more such programmes.

“So we found that experiential learning is highly requested by the general public,” he said.

Mohd Zamri Shah said schoolchildren in tour groups made up the overwhelming majority of visitors, accounting for roughly 80 per cent, followed by families and individuals.

Interesting exhibits

In an age where images and information about space are just a few clicks away, Mohd Zamri Shah said planetariums, including Planetarium Negara, still have a role to play in the digital age.

For starters, he pointed to Planetarium Negara’s space theatre, a dome-shaped cinema that seats up to 200 visitors and uses a fulldome digital system, 270° panoramic projection, six-channel surround sound and two fulldome immersive 4K projectors to recreate the night sky and universe in an immersive experience akin to that of an observatory.

Among the notable exhibits is a 10kg iron meteorite fragment from the Campo del Cielo meteorites, first discovered in a crater field in northern Argentina in 1576.

“You can touch it, it is the real thing — a 5,000-year-old meteorite fragment right here at Planetarium Negara that has been travelling in outer space for thousands of years, telling the story of our solar system’s early stages.”

A space rock recovered from the Campo del Cielo crater field on display at Planetarium Negara.

He also pointed to exhibits featuring fossils of prehistoric life, which tell the story of Earth’s evolution and its place in the cosmos.

Other exhibits include two real astronaut suits — the Russian-made Orlan and Sokol spacesuits — worn by Russian cosmonauts and Malaysia’s first astronaut, Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Al Masrie, respectively.

“Visitors can see for themselves how they are made, what they are made of and the materials used.

“While they may not be able to touch the fabric, they can look closely at the suits, including their interiors, as we want visitors to feel that space technology is not something beyond their reach.

“By seeing the real thing up close, I hope they realise that we can do this too. That is important because it gives them the confidence to believe that Malaysians can go into space again,” he said.

Also on display is a real Viking rocket engine, alongside a replica cockpit of the Soyuz spacecraft used to dock with the International Space Station, an interactive Astronaut Working Environment Module and two Malaysian satellites — TiungSAT-1 (Malaysia’s first microsatellite) and RazakSAT, an Earth observation satellite.

The Viking, a liquid-fuelled rocket engine used on Europe’s Ariane rockets to power ascent into space, is on display here at Planetarium Negara.

More work to be done

Mohd Zamri Shah said efforts are currently underway to enhance the institution’s experiential learning exhibits, including offering more observation experiences and, if possible, future demonstrations to enhance the overall visitor experience.

“Rather than limiting these activities indoors, we want to demonstrate things outside as well, such as observing the surface of the Sun during the daytime.

“Perhaps we could have a simple rocket launch with a small rocket and parachute,” he said.

He added that rotating gallery content is also in the works, with plans to introduce changes gradually, including possible indoor demonstrations using available technologies to simulate aspects of space exploration on planets.

He said they are also considering extending operating hours into the early evening to allow visitors to observe planets visible in Kuala Lumpur’s night sky, as well as resuming direct communications with astronauts aboard the ISS when it passes over Malaysia — a programme that was halted several years ago.

Visitors experiencing the Spacepod, a two-seater cockpit simulator that provides screenings offering an exploration and flight experience into outer space, with three-axis movement and 360-degree freedom of movement.

With renewed interest in space, Mohd Zamri Shah said Planetarium Negara also hopes to reach more students in higher learning institutions and encourage them to consider careers in the space sector.

“People sometimes think that if you want to work in space, you have to study space.

“But that is not necessarily the case. Space needs people with many different skills and expertise from other fields can also contribute to space technology,” he said.

He also said plans are underway to replace the existing projection system in the dome-shaped cinema, which has been in place for more than 15 years and is nearing the end of its lifespan.

“It is a bit dated and I am very sorry about that but we are in the process of changing to a new system. Hopefully, within a year or two, we will have a new projection system with higher resolution and a better experience,” he said.

For Planetarium Negara, the goal is not simply to tell Malaysians about space, but to make them believe they can be part of its future, Mohd Zamri Shah said.

“Generation by generation, new visitors will always come.

“Even though the older generation has experienced Planetarium Negara, every new generation still needs that experience. So we are still here, and we will continue to welcome them,” he said.

AL-DAMER (Sudan), Sept 19 — Inside a beauty salon in northern Sudan, a woman in a striped dress sat patiently as henna artist Najwa Mubarak painted crimson floral patterns across her hands, preserving a cherished tradition that is under threat.

Water scarcity, climate change and three years of war have endangered the cultivation of henna, the plant used to produce the dye that has adorned Sudanese brides for centuries and features prominently in family gatherings, religious celebrations and other events across Sudan.

“Henna is both a hobby and a heritage for us,” Mubarak told AFP, delicately tracing another flower onto her client’s hand.

“I apply henna for brides as it is an integral part of the bride’s joy. For me, it is both a passion and a source of livelihood.”

Fragrant incense drifted through Mubarak’s salon in Al-Damer, the capital of River Nile state, as she used soft, fluid strokes to apply the paste across the woman’s skin, staining it a deep reddish-brown.

Beyond the salon, however, the pressures facing the crop are visible.

On his farm near Al-Damer, Abdallah Mohammed brushed his hand through rows of henna shrubs sagging in the heat.

For decades, the 57-year-old farmer has cultivated the plant whose leaves are dried and ground into powder.

Now he worries the land is slowly drying out.

“Water arrives at long intervals and cuts off just when we need it most,” he told AFP.

“Access to water is the biggest obstacle limiting our production and causing the land to go thirsty.”

Parched fields

Like many farmers in the region, Mohammed depends on Nile-fed irrigation canals. But sporadic supplies and neglected waterways have left fields parched at critical times, reducing both the quantity and quality of the harvest.

Sudan’s conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has crippled agriculture across the country.

The war, which erupted in April 2023, has damaged irrigation networks, leaving canals clogged, pumps idle and water management systems neglected.

Meanwhile, the El Nino climate pattern has disrupted weather systems, delaying seasonal rains and contributing to lower Nile water levels, depriving farms of a vital lifeline.

Agriculture provides livelihoods for roughly 65 per cent of Sudan’s population, according to data from the central bank.

Under a blazing sky, farmers wove their way through the waist-high shrubs, using sickles passed down through generations to cut the leaves. — AFP pic

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said rainfall across key agricultural regions between June and mid-August was up to 30 percent below the long-term average, worsening drought and raising risks to food production and rural livelihoods.

Around Al-Damer, islands of emerald-green henna fields emerge from a sea of ochre and brown.

Under a blazing sky, farmers wove their way through the waist-high shrubs, using sickles passed down through generations to cut the leaves.

The freshly harvested branches released an earthy scent as they were gathered into bundles and carried away for drying and milling.

Henna is “a crop of significant local economic importance”, environmental activist El-Rasheed Ali Mahdy told AFP.

Major exporter

Once one of Africa’s leading henna producers, Sudan built a thriving industry around the crop, according to FAO data, exporting its distinctive dye to consumers across the Gulf, Europe and North America.

In River Nile state, which the war has largely spared, henna remains one of the most valuable cash crops, supporting livelihoods from farms and processing plants to marketplaces and beauty salons.

The Sudanese government did not respond to an AFP request for updated production and export figures.

At one factory in Al-Damer, workers spread freshly picked henna leaves to dry before feeding them into grinding mills.

Nearby, men shovelled the fine green powder into large sacks before sealing it in plastic bags bound for domestic and overseas markets.

“Before the war, we used to export our produce from Omdurman (Khartoum’s twin city) to destinations all over the world,” factory owner Mohamed Ramadan told AFP.

Since fighting erupted, many exporters have rerouted shipments through neighbouring Egypt as traditional trade corridors, including those through Chad, have become increasingly difficult to use, he said.

Yet despite the mounting pressures on the industry, Omnia El-Sayed, 29, owner of the salon in Al-Damer, believes henna will endure: “It is a cultural staple.” — AFP

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — Two decades into an insurgency that has killed thousands in southern Thailand, the leader of the main Malay-Muslim separatist group vowed this week to keep fighting until its goals are achieved.

“This struggle will continue until the end of time,” Nikmatullah Seri, spokesman for the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) peace negotiation delegation, told AFP in a rare interview.

“As long as our objectives remain unachieved, we will continue to fight.”

Militants from BRN have fought for an independent Islamic nation in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south since the 1960s, although the current unrest began in 2004.

Thailand has been negotiating with the BRN under Malaysian mediation since 2013, with the most recent high-level talks taking place in December.

But the process has repeatedly stalled, and Bangkok suspended dialogue in July following an attack that killed five soldiers.

“The objective remains the same, which is the demand for independence,” Nikmatullah said in a hotel in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Syariah in the south

The southern region was once part of the former Malay-Muslim Patani sultanate, but was annexed by Buddhist-majority Thailand, then Siam, in the early 1900s.

Since 2004, more than 7,000 people – militants, Thai security forces and civilians – have been killed, according to monitor Deep South Watch.

Nikmatullah neither confirmed nor denied the BRN’s responsibility for a recent flare-up in violence, but said it was the “driving force behind a struggle”.

He said the group has proposed a power-sharing arrangement with Bangkok, and implied the BRN would take office without elections.

“We want political power. That is, the BRN should be able to govern” over the region, spread across four Thai provinces near the Malaysia border.

It would be administered by Syariah police and courts following Islamic law — although only for Muslims, he said.

There would be a “transitional period of five or 10 years during which we govern”, he said.

“After that, we will hand it over to the people to choose democratically.”

Checkpoints, curfews

Nikmatullah said ethnic Malay Muslims face “obvious discrimination” against their language and culture, and “have never felt safe” — something Thailand has rejected.

Bangkok’s lead negotiator, Thanut Suvarnananda, told local media in August there was “no talk of secession at the negotiating table”.

Instead, Thanut – appointed in April – said ceasefire zones and reducing checkpoints and other security measures that disrupted daily life were under consideration.

Since 2005, the region has been administered under special security laws allowing Thai authorities to detain suspects without charge and impose curfews, drawing criticism from rights groups.

Nikmatullah said the BRN’s military wing recorded 1,000 fighter deaths over the past two decades, but said “warfare was a last resort”.

“We do not target vulnerable groups — our target is the government,” said the negotiator, who was born in southern Thailand and joined the BRN aged 18.

Charred vehicles sit outside a government office in Narathiwat province on August 23, 2026, following dozens of coordinated arson attacks across southern Thailand's insurgency-hit region. — AFP pic

Last month, scores of coordinated nighttime attacks injured several people and damaged government property and private businesses.

In July, five Thai soldiers died in a shooting and bomb attack at a checkpoint that also injured six civilians, according to Thai authorities.

Nikmatullah would not say if the BRN was involved: “We are not intelligence agents for the colonisers.”

But the soldiers’ deaths caused Thailand to put dialogue “on hold”, the foreign ministry told AFP, while stressing it remained committed to the process.

In a statement, it said it was focused on a three-pronged approach to the south, “namely socio-economic development, maintenance of security and peace dialogue”.

Back-channel talks

Wearing a black leather jacket and songkok, a traditional black cap worn by Muslim men, he was vague about where he lives.

But he claimed the BRN has the support of local people and was funded by member donations.

Weapons were taken from its “enemies”, he said.

“We take them for free, because they’ve come here and are wreaking havoc on our land.”

Nikmatullah said the peace talks had been hampered by the absence of a Malaysian mediator, but said the BRN could potentially go to “back-channel negotiations” with Thailand in October.

In a statement to AFP, Malaysian Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the appointment of a new mediator was “under consideration”. He said Kuala Lumpur’s priority was a peaceful resolution.

“Malaysia respects Thailand’s sovereignty and recognises that matters concerning its citizens are within Thailand’s domestic jurisdiction,” Mohamed Khaled said.

He declined to apportion blame for the unrest, but said Malaysia would not allow itself “to be used as a refuge or hideout by any party that resorts to violence or rejects the peace process”.

Nikmatullah said the BRN was playing the long game.

“This is not a short-lived struggle. It will take a long time.” — AFP

JERUSALEM, Sept 18 — On a street in southern Israel, a graffiti artist paints a mural depicting the filmmakers behind the award-winning documentary NAZA. But this is not a tribute.

Red targets are painted next to the two Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, whose faces are branded with the word “TRAITORS”.

A month ahead of close-fought elections, the documentary, which uses anonymous military sources to speak about Israel’s widespread killing of civilians in Gaza, has unleashed a political storm.

An ensuing wave of threats and intimidation has targeted the film’s creators and their families.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has even said he intends to introduce legislation aimed at revoking the citizenship of people who “defame IDF soldiers.”

“Their place is not among us,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X late on Wednesday.

At the same time his video appeared on social media, dozens of protesters were gathering outside the home of Szor’s parents in central Israel, shouting “You’re not welcome here!”

The gathering in Savyon was organised by a far-right influencer, Mordechai David, an ally of Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

“This is only the beginning!” David vowed.

In the southern port city of Ashdod, the artist behind the mural of Abraham and Szor unleashed a torrent of insults at the filmmakers, who are currently abroad.

“I have zero sympathy for all those pro-Palestinians talking abroad,” Dudi Shuval told AFP.

Broad condemnation

The fierce outrage at the film highlights surging nationalist sentiment following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,221 people, mostly civilians, in the country’s deadliest ever attack.

Netanyahu’s handling and response to the attack are set to play a central role in the election, scheduled for October 27.

After its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last week, NAZA received a record-breaking 25-minute ovation and later won the special jury prize.

Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, at the 63rd Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido on September 12, 2026. — AFP pic

The chilling documentary about Israel’s AI-assisted killing of civilians in Gaza uses testimonies from 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who spoke on condition that their identities be protected.

NAZA draws its name from a euphemism used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians that are expected to be killed in an airstrike.

The Israeli military has firmly denied the testimonies in the film and insisted it does everything possible to avoid civilian casualties.

It has also criticised the film’s use of anonymous sources, whose identity and involvement in military activity in Gaza it says cannot be verified.

Israel’s political figures have almost unanimously condemned the documentary.

Opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot, who has emerged as the main challenger to Netanyahu, on Monday denounced “moral blindness, a detachment from reality, and harm to the State of Israel in a difficult hour”.

The head of the centre-left Democrats party, Yair Golan, issued a curt “I condemn” the following day.

Golan accused Netanyahu of using the episode to deflect attention over his reaction on October 7, an issue that has flared anew in recent days.

Taboo discussion

In Israel, criticising the military — in which nearly all Israelis serve — is taboo and carries a heavy cost.

“There’s clearly an intention to not have discussion around the crimes that were committed and to prevent people from speaking about them,” Abraham told AFP on the sidelines of the Venice Film Festival last week.

In a rare dissenting voice, the Israeli-Palestinian movement Standing Together praised the film which it said “exposes another chapter in the war of annihilation in Gaza”.

The Union of Journalists in Israel denounced threats against the filmmakers, saying in a statement that “without freedom of expression, there is no democracy”.

On Wednesday, Culture Minister Miki Zohar, who accused the directors of “treason against the state”, referred the matter to the domestic intelligence services to demand a probe into the film’s anonymous sources.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 73,700 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. — AFP

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 18 — Anthropic is expected to beat rival OpenAI to the public markets with a blockbuster IPO later this year despite recent doomsday warnings, but questions remain about their business models and whether regulators should step in.

Concerns about the safety of advanced artificial intelligence models escalated this month after an employee resigned from Anthropic while warning that the industry was “gambling with our lives”.

Jacob Coxon, who also previously worked at OpenAI, left Anthropic last week amid a flurry of support from his former colleagues, including one who voiced concern about a small probability that AI could cause humanity’s extinction.

Last weekend, Anthropic’s own CEO Dario Amodei called for AI development to slow down — but did not say anything about the IPO.

The fracas forms a backdrop for highly anticipated initial public offerings from both OpenAI and Anthropic.

It is unclear if, or how, either company will address theoretical doomsday scenarios in securities filings, though.

Companies are required to publicly disclose known business risks to investors prior to an IPO.

Anthropic could submit that document to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as early as this month.

“Are we to believe that there is something that’s extremely dangerous that’s hiding inside this company because this person that quit said it, and then it was amplified by a bunch of people” who still work there, All-In podcast co-host Chamath Palihapitiya said last week.

“If it’s true... (investors) will demand an enormous discount,” said Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist.

Altimeter Capital founder Brad Gerstner, who has shares in both OpenAI and Anthropic, downplayed the concerns this week, arguing that an IPO brings transparency for investors.

“Anthropic will IPO. The market knows how to price risk — see SpaceX,” Gerstner posted on X.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX raised a record US$85 billion (RM348.4 billion) in its June IPO, but its stock has lost around a quarter of its value since peaking at around US$202 (RM828) a share.

“There is huge appetite to invest in the AI leaders,” Gerstner added.

‘Ill-advised’ 

How Anthropic’s IPO performs will also set the tone for OpenAI’s debut next year.

The stakes extend well beyond the two companies themselves, with tech giants including Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Nvidia holding significant stakes in the AI labs.

More broadly, the US economy is increasingly tied to the AI buildout, meaning the success or failure of these IPOs carries weight for the wider economy.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said this weekend that the company would delay its own IPO until 2027, citing safety concerns. It’s an “ill-advised moment”, Altman said.

Before the recent headlines over AI safety, Altman and executives at OpenAI had already signalled that they were in no hurry to go public this year.

The ChatGPT maker’s dealmaking appears to be running full speed ahead, nonetheless.

OpenAI is in talks with investors about raising a new round of funding with a valuation of at least US$1.2 trillion (RM4.9 trillion) before it goes public, while Anthropic might seek a US$2 trillion (RM8.2 trillion) valuation in an IPO that could happen as early as October, according to various reports.

Leaders inside OpenAI have been concerned about investor skittishness, broad market uncertainty and SpaceX’s underwhelming stock performance, according to media reports.

‘Massive’ 

Also weighing on executives’ minds is a proposal by both companies to slow down development, given recent incidents involving AI technology going rogue.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar dismissed the idea that a slowing of pace in releasing state-of-the-art technology would impact the company’s core business and revenue growth.

“Even if we stop today, the amount of intelligence that’s available in the world is massive,” Friar told CNBC on Tuesday.

Anthropic also pushed back on the idea that being safety-minded would compromise the IPO.

“I would say safety has been the core of who we are from the very beginning,” Anthropic’s head of policy, Sarah Heck, said at a Politico conference on Wednesday. “Our investors know that. Our customers know that.” — AFP

STRASBOURG (France), Sept 18 — The EU laid out plans Thursday for strict age limits for children to access social media, games and AI assistants — and on forcing companies to make platforms safe before minors use them.

The rules for platforms would include a ban on addictive features, so-called endless scrolling, and push notifications while children sleep, as the bloc steps up efforts to protect minors online.

The legal proposal comes a day after European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen announced the 27-country bloc’s intention to ban children under 13 from social media, and permit only limited, supervised access until the age of 15.

Dubbed the “EU KIDS Act”, Brussels is now “reversing the burden of proof”, von der Leyen said. “Now they have to prove to us that they are safe.”

The EU has been pushed to act after evidence has shown children’s physical and mental wellbeing is damaged by social media, predators, scammers as well as bullies targeting minors, who have little protection from such risks.

So, what is in the draft law, and what does it mean for children and parents?

What is the EU proposing?

There are multiple strands of the proposal. The first is a tiered approach on minors accessing social media.

Children aged 15 and over will be able to set up social media accounts, while 13- and 14-year-olds can have “mini accounts” that they can access through a parent or guardian’s account, according to the proposal.

This type of account would have strict safeguards, including screen time limited to one hour a day, so that parents can ensure the “safe” use of social media.

The EU stressed it wanted to put parents in the “driving seat”, by, for example, allowing minors to use video-sharing apps through accounts managed by parents — who could then limit access to other services and time spent online.

The second pillar is about ensuring social media, video sharing apps, online video games, AI companions and chatbots are safe before children use them.

This means banning profiling-based recommender feeds that lead to children seeing harmful content, as well as on reward-type mechanisms, and unsolicited contact from strangers.

The EU also said AI chatbots must not “simulate interpersonal relationships in ways that create emotional dependency”, after a spate of suicides worldwide following children’s interaction with such assistants.

Children’s profiles must be private by default with their location, camera and microphone turned off, and it should be easy for minors to block or mute users.

The proposal will become law only after negotiations between the European Parliament and EU member states. This process can take months.

The European Commission, the EU’s digital watchdog, called for its swift adoption “considering the clear demand for urgent and comprehensive action”.

How will it work?

Platforms will have to submit a “compliance plan” to the commission and to an independent auditor that will assess any new service or feature, the EU said.

If the auditor is not happy with what a company proposes, the commission can ask for “corrective measures”.

The EU can also launch investigations into platforms that must be concluded within 90 days, it added, with violations potentially leading to fines of up to six percent of annual turnover — as is the case with the bloc’s existing Digital Services Act on online content.

Once adopted the new “EU KIDS Act” would be “fully applicable all over Europe” and would supersede any national laws with different age limits or rules, an EU official explained.

The EU has been simultaneously preparing to roll out an age-check app that would ensure children below the age thresholds cannot access social media.

Privacy defenders have raised concerns but Brussels insists the app would not share any data with digital platforms, and would only provide a “yes” or “no” answer in a cryptographic way without providing any personal data.

Platforms do not have to use the app, but they must use an age assurance tool that checks how old new users are. — AFP

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) today backed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s stance and the advice given by the Attorney General and Federal Territories Minister to the Pardons Board over former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s conditional royal pardon.

In a statement issued after the Pardons Board meeting earlier today, the PH Presidential Council said it firmly stood with the Prime Minister’s position and the advice given to the board.

“The Presidential Council also emphasised that no one is above the law,” it said.

PH said anyone found guilty must face punishment in accordance with the law as stipulated in the Federal Constitution.

Anwar earlier said the conditional royal pardon did not weaken the government’s resolve to fight corruption.

The council also reaffirmed its commitment to continuing efforts to eradicate corruption, advance the Reform agenda and rid the country of corruption and abuse.

“The Presidential Council is determined to continue efforts to eradicate corruption, promote the Reform agenda, and cleanse the country of elements of corruption and abuse,” it said.

Najib is serving a six-year prison sentence for his conviction over the misappropriation of RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former 1MDB subsidiary, after the Federal Court upheld his conviction in 2022.

His original 12-year sentence and RM210 million fine were halved to six years and RM50 million respectively after the Pardons Board reviewed his case in 2024.

Today, His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, the King of Malaysia, granted Najib a conditional pardon allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest until August 23, 2028, subject to payment of the RM50 million fine and compliance with the conditions imposed that have not been made public so far.

Umno subsequently launched a donation drive to help Najib settle the fine, while PAS welcomed the decision and MCA expressed gratitude to the King.

DAP said its central executive committee would meet tomorrow to determine its formal position.

NARATHIWAT, Sept 18 — Two volunteer defence corps members were killed while 16 others were injured in a bomb explosion and gunfight in Sukhirin, Narathiwat, on Friday.

In the incident at around 3.10pm local time, a truck carrying 18 volunteer defence corps members was on its way back after undergoing boat-rowing training in Narathiwat city.

Sukhirin Police Chief Pol Col Prapoj Lormkhet said initial investigations found that an improvised bomb planted by the roadside was detonated as the truck passed the scene.

“An exchange of gunfire also took place,” he told reporters.

He added that security forces rushed to the scene and conducted an inspection to gather evidence.

All the injured were also rushed to a nearby hospital for further treatment, he said.

Prapoj said security forces have stepped up security measures at the scene and surrounding areas following current developments. — Bernama

SEPTEMBER 18 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been granted a conditional royal pardon allowing him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest.

A statement by the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister's Department reads as follows:

“His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, the King of Malaysia has consented to grant a conditional pardon to Datuk Seri Najib Razak, allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest until 23 August 2028, subject to his payment of a fine of RM50 million.” 

According to the statement also, Najib must strictly comply with all statutory terms attached to the royal pardon. 

Should he breach any of the stipulated terms, the conditional pardon will be automatically revoked, and he will be immediately returned to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.

What are the statutory terms attached to the royal pardon?

First and foremost, it must be stressed that Najib must still be deemed a prisoner –

(a)     serving his sentence of imprisonment; and

(b)     in the lawful custody of the prison authorities.

Supporters of Datuk Seri Najib Razak pose outside the Kuala Lumpur home of the former prime minister on September 18, 2026. The 73-year-old has been granted a conditional royal pardon allowing him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest, subject to payment of the RM50 million fine and compliance with conditions that have not been publicly disclosed. — Picture by Firdaus Latif

As a prisoner also, Najib is entitled to earn remission in respect of the period of imprisonment which is served under house arrest.

Since Najib remains a prisoner, conditions must be attached to serving his prison sentence under house arrest. The conditions may be as follows:

(a)     attend any such counselling, therapy, test, assessment, and other activity for the purpose of facilitating his rehabilitation and reintegration into society as the prison authorities may require, at any time and place that the prison authorities may specify;

(b)     report to provide a specimen of his urine or hair for testing at any time and place that the prison authorities may specify;

(c)     remain indoors at his place of residence, or at any other place that the prison authorities may specify, at any time that the prison authorities may specify;

(d)     allow the prison authorities and any authorised person to his place of residence, or any other place he is required to remain at, to determine his compliance with any condition of the house arrest or for any purpose relating to his rehabilitation;

(e)     not consume any controlled drug, psychoactive substance, specified psychoactive substance or alcoholic beverage, or use or inhale any intoxicating substance;

(f)      not have in his possession any controlled drug or psychoactive substance;

(g)      to enable the electronic monitoring of his whereabouts —

(i)       wear any electronic monitoring device issued by the prison authorities on any part of his person that the prison authorities may specify;

(ii)      allow the prison authorities and any authorised person to enter his place of residence, or any other place he is required to remain at, to install, maintain, repair or retrieve any electronic monitoring device;

(iii)    comply with all requirements to ensure the proper functioning of any electronic monitoring device issued to him or installed at his place of residence or any other place he is required to remain at;

(iv)     comply with all reporting requirements imposed on him;

(v)      not tamper with any electronic monitoring device issued to him or installed at his place of residence, or any other place he is required to remain at, or otherwise prevent or obstruct the electronic monitoring of his whereabouts; and

(h)     comply with such other conditions as the Commissioner may specify in the order.

The above are some of the conditions under Singapore’s home detention order (see Section 54(1) of the Prisons Act 1993).

The conditions should reflect what Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has asserted that the conditional pardon “does not weaken the government’s resolve to fight corruption and power abuse”. 

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

BANJARMASIN (Indonesia), Sept 18 — Indonesian authorities were preparing on Friday to right a capsized passenger ferry that went down in the Java Sea last week, a navy official said, with dozens of people still missing.

The Virgo Transport 8 carried 213 passengers and 30 crew when it lost contact with its shipping company after departing from Indonesia’s second city of Surabaya on Java island on Sunday, headed for Banjarmasin on Borneo island.

At least six people have died and 129 are missing, according to the national search and rescue agency, Basarnas. Some of the victims are feared trapped inside the vessel, which is now submerged.

An expert team has been brought in to assist the operation to right the ferry, local navy commander Galih Nurna Putra told reporters on Friday.

“The salvage operation is underway,” Galih said, adding that “there was an observation yesterday”.

The head of the Banjarmasin search and rescue agency, I Putu Sudayana, said teams would be able to resume the recovery of bodies once the vessel is righted.

Before that process is completed, divers face risks if they try to enter the capsized ship, he said.

“We understand the psychological condition of the victims’ families, but please also understand the situation faced by the joint search and rescue team, because they must also pay attention to (operational) safety.”

The capsized vessel has drifted from its original position and sunk farther into the sea, from an initial depth of 21 metres (69 feet) to 29 metres, Basarnas operation director Yudhi Bramantyo said on Thursday.

Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that relies heavily on boat connections for daily transport and tourism.

Lax safety standards and unpredictable weather are the main reasons for the disasters.

On Thursday, rescuers formally called off a search for eight people, including five journalists sent to cover a volcanic eruption, nearly two weeks after their speedboat went missing in waters between Java and Sumatra islands. — AFP

SHAH ALAM, Sept 18 — The High Court today dismissed a RM1 million civil suit filed by a teenage girl with cerebral palsy and her parents against six defendants over an incident in which she fell after another pupil allegedly pulled away a chair at a school here in 2023.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Anita Harun also ordered the plaintiffs to pay RM10,000 in costs, national news agency Bernama reported today.

In delivering her judgment, she ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to prove the negligence and causal link required between the alleged shortcomings in supervision and care and the injuries or additional suffering claimed.

On the allegation of negligent supervision, Anita said the first defendant had acknowledged that she was the only teacher present at the time and that her attention was divided between two groups of pupils with different needs.

However, she said the evidence did not establish that the supervision arrangement was unreasonable or that any reasonable precaution that had been overlooked could have prevented the fall.

“The first plaintiff herself acknowledged that it happened quickly, without any preceding argument. Negligent supervision, that the fall was caused by it, could not be proven,” she said, noting that at the time of the incident, the first plaintiff was enrolled in the Special Education Integrated Programme (PPKI) at a school in Shah Alam.

Anita said the decision did not negate the first plaintiff’s injuries or the burden borne by her family, but reflected the failure to prove the negligence and causal link required by law to establish liability.

Earlier, Federal Senior Counsel Afiq Nazrin Zaharinan, representing all six defendants, sought RM30,000 in costs, while the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Sofian Azmir, sought RM10,000, before the Judicial Commissioner ordered the plaintiffs to pay RM10,000 in costs to all six defendants.

The suit was filed by the teenager’s father, Wan Amey Shahril Wan Ab Rahman, 39, on behalf of himself, his wife and their daughter, against six defendants: three teachers, Ilyana Sari Ridzuan, Suhaida Abdul Rahman and Aizam Naim Mohd Junid; headmistress Hamidah Shamsudin; the Ministry of Education; and the Malaysian Government.

Meanwhile, after the proceedings, Sofian said they disagreed with the decision and would file an appeal soon.

“We disagree and believe there has been an error. We will file an appeal as soon as possible, as some arguments were not emphasised or stated by the judge.

“We want to emphasise that this case involves an individual with special needs and there should have been supervision,” he told reporters.

In August 2024, media reported that the teenage girl, who was then 12, had suffered for almost a year from complications arising from spinal injuries after she fell when a friend pulled away the chair she was about to sit on.

The incident occurred on October 12, 2023 and was revealed by her mother, Azera Yazid, 38, on TikTok, before the family took legal action to seek compensation for their daughter’s injuries and the suffering she endured. 

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — A businessman was sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment and one stroke of the cane by the Sessions Court here today after pleading guilty to cheating a company director over a project to supply automated external defibrillator (AED) units.

Judge Azrul Darus ordered Datuk Seri Azraie Jamaludin, 49, to serve the sentence from today.

Azraie, together with another person still at large, was charged with deceiving Lim Wei Xiang, 35, into believing that he had the capacity to secure an AED supply project, which prompted Lim to deposit RM361,150 into the ZAJ Empire Resource bank account belonging to the accused.

The offence was committed at a golf club here between Aug 12 and Oct 22, 2024, under Section 420 of the Penal Code, which provides for imprisonment of between one and 10 years, whipping and a fine, upon conviction.

According to the facts of the case, the complainant was introduced to the accused by an acquaintance who told him that Azraie had connections with several government agencies and was able to secure a RM5 million project to supply AED units for the Health Ministry.

Convinced by the offer, the complainant subsequently handed over the money by depositing it into the accused’s bank account.

Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Muhammad Zul Hilmi Latif sought an appropriate sentence as a deterrent, taking into consideration the victim’s losses.

Azraie, who was unrepresented, appealed for a lenient sentence, saying that he was supporting his family and suffered from a heart condition requiring follow-up treatment. — Bernama

MUNICH, Sept 18 — Gianni Infantino must leave the Fifa presidency “no ifs or buts”, according to Hans-Joachim Watzke, one of the vice-presidents of the German Football Association (DFB), as he spoke at a festival dedicated to artificial intelligence in Berlin on Thursday evening.

The DFB was one of the few federations not to sign a letter of support for Infantino’s re-election as Fifa president in six months’ time.

“He has to go, no ifs or buts,” declared Hans-Joachim Watzke, who said that three points in particular counted against the Swiss.

The first was the Fifa Peace Prize, launched by Infantino and awarded in December 2025 to US president Donald Trump, to whom Infantino is close, during the draw for the 2026 World Cup.

Infantino “created this prize himself, and he decided on it himself,” said Watzke.

“You can’t just invent something on your own and then announce it, it’s madness,” said Watzke.

Watzke also condemned the controversial handling of the Folarin Balogun red card during this year’s World Cup which was hosted in USA, Canada and Mexico.

The American forward was sent off in the last 32 but his automatic one-match suspension was lifted after a phone call from Trump to Infantino.

“It can’t be that when someone gets sent off, the head of state calls the Fifa president, and, remarkably, the whole thing is immediately overturned. That’s madness,” said Watzke.

The third issue was the project, unveiled on July 28 and dropped four days later, to create a commercial company that would have been open to private investors and became a focal point of the rebellion against Infantino.

“It’s completely insane,” said Watzke. “Nobody knew about it, his vice- presidents in Fifa knew nothing, the Council knew nothing.”

DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said earlier in the week in an interview with RTL/ntv television that it was also time for Infantino to depart.

“The relationship of trust with Gianni Infantino, under this Fifa leadership, has of course been completely shattered,” he said.

“It’s important that this Infantino system comes to an end.”

For now, Infantino is the only candidate for the Fifa presidency in the election scheduled for March 18, 2027, with candidacies open until November 18. — AFP

MELAKA, Sept 19 — The Public Higher Education Institution (IPTA) Wi-Fi project, covering 539 locations nationwide, is expected to be fully completed by September, with 55 per cent, or 294 locations, already having access to Wi-Fi, Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said.

She said the RM664 million project, fully funded by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) through the Universal Service Provision initiative, would help upgrade infrastructure and improve internet coverage across campuses.

“We have embarked on a project to install tens of thousands of access points equipped with high-end Wi-Fi technology, specifically Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7.

“This project focuses on strategic locations across campuses, including lecture halls, laboratories, libraries, student centres, residential colleges and hostels,” she told reporters after visiting the IPTA Wi-Fi Project Phase 3 site at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) here today.

She said the project covers 539 locations, involving IPTA and skills training institutions under Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) and the Ministry of Human Resources (Kesuma).

Teo said Phases 1 and 2 of the project had been completed at 191 locations, with Phase 3 implementation now underway at institutions under Mara and Kesuma.

“For Phase 3 of the project, work has been completed at 42 of the 204 locations, or 21 per cent, while the remaining locations are still undergoing network provisioning and installation.

“As for institutions under Mara, work has been completed at 60 of the 110 identified locations, or 55 per cent, while for those under Kesuma, work has been completed at one of the 34 identified locations,” she said.

Commenting on the project’s implementation in Melaka, Teo said the IPTA Wi-Fi project in the state had reached 44 per cent completion, with 1,399 new access points activated at 10 IPTA as of last August.

She said UTeM had made good progress under Phase 3, with 302 additional access points installed on Aug 27, ahead of the MCMC’s original target date of Sept 23.

“Under Phase 3, 302 additional APs were installed here at UTeM, with the work completed on Aug 27, ahead of the MCMC’s original target date of Sept 23.

“In total, UTeM now has 410 operational APs, including the 108 APs installed under Phase 2 in June 2025,” she said.

Meanwhile, UTeM student representative Muhammad Quwayyis Khairuddin, 21, said the installation of additional high-speed Wi-Fi APs was crucial, particularly for students living in residential colleges and those using other strategic locations across the university campus.

“This is a meaningful contribution from the Ministry of Communications, as every student here needs reliable internet access to complete projects and assignments.

“Although the internet service was already good, the addition of these APs has further improved internet connectivity across the campus,” he said. — Bernama

* Editor’s note: IPTA stands for Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam, the Malay name for Public Higher Education Institutions. 

MELAKA, Sept 18 — The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will continue monitoring social media content ahead of the Melaka state election and reminds internet users not to touch on 3R issues involving religion, race and royalty.

Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said the monitoring was part of MCMC’s role as the regulator of the communications and multimedia sector, with the commission also working with other enforcement agencies when necessary.

“MCMC, as the regulator, we will always monitor social media content. Our message to all internet users is not to touch on 3R issues.

“We all have the right to campaign, but campaign democratically and do not touch on sensitive issues that could affect harmony in society,” she told reporters after a working visit to inspect the progress of the Public Higher Education Institution Wi-Fi project at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) here today.

Her remarks come as preparations for the state election gather pace, although the date for dissolving the Melaka State Legislative Assembly has yet to be fixed.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh was reported yesterday as saying that several state administrative matters needed to be resolved before the assembly could be dissolved, to ensure the relevant plans proceeded smoothly.

Ab Rauf, who is also Melaka Barisan Nasional chairman, said the state assembly must be dissolved by the end of December, when its current term expires. — Bernama

MANILA, Sept 18 — The Philippine Coast Guard said on Friday it confiscated 12.5 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 130 cases of dynamite aboard a vessel sitting at port in Palawan province.

The explosive substances were found on Sunday alongside materials used in detonations inside two trucks on a ferry that carried both cargo and passengers, the coast guard said in a statement.

Ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilisers, is safe if stored properly, but there can be catastrophic consequences when mishandled or mixed with explosives.

A stash of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate left to degrade in a Beirut warehouse killed more than 220 people and laid waste to swathes of the Lebanese capital when it exploded in 2020.

“The explosives and components were discovered inside (two trucks) aboard the RoRo (roll-on, roll-off) passenger vessel,” the coast guard said in a Friday statement, adding the cargo had been “improperly declared”.

“The confiscated explosives and components are currently under the custody of the Philippine National Police,” they said.

“The (coast guard) will work closely with the PNP to determine the role of the accompanying personnel in the shipment of said cargo.”

It was unclear if any arrests had been made as of Friday afternoon, and the name of the involved company has not been disclosed.

A coast guard officer tasked with port safety had been “relieved from his post to ensure impartial investigation”, the statement said.

The discovery comes in the wake of a series of deadly ferry accidents.

On September 9, a fire ripped after an explosion in the cargo hold of the M/V June Aster near the resort area of Coron, Palawan, burning dozens of passengers to death.

In January, a triple-decker ferry carrying more than 340 people sank off the southern Philippines, killing at least 52 people. — AFP