KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s king is set Tuesday to meet the heads of political parties as he swiftly began the task of finding a new prime minister amid a worsening coronavirus pandemic.
The resignation Monday of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin after less than 18 months in office followed mounting public anger over what was widely perceived as his government’s poor handling of the pandemic. Malaysia has one of the world’s highest infection rates and deaths per capita, with daily cases breaching 20,000 this month despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June.
The monarch has ruled out a general election as many parts of the country are COVID-19 red zones and health facilities are inadequate.
Muhyiddin was appointed caretaker prime minister until a successor is found.
Local media said Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has summoned party leaders to the palace later Tuesday, all believed to be at the same time. This included parties formerly in Muhyiddin’s government as well as the opposition.
The king plays a largely ceremonial role but he appoints the person he believes has majority support of Parliament to be prime minister.
Muhyiddin took power in March 2020 after initiating the collapse of the reformist government that won 2018 elections. With a razor-thin majority in Parliament and an unstable coalition, he held office less than 18 months, making him the country’s shortest-ruling leader.
Before choosing Muhyiddin, Sultan Abdullah interviewed all 222 lawmakers individually then sought nominations from party leaders in an arduous selection process. His choice of Muhyiddin as the prime minister was disputed by the predecessor he ousted, Mahathir Mohamad, and the opposition.
An official from Mahathir’s party confirmed it has been invited to the meeting Tuesday.
The selection this time will be another tough chore for the monarch because no coalition can claim a majority. The three-party alliance that is the biggest opposition bloc has nominated its leader, Anwar Ibrahim. But the bloc has less than 90 lawmakers, short of the 111 needed for a simple majority. That’s also less than the 100 lawmakers believed to have backed Muhyiddin.
Other contenders include former Deputy Prime Minister Ismail who is from the United Malays National Organization, the biggest party in Muhyiddin’s alliance.
Local media said another possible candidate is Razaleigh Hamzah, an 84-year-old prince who was a former finance minister. Razaleigh, an UMNO lawmaker, is seen as a neutral candidate who could unite the warring factions in UMNO.
A leader from eastern Sabah state on Borneo island, Shafie Apdal, has also been named in the race. It is unlikely as his party only has 8 lawmakers but some say a leader from Borneo may be seen as acceptable to all.
But Mahathir, 96, has called for a national recovery council to be formed and led mainly by professionals to resolve the country’s economic and health crises.
The Bersih electoral reform group urged contenders to pursue political stability by offering multi-partisan governance and institutional reforms, and not just horse-trading over numbers and positions.
“The endless political machination due to winner-takes-all politics in a de facto hung parliament for the past one and a half year must now end to enable a more effective governance of health and economy. The new Prime Minister must quickly convene a special meeting and table a motion of confidence in himself to prove his majority,” it said in a statement.
It warned that a short-sighted and self-serving government would be punished by voters in the next election.
Malaysia’s king to meet political leaders to find new PM
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Malaysia’s king to meet political leaders to find new PM
- Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has summoned party leaders to the palace later Tuesday
Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters occupy Columbia University library
- Student protesters at Columbia, Jewish organizers among them, say the government is unfairly conflating pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitism
NEW YORK: Dozens of protesters stood on tables, beat drums and unfurled pro-Palestinian banners in the main reading room of a Columbia University library on Wednesday in one of the biggest demonstrations at the school since its New York City campus was roiled by a student protest movement last year.
Videos and photographs on social media showed the protesters, most wearing masks, with banners saying “Strike For Gaza” and “Liberated Zone” beneath the Lawrence A. Wein Reading Room’s chandeliers in the Butler Library. Columbia’s public affairs office said in a statement that its public safety staff were asking protesters to show identification, and that if protesters do not comply with orders to disperse, they will be disciplined for breaking school rules and face “possible arrest.”
At one point, more people were seen trying to enter the library, according to a Reuters witness. Public safety staff locked a door and shoving and pushing ensued.
The protest comes as Columbia’s board of trustees continues its negotiations with US President Donald Trump’s administration, which announced in March it had canceled hundreds of millions of dollars of grants to the university for scientific research.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in an interview with the NBC 4 news channel that Columbia officials had asked for help and that the New York Police Department was sending officers to the campus.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a collection of student groups, recirculated on social media on Wednesday their long-standing demand that the university end investments of its $14.8 billion endowment in weapons makers and other companies that support Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories.
Trump, a Republican, has called the pro-Palestinian student protests across college campuses last year antisemitic and anti-American. Student protesters at Columbia, Jewish organizers among them, say the government is unfairly conflating pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitism.
Trump is also trying to deport some pro-Palestinian international students at US schools, saying their presence could harm US foreign policy interests.
The protesters in the library also demanded the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate student who remains in a Louisiana immigrants jail after he was among the first to be arrested.
Putin’s order for three-day truce with Ukraine enters force
- Putin announced the truce last month as a “humanitarian” gesture, following pressure from Trump
- Ukraine never agreed to the truce and has dismissed it as theatrics, calling instead for a 30-day ceasefire
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for a three-day truce with Ukraine to coincide with Moscow’s World War II Victory Day commemorations has taken effect, Russian state media reported.
Ukraine never agreed to the truce and has dismissed it as theatrics, calling instead for a 30-day ceasefire.
The three-day order began at midnight Thursday (2100 GMT on Wednesday) and is scheduled to last until the end of Saturday, according to the Kremlin.
“The ceasefire ... on the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory has begun,” Russia’s state RIA news agency reported.
Hours before Putin’s order was scheduled to enter force, Moscow and Kyiv traded a slew of aerial attacks, prompting airport closures in Russia and leaving at least two dead in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has said Russian forces will honor Putin’s order to cease fire, but will respond “immediately” if Ukraine launches any attacks.
Putin announced the truce last month as a “humanitarian” gesture, following pressure from the United States to halt his three-year assault on Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump has been trying to broker a lasting ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv since his inauguration, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin.
Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional ceasefire in March, and has since offered only slim contributions to Trump’s peace efforts.
Ukraine has said it does not believe Russia will adhere to this truce and accused Moscow of hundreds of violations during a previous, 30-hour ceasefire ordered by Putin over Easter.
Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University
- "Police have detained a man who entered the University of Warsaw campus," Warsaw Police said
- Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student
WARSAW: Police said on Wednesday they had detained a 22-year-old Polish man after he killed one person with an axe at Warsaw University, in an attack the institution described as a "huge tragedy".
"Police have detained a man who entered the University of Warsaw campus. One person died, another was taken to hospital with injuries," Warsaw Police said in a statement on X.
They said the incident occurred at around 6:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), when the man attacked people on the campus with an axe, adding that the detainee was a 22-year-old Polish citizen.
Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student.
Private broadcaster Polsat News reported that a woman's severed head and an axe had been found at the university.
A spokesperson for the district prosecutor's office declined to comment on whether a severed head had been found.
The spokesperson said that a female administrative employee of the university had been killed at the scene and a security guard was injured and was taken to hospital in critical condition.
He said that the attacker had entered an auditorium at the university.
Reuters reporters at the scene saw police vans and a cordon around the auditorium where the attack took place.
The Rector of the University of Warsaw said in a statement that May 8 would be a day of mourning at the institution, calling the attack a "huge tragedy".
"We express our great sorrow and sympathy to the family and loved ones," the statement read.
Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence
- Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species
NAIROBI: Two Belgian teenagers found with 5,000 ants in Kenya were given a choice of paying a fine of $7,700 or serving 12 months in prison — the maximum penalty for the offense — for violating wildlife conservation laws.
Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species.
Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house in Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. They were charged on April 15.
Magistrate Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya’s main airport on Wednesday, said in her ruling that despite the teenagers telling the court they were naïve and collecting the ants as a hobby, the particular species of ants they collected is valuable and they had thousands of them — not just a few.
The Kenya Wildlife Service had said the teenagers were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.
“This is beyond a hobby. Indeed, there is a biting shortage of messor cepholates online,” Thuku said in her ruling.
The illegal export of the ants “not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits,” KWS said in a statement.
Duh Hung Nguyen, a Vietnamese national, told the court that he was sent to pick up the ants and arrived at Kenya’s main airport where he met his contact person, Dennis Ng’ang’a, and together they traveled to meet the locals who sell the ants.
Ng’ang’a, who is from Kenya, had said he didn’t know it was illegal because ants are sold and eaten locally.
Bill Gates meets Indonesian leader to discuss development initiatives
- Gates’ foundation is developing a tuberculosis vaccine that’s planned to be tested in Indonesia
JAKARTA: Bill Gates was in Indonesia on Wednesday to discuss health and sustainable development initiatives with the leader of the world’s fourth most populous country.
Gates met President Prabowo Subianto at the colonial-style Merdeka palace in Jakarta to discuss global health, nutrition, financial inclusion and public digital infrastructure, Indonesia’s presidential office said in a statement ahead of the meeting.
The co-founder of Microsoft and Gates Foundation praised Indonesia’s adoption of vaccines against Rotavirus for diarrhea and Pneumococcus for pneumonia and the country’s efforts in reducing child mortality.
He said 10 million children under the age of five worldwide died when his foundation launched in 2000, with 90 percent of the deaths due to diarrhea, pneumonia or malaria. That number has now been cut in half to below 5 million, Gates said.
“It’s been an amazing time period. And there’s many new tools coming,” he told the meeting, which was also attended by prominent Indonesian businesspeople and philanthropists.
Gates’ foundation is currently developing a tuberculosis vaccine that’s planned to be tested in Indonesia, Subianto said.
“This is crucial because TB is still a deadly disease in the country,” he said.
Gates said that because rich countries don’t have tuberculosis, “it just doesn’t get hardly any money for diagnostics or drugs or vaccines.”
Gates has granted more than $159 million to Indonesia since 2009.
Much of it was allocated to the health sector, especially for vaccine procurement, Subianto said.
Thanks to the funds, Subianto said Biofarma, a state-run pharmaceutical company, now can produce 2 billion doses of its polio vaccine every year, benefiting more than 900 million people in 42 countries.
