Wake up, Putrajaya: We are in an education crisis

COMMENT | Wake up, Putrajaya: We are in an education crisis

Sum Dek Joe, Lau Ken Ern

Published: Sep 15, 2026 11:36 AM


COMMENT | Last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) released the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) scores.


Pisa measures 15-year-olds’ ability to apply their knowledge and skills in science, mathematics and reading to real-world problems. The assessment is held every three years and has become the standard international benchmark for comparing the performances of education systems.

More than 760,000 students across 91 countries and economies, including 7,624 students from 157 schools in Malaysia, participated in 2025.

Malaysia first participated in 2009, and our scores have consistently remained below the OECD average, hovering in the bottom third. Yet, successive education and development plans have continued to set ambitious targets.


The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013–2025 aspired for Malaysia to reach the top one-third of countries in international assessments, while the 13th Malaysia Plan now targets reaching the international average by 2030.

Moreover, Malaysia is being overtaken by regional economies with lower income per capita. Thailand, which had generally performed below us in recent Pisa cycles, overtook us substantially in mathematics and science, while matching our reading score in 2025. While Cambodia remains behind, it has recorded significant improvements, while Malaysia has declined (Figure 1).

The latest results paint an increasingly grim picture. Malaysia’s mathematics score fell to a historic low at 397, below 400 for the first time. While the scores for science and reading increased by three and five points respectively, neither increase was statistically significant, with the OECD describing Malaysia’s performance in both subjects as “about the same” compared to 2022.


Level of proficiency

More troubling is what lies beneath the headline scores. Almost two-thirds of our students, or 65 percent, failed to attain Level 2 proficiency in mathematics, the OECD’s baseline proficiency level.

At this level, students are expected to apply basic mathematics to simple real-world problems, such as performing currency conversions. The share of Malaysian students below this baseline has risen from 41 percent in 2018 to 65 percent 2025.

Scores did fall across most participating countries in Pisa 2025, but Malaysia’s decline is structural rather than a shared post-pandemic dip. Some may attribute our deteriorating results to insufficient resources or a lack of curiosity among students. Yet, Malaysia already spends more on education than our regional neighbours such as Thailand and Vietnam, who performed better than us (Figure 2).

The Education Ministry consistently receives the largest allocation among all ministries in the federal budget, rising from RM55.2 billion in 2023 to RM66.2 billion in 2026. Meanwhile, the evidence does not point to a simple shortage of teachers as a dominant cause either.

The 2025 PISA survey shows that only 18 percent of Malaysian students attended schools whose principals reported that instruction was hindered by a lack of teaching staff, lower than the OECD average of 39 percent. Neither does the problem appear to be a lack of student motivation.

Eighty percent of Malaysian students reported curiosity about learning many different things, while 79 percent said they put in additional effort when schoolwork became difficult. However, only 37 percent demonstrated a “growth mindset” where they believed intelligence can be cultivated through effort, learning and feedback.

Structural issues

In reality, the issues are more structural, and some start even before children enter school.

First, Malaysia’s child stunting rate rose to 21.2 percent in 2022, up from 17.7 percent in 2015 according to the 2022 National Health and Morbidity survey. More recent estimates put Malaysia's stunting rate at 24 percent in 2024, higher than Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Chronic undernutrition in early childhood can weaken cognitive development and reduce school readiness and concentration, which leads to poor learning outcomes.

Then, children enter primary school with weak foundations. Malaysia’s pre-school gross enrolment rate is relatively high at 93 percent in 2024, but the headline masks the persistent gaps in access and quality.

In rural and remote areas, families may have no public preschool within reasonable proximity. In urban areas, limited public places leave lower-income families reliant on private options they cannot afford. More importantly, access does not necessarily translate into readiness.

A 2024 World Bank report found that 24 percent of children who attended preschool still lacked the skills needed to be school-ready, while 42 percent of 10-year-olds were unable to read and understand a short, age-appropriate text. If a child cannot read with understanding by age 10, learning in almost every other subject becomes harder.

The quality of early-childhood education is another concern. 57 percent or 32,975 Malaysia’s preschool teachers did not hold the minimum diploma qualification in early childhood education in 2023. The system is also fragmented across different ministries, agencies and private providers (Figure 3). If children begin Primary One already behind, those learning gaps will compound as they progress through school.

Third, there is a broad lack of ownership and understanding among stakeholders responsible for implementation. On paper, the Malaysia Education Blueprint, be it the past (2013-2025) or the latest (2026-2035), has always been aspirational and embedded with reforms ranging from Higher-Order Thinking Skills to interventions in mathematics learning.

The problem, however, has never been a shortage of policy plans, but a struggle to implement them at the district and school level. A study conducted by a group of University of Nottingham experts found that school principals and teachers in Malaysia take limited ownership of the education blueprint because they are insufficiently consulted, and lead to a lack of enthusiasm in implementation, while feedback loops between schools and policymakers remain weak.

Lastly, Malaysian teaching pedagogy must catch up. While the education blueprints have repeatedly advocated for more student-centred teaching and placed greater emphasis on higher-order thinking skills, classroom practice has changed far more slowly.


No silver bullet

An OECD report found that 70 percent of classroom tasks still emphasised factual recall and rote memorisation rather than critical thinking and problem-solving.

Unless continuing professional development for teachers becomes more effective, classroom practice will struggle to change, and students will not grasp the critical thinking skills crucial for the 21st century.

There is no silver bullet to the crisis. However, the first step is to stop pretending that our results are fine when they are at historic lows. The Education Ministry should take a less defensive approach and stop setting aspirational targets that it repeatedly fails to implement or achieve.

Reform must instead focus on aligning incentives and securing buy-in across Putrajaya, district offices, school leaders and teachers, while identifying where learning is failing and fixing implementation at the school level.

We are running out of time. If we continue with business as usual, we are not just falling behind our neighbours. We are failing our children.

SUM DEK JOE is a trained economist and recently joined Bersama as its policy spokesperson.

LAU KEN ERN is an undergraduate student at the University of Cambridge. He is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy.

The article first appeared on the Edge.

Umno AGM: When leaders' priorities go wrong

YOURSAY | Umno AGM: When leaders' priorities go wrong

Published: Sep 16, 2026 9:48 AM


YOURSAY | 'Leadership calls for dignity, not cheap personal shots.'


Zahid's body barbs draw 'sexist' fire from Kasthuri, but Noraini wasn't his only target


PinkMarlin6024: That's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also the head honcho of Umno, for all Malaysians to see.

He is crude, crass and utterly unbecoming of someone who occupies such a prominent position in our nation's political landscape. Leadership demands more than power, position and political manoeuvring. It calls for dignity, restraint and respect for others.


When a political leader resorts to language or conduct that falls so far short of these standards, it reflects poorly not only on the individual but also on the institution he leads.

Malaysians deserve leaders who elevate public discourse, uphold the dignity of their office and inspire confidence through their words and actions. Political leadership should be a source of pride, not embarrassment.


DrKam: If you want to be prime minister, show us your principles, convictions, policies, leadership, and vision for Malaysia. If you cannot challenge others on those grounds, attacking appearance, body shape, or facial features says far more about the weakness of your political argument than it does about those you make fun of.

And the "guru" jibe? That seems to have spectacularly backfired. This referred to his policy speech, where Zahid took a jibe at Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim by borrowing the viral TikTok catchphrase "guru, hentikan, guru" (teacher, stop it, teacher).


While not mentioning Anwar's name, it is understood that Zahid was playing on their often-described teacher-student relationship that gained attention following a leaked recording of their phone conversation in 2021.

A prospective prime minister should offer Malaysians a better vision for the country - not prove how good he is at cheap personal shots. Is this really the calibre of leadership Malaysians want in Putrajaya?

Coward: To Zahid’s daughter Nurul Hidayah: your father is a grown man. He can do his own apology. He doesn't need you to do it for him. Save your energy to persuade him to do the right thing.

To Zahid: stop hiding behind your daughter - be man enough to admit you made a mistake and promise to stop your behaviour. For the layman in public, it is "low" behaviour. However, as a leader, your conduct is at minimum called bullying, and at worst, an abuse of power.

Lone_Star: When the president can crack jokes, why not Sepang? The good daughter had to apologise to the Wanita Umno chief with the standard "if anyone was hurt" apology.

Former DAP MP Kasthuri Patto just needs to make sure DAP men do not crack such jokes. As for Zahid, is he advertising or acting as the spokesperson for Ozempic and/or Mounjaro?

To the Wanita Umno chief Noraini Ahmad, sincere and unconditional apologies on behalf of the uncouth DPM who appears to be on a high. Take care and stay healthy.

No wonder Zahid has not commented on the Catholic joke by Sepang Umno chief Noorazli Said. He has not apologised on Sepang's behalf nor asked Sepang to apologise for the offensive joke. The good daughter is better; she did not mention Sepang's joke but at least gave the usual "if" apology on her papa's behalf to the Wanita Umno chief.

Apanama is back: "Cakap merepek dulu, minta maaf kemudian" (utter nonsense now, ask forgiveness later) or "Buat lawak bodoh dulu, minta maaf kemudian" (make silly jokes now, say sorry later). This is another reason why the incompetent Zahid should be voted out in Bagan Datuk.

Imagine if he were PM and kept making demeaning jokes about women - he would just hide behind "it was only a joke" when the real intention is to demean. That is his and his ilk's pattern.

Umno Baru is infamous for mocking others to show the party is supreme, but it has turned into a useless and corrupt outfit.

Mechi: What did this Umno assembly achieve? Petty, superficial comments that don't merit any print. I was hoping the 6,800 or so delegates would be debating economic development, education, raising Malaysia's profile, climate change issues, corruption, and attracting foreign investment.

Sadly, the priorities were completely wrong. Where is the leadership heading? It is really sad to see the direction Malaysia is being led in - wasted opportunities and resources. What is wrong with these people?

Headhunter: It seems our politicians are fixated on two things: money and the female form. Even the older ones can’t seem to resist getting caught up in these matters, bringing disgrace upon themselves and shame to their families.

LionKing: In the end, the Malays must decide which party they want to support for the good of the nation, not for personal interest. Just look at countries riddled with corruption and poor-quality leaders that have brought ruin to their people.

Nothing constructive came out of this great Umno assembly on how to progress Malaysia - just childish insults by uncouth members. Anwar should go all out on corruption with no mercy. DAP also needs a new leader.

When Britain Used Torture to Control the Strait of Hormuz

Consortium News
Volume 31, Number 252— Sunday, September 13, 2026


When Britain Used Torture to Control the Strait of Hormuz


Amaar Chowdhury reports on the emergence of new details about the extreme measures that British soldiers used to support a Gulf autocrat



The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf of Oman, left, with the Persian Gulf, right. The waterway also separates nation of Iran, bottom, from the Arabian Peninsula nations of Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, top left to right. (NASA Johnson / Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

By Amaar Chowdhury
Declassified UK


Previously secret military files reveal links between the use of torture by British forces in Oman and Northern Ireland during the 1970s.

An army major who led the worst of these interrogations in the Gulf would later earn a senior role in a secretive intelligence unit in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles.

Although that unit colluded with paramilitaries, the officer involved appears to have been promoted to MI5’s most senior role in Northern Ireland.

The interrogations done by his men in Oman were more extensive than previously reported and would be considered illegal by today’s standards.

They were employed as part of a counter-insurgency campaign waged for Sultan Qaboos, a pro-British dictator installed in Oman after an MI6-backed coup in 1970.

U.K. support for Qaboos was driven by a desire to secure oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which is flanked by Iran on one side and the disputed Musandam peninsula to the south.

British planners helped Qaboos annex Musandam in 1970, creating an Omani exclave separated from the rest of the country and surrounded by the Trucial States (which are now the United Arab Emirates).

The annexation, codenamed Operation Intradon, was resisted by Musandam’s indigenous population, the autonomous Shihuh people.

Map of Oman for use on Wikivoyage, English version. (Burmesedays / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

‘Splendid Job’

Britain inserted elite SAS troops into Musandam in December 1970 to round up suspected rebels.

Declassified has previously found that while one member of the Shihuh tribe was being questioned, he refused to give up his ceremonial dagger and was shot in the arm, shoulder and neck.

It can now be revealed that another detainee who allegedly escaped in March 1971 was shot in the back and shoulder.

Regarding the incident, Geoffrey Arthur — British political resident for the Persian Gulf — told Conservative Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home:


“We might also eventually have to face questions as to why such persons had been detained and/or interrogated by British forces at Sharjah, but we would naturally try to prevent this aspect getting out.”

Douglas-Home wrote back that they should be detained and interrogated in Muscat, Oman’s capital, rather than in Sharjah — one of the Trucial States — to reduce the risk of leaks.

The interrogation team, dubbed No. 1 Holding Unit, was then commanded by Major H. Sloan of the army’s Intelligence Corps.

According to records kept by the Ministry of Defence, four Shihuh tribesmen were interrogated in January 1971 at the notorious Bait-al-Falaj fort in Muscat. They were subjected to now banned methods of torture which involve sensory deprivation, such as completely covering someone’s head with a sack and bombarding them with noise.

Such a large number of arrests had been made, however, that Bait-al-Falaj was no longer suitable to interrogate them all, despite the “splendid job” that Sloan’s team had done.

His team, composed of two interrogators, had been given “too many subjects to handle” and so the interrogations were deemed unsuccessful. The Shihuh detainees had been apparently “fully indoctrinated by Maoist communists” and trained to resist interrogation, or so the documents claim.

The commander of British Forces in the Gulf requested another interrogation team be deployed in Sharjah, north of Dubai, where “some members of the security forces” were active.

Many extracts from the files, some of which could shed light on these security forces, have been fully withheld.

From Aden to Oman

The Ministry of Defence later approved the request for another interrogation team to be sent to the Trucial States, this time under the control of Major J.H.S. Burgess.

This appears to fit the description of a John Howard Searles Burgess, a decorated military intelligence veteran active in Oman during the ’70s, who appears to have passed away in 1999.

Military records explain that Burgess had been awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, after being “personally connected” with the capture of 26 “terrorists” in Aden, Yemen, where he worked in intelligence during the “emergency” in 1965, when detainees were allegedly tortured.

The rest of Burgess’ team in Oman was composed of one other officer, possibly Sloan, and seven unidentified troops.

They set out on a path of brutal interrogation that saw 31 Shihuh tribesmen interrogated between May and June 1971.

The longest interrogation lasted 84 hours, although another individual subjected to almost 33 hours of interrogation had become “so mentally retarded there was no point in questioning him further.”

They did this by forcing the Shihuh detainees into unnatural stress positions against walls, hooding their faces and subjected them to an “electronic noise machine” — the first use of its kind.

In addition to these two incidents in 1971, Ministry of Defence briefing notes reveal two earlier interrogation episodes in 1970, bringing the total to four.

When faced with questions from an MP, officials sought to only admit the interrogations happened somewhere “in the Gulf area but we must clearly be ready for him to press us to the point where we cannot conceal any longer that the operations were in Oman.”

Ultimately Parliament was only told the interrogations took place in the “Persian Gulf,” when a committee investigated aspects of the abuse.

A memo showing the MoD did not want to tell parliament it had conducted interrogations in Oman. (Via Declassified UK)


The Army’s Joint Services Interrogation Wing

Burgess was considered so successful in his interrogations that he would go on to command the Joint Services Interrogation Wing (JSIW), a highly secretive unit within the army’s Intelligence Corps.

The JSIW was responsible for developing new interrogation techniques and simultaneously training soldiers to resist them if they were captured.

The unit’s methods were so extreme that a report written by military psychiatrists warned interrogation subjects could suffer “hysterical” dissociations, terror, delusions and suicidal ideation — even in training scenarios.

If a trainee prisoner needed hospital care “only the absolute minimum of contact should be made” so they could get the “maximum benefit” from the training exercises.

A year before landing in Musandam, the SAS also ran several training exercises for the JSIW.

However when England’s top judge, Lord Parker, was tasked with investigating allegations of torture in Northern Ireland, the Ministry of Defence claimed the SAS were not involved in the evolution of interrogation techniques, despite the fact they were running training exercises and reporting findings back to the JSIW.

These exercises were offered to MI5, the Metropolitan Police Special Branch, Royal Hong Kong Police Special Branch and military students from the USA, Holland, Jordan, Belgium, Germany, Norway and Denmark.

In one exercise, a trainee volunteer believed he was being blamed for the assassination of the Prince of Wales, which he imagined entirely. Another said he would have done anything his interrogator said: “even jumped over a cliff.”

Three participants in an SAS-run exercise required medical treatment where the average interrogation time was three and half hours. This was only half what Burgess’ interrogation team would later subject the Shihuh to.

From Oman to Ireland

After his tour of Oman, John Burgess, a lieutenant-colonel at this point, was sent to Northern Ireland, where he was awarded an Order of the British Empire, or OBE, for his intelligence work. He would also go on to become the deputy director of the Intelligence Corps between 1977-79, during the Troubles.

He has been described as MI5’s “Northern Ireland Director and Co-ordinator of Intelligence … an experienced intelligence officer who had commanded the Special Military Intelligence Unit (SMIU) in the province in the mid-seventies and later the Intelligence Corps depot at Ashford in Kent” by security expert Stephen Dorril in his book The Silent Conspiracy.

The late Irish journalist Frank Doherty wrote that the SMIU had “members working undercover in every police division in Northern Ireland, sometimes posing as RUC men” in order to supervise the local security forces on behalf of MI5.

Current MI5 Headquarters, London. (Asha, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The Intelligence Corps is known to have worked closely with MI5 and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch in Northern Ireland; and all have been accused of colluding with loyalist paramilitary groups.

Military intelligence’s learnings from the JSIW in Oman would go on to heavily inform interrogations in Northern Ireland.

Oman was the British government’s breakthrough success with interrogation, with one briefing stating that using specialist officers and bespoke interrogation centres


“enabled complete security to be planned and obtained, for the first time during the second phase of operations [in Oman], and subsequently, when a requirement for interrogation was recognised in Northern Ireland.”

The Northern Ireland Office had initially sought to have Metropolitan Police interrogators operating on behalf of the RUC, but this idea was stamped out.

It was finally agreed that the JSIW would provide interrogation training to the RUC Special Branch. They even provided guidance, supervision, and technical assistance to the RUC during Operation Calaba in August 1971.

This saw hundreds of people arrested and imprisoned without trial on the suspicion that they supported the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Among those interned, 14 were selected for “deep interrogation.” They were taken to a secret location and subjected to what became known as the five techniques.

The men were hooded and forced to stand against a wall for hours in painful stress positions — as had been done in Oman weeks earlier. White noise was played to overwhelm their senses, as they were deprived of food, water and sleep to weaken their resistance.

Qaboos bin Said Al Said in Muscat, Oman, 2013. (U.S. State Department)


The combination of these five interrogation methods was carefully designed to leave no marks, but it was so traumatic that one detainee, 42-year-old Sean McKenna, died prematurely four years later from a heart attack.

When the interrogations came to light later in 1971, MPs were so outraged that Britain’s Conservative government had to commission an inquiry chaired by Lord Parker.

He found that the interrogation tactics were illegal under domestic law. Privately, ministers had gone further. Merlyn Rees, a former Northern Ireland Secretary, described the five techniques as “methods of torture.”


‘Dirty Secret’

However, officials managed to conceal the interrogations of the Shihuh, despite them having been subjected to worse treatment.

In the official Parker inquiry publication, Oman is not mentioned once. This is because “Oman is such a special case that it should not be covered,” according to Brigadier Richard Bremner, who was inspector of the Intelligence Corps in 1971.

Commenting on the findings, Paul O’Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry, said: “The declassified documents on Oman are both revealing and relevant to what is happening today in the Strait of Hormuz.”

“As the clamour grew here in 1971 for an inquiry into the five torture techniques these documents reveal that government ministers were knowingly providing misleading replies to parliament questions.

“The exact same interrogation methods were being used by British forces in Oman but Ministers made vague references to the ‘Persian Gulf’ when asked where else ‘noise machines’ were used to disorient prisoners during interrogation (the other confirmed uses were Brunei and the North of Ireland.)

“The purpose of this undeclared ‘secret war’ in support of the Sultan was to ensure the safe passage of vital oil supplied through the Strait of Hormuz.

“The documents reveal concerns that the trail from the interrogation centre at Ballykelly RAF base near Derry could potentially lead back to the “Persian Gulf” and yet another dirty secret.”

Amaar Chowdhury is a freelance investigative journalist. His reporting has a focus on technology, surveillance, and the British arms trade.

This article is from Declassified UK.

Osama Bin Trump

Consortium News
Volume 31, Number 252— Sunday, September 13, 2026


Chris Hedges: Osama Bin Trump


When the U.S. became the terrorists it claimed it was seeking to defeat, the country defeated itself



And Now a Word From Our Monster – by Mr. Fish

By Chris Hedges
ScheerPost

Donald Trump, whose war on Iran is the greatest strategic blunder in United States history, is not responsible for triggering the decline of the American empire, but he is responsible for its fatal denouement.

This is the end.

U.S. bases in the oil-rich Persian Gulf have been damaged or destroyed and I expect will not be rebuilt. U.S. allies, even those in Europe, are abandoning Washington. The decadence and immorality of American society, embodied in the vulgarity, stupefying ignorance and cruelty of Trump, are the defining characteristics of the Empire.

The Global South, horrified at the Empire’s flagrant disregard for international humanitarian law, including the enabling of genocide in Gaza, sees the U.S. as the enemy. Abu Ghraib Prison may have receded from our consciousness, but for the rest of the world, its images of U.S. soldiers and contractors sadistically humiliating and torturing imprisoned Iraqis has replaced the Disneyfied version of itself that America once exported.

The war on Iran, which has disrupted the world’s oil supply, is rapidly pushing the global economy over the cliff.

The U.S. is going down. And it will bring many with it.

Osama Bin Laden may be in a watery grave in the North Arabian Sea. Al-Qaeda may be a shadow of itself. But Bin Laden’s most fervent dreams have been realized in the last 25 years of gross miscalculations of the Empire — its squandering of trillions of dollars on military debacles and the ascendancy of our version of Ubu Roi, Donald J. Trump.

Rather than defeating supposed enemies, the U.S. has swelled their ranks. It and its colony, Israel, are the most reviled nations on the planet. Every advance by Iran in its asymmetrical war against the Empire is cheered across the globe.

The humiliating defeats, the diversion of resources and at least $8 trillion to mount one war after another, which has killed an estimated 4.5 to 4.8 million people, has hollowed the Empire out.

Its infrastructure is crumbling. Its democratic institutions are impotent. It survives on an unsustainable $ 40 trillion debt. The jewels of its democracy, including its education system, fair elections and a free press, are discredited and degraded.

An abandoned working class, crippled by economic insecurity and a government that steadily strips away social programs that keep those in distress afloat, is propagandized to believe the palpable decline is the work of traitors and enemies within. It has led Trump supporters to turn on the very institutions and ideals designed to sustain democracy. The usual targets of fascism — the “radical left,” Muslims, migrants, intellectuals, artists, people of color and journalists — are persecuted under laws such as The Espionage Act.

Lies permeate the airwaves buttressing the self-delusion that once internal enemies are silenced, or eradicated, the glory days of the Empire, defined by hyper-nationalism, patriarchy, stable jobs and white supremacy, will return.

Violence against internal enemies along with election fraud are openly advocated by Trump and his court of sycophants, buffoons, grifters and Christian fascists. Attempting to bribe voters by promising them $5,000 if Republicans win the midterms, along with Trump’s contempt for the constitutional order, is the transparent admission that U.S. democracy is a farce.

George W. Bush, who was appointed to the presidency by judicial fiat, planted these seeds of lawlessness and impunity. Trump has brought them to floraison.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) goons, masked and offered the kind of impunity that allowed the torture and killing of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorize U.S. cities. They carry out military-style raids against unarmed civilians that look no different than those the Empire carried out in Fallujah or the Helmand Province in Afghanistan. They are setting up a network of squalid internal concentration camps.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, agents on top of the Broadview ICE Detention Center in Chicago on Sept. 9, 2025. (Paul Goyette /Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 4.0)


The tools of subjugation the Empire used abroad, including the stripping of civil liberties and the implementation of mass surveillance, were legalized at home with the passage of The Patriot Act, with its watchlists, informants and racial and religious profiling.

Empires in decay impose the tyranny familiar to those subjugated abroad on their own citizens.

I was in the Middle East when it all went wrong. Nearly all of the Muslim world was appalled by the attacks of 9/11. There were massive public expressions of solidarity, including candlelight vigils in Iran. If the U.S. had built on this empathy rather than demonizing Muslims and inflicting suffering and death on millions in the Middle East, the country would be far more secure today.

Instead, the U.S. drank deep from the poisonous elixir of nationalism. It foolishly believed it was attacked, as Bush said, because “they hate our freedoms,” not because of our support for the apartheid and genocidal state of Israel, our callous indifference to human life beyond our borders, including the killing of over a million people in Iraq by U.S. sanctions, and our propping up of brutal Arab dictatorships.

The wreckage the U.S. has left behind from its forever wars include the obliteration of whole cities, along with 940,000 direct deaths in post-9/11 war zones, 3.6 to 3.8 million indirect deaths and 38 million people displaced.

The hijackers chose massive death and destruction on a city skyline to send a message. They spoke the language the U.S. taught them. It is the message U.S. warplanes, missiles and drones have delivered from Vietnam to Iraq. Washington did not listen. It naively believed it could use its military to remake the Middle East in its own image.

The failure of the War on Terror is not simply a moral failure. It is a strategic failure. The U.S. refused to ask the obvious question. Why did many outside its borders feel so much hostility towards it that they were willing to kill themselves and thousands of U.S. citizens?

Those of us who dared to raise these questions 25 years ago were vilified as supporters of terrorism and silenced.

The only way to defeat terrorism is to isolate those who carry out acts of terror within their own societies. It is to build networks of understanding and solidarity. The U.S. did the opposite. It became the terrorists it claimed to be seeking to defeat. We did what Bin Laden wanted the U.S. to do — defeat itself.

Trump is presiding over the last act.

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and NPR. He is the host of show The Chris Hedges Report.

This article is from Scheerpost.

Russia Just Put the World's Uranium Supply at Risk

Russia Just Put the World's Uranium Supply at Risk

by Asymmetric Research
Tuesday, Sep 15, 2026 - 20:26


Russia has temporarily banned the export of sulphuric acid until the end of the year, to secure supply for its own industrial and fertiliser producers. It sounds like a niche chemicals story. It is not. It lands directly on the world's largest uranium producer, Kazakhstan, and its reliance on Russian acid.


Why the acid ban matters for Kazakh uranium

Kazakhstan is a notable producer of sulphuric acid, at around 2.4 Mtpa, but the country runs a deficit, importing roughly 20% of its annual needs, mainly from Russia. Sulphuric acid is the binding input for the in-situ leach method Kazakhstan uses, so acid availability directly constrains how much uranium the country can produce.

Kazatomprom recently delayed the start-up of its new 0.8 Mtpa acid plant to late 2027 or early 2028. Until that plant is running, the company relies on external acid purchases of around 1.5 Mtpa to sustain production of c70-75 Mlbs. Its own acid production is about 60% of the Kazakh total, and we estimate around 0.3 Mtpa of its acid needs are met from imports.

Assuming Kazatomprom has already secured a majority of its imported acid for next year's production, the residual exposure is manageable but not trivial. If no intergovernmental arrangement is reached to keep Russian acid flowing to Kazakhstan, we estimate the ban could reduce Kazatomprom's 2027 production by around 3 Mlbs, or roughly 4%. We still await the company's 2027 production plans.

Kazatomprom and Kazakh sulphuric acid requirements, and estimated Russian freeze impact

Source: Asymmetric Research, inbusiness.kz, Kursiv Media


The waiver question, and the Uranium One angle

The Russian resolution allows exceptions: exports can proceed where approved by the Russian authorities, or under intergovernmental agreements and international transit arrangements. On the face of it, Kazakhstan is the kind of counterparty for which such a waiver would make sense. The two countries are closely tied in the nuclear fuel chain, and those ties have if anything just deepened.

In late August, Kazatomprom disclosed an agreement to sell natural uranium to Uranium One Group, the Rosatom entity that operates Russia's foreign uranium assets and is itself a shareholder in several of Kazatomprom's key joint ventures, with physical delivery into Russia's Siberian Chemical Plant. The agreement is to be put to Kazatomprom shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting, with voting concluding in early October. So at the very moment Russia is restricting acid exports, it is deepening its uranium relationship with Kazakhstan. That interdependence makes a waiver for Kazakh acid supply look logical.

On balance we think it would be reasonable to expect some form of agreement to be reached, given the depth of the relationship. But we would not assume it, and until it is confirmed the c3 Mlb risk to 2027 production stands.

In any case, the episode reinforces a theme we have made repeatedly: the time of cheap uranium is over. Kazakh costs are on fire and acid shortages persist.

The more important point for Kazakhstan, and one we think the market is missing, is the strategic uranium reserve set out in the country's Nuclear Industry Development Strategy, announced in April. That is the real game changer for the Kazakh supply outlook, and we think it will limit production there meaningfully over time. We covered it in detail in our earlier reports on the sector.

Uranium stocks: The name flashing a Buy signal

 

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US FBI Director Kash Patel testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FBI oversight on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, September 15, 2026 [Roberto Schmidt/AFP]

By Al Jazeera Staff and Reuters

Published On 15 Sep 202615 Sep 2026

United States FBI Director Kash Patel has defended the bureau’s loosening of hiring requirements regarding prostitution and bestiality, saying the changes were meant to enable victims of those acts to apply for employment without fear of automatic disqualification.

The FBI quietly issued guidance this past spring lifting a categorical hiring ban on applicants who had previously engaged in prostitution, and said that it would instead consider the context of the behaviour in at least some cases. The bureau made a similar change regarding bestiality.

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Pressed about the moves at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, Patel on Tuesday denied that the changes reflected a lowering of employment standards and insisted they were designed to protect victims forced to engage in that conduct and to prevent automatic disqualification.

“We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked. We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you,” Patel said.

The answer did little to satisfy Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who grilled Patel on the rationale for a change the FBI director said subordinates proposed to him.

Kennedy asked Patel why, given the FBI’s current difficulty attracting new agents because of negative public sentiment, Patel would make these changes now.

“Why would you even get into bestiality?” Kennedy said.

Patel replied it was a way of supporting victims, and that some people who were “forced into” bestiality should not be disqualified.

The Republican-led panel tried to keep the focus on Patel’s efforts to combat violent crime, counter drug trafficking and pursue the Trump administration’s agenda from his perch at the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.

No more political value for UMNO to be part of Penang administration, says Guan Eng

No more political value for UMNO to be part of Penang administration, says Guan Eng


Lim claimed that there is no longer "political value" for UMNO to remain in the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-led government in Penang because it is actively working with Perikatan Nasional (PN)

Updated 48 minutes ago · Published on 16 Sep 2026 4:44PM

The price for retaining UMNO will be a negative impression of the leadership of Penang PH, said Lim - September 16, 2026


by Ian McIntyre



DAP adviser Lim Guan Eng has claimed that there is no longer "political value" for UMNO to remain in the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-led government in Penang because it is actively working with Perikatan Nasional (PN).

"There is no point in retaining UMNO as they no longer have regard for us," said Lim.

"In my previous statement, I did not challenge the Penang Chief Minister, but UMNO President Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for not having the guts to ask Penang PH to expel UMNO from the state administration as he did at the Federal government level," said Lim.

"PH Penang leaders should not fear offending an extremist UMNO that indulges in divisive attacks against non-Muslim religious minorities.

"Lest we forget, UMNO had claimed credit for causing the defeat of DAP secretary -general Anthony Loke Siew Fook in the Chenaah seat during the Negeri Sembilan state election.

"There is nothing wrong or confusing for DAP leaders to rebut UMNO’s baseless allegations against PH or Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Chow Kon Yeow may not want DAP leaders to express their views, but there is no gag order from Loke."

Whilst the final decision on whether UMNO should stay or not rests with the central leadership in the DAP and PH, Penang PH leaders should take a stand on this important issue and convey this to the top, Lim suggested.

"PH Penang leaders should wake up to the reality that there is no more value for UMNO to remain in the state when it can work actively with PN and PAS from within.

“The price for retaining UMNO will be a negative impression of the leadership of Penang PH in failing to recognise that the greatest enemy is within," said the former finance minister. - September 16, 2026.

Rohingya: Anwar points fingers at Najib and Hadi, says solution being resolved diplomatically

Rohingya: Anwar points fingers at Najib and Hadi, says solution being resolved diplomatically

Alyaa Alhadjri

Published: Sep 16, 2026 4:01 PM


Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has pointed a finger at former premier Najib Abdul Razak and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang for previously welcoming Rohingya refugees, while his government is now left to deal with the consequences.

Anwar’s remarks come amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment on social media, particularly targeting Rohingya communities, with online users raising concerns about their presence, alleged misconduct and impact on local livelihoods.

“Remember, the previous government invited them. It held a major rally welcoming them, which naturally encouraged them.

“They came here, and now we have to expel them,” Anwar said in an interview with podcaster Iskandar Ibrahim during a special episode of “Sembang Ohh Yeahh” aired today.


“They were welcomed. There was a major rally. I hope social media users will replay the speeches made by the leaders at the time, including PAS leaders.

“I am the one being blamed, even though others brought them here. What kind of situation is this?” he said.


Anwar was referring to the ummah solidarity rally with Rohingya held in Kuala Lumpur in December 2016, which both Najib and Hadi attended.

However, Anwar acknowledged mounting public frustration over the Rohingya community, claiming that some refugees had broken laws, encroached on villages, held illegal gatherings and taken over local businesses.



“They have clearly become a burden - a security burden, an economic burden and a source of hostility among the people,” said Anwar, who appealed to Malaysians not to attack, intimidate or humiliate them.

“If the Rohingya break the law, we will arrest them. I already issued instructions when they gathered outside the UNHCR office. I told the police to act immediately and not delay.

“However, Malaysia must preserve its image as a humane country. We can arrest them, but do not beat, intimidate or humiliate them,” he stressed.

On Thursday, Bukit Aman Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department director Noor Hisam Nordin reportedly urged the public, including influencers, not to take matters into their own hands over issues involving the Rohingya community, including their settlements.

“What I can say is, do not take matters into your own hands, as we have authorities such as the police, the Immigration Department, and others.

“If there is any uncertainty or incident requiring action by the authorities, including information on Rohingya settlements, report it to the police,” Harian Metro quoted him as saying.

Official invitation for Myanmar leader

Anwar said he had recently informed the cabinet and Home Ministry that he intended to invite Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing for an official visit to Malaysia.

The invitation, he said, was aimed at advancing negotiations for Myanmar to accept Rohingya refugees in stages.

“We can be friends, we can trade, and we can accept Myanmar, but Myanmar must accept the refugees.

“If it cannot accept all 200,000 at once, it can take them back in stages. We will help,” he said.

Anwar said he had previously met Min Aung Hlaing (below, right) in Bangkok, where he sought an end to killings and air strikes in Rakhine following an earthquake in Myanmar.

In return for humanitarian assistance, including a Malaysian field hospital and relief funds, Anwar said Myanmar agreed to halt attacks in the affected area and allow residents access to medical facilities.

He said they met again in Beijing about 18 months ago, when he raised the prospect of Malaysia sending its foreign minister to Myanmar and renewed his call for the country to accept the Rohingya.

Anwar defended his engagement with Myanmar despite Asean’s restrictions on high-level dealings with the junta, arguing that direct negotiations were necessary to resolve the refugee crisis.

“What is the point of constantly shouting and condemning Myanmar? Who is going to take these refugees? Where are we supposed to send them?

“That is why we must negotiate,” he said.


Myanmar agrees to accept 5,000

As a result, Anwar reiterated that Myanmar had so far agreed to accept 5,000 Rohingya from Malaysia, of whom 1,500 would be repatriated within the next one or two weeks.

“My solution is to negotiate with the Myanmar government to secure its agreement to take them back. Thank God, it has now agreed to accept 5,000 people,” he said.

According to Anwar, Myanmar would send a ship, while Malaysia would cover the refugees’ food, clothing and transportation costs.

He argued this would be more practical and less costly than housing them indefinitely in immigration detention depots.

“We arrest them and take them to detention depots, but when we want to send them home, Myanmar refuses to accept them.

“It is better for us to pay a little than to bear the cost of feeding hundreds of thousands of people in detention depots,” he said.

Anwar noted that Myanmar had long refused to recognise the Rohingya as citizens, making repatriation difficult.

The prime minister stressed that any repatriation must include security guarantees to prevent returnees from facing violence again.

“Our negotiations are not simply about transporting them home. They also involve security guarantees and ensuring that Muslims in Rakhine have a safe area where they will not be harmed,” he said.

He said Malaysia’s approach was to treat the refugees humanely while working to repatriate them safely.

“We treat them properly and give them food and clothing - but they must return home.

“This is not your country. This is Malaysia, and Malaysians must decide,” he stressed.

***

Rohingyas have never been loyal to Myanmar, never considering themselves as Myanmarese. Their age-old dream was to be part of Ali Jinnah's Pakistan (or today's Bangladesh). But Ali Jinnah rejected their appeals, telling them to be loyal citizens of Myanmar (then Burma).

In Arakan Myanmar they were reported to have ill-treated bumiputeras there as of a lower class to them (as had happened in Fiji), thus it's no wonder the local-indigenous Myanmarese hate them.

Umno Penang councillor whacks DAP at AGM, says sorry in resignation letter

Umno Penang councillor whacks DAP at AGM, says sorry in resignation letter

Published: Sep 16, 2026 3:16 PM


A Penang Umno leader who served as a state councillor appeared to make a 180 on his views about DAP, just days after he took shots at the latter.


Permatang Pauh Umno division chief Zaidi Said, during the party's annual general meeting on Saturday, accused DAP of being a racist party that was against the Umno-PAS Malay unity agenda.

However, in a letter resigning from his post as a Seberang Perai city councillor on Monday, Zaidi (above) struck a very different tone, apologising for his remarks while also hailing state DAP leaders.

This comes amid a push by some in DAP for the state government to kick Umno out, following the latter's challenge to Putrajaya to remove it as a partner in the federal government.


In his speech at the Umno AGM on Saturday, Zaidi claimed that the Umno-PAS Malay unity agenda had rattled DAP.

"They are nervous; they can't stand to see Malay unity happening. Why? Because when Malays unite, they will not be in power.


"So, they will use whatever means to end Malay unity," he said.

He also accused DAP of sowing the seeds of racism in the country, while denying that Umno was anti-Chinese.


Then on Monday, Zaidi submitted a letter resigning as Seberang Perai city councillor to state exco member Jason H'ng Mooi Lye - who oversees local governments - while expressing regret over his remarks.

"I would like to express my deep regret and offer an apology for the speech I delivered. I accept that this matter serves as an extremely important lesson for me that individual views and stances must be conveyed with utmost consideration, especially when one also carries responsibilities within a joint government administration system," he said.

Taking responsibility

He also said in the letter that his remarks could create negative perception or misunderstanding towards DAP, particularly in the context of cooperation in the state government.

He said he is thus resigning to take responsibility for his "mistake".

Also in his letter, Zaidi said he personally held high regard for Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow.

"He is a leader who constantly pays attention to the welfare of the people, prioritises tolerance, remains polite, and executes the trust of administering the state with full responsibility. As a Penangite, I am proud of and appreciate all his efforts in leading this state," he said.

He also thanked H'ng and fellow exco member Zairil Khir Johari, as well as Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Steven Sim, whom he said were deeply committed to public service.

H'ng, who revealed Zaidi's resignation on Facebook today, said the letter's contents prove that the DAP-led state government has served the people regardless of race or religion.