A video screencap of the site of the explosion in front of an apartment belonging to the Bannang Sata police station in the city of Yala. — Screencap via Reuters
Sunday, 30 Jun 2024 8:05 PM MYT
YALA (Thailand), June 30 — A woman was killed and 18 others, including eight policemen, were injured in a car bomb explosion in Yala, southern Thailand, early this morning.
Bannang Sata police chief, Police Colonel Ranon Surawit, said in the incident that occurred at 10.10 am local time, a homemade bomb exploded in front of a police flat.
He said initial investigation revealed that the bomb was attached to a vehicle parked in front of the flat and was detonated.
Police flats, houses and dozens of vehicles nearby also suffered damage due to the powerful explosion, Ranon said.
“A 45-year-old local woman died while 18 other people were injured, including five, who were seriously injured.”
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government will assure that all Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) leavers who obtained 10As or more, regardless of race and region, will be offered the opportunity to further their studies at the matriculation level starting this year. — Picture by Miera Zulyana
Sunday, 30 Jun 2024 7:21 PM MYT
KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — The government has given an assurance that all Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) leavers who obtained 10As or more, regardless of race and region, will be offered the opportunity to further their studies at the matriculation level starting this year.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the decision, which the Cabinet agreed to at a meeting on Friday (June 28), would not affect the existing quota for Bumiputera students.
He said details of the government’s bold decision to recognise the excellence of students while ensuring fairness in the country’s education system would be announced by Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek tomorrow.
“This bold decision does not imply that we have solved the issue of fairness in education, there must be a willingness from the ministry, the private sector, non-governmental organisations, scholars and academia to accept the reality that much more needs to be done to ensure opportunities for children (especially) from the urban poor, rural or interior areas.
“(However) we hope this (helps) resolve one problem and we do not want this to continue (to become) a racial issue,” he said when officiating the closing of the 2024 National Training Week (NTW) at the grounds of the parking area of the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil here today.
Also present were Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and Human Resources Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong.
Anwar said the government always strived to improve access to and the quality of national education as well as ensure that the Bumiputera quota system and the principle of meritocracy for the benefit of students is preserved.
“This way, I hope to temporarily resolve one issue, with the hope that the spirit of unity among the races can be nurtured without small elements continuing to incite and sow seeds of hostility.
“This is the kind of negotiation that we encourage. I speak so that youngsters understand. The solution is not to sow hatred or show hostility but to resolve it with a spirit of compassion and love,” he said.
According to the Education Ministry portal, the matriculation programme was established in 1998 as a preparatory programme for Bumiputera students to qualify to further their studies at the bachelor’s degree level in the fields of science, technology and professional arts at domestic and foreign institutions of higher education (IPT).
On the NTW 2024, Anwar said the opportunity should be used by school and university students and those already working to receive free training in various fields to enhance their skills.
The Prime Minister said the younger generation must leapfrog by exploring new advanced knowledge in the post-normal era, which demands different actions and work, more so now that Malaysia is a destination for the global semiconductor industry.
“Technological changes happen swiftly, if we delay by two years, we will be left behind by 10 years.
“The challenge for our youngsters now is the acquisition of knowledge, most of which cannot be attained at schools or universities, so when there is such an opportunity, use it well,” he said, adding that no other country provides free training on such a large scale involving the private sector.
The NTW 2024, organised by the Human Resource Development Corporation (HRD Corp) under the auspices of the Ministry of Human Resources (KSM), has been held nationwide since June 24 while the event at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil began yesterday and ends today.
The NTW 2024 aims to instil a culture of lifelong learning among the people through opportunities to enhance skills and learning for free. — Bernama
Is Jill Biden the only person who could persuade the president not to run again?
The first lady is a key player in the administration – and critics fear she has been shielding her husband beyond a reasonable point
Through a week in which Joe Biden’s re-election hopes seemed to crumble, Jill Biden has been at his side. At times, she’s appeared more than a resolute first lady, standing in as his compere, guide and primary political aide.
The president’s wife of 45 years – they met on a blind date, set up by Biden’s brother, in 1975 – may now hold the key to whether Biden accepts mounting pressure from Democrat party donors and abandons a faltering re-election bid or risks another debate with Donald Trump in September with even higher stakes.
For now, the bets are on him fighting on – and much of that comes down to Jill, who has emerged publicly as the power aside and not behind the throne. It was Jill who led her husband off the stage on Thursday night, and was heard to tell him, as a primary school teacher might, “Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question, you knew all the facts!”
It was also Jill - professor of English - who introduced her husband at two rallies the following day and attempted to recast the debate fiasco as clash between her husband who had “told the truth,” and former president Trump who told “lie after lie after lie”.
At the opening of the Stonewall national monument visitor centre, marking the 1969 street rebellion that served as a catalyst for a generation of gay rights activism, she approached the debate’s aftermath head on.
“As Joe said earlier today, he’s not a young man. And after last night’s debate, he said, ‘You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.’ And I said, ‘Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president.’”
“What my husband does know how to do is tell the truth,” she continued. “When Joe gets knocked down, Joe gets back up, and that’s what we’re doing today.”
Hunter Biden leaving court with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden and Jill Biden, left, after being found guilty on federal gun charges. Photograph: David Muse/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock
Jill attended every day of court in Delaware at her stepson Hunter’s recent criminal trial and conviction on a charge that he illegally purchased and possessed a gun while addicted to crack cocaine, including flying to France and back twice to attend D-Day commemorations with her husband.
It was to some a show of power in a small state where the Bidens have been the dominant political family for half a century; to others it was a show of unity in a family battered by addiction and tragedy.
Biden family bonds – it was reported last week that the former first lady Michelle Obama’s decision not to campaign for her husband’s vice president stems from the Biden family’s exile of Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, a close friend - point to a tightly held, almost nuclear, structure of concentric rings around a central power.
A glowing 2021 Vogue cover profile noted that the role she fulfils is “neither first lady nor professor but a key player in her husband’s administration, a West Wing surrogate and policy advocate”.
For all the get-up-and-fight-back bluster of the last 48 hours, real questions remain about whether Jill can continue to push her husband’s candidacy now that the White House veil around Biden’s apparent age-related infirmities is becoming harder to reposition.
The new focus on Jill, and the extent of her influence, almost by definition have a sexist quality – raising questions rarely asked in a reverse situation. But, as veteran Democratic party strategist Hank Sheinkopf told the Guardian last week, “the most logical person to suggest to Biden he not do this for his health and for the good of the country is Jill Biden”.
The New York Times’s Maureen Dowd predicted on Saturday that Jill and the White House staff “will build their protective wall ever higher” and push back on the age issue “ever more vigorously”.
“But Biden, Jill and Democratic leaders have to face the fact that this is an extraordinarily risky bet, with – as they drum into us – democracy on the line,” Dowd wrote, adding that the first lady “lacking the detachment of a Melania and enjoying the role of first lady more, has been pushing – and shielding – her husband, beyond a reasonable point”.
Some have gone further, Wyoming Republican congresswoman Harriet Hageman saying the president was so bad that Jill is guilty of “elder abuse” for “rolling President Biden out on stage to engage in a battle of wits while unarmed”. Biden has previously reacted furiously to that accusation.
Whichever decision the Bidens come to – and it appears they are already committed to one – it will be Jill who will be increasingly out front as her 81-year-old husband’s protector.
As Jill Biden’s communication director Elizabeth Alexander told the New York Times, “to say they’ve been in foxholes together doesn’t even begin to explain their bond”.
Some 100 farmers in Kanthan, in Perak’s Chemor district, have suddenly found access to their farmland restricted by a gated checkpoint.
PSM activist Chong Yee Shan told Malaysiakini that the Perak State Development Corporation (PKNP) has installed a gate to restrict access to the disputed land.
“Overnight, they put up a gate to prevent easy access to the land. Also, we can see large holes dug in the dirt road, making portions of it difficult to pass through.
“The farmers have now been told they can still enter the area but they must register at the checkpoint and access will only be from 7am to 5pm,” Chong told Malaysiakini.
She claimed over 100 farmers were affected by the latest action and that they were not given advanced notice that the checkpoint would be constructed today.
“The farmers are very worried because they can see bulldozers and backhoes near their plantations.
Large holes dug in the dirt roads
“In fact, this is a time for harvesting so it is an even greater concern,” she added.
Chong pointed out that the disputed area is within the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, yet attempts to engage him or his office have not been successful.
In October last year, the Ipoh High Court issued an interim order against the eviction of six Kanthan farmers. The ruling was concerning the farmers’ related ongoing judicial review.
PKNP on the other hand pointed to an Ipoh High Court ruling on Jan 4 this year that it had not breached the interim court order and dismissed the farmers’ bid for leave to commence contempt proceedings against the statutory body.
Kanthan farmers
The issue began when 1,800 acres (728ha) of vegetable farming land in Kanthan were alienated to PKNP from 2011 to2013.
Initially, a land lease was considered but eventually, PKNP decided to develop a major portion of the area as an industrial estate called Silver Valley Technological Park.
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official based in Lebanon, confirmed that the Islamist movement had received the latest proposal on June 24, but that it included nothing new. — Reuters pic
Sunday, 30 Jun 2024 7:45 AM MYT
BEIRUT, June 30 — A senior Palestinian Hamas official said yesterday in Beirut that negotiations for an agreement with Israel on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal had not made any progress.
A plan presented last month by US President Joe Biden, which he said was proposed by Israel, included a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas and the release of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
According to US news site Axios, “three sources with direct knowledge” said Washington had presented a “new language for parts of” the proposed deal.
On Saturday, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official based in Lebanon, confirmed that the Islamist movement had received the latest proposal on June 24, but that it included “nothing new”.
“We can say that there is no real progress in the negotiations to stop the (Israeli) aggression so far,” he said at a press conference.
The plan presented by Biden has so far failed to result in a deal, with both sides sticking to their demands.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will continue the war until Hamas is totally defeated and all hostages are freed.
Hamas insists on a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
Hamdan said the proposals were “merely a waste of time and provide additional time for the occupation (Israel) to practise genocide”.
He also said Hamas was being pressured to accept Israel’s deal “as it is without modification”.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The gunmen also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,834 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. — AFP
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kt comments:
Wankee-MaCai could only deliver message approved by the self-proclaimed "Chosen Ones", thus it is to be expected the plan forwarded by Bye-Deen can only be to Shylocks' advantages.
Wankee-MaCai can NEVER ever be expected to be an impartial arbitrator, given it is religiously-blinded and prejudiced because of its Macai-ness.
Israeli bombardment in the village of Shihin in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on June 28, 2024. — AFP pic
Sunday, 30 Jun 2024 8:32 AM MYT
JERUSALEM, June 30 — Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said yesterday that Iran’s message of an “obliterating war” made it worthy of destruction.
“A regime that threatens destruction deserves to be destroyed,” Katz said in a post on X. He also said Israel will act with full force against Iran-backed Hezbollah if it does not stop firing at Israel from Lebanon and move away from the border.
Iran’s UN mission said on Friday that if Israel embarks on a “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon, “an obliterating war will ensue”.
The Iranian mission also said in the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that in such an event “all options, incl. the full involvement of all resistance fronts, are on the table”.
Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel since October, in parallel with the Gaza war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said this week they prefer a diplomatic path to resolving the situation.
Though Katz is a member of Israel’s security cabinet, war policy has largely been led by Netanyahu and a small circle of ministers that includes Gallant, who visited Washington this week for talks on Gaza and Lebanon. — Reuters
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kt comments:
Uttered with sheer arrogance, as to be expected of the self-proclaimed "The Chosen Ones". But in actuality, still requiring the help and support of a religion-blinded "MaCai", without which the Chosen-Parasite cannot survive.
The 44-year-old man and his 25-year-old girlfriend were both arrested.
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Police said the collision shattered the patrol car’s windscreen and damaged the front passenger door. (PDRM pic)
PETALING JAYA: A 44-year-old man and his 25-year-old girlfriend were arrested after he rammed his four-wheel-drive vehicle into a police patrol car in Melaka yesterday.
Alor Gajah police chief Ashari Abu Samah said the incident occurred at about 9.45pm because the couple were afraid of being caught for “khalwat” (close proximity).
He said the two policemen, who were on patrol in the area, came across the Ford Ranger in a secluded and dark spot. They then stopped their vehicle behind the 4WD and turned on the beacon lights.
“However, the driver refused to cooperate and tried to escape by reversing his vehicle, hitting the patrol car in the process,” he said, according to Bernama.
Ashari said the “strong collision” shattered the windscreen and damaged the front door of the patrol car.
The couple is being investigated for obstructing the police from discharging their duties.
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kt comments:
Nah, didn't mean to obstruct police in their work but merely to cabut from being 'tangkap basah'; furthermore in the panicky haste, the wrong "gearstick" was grabbed to downshift, wakakaka.
