Malaysia slams ‘double standards’ on Gaza atrocities
Malaysia slams ‘double standards’ on Gaza atrocities/node/2602136/world
Malaysia slams ‘double standards’ on Gaza atrocities
The bombardment has drawn global criticism, alongside calls to allow in more aid after Israel only partially eased a total blockade imposed on March 2. (Reuters)
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Updated 25 May 2025
AFP
Malaysia slams ‘double standards’ on Gaza atrocities
Comments of the country’s minister come as Israel steps up campaign in the enclave
Updated 25 May 2025
AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s foreign minister on Sunday condemned “atrocities” in Gaza, saying they reflected “indifference and double standards” on the plight of the Palestinian people.
“They are a direct result of the erosion of the sanctity of international law,” Mohamad Hasan told his counterparts from the regional ASEAN bloc.
Mohamad’s comments ahead of an ASEAN summit Monday in Kuala Lumpur come as Israel has stepped up its campaign this month in war-torn Gaza.
The bombardment has drawn international criticism, alongside calls to allow in more aid after Israel only partially eased a total blockade imposed on March 2.
“The atrocities committed against the Palestinian people continue to reflect indifference and double standards,” Mohamad said.
“ASEAN cannot remain silent,” said Mohamad, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship of the bloc.
Foreign ministers from the 10-member association in February asserted their “longstanding support” for Palestinian rights.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has no diplomatic relations with Israel and many in the Southeast Asian country support the Palestinians.
Kuala Lumpur has channeled donations and humanitarian aid amounting to more than $10 million to Palestinians in Gaza since the war erupted in October 2023.
On Saturday, Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed nine children of a pair of married doctors, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the reports.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the agency had retrieved “the bodies of nine child martyrs, some of them charred, from the home of Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar and his wife, Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, all of whom were their children.”
He added that Hamdi Al-Najjar and another son, Adam, were also seriously wounded in the strike on Friday, and that the family was taken to Nasser Hospital. A medical source at the hospital gave Adam’s age as 10 years old.
Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said on X that the strike happened shortly after Hamdi Al-Najjar returned home from driving his wife, a pediatric specialist, to work at the same facility.
Great Barrier Reef records largest annual coral loss in 39 years
Australian authorities say the Great Barrier Reef has experienced its greatest annual loss of live coral in four decades. Despite this, the coral deaths — caused mainly by bleaching — have left the ar
Updated 11 sec ago
AP
MELBOURNE: The Great Barrier Reef has experienced its greatest annual loss of live coral across most of its expanse in four decades of record-keeping, Australian authorities say. But due to increasing coral cover since 2017, the coral deaths — caused mainly by bleaching last year associated with climate change — have left the area of living coral across the iconic reef system close to its long-term average, the Australian Institute of Marine Science said in its annual survey on Wednesday. The change underscores a new level of volatility on the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the report said. Mike Emslie, who heads the tropical marine research agency’s long-term monitoring program, said the live coral cover measured in 2024 was the largest recorded in 39 years of surveys. The losses from such a high base of coral cover had partially cushioned the serious climate impacts on the world’s largest reef ecosystem, which covers 344,000 square kilometers (133,000 square miles) off the northeast Australian coast, he said. “These are substantial impacts and evidence that the increasing frequency of coral bleaching is really starting to have detrimental effects on the Great Barrier Reef,” Emslie said on Thursday. “While there’s still a lot of coral cover out there, these are record declines that we have seen in any one year of monitoring,” he added. Emslie’s agency divides the Great Barrier Reef, which extends 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) along the Queensland state coast, into three similarly-sized regions: northern, central and southern. Living coral cover shrunk by almost a third in the south in a year, a quarter in the north and by 14 percent in the central region, the report said. Because of record global heat in 2023 and 2024, the world is still going through its biggest — and fourth ever recorded — mass coral bleaching event on record, with heat stress hurting nearly 84 percent of the world’s coral reef area, including the Great Barrier Reef, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s coral reef watch. So far at least 83 countries have been impacted. This bleaching event started in January 2023 and was declared a global crisis in April 2024. It easily eclipsed the previous biggest global coral bleaching event, from 2014 to 2017, when 68.2 percent had bleaching from heat stress. Large areas around Australia — but not the Great Barrier Reef — hit the maximum or near maximum of bleaching alert status during this latest event. Australia in March this year started aerial surveys of 281 reefs across the Torres Strait and the entire northern Great Barrier Reef and found widespread coral bleaching. Of the 281 reefs, 78 were more than 30 percent bleached. Coral has a hard time thriving and at times even surviving in prolonged hot water. They can survive short bursts, but once certain thresholds of weeks and high temperatures are passed, the coral is bleached, which means it turns white because it expels the algae that live in the tissue and give them their colors. Bleached corals are not dead, but they are weaker and more vulnerable to disease. Coral reefs often bounce back from these mass global bleaching events, but often they are not as strong as they were before. Coral reefs are considered a “unique and threatened system” due to climate change and are especially vulnerable to global warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change proclaimed in 2018. The world has now warmed 1.3 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. That report said “tropical corals may be even more vulnerable to climate change than indicated in assessments made in 2014.” The report said back-to-back big bleaching events at the Great Barrier Reef in the mid 2010s “suggest that the research community may have underestimated climate risks for coral reefs.” “Warm water (tropical) coral reefs are projected to reach a very high risk of impact at 1.2°C, with most available evidence suggesting that coral-dominated ecosystems will be non-existent at this temperature or higher. At this point, coral abundance will be near zero at many locations,” the report said.
Myanmar’s acting President Myint Swe dies after a long illness/node/2610954/world
Myanmar’s acting President Myint Swe dies after a long illness
Myint Swe, who became Myanmar’s acting president under controversial circumstances after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, died on Thursday
Updated 23 min 48 sec ago
AP
BANGKOK: Myint Swe, who became Myanmar’s acting president under controversial circumstances after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi more than four years ago, died on Thursday, the military said. He was 74.
He died at a military hospital in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Thursday morning, according to a statement from Myanmar’s military information office.
Myint Swe’s death came more than a year after he stopped actively carrying out his presidential duties after he was publicly reported to be ailing.
State media reported on Tuesday that he had been in critical condition and receiving intensive care since July 24 at a military hospital in Naypyitaw.
State media announced in July last year that Myint Swe was suffering from neurological disorders and peripheral neuropathy disease, which left him unable to carry out normal daily activities, including eating. A few days later, he authorized Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, to assume his presidential duties while he was on medical leave, the reports said.
Myint Swe became acting president on Feb. 1, 2021, after the military arrested former President Win Myint along with Myanmar’s top leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, when the army seized power.
Myint Swe, a member of a pro-military party, took over the presidency under the constitution because he held the post of first vice president. Legal experts questioned the legitimacy of the move because Win Myint neither stepped down from his post nor was incapacitated.
As acting president, Myint Swe chaired the National Defense and Security Council, which is nominally a constitutional government body, but in practice is controlled by the military. The council operates as the country’s top decision-making body related to national security, with the authority to declare a state of emergency and oversee military and defense affairs.
Myint Swe’s appointment and acquiescence to the army’s demands allowed the council to be convened to declare a state of emergency and hand over power to Min Aung Hlaing, who led the army’s takeover.
During his time in office, Myint Swe could only perform the pro forma duties of his job, such as issuing decrees to renew the state of emergency, because Min Aung Hlaing controlled all government functions.
Myint Swe, a former general, was a close ally of Than Shwe, who led a previous military government but stepped down to allow the transition to a quasi-civilian government beginning in 2011.
Myint Swe was chief minister of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, under the quasi-civilian government between 2011 and 2016, and headed its regional military command for years under the previous military government, which stepped down in 2011. During Buddhist monk-led popular protests in 2007 known internationally as the Saffron Revolution, he took charge of restoring order after weeks of unrest in the city, overseeing a crackdown that killed dozens of people. Hundreds of others were arrested.
Though he did not have a prominent international profile, Myint Swe played a key role in the military and politics. In 2002, he participated in the arrest of family members of former dictator Ne Win, according to accounts in Myanmar media.
He also arrested former Gen. Khin Nyunt at Yangon Airport during a 2004 purge of the former prime minister and his supporters that involved a power struggle inside the military. Soon afterward, Myint Swe took command of the sprawling military intelligence apparatus that had been Khin Nyunt’s power base.
Myint Swe was among military leaders sanctioned by the US Treasury Department following the military takeover and arrest of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior politicians in February 2021.
He was survived by his wife and two children.
Italy approves $15.5 billion project to build world’s longest suspension bridge from mainland to Sicily
Strait of Messina Bridge to measure 3.7 km, with the suspended span reaching 3.3 km, surpassing Turkiye’s Canakkale Bridge
Project to create 120,000 jobs a year and accelerate growth in economically lagging southern Italy, says transport minister
Updated 07 August 2025
AP
MILAN: Italy cleared the way Wednesday to build the world’s largest suspension bridge linking the Italian mainland with Sicily in a massive 13.5 billion euro ($15.5 billion) infrastructure project that has been long delayed by debates over its scale, earthquake threats, environmental impact and the specter of mafia interference.
The Strait of Messina Bridge will be “the biggest infrastructure project in the West,” Transport Minister Matteo Salvini told a news conference in Rome, after an interministerial committee with oversight of strategic public investments approved the project.
Premier Giorgia Meloni said that the bridge “will be an engineering symbol of global significance.”
Salvini cited studies showing the project will create 120,000 jobs a year and accelerate growth in economically lagging southern Italy, as billions more in investments are made in roads and other infrastructure projects accompanying the bridge.
Preliminary work could begin between late September and early October, once Italy’s court of audit signs off, with construction expected to start next year. Despite bureaucratic delays, the bridge is expected to be completed between 2032-2033, Salvini said. Bridge could count toward NATO spending target
The Strait of Messina Bridge has been approved and canceled multiple times since the Italian government first solicited proposals in 1969. Premier Giorgia Meloni’s administration revived the project in 2023, and this marks the furthest stage the ambitious project— first envisioned by the Romans — has ever reached.
“From a technical standpoint, it’s an absolutely fascinating engineering project,’’ Salvini said.
The Strait of Messina Bridge would measure nearly 3.7 kilometers (2.2 miles), with the suspended span reaching 3.3 kilometers (more than 2 miles), surpassing Turkiye’s Canakkale Bridge, currently the longest, by 1,277 meters (4,189 feet).
With three car lanes in each direction flanked by a double-track railway, the bridge would have the capacity to carry 6,000 cars an hour and 200 trains a day — reducing the time to cross the strait by ferry from up to 100 minutes to 10 minutes by car. Trains will save 2/12 hours in transit time, Salvini said.
The project could provide a boost to Italy’s commitment to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP targeted by NATO, as the government has indicated it would classify the bridge as defense-related, helping it to meet a 1.5 percent security component. Italy argues that the bridge would form a strategic corridor for rapid troop movements and equipment deployment to NATO’s southern flanks, qualifying it as a “security-enhancing infrastructure.”
Salvini confirmed the intention to classify the project as dual use, but said that was up to Italy’s defense and economic ministers.
Infographic courtesy of WeBuild, leader of the consortium that was awarded to build the Strait of Messina Bridge.
A group of more than 600 professors and researchers signed a letter earlier this summer opposing the military classification, noting that such a move would require additional assessments to see if it could withstand military use. Opponents also say the designation would potentially make the bridge a target. Concerns over organized crime
Environmental groups have lodged complaints with the EU, citing concerns that the project will impact migratory birds, noting that environmental studies had not demonstrated that the project is a public imperative and that any environmental damage would be offset.
The original government decree reactivating the bridge project included language giving the Interior Ministry control over anti-mafia measures. But Italy’s president insisted that the project remain subject to anti-mafia legislation that applies to all large-scale infrastructure projects in Italy out of concerns that the ad-hoc arrangement would weaken controls.
Salvini pledged that keeping organized crime out of the project was top priority, saying it would adhere to the same protocols used for the Expo 2015 World’s Fair and the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. “We need to pay attention so that the entire supply chain is impermeable to bad actors,’’ he said.
The project has been awarded to a consortium led by Webuild, an Italian infrastructure group that initially won the bid to build the bridge in 2006 before it was later canceled. The Canakkale Bridge, which opened in 2022, was built using an engineering design similar to the one devised for the Messina bridge, including a wing profile and a deck shape that resembles a fighter jet fuselage with openings to allow wind to pass through the structure, according to Webuild.
Addressing concerns about building the bridge over the Messina fault, which triggered a deadly quake in 1908, Webuild has emphasized that suspension bridges are structurally less vulnerable to seismic forces. It noted that such bridges have been built in seismically active areas, including Japan. Turkiye and California.
Webuild CEO Pietro Salini said in a statement that the Strait of Messina Bridge “will be transformative for the whole country.”
Trump wields influence over GOP and keeps potential successors vying for his favor
Trump has not hesitated to give Vice President JD Vance high-visibility assignment, while not definitively anointing Vance to succeed him
That will keep those hoping to succeed Trump vying for his favor, both inside his administration and in the wider Republican field of possible contenders
Updated 07 August 2025
AP
WASHINGTON: Although President Donald Trump has not directly said he thinks JD Vance should be the heir to his “Make America Great Again” base of support, he acknowledged this week that his vice president is probably the favorite to succeed him “at this point.”
But even as he promoted Vance, Trump also made sure to mention Secretary of State Marco Rubio, telling reporters at the White House on Tuesday that his administration’s top diplomat is “somebody that maybe would get together with JD in some form” on a future political ticket.
The remarks reflect the massive influence the Republican president currently has over his party. They also serve to promote two of Trump’s top advisers without telegraphing the president’s singular preference for a successor. Not definitively anointing Vance, or any other Republican, keeps those hoping to succeed Trump vying for his favor, both inside his administration and in the wider Republican field of possible contenders.
It’s early for the 2028 presidential field to begin forming, and other contenders will ultimately emerge. A challenge for anyone wading into the race, even with strong Trump connections, will be staying in the president’s good graces for the duration.
Speaking with reporters following an executive order signing at the White House, Trump was asked if Vance were the “heir apparent to MAGA.”
“I think most likely, in all fairness, he’s the vice president,” Trump said. “I think Marco is also somebody that maybe would get together with JD in some form. ... It’s too early obviously, to talk about it, but certainly he’s doing a great job and he would be, probably favored at this point.”
When Trump selected the then-39-year-old Vance over other more established Republicans — including Rubio — as his running mate last year, many theorized that Trump was planning for the future of his political movement, angling for a vice president who could carry MAGA forward.
Vance has embraced the role at every turn, doing the president’s bidding on everything from his relationship with Ukraine to the fight over records related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal.
Trump, meanwhile, has not hesitated to give Vance high-visibility assignments. As the White House promotes mid-decade redistricting efforts in Texas — and acknowledges it would like the notion to expand to other states — Vance is expected Thursday to discuss redrawing district lines with Gov. Mike Braun during a trip to Indiana. While there, Vance will also headline a fundraiser for the Republican National Committee, which he serves as treasurer.
In June he traveled to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command center amid clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of vandalism and looting following immigration raids across Southern California.
And earlier this year, Vance was in swing congressional districts in his role as lead cheerleader for Trump’s signature tax cut and spending law, an assortment of conservative priorities that Republicans dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” He also lobbied senators on Capitol Hill, working to swing GOP holdouts to support the legislation, and in July cast a tie-breaking vote to get the measure passed in the Senate.
He’s also taken on a robust role related to foreign policy, holding meetings of his own with world leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a trip to New Delhi, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
Rubio, who has described Vance as among his closest friends in politics, said on Fox News Channel on Sunday that he felt Vance “would be a great nominee if he decides he wants to do that.”
Other Republicans mentioned as possible 2028 contenders are already making the rounds of early-voting states. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks at a GOP fundraiser in South Carolina this weekend, and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders headlines an event in that state later this month. Both have taken pains to curry the president’s favor.
Not every Republican contender has gone that route. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who lost the 2016 nomination to Trump, has been visiting early-voting states, too, but he voted against the president’s signature legislative measure. And Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp — who has long harbored ambitions to run for president but has a complicated history with Trump — recently said he was sitting out of a Senate race in his state, a decision telegraphed by some as an indication Kemp might be eyeing the 2028 White House race.
Helicopter crash in Ghana kills ministers of defense and environment and 6 others
Updated 07 August 2025
AP
ACCRA, Ghana: A military helicopter crashed in Ghana on Wednesday, killing all eight people on board, including the West African country’s defense and environment ministers and two other top officials, the government said.
The crash was one of Ghana’s worst air disasters in more than a decade.
The Ghanaian military said the helicopter took off in the morning from the capital, Accra, and was heading northwest into the interior toward the gold-mining area of Obuasi in the Ashanti region when it went off the radar. The wreckage was later found in the Adansi area of Ashanti.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, and the military said an investigation was underway.
Defense Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were killed, as well as Samuel Sarpong, vice-chair of the National Democratic Congress ruling party, Muniru Mohammed, a top national security adviser, and the four crew members.
Defense Minister Edward Omane Boamah. (Ghana News Agency photo)
Mourners gathered at the Boamah’s residence as well as at the party’s headquarters, and Ghana’s government described the crash as a “national tragedy.”
State media reported that the aircraft was a Z-9 helicopter that is often used for transport and medical evacuation.
An online video of the crash site shows debris on fire in a forest as some people circle around to help.
In May 2014, a service helicopter crashed off Ghana’s coast, killing at least three people. In 2012, a cargo plane overran the runway in Accra, the capital, and crashed into a bus full of passengers, killing at least 10 people.
Everyone onboard was killed in the accident, authorities said.
Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed. (Facebook photo)
