World

The Malaysian government has limited fiscal space for COVID-19 relief, after running budget deficits for over 20 years, says a researcher. KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia continues to grapple with its growing second wave of COVID-19. The country of 32 million people has now exceeded 995,000 infections and 7,900 deaths since the start of the pandemic. In early June, the number of infections increased by more than 7,000 in a single day, rising to over 10,000 daily cases in July. For a country in political crisis, the poor state of public health has had inevitable economic consequences. In May 2020, unemployment rose by 5.3 per cent after the first lockdown in March 2020 had a severe impact on Malaysia’s economy. The economy picked up as the year progressed – by January, the unemployment rate ...

The art of lying flat – or “tang ping” – has fired up discussion boards and social media platforms and spooked the Chinese establishment. But embracing this change in thinking can light a new way forward for the country, says William Wan. SINGAPORE: In his speech at the Chinese Communist Party's grand centennial anniversary celebrations on Jul 1, President Xi Jinping called on Chinese citizens to “be prepared to work harder than ever before” to realise the goal of national rejuvenation. He optimistically declared that “the future belongs to the young people, and our hopes also rest with them.” But if you look at what’s going on in the minds of China’s youths today, Xi’s vision might not go down so easy. Instead of working harder than ever before, there is a growing youth counter-cul...

related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 2 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) is expanding its wastewater surveillance programme to cover more than 400 sites by next year, the agency announced on Thursday (Jul 8). Wastewater testing is a "non-intrusive" way to detect COVID-19 transmission in a community and supports the monitoring and management of the coronavirus, NEA said. Since February last year, more than 200 sites have been placed under surveillance, including workers' dormitories, student hostels, welfare and nursing homes, as well as residential sites. In a pilot programme launched last year, wastewater testing was used to support the monitorin...

The Bank of Japan may see conditions fall in place to begin debating a new strategy for hitting its price target around the end of this year, as the economy shakes off the blues from the COVID-19 pandemic, its board member Asahi Noguchi told Reuters. TOKYO: The Bank of Japan may see conditions fall in place to begin debating a new strategy for hitting its price target around the end of this year, as the economy shakes off the blues from the COVID-19 pandemic, its board member Asahi Noguchi told Reuters. Even so, the central bank can hold off on expanding stimulus unless a shock event derails Japan's economic recovery, Noguchi, known as a vocal advocate of aggressive monetary easing, said in his first interview since joining the board in April. "Once vaccinations proceed and the econ...

SINGAPORE: On Monday (Jul 12), the Ministry of Health (MOH) first announced the KTV cluster - then called the Case 64693 cluster - with three cases linked to it. MOH said that day it was investigating cases of infection among Vietnamese social hostesses who had frequented KTV lounges or clubs currently operating as food and beverage (F&B) outlets, as well as their close social contacts. Then on Tuesday, MOH officially named the cases as the KTV lounges/clubs cluster, and stated that the cluster had swelled to 12 cases, with likely ongoing COVID-19 transmission at three KTV outlets. On Wednesday, MOH announced 42 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore had been linked to the cluster, with Health Minister Ong Ye Kung calling the situation “troubling and disappointing”. “We knew about c...

MOSCOW: Contact has been lost with a passenger plane carrying more than two dozen people in Russia's Far Eastern peninsula of Kamchatka, local officials said on Tuesday (Jul 6). The An-26 was flying from Kamchatka's main city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the town of Palana when it disappeared and failed to land as scheduled, Valentina Glazova, a spokeswoman for the local transport prosecutor's office, told AFP. She said that 29 people were on board, including 23 passengers and six crew. "Search and rescue efforts are under way," she said. "All that is known at this time, what has been possible to establish, is that communication with the plane was interrupted and it did not land." She said that the plane had been operated by a local aviation company in Kamchatka, a vast peninsula...

YANGON: With hospitals in junta-run Myanmar empty of pro-democracy medical staff and coronavirus cases surging nationwide, volunteers are going house-to-house to collect the fast-rising number of victims dying in their homes. Early each morning, Than Than Soe's phone starts ringing with requests from family members of those who have died in the commercial capital Yangon. She writes the name, address and contact number of the victim in a ledger and dispatches a team to their home. "We are running our service without resting," she told AFP at the bustling office of her volunteer group. Every day "my team is collecting between 30 to 40 dead bodies ... I think other teams will be the same like us". "Sometimes, there are two dead bodies in one house." Volunteers wearing personal p...

related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 2 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. SINGAPORE: In implementing Singapore's foreign worker policy, the Government's approach is based on whether it will help Singaporeans, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng in Parliament on Tuesday (Jul 6). He was explaining the challenges and trade-offs of Singapore's foreign workforce policies in a ministerial statement, in response to a series of questions filed by several Members of Parliament. Non-Constituency MPs Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa from the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) had asked for data on the number of foreign nationals and their dependants from countries that Singapore has free trade agreements (FTAs) with. As...

For Russia, Afghanistan has posed a conundrum, requiring it to work with many regional players to keep the Taliban in check, says NTU’s Christopher Cheang. SINGAPORE: The US’ impending withdrawal from Afghanistan and rapid territorial gains by the Taliban leave Russia in a dilemma. On the one hand, Western military and political power will be gone from a country geographically and culturally close to some of Russia’s Central Asian allies like Tajikistan. That might be in line with Russia’s interest since it has never been fully comfortable with the overwhelming US presence there. On the other hand, the power vacuum might threaten the security of Central Asian allies and by extension, Russia’s, in the near future. RUSSIA’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS AFGHANISTAN Secretary of the powerful Sec...

SINGAPORE: Last year, when an exotic disease reached Singapore’s shores, a chain of testing, investigation and contact tracing was triggered to contain it. It's not COVID-19, but rabbit haemorrhagic disease or RHD - a deadly disease for bunnies that was detected in Singapore for the first time last year. In September 2020, a notice was sent out to all rabbit owners to minimise contact between their pets and other rabbits as the illness is highly contagious. Back then, eight out of 11 rabbits died within two days of being sent to the vet. Two rabbits recovered after “prolonged hospitalisation” and one was found not to have the disease, according to a research paper published in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases on Apr 23. For infectious diseases affecting animals, the National...