Malaysian PM resigns as virus cases hit record highs
I have tried my best in this crisis, says Muhyiddin Yassin
Updated 17 August 2021
Ushar Daniele
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s prime minister resigned on Monday after just 17 months in power amid chronic infighting within his coalition and over his government’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has seen a resurgence in cases in recent weeks.
The palace said that Muhyiddin Yassin would remain as caretaker prime minister, with King Abdullah Ahmad Shah saying it was in the “best interest” of Malaysians not to hold general elections.
“The king hopes that the political turmoil that has been in the way of the country’s administration will be resolved to benefit the people and the economy that is under threat by the COVID-19 pandemic,” it said in a statement.
Striking a somber tone in his televised address to the nation, the 74-year-old leader said he had decided to resign after losing his majority in parliament since assuming power as head of the Perikatan Nasional coalition in March last year.
He spoke of “greedy people,” a veiled reference to the president and other members of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) facing graft trials.
UMNO had been part of his ruling coalition, but regular threats of withdrawal from prominent members eventually led to the government’s collapse.
“They do not care about the health of the people,” he added. “I will never align myself with kleptocrats or the sacrifice of the judiciary and constitution. I have tried my best in this crisis we are facing. I hope the new government can be formed soon to carry on the work.”
Political analysts said the onus on selecting the next prime minister lay with the monarch, and that the candidate “must have the numbers in parliament to helm his Cabinet.”
“The king has absolute discretion to pick any of the MPs to try to put together a new government,” Prof. James Chin, director of the Asian Institute at the University of Tasmania, told Arab News. “But the only difference now is that there is a consensus among all the MPs in Malaysia. Both ruling and opposition believe that this instability can only be resolved by a general election.”
Dr. Firdausi Suffian, a public policy lecturer at the Universiti Teknologi Mara in Sabah, said political stability was key for the country to get through its economic crisis and COVID-19 response because people wanted “to see the change” from the appointment.
“This is not just appointing the prime minister, but also to see the proposal that the PM can put forward on the table for a better nation,” Suffian told Arab News.
Malaysia recorded 20,546 cases on Sunday, its fourth successive day of more than 20,000 cases, with overwhelmed hospitals struggling to cope with the influx of patients.
Pressure continued to mount on the prime minister after some lawmakers from UMNO withdrew their support last month, including UMNO president Zahid Hamidi and former Prime Minister Najib Razak. Both men are facing multiple criminal and civil charges in court.
Yassin said they withdrew support because he declined to drop court charges.
Chin said the king now had the opportunity to select one of the MPs or “give a chance” to one of the MPs to form a new government.
“Whoever forms the next government will have to pass a confidence vote in the floor parliament in September and, sometime next year when the pandemic has come under control, must call for a general election to resolve this.”
Suffian said the next candidate would need to prove themselves as “having the ability to resolve the crisis” the country was in now.
“They can use that as one of their political campaigns. I guess people are really sick and tired of all our political problems and political crises for the past one year.”
Epstein died by suicide, did not have ‘client list’: FBI and Justice Department say
A joint memorandum by the FBI and Justice Department on Monday have debunked notable conspiracy theories about Epstein
The disgraced US financier died by suicide in a New York prison in 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking
Updated 07 July 2025
AFP
WASHINGTON: Jeffrey Epstein was not murdered, did not blackmail prominent figures and did not keep a “client list,” the FBI and Justice Department said Monday, debunking notable conspiracy theories about the disgraced US financier.
The conclusions came after an “exhaustive review” of the evidence amassed against Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York prison in 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking, the agencies said in a joint memorandum.
Six years later, questions continue to swirl around Epstein’s life and death and the multi-millionaire hedge fund manager’s connections to wealthy and powerful individuals.
The memo, first reported by Axios, squarely rejected one of the leading conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein — that he did not commit suicide but was murdered while being held in jail.
“After a thorough investigation, FBI investigators concluded that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell,” it said.
Video footage from the area where he was being held did not show anyone entering or attempting to enter his cell from the time at night when he was locked in till when his body was found the next morning, it said.
Extensive digital and physical searches turned up a large volume of images and videos of Epstein’s victims, many of them underage girls, the memo said.
“This review confirmed that Epstein harmed over one thousand victims,” it said, but did not reveal any illegal wrongdoing by “third-parties.”
“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” the memo said. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.”
Epstein’s former assistant, Ghislaine Maxwell, is the only former associate of his who has been criminally charged in connection with his activities.
Maxwell, the daughter of British media baron Robert Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in New York in 2021 of child sex trafficking and other crimes.
Among those with connections to Epstein was Britain’s Prince Andrew, who settled a US civil case in February 2022 brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17.
Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave, committed suicide at her home in Australia in April.
Billionaire Elon Musk accused President Donald Trump on X last month of being in the “Epstein files” after the pair had a falling out, but he later deleted his posts.
Trump was named in a trove of depositions and statements linked to Epstein that were unsealed by a New York judge in early 2024, but the president has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Supporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base allege that Epstein’s associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others.
They point the finger at Democrats and Hollywood celebrities, although not at Trump himself.
Prior to the release of the memo, Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, and the FBI’s deputy director, Dan Bongino, had been among the most prominent peddlers of conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein.
Lula says BRICS do not want ‘emperor’ after Trump threat
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva: ‘We are sovereign nations. We don’t want an emperor’
Updated 07 July 2025
AFP
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s president said Monday that emerging BRICS economies did not want to live under an “emperor,” after Donald Trump declared a 10 percent tariffs hike on members for their allegedly anti-American policies.
“We are sovereign nations,” Lula said as he ended a two day summit of 11 nations that include US allies and foes alike. “We don’t want an emperor.”
Somalia’s army and Al-Shabab clash over strategic town
The official Somali news agency Sonna said the attack had been prevented, and claimed “several militants were killed during the fighting.” There were no further details
Updated 07 July 2025
AFP
MOGADISHU: Fighting was ongoing between Somalia’s armed forces and the Al-Shabab group over a strategic town in the country’s central region, a local militia commander and elder said on Monday.
Growing attacks by the Al-Qaeda-linked group, including one on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s convoy, are fueling concerns of an extremist resurgence in the Horn of Africa nation after the militants were forced back in recent years.
Al-Shabab militants attacked Moqokori, roughly 300 km north of the capital, Mogadishu, with “vehicles loaded with explosives and hundreds of fighters,” local militia commander Abdulahi Adan said.
The town’s militia had “tactically retreated,” he said, but added that “there is still ongoing sporadic fighting in the area, so that this is not a complete takeover.”
Yusuf Mohamed, an elder in the nearby town of Mahas, said “several wounded soldiers and community militia fighters were brought to Mahas for treatment.”
Moqokori is strategically located as a gateway to several other major towns in the central Hiraan region.
The town has long been contested, with Al-Shabab seizing it in 2016 and last holding it briefly in 2018.
The official Somali news agency Sonna said the attack had been prevented, and claimed “several militants were killed during the fighting.” There were no further details.
It comes only months after Al-Shabab took the town of Adan Yabaal, also in the Hiraan region, and which was used as a base by Somali military commanders.
More than 10,000 soldiers from the African Union Stabilization Mission in Somalia or AUSSOM, are present in the country, but this has not prevented Al-Shabab from continuing to carry out attacks.
At the end of June, at least seven Ugandan soldiers were killed during clashes with Al-Shabab in a town in the Lower Shabelle region.
Rubio to make first visit to Indo-Pacific region for ASEAN meeting
Rubio will seek to firm up US relationships with partners and allies in the region, who have been unnerved by Trump’s global tariff offensive
Updated 07 July 2025
Reuters
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Malaysia later this week to attend a meeting of Southeast Asian Nations in his first visit to the Indo-Pacific region as America’s top diplomat, the State Department said in a statement.
Rubio will travel July 8-12 and will take part in meetings in Kuala Lumpur with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose ministers are gathering there, the State Department said.
Rubio will seek to firm up US relationships with partners and allies in the region, who have been unnerved by President Donald Trump’s global tariff offensive.
The trip is part of a renewed US focus on the Indo-Pacific and represents an effort by the Trump administration to look beyond the conflicts in the Middle East and Europe that have so far consumed much of its attention.
Last week, Rubio hosted counterparts from Australia, India and Japan and announced a joint initiative to ensure supply of critical minerals, a vital sector for high-tech applications dominated by Washington’s main strategic rival China.
Trump also announced he reached a trade agreement with important Southeast Asian partner and ASEAN member Vietnam and could reach one with India, but cast doubt on a possible deal with Japan, Washington’s main Indo-Pacific ally and a major importer and investor in the United States.
Rubio has yet to visit Japan, or neighboring South Korea, the other major US ally in Northeast Asia, since taking office in January, even though Washington sees the Indo-Pacific as its main strategic priority given the perceived threat posed by China.
ASEAN countries have been nervous about Trump’s tariff offensive and have questioned the willingness of his “America First” administration to fully engage diplomatically and economically with the region.
“There is a hunger to be reassured that the US actually views the Indo-Pacific as the primary theater of US interests, key to US national security,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Other ASEAN countries may be encouraged by Vietnam’s deal with Trump. “This should smooth the way for continued pragmatic security engagement between the US and Vietnam, and hopefully provide a pathway for others in Southeast Asia to get similar deals without having to give up much,” Poling said.
How the 7/7 bombings impacted British society and why it remains relevant 20 years on
The July 7, 2005, attacks were the UK’s first suicide bombings and triggered a seismic shift in its domestic counterterrorism strategy
Despite fears of a backlash, British leaders were praised for uniting communities and refusing to blame Islam for the violence
Updated 26 min 11 sec ago
Benedict Spence
LONDON: On July 7, 2005, four men joined millions of commuters during London’s morning rush hour, making their way into the UK capital’s labyrinthine public transport network.
At around 8:49 a.m., Shehzad Tanweer, from Leeds in the north of England, detonated a home-made bomb on a Circle Line train between Liverpool Street Station and Aldgate.
Within 90 seconds, Mohammad Siddique Khan, also from Leeds, blew himself up on a second Circle Line train between Edgware Road and Paddington station, and Germaine Lindsay, from Aylesbury, bombed a Piccadilly Line train as it left Kings Cross St Pancras, heading towards Russell Square.
The blasts killed 42 people, including the three bombers, and left hundreds more wounded.
A Metropolitan Police handout released July 9, 2005 shows the London Underground train which was involved in the 7/7 bomb attack at Aldgate tube station in London. (AFP/File Photo)
Nearly an hour later, at 9:47 a.m., 18-year-old Hasib Hussein attacked the number 30 bus, traveling from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick, at Tavistock Square. The bus had driven via Euston Station, where commuters, exiting the London Underground, had been forced to make alternative transport arrangements due to the earlier attacks on the tube.
The fourth explosion left another 13 people dead, blowing the roof of the double-decker clean off.
Adel Darwish, the veteran parliamentary reporter and historian, recalled that the day had started like any other.
“I was on my way to Parliament. I was waiting for the tube, and then there was some kind of disruption to the network. I took a cab and went to Parliament,” he told Arab News.
On arrival, Darwish recalled how he had been on his way to a briefing about UK involvement in the Middle East on the other side of Parliament Square, when he suddenly became aware of how empty the normally bustling center of British politics was.
“For the first time, you could actually see some special forces from the police with guns. I mean, that is something we’re not used to. It’s not like America. So, that was something, some kind of feeling of there being something alien that was happening.”
Asharq Al-Awsat columnist Eyad Abu Chakra was also on his way in to work at his central London offices at the time of the attacks.
Blood stains the walls in the area around the wreckage of a bus, on the junction of Tavistock Square and Woburn Place Euston in London, following an explosion after a bomb went off onboard on July 7, 2005. (AFP/File Photo)
“When I left home, I saw on teletext that there was an incident on a bus,” he said. “When I arrived at Waterloo (Station) … it was so crowded. There was a police presence. You could tell there was something big.”
In the days before social media, and in the heat of the confusion, Darwish said information was scarce.
“The telephone networks started to go in and out,” he said, describing how signals were affected by a sudden surge in people in London attempting to contact loved ones and find out what had happened.
Chakra added: “I started to receive phone calls from colleagues from the Middle East asking me, because they thought that I should know much better than they did. (But) things were so intense, we could not comprehend what was going on anyway.”
The attacks were the first known case of suicide bombings in the UK, and the worst terrorist attack on the country since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.
In all, 52 members of the public were killed, 32 of whom were British, with others hailing from as far afield as Nigeria and Afghanistan. In addition, 784 people were injured in the blasts.
The clear and consistent messaging by the UK government under then Prime Minister Tony Blair in the aftermath of the attacks has been praised. (AFP/File Photo)
Despite the onset of the so-called “War on Terror” following the Al-Qaeda attacks on the US on Sept. 11, 2001, the UK, with its sizable, well-established Muslim communities, had experienced relative stability despite significant British involvement in the Middle East.
However, security services were not relaxed about the possibility of an attack on British soil.
In March 2004, Operation Crevice had uncovered a plot to commit attacks on the UK after police raided properties in four counties surrounding London, eventually leading to five men being convicted of terrorism offences.
Another cell of 13 people was discovered in Luton in August that year after the arrest of alleged Al-Qaeda operative Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan in Pakistan.
Coming in the wake of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, and the subsequent toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003, the motivation for the 7/7 attacks was conveyed via recorded video messages left by the bombers before they set off for London from Luton.
The four, all British citizens, had not been known to the authorities as threats beforehand, the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke confirmed, although it later transpired Khan had links to the Luton cell.
In his address, Khan praised Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, and blamed Western military involvement in the Middle East and elsewhere for turning him into “a soldier.”
In his video, Tanweer added that the UK government was complicit in the “genocide of 150,000 innocent Muslims in Fallujah,” and blamed it for the “problems in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Even while the incident was ongoing in London, the public remained tolerant and calm, something that struck a chord with Asharq Al-Awsat columnist Eyad Abu Chakra who was living and working in British capital at the time. (AFP/File Photo
Arab News Editor-in-Chief Faisal J. Abbas was based in London at the time of the attacks.
“July 7 forced the UK to look into its own backyard and see what has been done in the name of tolerance and freedom of speech,” he said. “I am referring to hate preachers such as Abu Hamza Al-Masri, who was not only inciting against the UK, but was doing so under police protection.”
Abu Hamza, the radical cleric who preached at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, notorious for replacing his hands, lost in an explosion in Afghanistan, with hooks, became the focus of attention on extremist rhetoric in the UK.
He was eventually convicted in 2006 of 11 charges relating to terrorism and extremism. The judge presiding over the case said he had “helped to create an atmosphere in which to kill has become regarded by some as not only a legitimate course but a moral and religious duty in pursuit of perceived justice” in the UK.
The domestic response to the attacks was mixed. The far-right British National Party used them as an opportunity to self-promote, distributing leaflets ahead of a by-election in London just a week after, featuring an image of the bombed number 30 bus.
Londoners across the board came together to reject a message of hatred and fear in the days and weeks following the bombings. (AFP/File Photo)
A report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia said it had identified cases of arson against mosques in the UK after the attacks, and that many Muslims reported feeling nervous to go outside.
Abbas, though, said the response of the authorities to the attack was positive.
“As an Arab and Muslim immigrant to the UK at the time, and a professional journalist who reported on the attacks, I cannot but commend the UK authorities for keeping calm and carrying on; the way the situation was firmly handled but without creating a scare is admirable,” he said.
“I still remember the press conference of the Metropolitan Police’s chief, Sir Ian Blair, hours after the attacks, where he refused to associate Islam with terror, and as such, reassuring the majority of British Muslims who didn’t endorse such horrendous violence.”
Londoners observe a minute of silence to remember the victims of the 7/7 bombings. (AFP/File Photo)
Darwish, too, highlighted the clear and consistent messaging by the UK government under then Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“They were actually approaching community leaders — Christian, Muslim community leaders — in order to make sure that nothing really broke down. So that was actually quite a good move by the Home Office,” he said.
Chakra noted how, even while the incident was ongoing in London, the public remained tolerant and calm.
“(In) this country, there is no knee-jerk reaction. Everybody was so composed, so tolerant, so open-minded,” he said.
“The people reacted with responsibility, with tolerance, with, I think, solidarity … It was an experience I will never, never forget.”
However, he warned that despite an ingrained British sense of “fair play,” the world was heading in an ever-more polarized direction, and that the UK was “not immune” to such political trends. The July 7 attacks, he added, had played their part in robbing the UK of its political “innocence” that once set it apart.
The Prince of Wales leading a remembrance service in London on the 20th anniversary of the bombings. (AFP)
“There is no doubt in my mind that … 7/7 was, in one way or another, the … British scenario of Sept. 11, but of course, on a much smaller scale,” he said. “However, I think lots of developments took place since then. Globally, we are now seeing lots of events that have been extremely influential in our way of thinking.
“I can never underestimate the danger that Brexit brought to the political scene. I think Brexit was the polite expression of xenophobia, to put it mildly. The ‘we and they’ scenario in Britain has escalated a lot with Brexit. I think the consensus politics that we used to talk about is gone.”
The July 7 attacks proved a precursor to more major terrorist incidents in the UK. On March 22, 2017, Khalid Masood drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four and injuring dozens, then fatally stabbed a police officer outside Parliament before being shot dead.
On 22 May that year, a suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, detonated a homemade device in the foyer of Manchester Arena as crowds were leaving an Ariana Grande concert. The attack killed 22 people, including children, and injured over 100.
Then on June 3 that same year, three attackers drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge, killing two people, before crashing near Borough Market. Armed with large knives and wearing fake explosive vests, they stabbed people in the market area, killing six more and injuring 48. All three attackers were shot dead by police.
An independent coroner’s inquest into the 7/7 attacks in 2011, overseen by Lady Justice Hallett, found that the 52 victims of the bombers were unlawfully killed, but that no additional security service measures could have prevented the attacks.