MALAYSIA
PM dissolves parliament
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the dissolution of parliament yesterday, allowing for snap elections aimed at bringing political stability as the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and the 1MDB corruption scandal. “Yesterday I met the king ... and I sought his permission to dissolve the parliament. And the king agreed to my request to dissolve parliament today,” Yaakob said in a televised address to the nation. “I hope the people will use their votes wisely to vote for stability, economic growth and harmony in the country,” he said, referring to the mainly Muslim but multiracial Southeast Asian nation. He made the announcement a day after an audience with the king, Sultan Abdullah, who gave his consent. No date has been given for an election, but under the constitution polls must be held within 60 days following the dissolution of parliament.
UNITED STATES
Daycare workers probed
State regulators are investigating after a video showing four daycare employees scaring children at a facility in an unincorporated northeast Mississippi community went viral on social media. The videos on Facebook show a daycare worker at Lil’ Blessings Child Care & Learning Center in Hamilton wearing a Halloween mask and yelling at children who did not “clean up” or “act good.” Children can be seen and heard crying and, at times, running away from the employee wearing the mask while another employee gives directions about which children acted good or bad. The employee in the mask is shown screaming a few centimeters away from children’s faces at times. Sheila Sanders, who has owned the business for the past 20 years, said she was unaware of the videos until Wednesday afternoon, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported. Sanders said one video was filmed last month and another on Tuesday last week. “No one came forth to tell me it happened in September,” she said.
UNITED STATES
Two shot in New York
Two people were shot on Sunday outside the home of New York congressman and Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, who has made addressing crime and violence a key point of his campaign, he said in a statement. The shooting appeared to have no connection to the Zeldin family, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported, citing police and officials familiar with the ongoing probe. Zeldin said he did not know the identities of the two individuals who were shot, but said they had been laying down under his front porch and the bushes in front of it. Zeldin said only his two daughters were at home at the time of the shooting. Further details of the shooting and its motives were not clear. “My daughters are shaken, but ok. Like so many New Yorkers, crime has literally made its way to our front door,” Zeldin said in his statement.
UNITED STATES
One killed in bar shooting
An early Sunday shooting outside a bar in downtown Tampa, Florida, has left one person dead and six wounded, police said. The Tampa Police Department said in a news release that the shooting occurred about 3am outside the LIT Cigar & Martini lounge. Two groups that had been arguing inside the club continued their confrontation outside when one person began shooting. One man was killed and six people were taken to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, police said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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