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US Commanding General of American’s First Corps Matthew McFarlane, Thailand’s Chief of Defence Forces General Ukris Boontanondha and US ambassador Sean K O’Neill attend the opening ceremony of Cobra Gold, Asia’s largest annual multilateral military exercise, in Rayong province, Thailand, yesterday. Source link
The plight of a baby monkey in Japan who has become an Internet sensation shows the cruelty of zoos, an animal rights group said, as sales of the plush IKEA orangutan the animal clings to boomed. Punch, a baby macaque abandoned by its mother, shot to stardom after being pictured getting bullied by other monkeys and seeking comfort from the orangutan toy at Ichikawa City Zoo outside Tokyo. “Zoos are not sanctuaries — they are places where animals are confined, deprived of autonomy, and denied the complex environments and social lives they would have in the wild,” said People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). “What some are calling ‘cute’ is actually a glimpse into the trauma of a young, highly social primate coping with isolation and loss,” the group’s Asia director, Jason Baker, said in a statement. “Until facilities stop treating sentient beings as attractions, animals like Punch will continue to suffer in captivity,” Baker said, calling for Punch to be moved to a “reputable sanctuary, where he could live in a more natural environment”. Spurned by its mother, Punch was raised in an artificial environment after being born in July, and began training to rejoin his troop last month.Punch’s predicament sparked huge interest online, spawning a devoted fanbase under the hashtag #HangInTherePunch, as large crowds thronged the zoo. Meanwhile, Swedish interior furnishings giant IKEA, the maker of the orangutan soft toy, said it was seeing “unprecedented” interest and “significantly” higher sales than usual.“As a result, the product is currently out of stock in some markets, including Japan and the US,” Ingka Group, the holding company controlling most of IKEA’s stores, told AFP by e-mail. Over a long holiday weekend in Japan, fans queued for up to an hour to catch a glimpse of Punch, the Ichikawa zoo said in a post on X, with more than 5,000 visitors recorded on Monday.The zoo said it had set up a “restricted zone” around part of the monkey enclosure to reduce stress for the animals. A large number of people have asked how they can donate cash or goods, it added.In an update on Punch’s plight on Sunday, the zoo said he “was meticulously groomed by two monkeys and is steadily fitting into the group”. Source link
Malaysia has frozen the development of new data centres not used for artificial intelligence (AI) over power and water concerns, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday, as the country pivots to resource-hungry AI facilities. The southeast Asian nation is emerging as a major regional IT infrastructure hub, but it faces growing challenges, including a sharp rise in electricity and water supply demands — both needed to keep the data centres running. “For the past one and a half years, almost two years ago, we have limited the entry of new data centres that are not related to AI,” Anwar told Malaysia’s parliament during a question session.“So all new applications that were not related… have already been stopped,” he said. Data centres that offered high-technology benefits related to AI will still be approved, he added.Anwar, who is also Malaysia’s finance minister, stressed the country still had sufficient capacity to meet current energy supply needs, though he noted it would have to look further afield in the future. This includes tapping electricity supply from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Power Grid, an ambitious plan connecting the 11-member bloc.Future power supply could also come from Malaysia’s Sarawak state, situated on Borneo island, which boasts an abundant supply of hydro and solar energy. “Hopefully, it will fulfil these needs (in the future). But, for the next one or two years, it is sufficient,” Anwar said of the energy supply. When resource constraints led Singapore to halt new data centre developments between 2019 and 2022, international tech companies began to build across the border in Malaysia, which has fast become a powerhouse for the sector. Malaysia accounts for more than half of under-construction data centre capacity among five southeast Asian countries, also including Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, according to market intelligence firm DC Byte. The building boom has been particularly rapid in the southern state of Johor, which neighbours Singapore and has imposed tighter requirements on water and power use for new data centres in order to stop them from straining local resources. Source link
– US President Donald Trump said he wanted to solve the confrontation with Iran through diplomatic means but warned that he would never allow Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.”My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy,” Trump said.”We are in negotiations with them, they want to make a deal,” Trump said in his State of the Union speech, adding that he will never allow Tehran to have a nuclear weapon Last week, Geneva hosted the second round of negotiations between Iran and the United States regarding the Iranian nuclear program, following a previous round in the Omani capital Muscat on Feb. 6.In his speech, Trump also criticized the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the tariffs he imposed, calling it “very unfortunate,” and asserting that the tariffs had generated hundreds of billions of dollars. Last Saturday, the US President announced that he would raise temporary tariffs on imports from all countries to 15 percent, instead of the maximum rate of 10 percent, after the US Supreme Court ruled that previous tariffs imposed by Trump were illegal. Trump also pledged to end the sharp rise in drug prices, stop funding major insurance companies, and direct funds straight to citizens to provide better and more affordable healthcare. On energy, the US President announced that American oil production had increased by more than 600,000 barrels per day, revealing a new partnership with Venezuela that supplied the United States with more than 80 million barrels. Source link
Two sheriffâ€s deputies were killed in a shootout with a suspect in a county in the state of Missouri in the central United States.Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole said in a press statement that the incident occurred during a traffic stop south of Highlandville in southwestern Missouri. The suspectâ€s truck was later found several kilometers to the south near the city of Reeds Spring.Cole noted that the suspect opened fire, killing the county sheriff’s deputy at the scene, while the other deputy died in hospital from gunshot wounds sustained during an exchange of fire with the suspect. Three other individuals were also injured.Law enforcement officers returned fire, killing the suspect, he added.Shooting incidents are among the most prominent security and social crises in the United States, which experiences high rates of violent crime involving firearms. Source link
A Turkish military pilot was killed on Wednesday when an F-16 fighter jet crashed shortly after take-off during a mission flight, local authorities said. Governor Ismail Ustaoglu said the aircraft went down shortly after takeoff during a mission flight. Turkish media reported that the crash site was in the Naipli area of Balikesir’s Karesi district, and traffic on part of the Istanbul-Izmir highway was temporarily halted as emergency teams worked at the scene. In a statement, Turkey’s defence ministry said a technical investigation had been launched to determine the cause of the accident, adding that search teams were dispatched to the site immediately after contact was lost. The Turkish Interior Ministry said it was monitoring the investigation in coordination with relevant authorities. Source link
India's drug regulator has inspected nearly 90% of the country's cough syrup makers and found compliance lapses in some, its chief said on Monday, amid heightened scrutiny after India-made syrups were linked to the deaths of children in the country and abroad.The inspections follow the discovery of a brand of cough syrup contaminated with diethylene glycol that was linked to the deaths of 24 children in October last year. The product, named Coldrif, was made by Sresan Pharmaceutical, based in Tamil Nadu.’We took serious actions on serious non-compliances, and our belief is that the rot of cough syrup manufacturing will be removed,’ Drugs Controller General of India Rajeev Raghuvanshi said at the IPA 11th Global Pharmaceutical Quality Summit in Mumbai.The regulator is looking to fix issues around cough syrup products, he said, without providing a timeline.The agency is under pressure to tighten oversight of the $42bn pharma industry, dominated by small manufacturers, after India-made cough syrups have been tied to the deaths of more than 140 children in Africa and Central Asia since 2022, denting its reputation as the ‘pharmacy of the world’.About 90% of all cough syrup makers, around 1,100, had been inspected, Raghuvanshi said, and pointed to breaches of good manufacturing practices, failure to test incoming raw materials and use of invalid methods or processes. He did not share the number of companies found non-compliant or name them.The regulator has also inspected an additional 1,250 drug manufacturing units protectively to evaluate risks, a practice begun in 2022, he said, but declined to say how many had compliance issues or were forced to halt operations temporarily.India's drug regulator aims to bring its operations on par with the US Food and Drug Administration by addressing staffing shortages, speeding up approvals, and boosting resources, Raghuvanshi said.The agency plans to create 1,500 positions, with about 40% of them flexible, contract roles, and may bring in global industry experts as advisers. It is also piloting the use of artificial intelligence to review applications, according to Raghuvanshi.Separately, the regulator has streamlined export clearances by removing the need for so-called no-objection certificates for drugs shipped to the US, Europe, Australia, Japan, the UK and Canada, a move he said will save time and resources. Source link
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, delivers remarks at the top of the Cabinet meeting to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at…
Vladimir Putin has not broken Ukraine, its leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday as the Kremlin marked the start of the fifth year of its invasion by vowing to keep fighting Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II until it achieves its goals.Moscow had hoped to take Kyiv in days when it launched its invasion on February 24, 2022.Four years later – with hundreds of thousands dead, millions forced to flee, much of eastern Ukraine destroyed and US-led peace talks still deadlocked over territory – it conceded that it has not achieved all it wants in the country.”The goals haven’t been fully achieved yet, which is why the military operation continues,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to an AFP question.Ukraine, meanwhile, was ready to do “everything” it could to secure peace, Zelensky said in a video address that featured images of Ukrainians carrying out acts of resistance against Russian soldiers in the opening days of the conflict.However, any settlement must not “betray” the price paid by Ukrainians throughout the conflict, he said.”Putin has not achieved his goals. He did not break the Ukrainians. He did not win this war. We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to achieve peace – and to ensure there is justice,” Zelensky said.”We want peace. Strong, dignified, and lasting peace,” he said, but any deal must be “accepted by Ukrainians”.”Everything Ukraine has gone through. It must not be surrendered, forgotten, or betrayed,” he added.Several European leaders including Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited Kyiv Tuesday to mark the anniversary.In an address to the EU parliament and speaking alongside visiting EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, Zelensky urged Brussels to accelerate Kyiv’s admission to the bloc, or face “decades” of Russian attempts to disrupt the process.Tuesday’s anniversary of the start of the conflict comes a day after Hungary vetoed new EU sanctions against Russia and a €90bn ($105 billion) loan critical to Ukraine’s survival.Hungary, which maintains close ties with Moscow, and neighbouring Slovakia accuse Kyiv of deliberately blocking their supplies of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which Ukraine says it is trying to repair after a Russian strike last month.Speaking in Moscow to agents of his FSB security service, Putin said that Ukraine has “not managed to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield” and was upping its behind-the-lines sabotage attacks.Separately, top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov was quoted as saying that Russia would brief the US on what it says are attempts by Ukraine to obtain nuclear weapons.He provided no evidence, and Kyiv denied the claim.In the suburb of Irpin – where the bodies of hundreds of civilians were discovered in 2022 after it and the neighbouring suburb of Bucha were occupied by Russian forces – locals told AFP how the war had completely changed their lives, and the country.”We have become accustomed to sleeping under sirens and shrapnel,” said Yevgenia Antoniuk, 43.Recalling a moment in 2022 when she gave some bread to a hungry old man after the Russians abandoned Irpin, she said: “He burst into tears and began kissing my hands. At that moment, I hated Russians so deeply and strongly that I realised that neither I, nor my children, nor my grandchildren would ever forget or forgive them.”As in many places across the country, locals there had gathered for a ceremony to mark the four-year anniversary.Ukrainians are filled with a mix of fatigue at the relentless bombardments and mounting battlefield losses, and determination to resist.Whatever the outcome on the battlefield or at the negotiating table, “there will be no victory for us in this war”, said Valentyn Oleksiyenko, a 29-year-old wounded veteran.”The price we are paying for it is too high. Too many of our people have been killed,” he added.Hundreds of thousands have been killed since Moscow invaded.The UN has verified around 15,000 Ukrainian civilians killed, but says the true number is likely considerably higher.Others said the fact Ukraine had not fallen to the Russians was a victory in itself.”We have shown that no matter who the enemy is that comes to our land, we can repel them,” said Isakiy Zinkevich, a 38-year-old priest in Bucha, a Kyiv commuter town that became synonymous with atrocities committed by Russian troops.The United States has been pushing to end the conflict, mediating talks this year in Geneva and Abu Dhabi between the two sides, but they remain at odds over the issue of territory.Russia, which occupies around 20% of Ukraine, is fighting to gain full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as part of any deal.Ukraine has rejected the demand and said it would not sign a deal without security guarantees from allies – including the US – to deter Russia from invading again.The grinding four-year war has devastated the country, with the cost of post-war reconstruction estimated at around $588bn over the next decade, according to a joint World Bank, EU and UN report with Kyiv, published on Monday. 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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva talks with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung during their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea,…