Hamas-led factions reject Arab League-backed call to disarm, vow to continue resistance
A declaration issued on Tuesday by Saudi Arabia and France, backed by Egypt, Qatar and the Arab League, called for Hamas to disarm and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, which they say should rule across all Palestinian territories.
Saudi Arabia and France are seeking further global support for the declaration outlining steps towards implementing a two-state solution. --REUTERS
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The Sun
35 minutes ago
- The Sun
US promises Gaza food plan after envoy visit
GAZA CITY, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: President Donald Trump's special envoy promised a plan to deliver more food to Gaza after inspecting a US-backed distribution centre on Friday, as the United Nations said Israeli forces had killed hundreds of hungry Palestinians waiting for aid over the past two months. The visit by US envoy Steve Witkoff came as a report from global advocacy group Human Rights Watch accused Israeli forces of presiding over 'regular bloodbaths' close to aid points run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The UN human rights office in the Palestinian territories said at least 1,373 Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza had been killed since May 27 -- 105 of them in the last two days of July. 'Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,' the UN office said, breaking down the death toll into 859 killed near GHF sites and 514 along routes used by UN and aid agency convoys. Witkoff said he had spent more than five hours inside Gaza, in an online post accompanied by a photograph of himself wearing a protective vest and meeting staff at a GHF distribution centre. The visit intended to give Trump 'a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza,' Witkoff said. Trump echoed this in a phone call with US news site Axios touting a plan to 'get people fed'. 'We want to help people. We want to help them live. We want to get people fed. It is something that should have happened long time ago,' Trump said according to Axios. 'Gunning them down' The US president did not say whether his plan would involve reinforcing GHF or a whole new mechanism, the report said. The GHF largely sidelined the longstanding UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza just as Israel in late May began easing a more than two-month aid blockade that exacerbated existing shortages. The foundation said it had delivered its 100-millionth meal in Gaza during the visit by Witkoff and US ambassador Mike Huckabee. Gaza's civil defence agency said 22 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Friday, including eight who were waiting to collect food aid. In its report on the GHF centres, Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli military of using starvation as a weapon of war. 'Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,' said HRW's associate crisis and conflict director, Belkis Wille. 'US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.' The Israeli military said in response that the GHF worked independently, but that troops operated near aid sites 'to enable the orderly delivery of food' while trying to 'minimise... any friction between the civilian population' and its forces. The military accused Hamas of trying to prevent food distribution, and said it was conducting a review of reported deaths. Witkoff on Thursday held talks with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to destroy Hamas and rescue hostages seized in the Palestinian group's October 2023 attack that triggered the war. But Netanyahu is under mounting international pressure to end the bloodshed that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry, and threatened many more with famine. Hostage video Following his discussions with Witkoff, Netanyahu met Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who warned that 'the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination.' Wadephul urged Israel 'to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality'. In an investigative report published on Friday, British public broadcaster the BBC said it had gathered accounts from witnesses, medics and other sources of more than 160 children shot in the war, including 95 hit in the head or chest, some by Israeli forces. Responding in a statement to AFP, the Israeli military said any 'intentional harm to civilians, and especially to children, is strictly prohibited' by international law and the army's orders. Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. The retaliatory Israeli offensive has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties. Of the 251 people taken hostage during the Hamas attack on southern Israel, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military. After Witkoff's Gaza visit, the armed wing of Hamas released a short online video showing 24-year-old Israeli hostage Evyatar David, looking emaciated and weak in a narrow concrete tunnel. - AFP
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Defining moment for Malaysia's AI, data centre ambitions
PETALING JAYA: As US-led semiconductor chip restrictions tighten and regional energy costs rise, Malaysia faces a defining moment in its artificial intelligence (AI) and data centre ambitions. Industry leaders say these global disruptions could either stall the nation's progress or become the very trigger that accelerates its push for AI self-reliance and digital sovereignty. National Tech Association of Malaysia research committee chairman Woon Tai Hai said the recent US export curbs on high-end AI chips, such as Nvidia's H100 and A100, are already impacting AI-focused startups, research institutions and data centre operators in Malaysia. 'These chips are crucial for training large AI models and powering generative AI applications. Without them, we're seeing delays in deployment and increased costs for local developers,' he told SunBiz. While some companies are pivoting to older graphic processing unit (GPU) models or exploring Chinese-made alternatives, such as Huawei's Ascend chips, the transition is not seamless. Compatibility issues, software support gaps and geopolitical uncertainty make it a complex adjustment. Meanwhile, electricity and cooling costs have surged, especially with Malaysia's high ambient temperatures pushing the limits of energy efficiency in data centres. Coupled with US tariffs on Malaysian exports and the weakening ringgit, Woon said, the environment is increasingly hostile for small players. 'This triple hit of chip shortages, energy inflation and trade pressure could force some AI projects to downscale or pause altogether.' However, Woon believes this challenge presents a rare opportunity for Malaysia to reposition itself. 'We are still an attractive alternative to Singapore for hyperscalers, especially with land and energy constraints over there,' he said, pointing to recent investments such as Google's RM9.4 billion data centre in Selangor. He added that Malaysia could leverage this disruption to double down on home-grown capabilities, forge new global partnerships beyond the US-China binary and evolve from being just a digital consumer to a true AI contributor. 'This is not just a supply chain issue; it's a wake-up call. If we want to lead in AI, we can't import our way to success,' Woon stressed. Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Big Data director Dr Muhammad Akmal Remli warned that Malaysia's long-standing dependency on foreign hardware, cloud platforms and proprietary models has become a strategic liability. 'The AI ecosystem doesn't just rely on talent and data. It runs on compute power and right now, Malaysia doesn't own its compute destiny,' he said. Akmal called for a comprehensive localisation strategy, beginning with substantial investment in foundational AI research and development through universities, public research agencies and long-term national programmes. 'We can't just be training people to use ChatGPT. We need to train them to build the next generation of language models,' he explained. Beyond research and development, Akmal proposed the creation of strategic hardware stockpiles and investment in alternative chip architectures, such as RISC-V, Graphcore and Tenstorrent, to diversify away from US-made GPUs. 'Waiting for supply to return to normal is naive. This is structural, not cyclical,' he warned. Akmal also urged the government to champion a sovereign compute initiative, a state-supported push to establish Malaysia's own high-performance computing infrastructure. 'This is no longer a luxury. We need our own compute backbone to support AI research, secure data hosting and digital services that cannot be outsourced,' he said. While some pilot efforts exist, Akmal noted that they remain fragmented and underfunded. What's missing, he said, is a unified national AI policy that aligns research, compute infrastructure, industry application and talent development under one coordinated strategy. 'Right now, we have isolated efforts by Mimos, Mosti, universities and agencies like MRANTI, but they aren't talking to each other. We need a central AI authority or framework to synchronise this,' he said. Akmal also cautioned that Malaysia's delay in building domestic capacity will ultimately result in higher costs. 'We are not just competing for tech, we're competing for independence. The AI race is about who owns the tools of the future, and right now we're still borrowing them,' he said. Akmal believes that Malaysia still has the talent, infrastructure and investor interest to build a competitive, ethical and independent AI ecosystem, but only if it takes bold steps now. 'AI is not just about innovation anymore. It's about sovereignty, resilience and relevance in a fractured world.'
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Trump administration suspends UCLA's research funding over antisemitism claims
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration is suspending federal research funding to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), one of the top public universities in the United States, over claims of "antisemitism and bias," according to the university's chancellor. "UCLA received a notice that the federal government, through its control of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies, is suspending certain research funding to UCLA," the university's chancellor, Julio Frenk, said in a statement Thursday. "This is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants. It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on the groundbreaking work we do," noted the statement. Frenk pointed out that "hundreds of grants may be lost, adversely affecting the lives and life-changing work of UCLA researchers, faculty and staff" through Washington's decision. Roughly 300 grants amounting to nearly 200 million U.S. dollars were suspended, the Los Angeles Times reported. "In its notice to us, the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons. This far-reaching penalty of defunding life-saving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination," the chancellor added. Frenk said that the university "has taken robust actions to make our campus a safe and welcoming environment for all students." The suspension comes after a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation that alleged UCLA had been "deliberately indifferent" to widespread harassment of Jewish and Israeli students during 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses. Earlier this week, the university agreed to pay 6.45 million dollars to settle a lawsuit over treatment of Jewish students and a professor during the protests. UCLA became the latest top university in the country being targeted by the federal government over claims that it has not taken enough actions to combat antisemitism on campus. Last week, Columbia University announced that it agreed to pay over 200 million dollars to the federal government to restore federal funding after it was investigated over campus antisemitism. Another Ivy League school, Brown University, agreed Wednesday to a 50-million-dollar deal with the Trump administration after facing probes over the treatment of Jewish students on campus and the consideration of race in its admissions. In March, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights sent letters to 60 universities, including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia and Stanford University, regarding investigations into alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment on their campuses.
