'Malaysia must brace for future US tariffs'
Malaysia must be prepared to negotiate the next wave of potential American tariffs targeting key strategic sectors and products such as semiconductors, technology products and pharmaceuticals, rather than focusing solely on negotiating reciprocal tariff reductions with the US.
US-Asean Business Council (US-ABC) executive vice-president and chief policy officer Marc Mealy warned that although the 50 percent tariffs on aluminium and steel may not severely affect Malaysia in the near term, future tariffs imposed...
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The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
US steps up immigration crackdown with LA raids, NY courthouse arrests
LOS ANGELES (United States): Masked and armed federal agents carried out sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles Friday, while others pounced on migrants at a New York courthouse in forceful displays of US President Donald Trump's crackdown on people without papers. From courthouses to hardware store parking lots in two of the most diverse cities in the world, federal agents wrestled migrants into handcuffs and unmarked vehicles. Agents used extreme tactics, conducting unprecedented raids on at least three areas of Los Angeles to detain dozens of people. At one sweep less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall, agents threw flash-bang grenades to disperse angry crowds of people following alongside a convoy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles as protesters hurled eggs and epithets at the agents, media reported. - 'Terror' - 'As a Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place,' LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. 'These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.' White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who grew up in LA's Santa Monica, insisted on social media platform X that Bass had 'no say in this at all.' 'Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced.' Service Employees International Union leader David Huerta was briefly detained while documenting one of the raids in Los Angeles, according to media reports. 'Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals,' Huerta said in a statement after his release. Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents were executing search warrants related to the harboring of people illegally in the country. Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to demand the release of detainees, broadcaster ABC7 reported. The largely peaceful rally was later ordered to disperse by police, with some violent clashes between protesters and riot police being reported. - NY courthouse arrests - Across the country, plainclothes agents in New York pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a courthouse Friday. AFP saw the officers yell for the men not to move before forcing them to lay face-down on the ground as they were handcuffed and arrested. It was not immediately clear why the two men were arrested. Trump was elected to a second term with broad support for his promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants. ICE agents have intensified such operations in and around American immigration courts in recent weeks. The Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents' access to protected areas such as courts after Trump returned to office in January. One of the men arrested in New York was Joaquin Rosario, a 34-year-old Dominican who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered as he came in and who had his first immigration hearing Friday, his relative Julian Rosario said. 'He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen,' the relative said, adding that Rosario was so unworried he had not brought his lawyer with him. The other detainee appeared to be Asian. He arrived accompanied only by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk immigrants to and from the courtroom. The volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but it did nothing to halt the raid. - 'Sound the alarm' - Human rights groups are outraged by such operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain US residency. 'They're illegal abductions,' said Karen Ortiz, a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against the sudden arrests of migrants. 'We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they're trying to detain and send away,' she told AFP. Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power to crack down on foreigners without papers since he returned to office, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables.
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
ICE raids spark outrage in LA, NYC amid migrant crackdown
LOS ANGELES (United States): Masked and armed federal agents carried out sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles Friday, while others pounced on migrants at a New York courthouse in forceful displays of US President Donald Trump's crackdown on people without papers. From courthouses to hardware store parking lots in two of the most diverse cities in the world, federal agents wrestled migrants into handcuffs and unmarked vehicles. Agents used extreme tactics, conducting unprecedented raids on at least three areas of Los Angeles to detain dozens of people. At one sweep less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall, agents threw flash-bang grenades to disperse angry crowds of people following alongside a convoy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles as protesters hurled eggs and epithets at the agents, media reported. - 'Terror' - 'As a Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place,' LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. 'These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.' White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who grew up in LA's Santa Monica, insisted on social media platform X that Bass had 'no say in this at all.' 'Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced.' Service Employees International Union leader David Huerta was briefly detained while documenting one of the raids in Los Angeles, according to media reports. 'Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals,' Huerta said in a statement after his release. Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents were executing search warrants related to the harboring of people illegally in the country. Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to demand the release of detainees, broadcaster ABC7 reported. The largely peaceful rally was later ordered to disperse by police, with some violent clashes between protesters and riot police being reported. - NY courthouse arrests - Across the country, plainclothes agents in New York pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a courthouse Friday. AFP saw the officers yell for the men not to move before forcing them to lay face-down on the ground as they were handcuffed and arrested. It was not immediately clear why the two men were arrested. Trump was elected to a second term with broad support for his promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants. ICE agents have intensified such operations in and around American immigration courts in recent weeks. The Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents' access to protected areas such as courts after Trump returned to office in January. One of the men arrested in New York was Joaquin Rosario, a 34-year-old Dominican who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered as he came in and who had his first immigration hearing Friday, his relative Julian Rosario said. 'He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen,' the relative said, adding that Rosario was so unworried he had not brought his lawyer with him. The other detainee appeared to be Asian. He arrived accompanied only by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk immigrants to and from the courtroom. The volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but it did nothing to halt the raid. - 'Sound the alarm' - Human rights groups are outraged by such operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain US residency. 'They're illegal abductions,' said Karen Ortiz, a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against the sudden arrests of migrants. 'We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they're trying to detain and send away,' she told AFP. Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power to crack down on foreigners without papers since he returned to office, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables.
New Straits Times
3 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Israeli military retrieves body of Thai hostage from Gaza
CAIRO: The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas' Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday. Nattapong Pinta's body was held by a Palestinian militant group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified. Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza. Israel's military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week. There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, which has previously denied killing its captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive. The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase. Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered. The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza's 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling. Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday. On Wednesday, the GHF suspended operations and asked the Israeli military to review security protocols after Palestinian hospital officials said more than 80 people had been shot dead and hundreds wounded near distribution points between June 1-3. The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far. Israel is facing growing international pressure over its offensive against Hamas, which has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis and displaced most of its population. Hamas fighters took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the Oct 7 attack, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, and left much of the densely populated coastal enclave in ruins. Families of remaining hostages fear that those alive are in danger from the continued Israeli offensive and those dead will be lost forever. Israel says the campaign is aimed at bringing them all back.
