School rebranding: Malacca still refining SJKC Laksamana Cheng Ho idea
The Malacca government is still refining the proposal to rebrand the name of a Chinese school to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Laksamana Cheng Ho, in collaboration with any school management board interested in the state government's initiative.
State Education, Higher Education and Religious Affairs Committee chairperson Rahmad Mariman said initially, the state Education Department held an engagement session with SJKC Jasin Lalang to express the state government's intention to rebrand the school's name.
However, the majority of parents and the school's management board disagreed with...
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The Star
36 minutes ago
- The Star
Trump says China ‘not easy' as trade talks to resume Tuesday
Trade talks between the US and China will continue into a second day, according to a US official, as the two sides look to ease tensions over shipments of technology and rare earth elements. Representatives for both nations ended their first day of negotiations in London after more than six hours at Lancaster House, a 19th century mansion near Buckingham Palace. The talks concluded around 8 p.m. London time. The advisers will meet again Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the British capital, the official said. "We are doing well with China. China's not easy,' Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. "I'm only getting good reports.' The US delegation was led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The presence of Lutnick, the former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO, underscored the importance that export controls are playing in these discussions. Bessent told reporters in London they had a "good meeting', and Lutnick called the discussions "fruitful.' The Chinese delegation was led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, who left without commenting to the media. With him was Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and his deputy Li Chenggang, the country's trade representative. Wang has become a fixture in the entourage of President Xi Jinping on overseas trips since he was appointed in 2020, while Li is a veteran trade bureaucrat and was previously ambassador to the World Trade Organization. The Ministry of Commerce can be seen as the counterpart to both the US Department of Commerce and the Office of the Trade Representative. The US signaled a willingness to remove restrictions on some tech exports in exchange for assurances that China is easing limits on rare earth shipments, which are critical to a wide array of energy, defense and technology products, including smartphones, fighter jets and nuclear reactor rods. China accounts for almost 70% of the world's production of rare earths. Specifically, the Trump administration is prepared to remove a recent spate of measures targeting chip design software, jet engine parts, chemicals and nuclear materials, people familiar with the matter said. Many of those actions were taken in the past few weeks as tensions flared between the US and China. Trump was noncommittal about lifting export curbs, telling reporters "we'll see' when asked about the possibility of such a move. "China has been ripping off the United States for many years,' the US president said, while adding that "we want to open up China.' The Trump administration expects that "after the handshake' in London, "any export controls from the US will be eased and the rare earths will be released in volume' by China, Kevin Hassett, head of the White House's National Economic Council, told CNBC earlier in the day Monday. Hassett's comments from Washington were the clearest signal yet that the US is willing to offer such a concession, though he added that the US would stop short of including the most sophisticated chips made by Nvidia Corp. used to power artificial intelligence. "The very, very high-end Nvidia stuff is not what I'm talking about,' Hassett said, adding that restrictions would not be lifted on the Nvidia H2O chips that are used to train AI services. "I'm talking about possible export controls on other semiconductors which are also very important to them.' Chinese shares trading in Hong Kong entered a bull market, as some investors expressed hope the talks signaled a cooling of trade tensions. In the US, traders drove stocks higher, with the S&P 500 within 2% of its February peak. The first round of negotiations since delegations from the countries met a month ago is aimed at restoring confidence that both sides are living up to commitments made in Geneva. During those discussions, Washington and Beijing agreed to lower crippling tariffs for 90 days to allow time to address a trade imbalance that the Trump administration blames on an unfair playing field. Despite that truce, trade didn't recover in May, with Chinese exports to the US dropping by the most since the start of the pandemic and imports from the US down by almost 20% in May. A phone call last week between President Donald Trump and Xi appeared to give fresh momentum to reaching a deal. US-China trade tensions escalated this year as Trump hiked duties on Chinese goods, prompting retaliation from Beijing. That's led to pain in both economies, including uncertainties for businesses trying to navigate sudden changes in trade policy. - Bloomberg
Focus Malaysia
an hour ago
- Focus Malaysia
Anthony Loke trolled with call to resign, racist slur after 2nd major heavy vehicle fatality in a month
ENRAGED Malaysians have taken to the social media to again demand the head of Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook to roll after 15 Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) students perished in a chartered bus accident in the wee hours of Monday (June 9). That emotions flare up to boiling point is understandable as it was barely a month ago on May 13 that nine FRU personnel lost their lives after their truck collided with a gravel-laden lorry in Teluk Intan. To aggravate matters, the Seremban MP's deafening silence to the 1.10am ordeal at KM53 of the East-West Highway (JRTB) near Tasik Banding in Gerik, Perak — his maiden statement came some 19 hours later — has let to racist remarks and accusations of favouritism been hurled at him. 'You think that the Chinese fella will care for many of the dead are Malays? Obviously, he just acted like he didn't know but if it were to involve his own race, he would have immediately swamp into action,' fumed one short-sighted netizen. Others recalled how swiftly Loke had reacted to the recent incident of a senior Taiwanese citizen who was run over by a Light Rail Transit (LRT) train at the Pusat Bandar Puchong station recently by instructing Prasarana Malaysia Bhd to install platform doors at all LRT stations to enhance passenger safety. Some accused him of being the minister 'who has so much potential to the most useless' by being too occupied 'to sell number plates' than to look into constructive criticism to improve road safety. Interestingly, one social media influencer who claimed to be very impressed with the DAP secretary-general had even denounced the positivity he expressed on Dec 8, 2022 following 'so many fatal accidents involving heavy vehicles and buses yet still no action has been taken to address this issue'. 09 Jun 2025, Aku tarik balik kata² 08 Dec 2022 berkenaan dgn Antony Loke. Tak impress lansung dgn dia sebab zaman dia jadi Menteri sahaja, dah berapa banyak kemalangan maut melibatkan kenderaan berat dan bas, tapi masih tiada apa² tindakan utk mengawal perkara ni. — Zac (@ZacZakirin13) June 9, 2025 Thankfully, there are still many rational Malaysians who came to Loke' defence by rightly pointing out that yhe accident happened because of the bus driver's negligence 'of driving at high speed yet the minister gets slammed'. Some also lamented the tendency of Malaysians to even politicise fatal road accidents. Rakaman dashcam kemalangan bas students UPSI. Laju gila wei. — هزوان عفيفي (@HazwanAfifi) June 9, 2025 Even in Loke's 'much delayed' Facebook post, many commenters managed to hold back their frustration of having to hear of fatal road accidents involving heavy vehicles week in week out by offering a slew of constructive criticism to the Transport Ministry (MOT) and its enforcement arm, the Road Transport Department (RTD). – June 10, 2025
New Straits Times
4 hours ago
- New Straits Times
US-China trade, minerals talks in London set to extend to second day
LONDON: US-China trade talks were set to extend to a second day in London as top economic officials from the world's two largest economies sought to defuse a bitter dispute that has widened from tariffs to restrictions over rare earths, threatening a global supply chain shock and slower economic growth. Talks at Lancaster House, an ornate UK government mansion, wrapped for the night on Monday and were set to resume at 10am BST (0900 GMT) on Tuesday, a US source familiar with the negotiations said. Washington and Beijing are trying to revive a temporary truce struck in Geneva that had briefly lowered trade tensions and calmed markets. Since then, the US has accused China of slow-walking its commitments, particularly around rare earths shipments. US President Donald Trump on Monday put a positive spin on the talks, saying that they were going well and he was "only getting good reports" from his team in London. "We're doing well with China. China's not easy," Trump said, offering no details on the substance of the discussions. Asked about lifting export controls, Trump told reporters at the White House: "We're going to see." White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett had said earlier on Monday that the US team wanted a handshake from China on rare earths after Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to resume shipments in a rare call between the two leaders last week. Hassett told CNBC in an interview that the US would expect export controls to be eased and rare earths released in volume immediately afterwards. The London talks come at a crucial time for both economies, which are showing signs of strain from Trump's cascade of tariff orders since his return to the White House in January. Customs data showed that China's exports to the US plunged 34.50 per cent year-on-year in May in value terms, the sharpest drop since February 2020, when the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic upended global trade. In the US, business and household confidence has taken a pummelling, while first-quarter gross domestic product contracted due to a record surge in imports as Americans front-loaded purchases to beat anticipated price increases. So far, the impact on inflation has been muted and the jobs market has remained fairly resilient, though economists expect cracks to become more apparent over the summer. Attending the talks in London are US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The Chinese contingent led by Vice Premier He Lifeng includes Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and the ministry's chief trade negotiator, Li Chenggang. The inclusion of Lutnick, whose agency oversees export controls for the US, is one indication of how central rare earths have become. Some analysts saw it as a sign that Trump is willing to put recently imposed Commerce Department export restrictions on the table. China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets, a crucial component in electric vehicle motors. Lutnick did not attend the Geneva talks at which the countries struck a 90-day deal to roll back some of the triple-digit tariffs they had placed on each other. Meanwhile, the US court fight over an effort to invalidate Trump's tariffs on goods from China and other trading partners advanced on Monday with the Trump administration filing arguments in its appeal of a US trade court's ruling that the levies exceeded Trump's legal authority. The federal appeals court could rule at any time on the Trump administration's request to keep the tariffs in place while the appeal proceeds. It could go all the way to the Supreme Court. POSITIVE CONCLUSION Trump and Xi spoke by phone last week, their first direct interaction since Trump's Jan 20 inauguration. During the call, Xi told Trump to back down from trade measures that roiled the global economy and warned him against threatening steps on Taiwan, according to a Chinese government summary. But Trump said on social media the talks focused primarily on trade led to "a very positive conclusion," setting the stage for Monday's meeting in the British capital. The next day, Trump said Xi had agreed to resume shipments to the US of rare earths minerals and magnets. Reuters reported that China granted temporary export licences to rare-earth suppliers of the top three US automakers. EXPORT RESTRICTIONS China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets upended the global supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors. Kelly Ann Shaw, a former White House trade adviser during Trump's first term and now a trade partner at the Akin Gump law firm in Washington, said she expected China to reaffirm its commitment to lift retaliatory measures, including export restrictions, "plus some concessions on the US side, with respect to export controls measures over the past week or two." But Shaw said she expected the US to only agree to lift some new export curbs, not longstanding ones such as for advanced artificial intelligence chips. In May, the US ordered a halt to shipments of semiconductor design software and chemicals and aviation equipment, revoking export licences that had been previously issued. The preliminary deal in Geneva sparked a global relief rally in stock markets, and US indexes that had been in or near bear market levels have recouped the lion's share of their losses. But Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, said while a temporary truce was possible, there was little prospect for the bilateral relationship to become constructive given broader decoupling trends and continued US pressure on other countries to take China out of their supply chains. "Everyone around Trump is still hawkish and so a breakthrough US-China trade deal is unlikely, especially in the context of other deals that are further along and prioritised," he said in an analyst note.
