Joachim: GRS open to cooperation as long as majority stable
Published on: Monday, May 26, 2025
Published on: Mon, May 26, 2025
By: Noor Zafira Zayn Text Size: Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) is open to working with other parties as long as it maintains a stable majority, said Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) acting president Datuk Dr. Joachim Gunsalam. 'As long as GRS has a stable majority, we have no issue with collaborating with others as long as GRS leads the direction,' he told reporters today. Joachim, who is also GRS Deputy Chairman, said the coalition remains open to discussions but has yet to engage with any parties from Peninsular Malaysia. On the upcoming Sabah state election, he said GRS welcomes healthy competition but is focused on winning as a coalition. His remarks come after PKR's Nurul Izzah Anwar said her party aims to contest 13 seats in the 17th Sabah State Election while Bersatu's Datuk Seri Azmin Ali confirmed ongoing efforts to identify winnable seats and build alliances in the state. * Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel and Telegram for breaking news alerts and key updates! * Do you have access to the Daily Express e-paper and online exclusive news? Check out subscription plans available.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express's Telegram channel. Daily Express Malaysia
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Bulgaria cyber ‘elves' fight Kremlin and cruelty
SOFIA, BULGARIA: A Bulgarian group of dozens of cyber activists at first clubbed together to battle Russian disinformation, but they have since found other foes -- like animal abusers. They call themselves the BG Elves, which both refers to the kind-hearted characters of Scandinavian mythology and hints at a rivalry with the internet's malicious trolls. The collective of about 70 anonymous cyber security experts have made a name for themselves by creating problems for their adversaries. One of their latest efforts was helping an animal rights NGO uncover evidence that led to the March arrest of a woman and a man accused of selling videos online of hundreds of animals being tortured to death. 'Our work was crucial, because for the first time a crime was solved in Bulgaria based on OSINT data, proving that our efforts can produce concrete results,' software developer Petko Petkov, the Elves' only public face, told AFP. OSINT refers to open-source intelligence, which is information gathered with digital investigation techniques like reverse image search and geolocation. In the summer of 2024, the NGO alerted the cyber sleuths to videos posted on Telegram of a masked woman torturing animals. The Elves tracked her down within hours. Using OSINT, they were also able to trace the locations where the videos of cats, rabbits and guinea pigs being tortured on camera were filmed by her accomplice. The videos sparked widespread protests in Bulgaria, and prompted the government to propose emergency legislation. - 'Counter-propaganda' - Set up in 2023 in response to pro-Kremlin disinformation flooding Bulgaria, the group first zeroed in on the key players involved in the campaigns. 'There were about 10 of us in a chat group, we refined the concept, then put out a call for volunteers,' Petkov told AFP about the group's founding. They have grown significantly since and include experts in cyber security, social engineering and databases. 'We are not hackers, we are researchers,' said Petkov, 37, who moved from central Bulgaria to Kyiv shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Dedicated to activism, the Elves try to fight the deluge of disinformation by disseminating 'counter-propaganda that makes people think', he said. 'We noticed that a (disinfo) narrative... takes some time to reach people. Our idea was to flood the space with humour and irony before the propaganda takes hold,' said Petkov. Recently, they launched a viral meme campaign targeting the main false claims about Bulgaria's accession to the eurozone, distributing the content through profiles embedded within major disinformation networks. In March, BG Elves supported a Romanian journalist in an investigation that exposed a Russia-linked disinformation and propaganda network funded through online advertising. - 'More serious' cases - In the wake of the recent arrests, Bulgaria proposed a bill in parliament, which allows for higher prison terms of up to 10 years for torturing animals. Nearly 300 people have been convicted of such offences in the last five years, but few end up in prison. Petya Altimirska, president of the animal welfare association CAAI, who had reached out to the Elves for help in the abuse case, has since received numerous reports of 'even more serious' cases, adding that the cyber sleuths are already 'on it'. While the group was praised for exposing the animal abuse, it has also faced criticism and numerous threats for its provocative approach and alleged political bias.
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Russian attacks kill five in Zaporizhzhia, injure several in Kharkiv, regional officials say
Local resident Lyudmila Tsinkush leaves her house that was damaged in a Russian drones strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, June 1, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Peter (Reuters) -Russian shelling and air attacks killed five people outside the southeastern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzhia, while a drone attack on the northeast region of Sumy injured at least six early on Monday, including two children, regional officials said. Ivan Fedorov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said three women died in a series of Russian shelling incidents targeting the village of Ternuvate, east of Zaporizhzhia late on Sunday. A shop and several homes were badly damaged. A man died in a nearby district in a Russian strike by a guided aerial bomb, Fedorov said. A total of nine people were injured in the Russian attacks and a private home was destroyed. Two children were among those injured in a Russian drone attack on the Sumy region, Oleh Sinehubov, the governor of the region, said on Monday on Telegram. "A 7-year-old boy is among the victims," Sinehubov said. He added that several buildings throughout the regions were damaged. The attacks come as both Russia and Ukraine are about to meet for a round of peace talks, trying to find a way to end the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour more than three years ago. (Reporting by Ron Popeski, Bogdan Kochubey and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Lincoln by Ron Popeski and Lidia Kelly;Editing by Rod Nickel)
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Ukraine drone attacks on Russia spark fires, disrupt traffic, officials say
(Reuters) -Ukraine's overnight drone attacks on Russia's Kursk and Voronezh regions sparked residential fires and disrupted traffic on a major highway, regional officials said early on Monday. Russian air defence units destroyed a total of 162 Ukrainian drones overnight, downing 57 of the air weapons over the Kursk region that borders Ukraine. Falling debris from destroyed drones in the Kursk region sparked fires at several houses and damaged private apartments, acting governor of the region, Alexander Khinshtein, said on the Telegram messaging app. In the southern Russian region of Voronezh, where Russian air units destroyed 16 Ukrainian drones, regional governor Alexander Gusev said drone debris cut through power lines which fell on the M-4, a major expressway. A small section of the highway, which links the cities of Moscow, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar, was closed, Gusev said. Falling drone debris also damaged the facade of several houses, he added on Telegram. There were no injuries reported, the governors of the regions said. The attacks come as both Russia and Ukraine are about to meet for a round of peace talks, trying to find a way to end the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour more than three years ago. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Rod Nickel and Lincoln Feast.)
