Latest news with #715
The Sun
23-07-2025
- The Sun
GOF busts RM190m e-waste syndicate in Johor raid
SEGAMAT: The General Operations Force (GOF) has dismantled a large-scale electronic waste (e-waste) processing syndicate following a raid in Buloh Kasap, Johor, with seizures valued at RM190 million. The operation, conducted jointly with multiple agencies, marks a significant crackdown on illegal e-waste activities in the region. The 5th Battalion of GOF, led by commanding officer Supt Salehin Sulaiman, carried out the raid on June 16 in collaboration with the Department of Environment (DOE), Immigration Department, and Segamat Municipal Council. Authorities discovered that the syndicate had been operating for nearly a year before being uncovered. Dubbed 'Op Hazard 2.0', the operation led to the arrest of 56 individuals, including two Malaysians—a lorry driver and a female clerk working at the premises. The seized items comprised 5,920 tonnes of e-waste, 9.45 tonnes of plastic, 1,031 tonnes of metal, 23 forklifts, 42 machines, and a trailer lorry. The total estimated value of confiscated materials reached RM190,715,900. 'This operation has successfully disrupted a major syndicate network involved in illegal scrap and e-waste processing, particularly in Segamat,' Salehin stated. In a separate operation, the same GOF battalion detained 25 illegal immigrants during a raid at an oil palm plantation in Ladang Tumbuk, Selangor, on April 14. The group, consisting of 16 men and nine women, allegedly entered Malaysia via an unregulated sea route and lacked valid identification documents. All detainees were handed over to Kuala Langat District Police for further action under the Immigration Act. – Bernama
USA Today
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Did MLB deceptively edit Vin Scully's call of Hank Aaron's HR in ASG tribute?
At first glance it sure seemed like Major League Baseball nailed it's All-Star Game tribute to Hank Aaron's 715th home run. The on-field graphics — wonderfully utilizing the same type of technology we've seen at NBA and NHL games lately — were astounding. The firework recreation of the ball rocketing from home plate to the left field wall was a great touch. The only thing left was a recognition of how monumental the moment was for broader race relations in the country. But MLB greatly missed the mark here with seemingly deceptive editing of Vin Scully's iconic call during the tribute. When Aaron hit his home run in Atlanta on April 8, 1974, Scully commented on the profound scene playing out in front of him barely a decade after the fall of Jim Crow. Here's the transcript of Scully's call: 'A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world.' Major League Baseball's tribute on Tuesday cut off the first part of Scully's comments, making it sound as though the home run itself was marvelous, and not the scene of a predominately white, southern crowd giving a black man a standing ovation. It's worth noting that Scully himself often talked about the importance of that scene and why it was vital to mention on air. "I stood there thinking about the impact, and the more I thought about it... That's what I said when the crowd died down, about what a great moment not just Henry, not just for the Braves, not just for baseball, this was the greatest impact at home run, sociologically," Scully said. "I mean, here is a Black man in the Deep South getting an absolute love ovation for breaking the record of a white icon. To me, that's what made that home run the most important home run that I ever called." To remove the context from Scully's call completely changes the entire meaning. While Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's career home run record has become one of baseball's most celebrated moments, you cannot tell the story of 715 without knowing about the constant hate mail and threats Aaron received along the way. At one point in 1973, the FBI attempted to advise Aaron against playing because the threats had seemed credible enough. MLB's tribute rather conveniently omitting this context didn't happen in a vacuum, either. It fits a broader pattern of the league attempting to avoid ruffling any feathers in the culture wars. This is the same Major League Baseball under Rob Manfred that remained ghastly silent as the Department of Defense removed a webpage dedicated to the military and baseball history of Jackie Robinson only a few months ago. The page was only restored following fan outcry and pressure from journalists. Just this week, MLB side-stepped questions about returning the All-Star Game to Atlanta after making a public showing of removing the game in 2021 after the state of Georgia passed a restrictive voting law. Atlanta was allowed to host the game this year despite the law remaining in effect — which made for an extremely awkward pre-game press conference moment when reporters brought this up. This is also the same MLB that just posthumously reinstated Pete Rose. Individually, MLB's recent actions are, frankly, depressing. Taken together, the deceptive editing of Scully's call is the latest sign Major League Baseball is attempting to distance history made on the diamond from the inextricable circumstances that created it off the field. Unfortunately for MLB, many fans noticed. The Aaron tribute was a great idea and was otherwise nicely done, but hacking up Scully's call was an utter disgrace. Everyone involved in that decision, be they with Major League Baseball or the Fox network, should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. A lot of work went into this tribute, but we should hear Vin Scully's entire call and remember Hank Aaron's legacy in full'A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us.' Anyone else notice how during the Hank Aaron tribute, they notably cut out the part of Vin Scully's call about the significance of a black man getting a standing ovation in the heart of the South? Of course they cut the most famous part of Vin Scully's call MLB's Hank Aaron tribute at the All-Star Game cut off Vin Scully's "What a marvelous moment" refrain before he finished ".... a Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol." Do better, MLB.
The Sun
25-06-2025
- Automotive
- The Sun
Loke warns 28 companies with high outstanding summonses of tougher enforcement
PUTRAJAYA: In an unprecedented move, the Transport Ministry today revealed a list of 28 commercial vehicle operators with a high number of outstanding traffic summonses, warning them to settle their dues promptly. Minister Anthony Loke said the offenders comprised 11 goods vehicle operators and 17 express bus companies. He named the top offenders as KDEB Waste Management Sdn Bhd, which has 22,017 summonses, Mainiza Mantap Sdn Bhd (5,108 summonses), Advancecon Mantap Sdn Bhd (3,620), Cepat Ekspres Sdn Bhd (540) and New Hoover Ekpress & Travels Sdn Bhd (512). He said all companies involved have been given 14 days from today to settle their outstanding summonses at any state or branch Road Transport Department (JPJ) office. 'Failure to do so will result in stricter enforcement actions, including immediate blacklisting of the vehicles. 'No discounts will be given — payment must be made according to the existing rates,' he said at a press conference here. Loke said the summonses involved offences under the Road Transport Act 1987 (Act 333), the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Act 1987 (Act 334) and the Land Public Transport Act 2010 (Act 715). He said the five main offences were speeding, driving without a licence, technical violations, overloading, and driving without a motor vehicle licence (LKM) or insurance. When asked about the rationale behind the disclosure and firm action, Loke said it serves as a warning to all companies to prioritise vehicle safety and hire trained and responsible drivers. 'This is a warning for them to change their corporate culture — a culture of ensuring vehicle safety and for every driver to comply with safety standards,' he said. Loke added that the move is part of the government's efforts in response to the rising number of accidents involving companies in these categories. 'Although it may seem drastic and has never been done before (naming the companies), the government is taking this step because the public wants to see a culture shift. We do not want to witness another tragedy claiming many lives. Let the UPSI (Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris) tragedy be a lesson,' he said. He did not rule out the possibility of introducing further enforcement and preventive measures in the future to reduce fatal accident rates and ensure road safety for all users.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Record-early heat wave hits Texas as lawmakers target renewables
A brutal and record-early heat wave is baking Texas this week — bringing the triple-digit temperatures typical of July to the middle of May. The sudden heat spike, which was made more likely by the decades-long failure to stop burning fossil fuels, creates an acute danger for a populace not yet acclimatized to summer heat. It also comes at a fraught time: as the Texas Legislature debates measures that experts say would curtail the very power supply that will keep the air conditioning on and deadly blackouts at bay. This week, the state House advanced S.B. 715, a bill passed last week by the Senate that would require existing wind and solar plants to provide backup power when they aren't operating — a measure the state business lobby said would lead to blackouts and higher power costs. Last month, the Senate also passed S.B. 388, a bill requiring that every new watt of wind and solar power also come with a corresponding new watt of coal, nuclear or gas — despite a turbine supply chain bottleneck that will make it very difficult to build new gas plants before the 2030s. The Texas Senate has also passed S.B. 819, which significantly restricts where windmills and solar farms can be built while creating no such restrictions for coal or gas plants. This push, which the Texas renewables industry calls an existential threat, is happening alongside an effort by the national GOP, which controls Congress and the White House, to slash Biden-era clean energy tax credits and federal efficiency standards that sought to incentivize measures from building out solar production to helping schools cut their heating bills and air conditioning with subsidized geothermal energy. In addition to increasing power supplies and cutting energy costs, those Biden-era measures had been intended to slow the heating of the planet, which shows itself in not just an across-the-board rise in temperatures but in increasingly bizarre 'whiplash' between extremes. This week's heat wave, a sudden jump from a mild spring into the teeth of summer, is 'one of the more dramatic temperature swings in recent memory,' the National Weather Service reported on Sunday. For much of Texas, this sudden spike is directly attributable to global warming, according to research from Climate Central, an independent group of scientists that works to untangle the link between extreme weather and the background heating caused by carbon pollution. Global warming made the sudden heat experienced by three-quarters of the state population about three times more likely — and the more intense temperatures experienced by a quarter of the state population about five times more likely, Climate Central said. Texas's 'extreme and probably unprecedented temperatures' this week began as a ridge of hot air moving in from the Pacific over the mountains of Northern Mexico and West Texas before getting trapped in Central Texas, Austin-based meteorologist Avery Tomasco explained on CBS Monday. As more and more air rolls downhill and piles on the dry ground, air molecules heat themselves up in a process called compressional heating. But the root causes of the sudden heat lie deeper: in the state's protracted drought and a rapidly heating climate — phenomena that mean Texans can look forward to a near future of three- to four-month stretches of 100-plus degree days. In such a world, air conditioning becomes a life-or-death need, which means that grid stability does too. The health of the Texas grid made national headlines in 2021, when blackouts following Winter Storm Uri killed hundreds. Those blackouts were caused by a combination of failed power generation — primarily gas — and spiking demand for heating. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is predicting that cranked-up air conditioners across the state this week will drive electricity usage to meet or exceed peak levels — just as about a third of the state's aging gas, coal and nuclear fleet are offline due to breakdown. Last July, power failures following Hurricane Beryl left millions of Houston residents without air conditioning — which led to surging indoor heat that killed 15 people. This week, however, such deaths are considered unlikely as the state grid should easily meet electric demand thanks to a years-long buildout in wind and solar power. Solar and battery storage were the biggest single source of new power on the Texas grid last year, the Dallas Federal Reserve found, with gas a distant second. Texas energy expert Doug Lewin of Stoic Consulting argues that solar, which provides the most power roughly when conditions are hottest, is a 'perfect' source for the state. 'There was never a resource more developed to keep Texans cool than solar,' Lewin told The Hill. The current slate of state legislation, he said, isn't just an existential threat to renewables but to the entire state economy. While temperatures will peak and fall back in the 90s later this week, Texas' long-term forecast is for more heat. Because water heats slower than air or dry soil, water in the landscape or atmosphere serves as a stabilizing influence against sudden temperature spikes. Moisture in land or air can help keep conditions from getting so hot that the water is baked out of the soil, helping avoid a feedback loop in which the weather gets even hotter and droughts become semi-permanent. But Texas currently has little such ballast. Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) reupped a drought disaster proclamation that is now three years old. Despite recent downpours, just under two-thirds of the state is abnormally dry, and more than a third is in severe to exceptional drought, according to the National Drought Information Service. A 2024 extreme weather report from the Texas state climatologist suggests that as the planet heats, this phenomenon will get worse, as the state faces 'increased drought severity, including more erratic runoff into reservoirs.' The study said that while rainfall totals may sometimes be above average, they will increasingly fall in land-scouring downpours, rather than the slow-soaking that fills reservoirs and aquifers and serves as a buffer against heat. Recent research suggests that the global area afflicted by lethal heat waves would triple in size in coming decades even if global climate agreements — which President Trump exited on his first day in office — were kept. Lewin argued that as climate change makes extreme weather more likely, the chance of unprecedented events 'keeps going up,' making the need for a rapidly growing grid more urgent. 'Whatever you thought was the worst heat wave, what you thought was the worst hurricane, what you thought was the worst flood, you know, what you thought was the worst wildfire? There's a worse one out there,' he said. 'It's just waiting to happen, and we better be ready for it.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Record-early heat wave hits Texas as lawmakers target renewables
A brutal and record-early heat wave is baking Texas this week — bringing the triple-digit temperatures typical of July to the middle of May. The sudden heat spike, which was made more likely by the decades-long failure to stop burning fossil fuels, creates an acute danger for a populace not yet acclimatized to summer heat. It also comes at a fraught time: as the Texas Legislature debates measures that experts say would curtail the very power supply that will keep the air conditioning on and deadly blackouts at bay. This week, the state House advanced S.B. 715, a bill passed last week by the Senate that would require existing wind and solar plants to provide backup power when they aren't operating — a measure the state business lobby said would lead to blackouts and higher power costs. Last month, the Senate also passed S.B. 388, a bill requiring that every new watt of wind and solar power also come with a corresponding new watt of coal, nuclear or gas — despite a turbine supply chain bottleneck that will make it very difficult to build new gas plants before the 2030s. The Texas Senate has also passed S.B. 819, which significantly restricts where windmills and solar farms can be built while creating no such restrictions for coal or gas plants. This push, which the Texas renewables industry calls an existential threat, is happening alongside an effort by the national GOP, which controls Congress and the White House, to slash Biden-era clean energy tax credits and federal efficiency standards that sought to incentivize measures from building out solar production to helping schools cut their heating bills and air conditioning with subsidized geothermal energy. In addition to increasing power supplies and cutting energy costs, those Biden-era measures had been intended to slow the heating of the planet, which shows itself in not just an across-the-board rise in temperatures but in increasingly bizarre 'whiplash' between extremes. This week's heat wave, a sudden jump from a mild spring into the teeth of summer, is 'one of the more dramatic temperature swings in recent memory,' the National Weather Service reported on Sunday. For much of Texas, this sudden spike is directly attributable to global warming, according to research from Climate Central, an independent group of scientists that works to untangle the link between extreme weather and the background heating caused by carbon pollution. Global warming made the sudden heat experienced by three-quarters of the state population about three times more likely — and the more intense temperatures experienced by a quarter of the state population about five times more likely, Climate Central said. Texas's 'extreme and probably unprecedented temperatures' this week began as a ridge of hot air moving in from the Pacific over the mountains of Northern Mexico and West Texas before getting trapped in Central Texas, Austin-based meteorologist Avery Tomasco explained on CBS Monday. As more and more air rolls downhill and piles on the dry ground, air molecules heat themselves up in a process called compressional heating. But the root causes of the sudden heat lie deeper: in the state's protracted drought and a rapidly heating climate — phenomena that mean Texans can look forward to a near future of three- to four-month stretches of 100-plus degree days. In such a world, air conditioning becomes a life-or-death need, which means that grid stability does too. The health of the Texas grid made national headlines in 2021, when blackouts following Winter Storm Uri killed hundreds. Those blackouts were caused by a combination of failed power generation — primarily gas — and spiking demand for heating. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is predicting that cranked-up air conditioners across the state this week will drive electricity usage to meet or exceed peak levels — just as about a third of the state's aging gas, coal and nuclear fleet are offline due to breakdown. Last July, power failures following Hurricane Beryl left millions of Houston residents without air conditioning — which led to surging indoor heat that killed 15 people. This week, however, such deaths are considered unlikely as the state grid should easily meet electric demand thanks to a years-long buildout in wind and solar power. Solar and battery storage were the biggest single source of new power on the Texas grid last year, the Dallas Federal Reserve found, with gas a distant second. Texas energy expert Doug Lewin of Stoic Consulting argues that solar, which provides the most power roughly when conditions are hottest, is a 'perfect' source for the state. 'There was never a resource more developed to keep Texans cool than solar,' Lewin told The Hill. The current slate of state legislation, he said, isn't just an existential threat to renewables but to the entire state economy. While temperatures will peak and fall back in the 90s later this week, Texas' long-term forecast is for more heat. Because water heats slower than air or dry soil, water in the landscape or atmosphere serves as a stabilizing influence against sudden temperature spikes. Moisture in land or air can help keep conditions from getting so hot that the water is baked out of the soil, helping avoid a feedback loop in which the weather gets even hotter and droughts become semi-permanent. But Texas currently has little such ballast. Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) reupped a drought disaster proclamation that is now three years old. Despite recent downpours, just under two-thirds of the state is abnormally dry, and more than a third is in severe to exceptional drought, according to the National Drought Information Service. A 2024 extreme weather report from the Texas state climatologist suggests that as the planet heats, this phenomenon will get worse, as the state faces 'increased drought severity, including more erratic runoff into reservoirs.' The study said that while rainfall totals may sometimes be above average, they will increasingly fall in land-scouring downpours, rather than the slow-soaking that fills reservoirs and aquifers and serves as a buffer against heat. Recent research suggests that the global area afflicted by lethal heat waves would triple in size in coming decades even if global climate agreements — which President Trump exited on his first day in office — were kept. Lewin argued that as climate change makes extreme weather more likely, the chance of unprecedented events 'keeps going up,' making the need for a rapidly growing grid more urgent. 'Whatever you thought was the worst heat wave, what you thought was the worst hurricane, what you thought was the worst flood, you know, what you thought was the worst wildfire? There's a worse one out there,' he said. 'It's just waiting to happen, and we better be ready for it.'
