Latest from Malay Mail
Malay Mail
9 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Four decades, one mission: Johor couple keeps Malaysia close to tourists' hearts
BATU PAHAT, Aug 6 — In a corner of the Arena Warna complex in Ayer Hitam — a popular spot for traditional handicrafts and snacks — an elderly couple can be seen diligently serving customers at their souvenir shop. With warm and welcoming smiles, 70-year-old Wang Ah Hie and his 69-year-old wife Karen Lim proudly display a range of locally themed merchandise, including T-shirts bearing the words 'Malaysia', 'Johor' and 'Ayer Hitam'. For the couple, these items are more than just products for sale — they are a symbol of their love and devotion to the country. 'When tourists return to their home countries, they take a piece of Malaysia with them. This is our small way of introducing the country to visitors and fostering a sense of patriotism among locals,' he told Bernama at his shop. The couple began modestly by selling handmade crafts by others — including pottery, vases, fridge magnets and T-shirts — by the roadside in Ayer Hitam in 1980. In 2000, they took a step forward by launching their own products under the 'Kampungku' brand. — Picture from X/Bernama The couple began modestly by selling handmade crafts by others — including pottery, vases, fridge magnets and T-shirts — by the roadside in Ayer Hitam in 1980. In 2000, they took a step forward by launching their own products under the 'Kampungku' brand. What makes their business even more unique is that most of the designs for their T-shirts, mugs, jackets, tote bags and caps are created by their eldest son, Wang Sin Ee, 45. Sin Ee said they opened a branch at Senai International Airport in 2015, aiming to attract foreign tourists seeking to take home a memento of Malaysia. 'We want tourists not just to buy our products as souvenirs, but also to feel proud when wearing something that says 'Malaysia'. Patriotism isn't just for locals — it can be shared with others too,' he said. What makes their business even more unique is that most of the designs for their T-shirts, mugs, jackets, tote bags and caps are created by their eldest son, Wang Sin Ee, 45. — Picture from X/Bernama According to him, the distinctive designs of Kampungku's T-shirts have drawn strong interest from tourists from Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Japan, South Korea, and Middle Eastern countries. 'We come up with more than 20 T-shirt designs every year due to strong demand. We make sure every design reflects elements of Malaysia — from the colours to the lettering. That's what makes them stand out,' he said. Meanwhile, Yong Peng District Council secretary Muhamad Sharul Azmi Md Kamil described the family's efforts as extraordinary in promoting national identity through small-scale entrepreneurship. 'Imagine, for over four decades they have tirelessly promoted the names Malaysia, Johor, and Ayer Hitam to foreign tourists. This is a remarkable example of ordinary citizens helping to elevate the country's image on the global stage,' he said. — Bernama
Malay Mail
9 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Trump's 40pc tariff targets transshipped goods, with China squarely in the crosshairs
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 — As the United States ramps up tariffs on major trading partners globally, President Donald Trump is also disrupting strategies that could be used — by Chinese companies or others — to circumvent them. Goods deemed to be 'transshipped,' or sent through a third country with lower export levies, will face an additional 40-per cent duty under an incoming wave of Trump tariffs Thursday. The latest tranche of 'reciprocal' tariff hikes, taking aim at what Washington deems unfair trade practices, impacts dozens of economies from Taiwan to India. The transshipment rule does not name countries, but is expected to impact China significantly given its position as a manufacturing powerhouse. Washington likely wants to develop supply chains that are less reliant on China, analysts say, as tensions simmer between the world's two biggest economies and the US sounds the alarm on Beijing's excess industrial capacity. But 'it's a little more about the short-term effect of strengthening the tariff regime than it is about a decoupling strategy,' said Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council. 'The point is to make countries worried about it and then have them err on the side of not doing it, because they know that Trump could then jack up the tariff rates higher again,' he added, referring to tariff evasion. The possibility of a sharply higher duty is a 'perpetual stick in the negotiations' with countries, said Richard Stern, a tax and budget expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He told AFP that expanding penalties across the globe takes the focus away from Beijing alone. Alternative supplies Experts have noted that Vietnam was the biggest winner from supply chain diversions from China since the first Trump tariffs around 2018, when Washington and Beijing engaged in a trade war. And Brookings Institution senior fellow Robin Brooks pointed to signs this year of significant transshipments of Chinese goods. He noted in a June report that Chinese exports to certain South-east Asian countries started surging 'anomalously' in early 2025 as Trump threatened widespread levies. While it is unclear if all these products end up in the United States, Brooks cast doubt on the likelihood that domestic demand in countries like Thailand and Vietnam rocketed right when Trump imposed duties. 'One purpose of the transshipment provisions is to force the development of supply chains that exclude Chinese inputs,' said William Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'The other purpose is to push back on Chinese overcapacity and force them to eat their own surpluses,' he added. But Washington's success in the latter goal depends on its ability to get other countries on board. 'The transshipment penalties are designed to encourage that,' Reinsch said. Lipsky added: 'The strategy that worked in the first Trump term, to try to offshore some Chinese manufacturing to other countries like Vietnam and Mexico, is going to be a much more difficult strategy to execute now.' China response? Lipsky noted that Beijing could see the transshipment clause as one targeting China on trade, 'because it is.' 'The question is, how China takes that in the broader context of what had been a thawing relationship between the US and China over the past two months,' he added. While both countries temporarily lowered triple-digit tariffs on each other's exports, that truce expires August 12. The countries are in talks to potentially extend the de-escalation, although the final decision lies with Trump. It will be tough to draw a line defining product origins, analysts say. Customs fraud has been illegal for some time, but it remains unclear how Washington will view materials from China or elsewhere that have been significantly transformed. The burden lies with customs authorities to identify transshipment and assess the increased duties. 'That will be difficult, particularly in countries that have close relations with China and no particular incentive to help US Customs and Border Protection,' Reinsch added. — AFP
Malay Mail
9 hours ago
- General
- Malay Mail
Decades later, Korean survivors of WWII atomic bombs still carry the scars, and the silence
HAPCHEON, Aug 6 — Bae Kyung-mi was five years old when the Americans dropped 'Little Boy', the atomic bomb that flattened Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Like thousands of other ethnic Koreans working in the city at the time, her family kept the horror a secret. Many feared the stigma from doing menial work for colonial ruler Japan, and false rumours that radiation sickness was contagious. Bae recalls hearing planes overhead while she was playing at her home in Hiroshima on that day. Within minutes, she was buried in rubble. 'I told my mom in Japanese, 'Mom! There are airplanes!'' Bae, now 85, told AFP. She passed out shortly after. This photo taken on June 26, 2025 shows Kim Hwa-ja (front left), an ethnic Korean who is also an atomic bomb survivor, or 'hibakusha', and Kwon Joon-oh (2nd left), whose mother and father were also survivors, as they visit the 'Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb', following an interview with AFP near the Peace Park Memorial in the city of Hiroshima, Hiroshima prefecture. — AFP pic Her home collapsed on top of her, but the debris shielded her from the burns that killed tens of thousands of people — including her aunt and uncle. After the family moved back to Korea, they did not speak of their experience. 'I never told my husband that I was in Hiroshima and a victim of the bombing,' Bae said. 'Back then, people often said you had married the wrong person if he or she was an atomic bombing survivor.' Her two sons only learned she had been in Hiroshima when she registered at a special centre set up in 1996 in Hapcheon in South Korea for victims of the bombings, she said. Bae said she feared her children would suffer from radiation-related illnesses that afflicted her, forcing her to have her ovaries and a breast removed because of the high cancer risk. This photo taken in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang, shows Lee Bu-yul, 87, a survivor of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II, posing in front of a traditional structure holding 1,172 wooden plaques bearing the names of deceased victims behind the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Victim Welfare Center. Lee was seven at the time of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and his mother died within one year of it. — AFP pic A burning city She knew why she was getting sick, but did not tell her own family. 'We all hushed it up,' she said. Some 740,000 people were killed or injured in the twin bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 10 per cent of the victims were Korean, data suggests, the result of huge flows of people to Japan while it colonised the Korean peninsula. Survivors who stayed in Japan found they had to endure discrimination both as hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, and as Koreans. Many Koreans also had to choose between pro-Pyongyang and pro-Seoul groups in Japan, after the peninsula was left divided by the 1950-53 Korean War. Kwon Joon-oh's mother and father both survived the attack on Hiroshima. Bae Kyung-mi was five years old when the Americans dropped 'Little Boy', the atomic bomb that flattened Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Some 740,000 people were killed or injured in the twin bombings of Hiroshima and Nakasaki which ended World War II — and more than 10 per cent of the victims were Korean, data suggests, the result of huge flows of people to Japan while it colonised the Korean peninsula. — AFP pic The 76-year-old's parents, like others of their generation, could only work by taking on 'filthy and dangerous jobs' that the Japanese considered beneath them, he said. Korean victims were also denied an official memorial for decades, with a cenotaph for them put up in the Hiroshima Peace Park only in the late 1990s. Kim Hwa-ja was four on August 6, 1945 and remembers being put on a makeshift horse-drawn trap as her family tried to flee Hiroshima after the bomb. Smoke filled the air and the city was burning, she said, recalling how she peeped out from under a blanket covering her, and her mother screaming at her not to look. Korean groups estimate that up to 50,000 Koreans may have been in the city that day, including tens of thousands working as forced labourers at military sites. This photo shows residents preparing to have their portraits taken for use at their funerals at the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Victim Welfare Center. — AFP pic Stigma But records are sketchy. 'The city office was devastated so completely that it wasn't possible to track down clear records,' a Hiroshima official told AFP. Japan's colonial policy banned the use of Korean names, further complicating record-keeping. After the attacks, tens of thousands of Korean survivors moved back to their newly-independent country. But many have struggled with health issues and stigma ever since. 'In those days, there were unfounded rumours that radiation exposure could be contagious,' said Jeong Soo-won, director of the country's Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Victim Center. This photo shows Korean Red Cross secretary-general Kang Soohan opening the doors to a traditional structure holding wooden plaques bearing the names of deceased victims behind the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Victim Welfare Center. — AFP pic Nationwide, there are believed to be some 1,600 South Korean survivors still alive, Jeong said. Eighty-two live at the centre. Seoul enacted a special law in 2016 to help the survivors — including a monthly stipend of around US$72 — but it provides no assistance to their offspring or extended families. 'There are many second- and third-generation descendants affected by the bombings and suffering from congenital illnesses,' said Jeong. A provision to support them 'must be included' in future, he said. A Japanese hibakusha group won the Nobel Peace Prize last year in recognition of their efforts to show the world the horrors of nuclear war. But 80 years after the attacks, many survivors in Japan and Korea say the world has not learned. This photo shows Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor Bae Kyung-mi reaching out while visiting a traditional structure holding wooden plaques bearing the names of deceased victims behind the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Victim Welfare Center. — AFP pic 'Only talk' US President Donald Trump recently compared his strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 'Would he understand the tragedy of what the Hiroshima bombing has caused? Would he understand that of Nagasaki?' survivor Kim Gin-ho said. In Korea, the Hapcheon centre will hold a commemoration on August 6 — with survivors hoping that this year the event will attract more attention. From politicians, 'there has been only talk... but no interest', she said. — AFP
Malay Mail
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
‘War' over US election maps heats up as both Republicans and Democrats redraw lines ahead of 2026 polls
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 — Donald Trump is pulling hard on the levers of power to strengthen Republicans through redistricting in Texas and other states — the latest offensive in escalating moves by both sides to shape the battlefield of US democracy for the midterm elections. The president's efforts have lit a fuse in multiple states, triggering a high-stakes tussle over election law that could upend what is expected to be a fierce fight for control of the House of Representatives in 2026. Partisan redistricting — or gerrymandering — operates under a principle that has become known as 'packing and cracking.' Officials redrawing the districts in any given state 'pack' opposition voters together so that they win big in a tiny number of districts. Then they 'crack' the rest more thinly across the remaining districts to ensure losses there. It isn't inherently illegal at the federal level unless electoral districts are redrawn along racial lines and both parties have been guilty of excessive manipulation to maximise their vote. 'I'd be happy to outlaw gerrymandering,' Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, a former top aide to 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, posted on X. 'I think it's ridiculous for politicians to draw their own maps, but I'm not for unilateral disarmament when Republicans are trying to rig the midterms.' Redistricting typically happens once a decade after the census, but lawmakers have increasingly been inclined to break with that tradition. While Trump coasted to victory in 2024, his success wasn't contagious, and his party was left clinging to the House by a threadbare 219-212 margin. Historically, the party in the White House loses ground in midterms, and Trump's team knows the clock is ticking. To tighten his grip, the president has leaned on Texas to redraw its congressional map to create five new Republican-friendly seats. But Trump and his party are not stopping with the Lone Star State, according to US media. Republicans in Missouri and Ohio are planning their own redistricting to boost their representation in Washington, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has made noises about addressing the 'raw deal' conservatives got in the last Sunshine State redistricting round. Democratic counteroffensives Meanwhile, Democratic governors are preparing their own counteroffensives. In California, Gavin Newsom has floated a potential special election to redraw the map — a dramatic reversal in a state where redistricting power has belonged to an independent commission since the 2010s. In Illinois, JB Pritzker recently hosted a delegation of Texas Democrats to talk strategy. And in New York, Kathy Hochul hinted at a redistricting push of her own, telling a Buffalo crowd, 'If other states are violating the rules, I'm going to look at it closely.' Gerrymandering is hardly a new phenomenon in US elections, but the latest escalation has sparked fears of what Hochul cast as a nationwide partisan 'war.' Opponents say gerrymandering entrenches politicians, pushes candidates toward ideological extremes and erodes public trust in the democratic process. It is also a risky business, and even the best-laid maps can collapse under the shifting ground of demographic changes and political overreach that tends to spark a legal backlash. The term 'gerrymandering' dates back to 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry approved a salamander-shaped district that sparked the term. As the salamander digs in for 21st century elections, the consequences are more far-reaching. According to the Cook Political Report, just one in 16 House seats were competitive in 2024 — 12 held by Democrats and 15 held by Republicans, out of a total of 435. Democrats believe Trump's latest push may have crossed a legal line by coordinating with local Texas officials, citing the president's July 15 comment that with 'just a simple redrawing, we pick up five seats.' They also point to reports that senior Trump aides met with Texas Republicans to finalise plans. But Daron Shaw, a politics professor at the University of Texas, said it was 'curious' to blame Trump for the problem, given that deeply Democratic California is the country's most 'egregious gerrymander.' Liberal Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts were also at fault, he told AFP. 'It's especially kind of rich coming from people in California and Illinois that have gerrymander significantly more egregious than exists in Texas,' he added. — AFP
Malay Mail
9 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Pfizer Romania recognized as a Best Place to Work for 2025
Leadership & Trust 94% of employees say leaders respect labor laws 89% believe leaders act with integrity and ethics 86% agree leadership communicates a clear and inspiring vision Culture of Inclusion 94% say differences (gender, ethnicity, age) do not affect how people are treated 90% feel their ideas and opinions are respected 91% say integrity is a shared value across teams Managerial Support 93% say their manager upholds ethical standards 90% feel supported in health and well-being 88% receive meaningful feedback to grow Engagement & Purpose 86% overall employee satisfaction 86% align with Pfizer's commitment to social responsibility 83% rate HR practices as people-focused 94% alignment with best practices in people-focused HR policies 90% alignment in leadership support and strategic direction 89% alignment in employee engagement initiatives 88% alignment in teamwork and cross-functional collaboration 81% alignment with best practices in benefits programs 73% alignment in compensation structures and fairness 93% alignment in community involvement and corporate social responsibility, reinforcing Pfizer's strong commitment to societal impact BUCHAREST, ROMANIA - Media OutReach Newswire - 6 August 2025 - Pfizer Romania has been officially certified as one of the, a recognition that highlights its commitment to fostering a workplace culture grounded in integrity, inclusion, and employee is a leading international certification that honors organizations providing exceptional employee experiences. The evaluation combines anonymous employee feedback with a comprehensive HR assessment, measuring areas such as leadership, culture, well-being, growth opportunities, and people Romania's certification was driven by impressive scores across key dimensions of workplace culture. According to the internal employee survey:In addition to the strong employee feedback,, which benchmarks the company's practices against recognized global standards. The results reflect how closely Pfizer Romania's approach aligns with best-in-class HR practices across multiple areas:said, General Manager of Pfizer Romania., Senior Manager, People Experience, added:Hashtag: #BestPlacesToWork The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. About Pfizer Romania Pfizer Romania, a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc., has been serving Romanian communities for over 30 years, delivering innovative medicines and vaccines across multiple therapeutic areas. Guided by the global mission "Breakthroughs that change patients' lives," the company collaborates closely with healthcare providers and institutions to expand access to quality healthcare and advance public health outcomes. About the Best Places to Work Program Best Places to Work is a global HR certification program that identifies leading employers around the world. The certification process includes a rigorous evaluation of workplace culture through employee surveys and an audit of HR practices across eight key areas, including leadership, well-being, inclusion, and career development. Learn more at: LinkedIn: Best Places to Work
