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| Ismail Sabri is deputy PM, Hisham a senior minister |
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Posted by: superadmin - 07-07-2021, 05:06 PM - Forum: Politics
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PETALING JAYA: Senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob has been appointed deputy prime minister, the Prime Minister’s Office announced today.
Meanwhile, foreign minister Hishammuddin Hussein has been appointed a senior minister.
Hishammuddin will take over the security portfolio previously led by Ismail.
The PMO said Ismail’s appointment would help Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in managing the governing of the country and addressing the people’s needs amid the health and economic crises.
“The Yang di-Pertuan Agong has been informed of the two appointments which are effective immediately,” it said in a statement today.
“It is hoped that their appointments can increase the Perikatan Nasional government’s ability in facing the pandemic, strengthen unity among component parties and reinforce the PN government.”
Ismail is also Umno vice-president, while Hishammuddin is Barisan Nasional’s treasurer.
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| China’s war on bitcoin just hit a new level with its latest crypto crackdown |
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Posted by: superadmin - 07-07-2021, 04:07 PM - Forum: Business, Economy and Investment
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- China’s central bank said Tuesday it had called for the shutdown of a company that “was suspected of providing software services for virtual currency transactions.”
- For years, China has signaled that it wanted to ban bitcoin.
- Beijing could be looking to stem capital outflows via stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.
China’s central bank said Tuesday it had called for the shutdown of a company that “was suspected of providing software services for virtual currency transactions.” The statement, issued by the Beijing office of the People’s Bank of China, also warned institutions not to provide other services related to virtual currency, including providing business premises or marketing.
Lashing out against digital currencies is nothing new for the authoritarian state.
In 2013, the country ordered third-party payment providers to stop using bitcoin. Chinese authorities put a stop to token sales in 2017 and pledged to continue to target crypto exchanges in 2019.
But typically, each time Beijing has lashed out at the crypto industry, the sting has worn off and the rules eventually softened.
This time, however, appears to be different.
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| Why tether, the world’s third-biggest cryptocurrency, has got economists worried |
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Posted by: superadmin - 07-07-2021, 04:00 PM - Forum: Business, Economy and Investment
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- Tether is the third-biggest cryptocurrency in the world by market value. And it’s got some economists — including an official at the Federal Reserve — worried.
- Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren recently raised the alarm about tether, calling the cryptocurrency a potential financial stability risk.
- Some investors believe a loss of confidence in tether could be crypto’s “black swan,” an unpredictable event that would severely impact the market.
Tether is the third-biggest cryptocurrency in the world by market value. And it’s got some economists — including an official at the U.S. Federal Reserve — worried.
Last month, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren raised the alarm about tether, calling it a potential financial stability risk. Meanwhile, some investors believe a loss of confidence in tether could be crypto’s “black swan,” an unpredictable event that would severely impact the market.
The issues surrounding tether hold significant implications for the nascent cryptocurrency world. And economists increasingly fear that it could also impact markets beyond digital currencies. Here’s what you need to know:
What is tether?
Chances are you’ve heard a thing or two about bitcoin. But what about tether?
Like bitcoin, tether is a cryptocurrency. In fact, it’s the world’s third-biggest digital coin by market value. But it’s very different from bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
Tether is what’s known as a stablecoin. These are digital currencies that are tied to real-world assets — the U.S. dollar, for example — to maintain a stable value, unlike most cryptocurrencies which are known to be volatile. Bitcoin, for example, rose to an all-time high of nearly $65,000 in April and has since almost halved in value.
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| Pfizer vaccine protection takes a hit as Delta variant spreads |
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Posted by: superadmin - 07-07-2021, 03:08 PM - Forum: Covid-19 Pandemic
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Pfizer vaccine protection takes a hit as Delta variant spreads, Israeli government says
(CNN)The Israeli government says its analysis has shown the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine appears to be less effective against infections caused by the Delta variant compared to other strains of Covid-19.
In a brief statement issued on Monday, the government said that as of June 6, the vaccine provided 64% protection against infection. In May -- when the Alpha variant dominated in Israel and the Delta strain had not yet spread widely -- it found that the shot was 95.3% effective against all infections.
The government added that the vaccine was now 93% effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalizations, compared to 97% reported in the medical journal The Lancet in May.
The statement cited top line figures, but did not release underlying data or other details about its analysis. A team at Hebrew University said in a separate statement that it was too soon to tell how much the Delta variant was affecting vaccine efficacy.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, was also cautious about drawing conclusions. "Best data still suggest mRNA vaccines offer high degree of protection against infection and superb protection against severe illness. Lets await more data but as of now ... If you're vaccinated, I wouldn't worry," he tweeted.
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| Avoid falling into any country’s travel ban list, says MP |
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Posted by: superadmin - 07-07-2021, 01:29 PM - Forum: Covid-19 Pandemic
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PETALING JAYA: Instead of focusing on vaccine recognition for travel abroad, Malaysia must work towards avoiding any country’s “travel ban list” based on the Covid-19 situation at home, says Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming.
He said the conditions with regards to Malaysians travelling to the European Union (EU) countries are still governed by the rules and policies of the individual governments.
Therefore, said Ong, Malaysia should be more concerned about increasing domestic vaccination rates as part of a larger strategy to curb Covid-19, and fall into a category which requires travellers to do the minimum.
Citing the UK as an example, which is the most visited country in Europe among Malaysians, he said Malaysia should work towards achieving the status of a “Green” country.
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| S’pore excludes Sinovac jabs from Covid vaccination count |
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Posted by: superadmin - 07-07-2021, 01:25 PM - Forum: Covid-19 Pandemic
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SINGAPORE: Singapore has excluded those who received Sinovac Biotech’s shots from its national Covid-19 vaccination count, according to the city state’s health ministry.
“The national vaccination numbers reflect only those vaccinated under the national vaccination programme,” the ministry said in an emailed statement today.
Currently, this only includes those vaccinated with the Moderna Inc and Pfizer-BioNTech/Cominarty vaccines, it said.
Sinovac’s CoronaVac shot is not part of Singapore’s national vaccination programme and the city state has said it is still awaiting critical data from the company.
It has, however, allowed the usage of the vaccine by private healthcare institutions under a special access route, following an emergency use approval by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Selected private clinics can draw on the country’s current stock of 200,000 CoronaVac doses.
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| Chinese researchers propose deflecting 'Armageddon' asteroids with rockets |
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Posted by: superadmin - 07-07-2021, 01:00 PM - Forum: Technology
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BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) - Chinese researchers want to send more than 20 of China's largest rockets to practice turning away a sizable asteroid - a technique that may eventually be crucial if a killer rock is on a collision course with Earth.
The idea is more than science fiction. Sometime between late 2021 to early 2022, the United States will launch a robotic spacecraft to intercept two asteroids relatively close to Earth.
When it arrives a year later, the NASA spacecraft will crash-land on the smaller of the two rocky bodies to see how much the asteroid's trajectory changes. It will be humanity's first try at changing the course of a celestial body.
At China's National Space Science Center, researchers found in simulations that 23 Long March 5 rockets hitting simultaneously could deflect a large asteroid from its original path by a distance 1.4 times the Earth's radius.
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| New York governor declares gun violence a health emergency |
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Posted by: superadmin - 07-07-2021, 12:40 PM - Forum: International News
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New York has become the first US state to declare a disaster emergency order to address rising gun violence.
New York state saw 51 shootings over the 4 July holiday weekend, Governor Andrew Cuomo said as he signed the executive order.
The directive will funnel $138.7m (£100m) towards gun violence intervention and prevention programmes.
It comes amid reports of a rise in gun deaths countrywide, including nearly 200 over the past weekend.
In March, the FBI released preliminary 2020 statistics showing a significant jump - 25% - in murders from the year before. So far, the upward trend has continued into 2021. In the US, the majority of homicides are gun-related.
US President Joe Biden unveiled a White House strategy to combat the rise in homicides in late June, which includes curtailing rogue gun dealers and firearms trafficking. It also delegates more funding for personnel - including law enforcement.
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| Pentagon cancels $10 billion cloud contract given to Microsoft over Amazon |
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Posted by: superadmin - 07-07-2021, 12:06 PM - Forum: Business, Economy and Investment
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Washington (CNN)The Department of Defense is canceling a controversial $10 billion cloud computing contract that had been awarded to Microsoft (MSFT) over Amazon (AMZN) under the Trump administration.
The department announced Tuesday that it is canceling the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract that was previously awarded to Microsoft. It will instead seek new solicitations for an updated Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract from Amazon and Microsoft.
The JEDI contract would have resulted in Microsoft building a cloud storage system for sensitive military data and technology, such as artificial intelligence, for the Department of Defense and could have resulted in revenue of up to $10 billion over 10 years.
Microsoft winning the JEDI contract in 2019 over Amazon caused some controversy, surprising many industry experts who saw Amazon as the stronger candidate to win the contract. Amazon Web Services is widely viewed as the market leader in the cloud computing industry.
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