An exercise for people who are out of shape: Begin with a five-pound potato bag in each hand. Extend your arms straight out from your sides, hold them there for a full minute, and then relax. After a few weeks, move up to ten-pound potato bags. Then try 50-pound potato bags, and eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-pound potato bag in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. Once you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag. —Beverly Gross

The stunning rebuff of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s plans to declare a state of emergency has been rightly hailed as a victory for Malaysia’s democracy. The message to Prime Minister Muhyiddin and all our fractious politicians from the Istana was clear enough: no need to short-circuit the democratic process by suspending Parliament, now is not the time for fresh elections, find a way to work together to manage the Covid-19 pandemic and the attendant economic challenges.

How it will play out, however, is far from clear.

In the first place, it puts the prime minister in an unenviable position. He rushed to the Istana last week seeking a quick declaration of emergency in the hope of presenting it as a fait accompli the same day. The King clearly refused to be pressured into making any hasty decisions. His insistence on consulting with his brother rulers before deciding also allowed the public at large an opportunity to weigh in on the issue.  They did just that, and in splendid fashion too, by roundly criticising the prime minister’s plans.

A royal rebuke – and that is what it was – is significant, serious and substantive.  It suggests a loss of confidence in the prime minister. Cumulatively, it means that Muhyiddin has now lost the confidence of the monarch, the parliament and the people and with that, whatever is left of his credibility. Something like this has never happened before. Only the most obdurate would not feel honour bound to resign.

Of course, the prime minister and his supporters are now trying to put the best possible spin on his abortive plans for an emergency by latching on to the monarch’s brief expression of confidence in the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. It does not, however, lessen the impact of the serious rebuke the prime minister has been dealt. If anything, it was perhaps a polite reminder to the prime minister as to where his priorities ought to lie.

The other takeaway from the Istana statement is that the monarch and his brother rulers remain deeply concerned about the endless political infighting and intrigue that has engulfed the country since the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government. Even before this, the royals had expressed anxiety over the situation and urged political leaders to find a way to settle their differences for the sake of the people. There are few signs, however, that the politicians are listening.


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• Shares of Sony in Japan were up 6.69% on Thursday afternoon in Tokyo.
  
• On Wednesday, Sony raised its forecast for its operating income by 13% to 700 billion yen (approx. $6.7 billion).
  
• Jefferies Asia’s Atul Goyal told CNBC he’s “extremely bullish” on Sony. The firm owns the stock and currently has a buy rating on Sony, with a price target of 13,230 yen per share — more than 50% higher than where the price currently sits.
  

China's aggressive policy of planting trees is likely playing a significant role in tempering its climate impacts.

An international team has identified two areas in the country where the scale of carbon dioxide absorption by new forests has been underestimated.

Taken together, these areas account for a little over 35% of China's entire land carbon "sink", the group says.

The researchers' analysis, based on ground and satellite observations, is reported in Nature journal.


A carbon sink is any reservoir - such as peatlands, or forests - that absorbs more carbon than it releases, thereby lowering the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

China is the world's biggest source of human-produced carbon dioxide, responsible for around 28% of global emissions.

But it recently stated an intention to peak those emissions before 2030 and then to move to carbon neutrality by 2060.

The specifics of how the country would reach these goals is not clear, but it inevitably has to include not only deep cuts in fossil fuel use but ways also to pull carbon out of the atmosphere.

"Achieving China's net-zero target by 2060, recently announced by the Chinese President Xi Jinping, will involve a massive change in energy production and also the growth of sustainable land carbon sinks," said co-author Prof Yi Liu at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

"The afforestation activities described in [our Nature] paper will play a role in achieving that target," he told BBC News.

China's increasing leafiness has been evident for some time. Billions of trees have been planted in recent decades, to tackle desertification and soil loss, and to establish vibrant timber and paper industries.

The new study refines estimates for how much CO2 all these extra trees could be taking up as they grow.



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PETALING JAYA: Umno will be subverting its own interest if it accepts a deputy prime minister’s (DPM) position for one of its leaders, according to political analyst Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya.

“It’s short-term gain and long-term pain,” he told FMT in a comment on reports that Umno was considering several names to be proposed as its nominee for the DPM’s post. These includes Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein.

Awang Azman said Umno would complicate matters both within itself and in its relations with PPBM if it was given the post.

He said the rejection of Zahid’s nomination would be a major blow to the party because it would be as if the position of PPBM president was superior to that of the Umno president when PPBM was, in fact, depending on Umno’s support for its political survival.


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Q: Why did the witches' team lose the baseball game?

A: Their bats flew away.

A boy asks his father, "Dad, are bugs good to eat?" "That's disgusting. Don't talk about things like that over dinner," the dad replies. After dinner the father asks, "Now, son, what did you want to ask me?" "Oh, nothing," the boy says. "There was a bug in your soup, but now it’s gone."

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 — When the news broke that Tawfik Ismail, former Sungai Benut MP, will return to politics as an independent, political observers dismissed his chances in an arena dominated by Malay parties.

However, some activists have expressed hope that Tawfik, eldest son of the late Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s second deputy prime minister, could shake up the traditional power structure.

Malay Mail met with him and the aligned Gerak Independent joint initiative headed by Malaysian Action for Justice and Unity Foundation (Maju) and other NGOs pushing for independent candidates in the 15th general election.

Tawfik was only 35 when he won the Sungai Benut seat in 1986, but the 69-year-old is finally ready to return to politics.


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