10/03/2025

MONDAY | MAR 10, 2025

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Wild weather bashes eastern Australia

NGO sues over funding freeze

ATLANTA: An environmental nonprofit sued the Environmental Protection Agency and Citibank on Saturday, seeking billions of dollars for solar and other projects frozen by the bank as the Trump administration slashes federal spending. Climate United Fund alleges that in freezing the grant money, approved by Joe Biden’s administration, the “EPA has acted to prevent Citibank from dispersing funds, harming Climate United, its borrowers, and the communities they serve.” It is the latest in scores of cases filed by nonprofit groups, state attorneys general and others fighting moves by President Donald Trump, a Republican, to roll back Democrat Biden’s policies as he seeks to shrink the federal bureaucracy and spending and broadly reshape US immigration, foreign and social policies. Judges have stalled Trump’s efforts in a number of cases, but he has had some legal victories. Spokespeople for Washington-based Climate United, Citibank and the EPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the suit, filed in federal court in the capital. Climate United says in its court filing that it was selected for the EPA’s National Clean Investment Fund programme last April and planned to lend to developers nationwide to support solar power, electric trucks and energy efficient housing. “This programme was designed to save money for hard-working Americans who are struggling to pay for groceries and keep the lights on,” the group said in a statement. “We’re going to court for the communities we serve – not because we want to, but because we have to.” Climate United alleges it is owed about US$7 billion (RM30.9 billion), part of US$20 billion that has been swept up in a controversy with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who said the funding approval by the “self-dealing” Biden administration amounted to “intentionally tossing gold bars off the Titanic ” before he left office. – Reuters Labor hold on to state stronghold SYDNEY: Australia’s Labor party secured re election in Western Australia state on Saturday, as voters backed the party in a final political contest before Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls a national election due by mid May. “It is a true honour to serve this beautiful state. And one I will never take for granted. Tomorrow, we get back to work. Thank you WA,” re-elected Western Australia Premier Roger Cook said on X yesterday. The conservative Liberal opposition failed to weaken ruling centre-left Labor in its stronghold of Western Australia and put pressure on Albanese, who is looking to be re-elected as prime minister at the looming general election. In its third consecutive election victory in Western Australia, Labor had so far won 40 seats compared with the Liberal party’s four with 61% of the vote counted, the Australian Broadcasting Corp said yesterday. Albanese, whose popularity has dipped nationally despite a slew of measures aimed to please families grappling with high living costs, said the Labor win in Western Australia, a vast resource-rich state, was an “extraordinary result”. “I certainly congratulate my friend Roger Cook, the premier of Western Australia, on his resounding victory,” Albanese said. Labor won an unprecedented 53 out of 59 seats in the state parliament’s lower house in the previous election held in March 2021, riding high on its handling of the public health scare. In the national election a year later, Labor increased its tally in the state to nine out of a total of 15 federal electorates. – Reuters

o Power cut to 310,000 Queensland properties

hospital when two army trucks rolled over during a deployment to clear roads near the flood-prone New South Wales city of Lismore. Twelve soldiers were still in hospital yesterday, two of them in a serious condition, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told a news conference. “We wish a speedy recovery for all of those young soldiers,” he said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned that the weather was still perilous. “The situation in Queensland and northern New South Wales remains very serious due to flash flooding and heavy winds,” Albanese said. “Heavy rainfall, damaging wind gusts and coastal surf impacts are expected to continue over coming days.” Warnings for floods, severe weather and hazardous surf have been issued for parts of Queensland and New South Wales, the government’s bureau of meteorology said. “The heavy rain, and the risk of flash flooding and major riverine flooding, will continue into next week,” it warned Queensland residents, though the system was expected to weaken as it moved inland. – AFP

“The biggest challenges to getting power back on will be rising flood waters and swollen creek beds, fallen vegetation and mud slides impacting access roads,” it said in a statement. About 14,600 people are under emergency warnings related to the weather system in New South Wales, the state’s emergency services said. “In the last 24 hours, 17 incidents have occurred as a result of people driving into flood waters,” said emergency services deputy commissioner Damien Johnson. “Not only is it a danger to yourself and your family, it is also dangerous as well for the volunteers, the emergency services workers that need to rescue you.” A 61-year-old man’s body was found on Saturday after his four-wheel-drive pickup truck was swept off a bridge into a river in northern New South Wales. He had escaped from the pickup and tried in vain to cling to a tree branch in the river before disappearing into the rapid waters on Friday, police said. In a separate incident on Saturday, police said 13 troops were injured and taken to

SYDNEY: Wild weather has blacked out more than 300,000 homes and businesses on Australia’s east coast, with one driver confirmed dead and a dozen troops injured. After days hovering off the coast as a category 2 tropical cyclone generating heavy weather across the region, Alfred weakened into a tropical depression before making landfall on Saturday evening. Strong gusts and heavy rain have brought down power lines and sparked flood warnings on swollen rivers along a 400km stretch of the coast straddling southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales. Utility companies said about 310,000 properties in southeast Queensland and at least another 16,000 in northeast New South Wales were still without power yesterday. “Customers need to be prepared to be without power for several days,” Queensland’s Essential Energy said.

Boys sheltering behind a break-wall at Coolangatta on the Gold Coast on Saturday. – REUTERSPIC

Former central banker favoured to replace Trudeau

OTTAWA: Canada’s Liberal Party looked set yesterday to choose a former central banker and political novice as its next leader, replacing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as it confronts threats from US President Donald Trump. Mark Carney (pic) , who served as the governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, is widely expected to be named the new Liberal leader when results from a vote of around 400,000 party members are announced later. The other main challenger is Trudeau’s former deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, who held several senior Cabinet positions in the Liberal government that was first elected in 2015. Whoever wins the vote will take over from Trudeau as prime minister, but will soon face a general election that polls show the rival Conservative Party as slight favourites to win.

Carney up endorsements, including from much of Trudeau’s Cabinet, and a Freeland win would be a shock for the Liberals as they head towards a general election. has racked

financial crisis and steered the Bank of England through the turbulence that followed the 2016 Brexit vote. Trump “is attacking what we build. He is attacking what we sell. He is attacking how we earn our living”, Carney told supporters at a closing campaign rally near Toronto on Friday. “We are facing the most serious crisis in our lifetime,” he said. “Everything in my life has prepared me for this moment.” Data released from the Angus Reid polling firm on Wednesday shows Canadians see Carney as the favourite choice to face off against Trump, a trait that could offer the Liberals a boost over the opposition Conservatives. Since leaving the Bank of England in 2020, he has served as a UN envoy working to get the private sector to invest in climate-friendly technology and has held private sector roles. He has never served in parliament or held an elected public office. – AFP

Despite dramatically breaking with the prime minister in December, analysts say voters still tie Freeland to Trudeau’s unpopular record. Carney and Freeland have both maintained that they are the best candidate to defend Canada against Trump’s attacks. The US president has repeatedly spoken about annexing Canada and thrown bilateral trade, the lifeblood of the Canadian economy, into chaos with dizzying tariff actions that have veered in various directions since he took office. Carney has argued that he is a seasoned economic manager, reminding voters that he led the Bank of Canada through the 2008-2009