13/05/2026

WEDNESDAY | MAY 13, 2026

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Malaysian Paper

/thesundaily /

New Zealand to halt climate damage lawsuits

South Africa president holds on to his seat JOHANNESBURG: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday that he will not resign, despite calls for him to quit after the Constitutional Court ruled last week that parliament had violated the constitution by blocking moves to impeach him in 2022. “While there have been calls in some circles that I should resign, nothing in the Constitutional Court’s judgment compels me to resign my office,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation. In 2022, an independent panel appointed by the National Assembly found that Ramaphosa may be guilty of serious misconduct in relation to the theft of money at his game farm. In 2020, burglars stole US$580,000 (RM2.3 million) in cash that was hidden in a sofa at Ramaphosa’s rural farm, but he did not report the matter to the police. Critics accused Ramaphosa of money laundering and demanded to know the source of the funds. Ramaphosa denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the money stolen from his farm came from “proceeds from the sale of game”. “I have never stolen taxpayers’ money. I want to reaffirm that I was not involved in any criminal conduct,” he said at the time. Last Friday’s judgment by the Constitutional Court declared that the recommendations of the independent panel report must be implemented through a referral to an impeachment committee of parliament “unless and until the report is set aside on review”. The court ruled that the National Assembly had acted illegally when it voted against the adoption of the panel report, which found that the president had a prima facie case to answer in relation to the farm theft case. However, Ramaphosa said he has decided to proceed by taking the independent panel’s report on review on an expeditious basis to stop it from heading to the impeachment committee of parliament. “I do so not out of disrespect for parliament or its processes but to affirm the need for such findings to be correct in law and in fact, especially where parliament’s work would be based on and informed by a report I believe is flawed,” he said. – Bernama World off track on forest goals NEW YORK: The world is not moving fast enough to meet the Global Forest Goals by 2030, according to a UN report released on Monday. The Global Forest Goals Report 2026 found that only seven of the 26 targets have been broadly achieved, while 17 are partially on track and two remain off target. Drawing on voluntary national reports from 48 countries that account for 51% of global forest coverage, along with the latest international data, the report offers the most current assessment of progress under the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030 and its six Global Forest Goals. The report noted that global forest area shrank by more than 40 million hectares between 2015 and last year. It also highlighted a major shortfall in financing for sustainable forest management. Despite these setbacks, many countries have introduced policy reforms, expanded forest restoration programmes, strengthened governance and increased cooperation on forest protection. Progress, however, remains uneven across regions. The report cited improvements in protected forest areas, long-term management planning and forest monitoring systems, but warned that deforestation, wildfires, pests and illegal activities continue to threaten forests. The report was released at the 21st session of the UN Forum on Forests. – Bernama

o ‘Courts not the right place to resolve claims of harm’

It has cancelled a clean car discount incentivising electric vehicle uptake, reversed a ban on oil and gas exploration, and begun a fast-track scheme for mining permits. From South Korea to Germany, a growing body of litigation around the world is pushing courts to take climate change more seriously. New Zealand is facing a separate legal challenge over its emissions targets. In January last year, the government said it aimed to reduce carbon emissions by 51% from 2005 levels by 2035. The target was barely changed from a 50% cut targeted for 2030. Lawyers for Climate Action and the Environmental Law Initiative took Climate Change Minister Simon Watts to court in March, arguing the government was not doing enough. New Zealand’s goal, enshrined in law, is to have net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, excluding methane produced by waste and agriculture. – AFP

resolve claims of harm from climate change, and tort law is not well-suited to respond to a problem like climate change which involves a range of complex environmental, economic and social factors,” Goldsmith said. Tort law deals with civil cases in which people seek compensation for harmful or negligent actions. Smith said the announcement was “an affront to democracy”. “If parliament can cancel a live court case, then no legal claim is secure at all, once it becomes politically inconvenient,” he told national broadcaster Radio New Zealand. Smith’s case named some of New Zealand’s biggest and best-known companies. The laws are all but certain to pass parliament, given New Zealand’s ruling coalition holds a majority of seats. New Zealand’s right-leaning government has unravelled a string of environmentally friendly policies since coming to power in 2023.

WELLINGTON: New Zealand will change the law to prevent lawsuits that seek to hold companies liable for “climate change damage” linked to greenhouse gas emissions, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said yesterday. Goldsmith cited a lawsuit launched by Maori activist Michael Smith, who is seeking to hold six prominent New Zealand companies responsible for environmental harms linked to climate change. He said such cases were “creating uncertainty in business confidence”. New Zealand would change the law to “prevent findings of liability” for “climate change damage or harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions”, Goldsmith said. “The courts are not the right place to

A third evacuation flight from Tenerife lands at Eindhoven Air Base yesterday. – ROB ENGELAAR/ANP/AFPPIC

No sign of larger outbreak, says WHO head MADRID: The head of the World Health Organisation said yesterday there was no indication of the onset of a broader hantavirus outbreak, although he did not rule out further cases. Other passengers of different nationalities will continue on to their home countries from the Netherlands, authorities previously said. Staff members at one Dutch hospital were placed into preventive quarantine for six weeks after blood and urine were handled without updated and more strict protocols.

It is expected to arrive in the Netherlands by Sunday, ship owner Oceanwide Expeditions said. Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died since the start of the outbreak, which is usually spread by wild rodents but can also be transmitted person-to person in rare cases of close contact. WHO on Monday said there were now seven confirmed cases of the Andes strain of the hantavirus and two other suspected cases – one person who died before being tested, and one on Tristan da Cunha, a remote South Atlantic island where there were no tests available. The confirmed cases include a French passenger. French Premier Sebastien Lecornu said the passenger was in stable condition after her health had briefly worsened. – Reuters

“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak, but of course the situation could change and, given the long incubation period, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, speaking alongside Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid. Meanwhile, three planes with 28 passengers from the MV Hondius landed in the Netherlands yesterday. The planes landed at Eindhoven Airport shortly after midnight, carrying eight Dutch nationals.

The Radboudumc hospital in the city of Nijmegen said the infection risk is very low and patient care continues uninterrupted. Radboudumc had admitted a Hondius passenger on May 7. “We will investigate the course of events to learn from this so that it can be prevented in the future,” said Bertine Lahuis, the chair of the hospital’s executive board. The Hondius set sail for the Netherlands late on Monday evening with 25 crew as well as a doctor and a nurse. All passengers have disembarked the ship.