06/07/2026

MONDAY | JULY 6, 2026

7

Trump hails US

TAIWAN RESUMES FRIEND-FOE CLASSES

Eight wounded in New York shooting NEW YORK: At least eight people, including four children, were shot and injured on the US Independence Day holiday in New York City’s Coney Island neighbourhood, ABC News said yesterday, citing the New York City Police Department. Officers from the NYPD responded to reports of a shooting at about 10.30pm (10.30am, Sunday, in Malaysia) on the Brooklyn neighbourhood West 31st Street, the NYPD said in a statement to ABC News. The injured included two men, two women, and four children – aged 14, 12, seven and six – according to the news outlet. It quoted the NYPD as saying all victims had been transported to hospitals. Seven were in stable condition, it said, while a 21-year-old woman was in critical condition. Police said they recovered a firearm. The NYPD did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. – Reuters BEIJING: China and Russia will hold their annual joint naval exercises this month and conduct patrols in unspecified areas of the Pacific Ocean, Beijing’s Defence Ministry said yesterday. The naval forces of both countries will take part in the “Joint Sea-2026” exercise in “waters and airspace” off Qingdao, a major military port and seaside resort in China’s east, a Defence Ministry statement said. “Following the exercise, some forces from both sides will conduct a joint maritime patrol in relevant areas of the Pacific Ocean. This arrangement is aimed at jointly responding to security challenges and safeguarding regional peace and stability.” The statement did not provide details about the scale of the mobilisation. Beijing and Moscow have held their “Joint Sea” exercises since 2012, with last year’s edition near the eastern Russian port of Vladivostok. – AFP TAIPEI: Taiwan’s military has resumed “anti communist” patriotic classes for its graduates after a quarter-century gap, the Defence Ministry said. During the Cold War, campaigns in Taiwan warning against the dangers of “bandits” in China were widespread. But the formal “patriotic education” for military graduates ended in 2002. The ministry said the classes for its military academy graduates had been restored due to rising military and infiltration danger. “It is necessary for them to clearly understand national security threats and recognise the military mission of why we fight, and for whom we fight,” it said. “The aim is to establish among graduates a clear awareness of friend and foe.“ – Reuters CHINA, RUSSIA TO HOLD JOINT NAVAL DRILLS

BR I E F S

The Republican president has in the past repeatedly referred to left-wing Democratic candidates who have won a string of primary elections as “communists”, although he did not explicitly do so on Saturday. Before Trump, presidents generally avoided in-person appearances at July 4 celebrations, but he has blurred the line between official commemoration and campaign-style politics. Aside from a similar address that Trump gave in 2019, no US president has delivered a July 4 speech on the Mall since 1951. Visitors had waited hours to get into the event, contending with stepped-up security and temperatures that reached 39ºC. The record-breaking heatwave forced the cancellation of several parades and other events in the area. Authorities ordered an evacuation when a line of thunderstorms approached, forcing spectators to shelter in nearby museums and government buildings before they were allowed to return. Trump’s speech lasted less than 40 minutes, far shorter than many of his past speeches. Other visitors included the white nationalist organisation Patriot Front, which marched through the capital earlier in the day and rode on Metro trains serving the region. Police said they had not received any reports of violence. The Trump administration’s Freedom 250 group has largely sidelined a nonpartisan body set up in 2016 to handle the 250th anniversary and has fenced off much of the 2.4km Mall for a “Great American State Fair” featuring attractions such as a Ferris wheel alongside displays by conservative groups and defence contractors. Freedom 250 says the fair aims to showcase the people and innovations that make the US “the greatest nation on Earth”. Several Democratic-led states declined to send delegations, and many performers scheduled to appear dropped out, citing concerns about partisanship. Trump opened the event with a rally on June 24. Crowds were sparse at first but have swelled in recent days, forcing visitors to wait in entrance lines that stretched several blocks. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that a majority of Americans, including three-quarters of Democrats and half of Republicans, think the events celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary have grown too political. Trump has sought to remake wide swathes of the capital city ahead of the 250th celebration, with mixed results. Many fountains and statues have been renovated, but problems have beset a much-touted US$15 million (RM61 million) renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Security cameras and soldiers now stand watch over its peeling paint and algae-fouled waters. – Reuters

broad appeals to patriotism with pointed attacks on perceived ideological threats. Trump lauded American achievements such as war victories, the lunar landing and the Wright brothers’ pioneering flight, as well as the US system of government in general. But he also urged Congress to pass stalled legislation that would limit mail ballots and require proof of citizenship to register to vote, and said he had “wiped out” Iran’s military and cautioned against a rise of communism in the United States. “We like to stop a threat like that immediately and before it begins. It’s like a cancer – you’ve got to cut it out and you got to cut it out fast,” he said.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump marked the 250th anniversary of the United States on Saturday with a campaign-style speech that repeated his calls for new voting restrictions, warned that “communists” could gain ground in the country and cycled through what he touted as his achievements. After a storm-related delay of nearly two hours, Trump appeared on the National Mall in Washington to deliver a speech that mixed o White nationalist group makes appearance

Fireworks celebrating America’s anniversary explode behind the US Marine Corps War Memorial early yesterday in Arlington, Virginia. – ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFPPIC

Nepal PM marks 100 days of rapid progress KATHMANDU: One hundred days after taking power promising sweeping reform, Nepal’s 36-year-old rapper-turned-Prime Minister The two have since been released without charge while investigations continue. stops of a Nepali prime minister, to his foreign minister.

“The brakes will only be applied when we reach our destination,” Shah said. The government has presented a US$13.8 billion (RM56.2 billion) spending plan focused on infrastructure, technology, health and education, while pledging to stabilise the economy.

100-point agenda on governance, anti graft measures, service delivery and digitalisation. About 70 measures have been implemented, with the rest underway, according to the government. Shah said in a rare reform

“In three months, we know very little about the man we have elected as the prime minister. He needs to open up,” said journalist Pranaya Rana. Few predicted the scale of Shah’s landslide victory in the March 5 general election, the first vote since the youth-driven anti-corruption protests toppled Oli’s government. His rise was powered by the same public anger that drove young protesters onto the streets, fuelled by a lack of economic opportunities and corruption among the elite. The government launched a

Observers say that first move set the tone for the government’s subsequent actions – fast and symbolically loaded but also often legally contested and executed with little patience for institutional processes. Shah has kept a low profile, preferring to communicate through social media and even delivering his victory speech as a rap song. He has also avoided meetings with foreign envoys and relegated visits to India and China, the traditional first

Balendra Shah (pic) has upended the government while remaining an elusive public figure. The former mayor of Kathmandu, better known as “Balen”, reached the milestone yesterday and has moved quickly since taking office. Just a day after he was sworn in, police arrested former prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli and his ex-interior minister on the recommendation of an inquiry commission into the deadly September 2025 uprising.

“The nation is standing at a decisive crossroad of economic reform,” said Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle. – AFP

public address to a meeting of the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party last month that his administration was “on an expressway” towards change.