Sellers of timepieces with rainbow colours face same punishment as country says they could ‘harm morals’
Owners or sellers of rainbow-coloured timepieces made by the Swiss watchmaker Swatch face three years in prison in Malaysia, the interior ministry has said, as the Muslim-majority country rails against LGBTQ+ symbols it says could “harm morals”.
Homosexuality is outlawed in Malaysia and LGBTQ+ people face discrimination.
Continue reading...Promoters of the event claim that Matty Healy’s onstage kiss with bandmate ‘tarnished’ the festival’s reputation and are calling on the musicians to acknowledge liability and provide compensation
The organisers of the Good Vibes festival in Kuala Lumpur are taking legal action against the 1975 after frontman Matty Healy criticised Malaysia’s punitive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation during their headline set.
On 21 July, Healy told the crowd: “I don’t see the fucking point of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with. Unfortunately, you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m fucking furious.
Continue reading...Authorities cancelled the Good Vibes festival after frontman Matty Healy criticised the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws, leading musicians and food vendors to seek damages
A group of Malaysian musicians and festival vendors are preparing a class action lawsuit against the 1975 after frontman Matty Healy’s onstage criticism of the government’s anti-LGBTQ+ at the Good Vibes festival saw the entire event cancelled.
On Friday, Healy paused the band’s set at the Kuala Lumpur event to admit that he hadn’t looked into the country’s punitive LGBTQ+ laws before agreeing to perform there. “I don’t see the fucking point, right, I do not see the point of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with,” he said.
Continue reading...The 1975 singer’s onstage condemnation of homophobic laws has angered conservatives and left some LGBTQ+ people uneasy
The 1975 frontman Matty Healy’s recent appearance at a festival in Kuala Lumpur – where he criticised Malaysia’s homophobic laws and kissed a male bandmate on stage – has strongly angered conservatives in the country.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community have also expressed unease over his actions, fearing that the episode risks further exacerbating the hostilities they face.
Continue reading...Singer’s protest kiss with bandmate and criticism of anti-homosexuality law leads to ban and festival cancellation
The English band the 1975 have been banned from performing in Malaysia after their lead singer criticised the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws on stage.
The group, fronted by Matty Healy, were playing at the Good Vibes festival in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Continue reading...New species named Pinanga subterranea as Kew botanists admit they have no idea how its flowers are pollinated
A new-to-science palm species has been discovered in Borneo with the remarkable ability to flower and fruit underground. How the rare palm – named Pinanga subterranea – has survived is a mystery, as most plants have evolved to develop their flowers and fruit above ground to facilitate pollination and the dispersal of seeds.
“Pinanga subterranea is the only known species of palm to flower and fruit below ground,” said Dr Benedikt Kuhnhäuser, a future leader fellow at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who was part of the research team that collected specimens and ascertained that it was a new species. “Flowering and fruiting below ground is mind-boggling and seemingly paradoxical because they appear to prevent pollination and dispersal. We now know bearded pigs eat and disperse Pinanga subterranea’s fruits, but we’ve yet to find out how and by whom the flowers are pollinated.”
Continue reading...US-based comic Jocelyn Chia strains relations between Singapore and Malaysia with joke about how Malaysia’s planes cannot fly
Malaysian police will seek Interpol’s help to track down a US-based comedian who mocked the country and joked about the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Jocelyn Chia will be investigated under the country’s laws relating to insulting speech and offensive or obscene online content, Malaysia’s state news agency Bernama reported. Police chief Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani was quoted as saying that the police would ask Interpol for assistance in finding out her full identity and whereabouts.
Continue reading...Gelje Sherpa was guiding Chinese client to summit when he saw Malaysian climber clinging to rope
A Malaysian climber narrowly survived after a Nepali sherpa guide hauled him down from below the summit of Mount Everest in a very rare high-altitude rescue, a government official has said.
Gelje Sherpa, 30, was guiding a Chinese client to the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) Everest summit on 18 May when he saw the Malaysian climber clinging to a rope and shivering from extreme cold in the area known as the death zone, where temperatures can dip to -30C or lower.
Continue reading...Officials seize 164 watches from Pride collection, with watchmaker promising to ‘replenish the stock and display them on-shelf’
Swiss watchmaker Swatch has said Malaysian authorities seized 164 rainbow-coloured watches worth a total of US$14,000 from its Pride collection.
LGBT people are discriminated against in Malaysia where homosexuality is forbidden and sodomy can be punished with imprisonment and corporal punishment, although enforcement is rare.
Continue reading...Film fans in south-east Asia hail Everything Everywhere All at Once stars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan
Cinema fans across south-east Asia have celebrated groundbreaking Oscar wins for the Malaysian film star Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, who was born in Vietnam.
Yeoh, the first person of south-east Asian descent to win the best actress award, for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once, described her victory on Sunday night as “history in the making”.
Continue reading...Roger Ng, 50, found guilty by Brooklyn jury in massive embezzlement linked to Malaysian state investment fund
Roger Ng, the former Goldman Sachs banker at the center of the multibillion 1MDB embezzlement scandal, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday, placing a capstone on one of the largest and most bizarre financial frauds of the past decade.
A jury in Brooklyn, New York, found Ng, 50, from Malaysia, guilty of violating US anti-bribery laws, money laundering and illegally skirting Goldman’s accounting controls, after a seven-week trial.
Continue reading...Files show actor had relationship with Jho Low, on the run over links to 1MDB scandal, and Kim Kardashian was also interviewed
New details have emerged of the actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s ties to Jho Low, the Malaysian financier turned fugitive currently wanted by international authorities over his links to one of the world’s largest corruption scandals.
On Thursday, Bloomberg revealed previously undisclosed details from FBI documents in which authorities interviewed DiCaprio in 2018 about his relationship with Low, who is accused of involvement in a money-laundering scheme of over $4.5bn being siphoned from the Malaysian state investment fund, also known as 1MDB.
Continue reading...Animal welfare groups in Malaysia and Singapore have urged consumers to not buy rabbits on an ‘impulse’ and to look into what it takes to care for them
Pet welfare groups in Malaysia and Singapore have warned consumers not to buy rabbits to mark lunar new year, fearing a plethora of abandoned animals could follow.
High demand for the small mammals is expected as 22 January marks the start of the Year of the Rabbit. Mohideen Abdul Kader, president of the Consumers’ Association of Penang in Malaysia, said it was inevitable considering “the belief that it will bring good luck”.
Continue reading...UN figures show number of those attempting to escape horrendous conditions in refugee camps increased from 700 in 2021 to over 3,500 in 2022
The number of Rohingya refugees taking dangerous sea journeys in the hope of reaching Malaysia or Indonesia has surged by 360%, the UN has announced after hundreds of refugees were left stranded at the end of last year.
Rohingya in Bangladesh refugee camps have warned that human smugglers have ramped up operations and are constantly searching for people to fill boats from Myanmar and Bangladesh headed for Malaysia, where people believe they can live more freely.
Continue reading...Children among those arrested last month as they waited for transport to take them to Malaysia
More than 110 Rohingya have been sentenced to prison by a military-backed court in Myanmar for attempting to escape refugee camps without the proper paperwork.
The group, which include 12 children, was arrested last month on the shores of the Ayeyarwady region as they waited for two motorboats they hoped would facilitate the start of their journey to Malaysia.
Continue reading...Woman recounts suffering on perilous journeys taken to escape oppression in Myanmar and squalid Bangladesh camps
Hatemon Nesa recalled hugging her young daughter tightly as the cramped, broken-down boat they were sitting on drifted aimlessly. They had set off on 25 November from the squalid Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, where they had lived since 2017, when a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s military forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee over the border.
The 27-year-old, like many other Rohingya refugees, was hoping for a better life in Malaysia. But about 10 days into the journey the boat’s engine stopped working and food and water supplies began to run out.
Continue reading...Australia gears up for first restriction-free party since Covid struck, with more than 1m revellers flocking to harbour
Australia is gearing up to celebrate its first restriction-free New Year’s Eve after two years of Covid disruptions, with more than a million revellers expected to flock to Sydney’s harbourfront and watch an elaborate fireworks display.
Sydney is one of the world’s first major cities to welcome in the new year and draws huge TV audiences around the world, with a public countdown and fireworks display over its famous opera house.
Continue reading...Contact lost for weeks with vessel that left camps in Bangladesh and was crossing Andaman Sea bound for Malaysia
About 180 Rohingya refugees are feared to have died after their boat went missing in the Andaman Sea, making 2022 one of the deadliest years for the refugees trying to flee the camps in Bangladesh.
In a statement on Sunday, the United Nations said it was concerned that a boat carrying the refugees, which had left the camps in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar on 2 December bound for Malaysia, had sunk with no survivors, which would make it one of the worst disasters for Rohingya sea crossings this year.
Continue reading...Two of the dead found locked in an embrace, officials say, with 12 still missing after the disaster north of the capital Kuala Lumpur
A thunderous crush of soil and debris killed 21 people at a campground in Malaysia and rescuers dug through the mud in the night for another 12 who were feared buried in the landslide.
More than 90 people were sleeping on an organic farm when the dirt tumbled from a road about 30 meters (100 feet) above the site and covered about 1 hectare (3 acres) on Friday. Two of the dead were found locked in an embrace, according to the state fire department chief.
Continue reading...Fifty-nine people people have been rescued after a landslide hit about 3am north of the capital
A landslide killed at least 12 people while they slept at a Malaysian campsite near Kuala Lumpur early on Friday, officials said, as search teams scoured thick mud and downed trees for more than 20 people still missing.
A child and a woman were found among the dead, authorities said, while one of the eight people taken to hospital was pregnant. Others had injuries ranging from minor cuts to a suspected spinal injury.
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