THE Ministry of Health (MOH) has assured that the supply of critical medications, including insulin and vaccines, remains stable and sufficient to meet the public’s needs for the time being. MOH Deputy Director-General of Health (Pharmaceutical Services), Dr Azuana Ramli, said the government is continuously monitoring the situation to ensure that medication stocks nationwide remain stable. “Now we have a task force consisting of ministry officials and industry representatives. We are discussing this issue and monitoring stock levels together,” she said during Bernama TV’s Ruang Bicara programme titled National Drug Supply Security. Dr Azuana explained that under this mechanism, industry…
Author: Isla
The German government is planning the most comprehensive attack on public healthcare since Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced statutory health insurance in 1883.In this, Bismarck was reacting to the growth of the officially banned Social Democratic Party (SPD), which under August Bebel advocated a Marxist programme. By protecting workers in the event of illness, and later also with pensions, Bismarck sought to weaken the influence of the SPD and prevent a revolutionary development.Striking nursing staff in Berlin. The banner reads “Nursing today, modern slavery.” (Summer 2021)After the November Revolution of 1918, and again after the Second World War, Germany’s…
Axlight’s interest in La Trobe Financial first emerged in August 2025 amid circling private equity interest in the group. Current owner Brookfield Asset Management (which acquired La Trobe in 2022) brought on Axlight as a minority shareholder to help pursue its next stage of growth. Brookfield is reported to be seeking an exit on its La Trobe ownership, with rival private equity groups Warburg Pincus and CVC Capital Partners named as suitors. However, La Trobe stated in an ASX statements that “Brookfield will remain La Trobe Financial’s majority owner and a long-term partner in the business”. La Trobe is seeking…
The unfolding war in the Middle East has delivered a severe and multifaceted shock to one of the world’s most critical economic corridors, as detailed in the Internal Monetary Fund’s Middle East and Central Asia Regional Economic Outlook, presented at the 2026 Spring Meetings. By disrupting energy markets, trade routes, and business confidence, the conflict has introduced new pressures across the region. Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department outlined how these developments are reverberating through regional economies. “The Strait of Hormuz – through which roughly one fifth of the global oil supply and above one…
IN SEVERAL districts across Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, in eastern India, Christian street vendors are facing disruption to their livelihoods as the war involving the United States, Israel, and Iran begins to affect supplies of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). For many of these vendors, cooking gas is central to their daily work. Much of India’s LPG imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and tensions in the region have slowed supply chains, leading to delays at the local level. In the Kandhamal district of Odisha, several Christian vendors said that they are waiting days to receive cylinders. “We run…
Free gift, exclusive content & Monitor newsletter Become a member with a HK$1,200+ yearly donation. Make a one-off donation. 💡 You’ve read article/s this month. Promos disabled for members. A group of survivors of the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire have petitioned Hong Kong’s top officials twice in a week, urging the government to rebuild the fire-ravaged residential estate on site and to respect their private property rights. According to copies of the petitions received by HKFP on Thursday, the petitioners sent the letters to a group of top officials on Wednesday this week and last week, asking them to…
By ANDREW JEHRING, CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT Published: 23:05, 16 April 2026 | Updated: 23:05, 16 April 2026 Dubai police snooped on a private WhatsApp group to snare an airline worker who shared images of a building damaged in the Middle East crisis.Authorities accessed a closed chat between colleagues, downloaded evidence and then lured the man to a meeting and arrested him.He is in custody facing charges including publishing information deemed harmful to state interests which carries a maximum sentence of two years.Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained in Dubai, said: ‘Dubai Police have now explicitly confirmed they are conducting electronic…
Dubai has completed its first flying taxi station, with commercial operations expected to begin by the end of the year, authorities in the Gulf emirate announced on Thursday. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, crown prince of Dubai and United Arab Emirates deputy prime minister, visited Dubai’s “first purpose-built electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) Air Taxi Station”, the emirate’s media office said in a statement. The facility, described by the emirate’s authorities as the “first of its kind in the world”, includes four floors with a total area of 3,100 square metres, a two-level car park, two Air Taxi take-off and…
The decades-long negotiations on a code of conduct in the South China Sea may finally come to an end this year. Several parties involved, including China and the Philippines, have expressed confidence in reaching a final conclusion to the proposed set of rules in the contested waterways in the coming months.In March, Beijing signalled its hope of concluding negotiations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by the end of the year while Manila has repeatedly expressed its intention to see the negotiations concluded during its chairmanship of Asean this year.But relations between Beijing and Manila have been precarious and…
Jakarta is betting its investment-grade future on a US$900 billion (S$1.14 trillion) “black box”. As global oil prices squeeze Indonesia’s fiscal ceiling, President Prabowo Subianto has accelerated a strategy of “State Capitalism 2.0”. At its heart is Danantara, a “superholding” designed to consolidate strategic assets, equivalent to roughly 60 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), into a single engine of national survival.The sovereign wealth fund now owns and supervises state-owned enterprises in fields ranging from banking to telecommunications and oil and gas with total assets under management exceeding US$900 billion.Danantara was launched in February 2025. Yet, as the April…