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In this photo provided by Prime Minister Office, Malaysia's new Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob speaks at his office in Putrajaya on Aug 27, 2021. (Prime Minister Office via AP) - 

It has been a week since Mr Ismail Sabri Yaakob was sworn in as Malaysia's ninth prime minister last Saturday (Aug 21).

In his first televised address the next day, he called for bipartisan cooperation in Malaysia’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the country’s economic recovery. 

The vice president of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) also touted the “Malaysian family” concept to promote inclusivity across the religion, race and ethnic boundaries. 

Shortly after clocking into the office in Putrajaya on Monday, he made a working trip north to visit flood victims in Kedah. 

On Wednesday, he struck a symbolic deal with the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in finding common ground for cooperation. 

In announcing his Cabinet line-up on Friday, he appeared to prioritise policy continuity and retained quite a few political office holders from the previous government. He also gave each ministry 100 days to prove their performance. 

Mr Ismail Sabri’s rise to power came amid political turbulence in Putrajaya. Formerly a senior minister in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government led by Mr Muhyiddin Yassin, he was promoted to deputy prime minister on Jul 7 when UMNO was threatening to pull out of PN. 

After Mr Muhyiddin resigned, slightly more than half of the 220 MPs in Malaysia named Mr Ismail Sabri as their candidate of choice to be the next prime minister. 

With 114 statutory declarations backing him, the coveted post is back in the grip of UMNO, after two years of premiership under PH from 2018 to 2020 and subsequently 18 months under PN.  

The current government is made up of MPs from Barisan Nasional (BN, comprising UMNO, Malaysia Chinese Association, Malaysian Indian Congress and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah), PN (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia and Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku Sabah), Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Parti Bersatu Sabah.

In his Aug 22 televised address to the country, Mr Ismail Sabri extended an invitation to the opposition leaders to be part of two government bodies, namely the National Recovery Council and Special Committee on COVID-19. 

The offer was in sync with King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah’s decree for the politicians to work as one team and set aside the “winner takes all” mentality//CNA

FILE PHOTO: People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers salute in front of nuclear-capable missiles during a massive parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in Beijing October 1, 2009. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo - 

China, in the midst of a rapid nuclear weapons buildup, will soon surpass Russia as the United States' top nuclear threat, a senior US military official said on Friday (Aug 27), warning that the two countries have no mechanisms to avert miscommunication.

US Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas Bussiere, the deputy commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the country's nuclear arsenal, said China's development of nuclear capabilities "can no longer be aligned" with its public claim that it wants to maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent.

"There's going to be a point, a crossover point, where the number of threats presented by China will exceed the number of threats that currently Russia presents," Bussiere told an online forum.

He said the determination would not be based solely on the number of Beijing's stockpiled nuclear warheads, but also on how they are "operationally fielded."

"There will be a crossover point, we believe, in the next few years," Bussiere said.

Unlike with Russia, the United States did not have any treaties or dialogue mechanism with China on the issue to "alleviate any misperceptions or confusion," he added.

Bussiere's comments come as the United States is attempting to realign its foreign policy to put greater emphasis in the Indo-Pacific region to counter China's growing economic and military might.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed deep concern https://www.reuters.com/world/china/blinken-expresses-us-concern-about-chinas-growing-nuclear-arsenal-2021-08-06 about China's growing nuclear arsenal during a meeting with foreign ministers of Asian countries and partner nations in early August.

Think-tank reports based on satellite imagery say China appears to be constructing hundreds of new silos for nuclear missiles, and Washington has accused Beijing of resisting nuclear arms talks.

China says its arsenal is dwarfed by those of the United States and Russia, and that it is ready for dialogue, but only if Washington reduces its nuclear stockpile to China's level.

In a 2020 report to Congress, the Pentagon estimated China's operational nuclear warhead stockpile to be in "the low 200s," and said it was projected to at least double in size as Beijing expands and modernizes its forces.

According to a State Department fact sheet, the United States had 1,357 nuclear warheads deployed as of Mar 1.

China's advances in missile technology to deliver those warheads are also a concern for the United States, and Bussiere said China last year tested more ballistic missile capabilities than the rest of the world combined//CNA

FILE PHOTO-A guard stands outside a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) ward for children in Mumbai, India, August 26, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas - 

India administered more than 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses on Friday, a national record that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed as a "momentous feat" for the country ahead of fears of another surge in infections.

India has now administered about 628 million vaccine doses in total, giving at least one dose to more than half of its 944 million adults and the required two doses to 15 per cent. The government wants the entire adult population covered by December.

"Record vaccination numbers today!" Modi said on Twitter. "Crossing 1 crore (10 million) is a momentous feat."

The previous daily record was 9.2 million.

India's vaccine production has jumped this month, thanks mainly to the Serum Institute of India that is now making about 150 million doses a month of its version of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The sharp rise in vaccinations came as India reported more than 40,000 new infections for a second consecutive day on Friday.

Cases had fallen to a five-month-low of 25,166 in the middle of the month but have risen sharply in the last three days, mainly in the southern state of Kerala which recently held a large festival during which families typically come together.

India reported 44,658 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, taking the total to 32.6 million, the most in the world after the United States. The death toll rose by 496 to 436,861.

Kerala has accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the new coronavirus cases in the past week and more than half of the total active cases, followed by 16 per cent in the western state of Maharashtra.

"Any laxity in ensuring a strict adherence to the five-fold strategy of test-track-treat-vaccinate and ensuring COVID appropriate behaviour, may result in a further surge in COVID-19 transmission in Kerala and its neighbouring states," the health ministry told the Kerala state government in a letter shared with journalists.

Kerala said it would impose a lockdown on Sundays until further orders//CNA

FILE PHOTO: A woman receives a dose of Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination centre in Gostiny Dvor in Moscow, Russia July 6, 2021. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva - 

Russia saw the highest monthly coronavirus death toll of the pandemic in July, with 50,421 people dying from COVID-19 or related causes during the month, state statistic service Rosstat said on Friday (Aug 27).

The death toll exceeded the number of coronavirus deaths in December, hitherto the deadliest month of the pandemic in Russia.

Russian authorities blame the spread of the more contagious Delta variant and a low vaccination rate for the third wave of coronavirus infections, which peaked in July.

Moscow's city hall also reported the worst COVID-19 death toll in July, when the mortality rate in the city was 70per cent higher than before the pandemic in 2019.

Overall, Russia recorded around 365,000 deaths related to COVID-19 between April 2020 and July, data from Rosstat showed.

The number exceeds the official total death toll of around 180,000, published by the Russian coronavirus task force earlier on Friday.

Some epidemiologists say that measuring excess mortality is the best way to assess the death toll during a pandemic. Based on the new data, Reuters calculated that the number of excess deaths in Russia between April 2020 and July had reached 528,000 in comparison to the average mortality rate in 2015-2019//CNA