North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a flood-hit area in Sinuiju city, North Phyongan province, North Korea. PHOTO: AP
SEOUL (ANN/STRAITS TIMES) – North Korea has reportedly executed multiple government officials following severe flooding in late July that killed thousands in the country’s northern region, according to a report by South Korea’s TV Chosun.
Between 20 to 30 regional officials from the flood-stricken areas were executed in August, the report said, citing an unnamed South Korean government official. The flooding, which devastated the northern Jagang province, may have claimed thousands of lives, according to the same source.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) is closely monitoring the situation and has received intelligence regarding the developments, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed via phone, but declined to provide further details. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which manages relations with the North, declined to comment on the matter.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a flood-hit area in Sinuiju city, North Phyongan province, North Korea. PHOTO: AP
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had previously vowed strict punishment for those he blamed for “severely neglecting” their duties, which he claimed led to significant casualties during the floods. His statements were made at an emergency party meeting held in late July.
Despite the severity of the disaster, North Korea’s state-controlled media has not officially reported any deaths, though they have distributed photos of Kim Jong Un overseeing rescue operations. The floods severely damaged around 4,100 homes, disrupted transport routes, and destroyed about 3,000 hectares of farmland in Sinuiju, a key trade hub near the Chinese border, and the nearby Uiju county. According to state media, approximately 5,000 people were rescued.
TV Chosun reports that the flood damage was even more extensive in Jagang province, which lies along the Yalu River (known as the Amnok River in Korea), bordering China. As recovery efforts continue, some bodies were discovered buried beneath the soil after water levels receded.
(ANN/THE NATION) – Married Thai men are reportedly the most unfaithful in the world, with 56 per cent cheating on their spouses, according to World of Statistics data published on September 1.
In an X post, World of Statistics (@stats_feed) said the percentage of cheating married men by country was as follows:
Thailand 56 per cent
Denmark 46 per cent
Italy 45 per cent
France 43 per cent
Germany 40 per cent
United States 39 per cent
Brazil 38 per cent
United Kingdom 36 per cent
Russia 35 per cent
Argentina 34 per cent
Switzerland 33 per cent
Sweden 32 per cent
Japan 31 per cent
Netherlands 30 per cent
Spain 29 per cent
Norway 28 per cent
Australia 27 per cent
India 25 per cent
Mexico 24 per cent
South Korea 23 per cent
Canada 22 per cent
Chile 21 per cent
Nigeria 21 per cent
South Africa 20 per cent
Indonesia 19 per cent
Israel 19 per cent
New Zealand 18 per cent
China 18 per cent
Turkey 17 per cent
Poland 17 per cent
Belgium 16 per cent
Ireland 15 per cent
Portugal 15 per cent
Singapore 14 per cent
Malaysia 14 per cent
Greece 13 per cent
Hungary 13 per cent
Philippines 12 per cent
Vietnam 11 per cent
Egypt 10 per cent
For illustration purposes only. PHOTO: FREEPIK
World of Statistics noted that this ranking should be considered a general overview rather than an exact measurement, as the data varies greatly depending on the source and methodology.
It listed the sources as various studies on sexual behaviour and infidelity rates from academic journals and reputable surveys, surveys conducted by organisations like Durex, which have published global studies on sexual habits, and reports and articles from news outlets that cover social behavior and trends.
A research by the American Psychological Association found that 20-40 per cent of divorces are caused by an affair. The discovery of an affair may trigger a divorce, but there were likely problems in the marriage before the affair. When marital problems are not addressed, unhappy spouses may turn to someone outside the relationship, the study suggested.
The study also found that men are less likely than women to divorce when there is an affair: 61 per cent of men who cheated are still married, while 34 per cent are separated or divorced. But only 44 per cent of women who have cheated are still married, and 47 per cent are divorced or separated.
FILE - A balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in Incheon, South Korea, on June 10, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP, File)
SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea has floated more trash-filled balloons southward, Seoul’s military said Thursday, the latest in a series of border barrages that have sparked a tit-for-tat propaganda campaign.
Pyongyang launched about 420 balloons late Wednesday, quickly followed by another round early Thursday, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
Around 20 of the balloons had already landed in the South, mainly in northern Gyeonggi province and the capital Seoul, the JCS said.
The bags attached to those balloons contained “mostly paper and plastic waste”, the military said, adding that they posed no safety risk to the public, according to their analysis.
A balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in Incheon, South Korea, on June 10, 2024. PHOTO: AP
This is the thirteenth round of trash-carrying balloons launched by Pyongyang since late May.
The latest launch comes as relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North recently announcing the deployment of 250 ballistic missile launchers to its southern border.
North Korea has sent more than 3,800 trash-filled balloons southward since May, saying they are retaliation for propaganda balloons launched by South Korean activists.
In response, Seoul has suspended a tension-reducing military deal with Pyongyang and restarted some propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the border.
South Korean officials held high-level talks with US officials on North Korea deterrence on Wednesday.
“North Korea has not stopped advancing its nuclear and missile capabilities and has recently continued to provoke by disturbing the GPS system or launching trash balloons,” Kim Hong-kyun, South Korea’s vice minister of foreign affairs, told reporters.
“In this situation, the two countries cannot rule out the possibility of North Korea making a major provocation before and after the U.S. presidential election,” he added.
TOPSHOT - Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque Nasaruddin Umar (L) interacts with Pope Francis after an interreligious meeting with religious leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta on September 5, 2024. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)
JAKARTA (AFP) – Pope Francis warned Thursday against religion being used to stoke conflicts, in a declaration signed with a top Indonesian imam before he holds mass for tens of thousands in Jakarta.
The signing at Istiqlal Mosque was one of the final major set pieces of the 87-year-old’s three-day visit to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, that is kicking off a gruelling tour around the Asia-Pacific.
Religious harmony has been the central theme of the pontiff’s trip.
Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque Nasaruddin Umar (L) interacts with Pope Francis after an interreligious meeting with religious leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta on September 5, 2024. PHOTO: AFP
Warning against conflicts stoked by the weaponisation of religion, he also pointed to the environmental crisis as an existential threat to human civilisation as he met with leaders from Indonesia’s six official religions.
“We take on the responsibility to address the serious… crises that threaten the future of humanity such as wars and conflicts… and the environmental crisis, which is an obstacle to the growth and co-existence of peoples,” he said.
The pope was welcomed to the mosque by a percussion band often used in Islamic ceremonies and once seated, he and Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar listened to a passage from the Al-Quran recited by a young blind girl and a passage from the Bible.
The mosque sits across from Jakarta’s cathedral, linked by a “tunnel of friendship” as a symbol of religious fraternity.
Francis visited the tunnel before the meeting, delivering blessings and signed a section of the tunnel.
Nasaruddin told AFP before the meeting that the declaration had focused on two messages.
“The first one… humanity is only one, there are no colours. The second one, how to save our environment,” he said.
Pope Francis (centre R) poses with Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque Nasaruddin Umar (centre L) after an interreligious meeting with religious leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta on September 5, 2024. PHOTO: AFP
Francis has made several visits to Muslim-majority countries, and on a 2019 visit to the United Arab Emirates signed a document on human brotherhood with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s prestigious seat of learning.
‘End intolerance’
The biggest event of his Indonesia leg will be on Thursday afternoon when he will deliver a mass to nearly 80,000 people seated inside Indonesia’s main football stadium, with tens of thousands more expected outside.
Many people have travelled from across Indonesia’s vast island archipelago for the event.
Catholics represent fewer than three per cent of the population of Indonesia — about eight million people, compared with the 87 per cent, or 242 million, who are Muslim.
But they are one of six officially recognised religions or denominations in the nominally secular nation, including Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.
The trip to Indonesia is the third ever by a pope and the first since John Paul II in 1989.
Good spirits
The pontiff’s fragile health is being tested on the trip. After Indonesia he will go to Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore in what will be the longest tour of his papacy.
He had not travelled abroad since visiting Marseille in France in September last year.
Accompanying him to Indonesia are his personal doctor and two nurses, but that is standard procedure and he has appeared in good health so far.
On Wednesday he smiled and joked with spectators on his first full day of events after arriving from Rome, which included meeting Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
He has used a wheelchair during the trip, but stood with a cane during the Indonesian national anthem and while observing a parade at a presidential palace welcome ceremony.
Kiingi Tuheitia's successor and now Maori Queen Nga Wai hono i te po Paki (C) walks behind the hearse of her father during the funeral ceremony of New Zealand's Maori King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII in Ngaruawahia on September 5, 2024. New Zealand's Maori chiefs anointed a 27-year-old queen as their new monarch on September 5, a surprise choice hailed as a symbol of change for the country's sometimes troubled Indigenous community. Nga Wai hono i te po Paki was cheered by thousands as she climbed atop a high-backed wooden throne during an elaborate ceremony on the country's North Island. (Photo by DJ MILLS / AFP)
NGARUAWAHIA, New Zealand (AFP) – New Zealand’s Maori chiefs anointed a 27-year-old queen as their new monarch Thursday, a surprise choice hailed as a symbol of change for the country’s Indigenous community.
Nga Wai hono i te po Paki was cheered by thousands as she ascended a high-backed wooden throne during an elaborate ceremony on the country’s North Island.
She is the youngest daughter of King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, who died on Friday after heart surgery.
After being selected by a council of chiefs, Nga Wai was ushered to the throne by a phalanx of bare-chested and tattooed men bearing ceremonial weapons — who chanted, screamed and shouted in acclamation.
Kiingi Tuheitia’s successor and now Maori Queen Nga Wai hono i te po Paki (C) walks behind the hearse of her father during the funeral ceremony of New Zealand’s Maori King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII in Ngaruawahia on September 5, 2024.
Wearing a wreath of leaves, a cloak and a whalebone necklace, she sat beside her father’s coffin as emotive rites, prayers and chants were performed.
The late king had laid in state for six days before being taken down the Waikato River on a flotilla of four war canoes each powered by more than a dozen rowers.
His funerary procession passed throngs of onlookers camped on the riverbank, before stopping at the foot of sacred Mount Taupiri.
From there, three rugby teams acted as pallbearers, shepherding his coffin up steep slopes to the summit and the final resting place of past Maori royals.
Passing the torch
The Maori monarch is a mostly ceremonial role with no legal status.
But it has enormous cultural, and sometimes political, significance as a potent symbol of Maori identity and kinship.
Maori warriors participate during the funeral ceremony of New Zealand’s Maori King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII in Ngaruawahia on September 5, 2024. PHOTO: AFP
As the king’s only daughter and his youngest child, Queen Nga Wai was perhaps considered an outside choice to become his successor.
One of her two elder brothers had taken on many ceremonial duties during their father’s periods of ill health and had been tipped to take over.
“It is certainly a break from traditional Maori leadership appointments which tend to succeed to the eldest child, usually a male,” Maori cultural advisor Karaitiana Taiuru told AFP.
Taiuru said it was a “privilege” to witness a young Maori woman become queen, particularly given the ageing leadership and mounting challenges faced by the community.
“The Maori world has been yearning for younger leadership to guide us in the new world of AI, genetic modification, global warming and in a time of many other social changes that question and threaten us and Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand,” he said.
“These challenges require a new and younger generation to lead us.”
New Zealand’s Maori make up roughly 17 percent of the population, or about 900,000 people.
Maori citizens are much more likely than other New Zealanders to be unemployed, live in poverty or suffer cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes and have higher suicide rates.
Maori life expectancy is seven years less than other New Zealanders.
The Kiingitanga, or Maori King movement, was founded in 1858 to unite New Zealand’s tribes and provide a single counterpart to the colonial ruler, Britain’s Queen Victoria.
“People think Maori people are one nation — we’re not. We’re many tribes, many iwi. We have different ways of speaking out,” said Joanne Teina, who had travelled from Auckland for the ceremony.
“The Kiingitanga was created to create unity — among people who were fighting each other for thousands of years, before Pakeha (Europeans) came along. Now we just fight them.”
Second queen
Queen Nga Wai is the eighth Maori monarch and the second queen.
Her grandmother, Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, held the position for four decades until 2006.
The new queen studied the Maori language and customary law at New Zealand’s Waikato University. She also taught “kapa haka” performing arts to children.
To mark the anniversary of the king’s coronation in 2016, she received a traditional Maori “moko” tattoo on her chin.
King Tuheitia, a 69-year-old truck-driver-turned-royal, died on Friday, just days after heart surgery and celebrations marking the 18th anniversary of his coronation.
Tens of thousands of Indigenous citizens and “Pakeha” — those of European ancestry — visited to pay respects, mourn and celebrate New Zealand’s rich Maori heritage.
Among them was Auckland-based Darrio Penetito-Hemara, who told AFP the king had united “many people across Aotearoa (New Zealand) who don’t often see eye-to-eye”.
The king leaves a legacy forged “through respect, through aroha (love)”, Penetito-Hemara said.
A man walks past a welcome message for Pope Francis displayed on a main road in Port Moresby on September 3, 2024. The head of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics touched down in Jakarta on September 3 for a three-day visit devoted to inter-religious ties, and will then travel to Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. (Photo by Andrew KUTAN / AFP)
PORT MORESBY (AFP) – A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rattled Papua New Guinea on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said, striking off the country’s northern coast.
A USGS map showed the tremor centred in a patch of ocean some 300 kilometres (186 miles) east of the town of Vanimo, which is preparing to host Pope Francis over the weekend.
A photographer based in the provincial capital of Wewak told AFP there did not appear to be major damage in the immediate aftermath of the quake.
A man walks past a welcome message for Pope Francis displayed on a main road in Port Moresby on September 3, 2024. PHOTO: AFP
Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on top of the seismic “Ring of Fire” — an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
Although they seldom cause widespread damage in sparsely populated areas, they can trigger destructive landslides.
Pope Francis arrived in Indonesia earlier this week on the first leg of his 12-day tour.
On Friday he heads to Christian-majority Papua New Guinea for a three-night visit that will see him briefly stop in Vanimo, a remote coastal town close to the country’s border with Indonesia.
GENEVA (AFP) – Fine particle air pollution declined in Europe and China last year as emissions linked to human activity dropped, the United Nations said in a report published on Thursday.
Nanoparticles known as PM2.5 — due to their size smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter — pose a severe health risk if inhaled over long periods of time as they are tiny enough to get into the bloodstream.
The particles come from human activity like the combustion of fossil fuels, transportation and industry, as well as wildfires and wind-blown desert dust.
“The 2023 data shows a negative anomaly, which means a drop in PM2.5 compared to the reference period of 2003-2023 over China and Europe,” said Lorenzo Labrador, a scientist at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
The UN agency, in an annual bulletin published ahead of International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on September 7, stressed that air quality and climate change were closely linked.
“Climate change and air quality cannot be treated separately. They go hand-in-hand and must be tackled together,” WMO Secretary General Ko Barrett said in a press release.
The chemicals responsible for atmospheric pollution, WMO stressed, are usually emitted at the same time as greenhouse gases.
For illustration purposes only. PHOTO: UNSPLASH
“A vicious cycle of climate change, wildfires and air pollution is having a spiralling negative impact on human health, ecosystems and agriculture”, it said.
Nine out of 10 people breathe highly polluted air, according to the World Health Organisation.
‘Status quo’ in the US
The UN weather agency, using data from NASA and the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, noted that PM2.5 reached levels higher than average in India due to human and industrial activity.
Fine particle levels were up on the Indian subcontinent and some parts of Southeast Asia, said Labrador.
China and Europe, however, recorded levels lower than average, said the WMO.
“We tend to think that the decline in pollution in Europe and China is the direct result of lower emissions in these countries over the years,” said Labrador.
That is a rather unsurprising finding for scientists at the WMO, he says, who have noticed this trend since they first published the bulletin in 2021.
While Labrador said air pollution in the United States maintained a “status quo”, North American wildfires in 2023 caused “exceptionally strong emissions” compared to the two previous decades, the report said.
The organisation also reported dust emissions lower than usual in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.
Law enforcement officials arrive to give a press conference outside of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024, after a shooting took place. A 14-year-old gunman killed at least four people, including two students, and wounded nine more when he opened fire at a high school in the US state of Georgia on September 4, 2024, law enforcement said. The shooter -- also a student at the school -- was taken into custody. He will be charged with murder and tried as an adult, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. (Photo by CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA / AFP)
WINDER, United States (AFP) – A 14-year-old gunman killed at least four people, including two students, and wounded nine more when he opened fire at a high school in the US state of Georgia on Wednesday, law enforcement said.
The shooter — also a student at the school — was taken into custody. He will be charged with murder and tried as an adult, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
Two teachers were also among the dead.
After the latest chapter in America’s gun violence crisis — nearly 400 mass shootings this year alone, by one tally — people gathered at a sports field outside Apalachee High School, some forming a circle with their arms linked.
Law enforcement officials arrive to give a press conference outside of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024, after a shooting took place. PHOTO: AFP
“Our school resource officer engaged him,” county sheriff Jud Smith told reporters, referring to law enforcement officers employed to work at US schools.
“The shooter quickly realised that if he did not give up that it would end with an OIS — an officer-involved shooting. He gave up, got on the ground, and the deputy took him into custody.”
Late Wednesday, the FBI revealed that the suspect had been brought to its attention more than a year ago for threats to commit a school shooting.
At that time the county sheriff’s office interviewed the father and the then 13-year-old suspect, who denied the threats, before flagging the child to school officials for monitoring.
Smith said police did not yet know if the shooter singled out specific people as targets, and authorities have not yet identified the weapon.
Some in the school initially thought it was just another shooter drill, one student told AFP, referring to the exercises common in US schools.
“Everyone just thought it was a fake drill until my teacher said we didn’t get an email,” Alexsandra Romeo said.
A family embraces during a vigil for the victims of the Apalachee High School shooting at Jug Tavern Park in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024, after a shooting took place. PHOTO: AFP
“She got us all in a little corner and everyone was just hugging each other, I had some of my friends crying. Until two police officers came in with their guns and told us that this is not a drill and that we’re still not safe.”
Another student, 17-year-old Stephanie Folgar, described hearing “loud bangs” and panicking students hiding in the bathrooms and closet.
“It’s scary knowing that that could’ve been you,” she said.
One student told local media that he saw blood on the floor and a body as he was led out of the building by authorities.
The shooting occurred near the town of Winder, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta, the state capital.
Earlier, school authorities were reported to have sent a message to parents saying they were enforcing a “hard lockdown after reports of gunfire.”
After the all-clear was given, parents were invited to the school to be reunited with their children, with long lines of vehicles visible outside.
Gun violence ‘epidemic’
School shootings have become a sadly regular occurrence in the United States, where about a third of adults own a firearm and regulations on purchasing even powerful military-style rifles are lax.
Polls show a majority of voters favor stricter controls on the use and purchase of firearms, but the powerful gun ownership lobby is opposed to additional restrictions and lawmakers have repeatedly failed to act.
US President Joe Biden said he was mourning the dead.
“Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal,” he said.
Speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire after the shooting, Vice President Kamala Harris said it was time to end the “epidemic of gun violence.”
Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump said the perpetrator of the shooting was a “sick and deranged monster.”
This year, there have been at least 384 mass shootings — defined as a shooting involving at least four victims, dead or wounded — across the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
At least 11,557 people have been killed in firearms violence this year in the United States, according to the GVA.
USA's Jessica Pegula serves to Poland's Iga Swiatek during their women's quarterfinals match on day ten of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on September 4, 2024. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)
NEW YORK (AFP) – Jessica Pegula became the fourth American to reach this year’s US Open semi-finals on Wednesday by stunning world number one Iga Swiatek as Jack Draper broke through to his first Grand Slam last-four.
Pegula swept past 2022 champion and four-time French Open winner Swiatek 6-2, 6-4 to reach a maiden semi-final at the majors after falling in six quarter-finals.
The 30-year-old will next face Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.
If she gets through that she would set-up an all-American title match should Emma Navarro stun world number two Aryna Sabalenka in Thursday’s other semi-final.
Draper, meanwhile, became the first British man to make the last four since Andy Murray won the title 12 years ago by beating Alex de Minaur of Australia 6-3, 7-5, 6-2.
USA’s Jessica Pegula serves to Poland’s Iga Swiatek during their women’s quarterfinals match on day ten of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on September 4, 2024. PHOTO: AFP
The 25th seed will tackle either world number one Jannik Sinner or 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev for a place in Sunday’s championship showdown.
Pegula has now won 14 times in 15 matches on US hard courts this summer.
“Finally I can say I’m a semi-finalist. I lost so many of these damn things,” said the American after her fourth career win against Swiatek.
“Thanks to the crowd. I sent over a 65mph second serve (on a third match point) because I was so tight.
‘Rode momentum’
“I did everything I could to not get frustrated. I took advantage of some things she was not doing so well and just rode that momentum.”
Swiatek was undone by 41 unforced errors.
Draper pulled off victory over 10th-ranked De Minaur despite taking a medical timeout early in the second set to have his right thigh bandaged.
“It’s amazing. My first time on Arthur Ashe Stadium, it means the world to me,” said Draper, who had lost three times in three meetings with De Minaur before Wednesday.
‘Best fitness-wise’
“I played a solid match and I feel the best fitness-wise that I have felt in a long time.”
Draper has made the semi-finals without dropping a set as he continued an impressive summer run which saw him capture his first ATP title in Stuttgart and then defeat Carlos Alcaraz at Queen’s Club on the eve of Wimbledon.
On Wednesday, he sent down 11 aces in his 40 winners while forcing De Minaur to fend off 14 of 20 break points.
The British player enjoys a 1-0 lead over Sinner in the pair’s head-to-head although that win at Queen’s came three years ago. He lost to Medvedev on clay in Rome earlier this year.
Sinner is the only top-four player left in the men’s draw following the exits of Novak Djokovic, Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.
However, he is yet to reach the last four in New York and faces a test of his credentials against fifth-ranked Medvedev.
Sinner defeated Medvedev from two sets down to win his first major at the Australian Open in January before the mercurial Russian avenged that loss at Wimbledon.
“I will try to think more about Wimbledon than the Australian Open,” said Medvedev, also the 2019 and 2023 runner-up at the US Open.
With Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz already lined up for an all-American men’s semi-final on Friday, and Navarro and Pegula safely into the women’s last four, home fans are dreaming of a title sweep this weekend.
Muchova back in semi-final
Andy Roddick was the last US man to lift a Grand Slam singles trophy in New York in 2003 while Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens and Coco Gauff have triumphed in the women’s tournament in the last decade.
Muchova’s 6-1, 6-4 win over Beatriz Haddad Maia came despite having to sprint to the bathroom early in the second set, a dash which caught everyone on the hop.
“I had a problem that I wouldn’t like to comment on,” said the 28-year-old. “Sorry if I disturbed anybody but I really didn’t have any other choice.”
After losing to eventual champion Coco Gauff in the 2023 semi-finals, Muchova suffered a serious wrist injury which sidelined her until June this year.
A former world number eight, now ranked at 52, Muchova has yet to drop a set, knocking out two-time champion Naomi Osaka and this year’s French Open and Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini.
Datastream Digital Sdn Bhd (DST) on Wednesday announced the planned transition of its digital financial services with the cessation of operations for the DSTPay mobile wallet application.
The telco said that the DSTPay app will be retired after 30th September 2024. “We encourage all users to transfer their funds before this date for a smooth transition,” it said in a press release.
“DSTPay has been a convenient solution for users to make seamless digital payments. However, as we continue to evolve, we are excited to streamline our offerings and bring even more advanced financial solutions to our valued customers,” the press release added.
DST also reminded existing DSTPay users to ensure that all funds are transferred out of DSTPay before 30th September 2024, as the app will no longer be operational after this date.
Any remaining balance after 30th September 2024 will be automatically credited back to the user’s Baiduri Savings account.
DST also encourages its users to explore the new enhanced MyDST Wallet as a seamless alternative for their digital payment needs.
Contact DSTCare at 151 for further assistance or inquiries. – JAMES KON
