PETALING JAYA (THE STAR) – While not discounting the possibility of working with Pakatan Harapan in the 15th General Election, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir called for the overhaul of the coalition’s leadership, including its prime-minister candidate.
The Pejuang President said the time has passed for Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to become the premier, should the coalition win in the next election.
“I think his (Anwar) time has passed. That’s my feeling and a lot of people have been saying that, in fact within Pakatan itself.
“It’s time for a new group of people to take over (the coalition’s leadership),” he said in an interview with business station BFM.
On working with Pakatan for GE15, he said, “We are still open to discussion. But we have certain issues, about the Malay electorates on how they feel about the coalition.”
The former Kedah mentri besar also said Pejuang would contest in 120 seats, targetting rural Malay and semi-urban seats.
He said there was a reason for the party to vie for more than half the parliamentary seats in the country.
“When we were in Bersatu (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia), we only contested in 52 seats.
“Even if we had won all that time, we won’t be able to have the majority. We had to be in a coalition, as we were in Pakatan, to be able to govern the country.
“In our case this time, we need to show and convince the rakyat that we are serious, and we want to contest as many seats as we can,” he said.
Mukhriz said the party had not ruled out the possibility of working with political parties to be the government of the day.
“We are very close to parties, Warisan and Muda.
“After taking up 120 seats, there are another 102 seats that we won’t be contesting.
“It would be a waste for us if we don’t do something about those seats. We need to form electoral pacts and we have not decided which way to go yet.
“We need to work with others as well. The political scenario has also changed somewhat as people are not just looking at political parties. They also look at the candidates.
“Chances are non-governmental organisations that have been very active in certain constituencies will put forward their own candidates under a certain banner. And I think we can work with them,” he said.
On staying out of the memorandum of understanding that Pakatan signed with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in September, Mukhriz said Pejuang needed to be seen as being ‘independent’.
“We need to be free to convey our thoughts in Parliament.
“We felt that if there was any form of reward from the government, it might diminish our ability to be critical of the government when it needs to be criticised,” he said.
THE WASHINGTON POST – Although cooking chicken under a brick goes all the way back to the Roman era, you’d think it was designed to fulfill a modern home cook’s every hope for weeknight chicken.
In the old days, partially deboned or spatchcocked chicken was placed in a shallow terra-cotta vessel reminiscent of a cazuela, then topped with a terra-cotta brick called a mattone (hence the name of the dish, pollo al mattone). It was cooked over an open flame until the skin was crisped and the meat was juicy.
Present-day versions are made on the grill, in the oven or on the stovetop.
The weight of the brick creates cheek-to-cheek contact of chicken to skillet, speeding up the cooking process and creating unabashedly crisp skin. And because the chicken is covered with this lid of sorts, the splattering typical in frying chicken thighs no longer decorates your kitchen.
All these perks make pollo al mattone a tempting addition to the weeknight skillet chicken routine – especially with a few tweaks.
Deboning chicken flattens it to provide more even contact between the chicken and skillet, which means more even cooking and browning.
Chipotle mayo brick chicken is a complete and clever meal in a pan. PHOTO: THE WASHINGTON POST
But the procedure requires, at least for me, watching some YouTube tutorial first. I opt for bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs to avoid the nervous dance of getting both the white and dark meat done but not overdone. I then cut slits into the skin all the way down to the bone, which helps the thighs lay flat in the pan.
With such direct contact between hot skillet and chicken skin, burning is a possibility.
Nothing a little mayonnaise can’t handle, though. Mayo acts as a preventive coating to anything that you’d like to brown, including grilled steaks, skillet chicken thighs and grilled cheese. As mayonnaise cooks, its own (contentious) flavour dissipates, but because it’s a great carrier of flavour, any ingredients you stirred into it can cook and bloom without burning.
Take the recipe here: A chipotle-lime mayo is spread onto the chicken skin (another one of mayo’s great attributes is it gloms to whatever it touches).
If you’d only marinated the chicken with chipotle in adobo and lime zest, those ingredients could’ve singed, but not so in the mayo. Because mayo has oil in it, you don’t need to grease the pan, which further reduces splatters.
As if mayo hasn’t already done enough for us, you can use extra chipotle mayo to drag pieces of chicken through.
The glorious byproduct of crispy skin is a skillet full of rendered drippings, which feels like more of a gift than the chicken itself.
It’s also the place to cook any side you want. Here, that’s crisped rice with broccoli and scallions – a sort of schmaltsy fried rice – but it could also be carrots, broccoli, sweet potato or even beans.
This efficient little recipe provides many avenues for improvisation. Head outside and grill the chicken.
Switch up the personality of the mayo – maybe with salsa verde, grated lemon and garlic, barbecue sauce or miso. Use the rendered drippings in a salad dressing or to toast torn bread.
Such alluringly crispy, flavourful and speedy chicken can anchor many (indeed, centuries) of dinners.
Storage Notes: Refrigerate leftovers for up to three days. Gently rewarm in a skillet over medium -low heat
CHIPOTLE MAYO BRICK CHICKEN
Ingredients
– Two pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
– Half teaspoon fine salt, plus more as needed
– Freshly ground black pepper
– One cup mayonnaise
– Three chipotles in adobo, finely chopped, plus one teaspoon adobo sauce
– One teaspoon ground cumin
– One lime, finely zested and halved
– One cup long-grain white rice
– One pound broccoli, cut into florets, stems sliced – Quarter-inch thick
– Six scallions, thinly sliced
Directions
Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Pat the chicken dry. Cut two slits all the way to the bone on the top of each thigh. Season with the half teaspoon of the salt and the pepper.
In a medium bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, chipotles and adobo sauce, cumin and lime zest. Spoon about half of the chipotle mayo into a small bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Brush the remaining mayo on the skin of the chicken.
Place the chicken skin side down in the centre of a large cast-iron skillet.
Set the pan over medium-high heat, and cover the chicken with foil or parchment, pressing each thigh down against the pan. Place something heavy, such as another cast-iron skillet, a few cans or a brick, on top.
Cook the chicken until opaque nearly all the way up the sides, 20 to 25 minutes, checking halfway through to make sure the skin isn’t browning too fast. (If it is, lower the heat).
When the water comes to a boil, add one teaspoon of salt and the rice.
Cook, stirring occasionally, for seven minutes, then add the broccoli and cook an additional three minutes, or until the rice is nearly al dente.
Drain, rinse with cold water and shake as dry as possible. Set aside while you finish the chicken.
Remove the brick and foil or parchment from the chicken. Add the lime halves, cut sides down, to the pan.
Flip the chicken, and cook until cooked through and the limes are charred, an additional three to four minutes.
The internal temperature of the chicken should register 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. If not, remove the lime to a plate and cook the chicken for an additional five minutes, then check again.
Transfer the chicken and limes to a plate, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the scallions to the skillet and stir, scraping up browned bits, until fragrant, about one minute.
Add the rice and broccoli, stir to coat in the chicken fat, then pat into an even layer. Cook until warmed and starting to crisp on the bottom, three to five minutes. Taste, and season with additional salt and pepper, if needed. Remove from the heat, and return the chicken and lime to the skillet.
Serve in the skillet, family-style, squeezing the charred lime over the chicken, with the remaining chipotle mayo on the side.
CNA – Chris Froome’s (CNA pic below) preparations for the 2022 season have suffered a setback due to a knee injury, the four-times Tour de France champion said.
The Briton said scans had revealed damage to a tendon and he suggested the condition “flared up” due to his aggressive pre-season training routine.“
For the last 10 days or so I’ve been getting quite a lot of pain on the outside of my knee while I’m pedalling,” Froome said on YouTube.
“Unfortunately I think getting back into training these past couple of weeks I might have been a little bit too keen, pushing a little too much.
AP – Pandemics do eventually end, even if Omicron is complicating the question of when this one will. But it won’t be like flipping a light switch: The world will have to learn to coexist with a virus that’s not going away.
The ultra-contagious Omicron mutant is pushing cases to all-time highs and causing chaos as an exhausted world struggles, again, to stem the spread. But this time, we’re not starting from scratch.
Vaccines offer strong protection from serious illness, even if they don’t always prevent a mild infection. Omicron doesn’t appear to be as deadly as some earlier variants. And those who survive it will have some refreshed protection against other forms of the virus that still are circulating – and maybe the next mutant to emerge, too.
The newest variant is a warning about what will continue to happen “unless we really get serious about the endgame”, said an infectious disease specialist at the Yale School of Public Health Dr Albert Ko.
“Certainly COVID will be with us forever,” Ko added. “We’re never going to be able to eradicate or eliminate COVID, so we have to identify our goals.”
At some point, the World Health Organization (WHO) will determine when enough countries have tamped down their COVID-19 cases sufficiently – or at least, hospitalisations and deaths – to declare the pandemic officially over. Exactly what that threshold will be isn’t clear.
ABOVE & BELOW: Scientists at the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, work on the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus; and a staff member from the National Health Organisation (EODY) prepares a booster Johnson and Johnson vaccine against COVID-19 at Karatepe refugee camp, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece. FILE PHOTOS: AP
People wait in line at a COVID-19 testing site in New York’s Times Square
Even when that happens, some parts of the world still will struggle – especially low-income countries that lack enough vaccines or treatments – while others more easily transition to what scientists call an “endemic” state.
They’re fuzzy distinctions, said infectious disease expert Stephen Kissler of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. He defines the endemic period as reaching “some sort of acceptable steady state” to deal with COVID-19.
The Omicron crisis shows we’re not there yet but “I do think we will reach a point where SARS-CoV-2 is endemic much like flu is endemic”, he said.
For comparison, COVID-19 has killed more than 800,000 Americans in two years while flu typically kills between 12,000 and 52,000 a year.
Exactly how much continuing COVID-19 illness and death the world will put up with is largely a social question, not a scientific one.
“We’re not going to get to a point where it’s 2019 again,” said a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Dr Amesh Adalja. “We’ve got to get people to think about risk tolerance.”
The top United States (US) infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci, is looking ahead to controlling the virus in a way “that does not disrupt society, that does not disrupt the economy”.
Already the US is sending signals that it’s on the road to whatever will become the new normal. The Biden administration said there are enough tools – vaccine boosters, new treatments and masking – to handle even the Omicron threat without the shutdowns of the pandemic’s earlier days. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just reduced to five days the time that people with COVID-19 must stay in isolation so they don’t sicken others, saying it’s become clear they’re most contagious early on.
India offers a glimpse of what it’s like to get to a stable level of COVID-19. Until recently, daily reported cases had remained below 10,000 for six months but only after a cost in lives “too traumatic to calculate” caused by the earlier Delta variant, said former chief of virology at Christian Medical College in southern India Dr T Jacob John.
Omicron now is fuelling a rise in cases again, and the country in January will roll out vaccine boosters for frontline workers.
But John said other endemic diseases, such as flu and measles, periodically cause outbreaks and the coronavirus will continue to flare up every so often even after omicron passes through.
Omicron is so hugely mutated that it is slipping past some of the protection of vaccinations or prior infection. But Dr William Moss of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health expected “this virus will kind of max out” in its ability to make such big evolutionary jumps. “I don’t see this as kind of an endless cycle of new variants.”
One possible future many experts see: In the post-pandemic period, the virus causes colds for some and more serious illness for others, depending on their overall health, vaccine status and prior infections. Mutations will continue and might eventually require boosters every so often that are updated to better match new variants.
But human immune systems will continue to get better at recognising and fighting back.
Immunologist Ali Ellebedy at Washington University at St Louis found hope in the body’s amazing ability to remember germs it’s seen before and create multi-layer defences.
Memory B cells are one of those layers, cells that live for years in the bone marrow, ready to swing into action and produce more antibodies when needed. But first those memory cells get trained in immune system boot camps called germinal centres, learning to do more than just make copies of their original antibodies.
In a new study, Ellebedy’s team found Pfizer vaccinations rev up “T helper cells” that act as the drill sergeant in those training camps, driving production of more diverse and stronger antibodies that may work even if the virus changes again.
Ellebedy said baseline population immunity has improved so much that even as breakthrough infections inevitably continue, there will be a drop in severe illnesses, hospitalisations and deaths – regardless of the next variant.
“We are not the same population that we were in December of 2019,” he said. “It’s different ground now.”
Think of a wildfire tearing through a forest after a drought, he said. That was 2020.
Now, even with Omicron, “it’s not completely dry land”, but wet enough “that made the fire harder to spread”.
He foresaw a day when someone gets a coronavirus infection, stays home two to three days “and then you move on. That hopefully will be the endgame”.
DAMASCUS, SYRIA (AP) – Militants attacked a bus carrying soldiers on a desert highway in central Syria, killing five troops and wounding 20, state media reported yesterday.
The state news agency SANA said the attack happened on Sunday night in a government-controlled area. The report quoted an unnamed official saying the militants launched rockets at the bus travelling in the Palmyra desert, then followed it with gunfire from an anti-aircraft gun.
The official blamed Islamic State (IS)militants for the attack. IS militants have been active in southern and central Syria, despite losing territorial control in the country since 2019.
SANA said attacks on buses travelling down the highway linking central Syria to the east are common, alleging that United States (US) troops deployed there are facilitating the attacks.
Assad’s government has repeatedly leveled such accusations against US and coalition troops based at al-Tanf. US troops have maintained a limited presence in Syria to train and work with Kurdish-led Syrian forces and opposition fighters in counter-terrorism efforts.
KUALA LUMPUR (BERNAMA) – The government plans to increase siren stations that are also equipped with public announcements at flood-prone areas to warn residents and also to instruct them to evacuate.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, in a statement, said this was part of the proposed improvements discussed in the post-northeast monsoon flood disaster management task force special meeting which he chaired yesterday.
He said the proposed improvements include having a centralised flood siren warning system coordinated by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID); closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at river level monitoring stations to enable residents to be prepared to evacuate should the river water reach the danger level; and also numerical
weather prediction.
Ismail Sabri said to step-up protection for drainage and beach infrastructure, the Ministry of Environment and Water (Kasa) proposed an increase in the average recurrence interval (ARI) from 100 years to 200 years.
Apart from that, the meeting also looked into the proposals to improve communications, education and public awareness (CEPA) through flood simulations and information disseminated by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM).
“The strategic communications cluster led by KKMM has been active in disseminating information since the beginning of the northeast monsoon and efforts had also been intensified since the second wave of floods was forecasted to ensure that residents and the country as a whole, would be better prepared and things would be better controlled,”
he said.
Ismail Sabri said strategic communications involved announcements on warnings and information on the current situation, government aid, arising issues, efforts to detect fake news and issuance of rebuttal of fake news.
He said for that purpose, the platforms being used are the mass media, social media, Information Department channels, as well as through go-to-the-ground, advocacy, publication and engagement efforts.
He added that the implementation of all the initiatives would be constantly monitored by the task force to ensure the national disaster preparedness and management mechanisms would always be improved and at the optimum level.
THE WASHINGTON POST – This Bundt cake recipe comes from Vallery Lomas’ debut cookbook, Life Is What You Bake It, and “has a tight crumb, like a pound cake, but it’s moist and full of flavour from the pineapple and nuts,” she wrote.
Contributing to that flavour is the brown sugar – light or dark, allowing you to control the amount of molasses – that gets creamed with room temperature butter at the start of this recipe. What follows is a straightforward set of instructions that even the most novice baker
can follow.
Once baked and unmolded, the cake has an unassuming exterior, but upon slicing into it you see that it’s studded with toasted pecans, golden raisins and crushed pineapple, lending bits of crunch and chew to the tender cake.
Pecan Bundt cake. PHOTO: THE WASHINGTON POST
PECAN BUNDT CAKE
Ingredients
– Non-stick baking spray with flour – 240 grammes roughly chopped pecan pieces – 375 grammes all-purpose flour – One teaspoon baking powder – Half teaspoon fine salt – 339 grammes unsalted butter, at room temperature – 300 grammes packed light or dark brown sugar – Four large eggs – One teaspoon vanilla extract – 180 grammes canned crushed pineapple in juice – 75 grammes golden raisins
Directions
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 F. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with baking spray.
In a dry medium skillet over medium heat, toast the pecans, tossing frequently, until fragrant, about three to five minutes. Transfer the nuts to a cutting board to cool, then finely chop.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a large bowl and a handheld mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about four minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure the mixture is evenly creamed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated before adding the next, about two minutes total. Stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed, and after the last egg is added, add the vanilla.
Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. (The batter will be quite thick). Stop the mixer and stir in the pecans, pineapple and raisins by hand until evenly distributed, making sure no streaks of flour remain. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake one hour to one hour 15 minutes, until a cake tester inserted deep into the cake comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert the pan to release the cake and let cool completely before slicing.
Blood donation services will no longer be available at the Health Promotion Centre with immediate effect, announced the Ministry of Health (MoH) yesterday.
The ministry stated that those wishing to donate blood in Brunei-Muara District can visit the Blood Donation Centre, Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (RIPAS) Hospital from Monday to Thursday and on Saturdays from 8am to 11.30am and 1.30pm to 4pm.
In Belait District, the public can donate blood at Suri Seri Begawan Hospital Blood Bank from Monday to Thursday and Saturday from 8am to 11.30am and 1.45pm to 3.30pm.
Meanwhile, in Temburong District, the public can donate blood at the Pengiran Isteri Hajjah Mariam Hospital Blood Bank from Monday to Thursday and Saturday from 9am to 11.30am and from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.
The MoH urged members of public to join blood donation campaigns at the Annajat Complex on Thursday from 10am to 2pm; and at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium and the Royal Brunei Police Force Headquarters in Jalan Gadong on Saturday from 9am to noon.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Allrounder Mohammad Hafeez has retired from international cricket after representing Pakistan in 392 matches over 18 years.
Hafeez, 41, quit test cricket in 2018 and played his last ODI in the 2019 World Cup at Lord’s. He was recalled in 2020 for Twenty20 matches and finished the year as the world’s leading run-scorer in the calendar year in the shortest format.
“Today I say goodbye to international cricket with pride and satisfaction,” Hafeez said at a media conference in Lahore yesterday, wearing the Pakistan team’s green blazer and tie. “In fact, I have earned and accomplished more than I had initially envisaged and for that, I am thankful to all my fellow cricketers, captains, support staff and the Pakistan Cricket Board who helped me out during my career.”
The right-handed batsman scored 12,780 runs in international matches that included 55 test matches, 218 ODIs and 119 T20s. Hafeez, who was reported for his suspect bowling action several times, also took 253 wickets with his off-spin bowling in all the three formats.
SINGAPORE (CNA) – Private home prices in Singapore jumped 10.6 per cent in 2021, quickening from a 2.2 per cent increase the year before, according to flash estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.
This was the highest annual growth since 2010, when private home prices rose 17.6 per cent, said OrangeTee and Tie’s Senior Vice President of research and analytics Christine Sun.
Overall, the private residential property index gained 8.3 points from the third quarter to reach 173.6 points in the fourth quarter of 2021.
“This represents an increase of five per cent, compared to the 1.1 per cent increase in the previous quarter,” said URA.
This was also the highest quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2010, when prices went up 5.3 per cent, said Sun.
Private non-landed homes in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) drove the increase, with prices rising at a faster rate of 7.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared to the 2.6 per cent in the preceding quarter.
Prices of non-landed private homes in the Core Central Region rose by 2.5 per cent, reversing a decline of 0.5 per cent in the previous quarter. In the Outside Central Region prices increased by 5.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared to the 0.1 per cent decrease in the third quarter.
Singapore introduced a package of measures on December 16 last year, aimed at cooling the property market. They include higher Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates and a tighter Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR).
Its impact “may not be felt” in the full-year figures for 2021, said Huttons Asia’s Senior Director of Research Lee Sze Teck.
