World

AUSTRALIAN beef exports to China will face an additional 55% tariff starting this weekend after hitting Beijing’s annual quota limit, which could impact trade flows and prompt producers to seek new markets for red meat.

The Chinese government in December imposed a quota of 205,000 tonnes on beef imports from Australia as part of a range of trade limits on major red meat-producing nations, including Brazil and Argentina, in a push to protect local farmers. 

Shipments reached that level as of Thursday — less than halfway through the year — and the additional tariff on top of existing duties will apply from June 20, China’s commerce ministry said Friday in a statement.

Australian beef exports to China have been steadily increasing in recent years, rising above 300,000 tonnes in 2025 to a six-year high. That has been bolstered by both increasing consumption in China and strong production in Australia, which reached a record in 2025. China is the world’s largest beef importer.

Canberra has been lobbying the Chinese government to lift the quota, but there is little sign of Beijing removing the limit. Australia’s beef producers and trade analysts are cautiously optimistic that new markets can be found for the exports, with the US herd currently sitting at its lowest in decades and demand for red meat strong across Asia.

Brazil could also reach its shipment quota to China before the year is half over, Bloomberg reported last month. — BLOOMBERG

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WASHINGTON — Is it goodbye Air Force One, hello Qatar Force One?

White House officials bade farewell on Thursday to one of the two jets that have been used to transport US presidents for more than 30 years.

The goodbye messages fueled speculation that a Boeing 747 controversially gifted to President Donald Trump (picture) by the Gulf emirate of Qatar is now due to enter service.

“‘Well done, good and faithful servant. ‘The Last Ride,’” Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said in a post on X with a picture of the iconic white and blue jet after returning from the G7 summit in France.

US Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley also posted a photograph of the same plane on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

“I was honored to be aboard Air Force One last night on its final flight,” Crowley said on X.

“For nearly 40 years, it carried every President since George H.W. Bush. It wasn’t the most modern plane, but it was cozy. And every flight with President Trump was incredibly special.

“Farewell and thank you.”

The aging aircraft is one of two heavily modified 747s — VC-25As in military parlance — that entered service in 1990 and are designated Air Force One when the president is aboard.

The White House did not immediately respond when asked by AFP to comment.

But Trump is considering taking the new Qatari jet on its inaugural flight when he travels to Mount Rushmore next month as part of celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary, NBC News reported.

The US Air Force said in May that the Qatari jet had completed flight testing and would soon be ready for action, adding that it was “on schedule to roll out in a new red, white and blue livery this summer.”

On Thursday the US Air Force confirmed to AFP that the Qatari plane, known as the VC-25B Bridge aircraft, “will soon join the active executive airlift fleet alongside the VC-25A and C-32.”

The C-32, dubbed “Baby Air Force One,” is a version of the smaller 757 used for shorter runways.

Qatar’s gift of the jet, valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, has raised major ethical and constitutional issues about what kind of gifts a president should receive from abroad.

It has also raised security concerns about using an aircraft donated by a foreign power for use as the ultra-sensitive presidential plane.

The jets that serve as Air Force One are widely reported to have sophisticated countermeasures that can jam enemy radars and infrared tracking systems, plus dispensers for chaff — metal shavings that distract radar-guided missiles — and flares that blind heat-seeking missiles.

But billionaire Trump has been obsessed with replacing Air Force One since his first presidential term, even keeping a model of the jet in its new color scheme on his coffee table in the Oval Office.

Trump said last year that it would be “stupid” not to accept the gift, which the Pentagon formally acquired last year, and complained about the state of the current veteran planes.

He has said the Qatari plane will eventually be donated to his future presidential library as an exhibit.

The US government has also contracted planemaker Boeing to deliver two new 747-8 aircraft to serve as the presidential jet but the program has suffered delays and cost overruns. — AFP

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WASHINGTON — The United States on Thursday started an investigation into Germany over its pharmaceutical pricing policies and other practices, in a move that could lead to fresh tariffs.

The probe seeks to determine if “persistent underpayment for innovative pharmaceutical products by Germany is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts US commerce,” said the US Trade Representative’s office.

The move was launched under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, and it comes months after the Trump administration tapped similar authorities to investigate dozens of trading partners over issues like forced labor and industrial overcapacity.

A federal register notice released by the USTR charged that “evidence indicates that Germany implements unfair pricing policies and practices with regard to innovative pharmaceutical products.”

It added that reduced revenue associated with these practices also appeared to contribute to reduced investment for research and development, among other issues.

“As a result, the United States pays a disproportionate share of global R&D costs for innovative pharmaceuticals,” the notice said.

The probe will look into the means that Germany uses to implement its pricing policies and practices.

“President (Donald) Trump has made clear that American patients should not be shouldering a disproportionate share of global pharmaceutical research and development,” said USTR Jamieson Greer (picture) in a statement.

He expressed concern over Germany’s plans to fast-track legislation “that would further reduce its spending on innovative pharmaceuticals.”

The trade envoy’s office will next receive comments and hold a hearing in September as part of the investigation.

Earlier this month, the USTR’s office proposed new tariffs of up to 12.5 percent on dozens of economies under its investigation into forced labor concerns.

Trump has rolled out sweeping tariffs since returning to the White House last year, although the Supreme Court struck down many of them in February.

His administration has since turned to trade probes as officials look to reimpose more lasting duties. — AFP

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A showpiece 250m tower overlooking the capital is finally open for business 

by SOUHAIL KARAM 

MOROCCO’S tallest building, a US$700 million (RM2.8 billion) skyscraper inspired by the rocket that put a man on the moon, is finally opening for business — the latest symbol of progress for one of North Africa’s fastest-growing economies. 

King Mohammed VI Tower, which stands 55 storeys and 250m high, has been taking shape for the past eight years on the edge of Rabat, the Moroccan capital that’s home to the royal court. 

Last April the showpiece structure dreamed up by Moroccan billionaire financier Othmane Benjelloun began formally welcoming visitors. A 55-room Waldorf Astoria — dubbed the luxury brand’s smallest hotel — is accepting guests, while prime office space and 30 apartments have gone on sale. 

Sitting in the Bouregreg valley that separates the capital from its more-populous twin city Sale, the tower’s unveiling caps two decades of lavish spending and development for Rabat — a place often overlooked by foreign visitors to the kingdom in favour of Marrakesh, Fez or Agadir. 

That’s gradually changing, as authorities usher in new museums and galleries, building the profile of this mainly placid city of a half-million people as a hub for arts and culture. 

Designed by Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos and Hakim Benjelloun, the skyscraper joins the list of some of Africa’s tallest buildings, which is currently headed by the 386m Iconic Tower in the financial district of Egypt’s new administrative capital. 

“We built an iconic monument for the Bouregreg Valley in particular, and the capital Rabat in general,” said Laila Haddaoui, a senior executive at O Tower, the project’s developer. It’s controlled by three financial firms led by Benjelloun, including Bank of Africa and insurance provider RMA. 

While King Mohammed VI Tower stands almost alone on the river plain, there are plans to develop the surrounding area. 

From an observatory on the 55th floor, visitors get panoramic views of the twin cities, including of Rabat’s iconic Royal Theatre, designed by late Iraqi British architect Zaha Hadid. 

A few kilometres away, work is wrapping up on a new terminal at Rabat-Sale airport that’s set to more than triple its annual capacity to five million passengers. Morocco, which is already Africa’s most visited country and received about 19.8 million tourists last year, is poised for another surge when it co-hosts the men’s football World Cup with Spain and Portugal in 2030. 

Haddaoui described the skyscraper’s tapering appearance as having been inspired by a visit Benjelloun made to the US’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1969. It was there he saw the Saturn V rocket being prepared for the Apollo 12 mission, the second successful attempt to land Americans on the moon. 

About half the floors will be taken up by the Waldorf Astoria, with other space given to an art gallery and 26 levels of offices — some of which will be used by financial firms controlled by Benjelloun. 

The 93-year-old has been in business since the 1950s, bringing his family’s firm into local partnerships with the likes of Goodyear and General Motors. He bought RMA in 1988 and later acquired a controlling stake in BMCE Bank from the government, which expanded on the continent and became Bank of Africa. 

The tower’s construction spanned the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, external shocks that led to the project exceeding its budget by about 40%, according to Haddaoui. — Bloomberg

• This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition 

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by KATARINA HOIJE 

PRITZKER Prize-winning architect Francis Kéré approached the site of the new Goethe-Institut in Dakar as a place that already held its own structure — formed by trees, shade and the logic of the land itself. 

“We had a plot, huge trees and among them a huge baobab in the centre,” the Burkina Faso-born architect said, guiding visitors through the newly opened centre in advance of its official April 18 opening. 

The baobab, a symbol of life, endurance and community in Senegalese lore, and a traditional gathering place due to its size and open shape, still holds pride of place in Kéré’s design, with the building wrapped around the tree, bending in places to avoid its roots. 

“If you look carefully, the building makes an arc to respect the trees,” Kéré said. 

When the Berlin-based Kéré became the first African laureate of the Pritzker in 2022, the jury behind the award praised his work for helping to “change unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.” 

Born in Gando, a village in eastern Burkina Faso, Kéré forged his approach early on. When he suggested building a school from mud bricks in Gando, the village questioned why he wouldn’t use concrete and glass, like builders in Europe. But concrete, he knew, would need air conditioning and Gando didn’t have electricity at the time. 

Those early choices came to define his approach to architecture, and over time led to major international commissions, including a new parliament building in Benin, a major public library and cultural centre in Rio de Janeiro, and the forthcoming Las Vegas Museum of Art, his first major project in North America. 

The Goethe-Institut outpost in Dakar is the first purpose-built facility among the more than 150 global locations of the German cultural exchange organisation. The roughly 18,000 sq ft centre will serve as a cultural hub for Dakar and the wider region, hosting exhibitions, music, performances, language classes and public events. 

The Goethe-Institut “isn’t just another building,” said Nzinga Mboup of Dakar-based architecture firm Worofila. “It sits in a place where many people pass through, so it becomes part of how people understand what architecture in Dakar can be.” 

Dakar is becoming a city where climate urgency and material knowledge are converging in public architecture, quietly reshaping how the city builds, according to Mboup, who collaborated with Kéré on the construction of the institute. A skate park in the Yoff neighbourhood and the so-called Maison de la Jeunesse youth centres are part of an expanding “catalogue of contemporary earth buildings,” she said. 

The first thing that will strike visitors when they enter the Goethe-Institut in Dakar is the cool breeze flowing through the space. 

“We used laterite and earth mixed with cement in the bricks, which helps maintain a fresh interior, like a traditional system adapted into a modern building,” Kéré said. 

Traditionally — and still in some villages in Senegal — water is cooled in clay jars made from earth, akin to the laterite used for the institute’s orange-hued bricks. The compressed-earth building blocks, which rely on earth sourced from just outside Dakar, have greater thermal mass than concrete, making them more resistant to outside heat. Along with the careful solar orientation of the building, the material helps reduce the need for air conditioning during the hot season. 

Compressed earth bricks contribute to the texture of the Goethe-Institut Dakar while also helping to cool the interior

A perforated wall system allows for cross-ventilation, keeping air moving through the building. Above it, there are two roofs: An upper-level ceiling and a wider overhanging metal roof above it, much like the one Kéré designed 25 years ago for the Gando Primary School. As the upper roof heats in the sun, it helps dissipate warm air, improving the temperature inside. 

In Dakar, this passive approach to climate control keeps the interior cool without relying on air conditioning, Kéré said. The breeze off the nearby Atlantic Ocean was another factor in the architect’s decision to opt for natural cross-ventilation. 

Senegal contributes only a very small share of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it’s among the countries most exposed to climate change impacts, including coastal erosion, flooding and rising temperatures. Concrete used in the foundation and load-bearing structures was required by building regulations due to exposure to erosion. He also had to add air conditioning in the classrooms on the upper floor despite the thick earth wall and double-roof system. 

“In my village, we always used earth,” Kéré said. “What changed wasn’t the material, but its reputation.” Mud has long been neglected because it is seen “as a material for poor people,” he said, but “it’s not because you are rich that you should waste energy.” 

Building in mud has a long tradition in West Africa. Cities like Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso and Djenné in Mali are known for monumental mud mosques: Tall, sculptural structures made of red pressed-earth bricks. 

This tradition slowly shifted during French colonial rule, when cement was introduced into traditional building methods. Over time, concrete, seen as stronger, more resistant and readily available, gradually replaced clay as the dominant material. 

Kéré recalls building an earth-brick arch in his home village and then climbing on top of it, calling the builders to join him to prove it could hold their weight. 

“They didn’t want to come,” he said. “They were afraid it would collapse.” 

Kéré’s success internationally has slowly won over people back home with commissions such as the Sankara Memorial in Burkina Faso, honouring the country’s former president, who was assassinated in 1987. 

For Kéré, the primacy of the baobab is not a one-off. In neighbouring Benin, a palaver tree — another traditional gathering place — inspired the architect’s conceptual design for a new parliament building. 

In Burkina Faso, where a sprawling Islamist insurgency and a brutal crackdown by the ruling junta have killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, Kéré is expanding the training and research centre he founded in 2018 near his village. The aim is to train 2,500 students over the next five years how to use clay, wood, stone and other local materials to build for better energy efficiency. 

On a recent evening, Senegalese Mbalax and electronic rhythms filled the courtyard of the Goethe-Institut as people gathered under the illuminated baobab, refreshed by a cool ocean breeze. 

“If we don’t start thinking about alternatives, we will fail in Africa,” Kéré said. “Look at what’s happening around us: A crisis here, a blockage there, and suddenly the whole world is worried about running out of energy.” — Bloomberg

• This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition 

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A NEW United Nations (UN) assessment of ocean health documents a “deepening crisis” as climate change, pollution, over-fishing and biodiversity loss threaten marine ecosystems crucial to human survival. 

The result is rising sea levels, acidifying seas, dying coral reefs and declining fish stocks that supply 20% of the animal protein humans consume, according to the report released on June 8 and compiled by 600 scientists from 86 nations. It’s the third World Ocean Assessment since 2015 and was last updated in 2021. 

“The coming decade is decisive: Without rapid, coordinated global action, ocean health will continue to decline, threatening climate stability, biodiversity resilience, food security, livelihoods and the well-being of billions,” Ian Butler, a lead author of the assessment and a marine ecologist with the Australian government, said in an email. 

The assessment estimated that up to 45% of global economic activity takes place on the world’s coasts and that 3 billion people live within 100 kilometers (km) of the ocean. 

“Contamination and pollution, such as plastic waste, agricultural run-off, sewage and chemicals, are major contributors to the decline in ocean health,” stated the 1,352-page report. Those pollutants, meanwhile, are accumulating in marine organisms, their effect magnified up through the food chain to animals eaten by people. 

About 38% of global fish stocks in 2021 were being harvested faster than populations could replenish themselves, up from 35% two years earlier, according to the latest available data. 

Adding to the stress on fisheries are the impacts from climate change, which are decimating coral reefs that provide habitat for 25% of marine life. One-sixth of ocean heat absorption over the past 70 years occurred just between 2018 and 2023, according to the assessment. Hotter sea surface temperatures have spawned more destructive hurricanes and tropical cyclones and prompted some marine species to migrate to cooler waters, disrupting local fisheries. 

The scientists said the rapid warming of oceans is also responsible for 30% to 50% of sea level rise, endangering coastal communities. As water heats up, its volume expands. Between 2013 and 2023, global sea level rise was 4.3 millimeters annually, compared to 2.1mm per year from 1993 to 2002. 

While the pandemic temporarily reduced stress on oceans as economic activity slowed, the industrialisation of marine ecosystems continues, the researchers said, with planned deep-sea mining operations posing potential risks to seabed ecosystems. 

Although the assessment was wide-ranging, the researchers acknowledged that much remains unknown about the ocean, noting that only 27% of the global seabed has been mapped. The report is being released as the US President Donald Trump administration moves to dismantle the world’s most extensive network of ocean sensors and observation platforms. 

“Little of the vulnerability of marine biodiversity, species genetics and microbial communities, particularly in the deep sea, to climate change and emerging economic activities is understood,” the report states. 

Still, Butler said there was reason for optimism, noting the ratification of the UN high seas biodiversity treaty last year that allows for the creation of marine protected areas in international waters. 

“I believe with urgent, coordinated global action we still can restore its health to secure a healthy, biodiverse ocean which would benefit all life on Earth,” he said. — Bloomberg

• This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition 

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THE oil crisis triggered by the West Asia war highlights the need to cut fossil fuel dependence and accelerate the clean energy transition, climate envoys said on June 8 at talks ahead of this year’s UN Climate Conference (COP31) summit. 

The Bonn climate conference — gathering negotiators ahead of the November summit in Turkey — kicked off as Iran and Israel launched new strikes at each other, rattling a fragile ceasefire. 

United Nations (UN) climate chief Simon Stiell linked the push for faster climate action to deadly heatwaves, the looming impacts of the warming El Niño weather pattern and the war in the West Asia. 

The war “causes immense human suffering and sparks a fossil fuel cost crisis that’s strangling economies everywhere”, Stiell said at the opening of the two-week conference. 

“It’s crystal clear: Continuing our fossil fuel dependency means continuing to import inflation and economic instability,” he said. 

COP31 President and Turkish Climate Minister Murat Kurum said the world was facing several simultaneous crises and volatile energy markets. 

“These developments highlight the risk of relying on fossil fuel imports and the need to accelerate the clean energy transition,” Kurum said. 

Turkey will host COP31 in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya while Australia will lead the negotiations under a compromise that the two countries struck to end a battle over who would host the annual summit. 

Australian Climate Minister Chris Bowen, who is presiding over the COP31 negotiations, told the Bonn conference that the world was experiencing “the worst energy crisis in our history”. 

“Crises like this — in a highly contested, uncertain geopolitical environment — will become more frequent, not less. More unpredictable, not less. Worse, not better,” he said. 

“Accelerating the energy transition will ease shocks to our energy systems,” Bowen said, calling for “more clean energy, more electrification, less dependence on fossil fuels”. — AFP

• This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition 

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According to NICD, malaria cases in Mpumalanga jumped fourfold in January compared to a year earlier 

by HILLARY ORINDE 

IN A remote South African village, Paulina Mhlongo sits in the yard as health workers in green protective gear move briskly through her home, soaking the walls with anti-mosquito insecticide. 

Her teenage grandson fell critically ill last year from malaria, the disease that kills more than a quarter of a million people annually and is surging in southern Africa as the climate shifts. 

Before this spraying, the family’s “only defence” against malaria-carrying mosquitoes was a rattling fan, said Mhlongo, a 63-year-old retiree. 

Her village of Calcutta is in Mpumalanga, one of three provinces in South Africa’s malaria belt experiencing changing rain patterns and rising temperatures that favour mosquito breeding. 

Heavy rains leave pools for eggs, while warmer temperatures speed up mosquito development and shorten the malaria parasite’s incubation period. 

Malaria cases in Mpumalanga jumped fourfold in January compared to a year earlier, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). 

The upsurge jeopardises South Africa’s goal of eliminating the disease by 2029. 

Gauteng — the powerhouse province home to Johannesburg and Pretoria, and where malaria is not endemic — logged more than 400 cases and 11 deaths in the first three months of 2026 (3M26), according to the NICD. 

While most infections were imported into the province from known hotspots, these figures are “concerning” even if the disease is not being transmitted between people, the public health body said. 

Human-driven climate change has increased the likelihood and intensity of extreme weather, while the naturally occurring La Nina weather phenomenon brought above-average rains to parts of southern Africa in early 2026, causing flooding that created more mosquito breeding sites, the group said. 

Namibia reported 8,760 cases in the first four weeks of 2026, a 68% increase from a year earlier. 

Flood-hit Mozambique recorded more than 1.35 million cases in the first six weeks of the year, up 55% alongside dozens of deaths. 

The outlook offers little reassurance as climate volatility deepens. The increase in malaria cases does not mean the disease is migrating, said Professor Jantjie Taljaard, head of infectious diseases at Stellenbosch University. 

Instead, climate change is supercharging existing hotspots and lengthening transmission windows, fuelling far more intense outbreaks. 

“Rural environments and areas on the margins of established malaria risk areas are at highest risk,” Taljaard said. 

The effects are being felt on the frontline at Cunningmoore Clinic, where technicians Nicholas Skhumbane and Armstrong Mgiba swiftly process a steady stream of blood samples from surrounding villages. 

Working out of a threadbare laboratory, the two men, clad in white coats and latex gloves, move systematically from slide to slide. 

They add a drop of Giemsa stain — a purplish-blue dye that reveals malaria parasites — before placing each sample under a microscope. 

The results are returned just as quickly as at Tintswalo Hospital, a modern facility some 50km away. 

For health officials, the shifting weather patterns are forcing a rethink of malaria planning beyond traditional hotspots and seasons. 

“Climate change is a complex thing to deal with,” said Sharon Lindiwe Nyoni, malaria programme manager at the Mpumalanga department of health. 

“When you plan as a department, you need to anticipate what is coming your way, but with climate change everything is just unfolding.” 

The old assumption that malaria is confined to summer no longer holds, she warned. “Even in winter, we continue to see transmission.” 

It is not only local health systems that are coming under strain, experts say, but also intervention efforts. 

“Flooding can mean we simply cannot reach communities to deliver control measures,” virologist Edina Amponsah-Dacosta told AFP. 

Apart from heavy rains, extreme heat is a challenge as it can break the strict cold chain required before vaccines, which need refrigeration, ever reach remote clinics, she said. 

Despite the rising case numbers, health workers say that some locals remain sceptical about the safety of the insecticide spray and refuse to let health workers inside their homes. 

“It is very painful to see someone dying of something that is preventable and again curable,” Nyoni said. 

Back in Calcutta, Mhlongo waited outside as the sharp scent of insecticide drifted from her freshly sprayed nine-room house, which she shares with eight relatives. 

Empty beer cans littered the back of a nearby pickup truck propped on rocks — a place the sprayers warned could harbour mosquitoes. 

“I am happy because mosquitoes are a problem,” Mhlongo said, serving the spray team a homemade snack of maize meal, sugar and groundnuts as a neighbour’s music drifted across the farming village. — AFP

• This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition 

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by ANUJ SRIVAS 

BENEATH a busy flyover in India’s financial capital Mumbai, a row of pastel-coloured shipping containers houses an unlikely school serving some of the city’s most marginalised children. 

Despite laws guaranteeing free schooling for children aged six to 14, poverty and migration continue to keep many out of classrooms, particularly in sprawling cities like Mumbai where many families survive through low-paying informal work. 

Crippling urban poverty also means young children selling knick-knacks on streets are still a fairly common sight at crowded traffic intersections in big Indian cities. 

But the non-profit that runs the free school is determined to educate its underprivileged cohort, many of whom come from homeless families that barely eke out a living. 

Wedged between gleaming skyscrapers and busy roads, the “Signal Shala”, or traffic signal school, caters to several dozen children who have been left out of the formal education system, according to Bhatu Sawant, founder of the initiative. 

“These children can’t go to (a regular) school. So (I thought) let’s do this. Let’s bring the school to them,” Sawant, 45, told AFP. 

India runs one of the world’s largest public-school systems, but government data for 2024- 2025 still identified nearly 1.2 million children as “out of school”, a catch-all categorisation that covers both those who have never been to school or dropped out. 

Free Meals 

For Sawant, India’s government-run schools are simply “not flexible enough for these children”, while private ones charging exorbitant fees are out of the question. 

The signal school operates from repurposed air-conditioned containers placed on a narrow strip of land beneath a flyover, where classes and play unfold amid the constant rumble of traffic overhead. 

Its approach is tailored to the realities of street life. 

Every morning, the school bus drives through the cramped lanes of Mumbai’s slums, picking up students — a lifeline for parents who can’t afford transportation. 

When the children file in, the first order of business is a shower, as many have no easy access to bathing facilities. 

Lockers are provided for books and uniforms that otherwise cannot be kept safe or clean while living in slums or on the streets. 

School children attending an activity class at the ‘Signal Shala’, or traffic signal school

Three meals are provided free, with school hours longer than normal. 

Classes are split by ability rather than age, with teachers adapting lessons for children who may never have held a pencil before. 

Older students are also taught basic skills like sitting still, speaking clearly and staying focused. 

The challenges are particularly acute when it comes to kids from the semi-nomadic Pardhi community, who often do not speak the local language. 

“When the children came here, they didn’t know what the days of the week were, what the 12 months were or what the seasons were,” said teacher Tejasvi Borade, as the container walls rumbled from the steady stream of cars passing above. 

Robotics, AI 

For the students, the school serves as a sanctuary from the harshness of the real world. 

“I feel very happy seeing the school bus,” said 12-year-old Pooja Pawar, whose parents take on odd jobs at construction sites. 

“The school clothes feel nice. The breakfast is good… In school, we make cake… and dance.” 

For others, it represents an opportunity long denied. 

Balaji Laxman, who once sold tissues at traffic lights to earn a few hundred rupees — the equivalent of several US dollars — a day, said 

the classrooms represent a chance to imagine a different future. 

“I want to become a doctor,” Laxman, 12, said with a shy smile. While the school steers many children towards vocational pathways, Sawant said the broader ambition is to ensure they are not left behind in a rapidly changing world.

“We have to prepare them for the 21st century,” said Sawant, who has set up two similar schools on the outskirts of Mumbai which have robotics labs among other facilities. 

“They should know robotics, AI, computers, 3D printing,” said the educator who relies on private and corporate donations for funding, with the government helping with the infrastructure. 

“Everything that elite class children are doing well in, they should know all of that.” — AFP

• This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition 

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TOKYO — Rice prices in Japan finally fell in May for the first time in three and half years, officials said Friday, following sharp rises for the staple that put the government under huge pressure.

Rice prices skyrocketed in 2024 and 2025 because of supply problems linked to hot weather and panic-buying after a “megaquake” warning in 2024, amongst other factors.

Combined with falling living standards and corruption scandals, this led to voters deserting the ruling party and the resignation in September of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after less than a year.

Rice prices excluding luxury brand koshihikari were 5.4 percent lower in May than a year earlier, the first drop since November 2022, a government official told AFP.

The government, now headed by the popular Sanae Takaichi, took various measures to bring rice prices down, including by releasing emergency stockpiles of the grain. — AFP

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