The United States' ongoing trade wars under Donald Trump's second administration have fundamentally changed the global trading environment.

OVER the past weekend, Kuala Lumpur witnessed the return of something once synonymous with Malaysian resistance politics – a street protest.

TWO weeks ago, Malaysia's legal community reached a tipping point when lawyers, led by the Malaysian Bar Council, embarked on a 2.6km "Walk to Safeguard Judicial Independence." Clad in black and armed with a 65-page memorandum, they pressed the Prime Minister's Office to curb executive overreach in judicial appointments.

More than six decades after government surveyors first nailed acquisition notices to rubber trees at Ladang Batu, the Court of Appeal has tried to bring the Semantan Estate saga to a close.

The road to a broad-based consumption tax in Malaysia has been long and tortuous, stretching back more than a decade before its brief life under Barisan Nasional (BN). In December 2009, the then-government first introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in Parliament, pledging that a uniform, 6% levy would replace the patchwork of Sales and Service Taxes (SST) then ranging from 5 to 15%.

THE rule of law is one of the most fundamental principles that underpins a democratic society.

ON 2 August 2024, my father, Harpal Singh Grewal, passed away. In one of the most poignant traditions of the Malaysian Bar, a special proceeding known as a "Reference" is held before the High Court to honour members of the Bar who have departed.

IN RECENT weeks, three countries – Canada, Australia and Singapore – held national elections.

On April 2, 2025, United States president Donald Trump unleashed his "Liberation Day" tariffs, a sweeping policy hitting all US imports with a 10 percent baseline tariff, plus "reciprocal" rates aimed at countries he accuses of taking advantage of America's trade openness.

MALAYSIA is one of the most diverse nations in the world, with a mix of ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures.

FOR decades, the United States has been the guiding force of the liberal world order — an anchor of stability built on mutual respect, the rule of law, open trade, capitalism, and the pursuit of happiness. As someone who, like many outside of America, has always viewed the US as the world's moral authority, I have long admired its role in upholding these ideals. However, over the past decade and a half, it has felt as though America has lost its way.

Poetry has the power to shape our thoughts, to give us solace and to remind us that even in the darkest of times, light exists.