GEORGE TOWN, May 12 — The Penang state government is ready to host a music rave festival in the state with appropriate locations, budget and sponsors, said state exco Wong Hon Wai.
The state tourism and creative economy committee chairman said the state is open to hosting a variety of music festivals provided it is in a suitable location, with an appropriate budget and sponsors.
“In fact, back in 2024, during the Penang Bridge International Marathon, we held a rave music festival in Batu Kawan but it was mostly attended by the runners,” he told the state legislative assembly today.
“Many people may not have known about it because it was held around 9pm to 10pm, but participants who attended were able to enjoy the experience of running alongside entertainment and music elements,” he added.
Wong (PH - Paya Terubong) was replying to an additional question by Joseph Ng Soon Siang (PH - Air Itam) on whether the state plans to organise a rain rave festival.
In 2024, a Run Rev Carnival was held at Aspen Vision City in Batu Kawan on December 14 between 6pm and 1am before the start of the marathon.
The carnival featured performances by Bunkface, Rabbit Mac as well as DJs Tick Lim and Blink with live band performances.
Wong said Penang is focused on promoting experiential tourism to visitors on top of promoting the existing tourism attractions in the state.
“Visitors can have good experiences such as a visit to Penang Hill is not only about visiting the hill but can also include other experiences such as hiking up the trails, camping overnight and going for night walks,” he said.
He said the state also aims to focus more on interactive visitor experiences based on heritage, culture and nature to attract various segments of domestic and international tourists.
He said this is why the state is open to organising music festivals to attract visitors and enliven the tourism and sporting events in the state.
“With the appropriate budget, suitable location and the right organiser, I think we can continue with more music festivals in the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, Wong said the Penang government, through Penang Global Tourism (PGT), is planning various strategic initiatives to strengthen the state’s tourism attractions in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2026.
He said among the new attractions in the state included the Penang State Museum Board Automotive Gallery, Guar Kepar Archaeological Gallery, Ferringhi Bay and the Penang Waterfront Convention Centre.
He added that the Lin Xiang Xiong Art Gallery, Penang History Gallery, Penang Indian Heritage Gallery and Cultural Centre, Penang Ferry Museum and Straits Oriental Museum have also been introduced.
“In addition, several tourism products based on interactive experiences are also being developed such as the Penang River Cruise, Entopia by Night, Penang Hill Gallery @ Edgecliff, Umi Umi and Forest Island,” he said.
He said PGT is intensifying various marketing efforts domestically and internationally, including through digital campaigns via the Penang Travel Deals platform.
Wong said other efforts include familiarisation trips involving media representatives and travel agents, as well as participation in trade missions and tourism exhibitions in key and emerging markets such as China, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and India.
He added that strategic collaborations are also being forged with airlines, online travel agencies and media partners to promote Penang as one of the country’s leading tourism destinations.
KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today congratulated Tamil actor C. Joseph Vijay for becoming the new chief minister of Tamil Nadu following his stunning political debut recently.
Hailing Vijay as his “friend”, Anwar said the 51-year-old actor’s Oru Viral Puratchi — or “one-finger revolution” in Tamil — is currently “on the cusp of creating history”.
The Oru Viral Puratchi refers to Vijay’s 2018 political blockbuster, Sarkar, which depicted Vijay as a prominent business magnate entering politics to take down a corrupt government.
“For many years, his adoring fans watched him defeat corrupt politicians and assorted villains within three hours, usually after a short interval.
“The people of Tamil Nadu have now entrusted Vijay with a responsibility far greater than any role performed on screen,” Anwar said in a Facebook post today.
Anwar also expressed hope to work closely with Vijay, saying that Malaysia and Tamil Nadu share deep historical, cultural and people-to-people ties across generations.
Vijay’s party, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), won 108 seats and emerged as the single largest party in its first election attempt last month.
However, it fell short of the 118-mark required to form the government but managed to secure the support of 120 assemblymen with the help of the Indian National Congress and smaller, left-wing parties.
Vijay was sworn in as the state’s chief minister on Sunday, making him the first movie star to rule the southern Indian state in a decade.
At the 11th National Congress of the VFF for the 2026–2031 tenure, taking place from May 11–13, organisations in the literature and arts sector put forward a number of proposals aimed at promoting Vietnamese culture in the new development era.
For many people, news of a virus outbreak on a cruise ship immediately brings back memories of COVID spreading when the Ruby Princess docked in Sydney in March 2020. Of the passengers and crew who disembarked, 575 had COVID. The virus then spread to the community.
So it’s understandable people are concerned that passengers from the MV Hondius need to be quarantined after potential exposure to Andes virus, a rodent-borne hantavirus.
However, the comparison with COVID only goes so far. Andes virus is serious and authorities are right to respond cautiously. But experts, including from the World Health Organization, note it doesn’t have the characteristics needed to become “the next COVID”.
As of May 11, European health authorities have reported nine cases linked to the cruise ship, including seven confirmed and two probable cases. Three deaths have been reported.
Five Australians and one New Zealander are being repatriated to Australia for quarantine and monitoring. The passengers will initially quarantine at the Centre for National Resilience near RAAF Base Pearce in Western Australia.
Here’s what you need to know about Andes virus, the risk of transmission, and how it’s different to the virus that caused COVID.
Hantaviruses are a group of viruses usually carried by mice, rats and other rodents. People are most commonly infected after inhaling tiny particles of contaminated rodent urine, droppings or saliva.
Most hantaviruses are not known to spread between people. Andes virus is the exception. After the initial spillover from infected rodents, it is the only hantavirus with well-documented person-to-person transmission.
But that doesn’t mean it spreads easily between people. Further human-to-human spread is uncommon, but it can occur in close-contact settings such as households, among caregivers, during intimate contact, or after prolonged exposure in crowded or poorly ventilated indoor areas.
That is very different from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. SARS-CoV-2 spreads very efficiently through the air. People could infect others before they even realised they were sick.
Early estimates suggested each person infected with SARS-CoV-2 passed the virus to roughly two or more others, on average, in populations who had never encountered it before.
Andes virus can cause onward human-to-human transmission, but requires a perfect storm of conditions: symptomatic people in crowded, poorly ventilated spaces with close contact over time. This was the case on the MV Hondius.
This difference in transmission potential is why SARS-CoV-2 caused a pandemic and Andes virus has only produced contained outbreaks.
Early symptoms of Andes virus infection can look like many other illnesses, including fever, headache, muscle aches, nausea and fatigue.
In some people, infection can progress to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a life-threatening condition in which breathing becomes difficult.
The WHO recommends people exposed to Andes virus monitor for symptoms for 42 days after their last potential exposure.
This reflects the outer limit of the time between infection and symptom onset. It doesn’t mean people are infectious for 42 days.
Australian authorities have announced the returning passengers will initially spend three weeks in quarantine, with further monitoring arrangements to follow.
Melbourne’s Doherty Institute will undertake the testing using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which detects the virus’s genetic material and blood-based antibody testing, known as serology.
A negative test early after exposure is useful, but not always definitive. If the virus is still incubating, there may not yet be enough viral genetic material or antibody response to detect.
The long incubation period reflects how Andes virus progresses, compared to SARS-CoV-2.
COVID symptoms typically appear within days because the virus replicates rapidly in the respiratory system.
Andes virus progresses differently. Severe disease is linked to blood-vessel dysfunction and inflammatory responses. The breathing problems associated with the complication hantavirus pulmonary syndrome aren’t caused by the virus directly destroying lung tissue, but by the immune system’s delayed response. This causes fluid to leak into the lungs and makes breathing difficult.
Fatality rates vary significantly between hantavirus species.
European and Asian hantaviruses typically cause death in less than 1–15% of cases, while hantavirus pulmonary syndrome from American strains, including Andes virus, can reach up to 50%.
For context, in 2025, eight countries across the Americas reported 229 hantavirus cases and 59 deaths. These are severe infections, but they remain rare events.
A virus doesn’t become a pandemic simply because it’s deadly.
There is no specific antiviral drug for Andes virus. Health care for infected people focuses on close monitoring, supporting their breathing and managing complications to the heart and kidneys.
There is no licensed vaccine to prevent Andes virus.
However, there is also good news in how quickly the scientific response has come together after this outbreak started. Swiss laboratories collaborated quickly to sequence the complete genetic code of the virus from one patient and made it publicly available within days.
This gave researchers around the world a reference to compare other cases against. This can support faster confirmation of suspected cases, while helping public health teams identify which cases are linked to the outbreak and who needs monitoring or isolation.
The instinct to see another COVID in every viral outbreak is understandable but, in this case, misleading.
The Andes virus is dangerous to those infected, but it isn’t a good candidate for pandemic spread. It incubates slowly, typically spreads through close contact, and transmission appears most efficient when people are symptomatic.
It’s important to get the Andes virus under control but it’s not a pandemic threat like COVID.
Rhys Parry receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Addressing a ceremony dedicated to the Vietnamese leader in Rio de Janeiro city on the occasion of the 136th anniversary of his birth (May 19, 1890–2026) and the 37th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Brazil (May 8, 1989–2026), Vietnamese Ambassador to Brazil Bui Van Nghi highlighted that Ho Chi Minh’s forward-thinking vision laid the foundation for friendship and cooperation between the peoples of Vietnam and Brazil more than a century ago.
Delegates at the 11th National Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) for 2026–2031 shared the view that applying artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation is an inevitable step for national development in the coming period.
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