The four-paragraph letter — an upbeat missive in which Kim voices hope in a “new future” and speaks of his “invariable trust” in Trump — is dated July 6, the day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in North Korea for what turned out to be acrimonious talks with Kim’s regime.

“A very nice note from Chairman Kim of North Korea,” Trump tweeted alongside a copy of the letter. “Great progress being made!”

Addressing Trump, Kim describes their June 12 summit in Singapore, and the resulting joint statement, as the “start of a meaningful journey.”

“I firmly believe that the strong will, sincere efforts and unique approach of myself and Your Excellency Mr. President aimed at opening up a new future between the DPRK and the US will sure surely come to fruition,” Kim writes, according to the translation tweeted by the president.

“I deeply appreciate the energetic and extraordinary efforts made by Your Excellency Mr. President for the improvement of relations between the two countries and the faithful implementation of the joint statement,” he adds.

Kim also voices hope “the invariable trust and confidence in Your Excellency Mr. President will be further strengthened in the future process of taking practical actions.”

Pompeo traveled to Pyongyang for two days last week in a bid to flesh out denuclearization commitments made during last month’s historic summit.

Speaking afterward in Tokyo, Pompeo insisted the talks were making progress and were being conducted in “good faith.”

But in stark contrast, Pyongyang’s take was overwhelmingly negative, with the North warning that the future of the peace process was being jeopardized by “unilateral and gangster-like” US demands for its nuclear disarmament.

North Korea has long trumpeted a denuclearization goal, but one that it sees as a lengthy process of undefined multilateral disarmament on the entire Korean peninsula, rather than a unilateral dismantlement of its nuclear arsenal.

Illegal oil

Pompeo has insisted that a raft of tough economic sanctions imposed on North Korea would remain in place until “final, fully verified denuclearization” occurs.

And even as Trump released Kim’s note, the US was asking the UN Security Council to punish North Korea after finding that Pyongyang had violated restrictions on refined oil imports.

According to documents seen by AFP, the US sent a report to the UN sanctions committee that estimated at least 759,793 barrels of oil products had been delivered to North Korea between January 1 and May 30, well above the annual quota set at 500,000 barrels under a sanctions resolution adopted in December.

The illegal supplies were provided through ship-to-ship transfers at sea using North Korean tankers, according to the report.

The United States requested the UN sanctions committee to declare that North Korea had violated the UN-approved quota and “order an immediate halt to all transfers of refined petroleum products” to North Korea.

The committee was expected to take five days to consider the request, which China and Russia are expected to block.

No show in remains transfer

Separately, North Korean officials did not show up at planned talks with the US on Thursday to discuss repatriating the remains of American soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Returning the remains was part of the deal signed by Kim and Trump in Singapore.

Pompeo had said a Pentagon team would meet with the North’s officials on or around Thursday at the inter-Korea border to discuss the repatriation.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the North Koreans called around midday to say the meeting would be delayed until July 15.

“We will be ready,” Nauert said.

Defense officials have already shipped dozens of cases to Panmunjom in anticipation of receiving the remains of US troops.

The Pentagon says Pyongyang has indicated several times they have as many as 200 sets of remains that could be those of US soldiers who died in the war.

But Pentagon officials cautioned it is unclear just how much North Korea is preparing to hand over.

On June 20, Trump erroneously said 200 human remains had already “been sent back” from North Korea.

On Monday, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning said the Defense Department “remains postured and ready to receive those remains.”

Both the photo and video have drawn criticism on social media for dressing inappropriately in a short sleeveless top and hot pants, while the woman in the photo was criticised for ‘performing stunts’ in front of a religious building.

People have also taken to social media to call the act in front of the mosque on the Universiti Malaya Sabah campus “stupid” and “disrespectful”.

Meanwhile, the video has drawn comments from netizens about the safety of doing handstands in the middle of Gaya Street, which is a tourist area in Kota Kinabalu.

“She looked like she almost fell on the road. What if a car hit her or someone else when trying to avoid her,” said a Facebook user.

This is not the first incident involving tourists from China in Sabah, as two tourists were fined RM25 for dancing disrespectfully in front of the city mosque here.

In that case, 37yearold Wan Han and 25yearold Zhang Na from China were hit with the fine after they pleaded guilty to disorderly behaviour in a public place before magistrate Cindy Mc Juce Balitus on June 27.

They had committed the offence at about 4.30pm on June 23, on top of the wall outside the city mosque here.

He said the taste of this durian is beyond description and one should personally savour the king of fruit. He is currently leading a five-day gourmet tour to visit Malaysia.

Hong Kong columnist cum food critic Chua Lam has given Ochee durian grown in southern Kedah a high rating.

He is currently leading a 15-member gourmet tour from China to visit Malaysia.

After savouring Ochee durian, he said: “One can only taste the fruit personally. This is beyond verbal description.”

Chua is a regular visitor to Malaysia. He leads gourmet tour from China to savour various types of food in Malaysia.

This round he is in Malaysia for a five-day “Gourmet Tour with Chua Lam” organised by an online tour portal based in China.

The first stop of the tour in Malaysia is to savour durian by the name of Ochee (black torn).

Chua and the tour members arrived at Sungai Kecil Ilir located in southern Kedah in the morning and the group was received by orchard owner Su Jian Xing.

The members were served with Ochee durians and also other types of durians.

Chua was interviewed while enjoying the durians.

He said taste of Ochee durian is beyond description and kept on encouraging tour members to try Ochee durians and other types of durians.

Su also served the members other types of fruits grown in the orchard. Many of the members were keen on durians and gave their thumbs up for Ochee Durian.

Chua later was invited to plant a tree.

Also present were Kedah state executive councillor Azman Nasrudin, Bandar Baharu state assemblywoman Norsabrina Mohd Noor, Sidam state assemblyman Robert Lim Kui Ee and others.

On Twitter, Dr Mahathir posted a photograph which featured 11-year-old Justin shaking his hands.

Justin was there with his father Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who was Canada’s premier then.

Former ministers, the late Tun Ghazali Shafie and the late Tan Sri Dr Sulaiman Daud, were also seen accompanying Dr Mahathir in the picture.

According to the Twitter post, the photograph was a gift by Canada’s High Commissioner to Malaysia Julia Bentley.

“A pleasant gift by H.E @JuliaGBentley, a nostalgic picture of the then prime minister of Canada, H.E. Pierre Elliot Trudeau and his son H.E. @justintrudeau back in 1982,” the tweet read.

On July 3, Dr Mahathir received a courtesy visit from Bentley in Putrajaya.

The vintage photo was consider­ed a significant moment as the two premiers crossed paths years ago.

Justin, 46, was sworn in as Canada’s youngest prime minister in 2015 while Dr Mahathir is Malay­sia’s and the world’s oldest premier.

Onur Albayrak – a photographer in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya – saw red when he found out the girl’s age, reported the Hurriyet Daily News.

Albayrak admitted the act on his Facebook account on July 7, adding that he did not regret his actions.

“Yes, the reports are correct. A child bride means child abuse, and no force in the world can make me photograph a child as a bride,” he said in a post on his Facebook page.

According to reports, Albayrak was hired to photograph the wedding at Malatya’s Turgut Ozal Nature Park on July 5.

When he noticed that the bride-to-be did not look like an adult, Albayrak reportedly asked the groom about her age.

The photographer reacted angrily when the groom answered that the bride was only 15 years old.

The two men soon started fighting, and the groom’s nose was broken in the quarrel, the Hurriyet reported.

“The groom had come to my studio some two weeks ago and was alone. I saw the bride for the first time at the wedding. She’s a child, and I felt her fear because she was trembling. The groom attacked me as I was leaving,” Albayrak said, noting that he is “happy to manifest his reaction”.

The issue of child marriage is pressing in Turkey, with rights groups warning against the drastic numbers of child marriage.

According to Turkish law, the minimum age to marry for both men and women is 18. Only in exceptional situations a judge order is required to marry off 17 year olds. It is not legal to marry younger in any condition in Turkey.

Trump’s tweet on Tuesday at 7.39 pm, Thai time, says: “On behalf of the United States, congratulations to the Thai Navy SEALs and all on the successful rescue of the 12 boys and their coach from the treacherous cave in Thailand. Such a beautiful moment – all freed, great job!”

Despite the positive tone, followers of Trump’s personal account @realDonaldTrump raged at what they said was hypocrisy given ongoing immigrant detentions in four US states bordering Mexico.

A crackdown on illegal immigration at the US border has stirred controversy around the world for a detention policy of separating children from their immigrating parents without measures in place to eventually reunite them. A request by the Trump administration to allow long-term detention of illegal immigrant children was rejected by a federal judge on Monday.

“Great news!! Congrats to all of the Thai parents who have been reunited with their children,” tweeted Holly Figueroa O’Reilly, a Trump critic who once won a legal case over the president blocking her on Twitter.

“Time for you to do the same at our border.” O’Reilly added.

On Sunday, Trump drew an avalanche of criticism when he tweeted, “The U.S. is working very closely with the Government of Thailand to help get all of the children out of the cave and to safety. Very brave and talented people!” Netizens quickly accused the famously publicity-hungry president of exploiting the drama, calling him a “PR freerider” cashing in on US-based tech tycoon Elon Musk’s vows to assist with the rescue operation in Chiang Rai.

Sin Nam Yong, deputy director of the coordination committee for worker receptions from Thailand via Poipet, told The Post on Monday that on June 30, the Thai government declared an end to the documentation period for migrant workers.

She said from July 1-9, Thai immigration police arrested and deported 1,000 illegal Cambodian labourers.

“It had earlier warned that it will take tough measures on migrant workers if they are arrested again for the same crime,” Nam Yong said.

A report from the Ministry of Labour said in total there are 1.07 million documented and undocumented Cambodian workers in Thailand.

Most are employed by factories, construction outfits or within the fishing and agriculture sectors.

The mission to provide migrant workers with documentation began earlier this year.

Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW), said that despite the drive to legitimise workers, “we worry about Thailand’s warning to our migrant nationals.”

“The Cambodian authorities who are involved in this matter should create more job opportunities along the border to reduce migration,” he said.

In April, Thai authorities repatriated the remains of 10 Cambodians and deported 3,750 back to the Kingdom via Poipet.

The viral message on WhatsApp claimed that Thai police found a young girl begging in Thailand, adding that the girl could speak Bahasa Malaysia.

It also said that the girl was believed to be a Malaysian and had asked people to spread the message so that someone would be able to recognise her.

When contacted, a police officer said that this was an old case that happened two years ago, adding that the girl was from Cambodia and was holidaying with her parents in Thailand.

He said that the young girl went missing after she was separated from her family while they were busy shopping. She was ultimately reunited with her parents.

The officer explained that when Thai police were looking for her parents, they mistakenly assumed the young child was Malaysian, adding that he was surprised that the message was being circulated on social media again.

He reassured Malaysians that the young girl is safely back with her parents in Cambodia

“Happy 93rd birthday to my darling Dad,” Marina wrote on Facebook on Tuesday (July 10).

“Nobody can fully know what it took to get back in the game, go out there and fight and then roll your sleeves up to work to save our beloved Malaysia.

“I’m proud of many things you’ve achieved but nothing has made me prouder than seeing you still willing to listen and learn from your new colleagues,” she added.

Marina ended the note with several tongue-in-cheek hashtags that echoed Malaysian’s awe over the nonagenarian’s stamina and tenacity, including “#puttingusalltoshame” and “#ihopeiinheritedthesame”.

However, even the doting daughter does not know what is Dr Mahathir’s secret fountain of youth as she wrote “#idontknowwherehisenergycomesfrom”.

While Dr Mahathir has dismissed rumours that he goes for stem cell therapy, he is a firm believer in staying active and leading a healthy lifestyle.

“I would prefer to rest, of course, but I would like to advise people not to rest when they grow old,” he told Bernama on Monday (July 9) when queried during a recent trip to Tokyo on how he remained healthy.

Dr Mahathir, who has the distinction of being the oldest Prime Minister in the world, explained that muscles would deteriorate if they were not used.

“If you lie down all the time, the muscles (eventually) cannot even carry your weight, you cannot stand, you cannot walk. So it’s not good when you are old (that) you just lie down and do nothing,” he said, pointing out that it was the same with one’s brain.

“If you don’t use your brain, you don’t think, you don’t solve problems, you don’t read, you don’t write, the brain regresses and you become senile…so always be active,” said Dr Mahathir who was born on July 10, 1925.

The record downpours that began last week have stopped and receding flood waters have laid bare the destruction that has cut a swathe through the west of the country.

In the city of Kurashiki, the flooding engulfed entire districts at one point, forcing some people to their rooftops to wait for rescue.

By Tuesday morning, rescue workers were going door-to-door, looking for survivors — or victims — of the disaster.

“It’s what we call a grid operation, where we are checking every single house to see if there are people still trapped inside them,” an official with the local Okayama prefecture government told AFP.

“We know it’s a race against time, we are trying as hard as we can.”

In the Mabi district of Kurashiki, the water left behind a fine yellow silt that has transformed the area into moonscape.

Cars driving through kicked up clouds of dust. People walking around wore medical masks or covered their mouths with small towels to protect themselves against the particulates.

Stores were still closed, and inside one barber’s shop the red sofas, customer chairs, and standing hairdryers were all covered with the same silt.

Fumiko Inokuchi, 61, was inside her home, sorting though the damage caused by floods that submerged the entire first floor.

She escaped the house on Saturday, crossing the street to take shelter in a three-storey care home for the elderly, from where she watched in horror as the waters rose.

“I saw my house sink underwater and I couldn’t do anything at all, there was just nothing I could do. I felt helpless,” she said, retrieving a photo of her children playing baseball.

“I got married here, and we built this house two years afterwards. We raised our three small sons to adulthood here, there are so many memories,” she said, her eyes welling with tears.

New dangers from heat

The crisis is the deadliest rain-related disaster in over three decades, and one that has sparked national grief.

On Monday Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cancelled a four-stop foreign trip as the death toll rose.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday that at least 141 people had been killed. Media said dozens more remained missing and the tally was expected to rise further.

Around 75,000 police, firemen and troops have been deployed in the search and rescue operation across parts of central and western Japan, Suga said, warning that hot weather posed new risks.

Thousands of people remain in shelters after authorities issued evacuation orders for as many of five million residents, and local authorities in some areas were offering drinking water and bathing services for those in homes without their own supply.

“It will be over 35 Celsius in some areas… Please be careful about heatstroke if you’re doing reconstruction outdoors, and continue to be vigilant about landslides,” Suga said.

The government said it would tap around $20 million in reserve funds to provide aid to those affected by the disaster. Abe was expected to visit the areas in coming days.