Cancer is the leading reason Maldivians are referred abroad for treatment under Aasandha, the health minister told parliament, with referrals rising each of the past three years. Oncology and the complex diagnostic tests the disease requires have consistently accounted for the most overseas referrals: 1,638 in 2023, 1,996 in 2024 and more than 2,000 in 2025, figures that include new patients, repeat visits and Maldivians living in neighbouring countries. She said most chemotherapy is now done in the Maldives. Only 39 people sought it abroad in 2025. More than 1,900 people are on the national cancer registry, most of them women; breast cancer is the most common among women, with colon, lung, thyroid, cervical and liver cancers also frequently reported. Cancer deaths are rising; the WHO recorded 264 cancer deaths in the Maldives in 2020.
Health Minister Geela Ali declined to answer a string of parliamentary questions on the measles surge and Aasandha, saying she did not have the data. She said the spread of measles was "not yet beyond control," and said she did not have the information about an alleged shortage of testing kits. When opposition MP Ziyad asked how much the state owes overseas hospitals in unpaid Aasandha bills, how many patients had been sent to Dubai and Bangkok, whether IGMH's cardiac department agreement had been terminated, and how much public money had gone to State Pharma, Geela said she had not come prepared to answer.
The MDP's parliamentary group accused ministers of deliberately dodging questions. MP Hussain Ziyad said ministers answered readily when asked about the previous MDP government but withheld answers on current issues, and that it was shameful that PNC members applauded when ministers declined to answer questions of public importance.
E-passports have been unavailable for two months because the booklets used to print them have run out. Immigration stopped issuing e-passports on May 8. The replacement stock has been delayed due to non-payment, Adhadhu reported. In the meantime, everyone is being issued ordinary non-electronic passports.
The foreign ministry set out how the Maldives came to be represented at the funeral of Iran's supreme leader, in a statement issued only in Dhivehi. Upon receiving an invitation, the ministry said it formally notified Iran that the Maldives' ambassador to Saudi Arabia would attend. But as the ambassador was about to depart, the ministry said, the Iranian embassy advised that under the protocol arrangements now in place for foreign delegations, ambassador-level attendance would not be possible. The ministry then worked to arrange for a state minister to travel, but as the deadline for flight clearances to Tehran neared and the state minister could only have arrived after the formal funeral had ended, Iran thanked the Maldives for deciding to send a state minister and advised that a senior government figure make the trip on a later date instead.
The Prosecutor General's Office accepted a case against seven Hoarafushi council members for unlawfully granting land for a fuel business. The Anti-Corruption Commission said the council gave a 5,000-square-foot plot to Hawks for a fuel business. The fourth-term council's president, Mohamed Waheed, and deputy president, Ahmed Imdhah, along with members Ibrahim Shakir, Ahmed Raoof, Mariyam Vakeela, Aminath Visama and Aminath Nasiha, face trial on charges of abuse of official position for gain under the penal code and of acting against the state's interest in a matter that would have benefited it.
Two men were arrested with more than three kilos of drugs in an operation across Malé and Hulhumalé. Police said the 6 July 6 operation led to the arrest of a 44-year-old Maldivian man, Fathuh Adam Hasanfulhu, and a 31-year-old Bangladeshi man, Shah Althabur Rahman, on suspicion of dealing drugs.
Ace Travels CEO Mohamed Firaq flagged an alleged mismatch between the port authority's June air-export figures and airline records. Maldives Ports Limited reported 335 tonnes of goods exported by air in June, carried by airlines including Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Emirates and Saudia to Italy, the US, Germany and France. But Firaq, head of the country's largest airline general sales agent, said exports through a single airline alone reached 398 tonnes, and that the total across all freight forwarders, airlines and GSAs would be higher than the official figure. An industry source told Adhadhu the actual volume was likely at least 600 to 700 tonnes, and alleged the figures may have been misrepresented to evade handling fees. Firaq warned that the Maldives risks losing air-cargo business to regional competitors that are expanding capacity, saying charges were being raised without a clear plan while service standards needed to improve to stay competitive.
The Judicial Service Commission suspended the chief magistrate of the Raa Hulhudhuffaru court, Ali Musthafa, for 60 days over a case it is investigating.
