☕️ 2026: Tol tak naik, but public transport could get more expensive

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

USD12.1 mil (RM49.5 mil). That’s how much a golden toilet auctioned for. The 18-carat gold toilet sculpture was an art piece titled ‘America’, and was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for that amount, including fees. It is the work of Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan, who previously made a piece called ‘Comedian’, which featured a banana duct-taped to a wall. This was eventually bought by Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto investor, for USD6.2 mil. By the way, that golden toilet? It’s flushable. See the golden throne here, and the banana here.

Another artwork, the Winter Egg, was sold for a record GBP22.9 mil (RM125.1 mil) during an auction by Christie’s. The Fabergé egg, considered one of the legendary jeweller’s most beautiful creations, is a crystal work decorated with 4,500 diamonds that once belonged to Russia’s imperial family, as a gift from Tsar Nicholas II to his mother. The Winter Egg was carved from rock crystal and decorated with rose-cut diamonds and platinum snowflake motifs. It also opens up to reveal white quartz flowers inside. This is one of 50 Fabergé eggs made for the imperial Romanov family, and one of seven left in private hands. The previous record for a Fabergé egg was GBP8.9 mil, paid at auction in 2007. Have a look at this wintry piece here. And to pronounce Fabergé - here.

Meanwhile, another Fabergé egg was recently recovered by police from a New Zealand man who swallowed it in an attempt to steal it. The egg, worth NZD33,585 (RM79,110), is set with 60 white diamonds and 15 blue sapphires, and opens to reveal an 18-carat gold miniature octopus. The egg, named the Octopussy egg, was inspired by the 1983 James Bond film of the same name, which was about an elaborate Fabergé egg heist. You can see the egg here.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

The annual national flood crisis
As of yesterday afternoon, the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) reported that the number of flood evacuees surged to 9,261 people across Pahang, Terengganu, Johor, Selangor, Kelantan, and Sarawak. The figure is still considered manageable compared to a few major flooding events in 1971 (where 153,000 people were evacuated) and in 2021 (125,000 people were evacuated across Selangor, KL, Perak, Terengganu, Pahang, Kelantan, Melaka, and Sabah).

In his first speech as the newly appointed Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister, Steven Sim swiftly announced several immediate measures. These include a six-month interest-free moratorium for loans from the ministry’s agencies to help support flood-hit businesses. The moratorium covers loans from seven agencies under the ministry, namely the Malaysia Cooperative Societies Commission, SME Corp Malaysia, Tekun Nasional, Bank Rakyat, SME Bank, Perbadanan Nasional Bhd and Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia.

2026 cost of living situation
Tol Tak Naik
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil announced that there will be no toll increases for 10 major highway concessionaires in 2026. More details will be shared soon, but it may be similar to the announcement by PM Anwar Ibrahim in July 2025, where Putrajaya will fork out more than RM500 mil to prevent toll hikes at the Senai-Desaru Expressway (SDE), East Coast Expressway 2 (LPT2), South Klang Valley Expressway (SKVE), Butterworth Outer Ring Road (LLB), and KL-Putrajaya Expressway (MEX), among others.

Public transport costs will increase for some
Klang Valley public transportation operator Prasarana Malaysia Bhd has just rolled out a series of price hikes for some of its transport passes, effective January 1. Prasarana added that this price adjustment exercise will be the first since 2009, and it is needed to ensure safety standards and service reliability are always at their best.

Thankfully, the monthly My50 30-day transport pass for Malaysians only remains the same price. Another reason why Prasarana is forced to increase prices is because of cable theft. For the past three years alone, Prasarana has suffered losses of RM20.6 mil, caused by cable theft. The increasing trend of cable theft cases is becoming more pronounced, with 41 cases recorded in 2024, while 69 cases have been recorded so far this year, which is an increase of 68%. Prasarana is not the only one suffering from this problem. Even China Communications Construction (ECRL) Sdn Bhd (CCCECRL), the developer of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), has suffered over RM3 mil worth of losses from cable theft, even before launching its service to the public. To the cable thieves, kau memalukan dan menyusahkan semua orang.

Shorts

1. No pets in the mall

   Subang’s Sunway Square Mall has reversed its move to allow pets on its premises, merely days after its launch as the first shopping mall in Malaysia that officially allowed visitors to bring their pets into its premises. Previously, state executive councillor for local government and tourism Ng Suee Lim said that Selangor practises a policy that prohibits pets from being brought into shopping malls. However, Lawyers for Animal Rights spokesperson Rajesh Nagarajan argued that, to date, no statute, subsidiary legislation, local authority by-law, or gazetted guideline has been identified or published to support the existence of such a ban.

2. Booting out corrupt officers is not easy

   Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency director-general Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain revealed that it is not easy to fire corrupt officers, even when arrests have been made. This is because civil servants are protected constitutionally, and there are complex legal processes that need to be pursued before the termination button can be pushed. Shuhaily added that any disciplinary action, including dismissal, is subject to Articles 132 to 135 of the Federal Constitution, which guarantee due process before an officer can be terminated. Even after the long legal process, such a decision requires final approval from the Public Service Department.

3. Sabah mulls closing down state GLCs that are in the red

   Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor stated that Sabah government-linked companies (GLCs) that fail to record profits for five consecutive years will be reviewed and could be ordered to shut down. Additionally, to ensure all GLCs are stepping up next year, Hajiji announced several measures. These include the reshuffling of GLC board members and chairpersons to strengthen governance and enforce responsibility. Also, all CEOs, group general managers, and general managers of GLCs and statutory bodies must submit quarterly performance reports to the chief minister starting next year.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Warring nations
US kills 4 in latest Pacific Ocean attack on Venezuela
The US military has launched another attack in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing ‘four male narco-terrorists’ without providing any evidence that the destroyed vessel was involved in drug trafficking. All this comes as the Republican-majority House of Representatives voted against a resolution directing Trump to remove US forces from hostilities with or against Venezuela without congressional authorisation. The US military continues to deploy forces as Trump threatens military action to remove the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Trump has also ordered an absolute naval blockade of all oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuelan ports. Latin American leaders and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have expressed concerns as the prospect of war between the nations looms larger. Meanwhile, Venezuela defiantly announced that its crude oil exports were not affected by Trump’s announcement of the blockade. Venezuela’s economy, which has been in freefall over the last decade of increasingly hardline rule under Maduro, relies heavily on petroleum exports.

Fun (and intriguing) fact: Did you know that Venezuela has the world’s largest crude oil reserve, and its biggest crude oil buyer is China? So is this really a drug war, or something else?

China seeks to mediate Thailand-Cambodia clash
China is reportedly looking to broker a renewed ceasefire deal between Thailand and Cambodia, who have started to clash again after the previous ceasefire deal brokered by Trump. The fights resumed earlier this month with more than two dozen people killed, including 16 Thai soldiers and 12 Cambodian civilians, and over half a mil people have fled the area because of the fighting. While China said it was involved with the peace process since the beginning, albeit keeping a low profile, the Trump administration has sought to highlight that China has not played a role at all.

Scam capital - the reason for the war? 
Thailand has reframed its attacks on Cambodia as a battle against cybercriminals, a framing that also shows that Bangkok is seeking to align itself with both Washington and Beijing, which have pushed separately for Southeast Asian nations to crack down on the scam operations. Calling the strikes a ‘war against the scam army’, a military division involved in the border fight said this week it’s on the frontline against the global threat of transnational crime syndicates, which operate across neighbouring Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

US money priorities
US approves USD11 bil in arms sales to Taiwan
The United States has approved USD11.1 bil (RM45.4 bil) in arms sales to Taiwan, with the sales said to serve US national, economic, and security interests by supporting Taiwan’s continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and to maintain a ‘credible defensive capability’. The weapons sale includes 82 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, and 420 Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS defence systems that are similar to what the US had been providing to Ukraine to defend against Russian aerial attacks. The deal also includes 60 self-propelled howitzer artillery systems and related equipment worth more than USD4 bil and drones valued at more than USD1 bil. China has not said anything, but chances are this won’t be pleasing news for them for sure.

US aid cuts force Rohingya girls into marriage, children into hard labour
US foreign aid cuts have forced the closure of thousands of schools and youth centres in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, devastating critical child protection programmes that were supposed to keep them safe. In the Bangladesh camps, the US has reduced funding by nearly half compared with last year, while the overall Rohingya emergency response is only 50% funded for 2025. The consequences are dire. Girls are forced into marriage, children as young as 10 are pushed into hard labour, and some girls as young as 12 are coerced into prostitution. Rohingya children who once took refuge in schools are now left uneducated, and their childhoods have vanished.

Shorts:

1. China to tax condoms in attempt to boost falling birth rate
   China will begin to impose a 13% VAT on condoms and other contraceptives starting January 1, 2026, in an effort to boost its birthrate and modernise its tax laws. The country, which once imposed a one-child policy for more than 30 years, is now dealing with a shrinking population, due to a low birthrate and increased deaths caused by an ageing population. The government has also allocated CNY90 bil (RM52.2 bil) for its first nationwide childcare subsidy programme and announced plans to expand its national healthcare insurance programme to cover all childbirth-related expenses to get their people to have more children.

2. Google x Meta to beat Nvidia’s software advantage
   Google is working closely with Meta to make its AI chips work better at running PyTorch, the world’s most widely used tool for AI developers. Meta is the creator and steward of PyTorch and, in return, has been discussing deals to access Google’s chips known as tensor processing units (TPUs). This is also believed to be part of an effort by Google to weaken Nvidia’s long-standing dominance of the AI computing market, as the TPUs are a viable alternative to Nvidia’s market-leading graphics processing units (GPUs). TPU sales have become a crucial growth engine of Google’s cloud revenue as it seeks to prove to investors that its AI investments are generating returns.
   Learn: What are TPUs? TPU vs GPU

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. We have been living under a false illusion of security with our door locks. Watch Shamir Rajadurai, a crime prevention specialist, easily unlocking doors without keys. If Netflix is making a Malaysian version of Money Heist, they'd better cast him.

2. A new set of dinosaur footprints was discovered in part of northern Italy, belonging to herbivores that lived 210 mil years ago in the Triassic period. Previously, a similar ‘wall’ of dinosaur footprints was discovered in Bolivia. Thinking of Jurassic? It’s one of the 3 eras of dinosaurs: Triassic period (252-201 mil years ago), Jurassic (201-145 mil years ago) and Cretaceous (145 - 66 mil years ago).

3. Douglas Lim released his latest comedy show for free on Youtube. He became the first-ever stand-up comedian to perform solo at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas. Enjoy a good laugh with your loved ones this weekend!