☕️ The interesting science behind why people who look, sound healthy drop dead from sudden heart attack

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

53 years – The last time the New York Knicks won an NBA championship was in 1973, 53 years ago. This week, the team overturned a 29-point deficit in Game Four of a best-of-seven series to record the biggest comeback win in Finals history as well, ultimately securing the championship with a 94-90 win over the San Antonio Spurs.

1.6 bil people – That’s the number of people who call Africa home, and the figure is projected to double by 2061. As it is, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs has projected that Africa’s population will reach 2.5 bil by 2050, making it the fastest-growing region in the world. However, this comes at a time when global sentiment towards Africa is turning sharply pessimistic, with aid cuts, declining foreign investment, and stagnating governance scores.

A 10 mil population cap? – A recent vote in Switzerland, backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, asked voters whether the country should cap its population at 10 mil. The party described the move as a “sustainability initiative” aimed at easing pressure on housing, public services, and the environment. If the initiative is approved, the Swiss government would be required to take steps to cap the population at 10 mil by 2050. If it failed, the Swiss People’s Party would be able to force the government to pull out of Switzerland’s free movement agreement with the EU. Thankfully, voters said no, with about 55% of voters rejecting the proposal, having identified it as divisive and anti-immigration.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Bersatu-PAS drama not ending anytime soon
After Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin announced that his party will still use the Perikatan Nasional (PN) logo for the upcoming Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections, PAS VP Mohd Amar Abdullah said that Muhyiddin has no authority to announce such a thing. Mohd Amar added that the usage of the PN logo must be signed off by the Perikatan chairman, not the party president. PAS's frustration with Bersatu does not end here.

PAS VP and PN chairman, Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, has removed Bersatu leaders Azmin Ali and Radzi Jidin from their roles as deputy secretary-general and election director, respectively. PAS election director Sanusi Nor would replace Bersatu vice-president Radzi Jidin as PN election director. PAS has a history of bad breakups, with exes including PKR, DAP, UMNO, and now Bersatu.

Johor ART to be developed via public-private partnership
Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced that the proposed elevated autonomous rapid transit (E-ART) project in Johor Bahru will be constructed via a public-private partnership (PPP) model. With that, the project will not go through the Ministry of Transport’s tender procurement process, and will instead be carried out under a PPP mechanism approved by the Cabinet. At the moment, the Public Private Partnership Unit (UKAS) is reviewing the proposals before a letter of award is issued.
Learn: What is E-ART?

Commenting on the announcement, Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi said that Johor may be able to foot the bill for the project if Putrajaya returns 25% of the tax revenue generated by the state. He said Johor contributes between RM20 bil and RM30 bil annually to the Federal government through various forms of revenue such as income tax, stamp duties, and customs duties. At the moment, Johor only receives about RM2.6 bil a year. The E-ART project is crucial to disperse the crowd from the soon-to-open RTS Link, which will carry about 10,000 passengers per hour in each direction.

Shorts:

1. FAM says bye-bye to Cklamovski and Friend
   The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has now unfriended Harimau Malaya’s head coach Peter Cklamovski and CEO Robert Douglas Friend by mutual agreement. Apart from that, FAM also terminated the contract of two senior technical staff, Matthew Smith and Seiya Imazaki, under-23 head coach Nafuzi Zain and goalkeeping coach Yazid Yassin. FAM is apparently cleaning up its house after the naturalised players controversy and the subsequent findings from the audit conducted by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). AFC’s audit found that the national squad was better off returning to its original structure under FAM to ensure better governance and stronger accountability.

2. MACC identifies 1,638 firms that allegedly falsify Daya Kerjaya 2.0 claims
   The MACC has identified another 1,638 companies suspected of submitting false claims to secure incentives under the Social Security Organisation’s (Socso) Daya Kerjaya 2.0 programme, involving an estimated loss of RM45 mil. Working closely with MACC via Op Daya, Socso said that the joint operation has thus far recovered RM1.26 mil from employers who admitted to making fraudulent claims. Daya Kerjaya 2.0 programme is a government employment incentive scheme that provides RM1,500 per month for six months for each employee hired by private and government-linked companies.

3. Malaysia buys up more drones
   Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin announced that Putrajaya is considering acquiring an additional three ANKA-S aircraft under a second phase, after spending RM423.8 mil to acquire the first three aircraft, including the ground control stations and two years of personnel training. The ANKA-S is capable of flying for more than 24 hours at operational altitudes of up to 30,000 feet, and its deployment at the Labuan Air Base is intended to strengthen surveillance in the South China Sea. However, Malaysia is not equipping the drones with weapons as a signal that the country’s defence posture is defensive in nature and not intended to threaten any nation.

4. Malaysia goes up the competitive rankings
   The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) announced that Malaysia has climbed eight spots to 15th in the World Competitiveness Ranking 2026. Malaysia ranked second-highest in Southeast Asia after Singapore, which topped the overall rankings. The ranking basically gauges the capacity of countries to create and maintain an environment that sustains the competitiveness of enterprises. Countries’ rankings are decided based on three categories - economic performance, government efficiency and infrastructure. Malaysia performed particularly well in the economic performance category, scoring 78.4 points.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

The Earth is losing freshwater
The World Bank 2025 report has revealed that Earth is losing an estimated 324 tril litres of freshwater each year, enough to meet the needs of 280 mil people annually. The persistent freshwater loss is called “continental drying”, driven by worsening droughts and unsustainable land and water practices. To build public awareness and promote action, the UN has marked June 17 as the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.

Here are 10 locations of shrinking lakes and dams across the world, captured via satellite and tracked since the 1980s. Many of these cases of desertification are due to prolonged or multi-year droughts:

• Parana River, Argentina

• Lake Poope, Bolivia

• Lake Ngami, Botswana

• Laguna de Aculeo, Chile

• Lake Urmia, Iran

• The al-Chibayish Marshes, Iraq

• Ambovombe, Madagascar

• Lake Faguibine, Mali

• Lake Mead, the US

• South Aral Sea, Uzbekistan

Read the full report here.

Japan things
It’s “weird” for a Japanese mayor to take maternity leave
Japanese Mayor Shoko Kawata, who decided to take maternity leave, has made headline news and sparked a national debate. She said she did not expect it to be so controversial and added that there is still the idea that, at work, people should sacrifice their personal lives to devote themselves to their careers. Kawata became Japan’s youngest female mayor at 33, campaigning as an independent to improve childcare.

Kawata has also been focusing on combating the prevalent depopulation crisis in Japan. Japan does grant maternity leave for working mothers, but the law apparently does not apply to city mayors. In the most recent Gender Gap Report, Japan ranked 118th out of 148, the lowest among G7 countries, in part due to outdated gender stereotypes, making Kawata’s decision even more significant.

Japan authorities raid ice-cream companies
Six major ice cream firms in Japan have been raided by authorities on suspicion of colluding to raise prices, just as Japan’s sweltering summer sets in. Officials from the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) have reportedly searched the head offices of Meiji Co., Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Lotte Co., Ezaki Glico Co., Morinaga & Co., and Akagi Nyugyo Co.

Since around 2022, the companies have raised retail prices at roughly the same time each year. If the JFTC concludes that there was a cartel, the antitrust watchdog will order the firms to improve their business practices and pay a fine.

Lululemon apologised for featuring Japanese drum at a Chinese event
Canadian athleisure apparel brand Lululemon appears to have mistakenly featured a Japanese drum performance in an event in China, intended to promote Chinese culture and wellness. Netizens on Weibo were quick to point out the blunder, accusing the Zhu drum performance group of using Japanese taiko instruments rather than a Chinese da gu drum.

The incident highlights the risks for Western brands hoping to expand in China of falling foul of domestic, political, and cultural sensibilities. Last year, Arc’teryx issued an apology after a promotional fireworks display in the Tibetan plateau caused controversy over potential environmental damage. In 2018, the luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana cancelled a catwalk show in Shanghai following an outcry over a promotional video that showed an Asian model trying to eat Italian food using chopsticks.

Shorts:

1. Hundreds of cats rescued from cat meat crime ring in Vietnam
   More than 40 cats were reunited with their owners after a multiday operation that rescued more than 400 cats, believed to be victims of a cat meat crime ring in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Officers discovered 45 cages containing about 400 live cats and four ice-filled foam containers holding about 80 dead cats, while 21 cats were found alive at a separate location. It was a sobering reminder of the enormous scale of Vietnam’s cat meat trade.
   Consumption of dog and cat meat is actually legal in Vietnam, but vendors must have permits to validate the animals’ origins. Certain cities, such as Hoi An, are working with global animal welfare groups to end the consumption of dog and cat meat in the city. Recently, a similar story happened to a ‘celebrity’ dog with 1.5 mil followers, stolen and sold to a dog meat restaurant for USD27 (RM111.18). Unfortunately, the dog didn’t make it.

2. Apple plans to raise prices
   Thinking of getting a new iPhone, MacBook or iPad? Soon, the prices might be higher than the ones you see today. CEO Tim Cook said in an exclusive interview published by the Wall Street Journal that Apple could raise prices on some of its products as a global shortage of memory chips drives up costs across the consumer electronics industry. The warning comes as AI companies race to build ever-larger models and snap up huge quantities of memory chips used in data centres, which is squeezing supplies of the chips that power everyday devices, from laptops to smartphones.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Bringing back this Singapore World Cup anti-gambling ad in 2014, which backfired hilariously.

2. The RM100 mil+ business of Nasi Kandar Pelita.

3. Use this weekend for your health. Often, we hear of people who sound and look healthy dropping dead from heart attack. The interesting science explaining this. If you have a heart, worth every minute watching it. If you don’t have a heart, you may skip. Happy weekend!