☕️ E-cigs, vape now contain banned substances (i.e. meth, fentanyl)

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

The markets in the US were closed in observance of Good Friday.

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

12,787 – A significant number of company directors in Malaysia have faced travel restrictions after the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) barred them from leaving the country. This action was taken against directors of 13,820 employers who failed to remit their employees' EPF contributions over a six-month period last year. This represents a small fraction, 2.02%, of the total number of employers registered with the EPF.

JPY12 mil (RM372K) – A Japanese bus driver with nearly three decades of service ultimately lost his retirement package, valued at this amount, after the Supreme Court upheld his dismissal for stealing a mere JPY1,000 from passenger fares. Despite initially winning a lower court appeal that deemed the punishment excessive for the JPY1,000 theft captured on security footage in 2022, the final ruling reinstated the original penalty imposed by Kyoto City.

AUD245,000 (RM690K) – Australian politicians received this estimated value in match tickets over nearly two years from major sporting leagues. This gifting was part of a lobbying effort against a proposed ban on online gambling advertising. The 312 free tickets, disclosed in the parliamentary gift register, highlight the significant role of sporting bodies in opposing the ban. Australians are estimated to lose AUD34 bil on gambling in 2025, and sports bodies benefit from a percentage of these wagers.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

More states in Malaysia should ban the sale of electronic cigarettes or vapes, says the deputy IGP
Deputy Inspector-General of police Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said that more states should ban the sale of e-cigarettes and vapes as these products are closely linked to the abuse of new synthetic drugs. This is because, according to the police, about 65% of vapes contain banned substances such as methamphetamine and fentanyl, which makes vapes more dangerous than traditional cigarettes. For your information, fentanyl is 100 times stronger and more dangerous than morphine and 20 to 40 times stronger than heroin. Fentanyl is so dangerous that the substance is at the centre of the US tariff war against China, Canada and Mexico. Previously, in February 2025, US President Donald Trump declared a public health emergency due to the fentanyl abuse and held China, Canada and Mexico accountable for the crisis. In order to force the respective governments to put a stop to the illegal flow of fentanyl into the US, the US imposed a 25% tariff on all imports coming from Canada and Mexico.

Ayob added that recently, the police seized RM6 mil worth of vape liquids laced with drugs in a raid at an illegal laboratory in Kedah. The vape liquid was intended for distribution in Kedah, Penang and the Klang Valley. In response to what Deputy IGP Ayob Khan has stated, Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad announced that state governments do have the authority to ban the sale of vape or e-cigarettes, well within the power of their respective local regulations. Dr Dzulkefly added that at the federal level, the sale of vape products is governed under the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024 (Act 852), which came into force in phases beginning Oct 1 last year.

As the first state to pick up on Ayob’s suggestion, Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari, stated that Selangor is prepared to study the need to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes or vapes in the state.

A UUM student died in a freak incident
Straight out of one of the pages of Final Destination, a 22-year-old female student named Manarina Hasya Karim died at her university, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in Sintok, Kedah. Manarina, who was waiting to board her bus, suddenly found herself crushed between a metal road divider and the bus that she was trying to board, after a second bus rammed the bus out of nowhere. The Johor-born female student passed away after being treated at the hospital for almost 10 hours.

Kubang Pasu district police chief Supt Mohd Radzi Abdul Rahim revealed that, based on the statement of the driver of the second bus, the 32-year-old male individual said that he was unaware that the bus in front of him had stopped. Mohd Radzi said that the second driver tested negative for drugs, and no arrests have been made so far.

US tariff pause may trigger industry players to front-load
CIMB Investment Bank Bhd indicated that industry players may capitalise on the 90-day suspension of differential tariffs to front-load, especially in the export of manufactured goods. Front-loading is the accelerated shipment of manufactured goods to buyer countries, in anticipation of a trade blockage later down the road. Despite the uncertainties, CIMB Investment still maintained its full-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection for Malaysia at 4%. At the same time, it also projected that Bank Negara Malaysia may cut the overnight policy rate by 25 basis points at its July meeting, bringing the end-2025 rate to 2.75%, in a bid to support domestic demand.

Corporate Truant

• Corporate Espionage: Former PETRONAS manager indicted for sharing company documents with Petros 
  A former Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS) manager, 40-year-old Khairul Akmal Jasni, pleaded not guilty at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court for allegedly leaking confidential company documents to Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros) last June. The said document in contention was titled ‘Q1 2024 Upstream Business Performance Operational & Financial’. If he were found guilty under Section 203A(1), read with Section 511 of the Penal Code, Khairul could be fined for a minimum RM1 mil , jailed for a maximum term of one year, or both.

• Pos Malaysia CEO was caught being out of touch
  Within Pos Malaysia’s internal communications platform messages, that was leaked and went viral on social media, it shows that Pos Malaysia's CEO, Charles Brewer, replied poorly to an employee’s query that requested the expected date for new uniforms as the current ones that he is wearing has a tear along the seam on the right shoulder. Quoting Charles Brewer, he responded by saying that - “Count yourself lucky that you don’t work for one of the foreign carriers who don’t provide uniforms at all”. Maybe Charles should count himself lucky to have a job, as since he was appointed the CEO in 2021, the company has never been in the black and has suffered six-year straight losses, suffering a net loss of RM202.7 mil in FY2024, almost a 30% increase in net loss compared to the previous year. What is Syed Mokthar thinking?
  View Pos Malaysia’s haemorrhaging financials here.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

How long more can Trump’s tantrum tariff war last?

Does Beijing have the upper hand in the tariff war?
Although Trump had said last week that he expects an agreement "over the next three to four weeks" that would end the escalating trade war with China, Beijing has not confirmed whether such a deal is likely to happen. Experts are sharing opinions on the situation, and they mostly think that China might have the upper hand for now.

Nick Vyas, the founding director of USC Marshall's Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute, said that China may feel that they have all the cards to continue to hold out, and President Trump feels that he has power, because the US consumes more from China than China consumes from the US. Supply chain and geopolitics experts think that Xi may have more time and leverage than Trump. In terms of seeking new global trade partners, China has "a diplomatic opportunity" to launch "a charm offensive" with other nations, while the US continues to take a harder stance on global trade and is not as appealing. The unpredictability of Trump's policies could also be harmful for striking a deal, and runs the risk of having US allies quietly pull back the alliance in the long run.

Top economists are circulating a letter against Trump's tariffs
900 leading economists and academics have signed an “anti-tariff declaration” on Saturday to express their unhappiness over Trump’s tariff, which they are calling “misguided” and could cause a “self-inflicted recession” in the US. They also warned that the timeline to undo the administration’s "incoherent and damaging policies" on trade is narrowing. The signatories were especially critical of Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs on other countries, where it said that it is being calculated using an erroneous and improvised formula with no basis in economic reality. Trump's actions in recent weeks have led to volatility in the stock and bond markets, and many economists have previously criticised the administration's back-and-forth trade strategy.

Tariffs could lift Boeing and Airbus plane prices even higher
Meanwhile, commercial plane prices, which have already increased post-pandemic, are poised to climb further as Boeing and Airbus are affected heavily by trade tariffs. The plane makers, as it is, have been grappling with higher expenses for primary materials as well as overall labour cost pressures. Experts are saying that compared with 2018, prices for commercial jets have risen by around 30%. Could this eventually translate to higher costs for travel in the near future?

Indonesia to increase US imports of food and commodities to avoid tariffs
In its effort to survive Trump’s tariff of 32% on its exports to the US, Indonesia has said that it will increase imports of US food and commodities and reduce orders from other countries that it currently sources the products from. The country has proposed increasing its imports from the US by up to USD19 bil, including around USD10 bil of energy imports, to eliminate its trade surplus with Washington. After a meeting with the US Trade Representative and the Secretary of Commerce, the two countries agreed to complete negotiations within the next 60 days. Which ‘other countries’ will be affected, we wonder.

White House claims letter to Harvard was an ‘unauthorised’ mistake
A report by the New York Times has disclosed that apparently, the letter of demands sent by the White House to Harvard University on Apr 11 was sent without authorisation, albeit signed by federal officials and placed on an official government letterhead. The letter demanded that Harvard eliminate its Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) programs and screen international students for ideological concerns, as well as other sweeping changes in the name of battling anti-semitism. The university rejected all the demands afterwards, which then the White House quickly fired back and said it would freeze approximately USD2.2 bil in grants to the university. A Harvard spokesperson has said that it remains unclear to them exactly what the mistake was and what the government meant to say, but nevertheless, it did lead to real-life consequences on students, patients, employees, and the standing of American higher education in the world.

Shorts

1. Brand’s may want to steer away from associating with Elon Musk and AI

   A new global survey conducted among more than 100 international public affairs leaders has discovered that associating with Trump’s administration and his adviser, Elon Musk and misusing AI (view here) are among the most surefire ways for companies to damage their brands. Nearly 30% of people in a 117-member group hailing from 17 countries and 58 industries indicated that aligning oneself with Musk, or being targeted by him, generated the strongest likelihood possible of being thrust under heightened scrutiny.

2. Prabowo’s first six months spark fears of Suharto-era return

   Six months after President Prabowo Subianto took office, human rights activists in Indonesia have grown even more wary of his tendencies towards military rule, risking a return to an era akin to Suharto, who ruled the republic with an iron fist for more than three decades. Adding to his move to expand the military’s role in government, a new regulation was also issued last month allowing police to monitor foreign journalists and researchers, which triggered new concerns among journalists and a possible threat to democracy.

3. Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft brings NASA and Russia astronauts back to earth

   It’s good to know that at least the US and Russia can still put their heads together when it comes to space exploration. Yesterday, Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-26 managed to safely bring both American and Russian astronauts safely back to Earth after a seven-month science mission on board the International Space Station (ISS). Earlier this month, the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft carried another US-Russia crew to carry out scientific experiments on the ISS. However, the US and other Western countries have ceased other kinds of partnerships with Roscosmos as part of a slew of sanctions placed on Russia over the war.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

Today, we celebrate America.

1. Green Day open Coachella with American Idiot: Not Part of MAGA Agenda.

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2. “Malays have no money”.

3. A US politician is proposing new market opportunities. This is not a joke — original tweet here.