☕️ New year, same bad habit - traffic summonses discount!

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

1.5 mil passengers used Rapid KL on New Year’s Eve, marking the highest-ever number of daily passengers for the service. Prasarana Malaysia Bhd reported that 1.27 mil people used its five rail networks, while 207,226 used its bus and demand responsive transit (DRT) services. This total represents a 30% increase compared to the usual daily numbers.

307 mil people are expected to need humanitarian aid in 2025, but the United Nations predicts it will only be able to raise enough money to help 60% of them. This means at least 117 mil people will not receive food or other assistance. As of the end of 2024, the U.N. has raised about 46% of the USD49.6 bil (RM222.1 bil) it sought for global humanitarian aid, marking the second consecutive year that it has raised less than half of its target. Meanwhile, the US happily supplies ‘aid’ to Ukraine to the tune of USD183 bil as at Sep 30, 2024.

4.7% of deaths in Canada in 2023 were due to medically-assisted dying, also known as voluntary euthanasia, according to new government data. Out of 320,000 total deaths, 15,300 were medically assisted, about one in 20. Since euthanasia was legalised in 2016, this marks the country’s fifth annual report on the issue. The median age of those who underwent assisted dying was over 77, with around 96% of cases being due to severe medical conditions such as cancer, where death was considered “reasonably foreseeable.”

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Transportation stuff

• New year, old tricks?
  No more swapping tyres before Puspakom checks — Transport Minister Anthony Loke told the media that his ministry will plug any loopholes in vehicle inspections, especially after the exposé of the alleged service where some tyre stores rent out fresh tyres for commercial vehicle owners who want to conduct their Puspakom checks. Apart from that, Loke added that his ministry will work together with MACC to identify the unethical officials that lead to corruption within the system. This came to light after there were allegations that Puspakom employees were involved in a cartel that enabled vehicles which failed inspections to be approved.

• Puspakom no longer a monopoly
  After announcing that Puspakom will no longer have exclusive rights to periodic motor vehicle inspections on Sept 1 2024, a title that Puspakom held for three decades, Loke stated now that more than 10 companies have applied for licences to conduct vehicle inspections across the country. The transport ministry is reviewing the applications, with the new operators set to be announced by the end of 2025.

• Traffic summonses discount!
  Starting today until June 30, the Transport Ministry announced a flat fee of RM150 for motorists to settle outstanding JPJ summonses. However, the special rate (normal rate is RM300) is only applicable for the following traffic offences: AwAS Summons (Summons 53A) — speeding violations or running red lights captured by the AwAS camera system; Notice 114 (investigation interview notice); Notice 115 (affixed summons notice). Road users can pay their summonses only through RTD counters, the RTD website, RTD kiosks, RTD mobile counters and the myJPJ application.

Federal aid to Kelantan but…
Chief Secretary to the Government (KSN) Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar stated that Putrajaya will remain committed to eradicate poverty in the northernmost east coast state of Kelantan. As of Dec 16 2024, there are 454 projects implemented under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP), where RM2.8 bil has been allocated for 2024 alone, from the cumulative project cost of RM25.9 bil.

Shamsul also spilled some beans and said that the main reason why federal projects do not run as initially scheduled is due to land acquisition issues. Another factor why federal projects kept stalling is because when a project is approved, the land involved is not ready - no basic utilities and access to the said land. Take the construction of the Bukit Merbau Sports Complex for the upcoming SUKMA (Malaysia Games) as an example, the land works for the infrastructure development and the main access road, both should be provided by the state government, are still not completed. SUKMA Kelantan will be held in three years time, in 2028.

NYE deaths at Bandar Sunway
Selangor police chief Hussein Omar Khan confirmed that the police had received police reports from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre that four victims who attended a New Year’s Eve concert in Bandar Sunway, Subang Jaya had passed away. Hussein Omar elaborated that the cause of death is still pending laboratory investigation but no external injuries were detected.

In responding to the allegations that the victims died at the concert, the Pinkfish countdown event’s organiser released a statement claiming that the victims passed away outside the event’s premises — Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach. The management added that precautionary measures had been taken for the event, including deploying more than 100 policemen and K9 units at entry points.

The death of the four concertgoers brought back the sad memories of the six individuals who died due to drug intake at the Future Music Festival Asia concert at the Bukit Jalil Stadium in 2014. The six victims were believed to have ingested a methamphetamine-type drug dubbed the ‘designer drug’ or synthetic drug, that cost RM60 to RM100 a pop back then.

WeChat and TikTok are leading the way
MCMC announced that four social media and messaging service providers - WeChat, TikTok, Telegram and Meta have applied for the license to operate in the country. Out of the four, WeChat and TikTok have successfully received the Applications Service Providers Class [ASP(C)] licence. However, both X and YouTube (operated by Google) failed to submit the applications before the deadline. X justified its actions by stating that the platform still does not have 8 mil users, the threshold set by MCMC. MCMC initiated these licensing requirements to strengthen online safety, enhance user protection and improving regulatory oversight for service providers operating in Malaysia.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Explosive EVs

The Trump Hotel Cybertruck
A Tesla Cybertruck, packed with gasoline canisters and fireworks, exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing the person inside the vehicle and injuring seven others. Police have determined the identity of the individual who rented the truck, with the authorities trying to determine if this was an act of terrorism.

mothershipsg

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Thanks For The Help, Elon!
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also specifically thanked by the Las Vegas police for his assistance in the investigation. Musk provided additional information and shared that the “whole Tesla senior team” is investigating. Musk also said that the minimal damage to the area around the vehicle was due to the design of the Cybertruck, which “directed the explosion upward”, and the material of the chassis, which is “literally bulletproof to a 9mm handgun”. Is he treating it like an ad for his cybertruck?

A More Metaphorical Explosion
EV sales in China are set to overtake traditional car sales in 2025, which places the country ahead of the West in a critical part of the clean energy transition. Domestic EV sales are projected to grow 20% year-on-year to over 12 million cars in 2025, including both pure EVs and plug-in hybrids, while domestic internal combustion engine car sales are expected to drop by over 10%. Over in Norway, 89% of cars sold in 2024 were EVs, with Chinese brands accounting for about 10% of those cars. Pretty good considering it only took them five years.

The Price War Continues...
Still, the EV price war in China continues into its third year, as more Chinese EV makers have followed Tesla and BYD in extending buying incentives, meant to encourage purchases before the government’s subsidy schemes kick in. BYD is offering discounts of up to 11.5% on two models, while Tesla is offering a 10,000 yuan (RM6,135) discount on outstanding loans for its Model Y in China until the end of January.

...With China Gaining Ground
In global sales, BYD has set a new sales record, posting its best-ever sales for 4Q2024, for a total of 1.76 million battery electric cars sold in 2024, buoyed by aggressive discounts. Tesla managed to hold onto its lead, but barely, with almost 1.79 million vehicles delivered in 2024. The gap is closing, Tesla. What now?

A violent start to the year

• New Orleans: An act of terrorism?

  Police are investigating the motivations of the US Army veteran behind the New Orleans tragedy, who killed 15 and injured 30 more before dying in a shootout with police. Currently, the suspicion is that Shamsud-Din Jabbar had help, with authorities looking for any evidence supporting the hypothesis. The authorities are also checking if there are links to two other incidents, namely the Cybertruck explosion (see above) and the New York shooting (see below). However, “thus far, there is nothing to report”. Still, this is also the latest in a series of mass attacks using vehicles, though only some have been declared acts of terrorism. For the list, see here.

• Montenegro: Gunman kills 12

  An attacker killed 12 people in a small town in the country before succumbing to self-inflicted injuries, marking the incident as one of the worst mass killings in Montenegro (view on map). The man initially killed four when he opened fire after a brawl at a restaurant, before moving to three other locations where he shot and killed another eight people, including two children. Four other people suffered life-threatening injuries, with one still in critical condition. The shooter attempted suicide when he was cornered, and died in transit to the hospital. The victims all had close links to the shooter, according to the police.

• New York: Shooter wounds 10

  The mass shooting happened in Queens late on New Year’s Day, when “three-four males” opened fire on a crowd outside a private events club, leaving 10 injured. All of the victims are expected to recover. The event also happened mere hours after the New Orleans shooting and the Cybertruck explosion, leading to authorities investigating if the events are linked or if they could be acts of terrorism. No deaths, thankfully.

Digital Workers and An Autonomous Vehicle (AV) "Collision"

• Japan's Lawson To Hire Remote Workers For Night Shift

  Present ‘physically’ to work but remotely? Here’s how it’s done. The Japanese convenience store chain will employ remote clerks to serve late-night shoppers through digital avatars, with the first of these set to go online this month, operated by a native Japanese currently living in Sweden. The employee will be serving customers in multiple locations in the Tokyo and Osaka areas, taking advantage of the time difference. This also marks the first time Lawson has set up such a remote work arrangement for employees living abroad.

• Robotaxi Collides With Delivery Robot

  A Waymo robotaxi collided with a Serve Robotics sidewalk delivery robot in Los Angeles. Neither of the vehicles was damaged, with Waymo sharing that the AV applied hard braking before it contacted the delivery robot at 6.4km/h, the pace of a fast walk for most people. However, the incident has led to concerns about how to determine which companies would be liable for damage in similar incidents moving forward, as more AVs hit public roads. 

Shorts:

1. Massive Dinosaur Footprint Site Discovered

   The site has about 200 large footprints, made 166 million years ago, and was discovered in a quarry in Oxfordshire. The tracks revealed the comings and goings of what experts believe are the Cetiosaurus and the Megalosaurus. The tracks were first discovered by a quarry worker, who linked a series of regular humps in the ground to the discovery of dinosaur tracks at another site nearby.

1. Disposal Begins For Bhopal Tragedy's Toxic Waste

   Indian authorities are finally removing 337 tonnes of toxic waste from the Union Carbide plant in the city of Bhopal, 40 years after one of the world’s deadliest gas leaks that took thousands of lives in December 1984. Authorities told the court, which had set a four-week deadline for the disposal, that the treatment and destruction of the waste could take between three to nine months. Meanwhile, activists have raised concerns about the potential damage to people’s health at the new location.

2. Police Raid Jeju Air

   South Korean police raided the airline and the operator of Muan International Airport as part of their investigation into the crash of Jeju Air 7C2216, which claimed 179 lives. The raid seized documents and materials related to the operation and maintenance of the aircraft as well as the operation of airport facilities. Acting President Choi Sang-mok has also called for immediate action to be taken should a special inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in the country turn up any issues.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. I love content from Tim Urban — he really put a lot of things into perspective. Check out his site - Wait Buy Why.

2. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill.

3. How MSC Cruise spent USD500 mil to turn an industrial wasteland into a paradise island for its passengers.

4. Good one Mgag - our PMs as Squid Game players