☕️ The length matters 😉, for your passwords.

Hello, we are testing out career listing! Check it out towards the end of today’s issue!

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

RM3.1 mil was awarded to a 22-year-old man for his botched circumcision, where the head got snipped off too. Ouch.

10-year Oscars ban - the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences decided to ban Will Smith from all Academy events, including the Oscars, for 10 years. Smith accepted the Academy’s decision with grace.

USD1.6 tril — the size of federal student debt in the US, a sum bigger than credit card or auto debt. Borrowers haven’t been required to make payments since the government froze their payments at the onset of the pandemic.

USD5.275 mil - the most expensive Pokemon card in existence, the very rare “Illustrator” Pikachu, owned by YouTuber Logan Paul. He showed it off, wearing it around his neck attached to a gold chain in Wrestlemania, a popular wrestling event.

3. COVID-19 SUMMARY

• A total of 48,000 pills of Pfizer’s antiviral drug to treat Covid-19, Paxlovid, arrived in the country yesterday. Health DG iterated the drug is not a substitute for Covid-19 vaccination.

4. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

1. The scheduled voting of the constitutional amendment with regards to the Anti-Hopping Bill yesterday has been deferred after the government and Pakatan Harapan came to an agreement on 3 points which will be submitted for discussion and consideration by a select committee that will comprise various stakeholders, including academicians and representatives from the opposition and the government. P Prabakaran, the MP of Batu, claimed that numerous senior politicians, including the heads of political parties and ministers, have approached him to jump ship away from PH, even with a GLC position being offered to tempt him during the lockdown in 2020 thinking that being the youngest MP (26 yo), he would lack principles and political directions. Former deputy Dewan Rakyat, speaker and special advisor to the PM Azalina Othman, proposed for recall vote mechanism to address the problem of party hopping. Below is an explanation we came across on how this works.

2. A right step forward towards recognising that education and health are fundamental human rights, the Sarawak government will issue temporary documentation for individuals under 21 in the state who have not received their citizenship documents. The temporary doc will help them to access education and healthcare services in the state while they apply for Malaysian citizenship, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. However, the temporary doc is not a promise for the individuals concerned to obtain Malaysian citizenship.

3. MalaysiaKini sighted the full MoU between Malaysia and Indonesia, which is not made public, relating to the protection of Indonesian domestic workers and the requirements employers have to abide by. Some salient details:Indonesia’s ambassador to Malaysia, Hermono, revealed that the min household income to qualify as a potential employer of an Indonesian domestic worker is RM7k (figure not disclosed in the MoU). Indonesia will also gradually phase out Indonesians working as domestic workers anywhere in the world and in Malaysia, it will focus on sending its citizens to work in the formal sector instead.

   1. A minimum wage of RM1,500.

   2. One-month bonus upon contract completion and salary increment if the contract is renewed after two years.

   3. 10 hours rest a day, including seven consecutive hours.

   4. Domestic workers are entitled to medical leave and annual leave.

   5. Three categories of domestic workers: housekeepers and family cooks, child caregivers and elderly person caregivers. One person cannot be expected to manage all three categories.

   6. The job scope of a housekeeper is limited to cleaning, ironing and cooking and does not include family pets, car-washing and gardening.

   7. A typical household for one domestic worker is not to exceed six family members above the age of 5.

   8. Hiring costs must not exceed RM15k per worker.

4. According to The Edge, the CEO of Serba Dinamik Bhd Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah and three other top executives who have been charged with providing false reports to the SC might walk away with just a compound instead of being tried in court and possibly facing jail time. This follows the report that SD has sent letters of representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers — a representation letter is normally sent to either reduce a charge or have the charges dropped. In the case of Transmile Group Bhd, a high-profile case of a similar offence saw its CEO sentenced to two years in jail and a fine of RM2.5 mil. The Edge is awaiting a response from the AGC. What has changed?

5. Industrial real estate investment trust (REIT) player. Axis REIT has acquired a 1.54 mil sq feet logistics warehouse facility in Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas, Johor, for RM390 mil, its largest-ever acquisition. The property will be leased back to the seller for a 10-year period, with starting monthly rental of RM2.17 mil (RM26.04 mil per annum) for the first three years and subsequently adjusted upwards. This translates into a yield of 6.68% per annum — rather healthy. Axis REIT’s market cap currently stands at RM2.99 bil. Here’s our thread below explaining why a building owner will sell its own property only to rent it back:

5. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

1. Despite having abandoned his plans to join the board of Twitter, Elon Musk has voiced his suggestions for the social media platform’s subscription service, Twitter Blue:

   1. Lower the price of the service.

   2. No ads.

   3. The option to pay in Dogecoin.

2. Mariupol could very soon fall into the hands of Russia as Ukrainian troops warned they could be facing their “last battle” against Russia. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that tens of thousands of people had likely been killed in Mariupol, but the figure was not verified.

3. Russia’s finance minister Anton Siluanov said the country would take legal action if it is forced to default on its external debt after the US Treasury blocked the country’s dollar payment to international bondholders last week. The move forced Russia to pay in rubles, which technically meant Russia defaulted on its dollar-denominated debts.

4. Pakistan’s opposition leader, Shehbaz Sharif, has been elected as the country’s new prime minister. Sharif won the top spot with 174 votes in parliament, two more than a simple majority of lawmakers.No Pakistani prime minister ever completed a full 5-year term in Pakistan’s 75-year history. The nation has had 29 PMs since 1947. In 18 occasions, the PMs have been removed under a variety of circumstances, with one assassination.

5. Video game powerhouse Epic Games raised USD2 billion in funding from Sony and the Lego family — USD1 bil from each entity. The investment is more than just monetary as the parties want to develop a “family-friendly” metaverse for kids. The deal values Epic at USD31.5 bil.

6. GoTo’s IPO is a watershed moment for Indonesia as its shares surged as much as 23% in their market debut yesterday. The widely anticipated IPO raised USD1.1 bil — valuing the firm at USD27.5 bil, as GoTo sold only about 4% of its shares in the IPO. The strong debut made GoTo Indonesia’s third most valuable listed firm at USD31.6 billion. However, it might be too early to consider this a success. Another high-profile tech IPO in Indonesia, Bukalapak, saw its price surge 25% on its IPO day in Aug 2021 - it’s now trading 61.4% below its IPO price.

7. In the coming weeks, Apple is expected to face an additional EU antitrust charge in an investigation triggered by a complaint from Spotify. The complaint was filed back in 2019, where Spotify claims Apple’s actions hurt consumers and are in clear violation of the law — Apple seeks to impose a 30% tax on competitors like Spotify. The latter use the App Store’s in-app purchases service.

6. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. Make sure to meet the right psychotherapist.

2. The length of your password and the time need to crack it. It got exponentially faster to crack it in 2022 vs 2021. Make sure you have a longer alphanumeric password!

3. An interesting 4-part docuseries by Channel News Asia on the lives of prison inmates in Singapore’s maximum-security jail and their effort to re-integrate back into society.

Before you go

Homegrown coffee chain ZUS Coffee has an opportunity for you to become part of its fast-growing family! If you think you have what it takes, here are more details on the roles.

• Retail Operations Lead

• Senior Operation Manager

Employers — if you are looking for talent amongst our readers, drop us an email and let us know how we can help!