☕️ Malaysia's Brewing Insulin Crisis

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

Malaysia's inflation rate grew by 2% year-on-year in July, maintaining the same pace as in June, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). This growth was slightly below market expectations, which had predicted a 2.1% increase. On a monthly basis, inflation rose by 0.1% in July, compared to a 0.2% increase in June, indicating a slight slowdown in inflationary pressure.

In July, half of all vehicles sold in China were energy vehicles (EVs), including pure electric and plug-in hybrids, marking a significant milestone. EV sales surged by 37% from the same period last year, making up 50.7% of total car sales, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. This is a sharp rise from just 7% three years ago, driven by heavy investments in EV supply chains. In contrast, electric and hybrid vehicle sales in the U.S. were only 18% in Q1 2024.

Not only is he fast on the football field — he’s also fast on getting subscribers. Cristiano Ronaldo, 39, broke a YouTube record by having the fastest YouTube channel to hit one million subscribers before a football match can end — within 90 minutes. Ronaldo also has 112.5 mil followers on the X platform, 170 mil on Facebook and 636 mil on Instagram.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Malaysia’s brewing insulin crisis
Last Wednesday night, the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) Pharmacy Services Program (PSP) conducted a virtual emergency meeting with almost 500 hospitals and district health office heads nationwide to discuss the national insulin crisis. Back in February, MOH Putrajaya had already forecast a 21% shortfall in human insulin supply for the year. Insulin is a crucial treatment for 3.6 mil people living with diabetes in Malaysia with a high 15.6% diabetes prevalence among adults. Health director-general Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan stated that supply disruption is induced by the manufacturing capacity problems of the local manufacturer. According to Code Blue, 80% of the insulin supply in Malaysia is purchased from India-based Biocon Biologics that has a factory in Johor. The remaining supply is obtained from Novo Nordisk.

Ironically, US-based insulin delivery systems manufacturer Insulet Corporation just launched its new 400,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Johor, twice the size of its flagship highly automated manufacturing facility in Acton, Massachusetts.

Will some of the insulin products be directed to the local market to ease the national insulin crisis or is capitalism going to win and Malaysia will be left to desperately source insulin elsewhere?

Has Malaysia Airlines snapped its wings?
After signing as one of Manchester United’s sponsors, Malaysia Airlines seems to be inheriting the bad luck suffered by the English Premier League (EPL) football club. The national carrier has been experiencing a series of problems that have led to flight delays, cancellations and even mid-flight U-turns. Below are some of the recent mishaps of Malaysia Airlines:

• MH386 — An Airbus A330-300 from KLIA to Shanghai was forced to turn back to Kuala Lumpur due to a possible cabin pressure problem. The flight roamed 70 minutes in the air before landing safely at KLIA.

• MH128 — Another Airbus A330-300 aircraft from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur had to make a diversion to Alice Springs Airport in Australia. The Airport Development Group, which manages the Alice Springs Airport, said engine issues sparked the landing.

• MH165 — This time around, the scheduled flight from Doha, Qatar to Kuala Lumpur did not even take off, again due to technical issues with its aircraft’s engine. The stranded passengers for this flight had to wait for more than 24 hours at Qatar’s Hamad International Airport before they boarded reallocated flights to their intended destination.

• MH156 — A flight scheduled to carry Umrah pilgrims to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from Kuala Lumpur was forced to do a U-turn to KLIA due to, wait for it, technical issues again.

• MH199 — A KL-bound flight from Hyderabad, India had to abort its journey due to an engine malfunction. Witness reports indicate that sparks were seen coming from one of the two engines on the Boeing 738 aircraft.

Interesting fact — Airplanes may need to dump fuel before landing to reduce weight in emergencies or due to maintenance issues. Not all aircraft are equipped with fuel-dumping systems; typically, only larger, wide-body planes have this capability. If you see the white streak of lines behind a moving aircraft in the sky, it means that the aircraft is dumping its fuel.

Malaysia will send back the treated Palestinians
Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said that the injured Palestinians receiving medical care in Malaysia will be repatriated once their treatment is complete. Mohamad Hasan told the press that the Palestinians do not want to leave their country and they would rather die in their homeland. In a separate statement, Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said there are no plans for a second flight to bring in more Palestinians.

We salute the spirit of the Palestinians who want to go back. But again, that may be the best option for them. Although Malaysia is a member of the United Nations (UN), Putrajaya however did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention. There are no laws in Malaysia to recognise and provide for those fleeing persecution and conflict, putting refugees in a legal no-man’s land. Refugees in Malaysia are given the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card, but the document only provides a level of protection that may reduce the risk of arrest. However, it does not guarantee access to health services, education, and employment. As of the end of June 2024, there are some 190,370 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in Malaysia.

ÍCekap Urus Discontinues Legal Action
The Naza Group-Berjaya Group JV, Cekap Urus Sdn Bhd, has decided to do a U-turn and discontinue its legal action against the Malaysian government, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Spanco Sdn Bhd. Cekap Urus was created for the Government’s vehicle fleet project, but had their contract cancelled and they were challenging this decision in court. The fleet contract was then awarded to Spanco, which is also in a separate case as its chairman Robert Tan Hua Choon had in April claimed trial to cheating the Finance Ministry over a contract to supply, maintain and manage government fleet cars worth RM3.966 bil.

No reason was given by Cekap Urus for the U-turn. Putrajaya and MOF agreed with the discontinuation but Spanco demanded that Cekap Urus cover the legal costs and for Cekap Urus’ withdrawal of the action to be with no liberty to file afresh.

Shorts

1. Shah Alam High Court on Thursday sentenced singer and composer Muhammad Yasin Sulaiman to life imprisonment and 16 strokes of the cane over three drug offences. The High Court’s decision has discarded the previous decision by the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court that acquitted and discharged the singer. Yasin was allegedly found possessing 193.7g of cannabis-type drugs and planted 17 cannabis plants at his home.

2. AirAsia Bhd has secured a bumper deal from private credit funders Ares Management Corp and Indies Capital Partners Pte Ltd and aircraft lessors, in the form of a RM1.9 bil dual-tranched loan. The financing facility will be used for the refurbishment of the aircraft that were grounded during the pandemic and to refinance lease liabilities. And it isn’t cheap - 11% interest per annum.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Israel-Hamas compromise not in sight, despite Biden's urges for peace
Hope for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza remains bleak, leading US President Joe Biden to again press Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on the urgency of a truce deal. However, both Netanyahu and Hamas have stuck to their respective demands. One of the sticking points is the withdrawal of Israeli troops along the border between Gaza and Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor. Netanyahu reiterated that Israel has not agreed to withdraw its troops there, something that Hamas says is different from the ceasefire proposal offered by Biden in May, a proposal that Washington said Israel had agreed to at the time.

As the pursuit for a truce resumes, Israel has continued its operations, pressing deeper into the central and southern Gaza Strip within hours of Biden’s call to Netanyahu. This has led to a growing disillusionment among Palestinians in Gaza about the ceasefire talks. 

Meanwhile, Israel’s outgoing military intelligence chief Major General Aharon Haliva took responsibility for the failure to defend Israel’s borders on 7 October 2023 at his resignation ceremony. He claimed the failure of the intelligence corps was his fault and called for an investigation “to study and understand deeply” the reasons that led to the war between Hamas and Israel. Other officers who have claimed responsibility for the failure include Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, head of the Israeli armed forces, and Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet. However, they have stayed on due to the war in Gaza.

Business highlights

• How to solve housing glut in China? Government to be the buyer of last resort

  Beijing is considering a new funding option after a series of rescue packages failed to bolster the real estate market. The option is to allow local governments to issue special bonds to buy unsold homes. The proceeds of these special bonds were earlier used only for infrastructure or environmental projects, which took up more than half of the USD545.9 bil quota for special bond issuances this year.

  As of July, China has 382 mil square meters of unsold homes, about half the size of Singapore. This real estate crisis has dragged down the country, affecting the job market, consumption, and household wealth over the past two years.

• Chevron to invest USD989 mil in India

  The oil and gas giant will be putting the money into the city of Bengaluru to build the firm’s largest tech centre outside the US, according to a minister with the state government. The research and development hub is expected to create about 600 engineering jobs, with the investment spread out over five to six years. Chevron aims to hire over 600 employees for the centre by the end of 2025, according to Akshay Sahni, the incoming head of Chevron India.

• Musk ban on remote work at X dodges disability bias claim

  A Californian federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that accused Elon Musk’s X of forcing out workers with disabilities after Musk barred employees from working remotely, saying it was “morally wrong” to do so. The judge ruled that the ban did not account for disability discrimination and that the claimant improperly assumed that “all employees with disabilities necessarily required remote work as a reasonable accommodation”. This is among a bevvy of lawsuits against X ever since Musk took over and axed 75% of the workforce.

  A separate court filing led to a judge ordering X to give up the names of all its investors after a filed motion to view the records. Among the investors were some of Silicon Valley’s bigwigs, like Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, and Sequoia. Several wealthy individuals were also named, such as Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud, American rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs, and X's founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey.

Tech updates

• Google to help Australia guard against cyberattack surge

  The tech giant will be working with Australia’s national science agency on this project, which looks to develop tools that automatically detect and fix software vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure. This is part of a five-year plan Google has to spend USD675 mil in Australia in a bid to rebuild relations at a time when Australia is pushing for tougher regulation of global tech firms. This also follows Australia imposing stricter requirements on operators of critical infrastructure to report and prevent cyberattacks.

• Business offers video call cashiers to US restaurants

  Happy Cashier is the firm facilitating US restaurants and fast food joints hiring cashiers on different continents to take orders via video call, with founder Chi Zhang sharing that there are cashiers from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Ghana among its staff. The company states that labour is cheaper in these countries, but still pays its employees “enough to support their living and higher than the local wage”. Happy Cashier’s workers also help with other tasks, according to Zhang, such as managing reviews and working on SEO during off-peak hours. Yes, this also requires the cashiers to work the graveyard shift, considering Malaysia is 12 hours ahead of New York.

Shorts:

1. Kenyan serial killer suspect escapes custody 
   Kenyan police are offering a “significant cash reward” for information leading to the capture of Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, a suspected serial killer who confessed to the murders of 42 women, including his wife. Khalusha escaped custody along with 12 other suspects from Nairobi. Several police officers have been suspended and charged in court, as police believe the escapees had inside help.

2. Mike Lynch's body found
   The body of tech tycoon Mike Lynch has been recovered from the wreck of his family yacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily after a storm earlier this week. The body of Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah has yet to be found, with every other passenger of the yacht accounted for.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. An important sport outside of the official Olympic games takes place actively. To ensure that the sport is safe, 200,000 male condoms, 20,000 female condoms and 10,000 oral dams are made available in the Olympic Village during the Paris Olympics. Comedians Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson reviewed some of the funny and cute captions on the packaging of these condoms.

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2. Malaysia and BRICS — trap or opportunity?