☕️ Missing person - are we seeing rising cases and when to make a report

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

At just 15 years old, Poh Yu Tian from Penang has become the country’s youngest international master.(IM) at chess. He is also the 10th Malaysian and the third in Penang to ever rise to that rank after bagging the Under-18 title at the 8th East Asian Youth Chess Championship (EAYCC) on July 21. His next goal - to be amongst the global chess community elite by becoming Malaysia’s first chess grandmaster, in which only about 2,000 players have earned the title. Learn more about chess titles here.

Another title Penang can claim by its government - a cashless state, at least amongst its state departments and agencies. The state has been officially recognised as a cashless state this year after achieving more than 95% cashless transaction rate between January and May. Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said Penang is the only state that consistently achieved that rate. During this period, all state departments and agencies have completed 5,490,371 cashless transactions, which makes up about 95.31% of total transactions, totalling RM516,062,766.73 (averaging RM93.99 per transaction).

Meet Apex - the most expensive fossil ever sold at an auction for USD44.6 mil (RM206.8 mil), exceeding pre-sale estimates by 11 times. Apex, a plant-eating stegosaurus was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York City and “ranks high among the most complete skeletons ever found”. The discovery of Apex was rather recent, only in 2022 by a palaeontologist near the suitably named town of Dinosaur in the US state of Colorado. The previous dinosaur fossil sale record was set in 2020, when a T-rex known as Stan fetch USD31.8 mil (RM147.5 mil). The buyer of Apex was billionaire Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel hedge fund who also paid USD43.2 mil (RM200.3 mil) for a first-edition copy of the US Constitution in 2021.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Another day, another missing person
Police are seeking the public’s help to locate a 14-year-old girl, Puteri Damia Darwisyah Abdullah, who was reported missing on Sunday. She was last seen at 6pm, on Sunday in Subang Jaya. Should the public find the teenager or have information about her whereabouts, they can contact the Subang Jaya district police HQ at 03-7862 7222. 

When is the right time to report a missing person? Time is of essence to locate them, according to police. KL police chief Rusdi Mohd Isa said a police report must be lodged as soon as possible when there are suspicious elements in their disappearance. He added that there is no such SOP that states a missing person report can only be lodged after 24 hours of a disappearance (can’t believe things we watched on TV!). 

Are more people going missing? Though there seems to be an increasing trend of missing persons, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution refuted these allegations, stating that between 2020 and June 2024, the cases of missing persons remain at around 900 cases annually, without showing an upward trend. Of the reported cases annually, 85%-90% of them were found safely. 

The upgraded Subang Airport comes with curfew
Following the first phase of the upgrade works on Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah AIrport (Subang Airport) which completed on June 30, the airport can now support double its previous capacity of 1.5 mil passengers per year. Under this first phase of the upgrade, a curfew from 10pm to 6am is set in place to control noise pollution as many residential areas have been built around the airport. 

Since 1998, Subang airport has been limited to operating propeller-driven aircraft such as turboprops, business jets, and helicopters to avoid cannibalising KLIA’s traffic. In Feb 2023, the government gave the go-ahead for the return of scheduled jet passenger and cargo flights to turn Subang airport into a premium city airport. 5 airlines including AirAsia, Batik Air, Firefly, TransNusa and Scoot will commence Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-800 narrow body aircraft flights out of Subang Airport next month. Earlier in March, Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd (MAHB) revealed that it will spend RM3.7 bil until 2030 on its revised Subang Airport Regeneration Plan (SARP), which will include a full-fledged new green city airport terminal. 

99 Speed Mart: Listing date, valuation
The following info is according to sauces, as they are not authorised to speak to the media. The nation’s top mini-market operator 99 Speed Mart Retail Holdings (99SM) aims to go listing on September 9, or 9.9 (good feng shui day probably). The IPO will raise RM2.36 bil for up to a 17% stake in the company, giving it an implied market cap of RM13.88 bil. This would be the country’s biggest IPO in 7 years since South Korea’s Lotte Chemical Titan Holding’s listing in 2017. The offering will also be Southeast Asia’s largest IPO in over a year since Amman Mineral Internasional’s listing in Indonesia last July. This one single IPO is about 75% of the total RM3.12 bil Malaysian IPO raised this year so far. 

Shorts

1. Terengganu stadium seats: Men to the right, women to the left
   Terengganu will introduce shariah-compliant seats at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin during football matches to address the intermingling between sexes effective July 30 where gender-segregated seats will be introduced for women. Things can still happen behind the scene. 

2. The Inside Scoop run-in with the Ministry of Health over its cough syrup ice cream
   The homegrown ice-cream chain has been instructed by the Health Ministry to stop the sale of its latest limited edition flavour Ubat Batuk Cap Ibu dan Anak (Pei Pa Koa) flavoured ice cream. It has removed and discarded the flavour with immediate effect across all its 49 outlets. The ice cream chain said it assumed it was okay to launch such flavour as other ice cream chains in the region did the same. However, the Health Ministry’s regulation prohibits the preparation or sale of food products mixed with medicine registered under the ministry.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Gaza’s worsening health emergency
As if there are still not enough reasons for a ceasefire, the displaced people of Gaza have yet to endure another devastating outcome of the ceaseless fire from Israel : a polio epidemic. Gaza’s ministry of health has detected the presence of the bacteria (component poliovirus type) in sewage that collects and flows between the tents of the displaced and declared a polio epidemic across the Palestinian enclave.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the faecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988, thanks to mass vaccination campaigns, and efforts continue to eradicate it everywhere.

On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children from being infected. Nevertheless, adults with previous vaccinations still need booster shots, including healthcare workers.

Report: US could burn through its ammo in 'as few as 3 to 4 weeks' in a war with China
Things are not really shining and lookin’ good on the military front for the US - a new high-profile report (view here) on US national defence has found that the Pentagon could actually deplete its munitions within "3 to 4 weeks" in a prolonged war with China (or Russia). The report stated that ammunition stockpiles are particularly lacking,with some important munitions, such as anti-ship missiles, lasting only a few days. Ironically, the shortage has endured even after the US recently intensified arms production to supply Ukraine.

The US commission who came up with the report also warned that defence production as a whole is in bad shape, saying the wider industry doesn't have the capacity to meet national needs even in peacetime. Disturbingly, they also cited that the US public is "largely unaware" of the threats to their country and its allies, saying that most Americans don't understand how major war stands to affect every aspect of their lives from water and power supplies to internet services.

Race and growths of the techs

• Canva to buy AI startup Leonardo.ai

  Canva is racing to take on creative software leader Adobe Inc. This second acquisition (deal terms not disclosed) for the year is the quickest acquisition yet for Canva, and it closed just months after taking over the Affinity suite of software popular with Apple Inc Mac users in a deal worth several hundred million pounds. This latest deal gains Canva a 120-person team at Leonardo.ai that works on software to help users generate and edit images online with text prompts. Canva, which raised funds at a USD26 bil valuation this year, is one of several fast-rising creative software developers chasing market leader Adobe.

• ByteDance’s CapCut threatens Adobe (and Canva)

  China tech powerhouse and TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd is also fast on its feet, gaining fast traction among users and threatening to lure them away from Adobe Inc and Canva Inc. Since launching outside China in 2020, CapCut has picked up more than 300 mil monthly mobile active users, commands 81% of the total active users for mobile video editing, and generated about USD125 mil so far this year, according to market intelligence. This simplified app does threaten complicated apps like Adobe Photoshop, which requires a steep learning curve compared to CapCut’s simple interfaces and easy export to social media.

Shorts

1. Triathlon might become duathlon Olympics due to polluted river

   Triathlon Olympians have to wait yet another day to race for their dreams, thanks to the increase of pollution levels in the Seine river. Despite a massive investment of EUR 1.4 bil to clean-up the river, Paris is still left defeated by the Seine’s water quality which to date contains amounts of bacteria E.Coli that is above the acceptable threshold. Organisers announce that should levels of bacteria remain too high by Wednesday morning, both the men's and women's races are likely to be postponed to Friday. If it is still unacceptable, the swim leg will then be scrapped altogether and athletes will compete in a duathlon instead.
   Speaking of E.Coli, the swimming poolwater at the Johor Baru City Council (MBJB) Aquatic Centre has been confirmed to be contaminated with the bacteria causing 19 students to be hospitalised after experiencing vomitting, fever and itchy skin.

2. Air NZ is the first big carrier to drop its climate goal

   Air New Zealand has announced that it is dropping the 2030 climate goal target of 29% reduced carbon emissions, an ambituous taget when a 5% reduction goal over the same period was set by the global aviation industry. The reason? Troubles at securing sustainable jet fuels (SAF) and more energy efficient newer planes. CEO Greg Foran in the statement admits that the potential delays to their fleet renewal plan does pose an additional risk to the target's achievability. However, Air NZ remains committed to an industry-wide goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

3. At least 93 dead and dozens missing in India’s triple landslides

   Three massive landslides surged down the hills of the Western Ghats in Wayanad in Kerala, India in the early hours of the morning, amid a heavy rainfall on Tuesday. Hundreds were asleep in homes that were swept away or crushed as a river of mud, rocks and uprooted trees swept down the steep hilly terrain. Kerala chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, confirmed the bodies of 93 people had been uncovered so far and dozens more were feared missing. Rescue operations are ongoing, albeit difficulties such as inaccessible terrains, poor weather conditions and destroyed roads.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Insane no-splash dive by China’s 17-year-old springboard diver Quan Hongchan at the Paris Olympics.

2. The photo below looks edited but it’s a real shot taken at the surfing Olympics game by French photographer Jerome Brouillet. Broulliet captured the perfect moment when Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina suspended in mid-air, as if stood on solid ground, celebrating his 9.9 score.