☕️ Muhyiddin Yassin seek Lim Kit Siang's support to be PM in 2016

1. MARKET SUMMARY

“If you kill a cockroach, you are a hero. If you kill a butterfly, you are bad. Morality has aesthetic standards.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), a German philosopher famous for uncompromising criticisms of traditional European morality and religion.

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

170 — the number of flights Taylor Swift’s private jet has taken since the start of the year until July 19, 2022, beating the likes of Kylie Jenner and Drake. Total flight time was approximately 22,923 minutes or 15.9 days and an estimated 8.293 tonnes of carbon was emitted — only 1,184.8 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions.

Remember the jackpot in the US that we reported? Someone from Chicago won it — USD1.337 bil. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 mil. There are two options for the winner — the annuity option, paid annually over 29 years or USD780.5 mil cash upfront before taxes. Closer to home, a 56-year-old retiree won Magnum Life grand prize last week that pays out RM1k every day for 20 years (RM7.3 mil in total). A solid retirement nest egg, better than EPF — assuming a certain party (IYKYK) doesn’t come into power and shut down the number of forecast operators in the next 20 years.

32.7 mil — the estimated population of Malaysia for 2022, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). Chief Statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin (Malaysia’s Manny Pacquiao lookalike) said Malaysians now make up 92.6% of the population, up 0.5% compared to 2021, due to the lower number of foreigners.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

1. Former PM Najib Razak’s judgement day gets closer as the Federal Court has denied Najib’s legal counsel's request to postpone the SRC International appeal case that is slated to begin from Aug 15 to 26. Deputy public prosecutor Ashraf Adrin Kamarul told reporters that the first day of the hearing will be to hear Najib’s bid to adduce fresh evidence over the involvement of trial judge Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, the High Court Judge who convicted Najib back in July 2020.On another note, the former PM seems unfazed by the court case as he campaigned for Barisan Nasional (BN) at the Selangor BN convention, saying the coalition is tired of being the opposition in Selangor and believes they have a chance of retaking the state. Maybe BN does stand a chance after all, as Selangorians are the least happy in the country.

2. Malaysia’s first two gold medals at the Birmingham Commonwealth have been won by weightlifters, exceeding the expectations of the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) of one gold and two silver medals. Mohamad Aniq won in the men’s 55kg category and set a new Games record of 142kg, while Muhamad Aznil Bidin won in the men’s 61kg category. Congratulations!

3. PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob launched this year’s National Month celebrations by planting the Jalur Gemilang in a console on stage. The PM asks Keluarga Malaysia to fly Jalur Gemilang (Malaysia’s flag) at their premises this month to liven up the National Day celebrations. Would you do it? 

4. The Confederation of Malaysian Tobacco Manufacturers (CMTM) wants the government to review the Tobacco Product and Smoking Control Bill 2022 as the group says the government could lose more than RM5 bil in revenue from the industry should the Bill gets passed. However, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin refuted the claims as he said the tobacco industry only impacts 0.18% of gross domestic product based on a study carried out by the ministry. Khairy added the loss of national productivity due to cigarettes is higher than the impact on the economy, but no figures were given.

5. Kudos to the police force for their quick action — nine policemen, believed to be involved in an alleged extortion case involving a businessman were arrested at the Gombak district police headquarters on July 29. The 32-year-old businessman made a police report on July 26.

6. Former PM Muhyiddin Yassin’s desire to be PM has been years in the making. DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang (LKS) revealed that Muhyiddin sought LKS’ support to be PM at Le Meridien Hotel in 2016, but LKS declined it as DAP was committed to Anwar Ibrahim. This came after Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Harun during his speech at the book launch of Muhyiddin’s biography, said that Muhyiddin never asked for the PM’s post.

7. Last Friday, Klang MP Charles Santiago lodged a police report over allegations of power abuse by the former attorney-general (AG) Apandi Ali in the latter’s handling of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case. Police secretary Datuk Noorsiah Mohd Saaduddin said Apandi Ali has been called to give his statement today. The case is being investigated under Section 217 of the Penal Code — the offence of public servants who disobey the law with the intention of saving others from torture or property from confiscation.

8. The US and Chinese officials said that the Chinese Long March 5 rocket crashed down to Earth over the Indian and Pacific oceans. Many Sarawakians managed to catch the dramatic event like a scene out of a sci-fi movie. One internet user said an "explosion" was heard over Kuching. The Malaysian Space Agency (Mysa) had previously said that the debris from the rocket was unlikely to land in Malaysia.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

1. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the US third-highest ranking official after the President and Vice President, will visit Asian countries, including Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea, in her trip to the region, skipping any mention of a possible visit to Taiwan according to a statement from her office. In response to her possible visit to Taiwan, China said it was conducting military exercises off its coast opposite Taiwan after warning earlier that China would not hesitate to take military action should the visit materialise. Experts on China warn that Pelosi’s visit could heighten the risk of an “accident” instead of a risk of an imminent attack on Taiwan, which could spark a military crisis as military vehicles (i.e. jet planes) would be in very close proximity that increases the potential of an accident.

2. An earlier report by IMF shows that the Russian economy is “holding up better than expected” despite sweeping sanctions. However, the report draws analyses, data, and forecasts from the Russian government's economic releases, which are deemed doubtful and cherry-picked. Instead, a Yale University analysis found that the Russian economy is imploding in its report released on July 20, relying on private Russian-language data sources and sources like high-frequency consumer data. The study found that the corporate exodus out of Russia has reversed nearly 30 years' worth of foreign investment, as these companies accounted for 40% of the country’s GDP. However, the research team added that the Russian economy appears resilient as the government is flooding the economy with “artificial liquidity” and “draconian capital controls”.

3. Meet the new advertising giant — Amazon. The tech giant is quickly making its mark also an advertising giant and is one of the company’s fastest-growing areas. It sells ads not only on its marketplace but also on its game streaming site, Twitch and on sites it doesn't own across the internet (sounds a lot like Google). In 2021, its ads business brought in USD31 bil in revenue, making it the third-largest digital advertising company behind Facebook and Google. In its recent quarterly earnings, its advertising services brought in USD8.76 bil in revenue, up 18% YoY. Compared to the two ad giants with a combined market share of more than 50%, Amazon’s share of the US digital ad market is expected to hit 12.6% this year vs 7.7% in 2019 — lots of room for growth and lunch boxes to eat.

4. Beijing is reinforcing its “common prosperity” drive as highly paid dealmakers in state-owned firms are having their pay and perks cut. “Common prosperity” is Beijing’s important initiative hatched last year to reduce income inequality that could impact the legitimacy of the Communist party. It was also one of the factors behind Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on tech companies. Read more here on “common prosperity”. Not that we are promoting communist idealism, but it’s something corporate leaders in GLCs, GLICs and political leaders should take heed of.

Shorts:

1. China tech giant Alibaba became the latest Chinese company to be added to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) list of Chinese companies to be delisted, causing its stock to tank by 11%. More than 270 Chinese companies are on the list over a long-running dispute on the auditing compliance of US-Chinese listed firms.

2. The energy crisis in Germany is real when it is considering cancelling the annual celebration, Oktoberfest in Munich over the shortage of gas supply caused by Russia. The event was on hiatus for the past two years due to the pandemic and is slated to resume in late September. Malaysia’s Religious Affairs Minister might be inspired by this development in Germany. 

3. Protesters breached Iraq’s parliament for the second time last week on Saturday in a show of support for influential leader Muqtada al-Sadr and to stop the nomination of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as the new PM. More than 125 people were injured.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. A horrific mishap during the Hong Kong boyband Mirror concert - a massive screen fell after a metal cord supporting it snapped and seriously injured two dancers, according to a preliminary finding. Warning — NFSW; graphic video.

2. Heartwarming sportsmanship when Malaysia badminton coach Hendrawan offered his shoes to Jamaica national champion Samuel Rickets during a group match between both countries after the latter’s shoe was damaged.

3. The Bolt Bump