☕️ PAS' 30-year plan to have a PAS PM by 2050

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

43 original movies - Netflix will be releasing a bonanza of movies for the rest of 2022, outpacing the 35 movies that will be released in theatres during the same period. To put it into perspective, combined, that’s an average of 4.5 new movies released every week for the rest of the 17 full weeks in 2022. Netflix is expected to spend USD17 bil on content this year. You can see the full list of upcoming movies on Netflix in the preceding link.

1 in 20 children in Malaysia aged 5 to 9 years old is estimated to have mental disorders including developmental disorders, according to Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali. The condition is more pervasive amongst adolescents aged between 10 to 19 years old with 1 in 8 estimated to have mental disorders.

RM5.17 bil cash - ain’t good times for the glove makers but at least 2 of the big fours are sitting on a whooping amount of cash. Kossan and Supermax have RM2.2 bil (87 sen per share) and RM2.97 bil (RM1.11 per share) each respectively on their balance sheet - a combined balance of more than RM5 bil. In the case of Supermax, its share price is 75 sen - in other words, simplistically put, you can buy RM1.11 cash per share with just a 75 sen per share investment in its shares.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

All things GE15:

1. Khairy Jamaluddin reluctantly give away his Rembau parliamentary seatThe 15-year incumbent MP of Rembau parliamentary district, Khairy Jamaluddin, is being forced out of his parliamentary seat for the next general election as the UMNO deputy president, Mohamad Hasan a.k.a ‘Tok Mat’, is planning to contest for the Rembau seat. At the moment, the disgruntled Khairy has not yet decided which seat he will contest for the next GE, even hinting that he may not contest for any seat at all. Who is he even kidding? An incumbent politician just backing down so easily and giving up his political pie?

2. PAS eyeing to win 40 seats in the next GE, PAS PM by 2050During PAS’s annual assembly or ‘muktamar’, its election director and Kedah MB, Muhammad Sanusi said that the party will be contesting in 80 seats for GE15, with the target of winning 50% of the seats contested (40 seats). At the moment, PAS is embarking on a 30-year plan to have a PAS prime minister by 2050. Currently, PAS is holding 18 seats in the Parliament, so to win 40 seats in GE15 might be a moonshot dream even for a party like PAS that has a ‘white moon’ on its logo.

3. Lone ranger PSM may join the opposition coalitionThe Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) may join the opposition ‘big tent’ given the candidates remain as members even if they win. However, according to PSM’s secretary-general, Sivarajan Arumugam, observing the current trend, it might be impossible to see a united opposition front being formed before GE15, and we may see another repeat of the Johor state election, where five or six candidates contesting for the same seat.

Putrajaya still trying to recover misappropriated 1MDB assets

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is currently investigating a number of individuals abroad in relation to the misappropriated funds of 1MDB. For the past two years, MACC has been in contact with the Kuwaiti government in order to retrieve frozen cash that is said to be hidden in the state. MACC is focused on recovering all assets related to 1MDB but also hinted that any investigation involving a foreign government may be complicated.

LCS Scandal 2.0

After Amanah Party’s vice president, Mujahid Yusof Rawa urged the Public Accounts Committee to investigate TH Heavy Engineering Bhd (THHE) that is linked to the delay in the delivery of the offshore patrol vessel (OPV) to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), Tabung Haji issued a statement that its interest in THHE was taken over by Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd (UJSB), a subsidiary of Ministry of Finance in 2018. The transfer of THHE to UJSB was done due to the poor performance of the former.

Three OPVs are planned to be built by THHE the first ship, KM Tun Fatimah, was planned to be completed in 2020.

Shorts:

1. After U Mobile and Maxis snubbed the state-owned 5G agency, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), Putrajaya is inviting the remaining telcos to up their stake in DNB. As for Axiata-Digi (upon the conclusion of their merger), the entity will only be allowed to hold a maximum of 25% stake in DNB.

2. Padang Terap, a city bordering Thailand, will receive an upgrade in order to boost the cross-border trade with ‘the land of smiles’. Several infrastructure projects will be conducted, including the revamp of the existing Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (CIQ).

3. Large-scale floods are expected across the country starting from mid-November, mainly due to heavy downpours from the northeast monsoon, amplified La Nina phenomenon. Good or bad time to have GE15? Depending on whom you are asking.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

G7 agrees on Russian oil price cap

The G7 wealthy nations comprising Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan the UK and the US have rolled out plan to cap Russian oil prices to come into effect on 5 Dec in a bid to limit Russia’s oil revenue. The plan, though lacking in details such as at what prices the cap would be set, plans to ban insurance and financing of shipments of Russian oil and petroleum products unless it’s sold below the capped price. 90% of the world’s ships are insured through a London-based association of insurers. Russia responded by saying that it would not sell oil to countries that impose price caps on its crude oil.  

Despite sanctions, Russia’s oil revenue still grew since the start of the Ukraine invasion, thanks to demand from nations that are less friendly with the West This price cap measure could be counterproductive - Russia could stop exporting oil, shrinking supply and causing oil prices to spike. In other words, what Russia stands to lose in export volume could be compensated by the rise in oil prices.

Let’s see who would blink first - Russia vs G7.

Another unique problem Russia faces - is its strong ruble currency, which has appreciated nearly 40% against the dollar since the war. With oil priced in USD, a strong ruble will cause its revenue to shrink. To counter this, Russia plans to buy as much as USD70 bil in yuan and other friendly currencies to diversify its reserves and slow the ruble’s surge.

Adult content industry: OnlyFans owner’s USD500+ mil dividends, AI disruption

The reclusive owner of OnlyFans, Leonid Radvinsky, received USD517 mil in dividends over 2 years since 2021 according to its annual report, with an average of USD1 mil per day in 2022.

The adult entertainment site (though there are non-adult content creators as well, such as Cardi B and DJ Khalid) saw a boom in business caused by the pandemic. In 2021, 2 mil content creators on its platform raked in almost USD4 bil, 128% jump YoY of content viewers and 34% rise in the number of content creators. OnlyFans takes a 20% cut from creators - it more than doubled its revenue from USD358 in 2020 to USD932 mil in 2021, with pre-tax profit up by seven-fold to USD433 mil.

Even adult content creators have to fear for their jobs due to artificial intelligence (AI). AI-powered text-to-image tech has been put to use to generate porn and raises concerns that it could hurt adult content creators. Basically, your description in the text will be interpreted (eg. A. Ali + backdoor) by the AI tool to create numerous image versions of the text input.

In history: Egyptian pyramids logistics mystery solved, how to protect against vampires

1. How did ancient Egyptians move millions of blocks, each weighing 2.5 - 15 tons, to build the 3 great pyramids of Giza 4,500 years ago? Answer: not aliens - through nature, water, or specifically a dried-up river. Researchers uncovered a now dried-up river brand of the Nile that came right up to the pyramid, enabling the Egyptians to haul these blocks. The pyramids are 4 miles away from the Nile river in current times, puzzling scientists and archaeologists how the blocks were moved in ancient times.

2. Back in the early 11th century, Eastern Europeans had already developed fears of vampires and treated their dead with anti-vampire rituals. Archaeologists discovered the remains of a female “vampire” in a 17th-century Polish graveyard, with a sickle around her neck in such a way that if she tried to get up, the head would have been cut off or injured, which became a common burial practice in 17th century in response to a reported outbreak of vampires.

Shorts:

1. US provocation of China continues - the Biden administration announced a USD1.1 bil arms sale to Taiwan.

2. A person’s blood type may be linked to their risk of having an early stroke, according to a new analysis by University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers. The study found people with early stroke tend to have blood type A and are less likely to have blood type O as compared to people with late stroke and people who never had stroke.Understand what stroke is in 5 minutes.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. Pakistan flood from space

2. For unknown reasons, the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai projected Jalur Gemilang on the skyscraper to commemorate Merdeka Day. A single 3-minute display starts from AED250,000 (RM304.5k).