☕️ Quran teacher charged with rape, molest of underaged sisters in, prosecution said at least 10 other child victims

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

RM9.40 per kg — the ceiling price of standard chicken in Malaysia, as determined by the Cabinet.

There are 580 sick housing developments in Malaysia, out of 2,552 launched residential projects, as of March 31, 2022. A ‘sick project’ is when the construction progress is delayed by more than 30%. The figure means one in five homeowners suffer due to errant property development companies.

Top Gun: Maverick brought in more than USD1 bil at the worldwide box office, according to Paramount. “Maverick” is the first Tom Cruise film to reach the billion-dollar milestone.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

1. Jihad Tangani Inflasi” (Jihad on Addressing Inflation), led by Annuar Musa, would coordinate efforts to control the rise in prices more efficiently and effectively. The team will meet twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays to discuss and address issues raised by the rakyat. We certainly hope the leader wouldn’t be too bougie this time around after he was allegedly said to have worn a Richard Mille timepiece worth close to RM1 mil last year.

2. NFSW news ahead — Ashaari Ibrahim, who teaches al-Quran at his home, was charged with 10 counts of rape and seven counts of sexual assault against two sisters between 2014 and 2021. The 74-year-old man claimed trial for all the charges at Seberang Prai Sessions Court. The prosecution team prevented the court from granting Ashaari bail because the former claims there are at least 10 other child victims that could refuse to come forward if Ashaari is given bail and visits the victims.

3. Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd (BPMB) initiated legal action against 27 defendants, including its former president and group managing director (MD) Datuk Mohd Zafer Hashim, seeking RM564.99 mil in losses and damages arising from a RM400 mil loan granted to Aries Telecoms (M) Bhd. BPMB accused the defendants of conspiring and using unlawful means to defraud the development financial institutions (DFI). According to BPMB, the loan was disbursed to Aries without fulfilling the necessary conditions.

4. The prosecution in Najib Tun Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd refuted the former prime minister’s allegations that Justice Mohd Nazlan has a conflict of interest due to the justice’s position in Maybank Bhd previously. This was publicly known and was not objected to by the defendant earlier. The prosecution team added the former prime minister failed to show any connection between his allegations and the SRC charges presided over by the judge and called it a red herring. What is red herring? A distraction.

Shorts

1. Moderate or severely immunocompromised children (certified by medical experts) aged between five to 17 will be given the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

2. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) gave green light to the proposed merger of Celcom-Digi (MergeCo). Axiata and Digi said the merger will provide better network quality and coverage to its users and catalyse the growth of 5G.

3. No more last-minute Raya this time around as the assistant secretary to the Conference of Rulers, Mohd Aseral Jusman, announced that Muslims in Malaysia will celebrate Aidiladha on July 10 (Sunday).

Been looking around for sourdough loaves? Well — there is a new baker in town! Mention COFFEEBREAK & get 10% OFF of your orders.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

1. Turkey, the only party opposing it, reached a deal with NATO to admit Sweden and Finland to the military alliance. All 30 NATO members must unanimously agree to accept a new member. Turkey rejected the Scandinavian countries’ bid to join NATO earlier as the two countries were supporting a group that Turkey considered as terrorists and also blocked arms sales to Turkey. Read more here on the initial roadblocks by Turkey and the compromises achieved.

2. Singapore will be investing USD14 bil to build the world’s largest automated port by 2040, powered by drones and driverless vehicles and will have the capacity of 65 mil twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) containers. Singapore currently is the world’s biggest trans-shipment hub and will likely retain this title. For comparison, Malaysia’s largest port, Port of Tanjung Lepas, managed a throughput of 9.8 mil TEUs in 2020.

3. Scotland is making its second attempt to be an independent country and secede from Britain. Its First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced plans for a second referendum on Scottish independence in October next year. Scotland, with a population of 5.5 mil rejected independence in 2014 (55% against, 45% for). Johor, watch this space.

4. Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, the high-profile sex trafficker that sexually abused teenage girls as young as 14, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking minors and recruiting and grooming girls to have sexual encounters with Epstein between 1994 and 2004. Epstein mysteriously committed suicide in 2019 at 66 while awaiting his trial. His circle of friends and acquaintances includes many prominent people like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, Bill Gates etc. Until today, the court has not disclosed Epstein’s client list.

5. On China:

   1. China’s no.2 property developer China Vanke Co. said the property market has bottomed with prices in secondary market transactions starting to rise. Yu Liang, its chairman, mentioned that the market didn’t ‘rebound’ but rather ‘recovered’ and recovery will take a long while.

   2. China has acquired imagery data covering the whole of Mars after circling the planet more than 1,300 times from its unmanned Tianwen-1 probe that arrived at the red planet in Feb 2021.

6. Reports are emerging that Afghan elites and former government officials that have escaped Afghanistan after being overthrown by the Taliban are now living in luxury condos in Dubai and beachside villas in California whilst the nation is facing humanitarian crisis and millions of its people are starving. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani lived in a luxury suite at the 5-star St Regis Hotel in Abu Dhabi after escaping Afghanistan. Russia said the president fled with a helicopter full of cash.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. Dark humour ahead — Same energy as the disproportionate number of Indians that died in police custody.

2. NSFW — CCTV captured the missile that struck a shopping mall in Ukraine.

3. PM Ismail Sabri really likes Burberry.