☕️ Ukraine's "I Want to Live" hotline receiving lots of calls from Russian troops enquiring on surrendering

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

FC Barcelona raked in a profit of £86 mil for the last financial year after having made a loss of £422 mil the previous year. One of the financial levers used by the football club to help recover its balance sheet was the selling of 24.5% of its audiovisual content hub, Barca Studios, to Orpheus Media for EUR100 mil (£84.6 mil). Crypto platform Socios.com also bought 24.5% of Barca Studios for the same amount prior.

6.4% — the World Bank’s revised forecast of Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2022. The bank’s lead economist Malaysia said the economy’s performance in the first half of 2022, driven by better domestic consumption and robust export growth from both the electrical and electronics (E&E) and commodity sectors, contributed to the revision.

RM250,000 worth of bird nests bound for Vietnam was seized at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) by the Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services Department (Maqis) because the passenger did not have valid documents such as export permits or health certificates. PSA — export of animal products without a valid permit is an offence. If convicted, offenders are liable to be fined not more than RM100,000 or jailed for not more than six months or both.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

One step closer to abolishing the decriminalisation of suicide attempts.

Khairy Jamaluddin (KJ) is making strides as the health minister as he said the minister will prepare a new Cabinet memorandum relating to the application to abolish Section 209 of the Penal Code (Act 574) to decriminalise suicide attempts as proposed by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).

The results of a study conducted by the AGC will be discussed with stakeholders, namely the Home Ministry, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), the Malaysian Armed Forces and the AGC.

KJ also announced face masks are no longer required on flights.

After more than 31 months in power, the minister continues to use “Salah DAP!”

Human Resources M. Saravanan said the acute labour shortage facing the country is due to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, especially its DAP leaders. The minister said PH had imposed a moratorium on the intake of foreign workers from Bangladesh in September 2019, and no memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were renewed during the 22 months when PH ruled. Saravanan’s fury came after DAP’s sec-gen Lim Guan Eng criticised the former. Lim heard from the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) that only 47,000 foreign workers have been recruited since January this year for all sectors, compared to 385,000 applications approved.

Another day, another claim of “gift” to Najib Razak.

During Najib Razak’s trial over the misappropriation of RM2.28 bil 1Malaysian Development Bhd (1MDB) funds (1MDB-Tanore), defence lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed suggested that the RM60.6 mil into Najib’s personal account in 2011 was part of the promised gift of USD100 mil made by the Saudi royal family.

Wan Aizuddin provided and read a letter dated Feb 1, 2011, allegedly signed off by Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud and addressed to Najib. The sender told Najib he will be given USD100 mil as a gift because of their friendship and Najib’s new ideas as a modern Islamic leader.

If the letter is indeed authentic, what about the USD681 mil donation claim? And why was USD620 mil returned?

And who is Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud? Wan Aizuddin did not say who he is. A quick Google search directed us to Wikipedia, which indicated the person (if it’s the same one) died on Feb 23, 1969.

The purported letter is raising more questions than erasing them. Well, the “gift” claim didn’t work the first time, we highly doubt it would work the second time.

Najib Razak’s 2nd SRC International Sdn Bhd case will be pushed to Nov 2022.

Najib Razak’s review application over his SRC International Sdn Bhd conviction is up for its first case management on Oct 21. Hence his second case had to be postponed.

Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, who sentenced Rosmah Mansor to 10 years’ jail and a RM970 million fine in a separate case, chaffed Najib Razak’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah during Najib Razak’s RM27mil in SRC International case mention.

Justice Mohamad Zaini (to Shafee): “You will be conducting the review?”

Shafee Abdullah: “I am. I’m back on board after some hustle, but I’m back.”

Justice Mohamad Zaini “Should have never left.”

Another rough day at work, as they say, but it doesn’t end there for Shafee.

Muhammad Shafee Abdullah also failed to obtain a stay of proceedings in the suit against him by the Malaysian Government through the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for failing to pay income tax arrears amounting to RM9.41 mil. Shafee filed the application pending the disposal of his appeal to the Special Commissioners of Income Tax Malaysia. However, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed the application on the basis that “there are no special circumstances.” The hearing date for the suit will be contingent on the case management happening on Oct 6.

Shorts

1. Lee Zii Jia is currently the third-best shuttler in the world, according to Badminton World Federation (BWF). Lee said he is aiming to secure the number two spot by year-end after his European tour — Denmark Open, French Open, and Germany’s Hylo Open.

2. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has been on a roll lately. A former Pos Malaysia employee appeared before the Ayer Keroh Session’s Court to face 26 charges of accepting bribes totalling RM248,000. The employee is said to have accepted bribes to expedite the payment process to a logistics company.

3. Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) is taking action against the scalpers of the highly-coveted NFC TnG Cards. Minister Nanta Linggi said the ministry’s Enforcement Division has issued notices to the parties involved. If the scalpers refuse or fail to respond, they may be subject to further action.

4. The Mercedes Formula One (F1) team — Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Toto Wolff — are in Kuala Lumpur ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend. Wolff announced the team will renew its title and technical partnership with Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) from 2026.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Russia - of pipeline and hotline

The European Union (EU) and NATO are saying that the leaked Nord Stream gas pipelines that transport gas from Russia to Europe were sabotaged but held back from laying the blame on anyone yet. Ukraine, of course, was quick to accuse Russia. Kremlin denied the accusation but added that sabotage can’t be ruled out. Sabotage could be a possibility, as German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) warned Germany during the summer about potential attacks on the pipelines. 

The Danish military released footage of natural gas swirling to the sea’s surface below. 

In an unprovoked war, there’s no shame in surrendering oneself to preserve life. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense says it has been receiving “a lot of calls” on its Ukrainian hotline by Russian men drafted to war in the recent partial mobilisation announced by Putin asking how they can give themselves up. The hotline, called “I Want to Live”, was announced by the ministry on Sep 19. It also received calls from drafted Russians that are yet to mobilise. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an address delivered in Russian, said that Russian troops will be allowed to surrender confidentially without the obligation to return to Russia in a prisoner exchange. 

IMF’s unusual public scolding of UK fiscal plans

In an unusually outspoken statement against a G7 nation, the IMF has criticised UK’s GBP45 bil proposal amongst it to cut taxes for high-income earners, saying that it would increase inequality and further increase inflation and has urged the new PM Liz Truss’s government to reverse course.

The mini-budget announce last Friday has caused turmoil in the market, forcing mortgage lenders in the UK to temporarily suspend their loan products and reprice them. The Bank of England is responding to the volatility by immediately launching its emergency bond-buying programme of long-dated UK government bonds of up to GBP5 bil per day until Oct 14. Intervening to buy means the central bank will absorb the selling pressure from investors that want to dump their bonds, thus minimising the fall in bond prices. Falling bond prices will have a wide-ranging impact on investors’ portfolios (i.e. pension funds).

Wall Street giants fined USD1.8 bil over staff use of Whatsapp, personal devices for work communication.

US regulators fined 16 financial firms, including Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Citigroup and UBS, a combined USD1.8 bil, marking one of the largest collection resolutions, after staff discussed deals and trades on their personal devices and apps between January 2018 through September 2021. 

Institutions are required by law to preserve business communications for market regulators to oversee financial markets, ensure compliance and gather evidence. The use of personal channels impedes the regulators’ ability to monitor market participants effectively. Communicating using personal devices has been a long-standing issue for financial institutions, which was exacerbated by the pandemic when bankers and traders had to work from home. 

Singapore airline scene — a bomb threat,  a landmark acquisition

F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to escort a Singapore Airlines flight from San Francisco to Singapore after a man made a bomb threat and assaulted the crew. The 37-year-old man of foreign nationality was arrested after the plane landed and is suspected of consumption of drugs.

In a non-life-threatening situation instead, Singapore’s SATS Ltd, a catering and gateway service, announced it will acquire the world’s largest air cargo handler Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), at an enterprise value of EUR2.25 bil. WFS operates in more than 160 major airports in over 20 countries with annual sales of EUR1.3 bil. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek owns 39.7% of SATS and has voted in favour of the acquisition. 

China’s president made a public appearance, dispelling rumours of a coup.

Over the weekend, unverified rumours were on fire that Chinese President Xi Jinping is under home arrest by China’s military. He made his first public appearance since returning from a summit in Uzbekistan at an exhibition in Beijing, dispelling these rumours. 

We will get a better idea of whether Xi has a tight grip over his position and power on Oct 16, when the once-in-5-years Chinese Communist Party’s meeting convenes as Xi is expected to secure a third term as leader. Xi eliminated the two-term limit for the presidency in 2018. 

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. The Deadpool 3 team is showing the best way to tease a movie.

   1. First teaser

   2. Second teaser

2. An easy and simple breakdown of the Kampung Baru land controversy and how its residents are allegedly getting exploited. Oh, we sponsored this video too :)