☕️ #undibanjir coming soon

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

In a report released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), for those born in 2022, their average life expectancy is 73.4 years, shorter compared to babies born in 2021 (74.5 years). The declining trend started back in 2020 due to the excess deaths as a result of the pandemic. According to DOSM, Malaysian women will outlive men by 4.5 years and Chinese are expected to have the longest life expectancy, with 73.5 years for males and 79.4 years for females, both exceeding the national average.

The Selangor seems to be well prepared for the upcoming monsoon season — 15,972 members from various central and state agencies will be stationed throughout the state during the northeast monsoon season in the event of any disaster. There will be as many as 796 flood relief centres that can accommodate about 151,000 victims.

Thus far, 261 victims of job scam syndicates have been successfully rescued, according to the Foreign Ministry. 171 victims have been brought back to Malaysia, while the remaining 90 are awaiting the repatriation process.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

GE15 News

1. It looks like our country’s fate is in the hands of UMNO as the political party’s top five have reached a consensus on the dissolution of Parliament, according to the party’s deputy president Mohamad Hasan. The date is not finalised, but rumours are pointing toward mid-October, which will pave the way for the election happening in November 2022.The top five’s consensus drew flak from many Malaysians — from citizens to politicians. #undibanjir was trending on Twitter over the weekend.

   1. Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin said the Cabinet must be consulted before the dissolution of Parliament as per the Constitution.

   2. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim brought up the fact that UMNO does not enjoy a majority in Dewan Rakyat. Thus, the party has no right to force GE15. UMNO has 38 (17.1%) seats out of a total of 222. The party most hated by PAS and UMNO, ironically, has the most seats — DAP (42).

2. Gombak MP Azmin Ali welcomes the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to contest for his seat in the upcoming GE15. In fact, Azmin Ali said, “You can send your wife, your children,” in a jibe aimed at Anwar Ibrahim. The fracas started after Anwar Ibrahim declared he was ready to contest the seat held by ‘traitors’ of Pakatan Harapan.

3. UMNO’s party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the party would only negotiate with PAS if the latter meets three conditions which have been conveyed during a recent meeting between the two party leaders. Zahid kept mum on the three conditions.

The Shah Alam Sports Complex will be demolished.

Both the Shah Alam Stadium and the Malawati Indoor Stadium will be demolished to make way for a new state-of-the-art complex. The new stadium would be football-centric and aimed to obtain FIFA certification to be an international tournament stadium. The stadium’s capacity will be between 35,000 to 45,000 spectators. Selangor Mentri Besar Amirudin Shari promised back in July that the project’s cost would be capped at RM787 mil. The project would play a significant role in the economic development of the state.

Malaysia’s air safety ranking has been restored to Cat 1 by the US.

The air safety ranking for the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) has been restored to Category 1 by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) after the downgrading three years prior. Airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said the country will benefit from the rating as it would strengthen Malaysia’s position as an aviation hub and increase the country’s network connectivity.

Senior Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed there are middlemen for the LCS project. 🤭

According to the minister, the Defence Ministry (Mindef) is in the midst of removing middlemen involved in the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) project to reduce the cost of the vessels. Without the middlemen, Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNSSB) will be able to negotiate directly with local vendors and original equipment manufacturers (OEM).

Who are the middlemen? Contraves Advanced Devices Sdn Bhd (CAD) and Contraves Electrodynamics Sdn Bhd (CED). Why were they there in the first place?

No special treatment in selecting students for public universities — Higher Education Ministry.

Higher Education Ministry director-general Professor Husaini Omar said that there was no preferential treatment in filtering the students for admission into the country’s public universities via the UPUOnline system. The automated system follows the best practices in selecting the best students and the system is based on a meritocracy basis, where 90% of the final score is based on academic marks and the rest are co-curricular marks. Medicine was the most sought-after course, where 1,841 students applied for it and only 692 students gained placement, a 37.59% admission rate.

The UPUOnline system may have room for improvement but it is unfair to blame it on an ‘unfair race quota’ if you do not get a place. The act of involving politicians and using the race card when you do not get entry into universities is, ironically, an act of special treatment.

Shorts

1. The chicken export ban may be lifted soon as the chicken supply in the country stabilises, according to Deputy Agriculture and Food Industries Minister I Ahmad Hamzah. The minister explained that the self-sufficiency level (SSL) for chicken is 104%, while the SSL for eggs is 115%.

2. The investigation of former attorney-general Tommy Thomas’ autobiography has been condensed into four issues from 19 — allegations against the judiciary; disclosure of classified information and secrets; illegal actions, abuse of power and professional negligence; and seditious statements. The investigation paper will be referred to the Attorney General’s Chambers.

3. Palm oil had a bad quarter as the commodity’s prices plummeted by 31% in the July-Sept quarter amid rising inventories and mounting concerns of global economic recession. Influential trader Dorab Mistry predicts the price will hit RM2,500 by the end of the year.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Russia’s annexation was “the most serious escalation” since the beginning of the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the annexation of 4 partially occupied Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia) on Friday following a referendum that involved up to 4 mil people that were asked to vote. The referendum has been denounced as a “sham” and viewed as illegitimate by the international community. NATO has condemned Putin for provoking “the most serious escalation” of the war to date.

It was reported that up to 99.23% of the population in Donetsk and Luhansk voted in favour of joining Russia, an unusually high vote of this nature. Including Crimea, Russia has annexed about 136,000 sq km or more than 22% of Ukraine. An attack on these newly annexed regions is considered an attack on Russia itself, further complicating the matter.

Following this, the 15-member United Nations Security Council held a vote on a resolution declaring Russia’s actions illegal and invalid and recognising these regions still belong to Ukraine, not Russia. The resolution passed 10-1, with Russia being the sole veto vote whilst China, India, Brazil and Gabon abstained from voting.

Indonesia’s football stadium stampede — one of the world’s worst stadium disasters

At least 125 people died and at least 300 more were injured in a stampede after a football match in East Java. The riot broke out after home team Arema FC lost to bitter rival Persebaya Surabaya with angry home fans invading the pitch. The situation would not have gotten this worse had the police force not used tear gas, which triggered the stampede, causing fans to flee to the exit gates. FIFA does not allow for “crowd control gas” at matches. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered the suspension of all games in the Indonesian top league BRI Liga 1, until an investigation has been completed.

Scenes of the disaster and its aftermath here, here and here (warning — graphic content). Al Jazeera has compiled a timeline of major football stadium disasters in the past 40 years — read here.

On Elon Musk: Private text released ahead of Twitter trial; The introduction of terminator humanoid Optimus.

1. A trove of text messages between Elon Musk and various notable figures in tech, finance and media were released in court filings ahead of the court trial on Oct 17. A range of topics, including seeking financing, building a social network on blockchain and deal structure, were covered in the text. Lots of big names Musk exchanged text with regards to this Twitter deal, amongst them Larry Ellison (Oracle founder), Jack Dorsey (Twitter co-founder), Joe Rogan (podcast host), Reid Hoffman (Linkedin co-founder) and Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO). Business Insider highlights the (juiciest) exchanges between Musk and his network of powerful friends here.

2. Elon Musk, during Tesla AI Day 2022 on Friday, unveiled Optimus, a human-size robot that Tesla hopes to be able to commercialise by 2027 at USD20,00 a pop that will be able to assist humans with basic tasks but will be deployed in Tesla’s factories first. It seems unimpressive as compared to Boston Dynamics’ robots and gives vibes of Terminator.

Proton parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group acquired a stake in luxury sports carmaker Aston Martin.

The Chinese auto giant announced that it has acquired a 7.6% stake in the British luxury carmaker, making it the fifth largest shareholder. The valuation of the deal was not disclosed. Over the years, Geely has picked up stakes in well-known automakers. It owns Lotus and is the largest shareholder of Polestar and Volvo, and took a 10% stake in Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler in 2018.

Shorts:

1. Shopee faces boycotts in the Philippines after it appointed Filipina actress and singer Toni Gonzaga as its brand ambassador. She is a staunch supporter of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and hosted campaign rallies for Marcos. #ByeShopee and #BoycottShopee became top trends with around 340,000 tweets on the company.

2. A couple, both doctors in the US, have been charged for plotting to give Russia confidential medical information about people connected to the US military and government to help Russia in its war against Ukraine. Their plot was foiled by the FBI as the couple were attempting to pass information to a Russian Embassy employee that turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. How frozen time scenes like in Matrix and X-Men are shot.

2. If you have watched Crazy Rich Asians, you would recall the iconic bungalow perched on a hilltop at the start of the movie. Called Be-landa House, the bungalow sits atop the hills of Country Heights Damansara in Kuala Lumpur and costs around RM20 mil. Take a tour of the house in the video below.