☕️ US Commentator: "Malays have no money"

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

Market sentiment is just bad. Newly listed Autopart distributor MSB Global Group Bhd became the sixth ACE Market listing since March to close below its IPO price.

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

1.03 mil– Russian tourist arrivals in Phuket have quadrupled since 2022, reaching this annual figure, solidifying Russia as the island's largest source of foreign visitors. Thailand, eager to further capitalise on this trend, aims to attract 2.2 million Russian tourists in 2025, up from 1.7 million in 2024. This surge prompted Moscow to open a consulate in Phuket in 2023.

21% – Asia is rapidly becoming a key player in the branded residences market, accounting for this percentage of global projects in 2024, signalling a shift in momentum from North America. Southeast Asia, comprising 12% of the global total, is emerging as a particularly hot market. Thailand leads the region with 12,656 launched units, valued at USD6.2 bil, and Chinese nationals are the top condo buyers in the capital. Over the next decade, Asia is poised to rival North America in branded residence development.

USD250 bil (RM1.1 trillion) – Despite decades of foreign aid, reaching this annual expenditure in 2023, the benefits remain inconsistent, particularly in stimulating economic growth in recipient nations. While global health programs and humanitarian aid have shown positive outcomes, these sectors represent only a fraction of total aid distribution. A significant portion of funds allocated for infrastructure and economic assistance has failed to deliver the intended growth, raising questions about the efficacy of current aid strategies.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

“Malays have no money”
In response to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Malaysia, American political commentator Bill O’Reilly mocked the official visit by stating that our country does not have substantial economic value and questioned Xi’s decision to visit us. Quoting O’Reilly - “Hey, President Xi, let me just break it to you. Those folks have no money at all. They cannot help you, they are not gonna buy your stuff because they don’t have any money.” He then continued - “The Malays aren’t gonna buy your stuff, they don’t have any money.”

Okay, let us answer the question: Is Malaysia that poor to deserve this kind of mockery from O’Reilly? In 2023, Malaysia had a gross domestic product (GDP) valued at USD399.76 bil, and our GDP was higher than 28 out of 50 states in the US. With this, the US should step off the pedestal and realise that the rest of the world can and will survive, even if the US decides to go full unilateralism mode.

All things Malaysia-Thailand

• PM Anwar in Bangkok for a two-day visit

  As soon as he waved goodbye to the Chinese President at KLIA, PM Anwar Ibrahim hopped on a plane and embarked on a two-day working visit to Bangkok, Thailand, to hold bilateral talks with his counterpart, Thailand's PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who just survived a no-confidence vote back in March 2025. The new round of bilateral talks will continue from the previous outcomes of the seventh Malaysia-Thailand annual consultation held in December 2024. During the visit to Thailand, PM Anwar is also expected to meet with the informal advisory group to the ASEAN chair and hold engagements with captains of industry in Thailand. In 2024, Thailand was Malaysia’s seventh-largest trading partner globally and third-largest within ASEAN, with total trade amounting to RM114.56 bil.

• The new Malaysia-Thailand bridge is to be completed by 2028 

  Works Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi stated that the construction of a new 117.3-meter bridge linking Rantau Panjang, Malaysia and Sungai Kolok, Thailand, will be finished by 2028. The construction of the new bridge will run concurrently with the upgrading of the existing bridge, which runs parallel to the new bridge. The project will cost RM40.54 mil and will be jointly funded by both governments. The signing of the Construction Agreement (CA) for the second bridge and the upgrading of the existing bridge was witnessed by PM Anwar and his counterpart during the former’s visit to Thailand.

• Trans Thailand-Malaysia gas pipeline system to save the day

  Thanks to the Trans Thailand-Malaysia gas pipeline system, Petronas Energy & Gas Trading Sdn Bhd (PEGT) has secured an additional 155 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas supply, to be supplied to the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia (Bestari Jaya, Meru and Kapar) that are affected by the supply disruption due to the Putra Heights gas pipeline explosion.

• PM Anwar to push talks for a ceasefire in Myanmar

  In related news, during his visit to Bangkok, PM Anwar will be having a sit-down with Myanmar's Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to push for a ceasefire extension in the earthquake-ravaged nation. A civil war was sparked in 2021 after Myanmar's military deposed an elected civilian government and the war has so far killed more than 70,000 people and internally displaced more than 3 mil people. Recently, the military declared a 20-day ceasefire on April 2, following similar moves by rebel groups.

Putrajaya mulls the possibility of imposing WFH during the ASEAN Summit in May
Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told the media that the Cabinet is exploring the possibility for employees in the Klang Valley to work from home during the upcoming ASEAN summits, in view of possible road closures ahead of the arrival of dignitaries. This is because Putrajaya has observed the impact of such road closures during the recent visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Mohamad also said the Cabinet would discuss allowing schools to hold lessons online during the ASEAN Summit in May and the ASEAN Summit with Dialogue Partners in October. On behalf of Putrajaya, Mohamad Hasan apologises for the traffic disruptions during President Xi’s visit and acknowledges the inconvenience caused to the public.

Business news

• Malaysia Aviation Group posts second straight annual profit

  Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd (MAG) MD, Captain Izham Ismail, announced that MAG has recorded a net profit of RM54 mil for FY2024, thanks to a RM426 mil reversal of impairments. Despite being in the black, MAG has struggled operationally, having to cut 18% of its capacity across its network in 4Q2024. The capacity cut also led to annual revenue dropping to RM13.68 bil, down from 2023’s RM13.85 bil. Looking at the bright side, the RM54 mil net profit is MAG’s second consecutive annual profit after recording a RM766.19 mil profit in FY2023. Izham stated that without the capacity cut, MAG could have achieved RM585 mil in net profit. Oh, the company has RM3 bil cash balance and has not received any capital injection from its main shareholder, Khazanah Nasional, since Oct 2021.
  View the full announcement here.

• Bank Rakyat signals challenging year, but announces 17% dividend for FY2024

  Bank Rakyat just announced a 17% dividend for FY2024, up from 15% in FY2023. Bank Rakyat has been performing consistently over the past few decades, delivering double-digit dividend payouts for over 20 years. However, bank CEO Ahmad Shahril Mohd Shariff said 2025 will be a challenging year due to the turbulent global economic outlook and intensifying geopolitical tensions from the ongoing trade war. So, how to become a shareholder of Bank Rakyat? Bank Rakyat's shareholders are primarily individual cooperative members that including members of various cooperatives and organisations that have chosen to invest in the bank. In 2023, Bank Rakyat had 802,823 shareholders consisting of individuals and cooperatives.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

China-US tariff battle
US looks to box in China by recruiting other trading partners
The US continues to pressure China - now it is preparing to pressure dozens of other nations that are seeking reductions or exemptions from tariffs to curb trade with China. According to sources, the US is asking representatives from other nations to impose so-called secondary tariffs, essentially a monetary sanction, on imports from certain countries with close China ties. Some others said that the US also wants trading partners to refrain from absorbing excess goods from China. It is said that all these moves are a bid to ensure Beijing does not find avenues around Trump’s tariffs.

Washington takes aim at DeepSeek and its American chip supplier Nvidia
Next, US officials are reportedly taking steps to crack down on Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek and its support from America’s leading chipmaker, Nvidia. Trump’s administration proceeded to restrict Nvidia’s sale of AI chips to China, while anonymous sources disclosed that it is also weighing penalties that would block DeepSeek from buying US technology. They are even contemplating barring Americans’ access to DeepSeek’s services. Nvidia is now facing its first congressional investigation into its business as the US’ House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which focuses on national security threats from China, opened an investigation into Nvidia’s sale of chips across Asia, to see if the chipmaker had knowingly provided DeepSeek with critical technology to develop AI. In the aftermath, Nvidia and another chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), said they would lose billions of dollars in sales. On April 16, shares of Nvidia, AMD and ASML fell more than 6%.

US Customs and Border says the latest tariffs have generated revenues lower than what Trump says
Meanwhile, contrary to Trump repeatedly saying that the US is taking in USD2 bil per day from tariffs, including direct revenues from his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) claimed that those numbers are far from the truth. In its statement on Monday, CBP claimed that it has collected only over USD500 mil under the new reciprocal tariffs, contributing to more than USD21 bil in total tariff revenue from 15 presidential trade actions implemented since January 20, 2025. The numbers came after a 10-hour glitch in the finance system that prevented US importers from inputting a code that would have exempted freight that was already on the water from being subject to the higher duties. Even with the glitch, CBP said that their average USD250 mil/day revenue stream remained uninterrupted, a far cry from USD2 bil a day.

Trouble for Trump’s administration:
US judge says ‘probable cause’ to hold Trump administration in contempt
A US District Judge has said that there is “probable cause” to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in criminal contempt, for a “willful disregard” of last month’s ruling that the government could not deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without giving them a chance to challenge their removal. However, he added that the administration still had the opportunity to avoid being held in contempt if it allowed deportees to oppose their removals in court. The Trump administration has deported 238 migrants that it claims are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, which Trump pulled off by invoking an 18th-century wartime law - the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 - which grants the US president the authority to detain or deport non-citizens during wartime. Critics have condemned the use of the law, arguing that the US is not currently under any threat of “invasion” as a result of being at war.

California sues the Trump administration over “unlawful and unprecedented” tariffs
California is taking it up a notch in battling Trump’s tariffs - on Wednesday, the state filed a lawsuit at the San Francisco federal court, challenging the levies and describing them as “unlawful and unprecedented”. California’s Democratic governor and his attorney general said that Trump's tariffs will have an immense impact on California’s economy, with over 60,000 small-business exporters affected by the president's plan. They highlighted the impact on important materials like steel and aluminium that are needed to help rebuild after devastating fires in January in the Los Angeles area, along with the effects of prospective "reciprocal" tariffs on farmers in the state's key agricultural regions. Meanwhile, the White House has called out the governor and accused him of spending his time trying to block Trump’s “historic efforts” instead of focusing on California's rampant crime, homelessness, and unaffordability.

Shorts:

1. Meta will start using Europeans’ social media data for AI training

   Meta has confirmed that its European users’ data will be used for generative artificial intelligence (AI) models beginning May 27, which includes data from public posts and comments, unless they opt out of the data-mining project via a link to the opt-out form. However, Meta said it could continue to process information from users when they appear in a publicly shared image or are mentioned by another person. Meta plans to invest USD60 bil to USD65 bil in 2025, with much of the cash going into the data centres, servers and network infrastructure necessary to develop AI models.

2. Scientists discovered ‘strongest evidence’ so far for life beyond our solar system

   A team of astronomers at the University of Cambridge have reported that their observations through the James Webb space telescope have led them to discover a giant planet 124 light years from Earth that yielded the strongest evidence yet that extraterrestrial life may be living beyond our solar system. Apparently, chemical fingerprints of two types of compounds - namely, dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) - have been discovered, which on Earth is only known to be produced by life. Although this is strong evidence, it is not yet proof that there is life beyond Earth, but it definitely brings humanity closer to finding answers to the question.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Stuck in a rut? This is a great read — High Agency in 30 Minutes by George Mack. Slightly longer than an episode of Friends, and it is a low cost to pay considering it could change your life forever. The Wright brothers, with the technology they had, changed the world forever — one of them, Wilbur Wright, had high agency. “Wilbur spent multiple years bedbound with nervous system problems, depression and heart palpitations. His dreams of attending Yale were cancelled.‍” — George Mack. High agency in 3 minutes — watch the video below (NSFW).
   Learn: What is High Agency?

2. The weekend is here, but you can still remain productive in your relationship. Here’s the science of female orgasm and making them happy.