General

In 2031, will the world still remember the pandemic? According to travel-tech evangelist Johnny Thorsen, we'll have different issues of concern by then. While the pandemic has changed the way people move across countries, sustainable practices will be the issue that forever shifts the way the travel space evolves into the future.

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Modern football was set abuzz with the recent takeover of Newcastle United Football Club by a Saudi-led consortium. Money talks in football and now The Magpies are officially the richest club in the world with the consortium worth about £700 billion. For comparison, the next richest club is Man City - Emirati owner Sheikh Mansour is worth about £23 billion.

Will this deal change the landscape of modern football?

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IMAGE SOURCE: LYNNE CAMERON / EPA-EFE

Has there been one single author who has shaped as many young readers as Enid Blyton? With Children’s Day just past, we’re dedicating this month’s Bibliography to the life and works of possibly the best-known children’s author of our time. We discuss her tumultuous life, her approach to writing, the various criticisms levelled her way over time - and of course, our own childhood attachments to Blyton’s books.

On this week's Throwback, we're revisiting one of the most influential comedic crime capers in Hollywood history, The Italian Job (1969). A British crook named Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) is fresh out of prison when he comes up with a plan to steal gold ingots by conjuring a traffic jam in the streets of Turin. Like all good heist films, the Mafia is also involved. We discuss the way this classic film has aged over half a century, the surrealness of watching young Michael Caine chew scenery, as well as some of the film's surprisingly modern twists.

A Malaysian man, Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, has been given a letter confirming the date of his execution for 10th November in Singapore. According to his lawyers, this is despite Nagaenthran's diagnosis of a intellectual impairment by a certified psychiatrist. We look at what efforts are being done to stop this from happening.

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EPF chief strategy officer Nurhisham Hussein recently stated that only 3% of Malaysians can afford to retire on their EPF savings. We unpack this by first looking at what this means for seniors with no savings. Then, we discuss how EPF can improve, and what other systems we could incorporate. Finally, we look at the importance of planning for your retirement.

Image Source: Towfiqu barbhuiya, Unsplash

We break down the trending hashtags of the day, and get into how a Twitter user has allegedly scammed a group of local K-pop fans out of RM20k.

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Highlights from today's Dewan Rakyat include flight costs to East Malaysia, the issue of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and also plans to establish a Children's unit under the Family Ministry. Besides that, the ministers also discussed the prosperity tax announced in the Budget 2022 and its impact on Bursa Malaysia, as well as the implementation of the 5G spectrum under Digital Nasional Berhad.

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Merck & Co’s oral antiviral for COVID-19 is being called a “game-changer”, as it would be the first pill available to treat early infection. In another first, the company has agreed to a licensing deal that will allow the drug to be made and sold cheaply in 105 low-income countries. We ask Sangeeta Shashikant, Programme Director on Development & Intellectual Property, Third World Network, whether this move will be enough to make the drug accessible, especially when rich countries look set to hoard supplies amid already existing vaccine inequity.

Listen to Part 1 here, where we explore how molnupiravir works and how it could change the way COVID-19 is managed.

Image credit: The Intercept

The development of Merck & Co’s oral medication to treat COVID-19 could make it the first pill that people can pop the moment they become infected. We speak to Assoc Prof Dr Sharifah Faridah Syed Omar, Infectious Disease Physician, University Malaya Medical Centre, about how the antiviral drug molnupiravir works, and how it could change the way COVID-19 is managed.

Listen to Part 2 here, where we explore whether we can afford molnupiravir and the questions of accessing the drug.