Morning Brief

Over the weekend, Russia fired more than 70 drones at the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv overnight, in what officials are calling the largest drone attack in the war so far. We discuss the latest developments as the war approaches its second winter with Dr. Alexey Muraviev, Associate Professor of National Security and Strategic Studies of Curtin University.

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Malaysia eases visa rules for China and India, key sources of tourist arrivals as we push for more revenue in this sector. This is on the back of similar proposals by ASEAN neighbours such as Thailand. Is Malaysia competitive enough to pull tourists from our neighbours while the country grapples with inflationary pressures and a higher degree of expectations from global travellers? We analyse this with Nigel Wong, President of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents.

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Deep reflection occurs at PKR’s Annual Congress as the party changes tack after being on the opposition benches for 25 years. The economy remains the focus while leadership manages dissent and dissatisfaction among the grassroot. Will PKR find its true north without damaging its alliances in the Unity Government? We speak with Syaza Farhana Mohamad Shukri, Associate Professor at the International Islamic University of Malaysia and Visiting Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

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China is seeing a spike in respiratory illnesses and pneumonia cases, especially among children, evoking nightmares of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the World Health Organisation has explained that this is not due to any novel virus but rather due to extended lockdowns having affected their natural immunity. Dr Vinod Balasubramaniam, an associate professor at the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences explains the situation to us.

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More than 141,000 eligible voters will again vote for their Dewan Rakyat representative in the Kemaman constituency after the Terengganu Election Court's decision in September, invalidated the victory of the PAS candidate in GE15. Adib Zalkapli, Director at BowerGroupAsia analyses how the Barisan Nasional-Perikatan Nasional battle this weekend will pan out.

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The three-member panel at the Court of Appeal has decided that, vernacular schools in Malaysia are constitutional.

And that the use of Chinese or Tamil in national-type schools is protected by Article 152 of the Federal Constitution. Firdaus Husni, Chief Human Rights Strategist, Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR) tell us the impact of this ruling whilst also looking at other reasons why it should be permitted.

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Public trust and confidence in charities has been shaken due to alleged governance issues at a large NGO. Many will start questioning how much of their donated funds do end up at the target beneficiary. We speak to Raymon Ram, Certified Fraud Examiner & Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, Graymatter Forensic Advisory to understand that compliance checking is everyone's responsibility.

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China's property woes continue to be of concern with shadow banking giant Zhongzhi Enterprise Group disclosing last week that it was severely insolvent, revealing a shortfall amounting to USD36.4 billion, which authorities are currently investigating. Louise Loo, China Economist with Oxford Economics, talks to us about how this fallout might impact the overall economy.

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According to the latest data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), Malaysia recorded a cumulative total of nearly 6 million graduates in 2022, with labour force participation of 85% and an unemployment rate of 3.7%. Are these healthy labour stats and do the headline numbers belie the problem of underemployment among Malaysian graduates? We discuss the data and graduate hiring trends with Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan, Executive Director, Malaysian Employers Federation.

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The cryptocurrency industry has been plagued by scandals and investigations. This month, we saw two of its figureheads, FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance's Changpeng Zhao brought down by criminal proceedings. What do these scandals mean for the broader crypto world? Sam Reynolds, senior reporter at Coin Desk shares his thoughts on the matter.

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