Recovery MCO extended till year’s end, and 9 news you may have missed

KINI ROUNDUP | Key headlines you may have missed yesterday, in brief.

1. The recovery movement control order (RMCO), due to expire on Aug 31, has been extended until Dec 31.

2. Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Khairuddin Aman Razali has dismissed calls for his resignation, while Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said he supports stiffer penalties against those who breach the government’s social distancing rules.

3. Umno advisory board chairperson Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said party members should withdraw from the cabinet over Bersatu’s move to become a multiracial party, but Khairuddin assures that the Perikatan Nasional government remains strong.

4. Sources claimed that MIC’s dissatisfaction with Bersatu’s Mohamad Azmin Ali and Bersatu Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal’s call for vernacular schools to be phased out are among the reasons MIC decided not to join PN.

5. Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his PAS counterpart Abdul Hadi Awang both concur that the government should seek a fresh mandate through a snap election due to its tenuous grip on power.

6. Think tank Ilham Centre predicts an easy victory for BN at the Slim by-election, but said new party Pejuang would have made its mark if it manages to at least retain its deposit.

7. The government will reopen tender for the RM4.475 billion Klang Valley Double Tracking (Phase 2) project after finding that the project is still overpriced despite cost reductions made under the Pakatan Harapan administration.

8. Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin accused then finance minister Lim Guan Eng of "directly taking up" the approval of a project by her ministry without an open tender being called in 2019. Lim said he will address Zuraida’s allegation today.

9. Malaysia has received US$2.5 billion from Goldman Sachs as part of a settlement for the bank’s role in the 1MDB scandal.

10. Durian farmers in Raub have won a temporary reprieve when the Kuantan High Court granted an interim stay against the Pahang government’s land legalisation scheme in which they would be evicted from their plots.