PETALING JAYA: There are ten services listed as essential, including petrol stations, under the trade distribution sector that will be allowed to operate during the lockdown, says the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry. The earlier approval letter, which was issued by the International Trade and Industry Ministry for these businesses, will not be applicable as of June 1. “Restaurants, laundrettes, including self-service laundrettes, operate at 60% worker capacity, with at least one person to man the number of people in the premises. “All essential service sectors of the distribution trade sector are allowed to operate from 8am to 8pm, except for petrol stations which are allowed to operate from 6am to 8pm. “Throughout this MCO, the operating approval letter will be issued by KPDNHEP and the one issued earlier by MITI will be cancelled from June 1," Nanta said.

No one questions the safety of flu vaccines or meningococcal vaccines that pilgrims for haj and umrah take, do they? Did you know their efficacy is MUCH lower than the Covid-19 vaccines we have in the market today? Yes, the Covid-19 vaccines are new, but the platforms are neither new nor unknown, and this pandemic has brought people of science to work together in a way never seen before. In a raging pandemic where each person has a critical role to protect each other and humanity, we must make every endeavour to comply with public health measures. Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood is the prime minister’s special adviser on public health

In a statement today, PropertyGuru said the move underscores the rising importance of Malaysia in Southeast Asia’s property technology (proptech) industry in general and for PropertyGuru in specific. It added that a key objective of the transaction is to accelerate the development of the proptech industry in Malaysia. REA Group CEO Owen Wilson said joining with the PropertyGuru group creates new opportunities for collaboration and access to a deeper pool of expertise, technology and investment. “It positions these already strong brands well to accelerate the next wave of proptech innovation in Southeast Asia,” he said. Meanwhile, PropertyGuru Malaysia country manager Sheldon Fernandez said Malaysians had shown a strong preference for the tools and services PropertyGuru and iProperty provide to make property searches, pricing and financing options more transparent and accessible.

PETALING JAYA: Measures will be taken to ensure that the food supply chain will not be disrupted during the 14-day total lockdown, says the Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry. "The ministry is committed to ensuring that the food supply chain in Malaysia remains at a stable, adequate and controlled level as well as ensuring access is always available to the public," the statement read. "This supply can be met based on the current stock of 764,000 metric tons available at manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers," he said. "The ministry would like to advise the public not to panic-buy and stockpile food excessively, which can result in situations where there is unequal public access to food supply," he added. To obtain information on activities, operations and SOP during phase one of the lockdown, the public can visit https://www.mafi.gov.my/

And perhaps, many of them lost money not because of greed, but due to simple mistakes. For those who do not know what a cold wallet is, it looks like a PenDrive but larger. Some people had bought another cold wallet, of the same model, and replaced the old screen with the new one. These 24 words are generated randomly by the cold wallet software when you install it on your laptop. I keyed in one of the phrases into the new cold wallet that I had bought for about RM300.

(May 31): Singapore real estate startup PropertyGuru Pte has agreed to acquire all of the shares in REA Group Ltd.’s operating entities in Malaysia and Thailand, whose sites include iProperty.com.my and thinkofliving.com. Launched in 2007 to help Singapore residents search for real estate online, PropertyGuru has become a household name in the property-crazed city-state. Today, it’s the largest real estate marketplace in Southeast Asia with operations spanning countries including Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. In October 2019, the company scrapped plans for an initial public offering on the Australian stock exchange over valuation concerns. Read also:PropertyGuru acquires iProperty Malaysia with REA Group as strategic shareholder

I READ with alarm the announcement that the government will set up more mega vaccination centres. These district centres should only service residents within the district, thus keeping numbers manageable and allowing SOP to be observed. We don't need an elaborate IT set-up for this common sense approach because targeted vaccination groups’ appointments would be more meaningful. All data collected at these district centres can be collated by the district health department and then escalated to state and federal levels. Vaccines must go to the rakyat not vice versa, so we need to have a sensible rollout at the grassroots levels.

As a secondary school student, Praviin R. A. Anandaraman would save up his weekly pocket money of RM20 to help the poor. Recipients of the food bank project located at Taman Mewah, Port Dickson.In February, the full-time law student from Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan started a food bank to create “a place of hope”. “I chose these locations for the food bank because they’re easily accessible and it’s also easier for me to restock the items,” he adds. Praviin puts aside RM400 every month from his part-time job’s wages for the food bank. Juggling studies, work and the food bank project can be challenging for Praviin.

TOKYO: Japanese retail sales rose 12.0% in April from a year earlier, government data showed on Monday. Separate data on Monday showed retail sales, a key gauge of consumer spending, surged in April, thanks largely to favourable statistical base effects from a year earlier, when the country was under an even stricter coronavirus curbs. Factory output had posted a surprise increase in March, as a jump in car production helped keep the economic recovery on track. In April, retail sales soared 12.0% compared with the same month earlier, the government said on Monday, mainly due to statistical base effects. Compared to the previous month, retail sales shed 4.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis, as consumer sentiment struggled with the most recent measures to stem a halt in coronavirus infections.

Joe Lara, the star of 1996's Tarzan: The Epic Adventures, died Saturday when a small plane crashed into a Tennessee lake, according to local authorities and the Associated Press. His wife, author and faith-based diet program founder Gwen Lara, was also involved in the crash, along with five others. The Associated Press reported that authorities at the scene indicated there were no survivors in the crash. "Our efforts have transitioned from a rescue effort to that of a recovery effort," Rutherford County Fire Rescue Capt. He transitioned from acting to country music in the early 2000s, releasing the album Joe Lara: The Cry of Freedom in 2009.

The crude palm oil (CPO) spot prices reported by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board have averaged close to RM4,050 per tonne in the first five months of this year. This reminds us once again of how often the oil palm industry has come to the fore to ease the economic pains of the nation. And so often it is the oil palm industry that gets rural Malaysia moving again after an economic downturn. Undoubtedly, there is still much to be done to modernise the oil palm industry and make it more efficient. There are towns and communities entirely dependent on the oil palm industry.

MANY senior citizens who registered for the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine since May 23 say the process was relatively smooth. “I also sent messages to my friends and chat groups to urge others to sign up for this opt-in vaccination as priority was given to senior citizens. Rousmani, who lives in a village in Kota Tinggi, also said thathaving only one vaccine dispensing centre (PPV) in Persada Johor was an inconvenience, especially for senior citizens who were not residing in Johor Baru. Meanwhile, Pasir Gudang Umno Youth is offering a free shuttleservice for senior citizens and disabled persons to and from any PPV in Johor Baru. “Only drivers who tested negative for Covid-19 will be allowed to ferry passengers to the PPV.

She said police received a report at about 6.45pm about a fight involving a group of residents. > The daily also reported that king of Mandopop Jay Chou stunned fans recently with his perfect English in a video collaboration with international fine arts broker Sotheby’s. The father of two credited his appreciation for music and the fine arts to his mother Yeh Hui-mei, who is an art teacher. The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.

“I don’t think I would travel all the way to Europe just to play in one event. Chi Wing has yet to play in any tournament since he last featured in the Bangladesh International Challenge in December 2019. The others already off the shelf are Iran International Challenge, Maldives International Challenge, Osaka International Challenge and the Malaysian International Series slated for August 10-15 may suffer the same fate too. With options limited in Asia, BAM sent their players to the Polish Open, Slovenian International Series and Austrian Open which ended yesterday. They also entered players like S. Kisona and Goh Jin Wei for the Lithuanian International and Spanish International in June.

PETALING JAYA: All work permission letters for interstate and inter-district travel from the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) are only valid until today. Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the letters could no longer be used effective June 1 and permission letters for travel would instead be issued by the respective ministries. “Manufacturing and MRS sectors will be allowed to operate, subject to new approval letters downloaded from the Covid-19 Intelligent Management System (CIMS) 3.0. “Manufacturing companies that have already registered with CIMS 3.0 are required to download the new Miti approval letter and where necessary, update their workers’ list. CLICK TO ENLARGE“For manufacturing companies that have yet to register, submission can be made beginning 1pm on May 31.