The National Professors Council was recently in hot waters after the Auditor General’s Report on GLCs found that nearly RM374,000 of the council’s funds were misused to finance companies owned by members of the board of trustees. To address this, there have been a suggestion to merge the council with think tanks, though academics feel this would just bury the scandal. We speak about this with Zaharom Nain, Deputy Chair of GERAK.

Other stories we covered:

• Kelantan records highest drug abuse cases: According to the National Anti-Drugs Agency, Kelantan recorded 1,130 drug abuse cases per 100,000 residents. Palani Narayanan, Director of the Drug Policy Program Malaysia joins us to make sense of why the numbers and what we can do to address it.

• Gambling debt in unlicensed premises not enforceable: This follows a case where a businessman Ting Ching Lee wanted to strike out a RM6 million gambling debt counterclaim by tour agent Ting Siu Hua. Siu Hua wanted to recover 1.5 million USD in credit and over 190,000 USD in rolling rebate that had been given to the businessman for gambling at a casino in Cambodia. Commercial lawyer Kuhan Manokaran, who specialises in debt recovery, joins us to help understand the legalities of this.

• First measles outbreak in the US: Texas reports its first measles death in the ongoing outbreak, a school-aged child who was unvaccinated. Over 100 cases have emerged in Texas and New Mexico, with low immunization rates fueling the spread. We hear more from consultant paediatrician Dato’ Dr Musa Mohd Nordin.

• Blue Origin to launch all-female crew space mission: Jeff Bezo's aerospace company is launching this expedition into space, with public figures like Katy Perry and Gayle King joining the mission, among others. We talk about why this has captured public interest, and also explore the idea of space tourism as the shiny new expedition of the uber-rich, and what it means for the rest of the world.

Image Credit: Majlis Profesor Negara

Produced by: Sudais Ferhard, Ali Johan, Tee Shiao Eek

Presented by: Lee Chwi Lynn, Dashran Yohan

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Categories:  corruption,  environment,  government,  international,  managing disease

Tags:  National Professors Council,  Majlis Profesor Negara,  Kelantan drug abuse,  gambling debt,  blue origin,  aerospace,  katy perry,