US Government Traces Pentagon Leak To Member Of Air Force National Guard

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has traced the source that leaked highly classified documents from the Pentagon back to an Air National Guardsman. 21-year-old Jack Douglas Teixeira, who is a member of the US Air Force National Guard, was arrested in the state of Massachusetts earlier today.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed the arrest and said that Teixeira was currently being held “in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorised removal, retention, and transmission of classified national defense information”. During the investigation, it was surmised by the Washington Post that whoever leaked the documents was, in all possibility, someone of the suspect’s age, an American that grew up with gaming and guns in their life, and most importantly, would be a soldier within a military branch.

The investigation is still ongoing but US officials found that Teixeira also controlled a Discord server, through which he leaked the classified documents, all just so that he could get the one thing a person his age would do: he wanted to impress his friends. His channel wasn’t as big, with only 25 members in total, but the problem was that it included individuals that hailed from Europe, Asia, and South America. Unsurprisingly, once the authenticity of said documents were verified by other sources, they began spreading like wildfire, leading to the current predicament the US government is in right now.

As we reported yesterday, Teixeira’s leaking of US Pentagon documents is also the most potentially devastating, and could even be more impactful than those leaked by Edward Snowden back in 2013. Alleged content from the highly classified documents reportedly included references to Russian and Chinese activities, and about how the current war in Ukraine has drawn the latter country into helping the former. Not only that, but the leaked documents also seemingly point to the US spying on allied countries, including South Korea and Israel. Among other things.

Another matter that the US government will most certainly be asking, in light of Teixeira’s arrest, is how exactly a low-ranking Air Force National Guardsman even managed to get his hands on documents, some likely modified down the line, that was clearly not for his eyes.

Government Launches New PPN Site With Easy-To-Understand Visuals

The National Recovery Council (NRC) recently launched a new webpage for the ongoing National Recovery Plan (PPN). The aim of the site is clearly to keep the nation informed about what the PPN is, through the use of easy-to-read visuals and tabs.

Each state has its own dashboard and selecting any of them will bring down the relevant information about them, including which phase of the PPN they are in, plus the SOPs they are in place for said phase. Stating the obvious, choosing WP KL will indicate that the Federal Territory is still in Phase 1, plus the SOPs and restrictions that are in place until the government moves it into the next phase.

That said, do remember that there is currently a special exception for areas that fall under the Klang Valley – that’s the state of Selangor, WP KL, and WP Putrajaya – whereby stores and eateries are allowed to operate and extend their services, but only to individuals that have completed their required number of vaccine doses and are able to provide proof of it.

Of course, it goes without saying store employees that are working must be fully vaccinated and must follow government guidelines regarding operational capacity for fully vaccinated staff.

In addition to the Phase and SOP dashboard, you’ll notice that there are also a total of 12 tabs under the “Find out more” section. Clicking on any one of these tabs, again, opens up and lists down the general SOPs for each phase. Additionally and depending on which state you reside in, you’ll see that a coloured outline on the relevant phase, indicating its current status. For example, Phase 1 is red, Phase 2 yellow, Phase 3 green, and finally, Phase 4 is blue.

We should also point out that the page has two tabs, Rakyat and Business, both of which are self-explanatory. By default, information that visitors first see are related to the people, while switching to the Business tab shows the relevant SOPs. Do note that, because of the vast number of services under each sector, clicking on them will open up a separate tab that lists down Phase SOPs for each service within them.

We highly recommend that you all visit the site, especially if you wish to get a better understanding of the SOPs within each phase. By contrast, it is also a damn sight easier to navigate through, compared to the list that was initially posted on the MKN’s site.

UK Government Officially Blocks NVIDIA Acquisition of ARM

Back in January this year, regulators based in the UK announced that it was investigating the takeover of its Cambridge-based semiconductor maker, ARM, by the US-based GPU maker, NVIDIA. As of today, that acquisition has officially been halted by the country’s Crown.

As of yesterday, the UK’s Secretary of State issued a public interest intervention notice (PIIN), citing that such an acquisition was grounds for national security concerns. Specifically, it brings up a Section 42 within the country’s Enterprise Act 2002; the act states that the government may suspend any acquisition of a UK-based facility if there is reasonable doubt that two or more enterprises will cease to be distinct; there is fear that the purchasing entity will bring the acquired enterprise under their ownership and therefore, erasing what makes them unique; and if the value of the company being acquired has a turnover value that exceeds £1 million (~RM5.76 million).

NVIDIA announced its plans to purchase ARM from the Softbank Group (SoftBank) back in September last year, agreeing to purchase the semiconductor maker for a handsome sum of US$40 billion (~RM 164 billion). In its decision to acquire the chipmaker, the GPU brand promised that it would not put a crimp into ARM’s open-licensing model and customer neutrality, of which it counts AMD, Apple, Samsung, and Google as some of its major clients.

Sadly, NVIDIA’s word wasn’t enough of a promise and like clockwork, several tech giants inevitably began expressing concern about the potential acquisition and while UK-based regulatory bodies began investigating the deal and the possible repercussion it could have on the semiconductor industry, as a whole.

Government To Lift Inter-District Travel Restrictions On 5 March

Senior Minister for Security Cluster, Ismail Sabri Yaakob has announced that the government is going to lift the restrictions on inter-district movement throughout Malaysia later this week. It was originally put in place as part of the Movement Control Order (MCO) implementation to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

Applicable from 5 March onwards, the only exception to the new policy is Sabah as the state government has decided to extend the restriction for another two weeks. As for interstate movements, they are still being prohibited for the time being.

For those who are concerned about travelling between Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Minister Ismail has clarified that the public is free to move between both states. However, movements from and into Putrajaya will still be prohibited even though all three states have been deemed as one single area during the Conditional MCO (CMCO) 1.0.

This is mainly due to the fact that they belonged to different MCO zones. Hence, the public will require permission from the police to move in and out of Putrajaya unless for those who have already obtained the necessary documentation from their employer.

In the same briefing, Minister Ismail has also announced that Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Perak, and Kelantan will be designated as CMCO zones from 5 to 18 March 2021.

On another hand, Putrajaya, Labuan, Sabah, Terengganu, Pahang, and Melaka will be joining Perlis under the Recovery MCO (RMCO) zones during the same time period. Minister Ismail stated that the decision to reclassify the MCO zones were due to the decreasing rate of positive COVID-19 cases.

Malaysian Cinema Industry Claims Unfair Treatment From The Government

The Malaysian Association of Film Exhibitors (MAFE) has sent out an open letter to the government, calling out to its unfair treatment to the cinema industry. Since the implementation of MCO 2.0 in January, cinemas have been required to cease operations due to COVID-19 concerns – with hopes of curbing the virus’ spread, which have recorded in the four digit range during the time.

As we are aware by now, the government has continued to extend the duration of the MCO, now expected to continue until 4 March 2021. At the same time, it also gradually loosened some of the restrictions in the process, such as the recent lifting of the 10km limit for inter-district travel and allowing dine-ins to resume at eateries.

In that regard, MAFE argues that several economic sectors including non-essential services such as spas, gyms, casinos and recreational fishing have been allowed to reopen, but cinemas across the nation are still forced to remain closed. It also points out that other neighbouring and developed countries including Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia have already permitted their cinemas to open, with India recently allowing its establishments to operate at 100% capacity.

The organisation says that in totality, over 25% of cinema establishments in Malaysia have been permanently closed due to the long-term closures. This in turn inevitably resulted in long-term effects including job losses, permanent closure of cinema locations and a significant downsizing of operations for all of its exhibitors across the board. In some instances, it added, cinema employees have even received extensive pay cuts of up to 70%.

Such drawbacks also saw the exit of the country’s third largest exhibitor MBO, which was forced into voluntary liquidation back in October last year. Meanwhile, Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) had recently shuttered two of its Klang Valley branches in early January 2021, namely GSC Cheras Leisure Mall and GSC Berjaya Times Square.

As of late, the Malaysian cinema industry has already suffered up to 90% losses of revenue year-on-year with more than RM500 million recorded in 2020 alone. This, in which MAFE noted, is a stark contrast compared with previous years where the industry has collectively contributed over RM1.08 billion in income and over RM250 million in entertainment tax duties to the country.

The organisation also emphasised that cinemas are the safest form of out-of-home entertainment, stating that no COVID-19 clusters have ever been discovered to have originated from cinemas – even on a global level, citing a study conducted by Celluloid Junkie in October 2020. Prior to the long-term closures, it added that local cinema operators have followed an established set of SOP guidelines from authorities. These include mandatory contact tracing, temperature checks, and social distancing – the latter applied in the form of gap seating, which reduces each cinema hall’s capacity to less than 50%. Even while the establishments are closed, operators also continue daily maintenance of seats and equipment, which MAFE noted are expenditures that are becoming too overwhelming to bear without income.

“This is no longer just a crisis for the cinema industry; it is evolving into a financial catastrophe that is likely to affect thousands of jobs across a larger supply chain, which serves the entire trade from end-to-end including smaller organisations in manufacturing, logistics, cleaning, F&B, and retail, among others,” the organisation wrote. “The collapse of the cinema industry is also estimated to directly impact the livelihoods of the larger local Malay film industry, where over 20,000 Malaysians are currently employed in filmmaking and production, creatives, distribution, talent, and much more.”

In addition, MAFE pointed out that the unfair treatment also includes the cinema industry’s unanswered pleas for financial aid from the government. It noted that the RM225 million allocation to support the arts, culture and entertainment industry in June 2020 did not include cinemas, and the same can be said for the Budget 2021 RM100 million allocation to the creative industry in November. The organisation had also made several concerted appeals for assistance from the government via the National Security Council (MKN), Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), mainly requesting for an exemption or reduction of entertainment taxes for exhibitors.

“The cinema industry cannot sustain closure for much longer and it will undoubtedly collapse, affecting the livelihoods of every Malaysian serving across the entire supply chain,” said MAFE Chairman General (Rtd) Tan Sri Datuk Amar (Dr) Mohd Ghazali Dato’ Mohd Seth. “We hope that the Government will seriously reconsider their decision to allow us to reopen.”