KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — The ringgit opened higher against the US dollar for a seventh straight trading day ahead of the high-stakes meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 14-15, 2026.

At 8 am, the local currency strengthened to 3.9265/9330 against the greenback from 3.9285/9325 at Wednesday’s close.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said traders were generally expecting positive outcomes from the meeting between the two leaders.

He added that higher fuel prices amid the war in West Asia had started to feed into inflation, potentially dampening hopes for an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

At the time of writing, Brent crude oil edged up 0.08 per cent to US$105.71 per barrel.

“However, the situation remains fluid. Growth could come under pressure and the Fed may shift its focus towards supporting the economy,” he told Bernama.

At the opening, the ringgit traded mixed against a basket of major currencies.

It appreciated against the Japanese yen to 2.4872/4914 from 2.4888/4916, but weakened against the British pound to 5.3110/3198 from 5.3105/3160, and slipped versus the euro to 4.6003/6079 from 4.5987/6034 at Wednesday’s close.

The local currency traded mostly higher against regional peers.

It gained against the Singapore dollar to 3.0859/0915 from 3.0872/0906 and strengthened against the Indonesian rupiah to 224.6/225.1 from 224.7/225.1.

The ringgit also edged up against the Philippine peso to 6.39/6.41 from 6.40/6.41, but eased against the Thai baht to 12.1469/1735 from 12.1419/1599 previously. — Bernama

LOS ANGELES, May 14 — A driver on California’s notoriously congested highways put a life-sized dummy in the passenger seat to trick his way into the faster carpool lane, only to get caught for forgetting one detail — the face.

High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) carriageways are an effort to reduce traffic by encouraging ride-sharing, often requiring there to be at least two people travelling in a vehicle.

Cops in Hayward, near San Francisco, became suspicious when they noticed the passenger in one vehicle — slumped over, wearing a blue hoodie and a sun hat — appeared to have no face.

“Reminder: HOV occupants need to be actual people, not your arts and crafts project,” California Highway Patrol in Haywood posted on their Facebook page on Tuesday.

Drivers who flout the rules can be fined US$490 (RM1,925), according to Caltrans, the body that operates the state’s freeways. — AFP 

KUANTAN, May 14 — Eight boys aged between four and 12 faced a terrifying ordeal today after being trapped by a water surge at Sungai Mensun in the Kampung Terisu Orang Asli settlement, Cameron Highlands.

Pahang Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) Operations assistant director Mohd Salahuddin Isa said emergency services received a distress call at 5.10pm regarding the incident. 

Seven firefighters from the Cameron Highlands station rushed to the scene, arriving at the river half an hour later.

“The team launched a rescue operation, using ropes to cross the river and move all victims to safety from the rocks where they were stranded,” he said in a statement yesterday.

The children were successfully rescued by 7.58pm and handed over to their families, he added. — Bernama

NEW YORK, May 14 — The United States is working hard to create a supply chain for rare earths – metals needed to replenish its military arsenal amid the conflict in Iran – that does not depend on China, the sector’s global leader.

Just a few grams of these materials are needed to make a television or laptop computer, but hundreds of grams are required for each Tomahawk or Patriot missile.

The Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines estimates US forces have fired thousands of missiles at Iranian targets since late February.

“The Middle East conflict is exposing in real time which minerals are truly mission-critical and exactly where supply chains could break under pressure,” said Mahnaz Khan, a vice president of the Silverado Policy Accelerator think tank.

“This could add another layer of stress to the nation’s ability to reconstitute the weapons,” Khan said, noting that rare earths are used in “everything from drones and interceptors to F-35s and precision-guided missiles.”

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, another think tank in Washington, said in late April that “restoring depleted stockpiles and then achieving the desired inventory levels will take many years.”

The most-used rare earths are neodymium and praseodymium. Both are vital in the manufacture of so-called “permanent” magnets, which are 10 times stronger than traditional magnets and used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and smartphones.

Samarium, another of the 17 rare earths, is used in magnets needed in the defense industry.

During Donald Trump’s first term as president, and then under his successor Joe Biden, the United States boosted its share of global rare earth production from three to 13 per cent, thanks to subsidies and tax incentives.

Until last year, there was only one major rare earths mine – at Mountain Pass in California, operated by MP Materials.

In July, Ramaco Resources opened the first new rare earths mine in more than 70 years – the Brook mine in Wyoming, but so far, nothing has been produced at the site.

Other mine projects are in development in Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska.

The United States is also counting on recycling to help fuel its supply chains.

Trump’s administration is looking abroad as well. It recently facilitated the acquisition of Brazilian producer Serra Verde by startup USA Rare Earth, in which the US government took a 10 per cent stake in January.

‘Leapfrog’ China 

But extraction is only the first phase of a process that also includes refining and separation (in order to isolate the various elements) before processing.

The separation stage is what has helped China dominate the sector. As of last year, it controlled 91 per cent of global separation by volume, according to the International Energy Agency.

Authorities in China have used rare earths as a bargaining chip. Last year, Beijing restricted exports of certain rare earths before later lifting the measure.

India, Japan and France are also working hard to unlock China’s stranglehold on the industry.

And the subject will be on the agenda for Trump’s talks in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week.

James Litinsky, the CEO of MP Materials – in which the government has a 15 per cent stake, to launch separation operations – said separation activities will begin “imminently” at the Mountain Pass site.

In January, US firm Energy Fuels – which also produces uranium –  took control of Australia’s ASM and is planning to build a new site in the United States, which will handle separation.

USA Rare Earth has invested in French rare earths specialist Carester, and they are together working on perfecting the separation process.

As for the end of the supply chain, startups Vulcan Elements and eVAC Magnetics started making permanent magnets last year. MP Materials should join that group shortly.

“We’re not just selling magnets,” Vulcan Elements CEO John Maslin told AFP.

“We’re offering a secure, China-independent supply chain. Our priority is ensuring that the United States and its allies can access the magnets they’ll need for national security and economic resilience.”

For Roderick Eggert, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines, it will take time for competitors to grow big enough to “significantly reduce the market shares of the Chinese producers.”

To hedge its bets, the United States has in recent months reached deals with producer nations including Australia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Thailand.

Maslin said the idea of the United States being completely autonomous in terms of rare earths, from extraction to selling permanent magnets, is not far-fetched.

“The industry has to innovate and leapfrog, and not just copy and paste China,” he said. — AFP

GENEVA, May 14 — “Ocean Dream,” the largest blue-green diamond ever recorded, sold for US$17 million (RM66.75 million) Wednesday, Christie’s auction house said.

The 5.5 carat diamond was extracted from a mine in Central Africa in the 1990s and has been named by the Smithsonian Institution as one of the world’s eight rarest diamonds, Christie’s said in a statement announcing the sale.

“A stone of this colour and size is extremely scarce, and adding to its rarity the diamond is type Ia, amongst the purest of natural gems,” it said.

“It’s very rare to find green diamonds, even over one carat,” said Max Fawcett, global head of Christie’s Jewellery.

“To find something in five carat of this quality and this colour is truly remarkable.”

The fancy vivid blue-green diamond is triangular in shape and “the size of the nail on your smallest finger” according to Fawcett.

It was sold for 13.6 million Swiss francs, a new record for a blue-green diamond at auction, it said.

“We sold the stone in 2014 for eight and a half million dollars. It was bought by a private Asian collector who enjoyed it. She wore it,” Fawcett said.

Wednesday’s auction saw three clients from different parts of the world bidding on the gem. The winner had chosen to remain anonymous, Fawcett said.

The gem was first extracted from a rough stone weighing 11.70 carats, Christie’s said.

It was cut and exhibited at the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC in 2003 as part of a Splendor of Diamonds exhibit.

The show featured red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, blue-green and white diamonds, ranging from 5.11 carats of the Moussaieff Red to 203.04 carats of the De Beers Millennium Star.  — AFP 

KUCHING, May 14 — The state government has been called on to disclose the structure behind the Sarawak Foreign Workers’ Transformation Approach (FWTA), which has been implemented since Jan 15, 2025.

When participating in the motion of appreciation on the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sarawak’s address during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on Wednesday, Violet Yong (DAP-Pending) claimed there is no clear explanation on how FWTA is embedded within the state government system.

“We understand its stated role is to manage foreign worker recruitment and that it is carried out through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.

Since its implementation, employers are required to pay RM1,854 per foreign worker, amounting to RM2,002.32 after SST.

“Industries such as construction, manufacturing, plantations, oil and gas, timber, and services have voiced strong dissatisfaction over this additional burden although the state government appears reluctant to acknowledge it,” she claimed.

According to her, more than a year on, the FWTA programme “remains far from transparent”.

Yong claimed that beyond the claim of a PPP structure, the public and industry still do not know which private entity is involved.

“Out of the RM1,854 collected, may we know how much goes to the state government and how much goes to the private party? Why is this basic financial breakdown not disclosed? Is there anything to hide?

“What is even more concerning is that payments are not paid to Kerajaan Negeri Sarawak, but routed through BILLPLZ Sdn Bhd. Employers were neither properly informed nor given justification for this arrangement.

“Based on official figures, from January to December 2025, 106,242 approvals were issued. This translates to nearly RM200 million collected in a single year and this figure will continue to grow,” she claimed.

She pointed out that under the previous system, approvals, licences, and visa-related processes were free of charge.

According to her, Sarawak is the only state in Malaysia and region imposing such fees, including RM324 per foreign worker ID.

“We have effectively become the first to do so: Sarawak Boleh, where even routine processes are turned into chargeable items. System upgrading is understandable, but it must not become a justification for imposing excessive financial burden.

“The key question remains ie which company ultimately receives these payments and what is the final share or return to the Sarawak Government under this PPP model? What is the proportion? Is it 20–80, 30–70, or 40–60 shares between the state and private company? Not a single one from the Sarawak Government administration dares to clearly explain this,” she claimed.

She cited a Kuching-based entity involved in collection and credit-related activities, which coincidentally shares the same acronym as the programme.

“This company appears highly secretive, with its financial details shielded from public scrutiny.

“Is this coincidence or is there a direct link to the PPP arrangement? This company reportedly has only one director and shareholder. Yet it is connected by name to a programme collecting hundreds of millions annually. The state government cannot expect the public not to ask questions,” she said.

Yong stressed that when over RM200 million annually is involved, “transparency is not optional but it is in fact an obligation”.

“This lack of clarity only deepens public suspicion. We do not want yet another kantow scheme created to benefit those sitting in the corridors of power while ordinary Sarawakians are left paying the price,” she added. — The Borneo Post

Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung's meetings with DPRK officials, the State President's order to promulgate nine laws adopted by the 16th National Assembly at the first session, and the repatriation of 28 rare turtles from the RoK to Vietnam are among news highlights on May 13 evening.

MAY 14 — Something I have noticed over the years of teaching mathematics at the foundation level is that some of my most careful, most persistent students are women. Not because I went looking for a pattern (I did not) but because it became hard to ignore. They check their working twice. They come to consultation hours with specific questions, not vague ones. When they get something wrong, they want to understand exactly where the reasoning broke down, not just copy the correct answer.

This is not a generalization about all students, or all women. It is simply what I have observed, in my own classroom, over time. And it made me think about what mathematics actually rewards, and whether we are communicating that clearly enough to the people who are already doing it well.

The qualities that lead to genuine mastery in mathematics are not speed or loudness. They are precision, the willingness to revisit assumptions, patience with a problem that does not open immediately, and the honesty to say "I do not understand this yet" rather than pretending otherwise. In my research in chaos theory and cryptography, these are the qualities that matter most.

A chaotic system does not yield to impatience. An encryption proof does not care how confident you sound; it either holds, or it does not. You have to be willing to sit with the problem, turn it over, and try again. These are qualities I see regularly in my students, and I see them often in women who are sometimes, quietly, not entirely sure they are supposed to be good at this.

What I try to do, practically, is make the classroom a place where working through something carefully is visibly valued, even more than arriving at the answer quickly. — Unsplash pic

I have had students: bright, capable students, who would solve a problem correctly, then lower their voice when they gave the answer, as if hedging against being wrong. This happened not because they were uncertain about the mathematics, but because somewhere along the way they had learned to be uncertain about themselves in a mathematics context.

What I try to do, practically, is make the classroom a place where working through something carefully is visibly valued, even more than arriving at the answer quickly. When a student explains her reasoning step by step, and the reasoning is sound, that matters more than whether she got there in two minutes or ten.

Over time, something shifts. The voice gets a little steadier. The answer comes without the hedge. That is not a special intervention; it is just good mathematics teaching. But it has a particular effect on students who came in believing, on some level, that confidence in mathematics was not available to them.

Supervising postgraduate students has given me a different vantage point. The women I have supervised in research, working on problems in cryptography, chaos synchronization, and secure communication, have shown me what it looks like when that early uncertainty is replaced by something more durable.

One of my students, working on secure healthcare data transmission, spent weeks on a proof that kept collapsing at the same point. She did not abandon the approach. She mapped out exactly where it was failing, went back to the foundational theory, and rebuilt from there. The paper was eventually published in a Scopus-indexed journal. That kind of persistence, the kind that does not require external validation at every step, is what research demands. And it is something that can be cultivated, in any student, if the environment makes it possible.

I did not set out to be a role model for women in mathematics. I set out to understand chaotic systems and build better cryptographic methods. The research is genuinely interesting to me: the kind of interesting that makes you stay with a problem longer than is probably sensible. But I have come to understand that doing the work visibly, and talking about it in plain language, matters beyond the research itself.

When I write about mathematics in the newspaper, or speak at a public forum about cryptography, I am also (without making it the point) showing that this kind of work is something a Malaysian woman does. Not as an exception, but just as a fact.

And perhaps that is the most honest thing I can offer to any young woman thinking about mathematics: not a grand statement about what she should do, but simply the evidence that it is being done carefully, seriously, and with genuine enjoyment.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.  

PARIS, May 14 — The Japanese film industry, fresh from a record box office year in 2025, is carrying its domestic momentum into the Cannes Film Festival where it made its debut Wednesday with Koji Fukada’s latest movie.

Fukada’s quiet portrait of solitude and thwarted love in rural Japan with his Nagi Notes is one of three Japanese movies in the 22-strong main competition in Cannes, the world’s biggest film festival.

All of a Sudden, the first French-language film from Ryusuke Hamaguchi — who got two Oscar nominations for Drive My Car — and the widely tipped tech-themed Sheep in the Box by art-house favourite Hirokazu Kore-eda of Shoplifters fame complete the line-up.

Japan is also the country of honour in the Cannes film market, a vast annual gathering of industry executives where projects and rights are acquired by producers and distributors from around the world.

“It’s very gratifying that so many Japanese films are submitted and evaluated (at the festival),” Fukada told AFP in an interview on Wednesday.

“But I don’t think that necessarily indicates the health of Japanese films in Japanese society.”

Fukada, whose previous films include Harmonium and last year’s Love on Trial about J-pop stars, counters that record revenue figures for the Japanese box office last year disguise struggles for independent auteurs like him.

The biggest-grossing films in Japan in 2025 — blockbuster Demon Slayer, period drama Kokuho which debuted in Cannes last year, and anime hit Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback — helped push box office revenues beyond their previous pre-Covid record high in 2019.

Exploring loneliness 

“Japan is a country where cultural budgets are extremely limited, and public-sector support for film is modest,” Fukada said.

Nagi Notes, starring Takako Matsu and Shizuka Ishibashi, explores the overlapping lives of a cast of characters in rural Okayama Prefecture, each lonely in their own way.

The theme of forbidden gay and lesbian love runs throughout.

“Loneliness isn’t limited to people who live in the countryside. Whether you live in the countryside or in the city, the very act of living is lonely and difficult,” Fukada, a Cannes regular since his 2016 break-out hit Harmonium, added.

Loneliness “is like an illness you’re born with and can’t cure”, he said.

“This film features both heterosexuals and sexual minorities, but for lesbians or gays, one of the major ways they can forget their loneliness is to get married and live with a partner, which is very difficult,” he added.

“It’s difficult because in Japan, same-sex marriage is not yet recognised legally.”

Cannes runs until May 23 when the prestigious Palme d’Or will be handed out for best film. — AFP 

In late April and early May, coffee blossoms burst into bloom across the hillsides of Son La province, covering the mountainous landscape in white, and creating a picturesque scene.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — The Bukit Aman Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (NCID) dismantled a drug distribution syndicate in Pulau Langkawi with the arrest of 191 individuals, including several ‘key figures’ in Op Langka.

Bukit Aman NCID director Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said the special operation was launched on April 10 following intelligence gathering and detailed investigations since January this year into drug trafficking activities on the island. 

He said 231 raids were carried out in Pulau Langkawi and the Klang Valley, involving various offences under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. 

“In this special operation, NCID successfully detained several ‘key figures’, with charges already filed and more to follow. 

“This includes a charge under Section 39C of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 against a suspect with 10 prior records, five under Section 12(2), four under Section 15(1)(a) of the same Act, and one under Section 160 of the Penal Code,” he said in a statement yesterday. 

Raids were also conducted at a house hosting ‘private parties’, where police arrested three local men and seven Thai women, and seized 82 grammes of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) powder, 12.5 grammes of ecstasy pills, 12.5 grammes of Erimin 5 pills, and four grammes of ketamine. 

“Another raid in the Klang Valley led to the arrest of seven individuals, including foreigners from Singapore and the Philippines. 

“In that raid, police seized 170 kilogrammes of cannabis buds and seven kilogrammes of cannabis, with the total value of drugs seized and assets confiscated reaching RM14.1 million,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Hussein said based on investigations and police operations, NCID believes there is involvement of police personnel in drug distribution activities in Pulau Langkawi. 

“As such, aggressive action will be taken under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures) Act 1985, and the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma),” he said. 

He added that a report by a local newspaper referring to a ‘Pablo Escobar’ linked to drug trafficking activities in Pulau Langkawi was inaccurate, as intelligence findings showed the group did not operate on a large scale and had no international network or extraordinary assets. 

On Tuesday, a local newspaper reported the existence of a drug syndicate in Langkawi, allegedly led by a police officer known as ‘Mr A’, assisted by other syndicate members, including women, raising concerns among local residents. — Bernama

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has declared “no other budget in the 2000s has set out this much responsible budget repair and this much economic reform.”

Despite his claims, Tuesday night’s budget remains highly contentious – especially Labor abandoning its election commitments not to change capital gains tax discount and negative gearing.

The treasurer joined us on the podcast to explain and defend his fifth budget.

Expanding on his budget night statement about wanting to “rebalance a system which is more generous to assets than it is to labour”, Chalmers said he had deliberately created “new architecture” to give more options for providing future tax cuts.

The intention there is to give future governments the option to provide tax relief the usual way […] cutting rates and thresholds. Or cutting taxes specifically for workers via this new architecture, the [$250] Working Australians Tax Offset.

[…] I think I’ve demonstrated an enthusiasm to return bracket creep and cut income taxes where we can afford to do that. And this will provide another way in the future that governments can do that if they wish.

[…] Well, certainly we are in the cart for more tax relief when the budget can carry that, when the budget can afford that. We’ve made that really clear. Even in some of the budget documents we made it clear that one of the benefits of getting the medium-term fiscal position in much better condition is that it will provide room down the track for more tax relief.

‘Downward pressure on rents’

Asked about budget forecasts that the new housing tax changes will lead to a small rise in rent and a projected reduction in the number of new houses, Chalmers said the whole budget told a different story.

Some of those model outcomes that you’re referring to refer very specifically to and narrowly to the tax changes, and not the housing package in its entirety. And so once you look at the all of the housing policies in the budget that we released, we expect there to be about 30,000 additional homes. And when you’re building 30,000 additional homes, you will put downward pressure on rents.

In addition to that, there’s a lot of national competition policy and other policy that we’re doing with the states, which is about speeding up approvals and having more land release. So that could mean tens of thousands more homes as well. So all told, the budget in its entirety has a positive impact on housing supply.

Read more: Politics with Michelle Grattan: Tim Wilson on the budget’s hidden hits on young Australians

Ongoing shocks from the Middle East

On the war in the Middle East, Chalmers said it still keeps him up at night.

I still lose a lot of sleep over developments in the Middle East is the truth of it. And that’s because, you know, we have no say in when the war will end or how long the consequences will linger for.

[…] I am extremely worried about it. The consequences in our economy from the war in the Middle East are already serious, and they still risk becoming severe.

Read more: At a glance: budget 2026

‘Paying a price’ for broken election promises

Chalmers acknowledged the government will pay a political price for breaking its pre-election pledges not to change negative gearing and capital gains tax. But he said he stands by the housing tax choices the government has just made.

The comments and commitments that we made at the election genuinely reflected the policy that we had, the overwhelming focus on [housing] supply. Now, the big choice that we have to make in the budget […] is the choice between doing something easier, which would have been to leave it untouched – but something which became increasingly clear to us wasn’t the right way to go. Because the longer we left it, the more people would be locked out of the market.

We didn’t want to leave to some future generation to fix this problem, which is intensifying. And so we took a decision which is hard in political terms. We will pay a price for it in political terms, I think. But what matters more than that is to get the substance of it right.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.