Donald Trump Guilty in Sham Democrat-initiated Trial

Former US president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump (left) has been found guilty of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election, in a case related to alleged ‘hush money’ payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. 

 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, charged Trump last year with thirty-four counts of criminal behavior, alleging that the Republican politician sought “to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election”. 

 

The 34 counts refer to 11 invoices, 12 vouchers and 11 checks of Trump’s monthly reimbursement payments to his thieving lawyer, for the $130,000 paid to Daniels. According to Bragg, this amounted to “falsifying business records”.

 

The truth of the matter is Trump's misdemeanors have been trumped up to bring him down.

 

Anyway, the jury deliberated for two days and returned the verdict just before 05:00 PM on Thursday: guilty on all counts, making Trump the first US president to ever be convicted of a felony.

 

Sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 11.

 

And Trump told reporters after the verdict was announced: “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict will be on November 05, by the people. And we will keep fighting, and we’ll fight till the end and we’ll win”.

Durian "Lima Rasa" from Balik Pulau

Penang in Malaysia may be famous for the UNESCO heritage city of George Town and the biosphere reserve up on Penang Hill but around this time of the year, throngs of visitors from all over Southeast Asia and beyond will descend on the island state for its durians. 

 

Between the months of late May and August, locals and foreigners are expected here to indulge on the state's famed King of Fruits. 

 

"It has long been established that Penang durians are among the best and anyone craving these delicious fruits, must come to Penang during June and July", said Association of Tourist Attractions Penang (ATAP) chairperson Ch'ng Huck Theng. He said the quality and taste of Penang durians have served as an attraction of its own to draw visitors from nearby countries to the state for many years.

 

Already, tour agencies are offering durian tour packages and hotels like Angsana Teluk Bahang Penang, DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Hotel, St Giles Wembley Penang and Cititel Express are offering durian buffet packages at selected durian stalls.

 

It so happened that a band of KL-based trainers were in Penang on May 25-26 for the RISE "Mengejar Cita-cita, Menabur Bakti" program, where on Saturday, we had lunch at Boroi Cafe in Bandar Baru Teluk Kumbar, on the south-eastern tip of Penang Island (just minutes from Bayan Lepas, if you don't know). And of course, we couldn't resist their durian cendol. 

 

(FYI, the durian served was "Durian Kahwin"). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For sure, the lure of Balik Pulau durians brought us back to the vicinity – a roadside stall – the next day and we feasted on five different types, i.e., Kung Po (pictured), 604, Kacang Hijau, Lipan Putih, and Lipan Bara.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are durian lovers! 💖💖💖

SBO's Persuade with Power

My blog post "Forward is Forward" published February 21, 2024 had mentioned our mini workshop "Communicate with Power" held at Wisma Shell in Cyberjaya. 

 

A 2-day workshop "Persuade with Power" on May 23-24 was a timely follow-up with ten participants from Shell Business Operations.

 

China’s economy is set to grow 5 percent this year, after a “strong” first quarter, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday, upgrading their earlier forecast of 4.6 percent expansion. 

 

This bolsters the fact that the Chinese economy remains on a solid recovery track. 

 

The thumbs-up by the multilateral lender underscores rising global confidence in and expectations for a continued rebound in the world's second-largest economy, in stark contrast to certain Western officials and media outlets' attempts to paint China's economy as "collapsing" or "peaking", Chinese economists said.

Happy Kaamatan and Gawai 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To all Sabahans and Sarawakians, Happy Kaamatan and Gawai! 

 

We knew crows were smart but it turns out they can also do math. Well, they can count. 

 

And they do it out loud. 

 

According to a study from the University of Tübingen in Germany which reveals that crows caw as they count, producing a specific and deliberate number of sounds in response to visual and auditory cues. 

 

To be clear, quite a few animals – even honeybees – understand numbers, but counting out loud requires not only that understanding, but purposeful vocal control with the aim of communication. 

 

"Producing a specific number of vocalizations with purpose requires a sophisticated combination of numerical abilities and vocal control", write neuroscientists Diana A Liao, Katharina F Brecht, Lena Veit and Andreas Nieder in a scientific paper titled "Crows 'count' the number of self-generated vocalizations" published in Science, May 23, 2024, Vol. 384, Issue 6698, pp. 874-877. 

 

Numerical ability has been increasingly identified in non-human animals. Animals as diverse as birds and bees have been shown to be able to “count” and they can discriminate among different numbers of objects or between greater or fewer objects. 

 

The researchers tested whether crows, which are known for both their numerical skills and high level of cognition, could use vocalizations to count out loud, a skill that is challenging even for young humans. The crows flexibly produced between one and four vocalizations for corresponding cues associated with numerical values. Furthermore, they used different calls for different numbers.  

 

The researchers trained three carrion crows (Corvus corone) to respond to symbols or audio cues by cawing a specific number of times, between one and four. When the crows were done, they pecked a target to indicate completion. 

 

"The findings suggest that the birds are capable of using a non-symbolic approximate number system, showing a level of vocal control that mirrors the early counting skills of human toddlers", they write.

Tongue-in-cheek Beer Names

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A beer named after Osama Bin Laden has sold out after going viral on social media. 

 

Staff at Mitchell Brewing Co had to unplug phones and close their website temporarily because of demand for Osama Bin Lager. FYI, the company, of Billinghay, Lincolnshire, also brews Winston Churchpale, Kim Jong Ale and Putin Porter. 

 

 

"They're all tongue-in-cheek names – a nicer outlook on some horrible dictators", co-owner Luke Mitchell said. Millions of people have seen a picture of the beer – named after the former al-Qaeda leader who died in 2011 – posted on social media. 

 

A husband and wife team run the brewery and a pub. 

 

"We've woken up the last couple of mornings with thousands and thousands and thousands of notifications", Luke Mitchell said. 

 

"It's been crazy", Catherine Mitchell added. "The phone just hasn't stopped for the last 48 hours".

 

"Everyone laughs when they see the names on the bar. As far as I'm aware, no one's been offended, but I'm sure there is someone out there", Luke added. 

 

"I think there's always a risk of somebody being offended", Catherine piped up. 

 

Predictably, opinions are divided, but the brewery donates £10 from each barrel of Osama Bin Lager to a charity that supports victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

 

The establishment of a Palestinian state is “the only route to peace” in the Middle East, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday as his country announced formal recognition, alongside Norway and Ireland.

 

I guess better late than never. Palestine has already been recognized by 144 other countries.

Boycotts That Impact Businesses

We continue to see boycotts of some American brands impact on their businesses.

 

On social media sites, lists are going around of brands accused of supporting Israel's Gaza offensive, which has killed at least 36,000 people, many of them women and children. The push is part of a larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israel-friendly brands since 2005.

 

In Malaysia, three American brands in particular, Starbucks, McDonalds, and KFC have been boycotted and their businesses are significantly affected. 

 

 

 

 

 

Hong Leong Investment Bank research in a note on May 24, 2024, said Berjaya Food which own 100% of Starbucks Corp.'s Malaysian operations announced group revenue was down by -24 percent quarter-on-quarter and -48 percent year-on-year on the back of the Starbucks boycott that's been ongoing since October 2023. 

 

The group reported a net loss of RM29.7 million for the third quarter ended March 31, 2024. FYI, Starbucks Malaysia still make up a big chunk of BFood revenue for the quarter contributing about 90 percent.

 

In February, McDonald’s admitted that the Gaza war was part of the reason international sales rose by just 0.7 percent during the fourth quarter of 2023, down sharply from a 16.5 percent expansion during the same period the previous year. 

 

“The most pronounced impact that we’re seeing is in the Middle East and in Muslim countries like Indonesia and Malaysia”, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said in an earnings call. “So long as this conflict, this war is going on […] we’re not expecting to see any significant improvement”.

 

The Malaysian franchise holder for KFC, QSR Brands (M) Holdings Bhd. were compelled to temporarily close more than 100 outlets, citing “challenging economic conditions”, as consumers in the Muslim-majority nation persist with a months-long boycott against brands perceived to have links with Israel. 

 

Methinks, it's time to go local! Support ZUS Coffee, Tealive, Ramly Burger, Marrybrown, 'Q' Bistro and Pelita nasi kandar, to name some of the well-established Malaysian brands.

 

Celtic beat Rangers 1-0 in a Scottish Cup final on Saturday with a 90th-minute winner from Adam Idah as the former completed the league and cup double. 

 

The match was by no means a classic and seemed destined for extra time when Idah, who joined the club on loan from Norwich City earlier this year, was in the right place at the right time to score and give Celtic a record-extending 42nd Scottish Cup triumph.

Durian Latte

They’re spiking their drink!

 

Coffee has become the latest canvas for including seemingly incongruous ingredients like butter, olive oil and even meat, like Starbucks’ notorious pork latte in Shanghai, China. 

 

As the espresso splicing trend percolates, in the US, of all places, New York City's East Village fruit-centric coffee shop Not as Bitter has concocted possibly the wildest rocket-fuel hybrid to date: the durian latte. 

 

Not as Bitter owner Jeffrey Wang said its unique flavor translates surprisingly well to the latte, which is reportedly a top seller. 

 

“That drink tastes very [good] because it’s sweet”, the bold barista, who hails from Tianjin, China, told The New York Post. “It just adds a flavor to the coffee and then some creaminess to it”. 

 

Step aside, pumpkin spice.

 

The $8.50 durian latte is essentially like a funkier coffee cocktail – not as Bitter’s dark interior on East 10th Street even evokes a speakeasy – with undiluted durian purée, coconut milk, simple syrup and two shots of espresso sourced from Guangzhou, China-based roasters. 

 

Wang and company select the whole fruit daily from special vendors that procure them from either Malaysia or Thailand and then prepare the smelly sweetener on-site – no prepackaged powders from concentrate here. 

 

Any durian not used by the close of business day is tossed, which stings given that there’s up to $2 worth of fruit in each cup. 

 

“The only way you can taste the fruit is by putting that much, and because the puree is 100% durian, there is nothing else”, Linda Wang, co-founder of Not as Bitter’s parent group UME Hospitality Group, told The Post. 

 

The fruit’s presence is so strong that when you suck the coffee through the straw, hunks of durian hit the back of your throat like pungent bubble-tea pearls. The finish, meanwhile, is surprisingly sweet, evoking a tangier, more aromatic mocha base that belies the fruit’s supposedly overpowering pong. 

 

Cutting coffee with fruit is nothing new. The Not as Bitter crew was inspired by a trend in China, where macchiato mixologists have combined coffee with fruit and beyond. The pairings might sound strange, but Chinese gourmands believe that tropical chasers “balance out the so-called bitterness in coffee” for the local palate, according to Linda – hence the shop’s name.

 

And the durian latte appears to be paying off, given that the fructose-infused fuel is the shop’s “top seller”, according to Linda. 

 

“It sells a lot more coffee than all the other fruit ones combined”, she added. 

 

But Jeffrey said the “king of fruit” is an acquired taste. 

 

“Honestly, not everyone can handle the taste of that”, he explained. “I’ve had customers ask me what the most popular flavor is, and I would tell them that our best seller is fresh durian, and they would want to try that, but they never had durian before. 

 

“I got two or three customers come back to me and said, ‘Oh, no, I cannot do it. Never again'”.

 

I wanna try! How about it, Malaysia?

The Only Animal Likely to Survive the End of the World

Millions of creatures have managed to survive through volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods and tornados – but scientists believe there's only one that will make it to the end of the world. 

 

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I have to say it's not humans. But let's be honest, I don't think we'd actually want to be around for whatever horrors the end of the world has in store.

 

Researchers from the University of Oxford and Harvard University were able to narrow down the creature that has the best chance of survival in a 2017 study which looked at the resilience of life to astrophysical events. 

 

This study went beyond our atmosphere to look at potential threats to the planet, forgetting about deforestation, wildfires or nuclear war to instead focus on world-ending events that might come from space. Focusing on events that would "completely sterilise an Earth-like planet", the researchers looked at three astrophysical sources – supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, large asteroid impacts – and passing-by stars. 

 

Humans, unfortunately, would not be able to survive such events – but there is one creature that might stand a chance.

 

That creature is the tardigrade (left), and if you've never heard of it, don't worry – people don't exactly keep them as pets. 

 

Also known as "water bears" or "moss piglets", tardigrades (Phylum: Tardigrada) are near-microscopic aquatic animals with flat heads, eight legs and plump bodies. 

 

They're actually pretty cute – but that doesn't mean they're not tough. Discussing the findings of the exercise, study co-author Dr David Sloan said: “To our surprise we found that although nearby supernovae or large asteroid impacts would be catastrophic for people, tardigrades could be unaffected. Therefore it seems that life, once it gets going, is hard to wipe out entirely. Huge numbers of species, or even entire genera may become extinct, but life as a whole will go on".

 

In order to ensure their survival, the tiny creatures are able to enter a state of hibernation known as cryptobiosis. During this process, tardigrades expel more than 95 percent of the water from their bodies. They're able to survive temperatures as low as -460°F, and as high as 302°F, as well as extreme pressure and strong radiation.

 

Given they can go through all that, it's safe to say tardigrades are worthy winners in the battle to survive the end of the world.

Keeping Up and Charting Progress

Yes, it'll take some time for us to finish off the third batch of "The Diamond in Your Speech" but as we've said oftentimes, we're in no hurry. 

 

We will sell more books, and as of now, our cumulative total stands at 1,062 – meaning, only 438 copies remain. We know it's still a long way off to sell all our stocks but we're keeping up and charting progress. And that is what matters.

 

 

Who Says China is in Economic Crisis?

Negative narratives about China's economy are real easy to come by these days. But beyond headlines about defaulting property developers, record youth unemployment, slowing economic growth and a host of other ills, China is actually doing reasonably well – although there is recognition, it can do better!

 

For sure, China will continue to face challenges from the West's restrictive trade policies and I daresay, things can only get worse.

 

Still, China will not be thwarted. A David P Goldman piece published May 21, 2024 in Asia Times, a Hong Kong–based English language news site informs that while China’s exports to developed markets may have stagnated for years, their exports to the Global South have doubled! 

 

Not only have China’s exports to the Global South in total surged by an unprecedented margin, but its exports to every region of the Global South – Asia, Latin America, Africa, Middle East/North Africa and Central Asia – have leapt in lockstep.

 

Some of China’s export success in the developing world, to be sure, reflects a new kind of triangular trade motivated by tariffs on billions worth of Chinese imports that the Donald Trump administration imposed in 2018-2019. China ships components and capital goods to countries like Mexico, Vietnam and India, which then assemble them into finished products for sale in the United States. 

 

Asia Times first documented this grand circumvention of US tariffs in an April 03, 2023 analysis. Since then the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Bank for International Settlements and the Peterson Institute have published studies documenting the same conclusion: America is more dependent than ever on Chinese supply chains.

 

China’s exports to the Global South have jumped from about $90 billion a month in 2020 to $150 billion a month today, or by $60 billion a month. About half of that, or $30 billion a month, shows up as higher US imports from third countries. Tariff avoidance through the extension of Chinese supply chains to the developing world, that is, explains about half of China’s export growth to the Global South.

 

The other half comes from industries that China has come to dominate during the past several years: electric vehicles, solar panels, digital infrastructure, transportation infrastructure and electronic equipment. 

 

In fact, China has not only worked around the tech sanctions, but it also worked around US tariffs. China has had a plan, expressed at a high level in the Belt and Road Initiative, to replicate some aspects of its industrialization in other countries of the Global South, or what Goldman called “Sino-forming” in his 2020 book, "You Will Be Assimilated".

 

Really, there's no stopping China, besides the fact that the Global South has virtually unlimited demand for $10,000 electric vehicles, affordable solar panels and broadband infrastructure, among many other products that China can offer!

The LEGO Version of LOTR's Barad-Dûr

Prepare to journey deep into the heart of Middle-earth with the unveiling of the spectacular LEGO Icons The Lord of the Rings: Barad-Dûr set! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It comes with 5,471 pieces and 10 minifigs and require nearly three feet of space, bringing to life an incredible scale model of LOTR's Barad-dûr, which is also known as the Dark Tower, Sauron‘s central stronghold in Mordor. 

 

At the summit lies the Eye of Sauron that rotates in various directions and features a light brick to make the eye glow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And it also features a number of the JRR Tolkien characters from The Lord of the Rings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This impressive Lord of the Rings: Barad-Dûr set will be available for purchase on June 04, 2024. It is likely to appeal to LOTR fans only because it is priced at $460.