KINI ROUNDUP | Here are key headlines you may have missed yesterday, in brief.
1. Bersatu secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin claimed former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had told party leaders on several occasions to find a way for Bersatu to quit the Pakatan Harapan coalition.
2. Hamzah also maintained that he is the rightful secretary-general of the party, not the Mahathir-aligned Marzuki Yahya, and the organising secretary Muhammad Suhaimi Yahya (who had earlier sacked Mahathir and four others from Bersatu and was himself sacked by Marzuki) can only be sacked by party president Muhyiddin Yassin.
3. Following a surprise visit to the Bersatu headquarters, Mahathir said he wants to sack Muhyiddin from the party, but he intends to do so only through proper channels, via a supreme council meeting.
4. Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rina Harun denied allegations that she is resigning, while an aide to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Redzuan Mohd Yusof denied the minister planned to call a press conference and said he is still under quarantine.
5. A report claimed Malaysia signed a US$1.5 million (RM6.5 million) deal with an Israeli firm to purchase surveillance tools used to help former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak gather information on the opposition in the run-up to the 14th general election.
6. Najib said he has no involvement in the deal, and claimed a proposed second phase of the deal under the Pakatan Harapan administration was to be three times larger. The MACC, meanwhile, said it has no dealings with the firm.
7. Amid speculation that Harapan has sufficient support to challenge the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government’s legitimacy, PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said discussions are still underway.
8. Penang Bersatu assemblypersons intend to challenge an upcoming motion in the state legislature to force them to vacate their seats for shifting their political allegiance.
9. Malaysia has recorded 103 cases of Covid-19 yesterday, including a new cluster that was detected when a cleaning services company sent its workers to a private clinic for testing.
10. The Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has issued guidelines for businesses collecting information for contact tracing, including a data-retention period of six months, after which the records must be destroyed.
