LEMON BLOG

Malaysians can look forward to a little extra breathing room during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri period this year, after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced an additional public holiday as a gesture of appreciation to the public.

Malaysia's Health Ministry says it will investigate claims that some foreign patients may have been using administrative loopholes to avoid paying hospital deposits at public hospitals. The issue gained attention after social media posts, said to have come from a nurse at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, alleged that certain patients were sidestepping normal payment procedures by claiming they did not have passports.

Malaysia's fuel subsidy bill is rising dramatically as the government moves to shield consumers from the impact of higher global oil prices. With tensions in the Middle East pushing energy costs upward, the country is now expected to spend about RM3.2 billion a month on fuel subsidies, a steep jump from the roughly RM700 million it was paying previously.

Subang Jaya is taking a step toward smarter and safer streets with the introduction of a new artificial intelligence–enabled traffic monitoring system. The Subang Jaya City Council (MBSJ) has begun deploying a technology called the Smart Sensor Awareness system, or SENSA, which uses AI and sensor-based monitoring to improve pedestrian safety in busy areas.

ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, appears to have found a way to tap into NVIDIA's powerful Blackwell-based AI hardware outside China, and that makes this development far more interesting than a routine hardware procurement story. Reports indicate that the company is working through Aolani Cloud, a Singapore-based AI firm in Southeast Asia, to gain access to high-end NVIDIA systems located in Malaysia.