Paralympic badminton gold medallist Cheah Liek Hou publicly criticized the Paralympic Council of Malaysia for delaying his RM60,000 reward, calling them "scammers." This led to the council considering a ban. However, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh deemed the council's reaction excessive and confirmed Cheah would receive his compensation. We speak with the minister about this and the expectations for athletes in an age of social media.

Other stories we covered:

• Unpacking imminent petrol subsidies: The BUDI95 programme is set to kick in on the 30th of September, resulting in over 16 million Malaysians enjoying controlled prices for RON95petrol. We speak to Saravanan Thambirajah, Secretary Geneal of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association about doubts over the rollout mechanism. We also discuss concerns that the scheme will benefit the ultra-rich with Dr Afzanizam Abdul Rashid, Chief Economist at Bank Muamalat.

• Who will take over Tiktok?: The White House announced that Americans will hold a majority number of board seats for the platform's US operations, following a months-long dispute over China's ownership of the social media app. We discuss the significance of this deal with Benjamin Loh, Director of the Digital Media and Communication department at Taylors University.

• Activists question call to prosecute victims of statutory rape: This follows the Kelantan police chief's proposal to charge victims of statutory rape because current laws only focus on prosecuting men. This caused concerns from activist groups about the police's understanding of statutory rape and the idea of consent. For more on this, we hear from Karen Lai, Programme Director of the Women’s Centre for Change and Professor Dato' Noor Aziah Mohd Awal, Commissioner at SUHAKAM.

• Major western governments recognise Palestinian statehood: After a wave of recognition from the UK, Canada and Australia and with Netanyahu and his government up in arms about this decision, we take a look back at the history of Palestinian statehood and discuss whether this will stop the ongoing genocide.

Image Credit: Bernama

Produced by: Sneha Harikannan, Sudais Ferhard, Dashran Yohan, Sharaad Kuttan

Presented by: Sharaad Kuttan, Dashran Yohan

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Categories:  politics,  government,  international,  Law/Activism,  controversies,  technology,  economy,  markets,  sports

Tags:  palestine,  palestinian statehood,  statutory rape,  tiktok,  us,  petrol subsidy,  cheah liek hou,  hannah yeoh,