1MDB trial against Najib kicks off, and 9 news from yesterday

KINI ROUNDUP | Here are key headlines you may have missed yesterday, in brief.

1. In his opening statement at the 1MDB trial, the lead prosecutor of the 1MDB trial, Gopal Sri Ram laid out the “elaborate charade” former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak supposedly used to enrich himself, while lawyers from Goldman Sachs watched the proceedings.

2. In Najib’s defence, the lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah reiterated outside the courtroom that his client honestly believed the money that he received had originated from Saudi royalty.

3. A survey commissioned by Malaysiakini found that about one in six Malaysians say they don’t know about religions and cultures of fellow Malaysians other than their own, and they don’t care to learn more.

 4. Cameron Highlands MP Ramli Mohd Nor has taken the federal government to task for allegedly failing to pay bus operators who were supposed to ferry Orang Asli children to school over the past five months.

5. The Institute of Journalists Malaysia has urged Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Redzuan Yusof to apologise and retract his statement regarding a “Chinese journalist” from Malaysiakini.

6. The PKR political bureau has told Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari to hold a “full briefing” and “discussions that are more in-depth” with the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council regarding the debacle over the state government's failed unilateral religious conversion bill.

7. In wake of questions regarding Malaysia’s poverty data, PAS proposed that a national congress should be held to find ways to tackle poverty.

8. PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has not entertained several letters asking him to meet certain PKR leaders to reconcile, PKR vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin revealed.

9. The Fisheries Department has defended Malaysia's vote against the listing of certain sharks and rays as protected species over the weekend, saying that the move was based on the opinion of shark experts.

10. Big Blue Taxi founder Shamsubahrin Ismail has apologised after calling Indonesia and users of the Gojek motorcycle taxi service “poor”.