Utusan's shock shutdown and 9 news from yesterday

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

1. Following years of financial problems, the nation’s oldest Malay language newspaper, Utusan Malaysia, terminated operations and dismissed all its staff.

Veteran newsperson A Kadir Jasin blamed the demise on mistakes carried out during the Abdullah Badawi administration, while Khairy Jamaluddin hit back by citing Kadir's own complicity in producing biased coverage during the 1990s.

2. De facto Deputy Law Minister Mohamed Hanipa Maidin was slammed by opposition members who said he had gone overboard by questioning the gender of Umno MP Azalina Othman Said during a debate in Parliament. 

3. PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said Dr Mahathir Mohamad told him that if he announced his retirement date, he would become a lame-duck prime minister.

4. The Dewan Rakyat voted again to repeal the Anti-Fake News Act 2018, which was introduced by the previous BN government at the height of the 1MDB scandal, and which it had attempted to cover up.

The repeal vote was carried out last year, but was defeated by the BN-controlled Dewan Negara.

5. In response to the Malay Dignity Congress, Siti Nor, the daughter of key leader for the Malay poor Hamid Tuah, said her father believed in the dignity of the Malay peasants, not a racial divide; while PKR MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said that poor Malays are often encouraged to find scapegoats in other communities, not challenge their own elite.

6. Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan's invitation to Mahathir to pull Bersatu out of Pakatan Harapan and form a government with Umno and PAS is his personal view, said Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

7. On the third day of the trial of former Felda chairperson Mohd Isa Samad, who is facing charges of corruption and criminal breach of trust involving RM3 million, the High Court was told by former Felda DG Hanapi Suhada that Isa did not seek approval to purchase the RM160 million Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites (MPHS) in Kuching, Sarawak.

8. In former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's 1MDB graft trial, the High Court was told how businessperson Low Taek Jho made around RM74 million "out of thin air" by flipping 1MDB bonds.

9. Gerakan president Dominic Lau said the party is seriously considering running in the forthcoming Tanjung Piai by-election, in accordance with the party's grassroots wishes.

10. Almost a year after police announced that they were looking for 66 individuals to facilitate investigations into the death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim, only 10 have come forward, said Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Huzir Mohamed.