Selangor recorded over 2,300 child-related cases between January and June, including 1,877 care and protection issues, 366 cases of criminal misconduct, and 63 cases of children beyond parental control. In response, the state government launched the Kasih Children’s Protection Advocacy programme to educate over 1.8 million youths on their rights and safety. We are joined by Sharmila Sekaran, chairman of Voice of the Children, to discuss what these figures reveal about child safety in the state, how bullying fits into institutional welfare, and why multi-agency coordination is critical to protecting vulnerable youths. (Starts at 23:37)• Selangor faces worsening retrenchment rates: Almost 15,000 workers in Selangor lost their jobs this year, and Selangor and Kuala Lumpur account for nearly 60% of all retrenchments. We speak to Calvin Cheng, a researcher at the Economics, Trade and Regional Integration division of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies and Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan, executive director of the Malaysian Employers Federation about what is driving these sustained job cuts and why the Klang Valley is particularly vulnerable. (Starts at 16:58)• Big Oil makes $100 billion profit amid crises: Eight of the world's largest fossil fuel companies earned nearly $100 billion in a single quarter as energy prices surged following the US-Israeli war on Iran. Climate activists and politicians have condemned the windfall, accusing oil majors of profiting from human hardship while cutting renewable energy investments. We discuss whether governments should tax excessive war profits to fund climate damage solutions. (Starts at 13:27)• MRCB sues veteran journalist: Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) and its executive vice chairman, Tan Sri Mohamed Salim Fateh Din, are suing business journalist P Gunasegaram for RM100 million over a Malaysiakini article on the LRT3 project, claiming it damaged investor confidence and share prices. We speak with Wathshlah Naidu, Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Journalism, on how lawsuits like this impact media freedom and public interest reporting. (Starts at 06:36)• AI winning over readers: A new study by Villanova University researchers found adults rated ChatGPT-written short stories as more absorbing than human-written ones, though readers still favored works they believed were human-authored. We discuss whether readers can really spot the difference and what this means for the future of creative writing. (Starts at 00:28)Top 5 @ 5 is brought to you by Luno: A smarter way to cryptoImage Credits: Shutterstock
