Today's countdown are:

5. A World Bank report reveals that 42% of Malaysian students failed to achieve proficiency in reading by the end of Standard 5. Chan Soon Seng, CEO of Teach For Malaysia, talks about the important role that teachers play to address this issue.

4. Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim says the revised Public Service Remuneration System, or the SSPA, will be the best ever introduced.

3. The United States has officially passed legislation to ban social media platform TikTok unless it divests from its Chinese parent company, Bytedance. We asked Dr Benjamin Loh, Senior Lecturer at School of Media and Communication of Taylor's University, if this will have global implications on freedom of speech.

2. The MACC has confirmed that an investigation into Mahathir’s two sons earlier this year is part of a broader probe into the former leader for corruption. Pushpan Murugiah, CEO of the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) provides commentary.

1. Our top story! Analysts warn that Sabah's representatives may lose support if they're not serious about demanding 40% of the federal government’s annual net revenue, as outlined in the constitution. We discuss this in-depth with Ariff Adi Putera Anwar, Research Associate, Institute for Development Studies (Sabah).

Image credit: Uwe Aranas, Shutterstock

Produced by: Sudais Ferhard, Alia Zefri

Presented by: Lee Chwi Lynn, Sharaad Kuttan

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Categories:  government,  corruption,  politics,  international

Tags:  special allocation,  sabah,  macc,  corruption,  mahathir,  tiktok,  bytedance,  us senate,  world bank,  education,  civil service,