SINGAPORE: The National Parks Board (NParks) said on Saturday (Jun 3) it is aware of an incident that occurred on Thursday and involved a member of the public and a wild boar at Zhenghua Park in Bukit Panjang.

A 40-year-old Singaporean man was hospitalised after being attacked by a wild boar while out walking his dog. The incident was first reported by Mothership on Friday.

He told the online news publication that the wild boar bit his left leg and he had to undergo an operation that required more than 20 stitches.

NParks said it is currently in touch with the man.

A 34-year-old woman was also attacked by a wild boar in Bukit Panjang last month, which left her hospitalised with multiple wounds and cuts over her body.

In response to CNA's queries about the latest attack in Bukit Panjang, NParks' group director of wildlife management Adrian Loo said on Saturday that the agency has been actively trapping the animals in the area, with eight wild boars trapped since May.

"We are also working with stakeholders on public education and outreach, to promote safe and responsible human-wildlife encounters," he added.

This includes taking enforcement action against the illegal feeding of wildlife which could alter the natural foraging behaviour of wild boars, leading them to rely on humans for food.

NParks is also currently monitoring the Bukit Panjang area and has been installing exclusion fencing to prevent wild boars from straying out of forested areas.

The agency said it adopts a community- and science-based approach to managing wild boar encounters, including habitat modification, managing their movement, relocation and culling.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/wild-boar-attack-man-bukit-panjang-stitches-trapped-3535881

SINGAPORE: Two people have been arrested as part of a three-week operation to disrupt activities conducted by scam syndicates, the police said on Saturday (Jun 3).

The operation, which was carried out from May 8 to May 31, involved the termination of mobile phone lines and the freezing of bank accounts used in illicit activities.

More than 1,000 mobile phone lines were terminated and close to 50 bank accounts were frozen with more than S$210,000 (US$155,498) seized, the police said.

A 23-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman were also arrested for their suspected involvement in the fraudulent registration of postpaid SIM cards by using the particulars of unsuspecting customers.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the man, who worked as a mobile phone shop assistant, had allegedly accessed and stolen the identification documents from his company’s mobile device used in the registration of postpaid SIM cards.

He then pre-registered postpaid SIM cards using the particulars of others and sold them to customers who wanted to purchase SIM cards without using their identities.

Investigations also showed that the woman allegedly abetted his offences by registering a shell company to procure unregistered postpaid SIM cards from a supplier.

An assortment of paraphernalia such as mobile phones and postpaid SIM cards were seized during the operation.

Twenty-five men and three women, aged between 22 and 43, are assisting in investigations. Their identities are believed to have been stolen.

The police added investigations are ongoing. The offence of illegally obtaining personal information carries a jail term of up to three years and a fine.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/sim-card-post-paid-mobile-phone-line-scam-syndicate-arrest-3536091

SINGAPORE: Former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Daniel Goh said on Thursday (Jun 1) that he has been expelled from the Workers' Party (WP).

The reason for the expulsion given to him in a letter by WP pertains to him disclosing information about the "inner workings" of the opposition party, he added in a Facebook post.

He attached a redacted copy of the WP letter in his post, adding that he was doing so as the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) had "requested nicely" that he not disclose the correspondence due to information about the “inner workings” of the party.

"Though ironically that is the very reason given for the expulsion. Such is the closed loop in the lack of accountability," he wrote.

When contacted, WP declined comment.

According to the redacted letter Associate Professor Goh posted, his expulsion is to take "immediate effect".

Although Assoc Prof Goh did not elaborate on what "inner workings" of the party he was referring to, he had in 2022 said that WP had set up a disciplinary committee to look into his Facebook posts on the Raeesah Khan saga.  

He had claimed then that WP said the committee wanted to interview him as his posts had allowed WP’s “political opponents” to have an inside understanding of how the party operates, and had “cast a cloud” on the character of the leadership of the party.

Assoc Prof Goh had made several Facebook posts about how the party has handled Ms Raeesah’s admission on Nov 1 in 2021 that she had lied in Parliament.

Ms Raeesah had stepped down in November 2021 after admitting to lying in Parliament. She was found guilty of abusing parliamentary privilege and fined S$35,000.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/former-ncmp-daniel-goh-expelled-workers-party-3531696

Cristiano Ronaldo visits Singapore, surrounded by fans at Botanic Gardens

Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo smiles at fans from his buggy on his visit to the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Jun 2, 2023. (Photo: CNA/Syamil Sapari)

SINGAPORE: He was there for a mere 15 to 20 minutes, but the fans who turned up to see Cristiano Ronaldo at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Friday (Jun 2) afternoon were rewarded with a glimpse of their star up close and personal.

The football superstar was surrounded by fans who ran alongside his buggy as he rode into the Botanic Gardens.

A lucky few managed to get him to autograph their jerseys.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner is in Singapore to support a series of youth scholarships established by his long-time friend and philanthropist Peter Lim.

These include the NParks-Peter Lim Scholarship, which is meant to help less privileged youths pursue their interests, develop their skills and build capability in the landscaping, horticulture, ecology, veterinary and animal science sectors.

At the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Friday, the scholarship recipients, who are from the Institute of Technical Education, gathered with Ronaldo for a group photo.

On Saturday, the Portuguese forward will meet about 1,000 youths in support of the Singapore Olympic Foundation (SOF)-Peter Lim Scholarship.

This is Ronaldo's fourth visit to Singapore in the last 10 years and his first since the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/cristiano-ronaldo-singapore-botanic-gardens-3531776

SINGAPORE: Close to 250,000 travellers departed Singapore through Woodlands and Tuas Checkpoints on Jun 1 - the highest since the reopening of the land borders, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said on Friday (Jun 2).

This was due to the Vesak Day long weekend as well as the June school holidays, ICA added.

ICA said it "observed continuous tailbacks from Malaysia at Woodlands Checkpoint resulting in vehicular queues extending beyond SLE (Seletar Expressway)".

On the traffic congestion, Johor chief minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi warned in a Facebook post on Friday that vehicles attempting to bypass the queue when entering Malaysia via the two land checkpoints will be denied entry and redirected back to Singapore.

He also thanked the Malaysian police officers who are on duty to control traffic congestion at the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex.

Traffic is expected to remain very heavy at both land checkpoints with continuous tailbacks from Malaysia’s checkpoints for departing motorists, said ICA.

Those who wish to depart to Malaysia or enter Singapore via the land checkpoints by car or bus are advised to factor in additional waiting time for immigration clearance.

ICA also requested patience from travellers and that they should observe traffic rules, maintain lane discipline and cooperate with officers on-site when using the land checkpoints.

In a Facebook post on Friday afternoon, ICA said it had enforced the “no right turn” rule for drivers seeking to enter Woodlands Checkpoint from Woodlands Centre Road.

Drivers are to find alternative routes to Woodlands Checkpoint like the Bukit Timah Expressway or Woodlands Road, and are reminded to maintain lane discipline and cooperate with officers performing traffic control duties on site, it added.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/250000-travellers-depart-singapore-malaysia-woodlands-tuas-checkpoint-june-1-land-border-3533471

Singapore recalls EGO Honey Dates due to excessive levels of sulphur dioxide

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has ordered a recall of EGO Honey Dates after detecting sulphur dioxide beyond permissible levels.

The allergen, which was not declared on the food packaging, was found at levels "exceeding the maximum limit" stated in Singapore's Food Regulations, SFA said in a media release on Friday (Jun 2).

The affected batch of 200g EGO Honey Dates, which is made in China, has an expiry date of Nov 18, 2024.

SFA has directed Kee Wee Hup Kee Food Manufacture to recall the affected batch. The recall is ongoing.

Excessive levels of sulphite in food could result in allergic reactions in individuals who are hypersensitive to the allergen, according to SFA.

Symptoms include hives, itchiness, stomach ache, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Under Singapore’s Food Regulations, food products containing ingredients that are known to cause hypersensitivity must be declared on food packaging labels to safeguard public health.

All ingredients in prepacked food should also be specified on the product label in descending order of the proportions by weight in which they are present.

Consumers who have purchased the implicated products should not consume them, said SFA, adding that those who feel unwell may wish to seek medical attention.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/singapore-recalls-ego-honey-dates-due-excessive-levels-sulphur-dioxide-3533491

SINGAPORE: Internet access service providers in Singapore have been ordered to block the online publication Asia Sentinel after its non-compliance with a correction direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) said on Friday (Jun 2).

The California-registered publication was required to carry a correction notice alongside its May 24 article, which the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said contained several falsehoods.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority has been directed to issue access blocking orders following Asia Sentinel’s non-compliance with the correction direction, MCI said in its press release on Friday.

MCI said that the correction direction issued to Asia Sentinel required the facts to be juxtaposed against the falsehoods, so that end-users in Singapore can read both versions and draw their own conclusions.

"While Asia Sentinel carried the correction notices, this was not done in compliance with the requirements of the correction direction for the respective correction notices to be situated at the top of the article and at the top of the main page of the website,” MCI added.

The access blocking orders require internet access service providers to disable access for end-users in Singapore to the online location where the falsehoods were communicated, it said.

The access blocking orders will be cancelled should Asia Sentinel subsequently comply with the "full requirements" of the correction direction.

MHA reiterated earlier on Friday that Asia Sentinel did not have to take down its May 24 article and the online publication was only required to post the correction notice in the manner that has been stipulated.

"If Asia Sentinel truly believes in free speech, it should be happy for its readers to read both the article and the correction notice, and make up their own minds which is true," the ministry said.

POFMA’s primary tool to correct falsehoods is via a correction notice, "which must be placed in a specified proximity to the original post with a link to the government’s clarification", according to MHA.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/singapore-block-asia-sentinel-website-not-complying-pofma-correction-direction-3533176

SINGAPORE: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has extended its May sales launch by three working days after system glitches caused some users to experience difficulties while using its portal.

The sales launch will now end on Jun 8, instead of the original date of Jun 5, said HDB in a Facebook post on Thursday (Jun 1).

"This is to give our buyers even greater assurance of being able to submit an application," it added.

Applications can be submitted anytime before the end of Jun 8 and are not processed on a first-come-first-served basis.

A total of 5,495 Build-to-Order (BTO) flats were launched for sale on Tuesday, spreading across five projects in the housing estates of Bedok, Kallang Whampoa, Serangoon and Tengah. A further 1,500 Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) units are being offered for sale in this exercise.

Nearly 90 per cent of the BTO flats, in four of the five projects on offer, have a waiting time of less than four years.

HDB launches 5,500 BTO flats for sale, most will be ready in under 4 years

When the sales exercise was launched on Tuesday, some applicants aired their grievances on HDB's Facebook page, writing that they were stuck in the portal's virtual waiting room (VWR) for hours.

Others complained that the application process for the HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter was disrupted, with some encountering error messages despite having completed the preliminary HFE assessment.

HDB addressed the complaints in a Facebook post on Wednesday, saying: "We have been adjusting some system parameters since yesterday and made further enhancements early this morning, to reduce the waiting time in the VWR."

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/glitch-hdb-may-sales-launch-bto-application-three-days-system-3531446

SINGAPORE: Singapore and China will work towards establishing a secure defence telephone link under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the two countries signed on Thursday (June 1).

Under the MOU, the defence establishments in both countries will work towards setting up the secure line for high-level communications between their respective defence leaders, Singapore's Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said in a media release.

Such high-level open lines of communication are important for strengthening mutual understanding and trust, it added.

The MOU signing was witnessed by Singapore's Minister of Defence Ng Eng Hen and China's Minister of National Defense General Li Shangfu, who is visiting Singapore for the first time.

General Li is here from Thursday to Sunday and will attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual defence summit, which is being held from Friday to Sunday.

As part of his visit, Gen Li co-chaired the second Singapore-China Defence Ministers’ Dialogue (DMD) with Dr Ng on Thursday morning.

Both the DMD and the MOU are initiatives under the enhanced Agreement on Defence Exchanges and Security Cooperation signed in 2019.

General Li will also speak at a plenary session of the Shangri-La Dialogue, titled China’s new security initiatives, on Sunday. The event is run by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

At the Shangri-La Dialogue, participants typically debate the region’s security challenges, engage in bilateral talks, and come up with fresh approaches together at the dialogue, IISS stated on its website.

The keynote address for this year’s conference will be delivered by Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the dialogue’s opening dinner on Friday.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/singapore-china-ink-pact-set-secure-telephone-line-between-defence-chiefs-3531261

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has directed the Elections Department (ELD) to revise Singapore's registers of electors and to complete the revision by Jul 31, ELD said on Thursday (Jun 1).

This comes ahead of a Presidential Election due later this year and a General Election that must be held by 2025.

"In accordance with section 14(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act, the Prime Minister has directed the registration officer to revise the registers of electors and to complete the revision on or before Jul 31, 2023," ELD said in a media release.

"The revision is to bring the registers up to date."

Any person who meets the following qualifying criteria as of Jun 1, 2023, will have their name included in a register for an electoral division:
Is a Singapore citizen
Is not less than 21 years of age
Is not disqualified from being an elector under any prevailing law
Has a Singapore residential address on their NRIC or is residing overseas and has changed their NRIC address to an overseas address while having a contact address in Singapore registered with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority for voting purposes

"The revised registers of electors will be open for public inspection later in June 2023," ELD said.

"The Elections Department will provide more details then on how Singaporeans can check the registers of electors when they are open for public inspection."

Under the Parliamentary Elections Act, the registration officer must be directed to revise the registers of electors within three years of the last General Election.

Singapore's last General Election was held on Jul 10, 2020.

Singapore's next Presidential Election must be called by Sep 13, with incumbent President Halimah Yacob's six-year term expiring on that day.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/presidential-election-2023-registers-electors-be-revised-jul-31-3531241

SINGAPORE: A woman sued her brother on behalf of her elderly mother who has dementia, over a S$700,000 flat in Toa Payoh that her mother bought but her brother has been making rental profit from.

In a judgment released on Thursday (Jun 1), the High Court ordered that the flat be sold and the proceeds divided equally between the mother and brother.

Madam Goh Siam Teow, 89, bought the flat in 2001 in joint names with her son, Mr Arthero Lim Tung Hee, 68.

Mdm Goh has two other children. Her eldest, Madam Lim Sai Hong, 70, is the one suing Mr Lim and is Mdm Goh's litigation representative as Mdm Goh suffers from dementia and lacks the mental capacity to do so.

The joint tenancy of the flat was severed in 2020, with Mdm Goh and her son now holding the property as tenants-in-common in equal shares.

However, only Mr Lim lives in the flat currently. He has stayed there for 20 years and has been renting out two rooms in the flat, earning about S$1,500 a month that he uses for living expenses.

Even though Mdm Goh is a co-owner of the flat, she has not received any of the rental proceeds. She has been living with her eldest child, Mdm Lim, since 2003.

Justice Choo Han Teck said the only issue for him to determine was whether the property should be sold. Mdm Lim had asked for the sale proceeds to be divided equally between her mother and brother.

Mr Lim resisted this, saying that his sister lacked the power to apply for the sale as his mother's litigation representative.

He said he was a stroke patient with no income and financial means to move out, because he would otherwise lose the rental he currently receives along with a place to stay.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/court-woman-sues-brother-toa-payoh-flat-mother-dementia-sale-proceeds-equal-3531116

SINGAPORE: War erupting in Europe and Asia at the same time will prove “catastrophic”, Singapore’s Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said on Saturday (Jun 3) as he gave his take on how relations between the United States and China have been progressing.

“I think there was – because of what’s happening in Ukraine – understanding, and I think this applies to all ministers, the price of conflict and war,” Dr Ng told reporters at a doorstop interview at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's top defence summit.

“And, you just have to trust me on this, but there was a real sincerity and urgency that what happened in Ukraine must not happen in Asia because as many ministers have said, if you have simultaneous war in Europe and Asia, it’s catastrophic," he added.

This came as United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a speech at the summit on Saturday morning that he was “deeply concerned” about China’s unwillingness to engage in military crisis management.

The relationship between the US and China is at its lowest point in years, as they remain deeply divided over issues like Taiwan to espionage and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Last October, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China would never renounce the right to use force over Taiwan.

Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have risen dramatically after China staged war games near Taiwan last August following then-US house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island.

Earlier this week, China's Minister of National Defence Li Shangfu declined an invitation to meet Mr Austin at the Shangri-La Dialogue. On Friday, they shook hands on the sidelines of the summit but did not hold detailed talks, the Pentagon said.

General Li, who was sanctioned by the US in 2018 and who was named defence minister in March, will deliver his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Sunday.

Mr Austin said a “cordial handshake over dinner” was “no substitute for a substantive agreement”, adding that the US does not “seek conflict or confrontation” but will not stand for any “coercion and bullying” of its allies and partners by China.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/simultaneous-war-europe-and-asia-will-be-catastrophic-says-ng-eng-hen-3535891

SINGAPORE: One is a Highland dancer. Another is an accomplished singer. Their leader performs musical solos.

Among them, the three Singapore Police Force (SPF) officers have decades of experience in playing an instrument not typically associated with tropical Singapore: The bagpipes.

The trio are longtime members of the SPF's Women Police Pipes and Drums (WPPD) band, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and played a prominent role at the Police Day Parade, held at the Home Team Academy in Choa Chu Kang, on Saturday (Jun 3).

The band is one of the few pipes and drums bands in the world that combine with a military band during performances, and also a rare one featuring all female performers.

It regularly combines with the Gurkha Contingent Pipes and Drums to form the SPF Combined Band, which plays at selected high-profile events. A total of 19 members – including bagpipers and drummers – were out in full force on Saturday.

CNA spoke to the three WPPD members last week to find out more about their experience and training process.

For the band’s chief trainer, Senior Staff Sergeant (SSS) Ahllima Sinnakannu, playing a musical instrument was never something on her radar before she became a policewoman in 2003.

At the time, she was scouted to join WPPD due to her dance skills. She then took up the bagpipes.

The woodwind instrument, which originated from the Middle East and has become synonymous with countries like Scotland and Ireland, is notoriously difficult to master. Pipers can take up to three years to learn complex songs.

It certainly proved tough for SSS Ahllima to initially even coax a sound from it.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/spf-women-police-bagpipes-drums-band-parade-3523191

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) passengers travelling in economy and premium economy class will be able to access free unlimited Wi-Fi from Jul 1, the airline announced on Wednesday (May 31).

To enjoy the perk, passengers must be a member of SIA's rewards programme KrisFlyer. Registration is free.

SIA will be "the first airline to offer free unlimited Wi-Fi to customers across all cabin classes and virtually across the entire aircraft fleet", a company spokesperson told CNA.

As of May 1, SIA has 136 passenger aircraft in its fleet. About 95 per cent of SIA's fleet is equipped with inflight connectivity, with the exception of seven Boeing 737-800 planes that are among SIA's oldest aircraft. These seven planes are not Wi-Fi enabled and are slated to be retired in the coming years.

Currently, KrisFlyer members travelling in economy and premium economy class are offered two and three hours of free Wi-Fi respectively.

Free unlimited Wi-Fi is currently offered to all passengers in Suites, First and Business classes, including non-KrisFlyer members.

It is also offered to SIA's Priority Passenger Service Club members and supplementary cardholders across all cabin classes.

"With our onboard Wi-Fi, our customers are able to stay in touch with their loved ones, post photos on their social media channels or keep updated on the latest news," the SIA spokesperson said.

"The inflight Wi-Fi speed and experience might differ from the ground network, and is dependent on the number of concurrent users and the type of activity performed on a customer’s device."

SIA's chief executive officer Goh Choon Phong on Tuesday also shared the airline's plans to improve its offering for passengers.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/sia-singapore-airlines-free-wifi-economy-premium-class-passengers-july-3524871

SINGAPORE: Rents for luxury homes have soared amid demand from high net worth individuals, who are willing to pay top dollar for these homes, analysts said.

Singapore's red-hot property market saw rents rising to record highs last year. But signs pointed to a slowing down, with condominium rents up 6.2 per cent in the first quarter – down from 7.5 per cent in the October to December period and 8.3 per cent in July to September.

But landed property rents have continued surging, with a 14.5 per cent hike in the first quarter. This came after several quarters of increases, adding up to a year-on-year jump of 39.3 per cent.

A National University of Singapore (NUS) professor attributed the sharp rise to two factors – the low supply of luxury homes and strong demand from high net worth individuals.

As land is scarce, Singapore has a "very limited" supply of such homes, said Professor Qian Wenlan, director of NUS' Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies.

The number of landed properties under construction peaked in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Since then, the figure has fallen significantly.

As of the first quarter, Singapore has about 73,000 landed homes – less than 19 per cent of total private housing stock.

"Therefore, the amount of landed houses provided for rent to the market is inelastic. Whether the rent increases basically depends on the demand of high-end tenants in the market," Prof Qian said.

The rise of family offices in the last two years is also pushing up demand in the high-end rental market, said Professor Sing Tien Foo, provost’s chair professor at NUS' Department of Real Estate.

These foreigners are not eligible to buy landed houses, but they can afford to pay high rents, he said. Besides family offices, they could include other investors and senior management of foreign MNCs relocating to Singapore.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/landed-homes-property-rents-rise-demand-luxury-3527311

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has tested positive for COVID-19 again due to a "COVID rebound".

He first tested positive for the disease on May 22. Last Sunday, he said he was COVID-19 negative and would return to work.

"I feel fine but I am afraid I have turned COVID-19 positive again," said Mr Lee in a Facebook post on Thursday (Jun 1).

"My doctors say it is a COVID rebound, which happens in 5 to 10 per cent of cases."

The Prime Minister, who is 71, added that he is still infectious although the risk is not high compared to the initial infection. He said his doctors have advised him to isolate himself until he tests negative using an antigen rapid test (ART).

Mr Lee will recuperate at home, said the Prime Minister's Office in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

During his absence, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will be Acting Prime Minister. Mr Wong will host Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for the 8th Singapore-Australia Annual Leaders’ Meeting on Friday.

Mr Lee said on Thursday that he had looked forward to attending the consecration ceremony of Sri Thendayuthapani Temple but will now have to miss the event.

"My apologies to the organisers, and to all those attending the ceremony. I wish everyone a very successful consecration and celebration," he said.

Mr Lee tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time on May 22 following his visits to South Africa and Kenya.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/pm-lee-hsien-loong-covid-19-positive-again-post-rebound-singapore-3529956

SINGAPORE: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Thursday (Jun 1) issued five-year prohibition orders against six former agents of Great Eastern Financial Advisers (GEFA) for fraudulent and dishonest conduct.

This follows the convictions of Chan Jun Yi, Chanel Quah Hui Wen, Lim Zhan Yi, Sherlin Chia Hee Ping, Jackie Tang Hong Kong and Yvonne Quah for tax evasion, said MAS in a news release.

"Between April 2018 and April 2019, the six former agents, who were part of the same team in GEFA, engaged a third party to assist them in falsely inflating their business expenses for their income tax returns," said MAS.

The false expenses were allocated into two categories - "general expenses" and "commission paid to introducers". The false entries reduced their income taxes by S$124,648 (US$92,000) for the 2018 and 2019 assessment years.

The amount involves the total tax undercharged in both proceeded charges and charges taken into consideration for the six of them, said MAS, adding that the amount of tax undercharged in the proceeded charges was S$92,638.

They were given four days' to eight weeks' jail and fined between S$7,965 to S$113,829.02 on Sep 16, 2022.

They were referred by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore to MAS for regulatory action.

"MAS has issued five-year POs to all six individuals as each of them had actively participated in the scheme to cheat IRAS," it said.

"Their convictions for falsifying expense claims in income tax returns gave MAS reason to believe that they will not perform financial advisory services honestly."

Under the prohibition orders, which took effect on Thursday, the former insurance agents are prohibited from providing any financial advisory service, taking part in the management, acting as director, or becoming a substantial shareholder of any financial advisory firm under the Financial Advisers Act 2001, said MAS.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/mas-former-insurance-agents-great-eastern-financial-advisors-prohibition-order-tax-evasion-3530671

SINGAPORE: Offenders caught with large quantities of certain Class A controlled drugs, such as cannabis and methamphetamine, will face stiffer penalties – including caning – from Thursday (Jun 1), said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The previous maximum punishment for possession of any controlled drug, regardless of weight, was 10 years’ jail, a fine of up to $20,000, or both.

Now, offenders can be caned depending on the amount of drugs they possess. Mandatory minimum sentences for certain weight thresholds have also been set, while the maximum punishment will now be 30 years’ jail and 15 strokes of the cane.

Amendments to Singapore’s main drugs legislation, the Misuse of Drugs Act, were passed in parliament in March.

The eight controlled drugs that this will apply to are cannabis, cannabis mixture, cannabis resin, cocaine, diamorphine (pure heroin), methamphetamine, morphine and opium.

For example, those who possess less than 10g of diamorphine can be jailed for up to 10 years or fined up to S$20,000, or both. There is no statutory minimum.

Those convicted of possessing at least 10g but less than 15g of diamorphine will face a minimum of 10 years' jail and five strokes of the cane. The maximum sentence is double that.

Those who possess more than 15g will receive at least 20 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the cane. The maximum sentence is 30 years' jail and 15 strokes of the cane.

MHA previously said that the old sentencing framework for drug possession did not sufficiently account for the potential harm that could be caused by those who possess large quantities of drugs.

These eight drugs were selected because they “cause the most serious harms”, it added.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/controlled-drugs-possession-punishment-caning-jail-3530386

SINGAPORE: Warm weather is expected in the first half of June with the onset of southwest monsoon conditions, the Meteorological Service Singapore (Met Service) said on Thursday (Jun 1).

Temperatures of up to 35 degrees Celsius can be expected during the day, while the temperature may stay above 29 degrees Celsius – particularly in the eastern and southern parts of Singapore – on some nights.

"Low-level winds over Singapore and the surrounding region are forecast to strengthen and blow from the southeast or southwest in early June 2023, as the southwest monsoon progressively sets in over the region," the Met Service said in an advisory.

"The southwest monsoon season typically extends into September and is generally a drier season compared to other times of the year."

Over the next fortnight, daily maximum temperatures are expected to range between 33 degrees Celsius and 34 degrees Celsius on most days.

"On one or two days when there is less cloud cover, the daily maximum temperature could reach a high of around 35 degrees Celsius," the Met Service said.

"The nights are also expected to be warm and humid. Warm nights typically occur when the prevailing winds blow from the southeast or south and bring warm, humid air from the sea.

"On these nights, the temperatures may stay above 29 degrees Celsius, particularly over the southern and eastern coastal areas of the island."

The Met Service also forecast near-average rainfall over most parts of the country.

"In the first fortnight of June 2023, localised short-duration thundery showers can be expected over parts of the island on some afternoons," it said.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/weather-june-2023-hot-humid-nights-met-service-3530921

SINGAPORE: Four opposition parties in Singapore have formed an alliance called the People’s Alliance to contest the next General Election, said lawyer and politician Lim Tean on Thursday (Jun 1).

The four parties consist of the Peoples Voice, Reform Party, People’s Power Party and Democratic Progressive Party.

Singapore’s next General Election must be held by 2025.

Mr Lim, who is the leader of Peoples Voice, added that the four parties had been in discussions to form an alliance since January.

“Past attempts to forge an alliance of the opposition parties, most recently in 2018, when seven parties came together for talks, unfortunately went nowhere,” said Mr Lim in a Facebook post.

“We have heeded the calls of Singaporeans and decided that the time for talking about opposition unity without the formation of an alliance, is long past."

"The Alliance will contest in all the seats which the respective parties contested in for GE 2020 and more, for the coming General Election," said Mr Lim.

He added that the four parties “are agreed on the most critical issues affecting the prosperity of our people and country in the coming decades”.

"We have a ready manifesto to take to the country for the General Election," he said.

He also said the four parties have taken steps to register the alliance with the Registry of Societies.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/general-election-alliance-lim-tean-peoples-voice-reform-party-peoples-power-democratic-progressive-opposition-3530861

SINGAPORE: The police are investigating five men and two women for their suspected involvement in a series of holiday travel package scams.

At least 48 victims were cheated of a total sum amounting to at least S$1.7 million (US$1.2 million), the police said on Thursday (Jun 1).

Between March to May 2023, the police received multiple reports from victims who had purportedly been cheated by an online travel agency for what appeared to be "sham travel packages".

"After receiving the payments via money transfers, the company did not fulfil the agreed service and became uncontactable," added the police.

Through follow-up investigations, seven suspects - aged between 24 and 59 - were identified.

One of them, a 29-year-old man, was charged on May 26 for his suspected involvement in the unauthorised disclosure of an access code under the Computer Misuse Act.

The offence carries a fine of up to S$10,000 or jail of up to three years, or both, for first-time offenders.

Members of the public are advised to check with the Singapore Tourism Board and the National Association of Travel Agents to ensure a vendor is an accredited travel agent, said the police.

Air tickets should also only be bought from authorised sellers or reputable sources.

"Whenever possible, avoid making advance payments or direct bank transfers to the service providers," said the police, adding that scammers may provide a copy of an NRIC or driver's licence to appear as genuine sellers.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/holiday-travel-packages-scam-investigating-million-3530981

SINGAPORE: Do you find yourself ordering bubble tea sweetened with stevia, convinced that this sugar substitute is the key to a guilt-free indulgence?

Often marketed as low- or no-calorie alternatives to sugar, artificial sweeteners are largely seen as a way to aid weight loss or maintain a healthy weight.

That may no longer be the case.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned against the use of non-sugar sweeteners, such as saccharin and stevia, for weight control.

The use of non-sugar sweeteners does not confer any long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children, said the WHO in its recommendation on Monday (May 15).

It also found potential undesirable effects from long-term use of such sweeteners in the form of increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and mortality in adults.

So, are non-sugar sweeteners really a healthier alternative to sugar? And how much of these sugar substitutes should we consume? CNA finds out.

Non-sugar sweeteners, or sugar substitutes, are chemicals and plant extracts used to sweeten food and beverages.

Common sugar substitutes include acesulfame K, aspartame, advantame, cyclamates, neotame, saccharin, sucralose, stevia and stevia derivatives.

They can be found in ready-to-eat food and drinks, including soft drinks, candy, fruit juice, and ice cream.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/non-sugar-sweeteners-artificial-substitute-safe-weight-loss-diabetes-calories-who-3494141

SINGAPORE: Speak to a proponent of alkaline water and you might get the impression that it is their elixir of well-being – from improving hydration to disease prevention.

Last month, a local water filtration company was ordered by a court to stop making false claims, including that alkaline water prevents cancer, diabetes and chronic lower back pain.

The fact that none of these so-called health benefits has been scientifically proven has not deterred fans.

According to a market research report published by Fortune Business Insights in 2021, the global alkaline water electrolysis market is expected to hit US$180 million by 2028, up from about US$100 million in 2020.

CNA spoke to experts to sort the facts from fiction when it comes to alkaline water.

What is alkaline water?

The “alkaline” in alkaline water refers to its pH level.

The pH scale measures the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, ranging from pH 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is considered neutral while anything less than that is acidic, and anything more than 7, is alkaline.

Alkaline water can occur naturally, for example, spring water can contain minerals that make it more alkaline.

It can also be produced by using ionising machines, which pass water through a chemical process called electrolysis to raise its pH to between 8.5 and 10.0.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/alkaline-water-better-regular-drinking-water-cna-explains-3395616

SINGAPORE: Seen the images of the tiny translucent worm wriggling about in a half-eaten sashimi rice bowl from Don Don Donki?

A spokesperson for the Japanese discount store chain said after the incident last Wednesday (Feb 8) that parasites may not be entirely removed if "hidden deep" inside the core of raw fish or embedded in the flesh.

This is despite the company's best attempts at visual checks and maintaining proper cold chain management.

So just how perilous is it to eat raw fish? Does it mean accepting the risk of gulping down an organism that will attach itself to and feed off your insides?

Here's what you should know before ordering your next slab of sashimi.

The couple with the unwanted worm add-on to their rice bowl said on Facebook that they hoped to avoid serious health trouble after the encounter.

The parasite in question - called Anisakis - can cause anisakiasis disease, with symptoms of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, abdominal swelling, diarrhoea and mild fever.

In 2015, a specific strain of Group B streptococcus (GBS) bacteria infected more than 160 people in Singapore who had eaten dishes containing raw freshwater fish.

Two died, one 50-year-old man had to have all of his limbs amputated and another 54-year-old man came out of a two-week coma without his hearing.

It was the largest outbreak of its kind in the world, and led to Singapore banning the sale of ready-to-eat or RTE raw freshwater fish.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/raw-fish-risks-parasite-infections-sashimi-sushi-3279521

SINGAPORE: It has probably happened at some point to anyone who has ever been on a plane – forgetting to switch off your phone or put it on airplane mode before take-off and landing.

But a plane crash in Nepal on Sunday (Jan 15) that claimed more than 70 lives has brought this issue to the spotlight.

A passenger had livestreamed footage on board the aircraft moments before the crash, and netizens speculated that the use of the phone could have interfered with flight equipment.

CNA put out a call for questions about using mobile phones on flights, and readers responded. Many asked if it was possible that phone signals could cause a plane to crash and whether it was necessary for phones to be switched off or put on airplane mode.

CNA spoke to aviation experts and took a look at different airlines' policies on mobile phones.

Could using your mobile phone affect flight equipment? How?

Minimally, according to two industry experts.

Aviation safety consultant Michael Daniel said that modern technology has evolved to a point where the signals from a phone should not substantially affect the plane's functions.

"Modern aircraft, the wiring is much, much better these days. They actually have wiring that reduces the HIRF (high-intensity radiated field) effect," said Mr Daniel, who sits on the panel of experts for the Association of Aerospace Industries (Singapore).

The high-intensity radiated field is the radio-frequency energy that can affect another device.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/mobile-phone-airplane-mode-affects-plane-equipment-nepal-crash-cna-explains-3217116

WASHINGTON: United States President Joe Biden on Saturday (Jun 3) signed into law a debt ceiling Bill passed by Congress after weeks of wrangling, moving to avert a catastrophic, self-induced default in the world's biggest economy.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 authorises the government to extend the so-called debt ceiling to renew borrowing, keeping the bills paid.

The Treasury had warned that if the debt ceiling was blocked beyond Monday, the country would default on its US$31 trillion debt.

A default would have likely triggered market panic, huge job losses and a recession, with global implications.

In a statement on Saturday, the White House thanked the Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress "for their partnership".

In a rare Oval Office address late on Friday, Biden said that the debt ceiling Bill saved the country from "economic collapse".

Speaking from behind the historic Resolute Desk on live prime-time television, Biden said that the deal resolving the stand-off between Democrats and Republicans was a compromise where "no one got everything they wanted".

However, "we averted an economic crisis", he said.

Oval Office addresses have always been reserved by presidents for moments of unique national danger or importance.

Biden used the occasion to project a reassuring, calm tone.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/biden-signs-debt-ceiling-bill-law-averting-default-3536616

WASHINGTON: The "Lord's chicken" no more: US fast food chain Chick-fil-A - beloved among Americans for its sandwiches, nuggets and milkshakes - found itself on the receiving end of right-wing ire this week, accused of succumbing to "woke" ideology.

After conservative customers realised the company employs a "diversity, equity and inclusion" representative, it has joined the ranks of other seemingly innocuous brands now facing calls for boycotts, such as mega supermarket Target and Bud Light beer.

Until recently, conservatives had seen the restaurant as one of their own, with its website explaining that its locations are closed on Sundays so the Baptist founder "and his employees could set aside one day to rest and worship if they choose".

And in 2012, it was progressives who spurned Chick-fil-A's offerings for supporting anti-gay marriage efforts.

But the tables have turned, as right-wing influencers complain on social media about a statement from its vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion who says the company is committed "to ensuring mutual respect, understanding and dignity everywhere we do business".

Though that position has already been filled for a few years, angry social media commentators seem to have only just noticed this week.

"Disappointing. Et tu Chick-fil-A?" asked former Trump-era Justice Department official Jeff Clark on Twitter, quoting Julius Caesar's realization in Latin that his friend Brutus was among his killers.

And contributor to conservative organisation Turning Point USA, Morgonn McMichael, accused the chain in a viral video of deciding to "bow down to the woke lords".

"Chick-fil-A you are no longer the Lord's chicken. You're actually the woke chicken, and I'm really upset about it as a Christian woman," she says.

McMichael and her friend then complain about having to visit a rival chain instead - even though they do not seem as enthused about the fried poultry options at the new place.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/chick-fil-us-culture-wars-woke-conservative-diversity-lgbtq-3536631

TOKYO: Heavy rain across parts of Japan has killed one person and left two missing and injured dozens mor, authorities said Saturday (Jun 3), with thousands issued evacuation warnings.

The inundation has been caused by the remnants of former Typhoon Mawar, now downgraded to a tropical storm.

A rescue team in central Aichi region's Toyohashi, where the country's highest-level evacuation alert was issued Friday, "found a man approximately in his 60s in a submerged car but he was later confirmed dead", a city official told AFP.

In western Wakayama, where several rivers burst their banks, officials told AFP that they had resumed the search for one man and one woman missing in the region.

A total of six people were seriously injured and 24 suffered minor injuries as of Saturday morning, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

In central and western Japan, many evacuation orders - which are non-compulsory, even at the highest level -were downgraded Saturday as rains eased.

But new warnings were issued in areas close to Tokyo early morning over flooding risks.

With several cities including Aichi's Toyohashi and Koshigaya near Tokyo reportedly seeing the highest 24-hour rainfall on record, the Japan Meteorological Agency urged residents to "be on high alert for landslides, overflowing rivers, and flooding of low-lying areas".

Some 4,000 households in regions close to Tokyo were suffering power outages, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said.

Shinkansen bullet trains were still suspended between Tokyo and Nagoya, according to Japan Railway, but public broadcaster NHK said they resumed operations around noon.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/one-dead-two-missing-japan-after-heavy-rain-caused-tropical-storm-mawar-3535466

BALASORE, India: Authorities were scrambling on Sunday to understand the cause of a three-train collision in India that killed at least 288 people, claiming that "no one responsible" will be spared.

The country's deadliest rail accident in more than 20 years left a blood-stained wreckage, with compartments smashed and some carriages flung far from the tracks.

Debris was piled high at the site of the Friday night crash near Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha.

"I saw bloodied scenes, mangled bodies and one man with a severed arm being desperately helped by his injured son," researcher Anubhav Das, 27, told AFP after surviving the crash.

There was confusion about the exact sequence of events, but reports cited railway officials as saying that a signalling error had sent the Coromandal Express running south from Kolkata to Chennai onto a side track.

It slammed into a freight train and the wreckage derailed an express running north from India's tech hub Bengaluru to Kolkata that was also passing the site.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site and injured passengers being treated in hospital and said "no one responsible" would be spared.

"I pray that we get out of this sad moment as soon as possible," he told state broadcaster Doordarshan.

Das said he was in the last carriage of one of the trains when he heard "screeching, horrifying sounds coming from a distance".

His coach stayed upright and he jumped out unhurt after it ground to a halt.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/india-train-crash-odisha-balasore-rescue-effort-declared-over-3534801

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police on Sunday (Jun 4) detained more than 20 people, including key pro-democracy figures trying to commemorate the anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, as hundreds in Taiwan mourned the dead with a vigil.

For years, tens of thousands of Hong Kongers would converge on the city's Victoria Park and its surrounding neighbourhood to commemorate the events of June 4, 1989 - taking part in candlelight vigils.

But since Beijing's imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 to quell dissent, the annual vigil has been banned and its organisers charged under the law.

This weekend, scores of police were deployed in the area, stopping people for searches and questioning. Some found with a candle - regarded as a symbol of the Victoria Park vigil - were questioned and detained.

More than 700km away on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, hundreds gathered at Taipei's Liberty Square to chant "fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong" as night fell.

They lit candles in the shape of "8964" - numerals forbidden in mainland China because it references the events of June 4, 1989.

"We need to cherish the freedom and democracy we have in Taiwan," Perry Wu, 31, told AFP.

"I feel really sad to see the news of people getting arrested today in Hong Kong."

Hong Kong police said late Sunday they had detained 23 people between the ages of 20 to 74 who were suspected of "breaching the peace".

One woman, 53, was arrested for obstructing police officers.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/tiananmen-square-anniversary-hong-kong-china-police-arrests-3537331

WASHINGTON: A Chinese Navy ship maneuvered in an "unsafe manner" near an American destroyer transiting the Taiwan Strait, the US military said Saturday (Jun 3).

It is the second close encounter between American and Chinese military assets in less than 10 days, following what the US military said was an "unnecessarily aggressive manoeuvre" by one of Beijing's fighters near one of Washington's surveillance planes last week.

The Chinese ship "executed manoeuvres in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of Chung-Hoon," an American destroyer, during the Saturday transit, the US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) said in a statement.

Beijing's ship "overtook Chung-Hoon on their port side and crossed their bow at 150 yards. Chung-Hoon maintained course and slowed to 10 (knots) to avoid a collision", the statement said.

It then "crossed Chung-Hoon's bow a second time starboard to port at 2,000 yards and remained off Chung-Hoon's port bow", coming within 150 yards at the closest point, the US military said, adding that the "US military flies, sails, and operates safely and responsibly anywhere international law allows".

The incident occurred as the Chung-Hoon sailed through the Taiwan Strait with a Canadian warship in a joint mission through the sensitive waterway that separates self-ruled Taiwan from China.

The Chinese military said it had monitored the passage, but made no mention of a close encounter.

"The relevant countries are intentionally creating trouble in the Taiwan Strait, deliberately stirring up risks, and maliciously undermining regional peace and stability," said Senior Colonel Shi Yi, the spokesman of China's Eastern Theatre Command.

US warships frequently sail through the strait. The last joint US-Canada passage was in September 2022.

China claims Taiwan as its territory - vowing to take it one day, by force if necessary - and has in recent years ramped up military and political pressure on the island.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-us-ship-taiwan-strait-unsafe-chung-hoon-3537761

WASHINGTON: A sonic boom that echoed over Washington on Sunday (Jun 4) was caused by two fighter jets scrambling to intercept an unresponsive aircraft that later crashed in rural Virginia, officials told AFP.

Residents of the city and its suburbs reported hearing the thundering noise, which rattled windows and shook walls for miles and caused social media to light up with people asking what had happened.

The F-16 fighter jets "responded to an unresponsive Cessna 560 Citation V aircraft over Washington, DC, and northern Virginia", the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement.

The two jets were scrambled from Joint Base Andrews, a Pentagon official told AFP, and they followed the aircraft that subsequently crashed in a mountainous area of southwest Virginia, one of the states bordering Washington.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident, a White House official told journalists, but did not specify whether any emergency precautions were implemented due to the incident.

Biden was in the region on Sunday, spending time at the White House and playing golf, before going out for dinner.

The civilian plane had taken off from Elizabethton, Tennessee and was bound for Long Island, New York, the FAA said.

"The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region," the command said in its statement.

They also used flares to try to draw the pilot's attention, which may have been visible from the ground.

The unresponsive aircraft crashed near Montebello, Virginia, about 113km southwest of the nation's capital at around 3.30pm (1930 GMT), the FAA said.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/united-states-washington-sonic-boom-jet-crash-aircraft-3538471

KABUL, Afghanistan: Nearly 80 girls were poisoned and hospitalised in two separate attacks at their primary schools in northern Afghanistan, a local education official said on Sunday (Jun 4).

It is thought to be the first time this kind of assault has happened since the Taliban swept to power in August 2021 and began their crackdown on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls.

Girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade, including university, and women are barred from most jobs and public spaces.

The education official said the person who orchestrated the poisoning had a personal grudge but did not elaborate.

The attacks took place in Sar-e-Pul province over Saturday and Sunday.

Nearly 80 female students were poisoned in Sangcharak district, said Mohammad Rahmani, who heads the provincial education department. He said 60 students were poisoned in Naswan-e-Kabod Aab School and 17 others were poisoned in Naswan-e-Faizabad School.

“Both primary schools are near to each other and were targeted one after the other,” he told The Associated Press. “We shifted the students to hospital and now they are all fine."

The department's investigation is ongoing and initial inquiries show that someone with a grudge paid a third party to carry out the attacks, Rahmani said.

He gave no information on how the girls were poisoned or the nature of their injuries. Rahmani did not give their ages but said they were in grades one to six.

Neighboring Iran has been rocked by a wave of poisonings, mostly in girls' schools, dating back to last November. Thousands of students said they were sickened by noxious fumes in the incidents. But there has been no word on who might be behind the incidents or what — if any — chemicals have been used.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/afghanistan-schoolgirls-poisoned-primary-taliban-3538031

SYDNEY: Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday (Jun 5) received one of New Zealand's top honours, recognising her efforts for leading the country through the COVID-19 crisis, the terror attacks on two Christchurch mosques and the White Island volcanic eruption.

Ardern was named "Dame Grand Companion", the second highest honour in New Zealand, on King Charles' birthday holiday celebrated by the country on Jun 5, and she made the coronation honours list for this year. 

The awardee is usually chosen in New Zealand by the prime minister and then approved by the British monarch, the head of state.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Ardern was recognised for her service during some of the greatest challenges New Zealand had faced in modern times.

"Leading New Zealand's response to the 2019 terrorist attacks and to the COVID-19 pandemic represented periods of intense challenge for our 40th Prime Minister, during which time I saw firsthand that her commitment to New Zealand remained absolute," Hipkins said.

Ardern became New Zealand's prime minister in 2017.

She resigned in January in a shock announcement saying she had "no more in the tank" to lead New Zealand.

Ardern said she felt "incredibly humbled" to receive the honour but was in "two minds" to accept it as the efforts for which she was getting recognised for "were about all of us rather than one individual".

"But I have heard that said by so many kiwis who I have encouraged to accept an honour over the years," Ardern said in a statement.
 
"And so for me this a way to say thank you - to my family, to my colleagues, and to the people who supported me to take on the most challenging and rewarding role of my life."

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/ardern-receives-new-zealand-top-honour-leadership-during-covid-19-mosque-attack-3538536

MOSCOW: Russia said on Monday (Jun 5) that its forces had thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive at five points along the front in the southern Ukrainian region of Donetsk and killed hundreds of pro-Kyiv troops.

It was not immediately clear whether or not the reported attack represented the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive which Kyiv has been promising for months to recapture territory taken by Russian forces after the invasion of February 2022.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the Russian statement and the Ukrainian defence ministry and military did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.

Kyiv on Sunday urged "silence" ahead of its long-awaited counteroffensive.

Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine had attacked with six mechanised and two tank battalions in southern Donetsk, where Moscow has long suspected Ukraine would seek to drive a wedge through Russian-controlled territory.

"On the morning of Jun 4, the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the South Donetsk direction," the defence ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram at 1.30am Moscow time (2230 GMT).

"The enemy's goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front," it said. "The enemy did not achieve its tasks, it had no success."

Russia's defence ministry also released a video of what it said showed several Ukrainian armoured vehicles in a field blowing up after being hit.

Russian forces killed 250 Ukrainian troops as well as destroyed 16 tanks, the infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured combat vehicles, the ministry said.

Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, was in the area of the Ukrainian attack, the ministry said.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/russia-says-it-thwarted-major-ukrainian-offensive-killed-hundreds-3538451

China has declined a request by the US for a meeting between their defence chiefs at an annual security forum in Singapore this weekend, media reported on Monday (May 29), a new sign of strain between the powers.

"Overnight, the PRC informed the US that they have declined our early May invitation for Secretary Austin to meet with PRC Minister of National Defence Li Shangfu in Singapore," the Pentagon said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, referring to China by the initials of its official name, the People's Republic of China.

Li has been under US sanctions since 2018 over the purchase of combat aircraft and equipment from Russia's main arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.

The Pentagon said it believed in open communication "to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict".

Last week, White House spokesman John Kirby said there were discussions by the Defence Department to get talks going between Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart, who was named defence minister in March.

The prospect of a meeting between them was being closely watched given regional security tensions and trade disputes that have derailed plans for re-engagement by the world's two largest economies.

China's foreign ministry on Tuesday blamed the US for its decision, claiming that Washington was "well aware" of the reasons behind the lack of military communication.

"The US side should ... immediately correct its wrong practices, show sincerity, and create the necessary atmosphere and conditions for dialogue and communication between the two militaries," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters at a briefing.

Last week, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao traded barbs on trade, investment and export policies in a meeting in Washington that marked the first US-China cabinet-level exchange in months.

Singapore-based security analyst Ian Storey said China's decision to shun Austin did not bode well.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/china-declines-meeting-us-defence-chief-pentagon-singapore-shangri-la-dialogue-3524256

TOKYO: A Japanese court ruled on Tuesday (May 30) that not allowing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, a decision activists welcomed as a step towards marriage equality in the only Group of Seven nation with no legal protection for same-sex unions.

The ruling by the Nagoya District Court was the second to find a ban against same-sex marriage unconstitutional, out of four cases over the past two years, and is likely to add to pressure to change the law in a country in which the constitution says marriage is between a man and a woman.

"This ruling has rescued us from the hurt of last year's ruling that said there was nothing wrong with the ban, and the hurt of what the government keeps saying," lead lawyer Yoko Mizushima told journalists and supporters outside the court.

She was referring to a ruling in Osaka last year that the ban was not out of line with the constitution.

A Tokyo court later upheld the ban on same-sex marriage but said a lack of legal protection for same-sex families violated their human rights.

Tuesday's ruling was greeted with cheers from the activists and supporters waving rainbow flags outside the court.

Though opinion polls show about 70 per cent of the public supports same-sex marriage, the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida opposes it.

Kishida in February sacked an aide who sparked outrage by saying people would flee Japan if same-sex marriage was allowed, but the prime minister remains noncommittal about it and has said discussions must proceed "carefully".

Nevertheless, more than 300 Japanese municipalities covering about 65 per cent of the population allow same-sex couples to enter partnership agreements.

But the right is limited in scope. Partners cannot inherit each other's assets or have parental rights to each other's children. Hospital visits are not guaranteed.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/japan-court-rules-bar-same-sex-marriage-unconstitutional-3524721

BEIJING: China on Tuesday (May 30) sent three astronauts, including a civilian scientist, to its now fully operational space station as part of crew rotation, according to state media, in the fifth manned mission to the Chinese space outpost since 2021.

Leading the crew is commander Jing Haipeng on his fourth mission, as well as engineer Zhu Yangzhu and Beihang University professor Gui Haichao, the first Chinese civilian in space.

The spacecraft, Shenzhou-16, or "Divine Vessel", and its three passengers lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in north-west China at 9.31am local time.

The astronauts on Shenzhou-16 will replace the three-member crew of the Shenzhou-15 that arrived at the space station late in November.

The mission will "carry out large-scale, in-orbit experiments ... in the study of novel quantum phenomena, high-precision space time-frequency systems, the verification of general relativity, and the origin of life," China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) spokesperson Lin Xiqiang told reporters on Monday.

The space station, comprising three modules, was completed at the end of last year after a total of 11 crewed and uncrewed missions since April 2021 initiated by the launch of the first and biggest module - the station's main living quarters.

China has already announced plans to expand its permanently inhabited space outpost, with the next module slated to dock with the current T-shaped space station to create a cross-shaped structure.

Astronauts Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao attend a press conference before the Shenzhou-16 spaceflight mission to China's space station, at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, near Jiuquan, Gansu province, China May 29, 2023.…see more

Plans for China's "space dream" have been put into overdrive under President Xi Jinping, and it is planning to build a moon base.

"The overall goal is to achieve China's first manned landing on the Moon by 2030 and carry out lunar scientific exploration and related technological experiments," he said.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-launch-shenzhou-16-divine-vessel-mission-chinese-space-station-tiangong-3524441

BEIJING: Chinese organisations launched 79 large-language models (LLMs) in the country over the past three years as they doubled down on efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, a report by state-run research institutes said.

The development of LLMs, trained using deep learning techniques on massive amounts of text data, entered an "accelerated" phase in 2020, as per the report authored by research institutes run by the country's Ministry of Science and Technology.

In 2020, Chinese organisations released 2 LLMs, compared with 11 in the United States, but in 2021 there was a total of 30 LLMs released in each country, said the report published on Sunday (May 28).

US organisations in total released 37 LLMs the following year, to China's 28, according to figures compiled in the report, whose co-authors include the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China.

So far this year, China is in the lead with 19 LLMs to US' 18.

"Judging from the distribution of large-language models released around the world, China and the United States lead by a big margin, accounting for more than 80 per cent of the global total," the report concluded, according to a press release that summarised the report's main findings.

"The United States has always ranked first in the world in terms of the number of large-language models."

The report comes when the country's AI industry faces significant challenges as US-led export controls restrict Chinese organisations from accessing semiconductors used to train LLMs, among other advanced computing tasks.

The report analysed the 79 LLMs developed in China, noting that while there were already 14 provinces and regions where such technology was developed, joint development projects between academia and industry were "insufficient".

After OpenAI released ChatGPT, Chinese tech giants, from Alibaba to surveillance firm Sensetime and search engine giant Baidu, have launched their own versions of chatbots powered by generative AI and LLMs.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/chinese-organisations-launched-79-ai-large-language-models-2020-report-3525086

KUALA LUMPUR: Fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low, wanted for his key role in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, is believed to be hiding in Macao, Malaysia's anti-graft agency said on Tuesday (May 30), confirming an earlier report by Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera had cited a written response from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to its queries on Low's whereabouts.

"This was also confirmed by several individuals who have seen Jho Low in Macao," Al Jazeera quoted the MACC as saying.

The MACC confirmed to Reuters it had issued the remarks to Al Jazeera, but did not elaborate. Macao's police and government did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho, has been charged in Malaysia and the United States for allegedly masterminding the theft of US$4.5 billion from state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). He has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Malaysian authorities have previously said Low was believed to be in China, though Beijing has denied that.

According to Al Jazeera, the MACC's comments come just weeks after the arrest of Kee Kok Thiam - a Malaysian associate of Low and a suspect in the 1MDB case, who it said was deported from Macao for overstaying his visa.

The report said Kee had confirmed to MACC that he had met Low and other 1MDB fugitives and suspects in Macao.

Low told Kee "not to return to Malaysia as a witness in the 1MDB case", Al Jazeera quoted the MACC as saying. Reuters could not reach Kee for comment.

The MACC confirmed earlier this month that an unnamed Low associate who had been on the run since 2018 was repatriated by anti-graft authorities, following cooperation with international law enforcement agencies.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-jho-low-hiding-macao-1mdb-anti-corruption-commission-3525001

WASHINGTON: A Chinese fighter jet carried out an "unnecessarily aggressive" manoeuvre near a US military plane in international airspace over the South China Sea, the United States said on Tuesday (May 30).

The US military command responsible for the Indo-Pacific region said the manoeuvre by a Chinese J-16 aircraft occurred last week and forced the US RC-135 plane to fly through its wake turbulence.

"The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate – safely and responsibly – wherever international law allows," it said in a statement.

A video released by the US Defense Department showed a fighter jet passing in front of the US plane's nose and the cockpit of the RC-135 shaking in the turbulence.

The spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington Liu Pengyu did not comment on the specifics, but said that for a long time, the United States had "frequently deployed aircraft and vessels for close-in reconnaissance on China, which poses a serious danger to China’s national security".

"China urges the US to stop such dangerous provocations, and stop deflecting blame on China," Liu said in an emailed response to a request for comment on the US military statement.

He added that China would "continue to take necessary measures to resolutely defend its sovereignty and security, and work with regional countries to firmly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea".

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, where several other countries have rival claims. Beijing has frequently said that the United States sending ships and aircraft into the South China Sea is not good for peace.

The latest incident took place before China snubbed a request by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue Asian security summit in Singapore this week.

A senior US defence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that since 2021, China had declined or not responded to over a dozen requests to talk with the Pentagon, which says such contacts are important to avoid misunderstandings and unintended consequences.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/chinese-jet-performed-risky-manoeuvre-american-surveillance-plane-3526886

SEOUL: An emergency evacuation alert sent in error across Seoul over a North Korean rocket launch triggered widespread panic on Wednesday (May 31), crashing internet services and raising fears the government could not be trusted to handle a real crisis.

The alert, sent at 6.41am local time to all mobile phones in Seoul, said: "Citizens, please prepare to evacuate and allow children and the elderly to evacuate first."

The message did not specify why residents should evacuate or explain where they should go - Seoul has long had a network of underground bomb shelters, but they have not been used in emergencies in living memory.

Naver, South Korea's largest internet portal, told AFP its network went down for around five minutes due to the excess traffic sparked by the alert.

After around 20 minutes of confusion, the government retracted the alert.

"We inform you that the alarm sent at 0641 was incorrectly issued," a second alert said.

The retraction prompted anger and frustration, including calls on social media for Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon to resign.

"I was taking my two young children to a basement parking lot as advised, in shock," a 37-year-old father who asked to be identified by his surname Yoon, told AFP.

But the correction left him "speechless and outraged", he said.

"Now no one is going to believe a real alarm, just like in the fable about the boy who cried wolf."

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/south-korea-false-emergency-evacuation-alert-north-korea-rocket-launch-3527456

SINGAPORE: The Islamist party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and its president Abdul Hadi Awang played up racial rhetoric the most during Malaysia’s 15th General Election (GE15) in November, according to a study.

The report, published by Malaysia’s Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), aimed to identify the severity levels of hate speech before, during and after the election by monitoring the social media activity of key figures and entities.

The study said Mr Abdul Hadi had pushed anti-Chinese sentiments through negative social media posts against the Democratic Action Party (DAP), and that he had called its fielding of Malay candidates a “dangerous and slick move”.

“In the run-up to previous elections, online users employed divisive language and hate based-narratives around race, religion and royalty, popularly known as 3R. The GE15 was expected to be no different,” the report said.

“This was especially because a couple of issues had made social media an important space that shapes political discourse, including by promoting hate and toxic rhetoric.”

PAS emerged as the biggest winners in GE15 by winning 43 out of 222 parliamentary seats, although its Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition is now in the opposition after Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional and parties from Borneo formed a unity government.

The CIJ report - a joint effort with Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and University of Nottingham Malaysia - said PAS and Mr Abdul Hadi were the “biggest amplifiers of race”.

For example, the report pointed out that Mr Abdul Hadi’s TikTok post claiming that PH’s Chinese-based DAP was merely using Malay candidates to gain voter traction racked up 2.5 million engagement counts - the highest across all social media platforms.

“Posts on race were also found to perpetuate disinformation,” it said.

Hate speech and disinformation during elections are not new and have emerged as issues for several countries that are keen on countering how they could shape public discourse and influence voting patterns.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/pas-malaysia-election-hadi-awang-hate-speech-3528221

KATHMANDU: A Malaysian climber narrowly survived after a Nepali sherpa guide hauled him down from below the summit of Mount Everest in a "very rare" high-altitude rescue, a government official said on Wednesday (May 31).

Gelje Sherpa, 30, was guiding a Chinese client to the 8,849m Everest summit on May 18 when he saw the Malaysian climber clinging to a rope and shivering from extreme cold in the area called the "death zone", where temperatures can dip to minus 30 degrees Celsius or lower.

Gelje hauled the climber 600m down from the Balcony area to the South Col, over a period of about six hours, where Nima Tahi Sherpa, another guide, joined the rescue.

"We wrapped the climber in a sleeping mat, dragged him on the snow or carried him in turns on our backs to camp III," Gelje said.

A helicopter using a long line then lifted him from the 7,162m-high Camp III down to base camp.

"It is almost impossible to rescue climbers at that altitude," Department of Tourism official Bigyan Koirala told Reuters. "It is a very rare operation."

Gelje said he convinced his Chinese client to give up his summit attempt and descend the mountain, saying it was important for him to rescue the climber.

"Saving one life is more important than praying at the monastery," said Gelje, a devout Buddhist.

Tashi Lakhpa Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks company, which provided logistics to the Malaysian climber, declined to name him, citing his client's privacy. The climber was put on a flight to Malaysia last week.

Nepal issued a record 478 permits for Everest during this year's March to May climbing season.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/nepali-sherpas-save-malaysian-climber-rare-everest-death-zone-rescue-3528456

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations special envoy for Myanmar will step down in June, a spokesman for the UN chief told AFP Wednesday (May 31), after an 18-month tenure in which she was criticised by the junta and its opponents.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power in February 2021, ending a brief democratic experiment and sparking clashes with ethnic rebel groups and anti-coup fighters.

Diplomatic efforts led by the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc to resolve the crisis have so far failed to stem the bloodshed unleashed by the coup.

Noeleen Heyzer, who was named envoy by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in October 2021, "will conclude her assignment on Jun 12" when her contract ends, Stephane Dujarric said.

Guterres "is thankful to Ms. Heyzer for her tireless efforts on behalf of peace and the people of Myanmar," the spokesman said, adding a new envoy would be appointed.

Heyzer, a Singaporean sociologist, was tasked with urging the Myanmar junta to engage in political dialogue with its opponents and end a bloody crackdown it launched after toppling the government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

She visited the Southeast Asian nation last August and met junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and other top military officials in a move criticised by rights groups as lending legitimacy to the generals.

But she was denied a meeting with detained democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi and later irked junta officials who accused her of issuing a "one-sided statement" of what had been discussed.

She later vowed not to visit the country again unless she was allowed to meet Suu Kyi, who has since been jailed for a total of 33 years by a closed-door junta court.

Backed by major allies and arms suppliers Russia and China, the generals have rebuffed several attempts to kickstart dialogue with opponents of its putsch.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/un-special-envoy-myanmar-step-down-3529251

SINGAPORE: Countries across Asia have been hit by another round of extreme heat that has toppled seasonal temperature records throughout the region, raising concerns about their ability to adapt to a rapidly changing climate.

After punishing heatwaves struck large parts of the continent in April, temperatures spiked again in late May, normally the start of the cooler monsoon season.

Seasonal highs were registered in China, Southeast Asia and elsewhere, and experts warned that there was more to come.

"We can't say that these are events that we need to get used to, and adapt to, and mitigate against, because they are only going to get worse as climate change progresses," said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist with the University of New South Wales in Australia.

The heatwave in Vietnam, expected to last well into June, has already forced authorities to turn off street lights and ration electricity as air conditioning demand threatened to overwhelm the power grid.

The country recorded its highest temperature ever on May 6, at 44.1 degrees Celsius, in Thanh Hoa province, about 150km south of Hanoi. Another province came close to the record on Wednesday (May 31), hitting 43.3 degrees Celsius.

Vietnam's national weather forecaster warned on Thursday of residential fire risks due to high power consumption. With temperatures set to range from 35 degrees Celsius and 39 degrees Celsius in the coming two days, it also warned of the risks of dehydration, exhaustion and heat strokes.

In China, Shanghai endured its hottest May day in more than a century on Monday. A day later, a weather station in the southeastern tech manufacturing hub of Shenzhen also set a May record of 40.2 degrees Celsius. The heatwave is set to continue across the south for a few more days.

India, Pakistan and southeast Asia already experienced a punishing heatwave in April, causing widespread infrastructure damage and a surge in heat stroke cases. Bangladesh was also at its hottest in 50 years, while Thailand hit a record 45C.

Seasonal temperature records also continued to tumble through May, with steamy Singapore at its hottest for the month in 40 years.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/asia-climate-woes-mount-heat-shatters-may-records-3530711

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he is ready to work with Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Muhyiddin Yassin provided the two are able to reach a consensus on mutual goals.

"We want to work together, but the end goals must be set out," he was quoted as saying in a report by news portal Malaysia Now on Thursday (Jun 1).

Dr Mahathir reportedly said that a main goal should be efforts to champion the Malay cause.

"We have split into many parties and we have lost power. When we lose power, we cannot correct the circumstances which are detrimental to the Malays … This is why we need to unite,” he told Malaysia Now.

Dr Mahathir and Muhyiddin formed the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) in 2016. Dr Mahathir was appointed chairman while Muhyiddin became president of the party.

Bersatu then worked with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in the 14th General Election in 2018 and ousted Barisan Nasional from government.

However, Dr Mahathir was removed from Bersatu following a political manoeuvre known as the Sheraton Move in 2020 when a number of Members of Parliament (MPs) defected from the ruling PH coalition.

This triggered the collapse of the short-lived PH government led by Dr Mahathir, paving the way for Muhyiddin to take up the mantle as Malaysia’s next prime minister.

On Mar 27 this year, Dr Mahathir claimed in a Facebook post that Malays in the country “lost everything” after he resigned from top office in February 2020.

According to the Malay Mail, Bersatu information chief Razali Idris said on May 8 that the party is supportive of a “Malay Proclamation” written by Dr Mahathir.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-mahathir-mohamad-muhyiddin-yassin-bersatu-unite-mutual-goals-malay-cause-3530911

BEIJING: Heatwaves tormenting parts of southern and eastern China are set to persist through June, putting power grids under strain as air conditioners are turned on full blast at homes, offices and factories in mega-cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen.

In the next three days, most of southern China is expected to be hit by temperatures of more than 35 degrees Celsius, with temperatures in some areas exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, according to national forecasters on Friday (Jun 2).

Extreme hot weather beset China, like many parts of Asia in recent weeks, even before summer arrived.

In the southern city of Shenzhen, it was 33 degrees Celsius on Friday, but the humidity made it feel far hotter, especially for a couple toiling alone on a construction site under the sun.

"It's hot, but there's nothing to be done, we've got to make money for the family," Zhao told Reuters as he laid bricks, while Yang, his wife, swept up rubble.

"Our bosses haven't been pushing other workers to return from lunch sooner, as several of us have been hospitalised for heatstroke," Zhao said.

Some parts of Shenzhen suffered intermittent power outages at the start of the week, but according to local media, less than 2,000 households were affected in the city of more than 17 million people.

On Monday, Shanghai, in eastern China, endured its hottest day in May in more than a century, while provinces in the south have had little respite from the heatwaves.

"I'm not surprised that they are occurring, and not surprised that they are worse. But how they are occurring - it's just been week on week on week of these records being shattered," said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist with the University of New South Wales.

Demand for electricity in southern manufacturing hubs, including Guangdong, has surged in recent days, with China Southern Power Grid, one of the country's two grid operators, seeing peak power load exceeding 200 million kilowatts - weeks earlier than normal and close to historical highs.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/relentless-heatwaves-scorch-southern-china-test-power-grids-3533341

HONG KONG: New cryptocurrency rules took effect in Hong Kong on Thursday (Jun 1), allowing exchanges to service retail customers if they secure and comply with licences aimed at bolstering investor protection.

The new regulatory framework came amid tighter scrutiny on major cryptocurrency exchanges after a series of high-profile failures, such as the crash of trading platform FTX.

Virtual assets trading platforms wishing to operate in Hong Kong must now adhere to a raft of measures, including ensuring safe custody of assets, avoiding conflicts of interest and complying with cybersecurity standards.

Exchanges must also assess and set up exposure limits for retail investors, and only allow trading in highly liquid tokens.

Crypto exchanges have a one-year transition period to obtain a licence from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

As crypto trading is currently banned in China, operators must not accept retail traders from the mainland.

China has backed the city's push to become a virtual assets hub, despite Beijing's crackdown on crypto trading in 2021, which had spooked market players in Hong Kong.

However, observers said Hong Kong has a different regulatory regime that is well respected by international investors.

“Capital flows in and out of Hong Kong are completely free. International investors who want to purchase mainland Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong can do so without restrictions,” said Hong Kong Baptist University’s business school professor Aris Stouraitis.

“The central government has been using Hong Kong to pilot a number of schemes in financial services. I don't think there is anything for investors to worry about.”

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/hong-kong-crypotcurrency-licensing-laws-exchanges-retail-investors-3533481

WASHINGTON: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns made a secret trip to China last month hoping to shore up lines of communication with Beijing amid a deep chill in bilateral relations, a United States official said on Friday (Jun 2).

"Last month, Director Burns travelled to Beijing where he met with Chinese counterparts and emphasised the importance of maintaining open lines of communication in intelligence channels," the official said on grounds of anonymity.

The official provided no other specifics on the timing of the visit or who Burns met. The CIA as a policy does not discuss the director's travels.

But the visit came as Washington struggles to improve relations with China amid tensions over Taiwan's status, with both sides warning over the danger of a military conflict.

Washington has also accused China of considering supplying military goods to Russia in support of its invasion of Ukraine, which China denies.

Earlier this year US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled a long-planned ice-breaker trip to Beijing after a Chinese surveillance balloon crossed the mainland United States, flying above sensitive military bases before it was shot down by a US fighter jet.

Blinken still hopes to go, State Department officials say, when conditions improve.

Earlier on Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu spoke briefly at the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, after many months in which the two sides' militaries had not communicated directly at a senior level.

Their short conversation came after Beijing had declined the Pentagon's invitation for a formal meeting in Singapore.

The United States has also infuriated Beijing by restricting US exports to China of advanced microchips, chip technologies and manufacturing equipment, pressing allies to side with Washington.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-china-relations-cia-chief-made-secret-trip-beijing-last-month-3534701

I have witnessed abuse and harassment in my 16 years as a social worker and it can be very traumatising. I would like to outline three measures to deal with this holistically.

1. Have clear policies to address abuse and harassment

Most social service agencies (SSA) do not have clear policies on dealing with abuse and harassment.

Often, even within the agency, there will be differing opinions on what to do, creating mistrust and increasing distress for the victim. All SSAs should have clear and transparent policies so that workers feel more protected.

2. Allocate more resources to address factors that trigger abusive behaviour

For example, we could work towards improving clients’ access to financial help, providing a diverse toolbox of approaches for clients, and enhancing clients’ quality time with social workers.

Financial help should be accessible, timely and sufficient for families to address immediate needs such as food and transport, which can consume them with worry.

Once they are able to meet these needs, it improves their readiness to work on bigger goals such as finding a stable job and getting childcare help.

3. Social service agencies should be mandated to adopt salary guidelines

Having competitive wages in the industry would attract more people to join and stay in the industry, despite the occasional experience of abuse.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/your-say-3-ways-protect-social-workers-abuse-and-help-them-thrive-2148481

Growing up, I was passionate about the finance industry.

I graduated with a diploma in Banking and Financial Trading from Singapore Polytechnic in 2010. I later obtained a Bachelor of Science in Finance at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), then known as UniSim, in 2016.

In 2017, I took on an operations role in a financial firm, but after 1.5 years there, I felt that something was missing.

I wanted to make a difference in people's lives, and finance wasn't the right fit for me.

Having financial knowledge was helpful for my personal life, but not necessarily where I wanted my career to be.

I wanted to be able to contribute to people’s lives.

That's when I stumbled upon Workforce Singapore's Career Conversion Programme (CCP) for social workers, offered by SUSS and participating employers.

The programme required 1.5 years of part-time studies, along with three years’ employment at a social service agency.

It was challenging to get in at first as there weren't many vacancies available in the sector, but I successfully entered on my second try in 2018 and was hired by Lutheran Community Care Services (LCCS) as a social worker.

I was intrigued by what LCCS did, such as restorative practices — a way of working with conflict that puts the focus on repairing the harm that has been done between people.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-learning-diaries-social-work-2161076

My journey towards a fulfilling career in healthcare began after a decade of working in the communications industry.

I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Mass Communications from Murdoch University in Australia in 2010, and held corporate communications roles in sectors such as education, environment and sports.

The hours were long, and I frequently had to work overtime and on weekends.  

Although I enjoyed my work, I dreamt of pursuing a more fulfilling and meaningful career that also allowed me to prioritise my family.

The lack of work-life balance exacerbated after the arrival of my firstborn son in January 2022.  

I knew then that I had to make a career switch.

Back in 2019, I had taken a sports therapy course with my SkillsFuture Credit to expand my skillset.  

I obtained a certification in sports massage as I found it beneficial for muscle injuries.

This sparked my interest in joining the healthcare sector as a physiotherapist.

Why physiotherapy? I think it is different from other medical fields, as it takes a holistic approach to health and wellbeing.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-learning-diaries-physiotherapy-2164701

In my twenties, my goal was to be a humanitarian worker and lead an impact-driven life.

I started doing volunteer work in 2010 and took on various community engagement projects at a non-profit and later, a religious organisation.

It was during a disaster relief mission to Nepal in 2017 that I realised that doing this as a career would not be sustainable for me, nor did I have the right skills to deliver quality impact.

I felt compelled to make changes, so I decided to find a job that could help me broaden my skillset.

This marked the start of my somewhat meandering journey to the finance industry.

I was 27 at the time and employed as a research assistant at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

When I thought about pursuing a different path than what I initially imagined, I felt lost. I became hyperaware that I didn’t really know what was out there.

I resigned from my NUS job in July 2017, without much of a game plan.

I transitioned to a part-time role at NUS, which I held until December 2018. This allowed me space to explore other opportunities.

During that time, I stumbled upon the private institute Hyper Island through an event held by one of its students.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-learning-diaries-finance-immersion-2155961

I am a former banker turned cloud solutions architect.

I started my banking career in 2019, after completing my Economics and Management degree at a local university.

After working as a corporate banker for a year, I noticed a lot of buzz around tech jobs and salaries.

This sparked my interest in a career pivot from banking to technology, specifically cloud technology.

Cloud computing is revolutionary in that it offers information technology (IT) services such as storage and networking on-demand — with additional scalability and flexibility — as opposed to traditional on-site technologies which can be limited by space.

It is one of the most popular emerging technologies now with strong growth prospects, and I was keen to be a part of it.

Initially, I was unsure how to get started. As someone who didn't major in IT, there were significant gaps in technical knowledge and work experience I had to bridge.

In November 2020, I left my banking job and joined a consulting firm specialising in financial services technologies such as core banking systems — the back-end systems banks use to process transactions.

I then dedicated my free time to learning as much as I could about the tech sector.

I learned how to code through online courses, read books on cloud computing, and earned industry-recognised certificates such as the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Foundations Certification to validate my knowledge of various cloud technologies.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-learning-diaries-cloud-technology-2174841

As a senior citizen, I use all kinds of contactless and e-payment services such as PayNow.

However, I do empathise with many seniors in Singapore who not only have to struggle to turn on their mobile phones, but also open the correct app to make payments.

What's more worrying is the rise in online scams. It is not easy to tell if a QR code, for instance, has been put up by a scammer.

I would like to highlight Hong Kong’s Octopus card, which Hongkongers use daily to tap and pay at all sorts of places – from train stations to shops, restaurants and wet markets, among others.

They can even have their government-issued consumption vouchers disbursed directly to their cards.

While Singapore’s EZ-Link card can also be used at some retailers, hawker centres and coffee shops, which are frequented by seniors, it is not as widely used as the Octopus card.

Seniors aged 65 and above are also issued with green Elder Octopus cards, which grant them concessionary fares on most forms of public transport. This privilege is also extended to non-resident seniors, including tourists.

The cards are convenient to use. Seniors only need to top them up at train stations using cash, or credit and debit cards.

If a card similar to the Octopus card can be issued to residents in Singapore, seniors would likely have no apprehension over making cashless payments. They just need to tap and go, at most places with card readers.

Singapore should take a leaf out of Hong Kong’s experience and design a better way to encourage seniors to make cashless payments conveniently.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/your-say-hong-kong-octopus-card-2177696

After graduation in 2018, I worked as an automation engineer and product development engineer in industries such as manufacturing and medical devices, before pivoting to software development in 2022.

Why the change? When the pandemic happened, everyone started to embrace Information Technology (IT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that enabled us to work more efficiently.

While I agreed with them on the benefits of such tools, I disagreed with their skepticism that these tools are complicated and undecipherable black boxes.

I noticed that some around me displayed a fear of programming and software, branding it as something they would never understand.

The scary thing was when I saw a little of myself in them.

Even though I am in my 20s, I felt there was no excuse for me to stop learning new skills.

While my undergraduate degree provided me with relevant industry skills, I knew I should not allow them to stagnate.

I took the plunge and enrolled in the part-time NUS-ISS Master of Technology in Intelligent Systems (MTech IS) programme in 2020.

I picked this course because I believed it would help me demystify the AI buzzword and build up my confidence through learning about concepts such as computer vision and practical programming projects.

Computer vision is a field of AI that turns images or video input into meaningful information which can be used to perform tasks such as classification or recommendations.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-learning-diaries-artificial-intelligence-2179566

I signed on with the Republic of Singapore Air Force in 2014 after graduating with a diploma in Aerospace Technology at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

Following six years as an Air Force maintenance engineer, I was contemplating a mid-career switch and upgrading my skills.

Deciding on a course of study was no simple feat, especially at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

My thoughts about the future were bleak, but eventually, I felt a strong calling towards nature. I’ve always loved the outdoors, and I’ve been monitoring how human actions have affected the environment.

So I decided I could play a part in fighting climate change by equipping myself with the knowledge and skills to make a difference.

I completed my service in the RSAF in June 2020 before pursuing a part-time degree in Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety from the University of Newcastle in Australia via PSB Academy.

Coping with the challenges of learning while handling work and family responsibilities wasn’t easy.

I was my family’s sole breadwinner until my sister started working in 2019.

I tried hard to secure a scholarship to fund my education. I applied to various organisations and consulted many people for advice.

Finally, I secured a sponsorship by PSB Academy and the Singapore Indian Development Association (Sinda) and enrolled in August 2020.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-learning-diaries-rsaf-green-job-2184621

I have always been fascinated with Southeast Asia.

Naturally, when I chanced upon the opportunity for an internship with venture capital (VC) firm 500 Tuktuks in Bangkok, Thailand, I jumped at it.

It was offered under Singapore Management University’s Global Innovation Immersion (GII) programme, at the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

This was a chance to experience Thailand through a different lens, where I could immerse myself in the culture.

Before my three-month stint as an investment analyst intern from May to August this year, my knowledge of the VC space had been limited to the classroom.

Diving headfirst into a practical, hands-on internship was something I yearned for.

My experience with 500 Tuktuks can be summed up into three takeaways:

1. TAKE INITIATIVE
I believed that a proactive approach was key to my personal and professional growth.

2. BE FLEXIBLE AND EMBRACE DIFFERENT WORKING CULTURES
However, once I got a grasp of a routine, the flexibility facilitated my growth as a fresh recruit.

3. LEARN TO HAVE FUN

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-southeast-asia-ventures-interning-thailand-taught-me-how-embrace-flexibility-and-have-some-fun-2056631

I’ve been working in the food and beverage (F&B) industry for almost 13 years — and I love it.

In 2019, I became the head of F&B retail marketing at AirAsia and was living in Kuala Lumpur, but then the pandemic hit.

I took a significant pay cut, and after months of role changes, I knew I needed to leave.

For months, I struggled to find information to help me decide on my next move.

However, there wasn’t much useful data on market shifts, consumer preferences or technology for the F&B industry in Southeast Asia. So, I decided to make it happen.

Today, I run an F&B-dedicated blog in Vietnam that has garnered more than 120,000 unique hits and more than 100,000 monthly impressions since March 2021.

When I’m not busy filling the information gap, I run a marketing consultancy helping F&B businesses navigate and succeed in the country.

I moved to Vietnam in January 2021 because it was open at the time. I saw that it had ample opportunities and economic growth during my time at the airline, and we had launched many routes to and within the country.

When I first moved there, it was a big culture shock especially in business and legal matters.

Many laws are unclear — you can go to different lawyers and they can potentially tell you different things.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-southeast-asia-ventures-im-fb-blogger-and-consultant-vietnam-sometimes-you-need-bend-rules-get-things-done-2050461

I’ve always dreamed of working in the fashion and beauty industry, so when I had the opportunity to intern at Aprilpoolday, a Thai designer swimwear brand, I immediately grabbed it.

The six-month overseas internship offered by Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s Overseas Entrepreneurship Programme (OEP) changed my life in more ways than one.

Before I left for Bangkok in July 2022, I was wary about being a young female living all alone in a country whose language I was not fluent in.

I had only visited Bangkok once when I was younger, and I understood that being alone in an unfamiliar country would present a huge set of challenges.

To keep my worries at bay, I researched intensively on the apps most commonly used in Bangkok, the various modes of transport available, and what the cost of living would be.

This helped me budget for my six months there as well as better understand how to live like a local.

I also tried to pick up Thai using a language app but later realised it was far better to learn directly from the locals.

However, once I arrived in the city, I realised that as long as you practise the universal language of respect, kindness and courtesy, any language or cultural barriers can be overcome.

The Thais I’ve met have been very friendly and some even go above and beyond to help me out.

At Aprilpoolday, I was tasked with helping the CEO, Min, explore how the brand could expand into the international market. One of the suggestions I had was to open a TikTok account for it.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-southeast-asia-ventures-i-once-feared-spending-time-alone-my-6-month-internship-bangkok-changed-2105196

“Cambodia? There’s a Singapore community there and another group of Singaporeans are heading there to ‘recce’ next week.”

That was the text from a friend that unbeknownst to me, would kick-start an adventure I’m glad I took. I had told her I was considering various Asean countries to explore.

Five days later, after a few phone calls and some frantic preparation, I found myself setting foot in the bustling city of Phnom Penh in May 2022.

A month earlier, I had quit my job as a teacher at a reputable English tuition centre in Singapore, wanting a slower pace of life and to experience our “Asean backyard”.

Even so, feelings of uncertainty continued to plague me. After all, why leave the safety, comfort and familiarity of Singapore for a country with a completely different culture, language and customs?

Furthermore, this was at a time when the news was rife with stories of victims falling prey to job scams in Cambodia.

During my initial 10-day trip to Cambodia in May, I met a fellow Singaporean running an international school in Phnom Penh. Upon returning to Singapore,

I applied for and was offered a job at the school. I started two months later.

About 90 per cent of my students are locals. The rest hail from China, Taiwan and Australia.

The biggest challenge I faced was hammering together a basic curriculum and planning lessons for four different subjects. Unlike my previous workplace which already had set lessons and resources, I had to create my own.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-southeast-asia-ventures-uprooting-singapore-work-cambodia-teaches-me-how-deal-uncertainty-and-risk-2073141

I have been based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, since October last year.

What got me here? Perhaps it was the drive to innovate that was planted in me when I was a boy growing up in a three-room Housing and Development Board flat, witnessing first-hand my grandfather and father slogging hard for the family business in industrial manufacturing.

This sparked and sustained my interest and passion for understanding and thinking of ways to improve businesses.

To me, my grandfather and father, just like Singapore in the 1980s, were “Davids” in a world of “Goliaths”.

My childhood experience, combined with my engineering education and my years of commercial and corporate banking in Singapore and Hong Kong, inspired me to want to create a better service to help this segment of Davids grow into “world beaters”, and to avoid the pitfalls I’ve seen.

My startup, Numberr, is a service that simplifies the use and understanding of business data to help small and medium enterprises learn how the decisions they make today might affect them in future.

We are currently a team of three hailing from Singapore and Vietnam.

My day-to-day work involves engaging my local partners, who help me to bridge cultural gaps and reach out to prospective users as we try to understand how we can help them solve their problems.

As most venture capitalists often ask me “Why Vietnam?”.

On top of other obvious reasons such as geography or market size, Vietnam today reminds me very much of Singapore of the 1980s, with the same “new frontier” hunger, and dare-to-dream spirit.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-southeast-asia-ventures-vietnams-dare-dream-spirit-one-reason-i-launched-my-fintech-startup-there-2079166

In September 2018, I felt myself gradually losing strength in my legs and started using my grandmother's wheelchair.

I was diagnosed with tuberculous meningitis and pulmonary tuberculosis. By then, I was already paralysed from the waist down and had lost all sensation in my legs.

My wheelchair is my “freedom to mobility” now. I am unsure if I will remain a person with paraplegia for the rest of my life, but I hope to stand and walk again.

Whatever the case, I will continue to live as it is and focus on improving physically and mentally.

In May 2018, shortly before my diagnosis, I obtained a diploma in IT Service Management from Republic Polytechnic (RP).

After my condition stabilised, I enrolled part-time at Edith Cowan University via PSB Academy to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Cyber Security in September 2020

With the support of my family, lecturers and administrations from both universities throughout my learning journey, I am proud to say that I am now a cybersecurity graduate.

My advice to others who are contemplating their own path?

Set a goal and do your best to strive towards it. Grab the opportunity to learn and commit to it.

Rest when you need a break but do not stay there for too long.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/my-learning-diaries-paralysed-degree-study-career-2146396

I work for a mechanical and electrical engineering firm in the construction sector.

Even before the pandemic, it was a herculean task recruiting Singaporean workers given the long hours and nature of our jobs.

The situation is now even more challenging amid a tight labour market.

While we managed to complete projects which were delayed during Covid-19, we also clinched new jobs that needed project engineers on site.

Without sufficient manpower, our existing staff would be stretched more thinly, and we had to decline participation in some tenders over the past two years.

Thus, recruitment and retention have become a main focus for the company.

With work-life harmony a buzz phrase in recent years, we started looking at how we can change some practices to be a more appealing employer.

Construction is not the first industry that comes to mind when one talks about work-life harmony. It is even harder for a medium-sized enterprise like us due to our limited resources.

For instance, we found it difficult to implement some flexible work arrangements (FWAs) such as work-from-home (WFH) as our work requires our staff to be on site.

We realised that we had to be creative to achieve better work-life harmony.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/talent-hunt-work-life-balance-construction-sector-yes-its-possible-some-creativity-1945356

As a seven-year-old kid who was just entering primary school, I remember being dismissive when my parents told me: "Your studies are the most important — you don't want to end up like me."

I was a stubborn and naive child then, but that did not stop my parents from enrolling me in a reputable primary school, thanks to my mother's volunteer work.

Everyone was over the moon for me because it seemed like I hopped on a steady train towards success. My parents, aunts and uncles gushed about my acceptance into this school, as if I will surely make it in life.

But I was never going to be the brightest kid in class, and I was filled with doubts about my ability to learn.

Right when I started primary school, my parents also signed me up for piano, swimming and abacus classes. I was a jack of all trades and a master of none.

I remember the tears dripping onto my piano after a failed practice session as a seven-year-old. This was the piano that my mother bought for me using her yearly bonus.

I remember thinking that something was wrong with me, that I could never do anything well. After all, it's me.

Little did I know that at my new primary school, I would be surrounded by child prodigies, national athletes and mini geniuses. Compared to them, I was a black sheep.

My grades continued to plummet after each year. Cs and Ds printed like clockwork on my report cards, and I didn't possess any remarkable accomplishments in my extracurricular activities.

Other kids would mock me for not understanding concepts as quickly as them, and would jokingly call me names like "slow", "stupid" or "dumb".

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-i-was-black-sheep-school-it-was-never-too-late-turn-my-studies-around-2031096

My grandmother always holds my hand when we cross the road.

It’s a habit from when I was between four and six, back when I was not yet able to go to the neighbourhood hawker centre by myself.

At traffic lights, she’d grasp my hand tightly, and remind me that the red man meant “stop” and the green man meant “go”, that I had to look left and right, and that I wasn’t allowed to let go of her hand at all. Not until she said it was okay.

Back then, I had to reach up to hold her hand. In my memory, I always looked up at my Ah Ma.

She never loomed over me, or seemed too big or too grand, but there was always this slight sense of awe — that this elderly lady was so much older and so much wiser, and someone I could trust to lead me safely.

Growing up, I always knew that my Ah Ma loved me.

She never said it much — verbal declarations of love were never really a huge thing for her. Instead, she showed it in the little things.

In primary school, my younger brother and I were almost always at my Ah Ma’s house. She’d make us lunch after the school bus dropped us off, convinced that the portions served in the school canteen weren’t enough to sustain us.

There’s a Bible verse to describe love: “Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”

In Ah Ma’s case, love is also strict. It makes sure that homework is always completed before play, that toys are kept before dinner, and that children are obedient and polite.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-language-barrier-separates-me-my-grandmother-i-love-her-all-same-2056636

I am one of the many young adults who started tertiary education in 2020 during the pandemic — a Covid-19 student, in other words.

As a result, most of my first two years studying information technology at Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) was a solitary experience.

Projects and presentations were all done virtually, while we attended lessons from the comfort and safety of home.

It was only in my final year, after my internship began, did I discover what I was missing from my polytechnic experience.

For most, tertiary education is the bridge between childhood and adulthood, learning what it takes to become a financially independent individual entering the working world for the first time.

But with everyone studying or working in silos from home due to the pandemic and lacking the rich physical interactions that a polytechnic environment can bring, I did not realise that I gave little thought to what life could have in store for me in the working world.

That was until I joined a year-long internship with OCBC Bank in 2022, which is considered to be quite a lengthy programme.

Known as Ignite, it is a new scheme meant for third-year polytechnic students in the information technology field.

The selling point for this internship is that it is specially tailored to every student’s interest, be it data analytics or mobile app development.

Having honed a keen interest in mobile app development for a while, my interest was piqued when I first found out about the internship.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-after-spending-most-my-poly-life-home-year-long-internship-actual-workplace-welcome-change-2075556

For six years, I found myself straddling various responsibilities.

As a teenager then, I worked full-time as a customer service officer in the aviation sector while pursuing my bachelor’s degree in marketing and international business at Murdoch University.

During my final year of my three-year-long bachelor's degree, my grandfather fell seriously ill. He was over 80 years old and very weak and needed all the help he could get.

Between my siblings and me, we rotated nightly shifts to look after him so as to ensure he received all the care he needed.

This happened on each night that my dad was working overseas while my mom had to take care of all aspects of our own household, on top of her own health.

I remember burning the midnight oil to work on my school assignments while caring for my grandpa at home.

Those days felt long. I felt worn out at the end of an eight to 12-hour workday, while doing my best to juggle deadlines of my assignments and exams, which were stressful at most times.

As a teenager who also has social needs, I struggled to give up plans with friends to look after my family or prioritise assignments over family time.

I recall feeling very overwhelmed, stressed and fatigued at that time.

I struggled for a while with the burden of all this responsibility placed on me. I often fell asleep during lessons, could not concentrate properly at work and had frequent migraines too.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-i-was-teen-trying-chase-career-goals-while-juggling-lifes-curveballs-it-wasnt-easy-2079126

After my N-Level examinations, I was uncertain whether I could find a job.

I had pursued a course in nutrition and food science and always dreamed of joining the food and beverage industry upon my graduation.

But for a long time, I had many questions about my future and what I could do when I entered the working world.

Will any organisation hire someone on the autism spectrum like myself?

Does my handicap exclude me from the workforce? Is there a place in this world for someone like me?

When I was around 18 to 19 years old, I attended some training courses to prepare myself for the F&B industry, but was not able to find suitable job placements.

My mum, who is always very supportive of me and my aspirations, helped to look around for suitable training courses that I could learn from and increase my chances of employability.

It was a blessing that my mum got to know about the YMCA-Inclus Train and Place Series, a new vocational programme launched this year funded by the Citi Foundation.

Taking place over several weeks, the programme equips youth with special needs, like myself, with vocational skills related to the F&B and hospitality industries.

Additionally, we are provided with enrichment activities aimed at improving our physical, mental and emotional well-being.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-im-youth-autism-i-once-worried-about-finding-work-skills-training-has-given-me-hope-2100811

It’s been close to three and a half years since I dove into a career path within the death care industry.

For as long as I could remember, my childhood was filled with hearing conversations about funerals and death.

As a child, I never really understood why people were always so curious about this industry or why they thought it was special or interesting.

I would wonder why parents would shield their children’s eyes from a void deck wake, or take a long detour to avoid passing by a funeral.

My parents, who run the funeral company Casket Fairprice as the family business, would do the opposite.

They would deliberately slow down their footsteps when passing by a wake, just to take a peek at what others were doing, with me tagging along behind.

They called it “market research” and it was a common occurrence for a younger me.

In my mind, the idea of embalming the deceased and laying a person to rest did not feel out of the ordinary. I didn’t even realise that not many my age felt the same way.

As a kid, I would stand there observing bereaved families grieve over their loved ones. The concept of death, loss, grief and mortality was something that I registered early on in life.

It was this awareness at a very young age that made me seek something different and meaningful in life, but I was only able to fully understand death and mortality and how it relates to life after I began a career in the funeral industry.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-i-was-surrounded-death-while-growing-it-taught-me-appreciate-life-2136991

I would never have guessed two years ago that I would one day be the founder of a travel company that does social adventures, in spite of a pandemic that had decimated global travel.

Like many of my Generation Z peers, Covid-19 has turned my university experience upside down.

I was a second-year undergraduate at Nanyang Technological University when the world went into lockdown, with what was once supposed to be the highlight of my youth turning into a socially isolating one.

Instead of being a part of a raucous community of university students who could hang out after lessons, online classes and Zoom hangouts became the new norm.

It was also a challenging time for my mental health. Without any physical connection to my friends, I was spending a good part of my time alone.

The pandemic made me realise how much I had taken simple things like group dinners and school-wide activities for granted.

But as borders reopened, I was fortunate enough to be one of the first students to go for a semester abroad for an undergraduate study programme at Denmark Technical University.

So, I spent half a year in Copenhagen and my time overseas was transformative. I found myself immersed in a vibrant student community, where I got to learn with peers from all around the world.

During my exchange, I travelled extensively and went on a ski trip to the French alps with 50 other students from Singapore.

It was incredibly easy to connect with them as we had a lot in common.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-how-social-isolation-and-loneliness-led-me-start-travel-company-brings-people-together-2160996

Back in 2015, my worst fears as a 12-year-old kid were realised when I didn’t do as well as I wanted to for my Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

I thought about this recently when I watched a viral TikTok clip of a mum influencer who posted about her daughter in tears upon receiving her O-Level results.

While most netizens’ attention was on the mother’s decision to share such a private moment in public, my thoughts were on the reactions of her daughter.

I recall being in her shoes nine years ago. Staring at the number on my results slip, I burst out crying in the school hall because I scored 20 points lower than I had hoped.

But PSLE was over, and there was nothing I could do to change my grades.

The only thing I could do was to spend the next week carefully considering what school to go to. Every school I had hoped to attend was now out of my score range, so my parents and I had to hastily assemble a list of schools that I could qualify for in my area.

It was then that I remember hearing the phrase “every school is a good school” for the first time.

It sounded like a consolation for my poorer-than-expected results — my parents said it as they discussed the pros and cons of each school almost as if they were trying to justify my school choice to themselves.

But my disappointment was immeasurable.

For a time, when people asked me which school I picked, I’d say it was one of the crappy neighbourhood schools in the Bedok area, without identifying which school it was.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-i-used-feel-mediocre-neighbourhood-school-kid-no-longer-2104226

We were tasked to "fall in" outside the Maju Camp cookhouse at 6.30am. But with just two minutes shy of our deadline, I knew my section of women and I would not make it in time.

I had already folded my bedsheets, packed my helmet in a bag, and filled up my water bottle. Yet, my section mates were still getting ready.

I’ve heard nightmarish stories from my male counterparts about being punished for lacking punctuality during their basic military training phase in their National Service (NS) days.

As one friend told me, the whole section would be sent upstairs to the dormitory, then ordered to report in again, along with a not-inconsequential number of push-ups as a punishment for being late.

So when we finally left our room at 6.32am, I had a sense of impending doom. But in the name of camaraderie, I figured I might as well be late too and suffer the penalty that would surely come.

But when our commanders told us not rush in case we trip and fall, then ushered us to the cookhouse for our breakfast, I was greatly surprised that we were let off the hook.

I was one of 31 participants at this year’s Women’s Boot Camp — a two-day experience at Maju Camp in Clementi which gives women a chance to taste of NS life, albeit a toned-down version.

Organised by the Advisory Council on Community Relations in Defence (Accord) and supported by the Singapore Armed Forces Volunteer Corps, this year’s camp was targeted at youth.

Most participants were aged 18 to 20, having voluntarily signed up through their respective junior colleges and polytechnics.

All had various reasons to be there, such as wanting a taster of the NS experience because they were interested to join the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Volunteer Corps, or just to understand what their male counterparts go through in their late teens.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-womens-boot-camp-sanitised-version-ns-life-i-gained-deeper-appreciation-those-who-serve-2110761

In my lower secondary days, I was a consistent top scorer with a near perfect score for all subjects.

Life was going to be a breeze, or so I was told.

Everyone around me said that having good grades was a clear marker of success and that my educational journey would be a smooth-sailing one.

Without thinking too much about it, I was admitted into a class for those taking nine-subject combinations in the O-Levels, believing that this was the norm for students who were top 10 percenters.

After all, my younger self assumed that this was a path well-trodden by top performers. If others could do it, I could too.

But I was sorely mistaken.

I quickly discovered that sciences were not my forte. I started showing signs of struggle and gradually underperformed during examinations and tests.

I wanted to reach out to someone for help, but I never did take that step in my secondary school days, having been held back by my own ego and pride.

Failure wasn’t an option for someone who has had everything going for her.

I decided to weather the storm, so I stuck with my nine-subject combination while endangering my mental health unknowingly.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-i-was-fixated-studying-sciences-even-though-i-wasnt-good-them-it-wasnt-too-late-switch-tracks-2164846

Last December, I had a whole speech planned out to address my cohort of attendees during the “graduation ceremony” of a leadership camp to reflect on the past four days and three nights that we spent together.

My team, Watch Four, picked me to represent them as their speaker, and we had spent the previous day consolidating our thoughts and bouncing ideas off each other on what to say.

Quite quickly, we came up with a few main takeaways from the inaugural Our Singapore Leadership Programme (OSLP), a four-day camp organised by the National Youth Council and National Community Leadership Institute (NACLI), in partnership with the Ministry of Education.

As part of the final day of the camp, I recall how changemakers were invited to speak to us and impart words of wisdom about leadership.

One mentioned that we should “surround ourselves with like-minded people”.

At first, I took it down in a note on my phone, as a few heads in the audience bobbled up and down in agreement.

Yet, something felt wrong, and I held on to the backspace button on my phone.

With less than 10 minutes to go until I was due to speak, I went on stage and said: “Surround yourself with 'unlike-minded' people. Find that common ground.”

Why? The camp taught me that in order to challenge my beliefs, I had to be with people who held different views, which would either serve to solidify my convictions or break down perceptions I once held true.

Before attending this programme, I had grown up in an all-girls school for 10 years of my life. From an early stage in my life, I thought I had my morals and beliefs figured out.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-4-day-students-camp-taught-me-good-leadership-finding-common-ground-among-unlike-minded-people-2132121

Before the days of ChatGPT and Midjourney, I remember a time when the field of artificial intelligence (AI) was regarded as a buzzword for automating mundane tasks away.

AI was not something that could compel enough students to want to start a collective of like-minded individuals.

So, encouraged by my lecturers who taught us to think innovatively and out of the box, I had a wild idea to start an AI interest group in NYP.

Little did I expect that the greatest challenge in forming a collective of interested students wasn’t the machines, it was in trying to decipher the human connection.

My first tasks: I needed to learn how to write a proposal, pitch an idea, and convince others that learning AI was a worthwhile endeavour.

How do I articulate this massive train of thought into a one-liner? Why would anyone be convinced to be a part of this? Where could I find members to join my executive committee?

But the challenges didn’t end there, as I had to make sure the group was productive and achieve the goals that the executive committee and I had set out.

I still vividly recall our first event: A “beginner-friendly” project that used AI to predict housing prices. I had spent hours creating the slides and done multiple rehearsals to ensure that everyone could understand my sharing.

I soon realised that my way of teaching could be overwhelming and confusing for some participants.

At some point, I thought I was not cut out to teach — I was too dull and serious of a teacher.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-z-speaks/gen-z-speaks-i-started-ai-interest-group-school-working-humans-not-computers-was-bigger-challenge-2169611

When I was younger, I had a complicated relationship with the learning of economics.

The subject was new to me in junior college, and I initially found the content of the lectures quite overwhelming. Yet, I remained drawn to it.

I was fascinated by how the economic ideas I learnt in school had real-life applications. As a student, I felt a sense of accomplishment in being able to explain real world phenomena by applying the knowledge I had learnt in school.

My interest deepened when I chanced upon the book Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, in the school library.

Admittedly, it was the title that caught my eye, which made me assume it was a mystery thriller novel.

I was not entirely wrong. The book was about the mysteries of human decisions and how economics could shed light on them.

I eventually did well in the subject at the A-Levels and went on to pursue it at the Singapore Management University.

Upon graduation, I had my heart set on teaching. I recall one of my favourite pastimes as a young child was to role play as a teacher.

I would don my mother’s dresses, carry her handbag, and pretend to “teach” whoever was patient enough to listen to me ramble about what I had learnt in school.

I had a wonderful English teacher in primary school, who I saw as a motherly figure who gave great advice.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-teaching-economics-perpetual-challenge-seeing-my-students-grow-keeps-me-going-2074036

Being a veterinarian is not merely an occupation for me, it is my passion.

But as much as I love the job, it is just as important for me to look after my mental well-being. Every day is an emotional rollercoaster.

Mentally, I have to cope with an entire spectrum of cases. A day at work could start with an appointment to see a lovely puppy for a vaccination consultation, and then another one later in the day involving euthanasia for someone’s beloved pet at the end of its life.

Some days, it could also be dealing with nerve-wracking emergencies, in which the day becomes a race against time to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a pet.

Even as a provider of healthcare whose job is to fend off death where possible, it’s not easy to deal with the heartache of a dying animal.

Growing up with my brother Junyong, our first love was a Shetland Sheepdog named Leslie.

She was fatally afflicted by nose cancer, which was detected too late. The end was painful, gut-wrenching, and horrific.

I was 15 years’ old when Leslie passed. There’s nothing like this for a first heartbreak, so profound that it sticks with you for the rest of your life.

It was because of Leslie that I co-founded Pawlyclinic with my brother in 2021.

In recent years, studies have shown that veterinarian is one of the occupations with higher risks of suicide.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-demanding-customers-exposure-animal-suffering-put-vets-higher-risk-self-harm-i-continue-be-one-2088786

As parents, all we want for our children is to grow up healthy.

But this seemed impossible for my first child, Christopher. We suspected that something was wrong when Christopher sustained wounds during two separate incidents. He did not stop bleeding for 24 to 36 hours.

The second time it happened, we immediately brought him to the hospital. He went through countless genetic tests, some of which were sent overseas.

It was a gruelling two-month wait.

At just six months old, our son was diagnosed with Bile Acid Synthesis Disorder. His liver is unable to produce cholic acid, which is essential for the body to break down fat.

As the flow of bile is disrupted, toxic bile acids will result in progressive liver damage which will lead to liver failure if left untreated.

We were at a loss. Why did this have to happen to us, especially with the chances of it occurring being incredibly low?

To put things into perspective, there are only 50 individuals in the world who suffer from this disorder. My son is the first and only case in Singapore.

Not only did we have to worry about the expenses, we were also concerned about the effectiveness of the medicine.

Plus, how is he going to cope, both mentally and emotionally, when he realises the challenges our family has faced and will face? Would Christopher be able to handle this when he is older, when we are no longer around?

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-my-child-only-one-singapore-disease-every-day-he-alive-blessing-us-2098346

I have always wanted to be a singer ever since I was just three years old.

The feeling of being on stage and expressing myself through song has always sparked an inexplicable sense of joy in me, even to this day.

But I wasn’t born a talented performer.

My earliest attempts at performing onstage became bitter memories. I recall my anxiety and stage fright being on the stage alone for the first time.

This was my first-ever public performance, which was to take place in front of my entire secondary school cohort for a school event. The song I sang was about spreading kindness in Singapore.

When I hit a wrong note at one point in the song and went off-key, the comments I got afterwards were anything but kind.

After my onstage gaffe, my peers laughed at me and said I should never sing again.

I still remember the throbbing fear creeping into my bones at the thought of receiving jeers in the corridors of my secondary school. I felt embarrassed, belittled, and crushed by the words and deeds of others, given that performing was such an important dream to me.

I told myself to persevere — how could I give up my dream after a single failure? So, I started taking vocal lessons to prove these people wrong. Yet, my experience being jeered for a mistake I made left an indelible scar.

It became increasingly difficult to sing publicly as I constantly felt insecure and worried about what others would think.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-feeling-failure-botched-singing-performance-led-me-seek-counselling-and-find-my-voice-again-2115791

Years ago, I visited a quaint English village where the author Roald Dahl lived and wrote for more than three decades, and where his grave now lies next to the footprint of a gentle beast, the BFG.

The quiet town located about two hours from London was also home to a museum dedicated to the author and his most delightful characters.

As a kid, I had spent many hours poring over Dahl’s stories, marvelling and giggling at the “gloriumptious” characters and their unpredictable hijinks, so I thought I would enjoy the museum.

But when I got there, I was surrounded by school groups and toddlers and thought the whimsically colourful and kid-sized exhibits were a little too childish for my taste.

It struck me that new generations of children and youth, who will have a different worldview and sensitivities from mine, will be and have always been Dahl’s main audience.

Maybe that is why contrary to widespread criticism, I think his publisher Puffin Books’ decision to update the language of his books, which remain so enthralling to children today, is the right move.

Several decades have passed since Dahl’s children's books were published between the 1960s and 1980s.

But the villainous grown ups in his tales — the Twits, Miss Trunchbull and James’ aunts to name a few — will probably still be hilariously horrible after the edits.

One of Dahl’s most famous observations in The Witches about how ugly thoughts makes a person ugly has stuck with me over the years. Likewise “ugly” words in today’s context matter too, especially for young minds.

Various reports suggest that hundreds of changes have been made such that language relating to gender, race, weight, mental health and violence have been cut or rewritten.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-roald-dahls-rewrites-dont-rattle-me-because-twits-will-still-be-all-right-after-tweaks-2121386

Despite what my parents may have hoped in naming me after a philosopher, I have never yearned for a quiet life.

When I was growing up, the idea of a predestined and easy life sounded boring and meaningless.

I craved a life filled with adventure and obstacles to overcome.

My parents would often say that I was a very impatient child who was always in a rush to grow up.

When I was six months old, I held my breath until I blacked out, all because my grandmother refused to buy me a toy that I wanted.

My grandmother recalled that the doctor who eventually attended to me called me a wilful child.

At the age of five, my parents were shocked when they learnt that, without their knowledge, I managed to convince my aunt to transfer me to the kindergarten where my cousin was enrolled.

When they found out, they begrudgingly filed the paperwork and my transfer was accepted.

Throughout my primary and secondary school education, I constantly asked my teachers why it was important for me to learn what they were teaching, and argued with them when I found their answers unsatisfactory.

Needless to say, many of them did not take kindly to my barrage of questions, and I was often sent to sit outside the classroom where I was unable to cause a distraction.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-i-was-rebellious-youth-who-skipped-class-day-court-helped-me-find-my-calling-2126801

I will never forget the first time I performed a poem to a room full of strangers.

It was 2008 and I was spending summer in Vancouver on an internship. I was a painfully shy 20-year-old who knew no one in the city.

I had seen an advertisement in the local paper for a weekly poetry night in a café near where I lived.

I had been there a few times and had fallen in love with its chaotic but friendly atmosphere, with people reading and performing all kinds of vulnerable, often hilarious poems into the microphone on the stage at the front of the cafe.

I had spent enough time at the open mic nights to feel inspired — I wanted to see if I had the courage to read out a poem of my own.

I remember the moment of panic as the host called my name, the terrifying steps up to the stage, the reverberations as I spoke into the microphone for the first time and began to read a poem I had spent several months writing.

This was my very first spoken word poem, what I hoped was a sad but funny ode to a lost friendship and a former friend who loved Wes Anderson movies.

But I was filled with doubts and felt like an imposter among the other open mic veterans.

Why would anyone be interested in this? Would this room of strangers understand it? Would they be bored? Would they hate it?

I decided that if I embarrassed myself, I could always leave the city and never come back. Thankfully, this wasn’t necessary.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-poems-can-inspire-youths-thats-what-keeps-me-going-poet-despite-self-doubt-2156021

I grew up in a single parent family as my mother passed away when I was seven.

My father did his best to raise me up to the best of his abilities, despite the little time we had to spend together.

He is a man of a few words, who showed his love and concern in his own way by buying me food and sending me to places where I needed to go. As a parent, he gave me space to grow as an independent woman.

As a foreman in a construction company, my father did not earn a lot. But he was always ready to help my relatives repair their lights or toilet fixtures even when he had worked long hours the previous week.

Somehow, he always made sure that we had more than sufficient. I also did what I could to take on part-time jobs to earn some extra cash while juggling school.

In 2017, I was 24 and was eagerly looking forward to graduating from university.

Filled with anticipation and hope at what the future could offer, I was excited to start work so that I could contribute financially and ease my father’s burden.

Knowing that my father had not travelled much, I envisioned taking him on holidays. Things seemed to be on an upturn.

But life did not happen as planned, and some might say that I was forced to grow up way beyond my years.

Three weeks after my convocation, my father suffered a major stroke, where half of his right brain was affected.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-my-dads-stroke-thrust-me-caregiver-role-24-caring-him-became-my-everything-2175371

When I was 17, I experienced complications from chemotherapy during my leukaemia relapse and I was paralysed from the waist down.

Since then, this four-wheeled device I use to get around the city has become an integral part of my daily life and identity.

But as a teenager, I never allowed my condition to keep me down.

My sporting journey started when a Paralympian approached me during my hydrotherapy session at the public pool.

I was convinced to try sailing, both as a way to stay active and occupied.

A few months later, I won my first trophy at a local regatta, and that spurred me to continue the sport. I used sailing as a way to show my mom that I can still live my life to the fullest and make her proud, in spite of my disability.

Subsequently, in 2014 and 2015, I won gold medals at the Asian Para Games and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Para Games.

I also had the opportunity to compete at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, representing Singapore at the global sporting stage.

Despite my glories in the sporting field, which celebrated my abilities and lionised my achievements, I was unable to say the same for working life.

From personal experience, trying to seek employment as a person with disabilities (PWD) is an uphill task trying to combat hurtful stereotypes that portray PWDs as “lesser people”.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-wheelchair-bound-17-i-finally-found-firm-values-inclusivity-because-i-refuse-give-2179616

I thought I was a hotshot. After all, in September 2019, I had graduated from university with a first-class honours degree, gotten awards, and even spoken at conferences.

Yet I was rudely brought back down to Earth when in March 2021, my employer issued me with a performance improvement plan for various aspects of my work that the company was not satisfied with.

The list of issues include double-booking myself for meetings, arguing with a superior, and submitting substandard work.

The stakes were made clear. If I didn’t meet the standards laid out for me, the company would review whether I was still a good fit.

For the next six months, I followed what was required of me according to the plan.

But I found myself losing the confidence I needed to work well. When I met with clients, I found myself mired in self-doubt. I would question whether I was doing or saying the right thing.

I remember the many times when I would have a missed call from my supervisor, and immediately think if this was it.

I counted down the days till my formal review in August 2021, when it was time to determine whether I had “passed” the performance improvement plan.

Over Zoom, I met with my supervisors, the HR manager, and the director. I passed.

But the mood was not celebratory. Instead, it was sombre, and sad. That was when I realised I had lost the zest and the zip to work. There was no longer any enthusiasm to share ideas, or to execute them.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-i-didnt-do-well-my-first-job-how-i-learnt-not-beat-myself-over-it-2141856

Growing up, I was very pampered by my family, especially being the youngest out of three siblings.

If I was hungry, food would appear magically in front of me and I would be spoon fed by either my mother or my helper, who would both cater to my whims and fancy.

At the age of nine, I was hooked onto computer games. My addiction was so bad that I had spent more time playing than sleeping.

As a result, my body and immunity took a toll and I regularly experienced spells of fever, flu and swells on my face and body due to my gaming addiction.

I remember visiting the doctor very frequently, and whenever Western medicine didn’t seem to be effective, my mother took me to visit traditional Chinese medicine practitioners to improve my immune system.

To her, treatment was not about trying to keep my bad habits in check, but about finding what the right type of medicine was. In a nutshell, I was spoiled and my studies took an abysmal turn.

During this period, I was moved from the EM2 stream to EM3 due to my poor results. It did not help — I eventually attained a PSLE score of 99.

As such, I ended up entering the Normal (Technical) stream. I felt dejected.

It was in this period that I learnt about the stigma of the Normal (Technical) label, as the students from this stream were stereotyped as being not as intelligent as the others.

But my experience at the time showed that this was not necessarily true.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-i-was-spoilt-child-who-fumbled-aimlessly-through-school-getting-back-my-feet-wasnt-easy-2151121

For some reason, I would always long for my own bed at home every time I travelled, even on the occasions the hotel’s bed was clearly superior.  

Whenever I meet my friends, the topic of travel plans would usually surface. For the first time in a while, I have been telling them I had no plans.

Like most of my peers, I had survived the drudgeries of life with thoughts of the next getaway.
 
I had the opportunity to travel extensively while on exchange in university and would take at least two trips a year since I started my first job about 10 years ago.

Then the pandemic happened. During the lockdown, I was down with cabin fever like everyone else.

But in that uncertainty — as we wondered if we would ever get to leave our rooms, much less travel to another country again — I also felt almost relieved to have travelled when I could.

Still, when the borders reopened with some restrictions, I did not jump into travelling right away.

I thought there was too much risk and trouble involved. What if I got stranded in another country? Will their hospitals be nice? How much extra clothes should I pack for this emergency?

It’s been described as “revenge travel”, and I think this urge is perfectly understandable after two years of lockdowns and staycations within Singapore.

But not for me. For some odd reason, I realised that I no longer felt the desire to hop on the next flight out of Changi Airport.

https://www.todayonline.com/gen-y-speaks/gen-y-speaks-travel-bug-has-lost-its-hold-me-i-havent-travelled-pandemic-and-im-no-hurry-2183976

My boyfriend and I decided to take the next step in our relationship and apply for a Build-To-Order (BTO) flat in February 2021— or as some dub it, the modern-day Singaporean engagement.

But beyond the congratulatory messages from friends and family, warnings of incurring the anger of the fabled "monsters-in-law" flooded in.

That is what parents-in-law have been called, those who have been villainised for their possessive tendencies, constant nagging and meddling.

Some friends have advised me not to move into the "monster's den" and to wait patiently for my own home.

One friend told me how when she moved into her in-laws' home, her mother-in-law did not like it when she cooked in the kitchen, would keep a watchful eye whenever she used any household appliances, and would complain that she did not do enough chores.

Another friend said her mother-in-law's constant nagging over her pregnancy drove her and her husband insane, so they both decided to rent an apartment while waiting for their BTO flat's completion, eating into their savings.

Even my editors warned me to tread carefully when I pitched this story to them, fearing I invite the ire of my in-laws-to-be.

While my boyfriend's parents have been lovely to me, the horror stories I've heard of my friends' in-laws kept replaying at the back of my mind during our interactions.

Wanting to start on the right foot, I sought the advice of marriage counsellors to understand why such a conflict arises in the first place, and how to handle it.

Noting that conflicts between parents-in-law and couples stem from different expectations and misunderstandings, the counsellors acknowledged that communication can help resolve tension, if done right.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-how-avoid-conflicts-your-parents-law-1890566

When my wife and I first started dating, I was amused to find out that she, too, is an only child.

The typical ups and downs of not having siblings in the household while growing up was something familiar to us both.

However, that sense of amusement of meeting a life partner with a similar background soon began to fade.

This was especially after we tied the knot and the realities of being part of each other’s families set in, making us become aware of something that drew our concern.

For the first two Hari Raya Aidilfitri as a married couple, my wife and I were away from our parents. In 2019, we were overseas for work.

The following year, it was the circuit breaker or semi-lockdown in Singapore due to the Covid-19 outbreak that separated us, as we live separately from our parents and the prevailing social restrictions then did not allow for visitors.

So for those two years, our parents were without our company celebrating Aidilfitri — a festive occasion for Muslims that hinges on gathering with loved ones and renewing familial ties.

It really struck me hard then, that besides the two of us, our parents don’t have any other children to turn to, rely on or keep them company.

Sure, having a spouse who is also an only child would mean that we have some views and outlook in common, making it easier to talk to each other about our concerns.

But it also compounds our fears when we think about worst-case scenarios.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-my-wife-and-i-have-no-siblings-so-my-worries-our-parents-caregivers-are-compounded-1836721

It is 6am. My husband and I are jolted awake, bleary-eyed, by the sound of wailing outside our bedroom door.

This scenario played out almost every day and we were almost at our wit’s end. Then, in the nick of time, a friend’s brother gifted us the holy grail… An automatic feeder.

The wailing culprit is not a child, though we would argue that she is our kid, or rather, furkid.

Her name is Biscuit and she is one of three cats that we adopted within the past two years, each with its own unique personalities and quirks.

We got them shortly after getting married in late-2019. It had always been our dream to have pets because our parents had banned them from our childhood homes, apart from the occasional fish or terrapin turtles.

When we got married and moved into our own home, it was understood that we would be adding pets to our living space.

When it comes to children, however, we are not so firmly decided.

I am at the age where many of my peers are tying the knot and having kids, and although I've done the former, I have never had a strong desire to do the latter.

But I am gradually embracing the idea that if it happens, I'll be okay with it.

And this is partly due to my cats — being a “pawrent” has helped me to visualise what life might be like if I ever do become a mother.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-pawrent-cats-parenting-1914776

Having had my fair share of questionable Christmas presents — like a Samsung phone cover for my iPhone and a bag of coffee which I am allergic to — I fear becoming someone who gives an objectively useless gift.

But at the same time, some people seem like they have everything, or when asked, will say they want nothing.

So why is it so difficult to find the perfect present? And how can we make the festive season more festive?

When searching for a gift, experts say there are two things to consider — who the receiver is, and what context you are giving the gift to.

Experts also warn that it is important to avoid gifting something that may cause embarrassment.

One example Assoc Prof Wong shared was if a student gifted a professor an expensive gift, which may put the professor in an “uncomfortable situation”.

So what about a handmade gift? Assoc Prof Wong said that this depends on how close you are to the receiver — the closer you are, the more likely the gift will be appreciated.

He cautioned that gifting an elaborate handmade gift may inadvertently cause embarrassment for the receiver who had not put in a similar effort.

But an easier way is to openly communicate with each other, said founder of Centre for Mindfulness Dr Kathirasan K.

“Now with technology, it's easy to have a wish list which people can refer to and purchase something they want,” he said. “Personally, my wife and I would rather gift acts of charity as opposed to physical items because it's less wasteful.”

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-why-it-so-difficult-find-perfect-present-2062556

It’s 12am, I’m in bed watching the latest season of Stranger Things on Netflix and I have arrived yet again at the same dilemma I face every night.

Do I hit the "next episode" button (this last one ended on another cliffhanger…) or do I pick the sensible option of switching off my lights and going to bed?

Unfortunately, most of the time, I choose the former, knowing full well that the happiness derived from watching another few episodes will come at a cost — waking up the next morning with a pounding headache and feeling like a zombie the entire day.

When I was a university student, sleeping late didn’t affect me as much since I had more control over my schedule. I signed up for classes that took place later in the day, and I could generally choose what time to wake up each day and finish my assignments.

Since I started working, though, I've had to give up that control — I don't get to choose what news assignments to cover and some days, I might have to attend media briefings or rush down to the site of a breaking news event as early as 8am.

Since then, my sleep habits have deteriorated.

Now that I have less free time in the day, I find myself sleeping later so I can squeeze in more activities before bed, such as playing video games, scrolling through TikTok or watching YouTube videos of cute dogs.

And even though it's taking a toll on my health, I can’t seem to help myself and I know I’m not the only one stuck in this loop. So what do I have to do differently?

For working adults, Dr Michael Chee from the Sleep and Cognition Laboratory at the National University of Singapore (NUS) recommended going to bed before midnight so that they are able to have the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep.

He added that having a healthy diet and sufficient exercise are also important.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-i-take-revenge-my-lack-free-time-delaying-sleep-night-i-know-its-time-stop-1934691

“Only going home now?” the office security guard asked, as I trudged out of the building just after midnight on a Saturday night, with a stack of books and laptop in hand.

Though they were brief, I had come to treasure the conversations I had with him as the fun weekends I used to spend out with my friends had become a relentless string of nights spent staring at screens, studying and working in the office.

Last year, I was working a part-time internship position at a strategic advisory firm and contributing to a media outlet while completing my final semester at university.

This was coupled up with occasional volunteer commitments and virtual Chinese lessons to brush up my spoken Mandarin. It was all work and little or no play.

The fatigue finally caught up with me at the end of the year. I was usually able to shake off these feelings of weariness, or even at times, relish in them.

Instead, I felt riddled with self-doubt, weighed down by thoughts that I would never become the person I had so aspired to be.

Despite these feelings, I told myself that I was just tired and that so many of my peers were doing much more than me.

After all, some had school fees they had to pay off but still managed to get top grades in school, others were grappling with major personal issues but could still land internships at prestigious firms.

Deep down, I knew that there was more to my twenties than late nights spent alone in the office, coffee after coffee, planning to cross the next goal off the list and the one after that, and so on.

For this column, I spoke to counsellors and mental health experts to find out more about what it means to be burnt out, how this has been perpetuated by “hustle culture” and healthy ways to address these issues.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-how-avoid-burn-out-hyper-competitive-environment-1962771

As a Singapore Polytechnic student, I knew it would only be a matter of time till I had to do an internship, since it was part of the criteria for finishing my course in creative writing. 
But the inevitability of it didn’t make the idea any less scary to me.

Prior to interning, the only jobs I ever worked were part-time jobs that lasted only for the duration of my holidays, a vastly different experience from a six-month-long internship in a newsroom.

Having to hold down a graded "grown up" job for six months absolutely terrified me. It felt like 22 weeks worth of opportunities to mess up.

And after two rough semesters academically, I was terrified of fumbling it all up.

So when I finally landed an internship in the TODAY newsroom, the pressure to not mess up was immense, especially because getting fired from the internship guaranteed an instant fail for an entire semester’s worth of credits.

Yet as I wrap up the final weeks of my internship, I’m walking away with a positive outlook on my time here, having learned so many things about myself and about the professional working world.

Weeks before my internship even started, I was already dreading the thought of it. I felt such immense anxiety about messing up at work that I wanted to avoid it all together.

But no matter what, the need to graduate trumped all my anxieties. Pushing my worries to the back of my mind, I pulled myself together and showed up for my first day.

On my first week of work, I felt like I was thrown into the deep end.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-dealing-fear-messing-finding-work-life-balance-during-my-internship-2101116

In the last two years, five people I knew died from sudden cardiac arrest. They were young and seemingly healthy people whose untimely demise came as a shock to their family and friends.

They ranged in age from about 25 to 35.

The grief hit me pretty hard, as I felt a lot of guilt and regret about my relationship with some of them. It got me to thinking — are more young people dying from sudden cardiac arrest? And should I be worried?

Cardiologists from the National University Heart Centre Singapore told me that the risk of sudden deaths in young people remains exceedingly low.

Based on the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) data report published by the Singapore Heart Foundation four years ago, those above the age of 65 constitute the highest risk group of patients, accounting for 36.2 per cent of the 3,000 cases of cardiac arrest in 2019. There are about 3,000 cases of OHCA yearly here.

One cardiologist told me that the prevalence of OHCA in Indians and Malays is twice the rate of Chinese. The prevalence of OHCA in men is also twice that of women.

While uncommon, there are underlying conditions among young adults that can lead to sudden deaths, such as hypertrophic cardiomypathy (abnormal thickening of heart muscles) or arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythm of genetic causes), another cardiologist said.

This is why health screenings are important, as people often believe themselves to be healthy if they do not have any symptoms of underlying disease when they may have conditions that are asymptomatic.

Though sudden cardiac arrest among young people with no underlying conditions is rare, I could not shake this feeling that my life could be taken from me at any time.

This led me to move beyond concerns over cardiac arrest affecting the young to wonder more broadly at the meaning of my brief, mortal existence. I was left feeling unmotivated and uneasy.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-untimely-deaths-friends-existential-crisis-2131826

The Covid-19 pandemic may have brought much chaos and inconvenience to us all, but one silver-lining, for me at least, was that I got to enjoy my mum’s home-cooked meals more frequently since I had to work from home.

I love my mother’s food. They are not elaborate meals. Sliced fish porridge, bee hoon soup or, if she is feeling fancy, miso butter pasta with tuna and cabbage. Pretty simple, but fairly healthy and cooked with love.

And a good, warm meal goes a long way to putting a smile on my face even on the most trying of days. But since I moved out of my parents’ home not too long ago, it’s been hard to replicate that feeling.

I’m no stranger to the kitchen, mind you, so I didn’t think that providing home-cooked meals for myself and my partner would be a problem.

As it turned out, we would be lucky if I could even find the time to put together a bowl of noodle soup with leafy greens that have gone yellow after weeks of not being used.

Otherwise, it’s either reaching for the phone to get a food delivery of something, usually unhealthy, or making a dash to one of the many coffee shops we frequent.

These quick and convenient meals don’t leave me feeling good, though, and I’m becoming a bit more conscious about what I’m putting into my body now, as compared to my more youthful years.

With home-cooked meals, I can at least have some control over my diet.

But how do you find time to prepare something healthy in the midst of a busy work week?

For this column, I spoke to nutritionists and chefs for some tips and good practices to observe to make this possible.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-how-can-busy-adults-find-time-prepare-home-cooked-meal-without-involving-their-mothers-2013586

I was in the middle of a work meeting last year when I suddenly received a phone call from a friend.

As I could not take the call then, I sent a text to check if everything was okay. It turned out she was hoping to ask for a favour.

She said she had initially wanted to just drop me a message, but decided to call me instead, and joked that if she had texted me I would only reply the next week.

Though we laughed it off, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt as I knew her statement, while made in jest, carried some truth.

I always cringe a little when I think of text conversations I’ve left on the backburner, making a mental note to respond at a better time, until they snowballed and I had hundreds of unacknowledged messages.

I have even intentionally blocked out time to clear a backlog of text messages I had not yet replied, but this only resulted in a slew of replies to my replies, and I was so overwhelmed that I found myself caught in the same cycle again.

“Bad” texting has always been an issue for me, but it was exacerbated as I grew older and became more protective of my time online outside of school and work — often switching my phone to “Do Not Disturb” mode outside of these hours.

This has led me to confront the issue head on through many attempts, because I always find myself asking: Am I a terrible friend if I am a bad texter?

Should I awkwardly try to respond to messages after days, weeks, or sometimes even months, of silence, though it might seem inauthentic by that point?

I spoke to a couple of professors who study communications and they agree that in today's mobile-first age, there is a general common understanding about what constitutes “good” or “bad” texting etiquette.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/adulting-101-confronting-my-bad-texting-habits-while-striving-be-better-friend-digital-age-2164816