World

Japan’s foreign minister to make official visit to Singapore from Aug 12
1Sep By Desk TeamNo Comments
Singapore, World

Japan’s foreign minister to make official visit to Singapore from Aug 12

SINGAPORE: Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Motegi Toshimitsu will make a three-day official visit to Singapore from Wednesday (Aug 12). He will call on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana and be hosted to lunch by Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan, said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Tuesday. This will be Mr Motegi's first official visit to Singapore as foreign minister. It comes after Japan announced last month that it will proceed with discussions on the resumption of essential travel with 12 places, including Singapore. "Singapore welcomes the Japanese government’s decision to include Singapore as one of its partners to commence such negotiations," MFA had said on Jul 23. It added then that the establishment of a "reciprocal ...
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Government to mesh economic, social policies more tightly for post-COVID-19 world: Heng Swee Keat
1Sep By Desk TeamNo Comments
Singapore, World

Government to mesh economic, social policies more tightly for post-COVID-19 world: Heng Swee Keat

SINGAPORE: The Government will tighten coordination between its economic and social policies to ensure that Singaporeans can have access to jobs and opportunities in the post COVID-19 economy, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Friday (Aug 28). This is part of its efforts to more closely align different public policy areas to tackle the complex challenges and new opportunities arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Vulnerable workers will receive additional support and social mobility will continue to be a feature of Singapore society, he said. To better understand the concerns of citizens and develop “more citizen-centric” policies, the Government is growing new capabilities in data analytics and citizen engagement, Mr Heng added in an addendum by the Prime Minister’s Of...
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10 arrested for dangerous riding after police probe video of PMD, e-bike riders on Sheares Avenue
31Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
Singapore, World

10 arrested for dangerous riding after police probe video of PMD, e-bike riders on Sheares Avenue

SINGAPORE: Eight men and two women have been arrested for dangerous riding, after a video online showed a group of riders on personal mobility devices (PMD) and power-assisted bicycles (PAB) travelling with a motorcyclist along Sheares Avenue. The suspects are aged between 16 and 25, said the police in a news release on Monday (Aug 3), adding that they were alerted to the video on Jul 13. The video, posted on Facebook page SG Road Vigilante, shows several riders on major roads at night, including Sungei Road and Ophir Road. They were also seen riding up Benjamin Sheares Bridge towards Sheares Avenue. The video ends with them gathering at an open space. The police said the suspects were arrested between Jul 17 and Jul 20. Two PMDs, device parts of a PAB and mobile phones were ...
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25-year-old Black tech lead in Silicon Valley: I want to use my influence to combat systemic racism
31Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

25-year-old Black tech lead in Silicon Valley: I want to use my influence to combat systemic racism

This is part of CNBC Make It's series on what it's like to be Black in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley has long been a culture dominated by white men, with a fraught record of following up on commitments to fix its race problem, from major tech companies that have barely moved their numbers on diversity to a lack of funding for Black founders. Here, CNBC Make It spoke with Black professionals to hear their experiences. Already in his young career, Kyle Woumn, 25, has had disappointing experiences that are too typical for a Black techie in white Silicon Valley. While a computer science student at Georgia Tech, Woumn remembers being one of only one or two Black interns at cloud platform Twilio in San Francisco for two summers running. When he took a job there in 2017 he was one of about six...
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China uses tech as tool of repression to monitor citizens: US commission
31Aug By Mike TrudellNo Comments
China, Market, World

China uses tech as tool of repression to monitor citizens: US commission

According to a congressional commission of the US, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is committed to the production and use of technology that controls and surveys its population.Chairman Robin Cleveland and Vice Chairman Carolyn Bartholomew of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, in a joint statement, said that China's move to use technology as a tool of repression is "politically motivated to sustain the Party"."The Chinese Communist Party is committed to the production and use of technology that controls and surveys its population. The decision to use these tools of repression is politically motivated to sustain the Party," the statement read.Surveillance has become a booming business in China with number of tech start-ups moving in to meet the market demand with the go...
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Xi says China to step up efforts to fight ‘splittism’ in Tibet
31Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

Xi says China to step up efforts to fight ‘splittism’ in Tibet

SHANGHAI: China must build an "impregnable fortress" to maintain stability in Tibet, protect national unity and educate the masses in the struggle against "splittism", President Xi Jinping told senior leaders, state media said on Saturday (Aug 29). China seized control over Tibet in 1950 in what it describes as a "peaceful liberation" that helped the remote Himalayan region throw off its "feudalist" past. But critics, led by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, say Beijing's rule amounts to "cultural genocide". At a senior Communist Party meeting on Tibet's future governance, Xi lauded achievements made and praised frontline officials but said more efforts were needed to enrich, rejuvenate and strengthen unity in the region. Political and ideological education needed to be streng...
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Asia shares take a breather, hope for flexible Fed
31Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
Asia, Market, World

Asia shares take a breather, hope for flexible Fed

Asian stocks will likely climb on Thursday after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallied to fresh records on upbeat corporate results, while the dollar eased a day before the U.S. Federal Reserve possibly sets a new course on inflation. SYDNEY: Asian shares touched two-year peaks on Thursday in the wake of Wall Street's record run as cheap cash drove up big-cap tech darlings, although Sino-U.S. tensions caused caution to creep in as the session progressed. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan turned flat after earlier reaching its highest since August 2018. Japan's Nikkei eased 0.4per cent from levels not seen since mid-February, and South Korea fell 0.8per cent as a jump in coronavirus cases ended four days of rises. Even S&P 500 futures dipped 0.2per cent, although t...
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India can play a crucial role in easing global reliance on China: British lawmaker
31Aug By Mike TrudellNo Comments
China, World

India can play a crucial role in easing global reliance on China: British lawmaker

An influential British lawmaker with the ruling Conservative party, Iain Duncan Smith has said that India could play a crucial role in reversing the alarming strategic dependence of the world’s democracies on China.Sir Iain pointed out that authoritarian China, under Xi Jinping, has made no secret about its ambition to emerge as an unrivalled global power by the middle of the century.“The Chinese government has become even more dictatorial and intolerant in the last few years under President Xi and as far as I can make out by what he has said and by their behaviour, that his government’s plan is that by 2040 or thereabouts, China wishes to be the world’s biggest economy possessing the world’s largest and most powerful military. Those things are what they said they wish to be, and everythin...
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Government to implement programmes that boost investment, create more ‘good jobs’ for Singaporeans: Chan Chun Sing
31Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
Market, Singapore, World

Government to implement programmes that boost investment, create more ‘good jobs’ for Singaporeans: Chan Chun Sing

SINGAPORE: Despite a changing world economy disrupted by COVID-19 and geopolitical tensions, the Government will implement new programmes to bring in business investments, support local entrepreneurship and create “good jobs" for Singaporeans, said Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing on Wednesday (Aug 26). Mr Chan was outlining how his ministry will support key priorities laid out by President Halimah Yacob at the opening of Singapore’s 14th Parliament on Monday. Mdm Halimah had said the Government will provide greater social support and strengthen safety nets for Singaporeans in the long term amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr Chan said on Wednesday that Singapore is confronting the crisis “from a position of strength”, given the country’s reputation for “transparency, rule ...
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From marine waste to fashion: A journey of flip-flops and trash heroes from Thailand’s far south
31Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
USA, World

From marine waste to fashion: A journey of flip-flops and trash heroes from Thailand’s far south

PATTANI, Thailand: It was a journey that began five years ago on the islands of Satun, with 100,000 flip-flops and sandals that had been spat out by the sea and washed ashore. It was not known where this debris had come from or how far it had travelled before reaching some of the most beautiful beaches in southern Thailand. It took three months of daily work for all of it to be collected by environmental volunteers in a group called Trash Hero. All of them were crammed into the back of a lorry – a pile of marine trash heading for a new life in Pattani, hundreds of kilometres away. These discarded shoes may have been unwanted before, but someone wanted them now. “I contacted them to ask for some ocean waste we were experimenting with,” said Nattapong Nithi-Uthai, a lecturer at the F...
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