Current Affairs

Highlighting that schemes such as the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) and the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) are not the equivalent of a minimum wage, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and professor of law at the National University of Singapore Professor Tommy Koh argued that the Singapore government's apparent resistance towards implementing a minimum wage in the Republic is rooted …

The high profile committee of inquiry (COI) for the biggest hack to ever hit Singapore in the form of the widely publicised SingHealth data breach is finally wrapped up with a summary of recommendations put forth. While the COI results provide some form of closure to this unfortunate incident, I fear that if we do not target what to me, …

Speaking at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Argentina on Fri (30 Nov), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that with technological advances in the world, countries must ease workers’ anxieties by supporting displaced workers and equipping them with the right skills to take on new jobs. “We should work on the basis that technological disruption will create new jobs, even …

Thai media The Nation reported that a Singaporean businessman, Simon Ong Chin Sim, 65, was arrested and charged after his speeding Porsche lost control and hit a Thai police officer at a speed checkpoint in Krabi. The incident happened on Thursday morning (29 Nov). Ong's Porsche was part of a convoy of 5 Porsches seen speeding at high speed coming …

A 16-year old student decides to spend her holidays working to earn a little extra pocket money by working as a salesperson. She comes from a good school and post of her encounters with parents that she knew from those kinds of schools were pleasant people, so she refuted the stereotypes that parents from more elite schools were arrogant. But …

Noting that most fake accounts are created "not with political intent," but "with commercial intent," which entail creating fake accounts to sell such accounts and even followers of such accounts, Facebook's vice president for public policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa Richard Allan explained that "there will be a three-month period" where "hundreds of millions of such accounts" are …

On Thursday (29 Nov), the Ministry of Health (MOH) issued a press release saying that the government provided a total of $149.8 million to the needy Singaporeans from MediFund last year (FY17). MediFund assists needy Singaporean patients who are unable to afford their medical bills, after government subsidies, MediShield Life and MediSave. If a patient still has money in his …

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has issued a statement to condemn the actions of Singapore’s police in seizing electronic devices from this news website, The Online Citizen (TOC), and interrogating its editor and a blogger who posted a comment on the site. The international non-government organisation, which advocates freedom of expression and freedom of the press, wrote that these actions which …

All Members of Parliament (MPs), including Non-Constituency and Nominated MPs will have to pay $250 a year for a permit to park at Parliament House for official business. This was announced by the Parliament on Friday to media on Friday (Nov 30). According to media reports, elected MPs can use the permit to park in any Housing Board (HDB) carpark, …

A total of 107 suspected drug offenders were arrested in the latest island-wide operation from the morning of 26 November to the morning of 30 November 2018, which saw the seizure of about 91g of heroin, 52g of new psychoactive substances, 40g of ‘Ice’, 8g of cannabis, 56 Erimin-5 tablets and three ‘Ecstasy’ tablets. The operation was carried out by the …