Current Affairs

Yeo Jia Min’s exciting run at the Badminton World Championships (BWC) was brought to an abrupt end on Friday (23) August when Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon beat the shuttler in two straight sets, 21-17, 21-11 in under an hour. The former world champion, who was also the youngest single’s world champion at the time at only 18 years old in 2013, …

Last year, news emerged that New Zealand (NZ) Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern blocked her own pay raise, as recommended by the Remuneration Authority, an independent body in NZ set up to determine the wages of the country’s politicians (‘Jacinda Ardern turns down $12,000 pay rise as NZ government freezes MP pay‘). PM Ardern decided that NZ politicians are already paid …

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Thursday (22 August) that close to 55, 000 undergraduate and diploma students will be given the opportunity to gain from the Government’s enhanced bursary scheme. This scheme will be rolled out to student from the next academic year onwards. The Minister noted that out of these 55, 000 students, nearly 30, 000 of …

The City Harvest Church (CHC) issued a public notice yesterday (22 Aug) after their pastor Kong Hee was released from prison the same day. In its statement, CHC said that while serving time, Kong spent most of his time “seeking and studying the things of God”. “Pastor thanks you all for your unceasing prayers these last few years, for him …

MAS Core Inflation eased to 0.8% on a year on year basis in July from one year ago, down from 1.2% in June said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in a joint statement on 23 August. According to the release, this is mainly attributed to the decline in prices of retail …

Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) continues to battle a system glitch that has greatly affected thousands of travellers for the past two days. In a statement today (23 August), Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) said that a team is still working on stabilising the system as of 6 am. MAHB added that it has utilised all 38 remote bays …

Shuttler Yeo Jia Min has become Singapore’s first women’s singles player to make it to the quarter-finals of the BWF World Championships in Basel, Switzerland as she defeated Vi Thi Trang of Vietnam on Thursday (22 August), The 20-year old won in three sets (21-15, 14-21, 21-16) in a match that lasted over an hour. Following the match, Ms Yeo …

If we were to allow the recent controversial rap video by Preetipls and her brother to stay online, then other videos that contain vulgarity and racially offensive content will also have to be allowed, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam on Thursday (22 August). By doing so, this would put minorities at the losing end, and worsen racism …

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) found 1,127 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes being smuggled into Singapore in two separate cases at Woodlands Checkpoint from 19 to 21 August. According to the ICA’s statement on Facebook, the cigarettes were wrapped in plastic trunking and tape and were concealed inside the tyres of the vehicles. The officers involved became suspicious when they …

YouTube on Thursday said it disabled 210 channels that appeared to be part of a coordinated influence campaign against pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The action by the Google-owned service came this week as Twitter and Facebook accused the Chinese government of backing a social media campaign to discredit Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and sow political discord in the city. “We disabled 210 channels …