What happened? In the latest development of the Grab-Uber merger saga, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) announced on July 5th that its investigations indicate that the controversial merger has infringed upon the Competition Act*. From the investigations, it was found that the merger has eliminated competition between the two ride-hailing giants (Thanks, […]
BREXIT: THE EXIT STRATEGY
What happened? Two years after UK announced that it was leaving the EU, Theresa May and her cabinet have finished ironing out how the UK will be leaving the EU. May’s soft exit plan will allow the UK to maintain close ties with the EU. The agreement proposes that EU citizens living in the UK, […]
THAM LUANG TRAGEDY: FOOTBALL TEAM AND COACH STUCK IN CAVE DURING VISIT AFTER PRACTICE… BUT NOT ANYMORE!
After an intense nine-day search, 12 boys and their assistant football coach were found deep inside a flooded cave complex of Tham Luang. The boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach disappeared on June 23 during an outing to the cave complex, leaving all their belongings at the mouth of the cave. […]
APPARENTLY, TRADE WARS ARE EASY TO WIN
Really? Well, says Trump, who insists that “trade wars are good, and easy to win”. Just last Friday, the US followed through on months of tariff threats, imposing duties on $34 bn in Chinese imports. In a tit for tat move, China also implemented duties proportionately, commenting that the Trump has just “launched the biggest […]
MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT PAY $1 EACH DAY FOR PARKING
$365: that is the amount that Members of Parliament (MP) pay for an annual permit allowing them to park at HDB car parks when doing constituency work and at Parliament House when on official business. This is but a portion of a HDB season parking rate, which charges $80/month for surface car parks and $110/month […]
KNOW YOUR ICT PLANS EARLY
Keeping up with the latest technology, the Singapore Army has devised a new mobile application for operationally ready national servicemen (NSmen) during their in-camp training (ICT). For most of us, this means in the near future (by 2019), we will get to check the programme for our ICT up to six months in advance, rather […]
DON’T BE SALTY, JUST BE HAPPY…
…because Singapore just officially opened its first government-owned and operated desalination plant (hoorayy), the Tuas Desalination plant, on Tuesday June 28 (or should I say Tuas-day). Having a capacity of 30 million gallons per day and costing S$217 million, the new plant is a strategic infrastructural asset that would be able to meet the water […]
THE FRENCH HAVE NS TOO
Exciting times are ahead for our young French counterparts as the French government has just recently announced the re-introduction of national service for all 16-year-olds in the country. Initially mooted by President Macron, the final iteration of the plan that is dubbed “Universal National Service”, is a watered-down version of the National Service that we […]
IF SINGAPORE TOOK AN UNGLAM SELFIE, SOCIAL INEQUALITY WOULD BE ITS FACE
What happened? Under the glitz and glamour of Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay lies an uglier side of Singapore: rising social inequality. Despite being one of the wealthiest and most developed countries in the world, Singapore scores pretty high on the Gini Coefficient (37 out of 156), an indicator of income inequality. […]
A WATERING DOWN OF TIES?
What happened? Adding to the string of events that signal strained ties between Malaysia and Singapore, Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has expressed that the water deal that Malaysia has with Singapore needs to be renegotiated as it is “too costly“. “I think it is manifestly ridiculous that we should sell water at 3 sen […]