Month: September 2021

When Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan remarked on an opposition politician’s educational background to a party colleague in parliament on Tuesday, he did not expect what he said to go viral.But his asides were caught on microphone – and with the session being live-streamed, an audio clip with the comments “He’s illiterate”, “Seriously, how did he get into RI?” and “Must be a lousy school” quickly made the rounds.Online, public attention focused more on the exchange than the…

The UK government will make over £200 million of support available to offshore wind projects during the next round of the contracts for difference (CfD) support scheme, it has confirmed.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo is among the seven officials found guilty by a Jakarta court of environmental negligence over air pollution in the capital.In a civil lawsuit, the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday ruled that Widodo must set adequate national ambient air quality standards “to protect the people’s health, the environment, and the ecosystem”, though it dismissed a claim the defendants had violated a human right for health, including clean air.The standard for annual…

Japan has given first doses of Covid-19 vaccine to 63.6 per cent of its population, surpassing the US by proportion of people who have had at least one shot – despite starting months behind.The East Asian nation’s progress now puts the United States last among G7 nations when it comes to the proportion of the population who have had at least one dose, after vaccine hesitancy squandered the country’s head start. About 63.1 per cent of the US has had at least their first shot, and 53.8 per cent…

A new data law is to be introduced in the UAE.

The arms race on the Korean peninsula is heating up, with North Korea firing a pair of ballistic missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, as the South announced a spate of breakthroughs in its development of new weapons including submarine-launched ballistic missiles.Just days after testing a cruise missile with possible nuclear capabilities, the North test-launched two ballistic missiles from its central inland region towards the east coast, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff …

Hundreds of thousands of people in China and Southeast Asia may be infected annually by animals carrying coronaviruses related to the one that causes Covid-19, according to a study emphasising the ongoing pandemic threat from spillover events.An average of 400,000 such infections occur each year, most going unrecognised because they cause mild or no symptoms and are not easily transmitted between people, researchers with the EcoHealth Alliance and Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School said in a…

Third party litigation funding could soon be regulated by the EU: the European Parliament is currently considering a draft report with recommendations for a new directive.

Indonesia’s national intelligence agency has denied a report claiming its servers were breached by a suspected Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, but says it is still investigating whether other government agencies have been affected.Insikt Group, the threat research division of United States-based cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, last week said malware had infiltrated the systems of at least 10 Indonesian ministries and agencies, including the intelligence agency, Badan Intelijen Negara…

The Chinese embassy in Singapore has urged its citizens not to travel to the city state unless necessary amid a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases there.In a statement on Monday, the embassy noted that Singapore had recorded more than 500 daily infections over the last four days, and numbers were expected to reach the thousands.“Dozens” of Chinese nationals in Singapore have caught the virus and sought help, including tourists and short-term visitors who had travelled for work or to visit their…