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Goh Chok Tong’s son faces S$212m lawsuit by Inter-Pacific Petroleum JMs as former Prime Minister maintains silence

Jewel Stolarchuk
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Goh Chok Tong’s son faces S$212m lawsuit by Inter-Pacific Petroleum JMs as former Prime Minister maintains silence

Former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong’s son, Goh Jin Hian, is currently embroiled in a legal battle involving a lawsuit over losses of approximately S$212 million. The lawsuit, brought forth by the Judicial Managers (JMs) representing Inter-Pacific Petroleum (IPP), has put the spotlight on the financial predicament faced by Goh Chok Tong’s son.

Goh Chok Tong’s Son joined IPP as the firm’s executive director in 2011, seeking a transition from the healthcare sector. He served in this position until 2014 and later became a non-executive director upon joining Digiland, which was later renamed New Silkroutes Group (NSG).

IPP began to go under last year after it was charged over bunkering malpractices in a landmark court case. The firm went defunct after the Maritime Port Authority (MPA) revoked its licenses and the company filed for judicial management at the High Court on 16 Aug.

Four days later, Goh Chok Tong’s son left the firm.

On Friday night (2 Oct), Deloitte & Touche – the JMs of IPP – filed a lawsuit against Dr Goh in the High Court, accusing him of breaching his director’s duties which he owed to the company, to act with due care, skill and diligence to ensure that IPP’s affairs were “properly administered and that its assets and property are not dissipated,” among other things.

IPP’s two largest investors, Maybank and Societe Generale – which are owed USD 88.3 million and USD 81.3 million respectively – are funding the legal action in an effort to recover the losses they claim were caused by Goh Chok Tong’s Son’s alleged negligence.

The JMs have demanded that Dr Goh make restitution for IPP’s debt of US$156.5 million to the two investors for what they claimed were drawdowns of trade facilities in June and July last year for “sham” transactions.

The JMs hold Dr Goh responsible, claiming that he signed off on IPP’s financial statements for 2017 and certified that the audited financial statements gave a true and fair view of the company’s financial position when the JM’s checks found that some invoices for transactions between 2017 and 2019 did not exist.

The JMs alleged that the fictitious transactions would have come to light and the funds would not have been drawn down from the banks had Dr Goh discharged his duties with care and diligence.

Meanwhile, Dr Goh has said that he was “surprised that the judicial managers have commenced an action so unilaterally” without first hearing his side of the story. He told the Straits Times: “What did the banks who are experts in trade financing miss that I should have picked up? What should I have done as a director that I did not do?”

Meanwhile, Cordlife Group – a leading Singapore cord blood banking services firm – announced on Monday (5 Oct) that Dr Goh has vacated his seat as its chairman in view of the lawsuit brought on by IPP’s JMs.

In a Singapore Exchange filing, CordLife Group said that Dr Goh is stepping down as chairman “to devote more time to his personal affairs” and that its nominating committee (NC) and board found it appropriate to allow the legal proceedings to run its due course.

Dr Goh will, however, be staying on at the firm as an independent director given that the NC and the board believe he “has the character and integrity suitable to continue as independent director”.

Asserting that it is in Cordlife’s best interest for Dr Goh to remain as an independent director given his qualifications, expertise and experience, the firm added that the cessation of his chairman role will allow him to give sufficient time and attention to the company’s affairs in the new role.

While Dr Goh has vacated his chairman seat at Cordlife, he remains the chairman of NSG. The NC and board of NSG said that Dr Goh is suitable to continue serving as chairman since the legal action involving IPP is a civil suit.

In a statement on Tuesday (6 Oct), NSG NSG’s board said that Dr Goh – who became chairman on 1 Oct after vacating his role as CEO – “has every confidence that he will be wholly vindicated when he defends himself in court”.

It added that Dr Goh’s lawyers, TSMP Law Corporation, have advised that the allegations leveled by IPP’s JMs are without merit and that the JMs have been provided with “detailed, with clear explanation, why there is no justifiable case” against Dr Goh.

The firm further said that it is in the interest of the company and shareholders that Dr Goh remains as non-executive chairman given his character and integrity.

While Dr Goh is confident that the claims against him are without merit, his famous father remains mum on the case despite being vocal on social media when it comes to various issues.

Headlines about Dr Goh’s involvement in IPP’s troubles and a Commercial Affairs Department’s (CAD) investigation into a possible breach of the Securities and Futures Act by NSG has been going viral for about three weeks now but the newly retired ruling party MP has yet to say a word about the matters involving his son to the press nor on his own social media pages.

Goh Jin Hian’s passport gets impounded as part of police probe into his firm

Will Goh Chok Tong’s son join politics now that his father has retired?

Goh Chok Tong’s son may be taken to court over alleged breach of duty at Inter-Pacific Petroleum

Social distancing “drama” when residents of rental flats were queueing to receive goods

Anna Maria Romero
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Social distancing “drama” when residents of rental flats were queueing to receive goods

Singapore — A volunteer with the charity organisation Keeping Hope Alive 让希望活下去 took to Facebook on Monday (Oct 5) to air his grievance over a Social Distancing Ambassador who, instead of helping to ensure that everyone would be safe, “caused drama” at a weekly outreach event the previous day.

The volunteer, Mr Rich Sng, said that Keeping Hope Alive was carrying out a goods distribution event to residents in rental flats at Blocks 91, 92 and 93 in Henderson Road. He wrote: “These residents are mostly elderly and families with many children. They are eligible to rent these flats from the government due to low income.”

SOCIAL DISTANCING AMBASSADORS CAUSES DRAMA AT HENDERSON ROAD, EXPECTING VOLUNTEERS TO DO SAFE DISTANCING JOB INSTEAD….

Posted by Rich Sng on Monday, 5 October 2020

He said the organisation’s volunteers were all decked out in protective gear and that the residents had started lining up to receive the food and other items, including some appliances, furniture, vitamins, toys and NTUC vouchers, at 8 on Sunday morning.

“We even had volunteers to help the residents to cut their hair and nails,” he added.

In pre-Covid times, the organisation had 50 to 80 volunteers for events such as the one in Henderson Road. However, because of restrictions to prevent the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic, it had less manpower than before.

Mr Sng wrote: “20+ volunteers to coordinate and move all these items in such a short time-frame stretches us out to the max. (Even for me, I had to coordinate logistics for furniture from Woodlands, Tampines and also Bendemeer to go to Henderson in 1 single morning.)”

As some residents had formed a queue, “6 social distancing ambassadors turned up at our Keeping Hope Alive 让希望活下去 weekly event, asking who is the in-charge”.

He added that Miss Fion Phua talked to the SDAs. However, one ambassador, in particular, seemed to have a negative attitude towards the outreach.

Mr Sng wrote: “A middle-aged male Social Distancing Ambassador of the group of 6 straight away questioned us why are these residents not adhering to social distancing rules. He was rude, egoistic and demanding. They started taking photos and videos as evidence.”

The group ended up calling the police, which led in turn to the SDAs also calling the police, who, Mr Sng said, had difficulty “mediating this issue before the whole saga ended”.

Fortunately, the group successfully carried out its goods distribution “and the residents received what they needed”.

Mr Sng wrote that it should have been the SDAs who helped the residents observe safe distancing measures, since the event was already understaffed.

He ended his post by appealing for everyone to do his or her own duty. /TISG

Read also: Activist urges Singaporeans: Buy a meal for an elderly person

Activist urges Singaporeans: Buy a meal for an elderly person

Covid-19 downturn not as bad as feared; crisis not over: IMF chief

AFP
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Covid-19 downturn not as bad as feared; crisis not over: IMF chief

by Heather SCOTT

The global downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic will not be as bad as originally feared thanks to a flood of government spending, but the crisis is far from over, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said Tuesday.

“The picture today is less dire… allowing for a small upward revision to our global forecast for 2020,” she said in a speech ahead of IMF-World Bank fall meetings next week, where the IMF is due to present its updated forecasts.

In June, the Washington-based crisis lender projected a nearly five percent contraction of global GDP, but results in the second and third quarters were better than expected.

Georgieva credited the improvement to “extraordinary policy measures that put a floor under the world economy,” which amounted to $12 trillion in fiscal support to households and firms.

But she warned that “less dire is not sunny,” and governments should not prematurely withdraw the help they have provided, since the outlook for next year is mixed and rife with uncertainties and risks.

After more than a million deaths, “this calamity is far from over. All countries are now facing what I would call ‘The Long Ascent’ — a difficult climb that will be long, uneven, and uncertain,” Georgieva said, stressing the need to help the weakest nations.

Pulling back on government aid risks “massive bankruptcies and massive unemployment. And that can be so tragic for the world economy that we have to do everything we can to prevent from it,” she said in a virtual discussion at the London School of Economics.

In the United States and Europe, the downturn, though painful, was not as severe as economists feared at the outset, while China is seeing “a faster-than-expected recovery.”

But the news elsewhere is indeed bad: “In low-income countries, the shocks are so profound that we face the risk of a ‘lost generation,'” she said.

“There is also now the risk of severe economic scarring from job losses, bankruptcies, and the disruption of education” worldwide, she said.

– Forging a better world –
Low-income countries have not had the ability to spend as much to support jobs and businesses, and will also need help to deal with their debt burdens, including through increased grants and debt restructuring.

The IMF late Monday approved a six-month extension of its suspension of debt service payments to 28 of the world’s poorest countries.

Georgieva said the pandemic crisis presents an opportunity to create a better, more equitable economic system.

Likening the crisis to World War II when leaders “forged a better world in the worst possible moment,” she called for governments to continue extending lifelines to workers and businesses as long as they are needed.

“Cut the lifelines too soon, and the Long Ascent becomes a precipitous fall.”

But she noted, “We cannot afford simply to rebuild the old economy, with its low growth, low productivity, high inequality, and worsening climate crisis,” and called for more spending on green jobs which can generate even greater employment.

“This will require both stimuli for job creation, especially in green investment, and cushioning the impact on workers,” she said. “Safeguarding social spending will be critical for a just transition to new jobs.”

She referred to an IMF report released Monday showing that increasing spending by just one percent of GDP could create 33 million new jobs.

The World Trade Organization likewise said Tuesday that the devastation of global trade during the pandemic will not be as bad as originally forecast, contracting by just 9.2 percent this year, rather than 12.9 percent.

“World trade shows signs of bouncing back from a deep, Covid-19-induced slump, but WTO economists caution that any recovery could be disrupted by the ongoing pandemic effects,” the global trade body said in a statement.

hs/cs

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Biden says opposed to debate if Trump still has Covid-19

AFP
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Biden says opposed to debate if Trump still has Covid-19

Democrat Joe Biden said Tuesday he would be opposed to debating Donald Trump next week as scheduled if the US president is still sick with Covid-19, saying he would want to follow health guidelines.

“I’m looking forward to being able to debate him, but I just hope all the protocols are followed,” Biden, 77, told reporters as he returned from a speech near the Civil War battlefield site in Gettysburg.

Trump, 74, announced early Friday — two days after his first debate with Biden in Cleveland — that he had tested positive for the virus.

The men are scheduled to square off again on October 15, but Biden said: “If he still has COVID, we shouldn’t have a debate.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines say people who test positive for the virus should stay home for at least 10 days after symptoms first appear, while people who become severely ill might need to stay home for up to 20 days.

“It’s a very serious problem, so I will be guided by… what the docs say is the right thing to do,” Biden said.

Trump has given no indication he would bow out due to his health, saying in a tweet that he is “looking forward” to the next debate.

mlm/jm

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Trump defies Covid, polls — but Biden keeps gaining

AFP
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Trump defies Covid, polls — but Biden keeps gaining

by Sebastian Smith with Brendan Smialowski in Gettysburg

President Donald Trump defied the Covid-19 virus, disastrous opinion polls and new economic turmoil Tuesday in a stormy return from hospitalization, while surging challenger Joe Biden appealed for Americans to unite against the “forces of darkness.”

There have been few tougher days for Trump since he came to power after his shock 2016 election win.

Still being treated with a powerful cocktail of drugs for the coronavirus after three nights in hospital, he was scrambling to get his reelection campaign back on track ahead of November 3 election day — just four weeks away.

Latest polls forecast a huge victory for Biden, with CNN giving the Democrat a national advantage of 57 percent to 41 percent among likely voters, with women voters going 66 to 32 percent in his favor.

Biden’s advance comes as Trump has been forced off the campaign trail after falling ill last Friday to the virus that has already killed some 210,000 Americans.

With what White House doctors describe as his rapid recovery, Trump is doubling down on his controversial position that Covid-19 is taken too seriously, painting himself as a fighter who took on the virus and easily won.

After telling Americans in a speech from the White House balcony Monday that they should stop fearing Covid-19 and “don’t let it dominate you,” he attacked the media Tuesday for not paying more attention to what he said were his many successes.

“The Fake News Media refuses to discuss how good the Economy and Stock Market, including JOBS under the Trump Administration, are doing. We will soon be in RECORD TERRITORY,” he tweeted.

“All they want to discuss is COVID 19, where they won’t say it, but we beat the Dems all day long, also!!!”

But Trump is in trouble on almost every front and what used to be his strongest card — the economy — is not helping either.

The huge shock caused by this year’s coronavirus shutdown has yet to dissipate, and on Tuesday there was more turmoil when Trump halted negotiations in Congress on another stimulus package to save struggling businesses.

Trump accused Democrats of seeking “to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States” and said that negotiations could begin again only after the election — “after I win.”

The Republican’s hardball tactics drew a furious response from Biden, who said Trump “turned his back” on Americans struggling due to the crisis.

– Battlefield call for unity –
Biden also stuck to his so-far successful strategy of appealing to a broad-based yearning for calm, with his visit to the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg to discuss saving “the soul of America.”

“The forces of darkness, the forces of division, the forces of yesterday are pulling us apart, holding us down and holding us back,” Biden said at the hallowed Pennsylvania grounds where Abraham Lincoln’s Union forces won a decisive victory over Confederate troops in 1863.

“We can end this era of division, we can end the hate and the fear. We can be what we are at our best — the United States of America,” he said.

Biden and Trump are scheduled to square off again on October 15, but Biden told reporters: “If he still has COVID, we shouldn’t have a debate.”

“It’s a very serious problem, so I will be guided by… what the docs say is the right thing to do,” Biden said.

His running mate Kamala Harris, meanwhile, was set to debate Vice President Mike Pence in Utah Wednesday, with a plexiglass barrier for coronavirus prevention between the two.

Giving Biden another lift Tuesday, popular former first lady Michelle Obama issued a 24-minute video address in which she branded Trump “racist” and urged people to vote for Biden “like your lives depend on it.”

– White House Covid spread –
Trump is working overtime to persuade voters that he is back to full strength despite the hospitalization.

“FEELING GREAT!” he tweeted, also insisting that he is “looking forward” to holding a second scheduled debate against Biden in Miami on October 15.

And in a medical bulletin, the presidential doctor said Trump “reports no symptoms” and “continues to do extremely well.”

However, indicating the breadth of the coronavirus crisis overshadowing Trump politically and now personally, a viral outbreak continued to sweep through his inner circle.

Top White House aide Stephen Miller confirmed Tuesday that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was in quarantine.

US media also reported that a military aide responsible for carrying the “nuclear football” — a briefcase containing information for the president to launch a nuclear attack while traveling — tested positive for coronavirus over the weekend. The aide had traveled with Trump to New Jersey on Thursday.

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley also went into quarantine following contact with an infected Coast Guard officer, a Pentagon source said.

There had been speculation, even among some Republicans, that Trump might emerge from hospital chastened or at least with a new tone of empathy.

But on Twitter he returned to one of his oldest lines of argument used to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic, saying it was comparable to the ordinary flu and “we have learned to live with it.”

Twitter hid the tweet, saying that it broke the platform’s rules on “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information.”

sms/jm/to/jh

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

US presidents’ health through the years: secrets, lies, tweets

AFP
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US presidents’ health through the years: secrets, lies, tweets

by Catherine TRIOMPHE

How healthy is Donald Trump, really? Contradictory and incomplete information from officials since the president contracted coronavirus confirms that the health of the White House incumbent is a well-kept secret.

Analysts also say Trump has displayed a savvy use of digital tools to try to steer coverage of the first major presidential health crisis of the social media age.

Since the Friday announcement of Trump’s positive test, his personal doctor Sean Conley has been accused of giving fragmented and confusing information that conflicted with what Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was saying.

According to Matthew Algeo, the author of several books about the recurring lies of US leaders, presidents are not compelled to be forthcoming about their health, so it’s no surprise if they are not.

“We just basically are operating on the honor system when it comes to our president’s health,” he said.

With Trump’s reelection bid less than a month away, now is not the time to look less than fully fit, analysts say.

“Presidents hate to look weak, all politicians hate to look weak. They’ll do anything to avoid that,” said Algeo.

Rose McDermott, a specialist in the health of American presidents at Brown University, says the fact that a president’s doctor is generally also a serviceman — in Conley’s case, a Navy officer — is “structurally” a conflict of interest.

“He’s both the president’s doctor, and the president is also his commander in chief,” she said.

“Which means that if the president doesn’t like what he says about him, he can fire him… and he can do things like take away his pension.”

– Wilson, JFK –
The history of US presidents is littered with lies about their health.

Woodrow Wilson suffered a severe stroke during his presidency in the fall of 1919 that partially paralysed him, but no one spoke of it until February 1920.

Dwight Eisenhower downplayed the severity of a heart attack he suffered in 1955, while John F. Kennedy never spoke of his life-threatening Addison’s disease.

Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 led to the adoption four years later of the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, which clarified that the vice president takes over if the president dies or is incapacitated.

However, apart from a clear and serious injury — such as when Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in 1981 and his powers temporarily transferred to then-vice president George Bush — the circumstances in which Congress can declare a president incapable of performing his duties are not clearly defined, Algeo says.

The increased media glare and widespread use of social media has not fostered transparency, analysts argue, even if presidents can no longer hide from the public for four months like Wilson did.

Especially since the current incumbent is a reality TV star turned frantic tweeter who knows how to be the center of attention, according to Emerson Brooking of the Atlantic Council think-tank.

Trump has kept the media on their toes since Friday, drip-feeding carefully conceived impactful videos of himself that allude to him beating the virus and driving by supporters outside the hospital on Sunday. The culmination was his return to the White House on Monday, which Brooking describes as like “a movie trailer.”

“Trump intuitively understands the speed of the modern news cycle,” said Brooking.

“If the press are discussing or criticizing Trump’s latest piece of content, they are not asking other questions about Covid-19 policy or invoking the 25th Amendment,” he added.

– Independent oversight? –
Amidst the lack of transparency, some experts are calling for the creation of a commission of independent doctors to check on the president’s health.

The calls have been given impetus by the advanced years of Trump, who at 74 is America’s oldest-ever president, and his Democratic rival Joe Biden, who is 77.

“Maybe you don’t have every detail given to the public, but you have an independent board saying, ‘Yes, this person is physically fit, or as fit as can be expected,'” said McDermott.

The calls have so far been unsuccessful in the US, as they have been in other western countries.

It’s not only in America where the health of the country’s leader is taboo, McDermott notes.

Authoritarian regimes are obvious examples, but citizens are often reduced to speculation in democratic countries as well.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been praised for her handling of the pandemic, was coy about trembling hands she suffered in public in 2019.

“I don’t see anyone who’s done an exemplary job of like, once a year, coming out and releasing medical information in the way that many leaders in the US disclose their taxes,” said McDermott.

cat/pdh/to/je

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Singapore firm’s Newcastle bid in new turmoil as exec quits

AFP
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Singapore firm’s Newcastle bid in new turmoil as exec quits

A top executive at a Singapore firm seeking to buy Newcastle United has quit after police launched a probe into his activities, the company said Wednesday, the latest turmoil for the bid.

Bellagraph Nova Group, founded by two Singaporean entrepreneurs and a Chinese business partner, announced in August it was in “advanced talks” to buy the English Premier League team.

But the bid became mired in controversy over allegations that photos had been doctored to show the trio meeting with former US president Barack Obama, and other inconsistent claims.

Police then began investigating a company linked to Singaporean co-founders Terence and Nelson Loh, after an accounting firm lodged a report over unauthorised signatures on the group’s financial statements.

BN Group said in a statement that Terence Loh has now quit the firm to try and resolve the issues related to the police probe into Novena Global Healthcare.

Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper previously reported that he denied wrongdoing.

The statement also stressed that BN Group is not “linked to Novena Global Healthcare and its forged financial statements”.

Despite growing doubts about the bid, the firm’s Chinese co-founder Evangeline Shen insisted last week BN Group was still serious about the plan.

She said the company’s team recently met a representative of Newcastle’s owner to discuss the bid, reported to be worth 280 million pounds ($360 million).

BN Group’s bid came after a Saudi-backed consortium withdrew its offer to buy Newcastle in late July, following a months-long wait for Premier League approval.

The company has said it oversees 31 business “entities” worldwide, with a group revenue of $12 billion last year and 23,000 employees.

Regulators have also announced investigations into several firms linked to the Lohs, who are cousins.

mba/sr/dh

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Blood plasma from 3 people in Singapore used in Trump’s Covid-19 treatment

Anna Maria Romero
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Blood plasma from 3 people in Singapore used in Trump’s Covid-19 treatment

Singapore — The experimental antibody treatment used by the doctors of United States President Donald Trump included plasma samples from the blood of three recovered Covid-19 patients in Singapore.

And while Mr Trump was discharged from hospital on Monday (Oct 5), a mere three days after it was reported that he had tested positive for Covid-19, it is by no means guaranteed that his battle with the disease is over.

The US President, as one of the most powerful leaders in the world, had access to the best possible treatments and medications for Covid-19, including an experimental antibody treatment that has shown success but has not yet received emergency use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration.

The experimental treatment came from biotech firm Regeneron, which said that it had received a “compassionate use” request from Mr Trump’s doctors.

On Monday (Oct 5), Asian Scientist Magazine reported that one of the two antibodies in Regeneron’s treatment, REGN-COV2, given to the US President had been developed using blood samples from three patients in Singapore.

Studies have shown that plasma from patients who recovered from the infection could be used to treat or even prevent the disease. However, using this treatment on a large scale has been impossible because of the challenges in obtaining sufficient blood from volunteers.

What Regeneron has done is to clone Sars-CoV-2 binding antibodies from recovered patients as well as ones from “humanised” mice in order to “produce a reliable source of monoclonal antibodies”.

According to Asian Scientist Magazine, “while the ‘humanised’ mice were based on technology owned by Regeneron, the human plasma used was supplied through an agreement with Singapore’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases. According to a commentary published in The Straits Times in May, there have been talks for Singapore to potentially participate in further clinical trials of the treatment.”

The US President was given the antibody treatment before his admission to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last Friday (Oct 2). While he was at Walter Reed, the antiviral drug, Remdesivir, was given to him in multiple doses, along with dexamethasone, a steroid used in treating inflammation in patients with grave cases of Covid-19.

On Monday (Oct 5), Mr Trump showed that he was in good spirits, tweeting: “I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”

He told the American public upon his return to the White House: “Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it.”

Meanwhile, critics have pointed out that ordinary Americans do not have the access to the treatment available to the President. According to a Professor of Medicine at George Washington University, Dr Jonathan Renier: “The President might be the only patient on the planet ever to receive this particular combination of medicines.”

However, Harvard public health expert Dr Jeremy Faust told Agence France-Presse: “People will see this and they’ll think that this is the treatment you should have — and if you don’t give it to other people who have coronavirus that we’re denying them special treatment. In reality that’s not the case.” /TISG

Read also: Biden slams Trump over reassuring remarks on Covid-19

Biden slams Trump over reassuring remarks on Covid-19

Will Gigi Hadid reveal her baby’s name and put up a photo soon?

Lydia Koh
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Will Gigi Hadid reveal her baby’s name and put up a photo soon?

Supermodel Gigi Hadid and singer Zayn Malik announced the birth of their baby daughter in September and the celebrity couple have been keeping a low profile ever since as they spend precious time with their newborn.

Since the baby’s arrival, the proud parents have both shared a snapshot of their daughter’s hand. Gigi recently uploaded an adorable candid shot of her baby wearing an outfit from Donatella Versace. Nevertheless, fans are still waiting in anticipation for the couple to share the baby’s first full picture and reveal her name.

The big question is, will Gigi Hadid share a full photo of her baby daughter? Both Gigi and Zayn are infamously private about their relationship and while they might be waiting for the right time to share the first photo of their baby, they could well decide that they want to keep her out of the spotlight. E! reported that the supermodel plans to raise her child away from the public eye which may mean that the couple may decided to shield the baby’s face from any photos they do share online.

This practice is followed by many other celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Miranda Kerr and Jennifer Garner.

Gigi Hadid has yet to reveal the name or full photo of her baby. Picture: Instagram

Another question on everyone’s mind is, what will Gigi and Zayn call their baby? The duo have not revealed the name of their daughter but fans have already started guessing what the couple will call her.

Gigi’s Instagram followers have thought of names such as “Malikinha,” while others threw “Maria”, “Zagi”, and “Zayan” into the mix. It was reported that Gigi and Zayn will raise their child for the first few months at Gigi’s family home in Pennsylvania where they can enjoy complete privacy.

The supermodel also owns a stunning apartment in New York where they may spend time too. Gigi recently gave a sneak peek of the baby’s colourful nursery, showing off a handmade baby mobile and a beautiful canvas by artist Austyn who gifted it to Gigi after she gave birth.

The newborn is part of a famous family as Gigi’s siblings Bella and Anwar are stars in their own right in the fashion industry while Anwar is dating Dua Lipa. Gigi’s mother is Yolanda Foster who was formerly part of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and her father is property developer Mohamed Hadid.

Netizens outraged over photo posted by Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss of men in lorry padlocked from outside

Anna Maria Romero
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Netizens outraged over photo posted by Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss of men in lorry padlocked from outside

Singapore—A photo that lawyer and opposition politician Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss posted on social media of men in a van padlocked from the outside has outraged netizens, who are drawing attention to the danger faced by the passengers of the lorry.

Ms Chong-Aruldoss herself could not understand the whole situation.

She wrote, “Why padlock from the outside? I cannot work out why. This lorry carrying passengers inside caught my eye.  I won’t find fault with its cage-like appearance, but then I saw that it was padlocked from the outside. If it were me, I would never want to be inside a vehicle or anywhere which has been padlocked from the outside. Perhaps that’s just me.”

Why padlock from the outside? I cannot work out why. This lorry carrying passengers inside caught my eye. I won't find…

Posted by Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss 张媛容 on Sunday, 4 October 2020

Her post has been shared over a 100 times since she put it up last Sunday, Oct 4. She wrote that her photo had been taken the previous day, Saturday, at 1:55 pm at Rochor Road.

Activist Kirsten Han commented on Ms Chong-Aruldoss’ photo, underlining the danger the men inside were in. ‘That is so incredibly dangerous — if there were an accident these men wouldn’t even be able to get out of the truck themselves!’

Ms Chong-Aruldoss sought to present the scenario fairly, suggesting that the space between the bars was wide enough for the occupants inside the lorry to get their hands around the back of the vehicle to open the truck themselves.

However, one netizen answered her by saying that every second counts “in case of accident.”

In another comment, Ms Chong-Aruldoss said she wanted to “keep an open mind” and that perhaps the vehicle had a side entrance invisible to her.

On the other hand, she lamented that seeing passengers treated “like cargo” would be “normalised if we see this without batting an eye.”

She then brought up additional safety concerns for the passengers of the lorry.

“Leaving the cage-like appearance aside, there is also the issue of having proper seats (L-shaped) with seatbelts for lorries designated to carry passengers. This lorry bears the signage ’23 pax’ but does it look equipped to carry passengers? There is currently no regulation mandating passenger carrying lorries to be installed with proper seats let alone seatbelts. Is the cost of installing such safety equipment an issue? Should safety to be sacrificed for the sake of not increasing operating costs?”

Other netizens encouraged her to report the incident to the traffic police and to the Ministry of Manpower.

 

Some netizens called it “a disaster waiting to happen,” and suggested several dangerous scenarios should an accident occur.

-/TISG

 

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Cost of living, home affordability, govt accountability are top concerns for GE2025—survey

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SINGAPORE: A survey from Milieu Insight released shortly before...

Neighbour won’t spay her cat — now their area is full of mess and strays, says resident

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SINGAPORE: A frustrated resident took to an online forum...

Job seeker asks: ‘Is it really that hard to get hired now, or is it just me?’

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SINGAPORE: A job seeker who has been applying for...

Singapore negotiating US concessions on pharmaceutical exports and high-end AI chips access

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SINGAPORE: Singapore is negotiating concessions with the United States...

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