Speaking at the launch of the Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) new headquarters on Monday (Jan 27) at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Secretary-General Dr Tan Cheng Bock predicted that the Wuhan virus would impact the timing that elections are called.
Addressing more than 40 party members who were present at the occasion, along with members of the media and special guests, Dr Tan said: “I think it will have an impact on election”.
He added that, “The illness can stretch on. I think it is not wise to hold the election so fast because rallies – everybody will be crowding together. All these campaigns, you know. So have to be careful long term”.
Emphasising that the spread of the virus could have long-term effects, he added that even the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 “also took quite a while before we can really understand the spread of the illness and the containment of the spread”.
Dr Tan also commented on how he was dissatisfied with the types of hospitals being built whereby they were connected to many shopping centres or shops.
He said: “It is very dangerous because I see some of the patients carrying their drips, walking all around in the coffee shops. My goodness, I worry, if there is a spread, this person spread to him” (sic).
According to him, the types of hospitals he favoured were ones that were standalone buildings because it would be a lot easier to contain the spread of contagious diseases.
“But at this point, lets not have any blame game”, Dr Tan said.
“Now our focus is let’s contain it. All work together as a team. We don’t care which political party you belong to. The problem is there. Let us all work together”, Dr Tan emphasized. /TISG
Chee Soon Juan, the secretary-general of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), speaks to reporters before addressing a lunch time crowd in the financial district of Raffles Place ahead of Singapore's September 11 election, on September 7, 2015. Campaigning for Singapore's September 11 election began September 1, with a resurgent opposition seeking a greater political role as voters chafe at immigration and high living costs. AFP PHOTO / ROSLAN RAHMAN (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) has called figures released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Singapore citizens in the labour force “extremely disturbing”.
They add that the MOM’s statistic that “The increase in employment rate of Singapore citizens over the last decade (from 60.0% in June 2009 to 63.6% in June 2019) was driven most consistently by those aged 65 & over. This reflected efforts to raise the employability of older workers”, stood out to them the most. This is because the retirement age in Singapore is 62, yet, the increase in employment rate of Singaporeans over the last decade was driven most consistently by those aged 65 & over, they explained.
The SDP then raised questions such as why the elderly cannot retire in comfort and security. They asked if it was because their CPF savings were “withheld under the Retirement Sum Scheme?”
The party also asked of the MOM would provide a breakdown of the number of elderly people working each job. They asked: “How old are the oldest workers? Will the MOM tell us the age groups of these workers (eg 65-75, 75-85, 85 and above)?”
In a press release on Jan 23, they wrote that they had hoped that the employment rate among Singaporeans would have been driven primarily by younger workers instead of those who had retired.
The party also wrote that Singapore’s elderly “find themselves unable to retire”.
The SDP concluded their press release saying, “A comprehensive approach to our people and the economy embracing alternative voices and listening to the people of Singapore is critical”. /TISG
Prince Andrew during the fatal interview - Screen Grab
by Joe JACKSON
Lawyers representing alleged victims of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday urged Britain’s Prince Andrew to help US investigators, after a prosecutor said he had given “zero cooperation”.
US lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents five women allegedly assaulted by Epstein, said the Duke of York has “a moral obligation” to meet with the FBI and that his failure to do so was “a disservice to the victims”.
“It’s long overdue for him to do it, or to explain why he will not do it, and he’s done neither,” she told BBC Radio.
“If he’s done nothing wrong, which appears to be what he has claimed, then why won’t he talk to law enforcement?”
Andrew, 59, has strenuously denied claims he had sex with a 17-year-old girl procured by Epstein, a disgraced financier found dead in prison last August while awaiting charges of trafficking minors.
Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, who was a long-time friend of his, said in November he was “willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.”
But New York attorney Geoffrey Berman, who is leading an investigation into possible co-conspirators of Epstein, said Andrew was yet to respond to a request by the FBI and his office for an interview.
“To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation,” Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told reporters.
Berman made the comments during a news conference outside Epstein’s former Manhattan mansion, which Andrew has admitted staying at.
He said he would not normally comment on whether individuals were cooperating but made an exception for the prince because of his statement offering help.
“It’s fair for people to know whether Prince Andrew has followed through with that public commitment,” said Berman.
Buckingham Palace has not immediately respond to request for comment.
‘Have you seen this prince?’
Epstein, a multi-millionaire hedge fund manager, was convicted in Florida in 2008 of paying young girls for massages but served just 13 months in jail under a secret plea deal.
The 66-year-old, who befriended countless celebrities over the years including US President Donald Trump, killed himself in a New York jail in August while awaiting trial on new sex-trafficking charges
He had denied the charges and was facing up to 45 years in jail if found guilty.
Determined to obtain justice despite his death, dozens of women who say they were abused by Epstein have sued his estate while prosecutors have pledged to pursue any accomplices.
Andrew, who is eighth in line to the British throne, has long been dogged by his links to the convicted paedophile, having stayed at his various homes around the world.
He stepped back from royal duties in November after facing outrage over an unconvincing interview with the BBC in which he defended the friendship with Epstein.
The scandal has engulfed Andrew at a difficult time for the royal family, following Prince Harry and Meghan’s decision to withdraw as frontline royals and other crises.
British newspapers on Tuesday prominently featured the latest turmoil.
“FBI: Why won’t Andrew speak to us?” screamed the front page of the Daily Mail, while the Daily Mirror said: “Andrew snubs FBI”.
Meanwhile best-selling tabloid The Sun mocked up an FBI “missing person” report for Andrew on its front page, asking: “Have you seen this prince?”
A rooster from the Philippines crowing. Note the characteristic neck bending that always takes place during crowing. Paolobon140 - Own work
by Emmanuelle TRECOLLE
France is to ban the hugely controversial but widespread poultry industry practice of systematically slaughtering male chicks from the end of 2021, Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume said Tuesday.
“The aim is to oblige firms… to do this by the end of 2021,” Guillaume told BFM television. He expressed hope that a method could be found that works on a large scale to determine the sex of an embryo in the egg before it hatches.
He also announced that within a similar time frame, France would ban the castration of piglets without anaesthetic, another measure long urged by animal rights activists.
“There is the question of the well-being of the animals. But also that of the breeder. And I don’t know a breeder who wants their animals to be mistreated. They like their animals,” he said.
France would team up with Germany and Spain for a labelling system on animal well-being starting next year, he added.
France prides itself on the traditions of its meat and poultry industry, but there have been growing tensions in the last years between producers and activists who have called for radical changes in their methods.
A series of French butcher shops have been vandalised in recent months by “anti-speciesism” activists, who say eating meat is an immoral violation of the rights of other species.
‘Technique should be found’
Egg production requires the hatching of millions of chicks every year, with the females sold to be raised and exploited by either individual farmers or commercial poultry farms.
Adult roosters, however, produce no eggs and develop far less meat than the so-called “broilers” bred especially for eating.
As a result, producers say male chicks are not worth the cost of raising to adults and are usually killed, either by grinding up or gassing.
Researchers have yet to come up with a way to effectively determine the sex of a chick still in the egg that works on an industrial scale.
“A technique should be found that works on a large scale,” Guillaume said.
The top administrative court in Germany, where 45 million male chicks are slaughtered every year, ruled in June that the slaughtering of male chicks could continue in the poultry industry until a method is found to determine the sex of an embryo in the egg.
After hatching, male chicks are separated from the females, and then mechanically shredded or crushed, or else suffocated by carbon dioxide, their remains often used as animal feed.
An EU directive from 2009 authorises shredding as long as it causes “immediate” death for chicks less than 72 hours old.
The two main alternatives to industrial culling are to raise the male chicks as usual, or try to determine the sex of chicks while still in the egg, so they can be killed before hatching.
Photo: For illustration purposes only (Photo: AFP/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)
Japanese authorities said Tuesday a man with no recent travel to China has contracted the novel strain of coronavirus — apparently after driving tourists visiting from Wuhan, where a deadly outbreak began.
The man in his sixties from Nara in western Japan drove two groups of Wuhan tourists earlier in January and was hospitalised on Saturday with flu-like symptoms, the health ministry said.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the country had confirmed two new cases, bringing the total so far in Japan to six.
“One of them has no record of visiting Wuhan, and drove tourists from Wuhan on a bus twice in January,” he told reporters.
A health ministry official confirmed to AFP that there was “no information” that the man had been anywhere in China recently, including Wuhan.
“If this is true then he might have been infected by tourists from Wuhan. And if so, this would be the first person-to-person transmission in Japan,” the official added.
The other cases so far confirmed in Japan all involve people who have been to Wuhan.
Japan has imposed new checks on travellers arriving from China, and is planning to dispatch a plane to Wuhan on Tuesday night to evacuate Japanese nationals from the city.
The plane is expected to bring back around 200 nationals, of some 650 who have asked to be repatriated, authorities said.
Thousands of foreigners are among millions of people stuck in the central Chinese city of Wuhan as the country struggles to get to grips with the spread of a SARS-like virus which has claimed 106 lives nationwide.
These are the plans so far by foreign governments to evacuate their citizens from the epicentre of the outbreak.
– ASIA PACIFIC -JapanOfficials confirmed Tuesday they are beginning to evacuate Japanese nationals, starting with around 200 stranded inside Wuhan in Hubei province.
There are roughly 650 Japanese citizens in the area who have said they want to be evacuated, authorities said.
AustraliaThe foreign ministry said Tuesday it is working on a plan to transport home all Australian nationals, most of whom it said are dual nationals. Officials added they had received about 400 calls from Australians in China registering for evacuation.
Canberra does not have a consulate in Wuhan but Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government is negotiating with Chinese officials over the arrangements.
He said officials are talking to the United States and Britain about the plans and working with New Zealand on a possible joint evacuation effort.
IndiaLocal media reported the Indian government will request clearance from Beijing to take more than 250 citizens out of Wuhan and that a Boeing 747 in Mumbai is on standby.
Indonesia. Jakarta said there are 234 Indonesians in China — roughly 100 in Wuhan and 143 in Hubei province. But the foreign ministry said Tuesday it has yet to decide on an evacuation plan.
Sri Lanka. Colombo said it is making arrangements to return 860 Sri Lankan students, of whom 32 are in Wuhan.
South Korea. Seoul will send chartered planes to Wuhan this week, the foreign ministry said, to return hundreds of its citizens to Korea on Thursday and Friday.
Thailand. Thailand’s premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha said Tuesday the country was waiting for authorisation from Chinese officials before evacuating people, but that aircraft and doctors were on standby.
Sixty-four Thais — 49 students and 15 workers or tourists — are inside China.
PhilippinesThe foreign ministry said it is discussing a possible evacuation for an estimated 150 Filipinos in Wuhan and another 150 in other parts of Hubei, but there are no confirmed plans.
– NORTH AMERICA -United StatesThe Department of State said a chartered flight will leave Wuhan on Wednesday with 240 American citizens on board, including consular staff.
EUROPE AND AFRICA
FranceThe health minister confirmed French citizens will be evacuated without detailing how many. She said they would leave midweek.
GermanyBerlin has not confirmed any evacuation plan but said it is considering options for roughly 90 citizens reportedly in Wuhan.
MoroccoAbout 100 people, mostly students in Wuhan, will be evacuated, according to local media.
SpainSpanish officials are working with China and the European Union to take Spanish nationals out of the area, the foreign minister said.
China on Tuesday urged its citizens to postpone foreign travel to curb a viral outbreak that has killed 106 people, as the first cases of human-to-human contagion were detected abroad.
While a host of nations prepared to airlift their citizens from the epicentre of the epidemic, Japan and Germany reported the first cases that were not directly imported from China.
Until now, all cases in more than a dozen countries involved people who had been in or around Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged in late December before infecting thousands of people nationwide.
In Japan, a man in his sixties contracted the virus apparently after driving two groups of tourists from Wuhan earlier in January, the health ministry said. He was hospitalised with flu-like symptoms on Saturday.
On the other side of the world, a 33-year-old German man caught the disease from a Chinese colleague from Shanghai who visited Germany last week, according to health officials.
The development came after countries including Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the Philippines announced tighter visa restrictions for people coming from China.
Experts believe the virus came from a wild animal market in Wuhan and then jumped to humans, with Chinese health officials saying Tuesday that people infect each other through sneezing or coughing, and possibly through contact.
Authorities initially sealed off Wuhan and other cities in central Hubei province late last week, trapping more than 50 million people.
China then halted international and domestic group tours. It also imposed a wide range of travel restrictions inside China, suspending long-distance bus routes and more than 2,000 train services.
But with the death toll climbing and more fatalities reported in Chinese cities far away from Wuhan, authorities on Tuesday urged people to delay any foreign travel.
This was “to protect the health and safety of Chinese and foreign people,” the National Immigration Administration said.
The National Health Commission on Tuesday announced 26 new deaths — mostly elderly — bringing the nationwide total to 106.
The commission also said Tuesday that confirmed infections had nearly doubled from the previous day to 4,515, with another 7,000 cases suspected and awaiting confirmation.
Escape plans
Wuhan, meanwhile, has been turned into a near ghost-town under a lockdown that has largely confined the industrial hub’s 11 million people to their homes.
With a ban on car travel, the streets were nearly deserted apart from the occasional ambulance — although the city’s hospitals are overwhelmed.
“Everyone goes out wearing masks and they are worried about the infection,” said David, a Chinese man who works in Shanghai and ended up trapped in Wuhan after it went under quarantine.
Many thousands of foreigners are also among those trapped in the city.
“It’s deeply stressful,” Joseph Pacey, a 31-year-old Briton who teaches English in Wuhan, told AFP.
“The biggest fear for me is that this thing will go on for months, and it will get harder and harder to get supplies, and to live.”
Several foreign governments have drawn up plans to safely evacuate their citizens, but have faced major logistical and bureaucratic challenges.
Japan said it would send a chartered flight on Tuesday evening to get about a third of its 650 nationals there.
“We will also bring aid supplies such as masks and protective suits for Chinese people as well as for Japanese nationals,” Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in Tokyo.
Motegi said the plane would leave Wuhan on Wednesday morning and that more flights may follow.
If the mission succeeds, Japan would be the first country to airlift its citizens out of Wuhan.
A US-chartered flight bound for California is scheduled to leave Wuhan on Wednesday with consular staff and some American citizens, a day later than previously planned.
France and South Korea are also planning to fly out their citizens later this week, and several other countries, including Germany, were considering doing so.
Global concerns
Germany, Canada and Sri Lanka announced their first infections on Monday, bringing the total number of countries with confirmed cases to 15.
With global concern mounting, governments around the world have started to try and quickly build defences.
The United States, Turkey and Germany have urged their citizens to “reconsider” all travel to China.
Landlocked Mongolia — which is heavily dependent on trade with China — took the drastic step of closing the border with its huge neighbour to cars, as well as shutting down schools and banning large gatherings.
The World Health Organization last week stopped short of declaring the outbreak a global emergency, which could have prompted a more aggressive international response such as travel restrictions.
But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised China’s response to the crisis in a meeting with officials in Beijing, according to state news agency Xinhua.
“We have full capability, confidence and resources to overcome the epidemic at an early date,” foreign minister Wang Yi said, according to the Xinhua report.
Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey Baldwin. Picture: Instagram
Justin Bieber wed his sweetheart Hailey Baldwin two years ago but they have not appeared on the red carpet yet including at the recent Grammys. The couple skipped the Los Angeles ceremony as the Yummy singer did not have any nominations nor is he performing or presenting.
It has been awhile since Bieber attended any award shows. In 2017, TMZ reported that he will not attend any award shows until his new album is released and he has new music to perform and promote.
Earlier this month, he released a new song called Yummy. However, his full album is not out yet. Over the next couple of weeks, he is launching new songs and content for it.
On Tuesday, Bieber talked about his YouTube documentary series which is about his life. His new music is reportedly inspired by Baldwin. An insider shared with E! in December that Bieber’s new music will be personal and that there were a lot of dark times and breakthroughs that the singer went through.
Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey Baldwin skipped this year’s Grammys. Picture: Instagram
Bieber also shared about his mental health issues and how he overcame it.
The insider added that Bieber’s music will reveal how Baldwin helped him through that time and he also wrote about their love and the power of their love being different from anything he has gone through. Fans will adore the familiar sound.
It was also reported that Bieber is doing what he does best and everyone is really looking forward to it.
In September 2019, Bieber revealed how he used heavy drugs and was abusive in past relationships in an Instagram post. He met Baldwin in 2009 and started going out in 2015 but broke up the following year.
The couple reunited in June 2018 where Bieber proposed the following month. Bieber and Baldwin then got married in a New York City courthouse on September 13.
In Bieber’s upcoming documentary Seasons, the focus will be on their relationship. It is debuting on YouTube on January 27, 2020.
New episodes will be released every Monday and Tuesday at 12pm on YouTube for free with ads.
Baldwin says in the teaser trailer that there is a lot of stress that people don’t see.
The Garden of Evening Mists is a Malaysian based production. Picture: Instagram
On January 23, actress Lee Sinje turned 44 but the day almost slipped her mind. Only when she got up did she see birthday wishes from friends.
The actress took to social media to say that forgetting her birthday has been a frequent occurrence over the last few years. Nevertheless, she thanked everybody for their wishes and wished them a Happy Lunar New Year.
Actress Charlie Young uploaded a picture of herself, Lee, Gigi Leung and Valen Hsu at a birthday party.
Eagle-eyed fans noted that the picture was shot in 2018 when they were celebrating Young’s twin sons’ birthday.
It was said that an old picture was used because the friends could not meet up for Lee’s birthday due to a busy schedule.
A day before, Lee uploaded a picture of herself cleaning before Lunar New Year. She joked that she is a ‘plain and simple housewife’. It was a reference to the character Yun Ling whom she played in The Garden of Evening Mists.
Lee Sin Je celebrates 44th birthday. Picture: Instagram
The actress said she gives away things she does not need and makes several trips to the recycling station to avoid using plastic bags.
The Garden of Evening Mists tells the story of a woman who seeks refuge from the brutality of World War II in the rolling hills of Cameron Highlands. She meets a Japanese gardener played by actor Hiroshi Abe whom she falls in love with.
The film features a global cast including Taiwan-based Malaysian actress Angelica Lee Sinje, Japanese actor Hiroshi Abe, Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang and British actor David Oakes.
The movie is based on Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng’s 2012 book. During Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards last November it received nine nominations and it bagged the Best Makeup and Costume Design.
Lee is wed to Oxide Pang, a Hong Kong director. The Malaysian actress became famous after starring in a horror movie called The Eye which was directed by twins, Oxide and Danny Pang.
Singapore—Filmmaker, film critic and writer Sandi Tan has marked another career coup in landing the cover story for this year’s Vanity Fair’s Oscar edition, wherein she interviewed Bong Joon Ho, the director of Parasite, on his groundbreaking film.
Ms Tan’s story, “Parasite Power: Director Bong Joon Ho on His Edgy Oscar Contender” was published in the online edition of Vanity Fair on Monday (Jan 27.) The Korean film won the Palme D’Or in last year’s Cannes Film Festival and has six nominations going in the Oscar Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best International Feature Film. It is the first Korean movie to be recognized in this way.
A self-admitted fan of the Korean director for a number of years now, Ms Tan recounts how she had first heard about “Parasite” from actress Tilda Swinton, who is a friend of both Mr Bong and Ms Tan. “Parasite is a masterpiece!” Ms Swinton told Ms Tan.
Ms Tan, who has been a film critic for The Straits Times while she was still in her early 20s, from 1993 to 1995, earned a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from the film school of Columbia University.
In 1996, she made her debut at 1996 Singapore International Film Festival with her very first short film, Moveable Feast.
She released her well-received first novel, The Black Isle, in 2012, and in 2018, her full-length documentary, Shirkers, was featured at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary. Shirkers was also nominated for the Gotham Independent Film Award for Shirkers for Best Documentary that year.
Shirkers, which can still be viewed on Netflix, is Ms Tan’s own story, or rather, the story of Ms Tan at 18, when she made a full-length film with her two best friends, Jasmine Ng and Sophia Siddique. That film was entitled Shirkers and was set in Singapore. It was about a 16-year old killer, S, played by Ms Tan. “A real and imaginary” time capsule, she calls it.
“When I was 18,” the filmmaker says at the beginning of the movie, “I had so many ideas I hardly slept at all.”
But the footage of the film was left with her mentor, Georges Cardona, whom she never saw again after the halcyon time in her late teens when the movie was made, a loss that deeply affected Ms Tan’s creative spirit.
Some years after the death of Mr Cardona in 2007, the film’s footage was returned to Ms Tan, who reworked it into another documentary that was all about how the original film was made.
The film met critical acclaim worldwide and catapulted Ms Tan into the spotlight. The Guardian called it “a love letter to Singapore.”
In a review, critic David Fear wrote in The Rolling Stone, “What Tan has given us is an incredible, sui generis tribute to the international lingua franca of D.I.Y. cinempowerment. She’s also telling us the story of how one person stole a big part of her youth. This documentary is her stealing it back. Victory, finally, is hers.”
Up next for Ms Tan is the film adaptation of Elif Batuman’s The Idiot, an acclaimed 2017 autobiographical novel. About the novel, Ms Tan said, “It’s about this woman who is head smart and heart stupid — that’s why she’s the idiot,” she explains. “And she’s being sucked into this vortex of obsession by this guy, and by the end of it she gets destroyed. But instead of turning into a vampire, she turns into an artist. And to watch that transformation is a wonderful thing.” -/TISG
