Asia

Singapore — Popular vlogger Nuseir Yassin of the Nas Daily fame is finding himself embroiled in not only one but two controversies in the Philippines. In the fallout, he lost 72,200 followers between Aug 4 and 5 alone. Ms Mary Pauline Del Rosario, the head of social media for The Philippine Star, tweeted a screenshot […]

Singapore — It was announced on Friday (Jul 30) that the US Justice Department seized a 2,734-ton tanker that violated international sanctions by bringing petroleum products to North Korea. The M/T Courageous is said to be owned and operated by a Singaporean national. The seizure of the vessel occurred in Mar 2020 with Cambodian officials […]

Yet another social media influencer has died, this time it was a young woman who was uploading a post to Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Twenty-three-year-old Xiao Qiumei, who was popular on the site, was a mother of two. She worked as a crane operator at Quzhou, in western China’s Zhejiang Province. The videos […]

It was rumored a few days ago that billionaire businessman Richard Li moved on from one beauty queen to another. However, an official email has been sent clarifying that there’s no truth to the rumour. Mr Li, who belongs to one of Hong Kong’s most prominent families, dated 2015 Miss Hong Kong runner-up Karmen Kwok, […]

A 32-year-old influencer fell 16 feet to her death from the edge of a waterfall last Saturday (Jul 10).  Ms Sofia Cheung had been taking a selfie with her friends at Tsing Dai stream near Yuen Long, Hong Kong when she accidentally fell. The influencer, whom The US Sun called a “daredevil,” had enjoyed and […]

A Hokkaido, Japan resident in his 80s secretly got two extra doses of Covid-19 vaccines, telling authorities he thought multiple jabs would afford him more protection. Fortunately, the man has suffered no adverse effects from the double dose of the vaccines, and the health officials of Teshikaga, the town in Hokkaido where the man lives, […]

Singapore has recently been hailed a standard to measure up to with regard to its Covid-19 response by former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. In a recent public post, he called out the current Australian government’s failure to follow suit, saying the reason for this is that it “does not want to be accountable.” This […]

Singapore — A young Singaporean has recently shared his disturbing experience with two boys who repeatedly and unapologetically threw racial slurs at him. Not only did the boys use derogatory words towards Asians like “Ch*ink” and “zipperhead,” they also nonchalantly joked about how the latter was a term that was first used in the Korean […]

The head of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) announced late on Wednesday (July 7) that it has withdrawn support for the government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin with immediate effect, and is now calling on him to step down. Mr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi condemned the administration’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic in an online […]

Thailand — A statement was issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Thailand on Thursday (Jul 1) concerning a clear gel that had been found in 110 vials of the Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine Sinovac. The gel in the vaccine vials has left the doses faulty, and Dr Surachok Tangwiwat, the deputy secretary-general of […]

Singapore — James Corden, the cuddly, well-beloved talk show host who made Carpool Karaoke famous, is being asked by an Asian-American TikToker to end one segment on “The Late Late Show.” The segment in question is called “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts,” which is a spin on the old “truth or consequence” games. […]

Officials in Sri Lanka reported that the bodies of 48 turtles and eight dolphins have washed up on the country’s western and southern beaches after a Singapore-registered container ship ran aground and burned for weeks. Many small fish have also washed up on Sri Lanka’s shores. The cause of the turtles’ and dolphins’ deaths was […]

Singapore—A June 16 article in The Times of India called the shortage of tech talent in Singapore “a blessing for India and the Indians”. Singapore, wrote Mr Avik Das, is not only one of the most important financial hubs around the globe, it is also becoming “an increasingly major technology hub” with many of the […]

Singapore— The Internal Security Department (ISD) said on Tuesday (June 15) that Dickson Yeo, who went to jail in the US last year after he was found guilty of spying for China, was detained last December under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for acting as a paid agent for an unnamed “foreign state”. Yeo had […]

Colombo — Burning for a week since it caught fire last Thursday (May 20), the Singapore-registered vessel X-Press Pearl now poses the threat of a major oil spill along Sri Lanka’s coast. The container ship anchored outside Colombo harbour carries 278 tonnes of bunker oil and 50 tonnes of marine gasoil. Due to poor packaging, […]