Damage to track and trackside equipment. (PHOTO: SMRT, Getty)
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The East-West Line (EWL) train disruption enters the third day on Friday (27 September). The disruption began Wednesday morning, stranding 850 passengers after a power fault affected multiple stations. Investigations have since revealed that there is extensive damage to the MRT track and trackside equipment due to a defective train axle box on a train that had dropped. With services still suspended between Jurong East and Buona Vista, SMRT has said that there will be no train service on the EWL between Jurong East and Buona Vista stations on Friday. Free regular and bridging bus services remain available. Find out more below and plan your journey.
Chinese-founded fast-fashion online retailer Shein has laid off about two dozen employees at its Singapore headquarters. Find out why it's doing this amid a plan to offer an initial public offering in London.
On the topic of work, a new survey by job portal Indeed has found that some 78 per cent of employer-respondents in Singapore are concerned about productivity losses if they committed to not contacting their workers outside of contracted work hours. This, despite 88 per cent of these employers acknowledging that they might lose talent if they fail to respect work-life boundaries. Soon, employers in Singapore will have to consider flexible work arrangements (FWA) such as work-from-home (WFH) days, where formally requested by employees when a new set of guidelines kick in on 1 December 2024.
And in the US, which is in the midst of election fever, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has launched a collection of branded watches for US$100,000 each. See what they look like.
Do you feel the urge to check your phone every chance you get? Or do you feel like something's missing if you're not checking your mobile every few seconds? Smartphones certainly aren't all bad. But constantly checking your phone can have negative effects on your job performance, relationships, sleep, and possibly even physical safety. Find out how you can stop checking your phone every 10 seconds.
Instant noodles are no longer cheap university dorm room eats – Gen Zs are turning this humble quick-to-cook item into gourmet meals, and the trend is driving up sales. How do you like your noodles?
And wrapping up for the weekend, do you love the rice in chicken rice? Find out where in Singapore you can get it free-flow! Bon appetit!
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Esther Au Yong
SMRT aims to restore full service on EWL MRT line by Monday, 30 September
The East-West Line (EWL) train disruption enters the third day on Friday (27 September). The disruption began Wednesday morning, stranding 850 passengers after a power fault affected multiple stations. Investigations have since revealed that there is extensive damage to the MRT track and trackside equipment due to a defective train axle box on a train that had dropped.
Damage to track and trackside equipment. (PHOTO: SMRT, Getty)
SMRT said in a statement that it found "a total of 34 rail breaks across 1.6km of tracks between Clementi and Dover stations, and damage to three point machines which are used to divert the train to different tracks; the third rail which supplies power; as well as power cables and rail clips".
With services still suspended between Jurong East and Buona Vista, SMRT has said that there will be no train service on the EWL between Jurong East and Buona Vista stations on Friday. Free regular and bridging bus services remain available.
SMRT had earlier shared that it was exploring the possibility of operating a shuttle train service between the stations. "We had tried our best to make this option work by expediting the repairs on one of the tracks. We have since determined that it can be done, but it would mean slowing down the repairs on the parallel damaged rail as repairs cannot be done when the shuttle train service is in operation," SMRT said in a statement early on Friday.
SMRT added, "On balance, it is better to prioritise repair and expedite restoring full service earlier, rather than run a 20-minute shuttle between Jurong East and Buona Vista stations. SMRT is aiming to restore full service on Monday 30 September, and running the shuttle train could risk delaying full restoration by at least a few days."
Singapore's transport minister has also apologised to commuters. "On behalf of the One Transport Family, I would like to offer my sincere apologies to all our commuters for the disruption. Our workers are doing their best to safely restore train services as soon as possible," Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat said in a Facebook post.
At Boon Tong Kee's new casual dining concept called Chicken Ka Kee in Woodlands, the rice is refillable.
According to our reviewer, besides the Chicken Rice (from $7), available in both poached and roasted versions with free-flow fragrant Rice ($2.50), other highlights include Chicken Ka Kee's set meals that offer affordable options like Pao Fan ($8), and the Crispy Prawn Paste Fried Chicken Wings ($12).
Gen Z is 'pimping up' instant noodles, driving up sales
Instant noodles. (PHOTO: Getty)
Instant noodles are no longer cheap university dorm room eats – Gen Zs are turning this humble quick-to-cook item into gourmet meals, and the trend is driving up sales.
Sales of instant noodles have spiked by 50 per cent year-on-year on the British online supermarket Ocado, while searches for ramen noodles have jumped by 35 per cent, the Guardian reported.
How fancy are these noodles churned out by influencers and celebs who show them off on Tik Tok and other social media channels?
Think "Firecracker Carbonara Ramen", which are noodles with bacon, chilli, eggs and more. Or Kylie Jenner's instant ramen with butter, garlic and egg.
In a statement, police said that "this is part of efforts by the Ministry of Home Affairs to standardise the Sender IDs used by the Home Team Departments". "The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) uses the SMS Sender ID 70995 as part of its 995 emergency call service," police said. "It caters to callers who are deaf, mute, or have speech impairments. They can correspond with SCDF by SMS at this number during emergencies such as fires or medical emergencies."
The digital world "is a huge call on energy", said its CEO Leong Wei Hung. The surge in demand is a "boon for energy", but there’s also a flip side "in the sense that you can't build infrastructure fast enough", he said in an interview on Thursday (26 September).
According to a Bloomberg report, the boom in data centres and artificial intelligence is starting to outstrip available power supply in some parts of the world. With tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft pledging to invest billions of dollars in data centres in Southeast Asia, Singapore is aiming to increase the amount of power it allocates for data centres by as much as 35 per cent.
He had allegedly admitted to the killings during the initial proceedings in the 1960s, but then retracted his confession, which he said was made in the course of a brutal police interrogation.
Well, according to Maxi Heitmayer, a teaching fellow who studies human-computer interaction at the London School of Economics and Political Science, a small 2022 experiment found that only 11 per cent of people’s smartphone checks were in response to a notification. The other 89 per cent of the time, they checked their phones totally unprompted, often without thinking through why they were doing it.
Shiri Melumad, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, calls mobile phones "adult pacifiers".
Smartphones certainly aren't all bad. But constantly checking your phone can have negative effects on your job performance, relationships, sleep, and possibly even physical safety.
US presidential nominee Donald Trump launches collection of watches
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to attendees during a campaign rally at the Mosack Group warehouse on 25 September 2024 in Mint Hill, North Carolina. (PHOTO: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The watches are said to be made out of 18 carat gold, encrusted in diamonds, and display the "Trump" name and his signature prominently on the watch face.
'Right to disconnect': New survey shows 78% of employers fear productivity losses if they promise not to contact workers after hours
Office workers walk out for a lunch break at Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore. (PHOTO: Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)
A new survey has found that some 78 per cent of employer-respondents in Singapore are concerned about productivity losses if they committed to not contacting their workers outside of contracted work hours. This, despite 88 per cent of these employers acknowledging that they might lose talent if they fail to respect work-life boundaries.
The survey by global matching and hiring platform Indeed was conducted by Censuswide from 29 August to 4 September and involved 500 employers and 500 employees in Singapore.
In addition to talent retention challenges, the survey shed light on the broader issue of employee well-being. Survey data shows that 59 per cent of respondents reported disruptions to their personal lives due to after-hours contact, and 37 per cent indicated negative impacts on their mental and physical health.
Shein restructures, retrenches some employees at Singapore HQ
A view of a Shein pop-up store at a mall in Singapore on 4 April 2024. (PHOTO: REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo)
Fast-fashion online retailer Shein has laid off about two dozen employees at its Singapore headquarters, and the workers were notified on Wednesday (25 September). It told South China Morning Post that the employees who are affected by the lay-offs are part of its global IT research and development centre.
The e-commerce firm is restructuring a part of its business amid plans for an initial public offering in London.
According to Shein, it has more than 16,000 employees and serves customers in more than 150 countries.
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co is idling its only soybean processing plant in Iowa for weeks in the thick of a record U.S. harvest, the grain merchant told Reuters, tightening supplies of soymeal fed to livestock. The temporary closure eliminates a market for farmers to sell their soy as low crop prices slash incomes and removes a source of livestock feed for buyers in the U.S. and overseas. Expectations for the shutdown helped push cash soymeal prices at the Gulf export terminal to their highest level in a decade.
Germany's car industry on Friday urged Brussels and Beijing to avert tariffs on imports of China-made electric vehicles through a negotiated deal, after the European Commission received enough support from its member states to implement them. Sources told Reuters on Thursday that Germany would vote against the tariffs, as its industry has a high interest to keep good relations with China, one of Germany's top trading partners and the world's biggest car market.
EU countries gave a definitive green light on Friday to hefty additional tariffs on electric cars made in China, despite strong German opposition and fears it will trigger a trade war with Beijing."The EU Commission should not trigger a trade war despite the vote in favour" of the tariffs, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said.
According to new research, almost half American households, about 45%, are expected to run out of money in retirement if they stop working at 65. This raises some serious red flags, especially as more people live longer and rely on their savings to fund retirement. The study, conducted by the Morningstar Center for Retirement & Policy Studies, used a new simulation tool to evaluate retirement readiness. The tool factors in individual traits, health care expenses and life expectancy. Don't Miss:
In retirement, net worth shows the total result of a lifetime's savings, debts and investments. This measure is often more insightful than income, as it reveals your financial stability and whether...
Saving for retirement gives people a sense of security and makes them more confident in their future. However, most people don't feel like they've put enough away for their post-work years. According...
Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA), the China tech industry barometer, is trading higher, marking its third week of gains as investors anticipate more upcoming stimulus, SCMP reports. Alibaba’s e-commerce rivals, including PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PDD), JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD), and Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), saw gains on Friday. In September, China’s central bank shared plans to slash banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 50 basis points or half a percentage point and reduce the seven-day r
A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be particularly alarming for India since it’s the route it uses to get oil from Iraq and Saudi Arabia and LNG from Qatar.
Retirement in America is a disaster for many. And no one — politicians, financial planners, pick your own expert — seems to know what exactly to do about it.
The Zacks Business-Software Services industry players like MSCI, CTSH, TYL and GWRE are poised to benefit from the robust demand trend for multi-cloud-enabled software solutions.
Mulberry’s billionaire owner has been charged in Singapore for his role in a scandal involving thousands of pounds’ worth of gifts he gave to a former government minister.
