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The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 40 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Wednesday (20 January), taking the country’s total case count to 59,197.
US President-elect Joe Biden's spokeswoman quickly dismissed Donald Trump's announcement Monday that a Covid-19 ban on travelers arriving from much of Europe and Brazil would be lifted, underlining the fractious transition of power.
The Netflix-produced series "Lupin", a sly modern take on France's beloved gentleman thief, is on track for 70 million views worldwide in its first month, setting a record for a French TV show, the streaming platform said Tuesday.
Wealthy investors rushed to offload stock in Alibaba Group Holding after China began an investigation into alleged monopolistic practices at Jack Ma’s internet giant, according to Citigroup Inc.’s private bank.
Wife and Health DG Noor Hisham clarify burnout rumors after photo of doctor snoozing at his desk spread online. This article, Pandemic doctor died of acute respiratory distress, not fatigue or COVID, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 30 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Tuesday (19 January), taking the country’s total case count to 59,157.
The founder and CEO of MyPillow, who amplified President Donald Trump's claims of election fraud, said a backlash against his company has begun after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol this month. Mike Lindell, who appears in TV commercials hugging the company’s foam-filled pillows, said major retailers like Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s have dropped his products recently. Lindell has continued to push bogus claims of election fraud since Trump’s loss to President-elect Joe Biden in the presidential race.
The United States declared Tuesday that China is carrying out genocide against the Uighurs and other mostly Muslim people, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dramatically raising pressure over Beijing's sweeping incarceration of minorities on his last full day in office.
When buying HDB flats, most people have a preferred housing estate they want to live in. The next step is to choose between BTO vs resale flats.
Leicester moved top of the Premier League by inflicting another damaging 2-0 defeat on Chelsea on Tuesday, to leave manager Frank Lampard fighting to remain in charge at Stamford Bridge.
Singapore may be considering another round of measures to cool residential prices, according to market analysts, who see recent ministerial remarks as a signal for the possible move.
Fresh questions have been raised over the risks of catching the coronavirus from food after traces were found in at least five samples of ice cream made in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.Last Thursday, authorities in Tianjin, neighbouring Beijing, said three samples of ice cream had been found to contain traces of Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease Covid-19.An investigation suggested that Ukrainian milk powder used to make the ice cream was the likely source, after three samples of the powder and two further samples of ice creams from the same batch were also found to contain Sars-CoV-2, from more than 2,800 samples taken from the ice cream, packaging, manufacturing plants and retail stores.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.Most of the potentially contaminated ice cream had been traced and recalled, but 21 ice creams remained unaccounted for, the authorities said.The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the possibility of catching Covid-19 from frozen food is low, but China has linked infections to imported food. In November, a truck driver, also from Tianjin, was infected with a strain of Covid-19 also found on pork imported from North America that he had handled, according to local authorities.Discovering traces of the coronavirus in ice cream prompts new questions, given that the food is usually consumed directly when cold, according to Han Jie, an environmental science professor from China’s Xian Jiaotong University.“The contamination of ice cream raw materials is different to the contamination that has happened previously during cold-chain food transportation and retail,” she said in an emailed response.“Frozen foods are usually safe to eat after being treated with high temperatures, such as cooking. But ice cream would not be treated with high temperatures. Whether the virus can infect people through the digestive tract if it enters the body via food, as far as I know there is no conclusive evidence yet.” Are fears over catching coronavirus from frozen food justified?Han was the co-author of a review published in the journal Environmental Chemistry Letters in October that looked at the available evidence at the time on whether Covid-19 could be transmitted through food and identified areas needing further research.“The continuous low-temperature environment kept through the storage and transport of refrigerated and frozen foods can dramatically prolong the survival of Sars-CoV-2, a characteristic commonly observed on other coronaviruses,” the review said.“The frequent detection of Sars-CoV-2 in frozen foods suggests that these are not random, isolated incidents but rather signs that viral contamination and food-borne transmission may present a systematic risk in the ongoing pandemic.”Previous research showed the coronavirus survived longer at 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) than at higher temperatures. Other coronaviruses, including the one causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), were found to survive at 4 degrees Celsius for 14 to 49 days, depending on the material they were stored in, but research specifically on the survival of Sars-CoV-2 on food surfaces was lacking, the review said.Fears over the ice cream and other food have become a political matter, with Chinese experts and media suggesting the coronavirus could have been brought to China via frozen products, despite there being no evidence to support this theory. WHO experts this month arrived in China to begin their long-awaited investigation into the possible origins of the virus.Instances of food being found to be contaminated with the virus have been rare. China’s National Centre for Food Safety Risk Assessment has said random inspections yielded positive tests just 0.48 times per 10,000 samples. Of the 873,475 frozen food samples randomly inspected by Chinese customs, only 13 returned positive results for the coronavirus, according to the agency.To try to prevent contaminated food causing infections, China has stepped up tracing capabilities.A data-sharing platform is being tested to share information with restaurants on the processing, retail and sale status of over 90 per cent of the country’s imported frozen food, according to China’s market regulator. China has encouraged food producers to maintain records to aid traceability in the event of food safety incidents.More from South China Morning Post: * Coronavirus: China reports 96 new infections, links superspreader to 102 asymptomatic cases * China’s rural Covid-19 clusters challenge country’s strategy to stop disease spreading * Coronavirus: what’s life like for the 20 million Chinese back in lockdown?This article Coronavirus in Chinese ice cream raises new alarm over infection via food first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Hong Kong’s leader has distanced herself from a suggestion by her predecessor that the city’s next chief executive could be selected without an electoral process.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday said elections were important because the polls allowed hopefuls to elaborate on their vision for Hong Kong.“[The process] not only allows a chief executive to be elected, it lets candidates explain to the whole society their expectations and policies for the city,” she said ahead of her weekly Executive Council meeting.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.But Lam also warned that while Beijing was sincere about democratic reforms in Hong Kong, it had no choice but to take action when the city’s situation became worrying.I think whether it is from the perspective of historical development, or the social effects of an election, it’s better for the chief executive to be electedHong Kong Chief Executive Carrie LamLam’s comments came ahead of a three-day meeting of China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, that begins on Wednesday. Sources previously told the Post the committee would discuss ways to retaliate against London’s visa scheme for those with British National (Overseas) status as well as drastic reforms of Hong Kong’s electoral system ahead of the city’s next chief executive election in 2022.Proposals include abolishing 117 of the current 1,200 Election Committee seats expected to be held by district councillors after the opposition camp’s landslide victory at the 2019 municipal-level elections, held at the height of that year’s social unrest.In an interview with local news portal HK01, former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying on Monday noted that Article 45 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, stipulated the city’s chief executive “shall be selected by election or through consultations”.Even if the city’s next leader was picked without elections, it would still be lawful and the British government could not complain, he added.Asked if she agreed with Leung’s suggestion, Lam noted that chief executives had been selected by elections since Hong Kong was returned from British rule in 1997.“I think whether it is from the perspective of historical development, or the social effects of an election, it’s better for the chief executive to be elected,” she said.In 2014, as chief secretary, Lam spearheaded an effort to allow the city’s chief executive to be elected by popular ballot in 2017. But Beijing imposed a stringent framework on the reform, triggering the 79-day Occupy protests.The Beijing-decreed political reform package was eventually voted down, after officials failed to win over any opposition lawmakers and fell short of the necessary two-thirds majority in the legislature.Referring to that failed political reform, Lam insisted Beijing had been sincere about delivering on its promise to allow universal suffrage for the city’s leadership.“But some people stopped the democratic progress. A few years have passed, and worrying [circumstances] have emerged in Hong Kong’s actual situation,” she said.“This statement of mine was in line with what I said about why Beijing had to enact a national security law: when a high level of risk emerged in Hong Kong, and the nation’s security, as well as when the implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ was endangered, it was reasonable for the central government to take action.”She added that her government would cooperate if Beijing came up with any plan to reform the city’s electoral systems, or chose to impose retaliatory measures over the BN(O) issue.Writing on his Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon, Leung said it was the opposition camp’s close ties with the American government that made him question the necessity of the chief executive election.“What’s the actual situation in Hong Kong in recent years? The major politicians from the opposition camp have refused to recognise their roots … or have even asked the American government to sanction Hong Kong,” he argued. “If this actual situation causes a puppet of the American government to be elected as chief executive, do we still want an election?”Lam assured residents that as long as they held a Hong Kong passport and had the right of abode, they enjoyed the rights guaranteed by the Basic Law.“Most people in Hong Kong, even if they are holding a BN(O) passport, are Chinese citizens, and at the same time possess an HKSAR passport,” she said.Last week, the Post reported Beijing was mulling whether to ban those with BN(O) status from public office in Hong Kong, or even deny them the right to vote, in retaliation against London’s decision to offer them the right of abode.Lam was also asked if civil servants’ morale could be undermined by the government requiring them to take an oath pledging allegiance to the city. The chief executive said she did not think the requirement would have that effect.Meanwhile, lawmakers expecting to debate Lam’s policy address on Wednesday were given further details on the government’s progress over the last two months.In a 14-page letter, Lam told them her administration would be tabling a bill amending the city’s laws on the oath-taking requirements for lawmakers and other public officers after next month’s Lunar New Year holiday.Lam also said a new, temporary coronavirus hospital near Hong Kong airport would be completed on Wednesday, offering 820 beds for patients.She further reported there had been 1,504 commercial property transactions following November’s abolition of double stamp duty, up until the end of December. The government could have received about HK$230 million in revenue if the levy had not been scrapped.Her letter, revealed on Tuesday night, also referred to the government submitting a proposal to the central government on the potential priorities for pushing forward Beijing’s Greater Bay Area plan, which aims to turn Hong Kong, Macau and nine Guangdong cities into a finance and technological hub.More from South China Morning Post: * National security law: Beijing ‘mulling’ public office ban on British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong * Beijing mulling drastic overhaul of Election Committee deciding Hong Kong’s chief executive and Legislative Council to curb opposition’s influence: sourcesThis article Carrie Lam defends value of election process for Hong Kong’s chief executive post as Beijing mulls drastic overhaul of system first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
US President Donald Trump left the White House for the final time on Wednesday, heading by helicopter to a nearby military base where he will fly to Florida, skipping the inauguration of successor Joe Biden in an extraordinary break with tradition.
Find out which air miles credit cards in Singapore give free access to Priority Pass and Plaza Premium airport lounges around the world. Many people think that access to airport lounges is a privilege reserved for regular business travellers, frequent flyers and the wealthy. That is not true! With […] The post 6 Credit Cards Which Give Free Access to Airport Lounges appeared first on SingSaver Blog - We Compare, You Save.
Pressure is mounting on Sherman Kwek, heir to Singapore’s biggest family fortune, as he seeks to salvage the troubled property investment at the centre of an ambitious expansion into China.
The 2020/21 LaLiga Santander season reaches its halfway mark with a series of midweek fixtures this week.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory in his military operation in the northern region of Tigray, but there are clear signs that fighting persists despite a claimed return to normalcy.
Asian shares were mostly higher Wednesday, ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration as U.S. president. Japan's benchmark lost early gains as worries grew about the surge in coronavirus cases. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost early gains to slip 0.4% in morning trading to 28,515.21.
Outgoing US President Donald Trump will be far from the first to boycott his successor Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday -- but his absence will be the first since 1869.