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.
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 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.
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.
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.
China and the Philippines should not be distracted by their disputes in the South China Sea and should instead focus on advancing cooperation on oil and gas exploration in the region, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said when wrapping up his week-long tour of Southeast Asia.Wang’s trip, which also included stops in Myanmar, Indonesia and Brunei, came with Beijing seeking to consolidate its ties with the region before the new US administration takes office this week.In an interview with state media posted on the ministry’s website on Sunday, Wang highlighted China’s desire to move the focus away from maritime disputes to joint exploration of resources in the waters.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.“Both sides believe that the South China Sea issue is only partial to the entirety of Sino-Philippines relations,” Wang said, discussing the outcomes of his Manila visit. “We should not let such 1 per cent difference derail the 99 per cent of our relations.”Wang said the two countries would continue to “properly manage their disputes” and push for oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea.Separately during Wang’s tour, China and Brunei set up a working group on energy cooperation, the ministry said on Friday, without providing details.The Philippine government in October lifted a ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, reopening the door to joint energy development with China.Two years ago, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore undersea oil and gas, a way of defusing their corner of a broader regional dispute. South China Sea: the dispute that could start a military conflictIn 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague upheld the Philippines’ challenge to Beijing’s territorial claims to almost all of the South China Sea, but Beijing has never accepted the ruling.President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has promised to shelve the dispute in exchange for Beijing’s economic aid.As the Duterte administration nears its end, Beijing has sought to reaffirm support for its neighbour, promising half a million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, US$1.34 billion in loan pledges for infrastructure projects and US$77 million in grants.Wang said the supply of vaccines to the Philippines showed Beijing’s willingness to help the Philippines overcome its Covid-19 pandemic challenges. Indonesia arms maritime force amid Chinese, Vietnamese fishing boat incursionsChina and the Philippines also announced an arrangement for fast-track border crossing during the pandemic for certain personnel, and opened the Bank of China’s yuan clearing business in the Philippines.China would continue to take part in the Philippine side’s infrastructure plans and actively promote cooperation on major projects to lay a better foundation for the Philippines’ long-term development, Wang said.He said China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were working together to advance post-pandemic recovery. “Facts once again show that adherence to regional and multilateral mechanisms is more important than ever,” he said.More from South China Morning Post: * Vietnam’s omission from Chinese foreign minister’s Southeast Asia tour tells a story, observers say * China and Indonesia to boost trade as Widodo’s Sinovac shot underlines ‘brotherly relations’ * US sanctions Chinese officials, executives over ‘coercive behaviour’ in South China SeaThis article South China Sea: focus on oil and gas, not maritime dispute, Beijing urges Philippines first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Nearly three million people were put under lockdown in China Monday after a surge in coronavirus cases linked to a travelling salesman in the country's northeast.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 14 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Monday (18 January), taking the country’s total case count to 59,127.
President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday signalled a new tone for the US government by leading a powerful tribute to the 400,000 Americans lost to Covid-19 as he arrived in Washington on the eve of his inauguration.
The government is monitoring the COVID-19 situation carefully and considering if more measures are necessary, said Education Minister Lawrence Wong.
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.
China has added a new giant buoy to a marine surveillance network used partly to strengthen the country’s territorial claims in the disputed East China Sea – dubbed a “buoys’ graveyard” after several were lost or damaged through accidents and vandalism as several nations vie for regional influence.Deployed this month at an unspecified location in the East China Sea – some of which is also claimed by Japan and South Korea – the 15-metre-wide platform will fill a gap in a buoy network used to collect data, according to a statement on Monday by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).The new buoy will help China better prepare for challenges such as environmental protection, extreme weather and territorial disputes with neighbouring countries, according to researchers involved in the project.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.An important function of the Chinese network is to mark out territory over which China is in dispute with Japan and South Korea, according to its operator, the State Oceanic Administration of China (SOA), which estimates the disputed waters at a combined 340 sq km (131 square miles) – more than half of the East China Sea.“The buoy deployment locations [in the East China Sea] cover areas of territorial disputes and other sensitive activities to meet the demand of data collection for rights protection and to demonstrate the sovereignty of our country,” said an introduction to the network by SOA researchers in a domestic journal in 2014.Cameras and other sensors on buoys in disputed waters will alert Chinese naval and law enforcement agencies if other parties make what is deemed an intrusion, so that they can move into position to thwart it, the SOA said.Such buoys can also collect data to improve early detection of natural disasters, being placed in the potential path of typhoons, and can monitor nutrients in the water.Among marine scientists, however, the East China Sea is known as a “buoys’ graveyard”. For centuries, it has been a busy fishing ground for Japanese, Korean and Chinese vessels. Some expensive buoys deployed there by countries in the region, and by others including the United States, have been damaged – often through accidents involving fishing boats, but sometimes by vandalism, with expensive on-board equipment sometimes removed.The US used to have the largest number of buoys in waters around China, as part of its strategy to counter China’s expansionist approach with its “first island chain”, a defence network comprising a large number of military bases stretching between South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.But in recent years the scale of China’s ocean surveillance network is believed to have exceeded the American presence in the region. The Chinese government has claimed to have established a monitoring network in the South China Sea “greater than any other country”.China’s known number of buoys in the East China Sea tripled to 27 between 2014 and 2019, with nearly half positioned in disputed waters, according to the SOA.The new 15-metre buoy is larger than most surveillance buoys worldwide, with the largest US buoy being 12 metres wide.“The commissioning of this facility put an end to the absence of long-term, fixed-point, real-time water profile observation in the offshore waters of our country by enhancing the observation capabilities of the Donghai [East China Sea] Surveillance Network,” the CAS statement said. South China Sea: the dispute that could start a military conflictAs China’s largest, most comprehensive and smartest data collection platform for marine observation and experiments, the new 15-metre buoy is better equipped to prevent interference, according to the researchers. It has been guarded by three sentry buoys, each moored to the sea floor and carrying solar-powered lighthouses to keep fishing boats at a safe distance.The main buoy’s size should make it less susceptible to damage in a collision with a fishing boat, researchers said, because its sensors can detect trespassers and send images to a Chinese command post on land.Smaller buoys’ data collection capability is limited, and gaps between data collection points can detract from the accuracy of estimates used in computer modelling for scientific research and naval activities. A submarine can use such data to avoid running into a rapid current that could drag it to deadly depths.Thanks to its size, the 15-metre buoy collects data with a robotic platform able to move up and down between the water's surface and the sea floor, enabling it to capture an underwater environment with unprecedented resolution and continuity and beam data to a communication satellite overhead. Its daily operations are run mostly by artificial intelligence.More from South China Morning Post: * Beijing defends East China Sea activities after Japan protests * Boiling point: Can China and Japan find a way to ease rising tensions over the East China Sea? * By air and sea: China’s two-pronged strategy to grind Japan down over disputed islandsThis article East China Sea: why giant Chinese territory marker may be leagues above old buoy network first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
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.
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.
A 67-year-old former statutory board director was on Monday (18 January) jailed for six weeks for molesting a subordinate.
The de facto chief of South Korea's Samsung business empire was convicted Monday over a huge corruption scandal and jailed for two and a half years, in a ruling that deprives the tech giant of its top decision-maker.
Wall Street saw solid gains on Tuesday ahead of US President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration as investors considered his plans to revive the economy, though European indices were weaker as the Covid-19 pandemic wore on.
Ever since banks started reducing their deposit interest rates, we’ve started seeing a slew of non-traditional alternatives to savings accounts. Some popular ones you might have heard of are the Singlife Account, Dash EasyEarn, Etiqa Elastiq and Stashaway Simple. Offered by non-bank financial institutions such […] The post Best Alternatives to Savings Accounts in Singapore (2021) appeared first on SingSaver Blog - We Compare, You Save.
The Boeing 737 Max can return to Canadian airspace beginning Wednesday, officials said, concluding nearly two years of government review after the aircraft was involved in two deadly crashes that saw the planes grounded worldwide. Transport Canada said Monday the planes will be permitted to fly as long as they meet conditions specified by Transport Canada in December, including allowing pilots to disable a faulty warning system that was found to be central to two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019. “Canadians and the airline industry can rest assured that Transport Canada has diligently addressed all safety issues prior to permitting this aircraft to return to service in Canadian airspace,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement.
Chinese troops stationed in the South China Sea are learning battlefield English to avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments during engagements with forces from other countries in the disputed waterway.According to a report by state-owned English-language broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN), the skill is “essential” and “must be picked up”. People’s Liberation Army troops are using gaps in their military training schedule for both concentrated learning and self-study.“In recent years, countries and forces outside China have been provoking troubles and creating tensions in the South China Sea. The naval forces in the Southern Theatre Command are at the forefront of safeguarding rights as well as maintaining regional peace and stability in the South China Sea,” the report said.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China. South China Sea: the dispute that could start a military conflictDuring a recent military exercise on an island reef in the Paracel Islands, part of the drill included using English when engaging with “enemy” troops. One soldier was heard in the broadcast to say in English: “You are surrounded. Surrender.”Liu Chuanming, a Chinese commander of a marine police district in the Paracels, said the deployment was at the forefront of China’s military defences in the South China Sea. “We must ensure that our intentions can be accurately conveyed, thus we need to improve our level of English.”The PLA has expelled a number of foreign ships from the South China Sea in the past year. Most recently, a Chinese warship used English to warn off a foreign merchant ship in the area during a PLA combat readiness cruise mission, with the message: “I am warning you again. Leave immediately or we will take further actions.”In December 2020, the PLA deployed naval and aerial forces when destroyer USS John S. McCain approached the Spratly Islands in what the US described as a “freedom of navigation” exercise. A similar incident occurred in August 2020, when the USS Mustin entered China’s claimed territorial waters off the Paracel Islands.Other 2020 encounters include the littoral combat ship USS Montgomery near the Spratly Islands in late January, the destroyer USS McCampbell near the Paracel Islands in March, and the destroyer USS Barry, also near the Paracels in April.The use of English by Chinese forces is not unknown. In October 2018, the destroyer Lanzhou was tracking and monitoring the Kaga, a Japanese helicopter destroyer which was refuelling from an American supply ship in the South China Sea.After the Chinese ship greeted its Japanese counterpart in English by radio, the Kaga is reported to have replied, “Chinese warship 170, Chinese warship 170, this is Japanese warship 184. Over.”The Lanzhou responded with: “Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force 184. This is Chinese warship 170. Good morning. Nice to meet you. Over.”More from South China Morning Post: * ‘South China Sea strategic benefit’ if Beijing builds tunnel to holiday island Hainan * South China Sea: why did the PLA land its massive Y-20 warplane on Fiery Cross Reef? * China-US tensions keep PLA sailors at sea for an extra four months in 2020This article PLA troops in South China Sea learn ‘essential’ battlefield English first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
