@X im sowwy

minister is cute !coomers

!asians in shambles

SINGAPORE: Singapore will consider caning scammers in certain cases, in recognition of the serious harm they cause, Minister of State for Home Affairs and Social and Family Development Sun Xueling said on Tuesday (Mar 4).

She was responding to a suggestion from MP Tan Wu Meng (PAP-Jurong) in her speech laying out the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) spending plans for the year ahead.

Dr Tan had earlier called for mandatory caning for scammers in egregious cases.

"We must send a clear message to scammers, the syndicates and those who abet them: If you mess with our people, make off with the life savings of Singaporeans, scam Singaporeans, we must do everything in our power to teach the scammers a lesson they won't forget," he said.

Ms Sun agreed with the need for stiff and deterrent sentences against those who facilitate scams.

After the recent introduction of new guidelines by a sentencing advisory panel, jail terms have generally been imposed for offences which facilitate scams, going as high as 19 months in one case, she noted.

GOING HARDER ON MONEY MULES

Ms Sun also announced that efforts to better detect money mule activity will be ramped up this year.

"We have been clamping down on them, because they are the main way overseas scammers launder their ill-gotten gains and transfer it out of Singapore," she said.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) will share more information with banks on known mule accounts, to improve their fraud analytics and enable them to uncover other mule accounts, she said.

"We will also work with the industry to implement cooling-off measures for certain activities which are tell-tale signs of money mule activity," she said.

Ms Sun warned that anyone seeking an easy profit by passing on their SIM cards or bank accounts to strangers, while "turning a blind eye" to what they are used for, would be breaching the law.

"Let me be clear. This is a crime and there is an imprisonment term for passing on your SIM cards or bank accounts to facilitate scams. Claiming ignorance does not get you off the hook," said Ms Sun.

Over 8,000 money mules and scammers were investigated last year, from 25 islandwide anti-scam enforcement operations by the SPF, said Ms Sun.

Of them, over 660 have been charged in court and will be jailed if found guilty, she said.

In one concluded case, a money mule had received RM1,000 (US$224) for sharing access to his internet banking account, without taking "reasonable steps to ascertain the purpose of this arrangement", said Ms Sun.

The bank account was later used to launder more than S$160,000 (US$118,989) of criminal proceeds.

"The money mule was convicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment," said Ms Sun.

In her speech, Ms Sun reiterated that scams were a huge concern globally, and a scourge Singapore has been fighting for several years.

Despite efforts such as making banking apps malware-resistant and blocking calls from known scam numbers, the total amount lost to scams still hit a new high of S$1.1 billion last year, she said.

This was a 70 per cent increase from the year before, noted Ms Sun.

"Many people are rightfully very concerned about this, and so is the government. We must and we will redouble our efforts in this fight against scams," she said.

DBS Group Holdings plans to cut about 4,000 of its contract and temporary staff workforce over the next three years as artificial intelligence increasingly takes on roles carried out by human beings.

South-east Asia's largest lender has approximately 8,000 to 9,000 of such staff, according to chief executive officer Piyush Gupta replying to a query from Bloomberg News. He confirmed a Press Trust of India news agency report which said the bank will trim its workforce following further adoption of AI across its business.

Permanent staff will not be affected, the outgoing CEO said. DBS : D05 -0.58%has around 41,000 staff and Tan Su Shan, currently deputy CEO, will succeed Gupta on Mar 28.

A DBS spokesperson said: "The reduction in workforce will come from natural attrition as temp and contract roles roll off over the next few years."

Global banks will cut as many as 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years as artificial intelligence encroaches on tasks currently carried out by human workers, said a Bloomberg Intelligence report last month.

Chief information and technology officers surveyed for BI indicated that on average they expect a net 3 per cent of their workforce to be cut, according to the report.

Still, many firms have stressed that the shift will result in roles being changed by technology, rather than replaced altogether. Teresa Heitsenrether, who oversees JPMorgan Chase's AI efforts, said in November that the bank's adoption of generative AI was so far augmenting jobs.

In its latest results announcement, DBS said net profit for the fourth quarter rose 11 per cent from a year ago.

Net profit for the three months ended Dec 31, 2024, was S$2.52 billion, compared with S$2.27 billion previously, and was slightly short of expectations.

Excluding one-off items – a S$100 million corporate social responsibility commitment to DBS Foundation and other charitable causes – Q4 net profit would have been up 10 per cent at S$2.62 billion.

Following the results, analysts raised target prices and dividend estimates on DBS, predicting higher valuation ahead.

Maybank said DBS was giving significant visibility on capital returns. While earnings could grow at just 1 per cent compound annual growth rate between FY2025 and FY2027, dividends could expand at 7 per cent, delivering yields higher than 6.5 per cent, it said.

It upgraded its estimate for dividend per share (DPS) by 14 to 22 per cent between FY2025 and FY2027.

RHB added that one key highlight was DBS' management providing clarity on the quantum of excess capital of S$8 billion, and reaffirming its commitment to return this to shareholders over the next three years.

That will start with a capital return dividend of S$0.15 per share per quarter for FY2025 that DBS announced on Monday.

That is over and above its earlier share buyback programme and a S$0.24 increase in ordinary DPS this year, RHB noted. After factoring in the capital return dividend, RHB's estimate for its FY2025 DPS is S$3.06, from S$2.46. BLOOMBERG

!asians

!asians !chuds lol

SINGAPORE: An 18-year-old Singaporean student who identified as an "East Asian supremacist" and was radicalised by violent far-right extremist ideologies has been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

Nick Lee Xing Qiu, who is of Chinese ethnicity, had aspired to conduct attacks against Malays and Muslims in Singapore. He believed that the Chinese, Korean and Japanese ethnicities were superior, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said on Monday (Feb 10).

Lee was issued with a detention order in December last year. He is the third Singaporean youth with far-right extremist ideologies to be dealt with under the ISA.

The first case involved a then 16-year-old detained in December 2020 for planning machete attacks on mosques. The second case also involved a 16-year-old who was issued with a restriction order in November 2023 after authorities found that he identified as a white supremacist and aspired to conduct attacks overseas.

ISD also announced on Monday that a Singaporean housewife who was radicalised after the Israel-Hamas conflict has been put under ISA restrictions. A Malaysian man, who worked as a cleaner in Singapore, was repatriated for supporting Islamic State.

SELF-RADICALISATION PROCESS

Lee first started developing hostility towards Muslims in early 2023 after encountering Islamophobic and far-right content on social media. He spent several hours a day searching for and consuming extremist online content, according to ISD.

In June 2023, Lee searched for the livestream video footage of far-right terrorist Brenton Tarrant's attacks against Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Mar 15, 2019.

He watched the footage repeatedly and came to idolise Tarrant. He then downloaded video game modifications and role-played as Tarrant killing Muslims at the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch.

By early 2024, Lee's radicalisation deepened and he had developed a strong enmity towards Malays and Muslims, as well as other ethnicities traditionally targeted by far-right extremists including Jews, Mexicans, African Americans and Indians.

"He was also supportive of white supremacy because he felt that Islam was a threat to white culture," ISD said.

He had come across ethno-supremacist ideas that made him believe that Chinese, Korean and Japanese were superior ethnicities, resonating with them given his Chinese ethnicity and antipathy towards Muslims.

In September 2024, Lee got a tattoo on his right elbow of a sonnenrad, a symbol that was seen in Tarrant's manifesto and on his rucksack during the Christchurch attack. He also purchased T-shirts with custom printings of symbols associated with neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other far-right groups.

ENVISIONED STARTING A "RACE WAR"

Lee aspired to carry out attacks against Muslims in Singapore with other far-right individuals that he spoke to online. Although he claimed that he was too afraid to conduct an attack alone, he admitted he would have participated in attacks together with those he met online.

"His attack aspirations included conducting a Tarrant-style attack on Muslims at a mosque in Singapore using homemade guns, knives and Molotov cocktails," ISD said.

Lee had hoped to livestream the attack online, dedicating it to Tarrant.

He also thought about throwing Molotov cocktails at his Malay-Muslim neighbours during a religious holiday to maximise casualties. But apart from enquiring online on how to make a Molotov cocktail, he took no further preparations towards this.

The ISD also said Lee was deeply convinced by the Great Replacement Theory, which claims that white populations in the West are in danger of being replaced by non-white immigrants.

He believed that violence was necessary to prevent the Chinese majority in Singapore from being displaced by what he perceived to be a rapidly growing Malay population.

Lee envisioned starting a "race war" between Chinese and Malays in Singapore, by creating anti-Malay and anti-Muslim propaganda to post online, hoping to create animosity between the two races.

He started a social media account in late 2024 to instigate others to conduct attacks against Malays and Muslims. This account was used to repost far-right extremist videos, and he uploaded about 20 self-made videos glorifying far-right terrorists and containing anti-Malay and anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Lee's family, teachers and schoolmates were unaware of his radicalisation and there is no indication that he tried to influence them with his violent extremist views, ISD said. His attack plans were aspirational with no set timeline and investigations into his online contacts have found no imminent threat to Singapore.

"Far-right extremism is a growing security concern globally, and Singapore has not been immune to this threat," ISD said.

Although the movement is often associated with white supremacy, its broader messages of ethno-religious chauvinism, racism and xenophobia can appeal to non-whites.

"ISD will take firm action against any individual in Singapore who supports, promotes, undertakes or makes preparations to undertake armed violence, regardless of how they rationalise such violence ideologically or where the violence takes place," it said.

https://old.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/1iqhn87/involuntarily_celibate_inside_the_minds_of_incels/

lol sgraw has lots more salty threads:

https://old.reddit.com/r/SingaporeRaw/comments/1iqklhj/to_readers_of_st_who_come_here_after_reading_the/

https://old.reddit.com/r/SingaporeRaw/comments/1iqixh8/complain_about_ns_incel/

https://old.reddit.com/r/SingaporeRaw/comments/1iqj06y/straits_times_never_bash_incels_cannot_sleep/

Bump

crap didn't know the deleted the text too

someone archived the post https://old.reddit.com/r/SingaporeRaw/comments/1impt4x/love_how_people_still_talk_about_this_on_the_main/

https://old.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/1imlyk9/circle_line_train_fault_serangoon_station/

https://old.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/1imoa29/smrt_admits_fault_only_after_2_hours/

Hey peeps, how come we don't have an LKY Marsey yet?

SINGAPORE - Nearly $7 billion will be spent on marriage and parenthood initiatives in financial year 2026, up from over $4 billion in 2020.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah cited this figure to show how much recent policy changes to the early childhood sector and to parental leave entitlements will add up to on an annual basis.

Speaking in Parliament on Feb 5, Ms Indranee said Singaporean families continued to be a top national priority, even as family formation and fertility rates fall here and around the world due to changing social norms. She noted that the $7 billion figure is over and above government subsidies in other areas such as education and housing.

"The decision to marry and have children is a deeply personal one, but we know from our surveys that the majority of Singaporeans aspire to get married and have children," she said. "This is encouraging and gives hope for the future."

In the last five years, the Government has made a series of "major shifts and bold moves" to address people's concerns in order to make Singapore as conducive to marriage and parenthood as possible, she said.

These include significantly ramping up leave for parents with a new shared parental leave scheme, she noted. Announced at the 2024 National Day Rally (NDR), the 10 additional weeks of government-paid leave will cost $400 million a year once it is fully implemented in 2026.

On housing, another major area of concern, she noted that this term of government started in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely disrupted construction and caused a public housing crunch.

But working with the built environment sector, the Government has completed all Build-to-Order (BTO) projects delayed by Covid-19, and exceeded its commitment to launch 100,000 BTO flats from 2021 to 2025.

Ms Indranee said the authorities will continue to put out a steady pipeline of over 50,000 flats between 2025 and 2027 to meet housing demand, and will explore launching more flats with shorter waiting times in the coming years.

The minister also addressed proposals made by the more than 20 MPs who spoke during the six-hour debate, which resolved that the House call for continued review and updating of policies to better support families, and the marriage and parenthood aspirations of Singaporeans.

Many of the suggestions centred on additional housing and financial support to encourage parenthood, as well as on greater caregiving help.

Ms Indranee noted that housing subsidies and grants had recently been enhanced for first-time buyers. These include the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (EHG), the CPF Housing Grant for Resale Flats, and the Proximity Housing Grant.

The increased EHG from August 2024 means a first-time married couple can benefit from grants of up to $120,000 for BTO flats and up to $230,000 for resale flats, she said.

She also acknowledged concerns about the resale market, such as cash-over-valuation (COV) amounts for some resale transactions.

While this was driven by strong demand and some temporary tightness in the supply of new flats that entered the resale market, she said most resale flat buyers do not pay any COV.

It will take time for the several rounds of cooling measures that have been put in place to work their way through the market, she said.

On financial support, she noted that from April 1, the MediSave Grant for Newborns will be increased from $4,000 to $5,000. Taken together with the Baby Bonus Scheme, parents receive up to $25,000 for their first child, and up to $38,000 for subsequent children.

A new scheme to help large families, first mentioned at NDR 2024, will also be announced at the upcoming Budget on Feb 18, she added.

During the debate, Progress Singapore Party (PSP) Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai proposed that the motion be amended to instead urge the Government to reimagine policies to better support Singaporeans' marriage and parenthood aspirations.

But this was rejected by Ms Indranee, who called the amendment "a step back".

She noted that opposition MPs had sought to portray marriage and parenthood policies here as incremental and not bold enough, even though Singapore had begun its reimagination process back in June 2022, when then Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong launched the Forward Singapore exercise.

That was how the Government knew that housing, costs of raising children, competitive stress, and time – to balance work and family responsibilities – were the key concerns, she said.

As a result, major moves were made, such as the HDB new classification framework that led to increased subsidies for Plus and Prime flats so that flats in more desirable locations are more affordable, said Ms Indranee.

Other major moves were to ramp up infant care capacity three-fold in the last decade, and removing the PSLE T-score and broadening post-secondary pathways, she added.

"The boat called 'Reimagination' has already left the port and is sailing... To ask us in this amendment to start reimagination is kind of like a step back," she said.

The PSP's amendment was also tied to its proposed Affordable Homes Scheme first raised in 2023. Ms Indranee reiterated that this would turn Singaporeans from home owners to tenants and would be a raid on the reserves.

Mr Leong disagreed that the PSP's scheme would be a raid on the reserves. He also asked why the Government did not commit to a total fertility rate (TFR) target to hit, to show that it was making an effort to reverse the slide in TFR.

Ms Indranee countered that having children is a personal decision that cannot be brought about just by setting a target.

"It's up to parents to decide if they want to have children, and what we can and are doing is trying to make it as facilitative and as comfortable as possible for them to do so."

lol

SINGAPORE – January 2025 marks the end of two bars in Neil Road which serve the LGBTQ crowd – Tuckshop closed on Jan 18 and Sausage Market will call it a day on Jan 26. Both cited financial challenges.

The bars' management announced their closures on Instagram and said they faced financial troubles due to a business partner "funnelling funds out of the business for his personal debt". The post also alleged that this partner has since left the country.

The bars' co-founder Jasper Goh said the financial troubles caught him by surprise. "There are no ways forward because the companies are left with mounting debts. We've reported the case to the authorities and, hopefully, it'll be investigated quickly."

Opened in 2024, Tuckshop was Singapore's only drag bar, featuring stage shows by drag queens – performers who adopt exaggerated female personas and make-up for entertainment that typically incorporates comedy, lip-syncing and dance routines.

Sausage Market, which opened in 2023, bills itself as the country's first go-go boy bar.

Both bars are part of a small but growing number of LGBTQ-focused establishments that opened in recent years. According to Mr Goh, the bars collectively employed between 20 and 30 people.

Tuckshop's bar manager, a drag queen who performs under the stage name Salome Blaque, described the closures as very sudden. "We're still processing everything...Tuckshop wasn't just a bar. It was a safe haven, a space where everyone could be themselves and celebrate the incredible art of drag," said the performer.

https://instagram.com/reel/DE_3oc9SyII/

Patrons of the establishments who spoke to The Straits Times were also taken aback, as there was little indication the businesses were struggling.

Mr Sklier Mark Manriquez, 29, a Filipino engineer who is a fan of the reality TV series RuPaul's Drag Race (2009 to present), described Tuckshop as a safe space for the local LGBTQ community. "Having Tuckshop here allowed me to find my place and my people," he said. "It's so sad to hear about it closing down."

Mr Victor Pang, a 30-year-old drama educator, said he was "saddened but not surprised" by the closures, noting that spaces for Singapore's LGBTQ community are often temporary.

Tuckshop's drag shows drew a diverse mix of locals and expatriates, as well as many from outside the LGBTQ community, he added.

Canadian expatriate Michael Gagnon, 41, sees the bar's closure as a loss to the local nightlife. "It is very sad to lose Tuckshop, which had top-quality drag shows and was one of the rare gay dance clubs in Singapore's fluctuating nightlife scene."

Are you an incel in Singapore (or do you know of someone who is)?

I'm a journalist with The Straits Times working on a story about this online subculture, and I'd love to speak to you.

— Kai (@teo_kai_xiang) January 20, 2025

@X

!macacos

Electronic Road Pricing aka tolls

@ponyblaze Maple Story lol

Inferior island nations should be bombed

!khive !nonchuds