SINGAPORE — Singapore is forecast to have the largest share of passenger electric vehicles (EVs) in South-east Asia by 2040, according to a report from Bloomberg's energy research service BloombergNEF.   A total of 80 per cent of all passenger vehicles here are expected to be electric by that year, compared with a regional average of 24 per cent, the report said. Thailand, in second place, is forecast to have a 41 per cent share, followed by Vietnam (31 per cent), Indonesia (25 per cent), Malaysia (15 per cent) and the Philippines (10 per cent). Singapore had the highest EV adoption rate among the six South-east Asian countries in 2023, according to BloombergNEF, with EVs accounting for about 19 per cent of all vehicles sold here. In the first seven months of 2024 alone, EVs formed 32.1 per cent of new car registrations, based on data from the Land Transport Authority.

His visit may be brief but this experience will leave a memory enough to last the staff of St Theresa's Home a lifetime. The staff of St Theresa's Home have expressed their eagerness to meet Pope Francis in person, they shared with AsiaOne. St Theresa's Home is a nursing home under the Catholic Welfare Services that provides care to the elderly and aged sick, so that they may recuperate or live out their final years with proper support. Executive director Victor Seng is among the staff members of the Home who are excited to meet the pontiff. «Pope Francis' visit to Singapore is something the whole country is very happy about,» he said. «What makes me happier still — a dream come true — is that the Pope is coming to visit St Theresa's Home.» Speaking on behalf of residents and staff, Seng said that he feels «privileged and honoured» to have the Pope visit the Home.

SINGAPORE — A new Bill will put in place measures to counter digitally manipulated content during elections, including misinformation generated using artificial intelligence (AI) — commonly known as deepfakes. The proposed safeguards under the Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Bill will apply to all online content that realistically depicts a candidate saying or doing something that he or she did not. This includes content made using non-AI techniques like Photoshop, dubbing, and splicing. If the Bill is passed, candidates will be able to ask the Returning Officer (RO) to review content that has misrepresented them. A false declaration of such misrepresentation is illegal and could result in a fine or loss of a seat. Others can also make requests to review such content, which is set to be made illegal from the issuance of the Writ of Election to the close of polling on Polling Day. The move comes ahead of a general election that must be held by November 2025.

SINGAPORE - A new four-year Olympic cycle begins with new equipment for Singapore kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder, yet some things remain the same. The teenager dominated the competition to claim the KiteFoil World Series Austria title on Sunday (Sept 8), four days before he turns 18. His training partner, Croatia's Martin Dolenc clinched silver, while Frenchman Benoit Gomez took the bronze and German Florian Gruber finished fourth in the grand final. Home favourite and surprise Olympic champion Valentin Bontus placed seventh. Throughout the five-day competition, Maximilian won 11 out of 12 races in the opening series. Needing just one win in the medal series, he clinched it on his first try for his fifth victory in six events in 2024. The only blip was in his last competitive outing in Marseille, where he captured a nation's imagination with a historic Olympic bronze on Aug 9. The two-time world champion inspired and touched Singaporeans with his tears and down-to-earth demeanour during the Olympics and post-Games festivities.

SINGAPORE — About 14,000 suggestions from the public were received by the National Parks Board (NParks) and, on Sept 8, visitors got to see how the new and the old blended together at the reopening of the Chinese and Japanese gardens in Taman Jurong. After extensive rebuilding works over the last five years, familiar landmarks such as the Twin Pagoda, Grand Arch and Stoneboat remain — alongside new spaces such as Water Wall Court and the Japanese Garden's Guesthouse, a multipurpose hall that can accommodate up to 1,000 people. At the reopening, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who unveiled a commemorative plaque and planted a Syzygium aqueum tree, described the Sept 8 event as a long-awaited milestone.

SINGAPORE — Opposition leader and Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh has failed in his attempt to have his upcoming trial heard in the High Court, after he sought to compare his case to that of former transport minister S. Iswaran. On Sept 9, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng dismissed Singh's application for his case to be transferred to the High Court, saying that he has failed to establish that the transfer of his case is expedient for the ends of justice. Singh, 48, faces two charges of lying to a parliamentary committee that was convened in November 2021 to look into the lying controversy involving his party's former MP Raeesah Khan. A 16-day trial in the State Courts is scheduled to take place between Oct 14 and Nov 13. The trial is slated to be presided over by Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan. On Aug 26, Singh's lawyer, Andre Jumabhoy, argued before Justice Hoo that it was «expedient for the ends of justice» for his client's case to be heard by a High Court judge. Jumabhoy cited the case of Iswaran, whose trial was transferred to be heard in the High Court after the prosecution applied to do so on grounds of public interest.

A pregnant woman from Padang Lembu, Malaysia was visiting her husband working in Singapore when she had to give birth via an emergency caesarian section due to gestational hypertension. The baby was born on Aug 22 after a gestation period of just six months, and weighed only 705g, said the baby's grandfather, Jiang Tingfeng (transliteration), who held a press conference in their village near Gurun, Kedah, on Friday (Sept 6). Jiang told Malaysian media that his pregnant daughter-in-law had gone to visit his son, Yipeng (transliteration), the previous day with their five-year-old. The newborn, named Junxuan (transliteration), is currently in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) and is expected to stay there for the first 120 days of his life, China Press reported. «He is still in critical condition and, according to doctors, due to his extremely premature birth, he is also facing some complications,» the elder Jiang said. «The oesophagus is not yet fully developed and he cannot consume milk normally, thus he requires constant monitoring.»

A Singapore-registered vehicle was seen getting into a road accident on Sept 3, with the incident purportedly occurring in Johor Bahru. In a video uploaded on SG Road Vigilante's YouTube channel on Sept 4, a red Audi SUV with a Singapore registered licence plate was seen making an illegal U-turn, crossing the double white line markings on the road. As the car attempts to manoeuvre into the lane, it narrowly misses brushing against a grey SUV parked at the side of the road. Following this, the driver moves off but at an unsteady pace, braking intermittently with hazard light signals still on.  Several seconds later, dash cam footage from the car trailing behind showed the Audi colliding with a stationary black MPV, causing a part of the MPV's rear bumper to fall off. As the Audi pulls to a stop, a woman is seen alighting from the black MPV to check on the car. She also speaks to two security guards who are at the scene. While it is uncertain if both car drivers reached a settlement over the accident, the woman from the black MPV was seen getting back in her car at the end of the video.

SINGAPORE - A doctor on his way to work at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital saved a heart attack victim, and then took a bus to the accident and emergency (A&E) department where he ended up being the man's attending physician. Paramedics who rushed the man to the hospital were not aware Dr Lim Shi Ping was working that day. The 63-year-old man survived the heart attack and was discharged from hospital five days later. The incident happened around 7.30am on Aug 18. The 27-year-old junior doctor told The Straits Times that he had left his car at home to catch the train, from where he lives in Novena, to Yishun because it was a Sunday. At the Yishun MRT station, he noticed a crowd at the bottom of the escalator. A man had collapsed and was gasping for air. Dr Lim, who has been a doctor for two years, pushed through the crowd and introduced himself as a medical doctor. The man had no pulse by then. The doctor immediately commenced cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and directed people around him to call for an ambulance.

The boss of a man caught on video pouring hot water over several caged rats in Chinatown has claimed that doing so is a last resort after exhausting all other methods to exterminate the rodents. A video of the incident was taken by a passerby on Sept 1, reported Shin Min Daily News on Saturday (Sept 7).  The owner of HengBros SG durian stall, identified only by his surname, Xie, revealed that the man captured in the video is his assistant, and that they had taken such extreme measures due to the persistent rodent infestation in the area.  Xie shared that he had been operating his stall at Block 531 Upper Cross Street for the past three years, during which the issue had remained resolved. Hundreds of rats had been caught in the past year alone, he told Shin Min. He added that the old infrastructure in the area as well as the nearby wet market and hawker centre all contributed to challenges in curbing the problem.

SINGAPORE — It would have taken her seconds to fasten her seat belt in a private-hire car, but she did not do so, as she felt Singapore's roads were very safe. Nurul Azimah Mas'Ot's complacency nearly got her killed when the vehicle collided with a taxi on the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) on May 30. The 21-year-old was catapulted from the rear seat to the car's dashboard, causing her to suffer head and spinal injuries. She was in a coma for three days at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital's (KTPH) intensive care unit, underwent brain surgery and was hospitalised for over a month. While therapy has helped Azimah recover her motor skills, she struggles with doing simple things like alighting from a bus or making digital payments. This is because most of her memory from the last 15 years were wiped out after she regained consciousness. The Singapore Civil Defence Force said that on May 30 at about 8.05pm, it was alerted to a road traffic accident along the BKE towards Woodlands before the Mandai Road exit. Five people were sent to KTPH. Police said a 69-year-old male taxi driver is assisting with investigations.

A 41-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a 48-year-old woman to death. The alleged murder took place at about 1am today at Maxwell Food Centre. It is understood that the suspect was Mr Wu Tau, a vendor who ran a Chinese-Thai stall called Dao Xiang Ju, and the deceased was Ms Kamonwan, a vendor who ran a Thai stall nearby. Another vendor at the food centre told Shin Min Daily News that the man and woman opened Dao Xiang Ju together about a year ago, with Ms Kamonwan apparently investing a large sum of money into the stall. About a month ago, the she started selling Thai food three stalls away from Dao Xiang Ju. It is not known what happened to the partnership between Mr Wu and Ms Kamonwan and the vendor told the Chinese daily that the duo had never been spotted arguing at the food centre. Other vendors said they did not notice anything unusual when they left the food centre at 11pm on Sept 6 and they found out about the incident only when they arrived at 7.30am the next day. Ms Kamonwan's body had already been removed by then.

A concerned member of the public noticed a number of ground-floor units at Circuit Road had awnings over their rear doors. The residents also stowed personal belongings under the awnings and turned the space at the back of their flats into their little gardens. «I have reported this to the Town Council at least five times since last year, but there has been no change so far,» the citizen told Shin Min Daily News. He explained that he saw the residents resting under their awnings and was worried that they would get injured if something heavy were to fall on the awnings. But it seems that objects falling from above was the exact reason the residents put up their awnings, which ranged from simple tarpaulin to corrugated roofing sheets. A Block 50 resident told the Chinese daily that he had heard of high-rise littering being a problem in the estate and there were even knives thrown out the windows above. «My grandson visits me sometimes, so I'd prefer to be on the safe side,» said the resident whose flat already had an awning over the rear door when he bought it.

A property agent recently evicted a group of tenants after discovering 12 of them living in a single HDB flat.   In a video posted to TikTok on Thursday (Sept 5), the agent walks into the flat and asked the occupants: «How many people now here [sic]?»  She then begins to count the number of occupants in the house as she inspects the rooms. She didn't reveal the location of the flat in the video.  The agent also asked one of the tenants why one of the cupboards was broken, and questioned why the bed had been dismantled and kept away.  Speaking to the tenants in the video, the agent said: «You all gotta go. If not I'll call the police. I'll give you one hour to pack your stuff and get out of the place.»  The agent eventually called the police on the tenants.  At the time of writing, the video has garnered more than 1.6 million views.  Some netizens felt that the agent was too harsh for giving them only an hour to pack up, while others opined that it was the right thing to do as they were occupying the unit illegally.  «She has full right to clear everyone out immediately,» wrote one commenter. 

The sitting area at the void deck of Block 346 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 is temporarily closed due to misuse of the space, but not all residents are standing for it. Stomp contributor William said the area has been barricaded «for so many months» since last year and shared how it has inconvenienced residents. He said: «I wrote in via OneService and brought up the matter to Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC). Do you all know what happened? »Well, the reason given was that residents had complained about guys gathering in the night, talking loudly, drinking and smoking. «Shouldn't the police be taking action against those that disturb and disrupt the peace of the residents? Why is there a need to barricade the area? »Residents need the seats to wait for their friends for meetups or their rides to pick them up. It could also be a waiting point for people collecting items or helping to carry items up the lift, along with many other reasons. «The police and town council members should know what those seats mean to residents. Why deprive them of using the seats, especially the elderly?»