Local influencer Runner Kao pushed his anti-vape message further in a recent TikTok video by sharing an apparent first-hand account from a youth who claimed to have used Kpods in the past.Kao, who has over 266,000 followers on TikTok, has recently been using his platform to warn youths against vaping, often using Gen Alpha slang to connect with younger audiences.In the video posted on Tuesday (Aug 5), Kao, whose full name is Kao Rong Sheng, appears to be eating when a youth approaches him to share about his experience with Kpods.Kpods refer to drug-laced e-vaporisers that can contain the anaesthetic etomidate, or they can also contain ketamine, another anaesthetic with hallucinogenic properties.In the caption to his video, Kao stated that the youth wanted to share his story to warn others against using Kpods.The youth revealed that he has since kicked the habit and has remained clean for 17 months.He added that his girlfriend was the one who convinced him to stop.Sharing his own experience with vaping, the youth claimed that there are two types of Kpods — «clean» and «dirty».

Two Malaysian men were arrested at two separate occasions at Woodlands Checkpoint for attempting to smuggle drugs into Singapore via Malaysia-registered vehicles.Follow up investigations also led to the arrest of a third man, who is Singaporean, near Bras Basah, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in a joint statement on Wednesday (Aug 6).On July 31, a 33-year-old man was caught with about 414g of Ice (methamphetamine) and 46g of Ecstasy tablets after ICA officers conducted checks on a Malaysian-registered car at Woodlands Checkpoint.The amount of ice seized is enough to feed the addiction of about 230 abusers for a week, according to the authorities.The drugs, estimated to be worth around $52,000, were found in a black flask inside the vehicle and in a bundle hidden in his groin area.They were seized along with cash of various currencies — including Singapore dollar, Malaysian ringgit and Thai baht — amounting to around $5,985.

The Police Coast Guard will be patrolling the bay area on board upgraded boats and crafts during the upcoming National Day Parade 2025.This is part of security measures implemented by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) on National Day which will cover both land and sea, according to the police.Nearly 2,000 police officers from the various divisions and units will be deployed to ensure security at the Padang and its vicinity. They will be supported by auxiliary police officers as well as the Singapore Civil Defence Force, Singapore Armed Forces and Ministry of Health.During the parade, two Marina Reservoir Patrol Boats (MRPBs) and a 3-series PC Class Patrol Craft will conduct patrols along the Singapore River, Kallang Basin, and Marina Reservoir to maintain security and manage restricted zones.Both patrol boats feature upgraded safety systems and lifesaving equipment. They are also equipped with advanced navigation systems and have Xenon Search Lights to facilitate search and identification tasks.

Nineteen drivers who were providing illegal ride services in Singapore and across the border were recently nabbed by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).It said in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Aug 6) that the errant drivers were caught during patrols at Gardens by the Bay and Changi Airport, and joint operations with the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority at one of Singapore's land checkpoints.All the vehicles were impounded.LTA also reminded members of the public to not engage such illegal ride-hailing services.«They not only put your safety at risk, but your journey may also be disrupted if the illegal service you're using is caught in our enforcement ops,» said the authority.Offenders who illegally provide ride-hailing services may be fined up to $3,000, jailed for up to six months, or both. Their vehicles may also be forfeited.

While out jogging in Bedok on Sunday (Aug 3), 22-year-old Ilham Jufri witnessed a heartbreaking scene when a dog ran across the road and was struck by an oncoming vehicle. Without hesitation, Ilham dashed across the road to carry the injured dog to safety.In a post uploaded to Facebook by Ilham's father, Jufri Salim, he shared that he was first notified of the incident in the evening, after his son rescued a toy poodle which was hit by a car. According to Jufri, while holding the dog in his arms, Ilham noticed that the poodle was having seizures, prompting him to immediately call the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).However, the poodle was still not out of danger. «Minutes later, the disoriented dog suddenly bolted back across the road into traffic. [My] son chased after it, shouting for help,» Jufri said, adding that at least 10 passersby joined in the effort. «A young lady finally managed to catch the dog and [Ilham] took over from there [ensuring] its safety and [getting] it medical help.»

Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong has received Australia's highest civilian honour, the Order of Australia, for his contributions toward growing its bilateral relationship with Singapore.Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who is on a state visit to Singapore, conferred on Lee the award of Honorary Companion in the General Division of The Order of Australia at an investiture ceremony on Aug 5.A citation from the Prime Minister's Office, Australia, said that «throughout his 40-year political career, and particularly as Prime Minister of Singapore from 2004 to 2024, Lee has made significant contributions to advancing Australia-Singapore relations».«He has been a strong and influential advocate for closer ties between our two countries and has consistently driven agreements and initiatives which encourage stronger and mutually beneficial relationships,» the citation added.The economic relationship between Australia and Singapore has grown enormously during Lee's term as PM, the citation said, with Singapore becoming Australia's largest trading partner and investor in South-east Asia.

Morning commuters can expect a 25-minute delay between Boon Lay and Buona Vista stations on the East-West MRT Line on Aug 6 due to a track point fault.Operator SMRT said on X at 6.03am that passengers should factor in an additional 15 minutes of travel time between Boon Lay and Clementi when travelling eastwards towards Pasir Ris.In an updated post at 6.32am, the operator said the delay extended to Buona Vista station, meaning the affected stations also included Dover, Jurong East, Chinese Garden and Lakeside.The delay was lengthened to 25 minutes, SMRT said at 7.17am, adding that free bus services are available between the affected stations.The train operator advised travellers heading towards Jurong East station to transfer to the Thomson-East Coast Line and Circle Line at Woodlands and Bishan stations respectively.SMRT President Lam Sheau Kai said that a point machine fault occurred near Jurong East station during the start of service on the morning of Aug 6, leading to trains driven slower for safe operations.

An aesthetic doctor hounded his former girlfriend incessantly as their relationship broke down over a period of around one year.His actions culminated in an attack in which he violently forced her into his car in a public area and restrained her against her will.On Aug 5, Chua Cheng Yu, 40, was convicted after he pleaded guilty to four charges – the use of criminal force; causing intentional harassment, alarm and distress; voluntarily causing hurt; and unlawful restraint.He will return to court on Oct 1 to be sentenced.Chua had met his former girlfriend, identified in court documents as Zhang, at Veritas Medical Aesthetics, the clinic he founded and worked at. He is still listed as a doctor on its website.Zhang joined the clinic in 2021 as a manager.The following year, she and Chua entered into a romantic relationship, which was plagued with constant quarrels and disagreements, according to court documents.Zhang tendered her resignation some time in March 2023, amid a souring relationship with Chua.

In the first six months of 2025, consumers have lost over $108,000 in beauty service prepayments, revealed the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) — a staggering 464 per cent increase from the $19,000 losses that was reported in the beauty industry in the first half of 2024.The consumer watchdog said on Tuesday (Aug 5) it received 558 consumer complaints in the beauty sector from January to June 2025, down slightly from the 600 complaints made across the same period in 2024.Of the beauty sector complaints this year, feedback on aggressive or misleading sales tactics comprises about 28 per cent, with many cases involving consumers who were pressured into signing high-value packages under unclear or exaggerated promises.In one instance, a consumer who had signed a contract value of over $370,000 alleged that the business engaged in aggressive, high-pressure sales tactics, made false promises that were not fulfilled, offered misleading discounts and overcharged.«Despite a slight drop in complaint numbers, the beauty industry remains a concern due to the sharp increase in prepayment-related losses,» said Case president Melvin Yong.

A record number of more than 578,000 crossings were made on June 20 at the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints, surpassing the previous peak of over 562,000 crossings on Dec 24, 2024,  the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said in a statement on Tuesday (Aug 5).A daily average of more than 525,000 travellers crossed during during the June school holidays from May 29 to July 1, 2025, a 10 per cent increase compared to the June school holidays in 2024.Travellers who departed the checkpoints during the June peak period had to wait up to three hours for immigration clearance, due to traffic tailback from Malaysia. The agency also said that those travelling to Malaysia over the National Day weekend can expect longer waiting time to clear immigration at both Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints, the ICA said.It expects heavy traffic at both land crossings from Aug 8 to Aug 10. 

The wife of Mohammed Fairuz Razali, 38, who was involved in a fatal motorcycle crash along Bedok North Road on July 18, is looking for the man who administered CPR to her husband after the accident.In a Facebook post on August 3, 39-year-old Hazura said that witnesses saw how the man «did not give up» while trying to revive Fairuz.«He performed CPR on my late husband and tried his best, even doing mouth-to-mouth multiple times to help revive him before the ambulance arrived...and for that, I am forever grateful,» she wrote.She then asked for those living in Singapore or nearby to share her post and requested that the kind Samaritan, or anyone that may know him, contact her privately.«I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart,» she said, adding that she hoped he will be blessed with «the greatest rewards for [his] kindness and humanity».AsiaOne has reached out to the woman for more information.

A 23-year-old woman died after a private-hire car she was travelling in with a friend crashed into a public bus in Yishun on Saturday (Aug 2). The surviving passenger, Ong Meiyi, 20, said she and her friend Queenie Leong had taken that car home after attending a friend's birthday party at Bedok.Recounting the incident, Ong told Shin Min Daily News that Leong had fallen asleep on the back seat shortly after getting into the car, while she sat beside her. The next thing she knew, the car crashed into a bus in Yishun.«Everything happened very suddenly. My hand hit the back of the seat, and it hurt. [Leong] might have also hit the front [before she] fell on me,» Ong recalled, adding that she suffered a hand injury in the crash. Ong noted that Leong fell unconscious and was bleeding from her head, nose, and mouth due to the impact. «I called her name and held her hand - she moved slightly. I immediately tried to save her and perform CPR, but one of my hands was badly injured. There was really nothing I could do,» said a distraught Ong. 

SINGAPORE — One of the last memories Pombuena Kevin Paul Famacion has of his girlfriend is when she sang a love song to him, just a few days before she died in a car accident.Queenie Leong was on her way home from a birthday party in Bedok when the private-hire car she was in with a friend crashed into a public bus at the junction of Yishun Avenue 2 and Yishun Central 1 at about 5.35am on Aug 2.A photo of the scene showed a silver car at the rear of a Tower Transit bus, its windows shattered and right doors left ajar, as Singapore Civil Defence Force officers attended to the emergency.Her friend had tried to save Leong, 23, immediately after the accident. Despite fracturing her arm in the accident, she performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until the ambulance arrived at the scene.Both women and the driver were taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, where Leong eventually died.The Straits Times visited the wake set up at the void deck of Block 162 Yishun Street 11, where Leong lived. Her father was too distraught to speak but said he wanted to understand how the accident happened.

Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh was “grilled” by several “special guests” on Monday (Aug 4), in his first interview on local radio since the 2025 General Election in May.The Leader of the Opposition appeared on Kiss92 FM’s morning programme with DJs Glenn Ong and Angelique Teo, where he took questions from eight young Singaporeans aged between four to 11.In a segment titled “The Kids Ask Mr Pritam”, one young Singaporean asked if politics in Singapore is fair and if all parties played by the same rules.In response, Singh said: “I think that we should always endeavour to develop and nourish a system where the rules are the same for everyone.“I would like to think that is a road we are on, and we should remain on that road.”There were also candid responses to questions such as his worst subject in primary school.“I was not too thrilled about mathematics,” he said. “Which is very sad because I actually loved mathematics.”He also revealed that he is “not much of a dancer”, when asked what music choices.

Malaysian authorities have launched an investigation into a Singapore-registered car after its driver was spotted filling a tank of subsidised Ron95 petrol at a petrol station in Johor Bahru.The incident occurred at Caltex Nusa Sentral, located in the Iskandar Puteri township, on Sunday (Aug 3) at around 6.30pm, according to a post on the SG Road Vigilante Facebook page.Photos showed a blue Mini Cooper, with a Singapore-registered licence plate, and a driver filling up a plastic container with Ron95 petrol. Ron95 is subsidised petrol that is available for sale only to Malaysian-registered vehicles.Foreign-registered vehicles are prohibited from purchasing Ron95 fuel and are only permitted to purchase Ron97, which is not subsidised.Lilis Saslinda Pornomo, director of the Johor Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry (KPDN), said that the ministry is aware of the incident and has opened an investigation.

A Singapore Airlines (SIA) Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner flight from Singapore to Seoul on Monday morning (Aug 4) encountered technical issues and returned to Singapore.Flight SQ600 took off at around 8.35am and was scheduled to arrive at Incheon International Airport at about 3.30pm local time (2.30pm Singapore time) on the same day. The flight, which operates on weekdays, would usually make a left turn after passing Berakit in Batam before continuing towards Seoul. This time, data from flight tracking platform FlightRadar24 showed the flight in a holding pattern over the South China Sea before returning to Changi at around 9.55am.A holding pattern is an oval-shape racetrack pattern that an aircraft fly while awaiting further instructions from air traffic control. These patterns are used for various reasons, including managing airspace congestion or allowing pilots time to troubleshoot in-flight issues. 

Many can regale their nephews and nieces with tales of how Basic Military Training (BMT) was like during their time — but things have been quickly changing.Among these changes is the introduction of drones into the military training curriculum, which all recruits will have to learn to operate, Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing said during his visit to Pulau Tekong on Monday (Aug 4).Chan was making his first visit to the Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF) BMT Centre (BMTC) alongside Senior Minister of State for Defence Zaqy Mohamad where they saw many of the new technological advancements at work, including the drones.«We will always know that no matter how many soldiers we have, we will never fight on the basis that we outnumber others,» Chan told the media. «The SAF has always used technology to complement our fighting capabilities at the individual level and at the unit level.»In order to do so, the latest advancement to be unveiled is the training of every recruit to be able to make use of drone technology, both for utilisation and to counter the use of drones against Singapore.

In an effort to manage the growing monkey population in Punggol, some National Parks Board (NParks) contractors have turned to an unexpected solution: gel blasters.In a video uploaded on TikTok, NParks contractors can be seen using devices believed to be gel blasters, aiming water gel beads near the monkeys at a housing block in an attempt to scare them away.Gel blasters are toy guns that shoot small, water-filled gel beads.Several monkeys are seen escaping or avoiding the gel beads while residents and onlookers watch on.In the comments section, several netizens have chimed in, with some finding the scene humorous, while others voiced concern about the potential harm to these animals. «Don't hurt them», said one user while another wrote «Poor monkeys, it was their home».Others, however, found light in the situation. One user wrote, «Best job ever. Where do I apply?» while another joked, «Can I apply? I've got marksmanship badge from army.»

Stay in the know with a recap of our top stories today.1. No plans to ‘fully liberalise’ cross-border ride-hail services: LTAThere are no plans to fully liberalise ride-hailing services between Singapore and Johor Bahru, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has said on Sunday (Aug 3)…» READ MORE2. Tanjong Katong sinkhole: President Tharman thanks migrant workers for saving driver who fell in

The Government will have five new committees to strengthen Singapore's economic relevance amid geopolitical uncertainties and technological disruptions.The new committees were announced by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong at a press conference on Monday (Aug 4), where he detailed Singapore's Economic Strategy Review (ESR).The ESR, he said, will chart a «forward-looking economic blueprint» to sharpen Singapore's economic competitiveness and deepen its economic resilience. This comes amid major disruptions to the «rules-based multilateral trading system» caused by US tariffs, which make it «important to take a longer term view». DPM Gan, who is the Minister for Trade and Industry and the chairman of SERT, said that the third workstream of SERT — aimed at developing longer-term strategies and responses to transform businesses and support the workforce — will be replaced by the five new committees.SERT stands for the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce.The five committees will develop longer-term strategies in the following areas: