The police have disrupted over 3,500 scam attempts during a two-month-long operation which ended on Dec 31, 2025, preventing potential losses of over $34.2 million.In a news release on Friday (Jan 9), the police said that they partnered with five banks— DBS, GXS, OCBC, Standard Chartered Bank and UOB — for the operation which began on Nov 1, 2025.«(We) leveraged robotic process automation (RPA) to identify victims of e-commerce, government official impersonation, investment, job and loan scams.»This coordinated response draws on the swift exchange of information between the police and the banks to enable early intervention," the police added.RPA is the technology that enables computer software to emulate and integrate actions typically performed by humans interacting with digital systems. The use of RPA has enabled the police to automate information sharing and processing, and the mass distribution of SMS alerts. In turn, this allows the police and partnering banks to enhance their outreach — to promptly alert a larger number of victims within a short period of time to prevent further losses.

A 26-year-old man nabbed in an enforcement operation in Geylang on Wednesday (Jan 7) has been charged with trafficking etomidate laced vapes, known as Kpods.Abdul Ammar Mahmood Jumat, a Singaporean, was found with an e-vaporiser and four e-vaporiser pods at the back alley along Geylang Lorong 35 on Wednesday afternoon, court documents stated.The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said on Friday (Jan 9) that the pods were tested and confirmed to contain etomidate, a Class C drug.HSA officers also seized from him six bottles of cough syrup as well as prescription medicines consisting of more than 1,000 capsules and tablets.

Ongoing investigations into an alleged baby-trafficking syndicate in Indonesia have resulted in delays in Singapore granting citizenship to adopted children from there.In a joint statement on Friday (Jan 9), the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that they are «keenly aware» of the anxiety this has caused to adoptive parents.The statement did not say how many parents have been affected by the delay.«We are working closely across the relevant authorities to ensure that the cases are dealt with as expeditiously as we can, and to safeguard the welfare and interests of the children,» the ministries said.This comes after Indonesian news outlets reported last September that Indonesian police are working with their Singapore counterparts to probe the alleged baby trafficking ring operating from West Java.The Indonesian police had identified 22 suspects accused of trafficking at least 25 babies, with 15 allegedly sent to Singapore for adoption.

Scammers are now using the National University of Singapore (NUS) logo and impersonating its president. In a Facebook post on Thursday (Jan 8), the university issued a warning against impersonation scams and fake news articles using images of NUS president Professor Tan Eng Chye and the NUS logo that have been circulating online. According to NUS, the scams reportedly promote investment products. Separately, the university said that it has seen fraudulent social media accounts with the unauthorised use of the NUS name and logo, such as NusOnline SG, attempting to market courses.The university urged members of the public not to share any personal information, click or respond to any of the scams, adding that these should be reported to ScamShield. 

A traveller who had disembarked from a flight at Changi Airport's Terminal 4 unexpectedly found the boarding gate's exit closed.She also heard staff asking passengers if they had just arrived or were about to depart.The incident occurred at boarding gate 11 at about 10pm on Jan 1, when passengers arriving on AirAsia flight AK721 became «mixed up» with passengers waiting at the same gate to board, reported Lianhe Zaobao.AirAsia passenger Gong Ping (transliteration) told the Chinese daily that several passengers on the same arriving flight had managed to enter the concourse before staff noticed the different passenger groups together in the same zone.The 36-year-old, who had disembarked from the aircraft later, claimed that those held at the arrival corridor of the shut gate were not informed of what was happening. At one point, a passenger became upset, but most people remained calm.According to her, the departing passengers were directed to another boarding gate at about 11pm. The AirAsia group were then allowed to leave the gate.

What good is all the money in the world if you don't have the time to spend it? Singapore ranks second among the richest countries in the world in 2025 based on gross domestic profit (GDP) per capita and after adjusting for price differences, according to an infographic by The Economist on Monday (Jan 5). However, the infographic includes a third element — prices and hours worked. With that factored in, Singapore falls to eighth place. This is among the 178 countries evaluated by The Economist, with the top three countries being Switzerland, Singapore and Norway.Switzerland takes the lead in terms of average earnings at over US$100,000 (S$128,600) per year, but falls behind due to their high cost of living, The Economist reported. In contrast, Singapore, with earnings at US$90,700 per year, has lower local costs, while Norway stands at US$86,800 per year.  

A container with over 500kg of cannabis was intercepted at Pasir Panjang scanning station during enhanced checks on Jan 3, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) and the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Friday (Jan 9).In a joint statement, they said that the container had been targeted for enhanced checks following information received by Singapore Customs and a pre-arrival risk assessment by ICA's Integrated Targeting Centre. ICA's image analysts detected anomalies in the scanned images of the container. Physical inspections by ICA officers found a packet of brownish substance suspected to be a controlled drug inside a box within the container, which prompted further investigations by CNB officers.In total, 902 packets of cannabis, weighing about 509kg, was uncovered.Based on preliminary investigations, the authorities found that the drugs were transiting through Singapore to another country. Investigations are ongoing. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, those who import into or export from Singapore more than 500g of cannabis may face the death penalty.[[nid:727403]]dana.leong@asiaone.com

A 70-year-old male taxi driver and a 31-year-old male passenger were taken to hospital after being involved in an accident which left the ComfortDelGro taxi overturned on the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) on Thursday (Jan 8). The police and Singapore Civil Defence Force said they were alerted to an accident involving a car and a taxi along the PIE towards Tuas, after the Jurong Town Hall exit, at around 7.15am. The injured cabby and passenger were taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. A 68-year-old male car driver is assisting with investigations, said the police. In a TikTok video on Jan 8, a yellow ComfortDelGro taxi is seen lying overturned, with its airbags deployed, on the first or rightmost lane of the expressway. 

Leader of the House Indranee Rajah has filed a motion to ask Parliament to consider Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh's suitability to continue in his role as the Leader of the Opposition (LO). The motion is set to be raised at a sitting on Jan 13 at the earliest, said the Office of the Leader of the House on Friday (Jan 9). Singh was convicted in court in February last year of lying to a parliamentary committee over the case of former MP Raeesah Khan and was sentenced to a fine of $7,000 for each of two charges. His appeal against conviction was dismissed by the High Court in December 2025. The motion which will soon be raised seeks that Parliament «affirms that honesty and integrity are fundamental pillars of Singapore's parliamentary and political system». It also requests that the House, «expresses regret at the conduct of Mr Pritam Singh, which was dishonourable and unbecoming of a Member of Parliament». 

Tan Yong Hock Amos was living on the streets for 23 years before he finally sought help from social service organisations.Speaking to AsiaOne on Wednesday (Jan 7), Tan, 43, recounted the hardships he endured while struggling to make ends meet as a teenager. «I was living in and out of my home from the time I was 16 years old. Both my parents were gamblers, and when I was younger, I took on odd jobs, such as washing dishes at night, earning about $30 or $40,» he said.«I was forced to work day and night, and whenever I went home, the door was always locked.»Tan is one of many homeless individuals who sought support at a transitional shelter, where he stayed for several months, regaining stability before he could staring saving and gradually pay for his own home. The shelter, where he stayed at Spooner Road, has since relocated to a new site in Yio Chu Kang — Transit Point @ Yio Chu Kang — in November 2024.

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) on Thursday (Jan 9) has ordered a stop to the sale of five batches of Nestle's infant formula and follow-on formula over the potential presence of cereulide toxin.Both the SFA and communicable Disease Agency (CDA) said in a joint statement late on Jan 8 that the measure will remain in place while investigations are carried out.Singapore's move follows that of at least 37 other countries, including most European states, as well as Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico and South Africa, which have issued health warnings over the infant formulas possibly being contaminated. The European Commission Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed and the International Food Safety Authorities Network had also issued similar notifications on Jan 7 and 8, respectively, according to the statement. The affected products all originated from Switzerland.

A video allegedly showing two motorcyclists on separate Malaysia-registered motorcycles trying to evade parking fees at an open carpark in Marina Bay has sparked debate.In the video posted to Facebook group Complaint Singapore, member Daryl Toh said that the incident happened at about 10pm on Wednesday (Jan 7) evening.«How much can the parking fees be for motorcycles in Singapore? It's embarrassing,» he wrote.Checks online by AsiaOne indicate that the charges for motorcycle parking at the said carpark is 25 cents per block of 30 minutes. 

Remember the toasty, parching heat of mid-2025?With mean temperature at 29.3 deg C, June was Singapore's hottest month of 2025, tying with 1997 as the warmest June on record, the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) said on Thursday (Jan 8).And the warm weather continued into the following month where July's monthly mean temperature came in at 29.1 deg C, making it the second warmest month in 2025 and the second warmest July since temperature records started in 1929.«2025 was the eighth warmest year for Singapore, and we experienced our warmest June and November on record,» stated MSS.The monthly mean temperature in November was 28.2 deg C, and the hottest day recorded at Changi climate station in 2025 was on Oct 28 when the daily maximum temperature reached 35.9 deg C.

In the immediate aftermath of the US' intervention in Venezuela, some analysts were quick to opine that the attack will embolden China to strengthen its territorial claims over areas such as Taiwan and parts of the South China Sea. However, political analysts AsiaOne spoke disagreed with this take, stating that they do not expect China to take a similar course of action on Taiwan or elsewhere — at least not in the short-term. US Special Forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores early on Saturday (Jan 3) and subsequently flew them to the US — where Maduro was indicted on charges including including narco-terrorism and Flores charged with cocaine importation. 

The use of military force in Venezuela may have yielded success for the US, but it comes at the cost of destabilising international order, said Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday (Jan 8).Speaking at the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute’s Regional Outlook Forum at Sands Expo & Convention Centre, SM Lee acknowledged Venezuela as a «complicated country», whose legitimacy of its government is questioned, while causing difficulties to the US due to drugs and refugees.«But that does not justify a military intervention by one country into another, unilaterally and without any proper authorisation,» he said.On Jan 3, US seized Venezuela's long-serving President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flew them to the US, accusing the president of «narco-terrorism».The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Jan 4 that Singapore is gravely concerned by the US intervention in Venezuela and urged all parties to exercise restraint for a peaceful resolution there.

Singaporean R Shanmugaratnam and Briton James Henry O'Sullivan were sentenced to jail on Tuesday (Jan 6) for falsifying accounts in relation to collapsed German payments company Wirecard, according to police on Thursday.Shanmugaratnam, 59, received 10 years' jail time, while O'Sullivan, 51, got 6.5 years.Both were convicted on Sept 22, 2025, following a joint trial between July 31, 2023 and Feb 21, 2025 over 26 days, police stated.Shanmugaratnam is a director of a local accounting and auditing company, Citadelle Corporate Services Pte Ltd, who was alleged to have issued 13 balance confirmation letters to Wirecard entities between March 2016 and April 2018.The letters were found to have fraudulently represented to Wirecard, its subsidiaries, and its auditors that Citadelle held over €1.1 billion ($1.6 billion) in Wirecard funds in escrow accounts.Shanmugaratnam was subsequently convicted of 13 counts of falsification of accounts.

Over 57,000 Malaysians renounced their citizenship and moved to Singapore within a five-year period up to Dec 17 last year, Harian Metro reported on Wednesday (Jan 7).Speaking with the Malaysian publication, Malaysia's National Registration Department director-general Badrul Hisham Alias said that a total of 61,116 Malaysians relinquished their citizenship within the time frame, with 93.78 per cent of them (around 57,315) heading for Singapore, 2.15 per cent to Australia and 0.97 per cent to Brunei.He added that women were the majority of those relinquishing their citizenships — totalling 35,356 — while an average of 10,000 Malaysians give up their citizenship each year.«The decision to relinquish Malaysian citizenship is largely driven by economic and family factors,» he explained in an interview with Harian Metro.«In the case of Singapore, many Malaysians are employed there, and employment prospects and income levels make it easier for them to obtain citizenship.»Most Malaysians who marry foreign spouses and migrate overseas cite family reasons for changing their nationality, Badrul explained.