The Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link project has reached yet another milestone with the completion of the inner facade steel bands at the Bukit Chagar station in Johor Bahru.In a Facebook post on Wednesday (Jan 21), the Malaysia Rapid Transit Corp (MRT Corp) highlighted that the completion marks an important turning point in the station's construction.«With the roof structure now in place, works can progress more efficiently into architectural finishes, systems installation and the final phase of facade works,» the Malaysian rail operator said.It added that the progress brings the project «another step closer» towards targeted passenger service by 2027.Speaking at an event at the Redha Institute on Jan 15, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke revealed that the first train is scheduled to run on Jan 1, 2027. 

A 30-year-old man has been charged in court for allegedly trafficking almost 2,000 etomidate e-vaporiser pods into Singapore, said the Health Sciences Authority (HSA).In a press release on Thursday (Jan 22), HSA said that the operation yielded the largest haul of etomidate e-vaporiser pods — otherwise known as Kpods — since etomidate was classified as a Class C controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA) on Sep 1 last year.The agency said that Muhamad Khairuddin Bin Abdullah had attempted to smuggle the Kpods into Singapore at Woodlands Checkpoint on the night of Jan 20.Muhamad was travelling with his 63-year-old mother and four-month-old niece in a rental car, and had hidden the 1,989 e-vaporiser pods in the car boot.Upon discovery of the hidden e-vaporiser pods, Muhamad was detained by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA). HSA was also alerted, and subsequently conducted a raid at his residence, yielding three regular e-vaporiser pods. 

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has come out tops among its peers in Fortune's world's most admired companies list for 2026 released on Wednesday (Jan 21).It is ahead of Delta Air Lines, Air France-KLM Group, United Airlines and Lufthansa Group, and outshone the wider aviation sector including Airbus and Lockheed Martin. SIA and Toyota are the only Asian companies in the top 25 —the automobile company is ranked 23rd overall, while SIA is ranked 24th — bettering its 28th spot in 2025.It is also the only Singapore-based company to feature in the top 50.According to consultancy firm Korn Ferry, which partnered Fortune, nine attributes were used to evaluate companies when determining the industry rankings: ability to attract and retain talented people; quality of management; social responsibility to the community and the environment; innovativeness; quality of products or services; wise use of corporate assets; financial soundness; long-term investment value; and, effectiveness in doing business globally. In an online statement, SIA said that it is honoured to be included in the list and for topping the industry.

A day after the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said it is resetting the Expected Time of Arrival (ETA) system for buses, the transport regulator announced that it has identified the root cause of the issues affecting the system.In an update issued on Thursday (Jan 22) evening, the authority said that its engineers and contractors discovered a memory cache build-up in the on-board systems of some buses.«This disrupted data transmissions between on-board bus systems and the central ETA processing servers, leading to missing bus arrival timings.» About 50 per cent of the bus fleet across all bus operators have been affected.Restoration process to take about four days: LTAAs part of the restoration process, technicians will need to reconfigure the ETA system and clear the cache on all the affected buses.Given that there were 5,841 public buses as at the end of 2024, technicians will have to physically service more than 2,900 on-board units.LTA said that this process is expected to take about four days to complete.

Most people are concerned about the need for security and growth in their careers, including the dignity of knowing that they are able to contribute in their roles, said President Tharman Shanmugaratnam. President Tharman, who also co-chairs the World Bank Group's high-level advisory council on jobs, was speaking at the World Economic Forum's session on the jobs challenge in emerging markets on Wednesday (Jan 21) in Davos.Speaking after Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group, who talked about concerns regarding the insufficiency of jobs in emerging markets for people coming of age, President Tharman agreed that geopolitics aside, most people would be most concerned about jobs.He said: «Ask ordinary people around the world what their main concerns in life are, what is on the minds of most people is the need for security and growth in their careers. »Not necessarily the same job, but the security of a career, growth through their lives, and the dignity of knowing that they are able to contribute." 

The supply of Certificates of Entitlement (COE) for the February to April period will drop by 1 per cent compared to the previous quarter, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Thursday (Jan 22).The total number of COEs will fall slightly to 18,824, down from 18,894 from November 2025 to January 2026 period, which saw a 1.5 per cent increase.Compared with the last quarter, the quota for Categories A and E will decrease by around 1 and 13 per cent respectively, while the quota for Categories B and C will increase by around 1.5 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.The quota for Category D will remain unchanged.LTA added that bidding under the new quota will begin on Feb 2.The COE quota for the bidding period of May to July 2026 will be announced in April.The upcoming COE quota consists of the following components:

SINGAPORE — A wave of controversy over sexually explicit artificial intelligence (AI) deepfakes has not made billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X or chatbot Grok any less popular in Singapore.Instead, it may have done the opposite.Since late December 2025, X has been at the centre of a storm over users creating AI-generated sexually explicit images of other users without their consent. Users could do so simply by posting a message aimed at Grok's account on the social media platform.In the wake of such controversy, the Grok app has shot up the charts on the Google and Apple app stores for Singapore users, according to data from analytics firm SensorTower.On Google Play Store's top free apps chart, Grok has been in the top 10 for most of January — a feat it last achieved in late November.On the Apple App Store top free apps chart, Grok has hovered in the top 25 since early January, up from around the No. 100 to 130 range in October.X continues to hover in the top 100 apps in both stores, with interest rising in the Google Play Store in January after a late December slump.

SINGAPORE — The Nature Society Singapore (NSS) is proposing that almost a third of the vegetation in and around Paya Lebar Air Base be retained as green spaces, ahead of redevelopment of the area set to begin in the 2030s.The Straits Times has learnt that the society submitted a report to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) detailing its proposal to retain 389ha of land in the area, which comprises forest, parkland and water bodies.URA said it will assess the proposal.Based on NSS' estimates, the area­ slated to be redeveloped for housing and industrial purposes after the airbase is relocated amounts to 1,271ha — an area slightly bigger than the size of Wood­lands.Of this, 805ha comprises areas of biodiversity importance, said the society. These refer to areas that are critical to support flora and fauna, and parts of it, at least, should be preserved, it believes.NSS spokesman Tony O'Dempsey said the greenery in the area represents one of the last «wild growth areas» in north-east Singapore.

A construction firm allegedly allowed its workers to live on its premises without authorisation, and continued to house them even after the building management ordered it to stop.The illegal dormitory is located in an industrial estate at Defu South Street 1, reported Shin Min Daily News on Wednesday (Jan 21).This came to light when a whistle-blower, surnamed Xu, tipped off the newspaper about the workers living there.According to his tip-off, the sleeping quarters had been constructed on top of a metal frame about two storeys high.«Sleeping at such a high place, if a fire breaks out, they might not be able to escape,» Xu told Shin Min.In response to media queries, spokespersons for the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and JTC, which manages the industrial estate, said they received feedback about an unauthorised dormitory on Dec 31, 2025.When they inspected the premises of Lian Hup Seng Construction & Tentage on Jan 2 and 5, they found evidence of workers living there. 

Passenger movement at Singapore's Changi Airport hit a record high of 69.98 million in 2025, Changi Airport Group (CAG) said in a press release on Thursday (Jan 22).The figure is a 3.4 per cent increase over the 67.7 million passengers in 2024. Last year, 374,000 flights landed at or took off from Changi Airport, up 2.2 per cent compared to 2024.Meanwhile, airfreight throughput - the volume of cargo that passes through an airport or air cargo facility over a certain period - totalled 2.08 million, up 4.5 per cent compared to the previous year.New routes, expanded connectivityAmid the 374,000 landings and take-offs, 13 new routes were added last year. This includes: Changchun, Harbin, Lanzhou, Yichang and Zhangjiajie in China; Labuan Bajo, Padang and Semarang in Indonesia; Vienna in Austria; Vijayawada in India; Kota Bahru in Malaysia; Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and Nha Trang in Vietnam. Two new passenger airlines - MIAT Mongolian Airlines and Pelitia Air - were also added last year.

An accident along the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) on Wednesday (Jan 21) evening left one car overturned, though no significant injuries were reported.The accident, involving one car and one tipper truck, happened at about 7.40pm along AYE towards the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE), before Clementi Avenue 2 exit.When AsiaOne arrived at the scene at around 7.45pm, debris was seen strewn across two of the three lanes along the AYE. There was also debris on the leftmost lane of the slip road towards Clementi Avenue 2.A man in army uniform was seen next to a red car which was overturned on the third lane. Nearby, a tipper truck and another car were stopped along the slip road. A man wearing a safety vest, presumably the driver of the tipper truck, and another man dressed in black were seen near the overturned car.Responding to AsiaOne's queries, the Singapore Civil Defence Force said that one person was assessed for minor injuries but he declined to be sent to hospital.Although a Traffic Police expressway patrol unit was seen at the scene, AsiaOne understands that the two drivers involved agreed to settle the matter privately.

More than 70 travellers were caught for various offences — including failing to declare large amounts of cash and evading taxes on cigarettes and liquor — in a week-long, multi-agency enforcement operation conducted across Singapore's land, air and sea checkpoints.In a joint statement on Thursday (Jan 22), the police, Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and Singapore Customs said more than 10,000 travellers and 260 vehicles were checked during the operation, which took place between Jan 13 and 19. Law enforcement officers conducting checks at Singapore's land, air and sea checkpoints during the operation. PHOTO: SPF, ICA In addition, more than 14,000 pieces of luggage and hand-carry bags were scanned or searched. 

The office of the Leader of the Opposition (LO) will remain vacant until the Workers' Party (WP) is ready to nominate someone to take on the responsibility,  said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Wednesday (Jan 21).In response to WP's letter shared earlier on Wednesday, the PMO said that it accepts the party's decision.While agreeing with WP that the main opposition party in Parliament is «indeed the natural choice to serve», it said that Singapore is currently in an «exceptional situation» due to Pritam Singh's criminal conviction.«In Singapore, we place a high premium on honesty and integrity in our political system, and on respect for the rule of law,» the PMO said.MPs must exemplify these values and uphold the integrity of our system, it said.The PMO also said that in other jurisdictions, members convicted of crimes involving dishonesty or lying under oath would typically resign from their roles.«This has not happened here,» said the PMO, adding that the office of the LO will thus remain vacant until WP nominates another member to take the role.[[nid:728551]]

Tower Transit bus captain of service 858 Lim Chwin Chien, who was seen on video helping to put out a vegetation fire, had to rush home to register his marriage in Malaysia after his shift ended.The fire happened at about 12.10 am on Tuesday (Jan 20) behind a bus stop before Punggol Road and along the Tampines Expressway.