Five on Friday: 5 weird things people have tried to slip past airport security - CNA

94KG OF DRIED CATERPILLARS

Travellers typically fret over whether to pay for extra luggage to cart home that additional holiday shopping.

But one man who travelled to the United Kingdom from Burkina Faso in February 2013 had a monumental 94kg with him.

And that was just in dried caterpillars. 

UK Border Force officers detected tens of thousands of the shrink-wrapped bugs in the man’s luggage at London’s Gatwick Airport after he arrived from West Africa by way of Istanbul.

The 22-year-old claimed that they were for personal consumption as food.

He escaped with a warning, and the caterpillars were seized and sent off to be destroyed.

“This was an unusual seizure, but the vigilance of our officers has stopped these dried insects from entering the UK, and possibly posing a risk to our food chain,” an official said at the time.

“I would warn travellers not to attempt to bring any products of animal origin into the UK without a permit, as they may not have been inspected to appropriate standards and may contain diseases.”

200 LIVE TARANTULAS

A magnet or a keychain would usually suffice for most travellers when it comes to souvenirs, but that simply wasn’t enough for one German couple to remember their holiday in Peru back in 2012.

According to AFP, the pair were caught at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport with 200 live tarantulas along with grasshoppers, crickets and millipedes.

The creepy-crawlies were transported in plastic containers and tubes hidden amongst the couples’ clothes and shoes.

A criminal case was opened against the couple, while their unconventional keepsakes were handed over to animal welfare authorities.

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2022-07-22 08:39:00Z
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IMF lowers forecast for Singapore economy to 3.7% growth this year - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its economic growth forecast for Singapore, in line with its recent warning that it will downgrade its estimates for the global economy later this month.

The IMF said Singapore’s economy will grow at 3.7 per cent this year, in a country report issued on Friday (July 22) after consultations with officials here. 

The latest estimate is less than the forecast of 4 per cent growth the fund had made in May.

The IMF said the pace of growth will be slower this year compared with the 7.6 per cent surge in 2021 as trade-related sectors may moderate amid supply constraints, while recovery in the hardest hit sectors - tourism and aviation-related, consumer-facing and construction - has only just begun.

The IMF, however, kept its forecast 4.8 per cent for Singapore’s headline inflation - which covers all goods and services.

The Government’s own outlook is for growth to come in at the lower half of its 3 per cent to 5 per cent forecast range. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), meanwhile, just raised its headline inflation forecast for 2022 to 5 per cent to 6 per cent.

The IMF said growth in Singapore is being driven by pent-up demand as the economy reopens, amid the relaxation of most Covid-19 curbs on mobility.

"Singapore's skilful containment measures, effective vaccination campaign and decisive policy support helped the economy to recover impressively," the report said.

However, the fund warned: "The outlook is subject to significant uncertainty and risks are titled to the downside."

Inflation has been driven up by rising domestic cost pressures, as well as external factors such as the war in Ukraine, which has pushed up commodity prices and tightened supply conditions.

The IMF said the risks stem mostly from the Ukraine conflict and the related sanctions imposed on Russia, China's growth slowdown, and interest rate hikes in advanced economies to tame inflation.

It also said that the threat of vaccine-resistant new Covid-19 variants continues to linger.

With the recovery in domestic demand, the IMF said Singapore's current account surplus is expected to decline to 13.2 per cent of gross domestic product in 2022 from 18.1 per cent in 2021.

Current account is the broadest measure of the health of a country's external sector and its ability to meet its foreign payment obligations.

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2022-07-22 01:09:20Z
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Heatwave fee for Asia's delivery workers does little to cool climate stress - CNA

HO CHI MINH CITY/BANGKOK: As a heatwave engulfed northern and central Vietnam earlier this month, customers reaching for their phones to order food or a ride on the Grab app learned they would have to pay a surcharge.

The extra fee, applied when the local temperature hits 35 degrees Celsius, came months after the Southeast Asian platform company introduced a rainy-weather fee in Vietnam.

"Working under such bad weather conditions can be tough on our driver- and delivery-partners. We want to ensure they are fairly compensated for it," a Grab spokesperson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the surcharge is 5,000 Vietnamese dong (US$0.21) for Grab's motorcycle taxi, and food and grocery deliveries, and 3,000 dong for its quick delivery service.

Nguyen Tuan, a Grab driver in Ho Chi Minh City, said the additional payment gave him and his colleagues an incentive, as they have to work regardless of weather conditions.

"If I don't work, where do I get money to eat? I make a living day by day," said Tuan, who puts in several hours a day as a food-delivery and motorcycle-taxi driver.

Platform companies offering delivery and ride-hailing services have come under increasing scrutiny for their planet-heating emissions linked to traffic congestion and packaging.

But there has been little discussion of how riders and drivers are dealing with extreme weather, as they often work long hours, waiting at street corners and outside restaurants for orders, and have limited access to medical care.

Only now is the issue starting to grab the public's attention as climate change brings more frequent and intense heatwaves and floods around the world, raising questions about the health impacts for the must vulnerable in the labour force.

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2022-07-21 02:46:00Z
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S'pore can expect frequent heatwaves in coming years: Experts - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - Singapore will not experience the weather phenomena causing deadly heatwaves in Europe and China this month but it can expect frequent heatwaves in the coming years, experts said on Wednesday (July 20).

Located in the equatorial region, Singapore is less vulnerable to the warming climate caused by large-scale, high-pressure systems such as those over Europe and East Asia, said Assistant Professor Wang Jingyu from the National Institute of Education, who studies land-atmosphere interaction, as well as regional and global climate modelling and application.

"The main reason for the heatwaves that prevail is the abnormal expansion and intensification of high-pressure systems," he said.

As Singapore is situated next to the equator, the island is not directly affected by temperate or subtropical anti-cyclones, which triggered heatwaves in India, said Associate Professor Koh Tieh Yong, a weather and climate scientist from the Singapore University of Social Science.

Temperate regions such as Europe and North-east Asia experience heatwaves when high-pressure systems, known as anti-cyclones, descend over them, said Prof Koh.

These anti-cyclones that originate over the North Atlantic Ocean, Tibetan Plateau or North Pacific Ocean have winds that bring hot air from subtropical deserts and the tropics to the temperate regions in summer, he said.

But Singapore can still experience heatwaves caused by drier weather.

Responding to queries from The Straits Times, the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS), under the National Environment Agency, said Singapore is more vulnerable to a heatwave when there is a strong El Nino - the abnormal warming of sea surface temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Singapore's last heatwave in 2016 was triggered by El Nino, which led to the hottest year here since temperature records started in 1929.

Prolonged dry and warm weather can also be triggered by a strong positive Indian Ocean Dipole event, MSS said. This refers to warmer sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean. The phenomenon has induced weather extremes such as the 2019 Australian bushfires and African floods.

Climate change is a common denominator that will worsen warming globally.

The heatwave sweeping across Europe is largely due to the Azores High - a slow-moving, semi-permanent high-pressure cell - usually located off Spain, said Professor Matthias Roth from the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore.

Temperatures have surged past 40 deg C in countries such as Britain and Spain due to the high-pressure system, which is extremely strong this year. More of such occurrences can be expected in the future.

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2022-07-20 12:35:16Z
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Commentary: Could Russia-Ukraine conflict derail Southeast Asia's decarbonisation efforts? - CNA

SINGAPORE: The Russia-Ukraine conflict has caused an exponential rise in the price of commodities, given that the two warring countries are key exporters of fossil fuels, food grains, fertilisers and metals. Disruptions in the supply of these commodities have drastically affected the global economy, including in Southeast Asia.

In 2020, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) imported 9.7 per cent of its fertiliser from Russia and 9.2 per cent of its cereals from Ukraine. According to the World Bank, the conflict will cause global prices of energy and food to rise by 50 per cent and 20 per cent respectively in 2022. The inflation rate for ASEAN as a group increased from 3.1 per cent in 2021 to 4.7 per cent in 2022.

COMMODITY CRISIS UNDERMINES CLIMATE AMBITIONS

In addition to stunting economic growth, the commodity crisis is already undermining Southeast Asia’s climate ambitions.

To reduce inflationary pressures, the Philippines recently doubled its fuel subsidy programme for public transport and also plans to increase the use of coal in electricity generation. Malaysia’s oil subsidies can reach more than US$6 billion this year, while Indonesia has ramped up coal exports. Thailand and Vietnam also recently increased fossil fuel subsidies.

ASEAN’s renewable energy target of 23 per cent by 2025 is also impacted by supply shocks of critical minerals that can enable the transition to green energy.

As economic sanctions against Moscow have not taken their full effect, Russia is still the world’s largest exporter of nickel and palladium. Nickel is an important component of batteries that power electric vehicles, while palladium is used to produce catalytic converters — a part of a car’s exhaust system that controls emissions.

Following United States sanctions on Russia, the price of nickel and palladium increased by as much as 60 per cent and 25 per cent respectively, which led to concerns about the economic viability of renewable energy technologies.

Ukraine is the world’s leading supplier of neon gas, which is used for producing semiconductors — critical components of electric vehicles and communication technologies.

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2022-07-19 22:07:30Z
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4-year-old girl dies after contracting Covid-19: MOH - TODAY

SINGAPORE — A four-year-old girl who contracted Covid-19 has died, marking the second death caused by the coronavirus in a patient aged below 12.

In a statement on Tuesday (July 19), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the four-year-old died from pneumonia on Sunday. She had no past medical history and was previously well.

“She developed symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection and fever on July 15, and tested positive for Covid-19 via an antigen rapid test on July 17 at a general practitioner clinic.”

The girl was prescribed medications for her symptoms but remained unwell and collapsed later that night.

The cause of death was later determined by the state coroner to be Covid-19 pneumonia, MOH added.

Pneumonia occurs when the lungs become inflamed or swollen, usually due to an infection. The air-filled sacs in the lungs responsible for absorbing oxygen are filled with pus and other fluids, making it difficult for oxygen to reach the blood. Breathing becomes difficult and body cells cannot function properly with little oxygen in the blood.

Last month, an 18-month-old Singaporean boy became the first death of a Covid-19 patient below 12 years old.

He died from encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) due to Covid-19 and viral infections due to the respiratory syncytial virus and enterovirus.

MOH said on Tuesday: “Children are generally more resilient to Covid-19 infections than adults and the elderly. Notwithstanding, Covid-19 infections can result in severe disease among children.”

The ministry, along with the Health Sciences Authority and expert committee on Covid-19 vaccination, have been studying the safety and effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines that have been formulated for young children under the age of five.

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2022-07-19 03:30:00Z
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US, allies cannot allow China to dominate raw materials, technologies: Yellen - CNA

SEOUL: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will call on Tuesday (Jul 19) for deeper trade ties among allies to fortify their supply chains, combat inflation and thwart China's "unfair trade practices" and efforts to dominate key raw materials and technologies markets.

Yellen will make the comments in a major policy speech in Seoul after touring the facilities of South Korean tech heavyweight LG Corp during the final leg of her 11-day visit to the Indo-Pacific region.

"We cannot allow countries like China to use their market position in key raw materials, technologies or products to disrupt our economy and exercise unwanted geopolitical leverage," Yellen will say, according to excerpts released by the Treasury Department.

Instead, Yellen will say, the United States and allies like South Korea should focus on "friend-shoring", or diversifying their supply chains to rely more on trusted trading partners, strengthening economic resilience and lowering risks.

According to the excerpts of her comments, Yellen will say doing so would sustain the dynamism and productivity growth that comes with economic integration, while helping to insulate citizens in the United States and South Korea from price increases caused by geopolitical risks.

Western powers have raced to end their over-dependence on China as a key supplier since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed the fragility of global supply chains and laid bare gaps in domestic capacities in key sectors.

Yellen will say the pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine - actions Moscow calls "a special military operation" - made clear the necessity of addressing supply chain vulnerabilities and working to reduce logjams and shortages that have driven prices higher around the world.

Friend-shoring offered the United States and its allies a way to preserve the best features of the rules-based global order, while addressing unfair Chinese trade practices and ensuring access to vital inputs and products - from medicine to semiconductors and electric vehicle batteries, she will say.

In her comments Yellen was set to highlight a series of investments that LG has recently made to expand the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries in the United States.

She will say the key to the new approach on trade required countries to properly account for and factor in the costs of overly concentrated supply chains , geopolitical concerns and value - rather than "overly focusing on costs".

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2022-07-18 09:56:21Z
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