Coldplay to perform in Singapore for 4 nights in January 2024

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The announcement comes days after Live Nation Singapore uploaded a teaser that featured promos of Coldplay’s tour playing on the screens of multiple buildings in Singapore.

Coldplay’s run at the National Stadium will make them the first act to play for four nights at the venue. Their Music Of The Spheres World Tour has sold over 7 million tickets, the most for any tour over the last two years, and has earned the band the Favorite Touring Artist award at the 2022 American Music Awards.

As part of the group’s sustainability initiatives, Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour has produced 47 per cent less carbon dioxide emissions than their previous stadium tour in 2016/2017. Five million trees have also been planted around the world, one for each concert-goer.

Artiste presales of the concert will be held on Jun 19 from 2pm to 11.59pm. To get in on this, fans will have to subscribe to the newsletter on Coldplay’s website by Jun 16.

General sales will then commence on Jun 20 from 2pm via Ticketmaster, with ticket prices starting from S$68, excluding booking fees.

The band has also announced that they’ll be releasing a limited number of Infinity Tickets, priced at the equivalent of US$20 (S$27), for the shows at a later date. These tickets aim to make the tour more accessible to fans. Restricted to two tickets per buyer, Infinity Tickets must also be bought in pairs (which will be located next to each other).

Besides Singapore, Coldplay will also be adding Manila and Bangkok to their ongoing tour – playing on Jan 19 and Feb 3, respectively.

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The Big Read: Buy local but at what price? Costlier Singapore produce could hamper quest for greater food security

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Mr Tan of Blue Ocean Harvest said that since 2021, Blue Ocean Group has established three food and beverage outlets specialising in Chinese cuisine, particularly fish soup, which uses fish harvested from the farm.  Mr Nicholas Goh, founder of Nature’s International Commodity, said that it “makes little sense” to pushContinue Reading

Govt eyes Unesco spot for late king

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The government yesterday approved an Education Ministry proposal to submit the name of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great to Unesco for listing among the world’s eminent personalities.

The aim is to mark the 100th anniversary in 2027 of the late king’s birth, said Education Minister Trinuch Thienthong.

She said the ministry set up a committee to gather information regarding His Majesty’s works, royal projects and royally initiated projects related to four major topics — education, sciences, culture and communications.

The committee also presented all the international awards the late king received for the proposal to submit to Unesco.

His sufficiency economy philosophy that offers guidelines to strengthen resilience in the face of challenges has been globally recognised.

He also had talents that included painting, sculpture, innovation and technology, sports, music, language and literature.

Ms Trinuch said the ministry wants to commemorate his 100th birthday by submitting the proposal next year for consideration at Unesco’s Executive Board Session and General Conference in 2025.

The ministry expects a decision will be announced in 2027.

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Why RBA is willfully damaging Australia’s economy

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Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe and his board have pushed up interest rates yet again – for the twelfth time in 14 months – because they want to damage the economy further.

Home prices have been climbing for three straight months – in March, April and May – instead of continuing to fall as they had been since the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) began pushing up rates in May 2022, a point the bank notes in its latest statement.

Employment, which in November the RBA predicted would grow 1.4% this financial year, is instead growing at an annual pace of 2.9%. In April, Australians worked more hours than ever before.

These aren’t signs of a depressed economy, and the Bank wants to depress the economy further to ensure it gets inflation down to where it wants it to be.

The governor’s written agreement with the treasurer requires him to deliver an inflation rate of 2–3% on average, over time.

Some of us are doing well, most are not

Parts of the economy are slowing. The statement refers to a “substantial slowing in household spending” (and Wednesday’s national accounts are likely to be grim) but the RBA’s concern is that the slowdown is uneven.

It says while some households are “experiencing a painful squeeze”, others have “substantial savings buffers.”

Those experiencing the squeeze are the 35% of households that are mortgaged. The 31% who rent aren’t doing too well either. By contrast, many of the 31% that own outright are doing well indeed.

Since the RBA began pushing up rates in May 2022, the typical interest rate on a new mortgage has doubled – climbing from 2.7% to 5.4%, adding roughly $1,000 per month to the cost of servicing a $600,000 mortgage. The latest decision will add a further $90. And yet home prices are turning back up.

Lowe wants to be sure

The RBA has pushed rates to a new ten-year high – and hinted strongly it will push them up again, saying “further tightening” might be required – not because it doesn’t think the economy isn’t slowing overall, but because it wants to make sure it keeps slowing enough to keep inflation heading down.

Inflation was 7% in the year to March, and 6.8% in the year to April. The RBA wants to get it down to its forecast of 6.3% for the year to June and to its forecast of 3% two years after that, and while it looks as if things are on track, it isn’t yet sure.

If it has to, it is prepared to push Australia’s unemployment rate up from 3.7% to 4.5% by late next year, putting perhaps an extra 100,000 people out of work. That’s what its board minutes predict.

It’s a decision that Treasurer Jim Chalmers says many Australians will find “difficult to cop.” The RBA’s job, in Chalmers’ words, is to “squash inflation without crunching the economy.”

Australia’s dollar doesn’t buy as much as it used to. Photo: Australian Federal Police

He could have added that Lowe is running out of time. Unless he gets an extension, his six-year term as RBA governor ends in September.

That gives him just three more board meetings to make sure inflation is heading back towards the RBA’s target of 2-3% before he hands over to his successor.

Lowe will get the official reading on inflation for the year to June on July 27. If it hasn’t fallen to the 6.3% the RBA expects, he is likely to increase rates again in August.

Minimum wage untroubling

Something that doesn’t seem to be giving Lowe much grief is Friday’s Fair Work Commission national minimum wage decision, trumpeted by the trade union movement as an above-inflation increase of 8.6%.

What the union movement didn’t say, but Lowe knows well, is that it is an increase hardly anyone will get. The only people who get the misleadingly named national minimum wage are those not already covered by awards, enterprise agreements or individual agreements – at a guess only 0.7% of the workforce.

So hard are these people to find the Commission says it is “difficult to identify in practical terms any occupations or industries” in which they are engaged.

What their wage rise will contribute to inflation will be next to nothing. The first part (an increase of 2.7%) changes the award wage they are linked to from what the commission now regards as an inappropriate classification of “C14”, which was originally a metal industry training wage, to “C13”, which is a non-training wage.

5.75%, but only for some

The second part of the increase applies to everyone on awards, some 20.5% of the workforce, which probably extends to 25% if you take into account other workers whose pay is linked to awards. It’s an increase of 5.75%, much less than inflation, and on Commission’s calculations should add only 0.6 percentage points to it.

Given that a wage increase of zero wasn’t tenable (even the employers asked for 3.5%) it means the wage increase a (low-paid) portion of us get in July won’t much impede the Bank’s attempts to bring down inflation.

The Commission believes employers can afford it. It says profits have “generally been healthy” in the private sector industries whose workers most rely on awards, singling out the accommodation, food services and retail industries, which employ one-third of workers on awards and have enjoyed “substantial increases in profits.”

Expectations are what matters

The wages of the rest of us who don’t rely on awards are largely determined by bargaining power and what we expect, as are the prices businesses charge, and it is here that the Reserve Bank is worried.

It wants to dent bargaining power by making sure it dents spending and employment, and it wants to make sure above everything else that high inflation doesn’t become entrenched in “expectations”, a point Lowe mentions twice in his eight-paragraph statement.

He says if high inflation does become entrenched in expectations, it will become “very costly to reduce later” requiring even higher interest rates and even higher unemployment.

Peter Martin is Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Young clay modeller taken under national artist’s wing

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Methasit Boonphoei, 10, poses with his mother, his certificate and some of his clay pictures at his school in Surat Thani province on Wednesday. (Photo: Supapong Chaolan)
Methasit Boonphoei, 10, poses with his mother, his certificate and some of his clay pictures at his school in Surat Thani province on Wednesday. (Photo: Supapong Chaolan)

SURAT THANI: A 10-year-old who builds pictures with modelling clay and sells them to help pay for his mother’s cancer treatment has caught the eye of a national artist, who has accepted him as his student.

He has also been recognised by provincial authorities.

Surat Thani governor Wichawut Jinto on Wednesday gave Methasit Boonphoei, a fifth grader at Manitanukroh School in Muang district, a certificate honouring his dedication to helping his parents.

The governor said Methasit had mastered clay modelling, winning awards and raising funds for his family, helping pay for this mother’s treatment for breast cancer, through sales of his artworks.

The youngster, also known as Khao Pan, lives in Kanchanadit district with his 42-year-old father, a latex tapper, and 44-year-old mother. He is an only child.

His mother, Kannika Phutsri, said her son had first shown an interest in Buddhist sculptures when he was only two years old.

During their visits to temples the boy had paid special attention to the Naga sculptures, and began building models of them at home from toy clay, she said.

On May 2 this year they had visited the White Temple in Chiang Rai province. Methasit had showed his latest Naga image to national artist Chalermchai Kositpipat, who built the temple, and sought his opinion, Ms Kannika said.

Chalermchai had been impressed, and he had invited the boy to be his student, Ms Kannika said.

The Surat Thani governor said Methasit had worked alone in developing his skill and helping his famliy, bringing high repute to himself, his family, his school and his province.

“Above all he has a good heart and shows gratitude towards his parents, and is a good model for other children and youth in general,” Mr Wichawut said.

The governor also gave a gift of cash to the boy, as moral support, and wished him success in the arts and continued good deeds in the future.

His mother earlier underwent surgery and is still receiving chemotherapy.

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Lee Kuan Yew Centennial Fund launched to support students and develop young leaders

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SINGAPORE: A fund that will support about 2,000 students each year to develop young leaders in Singapore was launched on Tuesday (May 30) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s birth.

Called the Lee Kuan Yew Centennial Fund, it was established with donations from private and people sectors and has collected over S$82 million (US$60.6m) to date.

The late Mr Lee was born on Sep 16, 1923. He died at the age of 91 in 2015.

Through the activities marking the 100th anniversary of Mr Lee’s birth, Singapore can reflect on Mr Lee’s values and principles and that of its founding generation of leaders, said Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his opening address at the launch.

“One enduring lesson is the importance of developing our young people, and helping them to realise their full potential, to be the best versions of yourselves. Because at the end of the day, our people are the only resource that Singapore has,” said Mr Wong.

“That’s why even in our early years, when we struggled to make ends meet, Mr Lee made investing in our people a top priority. He would regularly engage young people, encourage them to get involved in society and contribute to nation-building.”

The fund started as a ground-up initiative by business leaders to invest in and support the development of Singapore youth to “become visionary leaders with the imagination and determination to shape Singapore’s future as an exceptional nation”, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) in a press release.

The government will support this fund by providing a one-off dollar-for-dollar matching of donations for up to S$50 million (US$37m), said Mr Wong.

The fund will be managed under MOE’s Education Fund. It will be used to support the Singapore Young Leaders Programme, which was also launched by Mr Wong on Tuesday, and the Lee Kuan Yew Post-Graduate Scholarship for Urban Greenery and Ecology.

On top of that, it will also help expand the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship Awards, and provide additional support for up to 1,000 Institute of Technical Education and polytechnic students from disadvantaged backgrounds who “demonstrate resilience and potential”, said MOE in the press release.

The Singapore Young Leaders Programme will allow about 1,000 student leaders across the institutes of higher learning to participate in leadership modules held throughout the year, the press release read.

These include institution-based programmes such as the National University of Singapore’s Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum, the National Youth Council’s leaders course and engagement sessions with industry and government representatives.

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Actress Nurul Aini withdraws nomination from Pesta Perdana’s popularity award, saying ‘it’s time’ to do so

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In a TikTok video posted on Mediacorp’s page, the actress said: “I just found out I’m being nominated for Most Popular Female Personality and I think that, after being in this industry for 20 years, it’s time for me to withdraw myself from the award.”

Nonetheless, she expressed her excitement and eagerness “to know who the other nominees are”. She then ended the video by thanking fans for “still loving her even after 20 years”.

Nurul Aini burst onto the scene in 2002, after winning third place in Suria’s talent competition Juara. A few months later, she was offered a supporting role in the wildly popular Malay drama Cinta Bollywood, opposite Aaron Aziz and Suhaila Salam. In a career spanning over 20 years, she has won the Most Popular Female Personality award five times.

Following Nurul Aini’s withdrawal, netizens have praised her for “being humble”. One user even consoled her, saying “It doesn’t matter how many years you (have been in the) industry, you (still) deserve it”.

The 2023 Pesta Perdana Awards will air on Jun 17 on Suria and meWatch. Nominees have been announced here and include the likes of Malaysian veteran actress Fauziah Nawi and celebrity chef Shahrizal Salleh aka Chef Bob.

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Hong Kong singer Andy Hui will perform at Marina Bay Sands in July

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Cantopop aficionados in Singapore will be feasting well this July. Aside from Jacky Cheung’s concert, fans can also look forward to the recently announced Andy Hui show.

The Man Is The Most Painful singer will be performing at Sands Grand Ballroom, Marina Bay Sands on Jul 1. Hui’s upcoming show is part of his Human Live world tour, his first solo concert comeback after a three-year hiatus.

Hui, who is married to fellow celebrity Sammi Cheng, rose to stardom in 1986 when he got first runner-up in Hong Kong’s New Talent Singing Awards. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has released over 50 albums and received numerous accolades including Best Male Artiste at the 2001 Jade Solid Gold Awards. He made his acting debut in 1992 and has since appeared in over 30 films.

Tickets to Hui’s concert will go on sale on Wednesday noon (May 24) via Marina Bay Sands’ website – with prices ranging from S$88 to S$328, excluding booking fees. Sands Rewards LifeStyle members will even enjoy 10 per cent off ticket prices.

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DPM Wong receives top May Day award from NTUC

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SINGAPORE: Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong was on Monday (May 22) awarded the Medal of Honour, the top accolade at the annual May Day Awards organised by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).

The Medal of Honour is conferred on special individuals who have rendered distinguished services to the labour movement.

NTUC said that Mr Wong, who is also Finance Minister, has shown strong support for the efforts of NTUC and its unions. He also made “key decisions” that protected workers and their livelihoods.

These include setting aside S$100 million (US$74.4m) for NTUC to partner firms in setting up training committees and introducing the Jobs-Skills Integrator initiative to improve training and job matching for workers.

Mr Wong has also been advocating for better employment and wage conditions, especially for low-income and disadvantaged workers, said NTUC, citing the roll-out of the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme as an example.

The Workfare Income Supplement scheme was significantly enhanced, such as allowing younger workers to be eligible for payouts, while the extension of the Jobs Growth Incentive Scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic helped to encourage employers to hire Singaporeans, the labour movement added.

Besides these initiatives to improve the lives of workers, Mr Wong also worked closely with NTUC and its affiliated unions as their union advisor.

“He has been a strong advocate and supporter of workers and the tripartism model in Singapore, and continues to prioritise workers’ concerns as he leads the fourth-generation team in a challenging post-pandemic environment,” said NTUC president Mary Liew.

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