Five members from team alphaQuality brought home US$3k
Trustless Badge Membership Protocol named Best Governance App
The Asia Pacific University Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Club (APUBCC) won Best Governance App ETH Seoul 2023, an Asian blockchain event from 2 to 4 June. It was only the only representative from a Malaysian university in a…Continue Reading
Thailand has been voted as the most likely country in Asia to enjoy a boom period in its content industry on the scale of the so-called Korean Wave.
At the Asia Video Summit 2023, held in Hong Kong by Asia Video Industry Association last week, 180 participants from 22 countries were asked to vote in e-polls.
When asked, “In the coming years, which market is most likely to emulate the regional success of the Korean content industry?”, 40% of respondents chose Thailand while 16% chose Mainland China and 13% chose Indonesia.
The participants come from the TV, streaming, marketing, telecommunications and technology industries, as well as policymakers and content creators.
Pirongrong Ramasota, commissioner at the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), who spoke in a session entitled Thailand’s Time, said Thai audio-visual content has won various prominent international awards and has been welcomed in various countries.
However, Thailand still lacks strategic support, partly due to inter-agency problems. The NBTC was ready to host talks among agencies to find a shared direction to promote Thai content production and distribution, she said.
Meanwhile, as the lack of level playing field between local and international digital platforms is hindering Thailand’s prospects, the NBTC aims to find ways to create a suitable ecosystem for free and fair competition.
Light-touch regulation and the promotion of self-regulation or joint community standards are possible measures, Ms Pirongrong said.
I’ve read so much in my youth that those stories still live in my head. I don’t feel the pull of new novels as I did when I was younger. Besides, between news and social media, reading a book can feel like more work.
I’m not alone. Studies show people are reading much less now with our devices, our brains attuned to constant stimulation and instant gratification, with information at our literal fingertips.
Ask the right question and Google will tell you the answer. As a person who used to hate knowing the endings of intriguing stories, I find myself on Wikipedia searching for exactly that.
Occasionally, I pick up one of the 30 books always surrounding me and pat it with great affection before indulging in a poem, short story, or essay I’ve read many times before. Reading a familiar piece offers bite-sized morsels of nostalgia and a sense of comfort, but that feeling doesn’t last.
If we want to read for pleasure again, it can be done. Our brains are wonderful, pliable things and we can rewire them to slow down and slip us back into other worlds, into other dimensions, down the rabbit hole.
It may feel uncomfortable initially, but read a little each day. Schedule time for it – first a chapter, then two.
Re-read your favourite books first. The familiarity helps immersion. Then, when you’re back to reading a novel all the way through again, try something new.
My plan is to reach old age and hopefully still have my eyes to enjoy reading once more. I just put reading for pleasure on my bucket list. It may not happen this year or next year, but one day I will.
Christina Sng is a poet-writer-artist and the first Singaporean to win three Bram Stoker Awards.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023
1. Central, Lima
2. Disfrutar, Barcelona
3. Diverxo, Madrid
4. Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo
5. Alchemist, Copenhagen
6. Maido, Lima
7. Lido 84, Gardone Riviera
8. Atomix, New York City
9. Quintonil, Mexico City
10. Table By Bruno Verjus, Paris
11. Tresind Studio, Dubai
12. A Casa Do Porco, Sao Paulo
13. Pujol, Mexico City
14. Odette, Singapore
15. Le Du, Bangkok
16. Reale, Castel Di Sangro
17. Gaggan Anand, Bangkok
18. Steirereck, Vienna
19. Don Julio, Buenos Aires
20. Quique Dacosta, Denia
21. Den, Tokyo
22. Elkano, Getaria
23. Kol, London
24. Septime, Paris
25. Belcanto, Lisbon
26. Schloss Schauenstein, Furstenau
27. Florilege, Tokyo
28. Kjolle, Lima
29. Borago, Santiago
30. Frantzen, Stockholm
31. Mugaritz, San Sebastian
32. Hisa Franko, Kobarid
33. El Chato, Bogota
34. Uliassi, Senigallia
35. Ikoyi, London
36. Plenitude, Paris
37. Sezanne, Tokyo
38. The Clove Club, London
39. The Jane, Antwerp
40. Restaurant Tim Raue, Berlin
41. Le Calandre, Rubano
42. Piazza Duomo, Alba
43. Leo, Bogota
44. Le Bernardin, New York City
45. Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Berlin
46. Orfali Bros Bistro, Dubai
47. Mayta, Lima
48. La Grenouillere, La Madeleine-sous-Montreuil
49. Rosetta, Mexico City
50. The Chairman, Hong Kong
In CNA’s video, chairman of China’s legislature Li Zhanshu was seen taking papers out of Mr Hu’s hand. Mr Hu was escorted out by an aide shortly after.
The unexpected development caught the world’s attention amid talk of a consolidation of power by President Xi.
It also provided a rare, candid glimpse into the inner workings of China’s Communist Party, where elite politics has become increasingly opaque.
Mr Wan was among the first to run into the auditorium at the Great Hall of the People to film the events at the Congress. The media had been in a holding area, and he recalled jostling for prime position with scores of other crew.
“As I was setting up the tripod and the camera, I saw something unusual, some movements on stage, so I quickly rolled my camera to record it … It didn’t occur to me that this would be exclusive news,” Mr Wan said.
“As a visual journalist, I often have a stronger sense of news because of my curiosity. I am very happy to receive this honour.”
The exclusive video chalked up more than a million views within 24 hours after it was published on CNA’s YouTube and Facebook platforms.
A story analysing the video by CNA China correspondent Olivia Siong was also top-read that week, with well over 320,000 page views.
“This is a story that more than six months on, remains significant, puzzling and intriguing. And one we will definitely remember for long time,” Ms Siong said after the awards, which were announced at a ceremony in Hong Kong.
“We are grateful to have a front-row seat to history and to tell various facets of China’s story as it gets increasing attention from the world,” she added.
“We don’t take this responsibility lightly and this story has reinforced how important it is to us to expect the unexpected. This recognition will definitely be a boost to us as we press on in our reporting on China.”
Expose startups to US peers pitching styles, creating links with US investors
Trip gives Sidec confidence of seeing substantial investments within Selangor with PNSB
Mission statements and goals set by public agencies are a dime a dozen and can be adjusted for convenience. But, launched in 2015, the Selangor Information Technology & Digital Economy…Continue Reading
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.