SIA, Scoot flights affected as Typhoon Kong-rey lashes Taiwan

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SINGAPORE: Typhoon Kong-rey, one of the biggest storms to hit Taiwan in decades, caused the cancellation of several Singapore Airlines and Scoot flights on Thursday (Oct 31). 

One flight originally bound for Taipei was also diverted to Hong Kong due to weather conditions caused by the typhoon, said a Singapore Airlines (SIA) spokesperson. 

Flight SQ878 was carrying 309 passengers and 14 crew members.

The Boeing 787-10 landed “uneventfully” at Hong Kong International Airport at around 5.10pm local time, said the spokesperson. 

“SIA provided meals and issued meal vouchers to the affected customers on the ground.”

“SQ878 will be renumbered to SQ9875 and will depart Hong Kong for Singapore at 7pm on Oct 31. Hotel accommodation will be arranged for the affected customers in Singapore.”

A relief flight to fly affected passengers to Taipei after weather conditions have improved will also be arranged.

Another SIA flight, SQ879, was cancelled. It had been scheduled to depart Taipei for Singapore on Thursday evening. 

The SIA spokesperson encouraged customers to update their contact details via the “manage booking” function on its website or subscribe to a mobile notification service to receive updates to their flight status.

Typhoon Kong-rey also prompted Scoot, SIA’s low-cost subsidiary, to cancel three flights between Singapore and Japan that transit in Taipei. 

The flights are TR893, TR874 and TR875. 

“Scoot is contacting affected customers to re-accommodate them onto alternative flights, where available. Affected customers may also request for a full refund if they choose not to continue with their travel,” said a spokesperson in response to queries from CNA. 

The airline is monitoring the situation and will adjust its flight schedules as necessary, added the spokesperson. 

Typhoon Kong-rey made landfall on Taiwan’s east coast on Thursday, causing its airports to cancel more than 300 international flights as well as all domestic flights. 

It is forecast to graze along the coast of China’s Fujian province on Friday. 

One death in Taiwan has been reported in relation to the typhoon.

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Government does not target individuals, organisations for speaking out against death penalty: MHA

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SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Thursday (Oct 31) that it does not target individuals or organisations for speaking out against the death penalty.

But when false statements are made about government policy, which is a matter of significant public interest, it is important readers know that what they are reading is considered false by the government, it added.

The ministry was responding to CNA’s queries after activist Kokila Annamalai said she will not comply with a correction direction for her posts on Facebook and X on Oct 2 and Oct 3.

The posts had falsely stated that “the government schedules and stays executions arbitrarily and without regard for due legal process, and that the state does not bear the legal burden of proving a drug trafficking charge against the accused person”, said MHA.

MHA said it has already referred Ms Annamalai to the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) Office for investigations into her non-compliance.

Complying with a correction direction does not involve taking down original false statements, MHA explained. Instead, the government’s position is linked to the original statements through a correction notice. This is to alert readers and allow them to make their own judgments on truth and falsehoods.

If the government puts out an untenable position, the government’s credibility will suffer, it added. If the writer believes that she did not put out falsehoods, the POFMA Order can also be challenged in court.

“Ms Annamalai’s false statements relate to the criminal justice system. Her intent is to undermine public confidence in public institutions, in particular the criminal justice system. She is entitled to do so, based on facts., ” said MHA.

“But where she does so based on falsehoods, the government is entitled to a right of response.”

It added that the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), an activist group that campaigns against the death penalty and which Ms Annamalai has been working with, has on past occasions communicated similar falsehoods.

The government is therefore entitled under law to require Ms Annamalai to indicate that her statements have been the subject of a POFMA Order.

MHA said that this “promotes transparency, and a debate based on facts”.

“What Ms Annamalai is saying is that she should be able to set out falsehoods, to mislead the public (and thereby be allowed to affect public interest) without the public being alerted to her falsehoods in an effective way,” added MHA.

“TJC (which put out the falsehoods originally) has complied with the POFMA Orders. Ms Annamalai, who reposted the TJC posts, has chosen not to despite repeated reminders. Neither has she sought to legally challenge the Order.”

It also said that contrary to what Ms Annamalai suggested, the POFMA Order issued to her does not stop her from sharing her views. This is because readers can still read her original posts, consider the government’s clarification alongside them, and come to their own conclusion. 

“Ms Annamalai clearly prefers that her audience only be able to read her falsehoods,” said MHA.

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With new career-high world rank, Singapore’s Jason Teh keeps patient in search of first major badminton title

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SINGAPORE: Wrapped around Jason Teh’s left forearm is a tattoo he got three years ago reminding him of something close to his heart.

In cursive black font and with a shuttlecock at the base, it reads “Family”.

And if not for family, 24-year-old Teh might not be where he is today – at a career-high 37th in the world and in regular contention for his first major singles title.

Having started the year 61st in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) men’s singles rankings, Teh has made two semi-finals and reached four finals this year, propelling him up the standings.

He is the second-highest ranked men’s singles player in Singapore, behind compatriot Loh Kean Yew who is 14th.

A FATHER’S SACRIFICE 

Born in Penang, Teh got into the sport at the age of four when he accompanied his father, who played recreationally, to the neighbourhood courts.

“I was very active when I was young,” Teh told CNA. “I couldn’t sit still and that’s why I liked going for badminton because that could burn my energy.”

A few years later, Teh’s family moved to Johor Bahru to make it easier for his father, who was working in the F&B industry in Singapore, to commute to work.

Teh was studying in Montfort Junior School and this meant the pair had to get up in the wee hours of the morning to beat the traffic jams crossing the Causeway.

They usually arrived before the school gates opened, and Teh slept in the car until it was time for morning assembly. Eventually, his two sisters joined him on these trips when they too enrolled in Singapore schools.

When school was done for the day, Teh’s father was waiting outside to shuttle him back to Johor Bahru for afternoon badminton training sessions.

“He supported us a lot and really gave everything,” said Teh, who went on to study at Bowen Secondary School and then Singapore Sports School. 

It was this same support which was pivotal when Teh decided to stop school after Secondary 4 to focus on a full-time badminton career.

The option to further his studies by taking up a polytechnic course was on the table, but Teh felt that given his sports schedule, juggling school would have taken away far too much time.

Teh recalled how almost everyone tried to dissuade him, and he could not have made the decision if not for his father’s support.

“I didn’t dare to do it (at first),” Teh said. “He was so much more mature than me … and he guided me.”

Rather than being “half-half” on his budding sporting career, he decided to go all in.

“(My dad) said: ‘If in life you want to fight, you should just straight away go (and do it). If you’re scared of this and scared of that, you cannot succeed in one aspect.

“I’ll never regret (that decision).”

Teh served his National Service immediately after leaving school. His father eventually bought a home in Singapore where the family settled down in 2017 before Teh became a citizen two years later.

“It was good to enlist early so that I could start my career without anything (holding me back),” he explained. “That was when the pandemic hit and there were no tournaments for everybody, so I only lost out on being able to train.”

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Skiing through climate change: China’s latest indoor facility embraces sustainability

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Mr Greg Dingle, a researcher and educator focusing on sport and climate change at La Trobe Business School, questioned the sustainability of indoor ski resorts especially amid China’s climate pledges.

“Producing temperatures indoors that are cold enough for ski activities requires energy, lots of energy,” Mr Dingle said.

“Given the energy-intensity and likely tourist visitation of indoor ski resorts, my assessment is that they are likely not environmentally sustainable.” 

Other experts like Mr Liu Daizhong, East Asia director at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), noted severe environmental impacts which come with indoor ski resorts that use significantly higher energy and water consumption as compared to traditional outdoor ski lodges and resorts. 

“Climate change has a significant impact on the ski tourism industry,” Mr Liu told CNA, adding that indoor resorts were expected to operate all year round and “rely entirely on artificial snowmaking and cooling systems” which could lead to substantial electricity and water consumption. 

“Without effective energy-saving technologies, large-scale energy-intensive facilities like this could weaken China’s efforts to achieve its carbon neutrality goals,” Mr Liu said. 

Citing the example that if Chinese skiers are required to commute in a carbon-neutral manner to the resort, and stay in carbon-neutral accommodations, Mr Dingle believes it “perhaps is possibly consistent with the 2030 and 2060 climate commitments.”

When asked how L+SNOW resort could serve as a model for sustainable tourism, the operator told CNA that consumers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai previously had to fly to snowfields in Northeast China or even farther abroad, which “generated considerable carbon emissions during the trip.”

“But now, they don’t need to travel far to go skiing, making it more economical and energy-saving.”

Mr Ma, the ski instructor, says he sees a bright future for winter sports in China.

“Indoor ski resorts will have a positive impact … it’s not limited by seasons or weather, allowing more people to experience the joy of skiing at any time,” he said. 

“Skiing should focus more on popularising and promoting the sport to encourage greater participation, while simultaneously raising public awareness about environmental protection, contributing collectively to the preservation of our planet.”

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The world’s largest indoor ski resort has opened in China. How will this impact its climate goals?

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Mr Greg Dingle, a researcher and educator focusing on sport and climate change at La Trobe Business School, questioned the sustainability of indoor ski resorts especially amid China’s climate pledges.

“Producing temperatures indoors that are cold enough for ski activities requires energy, lots of energy,” Mr Dingle said.

“Given the energy-intensity and likely tourist visitation of indoor ski resorts, my assessment is that they are likely not environmentally sustainable.” 

Other experts like Mr Liu Daizong, East Asia director at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), noted severe environmental impacts which come with indoor ski resorts that use significantly higher energy and water consumption as compared to traditional outdoor ski lodges and resorts. 

“Climate change has a significant impact on the ski tourism industry,” Mr Liu told CNA, adding that indoor resorts were expected to operate all year round and “rely entirely on artificial snowmaking and cooling systems” which could lead to substantial electricity and water consumption. 

“Without effective energy-saving technologies, large-scale energy-intensive facilities like this could weaken China’s efforts to achieve its carbon neutrality goals,” Mr Liu said. 

Citing the example that if Chinese skiers are required to commute in a carbon-neutral manner to the resort, and stay in carbon-neutral accommodations, Mr Dingle believes it “perhaps is possibly consistent with the 2030 and 2060 climate commitments.”

When asked how L+SNOW resort could serve as a model for sustainable tourism, the operator told CNA that consumers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai previously had to fly to snowfields in Northeast China or even farther abroad, which “generated considerable carbon emissions during the trip.”

“But now, they don’t need to travel far to go skiing, making it more economical and energy-saving.”

Mr Ma, the ski instructor, says he sees a bright future for winter sports in China.

“Indoor ski resorts will have a positive impact … it’s not limited by seasons or weather, allowing more people to experience the joy of skiing at any time,” he said. 

“Skiing should focus more on popularising and promoting the sport to encourage greater participation, while simultaneously raising public awareness about environmental protection, contributing collectively to the preservation of our planet.”

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‘It’s good to have nerves’: Pro gamer Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz on Counter-Strike tournament finals

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To play the game, you must understand the way your teammates think and their behaviours. Are you as attuned to each other in real life?

Definitely a big part of building a solid team is getting to know each other, spending time outside the game.

I would say that even though we are a relatively new team playing together, we are quite close. A lot of the guys on the team have known each other for a long time.

It’s about getting to know each other outside the game, but also inside of the game. And it takes time to learn the thought process that’s going on in different situations.

How would you say your personality outside the game differs from – or is similar to – the way that you play the game?

Oh, that’s hard. I’d say it correlates quite well. At least inside of the game, I like to be vocal and take some of the important decisions.

Outside of the game, we don’t really do much other than play video games. So I don’t feel like I change character when I go into the game.

If you were not a professional gamer, though, what do you think you’d be doing?

Probably would have gone to law school. It’s just in the family. It’s a bloodline thing.

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IN FOCUS: Can more be done to deal with bullies in Singapore schools?

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SINGAPORE: It began with being ostracised, escalated to dropping out of school and came to a head when she was blackmailed into having sex.

The first signs appeared when Leah, who asked to use a pseudonym, was in Secondary 2 and part of a “squad” of about five students in their girls’ school.

But she was the odd one out; unable to relate and feeling excluded from conversations.

At that point, it had been a year since she was formally diagnosed with depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD – and made the mistake of confiding this to the group.

They promptly shunned her, spread word of her mental health struggles and shamed her for also harming herself. When confronted, they told her she was “too different” for their liking.

“At that time, it felt really cruel,” said Leah, now 22. “I was upset and I did feel betrayed.”

Pushed to the brink, she decided to drop out and enrol in a private institution to take her O-Levels.

But the girls weren’t done, with one of them threatening to tell Leah’s parents about her mental health issues unless she slept with the girl’s ex-boyfriend.

While perhaps less visible, Leah’s case was no less insidious than a spate of physical and visceral bullying instances that have surfaced in recent weeks. 

In September, a video of a Bukit View Secondary School pupil being taunted and kicked to the ground made online rounds, prompting police investigations.

A week later, an online clip of a Qihua Primary School student being assaulted by an older boy led to the arrest of five teenagers.

And earlier in October, a Meridian Secondary School pupil reportedly ruptured her right eardrum after being attacked by schoolmates.

According to the Ministry of Education (MOE) the average number of bullying incidents has remained “steady” in the last five years.

For every 1,000 students, there were an average of two incidents in primary schools and six incidents in secondary schools annually, for any form of bullying and both inside and outside school. 

Yet questions have since been raised, including by lawmakers, on whether schools and teachers are sufficiently equipped today to deal with bullying. If the answer is no, is it time then for other authorities such as the courts and the police to play a bigger role? And how do parents fit into the process?

While there may be policies and interventions in schools, bullying these days extends beyond the school to include the virtual environment, chairperson of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Education Patrick Tay told CNA. 

There are more situations where educators are unable to handle bullying and may even “put themselves at risk to threats and harms”, said Mr Tay, who’s Member of Parliament for Pioneer.

“It is therefore imperative that educators are not just equipped to handle such scenarios, but that law enforcement and other community services agencies beef up their capabilities to work with schools and the community, to combat egregious bullying behaviours and the bullies themselves who may be facing issues beyond the school environment.”

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Russian links in website blocked by Singapore government revealed in RSIS study

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SINGAPORE: Links between Russian sources and an inauthentic news site blocked by the Singapore government have been found by a new study from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

Released on Friday (Oct 26), the report titled Inauthentic Local Lifestyle And News Websites And The Challenge For Media Literacy was done by Mr Benjamin Ang, who heads the RSIS’ Centre of Excellence for National Security, and RSIS associate research fellow Dymples Leong.

It showed that the domain name of Alamak.io – one of the 10 websites identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) last week – has links to 5plus1.ru. The country-code top-level domain “.ru” is for Russian entities.

A reverse internet protocol (IP) search found that the 5plus1.ru website is associated with the same IP address as Alamak.io, the study showed.

“An online search on 5plus1.ru shows it to be linked to 5+1 Media, a Russian communications agency,” said Mr Ang and Ms Leong.

“The website states that it was founded in 2018 by graduates and teachers from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; and headed by founder Yuri Antsiferov.”

The site lists services such as targeted advertising, news monitoring and website development, with projects in the politics, fast-moving consumer goods, energy, government and tourism sectors.

The study also revealed that images on Alamak.io were obtained from Yandex, the largest search engine in Russia.

MASQUERADING AS LOCAL SITE

Through open-source tools, the RSIS duo could not identify the owners of Alamak.io, but found that the website was created on Mar 24 last year.

It masquerades as a Singaporean site by using the colloquial expression as its domain name and carrying Singapore-related news.

“‘Alamak’ is a colloquial word used in Singapore and Malaysia, often used as an interjection or expression to describe shock, worry, dismay, and disappointment,” said Mr Ang and Ms Leong.

“The usage of the term for the website appears to be intended to evoke familiarity and knowledge of the Singapore culture. It could also be so named to target at a Singapore or regional readership or demographic audience.”

Its news articles – which cover current affairs, lifestyle, trends and contributed opinions – were repurposed from other sources, including Singapore news outlets CNA and The Straits Times.

“Investigations found that the majority of the articles published on this website were likely to have been written with Al tools,” MHA and IMDA said last week.

“This website also published commentaries on sociopolitical issues, including one that falsely alleged that Singapore had allowed other countries to conduct their biological warfare research activities here.”

The website has also carried several articles written by Russia’s ambassador to Singapore Nikolay Kudashev, on issues such as Russia-ASEAN relations and with headlines like Replacing the Rules-Based Neocolonial Framework.

Mr Ang and Ms Leong noted that “many articles on Alamak.io were seemingly generated or written by artificial intelligence”, with a few articles deemed by AI detection software to have a probability of 98 per cent AI-generated text.

“This strongly suggests that the articles were AI-generated and raises questions about the lack of articles published by human authors on the website,” they said.

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Study finds Russian link to website blocked by Singapore government

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SINGAPORE: Links between Russian sources and an inauthentic news site blocked by the Singapore government have been found by a new study from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

Released on Friday (Oct 25), the report titled Inauthentic Local Lifestyle And News Websites And The Challenge For Media Literacy was done by Mr Benjamin Ang, who heads the RSIS’ Centre of Excellence for National Security, and RSIS associate research fellow Dymples Leong.

It showed that the domain name of Alamak.io – one of the 10 websites identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) last week – has links to 5plus1.ru. The country-code top-level domain “.ru” is for Russian entities.

A reverse internet protocol (IP) search found that the 5plus1.ru website is associated with the same IP address as Alamak.io, the study showed.

“An online search on 5plus1.ru shows it to be linked to 5+1 Media, a Russian communications agency,” said Mr Ang and Ms Leong.

“The website states that it was founded in 2018 by graduates and teachers from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; and headed by founder Yuri Antsiferov.”

The site lists services such as targeted advertising, news monitoring and website development, with projects in the politics, fast-moving consumer goods, energy, government and tourism sectors.

The study also revealed that images on Alamak.io were obtained from Yandex, the largest search engine in Russia.

MASQUERADING AS LOCAL SITE

Through open-source tools, the RSIS duo could not identify the owners of Alamak.io, but found that the website was created on Mar 24 last year.

It masquerades as a Singaporean site by using the colloquial expression as its domain name and carrying Singapore-related news.

“‘Alamak’ is a colloquial word used in Singapore and Malaysia, often used as an interjection or expression to describe shock, worry, dismay, and disappointment,” said Mr Ang and Ms Leong.

“The usage of the term for the website appears to be intended to evoke familiarity and knowledge of the Singapore culture. It could also be so named to target at a Singapore or regional readership or demographic audience.”

Its news articles – which cover current affairs, lifestyle, trends and contributed opinions – were repurposed from other sources, including Singapore news outlets CNA and The Straits Times.

“Investigations found that the majority of the articles published on this website were likely to have been written with Al tools,” MHA and IMDA said last week.

“This website also published commentaries on sociopolitical issues, including one that falsely alleged that Singapore had allowed other countries to conduct their biological warfare research activities here.”

The website has also carried several articles written by Russia’s ambassador to Singapore Nikolay Kudashev, on issues such as Russia-ASEAN relations and with headlines like Replacing the Rules-Based Neocolonial Framework.

Mr Ang and Ms Leong noted that “many articles on Alamak.io were seemingly generated or written by artificial intelligence”, with a few articles deemed by AI detection software to have a probability of 98 per cent AI-generated text.

“This strongly suggests that the articles were AI-generated and raises questions about the lack of articles published by human authors on the website,” they said.

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