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A massive power outage at the Woodlands checkpoint in Singapore caused a heavy traffic jam on most major roads leading to the Malaysian checkpoint in Johor Bahru on Wednesday. Although all counters were operating at optimum level at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex in the southern state of Johor, the jam lasted for many hours due to a build-up of vehicles from the Singapore side. It is learnt that the issue started at about noon on the Singapore side. A...

Commentators abroad wondered what President Trump’s electoral losses might mean for oil prices, the war on Iran and the future of American politics.

The Democratic Party’s sweeping midterm election victory and takeover of both houses of Congress could slow down the pace of artificial intelligence development in the US, with implications for both the global AI trade and the technology rivalry between Washington and Beijing, analysts said. The assessment comes as concerns about AI and the data centres that power it proved to be a contributing factor in the backlash against the Republican Party and US President Donald Trump, a vocal supporter...

The refund is small – 10 Singapore cents (8 US cents) per bottle – for each return under Singapore’s Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS). But the uproar is big. Since BCRS reverse vending machines became fully operational on October 1, Singapore’s social media has been flooded with videos and posts criticising people for raiding bins and holding up others by returning containers by the bag-load. A recent controversy was sparked by a post on October 28 showing two town council workers...

India’s ambitious plans to construct high-speed railways, metro networks and strategic roads through the Himalayas could be hampered by China’s proposed restrictions on tunnel-boring machines, exposing a dependence on foreign technology that New Delhi may find difficult to overcome. Experts say while the curbs are unlikely to halt construction, they could slow major projects and have intensified calls for India to develop its own advanced tunnelling equipment. The restrictions also threaten to...

Philippine police said on Wednesday that three memory cards and a mobile phone turned over by the son of Meghan Markle’s estranged father contained child sexual abuse material. Last week, Philippine police said they were investigating a laptop found alongside images of child abuse at an alleged former residence of Thomas Markle, whose daughter is married to Britain’s Prince Harry. Philippine interior minister Jonvic Remulla said at the time the country planned to take “appropriate legal actions”...

Singapore’s parliament on Wednesday passed tougher penalties against companies responsible for forest fires in Indonesia, including curbs on related business dealings, as the city state doubles down on enforcement following one of its worst haze episodes in more than a decade. The amended Transboundary Pollution Haze Act will see penalties on such companies increase tenfold to a maximum fine of S$1 million (US$780,000) a day, capped at a total of S$20 million. The Act has been invoked twice...

DeepSeek is committed to open-source artificial intelligence to accelerate the arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI), even if it heightens safety risks, a company engineer says, defying growing safety concerns from the US and scrutiny in China over whether the strategy poses national security risks. Speaking on Tuesday on an AI panel at the World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, DeepSeek engineer Gao Xi said open-source development promoted shared innovations and technical...

A senior Indonesian diplomat said on Wednesday that dialogue “must not stop” among Asean members, amid a diplomatic row between Jakarta and Singapore over transboundary haze. Ties between the Southeast Asian neighbours have been tense after wildfires in Indonesia blanketed the city state in toxic smog for months. Complaints from Singapore over the air quality were met with sharp rebukes from Indonesian officials. Despite a visit to Jakarta by Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian...

Lawyers for Malaysia’s jailed former prime minister Najib Razak on Wednesday dismissed speculation about his imminent transfer to house arrest, as his former ruling party struggles to raise the 50 million ringgit (US$12.3 million) fine needed to bring him home. The rumours came as Najib’s United Malays National Organisation (Umno) seeks to build on recent electoral victories, with analysts saying his return to house arrest could give the party a boost among supporters ahead of the next general...

Indonesia has called on Russia to stop recruiting its citizens to fight in Ukraine, but the appeal may prove ineffective unless President Prabowo Subianto directly pressures his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the issue, analysts have said. On Sunday, Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Yvonne Mewengkang said: “The Indonesian government asked the Russian government to take all necessary steps to ensure that no Indonesians will be recruited into the Russian military or any...

An Indonesian military helicopter carrying eight people on a firefighting mission crashed in waters off Borneo island on Wednesday, killing a crew member, the army said. The Southeast Asian archipelago has for months been struggling to control wildfires that have burned through large swathes of Sumatra, Borneo and Papua islands, causing choking haze that drifted to neighbouring Malaysia, East Timor and Singapore. The helicopter took off on Wednesday morning from Seruyan district in Borneo’s...