While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, May 4, 2025
PM Lawrence Wong (second from right), with his fellow Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC teammates (from left) Hany Soh, Zaqy Mohamad and Alex Yam, addressing supporters at Yio Chu Kang Stadium on May 4. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, May 4, 2025
PAP gets 65.57 per cent of votes in landslide win
Singaporeans have returned the PAP to power with 65.57 per cent of the popular vote, a commanding swing from its 61.24 per cent share in the last general election.
Voters overwhelmingly endorsed the ruling party, which secured 87 of 97 seats in an election that took place against a backdrop of global uncertainty and trade wars.
They gave Prime Minister Lawrence Wong the clear mandate that he had sought, in his first electoral contest as head of government and leader of the PAP.
Constituencies tipped to be fierce battlegrounds – Punggol GRC, Tampines GRC and Jalan Kayu SMC – were in the PAP's grip by 11pm, when all sample count results were in.
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Warren Buffett to retire from Berkshire Hathaway
Influential billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on May 3 he will retire from leading his Berkshire Hathaway business group by the end of the year and he will recommend that his chosen successor, Greg Abel, take over.
Mr Buffett's success, coupled with his ability to explain his thinking in clear soundbites, has made him highly influential in the business and financial communities, earning him the nickname 'The Oracle of Omaha.'
Several years ago, 94-year-old Mr Buffett had already indicated that the 62-year-old Mr Abel would be his pick for successor in an interview with CNBC.
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Zelensky says won't play Putin's 'games' with short truce
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed a three-day truce ordered by Russian leader Vladimir Putin as theatrics, but said Kyiv was ready for a full ceasefire.
Moscow said the truce, set to coincide with its World War II commemorations on May 9, was aimed at testing Kyiv's 'readiness' for long-term peace, accusing Mr Zelensky of making a 'direct threat' to events on the holiday.
The Kremlin rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire proposed by Kyiv and Washington in March, and Mr Putin has since offered little to end the three-year Russia invasion.
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Israeli military issues thousands of call-up notices
The Israeli military was issuing call-up notices to thousands of reservists on May 3 to support an expansion of its offensive in Gaza, Israeli media reported, after the prime minister announced that his upcoming visit to Azerbaijan was postponed.
The reservists will be deployed to Israel's border with Lebanon and in the occupied West Bank, replacing regular soldiers who will lead a new offensive in Gaza, the news site Ynet reported.
Earlier, the prime minister's office announced that Mr Benjamin Netanyahu was rescheduling his May 7-11 visit to Azerbaijan, citing recent developments in Gaza and Syria.
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Sabalenka beats Gauff to win third Madrid Open crown
World number one Aryna Sabalenka defeated Coco Gauff 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) on May 3 to win her third Madrid Open title.
The 2024 runner-up cruised past the American, ranked fourth, in the first set before digging deep in the second to triumph in a tie-break, sealing victory as Gauff double faulted.
Sabalenka recorded her tour-leading 31st victory on Madrid clay, adding the WTA 1000 trophy to titles in Brisbane and Miami.
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Ukraine's drone attacks temporarily halt flights in Moscow, across Russia
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Trump must tell Netanyahu ‘enough is enough': Ex-Israeli PM
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said the US has more influence on the Israeli government 'than all the other powers put together'. PHOTO: AFP PARIS - US President Donald Trump should tell Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu 'enough is enough', a former Israeli prime minister told AFP, denouncing the continuation of the war in Gaza as a 'crime' and insisting a two-state solution is the only way to end the conflict. Mr Ehud Olmert, prime minister between 2006-2009, said in an interview in Paris that the United States has more influence on the Israeli government 'than all the other powers put together' and that Mr Trump can 'make a difference'. He said Mr Netanyahu 'failed completely' as a leader by not preventing the Oct 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas that sparked the war. He said while the international community accepted Israel's right to self-defence after Oct 7, this changed when Mr Netanyahu spurned chances to end the war in March and instead ramped up operations. Mr Netanyahu 'has his personal interests which are prioritised over what may be the national interests,' Mr Olmert charged. Analysts say Mr Netanyahu fears that if he halts the war, hardline members of his coalition will walk out, collapsing the government and forcing elections he could lose. 'If there is a war which is not going to save hostages, which cannot really eradicate more of what they did already against Hamas and if, as a result of this, soldiers are getting killed, hostages maybe get killed and innocent Palestinians are killed, then to my mind this is a crime,' said Mr Olmert. 'And this is something that should be condemned and not accepted,' he said. Mr Trump should summon Mr Netanyahu to the White House Oval Office and facing cameras, tell the Israeli leader: ''Bibi: enough is enough'', Mr Olmert said, using the premier's nickname. 'This is it. I hope he (Trump) will do it. There is nothing that cannot happen with Trump. I don't know if this will happen. We have to hope and we have to encourage him,' said Mr Olmert. Despite occasional expressions of concern about the situation in Gaza, the US remains Israel's key ally, using its veto at the UN Security Council and approving billions of dollars in arms sales. 'Doable and valid' Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Militants abducted 251 hostages, 54 of whom remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 54,880 people, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, figures the United Nations deems reliable. Along with former Palestinian foreign minister Nasser Al-Qidwa, Mr Olmert is promoting a plan to end decades of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to create a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. Both sides would swap 4.4 per cent of each other's land to the other, according to the plan, with Israeli receiving some West Bank territory occupied by Israeli settlers and a future Palestinian state territory that is currently part of Israel. Ahead of a meeting in June in New York co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia on steps towards recognising a Palestinian state, Mr Olmert said that such a plan is 'practical, is doable, is relevant, is valid and is real.' Mr Olmert spent over a year in prison from 2016-2017 after being convicted in corruption scandals that ended his political career and efforts to forge peace. A longtime political rival of Mr Netanyahu even though they both emerged from the same Likud right-wing party, he also faces an uphill struggle to convince Israeli society where support for a Palestinian state, let alone land swaps, is at a low ebb after October 7. 'It requires a leadership on both sides,' said Mr Olmert. 'We are trying to raise international awareness and the awareness of our own societies that this is not something lost but offers a future of hope.' 'Get rid of both' Mr Al-Qidwa, who is due to promote the plan alongside Mr Olmert at a conference organised by the Jean-Jaures Foundation think tank in Paris on June 10, told AFP the blueprint was the 'only game in town and the only doable solution'. But he said societies in Israel and the Palestinian territories still had to be convinced, partly due to the continuation of the war. 'The moment the war comes to an end we will see a different kind of thinking. We have to go forward with acceptance of the co-existence of the two sides.' But he added there could be no hope of 'serious progress with the current Israeli government and current Palestinian leadership' under the ageing president Mahmud Abbas, in office now for two decades. 'You have to get rid of both. And that is going to happen,' he said, labelling the Palestinian leadership as 'corrupt and inept'. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
