Budget 2025: $800 CDC vouchers for every Singaporean household; Lim Tean slapped with fine, 6 weeks' jail for practising law without valid certificate: Singapore live news
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To help cope with the pressure of rising costs, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced during his Budget 2025 statement on 18 Feb that $800 worth of CDC vouchers will be disbursed to each Singaporean household. The first $500 will be given in May 2025, while the remaining $300 will be given in Jan 2026. For more information, read on.
Lawyer and opposition politician Lim Tean was slapped with a fine of $1,000 and six weeks' jail for practising law without a valid certificate. He was found guilty of three charges under the Legal Profession Act for acting as an advocate and solicitor without authorisation between 1 Apr, 2021, and 9 June, 2021.
Read more in our live blog below, including the latest local and international news and updates.
No Captain America: Cathay Cineplexes releases $100 movie vouchers in a bid to save its screens
Delta plane flips over, crash-lands at Toronto airport
Singapore expected to boost spending in Budget 2025
Budget 2025: $5 billion top-up for Changi Airport Development Fund
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced a top-up of $5 billion for the Changi Airport Development Fund during his Budget 2025 statement on 18 Feb.
This is to ensure that there are "sufficient resources to develop our air hub". PM Wong said that the air hub is "another key pillar of connectivity" for Singapore.
He added, "With the President's concurrence, the government will also provide a guarantee to Changi Airport Group. This will help to lower the cost of borrowings needed to develop Terminal 5 and supporting infrastructure in the Changi East."
PM Wong also said that Changi Airport Terminal 5 is set to break ground in the coming months.
"When completed, Terminal 5 will expand our airport's capacity by more than 50 per cent and will ensure that Singapore remains a critical getaway for global travel and trade," he said.
Cost of living has been a key issue for Singaporeans in recent years.
To help cope with the pressure of rising costs, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced during his Budget 2025 statement on 18 Feb that $800 worth of CDC vouchers will be disbursed to each Singaporean household.
The first $500 will be given in May 2025, while the remaining $300 will be given in Jan 2026.
Half can be used at supermarkets, while the other half at heartland merchants and hawkers.
PM Wong also announced more U-save rebates with eligible HDB households getting up to S$760 in utilities rebates this financial year. This is double the amount of regular U-Save rebates.
The issue of rising costs has been on PM Wong's radar and he has acknowledged it previously.
In a YouTube video posted on 2 Oct, 2024, PM Wong said, "My team and I will do everything we can to help you get through this difficult period."
During the Budget 2025 statement, he noted that while inflation "is expected to ease further this year, prices remain high".
PM Wong also shared that the Enhanced Assurance Package in 2024 has helped to "fully offset the effects of inflation for lower-income households, and to provide a significant cushion for middle-income households".
All eyes and ears are on the upcoming budget speech by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong as he is expected to focus on bringing down living costs and boosting social aid.
Singapore is likely to boost spending, offering more handouts to households and businesses ahead of the general election which has to be held by November 2025.
HSBC Holdings Plc economists Yun Liu and Madhurima Nag told Bloomberg that Singapore has seen higher revenues, thanks to a hike in the goods and services tax and robust economic growth in 2024. This means that the country probably has a larger-than-expected budget surplus in the fiscal year ending March.
The speech will be delivered in Parliament at 3.30pm on 18 Feb.
For more on what will probably be addressed in Budget 2025, read here.
A Delta Air Lines plane from Minneapolis crash-landed at Toronto Pearson Airport and flipped over. The accident occurred on Monday, leaving at least 18 injured, including a child.
The cause of the crash is not clear at the moment.
All 80 people on board were evacuated. Eighteen of them were conveyed to nearby hospitals, according to airport fire chief Todd Aitken.
Pearson CEO Deborah Flint told reporters, "At this time, we do not know of any of those passengers having critical injuries."
For more on the Delta plane crash, read here.
Cathay Cineplexes has sent out an S.O.S – literally.
The cinema chain, which recently had trouble paying rent of more than $2.68 million to various landlords, released $100 movie vouchers in an attempt to "Save Our Screens".
The vouchers comprises 10 movies with 10 sets of popcorn and bottled water. These would normally cost $223.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Cathay Cineplexes (@cathaycineplexes)
Pre-orders for the vouchers are available now but can only be redeemed from 21 Feb. The vouchers are valid from Mondays to Sundays, including eve of public holidays and public holidays.
According to the terms and conditions, the vouchers are only valid till 31 Dec, 2025.
The vouchers also cannot be used for 3D movies, film festivals, Tamil or Hindi movies, Ultima and Wave seats, movies screened at the Platinum Movie Suites, movie marathons, and special priced tickets.
So, what does that leave the viewers with?
A quick check on the Cathay website showed that the only Hollywood film they have is Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
The recently released Marvel Studios film Captain America: Brave New World is missing from their slate. However, this isn't the first time as Cathay Cineplexes didn't screen Deadpool & Wolverine either.
It's unclear if this trend will continue.
If you're more into Asian movies, then Jack Neo's latest Chinese New Year film I Want To Be Boss might be appealing. Otherwise, you can check out the Donnie Yen-led action flick The Prosecutor or Hong Kong drama film The Last Dance.
Lawyer and opposition politician Lim Tean was slapped with a fine of $1,000 and six weeks' jail for practising law without a valid certificate.
CNA reported that Lim, 60, intends to appeal and his jail term has been deferred to start on 3 March.
Senior District Judge Ong Hian Sun said that Lim had not shown any remorse before handing down the sentence.
Lim was convicted in July 2024 by Judge Ong after a trial. He was found guilty of three charges under the Legal Profession Act for acting as an advocate and solicitor without authorisation between 1 Apr, 2021, and 9 June, 2021.
His practising certificate was only issued on 10 June, 2021.
However, in the two months prior, Lim attended court hearings and submitted documents to the court without a valid certificate. He carried on or defended court proceedings for clients on 32 occasions.
Lim is the founder of the Peoples Voice party and the secretary-general of the People's Alliance for Reform, a grouping of opposition parties. He lost to the People's Action Party in the Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency during the 2020 General Election.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced a top-up of $5 billion for the Changi Airport Development Fund during his Budget 2025 statement on 18 Feb.
This is to ensure that there are "sufficient resources to develop our air hub". PM Wong said that the air hub is "another key pillar of connectivity" for Singapore.
He added, "With the President's concurrence, the government will also provide a guarantee to Changi Airport Group. This will help to lower the cost of borrowings needed to develop Terminal 5 and supporting infrastructure in the Changi East."
PM Wong also said that Changi Airport Terminal 5 is set to break ground in the coming months.
"When completed, Terminal 5 will expand our airport's capacity by more than 50 per cent and will ensure that Singapore remains a critical getaway for global travel and trade," he said.
Cost of living has been a key issue for Singaporeans in recent years.
To help cope with the pressure of rising costs, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced during his Budget 2025 statement on 18 Feb that $800 worth of CDC vouchers will be disbursed to each Singaporean household.
The first $500 will be given in May 2025, while the remaining $300 will be given in Jan 2026.
Half can be used at supermarkets, while the other half at heartland merchants and hawkers.
PM Wong also announced more U-save rebates with eligible HDB households getting up to S$760 in utilities rebates this financial year. This is double the amount of regular U-Save rebates.
The issue of rising costs has been on PM Wong's radar and he has acknowledged it previously.
In a YouTube video posted on 2 Oct, 2024, PM Wong said, "My team and I will do everything we can to help you get through this difficult period."
During the Budget 2025 statement, he noted that while inflation "is expected to ease further this year, prices remain high".
PM Wong also shared that the Enhanced Assurance Package in 2024 has helped to "fully offset the effects of inflation for lower-income households, and to provide a significant cushion for middle-income households".
All eyes and ears are on the upcoming budget speech by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong as he is expected to focus on bringing down living costs and boosting social aid.
Singapore is likely to boost spending, offering more handouts to households and businesses ahead of the general election which has to be held by November 2025.
HSBC Holdings Plc economists Yun Liu and Madhurima Nag told Bloomberg that Singapore has seen higher revenues, thanks to a hike in the goods and services tax and robust economic growth in 2024. This means that the country probably has a larger-than-expected budget surplus in the fiscal year ending March.
The speech will be delivered in Parliament at 3.30pm on 18 Feb.
For more on what will probably be addressed in Budget 2025, read here.
A Delta Air Lines plane from Minneapolis crash-landed at Toronto Pearson Airport and flipped over. The accident occurred on Monday, leaving at least 18 injured, including a child.
The cause of the crash is not clear at the moment.
All 80 people on board were evacuated. Eighteen of them were conveyed to nearby hospitals, according to airport fire chief Todd Aitken.
Pearson CEO Deborah Flint told reporters, "At this time, we do not know of any of those passengers having critical injuries."
For more on the Delta plane crash, read here.
Cathay Cineplexes has sent out an S.O.S – literally.
The cinema chain, which recently had trouble paying rent of more than $2.68 million to various landlords, released $100 movie vouchers in an attempt to "Save Our Screens".
The vouchers comprises 10 movies with 10 sets of popcorn and bottled water. These would normally cost $223.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Cathay Cineplexes (@cathaycineplexes)
Pre-orders for the vouchers are available now but can only be redeemed from 21 Feb. The vouchers are valid from Mondays to Sundays, including eve of public holidays and public holidays.
According to the terms and conditions, the vouchers are only valid till 31 Dec, 2025.
The vouchers also cannot be used for 3D movies, film festivals, Tamil or Hindi movies, Ultima and Wave seats, movies screened at the Platinum Movie Suites, movie marathons, and special priced tickets.
So, what does that leave the viewers with?
A quick check on the Cathay website showed that the only Hollywood film they have is Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
The recently released Marvel Studios film Captain America: Brave New World is missing from their slate. However, this isn't the first time as Cathay Cineplexes didn't screen Deadpool & Wolverine either.
It's unclear if this trend will continue.
If you're more into Asian movies, then Jack Neo's latest Chinese New Year film I Want To Be Boss might be appealing. Otherwise, you can check out the Donnie Yen-led action flick The Prosecutor or Hong Kong drama film The Last Dance.
Lawyer and opposition politician Lim Tean was slapped with a fine of $1,000 and six weeks' jail for practising law without a valid certificate.
CNA reported that Lim, 60, intends to appeal and his jail term has been deferred to start on 3 March.
Senior District Judge Ong Hian Sun said that Lim had not shown any remorse before handing down the sentence.
Lim was convicted in July 2024 by Judge Ong after a trial. He was found guilty of three charges under the Legal Profession Act for acting as an advocate and solicitor without authorisation between 1 Apr, 2021, and 9 June, 2021.
His practising certificate was only issued on 10 June, 2021.
However, in the two months prior, Lim attended court hearings and submitted documents to the court without a valid certificate. He carried on or defended court proceedings for clients on 32 occasions.
Lim is the founder of the Peoples Voice party and the secretary-general of the People's Alliance for Reform, a grouping of opposition parties. He lost to the People's Action Party in the Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency during the 2020 General Election.
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Cassidy may keep insisting that he is doing all he can to stand up for vaccines. But he already had his big chance to do so, and he blew it. Now, with the rest of America, he's watching the nation's vaccine future take a nosedive. So far, the senator hasn't appeared interested in any kind of mea culpa for his faith in Kennedy's promises. On Thursday, I caught Cassidy as he hurried out of a congressional hearing room. He was still reviewing the appointees, he told me and several other reporters who gathered around him. When I chased after him down the hallway to ask more questions, he told me, 'I'll be putting out statements, and I'll let those statements stand for themselves.' A member of his staff dismissed me with a curt 'Thank you, sir.' Cassidy's staff has declined repeated requests for an interview with the senator since the confirmation vote in January. With the exception of Mitch McConnell, every GOP senator voted to confirm Kennedy. 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Since then, Cassidy has continued to give Kennedy the benefit of the doubt. On Monday, after Kennedy dismissed all 17 members of the vaccine advisory committee, Cassidy posted on X that he was working with Kennedy to prevent the open roles from being filled with 'people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.' The senator has failed, undeniably and spectacularly. One new appointee, Robert Malone, has repeatedly spread misinformation (or what he prefers to call 'scientific dissent') about vaccines. Another appointee, Vicky Pebsworth, is on the board of an anti-vax nonprofit, the National Vaccine Information Center. Cassidy may keep insisting that he is doing all he can to stand up for vaccines. But he already had his big chance to do so, and he blew it. Now, with the rest of America, he's watching the nation's vaccine future take a nosedive. So far, the senator hasn't appeared interested in any kind of mea culpa for his faith in Kennedy's promises. On Thursday, I caught Cassidy as he hurried out of a congressional hearing room. He was still reviewing the appointees, he told me and several other reporters who gathered around him. When I chased after him down the hallway to ask more questions, he told me, 'I'll be putting out statements, and I'll let those statements stand for themselves.' A member of his staff dismissed me with a curt 'Thank you, sir.' Cassidy's staff has declined repeated requests for an interview with the senator since the confirmation vote in January. With the exception of Mitch McConnell, every GOP senator voted to confirm Kennedy. They all have to own the health secretary's actions. But Cassidy seemed to be the Republican most concerned about Kennedy's nomination, and there was a good reason to think that the doctor would vote his conscience. In 2021, Cassidy was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Donald Trump on an impeachment charge after the insurrection at the Capitol. But this time, the senator—who is up for reelection next year, facing a more MAGA-friendly challenger—ultimately fell in line. Cassidy tried to have it both ways: elevating Kennedy to his job while also vowing to constrain him. In casting his confirmation vote, Cassidy implied that the two would be in close communication, and that Kennedy had asked for his input on hiring decisions. The two reportedly had breakfast in March to discuss the health secretary's plan to dramatically reshape the department. 'Senator Cassidy speaks regularly with secretary Kennedy and believes those conversations are much more productive when they're held in private, not through press headlines,' a spokesperson for Cassidy wrote in an email. (A spokesperson for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) At times, it has appeared as though Cassidy's approach has had some effect on the health secretary. Amid the measles outbreak in Texas earlier this year, Kennedy baselessly questioned the safety of the MMR vaccine. In April, after two unvaccinated children died, Cassidy posted on X: 'Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no treatment for measles. No benefit to getting measles. Top health officials should say so unequivocally b/4 another child dies.' Cassidy didn't call out Kennedy by name, but the health secretary appeared to get the message. Later that day, Kennedy posted that the measles vaccine was the most effective way to stave off illness. ('Completely agree,' Cassidy responded.) All things considered, that's a small victory. Despite Kennedy's claims that he is not an anti-vaxxer, he has enacted a plainly anti-vaccine agenda. Since being confirmed, he has pushed out the FDA's top vaccine regulator, hired a fellow vaccine skeptic to investigate the purported link between autism and shots, and questioned the safety of childhood vaccinations currently recommended by the CDC. As my colleague Katherine J. Wu wrote this week, 'Whether he will admit to it or not, he is serving the most core goal of the anti-vaccine movement—eroding access to, and trust in, immunization.' The reality is that back channels can be only so effective. Cassidy's main power is to call Kennedy before the Senate health committee, which he chairs, and demand an explanation for Kennedy's new appointees to the CDC's vaccine-advisory committee. Cassidy might very well do that. In February, he said that Kennedy would 'come before the committee on a quarterly basis, if requested.' Kennedy did appear before Cassidy's committee last month to answer questions about his efforts to institute mass layoffs at his agency. Some Republicans (and many Democrats) pressed the secretary on those efforts, while others praised them. Cassidy, for his part, expressed concerns about Kennedy's indiscriminate cutting of research programs, but still, he was largely deferential. 'I agree with Secretary Kennedy that HHS needs reform,' Cassidy said. Even if he had disagreed, an angry exchange between a health secretary and a Senate committee doesn't guarantee any policy changes. Lawmakers may try to act like government bureaucrats report to them, but they have limited power once a nominee is already in their job. Technically, lawmakers can impeach Cabinet members, but in American history, a sitting Cabinet member has never been impeached and subsequently removed from office. The long and arduous confirmation process is supposed to be the bulwark against potentially dangerous nominees being put in positions of power. Cassidy and most of his Republican colleagues have already decided not to stop Kennedy from overseeing the largest department in the federal government by budget. Now Kennedy is free to do whatever he wants—senators be damned.
