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Straits Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
UK police arrest 55 at parliament rally for banned Palestine Action group
Find out what's new on ST website and app. A detained demonstrator sits inside a police van, following a protest in support of the Palestine Action group in Parliament Square in London, Britain, July 19, 2025. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes LONDON - Fifty-five people were arrested at a rally for the banned Palestine Action group outside Britain's parliament on Saturday, London's Metropolitan Police said. The crowd in Parliament Square had been waving placards supporting the group that was banned this month under anti-terrorism legislation, the force said in a post on X. People from the rally, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, were taken away in police vans. British lawmakers proscribed the group earlier this month after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain's support for Israel. Membership of Palestine Action now carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years. The group has called the decision "authoritarian", and a challenge to the ban will be heard at London's High Court on Monday. Palestine Action is among groups that have regularly targeted defence firms and other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Mindef, SAF units among those dealing with attack on S'pore's critical information infrastructure Asia How China's growing cyber-hacking capabilities have raised alarm around the world Singapore Vessels from Navy, SCDF and MPA to debut at Marina Bay in NDP maritime display Singapore 1 dead, 1 injured after dispute between neighbours in Yishun HDB block Asia Autogate glitch at Malaysia's major checkpoints causes chaos for S'porean and foreign travellers Asia SIA, Scoot, Cathay Pacific cancel flights as typhoon nears Hong Kong Singapore A deadly cocktail: Easy access, lax attitudes driving Kpod scourge in S'pore Singapore 'I thought it was an April Fool's joke': Teen addicted to Kpods on news that friend died Police have arrested scores of the group's supporters at rallies across Britain since the ban came in REUTERS
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Theatre review: Dido & The Belindas a safe party for the abandoned
Dido & The Belindas T:>Works 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road July 18, 9pm Part of the fun of this is in the late-night, underground ambience, the audience dragging their chairs round little cocktail tables, bottles of drinks already flowing. In a theatre scene more familiar with the cushy theatres of the Esplanade or Wild Rice, here is immediately a sense of possibility. Then Singapore drag queen Becca D'Bus strides onto the runway stage, plumped up with heaps of garment and wearing as her crown a tin foil-lined helmet of antenna, belting aria: 'Ah! Belinda, I am press'd... Peace and I are strangers grown.' The lament from Henry Purcell's 1689 opera Dido And Aeneas is mournfully sung by American lyric tenor Thomas Michael Allen, equally heavily made-up and sat amid the audience in a high chair. D'Bus mouths the words in sync, gesticulating mockingly, sometimes impatient. The clash of aesthetics is at once brazen but also familiar to drag culture, where model poses in the photo shoots of vogue and the boldest fashion pieces have always been appropriated to glamorise and empower. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Mindef, SAF units among those dealing with attack on S'pore's critical information infrastructure Asia How China's growing cyber-hacking capabilities have raised alarm around the world Singapore Vessels from Navy, SCDF and MPA to debut at Marina Bay in NDP maritime display Singapore 1 dead, 1 injured after dispute between neighbours in Yishun HDB block Asia Autogate glitch at Malaysia's major checkpoints causes chaos for S'porean and foreign travellers Asia SIA, Scoot, Cathay Pacific cancel flights as typhoon nears Hong Kong Singapore A deadly cocktail: Easy access, lax attitudes driving Kpod scourge in S'pore Singapore 'I thought it was an April Fool's joke': Teen addicted to Kpods on news that friend died Here it is, attracting a theatre crowd, set to the twangs of the harpsichord played by Japanese musician Toru Yamanaka. Dido & The Belindas is the theatre part of theatre company T:>Works' celebration of its 40th anniversary. Under the DnA Fest umbrella, it is a third of a trilogy that also includes a film and an afterparty, which people can experience together or in parts. Each is an inflection on the classic story of spurned love and duty, originally told in Virgil's Aeneid, but wrenched in radical directions by artistic director Ong Keng Sen. So Dido & The Belindas becomes set to the key of abandonment and societal ostracisation, in a kind of whiplash roulette that both truncates the opera and expands its relevance. Greek hero Aeneas is an afterthought, cast as an easily turned-on chandelier. Dido's closest companion Belinda becomes a tribe of misfits – including a confessional intersex character – though the show really tries to centre itself on the real-life story of wheelchair-bound Singaporean Valerie Eng, also known as V4LCY, paralysed from the waist down after a suicide attempt. The heft of the show brings the fantastical fun of the opera back down to earth. Carthage queen Dido D'Bus signposts: 'This is here. This is now.' She becomes facilitator to a live video call with V4LCY, during which the now para-athlete reads her poems and rehashes an interview she did with local media channel Our Grandfather Story. Of course, like Dido, she once chose to die rather than suffer a lack of love, an act rehabilitated to become a brave one here, reaffirming the fundamental right to hugs and care. This reviewer is reminded of British author Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2020), in which the novelist writes: 'Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time.' This can be seen as a painful rejoinder. T:>Works' Dido & The Belindas. PHOTO: DEBBIE Y And of course, more meta-textually, there is a reordering of priorities from the original, which centres on Aeneas' higher duty of founding the city of Lavinium, his descendants later founding Rome – that city of riches, violence, slavery and eventual imperialism. In Dido And Aeneas is also an alternative path for the modern world: What if Aeneas, instead of leaving, had stayed to nurse his tendresse? The ceding of this space to V4LCY is telling of director Ong's priorities, given that it inevitably takes the spirited momentum of the show down a notch. The attempt to kick-start it again after this is a difficult transition for audiences, which is a shame, with the next florid, durian-filled funeral offering some of the best tableaus and cathartic weeping. But the point of Dido & The Belindas is really not in acting or conventional theatre. Through the rough sketches of a known story, it builds solidarities, between theatre and drag culture, between queerness and other axes of exclusion. In the Arcimboldo-esque fruit and gimp mask showpiece costumes designed by D'Bus and Khairullah Rahim, the final hurrah of 1998 gay anthem Believe by American singer Cher, and the pushing of the singular Belinda to the plural, it manages to create the safest of spaces. And is that not the point of theatre, which has allowed generations of those who have felt a tiny bit left out of the mainstream to discover confidence in who they are? Book It/Dido & The Belindas
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
1 dead, 1 injured after dispute between neighbours in Yishun HDB block
Find out what's new on ST website and app. The police and the SCDF said they were contacted about an incident at Block 334B Yishun Street 31 at about 5.20pm on July 19. SINGAPORE - A man died and another man was conscious when taken to the hospital on July 19, with preliminary investigations pointing to a dispute between two neighbours in a Yishun HDB block. The police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said they were contacted about an incident at Block 334B Yishun Street 31 at about 5.20pm. 'When officers arrived, they found an injured 53-year-old man in his residential unit and a 44-year-old man lying motionless at the foot of the block,' police said. 'Preliminary investigations revealed that the men, who are neighbours residing at the said block, were involved in a prior dispute along the corridor. Arising from the dispute, the 44-year-old man allegedly injured the 53-year-old man with a knife.' The 44-year-old man was subsequently found lying motionless at the foot of the block and was pronounced dead at the scene by an SCDF paramedic. The 53-year-old man was conscious when taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. The police said they do not suspect foul play, based on preliminary investigations. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Mindef, SAF units among those dealing with attack on S'pore's critical information infrastructure Asia How China's growing cyber-hacking capabilities have raised alarm around the world Singapore Vessels from Navy, SCDF and MPA to debut at Marina Bay in NDP maritime display Asia Autogate glitch at Malaysia's major checkpoints causes chaos for S'porean and foreign travellers Asia SIA, Scoot, Cathay Pacific cancel flights as typhoon nears Hong Kong Singapore A deadly cocktail: Easy access, lax attitudes driving Kpod scourge in S'pore Singapore 'I thought it was an April Fool's joke': Teen addicted to Kpods on news that friend died Police investigations are ongoing.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Straits Times
Schmidt proud of Wallabies fightback despite first test loss
BRISBANE - Australia coach Joe Schmidt conceded that the British & Irish Lions deserved to win the first test on Saturday but thought the Wallabies fightback in the final quarter proved they were developing. After being dominated by the Lions for an hour, tries from replacements Carlo Tizzano and Tate McDermott got the Wallabies within eight points of the tourists and Schmidt thought they were unlucky not to have a couple more. Schmidt has been clear throughout his year in charge that his team are a development project and thought it a sign of progress that they fought back rather than folded. "I just think that this time last year, I think we probably would have melted, but I love the way this team is developing," he said after the 27-19 defeat at Lang Park. "I felt like we fought our way back into the game. I felt if we could get within one score, then you never know what can happen. "I'm not saying the Lions didn't deserve to win it, because I feel that they did on the balance of what they did in that first half. "We'll have a look in the cold light of day and be a little bit more analytical, but very proud of the way the players fought their way back." Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Mindef, SAF units among those dealing with attack on S'pore's critical information infrastructure Asia How China's growing cyber-hacking capabilities have raised alarm around the world Singapore Vessels from Navy, SCDF and MPA to debut at Marina Bay in NDP maritime display Asia Autogate glitch at Malaysia's major checkpoints causes chaos for S'porean and foreign travellers Asia SIA, Scoot, Cathay Pacific cancel flights as typhoon nears Hong Kong Singapore A deadly cocktail: Easy access, lax attitudes driving Kpod scourge in S'pore Singapore 'I thought it was an April Fool's joke': Teen addicted to Kpods on news that friend died Singapore Why hiring more teachers makes sense, even with falling student numbers Schmidt handed a first test start to flyhalf Tom Lynagh and a debut to flanker Nick Champion de Crespigny and thought both acquitted themselves well. The New Zealander said loose forward Rob Valetini and lock Will Skelton would be fit to return for the second test in Melbourne next week, which might help the Wallabies compete physically with the Lions. "Some of our collision area work has to be better, just because we know they're coming so hard there," he said. "As I mentioned earlier, there were a few things in the lineout that I think we can tidy up. And I thought, in contrast, I thought the scrum was very strong." Schmidt was pleased with the impact of his bench in the last quarter and thought there were some other positives to take to Melbourne, when the Wallabies will be playing to stay alive in the three-match series. "We weren't far away," he said. "I think the team grew into the game. I think they did show a desperation to defend our line and to be in as many of the contests for position as they could be. "And I do think if we can just improve our accuracy, it will help us to be competitive." REUTERS
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Japan heads to polls in key test for PM Ishiba
Find out what's new on ST website and app. Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), raises his fist from atop the campaigning bus on the last day of campaigning for the July 20 upper house election, in Tokyo, Japan July 19, 2025. REUTERS/Manami Yamada TOKYO - Japanese voters could unleash political turmoil as they head to the polls on Sunday in a tightly contested upper house election, with rising prices and immigration concerns threatening to weaken Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's grip on power. Opinion polls suggest Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner Komeito may fall short of the 50 seats needed to retain control of the 248-seat upper house of parliament in an election where half the seats are up for grabs. The polls show smaller opposition parties pushing for tax cuts and increased public spending are set to gain, among them the right-wing Sanseito, which vows to curb immigration, oppose foreign capital inflows and reverse gender equality moves. A poor showing by the coalition could shake investor confidence in the world's fourth-largest economy and disrupt critical trade talks with the United States, analysts said. Ishiba may have to choose between making way for a new LDP leader or scrambling to secure the backing of some opposition parties with policy compromises, said Rintaro Nishimura, an associate at the Asia Group in Japan. "Each scenario requires the LDP and Komeito to make certain concessions, and will be challenging, as any potential partner has leverage in the negotiations." After the election Japan faces a deadline of August 1 to strike a trade deal with the United States or face punishing tariffs in its largest export market. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Mindef, SAF units among those dealing with attack on S'pore's critical information infrastructure Asia How China's growing cyber-hacking capabilities have raised alarm around the world Singapore Vessels from Navy, SCDF and MPA to debut at Marina Bay in NDP maritime display Asia Autogate glitch at Malaysia's major checkpoints causes chaos for S'porean and foreign travellers Asia SIA, Scoot, Cathay Pacific cancel flights as typhoon nears Hong Kong Singapore A deadly cocktail: Easy access, lax attitudes driving Kpod scourge in S'pore Singapore 'I thought it was an April Fool's joke': Teen addicted to Kpods on news that friend died Singapore Why hiring more teachers makes sense, even with falling student numbers Such import levies could squeeze the economy and further pressure the government to give financial relief to households already reeling from inflation, such as a doubling of rice prices since last year. With an eye on a jittery government bond market, the LDP has called for fiscal restraint, rejecting opposition calls for major tax cuts and welfare spending to soften the blow. Ishiba's administration lost its majority in the more powerful lower house in October. As the LDP's worst showing in 15 years, the outcome roiled financial markets and left the prime minister vulnerable to no-confidence motions that could topple his administration and trigger a fresh general election. Ruled by the LDP for most of the post-war period, Japan has so far largely avoided the social division and fracturing of politics seen in other industrialised democracies. Voting ends at 8 p.m. (1100 GMT), when media are expected to project results based on exit polls. REUTERS
