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Straits Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Arteta calls Arsenal's defending 'naive' after Villarreal loss
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Arsenal were naive in their defending and paid a painful price, manager Mikel Arteta said after his side's 3-2 friendly defeat against Villarreal left them with back-to-back pre-season losses. Arsenal, who started their preparations for the new season with victories over AC Milan and Newcastle United before losing to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, found themselves trailing 2-0 inside 33 minutes against Spanish side Villarreal at the Emirates on Wednesday. "Today I think the result is painful. I think they were super efficient but we've been naive, especially the way we have defended in open spaces and that's something that, especially the way we play, we have to absolutely nail," Arteta told reporters. "Today we haven't been good at all in that department and that has cost us the game for sure." Arteta, however, was pleased with what he saw from striker Viktor Gyokeres, who completed his 63.5 million euros ($74.14 million) switch from Sporting last month, after handing the 27-year-old Swede his first start in an Arsenal shirt. "I think it was very important for him to start a match and start to have the feeling and the connection with the team," Arteta said. "He's been with us only a week or so, but I really saw a lot of things and a lot of purpose, especially the way he was attacking certain spaces." Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Some ageing condos in Singapore struggle with failing infrastructure, inadequate sinking funds Singapore Wastewater overflow in Bedok and Chai Chee due to choked sewer at BTO worksite: PUB Singapore Water gel guns among newer tools NParks uses to manage monkeys in estates Singapore Teen's love of dance powers her through cancer to perform at NDP2025 Life Feeling extra patriotic? Here are 7 other SG60 songs beyond official NDP theme Here We Are Singapore Man handed three vaping-related charges including importing 3,080 pods Business DBS shares hit record-high after Q2 profit beats forecast on strong wealth fees, trading income World Trump's 100% semiconductor tariffs may hit chipmakers in Singapore, other SEA nations Arteta also heaped praise on highly rated 15-year-old attacking midfielder Max Dowman, who won a penalty for Arsenal. "He continues to impress, without a doubt. The impact he had in the game again today, the efficiency that he shows in every attack and action, it's incredible," the Spaniard added. REUTERS
Straits Times
6 days ago
- General
- Straits Times
Gaza father grieving loss of child to malnutrition scrambles to save siblings
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Palestinian mother Amira Muteir holds the hand of her five-month-old baby Ammar, whom she says is wasting away from malnutrition, in Gaza City, August 5, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa GAZA - Ibrahim al-Najjar said he lost his five-year-old son Naim to malnutrition that is ravaging Gaza. One year later, he is still grieving while scrambling to make sure his other children don't suffer the same fate. "This child will follow him," the Palestinian former taxi driver said, pointing to his 10-year-old son Farah. "For about a month he's been falling unconscious. This child was once double the size he is now." Najjar, 43, held up a medical certificate that shows Naim died on March 28, 2024. The whole family has been displaced by nearly two years of Israeli air strikes. The Najjars had been used to eating three meals a day before the war broke out in October 2023 - after Hamas-led Palestinian militants attacked Israel - but now they can only dream of even simple foods such as bread, rice, fruit and vegetables. Naim's brother Adnan, 20, focuses on taking care of his other brothers, rising every morning at 5:30 a.m. to wend his way gingerly through Gaza's mountains of rubble to find a soup kitchen as war rages nearby. "I swear I don't have salt at home, I swear I beg for a grain of salt," said Naim's mother Najwa, 40. "People talk about Gaza, Gaza, Gaza. Come see the children of Gaza. Those who do not believe, come see how Gaza's children are dying. We are not living, we are dying slowly," she said. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Some ageing condos in Singapore struggle with failing infrastructure, inadequate sinking funds Singapore Wastewater overflow in Bedok and Chai Chee due to choked sewer at BTO worksite: PUB Singapore Water gel guns among newer tools NParks uses to manage monkeys in estates Singapore Teen's love of dance powers her through cancer to perform at NDP2025 Life Feeling extra patriotic? Here are 7 other SG60 songs beyond official NDP theme Here We Are Singapore Man handed three vaping-related charges including importing 3,080 pods Business DBS shares hit record-high after Q2 profit beats forecast on strong wealth fees, trading income World Trump's 100% semiconductor tariffs may hit chipmakers in Singapore, other SEA nations Five more people died of malnutrition and starvation in the Gaza Strip in the previous 24 hours, the enclave's health ministry said on Wednesday, raising the number of deaths from such causes to at least 193 Palestinians, including 96 children, since the war began. FAMINE SCENARIO A global hunger monitor has said a famine scenario is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with starvation spreading, children under five dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access to the embattled enclave severely restricted. And the warnings about starvation and malnutrition from aid agencies keep coming. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said food consumption across Gaza has declined to its lowest level since the onset of the war. Eighty-one percent of households in the tiny, crowded coastal territory of 2.2 million people reported poor food consumption, up from 33 percent in April. "Nearly nine out of ten households resorted to extremely severe coping mechanisms to feed themselves, such as taking significant safety risks to obtain food, and scavenging from the garbage," OCHA said in a statement. Even when Palestinians are not too weak to access aid collection points, they are vulnerable to injury or death in the crush to secure food. Between June and July the number of admissions for malnutrition almost doubled - from 6,344 to 11,877 - according to the latest UNICEF figures available. Meanwhile there is no sign of a ceasefire on the horizon, although Israel's military chief has pushed back against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to seize areas of Gaza it doesn't already control, three Israeli officials said. Netanyahu has vowed no end to the war until the annihilation of Hamas, which killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in its Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's military response has killed over 60,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and turned Gaza, one of the world's most densely populated areas, into a sea of ruins, with many feared buried underneath. 'THE SHADOW OF DEATH' Holding her emaciated baby Ammar who, she said, is wasting away from malnutrition, Amira Muteir, 32, pleaded with the world to come to the rescue. "The shadow of death is threatening him, because of hunger," she said, adding that he endures 15 or 20 days a month with no milk so she waits hours at a hospital for fortified solution. Sometimes he has to drink polluted liquids because of a shortage of clean water, she said. Muteir and her children and husband rely on a charity soup kitchen that helps them with one small plate of food per day to try and survive. "We eat it throughout the day and until the following day we eat nothing else," she said. REUTERS
Straits Times
6 days ago
- Straits Times
Kpods, zombie oil or etomidate? A new name may help Hong Kong curb its youth drug crisis
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A banner warning against the dangers of etomidate, a new recreational drug, near a drug rehabilitation and counselling centre in Sham Shui Po. HONG KONG – A name can shape perceptions and Hong Kong is finding that a drug with an innocuous name is causing ripples of harm across society. It is for this reason that the government officially changed the name of the city's latest-trending recreational drug for the second time in 2025. In Singapore, these drugs are known as Kpods – fruity flavoured vape capsules laced with addictive sedatives like etomidate, a controlled anaesthetic. In Hong Kong, it was first marketed by drug peddlers as 'space oil', a substance that emerged in the city some time in late 2023, promising its users a euphoric high that would 'take them to space'. The government banned it and started referring to it as 'space oil drug' in February, after the authorities recognised the severity of the problem when several addicts died from abusing the drug and children as young as nine years old were found taking the substance. On July 31, the government renamed it yet again – to plain old 'etomidate' – evidently deciding to call a spade a spade this time. 'Previously when we called it 'space oil drug', some drug traffickers made use of the name to promote a sort of fantasy and some of the positive feelings after taking the drug,' Secretary for Security Chris Tang told the media as he announced the name change. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Some ageing condos in Singapore struggle with failing infrastructure, inadequate sinking funds Singapore Wastewater overflow in Bedok and Chai Chee due to choked sewer at BTO worksite: PUB Singapore Water gel guns among newer tools NParks uses to manage monkeys in estates Singapore Teen's love of dance powers her through cancer to perform at NDP2025 Life Feeling extra patriotic? Here are 7 other SG60 songs beyond official NDP theme Here We Are Singapore Man handed three vaping-related charges including importing 3,080 pods Business DBS shares hit record-high after Q2 profit beats forecast on strong wealth fees, trading income World Trump's 100% semiconductor tariffs may hit chipmakers in Singapore, other SEA nations 'We have to properly name it as 'etomidate' so as to eradicate the positive sides of the old name of the drug. This drug will cause only harm.' The security chief's words marked Hong Kong's hardening of its narrative against the banned substance, as the government doubles down on efforts to convey the dangers of the drug to the public – in particular, the youth. Mr Tang implored the media to use the new name in reports on the drug. The name change was aimed at 'directly addressing etomidate's nature as a drug, just like marijuana and cocaine', he said. It was also to prevent the name 'space oil' from being used to 'deliberately glorify drugs containing etomidate, deceiving young people into taking them and causing them to ignore the serious harm they cause to their bodies', he added. The move to reframe characteristics associated with the drug came weeks after Mr Tang initially suggested renaming it 'zombie oil' to better reflect its effect on users. But that was vetoed after lawmakers raised concerns that the city's impressionable youth might find the term appealing as well and continue to be lured to abuse it. Hong Kong's abusers of the drug have been overwhelmingly young, with more than two-thirds of them aged under 21. Among young drug abusers, it is now the third most popular narcotic after cannabis and cocaine. The number of etomidate abusers recorded in the first half of 2025, at 327, has already exceeded the total of 300 for the whole of 2024. The actual number is likely much higher. Side effects of abusing the substance include a loss of control over one's body that results in a zombie-like gait, tremors, convulsions, memory loss, blackouts and even death. The security chief attempted to tap young people's social fears and body image concerns by stressing that additional side effects include drooling, hair loss, facial hair growth in young women, or skin and genital ulcers and deformities. Etomidate abusers, when high, often also engage in undignified and indecent self-harming behaviour in public that can be easily recorded and posted online, he warned. 'Taking etomidate is definitely not cool; knowing how to resist drugs is the way to be cool,' Mr Tang said. Those found consuming or in possession of etomidate face up to seven years' jail and a HK$1 million (S$164,000) fine. Traffickers and manufacturers face life in jail and a HK$5 million fine. The government has even roped in Cantopop star Aaron Kwok as its honorary narcotics commissioner to urge young people in Hong Kong to reject drugs. Kwok appeared at a publicity campaign on Aug 3, introducing new dance moves and chanting anti-drug slogans with dozens of youth ambassadors, who will help spread awareness of the dangers of etomidate at their schools. Lawmaker Dennis Lam welcomed the scrapping of the term 'space oil', which he described as 'inappropriately romantic'. Dropping the suggestion to rename it 'zombie oil' was also a wise choice, Dr Lam told local media, adding that the term might have sparked further curiosity among rebellious teens to try the substance. 'Simply calling the drug by its main chemical component will help clear misconceptions of the substance, increase awareness of its dangers, and avoid further romanticising it,' the ophthalmologist said. Quoting a common Cantonese proverbial phrase, he said: 'I'm more afraid of being given a poor name than being born into misfortune. A name can hold great power and influence.'
Straits Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Private credit fuels ‘buy now, pay later' lending boom in Asia
In the developing world, lenders may charge eye-popping interest rates to cash-strapped borrowers for "buy now, pay later" loans. Hong Kong – Maria Hazel Regalado, a 48-year-old mother of four in the Philippines, needed a computer in 2024 so she could work from home. Ms Regalado didn't have the cash or a credit card. A friend suggested she get a 'buy now, pay later' (BNPL) loan from Billease, an online lender. The computer cost 37,999 Philippine pesos (S$852), almost as much as she earns in a month. Still, Billease approved her application within minutes. She agreed to make 12 monthly payments of 4,493 pesos each, including principal and interest. The effective annual rate: 42 per cent. 'At first I was hesitant, but I didn't have much choice,' says Mr Regalado. 'I really needed that laptop.' Globally, BNPL loans in 2024 soared five times in value to US$334 billion (S$429 billion) from five years ago, according to technology analysis and consulting firm Juniper Research. In the United States, merchants typically pay any fees, so customers get no-interest loans as long as they keep current. But the developing world has a different model: charging eye-popping interest rates to cash-strapped borrowers. While Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have been tightening regulation and warning consumers about the cost and risk of BNPL loans, companies such as Manila-based First Digital Finance Corp., which operates as Billease, say they're opening up consumer finance in underserved markets. These lenders, which make loans outside both traditional banking and the world of publicly traded bonds, initially catered primarily to small and medium-size companies but have been expanding into consumer finance. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Some ageing condos in Singapore struggle with failing infrastructure, inadequate sinking funds Singapore PUB investigating wastewater discharge in Eunos: Pritam Singapore Water gel guns among newer tools NParks uses to manage monkeys in estates World Trump's 100% semiconductor tariffs may hit chipmakers in Singapore, other SEA nations World Trump eyes 100% chips tariff, but 0% for US investors like Apple Life Feeling extra patriotic? Here are 7 other SG60 songs beyond official NDP theme Here We Are Singapore SCDF officer who molested female subordinate gets 15 months' jail Business DBS shares hit record-high after Q2 profit beats forecast on strong wealth fees, trading income Billease has tapped private debt investors including UK-based Lendable, which has raised money from Shell's charitable foundation, development banks and investment firms catering to wealthy families. So have two of its biggest competitors, both based in Singapore: Kredivo Group has borrowed from money manager Janus Henderson Group's Victory Park Capital Advisors, and Apaylater Financials, which does business as Atome, has looked to the growing private credit operations of BlackRock the world's largest money manager. The private credit companies typically lend out money to South-east Asian BNPL outfits at annual rates of 10 per cent to 15 per cent, making the deals attractive to the companies' investors. In Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, ads for the BNPL companies are almost inescapable both online and on billboards, city buses and commuter trains. One for Kredivo encourages customers to use BNPL loans for smaller daily purchases, even for train fares and items at convenience stores. 'It's that flexible!' the tagline reads. Huy Pham, a senior finance lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Vietnam who specialises in financial technology, says BNPL loans can lead to splurges from consumers with unstable incomes, exposing both them and their lenders to growing risks. 'At the end of the day, if customers are not able to pay back the loans, then the platforms will be in trouble,' Mr Pham says. Indonesia's BNPL-related debt in May reached almost US$1.9 billion, up 40 per cent from a year earlier. According to the country's Financial Services Authority, 3.74 per cent was nonperforming – meaning borrowers were more than 90 days behind on their payments – up from 3.22 per cent a year earlier. BNPL lenders say they obey debt collection rules and the rates they charge reflect the risks of the population they're serving. They say they don't purport to be compliant with Muslim law and most banks in the country also collect interest on loans. Andy Tan, Atome's chief commercial officer, says his company must contend with customers who disappear and erase their online presence, among other kinds of fraud. 'Credit risk is something we monitor day in and day out,' he says. But if customers can keep paying back their loans, the profit for lenders like Billease will be enormous. The company typically charges 3.5 per cent a month on its loans, but it also turns the money it lends over many times a year. The estimated expected annual return on this cash: 90 per cent. BLOOMBERG
