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Wrong. More like COP and RK is the main topic. Omicron is the side dish

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/587212-uk-health-agency-report-suggests-booster-effectiveness-against-omicron

SINGAPORE - Prices in Singapore are rising more sharply than expected, with inflation at its highest in several years. Both bad news and good contributed to this. The good news is that there is greater domestic demand for goods and services as the economy recovers. On the flip side, prices are also being driven up by rising import costs amid global transportation bottlenecks. The prices are starting to rise after a spell that saw them fall amid plunging demand during the pandemic. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Thursday that wages have increased and are expected to continue rising at a steady pace as slack in the labour market dissipates. This adds to both costs and prices. The Republic’s overall and core inflation continued to climb in November, after both benchmarks hit their highest in several years the previous month. Core inflation, which excludes rents and private road transport costs, climbed to 1.6 per cent last month from 1.5 per cent in October, amid rising services costs and is expected to rise further in the months ahead. This is the indicator that better captures the underlying trend in consumer prices and the one that MAS monitors most closely. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected core inflation to remain unchanged at 1.5 per cent. The last time the core inflation rate was higher was in March 2019, when it hit 1.7 per cent. Overall inflation edged up to 3.8 per cent in November, from October’s more than eight-year high of 3.2 per cent. It outdid the 3.4 per cent forecast by analysts polled by Bloomberg. MAS and MTI raised their overall inflation forecast for this year to 2.3 per cent, up from around 2 per cent previously, given the sharp rise in private transport costs in recent months due to higher certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums. They kept their overall inflation estimate for 2022 unchanged at 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. UOB economist Barnabas Gan said this means the high inflation rate is likely to be temporary. Headline and core inflation have both averaged 1.4 per cent over the past 10 years, he noted. Private transport inflation rose to 17.9 per cent in November, from 14.3 per cent the previous month, on the back of a larger increase in car prices. Electricity and gas costs also saw a steeper increase - of 10 per cent in November, compared with October’s 7.8 per cent - mainly due to a decline in the number of households on standard price plans for electricity as some retailers exited the market.a Services inflation edged up to 1.9 per cent, from 1.6 per cent in October, due to a faster pace of increase in airfares as border restrictions eased, and a smaller decline in telecommunication services costs. Home rents rose, leading to accommodation inflation of 2.7 per cent, compared with October’s 2.5 per cent. Food inflation, likewise, climbed to 1.9 per cent in November, from 1.7 per cent the previous month. However, the cost of retail and other goods fell more sharply - at 0.9 per cent in November, compared with October’s 0.4 per cent decline - due to a larger fall in the price of clothing and footwear. Core inflation is officially expected to average 0.9 per cent for 2021 as a whole, and increase further to 1 per cent to 2 per cent next year. MAS and MTI said: “Amid construction delays, accommodation inflation should remain firm and continue to support (overall) inflation in 2022. Meanwhile, private transport inflation is likely to moderate next year on the back of a slower pace of increase in COE premiums and petrol costs.”

for me is toilet paper

Coupons is just paper. During shtf. No one care about this. Main focus is water, medince, injury, radio, food, weapon in case you need it to protect your home against looter or Invader. Etc........

Heng, I stockpile most forever food Have enough sprits, freeze dried kopi, honey for at least 20yr and kopi is 4yr and some brought some item for my new item

On Wednesday, Singapore announced new travel restrictions to manage the spread of omicron. The latest move comes as the government’s approach to pandemic management, once strict and orderly, has become increasingly inconsistent and chaotic. Here are some residents’ recent stories from quarantine, which can last almost three weeks: A European national tested positive for Covid and began self-isolating at home. Two days later, he received a call that authorities suspected he had omicron and an ambulance would be coming to pick him up. He was still watching Netflix, bare-chested and in shorts, when a pair of medical workers arrived at his home in full protective gear, wearing gowns, face shields, masks and goggles. He barely had time to shove his devices, chargers and clothing into a bag, forgetting his toothbrush, before getting whisked into a van without air conditioning. When he arrived at the quarantine hotel, he was told that he would be sharing a room with a stranger from a different flight. He was never presented with an official test result. Residents who have returned this month from travel abroad are describing situations where they have been forced from their homes, ordered to share quarantine facilities with complete strangers, told to hand their unsupervised children off to authorities, and urged to abandon their pets. Some now face hefty hospital bills. This treatment is a far cry from what travelers expected of the quarantine-free program for vaccinated passengers from countries including the U.S., U.K., France, South Korea and India that had been announced with great fanfare this fall. The setback will dent Singapore’s status as a smoothly functioning financial center. His wife said authorities have tried several times to take their child, who is under 10 and also tested positive, to a hospital alone or to an individual hotel room. She has refused to comply, acknowledging that her decision could mean fines or imprisonment. “The thought that you’re in your home and you have to pack and leave? In this country? I don’t have the right to refuse to be hospitalized,” she said. A British citizen tested positive after returning from the U.K. She received dozens of calls and WhatsApp messages from several different people at the Ministry of Health, each giving conflicting information about what her next steps should be. Some said she could isolate at home, while others said she would have to move into quarantine. When she eventually was picked up by an ambulance, authorities wouldn’t tell her husband where they were taking her. After arriving at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, a hospital, she was shuttled into a room, where she sat alone for hours. She alerted the staff that she hadn’t had dinner and was given three slices of white bread and butter. It wasn’t until reading a local newspaper report the next day that she found out she had tested positive for omicron. Despite having bought travel insurance, she’s now on the hook for thousands of dollars in hospital bills. Her husband, who tested positive, was also taken to NCID and then transferred to a quarantine hotel. When they struggled to make arrangements for care of their two dogs and cat during their 10-day absence, authorities said the couple would have to “find a solution.” A Singaporean who lives and works in the U.S. was returning home for the first time in four years. He tested negative upon arrival, and started going out to meet friends and family for meals. The next day, he got a call that he had been identified as a close contact of someone who had tested positive for omicron on his flight. He was picked up by an ambulance the following day. This traveler says he’s confused about what qualifies as “close,” given that he had been sitting in business class, far from others on the plane. His last communication from Singapore Airlines Ltd. before boarding doesn’t specify, leaving passengers guessing whether whole planes will be put into quarantine if one person tests positive, regardless of individual test results. Most of his trip will now be spent in quarantine. “I would not have come back if I knew this would happen,” he said. Other travelers, he says, have returned to attend weddings and funerals, only to miss them entirely. After introducing the latest travel curbs, the Ministry of Health said, “Our border measures will help buy us time to study and understand the omicron variant, and to strengthen our defenses, including enhancing our healthcare capacity and getting more people vaccinated and boosted.” The good news is that we are starting to learn more about omicron. Researchers suggest that, despite its high degree of infectiousness, this strain may be less severe than delta. But even when there was little information about the variant, we knew that one would arrive. The truth is, you don’t need to have all the facts to prepare for an emergency. Strict rules are core to Singapore’s style of governance: Most everyone who lives here or visits accepts that. The trouble is combining stringent regulations with haphazard communication and high stakes for noncompliance. “If I had been mentally prepared, I wouldn’t have suffered half as much as I did,” the Briton told me. Some people I spoke with are now planning to leave Singapore for good. Expats will come and go. The problem for the government isn’t a few disrupted Christmas holidays, but rebuilding trust in regional business travel, particularly among employment-pass holders who aren’t guaranteed re-entry. Early in the pandemic, many expat families were split up for months because one parent had been traveling abroad when Singapore closed its borders. Who will get on a plane and chance that outcome today? What business will want to foot the bill for an employee’s indeterminate hotel stay if borders shut suddenly? Singapore may be proudly risk averse, but it seems all too willing to gamble its carefully managed reputation away." https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-23/omicron-upends-singapore-s-travel-strategy-as-returning-residents-face-chaos

This type of video remove very fast. Go to YouTube look for Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credits and filter to the last 24hr

China's tax authorities have set a 10-day deadline for entertainers and social media influencers to pay overdue taxes, part of a government campaign to tighten the noose on tax evasion and celebrity excesses. Beijing has launched a sweeping state crackdown on tax evasion and perceived immoral behaviour in the entertainment industry, a tightening that has already targeted some of the country's biggest stars. Tax bureaus in several entertainment hubs across the country -- including Beijing, Shanghai, and the provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu -- warned celebrities who have under-reported earnings could face severe penalties if they don't refile by year end, according to government notices issued Wednesday. "If the self-inspection and self-correction are still refused or... not thorough, the taxation department will seriously deal with it," a statement from the Guangdong tax office said. The order comes after China's "livestreaming queen" Huang Wei was ordered to pay a record $200 million fine for tax evasion on Monday, with her social media accounts with over 110 million followers shut down a day later. Chinese actress Zheng Shuang was also hit with a $46 million fine for tax evasion in August. Actress Fan Bingbing's career has been on ice since a 2018 tax evasion scandal. Fan was one of China's highest paid actresses before her downfall and appeared in the X-Men and Iron Man film franchises. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has said it had "zero tolerance" for tax evasion and entertainers' "sky-high pay". The tightening coincides with the launch of President Xi Jinping's "common prosperity" drive to reduce economic inequality -- partly by reining in excessive incomes in the entertainment and technology sectors.

Why not follow my insulin shot to inject daily

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese gaming and social media company Tencent will pay out a $16.4 billion dividend by distributing most of its JD.com stake, weakening its ties to the e-commerce firm and raising questions about its plans for other holdings. The move comes as Beijing leads a broad regulatory crackdown on technology firms, taking aim at their overseas growth ambitions and domestic concentration of market power. Tencent said on Thursday it will transfer HK$127.69 billion ($16.37 billion) worth of its JD.com stake to shareholders, slashing its holding in China's second-biggest e-commerce company to 2.3% from around 17% now and losing its spot as JD.com's biggest shareholder to Walmart. The owner of WeChat, which first invested in JD.com in 2014, said it was the right time for the divestment, given the e-commerce firm had reached a stage where it can self-finance its growth. Chinese regulators have this year blocked https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinese-antitrust-regulator-blocks-tencents-video-games-merger-2021-07-10 Tencent's proposed $5.3 billion merger of the country's top two videogame streaming sites, ordered it to end exclusive music copyright agreements and found WeChat illegally transferred user data. The company is one of a handful of technology giants that dominate China's internet space and which have historically prevented rivals' links and services from being shared on their platforms. "This seems to be a continuation of the concept of bringing down the walled gardens and increasing competition among the tech giants by weakening partnerships, exclusivity and other arrangements which weaken competitive pressures," Mio Kato, a LightStream Research analyst who publishes on Smartkarma said of the JD.com stake transfer. "It could have implications for things like the payments market where Tencent's relationships with Pinduoduo and JD have helped it maintain some competitiveness with Alipay," he said. JD.com shares plunged 11.2% at one point in Hong Kong trade on Thursday, the biggest daily percentage decline since its debut in the city in June 2020, before closing with a 7.0.% decline. Shares of Tencent, Asia's most valuable listed company, rose 4.2%. (GRAPHIC: Tencent and JD.com shares - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/gkplglneqvb/image-1640231265000.png) The companies said they would continue to have a business relationship, including an ongoing strategic partnership agreement, though Tencent Executive Director and President Martin Lau will step down from JD.com's board immediately. Eligible Tencent shareholders will be entitled to one share of JD.com for every 21 shares they hold. PORTFOLIO DIVESTMENTS? The JD.com stake is part of Tencent's portfolio of listed investments valued at $185 billion as of Sept. 30, including stakes in e-commerce company Pinduoduo, food delivery firm Meituan, video platform Kuaishou, automaker Tesla and streaming service Spotify. Alex Au, managing director at Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager Alphalex Capital Management, said the JD.com sale made both business and political sense. "There might be other divestments on their way as Tencent heeds the antitrust call while shareholders ask to own those interests in minority stakes themselves," he said. A person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters Tencent has no plans to exit its other investments. When asked about Pinduoduo and Meituan, the person said they are not as well-developed as JD.com. The Chinese internet giant has also invested in overseas companies such as Tesla, Netamble, Snapchat, Spotify and Sea. "Going abroad is one of Tencent's most important strategies in the future," a CITIC Securities research note said on Thursday. "The possibility of selling overseas high-quality technology and internet assets is small." Tencent chose to distribute the JD shares as a dividend rather than sell them on the market in an attempt to avoid a steep fall in JD.com's share price as well as a high tax bill, the person added. Kenny Ng, an analyst at Everbright Sun Hung Kai, said the decision was "definitely negative" for JD.com. "Although Tencent's reduction of JD's holdings may not have much impact on JD's actual business, when the shares are transferred from Tencent to Tencent's shareholders, the chances of Tencent's shareholders selling JD's shares as dividends will increase," he said. Technology investor Prosus, which is Tencent's largest shareholder with a 29% stake and is controlled by Naspers of South Africa, will receive the biggest portion of JD.com shares. Walmart owns a 9.3% stake in JD.com, according to the Chinese company. Payments processor Alipay is part of Tencent rival Alibaba Group. ($1 = 7.7996 Hong Kong dollars)

The fear of US sanctions impacted this decision, local media said, citing Indonesia’s Air Force chief. “Regarding the Sukhoi Su-35, with a heavy heart, yes, we have abandoned that plan. We can’t just keep talking about it,” Air Marshal Fadjar Prasetyo told reporters on Wednesday. Benar News quoted Prasetyo as saying that the decision was made because of a “protracted” acquisition process, and the fear that Indonesia may be hit by US sanctions for buying weapons from Moscow. The $1.1 billion deal to replace obsolete F-5 Tiger aircraft with Russia’s highly maneuverable jet fighters was signed in 2018, but the implementation of the contract stalled. Fadjar said Indonesia will be now looking at purchasing F-15EX Eagle IIs and French Dassault Rafale fighters. “The F-15 EX team has come to me and they told us if we signed an agreement today, we will receive the first units around 2027,” Fadjar said. Under the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), Washington can impose sanctions on nations buying arms from Russia. In October, several US senators urged the White House to waive possible CAATSA sanctions against India, allowing New Delhi to purchase Russian S-400 air defense missile systems. However, the decision on the waiver has not been https://www.rt.com/russia/544215-indonesia-russian-jet-fighters/

Difficult to get back row tickets this 2 weeks... Daily off peak hrs also left front 2 rows... and the tickets not cheap... Review: 3/5 Like the trailer it spoils most of it... Is the show better than endgame? No. 1st half of the show nothing special so just keeps u waiting good parts... 2nd half better With the conversation gets more interesting and funny... 1st half depended on Dr Oct... William Dafoe did a good job in showing more of the psycho green goblin/Simon which we didn't get enough of in 1st Spiderman... But in MCU he's just a broke uncle without his oscorp and home... other villain did get small parts... Ending is sufficient long but did leaves doesn't close out one problem: At the end it is a closure to spiderboy arc and welcome teenage spider era... tink the end credits scene already released since it's trailer to Dr strange 2... Is this worth a premium ticket? Nope... Just go for a discounted weekend ticket at best...

Reactive action as always.... Never learn from past mistakes....

Actually tour bus kenna theft is not new... Many many years back already not safe... Basically heng suay and make sure insolen buy gao gao if cheong branded

luckily GKS set the tone in stone back in 1967 or else inflation will be much worse since this clown is in charge now.

Chiu fighting for blainless award wif @The_King?