Singapore composer George Leong calls Dick Lee 'self-centred'; Construction worker dies after being hit by concrete pump hose at Tengah BTO worksite: Singapore live news

Singapore is in talks with Australia over a social media ban for young users.

In a world-first law, Australian Parliament passed a social media ban for children under 16 in November 2024. Under the law, platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram are liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (S$42.55 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

It's still not clear how the it will be enforced when it kicks in by March 2025. However, the next steps for Singapore will only be determined after discussions with Australia.

Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Rahayu Mahzam said, in Parliament on 7 Jan, "We are engaging our Australian counterparts and social media platforms to understand their views. This will help inform our thinking on the next steps."

For more on the discussion surrounding a social media ban in Singapore, read here.

US President-elect Donald Trump has expressed a strong interest in owning Greenland, calling it an "absolute necessity".

He also didn't rule out the possibility of using "military or economic coercion” to gain Greenland or Panama. When asked about it at a press conference on Tuesday (7 Jan), he said, "No, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this: We need them for economic security."

But why is he so interested in the world's largest island?

Experts say it could due to its natural resources — including rare earth metals – which may become more accessible as climate change melts the territory’s ice. These metals are in high demand for the electric cars and wind turbines of the green transition, as well as for manufacturing military equipment.

Having access to these could be about trying to keep China out, said Klaus Dodds, professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London.

For more on Trump's interest in Greenland, read here.

US Vice President Kamala Harris will be making an around-the-world trip before leaving office. The trip will last from 13 Jan to 17 Jan, and Harris will make stops in Singapore, Bahrain, and Germany.

Dean Lieberman, Harris' deputy national security adviser, said in a written statement that "the vice president felt it important to spend some of her final days in office thanking and engaging directly with US service members deployed overseas".

There are US troops based in all three of Harris' stops.

She plans to Changi Naval Base in Singapore and meet with the country's leaders.

For more on Harris' trip to Singapore, read here.

Meta is ending is fact-checking programme in the US, announced chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday (6 Jan).

The practice aimed at limiting the spread of falsehoods on the social media platform but has been regarded as censorship among the conservatives. Users can now add context or debunk claims in notes that appear next to specific posts – a process that was first seen on Elon Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter).

Meta will also lift restrictions on hot-button topics, such as immigration and gender identity, to focus on illegal or high-severity violations.

Along with Zuckerberg's announcement, the social media platform is also changing its community guidelines, allowing for greater critiques of LGBTQ+ people and other marginalised groups.

In an Instagram video, Zuckerberg said, "We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship. So we are going to get back to our roots, focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms."

US president-elect Donald Trump praised the move and said, "I think they've come a long way."

For more on the new era of Meta, read here.

A Spanish tourist was killed by an elephant in Thailand, in front of her boyfriend, while she was bathing the animal at an elephant centre.

According to Spanish media, 22-year-old Blanca Ojanguren García was bathing the elephant at Koh Yao Elephant Care on 3 Jan when the attack happened.

Previous reports said that García was gored by the elephant, but Spanish news agency EFE reportedly verified that that wasn't the case.

Spanish paper El Mundo, citing Thai police in Koh Yao Yai, said García was pushed by the elephant's trunk. They also reported that her death was not caused by the elephant's trunk.

For more on the circumstances surrounding García's death, read here.

A construction worker from India died from his injuries after being struck in the chest by the hose of a concrete pump truck at the construction site of a Housing Board Build-To-Order (BTO) project in Tengah.

The incident happened at 8.40pm on 2 Jan at the worksite for Plantation Edge I and II.

The Straits Times reported that one of the outriggers of the concrete pump truck, which deposits concrete used in construction, punctured the concrete ground it was sitting on. The truck then tilted, which caused the pump hose to hit the 29-year-old worker.

Outriggers are retractable legs that extend out from the pump truck to stabilise it and prevent it from tipping over.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is investigating the incident.

HDB confirmed to The Straits Times that the worker died from his injuries after being sent to Gleneagles Hospital in Napier Road.

Based on early investigations by the police, no foul play is suspected.

The worker had been employed by Keong Hong Construction since 2019 and the company is in contact with his family and providing them with support, including financial.

HDB will work together with the contractor to provide all the support and help needed to the worker's family.

The public housing authority said it takes a serious view of the incident, and is working with the contractor to assist in the investigations by the authority.

"We will continue to work with our industry partners to strengthen workplace safety at our worksites," HDB told the national broadsheet.

According to MOM, as a general safety measure, employers and contractors must ensure that the outriggers of machinery are extended fully and rest on a stable, level foundation, or on baseplates that have adequate strength to ensure stability during operations.

While most are Marie Kondo-ing bad behaviours, vibes, or 'toxic' people for 2025, Singaporean composer George Leong has literally tossed out his past achievements in the music industry.

In a Facebook post on 6 Jan, the 54-year-old shared photos of Hong Kong singer Sandy Lam’s album Love, Sandy, and the late Hong Kong star Leslie Cheung’s album Most Beloved in the trash. He explained that it was a "deliberate choice to close one of the most significant chapters of my life" and he chose to symbolise it by discarding the records.

Despite calling it the "two most monumental records I've worked on", Leong said he realised the accomplishments "mean little in the grand scheme of things" and launched into a rant about the music industry.

He wrote, "Music, which once brought me joy, now leaves me with nothing but disappointment, frustration, and sadness. The skills and decades of experience I bring to every project are undervalued. Clients are either chasing the cheapest deal or questioning whether I can handle the work—insulting, to say the least.

"For the equivalent of McDonald’s wages (after accounting for time), I’m expected to maintain expensive equipment, update software, and acquire new sounds, all at my own cost. At least McDonald’s provides meals and uniforms."

Leong criticised the music industry for being "riddled with insincerity" as he's getting left out of projects while also being praised for being "a legend, a child prodigy, a national treasure, an idol".

He also took aim at Dick Lee, who composed Cheung’s Chase from Most Beloved, for forgetting Leong's contribution to the piece. Leong was once a producer under Taiwan-based music label Rock Records and arranged music for hits such as Chase, and Lam’s I Heard That Love Had Returned.

"I had to remind him in 2016. To this day, he still plays Iskandar’s (late Singaporean composer Iskandar Ismail) version, which is completely unsuited for such an emotional piece," he claimed.

Lee replied in the comments, calling Leong a "brilliant talented musician" whom he is proud to have worked with.

"We all have a love hate relationship with music but please don't deny that it is part of you, strongly in your DNA. I hope you continue to find the way to express yourself through music in some way and keep doing projects that mean something to you," said Lee.

In response, Leong said he was never going to work with Lee again and called him "self-centred".

In a subsequent Facebook post, Leong teased the idea of writing a memoir about his career in music.

According to Leong, the memoir will capture "the good, the bad, the ugly, and the scandalous", exposing famous composers-producers who don't know a single bit about music theory", and singers who "couldn't sing to save their lives".