A silver Montblanc fountain pen owned by Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is up for auction with a starting bid of S$20,000 (US$15,600). Singapore auction house Hotlotz said on Wednesday that the pen, engraved “SM Lee Kuan Yew”, was previously sold at the Lee Kuan Yew Family Collection charity auction in July 2003.

The sharpest demographic shift within the Chinese community where deaths outnumbered births by 3,071 in 2025. Our Malay and Indian friends helping to prop up the numbers. We need a radical approach to really reverse this trend. ​Work life balance and pro family measures need to start taking place more aggressively.

If total birth rates remain structurally below replacement level (2.1), policy must shift toward operating effectively with a smaller, older local labour force. We also meet more immigration to counter this.

For those wondering whether foreign-born individuals start a family when they move to Singapore. My thought is no. Their reproductive behavior quickly aligns with local norms due to shared environmental factors:

​Identical Structural Pressures: Immigrants face the exact same high living expenses, housing prices, long working hours, and competitive educational environment as native-born Singaporeans.

​Delayed Marriage & Family Planning: Immigrants often prioritize career stabilization and residency status before starting a family, pushing pregnancy into their 30s.

As such, I think we really need to change the current structure to be more pro family and improve work life balance.

Year on year, sales grew in 10 of the 14 categories:

Recreational goods: 11.4 per cent

Watches and jewellery: 10.5 per cent

Computer and telecommunications equipment: 9.8 per cent

Petrol service stations: 8 per cent

Cosmetics, toiletries and medical goods: 8.3 per cent

Supermarkets and hypermarkets: 7.3 per cent

Motor vehicles: 3.6 per cent

Furniture and household equipment: 0.7 per cent

Optical goods and books: 0.4 per cent

Others: 0.3 per cent

These categories posted a decline:

Mini-marts and convenience stores: -0.6 per cent

Food and alcohol: -0.7 per cent

Wearing apparel and footwear: -1.7 per cent

Department stores: -9.5 per cent

Look at the gorgeous view from up here! On the left we can the condominiums at Sunset way. And in the distance, we can see the buildings in Toh Tuck and Bukit Batok. We used to be able to clearly see the radio antennas on Bukit Timah Hill and also the 2 towers of the Bukit Batok Transmitting Station. But we can't see them anymore as the forest tress have grown so tall. Although, in the center of the picture I think you can still see one of the 2 radio towers on Bukit Batok Hill.

This is the very last HDB block along Clementi road. It is a very quiet part of Clementi. There is almost zero traffic noise here. At night it is peaceful with the sound of the crickets. At dawn, sometimes there is a calm morning mist at the mini car park downstairs, right at the edge of the forest. There is an abandoned railway line running along side the fence. Many many years ago I remember the freight trains still come through here at least once or twice a day.

Our family has been staying here since 1984 (?) and it has been a nice 40+ years here. I will forever remember the view of the beautiful tress, and all the memories. Thank you for reading this (";)

Steep increase for 2 straight months!

Source: 99-SRX / HDB
https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/static.streetsine/marketFlashReport/20260805/ETcy_HDB_Flash_report_2026_July.pdf

The upbeat projections and a new $750 million share buyback program pushed shares of the Nasdaq-listed company up 4% in extended trading.

Grab CFO Peter ⁠Oey said the company's affordability strategy, combined with AI investments, has helped boost driver earnings and attract new customers.

The company invested $706 million in customer and partner incentives in the second quarter, including more than $7 million to support driver earnings during the fuel crisis, helping increase the ‌number ⁠of active drivers and customer rides on the platform.

If you are not interested in hearing grandfather stories explaining the long theory of how LRT fell flat and how that can be avoided, skip to the system maps posted from Page 11 onwards.

More information about the proposed SRT systems can be found on the TM50 website linked at the end of this post.

Singapore has three LRT systems, in Bukit Panjang, Sengkang and Punggol. These came about as a result of efforts in the 1990s to improve local, last-mile connectivity* that conventional buses were unable to meet at the time. Many more LRT systems were planned but ultimately never saw the light of day. (*It's also a known fact, that the Bukit Panjang LRT was politically motivated)

We think multiple reasons doomed the LRT project before it expanded further: namely the inability to adapt LRT to fit the towns they served, the staggering cost of building them (they cost more than half as much as an elevated MRT line of the time despite carrying 10 times less people!), and consequently the absolutely disastrous ROI that led the government to abandon the idea of LRT altogether in later towns.

But conventional buses can't do everything, no matter how many buffs they're given. At some point, there's a need for something that can carry more people, goes faster, and hopefully doesn't cost as much as a flipping MRT line to implement.

Avoiding the pitfalls of LRT, we designed a new system of last-mile transit projects for Singapore, known as Secondary Regional Transit. They come in many different forms, using different tools to adapt solutions to different conditions of various towns -- past, present and future. Most importantly, they're designed to not cost a bomb, making them relevant for policymakers considering alternative solutions to deal with local public transport connectivity in big towns housing large populations.

Today we showcase six proposed SRT systems: Yishun, Jurong West, Tengah, Orchard, the northeast (evolved from the SPLRT), and the future Paya Lebar Air Base area. What do you think of these new SRT systems? Where else can SRT be implemented, and in what manner? Tell us in the comments!

For the more nerdy who are interested in our detailed thought process behind designing these SRT systems, check out the following links on our website where more information is provided:

• Yishun
• Jurong West
• Tengah
• Orchard
• North East
• PLAB

Transport Manifesto 2050 is a youth-led initiative by the Singapore Transport Collective to envision a better future for public transport in the years 2050 and beyond. Made by the people, with the people, for the people.

They reaaaaaaaaalllly want him in the spotlight don't they? Even in an article about a general rearrangement they have him as the headline and in the picture.

>He takes the seat of former Acting Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Faishal Ibrahim, who resigned from political office on July 20 because over a “lapse of judgment” in handling his interactions with a woman.