The driver who fled the scene of a fatal crash along Tampines Avenue 12 that killed a motorcyclist and his pregnant wife was charged on Oct. 31.

Muhammad Zulfiqar Abdul Aziz, 30, was handed nine charges, including one count of dangerous driving causing death, The Straits Times (ST) reported.

His full list of charges:

• Dangerous driving causing death
• Dangerous driving causing hurt
• Driving under disqualification
• Failing to stop after an accident
• Failing to render assistance after an accident
• Using a motor vehicle without insurance coverage
• Using a deregistered vehicle
• Using a vehicle without a licence
• Exhibiting a false licence plate

On Oct. 29, a blue Audi driven by Zulfiqar crashed through a road divider and slammed into a motorcycle and another car along Tampines Avenue 12.

The couple on the motorcycle were conveyed unconscious to the hospital where they passed away.

The driver of the other car, a 25-year-old woman, was taken to hospital conscious.

According to an earlier police press release, he had driven a deregistered car with a cloned licence plate while disqualified.

Zulfiqar appeared in court via video link wearing a white polo shirt, ST reported.

He had golden hair highlights, a goatee, stretched earlobes and appeared to have a heavily tattooed left arm.

He looked down as the court read the charges to him in Malay, ST reported.

A 31-year-old Singaporean former youth worker at a home was sentenced on Oct. 29 to two years and six months' jail after he took advantage of an underage former resident and had sex with her.

Court documents seen by Mothership stated that the man had initiated a relationship with the girl who had a crush on him.

The Straits Times reported that he pleaded guilty to three counts of sexually penetrating a minor, with five other charges taken into consideration during sentencing.

A gag order was imposed to protect the girl's identity.

Met at a home for victims of abuse

According to court documents, the girl, who was 15 at the time, was placed in the home due to family violence.

The pair became acquainted as the man worked there, though his duties did not formally involve her.

However, they got to interact with one another when the male and female residents would sometimes play games together, which included staff members.

Contact details

When the girl was eventually scheduled to be moved to another home in February 2022, she wrote farewell cards to various staff members, including the man, who was 27 at the time.

In her note to him, she included her mobile number and her Instagram account handle as a means of contacting her.

The girl then personally passed the farewell note to him as she had a crush on him.

Asked girl to be girlfriend

Court documents stated that in March 2022, a few weeks after the girl moved out of the home, the man contacted her via Telegram.

They began to chat regularly, although the man knew that he should not have contacted a resident or former resident in his personal capacity.

Sometime in April 2022, they decided to meet in person, where the man rented a car and used it to pick the girl up from her school in the afternoon.

He had a second job as a private-hire vehicle driver.

The man then drove the girl to a car park near the new home she was residing in, where they talked and held hands.

He also asked her to be his girlfriend that day and she agreed.

Met more often

The pair then began to meet more often, where the man would pick her up from school.

On some occasions, when they spent time together in private, the man kissed the girl and touched her, sometimes making skin-on-skin contact.

In May 2022, the pair were in the man's car when he asked the girl to perform a sexual act on him.

Court documents stated that she "did not really want to do so but she agreed after he persuaded her to do so because she felt that she loved him".

On May 25, 2022, the man invited the girl to his house and had sex with her.

Arrested

His actions eventually came to light as a staff member at the girl's home had noticed her wearing an army administrative t-shirt.

She eventually admitted to a staff member that she was in a relationship with the man who was a staff member at the girl's previous home.

The man then resigned from his role soon after upon learning of the allegations.

Court documents stated that he was arrested on Jun. 22, 2026, and released on bail on Jun. 23, 2026, after he was produced in court.

Aggravating factors, sentencing

In seeking a sentence of 30 to 36 months' jail, the prosecution argued that the man took advantage of the girl's crush on him.

He chose to enter into a romantic relationship with her despite being 12 years older than her, and pressured her into various sexual acts.

Court documents stated that he did so despite knowing he was not supposed to contact former residents of the home he was working at, much less date them.

The prosecution also highlighted aggravating factors that warranted an uplift from the sentencing benchmarks.

While the man did not abuse a position of trust in the context of the offending conduct, he got to know the girl in a situation where he was placed in a position of trust and authority.

The man also initiated the romantic relationship with the girl even though he ought to have known better, and pressured the victim into sexual acts until she complied.

The third factor was the duration of offending and the taken into consideration charges.

He faced five other such charges in relation to the girl.

He was in a romantic relationship with her for around two months, where they engaged in sexual acts and kissing.

The prosecution said it sought a sentence of around 43 to 52 months' jail if the man had claimed trial, noting that such a sentence appropriately reflects the man's overall culpability and is not crushing.

The couple who died in the fatal hit-and-run accident at Tampines Ave 12 on the night of Oct. 29 left behind a six-year-old son.

According to Berita Harian, the married couple, both 24, were expecting a second child as the wife was one month pregnant.

The woman's sister told Berita that her sister was about a month pregnant.

The couple were laid to rest side by side at Choa Chu Kang Muslim Cemetery on Oct. 30.

Around 200 people reportedly gathered at Masjid Pusara Aman in Choa Chu Kang on Friday to pay their final respects to the couple.

Fatal accident

The couple died following an accident involving two cars and a motorcycle.

A male driver and his female passenger initially fled the scene before police officers arrived, but have since been arrested.

The driver was slated to be charged on Oct. 31.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the man operated a deregistered car with a cloned licence plate while under disqualification.

The man faces nine charges under the Road Traffic Act and related legislation, including dangerous driving causing death, driving under disqualification as a repeat offender, failing to render assistance, and displaying a false licence plate.

What happened

The sister also shared with Berita that the family has been gathering evidence following the incident.

In one dashcam video clip she showed Berita, a car coming from the opposite direction appeared to lose control, skid and crash through a road divider.

The vehicle then collided with the couple's motorcycle.

Another clip showed the blue car that had crossed into the opposite lanes flip onto its side and end up in the bushes near the footpath.

A witness told Berita the impact flung through both motorcycle riders to separate spots — one onto the footpath and the other onto a nearby grass patch one to two metres away.

"Singapore will continue to be a staunch supporter of the court, whose work is fundamental to the international legal order," Singapore's Law Minister Edwin Tong reiterated at the UN General Assembly debate on the annual report of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Oct. 29.

This is part of Tong's official visit to New York from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4 for International Law Week and the ICJ elections.

The ICJ is the UN's principal judicial organ.

All states sovereign equals

In an increasingly contested world, upholding international law and the UN Charter is critical to ensuring that might does not make right, especially for small states, he said.

Tong noted that the UN membership had grown from 51 to 193 countries since 1946.

As such, the ICJ, which is well-suited to settle disputes between states from all regions and on a wide range of topics they choose to submit to the court, more fully embodies its identity as the "World Court", he added.

Tong said: "All states, big or small, old or young, are treated as sovereign equals before the court."

International law

In that regard, the court must reflect the contemporary membership of the UN, he added.

"Its judges must be eminently qualified and collectively represent the world's principal legal traditions," he said. "The court's task is to interpret and apply international law in a principled and impartial manner."

Tong noted, however, that "the law does not operate in a vacuum".

"Such diversity in the judges' legal traditions, backgrounds, and perspectives sharpens judicial reasoning and strengthens the legitimacy of the court's decisions."

Survival

Tong pointed out that for small states, governance by international law is not a matter of choice, but one of survival.

He reiterated that an effective and strong multilateral rules-based international order is an imperative for all states.

He said: "I call on all member states to support this crucial institution that serves as the bedrock of the international rule of law and is fundamental to the peaceful settlement of disputes."

UN Security Council High-Level Open Debate

On the same day, Tong also delivered a statement on behalf of the Oceans Four – Fiji, Jamaica, Malta and Singapore – at the UN Security Council High-Level Open Debate.

He said: "For small maritime nations, safety and security in the oceans and seas is critical. Our countries actively contributed to the negotiations and conclusion of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

"We remain committed to upholding it as the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out."

Emerging technologies carry promise, challenges

Noting that emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and autonomous ships carry both great promise and challenges for maritime security, Tong emphasised a few points.

Firstly, he said innovation, safety, and security should advance hand-in-hand.

"The international community must work together to harness new technologies to strengthen maritime safety and security, whilst at the same time upholding and respecting navigational rights and freedoms in accordance with UNCLOS," he said.

Tong added that while AI can enhance maritime domain awareness by improving navigational, communications, and early warning systems for all states, these benefits must be underpinned by robust safeguards promoting accountability, transparency, and human oversight.

"We therefore welcome the adoption of the IMO's non-mandatory Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) Code and support continued efforts towards the development of a mandatory framework, ensuring the safe integration of autonomous and remotely operated commercial ships into global shipping," he said.

He added: "We also support broader international efforts to advance responsible AI governance, including through the Global Dialogue on AI Governance and Global Digital Compact."

Weaponisation of new technologies

The second point Tong made was the importance of collectively guarding against the weaponisation of new technologies.

They can be deployed to disrupt or damage critical underwater infrastructure, including subsea cable networks, he said.

Tong added: "Drones or autonomous vessels can be used to interfere with the safe passage of ships."

"Recent attacks against civilian vessels have further highlighted the risks to maritime safety and the protection of seafarers."

He warned that cyber-attacks pose real-world consequences for maritime security, compromising navigational safety and disrupting port operations.

Such technologies could also be exploited to take control of vessels for unlawful purposes.

Thirdly, Tong said the international community must guard against all actions that threaten international peace and security, and reject unlawful restrictions on transit passage through straits used for international navigation.

He said actions that deny, hamper, impede, impair or suspend the right of transit passage would violate UNCLOS, and that the right is also firmly entrenched in customary international law, which binds all states whether or not they are parties to UNCLOS, in times of peace and war.

“When transit passage is disrupted, consequences reverberate across the global economy,” he said.

Sustain rule of law

On Nov. 3, Tong will also be attending the 2026 elections for ICJ Judges at the UN.

Singapore has nominated Ambassador for International Law Rena Lee for election as an ICJ Judge for the 2027 to 2036 term.

Her candidature reflects Singapore's commitment to contributing to the court's work in the peaceful settlement of disputes between states, the Ministry of Law said.

It added that beyond his engagements at the UN, Tong will meet various counterparts at the UN to discuss international developments and strengthen legal cooperation.

He will also meet U.S. law firms and Singapore lawyers based in New York to deepen professional ties and explore opportunities for collaboration with Singapore's legal sector.

"Singapore advocates for an international order where sovereignty is respected, trade can flow and disputes can be resolved peacefully," Tong said.

He said: "We must all play our part to sustain the rule of law, strengthen its application, and contribute to the institutions that uphold international law."

The couple who fled the scene of a hit-and-run accident at Tampines Avenue 12 on Thursday night have been arrested.

Traffic Police officers established the identity of the man, aged 30, and the woman, aged 29, using police cameras and CCTVs, as well as extensive ground enquiries.

They were arrested in the vicinity of West Coast Road on Oct. 30.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the man operated a deregistered car with a cloned licence plate while under disqualification.

The man faces nine charges under the Road Traffic Act and related legislation, including dangerous driving causing death, driving under disqualification as a repeat offender, failing to render assistance, and displaying a false licence plate.

He will be charged in court on Oct. 31.

The accident, which took place on the night of Oct. 29, involved 2 cars and a motorcycle.

The motorcyclist and his pillion rider, both 24, passed away. They leave behind a 6-year-old son.

The driver of the other car, a 25-year-old woman, was conveyed conscious to hospital.

Police reiterated that firm action will be taken against motorists who recklessly endanger road safety.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry (METI) said "piped natural gas imported from Indonesia is for domestic use, and not for export", in response to Mothership's queries.

The statement comes after Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Downstreaming and Energy Transition Bahlil Lahadalia claimed, without providing evidence, claimed that Singapore resold some of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) it imported from Indonesia to other countries rather than using it for domestic consumption, reported The Straits Times (ST).

Bahlil also doubled down and said that his country's decision to cut gas exports to Singapore does not violate contracts.

What he said

Speaking to Indonesian reporters, Bahlil was quoted as saying: "I believe that not all of the 148 cargoes we send are used for Singapore’s own needs, but some are traded and subsequently exported to other countries."

Bahlil, who is also Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources and chairman of the Golkar Party, did not specify when the cargoes were shipped nor provide any evidence to substantiate his allegations.

The 148 cargoes refer to LNG transported by sea, which is separate from the Piped Natural Gas (PNG) from Indonesia's Natuna and Sumatra gas fields that were subject to supply cuts.

LNG "usually moves from source to destination country directly"

Bahlil's statements come amid calls for the easing of bilateral tensions over energy supplies and transboundary haze.

The METI spokesperson noted that Singapore is an international trading hub, including for LNG, with "more than 50 Singapore-based companies that buy, market, and trade LNG sourced from markets around the world, including Indonesia".

The spokesperson added that these companies' top source markets include the U.S., Australia and Malaysia.

"While Singapore-based traders make the commercial decisions relating to the cargo, the actual LNG cargo usually moves from source to destination country directly and does not physically pass through Singapore."

Transactions regarding LNG trading and re-exporting are subject to supply agreement terms.

SKK Migas, Indonesia's upstream oil and gas regulator, first broke the news at an energy industry awards ceremony in Jakarta, stating that 31 billion British thermal units per day (BBTUD) were to be cut.

Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA) then confirmed that the actual reduction was around 17 billion British thermal units per day over 18 days, which was less than 2 per cent of Singapore's daily gas demand.

Previous comments

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had previously said on Oct. 25 that Singapore expected all parties to "honour their commitments" under commercial contracts, two days after Indonesia announced gas export cuts.

On Oct. 26, Bahlil directly responded to PM Wong's remarks, stating that the gas supplied to Singapore meets minimum contractual levels.

"Our nation is a nation that honours contracts, rules. So don't teach Indonesia on how to honour contracts."

According to Indonesian media outlet Kompas, on Oct. 28, Bahlil explained that the total gas export volume from Indonesia to Singapore stood at 409.5 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD), with the cut being 31 MMSCFD.

Bahlil claimed that this still exceeds the minimum threshold stipulated in the contract.

The last time Prema Menon saw her older brother, he was lying on his bed as they spoke over a family Zoom call.

Prema was in Australia, her brother, Arjun Menon, in Malawi, and the rest of their family back in Singapore.

Their father used to like to arrange these Zoom calls to discuss family matters — it was their usual run-of-the-mill conversations.

She never imagined that would be the last time she would see her brother.

On May 11, 2025, Arjun passed away after he was attacked and killed in Malawi on his way home from a night out in what is suspected to be a robbery gone wrong.

Arjun, a former Singapore national cricketer, was working in Malawi as the operations manager of Cricket Malawi.

Almost a year and a half later, Prema and the family are still fighting to uncover the truth.

They also want continued action and investigation from the authorities, Prema tells Mothership in an interview at their family home in September.

The call

Going back to the day the family received the news of Arjun's death, Prema said it was "earth-shattering".

"I don't think anybody expects to receive news of a sibling passing," she said.

Prema happened to be in Singapore that day, and was out with her family going for house viewings.

They received a call from an unknown overseas number, and Prema's younger sister picked up the phone.

It was Arjun's wife, screaming that he had been murdered, Prema recounted.

"I was in disbelief. I thought, is this a prank? Like, is this actually happening? Am I dreaming?" she said.

What followed was a blur, Prema said: "Everything around you starts to almost fade out, and all you can hear is like the blood rushing in your head, and that's what it really felt like."

To make it more painful, she had to be the one to relay the news to her family.

"I think to tell your parents and kind of watch it sink in for them, and to watch their anguish is actually one of the worst things to experience," she said.

That day, something changed in her as she watched her mother, father, and sister in such a deep state of distress.

"You kind of know that your life is never going to be the same again."

Flew over to Malawi

A few days after they received the call, Prema flew over to Malawi to put Arjun to rest, on behalf of the family.

They decided not to bring him back to Singapore because they knew he loved Malawi a lot.

"Going there was a strange experience. I think you're going to a country that you've heard so much about. My brother talked about it so much, but you're going under this very weird circumstance that is deeply sad," Prema said.

The next five days would be the longest of Prema's life.

Funeral arrangements, cremation, sea burial, and the scattering of ashes.

"I went through the motions like a robot," she said.

"It's really hard to believe it is happening, but time moves on, and you just have to get it done. So it becomes this very weird, almost insulated, robotic slow-motion film that happens that you have no control over."

What they know

The family was told that Arjun was attacked by unknown assailants outside the compound of his home.

He had gone out for the night with a couple of friends and had gone back home alone. He was attacked as he was on the way home.

"So that's all we know. His wallet was stolen. His car was later found abandoned. And sadly, we don't know more than that. Even 16 months on," Prema said.

When she was in Malawi, she was focused on making sure Arjun got a good send-off and didn't focus too much on getting answers from the authorities.

Arjun's boss, the president of cricket in Malawi, had also assured her that he had it under control and was speaking to the police.

As the system was foreign to her, she also didn't feel that stepping in would help at that point.

So she left it in the hands of Arjun's bosses and the Malawi cricket association.

But a couple of months later, the family would hear the same thing — the investigation is still ongoing.

By September 2025, Prema started speaking to different people to figure out what she could do to take the case forward herself and look for answers.

Mother's death

At the same time, Prema's mother was struggling with a chronic condition that had progressed.

She eventually passed away in December 2025.

"My mother is very central to who I am. She's a huge part of my life, and I think when I lost her, I lost a part of me," Prema said, tearing up.

It felt like something in her finally broke, she said.

For a long time after Arjun's passing, Prema had held it together for the family, naturally stepping into the shoes of the "oldest sibling" after his death.

She had felt the responsibility to take the matter of his murder on herself.

"So when [my mother] passed, I felt like the universe was against me. I felt like nothing. You ask yourself: 'What is all of this even for?' Like, not just my mother's life or my brother's life. What's my life even for?" Prema said.

Thinking she needed a mental health break, she temporarily stopped her search for answers.

Grief

This was when Prema was finally able to properly grieve.

"I think sometimes when death happens, especially in our circumstances where it's tragic, you are very focused on outcomes," she said.

"You actually don't let yourself feel the loss," she added.

"I think by grieving my mother, I learned how to grieve my brother. By grieving my brother, I grieve parts of my mother. It is a deeply affecting experience."

But another thing Prema learned through her grief was that it is a blessing to be able to grieve people so deeply — because it meant she loved them so much and felt so loved by them.

"That's why I had to take a break. It really rewired my brain a little bit," she said.

Restarting the search for answers

Around February or March in 2026, Prema started to think about kickstarting the search for answers into Arjun's death again.

But she wasn't sure how exactly she could do it.

A lot of Arjun's friends and people around her were also asking her about the progress and why nothing was happening.

Prema realised that many of them did not have the context that she did, and that was when she realised the easiest way was to let them witness her process of looking for answers.

In July 2026, she set up social media pages and started documenting herself looking for answers.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by arjunmenonsg (@arjunmenonsg)

Updates

On Jul. 16, Prema called the original investigating officer of Arjun's case for an update and was told that the case had been reassigned to a new inspector.

This inspector then told Prema that a factual report had already been sent to the Singapore Embassy in Beijing.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) had liaised with the Singapore Embassy in Beijing as a liaison embassy to speak to Malawi to ask for updates, as there was no embassy in Malawi.

Prema asked for a copy of the report and was promised she would get it.

Some people she knew in Malawi also contacted her on Jul. 17, saying they had been called in for questioning and there was just this flurry of activity by the police.

To Prema, some signs of action from the Malawi police were good news — it was a sign they were finally moving, and the case wasn't getting cold.

But she received the report only weeks later, dated Jul. 31, 2026 — two weeks after she called them.

She said the report was also only received by the Singapore Embassy in Beijing on Aug. 12, 2026, nearly a month after she was first told it was already on its way.

She also found the report sparse, with just a few additional details of the case.

Eventually, things fizzled out.

As of Sep. 30, 2026, the main investigating officer has changed his phone number, and she is unable to make contact with any of the investigating team.

In response to Mothership's queries, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said they have reached out to the Malawi authorities and will render necessary assistance, within the ambit of Singapore's laws, should a request be made.

As of Oct. 27, SPF has not received any request for assistance from the Malawi authorities regarding this case.

What she hopes to achieve

Prema said her ultimate goal is to compel those who can help to act.

"My hope is we get enough momentum going that somebody feels compelled to act, and those who can help us and need to help us will act," she said.

"The fact of the matter is, we are the next of kin. We are owed answers. That fact that nobody feels like we are owed answers is actually a deeply offensive and insulting feeling."

"We've lost someone," she added.

Remembering Arjun

To Prema, Arjun was her "teddy bear" big brother, one she could always count on for positivity and optimism.

Someone she went to for advice and someone who would celebrate her wins with her.

"Arjun had the ability to look at you and see the best in you and make you believe that you could achieve things. He also had the ability to talk to you and make you feel like you're the most important person," she shared.

If she could have one more conversation with him, Prema said she would simply ask Arjun if it's going to be okay.

"And I sense he would say, 'Yeah, you'll be fine.' I take a lot of comfort in that."

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has expelled a record number of 33 members as it concluded its major political gathering, the plenum.

China Daily reported that the four-day plenum, which concluded on Oct. 29, covered the achievements of the party and the preservation of the party's self-governance.

This included highlighting steps to ensure officials would not have the audacity to commit corruption.

Party discipline was centred on this edition of the plenum, whereas past meetings focused on economic reforms or social and development issues, reported the BBC.

First time plenum attendance dropped below 300 in Xi's 14 years

According to the BBC, this fifth plenum had 279 Central Committee members, while October 2025's fourth plenum had 315 and July 2024's third plenum had 364.

This is the first time plenum attendance has dropped below 300 in Xi's 14 years of rule.

China Daily noted that the session also discussed the filling of empty seats on the CCP's Central Committee by alternate members.

The CCP also decided to convene its National Congress in Beijing in the second half of 2027 at the Plenum.

This will be the 21st party congress. It is an event held every five years and determines the leadership of the party and, eventually, China, according to the BBC.

Fight against corruption

Since coming to power in 2012, one of Xi Jinping's core missions has been to stamp out corruption.

Over two million individuals are facing disciplinary action for "pointless formality, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance", according to Chinese state-owned media, Xinhua.

According to the BBC, which cited a report issued on Oct. 29, 16 of the 33 members purged were from the military.

These dismissals raise the total figure of removed members in Xi's third term to 51, an increase from 35 in his first term and five in his second term.

BBC reported that China's top anti-corruption watchdog said 680,000 people across the CCP had been disciplined in the first nine months of 2026.

High-ranking officials who were axed

The high-ranking officials who were axed include former Xinjiang Party chief Ma Xingrui and ex-generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, the BBC reported.

According to Xinhua, Ma was investigated and found to have violated "political organisation and integrity discipline", as well as helped family members purchase homes at below-market prices and engaged in money for sex transactions, among other actions.

BBC reported that Ma and Zhang were former Politburo members; their removal, alongside former general He Weidong, brought the 24-man Politburo down to 21 members.

A former diplomat, Liu Jianchao, was also named among those purged after disappearing from public view in July 2025, the BBC stated.

American intelligence formerly alleged that a Singapore-based data centre company, Megaspeed, was smuggling Nvidia chips to China.

Now, they have reportedly found that one executive of Megaspeed is not only a Chinese intelligence asset but has developed a close relationship to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

According to The New York Times (NYT), Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, or Huang Le, a Chinese citizen, has been seen together with Jensen Huang multiple times over the past two years.

U.S. surveillance has allegedly confirmed that the two are in close contact.

They share the same surname but are unrelated.

The U.S. believes that this is part of a plot to obtain sensitive information from Jensen Huang, who is not only an influential tech leader but a close associate of U.S. President Donald Trump, fearing that Trump's stances on key tech and AI issues may be leaked to China.

CNA stated that Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun denied the existence of such a plot.

"The report in question is based on groundless speculation and is nothing more than an attempt to smear China," he said.

Who is Alice Huang?

NYT previously reported that information about Alice Huang is scarce, though they discovered that she allegedly worked first as a news reporter and then a private banker in China.

She then became a top executive at Megaspeed. However, even her exact position at Megaspeed is unclear.

Jensen Huang, who is married, was first seen together with Alice Huang in June 2024, mingling at a bar with other tech executives after a technology trade show in Taipei.

One executive, Parker Schmitt, told NYT that Alice Huang said "I bet you guys I can get Jensen here," referring to the CEO by his first name.

Jensen Huang then showed up shortly after and drank whiskey with the group.

A year later in May, the two were seen leaving a Taipei restaurant after a business dinner with other AI suppliers.

Beyond just business deals, U.S. intelligence is worried about Alice Huang's purported funneling of information to Beijing due to Jensen Huang's proximity to Trump.

Jensen Huang had personally met with Trump to convince him to allow Nvidia to sell chips to China, and Nvidia later donated at least US$20 million (S$25.5 million) to Trump's White House ballroom fund, one source told NYT.

When Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the U.S. in September 2026, Jensen Huang was also present at the table.

The U.S. thus fears that Alice Huang may be privy to sensitive information about both Trump and Nvidia.

Intelligence officers reportedly briefed Trump about the possible espionage regarding Jensen Huang, but NYT reported that he chose to do nothing.

What's Megaspeed?

Megaspeed buys chips to build data centres and rent their computing power to companies in other countries, such as China.

However, it faces accusations that it smuggles advanced AI chips to China.

According to NYT, the U.S. government has been cracking down on AI chip sales to China over fears that they would gain access to advanced technology.

Yet Megaspeed and Nvidia have done brisk business, with Megaspeed's sister company buying at least US$4.8 billion (S$6.13 billion) worth of advanced AI equipment from 2024 to 2026.

Nvidia claims that Megaspeed was "like any other regional customer", denying that the two companies had any special relationship.

The company's spokesman, John Rizzo, added that Jensen Huang and Alice Huang's meetings "are not unusual or unexpected", and that "meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job."

Regarding the assertions that Megaspeed has been smuggling chips to China, Rizzo said that Nvidia had debunked such claims, and that they had verified that Megaspeed had no Chinese shareholders.

Jensen Huang himself told Bloomberg on Oct. 29 2026 that Nvidia examined how Megaspeed was utilising their chips and concluded that they were not diverting them to China.

"We've studied all their deployments of our GPUs (graphic processing units) and counted every one," he said.

But U.S. intelligence has taken a different view, with one 2024 investigation at Megaspeed's data centre in Malaysia showing that the purchased AI equipment was still in boxes and left uninstalled.

This suggested that the equipment was to be shipped out rather than used on-site.

Singapore itself conducted an investigation into Megaspeed in 2025, bringing Alice Huang in for questioning before releasing her.

A Vietnamese student in Taipei is hoping to reconnect with a Singaporean man who helped her when she felt unwell on a Scoot flight, after regretting not exchanging contact details with him.

The woman, who gave her name as Mei Ling, told Mothership that she had travelled to Singapore for a concert and was returning to Taipei alone on Oct. 3.

Nearly a month later, she is still thinking about her seatmate and wondering whether he felt the same connection she did.

The man offered his jacket, medicine and water

Mei Ling, 29, said she was seated in 26E on Scoot flight TR872 from Singapore to Taipei. The man was beside her in 26F.

The flight was scheduled to depart Singapore at 12:25pm and arrive in Taipei at 5:10pm.

Mei Ling said she had trouble sleeping and felt a little motion sick during the flight.

About halfway through the journey, her seatmate noticed that she seemed uncomfortable and asked: “Everything is okay?”

He continued checking on her, offered her his jacket when he thought she might be cold, and gave her headache medicine. He also bought her water to take it with.

Mei Ling said the man's willingness to lend her his jacket was particularly touching because she noticed he was cold himself: "What touched me even more was that you seemed cold yourself. I noticed you sniffing repeatedly, yet you were still willing to share your jacket with me."

“You were a stranger, but for a little while, you made me feel as though I wasn’t alone,” she wrote in her appeal.

Did not exchange names or contact details

Mei Ling said the man first spoke to her in English. As she was not confident in the language, she replied in Chinese, and he tried to communicate with her in Chinese instead, although she described his Chinese as not very fluent.

When asked whether he was Chinese, the man said he was Singaporean.

That was essentially all she learnt about him. They did not exchange names or contact details.

She described him as wearing glasses, dressed entirely in black and travelling alone with a backpack. She estimated that he was in his twenties, but did not confirm his age.

Mei Ling said she had initially been guarded because she was unsure of his intentions.

“At the time, I thought we would only meet once, so I didn’t ask more questions,” she told Mothership.

Afterwards, she regretted not getting to know him better.

Saw him again on the airport train

When the plane landed, Mei Ling said she remained unsure whether to make an effort to stay in touch.

She thanked him and returned his jacket, but they parted without exchanging contact details.

There was, however, another opportunity.

Mei Ling said she saw him again on the train from the airport to Taipei, but hesitated to approach him.

“I didn’t realise at the time that missing an opportunity could mean missing it forever,” she said.

Looking back, she wished she had been less guarded and more courageous.

Hopes to find out whether the feeling was mutual

Mei Ling said she wants to meet him again to thank him properly and find out whether he felt a connection too.

“If he tells me that he helped me on the plane because he felt something more than just being a kind stranger, then I would like to have the chance to know him better and thank him properly,” she said.

“But if he tells me that it was only the kindness of a stranger, I will also be okay with that and let it go without another regret.”

She said she had tried unsuccessfully to find him through the airline.

“This is probably my last attempt and a little bit of hope,” she said.

If the man sees the appeal, Mei Ling hopes he will feel comfortable getting in touch, without any pressure.

He can contact her by email at meilingyang2806@gmail.com.

“I may regret not knowing the answer, but I won’t regret trying to find him because I know I did my best,” she said.

“Whatever the answer is, I will accept it.”