Malaysian transport minister Anthony Loke has told Malaysian media that he will keep to his word and quit as soon as former Prime Minister Najib Razak steps foot at home to begin his house arrest.

This comes after news that the RM50 million (S$15.6 million) fine, part of the conditional pardon granted to Najib, has been paid.

According to Oriental Daily, Loke told reporters on Friday (Nov. 6): "The moment Datuk Seri Najib sets foot in his home, that's when I will resign. If it's tonight, I will resign tonight. If it's tomorrow, I will resign tomorrow."

At 5:25pm, China Press reported that Najib was undergoing a dental examination at a hospital in Kuala Lumpur.

Loke's protest

Loke had tendered his resignation in protest of the conditional pardon granted to Najib on Sep. 18 by Malaysian King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar.

The conditional pardon allows Najib to serve out the remainder of his jail term under house arrest after paying a RM50 million (S$15.6 million) fine.

Najib was jailed for corruption and money laundering relating to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

His jail term ends on Aug. 23, 2028.

According to the South China Morning Post, Loke said that he, along with the DAP and "many others", could not abide by the decision of the conditional pardon.

Loke then tendered his resignation with Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who asked him to continue with his duties for the time being.

This prompted mockery from Najib, who commented in a Sep. 28 Facebook post: "Apparently, the principle has now shifted to conditional resignation."

On Friday, Najib's party, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), said that they had raised enough funds and paid off the RM50 million (S$15.6 million) fine.

The party previously sought donations for the "Najib Razak Solidarity Fund".

A 68-year-old woman in Hong Kong has been sentenced to 20 days' jail for slapping a five-year-old girl after the child and her grandson argued over a basketball at a mall play area.

The South China Morning Post reported that Leung Lai-ha pleaded guilty on Nov. 5 to assaulting the girl and admitted that she hit her on impulse.

Physical altercation

Three adults were involved in the physical altercation on Aug. 26, according to SCMP.

They were Leung, her daughter Ng Ka-wun, 34, and the girl's 34-year-old mother, Xu Yang.

According to SCMP, the fight escalated after Leung knocked the girl down.

Mall

An earlier report mentioned that the incident occurred in the atrium of APM shopping mall, located in Hong Kong's Kwun Tong district.

Footage of the slap, circulating online, showed Leung shoving the girl, then slapping her across the face, causing her to fall on the ground.

However, following investigations, the police believed that Leung may have been hit first by the girl's mother.

What happened?

The day of the incident, APM mall had a sports-themed playground at its atrium.

Leung and Ng brought the boy to play there.

Xu had separately brought her five-year-old daughter, The Standard reported.

The dispute began when the two children argued over a basketball installation.

After Leung shoved and slapped the girl, the girl's mother confronted both Leung and Ng, and further scuffling ensued.

A man who intervened at one point went towards Leung and yelled in Cantonese, "Did you just hit a child? I saw you."

Ng also confronted Xu while holding an umbrella and told her, "You cannot leave."

According to The Standard, there is another video that shows Xu allegedly slapping Leung across the face during a heated exchange before Leung slapped the girl.

Charged

This saw all three adults being jointly charged with a count of fighting in a public place before acting principal magistrate Li Chi-ho at Kwun Tong Court, where they admitted to the facts regarding their offence.

Leung, who faced an additional count of common assault, had hit the girl to "teach her a lesson", she told the police.

She added: "The girl was bullying my grandson, so I pushed her and slapped her to teach her a lesson."

SCMP reported that Ng and Xu each claimed the other had started the fight and told police they were acting in self-defence.

Ng was suspended by her employer, insurance provider AIA, following the dispute.

In a statement on Aug. 27, an AIA spokesperson said the company held its advisers to strict standards of professional conduct and did not condone any form of violence.

Medical examination, sentencing

According to the medical examination, the girl reportedly had a swollen cheek, while her mother and Ng also had minor facial injuries. Leung had minor scratches on her arm.

Li said in sentencing that Leung should not have taken her anger out on the girl and gave her a jail sentence and a HK$2,000 (S$326) fine, SCMP reported.

Ng and Xu were each bound over to keep the peace for a year. If either reoffends within that period, she will forfeit HK$1,000 (S$163).

The Court of Appeal has published the full reasons for acquitting former Wah!Banana actor Lev Panfilov of his charges of raping and sexually assaulting a woman he met on Tinder.

The 30-year-old Russian national was previously sentenced to 11 years and six months in jail, as well as 12 strokes of the cane on May 19, 2025.

The trial judge had previously convicted Panfilov after finding the woman an "unusually convincing" witness and Panfilov not a "credible witness".

In "he said, she said" cases, an "unusually convincing" standard sets the threshold for a complainant's testimony to be preferred over an accused's evidence.

Panfilov later appealed and was acquitted of all charges on Sep. 2.

According to the written grounds published on Nov. 5, the court, comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Ang Cheng Hock and Justice Sushil Nair, ruled that the judge had erred in finding the woman's evidence "unusually convincing".

The written reasons also noted that the defence did not find any internal consistencies with the complainant's testimony, so there was no reason to overturn the judge's finding that the testimony was internally consistent.

However:

"Having reviewed the evidence, the Court was of the view that a number of external inconsistencies arose in the course of the complainant’s testimony.

These inconsistencies, when viewed in isolation, might not have stood in the way of the complainant’s testimony meeting the “unusually convincing” standard.

However, when taken collectively, they gave rise to a reasonable doubt in the Prosecution’s case.

In addition, a consideration of the physical evidence relating to this case, against the findings reached by the learned Judge in coming to the conclusions he did, raised a number of unresolved questions."

Inconsistencies

1. Screaming

The woman told a doctor on Jan. 18, 2021 that she had screamed during the alleged assault and stopped only because Panfilov forcefully prevented her from doing so.

In court, however, her testimony implied she had chosen not to scream, partly out of fear.

The court rejected the prosecution's description of this as a "minor inconsistency", saying the change suggested she "may have embellished the facts".

"When faced with two different possibilities, neither of which was more plausible than the other, it was only right for this court to resolve such a conflict in favour of the accused," it said.

2. Blood-stained underwear

The woman said she noticed blood on her underwear when she got home after the alleged incident, and testified that it was due to the alleged assault.

However, she retrieved the underwear from her laundry basket six days after the alleged incident to bring it to the police station to make a report, and agreed that she accumulated clothes for two to three weeks.

It was also undisputed that she had her period on Jan. 14, 2021, within the six days between the alleged incident on Jan. 12 and Jan. 18, 2021.

The court said this made it plausible that the basket contained clothes worn while she was menstruating, and there was no evidence the blood was not menstrual blood.

Moreover, Panfilov’s description of the underwear she wore that night also differed materially from the photograph of the blood-stained underwear in evidence.

"These inconsistencies and unresolved questions pertaining to the blood-stained underwear were material because they struck at the very heart of the prosecution’s case," the court said, noting that the underwear was the only physical evidence of the alleged sexual assault.

3. Memo

About four days after the alleged assault, the woman asked a doctor for a memo stating she had vaginal injuries and had been raped.

According to the doctor, the woman wanted to potentially approach Panfilov’s family with it and tell them what happened.

The court found it hard to accept that she could not recall asking for the memo, which was the very purpose of her visit.

The doctor also said that after the consultation, the woman asked to cancel the consultation record, which she omitted from her account.

These inconsistencies "lent some credence to the defence’s case that the complainant wanted to obtain a memo to confront Panfilov’s family and, when she failed to do so, wanted to erase evidence of the consultation from the clinic records," the court said.

4. Initial hesitance to make a police report

The court also found it "puzzling" that the woman initially hesitated to make a police report when she knew of the underwear, which she said was physical evidence of the alleged assault.

She later also testified that seeing the underwear had caused her to break down in tears after the alleged incident.

"It was therefore somewhat difficult to understand how the complainant could have completely forgotten about the existence of the very thing that had caused her to break down just barely three to four days later," the court said.

This therefore also cast doubt on whether it was the underwear she wore that night.

Other inconsistencies

The court said there was a gap in time during the alleged incident when Panfilov put on a condom, during which the woman did not perceive him doing anything to her.

This sat at odds with her account that she had tried to escape at least twice before being pushed onto the bed.

It was also questionable that Panfilov would go to the bathroom and struggle with the condom before resuming an attack, given her earlier attempts to leave

Objectively, the court said, the gap was "more consistent with the sexual encounter being consensual".

The court stressed that victims of sexual crimes cannot be "straitjacketed" in how they are expected to react.

However, this does not mean a complainant's post-incident conduct has no probative value, especially when it is inconsistent with other parts of her testimony.

The court also noted that the woman gave Panfilov her home address so he could book her a car, and replied to his message checking that she got home safely.

It said these were not explicable.

The court declined to place weight on a roughly 40-second CCTV clip of the woman walking out of the lift, saying it was not enough to help decide her credibility either way.

Judge had erred in finding the woman's evidence "unusually convincing"

The court said the unresolved inconsistencies gave reason to doubt her account that the encounter on Jan. 12, 2021 was non-consensual and violent.

"We did not think that the complainant met the threshold of being an "unusually convincing" witness and a reasonable doubt arose within the prosecution’s case," it said.

The court added that neither the woman's account nor Panfilov's could be said to be more believable than the other.

"In such a situation, the court could only be guided by the "cornerstone of our criminal jurisprudence" that, where the evidence may lead to two equally reasonable results, that suffices to establish reasonable doubt."

A Malaysian man has been jailed for one year for multiple instances of theft.

His modus operandi was to steal from drunk persons on the street who were unconscious.

According to Shin Min Daily News (Shin Min), Chen Baosheng (transliteration), 45, pleaded guilty to three counts of theft, with four other similar charges being taken into consideration during sentencing.

The first instance occurred around 1:46 am on Jun. 6, when he spotted a 44-year-old man with a Rolex watch around Foch Road.

The man had been drinking with friends at Aperia Mall and later went to have supper nearby. He then sat at a bus stop to wait for a taxi, but fell asleep drunk.

Chen noticed the man and, after confirming that no one was around, stole the Rolex watch worth approximately S$11,000.

When the man awoke to find his watch missing, he made a police report.

The police subsequently identified Chen through CCTV footage from nearby buildings and arrested him on Jun. 27.

However, they found that he had brought the watch back to Malaysia to pawn for cash.

He was released on bail.

Did not stop

On the morning of July 12, while out on bail, he saw a 32-year-old man drunk and asleep on a bench and stole his gold necklace and pendant worth about S$6,230.

Two weeks later, on July 29, he found an intoxicated 48-year-old man passed out outside a bar along Serangoon Road.

He stole his S$1,500 iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The man returned to the bar that evening to check the CCTV footage and made a police report, which led to Chen's second arrest on Aug. 28.

The court heard that Chen was also responsible for four other cases of theft between Jun. 21 and Aug. 15.

His loot included a Hermes bracelet, a mobile phone, and cash.

He reportedly also tried to steal yet another Rolex worth about S$19,000.

Sole breadwinner

Chen's lawyer argued that his client had pleaded guilty early on and cooperated fully with police investigations.

He stressed that Chen did not use violence, had no accomplices, and that the crimes were not premeditated. Instead, he acted on the spur of the moment each time.

Despite this, he added that Chen had no intention of downplaying his crimes.

It was also revealed that Chen used to run a hawker business in Johor Bahru, but is currently unemployed.

He is the sole breadwinner of his family, which includes his wife, his three children, and his mother.

Apologised

Five of the seven victims appeared in court, attempting to recover their stolen valuables or receive compensation.

However, as Chen was unable to compensate them, the judge said their losses would be taken into consideration during sentencing.

Chen apologised several times in court and even bowed to the victims, reported Shin Min.

The man Chen stole the Rolex from told Shin Min that the watch carried great sentimental value for him as well.

He called Chen "greedy" and pointed out that he had continued to steal even while on bail, but said that he and some of the victims could even plead for leniency on his behalf if he returned the items to them.

A civil suit will be his next course of action, he said, but he is worried that Chen does not have assets in Malaysia.

He vowed never to wear valuables out of the house again, especially when drinking.

An autonomous shuttle in Punggol was recently seen almost colliding with a young schoolgirl as she was crossing the road on a green light.

A video of the incident was posted to Facebook page SG Road Vigilante.

According to the caption, the incident occurred on Nov. 5 at around 8:11am.

In the video, the autonomous shuttle could be seen making a discretionary left turn during a green light at a junction.

At the same time, a schoolgirl began crossing the road during a green pedestrian light.

The shuttle passed in front of the girl, prompting the girl to stop in her tracks and retreat away.

The shuttle could also be seen slowing down and almost stopping before continuing on its way.

The purple autonomous shuttle is part of a trial which was launched in Punggol earlier this year in April.

Grab operates two routes, while Comfort DelGro operates one.

Responding to queries from Mothership , a Grab spokesperson said: "Safety is our top priority. We are aware of this incident and are closely reviewing it together with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and our partner WeRide."

Mothership has reached out to LTA for comment.

A car overturned along the PIE on Nov. 5, ultimately landing on its side.

The driver sat atop the car, awaiting rescue.

In a video shared by TikTok user @chrisengkh, the car can be seen on its side on the rightmost lane of the highway, near the Stevens Road exit.

EMAS Vehicle Recovery workers and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) responders were seen rescuing the driver with a ladder.

In response to Mothership's queries, the police and SCDF confirmed they were alerted to the incident on the PIE towards Tuas around 2:05pm.

The car is believed to have self-skidded.

The 64-year-old driver was conveyed to Alexandra Hospital and is assisting with ongoing investigations.

A Singaporean woman in the finance sector, Ruth (not her real name), was approached by a man looking to buy some insurance.

The man, Rob, had been recommended to her by a friend who had encountered him on a dating app. Her friend had introduced him to Ruth after he mentioned his need for insurance.

In the midst of that purported insurance purchase, the man struck up a conversation on the topic of crypto investments.

Ruth had never done any crypto investments before, and Rob convinced her that, despite the volatile nature of crypto, the stablecoin staking investment would provide no risk.

She would end up losing over S$100,000 over the course of four months.

Building Trust

Rob revealed “personal details” about himself to build trust with Ruth.

He said he had a daughter and showed her pictures of both himself and his daughter.

A reverse image search on Google did not reveal any hits, but when we ran some of the pictures Ruth provided through a different search engine focused on facial features, multiple results of what appeared to be the same man appeared.

Some of these images of the same man appeared on various Chinese websites, including stock photo sites.

It wasn’t just photos either. The man actually carried out video calls with Ruth.

Ruth showed Mothership a video of their call. There were similarities with the man in the photos, though he was not necessarily a dead ringer.

Ruth also acknowledged that the man could have been using an AI filter.

He also claimed to be working for a relatively established energy company in Singapore.

That trust-earning was so meticulous that Rob even sent over a gift after he was invited to Ruth’s daughter’s party.

The gift was in lieu of Rob not being able to make the party.

The man also sent photos of a Malaysian IC he claimed to be his. Checks by Mothership on the IC number he sent over showed no such registered individual.

The scam and the aftermath

The scam has all the hallmarks of a pig-butchering scam. And the beats would sound familiar to those who might have followed such cases.

Rob presented a stablecoin as a safe investment, walked her through setting up a crypto wallet and staking.

The first few returns came in without a hitch inside a legitimate, widely used app.

Ruth was told there would need to be a certain amount of money for crypto trading. The amount needed for staking increased exponentially over time. Rob would also assure her that this was a routine part of this kind of trading.

Rob then moved her funds onto another app, Qevorinex, which was significantly less popular. Checks by Mothership show the platform appears to have little to no digital footprint.

Scam Advisor rates it "likely unsafe", and while the owner has hidden their identity, the number associated with the registrant has been brought up in multiple other potential scams online.

When Rob brought up the app to Ruth, she was suspicious due to the "scammish" feel, but was convinced after Rob claimed other legitimate companies and apps might receive negative reviews as well.

That app would soon accuse her of various things, including insider trading.

Penalties and fees soon followed. Ruth said she paid due to a “sense of obligation”. And also to get back the rest of her money, assumed to be locked/frozen due to the penalty.

The app has now apparently been blocked under the Online Criminal Harms Act.

Partly because of what she considered to be an investment for her children, and because some of Rob’s money was purportedly invested in as well.

There were other lies Rob purportedly peddled to stop her from pulling the plug earlier.

When multiple apps prevented her from transferring money due to the unsafe nature of where she was transferring it to, Rob convinced her that they tended to do that because they would not want money out of the banks.

She would end up losing well over S$100,000 before she called an end to the entire thing.

Ruth would file a police report, but this would only be the start of her nightmare.

Rob claimed that some of his money was inside the investment, and that he wanted it back.

Threatening phone calls and messages soon followed.

Why not block and delete the number some might ask?

Ruth said she had initially harboured hopes that she could somehow get the money back, blocking him would put an end to any such possibility.

As of the time of writing, Ruth has blocked the number.

Mothership has reached out to the number but has not gotten a response back.

Those threats felt even more real due to the personal information Ruth had shared with the man, including her address.

According to Ruth, the police have informed her that the number is a spoof number. It will be hard, or even impossible to claw that money back.

No one is more cognisant of that than Ruth.

"I feel horrible daily of course. It’s a huge part of my savings (for the children) gone, and he used my weakness (the kids) to make me invest on this platform, promising that i could take out the money.

But, the truth is the transaction hash shows that the money is gone overseas and cannot be found."

Despite that loss, she hopes sharing this will help future victims avoid something like this.

In response to Mothership's queries, the police said investigations are ongoing.

About 54 per cent of applicants for Singapore's Jobseeker Support Scheme (JSS) were unsuccessful as of Sep. 30, 2026.

The most common reason was that applicants were not assessed to be involuntarily unemployed, accounting for 69 per cent of unsuccessful applicants.

Another 33 per cent of unsuccessful applicants had a previous average monthly income exceeding the scheme's S$5,000-per-month threshold.

Meanwhile, 18 per cent were unsuccessful because they had not worked for at least six months in the preceding 12 months.

Some applicants were unsuccessful for more than one reason, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said.

The figures were disclosed by Acting Minister for Manpower Jasmin Lau in a written parliamentary reply on Nov. 4.

She was responding to questions from MP Patrick Tay, who asked about the reasons for unsuccessful applications and whether eligibility could be expanded to include those who had been involuntarily unemployed for longer periods.

Tay also asked whether the maximum monthly and total financial support available under the scheme would be reviewed to better assist involuntarily unemployed middle-income workers.

Scheme parameters reviewed regularly

"We recognise that a prolonged job search where jobseekers have spent many months applying for jobs, attending interviews and retraining takes concerted effort, and imposes a financial and emotional toll," Lau said.

She added that the scheme's parameters are reviewed regularly to ensure it provides appropriate support, and that Tay's suggestions would be considered in the next review.

A 76-year-old Singaporean tourist has pledged to donate 100,000 yuan (S$19,150) annually to a hospital in Xinjiang, China, after its medical team saved his life.

According to reports by Xinjiang Daily and China Daily, the man, Koh Sim Hock, made the pledge to Shache County People's Hospital after recovering from a life-threatening medical emergency triggered by altitude sickness.

The donation will go towards medical assistance for financially disadvantaged patients admitted to the hospital's intensive care department.

According to the hospital's director, this is the first time the hospital has received a designated donation from an individual.

Developed life-threatening complications from altitude sickness

Koh had travelled from Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County to Shache on Oct. 14 when he developed acute high-altitude pulmonary oedema, a severe form of altitude sickness that causes fluid to build up in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe.

The condition can occur at high altitudes, where oxygen levels are lower, and can be life-threatening if not treated promptly.

He experienced difficulty breathing and a sharp drop in blood oxygen levels before being rushed to Shache County People's Hospital for emergency treatment.

"In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, I was already completely unable to breathe," Koh recalled, according to Xinjiang Daily.

His wife said she was extremely frightened when his blood oxygen level dropped from around 50 per cent to 38 per cent.

Medical examinations revealed that he was also suffering from left-sided heart failure accompanied by a condition in which the lungs cannot supply enough oxygen to the blood.

He also experienced cardiogenic shock, a life-threatening condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs.

According to China Daily, Koh also had several underlying medical conditions, including a history of coronary artery stent implantation, high risk hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, hyperkalaemia, which is high potassium levels in the blood, and impaired liver function.

Given the severity of his condition, he was transferred to the hospital's intensive care department for monitoring and treatment.

Medical team worked to save his life

Zou Hai (transliteration), an emergency and critical care specialist from Pudong New Area People's Hospital in Shanghai, led the efforts to treat Koh.

Zou was part of Shanghai's 12th batch of medical professionals deployed to Xinjiang under a team-based medical assistance programme.

He worked alongside the hospital's intensive care team and local medical staff to assess Koh's condition and provide emergency treatment.

Specialists from multiple disciplines were also involved in monitoring changes in Koh's condition and determining the appropriate treatment.

After several days of treatment and care, Koh's condition gradually improved.

He was taken off mechanical ventilation and extubated on Oct. 17, according to Xinjiang Daily.

Received traditional Chinese medicine treatment for persistent symptoms

However, Koh subsequently experienced recurring watery diarrhoea, abdominal bloating and persistent dry mouth and thirst, which had troubled him for more than a week.

According to China Daily, his symptoms showed limited improvement following conventional Western medical treatment.

The hospital then consulted Hu Xinmin (transliteration), a specialist in integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine from Fudan University-affiliated Pudong Hospital in Shanghai, who had been deployed to Xinjiang.

Hu developed an individualised traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment plan, taking into account Koh's age, underlying medical conditions and impaired heart function.

Hu said the medication had to be prescribed cautiously, considering Koh's heart and lung function, fluid balance and electrolyte levels.

The treatment was adjusted according to changes in Koh's symptoms and condition.

After six days of taking the prescribed medication, Koh's diarrhoea and bloating improved significantly, while his dry mouth and thirst gradually eased.

Koh said he had been extremely anxious when he fell seriously ill during his trip.

"I never expected to receive such comprehensive and attentive medical treatment in Shache," he said.

Koh added that the TCM treatment had helped relieve the diarrhoea, abdominal bloating and thirst he had been experiencing for more than a week.

He thanked the hospital's medical staff, particularly Hu, for their care.

During his hospitalisation, Koh learnt that Zou had travelled more than 4,000km from Shanghai to southern Xinjiang to provide medical assistance to local residents and visiting tourists.

Koh has since recovered and been discharged from hospital.

Pledged annual donation to help other patients

To express his gratitude to the hospital for saving his life, Koh discussed the matter with his family, and they agreed to donate 100,000 yuan (S$19,150) annually to the hospital.

According to China Daily, a donation agreement signing ceremony was held at Shache County People's Hospital on Oct. 29.

The funds will be specifically used to help financially disadvantaged patients in the hospital's intensive care department.

Speaking at the donation ceremony, Koh said:

"This experience has deeply moved me! I also want to make a small contribution within my own means."

His wife also expressed her gratitude, saying: "No amount of words can express how grateful I am."

Their son praised the hospital's medical facilities and staff.

"When I arrived here, I saw that the medical facilities and medical expertise were excellent, very professional and very empathetic," he said.

Malaysia's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party has paid the RM50 million fine (~S$15.8 million) imposed on former Prime Minister Najib Razak.

This was announced by the party's secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki in a Facebook post on Nov. 6.

In the post, Asyraf Wajdi said funds raised through the "Najib Razak Solidarity Fund", launched on Sep. 18, had reached the target and were "sufficient".

"UMNO has completed all payment processes to the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning," he wrote.

The party has also closed the special account set up for public donations.

The payment was a condition of an order allowing Najib to serve the rest of his jail sentence under house arrest until Aug. 23, 2028, local media outlet The Star reported.

UMNO launched the fund to crowdfund the amount, as Najib’s personal and family assets remain frozen.

The 73-year-old was found guilty of corruption in the multibillion-dollar embezzlement of 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state investment fund he co-founded.