A 71-year-old man was arrested for public drunkenness near Hougang MRT station in the evening of Jun. 5 following a standoff with police that reportedly lasted over an hour.

The incident occurred at an HDB estate near Exit B of the MRT station.

Visibly intoxicated

Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, one witness said he noticed the elderly man, who was visibly intoxicated, had fallen to the ground and scraped his elbow, prompting him to call an ambulance.

The witness added that the man remained on the ground after the fall — he had attempted to get up but was visibly unsteady on his feet, and his pants appeared to be wet.

When paramedics arrived and assessed his condition, the man refused to cooperate and continued to lay down on the ground, prompting the police to be called in.

The standoff was said to have lasted about an hour.

Another witness, who was passing by the station at the time, said she saw several police officers escorting the elderly man to the side of the road.

"He was very agitated when he was taken away, constantly cursing," she said.

A video circulating online showed the man, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, being escorted by four officers with his hands cuffed behind his back.

He briefly lost his footing during the process, but was quickly steadied by an officer nearby.

Investigations ongoing

In response to Mothership's queries, the police confirmed receiving a call for assistance at 90 Hougang Avenue 10 at around 4:25pm on Jun. 5.

A 71-year-old man was arrested for drunkenness in public and was conveyed conscious to the hospital.

Police investigations are ongoing.

A 25-year-old Sembawang resident claimed that a man loitering outside her home stole a pair of her limited edition sneakers from the shoe rack.

The resident, Yan (transliterated), claimed the shoes, an Adidas Stan Smith with a pink heel tab, were worth more than S$300, Shin Min Daily News reported.

Loitering

According to Yan, the incident apparently took place at Block 589A Montreal Drive in Sembawang, where she lived.

When she returned home at about 3pm on Jun. 4, a neighbour informed her that an unidentified man had been behaving suspiciously along the corridor.

The neighbour’s domestic helper apparently saw a man dressed in a beige shirt and shorts attempting to take a pair of shoes from the shoe rack outside Yan’s unit.

The domestic helper shouted at the man, prompting him to put the shoes down and flee the scene.

Stolen

Yan initially believed that nothing was stolen.

It was only later that she realised that the pair of Adidas sneakers she owned was missing.

“I really liked them and had only worn them a few times,” Yan said.

She believed that the man stole the sneakers and later returned in an attempt to take a second pair of shoes, only to be caught by the domestic helper.

Yan highlighted that there were other footwear in the shoe rack and suggested that the man might have targeted specific branded shoes.

Discontinued

Yan claimed that the specific Adidas Stan Smith pair of shoes had its production discontinued.

Checks by Mothership showed that the Stan Smith line of shoes is still on sale on the Adidas website.

But the exact colourway of Yan’s shoes appeared to have been discontinued.

Yan reported the incident to the police.

Not the first time

Yan said she was previously a victim of shoe theft about two years ago.

She reported the theft back then as well.

The police apparently told her that other residents in the same block had also lodged reports about missing shoes.

It was believed that someone was playing a prank, but there was not enough evidence to back it.

In the wake of the latest incident, Yan said she has started keeping her expensive footwear inside her home.

She is also considering installing a security camera outside her home to deter future thefts.

Due to system issues and overwhelming crowds, thousands of attendees found themselves queueing for hours to enter the Mercury Festival from Jun. 5 to 7.

The bi-annual art and thrift fair for small businesses, held at the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre with free entry, saw large crowds outside the convention hall waiting to get in.

At 4:22pm on Jun. 6, the organisers wrote on the festival's Telegram channel that there were around 9,300 people in the queue, with a waiting time of over four hours.

Shortly after, they updated that they had to close the virtual queue temporarily "due to the high volume of people in the online queue as well as in the venue".

"Five hours and still waiting," a person commented at 4:15pm on Jun. 7, under the festival's update that the online queue will again be stopped temporarily.

Another wrote on 5:41pm that she arrived at the venue at 11:30am and was still waiting for her number.

The festival was open from 12:30pm to 8:30pm each day.

Unforeseen circumstances

Festival organisers told Mothership that the three-day event saw over 32,000 visitors, with about 15,000 on Saturday alone.

"We are regretfully aware that it’s a significant number and we deeply apologise for this oversight," they said in response to Mothership's queries.

Online queues were closed early on all three days, with the organisers explaining on Telegram that they "truly could not foresee the crazy crowd so early on".

Those currently in the queue would not be affected, but no new registrations would be accepted.

On Jun. 7, a system malfunction occurred due to the overwhelming number of patrons registering for a queue number. It caused a lag in the queue system that the organisers said was resolved in a timely manner.

The queueing process

Mothership readers shared that the only official way to get a entry queue number was to get to the hall in person and scan a QR code on the sign outside, which would give them a queue number.

The online queue would open around 12pm each day shortly before the festival opened its doors, according to a reader.

She had visited on Jun. 6 and was able to enter the festival after getting a queue number around 12pm, which was called at around 1:30pm.

According to her, there was no time limit set for how long she could stay inside the hall when she got in.

A security guard outside the hall was saying that those who had just got a number could come back in three to four hours, she recalled, adding that the crowd outside the venue was huge also due to people queueing for an anime market right next door.

Another Mothership reader who went to the festival on Jun. 7 got a queue number at 12:53pm, but it was only called after six hours at 7pm.

When she first registered for a number, there were over 7,700 people in the queue in front of her.

She waited around for an hour and a half before deciding to leave, because there were still over 6,400 before her by that time.

TikTok user @zilliediaries described the queue situation as a "war zone". Posting on Jun. 7, she said she was unable to enter the festival as there were 8,000 people in the queue.

@zilliediariesat least the queues for public garden moved quickly… mercury fest this year goes crazy♬ original sound - zane and willie

Vendors' experiences

A vendor who boothed for all three days at Mercury Festival took to Threads to share her experience.

"It's sad that many of my regulars, friends and new customers were not able to enter due to their queue management system," she said.

Despite the crowds, her sales were "almost the same" as it was at the previous year's festival.

She claimed that other vendors said their sales were "not very good" either, possibly "because most of the crowd were browsing and not necessarily there to shop as it overlapped with the other festivals on the same floor".

Some vendors, however, shared more positive experiences.

In an Instagram story that was reshared by the festival, one vendor thanked customers for the unexpected turnout and support. She also apologised and expressed appreciation to people who were unable to get into the festival because of the queues.

Making improvements

On the last day of the festival, the organisers apologised for the long waits and responded to attendees' feedback by making some improvements to the queue system.

Through the Telegram channel, they informed everyone in the morning that the start of the queue system would be brought earlier to 11am, and informed everyone that the last ticket number accepted would be 4,700.

They also asked attendees not to circulate the QR code around to others to "ensure the actual queue count remains accurate".

TikTok user @groceryham, who initially included a link to the online queue website in a video, later removed it based on the organisers' request.

They explained that "some people are joining online with no intention to go", she said in a comment.

Many attendees who faced long waits expressed their frustration in comments on the Mercury Festival Instagram page, suggesting that the organisers make improvements to the queue system for future editions of the festival.

The organisers' response

In response to Mothership's queries, the organisers shared that higher queue number holders had to wait for up to five hours, though waiting times varied across the three days.

"We acknowledge that the waiting experience is not acceptable and inconsiderate to our patrons who came with the intention of supporting our vendors and we’d like to truly apologise for that," they said.

Instead of enforcing a time limit, the team managed the crowd entry flow according to the volume inside the hall.

There was regular communication from both vendors and staff on crowd control, to decide when to admit more visitors and when to stop.

Looking ahead, the team has been developing a strategy to manage the queues at the next event.

Solutions in discussion include potentially renting the concourse below to provide a spacious area for a physical queue, or implementing time slots.

The team will be seeking feedback on these ideas, and will also take other suggestions into consideration.

"We would like to thank everyone that took the time to come down for Mercury Festival and were so patient. The turnout exceeded what the venue and queue flow could comfortably handle. We are so grateful that we have patrons that are determined to support the local community and we will work hard to honour that."

A 32-year-old Singaporean man has been sentenced to five years and 11 months' jail for grooming and sexually exploiting an underage girl in the U.S. through video calls.

According to The Straits Times (ST), Sebastian Lye Chee Weng, 32, was also sentenced to three strokes of the cane.

It was further revealed that Lye was being investigated for sexually exploiting another minor during the same period.

The case

Court documents seen by Mothership revealed that Lye first met the girl on the online platform "Omegle" in October 2018 and befriended her.

Omegle is an online platform that connects strangers for text, video, and voice conversations.

The girl was 12 years old at the time.

Lye, then 24, had lied about his age, claiming he was 17 years old to gain her trust.

The two entered a relationship and communicated regularly on platforms including Instagram and Skype.

Court documents reveal that Lye sexually exploited the girl on at least 61 occasions between November 2018 and December 2019, requesting that she perform sexual acts during video calls, which he recorded and screenshotted.

Around the same period, Lye was separately investigated for sexually exploiting another minor, and officers raided his home in November 2018 in connection with that case.

He was eventually convicted in September 2020 and sentenced to over eight months' jail.

Re-offended while on remission

Following his release, Lye was placed on a remission order and was required to stay out of trouble from Mar. 20 to Jun. 13, 2021.

However, he did not comply.

In April 2021, about a month after his release, Lye conducted a video call with the American girl, who was then 14, and again asked her to perform a sexual act.

She complied, and he took at least two screenshots.

The following month, Lye threatened via text message to distribute intimate recordings of her to people she knew, after the girl had attempted to end their relationship.

The victim replied to his message, asking for Lye to leave her alone.

He passed several sexually explicit photographs of her to another individual on Instagram the following day.

The girl subsequently told her parents, and her father reported the matter to U.S. authorities, who then alerted the Singapore Police Force.

Over 12,000 files of sexually explicit material involving children found

When police raided Lye's home in April 2022, they found 12,755 files of sexually explicit material involving children.

In court, Lye pleaded guilty to multiple offences, including the sexual exploitation of a child.

In addition to his jail term and caning, he will serve an additional 66 days' imprisonment for breaching the remission order.

His lawyer also told the court that Lye has "depressive symptoms" and that there is a contributory link between his condition and the offences committed, ST reported.

Lye's bail has been set at S$20,000 and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Jun. 19.

Singapore has launched its latest supercomputer that is four times more powerful than the previous two models combined.

The supercomputer, named Aspire 2B, will be used to support researchers and national projects and serve as a testbed for emerging AI-driven research approaches in fields such as healthcare, climate modelling, and urban resilience.

It is equipped with 1,500 Nvidia H200 Graphic Processing Units (GPUs), commonly used to train and run AI models.

Aspire 2B was launched on Jun. 8, 2026. by Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo at a launch event in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where the new supercomputer is housed.

Large models can now be trained locally

Aspire 2B is the newest addition to the family of supercomputers put together by Singapore's National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC).

Speaking at the launch, Teo acknowledged the computing power of the Aspire 2B.

However, she said: "In any case, rather than to focus on the numbers, we should be looking at the scope and substance of our experimentations going forward."

"With Aspire 2B, models that were previously too large can now be trained in Singapore to meet our specific needs," she added.

Teo cited climate modelling as one example of how Aspire 2B can help researchers do more.

With Aspire 2B, researchers can develop advanced "climate modelling approaches that combine AI and physics-based simulations for higher resolution forecasting and more granular climate insights".

"This can help us anticipate intense rainfall and rising seas earlier, and plan our whole urban development and coastal defences around them," Teo shared.

The minister also gave the example of Meralion, the world's first multi-modal model that understands Southeast Asian languages.

Such language models will be "valuable" to companies operating in the region, Teo explained.

Teo added: "Our measure of success cannot be limited to the scale of hardware available. What matters is how well we use the infrastructure."

People and skills are also essential to turn hardware accessibility into tools, the minister said.

Terence Hung, chief executive at NSCC, said Aspire 2B will provide researchers with the "compute capabilities needed to tackle larger and more complex challenges in areas critical to Singapore’s future, including healthcare, sustainability and urban resilience".

"Aspire 2B reflects Singapore’s ambition to strengthen its position in trusted AI and advanced computing," Hung added.

NSCC, founded in 2015 to build Singapore's supercomputing capabilities, celebrates is 10th anniversary in 2026.

Aspire 2B

Aspire 2B is housed in NTU in a facility that measures around 400 square meters.

It is powered by about 1,500 Nvidia H200 GPUs and 184,000 AMD CPUs.

Aspire 2B offers four times the combined computing capacity of its predecessors, Aspire 2A and 2A+.

It will also more than double Singapore's national GPU capacity.

Aspire 2B's GPUs alone will deliver the combined computing power of 120,000 high-end AI laptops.

Altogether, it will deliver up to 115 petaFLOPS of compute power and is capable of more than 100 quadrillion calculations per second.

FLOPS stands for "floating-point operations per second" and is the unit of measurement to calculate the performance capability of a supercomputer, according to HP.

One petaFLOPS equals one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) FLOPS.

"To illustrate the scale of 115 petaFLOPS, if every person on Earth performed one calculation every second, it would take more than 170 days to match what Aspire 2B can process in a single second," NSCC explained in a press release.

Aspire 2B will be able to provide "enhanced support for integrated workflows combining simulation, data, and AI within a single ecosystem", NSCC described.

Examples of national projects that Aspire 2B will be used for include Simfoni, a Ministry of Health-supported project that aims to strengthen the use of AI in healthcare settings.

Aspire 2B will also be linked to a new quantum computer, which is expected to be installed in Singapore near the end of 2026.

The linking of the two computers will enable researchers to "solve complex problems that are difficult for both systems to handle alone", NSCC said.

S$270 million

Plans for Aspire 2B were first announced in 2024 by then-Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat during the launch of Aspire 2A and 2A+.

Heng said then that Singapore will commit S$270 million to developing the next-generation supercomputer.

Aspire 1, Singapore's first supercomputer, was launched in 2016.

It was then Southeast Asia's most powerful supercomputer.

Aspire 1 was decommissioned in August 2023, ahead of the launch of Aspire 2A and 2A+ in October 2024.

Aspire 2A and 2A+ are housed in the National University of Singapore.

Aspire 2A+ ranked 90th in the top 500 supercomputers list in 2024.

The Aspire supercomputers have supported national programmes, such as the National Environment Agency's Third National Climate Change Study.

Comparing the supercomputer models, NSCC explained that Aspire 2A supports "CPU-intensive workloads", such as climate modelling, materials science and engineering simulations, and Aspire 2A+ "strengthens capabilities for AI and accelerated computing".

On the other hand, Aspire 2B will bring these capabilities together "at a greater scale", and enable "more complex and integrated research" in various fields and research areas.

Aspire stands for "Advanced Supercomputer for Petascale Innovation Research & Enterprise".

People's Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Tampines GRC, Charlene Chen, dug through a Bloobin recycling bin and found a half-eaten sandwich, fried rice, and cigarette butts.

She was taking a closer look at the Bloobin to uncover common recycling mistakes and create awareness to prevent contamination of recyclables.

In a Facebook post on May 26, captioned "What’s really inside our Bloobins?", Chen noted that "While many have the right intention to recycle, recycling right makes all the difference". 

In the video, Chen, who is also the Vice-Chairman of Tampines Town Council, said, "Sometimes, people put things in that shouldn't be in there."

"If there's food waste in there, the cockroach will have a feast in there. We don't want the cockroaches to have a feast in there."

Food waste attracts pests

In the video, Chen could be seen sorting through recyclables from plastic milk containers to cardboard boxes.

She found multiple food items that should not be in the Bloobin, as it would attract pests such as rodents.

Chen also found nonrecyclable trash, which should be put into the green bins for general waste disposal.

In her caption, she said, "one contaminated item can render the entire batch unrecyclable".

Cigarette butts may cause recyclables to catch fire

While sorting through cardboard boxes, Chen found a cigarette butt.

Besides being unrecyclable in regular Bloobins, cigarettes with sparks may cause the bins' recyclables to catch fire.

Other items that cannot be recycled include toilet paper, paper towels, tissue paper, and styrofoam.

These items should be kept out of the Bloobin so that it will not overflow.

Items that can be recycled, such as cardboard, egg cartons, and certain plastics, should be kept clean, dry, and contamination-free.

In her caption, Chen added that cardboard boxes should also be flattened before disposal.

If one spots an overflowing Bloobin, feedback can be sent via the myENV App, linked here.

For more information on recycling right, check out the Clean and Green Singapore website.

A Malaysian woman took to social media to share her experience after her three-year-old child doodled on her passport while she was packing for a work trip.

In a Threads post, the woman revealed what happened on Jun. 6 night.

Packing for trip

The woman was apparently packing her luggage for a work trip when her child managed to get a hold of her passport.

He then proceeded to doodle over it using a blue ballpoint pen.

"My heart wants to cry," she wrote.

In the post, her child could be seen smiling as he held up the damaged passport.

The child also appeared to have doodled what appeared to be a dinosaur on one of the pages of her passport.

The caption in a subsequent post read: “I hate dinosaur!”

Damaged

The woman then visited the immigration department office in Putrajaya for help.

An immigration officer deemed her passport damaged and could no longer be used for travel.

As the incident occurred on a Saturday, she was apparently unable to obtain a replacement passport and would have to wait until Monday, Jun. 8.

The woman was unable to board her flight as planned.

As a result, she made an arrangement with Qatar Airways and rescheduled her flight to Monday evening, resulting in additional charges amounting to RM620 (S$204) for flight changes.

Reflections

The woman reflected on her predicament and joked that her child just wanted to hug her for a few more days, adding that she was not upset with him as he was still young.

She mentioned that her child was still smiling after the incident.

The woman also expressed her gratitude to the immigration officer who helped her.

A six-year-old boy was mauled to death by a pet monkey that his grandfather kept in Sichon district in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand.

The incident occurred on the morning of Jun. 6 in a home located in a village in the Thepharat subdistrict, Bangkok Post and Khaosod reported.

Bitten

The boy, identified as Nathan Ekkarat Srichan, walked past the monkey and was attacked.

The monkey purportedly grabbed Ekkarat and bit him in the chest and leg.

Its fangs also apparently penetrated the boy's lungs.

Relatives rushed the boy to a local hospital, but doctors were unable to save him.

He eventually succumbed to his injuries.

According to local media, he was reportedly a first-grade student.

Tethered

The monkey, a macaque, was reportedly tethered at the time of the incident.

It was attached to a rope strung between two trees beside the house, with a wooden beam allowing it to climb and move around.

The monkey was kept beside a village grocery store owned by his grandfather, Jaroon.

Jaroon apparently kept the monkey for companionship since it was an infant.

It is believed that Ekkarat did not sense any danger when he wandered too close to the monkey.

Local police also said the monkey remained tethered at the same location as the investigation was carried out.

The man who allegedly crashed his car into a rubbish chute at Yishun Street 11 was charged with driving while under the influence of methamphetamine and four other traffic offences on Jun. 8.

According to charge sheets seen by Mothership, the accused, Sivakandesh, who goes by one name, was previously disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving license for a period of 48 months from Jul. 23, 2024, to Jul. 22, 2026.

Court documents did not state the reason for his disqualification.

On Jun. 6 at around 5:58pm, the 32-year-old drove within the open space carpark of 150 Yishun Street 11, stated court documents.

He allegedly drove without due care and attention, failing to maintain proper control.

Struck 2 concrete bollards, parked car and rubbish chute

Sivakandesh allegedly collided with two concrete bollards, a parked car and a Housing Development Board (HDB) rubbish chute before stopping.

According to charge sheets, the Singapore-registered car allegedly did not have any insurance policy or such a security in respect of third-party risks and was not compliant with motor vehicle laws.

Sivakandesh was accused of leaving the scene and also allegedly failed to take reasonable steps to inform the owners of the parked car and structures of the accident.

It was previously reported that he allegedly fled the scene before the police arrived and locked himself in a residential unit.

Stun device and suspected drug paraphernalia found in vehicle

In previous reports, the police said a stun device and drug paraphernalia were found in the vehicle.

Sivakandesh was remanded from Jun. 8; his bail was set at S$25,000.

His case will be mentioned again on Jul. 20.

A first-time offender can face up to a year of jail, a fine of S$10,000 or both for driving while under the influence of an intoxicating substance.

Repeat offenders face up to two years' jail and a fine of up to S$20,000.

A 43-year-old Myanmar national was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail and three strokes of the cane after he overstayed in Singapore and paid S$3,000 to be smuggled out of the country in the boot of a car.

The accused, Min Aung Ngwe Paing, pleaded guilty to two of four charges on Jun. 5, Shin Min Daily News reported.

The other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Overstayed

In charge sheets seen by Mothership, Min entered Singapore on Sep. 23, 2013, and was issued a 30-day visit pass that expired on Oct. 23 of the same year.

He remained in Singapore illegally for 137 days after the expiry of his visit pass.

Min reportedly overstayed to look for work.

Smuggled out

According to Shin Min, he feared getting arrested.

He was then introduced to an unidentified man who agreed to help him leave Singapore illegally in exchange for S$3,000.

At about 11pm on Mar. 9, 2014, the pair met at a car park near Woodlands.

The man then instructed Min to hide in the boot of the car, saying he would drive him through Woodlands Checkpoint into Malaysia.

Min agreed and paid the man.

About 40 minutes later, he arrived in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

He then travelled to Thailand by bus before eventually making his way back to Myanmar.

Returned to Singapore

After spending about nine years outside of Singapore, Min decided to return to the country on Nov. 14, 2024.

He reportedly returned to look for work due to the civil unrest in Myanmar.

Min paid approximately S$610 to an agent to obtain a passport with particulars that did not match his identity.

Arrested

On May 12, Min was arrested.

At the time of his arrest, he had overstayed in Singapore for about one year, five months and 28 days.

Min pleaded for leniency, saying that his parents were old and he hoped to return to Myanmar as soon as possible.