Acting Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs Zaqy Mohamad will travel to Egypt in the coming weeks to discuss how Singapore can further support humanitarian assistance for those affected by the crisis in Gaza.

Zaqy, who is also Senior Minister of State for Defence, will meet Egyptian authorities and humanitarian partners during the visit.

Egypt plays a pivotal role in facilitating aid delivery into Gaza, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) said in a press release on Nov. 5.

Singapore to establish new humanitarian network

The upcoming trip follows the launch of SG for Humanity, a new national network uniting the Government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and the community to bolster relief efforts for Gaza.

The initiative was announced on Nov. 5 by Mr Zaqy, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, and Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth and Transport Baey Yam Keng.

Facilitated by MCCY, the network will initially bring together four established humanitarian partners:

- Humanity Matters

- Mercy Relief

- Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation (RLAF)

- Singapore Red Cross (SRC)

While the four groups will continue to run their respective relief operations, the network will foster collaboration, identify joint opportunities, and strengthen coordination with overseas relief agencies.

It also seeks to expand avenues for the wider Singaporean public to contribute through fundraising, volunteering, and specialized skills.

To back the network's mission, the Singapore Government will assist in engaging foreign authorities and international partners to improve logistics and aid delivery corridors on the ground.

Over S$25 million in aid contributed since October 2023

Since October 2023, the Singapore Government, humanitarian organisations and the community have contributed more than S$25 million in humanitarian assistance for those affected by the crisis in Gaza.

The aid has supported essential needs including food, healthcare, clean water, shelter and education.

In 2025, the Government also provided S$1 million in seed funding, distributed equally among the four humanitarian organisations, to support their fundraising and relief efforts.

MCCY noted that further details about SG for Humanity's upcoming initiatives will be announced in due course.

A 32-year-old man filmed swimming in waters off VivoCity shopping mall on Nov. 2 night was rescued and later apprehended.

In response to Mothership's queries, the police said they received a call for assistance at 1 Harbourfront Walk at about 10:20pm.

The man was apprehended under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) Act 2008.

No injuries were reported, the police said.

Responding to Mothership's queries, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said they received a call for a water rescue at about 9:30pm.

A video posted to Facebook showed the topless man conscious, swimming and glancing back at the shore, while seemingly holding an item in his arms.

Swimming close to boardwalk

In the video, a Police Coast Guard vessel was seen with its searchlight on, scanning the waters for the man who hovered near the boardwalk.

Firefighters and police also lined the boardwalk.

The person was rescued by the Police Coast Guard using a life buoy before SCDF's arrival, said the SCDF.

SCDF assessed the person for minor injuries, and the person declined to be sent to the hospital.

Section 7 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) Act 2008 enables the police to apprehend any person believed to be a danger to themselves or others.

Helplines:

If you or someone you know are in mental distress, here are some hotlines you can call to seek help, advice, or just a listening ear:

National mindline.sg Hotline: 1771 (24 hours)

National mindline.sg WhatsApp: 66691771 (24 hours)

SOS 24-hour Hotline: 1-767

Singapore Association for Mental Health: 1800-283-7019

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) announced new changes to the regulatory regime for massage establishments (ME) on Nov. 5, 2026.

Under the new regime, operators of open-concept MEs (OMEs) will no longer be exempted from licensing.

In a Facebook post on Nov. 5, Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat shared that the Housing & Development Board (HDB) has taken action on 26 cases involving vice activities across both sold and rental shops since January 2026.

This includes working with shop owners to evict errant operators and terminating the tenancy of a rental shop.

He added that the ministry will continue to work closely with SPF to "weed out such undesirable activities from our neighbourhoods".

Changes to Massage Establishments Act

In a press release, SPF said the changes will take effect from Dec. 1, 2026.

Those who wish to operate an OME must apply for a licence and undergo a fit and proper assessment before a licence may be granted, SPF said.

The applicant must also submit the relevant land planning approval from the HDB or the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) for the premises to be used as an OME.

There will be a one-year grace period for existing OME operators, between Dec. 1, 2026 and Nov. 30, 2027, to transition into the new regime.

Existing OME operators may continue to operate during this grace period but must obtain a Category 3 ME licence and the requisite employee approvals by Nov. 30, 2027, or cease operations, SPF said.

Those who obtain the licence before June 1, 2027, will receive a 50 per cent licence fee concession.

In addition, all OME operators must comply with the OME requirements.

These include the following:

• Customers and members of the public must have an unobstructed view of massage services being provided at all times from both inside and outside of the premises.
• The premises must not contain rooms, partitions, cubicles, curtains or other features that would allow massage services to be provided in private.

A fireball with a long tail was seen from Singapore, streaking across the night sky on Nov. 4, 2026 night.

It was initially believed to be a meteor.

However, it has since been confirmed that the object was NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory re-entering Earth's atmosphere and burning up in the process.

The man-made space object completed a nearly 22-year mission.

NASA said the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere at 7:39am EST on Wednesday (Nov. 4), which corresponds to 8:39pm Singapore time.

It entered the atmosphere over the North Sumatra region of Indonesia.

Fireball phenomenon

A person in Singapore witnessed the fireball at around 8:40pm.

The same phenomenon was also spotted by others in Malaysia.

On social media, many Indonesians posted videos of the object burning up in the sky.

About Swift's role in science

The space telescope weighed about 1,450kg.

The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was initially designed for a two-year mission, but it far exceeded expectations by lasting over two decades in space.

Swift became an important tool in the study of gamma-ray bursts, supernovas, black holes and other cosmic phenomena, NASA said.

Launched in November 2004, Swift was designed to detect gamma-ray bursts, powerful explosions that occur throughout the universe.

Its three onboard telescopes let scientists observe cosmic events across different wavelengths, including ultraviolet, optical and X-ray light.

The telescope could swivel to focus on different sky targets in a matter of minutes, allowing it to rapidly follow up on sudden events like supernova explosions, NASA added.

NASA estimates that Swift's scientific observations have contributed to approximately 7,000 research papers.

On Nov. 3, the United States held its midterm elections, where Democrats were expected to take back the House of Representatives.

This was partly because Republican President Donald Trump was massively unpopular for a number of reasons, including tariffs, the war in Iran, and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis that worsened; it was expected that his party would be punished in the polls for it.

It is also a matter of course that the party of the U.S. president should lose seats during midterms, with there being only three exceptions in the past century.

But the scale of the losses was larger than most were expecting.

By the end of Nov. 4 (Singapore time), NBC News projected that Democrats would have around 258 seats in the House and at least 54 seats in the Senate, with two seats too close to call but with Democrats leading.

As someone who regularly writes about politics, curious friends have asked about the result, whether things like the war in Iran might be over because of the strength of the Democratic victory.

To those friends, I hope you had a good day yesterday, watching the results come in. Tomorrow is going to be tougher.

First things first: moderate expectations.

The most important thing to do tomorrow is to moderate your expectations for what’s going to happen over the next two years.

Mothership spoke to Adrian Ang, the coordinator of RSIS’s U.S. programme, just before the midterms were held on Nov. 3, and he cautioned that “basically what we’re looking at is principally gridlock for the next two years.”

“The president’s domestic agenda,” Ang said, “will face significant roadblocks.”

The "domestic agenda" portion is important as Trump faces far fewer restrictions in his foreign policy, save that a Democratic House can make it more difficult to appropriate money for some actions.

And Trump has made it clear that the way forward will be difficult, posting an image of his trademark red hat with the word "VETO" embroidered on it.

U.S. legislation that passes the House of Representatives and the Senate still requires approval from the president, who could otherwise veto the bill.

Both bodies can pass the legislation again, but would need a supermajority in both houses in order to overcome the veto: 290 votes in the House and 67 in the Senate.

So as impressive as Democratic performance in the election was, it is still not enough to surpass a presidential veto.

​But can't the Democrats impeach Trump?

​Yes, the requirement to impeach Trump, or any member of his cabinet, is a simple majority in the House: 218 votes.

​But to convict them afterwards, which then results in their removal, requires 67 votes in the Senate, so that’s unlikely to happen as well.

​Bilahari Kausikan, the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said as much in a social media post around noon on Nov. 4, before most of the results were out.

He said that “substantive policy changes over China, Iran or tariffs are unlikely. If the Democrats take both Chambers, the main constraint on Trump will be his ability to make new appointments, a relatively inconsequential matter.”

He also warned of what I will deem point two.

“Never underestimate the capacity of the Democrats to self-destruct”

Bilahari said one should “never underestimate the capacity of the Democrats to self-destruct.”

​“A sweep of both Chambers will likely trigger a vicious internal debate over whether victory was due to ideological purity or dislike for the incumbent.”

Ang likewise warned that the Democratic leaders will now have to face two factions, their progressive and centrist wings, and that attention will have to be paid by Democratic leadership in managing what Ang called a “diverse”, “heterogeneous” coalition.

​The case of Abdul El-Sayed warns of what those fights might look like, and what they might be about, with battle lines drawn in blue and white.

El-Sayed endured a late betrayal by his Democratic primary opponent Haley Stevens, who, after much hemming and hawing over several months, surprised many by endorsing El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.

​The Democratic Party coalesced around El-Sayed, with the consensus being that Stevens’s career in Democratic politics (she is a Representative prior to running for the Senate nomination) is over.

​But the bad blood between Stevens and El-Sayed is at least in part due to differences over support of Israel, with El-Sayed favouring cutting U.S. support, and his opponents, including Stevens, suggesting that he was anti-Semitic, and barbs were traded over donations to the Stevens campaign by pro-Israel groups.

El-Sayed and Stevens are not the only Democrats (or in Stevens's case, former Democrats) hashing it out over Israel, with a clear fracture existing between progressive and centrist Democrats which is far from being resolved.

This unity

There is no end to the number of things Democrats have traditionally been willing to tear themselves apart over, with the party disagreeing on many consequential and foundational issues, like wealth taxes  or support for law enforcement.

In fact, even where Democrats agree, the degree of support is something they have been willing to fight over in the past.

For example, one of the reasons former Democratic president Barack Obama’s endorsement of El-Sayed was so consequential was because El-Sayed had spent  years, from 2012 onward, criticising about how ineffectual Obama was, particularly on healthcare.

This was after Obama had managed to pass one of the most consequential healthcare bills in modern American history.

They disagree on so much, and so vehemently at times, it can be easy to forget how much the party has in common, and the challenge will be to focus on the things that hold the party together while their opponents try to prod them with what sets them apart.

Executive powers

Trump will also hardly be the first U.S. president to govern without the support of both houses of the legislature.

​Most recently, Barack Obama had to do so in his final two years as president when he too lost the Senate, adding to his loss of the House in the 2010 midterms.

​He governed by way of executive actions, a practice that Trump derided when he was first running for President in 2016, but turned to almost immediately upon taking office in 2017, so he will have no compunction about doing so again.

​But Trump has also offered an olive branch to the Democrats, suggesting that he was willing to work with them, even complimenting them for having "fought hard” during the midterms.

​Trump is capable of bipartisan governance, shown most notably in 2020, when he initiated Operation Warp Speed, the fast-tracking of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Republicans lost, Democrats did not win

What might drive the Democrats to the bargaining table is the knowledge that they didn’t really win the midterms; the Republicans lost.

Democratic popularity is only marginally better than the Republicans; according to RealClearPolling, there is literally just about two percentage points between them.

Both parties’ unfavourability ratings are in the mid-50s, with the Democrats squeaking ahead by less than two percentage points.

This view is borne out in the AP Voter Poll, as reported by PBS.

The poll highlights anger at Trump and the Republicans, particularly over inflation, tariffs, the Iran war, and corruption, as well as the fact that favourability for Democrats was barely higher than that of the Republicans.

Two in 10 said neither party was better equipped to deal with issues like economy, foreign policy, healthcare, taxes, and immigration.

If Democrats, and Republicans for that matter, hope to turn things around in time for the 2028 presidential elections, their main priority will be to bring about meaningful policy that helps their constituents.

The politics of strength

​And, in a perverse way, the Democrats might be in a good spot to do this.

Critics of Trump often accuse him of practising the politics of strength rather than any actual ideological position, displaying this in his admiration for strong leaders like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping…

… and Zohran Mamdani, the leftist Mayor of New York City.

When the pair met in 2025 after Mamdani had spent months lambasting Trump, many expected fireworks.

But Trump appeared complimentary of Mamdani, and the pair have been able to work together to some degree.

Mamdani's pitch of a US$21 billion federally funded housing project in New York City is reportedly being favourably considered, although not yet approved.

Trump even recently said that Mamdani was "off to a start" to being a great mayor in the same week he was decrying other Democrats as "communist", and Mamdani's high approval ratings probably help.

​So if Trump respects strength, then there are few parties that look stronger now in the U.S. than the Democrats, warts and all.

​So while it might be that we should not mistake what is possible for what is likely, it is by no means a call to expect nothing.

As we said, moderate expectations.

A 34-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his sister, then 19, by brutally beating and starving her for months in 2021.

Huang Bocan committed the abuses with two accomplices — Lim Peng Tiong, now 66, and Bocan's girlfriend Chee Mei Wan, now 46 — in a unit at Clementi West Street 1.

On the early morning of May 5, 2021, the police found the victim, Huang Baoying, motionless. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

She had lost 20kg, or about 43 per cent of her body weight, before she died from severe malnutrition and blunt force trauma.

In May 2026, Lim was sentenced to 14 years and 11 months’ jail after pleading guilty to one count of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Chee's case is still pending.

On Nov. 5, Bocan appeared in court using a Mandarin interpreter and pleaded guilty to murder. He was represented by Tania Chin Li Wen and Nathan Shashidran.

His father was also present, looking solemn throughout the hearing. He appeared to be praying before the sentence was delivered.

A nutrition club

The two Huangs got to know Lim and Chee in 2018 through Chee's company, Colourful Nutrifit, which she called a "club".

Baoying, then aged between 16 and 17, joined as she wanted to lose weight, improve herself, and earn money.

In September 2018, Bocan and Chee, who were married at the time, developed a romantic relationship.

The Huang siblings moved into Lim's home in July 2020 after they had a rift with their father, who felt that the siblings were spending too much on the health products.

Chee joined them after a fight with her husband.

In November 2020, Chee and Bocan introduced physical punishments such as exercise and beatings to correct one another's habits for better sales performance.

Chee was exempt because she was the "coach".

Baoying bore the brunt of the punishments, as Chee felt that she "lacked discipline and motivation" and had poor sales.

Starvation and confinement

The punishments meted out against Baoying escalated over time, with the prosecution describing them as "full-blown torture and abuse".

Bocan deprived his sister of food as a punishment from February 2021, supposedly to teach her to be grateful to people and opportunities.

He controlled her food intake by controlling her finances, and she would be denied food whenever she made a mistake.

When he found out that she had been consuming other food besides the one daily meal of "mixed vegetable rice" that he allowed, he and Chee decided to confine Baoying in the toilet so that she could reflect on her mistakes.

She would sleep and consume her meals in the toilet. For almost the whole of March 2021, Baoying was confined there.

Bocan later chained her to a railing there using chains and a padlock on Chee's instruction, after they found that Baoying was leaving the toilet to look for food.

The beatings

From February to May 2021, Bocan and his accomplices also beat Baoying on many occasions for her mistakes, mostly using a wooden stick with prongs at one end that was used for hanging laundry.

Though much of the beatings were done on Chee's instruction, it appeared Bocan sometimes acted without prompting.

Once in April 2021, when Baoying ran from Chee during a beating, Bocan caught her and slapped her in the face for running away, then pulled her back to Chee who beat her further with the wooden stick.

Another day that same month, Baoying tried to escape from Lim's home, telling Bocan later that she wanted to return to their parents' home.

Bocan and Lim then beat her about 100 times in total with the wooden stick on her thighs and left calf. She suffered substantial bruising afterwards, which Bocan noticed.

She was also slapped around 80 times by Bocan and around 50 times by Lim for falling asleep during a church service.

On other occasions, Bocan beat his sister about 220 times with the wooden stick for "lying", and 240 times for "laziness".

Events leading to her death

On May 4, 2021, a day before she died, Baoying failed to perform squats as instructed and was punished for lying about it.

Chee and Bocan beat her in the living room with a wooden stick, while she remained silent.

Seeing this as defiance, Chee told Baoying that crying would be taken as remorse and she would be given food, but Baoying continued to stay silent.

Later, Lim and Bocan took turns standing on Baoying's thighs to try to make her cry, and Chee poured salt on Baoying's wounds to elicit a reaction. But she still did not cry.

At 11pm, Baoying was brought into the toilet and, with her hands tied above her head, was left under a running tap for 15 minutes.

Her brother then untied her, changed her clothes, and left her on a mattress. She was unable to walk on her own by this point.

Colluded to lie

Sometime past midnight on May 5, Bocan found his sister to be unresponsive.

He suggested sending her to the hospital, but Chee objected as she did not want doctors to call the police. Baoying was thus left alone until about 5am.

The trio then discussed again whether to send her to the hospital, and agreed to lie about the incident.

At 6:02am, Bocan called 995 and was told to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Baoying.

Baoying was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, who reported the incident to the police.

Which injuries were intended?

According to an autopsy report, the final cause of death was severe malnutrition with sepsis and extensive blunt force trauma.

In court on Nov. 5, the judge noted following clarification from the prosecution that Bocan had intended to cause severe malnutrition and extensive blunt force trauma.

These led to the sepsis, and cumulatively they led to her death altogether.

Considering the evidence, the judge found that Bocan had caused death by bodily injury through acts of torture and severe malnutrition.

He never wanted his sister to die: Defence

A murder charge can carry the death penalty or life imprisonment, with or without caning.

The prosecution sought a sentence of life imprisonment, and did not submit for Bocan to be caned.

On not submitting for caning, they explained that Chee's culpability was higher than Bocan's, and parity would need to apply.

The defence agreed, adding that caning in addition to a life sentence would be "very harsh".

"He has killed his own sister, and with life imprisonment, this is something he has to carry with him for the rest of his life," Shashidran told the judge. "That itself is a punishment."

He pointed out that the Huang family was broken up when the siblings left their home soon after meeting Chee.

Their father, who had already lost his daughter, is now going to lose his son, he added, calling it a "tragedy for the entire family".

He urged the judge to impose life imprisonment without caning, arguing that Bocan never wanted his sister to die.

"It is his acts... that caused the deaths," he went on. "But the difference is this — in his mind, wrongly, he thought he was helping his sister."

He also pointed out that after Bocan found his sister unresponsive, he had wanted to take her to the hospital, and it was Chee who said no. Bocan had also performed CPR on Baoying.

These facts show that he never intended for his sister to die, Shashidran said.

Sentencing

After a break, the judge delivered the verdict, sentencing Bocan to life imprisonment, backdated to the date of his arrest on May 5, 2021.

He highlighted that Baoying was ill-treated, abused, and tortured for months before her death, and that emergency medical assistance was only sought hours after she was found unresponsive.

She died on the cusp of adulthood at the hands of people she looked up to, who "tortured her in cruel and inhumane ways", he said. Among them was her own brother.

The judge found that Bocan had caused her death with the intention to inflict injury.

Responding to the defence's argument that Bocan had not wanted her to die, the judge said this "clearly misguided and perverse" thinking was not sufficient to excuse what he did.

He did not find caning necessary, given that life imprisonment was imposed.

"I cannot imagine what Baoying had gone through in those months," he said. "She's dead and cannot return, and the accused must face the consequences of his actions."

"Your cruel abuse and torture caused her suffering and took her life. She would have looked up to you... sought your nurturing, and would have cared for you. Yet you treated her lesser than human.

You deserve to be put away for a long time. I hope you will remember always what you have done to your sister."

Imagine a small town built for cats.

This is what Janet Chin, who is in her mid-50s, is putting together for the community cats in her neighbourhood in northern Singapore, one cardboard house at a time.

Want to give community cats a home

Speaking to Mothership, Chin, a self-described animal lover, said she often feels bad for the community cats who have no home to return to, especially when the weather turns rough.

She has brought home eight rescued cats and found homes for more than 30 others she rescued from the streets, though finding adopters has not been easy lately.

Seeing cats sleep on the cold, hard ground of void decks, then coming home to the cats she had taken in, curled up in soft, quilted beds, made her want to improve life for the community cats, she said.

Started in 2021

Chin said the idea came to her after she saw feeders using carton boxes as shelters for the cats under their care.

Moreover, she loves to dabble in DIY projects and has done most of the repair work at home, as well as designed the interior of her past and current flats.

In 2021, she made her first house for one of her favourite community cats in her area.

Watching it walk in and sleep peacefully inside warmed her heart, she said.

She then went on to try and make sure every cat in her area had their own house, and has built close to 200 so far.

Her work later caught the attention of cat feeders and lovers around the island, and some asked her to make houses for community cats in other areas.

How the houses are made

The main material used for the houses is a clean carton box.

Its size depends on what Chin can collect from provision shops near her home or from supermarkets near her workplace.

She also uses water-resistant wallpaper, as well as recycled materials and decorations she buys online.

As her designs have become more elaborate and she usually works on them during lunch breaks, each house takes a week or longer to build.

She also makes new houses every two to three months to replace the old ones.

Her designs are inspired by what she sees around her, from a castle in a movie to a nostalgic building, a colourful photo booth, or even a new fast-food outlet.

The largest house she has made measures 70cm by 70cm by 50cm and holds four adult cats in Chinatown.

According to Chin, the cats love their houses.

Residents are also excited by them and often take photos of the cats resting inside.

Some cat lovers have also occasionally asked to buy houses in specific designs, Chin shared, adding that all the money she receives goes into the box for her cat rescue work.

One of her favourite designs is this:

"I personally like this house as it serves as a reminder that our community cats are part of Singapore."

Businesswoman and former supermodel Kim Ja Yeon, 45, has announced her marriage to Son Yeong Gwon, 70, who is an adviser at Samsung Electronics and Chair of Harman International, according to Joong Ang Daily.

He was also the former president of Samsung Electronics.

On Nov. 1, Kim announced her marriage in a social media post captioned, “I’m married everyone!”

Photos of her and Son were accompanied by a caption expressing her thoughts and feelings over the joyous occasion.

Kim said she had always thought she would live alone and not get married.

Joking that she herself was surprised by the sudden news, she excitedly shared that she had found “the one”.

She also recounted the story of how she and her husband had met.

The two had met through their shared connections as graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

That was about two years ago, according to Korean media.

They gradually grew closer before making their feelings known earlier this year.

Since then, Kim said they have travelled to the United States, Korea, and Europe together and learned to understand and respect each other’s worlds.

Kim shared, “We became special people to each other and began to dream of a life together.”

Their wedding was a quiet affair at the Bürgenstock Resort at Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, with only their families in attendance.

Kim also thanked her followers for their well-wishes.

A 49-year-old male motorcyclist died after an accident involving his motorcycle, a bus and a lorry on the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) towards Woodlands on the afternoon of Nov. 4.

He was an off-duty SMRT bus captain, The Straits Times reported.

In response to Mothership's queries, the police said that a 50-year-old bus driver was arrested for driving without due care and attention causing death.

Accident scene

A Facebook video showed the aftermath of the accident on the second lane from the left.

One blue motorcycle was flipped over on its side, with debris strewn across the road.

An individual was lying down near it, and blood stains were also visible on one of the lanes.

A man wearing a Land Transport Authority (LTA) vest was at the scene, and a few other individuals were on the same lane with their motorcycles stopped a short distance ahead.

Vehicles continued to pass by the scene in other lanes on the four-lane road.

Motorcyclist died

At about 3:30pm on Nov. 4, the police were alerted to an accident involving a motorcycle, a bus and a lorry, along BKE towards Woodlands.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the road traffic accident along BKE towards Woodlands Checkpoint after Mandai Road exit.

SCDF conveyed the motorcyclist unconscious to Woodlands Hospital, where he later died.

Police investigations are ongoing.

Deeply saddened

SMRT Buses deputy managing director Vincent Gay expressed his condolences, noting that the off-duty bus captain was riding his motorcycle home after his shift at the time of the accident.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of our colleague, a bus captain. He was off duty and riding his motorcycle home after work when he was involved in an accident on the Bukit Timah Expressway.

Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time. We are in touch with his family and will provide the support they need."

If you were among those mourning when The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf took its dark chocolate and vanilla powders off the shelves, we’ve got some good news: they’re back.

And they’re back with a twist: the powders now come in a new Nutri-Grade formula.

That means you can recreate your favourite café-style drinks at home, whether you’re in the mood for something rich and chocolatey or smooth and vanilla-infused.

Comfort in a cup

For days where you want to wrap yourself in some cosy vibes, whip up a rich, comforting drink with this easy recipe:

• Add 30g of dark chocolate/vanilla powder to a 500ml mug
• Pour in 355ml of steamed milk or hot water
• Stir well and enjoy

Creamy and refreshing

Or you’re feeling more of a little pick-me-up with a frosty twist? Blend up this indulgent treat and let every sip hit the spot:

• Fill a cup with 355ml of ice
• Add 90ml of milk or coffee extract and 30g of dark chocolate/vanilla powder
• Transfer the mixture to a blender, add another ¼ cup of dark chocolate/vanilla powder, and blend until smooth
• Top with whipped cream and enjoy

Beyond drinks, indulge your inner baker with the dark chocolate and vanilla powders.

Fold them into muffins, cupcakes, cakes, and other irresistible baked treats for a deliciously rich, decadent twist.

Out in stores Nov. 6

Get your hands on the Nutri-Grade dark chocolate and vanilla powders at all The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf stores from Nov. 6.

This branded article by The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf made this writer very thirsty.