Life

Reboot overdue for ageing franchise

REVIEW / ACTION JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 (M18) 131 minutes/Opens today/ 2.5 Stars The story: After the events of John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), in which he violated the code of the assassins’ guild by killing someone on the grounds of the Continental Hotel, Wick (Keanu Reeves) is on the run with a US$14-million bounty […]

Life

Humour makes sadness even more devastating

REVIEW / DRAMA BIRTHDAY (PG) 120 minutes/Opens today/ 4 Stars The story: Jung-il (Sul Kyung-gu) returns home to South Korea after a number of years abroad. His wife Soon-nam (Jeon Do-yeon) has been looking after their young daughter Ye-sol (Kim Bo-min) on her own and does not want to see him. It is gradually revealed […]

Life

Keanu Reeves still performs own stunts

In an age of celebrity oversharing, actor Keanu Reeves has somehow stayed one of the most private and enigmatic figures in Hollywood. The good guys he plays in action blockbusters such as Speed (1994), the Matrix movies (1999 to 2003) and the John Wick franchise (2014 to now) – which returns today for a third […]

Life

Music Charts

APPLE MUSIC 1. (-) I Don’t Care – Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber 2. (1) Boy With Luv – BTS featuring Halsey 3. (2) Kill This Love – Blackpink 4. (3) If I Can’t Have You – Shawn Mendes 5. (4) Me! – Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco 6. (7) […]

Life

Marvellous mashup

The digital platform might have killed the music distribution business, but it has also helped niche genres and lost gems find a new audience. Dub Store Records, a Japanese label with a narrowly obsessive otaku focus on reggae and ska, has been reissuing oddball gems which stray occasionally into jazz territory. This latest compilation covers […]

Life

A showcase of Schumann’s gift

It seems such a pity that the German Romantic composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) wrote such a small body of music for cello – a great cello concerto and a handful of short chamber works. This album of transcriptions by German virtuoso cellist Friedrich Grutzmacher (1832-1903) of Schumann’s Lieder, selected piano pieces and an entire sonata […]

Life

Goth-folk singer entices with taunts and teases

Any attempt to pin down Aldous Harding is a foolhardy venture, especially when the New Zealand-born songstress is not predisposed to self-explanation. Probed about the video for her recent single The Barrel – in which she moves oddly, dressed in a white ruff and topped with a tall, domed hat, and revealing a macabre blue […]

Life

Brave but outdated attempt at portraying mental illness

Given actress and singer Ashley Tisdale’s breakout role as the sassy, spunky antagonist Sharpay Evans in 2006’s High School Musical, it might come as a surprise that Tisdale has struggled with anxiety and depression in her career since. For her first album in a decade, she has gone personal, talking about her battle with mental […]

Life

Mellow, moody numbers

Has Canadian indie rock wag Mac DeMarco gone country? The title of his fourth full-length album certainly suggests so. The moniker, and the gentle, twangy strums that open the album, are just a decoy actually, a typical cheeky move from the singer-songwriter. Here Comes The Cowboy is more akin to a comedown, Sunday morning post-party […]

Life

Champions of local music talent

Every week, new songs are released by young and rising names in the Singapore music scene, such as R&B/electronic singer Theodora, whose songs have racked up more than two million streams on Spotify. While traditionally, international record companies such as Universal, Sony and Warner have had a hand in putting out music by Singapore talent, […]

world

Gunmen Kill At Least 6 In Church Attack In Burkina Faso

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How was ‘killer’ nurse left to murder hundreds?

OLDENBURG (Germany) • The new nurse arrived at the intensive-care unit of Delmenhorst hospital with a solid letter of reference, describing him as someone who worked “independently and conscientiously”. In a crisis, it said, he reacted “with consideration” and was “technically correct”. It gave no indication that officials at his former hospital in Oldenburg had […]

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Breakdown in talks another blow for American farmers

CHICAGO • The year was already shaping up to be difficult for Midwestern farmers. Incomes have slipped, farm bankruptcies have increased and widespread flooding has inundated the region, killing cattle and turning some fields into unplowable pits. Then came the news from Washington on Friday: Trade negotiations with China, long a reliable buyer of Midwestern […]

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A twinge of anxiety amid broad consensus that Trump is on right path

US-China trade talks wound up cordially on Friday morning with no talk of collapse. Small setbacks are inevitable in bilateral negotiations, China’s Vice-Premier Liu He said, adding: “Looking ahead, we are cautiously optimistic about the future.” Meanwhile, in the United States, there remains broad, bipartisan consensus that President Donald Trump is doing the right thing […]

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US preparing to raise tariffs on all remaining China imports

The United States is preparing to raise tariffs on almost all Chinese imports that remain untaxed, valued at US$300 billion (S$409 billion), after trade talks ended on Friday without a deal or an end to tariffs in sight. President Donald Trump ordered trade officials to begin drawing up a new round of tariffs, prior to […]

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Singapore committed to UN goals on sustainable development: Masagos

Initiatives to reduce food waste and leverage technology to transform agriculture have been implemented so Singapore can play its part in a global campaign to end hunger, said Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli yesterday. Mr Masagos told the G-20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting in Niigata, Japan, that Singapore is committed to achieving the United […]

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New walking trail tells story of Kallang

Today, the Singapore Sports Hub is a sprawling 35ha area comprising sporting and entertainment facilities, such as the National Stadium, Singapore Indoor Stadium and Kallang Wave Mall. But the area was once home to the Kallang Airport, a shipyard and wetlands near the Kallang Basin. While old landmarks, such as the Oasis Theatre restaurant, Niteclub […]

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180 nations reach deal to curb plastic ending up in oceans

GENEVA • Around 180 countries have reached a deal that aims to sharply reduce the amount of plastic that gets washed into the world’s oceans and clamp down on shipments of plastic waste to poorer countries, the United Nations said. Imports of waste plastic from wealthier nations to South-east Asia, particularly Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, […]

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Durians and taxes: A thorny issue

When Mr Alvin Teoh opened his durian stall in Geylang 18 years ago, he did not just source for quality durians. He also hired an accountant. “Every year we will have to declare our earnings and in Singapore, we need to pay taxes. So, of course, I had to hire an accountant. How would I […]