1 Seoul's point men on North

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has appointed Mr Park Jie-won as director of the National Intelligence Service and Mr Lee In-young as the Unification Minister. The move seeks to cement progress with North Korea as a major legacy in Mr Moon's final two years in office.

2 Unemployment here surges

Unemployment and retrenchments surged between April and June, as the pandemic took a toll on the labour market. The overall unemployment rate rose to 2.9 per cent last month after taking into account seasonal variations - the highest in just over a decade, and up from 2.4 per cent in March.

3 3rd wave of imported cases

Singapore is now seeing a third wave of imported Covid-19 cases, with more than 100 such cases confirmed in the past month. These make up about 15.5 per cent of the total number of imported cases here since the start of the outbreak in January. As of Tuesday, 688 imported cases had been confirmed.

4 Bali opens to local tourists

Indonesian tourism hot spot Bali will reopen to domestic tourists tomorrow. However, this will be under a host of strict protocols that include visitors having to furnish proof that they have tested negative for the coronavirus.

5 Bad and good science

It took years for a physician's insight into hand-washing to become common infection control practice. But today, in the anxiety over Covid-19 treatments, we may be rushing into impatient acceptance, says Professor Chong Siow Ann (above).

6 Front-liners part of NDP

About 100 workers on the front lines of the Covid-19 fight and providing essential services will be part of the National Day Parade (NDP) mobile column this year. During an NDP mobile column rehearsal yesterday, President Halimah Yacob met some of the participants involved, including 19 front-line and essential workers.

7 Lawrence Wong on learning

Mr Lawrence Wong shared his experience of having to "scramble" and plug knowledge gaps yesterday, the second day of work in his role as Education Minister, at Nanyang Technological University, where he launched a series of virtual workshops to help Singaporeans keep up with new work demands.

8 Mortgagee sales outlook

Even as Singapore's economic outlook worsens, there probably will not be a sharp spike in mortgagee sales this year because of government relief measures such as the deferment of loan repayments, and banks holding off on foreclosures until the loan deferment period ends.

9 NBA action finally returns

More than four months of pain, fear and uncertainty will end today when the National Basketball Association season restarts, with the blockbuster Los Angeles derby and the Jazz-Pelicans clash to take place under tightly controlled conditions in Orlando, Florida, amid the still-raging coronavirus crisis.