1 France to honour teacher
French President Emmanuel Macron was set to attend an official memorial with the family of a history teacher - who was beheaded for showing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in class - and about 400 guests at the Sorbonne University in Paris yesterday evening, to posthumously award the teacher France's highest order of merit, the Legion d'Honneur.
2 Thai PM may repeal decree
Embattled Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday that he was prepared to repeal the state of serious emergency declared in Bangkok to lower political temperatures but asked protesters who have been massing daily on the streets to work through Parliament.
3 Lower virus risk in young kids
Children under the age of five are at the lowest risk of being infected by the coronavirus from adults, as they may be more resistant to the virus, according to a household transmission study. The risk of secondary infection in children was also higher if the index Covid-19 patient was the child's mother.
4 100 die in Vietnam floods
More than 100 people have died and 20 others are missing in central Vietnam following weeks of severe flooding and landslides, the authorities said yesterday as the country braced itself for yet another storm.
5 Progressive v minimum wage
The centrepiece of the National Trades Union Congress' efforts to uplift low-wage workers is its Progressive Wage Model, while the Workers' Party calls for a minimum wage of $1,300 each month. Assistant news editor Toh Yong Chuan looks at the different perspectives.
6 $16m in claims recovered
Employees who made claims for owed salaries or wrongful dismissal between April last year and March this year managed to recover about $16 million in all from their employers. About 91 per cent of the 6,537 employees who made claims had their cases fully resolved at the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management and the Employment Claims Tribunals.
7 Leasing firms under probe
Some leasing firms are sidestepping a comprehensive set of measures put in place to deter moneylenders from targeting foreigners. The Straits Times understands that two leasing firms - Xpress Leasing and Micro Leasing - are currently being investigated for their business activities.
8 Virus stalls digital plans: Poll
While many small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore have strategies in place to go digital, the take-up rate has been slow, with firms blaming Covid-19 for causing delays in their digitalisation plans. This is in stark contrast to the belief that the outbreak has fast-tracked digitalisation for many companies, a study showed.
9 Big money for super league
A financing package of US$6 billion (S$8.1 billion) is being prepared by investment bank JP Morgan to fund a proposed Fifa-backed super league involving up to 18 top European teams, including Liverpool and Manchester United. The competition is provisionally slated to begin in 2022.
10 Kidman, Grant in thriller
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant (both above) star in mystery thriller The Undoing, which will dissect a picture-perfect marriage. It casts Kidman as a wealthy New Yorker whose privileged life begins to crumble when her husband, played by Grant, is implicated in a murder. The Australian actress says: "The great thing about this series, and that really drew me to it, is that it's so twisty and nothing is what it seems."
VIDEO
Interview with Singapore diplomat
Ambassador Umej Bhatia was among a group of Singapore government officers who spearheaded a multi-nation effort to develop and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine next year to all countries. str.sg/blurb645
VIDEO
Immigrant Trump supporter in swing state
Among United States President Donald Trump's supporters in Ohio - a key swing state - is Hungarian immigrant Petra Laszlo, a 38-year-old mother of four. "I appreciate his capitalism," she says. str.sg/blurb646
