If you do a search on Google, chances are you would have come across numerous articles dispensing advice regarding engaging the services of a tutor. We have our own take on things as well, and presented below is a compilation of what we recommend hiring parents to look out for. Note that we shall refrain from marketing any specific individual from our list of tutoring experts so as to ensure an absolutely unbiased, dispassionate discourse. Here goes:

1. Gender

For female students of ages 14 and below, to avoid any unintended situational discomfort/misunderstandings arising out of interactions with an educator of the opposite sex, it would be wise if a female tutor is roped in to coach the child. We are not sexist all right? This is erring on the side of caution.

2. Part-Time Vs Full Time Tutors

It is argued that full time tutors have the hours on their side to dedicate themselves completely to the cause of improving grades, whereas part timers don't. We are not going to make any hard-line assertions here, because we feel it really bubbles down to the individual tutor you are seeking out.

Who says part-time tutors can't be equally committed? It is likely true they can't accept a large volume of tutees since they are holding down office positions; it is probably equally true most are available only on weekday evenings and weekends. However, if he/she is responsible and can do a fantastic job, it is safe to say almost everything else doesn't really matter yes? Don't be blinded by stereotypes, judge fairly and chances of you crossing paths with a teaching maestro would be much higher.

To read a whole lot more, CLICK ON THIS.

Those who have taught long enough will very likely have encountered students who are angels on the one hand, and those who refuse to play ball on the other. While not exactly devils, they do succeed in driving you up the wall at times with their not quite impeccable behaviour and learning attitudes. Last minute changes to lesson timings, unwillingness to complete homework assigned to them et cetera et cetera.......just makes you go all "@#$%^&*!!!!!" . But a composed and professional tutor will not resort to physical violence or screaming the most unrefined of expletives in the presence of his/her tutee(s), because they only serve to fan the flames. Instead, there are far more elegant methods of resolution which you can consider employing to show who's in charge. Here goes:

Situation A: 10 minutes prior to lesson commencement, your tutee suddenly "falls ill" and wishes to cancel the lesson.

Even superman takes longer than 600 seconds to be fell by kryptonite, and it is obviously an attempt to skip tuition altogether. What should you do?

Text him/her: "I am on my way."

Better yet: " I have already arrived at your flat."

That will almost definitely catch him/her off guard. Ring the doorbell and he/she is left with little choice but to perform the usual open sesame.

To read a whole lot more, CLICK ON THIS.

Can you teach yourself to detect AI writing? Maybe
By Celeste Rodriguez Louro Steven Senne/AP AI is quietly reshaping writing. It’s not just that prose is changing — the very structure of written language is genuinely changing too. It’s not just a new technology. It’s not a fad. It’s an undeniable revolution. Did this article’s introduction seem AI generated? What made you feel that way? The truth is, it was not AI generated; I wrote it to emulate synthetic prose, the kind you get when a large language model (LLM) organises words into text. That kind of prose suddenly seems to be everywhere: on low-quality websites built to accumulate advertising clicks, in social media captions chasing engagement, and even book manuscripts. Crime novelist Jerry Falade recently lost a book deal worth more than $2 million after his own literary agents said they could no longer faithfully determine how his manuscript had come together. Hachette pulled the horror novel Shy Girl in March this year under similar suspicion. Before generative AI, we could generally assume that written text had been composed by a human. This is no longer the case. So how can we spot AI-written text? There is no single giveaway. Instead, there are patterns: particular words, sentence structure and expressive habits that appear repeatedly in AI-generated prose. LLMs are also updated rapidly and efficiently so what gives away synthetic text today may no longer do a few months from now. Quiet, quietly and genuinely The word quietly is a significant giveaway. Search interest in the word has climbed steadily on Google Trends since December 2021, though this measures searches rather than appearances in writing, so it is suggestive rather than proof. What did change over that period is how many people began writing with the help of LLMs, and these models do seem to reach for quiet and quietly more than the average human writer. Genuinely is a similar story, and a more anecdotal one. I notice it overused in AI output, Claude included, more than I would expect from a person writing casually. No one has run a rigorous study on that specific word yet. The documented version of this pattern is vocabulary that has spiked in scientific writing since 2022: delve, meticulous, underscore, boast and intricate all appear far more often in scanned PubMed abstracts than before, in a pattern researchers have tied directly to ChatGPT-style phrasing. None of these words is proof on its own. But when words like quietly, genuinely, delve and meticulous appear alongside the same polished sentence framing, it starts sounding like a shared house style among LLMs, rather than an individual voice. A house style of its own The “not X, but Y” construction is another part of that house style, alongside a fondness for the rule of three. It also favours taking a modest claim and then immediately escalating it. For example: “This article presents a useful perspective on language. It fundamentally changes how we think about what it means to write”. Human writers have always used it, but generative AI produces the pattern with remarkable consistency. Then there’s the em dash, the earliest and most mocked AI tell. It never held up particularly well. One writer ran the same prompt through six chatbots and got eight em dashes from ChatGPT in 573 words, but none from Gemini or Meta AI. This reaffirms the lesson that, while individual clues are unreliable, their accumulation matters. Lengthy text Another clue to generative AI use is text length. A reporter for The Atlantic describes how, after a driver crashed into her in Johannesburg, his frantic and incoherent behaviour at the scene gave way to a lengthy text written in polished prose only half an hour later. When she later contacted a mechanic whose texts had previously been filled with shorthand, his reply came back in the same distinctive AI voice. Human language is shaped by the pressures of effort and time. Generative AI removes much of that cost. Realistically, a person might text: “Sorry, running late. Traffic is awful. Be there in 20”. AI can swiftly turn that into a paragraph explaining the unexpected traffic congestion, expressing sincere regret and thanking the recipient for their patience. Nothing in that longer version is necessarily wrong. It’s simply doing far more linguistic work than the situation generally requires when time is of the essence. The dangers of AI detection Some people believe AI detection software can identify AI-generated text. However, these systems are far from perfect and can worsen existing biases. A 2023 Stanford study found that seven popular AI detectors falsely identified an average of 61% of essays written by non-native English speakers as AI generated, with one tool flagging 97% of them. AI detection has evolved since then, and more recent research presents a more complicated picture: current detectors can perform better in some settings, yet remain vulnerable to evasion and still produce false positives. At the same time, the question is shifting beyond detection altogether: the European Union is now demanding that all AI-generated content is labelled or watermarked. Are LLMs changing the way we write? A new study in Nature Human Behaviour, analysing more than 880,000 Reddit posts, news articles and academic pieces, found that the spread of LLMs was associated with less variation in writing style. Knowing who wrote something matters because language lands differently depending on who it comes from. Is the person trustworthy? Knowledgeable? Funny? Younger? Are they real? The other reason is dexterity. Humans are excellent at problem solving and creativity, and those abilities appear in the peculiarities of individual language: an unexpected word, a unique comparison, a sentence structure that may reappear across writers but not en masse, as is the case with synthetic text. If the prose across our media begins to sound as though it has been cut from the same automatic, uncreative, underwhelming and repetitive mould, we lose individuality, nuance, and our trust in the authenticity of the written text and its writer. This article was first published over at The Conversation on 25 August 2026. Celeste Rodriguez Louro is an Associate Professor and Director of the Language Lab at The University of Western Australia.
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CJC Physics department, you suck so, so bad.
By Status-Fishing3961
This post is dedicated to the "best" subject department in Catholic Junior College (CJC), ie CJC Physics. I believe I speak on behalf of my CJC Physics batchmates with what I am about to share. CJC Physics, you are the number 1 department in my heart, from the absolute bottom that is. Folks may assume one of the most popular subjects students offer in CJC is accorded unfettered attention (as far as quality of lecture notes and teaching methodologies are concerned) to ensure the underlying knowledge gets properly assimilated, but no and no. I have learnt so much, most notably how to be independent in my acquisition of requisite content, seeing as how the notes themselves were nothing but a sheer convoluted mess of charts and numbers which couldnt teach me jackshit, and I therefore had to fend for myself to even get by. Thankfully, external online resources and a whole lot of other school notes came to my rescue. As it is widely known, CJC's Physics notes are, let's just say, infamous for being light years away from the best, and this has been going on since time immemorial. Yet, nothing is done to refresh/improve them, like ever. Students are forced to make proper sense of the jargon-strewn pages transpiring within a voluminous binder, which, in other schools would have been succinctly shaved to less than a third. Ask any random Physics student or teacher in Singapore to have a gander at CJC's Physics notes, and they will almost immediately slam that binder shut, thinking: "May Lord have mercy on these kids". This is how bad the CJC Physics department is. Recently, I took my hour-long Physics Common Assessment 2 (CA2). Guess what, of all the uncanny coincidences in the universe, it was held right smack AFTER the last lesson of the day, which so "happened" to be a Physics tutorial. Instead of substituting this session with the test itself so our already fatigued selves could end things per the usual school timetable (plus there are those who still have CCA commitments right afterwards, hello), we were stuck in a lecture theatre for another 60 minutes attempting some mentally draining paper. Well bloody done indeed. Also, one might reasonably hope our Physics tutor would review material relevant to the impending test, maybe drop a hint or two - alas, no joy. He chose to proceed to a brand new topic. Then the results for CA2 came back. More than half of my class rocked U grades; overall speaking, the cohort performed equally shitty. I honestly wonder why. If a huge ton of the students are failing, whose fault is it, pray tell? Implying 50% of all students did not study borders on farcical. Perhaps the paper was significantly difficult, which in CJC, is a reality that almost never eventuates. That could only mean one thing: current Physics methods of instruction are utter crap. Summing up, the CJC Physics Department is demonstrably a culmination of poor administrative scheduling, inferior lecture notes, dismal pedagogy and lack of care for its students. Don't get me wrong, CJC's other subject departments aren't terrible; in particular there have been numberous plaudits going around for the Arts department. Physics though? Blech.
YOU MAY WISH TO READ: An ode to H2 Physics JPJC’s most recent stupid decision Tips for junior college students

"Difficult" PSLE Chinese oral examination sends parents into a tizzy
Do you know what is the exact Chinese term for a crowbar? Well, this iron tool featuring a bent end cropped right up on the first day of the PSLE Chinese oral examination for many students, evidently stumping more than, well, a handful. Hence the ensuing parental furore over the internet. After all, most adults probably don't even know how to say crowbar in Chinese, let alone 12-year-old kids, opined a certain Steven Lam, whose impassioned yet hilarious tirade on social media went viral (see below). During the video conversation segment (worth 30 marks out of an overall 50 possibly awarded), a short video clip which played prior to the candidate-examiner interaction showed a boy getting into the lift with a suspicious-looking man. The man, decked in shades and gloves, was carrying a bag containing a crowbar. Boy later sees him sussing out residential units, before proceeding to break into one. He thus alerted his neighbours, and the police were called. For the uninitiated, crowbar = "撬棍" (qiào gùn). In any case, to those daddies and mummies with children currently in Primary 5, consider yourselves duly forewarned. If there's anything to expect for next year's PSLE, it's the unexpected. Editor's Note: The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board's (SEAB) presiding Chief Oral Examiner has since clarified alternative descriptions alluding to the crowbar shall be accepted, such as "金属棒" (jīnshǔ bàng) - metal rod, "木棍" (mù gùn) - wooden club, "武器" (Wǔqì) - weapon, etc.
YOU MAY WISH TO READ: This year's PSLE Maths exam has left many kids broken and dejected Screwed up my 'O' Level Chinese exam, H1 Chinese in JC now appears unavoidable Student emails UCLES about ludicrously difficult 'O' Level Chemistry paper

Better Believe It......Because They Actually Happen(ed) Collection 79
Johor shuts down Network School over licence breaches Iskandar Puteri City Council personnel are seen at the Network School in Forest City, Johor to issue a Stop-Business Notice after the company was found to have breached its business licence conditions and the approved use of its premises. Photo Credit: Facebook/Onn Hafiz Ghazi JOHOR BAHRU, July 18 — The Iskandar Puteri City Council (MBIP) has issued a Stop-Business Notice to premises linked to the operations of Network School in Forest City after the company was found to have breached its business licence conditions and the approved use of its premises. Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi said the enforcement action followed an investigation by the local authority, which found that the company had misused premises licensed as business offices by operating educational activities there. “Inspections found that the company was operating from two premises. One premise held a valid office business licence, while the other was operating without an MBIP business licence, despite being owned by a Malaysian citizen. “In addition, the company was found to have breached the permitted business category by using premises licensed as an office for classroom activities and business promotions without submitting a detailed application for approval,” he said in a statement posted on Facebook yesterday. Following the violations, he said MBIP officially issued Stop-Business Notice IP012N260714001 against the premises operating without a valid business licence. The MBIP also issued an Advertisement Licence Notice (6103) under Section 107(2) of the Local Government Act 1976 for displaying signboards that did not comply with licensing conditions and were inconsistent with the approved permit. Onn Hafiz stressed that the Johor state government views the matter seriously and that MBIP will continue investigating all aspects that fall within its jurisdiction. “If any breaches of the law, licence conditions or applicable regulations are found, further enforcement action will be taken in accordance with the relevant legal provisions,” he said. On the status of foreign nationals associated with the school, Onn Hafiz said the matter falls entirely under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry, adding that the state government is urging the ministry to make a prompt and final decision regarding the status of the individuals involved and the school’s operations. Full story at Malay Mail (July 2026)
India’s education minister resigns in victory for Cockroach youth movement protests Dharmendra Pradhan steps down after demonstrations over exam leak scandal, prompting celebrations among thousands of protesters Supporters of India's Cockroach Janata party in Delhi celebrate after the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters By Hannah Ellis-Petersen India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has resigned after a week of mass demonstrations, handing a major victory to a new youth movement that has posed an unprecedented challenge to Narendra Modi’s government. In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Pradhan said he had submitted his letter of resignation to the prime minister after student pressure. “Considering the situation that has arisen at Jantar Mantar and ‌across the country, so that anti-national forces do not take advantage of this situation … I have sent my resignation letter to the prime minister,” Pradhan wrote in a social media post. He said he had been “saddened by what unfolded over the last 10 days”, but added: “I deeply respect the aspirations, feelings, and legitimate expectations ‌of the country’s youth.” During his 12 years in power, Modi has cultivated a strongman image and has maintained his ministers are not accountable to public pressure. This was the first time a mass uprising had forced one of his most loyal ministers to resign. The protests were organised by a newly formed youth political movement, the Cockroach Janata party (CJP), which has escalated into a nationwide uprising of youth dissent this week. The core demand of the CJP and its supporters was the resignation of Pradhan over an exam leak scandal that has devastated the lives of millions of students and led to more than a dozen students taking their own lives. Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation marks the first time one of Narendra Modi’s ministers has been forced to step down due to public pressure. Photograph: Zuma/Alamy The refusal by Modi to sack his minister over the scandal was widely seen as symbolic of the alleged lack of accountability of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and its repeated failure to address the issues faced by young people, particularly in the country’s flawed education system. CJP organisers confirmed they had called off their demonstration after Pradhan’s resignation and a meeting with senior BJP ministers on Saturday afternoon. In a speech to the crowds gathered at the Delhi Jantar Mantar protest site, CJP’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke, saluted the “courage” of students who had turned out in huge numbers, even when they were subjected to police violence. “We have done it,” he said, to cries of “victory to India” and “long live the revolution”. But Dipke also emphasised Pradhan’s resignation was “just the beginning” in the movement’s push for systemic education reform and its fight for democratic rights. He also cautioned against people making a hero of him. “Do not make this mistake,” said Dipke. “The country has been ruined by making one person a hero.” Full story at The Guardian (July 2026)
Eggs back on the menu for free school meals in India's West Bengal after outcry Students return to their classroom after receiving mid-day meals at a government primary school in Kolkata on July 9, 2026 - AFP/File India’s West Bengal state will bring back eggs to free school meals after a backlash against a decision by its Hindu nationalist government to replace them with vegetarian alternatives, officials have said. The reversal follows criticism from teachers, nutritionists and parents who argued that removing eggs from school lunches could deprive children from poor families a key source of protein. The issue erupted last month after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, elected for the first time in the state in May, removed eggs from meals in some state-run schools and arranged for a Hindu religious charity to provide vegetarian food instead. The move rekindled a long-running debate over food and religion in the world’s most populous country, with critics accusing the government of trying to turn schoolchildren vegetarian. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said eggs would again be provided to schoolchildren from August. Under the new arrangement, eggs will be provided separately through women’s welfare groups while the charity would continue to supply “pure” vegetarian meals. “The state government will supply boiled eggs separately to these schools by engaging self-help groups from August 1,” Adhikari told reporters. “Some guardians requested the government to ensure that eggs were included in the meals,” he added. The BJP often promotes vegetarianism as a part of its broader nationalist agenda, although most Hindus eat meat and fish. Eggs, which Hindus consider non-vegetarian, are also widely consumed. Teachers and nutrition experts had criticised the move to remove eggs from the menu, saying they helped improve both nutrition and school attendance among children from low-income families. Full story at AFP (July 2026)
Cambridge professor Jason Arday resigns amid accusations of plagiarism Sociology professor to stand down after university announces investigation into his qualifications and career Jason Arday is the youngest black person to be appointed a professor at the University of Cambridge. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian By Richard Adams and Lanre Bakare Jason Arday, the Cambridge professor accused of plagiarism and embellishment, has resigned after the university announced he was to face new investigations into his qualifications and career. Arday, who had been dogged by a growing series of questions over his academic work and credentials, issued a statement on Wednesday night, saying the “relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love”. In the statement, published on the Good Law Project website, he wrote: “It is with profound sadness that I write to resign, with immediate effect, from my position at the University of Cambridge and Jesus College. “When I accepted the extraordinary honour of becoming professor of sociology at Cambridge, it was, without question, the greatest professional privilege of my life.” However, after days of detailed scrutiny of his previous work and statements highlighting apparent discrepancies, Arday said he had “concluded that the only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away”. Simon & Schuster had been preparing to publish Arday’s memoir, entitled Great and Unfortunate Things, later this month. His resignation may pause or even halt its publication and planned publicity tours. Cambridge had initially defended Arday – the youngest black professor appointed in the university’s history, with a compelling life story of educational disadvantage – as “the victim of a vile campaign”. But as questions multiplied over Arday’s own claims, the university’s leaders felt that Cambridge’s reputation was in danger. The Guardian published its own investigation uncovering discrepancies in Arday’s public accounts involving prodigious fundraising feats as well as claims he had been targeted by knife-wielding masked intruders. Arday first faced allegations that he plagiarised parts of his PhD thesis and other academic research late last year, and has rejected the claims. An investigation by Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded his PhD in 2015, did not uphold the charges of plagiarism but said they were probably caused by “honest and reasonable error”. Arday has denied all accusations of plagarism, telling the Guardian last week: “There have been multiple thorough investigations across several institutions as a result of the allegations, and immense scrutiny, including with an academic misconduct panel who concluded that there was no plagiarism or academic misconduct.” On Wednesday evening, Cambridge announced it would launch an investigation after it said it received “new information” about his qualifications and career. It said in a statement: “The University of Cambridge has begun an investigation following new information about Prof Arday’s academic qualifications and honorary appointments. In order to ensure a fair process, we will not comment further until this has concluded. “Separately, there remains a number of ongoing complaints regarding academic misconduct, which are being handled in line with our misconduct in research policy. This is consistent with our previous statement on the matter. “While we are fully aware of the public commentary and concerns around this matter, it remains vital that any process is thorough and adheres to both university policies and employment law. “We also fully recognise that there is a person at the centre of this situation, and we continue to provide support to him.” A spokesperson for Jesus College, Cambridge, said it was launching its own parallel “process”. “Prof Arday’s college fellowship is linked to his university role and we will fully support the university. “Prof Arday remains a fellow during this process. We recognise that this is a very difficult time for him and his family, and ask that they are treated with compassion and respect.” Full story at The Guardian (August 2026)
Poor email etiquette among students spark debate in China Commenters said students often treat emails like instant messages by sending them without subject lines and using overly casual language. Photo: EPA BEIJING - A discussion on professional communication has gained momentum in China after a trending hashtag highlighting students' poor email etiquette prompted calls for universities to better prepare undergraduates for the workplace. The online debate centred on complaints that many university students treat emails like instant messages, often sending messages without subject lines, greetings or attachments, while using overly casual language when contacting lecturers or potential employers. Many netizens argued that email etiquette is a fundamental professional skill, particularly for students applying for internships or jobs, and should be taught as part of university education. Responding to the issue, Peking University's School of Basic Medical Sciences published an Email Etiquette Guide on its official WeChat account in January. Compiled by graduate students, the guide outlines best practices for common situations, including corresponding with lecturers and submitting job applications. It offers practical advice on selecting an appropriate email address, writing clear subject lines, naming attachments and formatting messages professionally. The guide also recommends using bold text rather than coloured fonts for emphasis, reserving red text only for urgent deadlines. Opinions among students remain divided. Feng Sijia, a postgraduate student at Beihang University in Beijing, said most communication with lecturers now takes place through WeChat but agreed that formal emails should include a clear subject line, concise message and properly labelled attachments. She believes professionalism is more about attitude than following a rigid format. “Email etiquette is part of basic manners. If someone is careful, they'll learn it on their own,” she said. However, Wei Xiangming, a postgraduate student at Tsinghua University, said universities should provide formal guidance, arguing that email remains an important communication tool in both academic and professional settings. She said well-structured emails create a positive first impression and help recipients identify key information quickly. University lecturer Yao Jingyuan said the most common issues he encounters are emails without subject lines, blank message bodies and missing details such as students' names or identification numbers. He said these omissions often require additional time to identify the sender and clarify missing information. Rather than ignoring such emails, Yao uses each assignment submission as an opportunity to teach students better communication habits. Full story at China Daily (August 2026)
Mother jailed for life for killing five-year-old son to claim insurance payouts Tô Thị Ty Na, 45, at the trial on August 5. Photo: thanhnien.vn ĐÀ NẴNG — A court in the central city of Đà Nẵng on Thursday sentenced a 45-year-old woman to life imprisonment for murdering her five-year-old son and fraudulently claiming more than VNĐ4.1 billion (around US$150,000) in life insurance payouts after staging the death as an accidental drowning. The Đà Nẵng People's Court found Tô Thị Ty Na, from Thăng Bình Commune, guilty of murder and insurance business fraud. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and six years in prison for insurance fraud, which combined into a life sentence under Vietnamese law. According to the indictment, police initially received a report on January 3, 2023, that Na's son, identified as N.V.H., born in 2017, had been found dead in a bathroom bucket at the family's home the previous night. However the boy's paternal aunt, Nguyễn Thị Bích Tâm, reported her suspicions to authorities the same day. Tâm told investigators she had reviewed the home's security camera footage and discovered that Na had deliberately redirected one of the cameras before the incident. Tâm also recalled that another of Na's children had died in similar circumstances in 2021 after drowning in a bucket in the bathroom, following which Na received more than VNĐ2 billion in insurance compensation. The similarities between the two deaths prompted police to launch a full investigation. Investigators concluded that only Na and her son were inside the house before, during and after the child's death. The house had a single entrance, ruling out the involvement of outsiders. Forensic evidence also cast doubt on the claim of accidental drowning. The victim, aged five years and nearly nine months, was 124cm tall and weighed 23 kilograms, while the bucket in which he was found was only 63cm high and 56cm wide. Prosecutors said there was no evidence that the child could have accidentally drowned in the position in which he was discovered. Although the boy had no injuries before the incident, the post-mortem examination found multiple bruises and marks on his forehead, groin and leg, indicating he had struggled against external force before his death. The court heard that Na intentionally turned the security camera towards a wall before calling her son into the bathroom and forcing his head into the bucket until he drowned. She then staged the scene to resemble an accident, changed her clothes, opened the front door, dried her hands and hair with a hairdryer and went to bed pretending to be asleep. The boy was discovered dead shortly after 10 p.m. when his older sister returned home. Insurance policies purchased for four children Court documents showed that Na had previously served a 40-month prison sentence for theft before returning home, marrying and raising four children. After her husband died in 2020, she struggled financially. Prosecutors said she had sold the family home for VNĐ1.2 billion to cover living expenses and later exhausted the proceeds. Na subsequently purchased seven life insurance policies covering her four children, paying annual premiums exceeding VNĐ100 million ($3,800). She named herself as the beneficiary of all policies. Her youngest son alone was covered by two separate life insurance contracts with different insurers. Following his death, Na falsely declared that he had accidentally drowned, enabling her to claim insurance benefits. Based on the fraudulent documentation, the two insurance companies paid her more than VNĐ4.1 billion, all of which prosecutors said was spent on personal expenses. Full story at Việt Nam News (August 2026)
Court orders Meta to pay $567M to address kids' mental health online A New Mexico court has ordered Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta to pay $567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms By Barbara Ortutay A New Mexico court has ordered Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta to pay $567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms in the second phase of a landmark trial. Judge Bryan Biedscheid said in a ruling late Thursday that the bulk of the money — $420 million — will be used for treatment services for young people. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years. The new penalty is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. In the second phase, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight. The total amount Meta is responsible for — $942 million — is a small fraction of of its annual profit, which was about $60 billion in 2025. Investors seemed to shrug off the New Mexico ruling in after-hours trading Thursday, sending Meta’s stock down less than half a percent to $589.44. Still, the ruling is another setback for Meta, which faces an avalanche of lawsuits from thousands of families of children harmed by social media. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said it sends an unmistakable message that companies will be held accountable when their product designs knowingly put children at risk. “Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online,” he said in a statement. Meta vowed to appeal. “We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content," the company said in a statement. "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.” The judge ordered Facebook and Instagram to build banner and informational screens to clearly explain its protection features, best practices and tools to address inappropriate comment, for example, and display them regularly. Those changes and an educational campaign in New Mexico would be subject to review by the state. The court said federal children’s privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age-verification tools to children under 13. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, means it cannot order Meta to request children to submit personal data or be passively tracked online, even for age verification purposes. The court also noted that ordering verification of children’s ages only for Meta and not other social media companies would be “inequitable and unduly injurious” to the company. Instead, the court ordered Meta to continue to improve its age assurance tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine people’s age based on signals such as who their friends are and what types of content they post and consume. Meta must also attempt to develop a dedicated “under-13-years-of-age prediction model” in the next two years. Additionally, Meta should also request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13. If it determines a user to be under 13, or under 18 but without being able to estimate a specific age, Meta must treat the user as under 13 or under 18 until the user verifies their age. The company must also partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where school staff can flag users who may be under 13. And it must delete personal information it has collected on users under 13. The court also ordered Meta to report on its progress twice a year on how it’s complying with the abatement measures. Full story at ABC News (August 2026)
Teen kills classmates, teachers, and his grandparents in Thai gun rampage, police say By Helen Regan, Kocha Olarn, Angie Puranasamriddhi Students shelter in place as audible gunfire heard during school shooting in Bangkok Bangkok — A teenage gunman went on a rampage at his high school in Thailand on Friday, killing teachers and students, police said, in one of the country’s deadliest school shootings in recent years. The suspected gunman, 14, stormed the school after allegedly killing his grandmother and grandfather in their home, according to police. At least six people at the school were fatally shot, three of them students and three teachers, police spokesperson Lieutenant General Trairong Phiwphan said. More than 20 other people were wounded, with nine in a critical condition. The youngest victim was just 12 years old, authorities said. Terrified students huddled together under their desks, sobbing as gunshots rang out nearby, video filmed inside a classroom and verified by CNN showed. Further video showed students running out of the school as a staff member helped them evacuate. An unnamed rescue worker told the Reuters news agency that “it was total chaos” when they arrived at the scene, where they administered first aid to students who had wounds to their back, chest, and arms. Police gather outside the house where a teenager is suspected of killing his grandparents before carrying out a school shooting in Thailand on August 7 (Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP/Getty Images) Emergency personnel work at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Bang Kruai district in Nonthaburi province on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, August 7, 2026. (Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters) Using what police said was his grandfather’s handgun, the suspect opened fire at Debsirin Nonthaburi School, a well-known secondary school of about 3,000 students, located on a busy highway in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province, north of Bangkok. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul later told reporters that the gunman had died after he turned the weapon on himself. Most of the casualties are teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17, according to the provincial Emergency Operations Center. “This is horrible, it shouldn’t have happened,” said Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Friday afternoon, expressing his sadness over the tragedy. An 18-year-old student told Reuters that he initially thought there were firecrackers going off. “Then it started getting more frequent, like ‘bang, bang, bang’ and then it went quiet at one point. And the shooting started again,” they said. Concerned parents rushed to the school as news of the shooting spread. The son of CNN’s senior travel producer Karla Cripps attends the school but was overseas at the time of the shooting, which began at about 10 a.m. local time. “My son called me from Japan in a panic, telling me that he’d heard there was a shooting at his school. The kids were told to lock down in their classrooms, and he obviously was very upset,” Cripps said from outside the school. Cripps said there was a “really sad atmosphere” at the school as ambulances continue to stream in and out, and parents comfort their children. “My son heard his friend’s brother is in the hospital right now. He’s among the injured...It’s been terrible for everyone.” Emergency personnel work outside of Debsirin Nonthaburi School, on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, August 7, 2026. (Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters) Handgun found at school A photo provided to CNN by a police official in Bangkok shows a single handgun and multiple rounds of ammunition scattered on the floor inside the school. Authorities said he had been living with his grandparents rather than with his parents, but they have yet to determine how the boy gained access to the weapon. This photo, provided by Thai police, appears to show the shooter's gun inside the Debsirin Nonthaburi School. (Bangkok Police) Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith described performing CPR on the wounded gunman. “We rushed up and found that the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head and collapsed,” he told Reuters. “As soon as we saw signs of life, we had the team bring a board to carry him to the hospital.” Emergency workers rushed to the scene with stretchers. In one Reuters photo, one person is seen lying on a stretcher outside an ambulance, while another is attended to by a medic. Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau told CNN the “situation is now under control.” Full story at CNN (August 2026)
2.4 million Afghan girls shut out of secondary school 5 years after Taliban takeover, U.N. says AP Illustration / Annie Ng ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — An estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls remain excluded from secondary education five years after the Taliban took over the country, a U.N. agency said Tuesday, renewing a call for an immediate restoration of their right to education. UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said the continued exclusion of women and girls from education amounted to a grave violation of their fundamental rights. “Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education,” Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO’s program coordinator for education in emergencies, said in a news conference by video. “Five years is not a temporary interruption in a child’s education. It is clearly almost an entire secondary school cycle.” Jaberian said: “UNESCO continues to call for the immediate and unconditional restoration of girls’ and women’s right to secondary and higher education. It is not negotiable. It’s a basic human right, and we reiterate that there is no substitute for this.” The Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, 2021, as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from the country after two decades of war. Shortly after, it barred girls from secondary schools and later extended the restrictions to higher education, employment and other sectors, effectively excluding women and girls from public life. The Taliban has maintained the ban despite appeals from the United Nations, humanitarian groups, human rights advocates and several Islamic countries, insisting the issue is a domestic matter. Jaberian said the restrictions are reversing two decades of progress that Afghanistan had made in education. While access to schooling for girls was severely limited in 2001, by 2021 nearly 1 million girls were enrolled in secondary education. “Afghanistan had made really major progress in expanding girls’ access to education,” Jaberian said. “But unfortunately, much of that progress now has been completely reversed.” Full story at The Associated Press (August 2026)
Discord ordered to suspend livestreams in Brazil By Laura Cress Getty Images Brazil's data protection authority (ANPD) has ordered Discord to suspend its livestreaming feature after a teenage girl was allegedly encouraged to take her own life in a broadcast on the platform. The messaging service allows people to create and join groups based on their interests, with users able to enter voice or video calls in real time through Discord's "Go Live" feature. The investigation by the ANPD began on 7 August after the death of a 13-year-old girl, who was reportedly pressured to end her life by others in the Discord server - or group - she was in. Discord told the BBC it was "thoughtfully reviewing" the ANPD's order and is "committed to user safety". "Groups or individuals who promote or encourage violence have no place on Discord," a spokesperson said. "We swiftly investigated and shut down the private, invite-only server involved shortly after its creation and continue to cooperate with law enforcement in its investigation." According to Reuters, the ANPD said it found Discord lacks ‌real-time ⁠access to livestream content, which prevents automated violation detection. The site, which can be accessed on desktop or as a mobile app, has over 200 million monthly active users, and is popular with gamers. Discord's spokesperson said in its investigation, evidence was found that the criminal activity "was coordinated on other platforms before the Discord server was created" as well as continuing "after the individuals involved were banned from Discord". Five teenagers have reportedly been arrested in connection to the teenage girl's death. Discord now has three days to comply with the suspension and can appeal the decision within 10 business days. The platform faces potential fines of up to 50m reais ($9.67m) per ⁠violation. Full story at BBC News (August 2026)
Seventeen-year-old girl killed in sword attack at school in Sweden Three other people wounded after 18-year-old man wielding sword assail students in Fagersta school Police and emergency personnel outside the Brinell school in Fagersta, Sweden, after a 17-year-old girl was killed and several people were injured in a sword attack. Photograph: Fredrik Sandberg/TT/Reuters By Nadeem Badshah A 17-year-old girl has been killed after a teenager brandishing a sword attacked students at a school in Sweden, police have confirmed. Three other people were wounded in the incident during classes in the central town of Fagersta on Friday afternoon, including two boys aged 12 and 17 who sustained minor injuries. The third person, who was also under 18, was also left with minor injuries and has been discharged from hospital, Swedish news agency TT reported. The parents of the 17-year-old girl told local newspaper Fagersta-Posten their daughter was killed in the attack. An 18-year-old man has been arrested over the incident at Brinell high school. Armed police officers were dispatched to Brinellskolan as an 18-year-old wielded a sword, attacking students. Photograph: Fredrik Sandberg/TT/Reuters Swedish police are investigating whether the suspect was involved in online communities promoting school violence, a police source said. Detectives are investigating whether a TikTok account that posted a picture of a sword 20 minutes before the attack belonged to the person responsible, the source told Reuters. The image appeared to have been taken in a restroom at the school, according to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. Before the image was taken down on Friday, the month-old account contained videos that referred to two episodes of mass violence in Sweden and to the far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011. One of the videos referenced a 2015 attack in which a masked swordsman killed a teaching assistant and two boys at a school in Trollhättan, western Sweden, before being shot dead by police. “The investigators are looking into various online communities that may have egged on the suspect to carry out the attack,” the police source said. Full story at The Guardian (August 2026)
Professor who said Malays could fly sacked by Malaysian university Solehah Yaacob went viral with her pseudo-history claims. She is fighting against her dismissal By Ushar Daniele A Malaysian Islamic university has formally distanced itself from an academic whose viral claims about ancient Malay civilisation – including that Malays could fly and taught the Chinese “flying kung fu” – have drawn ridicule from historians. In a statement on Sunday, the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) said Solehah Yaacob, a former linguistics professor, had been terminated from academic service on April 27 and was no longer entitled to claim any affiliation with the institution. The university’s Office for Communication, Advocacy and Promotion said Solehah was now barred from using any official title, position or association with IIUM. “She is no longer a professor nor entitled to claim any association with the university,” it said. “IIUM hopes that this clarification will help avoid any misunderstanding and uphold the integrity and academic standing of the university.” The International Islamic University Malaysia is considered one of the world’s top Islamic universities. Photo: Shutterstock Solehah is challenging her termination before Malaysia’s Industrial Court and has accused the university of unprofessionalism. She told local news outlet Free Malaysia Today that the Higher Education Ministry had awarded a Malaysia Research Assessment commendation the day before her dismissal. “I was dismissed within 24 hours and was not allowed to appeal,” she was quoted as saying. “IIUM wanted to pay me the equivalent of six months, but I refused.” Solehah stirred controversy last year when she claimed ancient Malays could fly and had taught the Chinese the art of “flying kung fu.” A month later, she claimed ancient Romans had learned shipbuilding techniques from Malay seafarers, and earlier this month suggested that Kedah's iron ore wealth might have originated from meteor showers, with Gunung Jerai in Kedah among sites she said had been hit by meteorites. Her other disputed claims include that Khadijah, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, had links to the Malay world. She has also criticised early Malay societies for their Hindu-Buddhist influences and received backlash for a 2018 academic article that cited a satirical piece from The Onion as a source. Full story at South China Morning Post (August 2026)

Things To Note:

1. The figures provided above are indicative and were derived from the Medisave contribution schedule made available on the CPF Board website. These supplied figures are also largely relevant to individuals hailing from other self-employed professions (sole-proprietors, hawkers, taxi-drivers etc).

2. The age of the contributing individual is defined as that at 1 January 2026.

3. Medisave contribution schedules are subjected to changes at the discretion of the relevant authorities. It is strongly advised that the individual consult the CPF Board website for the latest updates.

4. Arrangements can be made to fulfil one's Medisave contribution via a GIRO installment payment plan. Say for example, if a 48 year old private tutor is required to contribute 6000 SGD based on a net taxable income of 60,000 SGD, he can set aside 6000/12=500 SGD per month to meet his minimum contribution requirements.

5. The current Medisave contribution ceiling stands at 79,000 SGD. Whilst filing tax returns next year, ie 2027, tax reliefs can be claimed for current contributions.

A student threw a chair at me during a computer lab session years ago
Former school teacher Mr Lee Yue Heng recounted an unsavoury episode on social media which transpired years ago during a particular computer lab session he was teaching; he had requested that a student surrender his phone pursuant to school policy enacted back then. The student, however, in angry defiance flung a chair at him. Not directly per se as Lee himself further clarified, but sort of "sideways", so it would never actually strike him. The boy subsequently stormed out of the lab. Fast foward to the present day, Lee bumped into this very same ex-student by happenstance on the bus. They chatted, and midway through Lee gently reminded him about the abovementioned incident. He regrettably remarked: "Last time, very naughty." Seems both finally made peace with each other. Marvellous. Earlier in April, the Ministry of Education (MOE) instituted a slew of disciplinary protocols aimed at stamping out what appears to be an escalation of bullying instances amongst students; perhaps it should also give serious thought to remedying student-teacher bullying/intimidation before things flare up big time as they did with regards to the former.
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Mother of two children with ADHD deeply hurt by bakery staff's remarks
By QuickLlama9346
Today, I visited Yamazaki Bakery (a bakery under Four Leaves Bakery) at VivoCity with my two young children and my helper. Like many children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), everything happens in a split second. On this occasion, before I could react, both of my children excitedly picked up a donut each from the display shelf and bit into them. I immediately apologised to the staff present, saying I would pay for both donuts without hesitation. Feeling embarrassed but trying to remain composed, I continued browsing for a few more items while my helper stayed outside the bakery with my children. A few moments later, an elderly lady standing behind the packing counter suddenly opined, very loudly in Chinese: "We cannot blame the children. We can only blame the parents for their poor upbringing." Those words hit me harder than she could ever have imagined. As a mother, I already carry the daily challenges, worries, and emotional weight of raising two children with ADHD. Every outing requires patience, constant vigilance, and understanding because my children can act impulsively before they fully process the consequences of their actions. This is not because they are ill-mannered, spoiled, or intentionally disobedient. It is part of a neurodevelopmental condition that they never chose to have, and certainly not something I wished upon them. Hearing a stranger publicly judge my parenting, without knowing anything about my children or our circumstances, was incredibly painful and humiliating. I approached her calmly and explained that both of my children have ADHD, and that what had happened was a result of their condition, not poor parenting. I told her that her remark was deeply hurtful. As mothers, we already question ourselves every day, wondering if we are doing enough for our children. We fight silent battles that the public never sees — therapy appointments, emotional meltdowns, endless teaching, and the constant effort to help our children fit into a world that often misunderstands them. To then be publicly blamed and shamed by a complete stranger, simply because my children behaved differently, broke my heart. I don’t expect everyone to understand ADHD, but I do hope people can choose kindness over judgement. A few careless words can leave scars that last far longer than the incident itself. Before criticising a parent or a child, please remember that you may not know the battles they are fighting behind closed doors. Compassion costs nothing, but it can mean everything to a family trying their very best. Four Leaves Bakery has since reached out to this parent and extended its sincere apologies, whilst the particular staff member who made those off-the-cuff remarks was counselled accordingly.
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