About "Signalgate"

Video: Signalgate. It's Worse Than You Think. || Peter Zeihan

The Atlantic magazine publishes US attack plan mistakenly shared in chat group

MAR 27, 2025

WASHINGTON – The Atlantic magazine on March 26 published what it said was the entire text of a chat group mistakenly shared with a journalist by top US national security officials laying out plans of an imminent attack on Yemen.

BBC asked Shanmugam about S'pore's 'social controls', 'draconian' drug laws and Section 377A. Here's how he responded

Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam (left) was a guest on BBC journalist Stephen Sackur's podcast HardTalk.

• Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam was a guest on the BBC's HardTalk programme, hosted by British journalist Stephen Sackur
• Mr Sackur questioned the minister on Singapore's "social controls" and controversial laws such as the death penalty
• Refuting facts presented by the journalist at several points, Mr Shanmugam set out why the Republic takes a tough stance on drugs
• He also explained Singapore's approach on Section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalises gay sex

June 29, 2022

The Armed Uprising of 2024 (Or the Second American Civil War)

[These are excerpts from: 

Newsweek January 07 - 14, 2022

It makes a case for how American politics have become so fractured and the schism between Republicans and Democrats is widening into an unbridgeable chasm. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) have struck down a New York law that requires applicants for concealed carry permits to show that they have an actual need for a concealed weapon. This means anyone in New York can carry a concealed firearm. And that means that the next Storming of the Capital could be by armed protestors. The suggestion is that this schism might well lead to the Second American Civil War.]

A growing number of RADICALIZED REPUBLICANS are willing to grab their guns if the next presidential election doesn't go their way

DAVID H. FREEDMAN




MIKE “WOMPUS” NIEZNANY is a 73-year-old Vietnam veteran who walks with a cane from the combat wounds he received during his service...

...Nieznany is no loner. His political comments on the social-media site Quora received 44,000 views in the first two weeks of November and more than 4 million overall. He is one of many rank-and-file Republicans who own guns and in recent months have talked openly of the need to take down—by force, if necessary—a federal government they see as illegitimate, overreaching and corrosive to American freedom...

Commentary: How COVID-19 lab-leak theory went from conspiracy theory to politically accepted possibility

By Jemima Kelly

11 Jun 2021 


LONDON: The conversation around COVID-19’s origins has shifted markedly in recent weeks.

Suddenly, the idea that the virus could have come from an accidental lab leak, once dismissed as a “conspiracy theory”, is considered a possibility – even a likelihood, by some.

Fact-checking site PolitiFact recently decided to “archive” a fact-check it published last year on whether the virus was “man-made”, which it gave its most censorious “pants-on-fire!” rating, but which it now says is “more widely disputed”.

Likewise, The Washington Post issued a correction on a story it published in February 2020 on Republican senator Tom Cotton’s efforts to press China for evidence to back up its claims that the virus had emerged naturally.

The Post said he was repeating a “conspiracy theory that was already debunked”; it now acknowledges there is “no determination about the origins of the virus”.

Why SPH news titles will continue with paid model despite government funding: Khaw

May 12, 2021

• SPH’s media publications will maintain its paid-subscription business model
• This is to keep it competitive and keep up the quality of their content, Mr Khaw Boon Wan said
• The incoming chairman of SPH Media Trust added that it is important for newsrooms to have editorial independence
• He said he will try to make a difference in helping newsrooms realise a bigger potential

SINGAPORE — News publications under Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) will continue with their subscription-based business model even when they get substantial government funding.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan, 68, the incoming chairman of SPH Media Trust, its new non-profit media entity, said that this would press the newsrooms to answer a “higher call” to quality journalism and keep them on their toes to produce quality content.

SPH to restructure media business into not-for-profit entity

By TESSA OH, JANICE LIM

MAY 06, 2021

• The Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) will set up a new subsidiary to house its media business, with injection of initial resources, funding
• The subsidiary will eventually be transferred to a company limited by guarantee to be funded by private and public sources
• The exercise will involve transferring the entire media-related business of the conglomerate, including employees and its news and print centres

SINGAPORE — The Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) will be restructuring its media business into a not-for-profit entity amid falling advertising revenue.

With this move — which is expected to be fully completed by October, subject to shareholders’ approval — SPH’s media business will eventually become a company limited by a guarantee, it announced on Thursday (May 6).

All you need to know about Singapore’s proposed fake news law

By Asyraf Kamil

iStock photo

02 April, 2019

TODAY

SINGAPORE — After two years spent studying the threat of fake news, the Republic is taking things a step further with the introduction of sweeping new laws that will, among other things, give Government ministers broad powers to quickly stop the dissemination of online falsehoods and punish those who create and spread them.

These new laws, which will come under a new Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill, were tabled in Parliament on Monday (April 1).

Ripples of the Singapore Summit

And the Trump-Kim Summit will forever be known as "The Singapore Summit". 

The meeting is historic, even if the significance of the agreement forged is still pending the judgement of history.

Here are two news articles on the ripples from the Summit.

‘Journalism for rent’: Inside the secretive firm behind the Trump dossier

By Jack Gillum and Shawn Boburg

December 11 2017



Washington Post


Fusion GPS bills itself as a corporate research firm, but in many ways it operates with the secrecy of a spy agency. No sign marks its headquarters above a coffee shop in Northwest Washington. Its website consists of two sentences and an email address. Its client list is closely held.

The small firm has been under intense public scrutiny for producing the 35-page document known as the Trump dossier. Senior executives summoned to testify before Congress in October invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and the firm is resisting a congressional subpoena for bank records that would reveal who has paid for its services.

But hundreds of internal company documents obtained by The Washington Post reveal how Fusion, a firm led by former journalists, has used investigative reporting techniques and media connections to advance the interests of an eclectic range of clients on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and in the nation’s capital. The firm has played an unseen role in stories that dominated headlines in recent years.

Commentary on Cherian George's "Monumental Miscalculation" opinion piece.

Mothership published Cherian George's opinion piece on The Singapore presidential (s)election: A monumental miscalculation.

In it, George asserts,  

Shutting out potential candidates from the Chinese majority and engaging in crude tokenism tainted Halimah’s entry into the Istana. Worse, it unleashed a social media flurry of racist remarks in the guise of political comment, injuring the very harmony that the government claimed it was trying to promote. I can think of few political events that reveal so starkly the tendencies that prevent Singapore from maturing as a polity: the government’s distrust of the people, its insistence on getting its way, and its lack of finesse in dealing with contentious issues.

I agree that that was an unintended effect of this reserved election. One might even suggest that if unintended, it was not unanticipated. But that would be explained by the "lack of finesse" that is the hallmark of the PAP.

Our dangerous, idiotic national conversation

Opinions

By George F. Will
Opinion writer

September 20, 2017

At this shank end of a summer that a calmer America someday will remember with embarrassment, you must remember this: In the population of 325 million, a small sliver crouches on the wilder shores of politics, another sliver lives in the dark forest of mental disorder, and there is a substantial overlap between these slivers. At most moments, 312 million are not listening to excitable broadcasters making mountains of significance out of molehills of political effluvia.

Still, after a season of dangerous talk about responding to idiotic talk by abridging First Amendment protections, Americans should consider how, if at all, to respond to “cheap speech.” That phrase was coined 22 years ago by Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law School. Writing in the Yale Law Journal (“Cheap Speech and What It Will Do”) at the dawn of the Internet, he said that new information technologies were about to “dramatically reduce the costs of distributing speech,” and that this would produce a “much more democratic and diverse” social environment. Power would drain from “intermediaries” (publishers, book and music store owners, etc.) but this might take a toll on “social and cultural cohesion.”

The Comey firing reminds us of a bigger danger

By Fareed Zakaria 

Opinion writer 

May 11 2017

Washington Post


I have tried to evaluate Donald Trump’s presidency fairly. I’ve praised him when he has appointed competent people to high office and expressed support for his policies when they seemed serious and sensible (even though this has drawn criticism from some quarters). But there has always been another aspect to this presidency lurking beneath the surface, sometimes erupting into full view as it did this week. President Trump, in much of his rhetoric and many of his actions, poses a danger to American democracy.

The United States has the world’s oldest constitutional democracy, one that has survived the test of time and given birth to perhaps the most successful society in human history. What sets the nation apart is not how democratic it is, but rather the opposite. U.S. democracy has a series of checks intended to prevent the accumulation and abuse of power by any one person or group. But there is one gaping hole in the system: the president.

7 'Alternative Facts' from the White House

23 Jan 2017

WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - Ms Kellyanne Conway, counsellor to President Donald Trump, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday (Jan 22) that the White House had put forth "alternative facts" to the ones reported by the news media about the size of the inauguration crowd.

She made this assertion a day after Mr Trump and Mr Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, accused the media of reporting falsehoods about the inauguration and Mr Trump's relationship with the intelligence agencies.

In leveling this attack, the president and Mr Spicer made a series of false statements.

Here are five [updated to seven] of their statements and the facts:

Fact-checking President Trump’s inaugural address

By Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee
Washington Post

January 20, 2017

Generally, inaugural addresses are not designed to be fact-checked. But President Trump’s address was nothing if not unique, presenting a portrait of the United States that often was at variance with reality. Here’s a guide to understanding whether the facts back up his rhetoric.

“Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed.”

Trump engages in some sleight of hand here, equating “politicians” with “Washington.” The suburbs around Washington are among the richest in the United States, largely because of the federal government (which attracts people with college or advanced degrees). People either work for or lobby the federal government, and that was especially enhanced by the post-9/11 growth in defense and security contracts.

Among the 25 most populous metropolitan areas, the D.C. metro area has the highest median income in the nation — $93,294 versus a U.S. median of $55,775 — though growth has slowed in recent years, in part because of reductions in defense spending. Indeed, income in the D.C. area has grown essentially at the same rate as the rest of the nation since 2006, including a dip in median income during the Great Recession.

There is no empirical evidence that the D.C. area got rich off the rest of the country, as Trump suggests.

Corporate guff scales new heights

LUCY KELLAWAY
TODAY ONLINE
JANUARY 11, 2017

Every January for the past decade, I have handed out awards for the horrible use of language in business. Usually, the task amuses me. This year, I have found the sheer weight of euphemism, grammatical infelicity, disingenuity and downright ugliness so lowering, I have decided to start the 2016 Golden Flannel Awards with something more uplifting: A prize for clarity.

I am calling this the Wan Long prize, after the Chinese meat magnate who once uttered the clearest sentence ever spoken by a CEO: “What I do is kill pigs and sell meat.”

Mr Wan will surely approve of my winner, a BNSF railway executive who told a conference: “We move stuff from one place to another.”

This elegant, informative and borderline beautiful sentence is a reminder that despite the horrific nature of the following entries, clarity remains attainable.

China lodges protest with Singapore over Terrex vehicles seized in Hong Kong

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

BEIJING — China said on Monday (Nov 28) it had lodged a protest with Singapore after Singaporean armoured troop carriers were seized by Hong Kong customs en route back from Taiwan, as a state-owned newspaper warned against Singapore's "hypocrisy".

The nine troop carriers were impounded in Hong Kong last week, sparking a rebuke to Singapore from China's foreign ministry about maintaining military ties with self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers a breakaway province.

"China has already made representations over this to the Singapore side," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing on Monday.

China had also "demanded" that Singapore abide by Hong Kong's relevant laws and cooperate with the Hong Kong government to handle relevant follow-up work, he added.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

China always opposes countries which have relations with China also having "any form of official exchanges with the Taiwan region, including military exchanges and cooperation", Mr Geng said.

Teachable moments from HK’s seizure of SAF vehicles

DAVID BOEY
TODAY
NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Without a shot fired, the Singapore Army lost possession of nine Terrex Infantry Carrier Vehicles (ICVs) after Hong Kong Customs impounded the armoured vehicles as they were transiting through the port.

This episode has many teachable moments for followers of statecraft, and must be played out carefully as the concluding act has yet to take centre stage.

Any diplomatic gaffes or missteps by any party could result in misgivings that linger long after the fate of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) war machines has been decided upon.

This would have unfortunate consequences for the parties concerned if what could be ascribed to routine/rigorous customs checks is given another spin.

News of this episode — the largest-ever seizure of SAF war machines — emerged last Thursday, courtesy of Hong Kong news portal, FactWire.

It had reported that up to 12 Terrex ICVs were seized at the container terminal as they were en route from the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung to Singapore.

Within days, the topic of SAF training in Taiwan has come under the spotlight, with many theories postulated.

At one end of the spectrum, some theorised an administrative gaffe as the culprit.

More complex interpretations blamed strategic topics du jour such as the South China Sea dispute, the city-state’s leanings towards the United States, and military training in Taiwan as possible irritants to China-Singapore ties that could have prompted Hong Kong Customs officials to impound the Terrex ICVs.

The man who studies the spread of ignorance

How do people or companies with vested interests spread ignorance and obfuscate knowledge? Georgina Kenyon finds there is a term which defines this phenomenon.

By Georgina Kenyon 

6 January 2016


In 1979, a secret memo from the tobacco industry was revealed to the public. Called the Smoking and Health Proposal, and written a decade earlier by the Brown & Williamson tobacco company, it revealed many of the tactics employed by big tobacco to counter “anti-cigarette forces”.

In one of the paper’s most revealing sections, it looks at how to market cigarettes to the mass public: “Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy.”

This revelation piqued the interest of Robert Proctor, a science historian from Stanford University, who started delving into the practices of tobacco firms and how they had spread confusion about whether smoking caused cancer.

Proctor had found that the cigarette industry did not want consumers to know the harms of its product, and it spent billions obscuring the facts of the health effects of smoking. This search led him to create a word for the study of deliberate propagation of ignorance: agnotology.

Global Times report: A bid for eyeballs or a move to pressure Singapore?

Kor Kian Beng
China Bureau Chief

5 Oct 2016

BEIJING • Concerns about relations between Singapore and China have flared again, after the Global Times claimed that Singapore had pushed to include an international tribunal's ruling on the South China Sea in the final document of the recent Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.

In a report in its Chinese edition on Sept 21, the newspaper cited sources as saying that Singapore had insisted on adding contents endorsing a Hague-based arbitral tribunal decision on July 12 which dismissed China's territorial claims in the vital waterway.

Singapore's Ambassador to China Stanley Loh, in a letter dated Sept 26 to the tabloid newspaper's editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, said Singapore did not raise the South China Sea issue or the tribunal ruling at the summit in Venezuela.

Still, the Global Times report prompted some Chinese commentators and netizens to publicly call for tough measures to "punish" Singapore. Some Singaporeans, especially those based in China, have also wondered why Singapore, which is not a claimant in the territorial row, is risking Chinese ire by allegedly pushing the South China Sea issue.

News Reaction: Harambe or #GorillaLifeMattersYourOpinionDoesn't

So a toddler squeezed himself through the barriers, and fell 15 feet (approx) into the moat of the gorilla enclosure of the Cincinnati Zoo. A male gorilla rushed to see what had intruded his compound and found the boy, sitting in the water. He came into contact with the boy. Some who looked at the video (in full or more likely partially) decided that the gorilla was just being friendly, and even protective.

Others who saw the gorilla, disturbed or agitated by the screaming crowd, grab the boy by a leg and first drag him through the water to another spot in the moat, before taking the boy further away (not sure from the video posted on line), decided that the gorilla was a danger to the boy, whether intentionally or accidentally. That is, even if the gorilla meant the boy no harm, his rough handling of the boy, might just injure the boy, perhaps fatally.

The Cincinnati Zoo assessed the situation and decided that the risk to the boy was too great, and the only reasonable course of action was to shoot the gorilla. Tranquillisers were out of the question as a) they took too long to work, and b), the proper dosage would be an educated guess, and c) even if the dose was correct in a normal situation, an agitated gorilla would present uncertainty in estimating the dosage. Moreover, the shock of a tranquilliser dart hitting the gorilla may cause the already agitated gorilla to respond unpredictably.

So the zoo that have spent months and perhaps years looking after the gorilla, and who had plans for Harambe in their breeding programme, decided that the most reasonable course was to shoot the gorilla.

And the internet got outraged.