The antibiotics crisis isn’t the fault of science – it’s market failure

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phenomenon wherein microbes evolve to survive the drugs and chemicals used to kill them leading to the rise in drug-resistant infections.

there is a deeper challenge: antibiotic resistance is as much about access and economics as it is about biology.

most of these companies quit antibiotic research and development (R&D) due to tighter regulations including for licensing trials, coupled with a management focus on maximising shareholder value. They switched to higher-profit, non-infectious drugs such as Ozempic (for diabetes) and Keytruda (cancer).

The current estimated return on investment – or net present value – for new antibiotics stands at negative US$50 million, meaning that companies developing antibiotics will lose money. 

Qn: Consider the view that science solves all problems. (JPJC Prelim 2025)

Is bridge a sport? Is e-sport? Who cares, we need a world at play

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Useful for the idea that sport need not necessarily be violent....

Key claims made in the leaked internal BBC memo

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The programme spliced together two separate excerpts  from one of Mr Trump’s speeches, creating the impression that he was inciting the January 2021 Capitol Hill riot....Mr Trump was shown telling his supporters that “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol” and that they would “fight like hell”, a comment he made in a different part of his speech. He had actually said his supporters would “cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women”.

Qn: Assess the view that nothing in the media can be trusted today. (NJC Prelim 2025)

The BBC’s bias scandal holds lessons for public service media everywhere

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A Panorama programme that aired in 2024 spliced two snippets of his Jan 6, 2021 speech delivered nearly an hour apart, creating the impression that he had urged supporters to storm the Capitol and "fight like hell", while omitting lines where he called for peaceful protest.

Qn: Assess the view that nothing in the media can be trusted today. (NJC Prelim 2025)

Tianmen is China’s test site for baby-boosting policies

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the Tianmen experiment may end up revealing the limits of social control in today’s China. Injunctions against specific behaviours are potent. Officials can block protests, ban media or, as in the past, cut “excess” childbirth.

But when it comes to inducements – persuading people to marry, to move or to have babies – the state is far weaker. It is easier to turn people off than it is to turn them on.

Qn: How far should the state intervene in matters relating to one's body? (MI Prelim 2025)

Japan PM faces backlash for starting meeting at 3am

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This issue is particularly sensitive in Japan, where there have been multiple high-profile cases of karoshi, or "death from overwork".

For issues on work-life balance....compare with China's '996' work culture, and Singapore being ranked as one of the most overworked nations in the world, often exceeding 45 hours per week.....

Phase 3 of Singapore’s mega gene-mapping effort to enrol at least 400,000 patients

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national programme to map genomes for preventive, personalised treatments, to gather data from 400,000 to 450,000 patients recruited directly from healthcare settings....Precision medicine is a targeted approach to disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual differences in genes, environments and lifestyles

We must move from a system that reacts to illness to one that predicts and prevents it – and ultimately preserves health

how genetic information can be used to guide drug use and assess disease risk

To support the adoption of precision medicine, the Ministry of Health (MOH) is providing financial support for genetic tests so that those who are recommended for such testing will not be deterred by the cost

To assure the public that the use of genetic information will not affect their insurance coverage, MOH introduced a moratorium in 2021 preventing insurers from using genetic test results in underwriting. The protection has since been extended to cover all FH diagnostic genetic results under the national programme.

This is not just preventive care, but predictive preventive care.

Qn: How effectively is public health promoted and managed in your society? (Cam. 2015)

Arrests in Louvre heist show power of DNA databases in solving crimes

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For issues on technology and crime....

Qn: Consider the view that science solves all problems. (JPJC Prelim 2025)

Forum: ACS alumni’s statement defends privilege, not principles

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A fake friend? AI companions are exactly that

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For issues on loneliness and tech...

Qn: To what extent is artificial intelligence replacing the role of humans? (Cam. 2019)

Cashless but confusing: Can Singapore fix its digital payments system?

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For issues on tech and convenience....

‘Bloodied onslaughts’: Experts warn of AI’s growing impact on office jobs

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Amazon, which announced on Oct 28 that it was making 14,000 corporate jobs redundant globally amid a wider adoption of AI internally

AI excels at entry-level white-collar jobs...data entry, basic coding and admin support

In the tech sector, the impact of AI is more pronounced as firms tend to be early adopters of automation and AI-driven solutions....In contrast, sectors such as corporate banking and healthcare place greater value on human intuition and judgment, which are capabilities that AI has yet to fully replicate

The silver lining is in AI development, data science, cyber security and product strategy, as these require some form of human oversight

Qn: To what extent is artificial intelligence replacing the role of humans? (Cam. 2019)