Author: Admin

Rising living costs are leaving many middle-income households with thinner buffers, but younger Malaysians are saving more as they turn to digital tools [KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia’s middle class is feeling the squeeze – rising costs are eroding savings, insurance cover is thinning and buffers are wearing down, the recent RinggitPlus Malaysian Financial Literacy Survey (RMFLS 2025) indicated.The financial strain is not unique as similar pressures are rippling through South-east Asia, where the middle class, once the region’s engine of growth, is showing signs of fragility in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.Malaysia’s middle class is feeling the pressure, with just 23 per cent…

The Department of Veterans Affairs has been using some artificial intelligence capabilities to bolster its suicide prevention efforts, but VA says these tools augment the work of clinicians and are not designed to replace any human-led interventions. Lawmakers, researchers and advocates say that’s how these technologies should always be used.This article — the second in a series of pieces about VA’s adoption of AI tools to help prevent veteran suicides — is based on documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews with almost two dozen current and former VA officials and employees, researchers, veterans and veteran advocates…

Overall funding levels in South-east Asia have contracted year-on-year however; Philippines a “bright spot” in the region[SINGAPORE] Singapore-based tech firms accounted for about 88.5 per cent of all funding by technology companies across the South-east Asia region in the first nine months of 2025 at US$2.3 billion, based on data from venture capital (VC) and startup research platform Tracxn. This comes within the context of sharp declines in overall funding raised during the period of US$2.6 billion, down 7 per cent compared with the US$2.8 billion raised in the same period the year before. Total inflows are also down 58 per cent from the first…

As living costs rise and recruitment fees surge, questions mount over the sustainability of the city-state’s dependence on low-wage migrant workers[SINGAPORE] For Nasir Uddin, paydays are often the only time he can afford a small treat.The Bangladeshi construction worker, who has spent the last 12 years in Singapore, used to shell out S$6 or S$7 to buy a meal from McDonald’s or KFC. Now, amid rising costs of living post-pandemic, the same meals cost at least S$10.

There are three new Apple Watches: the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3. The newest Apple Watch models feature upgrades in processing power, connectivity, and health monitoring capabilities, alongside design refinements. Notable enhancements include the S10 chip, 5G connectivity, battery life improvements for the Series 11 and Ultra 3, and an always-on display for the Apple Watch SE. In this guide, we will help you decide which Apple Watch is best for you. We’ll compare the features, specs and price as well as offer advice on choosing cases, colors, and straps in our…

Telstra, Australia’s no.1 telecom firm, has been fined A$18 million ($11.87 million) by the Federal Court for lowering internet speed plans for about 9,000 customers without informing them, the country’s competition watchdog said on Friday.Australian telecom firms are facing heightened scrutiny over governance, particularly after Optus’ two back-to-back emergency call outages last month affected thousands of customers, with the first outage linked to four deaths.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said on Friday that Telstra migrated 8,897 customers of its low-cost value brand, Belong, to a lower-speed plan without notifying them that their maximum upload speed had been halved.The…

Undersea servers are kept at a low temperature by ocean currents, rather than the energy-intensive air cooling or water evaporation required by centres on land[NANTONG, China] Power-hungry data centres run hot, so one Chinese company is planning to submerge a pod of servers in the sea off Shanghai with hopes of solving computing’s energy woes.On a wharf near the city, workers were finishing off the large yellow capsule, a foray into alternative tech infrastructure that faces questions over its ecological impact and commercial viability.The world’s websites and apps rely on physical data centres to store information, with growing use of…

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more. Instagram might be about to make the boldest move since it copied Stories from Snapchat: turning your entire home feed into TikTok-lite.  According to Instagram head Adam Mosseri, the company is testing a new design in India that makes Reels the default home tab.  In this test version, the first two tabs you see are Reels and DMs, the twin engines driving Instagram’s growth lately.…

NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — The curtain has been drawn. The stage lights are on. It’s time for “The Life of a Showgirl.”For Taylor Swift’s most dedicated audience, a new album means new opportunities to decode Easter eggs in her lyrics and music videos. The pop superstar’s 12th studio album has no shortage of clever clues and references to her public life and discography. Many are opaque, revealing just enough to inspire a myriad of fan theories. Others are concrete – explicit names and places worth exploring. Below, you will find a guide to those instances, and how…

The news comes with crypto pushing further into mainstream financial services in the country[TOKYO] Nomura Holdings plans to expand in Japan’s digital-asset market through a subsidiary, as crypto trading in the country heats up.The brokerage’s wholly owned Laser Digital Holdings is preparing to apply for a license to offer crypto trading services for institutional clients in Japan, chief executive officer Jez Mohideen said in response to queries from Bloomberg News. The Switzerland-based unit is currently in pre-consultation talks with Japan’s Financial Services Agency, he added.With digital assets booming off the back of US President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto policies, the value…