China's Xi Jinping declares 'complete victory' in campaign to stamp out rural poverty

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Close to 100 million Chinese living in rural areas have been lifted out of absolute poverty since Mr Xi came to power in late 2012.

Mr Xi had mooted the idea of the “Chinese Dream” soon after he came to power, when the country has become moderately properous and achieved national rejuvenation – and eliminating absolute poverty is a key part of this goal.

The more long-term issue that China needs to address is how its rural people can move up the economic ladder. The economic gap between rural and urban Chinese is still very substantial

Qn: Is the elimination of global poverty a realistic aim? (Cam. 2009)

Prosecutors air chilling Capitol riot videos at impeachment trial

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Qn: 'A picture is always more powerful than mere words.' What is your view? (Cam. 2006)

Shanmugam cautions against suggestion from Jamus Lim

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Associate Professor Lim had asked if the Government would consider expanding the Yellow Ribbon Project, such that former offenders who committed non-violent crimes would be eligible to have their criminal history removed from public records, contingent on an extended period of good behaviour. 

many crimes that are serious but may not necessarily involve physical violence". He cited sexual grooming, outrage of modesty, criminal breach of trust and theft in dwelling

Admittedly, there may need to be certain exceptions; for example, those convicted of sex crimes should not work with children as suggested by the minister, or substance abuse with pharmaceuticals, or drunk driving with transport

Qn: Should crimes that were committed many years ago simply be forgotten? (Cam. 2006)

Actors must follow moral guidelines or face bans: China

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Use of facial recognition to combat sex crimes in India sparks concerns

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Try compare with the recent controversy over how the TraceTogether data is used in Singapore to combat 7 types of serious crimes, where the usage of such data is regulated by law....

The idea is that since we have a computerised database of all perpetrators (related to sexual crimes), this data can be fed into the system. As and when any perpetrator comes within city limits, a red flag will be generated and the movement of the perpetrator monitored so that the same kind of crime is not committed.

The FRT (facial recognition technology) would detect and analyse the face, extract all information on that person and then reject them as a sexual offender. Through this process of elimination only will they be able to check for and identify sexual offenders entering the city of Lucknow. Thus, every person will be surveilled

Since we have no FRT regulation or data protection law in place, this... could lead to privacy violations and data breaches that people will have no knowledge of. This is because of the lack of transparency in how this technology is being used as well as an absence of any oversight body as far as we know.

Tracking known sexual offenders is a good idea. But they should not use it (for other purposes, such as) to target political opponents.

Qn: "Science and technology perpetuates inequality." Do you agree?

Not too late for US and China to reset ties and avert great power clash: PM Lee at WEF event

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Brings to mind a saying (by Napoleon?) that one can build a throne of swords but one cannot sit on it...size alone without commanding respect and legitimacy will not allow one to dominate for long...To be the fittest is not just size but to be the most fitting...

China has to recalibrate its position, in order that its influence in the world is not only there because of its own power and energy, but also there because of the legitimacy and acceptance by other countries that this is something which is benefiting other countries and not at their expense

Qn: To what extent is human life in general about the survival of the fittest? (Cam. 2020)

Curb population growth to reduce housing demand, pressure on land: NCMP Leong

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Curbing Singapore's population growth will reduce housing demand and, in turn, erase the need to cut down forests to free up land for homes

Qn: How far can prosperity and uncontrolled population growth go hand in hand? (Cam. 2020)