NewsLite

Mercedes-Benz Studio Singapore opens at Gardens by the Bay, bringing the brand’s global Studios concept to Southeast Asia for the first time through a space that combines automotive experiences, culture, creativity, lifestyle and community.

Mercedes-Benz has officially opened Mercedes-Benz Studio Singapore at Gardens by the Bay, marking the first Mercedes-Benz Studio in Southeast Asia.

The Studio brings Mercedes-Benz’s global Studios concept to Singapore as a new cultural and community destination where automotive experiences meet creativity, lifestyle and local collaborations.

It is one of 14 Mercedes-Benz Studios worldwide and the only one in Southeast Asia, joining a select network of locations comprising of Copenhagen, Delhi, Los Angeles, Madrid, Rome, Seoul, Shanghai, Stockholm, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo, Toronto and Warsaw.

HONG KONG — China's military leadership is expected to outline its aims for global security when it hosts its annual defence forum this week amid churning tensions in its own neighbourhood over Taiwan, the South China Sea and doubts about US commitments to Asia.

Defence Minister Dong Jun is expected to open the three-day Xiangshan Forum in Beijing on Tuesday (Sept 15) with a fresh pitch for closer international co-operation within a multi-polar world but is likely to also include coded attacks on the US and its allies, diplomats and analysts say.

Hundreds of military officers, diplomats and scholars from dozens of countries are expected to attend the three-day event, a tightly scripted Chinese rival to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, widely seen as a more freewheeling affair.

Some Asian envoys and analysts say that any overt Chinese criticism of the US and its Western allies could be tempered because of President Xi Jinping's planned visit to Washington later this month to meet President Donald Trump.

DOONBEG, Ireland — US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday (Sept 13) at the close of a golf tournament in Ireland that he plans to remove a 10 per cent tariff on Irish whiskey.

Trump said during the trophy ceremony for the Irish Open that he had been asked about the issue by everyone, including Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin and even some of the golfers. Irish Open winner Shane Lowry was among them, Trump said.

"Everybody's been bugging me" to do it, the Republican president said. "And I said, 'On behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off'" of Irish whiskey.

Irish whiskey currently faces the standard tariff imposed by Trump on most imports from the European Union, which was reduced from 15 per cent to 10 per cent in July.

NEW DELHI — Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled on Sunday (Sept 13) initiatives in areas ranging from AI to trade to deepen co-operation among the Greater BRICS emerging economies, as Beijing seeks to weld the grouping into a practical platform for Global South development.

Cooperation in areas from politics and security to economics and finance are the main focus areas of the grouping, with 2026 chair India and 2027 chair China seeking wider partnership to boost its global clout.

The success of the Greater BRICS Initiative depends on laying a solid foundation for pragmatic co-operation, Xi told the leaders' annual summit in New Delhi, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Greater BRICS nations should further co-operate, maintain the stability of industrial and supply chains, and cultivate an integrated market, Xi told the summit's closing session.

TILATHI KOILADI, Nepal — After nine days trapped in a hydropower tunnel and a week of hospital care following his dramatic rescue, Sanjay Sah, a rare survivor of last month's devastating glacier collapse in Nepal, finally returned to his village and family on Sunday (Sept 13).

It was a homecoming marked by relief and joy but also grief.

"I was trapped in the tunnel ... I felt trapped in the hospital room too. I finally feel free here in my village," Sah, 30, said after arriving in Tilathi Koiladi, near the border with India.

At least 1,386 people have died and 5,130 are still missing across Nepal weeks after a Himalayan glacier collapsed near the Chinese border, unleashing a wall of mud and water that crashed through mountain valleys destroying everything in its path.

DUBLIN — President Donald Trump on Sunday (Sept 13) played down the need for his administration to check the development of artificial intelligence, saying he worried about ceding America's edge over China in a global competition and that winning would help address the risks from the advancing technology.

While acknowledging the need for some regulation, Trump provided no specifics about potential rules and attributed warnings about the technology moving too quickly and with little oversight to "negative forces" he did not identify, though industry pioneers have raised such concerns.

"We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that ... shouldn't be bringing it up, and they're bringing up things that won't happen," Trump told reporters during a weekend trip to Ireland. "But whoever wins with AI wins."

Asked later Sunday if he was trying to minimise the risks from AI, Trump said, "I'm not downplaying," adding that artificial intelligence is "going to be more good than bad, but by a lot." Speaking with reporters during the flight back to Washington, he repeated his earlier comment regarding the stakes for "whoever wins AI".

CORON, Phliippines — Authorities in the Philippines said on Sunday (Sept 13) it could take weeks or months to identify the victims of a ferry fire that killed 76 people, as forensic experts begin collecting and comparing DNA samples from charred remains and investigators determine what caused one of the country's deadliest maritime disasters in recent years.

Some remains were found clustered together in parts of the vessel, said forensic specialist Richard Allan Mangalip from the Philippine National Police, while others were scattered across different areas of the ship, which was carrying more than 130 people and was nearing its destination when it caught fire.

The ferry was heading southwest from Manila to Coron, in Palawan province, a trip that generally takes about 20 hours.

"Most of them are already in a charred condition," Mangalip said at a press conference, adding that authorities could not provide a firm timeline for identification because of the volume of specimens that must be examined. "It could be weeks, or it could be much longer."

The Republic's air quality is inching closer to unhealthy levels again on Monday (Sept 14) morning.

At 9.30am, the 24-hour Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) was between 73 and 92, within the moderate range, with the highest reading of 92 recorded in central Singapore.

A reading of between 101 to 200 denotes the unhealthy range.

Meanwhile, one-hour PM.25 at that time — an indicator of fine micro-pollutants in the air — was recorded at 107 in the central region.

SEOUL — North Korea held a live-fire drill to test long-range artillery and missile units of its army, state media KCNA reported on Monday (Sept 14).

The "joint firepower attack drill" on Saturday involved five army units and tested several weapon systems, including various attack drones, tactical cruise missiles, tactical ballistic missiles, and large-calibre multiple rocket launchers, KCNA said.

The drill would boost the morale of the troops and improve their capabilities to "completely collapse the enemy" anytime an order is placed, KCNA said citing an artillery director.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Saturday that North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast, followed by a joint military exercise among South Korea, Japan and the US.

ADEN/DUBAI — Middle East diplomacy appeared to falter heading into Monday (Sept 14) with the postponement of a meeting between Iran and other Persian Gulf powers, while fresh attacks around the region's two most important oil transit routes deepened concern over global energy supplies.

Oil prices jumped as markets reopened on Monday, following developments that threaten supplies from the world's biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia, which kept a key 1,200-km east-west pipeline closed throughout the weekend after it was damaged in drone strikes on Friday.

Hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough in the near term faded when Oman's foreign minister, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, posted late Sunday that a regional meeting scheduled for Monday had been postponed "in the interests of consensus".

Iranian officials had said they would attend that gathering with Gulf Arab states to present an agreement with Oman on governing shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz.