- World Report 2024: Singapore (hrw.org)
Singapore’s criminal justice system fell under the international spotlight as the authorities carried out the highest number of executions for drug-related offenses in over a decade, including the first woman put to death in almost 20 years. The government harassed, intimidated, and persecuted civil society activists and independent media practitioners in the lead-up to presidential elections in September, which saw the election of Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a former deputy prime minister and finance minister, to the largely ceremonial post.
- Beta Aurigae (Wikipedia)
Beta Aurigae (Latinized from β Aurigae, abbreviated Beta Aur, β Aur), officially named Menkalinan /mɛŋˈkælɪnæn/, is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Auriga. The combined apparent visual magnitude of the system is 1.9, making it the second-brightest member of the constellation after Capella. Using the parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission, the distance to this star system can be estimated as 81.1 light-years (24.9 parsecs), give or take a half-light-year margin of error.