SINGAPORE: A 52-year-old Singaporean woman has been sentenced to four years in jail after allowing her 15-year-old son to regularly smoke methamphetamine and providing him with the equipment needed to do so.

The sentence, handed down on June 5, comes after the court heard that the boy had been using the drug every two to three days for several months while living with his mother and stepfather. The couple supplied him with methamphetamine and left drug paraphernalia within easy reach in their home, Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reports.

To protect the victim’s identity, none of the individuals involved in this case may be named.

How the curiosity of a teenager turned into regular drug use

Court documents showed that the boy first became aware of the drug utensils in January 2025 after spotting them in a sink at home. Curious about what they were, he asked his mother. She told him they were used for smoking methamphetamine.

Over the following months, the teenager began using methamphetamine frequently, smoking it once every two to three days, using utensils that had been left openly in the living room.

The mother later admitted that she and her husband had provided both the drugs and the equipment needed to consume them.

Court stresses duty of parents

Deputy Public Prosecutor Etsuko Lim argued that the case called for a strong deterrent sentence because it involved a child under the age of 16.

The prosecution said the woman wasn’t merely negligent. Instead, she actively supplied drugs to her son over a period exceeding five months and enabled his growing dependency.

District Judge Brenda Choo agreed. In sentencing the woman, Judge Choo said children rely on their caregivers for protection and safety. In this case, the adults responsible for the boy had done the opposite by exposing him to drugs and allowing him to consume them.

The judge also noted that the offence was serious because the teenager had ready access to both the drugs and the paraphernalia supplied by the adults in the household.

Drug exposure and legal consequences

The woman was also convicted of consuming methamphetamine herself. The court heard she had been using the drug since 2022, with her usage becoming more frequent over time. By the time of her arrest in June 2025, she was taking methamphetamine once or twice a week.

Her husband and the boy’s stepfather were arrested in the same operation. His case remains before the courts.

Singapore’s drug laws impose heavy penalties on adults who expose children to controlled drugs or drug paraphernalia. Those convicted of knowingly leaving such items accessible to children can face up to 10 years in jail, a S$20,000 fine, or both.

Cases involving youth and drugs usually focus on enforcement. This one centred on something more fundamental: the role of parents. When the people meant to safeguard a child instead encourage harmful behaviour, the consequences can stretch far beyond a courtroom sentence.

This article (4 years jail for Singaporean mum who allowed her 15-year-old son to smoke meth once every 2-3 days over a few months) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.

Regulator approval means patients who meet criteria will be able to purchase tablets with private prescription

Patients in the UK will soon be able to buy the Wegovy weight-loss pill, the medicines regulator announced on Thursday.

It is the first GLP-1 receptor agonist tablet for weight-loss to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), making the UK the third country to authorise the pills, behind the US and the United Arab Emirates.

NEW YORK, June 10 — Use of GLP-1 drugs for diabetes or obesity ‌early in the first trimester of pregnancy, before a woman realises she is pregnant, is not a cause for alarm, a large new data analysis suggests.

These medications, which include Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, sold ‌as Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide, sold as Zepbound and Mounjaro, are not recommended for use during pregnancy because their safety for the fetus is unknown and animal studies have suggested potential risks.

A box of Ozempic made by Novo Nordisk is seen at a pharmacy in London March 8, 2024. — Reuters pic

Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health analysed 3,572 pregnancies in women who were taking GLP-1 drugs prior to conception, including 1,467 in women with type 2 diabetes. They looked at outcomes that occurred with continued GLP-1 use into the first trimester, comparing them to non-continuation of the medicines.

After taking individual risk factors into account, the risk for non-live birth was 29.7 per cent with ‌medication continuation versus 27.1 per cent with non-continuation, a difference that was not deemed statistically significant.

Staying on ⁠the drugs also did not appear ⁠to substantially increase the risks for low or high birth ⁠weight or major congenital malformations, although ⁠estimates for these outcomes were ⁠imprecise.

As GLP-1 use among women of reproductive age becomes more prevalent, “this provides some reassurance regarding unintentional exposure to GLP-1s early in pregnancy,” said study leader Dr. Jeremy Brown.

GLP-1 drugs ⁠can improve fertility in some obese women through weight reduction and enhanced insulin sensitivity. — Reuters pic

GLP-1 drugs ⁠can improve fertility in some obese women through weight reduction and enhanced insulin sensitivity. In addition, tirzepatide in particular has been found to compromise the absorption of oral contraceptives, which can contribute to accidental pregnancy.

Medical guidelines advise stopping GLP-1 drugs at least one or two months before pregnancy, and “our study cannot on its own change such recommendations,” said ⁠Dr. Sonia Hernandez-Diaz, senior author of the report published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

It is not possible to guarantee the drugs are safe, but women who used ⁠them before discovering they were pregnant needn’t panic, she said.

“Based on accumulated evidence, it does ⁠not seem ⁠like GLP-1 drugs when used during the months after conception increase the risk of common (adverse) outcomes substantially. That is as much as we can tell right now, which is reassuring,” Hernandez-Diaz said.

“The message ‌would still need to be for pregnant women and those planning pregnancy to follow the label and their clinicians’ advice regarding GLP-1 when pregnant or planning pregnancy,” she said. — Reuters

Faig Ahmed is known for his vibrant textile sculptures that take traditional Azerbaijani ornamental carpets as starting point, often appearing to melt, pool, or glitch. In his current solo presentation at the 61st Venice Biennale, where he is representing Azerbaijan, the Baku-based artist branches out into more conceptual territory, exploring science, alchemy, spirituality, and perceptions of self in a sprawling, maze-like installation called The Attention.

Curated by Gwendolyn Collaço, the exhibition expands upon Ahmed’s interest in the dialectic between digital processes and time-honored, hand-crafted techniques. The artist considers how advanced scientific inquiry, such as quantum physics and neuroscience, relates to how we “articulate cosmologies of belonging,” says a statement.

Ornamental carpets continue as a through-line in The Attention, undulating, scrunching, distending, and balling up through a series of rooms. They even extend outdoors, creating a kind of continuous runner that spills out of doorways and stretches into long lines of color.

“Ahmed bridges the 15th-century Hurufi mystic tradition—which viewed the universe as a coded text—with modern information theory,” says a statement. “By channeling the ‘human energy’ of the weave, he uses this ancient textile paradigm to address our era’s information overload and collective grief.”

Ahmed taps into a theoretical framework coined by physicist John Wheeler that can be summed up, rather enigmatically, as “it from bit.” It’s a short way of describing an approach to information theory that string theorists and quantum mechanics researchers have tested. In other words, “…every it—every particle, every field of force, even the spacetime continuum itself—derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely—even if in some contexts indirectly—from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits.”

In The Attention, the binaries of “it from bit” are not only present in the way digital methods and the physical labor of the loom converge but also in Ahmed’s interests.

“I have always been drawn to exploring consciousness for as far back as I can remember,” he says in a statement, continuing:

This search has guided my attention in two directions: on one hand, toward science—biology, physics, and mathematics—and on the other, toward spirituality, art, poetry, and creative expression. At first glance, these fields appear opposite, even contradictory. One form of knowledge is directed out-ward, toward what can be measured, calculated, observed, and verified. The other turns inward, toward the subjective, the unprovable, and the inexpressible. It is an experience that cannot be confirmed or fully shared with another, just as it is impossible to truly know what it feels like to be someone else.

Merging 15th-century Hurufi mysticism with science, digital interfaces with the analog, and introspective personal experiences with objective data, Ahmed’s carpets guide visitors through the immersive space. The largest one, a monumental machine-woven piece, is titled “I Can Contain Both Worlds But I Do Not Fit Into This One.” It forms what the artist describes as a “breathing body” that climbs the architecture, knots itself, collapses, and spills. “Ancestors,” a faintly anthropomorphic wall piece that glows psychedelically in black light is woven by hand. And a work called “Entropy Altar” uses a quantum random number generator to translate visitor presence into an evolving language.

The Attention remains on view through November 22 at Campo della Tana, Castello 2124/A–2125, Venice. See more on Ahmed’s Instagram and Vimeo.

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Research suggests households that include a GLP-1 user collectively spent £780m less on grocery bills

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Weight-loss drugs are saving users’ households more than £400 a year on grocery bills, according to a survey, which found use of GLP-1s has nearly tripled in the past two years to 1.9 million adults.

More than 6.3% of households in Great Britain now include at least one GLP-1 user, according to the research by Worldpanel by Numerator. This marks a sharp rise from 4.1% of households in 2025 and 2.3% in 2024.

Hong Kong Customs seized around 31 kilograms of suspected cannabis buds in Tuen Mun on Tuesday and arrested a 33-year-old man.

The value of the suspected cannabis was estimated to be around HK$6 million, according to a government press release on Wednesday.

During Tuesday’s anti-narcotics operation, officers stopped a suspicious man and found he was carrying 20.5 kilogrammes of suspected cannabis buds in two canvas bags.

“Customs officers then escorted the man to an industrial unit in Tuen Mun for a search and found about 10.5kg of suspected cannabis buds and a batch of drug packaging paraphernalia in the unit,” the press release said.

The suspect was charged with two counts of trafficking in a dangerous drug and will appear at the Tuen Mun Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday.

Those found to have trafficked a dangerous drug face a maximum penalty of HK$5 million and life imprisonment.

Exclusive: Cancer charity says dispelling falsehoods gleaned from social media is now routine task for clinicians

Social media misinformation about the use of dietary supplements such as turmeric, St John’s wort and magnesium is now so common that dispelling online claims has become a routine part of NHS clinicians work.

Two out of five frontline health workers say they encounter patients who raise inaccurate or misleading information about supplements at least once a week.

The Mexican military captured Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’, on Monday – one of the top leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Flores Silva was considered to be one of the key candidates to succeed alias ‘El Mencho’, the former leader of the CJNG who was killed by authorities in February.

The drug lord’s arrest comes amid a wider crackdown by Mexican security forces against organized crime, driven partly by pressure from Washington.

According to authorities, Monday’s operation did not involve any shooting, injuries, or collateral damage. The military deployment included 120 direct action troops, four close air support helicopters, four fixed-wing aircraft, and two troop transport helicopters, with 400 naval personnel providing support.

The CJNG leader’s more than 60-strong escort group dispersed in different directions upon the arrival of security forces, attempting a tactical distraction maneuver, but the target was located through air and ground tracking.

Official footage of the operation shared by Omar García Harfuch, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Mexico, shows the moment of the capture, with Flores Silva extracted from a roadside drainage conduit, where he was hiding. The arrest happened near El Mirador, a rural community in the western state of Nayarit.

Hours after the news became public, several stores and vehicles were set on fire across Nayarit. While the unrest fell short of the level of retaliation following the killing of ‘El Mencho’ in February 2026, the Government of Nayarit urged citizens to stay in their homes as a preventative measure.

A major blow to CJNG

The arrest was praised by the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, who congratulated Mexico’s Security Cabinet and Secretary of the Navy.

In 2021, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency offered a US$5 million reward for information leading to Audias Flores Silva’s arrest or conviction. Flores Silva was defined as “closely aligned” with former CJNG leader ‘El Mencho’, whose real name is Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.

In June 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Flores Silva, identifying him as a CJNG regional commander in charge of significant portions of territory in the states of Zacatecas, Guerrero, Nayarit, Jalisco, and Michoacán. 

According to U.S. authorities, Flores Silva was in control of clandestine laboratories producing methamphetamine and other illicit drugs in central Jalisco and southern Zacatecas. In addition, Silva managed the logistics of cocaine trafficking operations from Central America through Mexico to the United States, including the supervision of several clandestine airstrips.

‘El Jardinero’ was also believed to have coordinated a deadly 2015 attack against Mexican police forces in Jalisco that left 15 agents dead.

Flores Silva’s arrest is a hard hit to CJNG, as security analysts considered him a potential successor to the group’s command after the death of ‘El Mencho’ last February.

“Flores Silva was the closest thing the CJNG had to a chief operating officer, the man who once ran Mencho’s personal security, managed the Pacific corridor’s labs and airstrips, oversaw a timeshare fraud network and U.S. money-laundering pipeline, and brokered the alliance with Los Chapitos after the Sinaloa civil war,” Chris Dalby, director of World of Crime and senior analyst at Dyami Security Intelligence, told Latin America Reports.

Authorities dealt a second blow to CJNG yesterday when the Special Forces of the Mexican Army and the National Guard detained César Alejandro N, alias “El Güero Conta”. He was identified as the main financial operator for ‘El Jardinero’ and accused of laundering money through companies and frontmen.

“Losing Silva alongside his financier on the same day hits the CJNG operationally and financially simultaneously. It doesn’t spell an end to the CJNG, however, and may actually help Juan Carlos Gonzalez Valencia secure leadership by removing a rival,” said Dalby.

Featured image description: Wanted poster for Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’.

Featured image credit: Omar García Harfuch via Facebook.

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