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Straits Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Straits Times
After Olympic heartbreak, Singaporean swimmer Chantal Liew turns pain into inspiration
If you want a tale of heartbreak, don't go fumbling in the romance section of a bookshop. Just ask any athlete and they'll tell you. About chances missed, bad breaks, last-minute goals. About emptiness, tears, splintered dreams. About a pain which they can precisely measure for you. In open water swimmer Chantal Liew's case, it's 1.7 seconds. Ask and she'll autopsy her heartbreak for you, just take you back to late 2023 when her form was strong and then sickness hit in Portugal. 'Insane gastro' followed, nausea, inability to eat, waking up weeks later in 2024 for the Olympic qualifier in Doha with a sore throat, mentally accepting her Games dream was done. Then the race began and it 'was the best I've ever swum internationally at the start of the race'. Miracle? Nope. The past, all the diarrhoea she'd had, how sick she'd been, returned to ruin her present. Her strength faded, her charge wilted. She and the Chinese swimmer Xin Xin were fighting for an Olympic place and as the finish line beckoned they both sprinted and after 10km and over two hours the clock told her this story. Xin 2:04:21.10. Liew 2:04:22.80. Just half a stroke short of Paris 2024. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Same person, but different S'porean Chinese names? How have such naming practices evolved? Singapore Jail for woman who opened bank accounts that received over $640m including scam proceeds Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Maybe defeat by 15 seconds would have been better because 1.7 seconds was so achingly close. Months later when the Opening Ceremony started in Paris, and she was watching with friends in Australia, she had to leave the room. Weeping, you understand. But now it's 2025 and the world championships are in Singapore and she's repaired herself. In a demanding sport, there's no room to wallow in sadness. There's dirty water being drunk in choppy seas and a heart rate that has to be controlled as the heat rises, fatigue arrives and 'everyone's jumping on top of you'. There's mid-race 'carbo drinks', handed to them via a modified fishing rod, occasionally with Panadol inside because everything's hurting. She swims with one arm and holds the drink with another, never stopping for anything, whether it's seaweed brushing against her in Budapest like ghostly tendrils or stinging jellyfish in Australia. On decent days, at the last kilometre, there's 'delirium'. On tough days, 'the whole body just shuts down, everything is numb'. Anything can happen. Once, she says, 'one of the girls swam so far off course she swam into the shipping lane'. And so yes, 'it's so hard' this pursuit, which is why she wonders every day, and so sometimes do her friends, 'why do we have to choose the least rewarding sport?' There are few fans on the oceans and fewer headlines. 'You get less attention, you get less funding'. But like judokas or fencers they're infected by a love of a game which is so personal and deep it's impossible to explain, love for a challenge, love for discovering who they are under pressure, love for the wonderful expanse of water in which they are transformed. 'We're all just a little bit unhinged,' laughs Liew, 'and at the end of the day we love the pain. It feels so satisfying and it feels so rewarding in such a specific way that nothing else comes close to that feeling.' She remembers training with Chelsea Gubecka in 2023 and doing seven race simulations but with a painful twist. Their race distance was 10km but they did 12km sessions. They were 'the hardest things ever' but when it was done 'we would just be so euphoric'. Open water, an art both strategic and severe, involves skills 'you can only pick up from racing'. There are 'decisions you need to know how to make under pressure... like whether or not you want to get on this person's feet or the other person's feet? (Like drafting in cycling). Which line do you want to take? Where do you want to position yourself in the pack? How do you want to position yourself going into the turn?' Her tone is rich with enthusiasm and it's a triumphant reversal from 2024 when disappointment encased her. 'It was really hard for me to get back into the water... Even when I was in the pool I didn't feel like swimming. I hated it. The only thing that kept replaying in my head was that 1.7 seconds.' But this is the appeal of athletes, the way they acknowledge defeat, conquer distress, grow new skins and turn hurt into inspiration. And so now when she's tired at the end of a practice session, her coach Eugene Chia will use that 1.7 seconds as fuel. 'He's like '1.7 seconds, go, get it, 1.7 seconds, don't give up'. I think that 1.7 seconds, it's so painful, but it's reached a point where it kind of motivates me. It lights that fire where I don't want a repeat of that ever again.' And so as Liew, and her open-water gang, ready for races which are 3km, 5km, 10km, one thought persists. We know precisely the distances they will swim, but never how immeasurably far they have come.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Moveable feast: Danish chef serves up gastronomic journey by bike
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Danish chef Morten Kryger Wulff cooks on his self-designed kitchen-bike during a stop of a gastronomical bike tour on July 2 in Copenhagen. COPENHAGEN – Hopping off his custom-built bicycle-turned-portable kitchen, Danish chef Morten Kryger Wulff started whipping up a feast of tantalising dishes – served with a generous side of nature. The 56-year-old veteran of prestigious kitchens across Europe got the idea more than two decades ago to take his cooking to the great outdoors, leading customers on a gastronomic bike ride through Copenhagen – with delectable food served at every stop. On a sunny weekday in July, grilled seaweed, dill cream, bean fricassee, Nordic pizza and blackcurrant ice cream were on the menu for the ride from the Danish capital's harbour to Amager Nature Park. 'This is as close as I can come to nature, cooking-wise, in a chef way,' said Wulff. The tour lasts about four hours in total, covering 3km to 5km. It is broken into bike rides of about 15 minutes each, in between which the chef gets off his bike, unfolds his table and starts cooking. 'You take away the walls of a traditional restaurant and expose yourself to the city and to the elements you're in,' he said. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore What's in a name? Local author traces the evolution of Singaporean Chinese names Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Sport Jannik Sinner dethrones Carlos Alcaraz to capture maiden Wimbledon crown In his cargo bike – a contraption he designed himself, measuring more than 2m long and weighing 130kg – he has everything he needs: a foldable work surface, a refrigerator, a gas burner and all the ingredients. 'It is impressive to watch him cook from that small kitchen, to see how compressed everything is,' said Copenhagen local Pernille Martensson, who joined the tour with her husband to celebrate his birthday. The route is 'part of the menu', said Wulff. 'For example, the dish with fish or shellfish or seaweed is typically served by the channels.' On the docks, he sautes shrimp before serving them in shells. As Wulff and his group gradually move away from Copenhagen's city centre, the chef – who has worked at The Savoy hotel in London and Geneva's InterContinental – shares stories about the city and the project. It all began in 2002, when he was kicked out of a municipal park for trying to have a barbecue with friends, and decided to start cooking outdoors legally. He takes an ecologically gentle approach. 'The food we get for these tours is, of course, harvested and bought locally,' he said, adding that even the wines come from around Copenhagen. 'A bicycle is the most sensible vehicle, the smartest vehicle. It does not use any energy. You can have a battery, but it's pedal-powered,' he said. The mobile approach to dining means he and his customers 'meet the city, we meet the locals', he added. The self-proclaimed 'bicycle chef' said he is 'very passionate about cargo bikes and what they can do'. He frequently participates in the Danish cargo bike championships, an unconventional competition held annually in Copenhagen. In 2016, he was named courier of the year. The award committee said he had 'demonstrated the many possibilities of the cargo bike with his mobile kitchen project'. Bicycle-loving Copenhagen has more than 385km of bike lanes, the oldest dating back to 1892. AFP
Straits Times
2 days ago
- General
- Straits Times
Excavations begin at mass child grave site in Ireland
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Records unearthed show as many as 796 babies and young children died at the Tuam home. DUBLIN - Excavations at an unmarked mass burial site are expected to start on July 14 in a former mother and baby home in western Ireland. The site is suspected of containing the remains of hundreds of infants and young children. The planned two-year probe by Irish and foreign experts in Tuam, a town located north of Galway, comes more than a decade after an amateur historian first uncovered evidence of a mass grave there. Subsequent test excavations in 2016 to 2017 found significant quantities of baby remains in a subterranean disused septic tank at the location, which now sits within a housing complex. Catholic nuns ran a so-called 'mother and baby' institution there between 1925 and 1961, housing women who had become pregnant outside of marriage and were shunned by their families. After giving birth, some children lived in the homes too but many more were given up for adoption under a system that often saw the church and state work in tandem. Oppressive and misogynistic, the institutions – which operated nationwide, some not closing until as recently as 1998 – represent a dark chapter in the history of the once overwhelmingly Catholic and socially conservative Ireland. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Singapore What's in a name? Local author traces the evolution of Singaporean Chinese names Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Sport Jannik Sinner dethrones Carlos Alcaraz to capture maiden Wimbledon crown A six-year inquiry sparked by the initial discoveries in Tuam found that 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such homes over a 76-year period. It also concluded that 9,000 children had died in the various state and Catholic Church-run homes nationwide. Records unearthed show as many as 796 babies and young children died at the Tuam home over the decades that it operated. Its grounds have been left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972 and housing was built there. A fierce battle Ms Anna Corrigan, whose two siblings may have been buried at the Tuam site, spoke reporters earlier in July . She said: 'These children were denied every human right in their lifetime, as were their mothers. 'And they were denied dignity and respect in death.' Ireland's Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (Odait) will undertake the excavation, alongside experts from Colombia, Spain, Britain, Canada and the United States. It will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible, and re-interment of the remains found, said Odait d irector Daniel MacSweeney at a press briefing in Tuam. In 2014, local historian Catherine Corless produced evidence that the 796 children – from newborns to a nine-year-old – had died at the home. State-issued death certificates she compiled show that various ailments, from tuberculosis and convulsions to measles and whooping cough, were listed as the cause of death. Ms Corless's research indicated the corpses were likely placed in the disused septic tank discovered in 1975, while prompting the state-backed enquiries that have uncovered the full scandal of the homes. The Odait team was finally appointed in 2023 to lead the Tuam site excavation. DNA samples have already been collected from about 30 relatives, and this process will be expanded in the coming months to gather as much genetic evidence as possible, said Mr MacSweeney. A 2.4m high hoarding has been installed around the perimeter of the excavation area, which is also subject to 24-hour security monitoring to ensure its forensic integrity. In May, Ms Corless, 71, said: 'It's been a fierce battle. When I started this, nobody wanted to listen. At last, we are righting the wrongs. I was just begging: 'Take the babies out of this sewage system and give them the decent Christian burial that they were denied.''
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Iran says it's considering US offer to restart nuclear talks
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also said that Iran needs guarantees it won't be attacked again if the talks don't succeed. Iran's foreign minister said the US is trying to revive nuclear talks with Tehran while stressing that his country is in no hurry to resume negotiations. 'The Americans insist on returning to the negotiating table,' Mr Abbas Araghchi said in televised remarks on July 12, adding that Iran has received 'multiple messages.' Tehran is weighing its options regarding the timing, location, and structure of potential talks, but is 'in no rush to enter into reckless negotiations.' Mr Araghchi served as lead negotiator in Oman-mediated talks with the US, which collapsed after Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran's nuclear sites on June 13 . The strikes killed several top military and nuclear officials, and hit densely populated urban areas as well as Tehran's Evin Prison. His remarks follow US President Donald Trump's July 7 dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where he said he was open to lifting sanctions on Iran. Mr Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who led the US delegation in the earlier talks, said a meeting with Iran was expected within the week. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Singapore What's in a name? Local author traces the evolution of Singaporean Chinese names Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Sport Jannik Sinner dethrones Carlos Alcaraz to capture maiden Wimbledon crown Mr Araghchi also said that Iran needs guarantees it won't be attacked again if the talks don't succeed. 'Some assurances have been expressed that there will be no war again, and we are reviewing these,' he said without elaborating. 'If an opportunity arises to secure the interests of the Iranian people, we won't miss it. The doors of diplomacy are never closed.' The US joined the Israeli assault on June 22, striking three Iranian nuclear facilities. Mr Trump claimed to have 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear infrastructure, while Iranian officials said the sites were 'badly damaged' but not destroyed. In response, Iran fired missiles at a Qatari air base used by US troops. A ceasefire between Iran and Israel took effect later in June and has held so far, despite both sides accusing each other of violations. Mr Araghchi also reiterated that Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency 'has not stopped,' though he added that monitoring requests will now be reviewed 'on a case-by-case basis' and handled exclusively through Iran's Supreme National Security Council. BLOOMBERG
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Italians panic as price of espresso spikes
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A server pours a caffe shakerato, an espresso-based drink, at Cicinin in Turin, Italy, on June 25. The high price of beans has put coffee bars in a bind in Italy, where the drink is a ritual and customers demand cheap espresso. TURIN, Italy – Mr Andrea Consilvio did something in early 2025 that he called 'a little crazy'. He bought an old and well-known coffee bar in the north-western Italian city of Turin, his home town. Brewing coffee for Italians, the people who invented espresso and the commercial machines and stovetop pots to make it, might hardly seem like a leap of faith. Nearly three-quarters of Italians drink coffee – by which they almost always mean espresso – at least once a day. Most Italians consider their daily coffee ritual to be sacrosanct. Yet they also expect their coffee to be cheap, available for little more than pocket change at any bar counter. And that, amid a global jump in coffee bean prices caused in part by trade disruptions and climate change, has set off simmering anxiety among Italians. They worry that higher costs could push up retail prices and unsettle a part of the food and beverage economy that feels distinctively Italian. Among the most worried: owners of the country's ubiquitous coffee bars. 'The world of coffee is changing,' Mr Consilvio said. 'If prices continue to increase, it could become a serious danger' to both livelihoods and tradition. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Business Singapore's economy continues to expand in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Singapore What's in a name? Local author traces the evolution of Singaporean Chinese names Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Sport Jannik Sinner dethrones Carlos Alcaraz to capture maiden Wimbledon crown Mr Andrea Consilvio (left) with his business partner Gian Luca Gatto outside their coffee bar in Turin, Italy. PHOTO: FABIO BUCCIARELLI/NYTIMES Mr Luigi Morello, president of the Italian Espresso National Institute, which safeguards the quality of Italian espresso (it should be hazel brown to dark brown, with foam, among other things), said higher coffee prices had 'rightfully alarmed' consumers. 'The whole supply chain is in a crisis,' he said. Italy once designated espresso a necessity by law. Just before World War I, the Italian government allowed municipalities to set price controls for basic needs. That included bread, but also coffee served at the bar counter. Such price controls 'protected neighbourhood bars for a long time', said Dr Jonathan Morris, a coffee historian at the University of Hertfordshire in England. 'That's why no one really ever set up coffee chains in Italy.' (Starbucks actually did, but did not open its first Italian outpost until 2018, 47 years after the company's founding.) Even after the controls were lifted, prices remained low, with few bar owners willing to test whether higher prices would push customers towards the nearest competitor, usually no more than a block or two away. 'There is a kind of communism,' Mr Morello said, 'when actually one should pay for the quality one receives.' The make-up of the traditional Italian espresso, a brew of darkly roasted arabica and robusta beans, helped keep prices low, Dr Morris said. As arabica bean prices rose, some Italian producers increased the proportion of cheaper robusta beans in the coffee blends, but that formula was no longer as effective when robusta prices also surged, he added. A coffee menu in Turin, Italy. PHOTO: FABIO BUCCIARELLI/NYTIMES An espresso in Italy averaged €1.16 (S$1.74) as of the latest analysis in 2025 by Assoutenti, a non-profit consumer rights organisation, with the lowest average prices found in southern Italy. The national average in January was up about 11.5 per cent from two years earlier, the analysis found, though Italy still sells some of the cheapest espressos in Western Europe. Coffee bean prices have come down somewhat from their peak earlier in 2025. But they remain higher than before the surge, and experts fear extreme weather will continue to shrink global supply and keep prices high. US tariffs on coffee-producing countries, like Brazil, could drive prices up further. The traditional Italian coffee bar relies on coffee sales for about 30 per cent of its revenue, said Mr Luciano Sbraga, deputy director for the Federation of Italian Public Establishments, a trade association for the food and hospitality sector. Some owners have found it is more profitable to also sell food, for breakfast, lunch or an aperitivo dinner known as 'apericena', rather than just coffee. 'Many bars are becoming more similar to restaurants,' he said. That was the choice Mr Consilvio made when he bought and renovated his bar, in a stately plaza in central Turin. The previous owner had sold espressos for less than a euro apiece, a price that Mr Consilvio said simply 'can't work'. He sells espressos at his bar, Cicinin, for €2 for table service and €1.30 at the counter because nearby bars charge €1.30. (He had wanted to charge €1.50.) Mr Consilvio, who says he drinks seven to eight espressos a day, lamented that espresso machines had become standard in offices and businesses. 'Hairdressers have them,' he scoffed, so fewer people go to bars. When they do, they demand 'the perfect coffee, not too bitter', he grumbled. In a sign of how much the industry has changed, a capsule coffee machine by Lavazza, the giant Italian coffee producer, has now taken its place at the company's museum in Turin, alongside machines that helped create modern espresso. A server at Caffe Torino in Turin, Italy, in June. PHOTO: FABIO BUCCIARELLI/NYTIMES Executives from Lavazza and Illy, the Italian coffee producer based in Trieste, have warned for more than a year that higher coffee bean prices are most likely here to stay, presenting challenges to everyone from farmers outside Italy to large companies to mom-and-pop coffee shops to consumers. At Gran Caffe Gambrinus, a cafe in Naples opened in 1860, an espresso at the counter now costs €1.80, up from €1.50, said one of the owners, Mr Massimiliano Rosati. The increase makes no difference for a tourist who comes to Naples, he added. That is often not the case for traditional family-run coffee bars, which tend to compete on price. At Giolitti near the Italian Parliament in Rome, Ms Giovanna Giolitti said she and her brothers recently raised the price of an espresso at the counter to €1.30, from €1.20. Coffee bean prices justified an even bigger hike, she said, but that would have hurt locals. 'Coffee is something that everyone drinks every day,' said Ms Giolitti, who is among the fourth generation of Giolittis to run the bar. Breakfast customers at Caffe Baratti & Milano, in Turin, Italy. PHOTO: FABIO BUCCIARELLI/NYTIMES In Sant'Eustachio il Caffe near the Pantheon, on a sunny spring Saturday, every outdoor table was full and a line of customers snaked out the door. At one table, two friends, Mr Filippo Facchinetti and Mr Gabriele Bonfanti, shook their heads when their two espressos came up to €9. Mr Bonfanti, who lives in Rome, said he had started making more coffee at home, in part because of pricing, but also because some bars use too bitter and dark a roast for his liking. Mr Facchinetti, who lives in Genoa, called two espressos a day his 'bare minimum', though that day he had already had four, and some days he has six. Even recent mark-ups, he said, will not chase away a nation with a serious coffee craving. 'It's too important,' he said, adding that the Italian espresso ritual 'won't ever change'. NYTIMES
