WASHINGTON (AP) – With just two days to spare, United States (US) President Joe Biden signed legislation on Saturday that lifts the nation’s debt ceiling, averting an unprecedented default on the federal government’s debt.

Instead of holding a public ceremony with lawmakers from both parties – showcasing the bipartisanship that Biden had cited in an Oval Office address on Friday – the president signed the legislation in private in a reflection of the tight deadline facing the nation’s leaders.

The Treasury Department warned that the country would start running short of cash today, which would have sent shockwaves through the US and global economies.

The White House released a picture of the president signing the legislation. In a brief statement, Biden thanked Democratic and Republican congressional leaders for their partnership.

“No matter how tough our politics gets, we need to see each not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans,” Biden said in a video message released after the signing.

He said it was important to “stop shouting, lower the temperature, and work together to pursue progress, secure prosperity and keep the promise of America for everybody”.

The standoff began when Republicans refused to raise the country’s borrowing limit unless Democrats agreed to cut spending. Eventually, the White House began weeks of intense negotiations with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, to reach a deal.

The final agreement, passed by the House last Wednesday and the Senate last Thursday, suspends the debt limit until 2025 – after the next presidential election – and restricts government spending.

It gives lawmakers budget targets for the next two years in hopes of assuring fiscal stability as the political season heats up.

Raising the nation’s debt limit, now at USD31.4 trillion, will ensure that the government can borrow to pay debts already incurred.

After Congress passed the legislation, Biden used the occasion to deliver his first speech from the Oval Office as president on Friday.

“No one got everything they wanted but the American people got what they needed,” he said, highlighting the “compromise and consensus” in the deal.

“We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse.”

Biden touted the achievements of his first term as he runs for reelection, including support for high-tech manufacturing, infrastructure investments and financial incentives for fighting climate change. He also highlighted ways he blunted Republican efforts to roll back his agenda and achieve deeper cuts.

Biden’s remarks were the most detailed comments from the Democratic president on the compromise he and his staff negotiated. He largely remained quiet publicly during the high-stakes talks.

In addition to restrictions on spending, the 99-page bill changes some policies, including imposing new work requirements for older Americans receiving food aid and greenlighting an Appalachian natural gas pipeline that many Democrats oppose.

Some environmental rules were modified to help streamline approvals for infrastructure and energy projects – a move long sought by moderates in Congress.

In both chambers, more Democrats backed the legislation than Republicans, but both parties were critical to its passage.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States (US) said on Friday it had requested dispute settlement consultations with Mexico, the next formal step in a row over the latter’s plans to phase out genetically engineered agricultural products.

The consultations, under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), come after Mexico announced plans to phase out the use of genetically engineered corn in animal feed and products for human consumption, among other measures, drawing ire from Washington.

“The US has repeatedly conveyed its concerns that Mexico’s biotechnology policies are not based on science and threaten to disrupt US exports to Mexico to the detriment of agricultural producers,” said US Trade Representative Katherine Tai in a statement.

“We will continue to work with the Mexican government through these consultations to resolve our concerns,” she added.

Mexico is the world’s second-largest buyer of yellow corn and imports a significant amount from the US, where most corn is genetically modified.

In February, the Mexican government softened its stance on the issue, saying exceptions could be granted for corn for animal feed and industrial food production while suitable substitutes are found, but held steady on banning genetically modified organism (GMO) corn for human consumption.

“We fundamentally disagree with the position Mexico has taken on the issue of biotechnology, which has been proven to be safe for decades,” said US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

In a statement late Friday, Mexico’s economy ministry said it had received the US request, and that it and other agencies would “demonstrate with hard data and evidence” that its policy does not have a material impact on US interests.

It said Mexico produces twice as much white corn as it uses for the production of tortillas, a staple food, so the “exclusive use of native corn for dough and tortillas is of no commercial concern or interest to the US”.

The US exported USD28 billion in agricultural goods to Mexico in 2022, while Mexico exported $43 billion of such goods to the US.

The US move on Friday follows an earlier request for technical consultations in March.

That process took place but failed to resolve the matter, a senior US official told reporters.

Looking ahead, the USMCA provides that a consulting party may ask for a dispute settlement panel to be set up if parties fail to resolve the matter within 75 days of the consultation request, officials added.

“In the consultations that are about to begin, Mexico reaffirms its commitment to promote a constructive dialogue to clarify US concerns and reach a mutually satisfactory agreement,” the Mexican statement said.

“The strong commercial ties between the two countries require us to act responsibly and with an open mind,” it concluded.

CAIRO (AP) – A tanker transporting curd oil broke down in a single-lane part of Egypt’s Suez Canal yesterday, disrupting traffic in the global waterway, Egyptian authorities said.

The Malta-flagged Seavigour suffered a mechanical malfunction at the 12-kilometre mark of the canal, said George Safwat, a spokesperson for Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority. The tanker was part of the north convoy, which transits the canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, he said.

In a phone interview with a local television station, Admiral Ossama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority, said the tanker broke down in a single-lane part of the waterway, disrupting the transit of eight other vessels behind it.

He said three tugboats were towing it to a double-lane part at the 17-kilometre mark of the canal.

The Seavigour was built in 2016, and is 274 metres (m) long and 48.63m wide, according to MarineTraffic, a vessel tracking service provider.

Yesterday’s incident was the latest case of a vessel reported stuck in the vital waterway. A flurry of ships ran aground or broke down in the Suez Canal over the past few years.

On May 25, a Hong Kong-flagged ship (AP, pic above) briefly blocked the canal.

On March 5, a Liberia-flagged ship ran aground in the two-lane part of the waterway. Both vessels were refloated hours later.

In March 2021, the Panama-flagged Ever Given, a colossal container ship, crashed into a bank on a single-lane stretch of the canal, blocking the waterway for six days and disrupting global trade.

The canal, which opened in 1869, provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo. About 10 per cent of world trade flows through the canal, a major source of foreign currency for the Egyptian government.

According to the Suez Canal Authority, last year, 23,851 vessels passed through the waterway, compared to 20,649 vessels in 2021. The revenue from the canal in 2022 reached USD8 billion, the highest in its history.

PARIS (AP) – Global negotiators have agreed to craft a draft treaty to end plastic pollution, a preliminary but crucial step toward tackling one of the most lasting sources of human waste.

Environmental advocates cautiously welcomed the outcome of five days of United Nations (UN) talks in Paris on plastic pollution, but expressed concern that the petroleum industry and some governments would water down the eventual treaty. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels.

Delegates at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for Plastics agreed on Friday evening to produce an initial draft before their next meeting in Kenya in November, participants said. The committee is charged with developing the first international, legally binding treaty on plastic pollution, on land and at sea.

A coalition of “high-ambition” governments led by Norway and Rwanda, along with environmental groups, want to end plastic pollution by 2040 by slashing production and limiting some chemicals used in making plastics.

“Projections suggest that a child born today will see plastic production double by the time they turn 18, but we know that the consequences of increasing plastic production will be disastrous for our health, the planet, and the climate,” said Dr Tadesse Amera, who led the International Pollutants Elimination Network’s delegation at the talks. “The stakes are high, but we are optimistic by the growing awareness of the need for global controls.”

Countries with big petroleum industries like the United States, China and Saudi Arabia are focussing on plastic recycling, and want country-by-country rules instead of across-the-board limits.

Senior director for global plastics policy at the American Chemistry Council Stew Harris argued for allowing each government to “use the right tools based on their unique circumstances”.

In a statement to The Associated Press as the talks wrapped up, he said that reusing plastics was “at the forefront of the negotiations as a means to tackle pollution and be more sustainable in producing and consuming plastics. We agree that’s the best path”.

Humanity produces more than 430 million tonnes of plastic annually, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that soon become waste, filling the ocean and, often, working their way into the human food chain, the UN Environment Programme said in an April report. Plastic waste produced globally is set to almost triple by 2060, with about half ending up in landfill and under a fifth recycled, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Over 2,000 participants from nearly 200 countries, including governments and observers, took part in this week’s talks.

CNA – Whenever older passengers remark that they see fewer taxi drivers these days, Delon Tuan responds with “a very realistic comment” that he believes some of them “might not stomach well”.

“I just say: ‘But nobody aspires for their children to be taxi drivers.’ Then some of them will keep quiet,” the taxi driver with ComfortDelGro told CNA.

“(Taxi driving is) one of those things that… you never realise how important it is in the cog of how society works and how things move along. People might make comments like, why would you aspire to be a taxi driver?

“But my question is, if there are no taxis around Singapore, do you think you can get things done?”

Any stigma around being a taxi driver doesn’t faze Tuan, who considers himself “very open to trying new things”. But he was quick to add that he isn’t a “nine-to-five kind of person”.

Wanting to “try something different”, he stumbled into the taxi industry almost a year ago following a career as a professional chef, which took him from the kitchens of restaurants in Marina Bay Sands to a two-star Michelin restaurant in Finland.

The 38-year-old is not the only millennial who gamely joined a sunset industry – or who has passengers point out his youth.

BUCKING AGE, GENDER STEREOTYPES

While some may argue the taxi industry began its decline with the entrance of ride-hailing platforms Uber and Grab a decade ago, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an obvious industry-wide shortage of drivers.

But the dearth of drivers was steeper among cabbies, with about 9,000 fewer active drivers compared to pre-pandemic.

Many drivers who left the industry were those driving night or weekend shifts, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor in Parliament in March.

The taxi industry has also not been traditionally known to attract the younger generation. In 2019, then Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in a written parliamentary reply that 7.6 per cent of taxi driver’s vocational licence (TDVL) holders were aged 30 to 39 as of February that year.

In comparison, 33.4 per cent of TDVL holders were aged 60 to 74.

On the other hand, 44.4 per cent of private hire car driver’s vocational licence (PDVL) holders were aged 30 to 39, while only 8.5 per cent were aged 60 to 79.

Samantha Noh is used to getting stares when she visits the workshop. Passengers are also surprised when they notice the petite 38-year-old behind the wheel of their ride, as a young female taxi driver is “not a common sight”.

“They will say, ‘Oh miss, you’re young, why do you start driving taxi?’ These are the questions I get which means they are taking notice and it’s making some change somewhere, a step at a time. It’s a very good sign for me,” said the taxi driver who’s been with ComfortDelGro for just over half a year. The stereotype is that a taxi driver is “definitely an uncle”, but Noh has started to notice more drivers around her age “trying to prove that we can make a change” in the male-dominated industry.

“The industry needs to start getting younger and livelier. We need to let people know that, yes, this is an honest living.”

Like Tuan, the mother-of-two wanted “something else to challenge” herself after six years as an interior designer.

Her family thought she would become a private-hire driver as “everybody thought it was more of a younger generation thing”, but her cousin who was just a year older and also getting his taxi licence then convinced her to give the industry a shot.

The skills Noh picked up as an interior designer, from the long hours spent managing projects to dealing with all sorts of clients, ended up coming in handy as a taxi driver.

“You see a lot of tougher customers back then during renovation, tough contractors too.

Nothing can be as tough as what you’ve done before. Things will always seem to be better because you’ve already done what you think is worse,” she added.

“That helps to balance out (the challenges), if things are not smooth that day.”

IMPATIENT MOTORISTS, DIFFICULTY FINDING LOCATIONS

What does a day that’s “not smooth” entail? Tuan told CNA he did not expect to be on the receiving end of verbal abuse from some passengers.

“An example would be if a customer makes a wrong booking and just vents it out on me. I didn’t do anything wrong, like what can I do right? I just didn’t expect that kind of treatment,” he recalled.

The behaviour of other motorists also leaves much to be desired, noted another taxi driver.

A driver with Strides, Lawrence Li joined the industry around August last year after being solely a private-hire driver for eight years.

The 37-year-old faced “discrimination” from motorists on the road, which he hadn’t experienced as a private-hire driver.

“During my first few months of driving, I received a lot of honks. Even though it might be a trivial matter, they (honk at) you over nothing and they won’t give way to you,” he said, adding that older taxi drivers told him such behaviour has been around for “a long time”.

“But Singaporean drivers are just impatient in general. You can’t blame them… You just have to swallow it. You can’t do anything much.”

Then there is the juggling act of having to be an encyclopaedia, street directory and tour guide at once, two drivers shared.

“I think the disadvantage (of being young) is more about the landmarks. When I pick up passengers and they use certain phrases, or even with tourists who came to Singapore before and now they’re returning, they say they’d like to go to this place, that place. And I’m like, where’s that?” said Tuan.

“Or maybe the older generation will (talk to you about) a location… that is a place of the past. People have an attachment to it. But to me, I never experienced it (that way) so I don’t know where it is.”

Even with existing buildings, it can be challenging to keep up with hotel names or where a taxi stand and drop-off point is at a new location, added Noh who “did not expect” so much knowledge and skills involved in driving a taxi.

She had assumed driving a taxi “should be quite easy”, simply ferrying a passenger from point A to B.

“For new locations, where are the drop-offs? When we drive (a) private-hire (car), we find car parks, but when we drive taxis, we have to find taxi stands to drop off… There are thousands of taxi stands and drop-off points we need to learn.”

With tourists, Noh also hopes to welcome them to Singapore with tips on where they can go for good food and fun. But some end up asking for specific information, such as the opening hours of an attraction.

“You don’t expect them to ask, but when they ask, you’re like, okay, maybe give me a second,” she said laughing.

INTERACTING WITH PASSENGERS, TAXI COMMUNITY

Despite the challenges, the satisfaction of engaging in a meaningful encounters drives them.

Tuan, who also runs a business in Hong Kong, considers himself outgoing and enjoys interacting with passengers.

He has even become a “regular driver” for some of his passengers-turned-friends. Similarly, Noh hopes her positivity rubs off on every passenger who hops in her taxi.

“When I see somebody not having a good day, I say hi, ask how their day is. Sometimes when they just talk about their job, they will release their energy and stress. It’s like a short therapy session,” she said.

“If they don’t want to talk, drivers can sense it, but even a good greeting for the day makes a difference.”

Occasionally, when she returns home after a long day, she even gets to tell her eight-year-old daughter a bedtime story about a passenger she met that day.

She once told her daughter about a “very brave” wheelchair user she assisted. After an entire year of not leaving the house, the passenger plucked up her courage to visit a mall by herself that day. The incident left a mark on Noh, who remembered it as a “very happy day”.

Another time, she told her daughter about a “very interesting” couple from China who flew to Singapore just to give a letter to the Prime Minister.

She sought the advice of other taxi drivers before taking the grateful couple to the Treasury to deliver their letter.

Noh has found this community of taxi drivers to be a crucial support system that extends beyond helping with directions and locations.

“Everybody thinks taxi driving is just driving alone in the car, which is a very lonely job, if you think that way. Having a group of drivers who are the same is like having colleagues in the office. That support group works very well, and it improves your mental health as well,” she said.

REAPING THE REWARDS

But getting the most out of the job, whether it’s pay or purpose, ultimately boils down to the individual’s mindset, Tuan believes.

“Obviously (the job) gives you the flexibility to, say, go to the gym and manage your wellness. So there has to be a lot of discipline because it’s your income. If you don’t drive, you don’t earn. It’s about managing yourself,” he said.

“If you put in the effort, you will get the reward. Maybe not as much some days, but it will still be more or less substantial depending on how you drive.”

There are also “strategies” to navigate the streets more effectively to increase earnings, he explained, such as waiting at the Indoor Stadium if a concert is going on. Taxi drivers can also wait at taxi stands when they’re not out and about.

With his daily earnings largely depending on where he drives, Tuan has also grown more aware of what’s happening in Singapore.

“In the past, you might not have understood why the weather is important, or how certain things like F1 or airport closure affect you. But now, what happens on this island is very important.

“You suddenly have a whole grasp of the general situation (in the country), like work-from-home,” he explained.

Before, he liked the idea of work-from-home. But as a taxi driver, he realised that meant fewer passengers to pick up.

Asked whether he sees taxi driving as a long-term plan, Tuan simply highlighted the stability of the job.

“This is not a gig economy (job). This is a career… And the Public Transport Council actually protects taxi drivers. It’s not like today the taxi fare is SGD3, tomorrow it’s going to be SGD6. It’s a stable job. I think that’s the most important thing.”

In the short term at least, he has made it a personal mission to memorise every corner of Ang Mo Kio, where he lives, without using any maps.