AUSTRALIA
Satellite program changed
A defense satellite program was scrapped because of the threat of new technology that can “shoot satellites out of the sky,” and Canberra instead wants to use a mesh of micro satellites for defense communications, Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. The Department of Defence on Monday said it canceled a multibillion-dollar Geostationary Earth Orbit satellite project with Lockheed Martin that was to deliver the nation’s first sovereign-controlled satellite communication system over the Indo-Pacific ocean regions. Marles yesterday said the government had abandoned the plan because the system designed eight years ago was out of date. Marles cited the use of Starlink above Ukraine and said Australia needs to develop defense communications that are distributed, more resilient and cost effective.
THAILAND
Baby hippo picks Trump
As Americans go to vote, Thai superstar baby hippo Moo Deng has predicted former US president Donald Trump would regain the White House. The chubby chomper took the Internet by storm with her adorable antics at Khao Kheow Open Zoo, quickly becoming a staple of social media memes and inspiring a raft of merchandise. Now Moo Deng, whose name means “bouncy pork,” has predicted a comeback victory for the Republican over Democrat Kamala Harris. Offered two dishes of carved fruit, each emblazoned with one of the candidates’ names, the four-month-old pigmy hippo chose Trump, in video posted online by the zoo. Moo Deng has proved a particular hit in the US, where comedian Bowen Yang portrayed her in a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch.
IRAN
Jailed French couple ‘well’
French nationals Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, jailed since 2022, are “in good health,” local authorities said, denying recent claims of deteriorating conditions. “The two are ... in good health, so any claim regarding their poor condition is denied,” judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters in Tehran, citing a report from the authorities. The couple have been jailed since May 2022 on charges of espionage. In October 2022, Iranian state television broadcast what it said were “espionage confessions” by the two French detainees. The French government condemned the airing of the alleged confessions as “shameful, revolting and unacceptable,” and described the pair as “state hostages.” Last month, dozens of people held a demonstration in Paris to denounce what Kohler’s sister, Noemi, described as the “alarming” physical and psychological condition of the pair.
SOUTH KOREA
Meta fined over user data
The Personal Information Protection Commission yesterday ordered Facebook owner Meta Platforms to pay 21.62 billion won (US$15.7 million) in fines after finding it had collected sensitive user data and given it to advertisers without a legal basis. The US tech giant obtained information from about 980,000 South Korean Facebook users on issues such as their religion, political views and sexuality while failing to seek agreement from users, the commission said in a statement. The information was then used by about 4,000 advertisers, it said. A Meta Korea official declined to comment. Meta had also unfairly declined a request by users to access personal information and failed to prevent data on about 10 South Koreans from being leaked by hackers, the agency said.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
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