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 Marles yesterday said the government had abandoned the plan because the system designed eight years ago was out of date.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.
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters
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