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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/europe/40020361

‘It is nonsense’ Ukrainians rebuff Russia’s referendums on occupied territories

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Ukrainians rebuffed on Friday Russia’s plans to hold referendums on occupied territories of Ukraine. The referendum came just two days after Russia announced the mobilization of 300,000 reservists.

“This referendum will not give Muscovy no upper hand. All of it (referendum) is a nonsense, bluff, and political manipulation to frighten us and the Western countries with their nuclear stuff,” said Oleksandr Yaroshenko, a 65-year-old local resident.

Eugenia Gapchinska, an artist, said that she is not afraid of Putin possibly executing a nuclear strike as an answer for attacking the territories he considers Russian.

“I don’t care what Putin does. We have been ready for a long time either we will die or live in a free country,” She told Reuters.

Russian-installed leaders in occupied areas of four Ukrainian regions set out plans for referendums on joining Russia this week.

Russian officials portrayed the move as one that would give Moscow a claim to territory that it could defend with any means possible.

Ukraine dismissed it as a stunt by Russia to try to reclaim the initiative after crushing losses on the battlefield.

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/asia-pacific/40020354

Water found in samples brought from asteroid Ryugu

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Water has been found in samples from the asteroid Ryugu brought to Earth by Japan’s Hayabusa2 explorer, according to a study published in the US journal Science.

It is the first-ever discovery of water that takes a liquid form at room temperature from any sample collected outside Earth, according to the study by a team of researchers mainly from Tohoku University and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The outcome is expected to lead to a better understanding of the origin of the ocean on Earth.

Tohoku University professor Tomoki Nakamura and his teammates analyzed 17 grains of Ryugu sand using systems including the SPring-8 large synchrotron radiation facility in Sayo, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan.

The team examined the sand grains, 1 to 8 millimetres in size, in detail, looking into their internal structures, mineral composition, hardness and other properties.

As a result, water was found trapped inside tiny holes on iron sulfide crystals inside the sand grains.

It was carbonated water containing carbon dioxide as well as salts and organic matter. The water is believed to have been trapped inside when the crystals formed inside Ryugu’s parent body.

Simulations based on the analysis result have found that the parent body formed on the outer rim of the solar system about 2 million years after the birth of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

The parent body was about 100 kilometres in diameter, and the volume of water on it was equal to that of rock. It moved into an orbit closer to Earth and collided with another astronomical body, creating pieces that later gathered to form Ryugu, whose diameter is about 900 meters.

In this process, water mostly evaporated into space, so there is very little left in the present-day Ryugu.

“What we found is the same water that existed abundantly on the parent body. Such astronomical bodies supply water to Earth if they collide with it,” Nakamura said.

“The water contains organic matters and salt, so we found evidence directly linked to the origins of the ocean and organic matters on Earth,” Nakamura said.

The Japan News

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/asia-pacific/40020349

Sex crime chat room still near us, this time using deepfakes

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Digital chat rooms that share or sell deepfake pornography content remain prevalent despite a new provision to punish related crimes implemented two years ago in South Korea.

Deepfake content refers to digitally manipulated videos and images that are hard to distinguish from genuine content. Most pornographic deepfake content grafts a person’s face — usually an acquaintance or celebrity — onto sexually explicit videos.

According to ReSET, a digital sex crime victim support group, one of the Telegram chat rooms they are monitoring had 2,193 users waiting to enter the upper-grade room as of Sept. 16, the group said on Thursday.

Like “Nth Room” case, in which a cartel distributed sexually exploitative content through Telegram, this cartel is also using several chat rooms divided into stages to avoid investigation.

According to a report that South Korean Rep. Her Euna from People Power Party received from the Korean National Police Agency, a total of 264 cases of distributing deepfake content were reported from 2021 to August this year, but suspects were arrested in only 121 of them.

Recently, Park Ji-hyun, former co-chair of the emergency steering committee for the Democratic Party of Korea who contributed to the initial investigation of the “Nth Room” and the “Baksa Room” cases, stressed the seriousness of the deepfake crime by revealing that there is a Telegram chat room targeting her, producing and distributing content with her face and information.

The main reason that hinders investigation is the use of social media operated by overseas corporations and servers, on which the majority of digital crime takes place, an activist at ReSET pointed out. This has fueled calls for Korea to join the Convention on Cybercrime, also known as the Budapest Convention.

The convention, created in 2001 under the lead of the Council of Europe, aims for efficient judicial cooperation among member countries on cybercrimes. Currently, 67 countries are participating. The police decided to review joining the Budapest Convention by the first half of next year.

The Korea Herald

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/americas/40020345

Brazil’s indigenous women run for Congress to fight Bolsonaro policies

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

A record number of indigenous leaders, most of them women, are running for federal office in Brazil’s election next month, in a backlash against the policies of President Jair Bolsonaro.

As the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, invasions of indigenous lands and violence against their peoples have surged under Bolsonaro, several of these candidates say they are joining the political fray with a sense of urgency.

For Sonia Guajajara the election is crucial. Guajajara is the head of Brazil’s main indigenous umbrella organization, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), and is running for Congress. “Today, it is the women who are taking up the fight and leading the struggle of indigenous people in Brazil.”

Brazil’s electoral authorities have registered 60 indigenous candidates for the two houses of Congress this year, including 31 women – the most on record.

Many say their main objective is to unwind the policies of Bolsonaro, who has stopped demarcating indigenous territory and pushed for mining and industrial farming on existing reservations, emboldening violent land grabs and illegal miners.

Bolsonaro says indigenous people should take up the customs and economic activities of their fellow Brazilians and has decried the protection of native reservations as a barrier to progress.

His office and federal indigenous agency FUNAI did not respond to requests for comment.

By contrast, Bolsonaro’s leftist rival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has vowed fresh funding to curb deforestation and protect indigenous rights, proposing a new ministry attending to Brazil’s 1 million indigenous people.

“We want a ministry with an indigenous minister,” Guajajara told Reuters.

Indigenous leaders are also pushing to block legislation backed by Bolsonaro and the powerful farm caucus to rule out new reservations on land that was not occupied by native people in 1988 when Brazil’s constitution was ratified. Indigenous people say that policy is illegal because their land rights are guaranteed by the constitution even if they had been evicted.

“My worst fear is that Bolsonaro will be reelected and my greatest hope is Lula will occupy power,” said Tereza Arapium, running for a seat in the Rio de Janeiro state legislature.

Deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon has risen to a 15-year high under Bolsonaro, threatening the habitat of many of Brazil’s roughly 300 tribes, considered by environmentalists to be essential in protecting the rainforest.

“Our relationship with the land, has saved the environment, the savannah, the Amazon, the Atlantic Forest, the Pampas and the Caatinga region,” said Celia Xakriaba, who is running for Congress from the state of Minas Gerais.

Another priority cited by indigenous candidates is reforming institutions meant to protect their peoples and territories, along with the biodiversity of the rainforest.

They say FUNAI will have to be restored after Bolsonaro gutted the agency by reducing staff and replacing anthropologists with police and former military officers.

Brazil’s first indigenous congressman, the Xavante tribesman Mario Juruna, was elected in 1982. He carried a tape recorder because he said he did not trust the word of non-indigenous Brazilians. Four decades passed before the election of another indigenous representative in Congress – a woman, Joenia Wapichana, from the state of Roraima.

In recent years, women have been increasingly common in tribal leadership roles, with more female chieftains taking up the fight to defend their rights.

” I strongly believe in this power, in the strength of these women, in the ability of these women today to be in Congress making this journey and raising these voices in favour of this collective,” said Vanda Witoto, running for Congress from Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon.

They face a steep challenge in a lower house where farm interests and a large evangelical caucus hold sway, frequently attacking indigenous rights, she said.

Witoto said they have a gigantic task ahead to try to stop bills that ‘open up their territories to mining and agribusiness.

Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/us-canada/40020343

Boeing to pay $200 million to settle civil charges it misled investors about 737 MAX

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Boeing Co will pay $200 million to settle civil charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it misled investors about its 737 MAX, which was grounded for 20 months after two fatal crashes killed 346 people, the agency said Thursday.

The SEC also said former Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg had agreed to pay $1 million.

“In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public companies and executives provide full, fair, and truthful disclosures to the markets,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. He added that Boeing and Muilenburg “failed in this most basic obligation.”

The SEC said Boeing and Muilenburg did not admit or deny the SEC’s findings. The regulatory agency said a fund will be established for the benefit of harmed investors.

The SEC charged Boeing and Muilenburg “with making materially misleading public statements following crashes of Boeing airplanes in 2018 and 2019.”

Boeing confirmed the settlement and noted it did not admit or deny wrongdoing. It said it had made “fundamental changes that have strengthened our safety processes” and said the “settlement is part of the company’s broader effort to responsibly resolve outstanding legal matters related to the 737 MAX accidents.”

The crashes were linked to a flight control system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). The SEC said “after the first crash, Boeing and Muilenburg knew that MCAS posed an ongoing airplane safety issue, but nevertheless assured the public that the 737 MAX airplane was ‘as safe as any that has ever flown the skies.'”

After the second crash, the SEC said, “Boeing and Muilenburg assured the public that there were no slips or gaps in the certification process with respect to MCAS, despite being aware of contrary information.”

In January 2021, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in fines and compensation to resolve a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation into the 737 MAX crashes.

The Justice Department settlement, which allowed Boeing to avoid prosecution, included a fine of $243.6 million, compensation to airlines of $1.77 billion and a $500 million crash-victim fund over fraud conspiracy charges related to the plane’s flawed design.

In December 2019, Boeing fired Muilenburg after the company clashed with regulators over the timing of the 737 MAX’s return to service.

“Boeing and Muilenburg put profits over people by misleading investors about the safety of the 737 MAX all in an effort to rehabilitate Boeing’s image following two tragic accidents that resulted in the loss of 346 lives and incalculable grief to so many families,” said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division.

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/asia-pacific/40020342

Australia’s Optus says up to 10 million customers caught in cyber attack

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Australia’s second largest telco, Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, said on Friday that it will contact as many as 9.8 million customers whose personal details were taken in one of the country’s biggest cybersecurity breaches.

Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said she was angry and sorry that an offshore-based entity had broken into the company’s database of customer information, accessing home addresses, driver’s licence and passport numbers. Up to 40% of Australia’s population may have been affected by the breach, but “that is the absolute worst-case scenario (and) we have reason to believe that the number is actually smaller than that”, Bayer Rosmarin said.

As a major telco, Optus considered itself a target for cyber attackers and routinely repelled attempts to breach its systems but “this particular one is not similar to anything we’ve seen before, and unfortunately it was successful,” she said.

Police and cybersecurity authorities were still investigating the attack which Optus told customers about on Thursday.

Reuters

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Japan to remove entry restrictions from Oct 11

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

THE NATION

Japan will lift all Covid-19 border controls from October 11 in a bid to revive its tourism industry. All tourism routes will be reopened and visa waivers will also be reinstated, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday.

The PM made the announcement in a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York.

“I hope many people will utilise it,” Kishida told the press later. “I want to support travel, entertainment and other industries that have been struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

Thailand is among 70 countries that Japan had visa waiver agreements with before the pandemic, and it will be reinstated after October 11. Thai passport holders will be part of the blue group, which means they will not be required to provide vaccine passport, RT-PCR test results or be required to isolate.

The cap on daily arrivals will also be lifted, Kishida said.

Japan has been slowly raising the daily arrival cap over the past six months, starting with 5,000 on March 1 to 50,000 now.

Meanwhile, Reuters quoted Kishida as saying that excessive fluctuations in the Japanese currency due to speculation cannot be ignored. In his speech at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, Kishida said his government would act “with a high level of vigilance” and intervene to support the currency if necessary. The yen has hit a 24-year low recently.

“In principle, the exchange rate is determined by the market, but I don’t think we can overlook the repetition of excessive fluctuations due to such speculation,” he said. “Based on this idea, today we implemented a foreign exchange intervention in Japan. The government will continue to monitor exchange rate trends with a high sense of urgency and take the necessary measures against excessive fluctuations.

“We will continue to observe these exchange trends with a high level of interest and a sense of urgency,” said Kishida.

Singthong Lapseedphan, ambassador of Thailand to Japan, said on Thursday that he believes the Covid-19 situation will improve gradually and travel between Thailand and Japan will soon be restored to before the pandemic.

“After 2019, up to 1.3 million Thai tourists have visited Japan, while up to 1.8 million Japanese have arrived in Thailand,” he said. “Japanese tourists are among the top spenders who help contribute to the recovery of our tourism industry.”

THE NATION