Starlink claims Chinese launch nearly hit broadband sat • The Register

Asia In Transient A SpaceX government has claimed {that a} Chinese language satellite tv for pc launch got here inside 200 meters of hitting a Starlink satellite tv for pc.

“A number of days in the past, 9 satellites had been deployed from a launch from the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart in Northwestern China,” Michael Nicolls, a vp of Starlink engineering at SpaceX wrote on Saturday.

“So far as we all know, no coordination or deconfliction with present satellites working in house was carried out, leading to a 200 meter shut method between one of many deployed satellites and STARLINK-6079 (56120) at 560 km altitude,” he added.

Nicolls linked to a China Daily report describing a launch by Chinese language business house outfit CAS Area, seemingly suggesting it was the supply of the near-miss.

“A lot of the danger of working in house comes from the dearth of coordination between satellite tv for pc operators,” Nicolls added, earlier than concluding “This wants to alter.”

Medication in ink cartridges

Australia’s Border Pressure final week revealed the arrest and charging of a person accused of importing heroin and cocaine in air cargo packages.

“The illicit medication had been hid in consignments labelled as mashed potato packets, ink cartridges and low machine elements,” Border Pressure wrote.

The company arrested the suspect on December ninth and seized a cell phone that, after forensic investigation, was discovered to run an encrypted messaging utility through which the person mentioned supply of consignments to places round Sydney.

Huge tech to spend $50 billion in India

India final week attracted over $50 billion in AI funding from Microsoft and Amazon.

On December ninth, Microsoft announced a plan to spend $17.5 billion in India over 4 years “to advance the nation’s cloud and synthetic intelligence infrastructure, skilling and ongoing operations.”

Loads of that money will go in the direction of finishing Azure’s India South Central cloud area, which Microsoft expects to return on-line in mid-2026, plus growth of three different Azure areas throughout India. Microsoft additionally introduced the adoption of Azure OpenAI companies by two main Indian authorities platforms that serve over 300 million residents.

Amazon announced a plan to spend $35 billion between now and 2030 on “AI-driven digitization, export development and job creation.”

The e-tail large promised its efforts will probably be “ strategically aligned with India’s nationwide priorities and can deal with increasing AI capabilities, enhancing logistics infrastructure, supporting small enterprise development and creating jobs.”

Coupang CEO resigns after information breach

The CEO of Korean e-tail large Coupang final week resigned within the wake of the corporate’s large information breach.

An organization statement says “CEO Park Dae-joon has resigned in reference to the latest private info leak incident.”

The incident noticed Coupang lose info on over 30 million clients, greater than half the inhabitants of South Korea.

A canned quote from Park says he’s “deeply sorry for disappointing the general public with the latest private info incident.”

“I really feel a deep sense of accountability for the outbreak and the next restoration course of, and I’ve determined to step down from all positions,” he added.

Coupang appointed Chief Administrative Officer and Normal Counsel of Harold Rogers as interim CEO. The corporate apologized for the incident and promised to “considerably improve our info safety to stop recurrences and can do the whole lot we will do to recuperate belief.”

Free speech protestors declare Vultr binned their web site

Anti-censorship group GreatFire.org, which displays and protests China’s Nice Firewall, has accused website hosting enterprise Vultr of deplatforming it.

Certainly one of GreatFire’s actions is a website referred to as FreeWeChat.com the place it posts content material it claims Chinese language authorities faraway from WeChat, the social community run by Chinese language internet large Tencent.

GreatFire has beforehand claimed that Tencent engaged Singapore-based infosec firm Group-IB to lodge complaints of trademark and copyright infringement, cybersquatting, and unfair competitors, within the hope of shuttering FreeWeChat.com.

Final week, GreatFire claimed that one group Group-IB focused on behalf of Tencent is US-based cloud operator Vultr.

“After months of behind the scenes negotiations and requests for transparency, on November 28, 2025, with lots of our questions nonetheless left unanswered, Vultr closed GreatFire’s account at Tencent’s request,” GreatFire’s publish claims. “In doing so, Vultr acted as Tencent’s automobile to increase Chinese language censorship properly past the borders of China.”

The Register sought remark from Group-IB and Vultr, however has not obtained a response on the time of writing.

GreatFire argues that FreeWeChat.com doesn’t abuse Tencent’s emblems or copyright and assaults on the positioning are acts of censorship.

AI is a divine reward

The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences final week staged an occasion titled “Synthetic Intelligence and Pastoral Challenges in Asia” at which Hong Kong’s Cardinal Stephen Chow used his homily to state “I feel AI is just not from the satan. AI comes from God, who helps us.”

Different audio system on the occasion cautioned towards “deepfakes, unverifiable sources, algorithmic filtering, and the opaque logic by which digital platforms form info flows,” in accordance with reports. ®