15/06/2026

MONDAY | JUNE 15, 2026

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New South Wales to review drone curbs after shark attack

UK defence budget poser

LONDON: Discussions on how much Britain can spend on defence are ongoing, with other departments being pushed to free up more cash, a minister said yesterday, following the resignation of the defence secretary in a dispute over spending. Keir Starmer was dealt a heavy blow on Thursday when John Healey, widely respected in government and the defence sector, quit, accusing the premier of failing to secure enough money to keep the country safe. Starmer had for months been mulling how to fund a Defence Investment Plan (DIP) before settling on a figure that Healey said was unacceptable. New Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis told the Sunday Telegraph he was determined to get the Armed Forces the funding they need, saying the government must“meet the moment”. Culture Minister Lisa Nandy said talks were ongoing. “I’m having discussions with my officials about the amount we can make available,” Nandy said, adding that Jarvis was looking at the DIP in its draft form and having talks with the finance minister and Starmer. Starmer has said he will publish the defence spending plan before the Nato summit in Ankara next month. Healey said the plan he had seen would increase defence spending to only 2.68% in 2030, when it will already reach 2.6% next year. That compares to Germany’s plans to spend 3.7% of its GDP on defence by 2030. – Reuters AI to help assess academic articles TOKYO: An artificial intelligence startup recently developed a system that analyses academic papers to determine whether they were written by humans or AI-generated. Developed by Valar Intelligence, the identification system “Puddin AI” requires users to write and submit their papers on its platform. Kyushu University has been using it in classes while several universities are considering its adoption. The system focuses on the process of writing, recording when a user begins writing, their speed and the chronological order of their revisions. When the identification button is pressed, it assesses the “humanness” of a piece of writing using around 200 indicators, such as common spelling mistakes, pauses taken in between and the estimated time typically required to produce the piece. Copy and pasting an AI-generated composition shortens the process, allowing the system to determine that a piece was not written by a human. The results are divided into three categories: AI, AI-supported and Human. The system handles Japanese, English and four other languages, and it could analyse university assignments, academic papers and corporate documents. Andrew John Chapman, an associate professor of energy economics at Kyushu University, said, “I want students to take their time and write their work on their own. This system can verify originality, making fair evaluation possible.” – Bernama

going on out there, clear the water if they could, and get the power craft out there,” he said. “She ended up getting taken underwater for a second. I couldn’t see where she was because it was all red. And luckily, she popped up and the shark had let her go and I was able to get close enough to bring her into shore.” There, they were met by lifeguards, police and medical experts, after which the woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Australia has seen a spate of shark attacks this year. Most attacks occur along the east and southeast seaboard of Australia, which averages around 20 incidents a year, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. – Reuters

Australian lifesavers use drones to help watch for sharks, but Coogee Beach has had restrictions covering commercial drone use because it sits under the flight path of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. After the attack, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said in a statement that it would look at adapting the rules. Paddleboard champion and off duty lifeguard Charlie Verco, 25, who rescued the woman and brought her to shore, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he was “very scared” when he saw the three-to-four-metre shark near a group of swimmers. “I just looked at the beach, tried to signal to the lifeguards, a big code X, to get them to understand how it was

Hospital yesterday, a spokesperson told Reuters, after she sustained serious injuries to her lower left leg and arms. Coogee Beach and others in the city’s Randwick Council area were closed for 24 hours following the attack. Drones flew overhead under emergency provisions to scan for sharks. “It’s been a really tough summer of shark activity and shark attacks in Sydney and it’s something that the NSW government is taking really, really seriously,” said Tara Moriarty, New South Wales state minister for agriculture. She said the government would consider fresh measures to keep swimmers safe from shark attacks, including using drones.

o Aviation regulator likely to adapt rules MELBOURNE: Restrictions on drones flying over Australia’s Coogee Beach will be reviewed by a regulator so rescuers in New South Wales state can monitor for sharks, after an attack on Saturday left a woman critically injured. Emergency services were called to Coogee Beach in eastern Sydney on Saturday morning following reports that a 35-year-old woman had been bitten by a large shark about 30m from shore. The woman was in a critical but stable condition at St Vincent’s

MANY HANDS, LIGHT WORK ... Taiwanese making traditional rice dumplings ahead of the annual Dragon Boat Festival in New Taipei City yesterday. – AFPPIC

Tribunal rejects Inpex move to stop strike PERTH: An Australian labour tribunal yesterday rejected an application by Japanese gas company Inpex to halt a strike by some 400 oil and gas workers at its Ichthys LNG project. The Fair Work Commission rejected Inpex’s claim that a shutdown would hurt the Australian economy due to lost export revenue and would risk dangerous blackouts. The strike at the facility will now run until June 23 with a ban on the loading of all cargo. The commission’s deputy president, Michael Easton, ruled that unions and the company must keep bargaining. business hours. The company is expected to submit another offer to workers today. After a lengthy hearing that began on Saturday, Easton said he had found no evidence of an adverse economic effect from a strike or a danger to Northern Territory but accepted Inpex’s view that there could be a halt to production that could last up to a week. “I do not regard this to be a significant disruption. At least some of the previous production will not be lost as soon as the loading ban is lifted,” he said. Northern Territory, has organised contingency measures to avoid blackouts, Easton said, while the Ichthys liquefied natural gas facility has sustained more comprehensive outages in the past with no adverse effect. Strikes escalated on Thursday to periods of up to eight hours after Inpex and union groups failed to find a solution. Late on Friday, the strike periods were wound back to two blocks of two hours at the beginning and end of a shift. The strike will result in LNG and condensate storage onshore

Inpex’s superintendent for onshore, Damien Chandler, told the commission. If production is halted for a week, four LNG cargoes would miss their loadings, an Inpex employee said, while two condensate cargoes had already missed loading. Another Inpex employee said offshore production could slow and that this could create technical challenges that would also lead to a shutdown. Ichthys is a joint venture between Inpex, France’s TotalEnergies and subsidiaries of CPC Corporation Taiwan, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric Power, Jera and Toho Gas. – Reuters

reaching capacity within a few days, forcing a production shutdown,

Power and Water Corp, a government-owned utility for the

Inpex did not respond to a request for comment outside