Byelection vital
Voting began in Sydney’s Wentworth byelection yesterday, Reuters reported, the outcome of which is vital to Scott Morrison’s premiership. Morrison, Australia’s sixth prime minister in eight years, needs the ruling Liberal Party to hold on to the constituency to keep his centreright coalition government’s one-seat majority in parliament. The seat was vacated by Morrison’s predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, who was ousted in August by in-fighting among Liberal lawmakers.
Guards for polls
Tens of thousands of Afghan forces have fanned out across the country as voting began in parliamentary elections after a campaign marred by relentless violence. The Independent Election Commission says 8.8. million Afghans are registered to vote, but a member says a turnout of 5 million will be a success. In the run-up to the elections, two candidates were killed while polling in Kandahar was delayed for a week after a rogue guard gunned down the powerful provincial police chief.
Macedonia name change
Lawmakers in Macedonia have backed a landmark proposal to amend the constitution, allowing the country to change its name and join Nato. With strong backing from Western leaders, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is leading a campaign to rename the country North Macedonia, resolving a longstanding dispute with Greece that will allow the country to join Nato. Conservatives in Macedonia vehemently oppose the name change and boycotted a referendum last month on the issue.
Fake news campaign
The WhatsApp messaging service said yesterday it had sent “cease and desist” letters to stop companies from sending bulk messages related to Brazil’s election, after a report businessmen were bankrolling a campaign to spread fake news in support of leading far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro. The company framed the move as part of its larger efforts to combat the spread of false information on its service, revealing it had banned hundreds of thousands of accounts since August, when the election campaign officially started in Brazil.
Meteorite windfall
A 5.5kg chunk of the moon that fell to the Earth as a lunar meteorite has been sold at auction for more than US$600,000 ($910,000). Bostonbased RR Auction said the US$612,500 winning bid for the meteorite came from a representative working with the Tam Chuc Pagoda complex in Ha Nam Province, Vietnam. The large heat-crusted meteorite was found last year in Mauritania, northwest Africa.