News In Brief

Welcome to our ‘News In Brief’ column in which we digest all the news releases for you in no more than five paragraphs.
Below are snippets of all the media releases we received from Nov 2 till the end of the week.
This article updates throughout the week.

Bot Accusations Eroding Trust In Political News: Study

Perth, Nov 3: Claims that online posts are “AI” or written by bots are being used to shut down opposing political views, new University of Sydney research has found.
Researchers led by Dr Timothy Koskie analysed more than 220,000 Reddit posts and comments from the platform’s five largest news and politics communities in the lead-up to the 2024 US presidential election.
They found these accusations were aimed almost entirely at users with different political views, and that discussions lost momentum once someone was labelled a bot. “‘That’s AI’ has become a common way to dismiss information online,” Dr Koskie said.
Users also voiced distrust of how platforms promote or suppress content. The researchers warn that legitimate concerns about deepfakes and bots are being weaponised against genuine, human-written content.
The study, published in Communication Research and Practice, says the findings apply to elections worldwide. It calls on platforms, policymakers and tech companies to support more transparent information environments.

Rates Hit 18-Year High

Perth, Nov 3: The Reserve Bank has raised the cash rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.85%, its fifth hike this year and the highest level in almost 18 years.
The decision followed higher-than-expected inflation data for the September quarter and was not unanimous, with the board voting 6-3.
According to Finder, Australians with an average home loan of $730,719 will pay $538 more a month, or $6,460 more a year, than in January if banks pass on the rise in full. Three in four of the 40 experts in Finder’s RBA Cash Rate Survey predicted the hike.
“Anyone who took out their first mortgage in the past 18 years has never seen a cash rate this high,” said Finder’s Taylor Blackburn.
LGT Wealth Management chief investment officer Scott Haslem said Australia now had the seventh-highest inflation rate in the G20 and had lifted rates more than any other G20 country this year. He said that with governments slow to rein in spending, “rising interest rates will mean the private sector is going to bear the brunt of a necessary slowing in growth.”
Haslem said unemployment, now 4.7%, could rise above 5% by early 2027. If government spending slowed, the RBA could begin cutting rates in the second half of 2027. If it didn’t, he warned, 4.85% may not be the peak.

Royal Selangor Drops Badger Brushes

Perth, Nov 3: Malaysian pewter company Royal Selangor has stopped making badger-hair shaving brushes and is clearing its remaining stock, following a campaign by animal rights group PETA.
PETA says footage it obtained from eight fur farms in China shows badgers kept in small, filthy wire cages, and a worker beating and stabbing a conscious badger for its hair.
“No badger should be caged, beaten, and violently killed for a brush, and Royal Selangor did the right thing by quickly ceasing production of its badger-hair products,” said PETA President Jason Baker.
More than 100 brands have stopped selling badger-hair products since PETA’s first investigation into the industry in 2018. They include Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, PChome in Taiwan and iShopChangi in Singapore, while Zalora has removed the items across Southeast Asia.
PETA is urging remaining retailers to stop selling badger hair and consumers to choose synthetic brushes.

Snowflake Launches Free Global Data and AI Training

Perth, Nov 4: Snowflake has launched Snowflake Practitioner, a free foundational training course for its customers and partners worldwide, as part of its push to close the global AI skills gap. The company announced the programme at its Snowflake Expedition 2026 event on 3 November. It is available as public or private instructor-led classes or as a self-paced on-demand course, both with 30 days of hands-on lab access.
The two-day curriculum follows a “learn together, apply separately” model. Participants share common lectures, then split into three role-based tracks: data analysts cover querying, reporting, visualisations and AI-powered analysis; data engineers work on pipelines, data loading, transformation and orchestration; and platform administrators focus on security, roles, cost management, access control and monitoring. Snowflake CoCo, the company’s coding agent for data teams, is built into the labs on every track.
“World-class platform education should be the starting point for every customer and partner relationship,” said Denise Persson, Snowflake’s Chief Marketing Officer. “Snowflake Practitioner reflects our commitment to democratising AI fluency by making essential training accessible to every customer and partner from day one.”
Swedbank was among the first organisations to take the course. “Snowflake Practitioner delivered immediate, role-tailored fluency across our team instead of high-level theory,” said Jelena Korotõtš, the bank’s Data & Platform Engineering Lead. She added that Swedbank has scheduled regular sessions through 2027.
After the course, learners can progress to specialised role tracks and Snowflake’s SnowPro Certification programme, for which exam fees apply. Snowflake Practitioner is available now at training.snowflake.com.

Oman’s mamun Raises US$3 Million

Muscat, Nov 4: Omani trade finance platform mamun has raised US$3 million in seed funding to grow its Sharia-compliant lending for businesses trading between the Gulf and Asia.
Phaze Ventures led the round through its Oman Fund, with Jasoor Ventures also taking part. Phaze Ventures is based in Oman; Jasoor Ventures is in Abu Dhabi.
mamun targets a long-standing problem for small exporters: they ship goods but often wait 60 to 90 days to be paid, and banks are reluctant to lend to firms without a long financial track record. The Asian Development Bank estimates the global trade finance gap at US$2.5 trillion, and says 41 per cent of small business applications for trade finance are rejected.
The platform uses AI to assess each deal. It looks at the contract, the buyer, the shipping documents and the trading history between the two parties, as well as the company itself. Investors on the platform then fund the gap until the exporter is paid.
The company operates along a corridor linking Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong’s Greater Bay Area. It is licensed by Oman’s Financial Services Authority and also has entities in Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong. mamun says about 40 per cent of its trade finance settlements already clear through Hong Kong-based institutions and businesses.
Co-founder and chief executive Saleh Al Tamami said trade between the Gulf and Asia was “growing faster than the financing behind them”, and that the new funding would scale the platform.
The money will go towards expanding mamun’s AI-driven deal sourcing and underwriting.
mamun was founded by Saleh Al Tamami, Mohammed Al Tamami and Ahmed Al-Issaei. It was named a Rising Star in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Middle East 2025.

Premiere Mobile Gets Major-Label Music

Perth, Nov 4: Adobe will add licensed music from Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to its free Premiere mobile video editing app, letting creators build videos around popular tracks without leaving the app.
Users will be able to search and preview songs by artist, track, genre and length, save favourites and browse collections picked by the labels. They can add up to 60 seconds of a track to a video, or start from ready-made templates paired with a song.
Finished videos can be exported and posted to licensed social media platforms.
The move puts Premiere mobile in closer competition with apps such as CapCut, where music has long been part of the editing process.
The tracks are licensed for personal, non-commercial use only. Adobe said creators who need music for commercial projects can keep using Adobe Stock Audio.
Universal Music Group’s Bryan Stone said the deal would give creators new ways to build stories around songs they love while helping artists reach new audiences.
Adobe did not give a launch date, saying only that the feature is “coming soon”. It also did not say which markets would get it first.

WA Farmers Get Green Light for Halter Virtual Fencing

Perth, Nov 5: Western Australian cattle and dairy farmers can now use Halter’s virtual fencing and herd management system after the State Government updated animal welfare regulations to approve the technology.
The system uses smart collars that guide cattle with sound and vibration cues within boundaries farmers set on a smartphone app, removing the need for physical fences. The collars also send back data on location, grazing, rumination and fertility.
More than two million Halter collars are in use worldwide, and the first WA beef and dairy farms are already signing up.
Halter’s Australian Strategic Relations Lead, David Nation, said the technology could lift productivity across the state, from northern cattle stations to southern dairy farms. “Halter’s ability to do both fencing and moving of cattle is a game-changer,” he said.
WA runs about 2.2 million beef cattle and produces 344 million litres of milk a year. Agriculture is the state’s second-largest export industry after resources.