Zoo is trademarking Moo Deng, the viral baby pygmy hippo

Only a month after Thailand‘s adorable baby hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable both domestically and internationally.

Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals in his care for about five years. He never imagined Khao Kheow Open Zoo’s newborn pygmy hippo would become an internet megastar within weeks.

Cars started lining up outside the zoo well before it opened Thursday. Visitors traveled from near and far for a chance to see the pudgy, expressive 2-month-old in person at the zoo about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Bangkok. The pit where Moo Deng lives with her mom, Jona, was packed almost immediately, with people cooing and cheering every time the pink-cheeked baby animal made skittish movements.

“It was beyond expectation,” Atthapon told the Associated Press. “I wanted people to know her. I wanted a lot of people to visit her, or watch her online, or leave fun comments. I never would’ve thought (of this).”

Moo Deng, which literally means “bouncy pork” in Thai, is a type of meatball. The name was chosen by fans via a poll on social media, and it matches her other siblings: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (sweet pork). There is also a common hippo at the zoo named Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).

“She’s such a little lump. I want to ball her up and swallow her whole!” said Moo Deng fan Areeya Sripanya while visiting the zoo Thursday.

Already, Moo Deng has been made into memes. Artists are drawing cartoons based on her. Social media platform X even featured her in its official account’s post.

With all that fame, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi said they have begun patenting and trademarking “Moo Deng the hippo” to prevent the animal from being commercialized by anyone else. “After we do this, we will have more income to support activities that will make the animals’ lives better,” he said.

“The benefits we get will return to the zoo to improve the life of all animals here.”

The zoo sits on 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres) of land and is home to more than 2,000 animals. It runs breeder programs for many endangered species like Moo Deng’s. The pygmy hippopotamus that’s native to West Africa is threatened by poaching and loss of habitat. There are only 2,000-3,000 of them left in the wild.

To help fund the initiative, the zoo is making Moo Deng shirts and pants that will be ready for sale at the end of the month, with more merchandise to come.

Narongwit believes a factor of Moo Deng’s fame is her name, which compliments her energetic and chaotic personality captured in Atthapon’s creative captions and video clips.

Appropriately, Moo Deng likes to “deng,” or bounce, and Atthapon got a lot of cute and funny moments or her giddy bouncing on social media. Even when she’s not bouncing, the hippo is endlessly cute — squirming as Atthapon tries to wash her, biting him while he was trying to play with her, calmly closing her eyes as he rubs her pinkish cheeks or her chubby belly.

Atthapon, who has worked at the zoo for eight years taking care of hippos, sloths, capybaras and binturongs, said baby hippos are usually more playful and energetic, and they become calmer as they get older.

The zoo saw a spike in visitors since Moo Deng’s fame — so much that the zoo now has to limit public access to the baby’s enclosure to 5-minute windows throughout the day during weekends.

Narongwit said the zoo has been receiving over 4,000 visitors during a weekday, up from around just 800 people, and more than 10,000 during a weekend, up from around 3,000 people.

But the fame has also brought some hostile visitors to Moo Deng, who only wakes up ready to play about two hours a day. Some videos showed visitors splashing water or throwing things at the sleeping Moo Deng to try to wake her up. The hippo pit now has a warning sign against throwing things at Moo Deng — posted prominently at the front in Thai, English and Chinese.

Narongwit said the zoo would take action under the animal protection law if people mistreat the animal. But clips emerged of people treating Moo Deng poorly, and the backlash was fierce. The zoo director said that since then, they haven’t seen anyone doing it again.

For fans who can’t make the journey or are discouraged after seeing the crowds for Moo Deng, the Khao Kheow Open Zoo set up cameras and plan to start a 24-hour live feed of the baby hippo in the coming week.

They spent 30 years boycotting elections. Now they want Kashmiris to vote

As an armed rebellion against Indian rule raged in Kashmir through the 1990s and 2000s, Jamaat-e-Islami, an influential socio-religious group, called for a boycott whenever an election was held, claiming the exercise was aimed at legitimising what it would describe as New Delhi’s occupation of the Himalayan region, which is also claimed in part or full by Pakistan and China.

But as Kashmir votes in the first regional election in a decade starting on Tuesday, the Jamaat has itself entered the political fray, backing at least 10 candidates in the election. It is a remarkable turnaround for a group that remains banned under India’s anti-terror laws and was once regarded as the mothership of the militant Hizbul Mujahideen.

After Narendra Modi’s government altered India’s constitution in 2019 to do away with the symbolic autonomy of the administrative region of Jammu and Kashmir, it cracked down hard on the separatist movement, jailing thousands of people. The Jamaat, having long been at the vanguard of the movement, was a prime target. Schools associated with the group were ordered shut and the properties of many members were seized in an attempt to curtail its reach and operational capabilities.

As recently as February, the Indian government said that the Jamaat was “continuing to be involved in fomenting terrorism and anti-India propaganda for fuelling secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir, which is prejudicial to the sovereignty, security and integrity of India”.

This is what makes the Jamaat’s participation in the election perplexing, and even experts in the region are divided over what it means. Noor Baba, a renowned Kashmiri political scientist, says it could be a tactical move on the part of a minority within the movement – contesting the election as independents in the hope of “protection or rehabilitating themselves after the suffering they have endured”.

The decision to join the fray, he suggests, may not have involved the group’s jailed leadership. As a result of internal divisions in the past, Prof Baba says, the Jamaat has suffered at the hands of both the Indian authorities as well as the militants. Similar divisions may have cracked open again.

“There are many questions,” he tells The Independent. “Is the top leadership, which is in jail, on board with this or is it not?”

Another theory is that the decision stems from the Jamaat’s desire to have the anti-terror ban lifted. There have been reports about conversations between the Jamaat and intermediaries of the Indian government such as Altaf Bukhari, head of a local political party.

Ahead of this election, Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister of the former state, had urged the Narendra Modi government to lift the ban on the Jamaat to enable its participation in the assembly election. Mehbooba Mufti, another former chief minister and president of the People’s Democratic Party, said she would be “happy” to see the Jamaat return to the electoral arena.

Indian political analyst Apoorvanand Jha, however, sees a more sinister play at work. He says fielding independent candidates is part of a broader strategy of Modi’s BJP to weaken mainstream political parties such as the National Conference and the Congress and reap the dividend.

“The BJP’s aim is to install a government headed by a Hindu chief minister. That can be achieved by securing as many seats as possible in the Jammu region and fielding as many independents as possible in the valley [of Kashmir], making them win and then taking their support to form the government,” he tells The Independent.

The BJP is seeking to control Kashmir politically by creating chaos, he says. “To achieve that,” he adds, “the BJP can do anything. It can go to any extent, play any game, collaborate with the radicals, collaborate with separatists.”

The Independent has contacted the BJP for comment.

India has long held up Kashmir, its only majority Muslim territory, as a symbol of its secularism. But when the BJP government revoked the territory’s autonomy, Kashmiris accused the Hindu nationalist party of trying to change its religious demographic by settling Indians from elsewhere in the region.

Jha says the BJP wants to win the election in order to show its core Hindu base that “see, this is a Muslim-populated area which we have now annexed”.

The candidates backed by the Jamaat maintain that their election participation is about local issues.

“Ideologies work in time and space. We have to be accommodative and flexible,” Talat Majeed, who is contesting the Pulwama constituency, told reporters recently.

Another candidate, Sayar Ahmad Reshi, says their participation in the election is necessary to fill a political vacuum created by regional parties such as the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party.

The Jamaat’s participation seems to have enthused some pro-India factions in Kashmir. “This election is unique in recent times because the banned Jamaat-e-Islami is openly backing and campaigning for independent candidates owing allegiance to it,” Mr Abdullah said in an interview with the Hindustan Times. “This is a huge change from previous elections. Otherwise, ever since I have seen politics here from 1996 onwards, the Jamaat has been at the forefront of trying to stop people from voting.”

Ali Mohammad Watali, a former police chief of Kashmir, isn’t as enthused. The Jamaat was “pro-Pakistan and pro-terrorism”, he was quoted as saying by Frontline magazine. “Now they have changed their stance suddenly. It looks like this is being done by the agencies so that the BJP can form a government here with the help of new political fronts, including the Jamaat-e-Islami.”

“Agencies” is a catch-all term used in Kashmir for the intelligence, security and surveillance apparatus of the Indian state.

The Jamaat candidates have indicated their willingness to form alliances, before or after the election, with any party that works to “restore dignity to the people of Jammu and Kashmir”.

Prof Saddiq Wahid, a senior visiting fellow at the Centre for Policy Research think tank in New Delhi, tells The Independent the BJP’s actions in Jammu and Kashmir since the revocation of its autonomy have been aimed at creating confusion and chaos. “How is Jamaat suddenly into the picture?” he asks.

He fears that the political landscape of Kashmir is being manipulated to dilute local representation and prevent self-governance.

“They do not want the people of Jammu and Kashmir to have a government that will allow them to govern themselves,” he says, referring to the Indian government.

The fundamental question, though, is whether people will trust the candidates backed by the Jamaat, Prof Baba points out. “How many people will vote for them, support them?”

Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo denies making pagers used in Lebanon attack

Taiwanese electronics maker Gold Apollo has denied producing the pagers used in Tuesday’s deadly attack in Lebanon, which killed at least nine people and injured nearly 3,000.

Gold Apollo founder and president Hsu Ching-Kuang said the devices were manufactured by BAC Consulting, a company based in Budapest, Hungary, licensed to use the Taiwanese brand.

“The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,” Mr Hsu said.

Pictures of the destroyed pagers analysed by Reuters showed similarities with Gold Apollo’s devices, but the company maintained it had no involvement in the design or manufacturing of the AR-924 model. “We clarify that this model is produced and sold by BAC,” it said in a statement.

A Lebanese security source claimed that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Gold Apollo. Mr Hsu said his company had no knowledge of the pagers being rigged to explode.

Gold Apollo’s president offered a frank reaction to his company being associated with the pager attack. “We may not be a large company, but we are a responsible one,” Mr Hsu said. “This is very embarrassing.”

The beepers were rigged with explosives by Israeli operatives and detonated remotely, the New York Times reported.

Hezbollah, which has been engaged in almost daily exchanges of fire with Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, has started a “security and scientific investigation” into the attack.

Hezbollah had reportedly ordered its members in February to stop using mobile phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.

While the Israeli military has declined to comment, experts told Reuters that the Israeli spy agency Mossad may have planted the explosives in the pagers months earlier, possibly after infiltrating the supply chain.

A Hezbollah official told the Associated Press the beepers were a new brand, but declined to say how long they had been in use.

The official said the handheld pagers heated up and exploded, killing at least two Hezbollah members. The rest of those killed were reported to be civilians, including a young girl.

One of those killed was Hezbollah politician Ali Ammar’s son. “This is a new Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” Mr Ammar said. “The resistance will retaliate in a suitable way at the suitable time.”

Additional reporting by agencies

Quad countries set to launch joint sea patrols to keep China in check

The US, Japan, Australia, and India plan to conduct joint patrols in the Indo-Pacific to monitor vessels in the waters where they accuse China of displaying dominance and aggression.

The patrols by the coast guards of the four countries, bound in an alliance called the Quad, are also aimed at combating illegal fishing in these waters, Japan’s Kyodo News reported citing diplomatic sources.

A joint statement detailing the plan is expected to be released on Saturday in Delaware, US president Joe Biden’s hometown where he is hosting Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi for a Quad summit.

The White House said Mr Biden is hosting the leaders in Wilmington as a “reflection of his deep personal relationships with each of the Quad leaders and the importance of the Quad to all of our countries”.

The summit, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “will focus on bolstering the strategic convergence among our countries, advancing our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region and delivering concrete benefits for partners in the Indo-Pacific in key areas”.

The joint patrols by vessels of the Quad coast guards will focus on the South China Sea and its surrounding waters where competing claims of sovereignty have led to a conflict between China and its neighbours like Taiwan and the Philippines. The Chinese coast guard has lately used force to keep Philipine vessels away from South China Sea shoals which both countries lay claim to.

Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea. Its claims overlap with those of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

The patrols, to be conducted on a rotational basis, are expected to begin next year.

This is the final Quad meeting for Mr Biden and Mr Kishida who are leaving offices at the end of their current terms. The Delaware summit is thus also aimed at preparing for the next leaders of the US and Japan.

Initially formed to coordinate humanitarian aid and assistance in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Quad was resurrected in 2017 as a strategic alliance to counter a rapidly rising China.

The four countries have indicated in the past they faced a threat from China, although the language used to describe the threat is tempered in public pronouncements.

While India and China have engaged in confrontations along their Himalayan border, China and Japan are in a running dispute over territorial claims in the East China Sea.

Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth’s ‘ethereal’ wedding photos go viral

Indian actors Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth tied the knot this week in an intimate ceremony at a historic temple in the southern Indian state of Telangana.

The couple exchanged their vows at the 400-year-old Sri Ranganayaka Swamy Temple in Srirangapur, Telangana. The photos of their “dawn wedding”, shot by photophrapher Joseph Radhik, have gone viral since, with fans praising their “ethereal” quality and simplicity.

The Heeramandi actor wore a handwoven Maheshwari tissue lehenga paired with a Benarasi tissue dupatta from the archives of designer Sabyasachi’s Heritage Textile collection, and paired it with gold and ruby jewellery and a traditional jasmine flower garland in her hair.

Siddharth complemented his wife’s look, going for a classic Sabyasachi silk kurta and a handwoven Benarasi dhoti with a veshti of his own. A veshti is a traditional, unstitched cloth wrap worn around the waist by men in south Indian states.

Sharing the photos on social media, Hydari captioned the photos: “You are my sun, my moon, and all my stars…to being pixie soulmates for eternity…to laughter, to never growing up…to eternal love, light and magic. Mrs & Mr Adu-Siddhu.”

In an interview with Vogue India earlier this month, Hydari had said: “The wedding will be centred around a 400-year-old temple in Wanaparthy that is of significance to my family”.

The Sri Ranganayaka Swamy Temple was built in the 18th century AD, and is a beautiful example of the Vijayanagar architecture, according to Architectural Digest India.

Hydari and Siddharth, who goes only by his first name, met in 2021 while shooting the Telugu film, Maha Samudram. The couple announced their engagement in March on social media.

Hydari’s post on Instagram said: “He said yes! ENGAGED”, while Siddharth’s simply said: “She said yes.”

Hydari was last seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama Heeramandi, currently streaming on Netflix.

Siddharth, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi film industries, was last seen in Tamil-language vigilante action film Indian 2.

Four people arrested on drug charges in Bali face death penalty

At least four people are facing the death penalty for allegedly trafficking drugs into the resort island of Bali, defying the Indonesia’s notoriously strict anti-narcotic laws.

Bali police have arrested six people, including foreigners, on drug charges in the popular tourist destination since July, local authorities said.

Two Thai nationals, Rachanon Jongseeha, 33, and Woranawan Wongsuwan, 31, were arrested upon arrival at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport on 8 September for possession of methamphetamine and crystal MDMA, provincial anti-narcotics chief Rudy Ahmad Sudrajat said.

The pair were found carrying 1.9kg of methamphetamines mixed with the party drug MDMA in 108 sachets of a fruit-flavoured collagen drink, and 20 pills of MDMA, police said.

“The drugs would be handed over to two Indonesians who ordered it,” Mr Sudrajat said.

Police later arrested the two Indonesians for allegedly ordering the drugs from Thailand. One of the suspects was arrested at the Bali airport while a courier was arrested later. All four could face execution by firing squad if charged and found guilty, Mr Sudrajat said.

Police also announced the July arrests of two European men on drug charges. They face strict punishment but not the death penalty.

A Latvian man, identified by the initials VS, was arrested at the Bali airport on 4 July for carrying 450.41 grams of hashish and 977.83 grams of cannabis in a suitcase. Police said the suspect had a tattoo indicating affiliation with organised crime groups in the former Soviet Union.

He faces a possible life sentence for cannabis smuggling.

A Swedish man identified by the initials SUE was detained on 31 July following a raid at a villa in the popular tourist spot of Gianyar. The officers recovered 201.28 grams of hashish, having been tipped off that this person had received a suspicious package by mail from Thailand.

The Swedish national faces 15 years in prison, Mr Sudrajat said.

Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, and has more than 150 people on death row, mostly for drug trafficking offences. About a third of them are foreigners.

Eighteen people convicted of drug-related offences have been executed under current president Joko Widodo, who took office in 2014.

The anti-narcotics unit raided a suspected drug lab in May which led to the arrest of two Ukrainians, a Russian and an Indonesian. All the foreigners arrested face the death penalty for operating a hydroponic marijuana and mephedrone production lab.

An Australian man was sentenced to six months of medical rehabilitation in July for possessing methamphetamine. Troy Andrew Smith, from Port Lincoln in South Australia, was arrested on 30 April after police raided his hotel in Legian and seized 3.15 grams of crystal methamphetamine inside a toothpaste container from his room. Police found a further 0.4 grams of the drug, along with a bong and a lighter in his desk drawer.

Earlier in November 2019, a court in Bali sentenced two Thai nationals to 16-year prison terms for smuggling 1kg of methamphetamine into the country. The same year, a French citizen was sentenced to death on Lombok, an island next to Bali, for smuggling 3kg of MDMA before a higher court commuted his sentence to 19 years in prison.

Indonesia carried out its last executions in July 2016 when three Nigerians and an Indonesian convicted of drug offences were shot dead on the Nusa Kambangan prison island.

Japan Airlines is offering free domestic flights – how to secure them

Japan Airlines has announced it is offering international passengers complimentary domestic flights to any destination within Japan.

While the majority of tourists come to Japan to explore the high-tech neighbourhoods of Tokyo and Osaka or visit the Buddhist temples of Kyoto, the Japanese airline is encouraging visitors to travel to other areas of the country.

However, Japan Airlines has laid out some requirements to be able to claim this offer.

Visitors must book an international flight with Japan Airlines and a corresponding domestic flight in the same reservation, as separate domestic bookings will not be eligible.

A stopover fee of $100 USD or ¥300 will also be applied to travellers coming in from the US, Canada, Mexico and China if they stay in their first destination in Japan for more than 24 hours.

No additional charges will be applied to passengers from other countries for the domestic segments.

This offer is not available for everyone. Only passengers departing from the following countries can receive the offer: US, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, India, China and Taiwan.

The complimentary domestic flight offer has already opened up in some countries, and the deal will become available to the remaining destinations as per the airline’s schedule throughout September.

While not all countries, including flights from the UK, have not been included in the offer, Japan Airlines said that plans are in place to expand the eligible countries.

Japan Airlines said they are offering this deal to create a seamless travel experience for those who want to explore more of Japan.

For example, a passenger arriving from Singapore could fly into Tokyo and then jet off on a domestic flight to Sapporo in northern Japan for no extra fees.

There are a number of domestic destinations the airline recommends, such as a trip to Hokkaido to embark on hikes in national parks or go skiing at the various alpine resorts.

Wakayama in Japan’s Kansai region is also highlighted as a place to visit due to the vast temple enclave of Koyasan, or Japan’s tallest waterfall at Nachi Falls.

For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast

India gets only its second female chief minister as Kejriwal resigns

India is set to get only its second female state leader after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominated Atishi to succeed prominent opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister of Delhi.

Ms Atishi, who goes by a single name, is one of the most prominent figures in the Aam Aadmi Party, a national opposition party which leads Delhi’s local legislative assembly.

One of the best-known critics of prime minister Narendra Modi’s government, Mr Kejriwal is set to resign later on Tuesday only a few days after being released on bail by India’s top court. He and other members of his party are facing corruption charges which he says are politically motivated.

Speaking at the party headquarters in central Delhi, Ms Atishi said her only aim is to ensure Mr Kejriwal takes the office as chief minister again.

“I have only one request to the party volunteers and workers – please do not garland me, this is an unfortunate moment for Delhiites that Mr Kejriwal has been forced to resign,” she said, adding that the party will work to bring AAP to power once again.

The decision to name Ms Atishi as his successor was taken on Tuesday morning at a legislative meeting of AAP leaders in New Delhi.

She is one of the party’s most experienced figures, and has held several major portfolios in the Delhi government including education, finance, revenue and law. She is also a close aide of Mr Kejriwal.

Ms Atishi is expected to take the oath for the Indian capital’s highest office at around 4.30pm on Tuesday after Mr Kejriwal has formally submitted his resignation.

On Sunday, he addressed supporters from the AAP party headquarters and confirmed he would step down.

“Today I have come to ask the public whether you consider Kejriwal honest or a criminal,” he said. “I will resign from the post of chief minister two days from today,” he said, as party members responded with a chorus of “No’s!”.

Mr Kejriwal said he would return to the chief minister role if he wins a renewed public mandate at the next Delhi assembly elections, expected early next year.

It means this is the second time he has resigned in order to seek a fresh mandate in a decade as chief minister of Delhi. In 2014, Mr Kejriwal resigned within his first 50 days in office and returned a year later after landslide election win saw AAP take 67 out of the total 70 constituencies in Delhi.

While Delhi has some devolved powers, as the capital its policing and security are controlled by the central government let by Narendra Modi’s BJP, the party that will also be AAP’s primary rival in the city’s next local elections.

Several AAP members have been arrested in the same corruption case under which Mr Kejriwal was charged. The party’s leadership have been accused of taking bribes from liquor companies in exchange for opening up Delhi’s alcohol market to the private sector.

Among those arrested was former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who spent more than 18 months in jail and was also recently released on bail.

Amid those arrests Ms Atishi has at times been left as the most senior figure in the Delhi government, carrying out a number of duties on behalf of the chief minister, including holding press conferences.

In June she went on hunger strike to demand more drinking water for India’s capital, saying that 2.8 million people in Delhi were “aching for a drop of water” during a brutal heatwave.

She joins West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee as only the second female leader of India’s 36 states and union territories. Though India famously had a female prime minister in Indira Gandhi as far back as 1966, the country’s politics remains overwhelmingly dominated by men. Atishi is also the only woman in Delhi’s five-member cabinet.

Ms Atishi attended Oxford University’s Magdalen College where she earned a Chevening scholarship and finished her masters in History in 2003. A Rhodes scholar and graduate of India’s top college St Stephens, she has been associated with the party for more than 15 years, including during its early days as a popular anti-corruption movement.