Associated Press reported (May 28) that Australian Navy helicopter pilots were hit by lasers while exercising in the South China Sea, forcing them to land as a precaution. It quoted Euan Graham, who was onboard the Royal Australian Navy flagship HMAS Canberra on a voyage from Vietnam to Singapore. Graham said that the lasers had been pointed from passing fishing vessels while the Canberra was being trailed by a Chinese warship.

(Comment: Graham, who is executive director of La Trobe Asia at La Trobe University in Australia, was one of several academics invited to observe Australia’s engagement exercise Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019.)