New Zealand - Global pulse News
  • Old picture of New Zealand oil spill incorrectly shared as Huthi attack

    Old picture of New Zealand oil spill incorrectly shared as Huthi attack

    Yemen’s Huthi rebels have actually assaulted vessels in the Red Sea with drones and rockets following the break out of the Gaza war. A picture of containers well balanced precariously on a freight ship that appeared in posts about the strikes, nevertheless, is unassociated. The New Zealand navy released the photo in a Facebook post about a ship that ran aground in October 2011.

    “Yemeni gamers scored another objective targeting Israeli ships in the Red Sea,” checked out a Bengali-language Facebook post shared on Might 8, 2024.

    <span><button class=

    Screenshot of the incorrect post, taken Might 19, 2024

    The Huthis, who manage much of Yemen, have actually introduced drone and rocket strikes into the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden because November 2023, explaining their attacks as an act of retaliation for the Israel-Hamas war.

    The Iran-backed rebel attacks have actually triggered reprisal strikes by United States and British forces and the development of a global union to safeguard the essential shipping lanes.

    The picture was shared in comparable Facebook posts here and here.

    New Zealand catastrophe

    A reverse image search on Google discovered the photo published on the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Facebook page on October 5, 2020 (archived link).

    According to the Facebook post, the picture reveals the Rena container ship stranded off the coast of New Zealand after it struck a reef in 2011.

    Below is a screenshot contrast of the incorrectly shared photo (left) and the Royal New Zealand Navy’s photo (right):

    <span>Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared picture (left) and the Royal New Zealand Navy's picture (right)</span><span><button class=

    Screenshot contrast of the incorrectly shared photo (left) and the Royal New Zealand Navy’s photo (right)

    The Liberian-flagged vessel launched an oil slick that eliminated countless sea birds after it tilled into the overseas reef, fouling beaches in the North Island’s beautiful Bay of Plenty.

    The mishap activated public fury and an unsafe salvage operation which included teams rushing to pump the staying oil from the Rena’s fuel tanks as heavy seas pounded the stricken vessel and opened deep fractures in its hull.

    The captain and 2nd officer of the ship were both imprisoned in 2012 for their function in New Zealand’s greatest sea contamination catastrophe.

    AFP released video of waves lapping around the stranded ship as it slanted to one side.

     

    AFP has formerly fact-checked pictures and videos incorrectly provided online as Huthi attacks on Red Sea shipping.

    The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s unmatched attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which led to the deaths of more than 1,170 individuals, mainly civilians, according to an AFP tally based upon Israeli main figures.

    Israel’s vindictive offensive versus Hamas has actually eliminated a minimum of 35,900 individuals in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run area’s health ministry.

  • Australia and New Zealand sending out aircrafts to leave nationals from New Caledonia’s discontent

    Australia and New Zealand sending out aircrafts to leave nationals from New Caledonia’s discontent

    SYDNEY (AP) — The Australian and New Zealand federal governments revealed Tuesday they were sending out aircrafts to leave their nationals from violence-scorched New Caledonia.

    Australian Foreign Minister Cent Wong validated Australia had actually gotten clearance for 2 flights to leave residents and other travelers from New Caledonia amidst violent discontent that has actually besieged the French Pacific island chain where native individuals have actually long looked for self-reliance from France.

    “We continue to deal with additional flights,” Wong composed on the social networks platform X on Tuesday.

    New Zealand likewise revealed it was sending out an aircraft Tuesday to leave its nationals from Noumea, the Pacific island’s capital, in the very first in a series of proposed flights to bring its residents home.

    “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have actually dealt with a tough couple of days — and bringing them home has actually been an immediate top priority for the Federal government,” Peters stated.

    A minimum of 6 individuals have actually passed away and hundreds more have actually been hurt in New Caledonia after violence appeared recently following questionable electoral reforms passed in Paris.

    Source link

  • China looms large as German foreign minister sets off on Pacific trip

    China looms large as German foreign minister sets off on Pacific trip

    German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock set off on Wednesday on a week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji where the focus will be on security policy and climate protection.

    Baerbock noted that the region is becoming increasingly important to Germany for strategic and economic reasons, especially given tensions with China over human rights, trade and Taiwan.

    Australia and New Zealand were “more directly exposed than we are to the violent gusts of wind that are being sent around the world by China’s increasingly offensive behaviour,” she said.

    They had a lot of experience with their authoritarian neighbour, “whose foreign policy toolbox includes economic pressure and who also puts our democracies to the test through espionage and other influence operations.”

    Three Germans were arrest on suspicion of spying for China in recent days. Beijing is also taking an increasingly aggressive stance in the disputed waters of the South China Sea and has threatened to invade the democratic island of Taiwan, which it views as its own territory.

    The German government has resolved to become more involved in security policy in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and is sending a warship, the frigate Baden-Württemberg, there for the second time next week for training purposes.

    “Security in Europe also depends on security in the Indo-Pacific – and vice versa,” Baerbock said. “If the international peace order comes under pressure on one side of the world, it will also crumble on the other side of the world.”

    The Green politician pointed out that Australia and New Zealand are among the countries outside of NATO that are providing military and financial support to Ukraine as it fends off a Russian invasion.

    Baerbock actually wanted to visit the countries last August, but had to cancel the trip after a stopover in Abu Dhabi, when her government plane developed a series of mechanical problems.

    The trip has now been rescheduled with a slightly different itinerary. She travels to Adelaide in Australia on Wednesday, then on to the New Zealand city of Auckland on Friday evening and from there to Fiji, which extends over 300 islands in the South Pacific, on Sunday.

    With a population of just under 1 million, Fiji is one of the countries most affected by climate change. Residents on some islands have already had to be evacuated because they face flooding from rising sea levels.

    Baerbock will be the first German foreign minister to visit the island state.

    German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrives at the airport before his trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Sina Schuldt/dpa

    German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrives at the airport before his trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Sina Schuldt/dpa

    Source link

  • Thailand, New Zealand Agree to Resume Direct Flights

    Thailand, New Zealand Agree to Resume Direct Flights

    (Bloomberg) — Thailand and New Zealand have agreed to resume direct flights after the pandemic shut air connectivity as leaders of the two countries vowed to triple bilateral trade in the next two decades.

    Most Read from Bloomberg

    The two countries will also prioritize visa facilitation to achieve the goals of having 100,000 New Zealanders visit Thailand and 40,000 Thai tourists travel to New Zealand by next year, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said at a joint press conference with his counterpart Christopher Luxon in Bangkok on Wednesday.

    The two prime ministers agreed to expand economic cooperation and increase two-way trade and investment in areas of mutual expertise and interest, according to a joint statement. The leaders are looking forward to seeing tariff-free entry for all Thai and New Zealand imports from Jan. 1 and noted that bilateral trade has more than tripled in the 20 years since the countries signed an economic partnership pact.

    Srettha and Luxon agreed to elevate diplomatic ties between the two nations to a Strategic Partnership “in 2026 or sooner”, according to the Thai leader. The two leaders also agreed to deepen cooperation to tackle organized crimes including human and drug trafficking.

    (Corrects name of New Zealand prime minister in second paragraph in story published on Wednesday.)

    Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

    ©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

    Source link

  • Thailand and New Zealand vow to strengthen economic ties as they set lofty new trade goals

    Thailand and New Zealand vow to strengthen economic ties as they set lofty new trade goals

    BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand and New Zealand on Wednesday vowed to boost economic cooperation with an aim to triple two-way trade by 2045, as the New Zealand leader visited Thailand for the first time in 11 years.

    New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday and met with his Thai counterpart Srettha Thavisin at the government house on Wednesday. They discussed trade, education, investment, visa arrangements, tourism, transnational crime and cybersecurity.

    “We have agreed to elevate Thailand-New Zealand relations to a strategic partnership in 2026 or sooner, which will mark the 70th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. This will create the momentum for us to further expand and deepen cooperation in all dimensions,” Srettha said during a joint news conference after the meeting.

    Luxon said that trade between the countries has tripled since a free trade agreement was signed 20 years ago.

    “But today we have committed to look for further opportunities to expand our economic cooperation and for new opportunities. Today we announced an ambitious goal to triple our two-way trade by 2045,” he said.

    Business delegations from both countries also held a meeting helmed by the two prime ministers at the government house, seeking to rapidly expand the bilateral economic relationship.

    The two leaders said they looked forward to tariff-free entry for all Thai and New Zealand imports due to take effect Jan. 1. They also said they agreed to further facilitate visas between Thailand and New Zealand, and to resume direct flights that were shut after the pandemic.

    Just before the news conference, the prime ministers presided over the signing of two agreements to increase cooperation in education and aviation supply, repair and maintenance.

    The situation in neighboring Myanmar was also discussed. Srettha said Thailand is closely watching the tense situation on its northwestern border, where the key Myanmar town of Myawaddy recently fell to forces fighting the military, which seized power in 2021.

    Source link

  • the Chinese Hacking Group Behind Global Cyberespionage Campaign

    the Chinese Hacking Group Behind Global Cyberespionage Campaign

    By James Pomfret and Yew Lun Tian

    (Reuters) – The United States and Britain filed charges and imposed sanctions on a company and individuals tied to a Chinese state-backed hacking group named APT31 that they allege engaged in a sweeping cyber espionage campaign.

    This group was allegedly run by China’s Ministry of State Security and targeted millions of people, mostly in the U.S. and Britain, for more than a decade including officials, lawmakers, activists, academics and journalists, and firms ranging from defence contractors to a U.S. smartphone maker.

    China has denied the charges.

    “We urge the U.S. and British sides to stop politicising the issue of cybersecurity, stop slandering and smearing China and imposing unilateral sanctions, and stop cyber-attacks against China,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

    Advanced Persistent Threat Group 31 (APT31) is a collective of Chinese state-sponsored intelligence officers, contract hackers and attendant staff that engage in hacking activities and “malicious cyber operations” according to the U.S. Treasury department in a statement. APTs are a general term for cyber actors or groups, often state-backed, that engage in malicious cyber activities.

    The group, also known as Zirconium, operated through a front company, Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company (Wuhan XRZ), from at least 2010 until January 2024, according to a U.S. indictment filed in New York’s eastern district court on Monday. It is allegedly linked to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) in the province of Hubei.

    Separately, the New Zealand government claimed on March 25 that another state-backed Chinese hacking group, APT40, was behind a hack of its parliament in 2021.

    WHAT IS APT31 ACCUSED OF DOING?

    APT31 and Chinese security authorities targeted thousands of U.S. and foreign politicians, foreign policy experts and others as part of the MSS’s foreign intelligence and economic espionage objectives according to the U.S. Individuals in the White House, State Department, and spouses of officials were also targets.

    Often the hacks were conducted in relation to geopolitical events affecting China, including economic tensions with the U.S., maritime claims in the South China Sea and the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2019 and subsequent crackdown, the U.S. indictment alleges.

    The conspiracy involved over 10,000 malicious emails across multiple continents in a “prolific global hacking operation” backed by Beijing, the indictment alleged. The aims included repressing critics of Beijing, compromising government institutions and stealing trade secrets, U.S. authorities said.

    The U.S. Treasury department’s office of foreign assets control (OFAC) sanctioned Wuhan XRZ and 7 Chinese individuals on March 25, including Ni Gaobin and Zhao Guangzong.

    The British government also sanctioned the same Wuhan company along with the two men, Ni and Zhao. British authorities alleged they were behind a 2021 hack of emails belonging to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a British group with ties to an international network of politicians critical of China; as well as a 2021-2022 cyber-attack on Britain’s Electoral Commission.

    WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THOSE SANCTIONED?

    The seven men, aged between 34-38, in the U.S. indictment stand accused of hacking activities in support of MSS foreign intelligence and economic espionage objectives.

    Wuhan XRZ is formally listed as a firm engaged in technology development and consulting on China’s Qichacha company information database with less than 50 staff. It is based in a technology development zone in Wuhan’s south-eastern suburbs.

    The firm and APT 31 were “responsible for, engaging in, or providing support for the commission, planning, or preparation of relevant cyberactivity on behalf of the Chinese State,” the British government wrote on its updated sanctions list.

    The current legal owner is listed as Wang Hongye, who took over from a previous owner in late 2023. The firm was established in 2010 with registered capital of 250,000 yuan.

    U.S. authorities have offered rewards of up to $10 million for information on the hackers.

    Ni, a 38-year-old Chinese citizen sanctioned by both the U.S. and U.K., was also singled out by the U.S. for targeting Hong Kong democracy activists and lawmakers, and members of the Uyghur minority group, through spear-phishing campaigns and information systems interference.

    In recent years, China has clamped down on dissidents in Hong Kong and the northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to many Uyghurs.

    (Additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian in Beijing and Hong Kong newsroom; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

    Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.

    Source link