Threat after Taipei announces bigger military drills appears to mirror a line from children’s film Ne Zha 2
China’s defence ministry spokesperson has warned Taiwan “we will come and get you, sooner or later”, after Taipei announced an expansion of military exercises.
The threat was delivered in a press conference on Thursday, but grabbed attention inside China for its apparent mirroring of a line from the record-breaking children’s movie Ne Zha 2.
Continue reading...Xiao Qian says exercises in Tasman Sea posed ‘no threat’ to Australia as previously unreported communications between pilots and air traffic controllers show confusion over drills
China doesn’t even need to “think” about apologising over the way it notified Australia about live-fire naval drills off the Australian coast, the country’s ambassador says.
Xiao Qian told the ABC the drills last Friday and Saturday posed “no threat” to Australia and were “a normal kind of practice for many navies in the world”.
He said the notification of the drills had followed normal international practice, despite Australian authorities first becoming aware of them after they began, from a passing Virgin pilot.
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Continue reading...James Paterson questions whether PM was across detail of live-fire drill, prompting Wong to say opposition senator ‘not actually interested in detail’
Three Chinese warships have sailed west into the Great Australian Bight, as Penny Wong accuses the Coalition of deliberately stirring controversy over live-fire drills that the flotilla conducted last week in the Tasman Sea.
During a fractious Senate estimates hearing Thursday morning, the foreign affairs minister accused the shadow home affairs spokesperson, James Paterson, of ignoring national security in favour of spearheading a “political attack” on the government.
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Continue reading...The US agency said it refers to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as ‘TraderTraitor’
North Korea was behind the theft of approximately $1.5bn in virtual assets from a cryptocurrency exchange, the FBI has said, in what is being described as the biggest heist in history.
The haul, which reportedly has since lost some of its value, exceeded the previous record sum of $1bn stolen by the dictator Saddam Hussein from Iraq’s central bank before the 2003 war, and underlines the North’s growing expertise in cybercrime.
Continue reading...Winston Peters says he told Chinese counterpart Wang Yi not enough warning was given about recent navy exercises that forced planes to divert
New Zealand’s foreign minister said he had raised concerns over China’s recent live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea during meetings with Chinese leaders on Wednesday.
The issue was a lack of notice given to New Zealand over the military exercises off its coast, Winston Peters told reporters in Beijing after meetings with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and vice premier Han Zheng.
Continue reading...Guo Qingshan’s image of a cliff on the edge of the Yangtze River in Hubei province has been viewed millions of times
A cliff on the edge of the Yangtze River has become an overnight sensation in China after a Shanghai-based designer posted a photo of it earlier this month likening it to a dog.
Guo Qingshan took the photo, which he captioned “Puppy Mountain”, while on a hike near his home town of Yichang, in Hubei province, in late January.
Continue reading...Rise comes from very low base and remains far below the 2.1 births per woman needed to stabilise population
South Korea’s birthrate rose last year for the first time in nine years, as a surge in marriages raised hopes that the country may be lifting itself out of its demographic crisis.
Preliminary data released by the government body Statistics Korea on Wednesday showed that the number of babies born per 1,000 people in 2024 stood at 4.7, the first rise since 2014.
Continue reading...Opposition leader says Albanese ‘failing to answer basic questions’ as PM claims civilian and military notification happened ‘at around the same time’
Anthony Albanese says Australia received civilian and military notifications about Chinese live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea “at around the same time”, despite the chief of the Australian defence force telling Senate estimates the military notification came an hour after the commercial pilot.
The defence chief also revealed Chinese warships south of Hobart appeared likely to sail through the Great Australian Bight, and could be accompanied by an undetected nuclear submarine.
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Continue reading...Malaysia transport minister says firm Ocean Infinity has resumed hunt for the plane, which went missing in one of aviation’s biggest mysteries
A new search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been launched more than a decade after the plane went missing in one of aviation’s greatest enduring mysteries.
Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity has resumed the hunt for the missing plane, Malaysian transport minister Anthony Loke said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...In 2023 the federal court ordered $27.5m compensation for an initial estimated 220 Indonesian minors wrongly detained – but that number has now doubled
The Australian government has revealed that a further 220 Indonesian children may have been wrongly detained as adult people smugglers, doubling the number initially thought.
Late in 2023 the federal court ordered $27.5m in compensation for an estimated 220 Indonesian children who were wrongly detained as adult people smugglers between 2010 and 2012.
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Continue reading...Appeal from officials, including two senior figures from Trump’s first term, comes amid reports National Science Foundation’s budget will be slashed
Chuck Hagel, the former US defense secretary, and other former US national security officials, including two senior figures from Donald Trump’s first term, on Tuesday warned that China was outpacing the US in critical technology fields and urged Congress to increase funding for federal scientific research.
The appeal comes a week after the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds science research, fired 170 people in response to Donald Trump’s order to reduce the federal workforce. An NSF spokesman declined comment on reports that hundreds more layoffs were possible and that the agency’s budget could be slashed by billions.
Continue reading...Taiwan’s coastguard says it ‘cannot be ruled out that it was a grey-zone intrusion by China’
Taiwan’s coastguard has detained a cargo ship and its Chinese crew after an undersea cable in the Taiwan Strait was damaged on Tuesday, saying it cannot rule out the possibility it was a deliberate “grey zone” act.
“Whether the cause of the undersea cable breakage was intentional sabotage or a simple accident remains to be clarified by further investigation,” the coastguard said in a statement. “It cannot be ruled out that it was a grey-zone intrusion by China.”
Continue reading...Sections of partly constructed elevated motorway in Anseong fell one after the other, killing at least three construction workers
A motorway bridge collapse has killed at least three people and injured seven as spans of the partly built structure collapsed one after the other.
The accident took place on Tuesday in Anseong, about 70km (43.5 miles) from Seoul, when five 50-metre steel support structures collapsed in turn after being hoisted into place by a crane, the Yonhap news agency reported. The collapse was captured by the rear-facing dashcam of a car on a road beneath.
Continue reading...‘I took the discussion too far,’ says commerce minister Andrew Bayly, calling his own behaviour ‘overbearing’
A New Zealand government minister said on Monday he had resigned from his post after “placing his hand” on a staff member’s upper arm during an “animated” discussion.
The country’s minister for commerce and consumer affairs, Andrew Bayly, told reporters his behaviour towards the staff member had been “overbearing”.
Continue reading...New Zealand defence minister Judith Collins says department has ‘never seen a task group of this capability undertaking this sort of work’
New Zealand’s defence minister has warned that Chinese warships located off the east coast of Australia are armed with “extremely capable” weapons that could reach Australia.
The three vessels, known as Taskgroup 107, undertook two live-fire exercises in the seas between Australia and New Zealand last week, causing commercial flights to be diverted in the skies above.
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Continue reading...Accident happened in Siem Reap province that saw heavy fighting in 1980s between government soldiers and Khmer Rouge
A grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes in rural Cambodia, officials said.
The accident happened on Saturday in Siem Reap province’s Svay Leu district, where there had been heavy fighting in the 1980s and 90s between Cambodian government soldiers and rebel guerrillas from the communist Khmer Rouge. The group had been ousted from power in 1979.
Continue reading...Report from New Zealand navy personnel comes a day after similar drill forced multiple airlines to change flight paths between Australia and New Zealand
China’s navy has reportedly conducted a second live-fire exercise in international waters, a day after a similar drill forced multiple airlines to change flight paths between Australia and New Zealand.
New Zealand navy personnel advised live rounds were fired from a Chinese warship in international waters near the island nation on Saturday.
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Continue reading...Democratic party chair Lo Kin-hei would not comment on whether Beijing put pressure on members
Hong Kong’s oldest pro-democracy party, which became an influential voice of opposition before Beijing cracked down on dissent, will start preparations to shut down, its leader has said.
Lo Kin-hei, the chair of Hong Kong’s Democratic party, said on Thursday: “We are going to proceed and study on the process and procedure that is needed for the disbanding.”
Continue reading...Head of anti-trafficking agency says dozens of Chinese criminal gangs were running the centres
Tens of thousands of people could be living inside illegal scam compounds in Myanmar that have proliferated near Thailand’s border, according to the head of Thailand’s anti-trafficking agency, who warned it could take months before all foreign nationals are repatriated.
Thailand has launched a major crackdown on scam compounds over recent weeks, cutting off cross-border electricity and fuel supplies.
Continue reading...Velvet worms have rows of pudgy legs, skin speckled like a galaxy and dissolve their prey with sticky goo
An ancient gummy-looking worm-like creature with a vicious hunting method that involves projecting sticky goo from its head has been crowned New Zealand’s bug of the year.
The Peripatoides novaezealandiae is from the family of velvet worms, or Ngāokeoke in the Māori language. The invertebrates have rows of pudgy legs and skin speckled like a galaxy, and are considered “living fossils”, having remained virtually unchanged for 500m years.
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