By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

There are 306 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today – a new record high – with 216 cases in Auckland alone.

Photo: SCIENCE PHOTO LI / DDJ / Science Photo Library via AFP

The previous highest number of cases in one day was 243 cases on 5 February.

In a statement today, the Ministry of Health said the new community cases were in the following DHBs – Northland (12), Auckland (216), Waikato (48), Tairāwhiti (4), Bay of Plenty (7), Lakes (6), MidCentral (2), Taranaki (5), Hutt Valley (3) and Capital and Coast (3).

There are 12 cases in hospital in Auckland, Rotorua, Bay of Plenty and Christchurch. None of them in ICU

The ministry said there were 30 cases in MIQ, with travellers arriving from UAE, Australia, Fiji, India, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Qatar.

There were 204 community cases reported in New Zealand yesterday.

There has now been a total of 18,460 cases of Covid-19 in the community.

There were 56,257 vaccine booster doses given yesterday, as well as 782 first doses; 1568 second doses and 1941 paediatric doses.

The ministry also confirmed a case in Queenstown – the first community case in the Southern DHB this outbreak – although it will be officially added to the case numbers tomorrow.

Anyone who caught flight NZ614 Queenstown to Auckland on Sunday at 9.19am is considered a close contact of the case.

Close contacts are urged to self-isolate, test immediately and on day five after exposure.

Queenstown Airport in Frankton has been listed as a location of interest for Sunday from 8.45am to 9.15am.

And in the North Island, two Ilminister Intermediate students in Gisborne have also tested positive to the virus.

Two Super Rugby Pacific teams are also isolating in Queenstown due to Covid-19 close contact protocols.

Wastewater testing has shown the presence of Covid-19 in the Northland towns of Mangawhai and Whatuwhiwhi.

Other detections from samples taken last week include Morrinsville in Waikato and the Taranaki town of Hāwera.

The Institute of Environmental Science and Research tests dozens of sites each week.

Meanwhile, a public health expert has warned that a protest on Parliament grounds, which has gone into its third day, may risk becoming a superspreader event.

By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

The US Justice Department said it had unraveled its biggest-ever cryptocurrency theft, seizing a record-shattering $US3.6 billion in Bitcoin tied to the 2016 hack of digital currency exchange Bitfinex.

Photo: 123rf

A husband-and-wife team of alleged money launderers was arrested in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, it added.

It was the Justice Department’s biggest financial seizure, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, adding in a statement that it shows cryptocurrency is “not a safe haven for criminals.”

Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Heather Morgan, 31, both New Yorkers, were scheduled to make their initial appearances in federal court Tuesday at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

They face charges of conspiring to commit money laundering as well as to defraud the United States. The case was filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C.

It was unclear who will be representing the couple in the criminal case. Calls and messages left for Lichtenstein and his wife have not been returned.

The pair is accused of conspiring to launder 119,754 bitcoin stolen after a hacker broke into Bitfinex and initiated more than 2000 unauthorized transactions. Justice Department officials said the transactions at the time were valued at $US71m in Bitcoin, but with the rise in the currency’s value, it is now valued at over $US4.5b.

A key clue may have come from the 2017 bust of an underground digital market used to launder a portion of the funds. US officials said some of the money was transferred to AlphaBay, an anything-goes version of eBay hosted on the dark web.

When the site was taken down, it likely allowed authorities to access AlphaBay’s internal transaction logs and connect them to a cryptocurrency account in Lichtenstein’s name, according to digital currency tracking company Elliptic.

Bitfinex said in a statement it was working with the Department of Justice to “establish our rights to a return of the stolen bitcoin.”

Lichtenstein and his wife also tried to launder money via a network of currency exchanges or claimed that the money represented payments to Morgan’s startup, the Department of Justice said. Prosecutors said on Tuesday the illegal proceeds were spent on things ranging from gold and non-fungible tokens to “absolutely mundane things such as purchasing a Walmart gift card for $500.”

The couple had active public profiles, especially Morgan, as rap singer “Razzlekhan,” a pseudonym she said on her website referred to Genghis Khan “but with more pizzazz.”

Morgan also had sidelines in the painting, fashion design, and writing worlds, where she pitched herself as a kind of corporate coach. One of her recent pieces was titled, in part, “Tips to Protect Your Business from Cybercriminals” and featured an interview with a cryptocurrency exchange owner about how to prevent fraud.

Tuesday’s criminal complaint came more than four months after Monaco announced the department was launching a new National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which comprises a mix of anti-money laundering and cybersecurity experts.

Cyber criminals who attack companies, municipalities and individuals with ransomware often demand payment in cryptocurrency.

In one high-profile example last year, former partners and associates of the ransomware group REvil caused a widespread gas shortage on the US East Coast when it used encryption software called DarkSide to launch a cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline.

The Justice Department later recovered some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom that Colonial paid to the hackers.

Cases like these demonstrate that the Justice Department “can follow money across the blockchain, just as we have always followed it within the traditional financial system,” said Kenneth Polite, assistant attorney general of the department’s Criminal Division.

– Reuters

By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

There are 204 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today.

(File image) Photo: 123RF

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said the new community cases were in Northland (8), Auckland (135), Waikato (35), Rotorua (1), Taupō (1), Bay of Plenty (11),Taranaki (1), Palmerston North (2) Wellington (3), Hutt Valley (3), Nelson Marlborough (1), Canterbury (3)

There are 16 cases in hospital, although none are in ICU.

The ministry said there were 46 cases in MIQ reported yesterday, with travellers arriving from India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Pakistan, UK, Australia, Fiji, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, France, USA and the Philippines.

There were 202 new community cases and 63 in MIQ reported yesterday.

There have now been 18,126 cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand since the pandemic began.

Meanwhile, South Auckland primary schools are considering whether to host vaccine clinics to help vaccinate the region’s 5 to 11 year olds.

There were 60,537 booster doses given yesterday, as well as 812 first doses, 1772 second doses and 2209 paediatric doses.

The ministry said today it was starting a national week of action called ‘The Big Boost’ today, making it as easy as possible to get a booster, with pop-up vaccination centres and extended opening hours.

It said all DHBs have now fully vaccinated 90 percent of their Pacific communities, with Whanganui reaching the milestone yesterday.

“Advocates, church groups, health providers and countless other entities across the motu have led the way in ensuring that our Pacific populations have some of the highest vaccination rates in the country.”

There seems to be different approaches taken by supermarkets over limited sales of some products, with Countdown not having any in place on products apart from Panadol and Ibuprofen.

Countdown says it can bring in restrictions on products in a matter of hours if needed. File photo Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon

Countdown corporate affairs general manager Kiri Hannifin told Morning Report they have found that putting restrictions in place could be counterproductive.

“If we needed restrictions, if people were buying too much or we were short of stock, we would put restrictions in place. But we don’t need to at the moment,” Hannifin said.

Restrictions could raise anxiety instead of prevent panic-buying, she said.

“And that’s counterproductive because it just wipes out the shelves … we think it causes unnecessary concern.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson has already warned that it is “inevitable” there will be some impact on the supply-chain as Omicron spreads in the community, but he said officials would be working to minimise disruption.

If there was surge in buying as a result of disruption in the supply, as witnessed in Australia, then Countdown could easily bring in restrictions in a matter of hours, Hannifin said.

“It’s been very difficult for our business in Australia and they saw significant disruption and lots of supply issues in stores, that started basically in the farm or in the food plant,” she said.

“So, we’re planning for it. I guess we’ve expected it before now. We were sort of thinking we might see some problems or some issues last week, but we’re doing pretty well as a country, so we’re … kind of bracing ourselves for disruption, but not seeing it at the moment.

“But if it’s like Australia, it will be a bit difficult for us and Kiwis will have to be a little bit patient because there will be some gaps on the shelves, but hopefully if we keep going like we’re doing at the moment as a country and scanning in and testing and wearing masks, we might not see it so significant.”

Countdown was also preparing for up to 30 percent of staff to be away at any one time, at any site, Hannifin said.

“We’ve got different plans, depending on where that is in the country. So for Auckland or Wellington, it’s very easy to manage, [but] it’s much harder to manage in Taupō or Queenstown, where there’s only one store.

“And of course, the distribution centres – we need sort of 85 percent of our team to be there to run [it], so we’ve got different sort of Covid protocols depending on where we are and what we’re doing.”

There is already one store where a section has had to be closed down because of team members isolating, Hannifin said.

“So we’re already sort of doing it, but nowhere near as impactful as it was last August when we had 3000 people away, so we closed nine stores in Auckland to kind of deal with it. So we can close stores, we can reduce hours, we can close the deli or the bakery, we can close down a particular aisle.”

She said they were very mindful of regions where there was only store supplying them.

“In those areas, like for example, Dargaville, we’re looking at whether we’ll do you know RAT [rapid antigen] testing in that store to kind of have elevated Covid controls, stop online delivery, really kind of reduce the service to very basic food and grocery so that we can run with say 60 percent of the team.”

But it was not just about the logistics of keeping a store open and running, Hannifin said they wanted to ensure the well-being of staff too.

By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

A team of workers from Elon Musk’s SpaceX are in Fiji trying to re-establish full internet communications in Tonga, with a Starlink broadband connection.

A view over an area of Tonga that shows the heavy ash fall from the recent volcanic eruption within the Tongan Islands. Photo: Supplied / NZ Defence Force

Starlink uses satellites to connect remote areas to the internet.

It came 25 days after Tonga lost all communications when its Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted, severing its undersea cable.

Gorilla Technology chief executive Paul Spain told Morning Report while satellite internet has been available for a number of years, SpaceX’s satellites were much closer to the Earth that had been seen before.

“Really, it just allows them to deliver just incredible internet performance.”

The current satellite internet available in Tonga was very limited, he said. Starlink would allow widespread internet availability while the fiber optic cable was still damaged.

Cable connection was always better from a performance and bandwidth perspective but having the option available would be fantastic, he said.

Not all Tongan islands had fiber optic cable running to them, he said.

“This may be a permanent option for some of those particular locations.”

The Starlink base service sells in New Zealand for $159, a cost that could be potentially shared among a group of people, he said.

“It’s pretty accessible considering this is an unlimited or uncapped service compared to what we’ve had in the past and also considering the level of performance and the lack of delays.”

More than 50 police have formed a ring around the front of Parliament edging up to a line of protesters who have linked arms lining up in front of the cenotaph.

One person speaking said he would walk up the Parliament steps at 3pm and get arrested, inviting others in the crowd to join, saying “see you at 3pm” to cheers from the crowd.

The group is part of a convoy which travelled to the capital yesterday to protest against Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

Steel barriers have been put up in front of the protesters.

The crowd was still largely peaceful but some were heckling police and the temperature was starting to rise.

Protesters who spent the night camped on Parliament grounds have been warned they could be issued with a trespass notice.

About 1000 people and hundreds of vehicle converged on Parliament grounds yesterday, and at least 100 people camped overnight.

Trucks and other vehicles are blocking Molesworth Street.

Police issued a statement late last night saying they were monitoring the situation and were talking with the Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard.

More than 50 police have formed a ring around the front of Parliament edging up to a line of protesters who had linked arms lining up in front of the cenotaph. Photo: RNZ / Jane Patterson

Protesters have been given a letter from the Speaker setting out Parliament’s rules, which prohibit staying overnight on the grounds and ban tents or other structures.

Specific policies mentioned in the letter include leaving the grounds in an orderly manner and not interfering with traffic.

“Participants must assemble within and disperse from the grounds in an orderly manner, and so as to not interfere with the flow of vehicular traffic.”

Police forming a ring around the front of Parliament. Photo: RNZ / Jane Patterson

It also mentions that tents and structures are banned from the grounds.

“No erection of tents or any structure is permitted other than hand held signs … structures including tents as mentioned above are not permitted and if not removed when requested, are liable for confiscation.”

Protesters outside Parliament. Photo: RNZ / Jane Patterson

It said if the rules were breached people could be trespassed and their equipment confiscated.

“In line with these existing policies, please disassemble any tents or structures and remove them from the grounds. Do not continue protests or demonstrations on the grounds after dark. The breach of the above policies and failure to carry out the actions may result in trespass notices being issued.”

A truck and vans from the convoy covered in protest messages. Photo: RNZ / Hamish Cardwell

There are also campervans parked in nearby streets and the police say Molesworth Street in front of Parliament is not accessible to traffic, and drivers should avoid the area this morning.

It is not clear how long the protesters will be allowed to stay.

Tents set up in the grounds of the law school over the road from Parliament. Photo: RNZ / Hamish Cardwell

Wellington City Council is talking with police about their options to deal with cars illegally blocking the roads and footpath near Parliament.

Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said if cars were to be removed there would be resources needed.

He said the council wants to avoid confrontation but are planning for if it were to arise.

Motorists are still being advised to avoid the area if possible.

The scene from the front lawn of Parliament. The media are no longer allowed on the grounds. Photo: RNZ / Hamish Cardwell