'An effort to break the agency': Memo exposes plan to ruin Social Security
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New Zealand faces most challenging security environment in recent time, report shows
By Lucy Craymer WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand is facing the toughest national security challenges of recent times with increasing threats of foreign interference and espionage, particularly from China, according to an intelligence report released on Thursday. The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) report said there was almost certainly undetected espionage activity harming the country's interests and that foreign states continue to target critical organisations, infrastructure and technology to steal sensitive information. 'Some states, including China, Russia and Iran, are willing to engage in covert or deceptive activity in order to influence discussions and decisions, or gain access to technology and information that can help them meet these goals ... New Zealand has been targeted by some of these activities,' the report said. China was a particularly "assertive and powerful" actor in the region and had demonstrated both a willingness and capability to undertake intelligence activity that targets New Zealand's national interests, it added. The Chinese Embassy in New Zealand did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The report titled New Zealand's Security Threat Environment is released annually as part of a government shift to better inform New Zealanders about risks the country is facing. The country, part of the Five Eyes intelligence and security alliance, has increasingly amped up its rhetoric over the growing influence of China in the region and a rise in geopolitical tensions, committing earlier this year to spend more on defence. Director-General of Security Andrew Hampton said the threats need to be taken much more seriously than they are currently. 'Our threat environment is deteriorating and that has a direct impact on our safety and security,' he said in a statement released alongside the report. The report also pointed to the growing threat of violent extremism and said the most plausible attack scenario remains a lone actor who has been radicalised online. 'Grievances and polarising issues in the online information space are almost certainly driving support for a range of violent extremist ideologies within New Zealand,' the report noted. Solve the daily Crossword
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2 hours ago
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Pete Hegseth is requiring so much security it's taking officers off of criminal investigations
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's security requirements are so extensive that it is placing a strain on the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division, according to a report. The Washington Post reports that the CID, which is responsible for protecting top Pentagon officials as well as serving as the Army's law enforcment arm, has been forced to draft agents who would otherwise be investigating criminal offenses concerning members of the Armed Forces to help watch over Hegseth's family and their properties in D.C., Minnesota and Tennessee. 'I've never seen this many security teams for one guy,' one official told the newspaper. 'Nobody has.' The CID reportedly maintains around 1,500 agents in total, around 150 of whom are typically assigned to VIP security details. But since Hegseth took office in January, the number shifted over into personal protection roles has risen to between 400 and 500, according to two differing estimates the paper received. One CID official quoted by the Post expressed their frustration with the situation by saying agents were being prevented from 'doing what we are supposed to be doing' in order to 'sit on luggage' or 'sit in the cars on the driveway.' Others complained of having to shepherd the secretary's children to school or patrol the perimeter of his properties. 'It is literally taking away from [CID's] law enforcement mission,' they said. 'You are taking hundreds of people out of the field to provide this level of protection.' One of the reasons for the heightened security surrounding the secretary is the fact that he received a bomb threat at his Tennessee home late last year shortly after he was nominated to his post by President Donald Trump, which came a matter of months after two attempts were made on Trump's own life during the campaign, the first of which saw the Secret Service heavily criticized. Another is the complexity of Hegseth's blended family, which includes one child from his marriage to Jennifer Hegseth as well as three from her previous marriage and another three from his. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell reacted angrily to the Post's reporting and told The Independent: 'In the wake of two assassinations attempts against President Trump, ICE agents facing a 1,000 percent increase in assaults, and repeated threats of retaliation from Iran for striking their nuclear capabilities, it's astonishing that The Washington Post is criticizing a high-ranking cabinet official for receiving appropriate security protection, especially after doxxing the DHS Secretary last week. 'Any action pertaining to the security of Secretary Hegseth and his family has been in response to the threat environment and at the full recommendation the Army Criminal Investigation Division. When left-wing blogs like The Washington Post continue to dox cabinet secretaries' security protocols and movements, it puts lives at risk.' A senior CID official told The Independent: 'While the department prioritizes the safety and security of assigned high-risk personnel, CID operates within existing resource constraints and proactively adjusts its efforts to address emerging threats and maintains a robust security posture in both the investigative and protective realms.' 'The secretary of defense never requested additional protection for his former spouses,' the official added, refuting one of the claims made by the Post. 'Similarly, the secretary has never affected CID's recommended security posture.' Hegseth's reign as the nation's top defense official has been tumultuous so far, with U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin's departure on Monday only the latest in an ongoing shake-up that has seen the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of naval operations, the commandant of the Coast Guard, and the vice chief of staff of the Air Force all changed in recent months. The secretary has also struggled to replace his own chief of staff, spokesman and senior aides after they left and found himself caught up in the 'Signalgate' scandal, which erupted in March when Trump's short-lived national security adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat in which top secret information about an upcoming bombing raid on Houthi rebels in Yemen was discussed. In addition, Hegseth, a former Fox News weekend host, has been caught up in a number of culture war issues, from the renaming of the U.S.S. Harvey Milk to questions arising from his decision to post a video on X in which a Christian nationalist pastor expressed his support for depriving women of the vote.
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3 hours ago
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Russia says talks on Ukraine's security without Moscow are a 'road to nowhere'
By Dmitry Antonov and Mark Trevelyan MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Wednesday attempts to resolve security issues relating to Ukraine without Moscow's participation were a "road to nowhere," sounding a warning to the West as it scrambles to work out guarantees for Kyiv's future protection. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov particularly criticised the role of European leaders who met U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House on Monday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine that could help end the three-and-a-half-year-old war. "We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work," Lavrov told a joint press conference after meeting Jordan's foreign minister. U.S. and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine, U.S. officials and sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Lavrov said such discussions without Russia were pointless. "I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia, it's a road to nowhere." NATO military leaders holding a video conference on Wednesday had a "great, candid discussion" on the results of recent talks on Ukraine, the chair of the alliance's military committee said. "Priority continues to be a just, credible and durable peace," Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone wrote in a post on X. A Western official told Reuters that a small group of military leaders continued discussions in Washington on security guarantees shortly after the bigger virtual meeting. After Polish officials said that an object that crashed in a cornfield in eastern Poland overnight was likely a Russian drone, Poland accused Russia of provoking NATO countries just as efforts to find an end to the war were intensifying. "Once again, we are dealing with a provocation by the Russian Federation, with a Russian drone. We are dealing in a crucial moment, when discussions about peace (in Ukraine) are under way," Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said. Lavrov's comments highlighted Moscow's demand for Western governments to directly engage with it on questions of security concerning Ukraine and Europe, something it says they have so far refused to do. Moscow this week also restated its rejection of "any scenarios involving the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine." 'CLUMSY' EUROPEANS Lavrov accused the European leaders who met Trump and Zelenskiy of carrying out "a fairly aggressive escalation of the situation, rather clumsy and, in general, unethical attempts to change the position of the Trump administration and the president of the United States personally ... We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there." Trump said on Monday the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia's war there. He subsequently said he had ruled out putting U.S. troops in Ukraine, but the U.S. might provide air support as part of a deal to end the hostilities. Zelenskiy's chief of staff, speaking after a meeting of national security advisers from Western countries and NATO, said work was proceeding on the military component of the guarantees. "Our teams, above all the military, have already begun active work on the military component of security guarantees," chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on social media. Yermak said Ukraine was also working on a plan with its allies on how to proceed "in case the Russian side continues to prolong the war and disrupt agreements on bilateral and trilateral formats of leaders' meetings." Lavrov said Russia was in favour of "truly reliable" guarantees for Ukraine and suggested these could be modelled on a draft accord that was discussed between the warring parties in Istanbul in 2022, in the early weeks of the war. Under the draft discussed then, Ukraine would have received security guarantees from a group of countries including the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - China, Russia, the United States, Britain, and France. At the time, Kyiv rejected that proposal on the grounds that Moscow would have held effective veto power over any military response to come to its aid. Solve the daily Crossword
