China Accused Of “Huge Hack” Of Thousands Of European Diplomatic Cables

Step side Russia: the new global hacking bogeyman is now officially China.

Just days after the US accused Beijing of hacking hundreds of millions of Marriott accounts and extracting the private data of countless Americans, even as the ongoing diplomatic feud over Chinese “intermediation” in western communications via the likes of Huawei escalates, moments ago the EU unveiled that China was now also the new Wikileaks, accusing hacker tied to China’s People’s Liberation Army of a “huge hack” of its diplomatic cables and reviving fears about vulnerabilities in the 28-country bloc’s data systems.

China Infrastructure Push Reaches Arctic, Leaving Out U.S.

 

• Xi adds Arctic, Latin America to Belt and Road Initiative
• Latest expansion leaves out only Canada, Japan and U.S.

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With the addition of the Arctic and Latin America last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative has become truly global. Only the U.S., its neighbor Canada and ally Japan have yet to be included in the plan, which seeks to build or upgrade a network of highways, railways, ports and pipelines.

Australian Army plans for future high-tech combat in Asia’s mega-cities

The Australian Army has begun planning for high-tech combat in Asia’s mega-cities, including hotly contested cyber warfare, scientifically enhanced soldiers and killer robots, according to a new Defence Department study.

The Australian Army’s Directorate of Future Land Warfare has published a report that warns Australia’s future land wars will be very different from recent conflicts in the rural and remote terrain of Afghanistan and Iraq.

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With the world’s population expected to reach 8 billion by 2030, the directorate sees Asia’s mega-cities as key potential future battlegrounds.

New Zealand, China in Talks on Convertibility of Currencies

The world is leaving the US Dollar, one country at a time, and America is too busy following the Kardashians to notice.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand—Seeking to help its exporters, New Zealand is negotiating with China to make their currencies directly convertible, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister John Key said.

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Talks are in the “very early stages” and “progressing,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the issue had been brought up during Mr. Key’s visit to China last month.

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Direct convertibility between the Chinese yuan and New Zealand dollar would end the need for New Zealand’s companies and currency traders to convert New Zealand dollars or yuan into U.S. dollars when making or receiving payments.