Lemmy NZ

The H5N1 strain of bird flu that has been affecting countries around the world has arrived in New Zealand.

Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard confirmed the news on Wednesday afternoon, saying a brown skua returned a positive test after it was found on Petone Beach in Wellington.

The H5N1 strain, which has just arrived in New Zealand, emerged across the Northern Hemisphere in 2020.

"This H5N1 strain differs significantly from other HPAI strains because it spreads more easily between wild birds," DOC said.

Have we had bird flu before?

Yes - and recently. In December 2024, a high pathogenic H7N6 subtype of avian influenza was detected on a chicken farm in Otago.

Should we be concerned?

A main concern with the virus arriving in New Zealand was the threat it posed to wildlife.

Internationally, Geoghegan said H5N1 has caused major mortality events in wild birds and marine mammals.

Will this impact humans?

While bird flu is not a human disease, Geoghegan said humans have been able to be infected by the virus through direct contact with infected animals.

"In countries where avian influenza is present, human infection has generally only been found in people who have had a lot of contact with infected birds or other infected animals."

"People with avian influenza do not easily spread the virus to other people," Health NZ said.

"On the rare occasion this has happened, it was because a person infected with avian influenza had a lot of close regular contact with another person, who then became sick too."

What can we do to help?

Hoggard said people should call MPI if they see sick or dead birds - particularly groups of sea birds washed up onshore.

The Act leader has suggested smartphones could be banned for under-16-year-olds.

In a speech to a business leaders' dinner on Wednesday night, David Seymour said it's clear anxiety, depression and self-harm has increased in children and young people since the advent of smartphones.

He has suggested Parliament could prohibit the purchase, possession and supply of smartphones to under-16s, instead only allowing teenagers to use 'dumb-phones', which don't have access to social media apps.

"We already prohibit adults from supplying minors with tobacco and alcohol, for example.

"The object is tangible, the rule is understandable, and reasonable adults support the purpose of the law. A smartphone is just as tangible."

Citing political commentator Ani O'Brien, Seymour said that instead of regulating the platforms, the device should be targeted instead.

"Put simply, why don't we deal with the hardware instead of the software?"

The government is already considering a social media ban in line with Australia's and the United Kingdom's - but the Act Party has said it doesn't support it.

Seymour said a ban on social media is too hard to implement, and won't work.

R.I.P Sam

From 1 July 2026, energy retailers in NSW, South Australia, and South-East Queensland must give households at least three hours of free electricity every day. No solar panels required. No need to own your home. You just need a smart meter and to opt in through your retailer to have access to free daytime electricity.

The scheme is called the Solar Sharer Offer. It works by passing on the benefit of cheap midday solar power, which has always existed on the wholesale market but never made it to your bill, directly to households. Since it was first announced in November 2025, one significant change has been made to the design. This article covers what that change is, how the scheme works in practice, and how to get the most out of it.

cross-posted from: https://no.lastname.nz/post/3413390

Sunset at Mskorori beach

Caught a Kawhai off the beach with the kids, life is good.

Kiwi actor Sir Sam Neill has died, his family has announced.

"It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia.

"Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life."

The statement says Neill's death was sudden and unexpected but they were "blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free".

Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad

I'm a big fan of machine learning. I'd say this project needs a lot more public scrutiny.

RNZ asked for votes and now have released the top 100 NZ songs. I didn't find an easy way to copy a list here.

Spotify playlist

Last thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you
• Something humourous that happened to you
• Something frustrating that happened to you
• A quick question
• A request for recommendations
• Pictures of your pet
• A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
• Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/54887137

Sāmoa Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao Schmidt says Pacific ties with Australia have moved beyond friendship, describing the relationship as one built on family, people and shared opportunities.

“We are no longer friends, we are family now,” Schmidt told Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during leaders’ talks in Brisbane on Wednesday.

The meeting brought together Albanese with the prime ministers of Sāmoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea, as Pacific leaders discussed security, climate change, labour mobility and the role of sports in strengthening regional connections.

...

The talks came as Pacific leaders prepare for further regional discussions including the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Palau next month and climate talks ahead of COP later this year.

Albanese also said Pacific leaders would soon release a joint statement on China’s recent missile test in the region, reinforcing the importance of Pacific countries working together on regional peace and security.

...

Meanwhile, New Zealand will explore joining Australia and Fiji's new defence pact, days after its signing was followed by China firing a nuclear-capable missile into the South Pacific.

The Government of New Zealand announced ... it would engage with both countries "on the possibility of joining" the Ocean of Peace Alliance, with a final decision to be made by Cabinet, followed by the usual process for treaties through Parliament.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon welcomed the alliance, signed by Australian PM Anthony Albanese and his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka in Suva on Monday ... It is Fiji's first military alliance and Australia's fourth – following the ANZUS Treaty with New Zealand and the US, and a bilateral treaty signed with Papua New Guinea last year.

...

Web Archive link

Welcome back for our second financial update. See the first one here.

This quarter we added a little bit of hard drive space and 1GB of RAM but haven't been charged for it yet. As I paid for the VPS for 6 months in February, there are no further VPS charges this quarter.

Expenses for April-June 2026: $28.33

The expenses are made up of:

• VPS: $0
• Image and backup storage: $28.33

Expenses are allocated to the period they were paid, not to the period they cover. This is based on the actual amount charged to my card.

Contributions in April-June 2026: $140

We received five donations totalling $140 this quarter. Donations are based on the amount the person donated, as listed by Buy Me A Coffee (before their fees). At the end of the year I'll do a match up to try to match actual payout to donated amount to see what this difference is.

Overall position: -$177.86

• Opening balance: -$289.53
• Contributions: $140
• Expenses: -$28.33
• Total: -$177.86
• Percent of expenses paid for by contributions (this year): 55%

An update on our VPS

During the quarter we added 10GB of storage space and 1GB more RAM but otherwise the VPS seems to be sized appropriately. Last time I mentioned bandwidth usage and the potential to move away from Cloudflare. As a step towards this, I have disabled Cloudflare image caching, so all images should come via the server. This could also impact the load speed for geolocation reasons so we will see how this goes.

Donations

If you want to contribute to the cost of running Lemmy.nz, see the post here. Or the direct link: https://buymeacoffee.com/lemmynz

The usual caveat: Please don't contribute if it will impact you financially. I don't want to see anyone saying "I only had $5 in my bank account but Lemmy is important so I donated my last $5" like I've seen on other instances. If you can't afford it then don't feel bad, this round is on me. I don't mind, truly. But if you can easily chip in a few bucks a month, then it is appreciated 🙂

Pātai

As usual, feel free to ask any questions!

I went to sign up for Club+ cause they said my card would stop working soon. Just as a side, I copy and pasted the terms of service and privacy policy into chat jippity and asked it if anything was strange. Looks like we're allowing them to build up and share/sell a pretty rich profile including license plate data and facial recognition.

Might be worth it to have a read beforevblindly clicking through.

Also, if you play minecraft this site can be useful: https://pooworld.co.nz/

"borrowed" from the palmerston north Facebook page, multiple people thought this would work. It didn't.

They tried it earlier with a van, and managed to get the back wheels off the ground.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/54735613

China on Monday test-fired an intercontinental missile from a submarine in the southern Pacific Ocean, the first such launch in two years, drawing immediate criticism from regional powers.

In a statement, the People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN, said a nuclear-powered sub fired a “strategic missile carrying a dummy warhead” just after midday Beijing time. The launch was “not directed at any specific country or target,” and the missile “landed precisely within the designated waters,” the Navy said, without specifying where these were.

...

Speaking Monday, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was “deeply concerned” by the latest missile test, which he described as “not consistent with regional stability and peace in the South Pacific.”

Regional governments, including New Zealand, were informed of the test shortly before it happened, Mr. Peters said.

...

The missile was fired into the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, a region established by the Treaty of Rarotonga, to which China is a partial signatory. Protocol III of the treaty, which Beijing endorsed in 1987, calls on signatories “not to test nuclear explosive devices” within the zone, which stretches from Australia to French Polynesia in the east and New Zealand in the south.

...

Speaking in Fiji, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong also criticized the test, saying it risked “destabilizing the region.”

Monday’s launch comes in the wake of a “rapid military build-up by China” that is lacking in “transparency and reassurance as to intent,” Ms. Wong added, and “underscores the imperative of countries of the region to work together to ensure that it is Pacific countries who determine our futures.”

Ms. Wong was in the Pacific island nation to finalize a security pact and mutual defence treaty between Suva and Canberra, part of a strategy by Australia in recent years to reassert itself as a regional security guarantor sparked by concerns over China’s growing influence with Pacific nations.

...

Separate to Monday’s missile test, the PLAN also kicked off military exercises with Russia off the coast of Qingdao, in east China’s Shandong Province.

...

Web Archive link

Archived

Ballistic missile tests and the presence of the Chinese Navy will become a “persistent” feature in the Pacific as Beijing ramps up its military might, New Zealand officials warned in an internal document obtained by AFP.

“We anticipate that Chinese actions, such as the transit of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) task group through the Tasman Sea in February and China’s firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific in September 2024, will be a persistent feature of our strategic environment,” reads the report, obtained under Freedom of Information laws.

The 15-page document, dated December 2025, was drafted by New Zealand’s Defence Force and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade while Wellington was monitoring a Chinese naval flotilla in the Philippine Sea. It was briefed to New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, alongside his ministers of defense, foreign affairs, and intelligence.

“New Zealand officials are in close contact with Australian counterparts and maintain operational oversight of these vessels,” the report notes.

China has poured billions of dollars into its defense sector in recent years, a trend that has unnerved several regional governments.

[...]

Wellington’s anxieties over Chinese military movements had already intensified following the deployment of three Chinese warships to the Tasman Sea, located between Australia and New Zealand, in February 2025.

The vast majority of the report provided to AFP was heavily redacted for privacy, national security, and confidentiality reasons.

In the unredacted sections, officials noted that Beijing’s February 2025 deployment into the Tasman Sea complied with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

[...]

Beijing’s December deployment to the Philippine Sea was “consistent with the incremental expansion of China’s maritime security presence in the South Pacific over the past decade,” the text adds.

“Beijing has deployed a wide range of military vessels to the region, including, but not limited to, hospital ships, large amphibious vessels supporting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, and space event support ships.”

[...]

TIL The Spinoff has a YouTube channel

There's quite a bit of fuckery with the billing. When I take the dollar amount listed as "Total Charges" and divide it by the total kWh listed under "EA Levy" I get $0.27 per kWh. That includes day rate, lines fees, and all the other easy-to-understand charges.

We dont allow any nuclear ships in NZ because the ships are some sort of "boogyman". We dont let the ships in because you dont tell us which ones store the nuclear bombs! So we treat all the ships like they are carrying nukes and dont allow any of them.