RocketWerkz founder cracks US$50m but says gaming future is grim
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RocketWerkz founder cracks US$50m but says gaming future is grim
Dean Hall's DayZ and Icarus games have been winners, but he fears studios are increasingly beholden to large publishers.
RocketWerkz has had success with its Icarus survival game, including via downloadable content that allows players to keep pets.
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NZ Herald
3 hours ago
- NZ Herald
According to UN data, hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have been shot dead while seeking food
In recent weeks, it has emerged as a final sticking point in negotiations over a ceasefire, placing the Israeli- and United States-backed GHF squarely in the crosshairs of the latest talks. Hamas is demanding a return to the United Nations-co-ordinated system of aid delivery that operated in Gaza for decades. Israel charges that Hamas has corrupted that system. It wants to maintain strict controls on assistance to Gazans, using the newly created GHF as the primary mechanism for food distribution. Critics, including the UN and most of the international humanitarian aid community, say the GHF is designed to further Israeli war aims by selectively and inadequately providing assistance, and by forcing Gazans to put their lives in danger for a box of provisions. In a statement released yesterday, 21 European countries and others including New Zealand, Canada, and Australia issued a joint statement saying that 'the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths'. It condemned 'the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food'. 'The Israeli Government's aid delivery model,' it said, 'is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity.' Like much of what happens inside Gaza, where Israel has banned international reporters except on brief tours led by the Israel Defence Forces, the origins and operations of the GHF remain obscure. Even more opaque is its funding. The foundation says it received about US$100 million in start-up money from a government it has declined to identify. In late June, the Trump Administration said it would supply US$30m to GHF operations. A major donation initially expected from the United Arab Emirates, according to internal planning documents seen by the Washington Post, has not materialised. The Government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has been deeply involved in the aid programme, has publicly denied paying for it. But behind the foundation, which is a registered non-profit, is a web of interconnected US and Israeli individuals, and private US companies - including some that hope to eventually make money on the relief effort, according to public and private documents reviewed by the Washington Post and interviews with more than a dozen US and Israeli government officials, business representatives and others involved, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Among those positioned to profit from GHF-linked contracts are a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, whose subsidiary Orbis Operations helped set up the foundation; and Safe Reach Solutions, the primary contractor overseeing GHF operations inside Gaza, which was created late last year for that purpose. SRS is owned by a Wyoming-based trust whose beneficiary is McNally Capital. Boston Consulting Group was also engaged in the effort to stand up the GHF, on what it has said was a pro bono basis. In March, it signed a two-month contract for more than US$1m with McNally to continue assisting SRS, with later extensions in May, an arrangement first reported by the Financial Times. BCG later withdrew from the project amid controversy, and a BCG spokeswoman, Nidhi Sinha, said no payment was accepted. The GHF has continued to deliver food to hungry Gazans: since late May, according to the foundation's count, more than 80 million meals in boxes that are calibrated to feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days. Dwindling resources have limited the number of trucks available to bring food into the enclave to about 70 to 80 per day, compared with early plans for more than 300, according to people familiar with GHF operations. Construction of additional distribution sites has also been indefinitely put off because of a lack of financing, ongoing Israeli military operations, and the need to remove unexploded ordnance throughout Gaza. Money problems, and the unknown outcome of ceasefire negotiations, have also put on hold GHF plans for a more holistic - and controversial - proposal to relocate Gazans, summarised in a 19-page slide deck distributed at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv in January, several people said. In addition to the food distribution, the slides included plans for GHF construction of large-scale residential compounds inside and potentially outside Gaza where 'the population' could reside while the enclave was 'demilitarised and rebuilt'. The slide deck suggested that approach would allow the GHF to gain trust with Gazans - a currency that could be leveraged to 'facilitate President Trump's vision' for the battle-scarred enclave. Bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on civilians waiting for aid in the western part of Rafah on July 19. Photo / Getty Images Aid 'in a non-UN way' The GHF concept was born as part of a larger effort by a group of Israeli military officials, Israeli businesspeople and foreign partners to support Israel's war effort and plan for Gaza's future. They began meeting shortly after the conflict began with Hamas' October 7, 2023, surprise attack in southern Israel, which killed about 1200 people and saw at least 250 hostages taken back to Gaza. As Israel responded to the attack, pounding Gaza with airstrikes and ground troops, it cut off the daily assistance that the 365sqkm enclave had depended on for decades. Netanyahu's Government - long distrustful of the UN, which co-ordinated deliveries of food, fuel and medical supplies - justified the blockade by claiming that Hamas controlled and profited from the aid distribution. Under pressure from the Biden Administration and humanitarian organisations that said depriving non-combatants of food was a potential war crime, Israel eventually allowed limited relief to resume. But the Israelis kept a tight hold on the spigot of assistance, generating friction between Netanyahu and the US Government, Israel's main source of weaponry and diplomatic backing. 'There was a need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza,' an Israeli familiar with the group's efforts said, but it needed to be done 'in a non-UN way'. In January 2024, the fledgling Gaza aid working group sought advice from Michael Vickers, a former Green Beret, CIA veteran and undersecretary of defence for intelligence during the Obama Administration. Vickers was on the board of Orbis Operations, a consulting company based in McLean, Virginia, that was founded by former national security, military, and intelligence specialists and which McNally purchased in 2021. Vickers told the planners, 'I'm not the guy, but I know the guy who can talk to you', according to a person familiar with the approach. The man they wanted, Vickers said, was then-Orbis vice-president Philip Reilly, a former senior CIA operations officer with extensive experience in private security operations. Reilly quickly gained the trust of the IDF and the Gaza planning group, and spent much of 2024 immersing himself in the details of the Gaza conflict. Neither Vickers nor Reilly responded to queries about their involvement in the Gaza initiative. The Biden Administration was well aware that the Israeli Government and private-sector Israelis and Americans were working with the Government on a plan to impose a new aid delivery system. While some in the Administration were supportive, most were sceptical. But they did not directly interfere in the project. 'They were all talking - they being the Israeli Government, the prime minister's office, the IDF - sort of throwing spaghetti against the wall to find some magic formula to take the responsibility off their shoulders' to care for Gaza's civilians, a former Biden official involved in Israel policy said. Ambitions and incorporations By the northern autumn, the outline of a plan was laid out in a lengthy feasibility study compiled by Silat Technologies, an Orbis subsidiary, envisioning the creation of a non-profit entity, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, 'to safely deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza'. Planning documents distributed over the next several months said that the foundation's leadership should include respected humanitarian figures such as David Beasley, former head of the World Food Programme, and Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister who now runs an institute to advise change-making political leaders. Although the UN and major non-governmental aid organisations already operating in Gaza were described as an integral part, their proposed role was unclear. An elaborate social media presence and public relations programme would include outreach to select journalists to promote a positive image of the GHF. The foundation would hire a 'prime' contractor to organise and supervise construction of the sites and the aid operation inside Gaza. That firm would then subcontract a private security company - ideally US-based - to be the boots and guns on the ground, guarding the aid as it was transported to distribution sites and protecting the sites themselves. The private companies lined up to service the planned foundation also included BCG, where both Reilly and Vickers were senior advisers. BCG, which later said its initial services were offered pro bono, projected US$2b in initial operating costs for the GHF. On November 21, a new limited liability company, Safe Reach Solutions, was registered in Jackson, Wyoming, and placed in a trust administered by a local company, Two Ocean Trust. While no information in the registration documents indicated what the new company did, who ran it or whom it employed, the beneficiary of the trust and any money it made, according to three people familiar with the arrangement, was McNally Capital, the private equity firm that owns Orbis. SRS, with Reilly as its chief executive, would later become the primary GHF contractor. Spokespeople for Two Ocean Trust and SRS declined to comment. In a statement to the Washington Post, McNally Capital said it 'did not invest in SRS or actively manage the company', but said it has an 'economic interest' in the firm. 'Given our long-established relationship with Phil Reilly … our strong belief in the importance of humanitarian aid, and the US Government's appeal for innovative solutions,' the statement said, McNally was 'pleased to have supported the establishment of SRS as an important step toward meeting the full scope of humanitarian need in Gaza'. Founded in 2008 by Ward McNally, of the Rand McNally publishing family, the firm specialises in the acquisition of aerospace, defence, and technology companies. 'Obviously, McNally is a business. They're in the business of making money,' a person familiar with the financial aspects of the project said. But 'I think it's very ambiguous whether this ends up being profitable'. A checkpoint test run As the new year approached, progress toward the food aid programme planning was interrupted by the prospect of a Gaza ceasefire and partial hostage release. Israel had agreed to move its troops out of portions of Gaza at least temporarily - allowing citizens to return to what remained of their homes in the largely destroyed northern portion of the enclave. But Israeli officials insisted on a vehicle checkpoint - run by non-IDF security - on the Netzarim Corridor, a dividing line between northern and southern Gaza, to ensure weapons were not carried back to areas the IDF said it had earlier cleared of Hamas militants. With nine days' notice, US and Arab mediators turned to the newly created SRS to organise the checkpoint. Reilly subcontracted UG Solutions, a small security firm based in North Carolina, to staff the ground operation. Headed by former Green Beret Jameson Govoni, UG had previously worked in Ukraine and Haiti, among other hot spots, and could move quickly because it had few of the classified contracts with the US or other governments that proved to be complications for bigger security companies. The ceasefire mediators - the US and Qatar - administered payments to SRS, the prime contractor, according to people familiar with the operation. The ceasefire began on January 19, the day before Donald Trump's second-term inauguration. Although the truce lasted only until mid-March, when Israel launched another ground invasion of northern Gaza, the checkpoint was deemed a success, with no major incidents reported. The Netzarim operation came to be considered a test run for the food distribution operation, and SRS and UG were well positioned to take it over for GHF. On February 2, the foundation was registered as a humanitarian non-profit in Switzerland and Delaware. The Netanyahu Government had every reason to believe that Trump would support the initiative. He vowed to quickly end the war and proposed that the US 'take over' and 'own' Gaza, developing it as a high-end Mediterranean resort. Food distribution by the GHF, planning documents indicated, was just the first step in a larger redevelopment plan. Palestinians line up to receive a hot meal at a distribution point in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City on May 21. Photo / AFP A rocky launch When the ceasefire collapsed on March 18 and the IDF resumed ground operations and airstrikes, Israel again stopped all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. As the days and weeks ticked on, thousands of tonnes of food and goods piled up in warehouses outside its borders; WFP and other humanitarian actors began to tally reports of starvation inside. By early May, Israel was under mounting international pressure to end its aid blockade, and Trump was looking for progress on his promise to end the war as he prepared for a trip to the Gulf. At a May 9 news conference in Tel Aviv, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claimed the GHF as a Trump 'initiative'. US representatives, including Aryeh Lightstone, an official who now works with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and formerly served as an aide to David Friedman when he was US ambassador to Israel, courted UN and humanitarian partners to sign on to the plan. But opposition to the plan had grown. The UN and most aid partners refused, publicly denouncing the proposal as immoral and designed to further Israel's war plans against Hamas by 'militarising' assistance to more than a million civilians corralled into ever-shrinking 'safe zones' demarcated by the IDF in southern Gaza. Neither Beasley nor Blair agreed to sign on. On May 22, newly named GHF executive director Jake Wood, a US Marine veteran and co-founding board chair of Team Rubicon, a humanitarian organisation that operated in disaster zones, released a letter he had sent to COGAT, the Israeli Government co-ordinator for Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Its purpose, he wrote, was to confirm 'our understandings of agreements' - including an understanding that aid agencies would also be permitted to distribute food and medical assistance under 'existing' humanitarian mechanisms, outside the GHF programme. 'GHF acknowledges that we do not possess the technical capacity or field infrastructure to manage such distributions independently,' he wrote, suggesting that the new aid mechanism should complement, but not replace, Gaza's existing aid sector. The night before the scheduled May 26 launch, Wood unsuccessfully sought to persuade the IDF to delay the start date by at least a week amid unanswered questions about funding, the participation of other agencies and the nearby positioning of Israeli troops. Wood resigned, and the next day, UG contractors accompanied the first convoys of GHF food into Gaza. Some of the plans, he said in a statement, were not consistent with 'humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence'. David Burke, a fellow Marine veteran and former Team Rubicon colleague who had been named GHF chief operating officer, also resigned. Burke and Wood did not respond to inquiries from the Washington Post. The GHF promoted John Acree, a former official with the US Agency for International Development originally named head of the GHF operations inside Gaza, to interim executive director of the foundation. The opening of the sites brought new problems, with tens of thousands of despairing Gazans surging towards promised food. In the first week of GHF's operations, witnesses said that Israeli troops shot in the direction of Palestinians queuing outside the fenced distribution sites at least three times. UG contractors voiced concerns about the rules of engagement of nearby IDF troops and the safety of the Palestinians, according to several people familiar with the site operations. Paid Palestinian volunteers working at the GHF sites were receiving death threats from Hamas for participating in the Israeli-backed plan. Volunteers were afraid to travel back to their families at night, but the financial planners had not budgeted to provide them with housing, running water or other supplies to stay on-site, one person said. 'There were number crunchers at every stage, asking why do we have to do this stuff,' said another person familiar with the conversations between BCG financial consultants and SRS planners. Contractors purchased some provisions for the workers out of their own pockets, the person said. The limited number of trucks that passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza each day to the sites after Israeli inspection meant that supplies ran out too early, leaving thousands empty-handed, angry, and disbelieving there was no more food to be had. On May 30, BCG abruptly withdrew from the project. Amid what several people familiar with the situation said was internal criticism of perceived anti-Palestinian initiatives, the company said that members of its team had undertaken 'unauthorised' efforts on post-war planning. Two senior partners, it said in a statement, had been 'exited ... from the firm' and BCG 'has not and will not be paid for any of their work.' The end game Despite ongoing problems and frequent reports of gunfire nearby, the GHF food programme achieved a rhythm of sorts after a few weeks. News releases provided a daily accounting of tens of thousands of boxes of pasta, lentils, cooking oil and other commodities it distributed. But the killing of civilians in the vicinity of GHF sites has continued. Last month, eight Palestinian volunteers were shot and killed, allegedly by Hamas, aboard a bus returning them to GHF sites after visiting their families. Early this month, this IDF said 'terrorists' had tossed grenades into a distribution site, injuring two American contractors. Then came the deaths in last Wednesday's stampede. 'We came to Gaza to help feed people, not to fight a narrative war,' GHF spokesman Chapin Fay told reporters hours after the stampede deaths, publicly accusing Hamas of causing the carnage by showing up at the site with guns. Aid organisations said it was the predicted result of Israeli militarisation of what should be a neutral endeavour. On Sunday local time, at least 79 Palestinians were killed when food-seeking crowds mobbed a UN aid convoy in the northern part of the enclave and were fired on by Israeli troops, according to Gaza health authorities and witnesses. The IDF said it was 'aware of the claim' and that details of the event were 'being examined'. Acree, the GHF interim executive director, repeated appeals to the UN and other aid organisations to co-operate with the foundation. 'The demand for food is relentless, and so is our commitment,' he said in a statement. 'We're adjusting our operations in real time to keep people safe and informed, and we stand ready to partner with other organisations to scale up and deliver more meals to the people of Gaza.' GHF contracts expire at the end of August, unless a ceasefire comes first. If and when the fighting stops, it remains unclear how much aid will be allowed into Gaza and who will distribute it. Since late June, Trump has said repeatedly that negotiations were going well and that a truce was imminent.
NZ Herald
19 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Researchers say hackers exploited a security flaw in software widely used by governments, businesses
The breaches in the United States and other countries took advantage of a disastrous security flaw that drew attention this month, after Microsoft issued a patch that fixed only part of the problem in SharePoint. Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. The breaches in the United States and other countries took advantage of a disastrous security flaw that drew attention this month, after Microsoft issued a patch that fixed only part of the problem in SharePoint. Hackers connected to the Chinese Government were behind at least some of the widespread attacks in the past few days on organisations that use collaboration software from Microsoft, defenders working on the intrusions said in interviews. The breaches in the United States and other countries took advantage of a disastrous security flaw that drew attention this month, after Microsoft issued a patch that fixed only part of the problem in SharePoint, which is widely used to co-ordinate work on documents and projects. 'We assess that at least one of the actors responsible for this early exploitation is a China-nexus threat actor,' said Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer of Google's Mandiant Consulting. Another researcher, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is still under way, said federal investigators have evidence of US-based servers linked to compromised SharePoint systems connecting to internet protocol addresses inside China last week. The FBI, the White House, and the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency declined to comment today.
The Spinoff
21 hours ago
- The Spinoff
Sky buys Three and ThreeNow to create New Zealand's most muscular media empire
WBD has sold its linear and digital TV assets to Sky for $1, giving the pay TV giant a powerful new brand to take on TVNZ. Duncan Greive breaks down the deal. Pay TV giant Sky has agreed to buy Discovery NZ in a deal which profoundly reshapes the commercial TV and streaming landscape in New Zealand, creating easily the biggest media company in the country by revenue, and potentially by audience too. Discovery NZ houses the second-most-watched free-to-air channel, Three, along with a popular ad-supported streaming service in ThreeNow. It also has eden, Rush and HGTV, more niche channels which play on Freeview and Sky, all joining Sky's huge range of pay-TV and streaming channels. All changing hands for less than the cost of a month's Netflix. Sky paid just $1 for the assets, which come across debt free, with Sky assuming the ongoing commercial contracts of the business. The Commerce Commission was privately advised, and saw no issue – an unimaginable situation even a few years ago. It's the second major media company to change hands at that symbolic value in recent years, after Stuff was sold for $1 in 2020. The price indicates that Discovery NZ's parent, WBD, simply wanted to exit the free-to-air business, which had been bought by Discovery from Mediaworks in 2020 for a price described at the time as 'more than a dollar'. Sources familiar with that deal peg it at US$20m, suggesting Sky has got a comparative bargain – or that Discovery overpaid. For Sky, it's a major move into free-to-air TV and ad-supported streaming, at a time when the company has placed far more emphasis on advertising as part of its revenue mix than ever before (it scooped the Beacon Award for 'best sales team' just last week). While it has long had free-to-air TV through Sky Open (formerly Prime), Three is a much more powerful brand, with far larger audiences, home to smash hits like Married at First Sight and David Lomas Investigates. It brings Sky into even more direct competition with TVNZ. Historically, despite being the two biggest companies in TV, they were well differentiated. TVNZ was purely ad-supported, big on news and mass entertainment, a minor player in sports. Sky was largely a subscription business, mostly paywalled and big on sports with only a very minor presence in local news. That changes from August 1, with TVNZ facing down the largest and most formidable direct competitor in its history. Sky has over a million paying customers across pay TV and streaming products like Sky Sport Now and Neon. It now has a major free-to-air presence to both function as a funnel into its pay products, and extend the reach of its advertising. While Sky Open has functioned as a shop window into Sky for some time, Three and ThreeNow will be a far more powerful version of that proposition, with the ability to take a mix of Sky's sports and entertainment products and attack TVNZ on quality and content mix. That's why longtime former Sky CEO John Fellet sought to buy Three a decade ago. Three can now put NRL, Super Rugby and cricket head-to-head with TVNZ's prime time line-up, and given that live sports is one of the last big draws for linear TV audiences, it represents a very powerful tool to grow Three's audience. For NZ on Air too, the consolidated business is a much more interesting and powerful way of reaching New Zealanders. It's not uncomplicated for Sky. The declining sale price tells you just how difficult pureplay ad-supported media models are now. And it adds yet more brands and platforms to what is already a very complicated mix. Sky now operates two different boxes, a puck, Sky Go, Sky Sport Now, Neon and ThreeNow from a technology standpoint. Netflix just has Netflix. Rationalising that will be a priority for Sky CEO Sophie Moloney and her team. There remain a number of other unresolved questions. Sky and NZ Rugby have still not announced a renewal of their long-term broadcast deal, though industry sources suggest it is signed, with only haggling over free-to-air screening remaining. Three and ThreeNow loom as potential solutions to some of NZ Rugby's audience accessibility issues, even if it reduces by one the plausible buyers of its rights. Similarly, Three currently contracts Stuff to produce its 6pm news bulletin. That has had challenging ratings for much of the year, but remains an important part of a well-rounded product offering and starts the channel's evening programming. Aaron Ibbotson, a senior analyst at Forsyth Barr, is a fan of the transaction for Sky. He says 'the deal makes a lot of sense. They're not paying anything for it, and there would be natural synergies across broadcasting and content.' He contrasts it with a failed attempted acquisition of Mediaworks in 2022, saying that the Discovery NZ deal is 'closer to what Sky knows well, its core business'. Sky's shares are up 11c in early trading today. It's the latest big change to a media ownership environment which is suddenly very fluid. Earlier this year, Jim Grenon launched a hostile board takeover attempt after buying 10% of NZME, which ultimately rolled the company's chair and reshaped its governance. Then QMS completed a takeover of outdoor and radio giant Mediaworks, Stuff sold 50% of its digital arm to auction site TradeMe, while Are Media, New Zealand's biggest magazine publisher, went up for sale. New Zealand's commercial media has long been considered too fragmented, given the size of the market. It now has effectively two major TV operators, two radio networks and two scale digital news providers. All staff are being ported across, with Three's leader Juliet Peterson now reporting into Sky CEO Moloney, but over time there will be efficiency gains from accounting to sales to programming. Yes, efficiency gains is code for job losses, of which the media has endured too many in recent years. But the real battle is not with cross-town rivals, it's with unregulated tech giants. The question is, will we even have local news and entertainment products at all? For an embattled local media, which endured a cataclysmic 2024, this deal creates a powerful and diversified new media giant – one which poses challenges for TVNZ, but should result in a more robust local media landscape as a result.
