Leaders and heads of governments from the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have come to the Thai capital Bangkok for a meeting on Friday and Saturday.

As host, Thailand hopes to make progress on discussion of the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), but talks come amid geopolitical tensions over the war in Ukraine and regional flashpoints such as Taiwan and the Korean peninsula.

What is APEC?

APEC is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to promote economic integration. As a grouping, it makes up 38% of the global population, 62% of GDP and 48% of trade.

APEC’s 21 members are:

Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

Here is a look at who is attending:

Harris is standing in for President Joe Biden. The United States will be the APEC host in 2023. After the meeting in Bangkok, Harris will travel to the Philippines. Her visit to the Philippines will be at the edge of the disputed South China Sea, a move that Beijing may see as a rebuke.

Xi met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Bangkok on Thursday for talks. Kishida said he conveyed concerns over regional security to Xi amid growing tensions in Asia over China’s maritime ambitions. Xi was quoted by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV as telling Kishida that China and Japan should deepen trust, areas of cooperation and regional integration, and resist “conflict and confrontation”.

Belousov will represent President Valadmir Putin at APEC. At an earlier APEC meeting in Bangkok this year, representatives from the United States and other countries walked out of a meeting in protest of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov was delivering remarks.

THAILAND PRIME MINISTER PRAYUTH CHAN-OCHA
As meetings kicked off, Thailand urged APEC members to “rise above differences” after geopolitical tensions dominated summits in Bali and Phnom Penh over the war in Ukraine. Prayuth said he wanted the talks to discuss how leaders can help transition to sustainable economic growth and development.

China’s leader appeared to confront Trudeau at the G20 summit in Bali on Wednesday after accusing him of leaking details from a closed-door meeting, a rare public display of annoyance by Xi. China’s foreign ministry on Thursday said Xi was not criticising Trudeau over the alleged leaks.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is expected to hold meetings with New Zealand and Peru, and also seek support for South Korea’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo, according to Yonhap.

Malaysia is represented by its government secretary, with the country holding general elections on Nov. 19.

Marape will hold meetings with U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken.

The ambassador will represent President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

President Marcos will hold a bilateral meeting with China’s Xi and host U.S. Vice President Harris in Manila next week, with tensions over Taiwan on the agenda.

SINGAPORE PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG

Lee will hold bilateral meetings with China’s Xi

VIETNAM PRESIDENT NGUYEN XUAN PHUC

CHILE PRESIDENT GABRIEL BORIC FONT

INDONESIA PRESIDENT JOKO WIDODO

NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN

PERU VICE PRESIDENT DINA BOLUARTE

SULTAN OF BRUNEI HASSANAL BOLKIAH

AUSTRALIA PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY ALBANESE

HONG KONG CHIEF EXECUTIVE JOHN LEE KA-CHIU

CHINESE TAIPEI TSMC FOUNDER MORRIS CHANG

This year, host Thailand has also invited France and Saudi Arabia.

Macron is due to make a keynote address.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler’s visit comes as the relationship between Thailand and Saudi Arabia starts to normalise this year. For nearly three decades diplomatic ties had been frozen over “the Blue Diamond Affair”, as the theft of $20 million in jewellery by a Thai janitor is known.

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Friday that North Korea’s missile launch was a “brazen violation” of multiple U.N. resolutions and destablising for security in the region.

“We strongly condemn these actions and we again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilising acts,” she said during an emergency meeting at the APEC summit, convened to discuss North Korea’s firing of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday that landed just 200 km (130 miles) off Japan.

Asia-Pacific leaders gathered in Bangkok on Friday for a summit to focus on economic woes but their schedule was disrupted by a North Korean suspected intercontinental ballistic missile test while police fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris convened a meeting of leaders from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to discuss the missile launch.

An official in charge of the security for the summit said police fired rubber bullets to disperse about 350 Thai anti-government protesters after a clash about 10 km (6 miles) from the summit venue in the capital, Bangkok.

APEC host Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha of Thailand, earlier urged participants at the summit to seek sustainable growth and development after economic and social challenges from COVID, climate change and geopolitical rivalries.

“We can no longer live like we did. We need to adjust our perspective, ways of life and ways of doing business,” he said to an audience that included Harris and China’s President Xi Jinping.

Established to promote economic integration, APEC groups 21 economies that account for 38% of the global population, and 62% of gross domestic product and 48% of trade.

Prayuth did not refer to North Korea’s missile, which Japanese officials said landed just 200 km (130 miles) off Japan and had sufficient range to reach the mainland of the United States.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is in Bangkok for the APEC meeting, told reporters that North Korea had “repeated its provocations with unprecedented frequency”.

The APEC gathering is the third summit in the region in the past week. A Southeast Asian summit that included China, Japan and the United States was held in Cambodia while the Group of 20 (G20) nations met on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The earlier meetings were dominated by the war in Ukraine as well as tensions over Taiwan and the Korean peninsula.

Campaigners are keen to see leaders address food insecurity, surging inflation, climate change and human rights.

A reminder of such grassroot demands came as the anti-government protesters clashed with police after trying to overturn a police car plastered with posters of Prayuth and Xi.

Videos on social media showed protesters trying to overturn a police car, throwing projectiles and charging at police, while officers in riot gear advanced on them with shields and beat them back with batons.

Police said they used rubber bullets to disperse the activists and arrested 10 people.

Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said on Thursday the APEC meeting was taking place at a “pivotal juncture” with the world facing multiple risks.

“That’s why APEC this year must rise above these challenges and deliver hope to the world at large,” he said in a statement.

Xi, warning against Cold War tensions in a region that is a focus for competition between Beijing and Washington, said on Thursday the Asia-Pacific was no one’s backyard and should not become an arena of big power rivalry,

“No attempt to wage a new cold war will ever be allowed by the people or by our times,” Xi said in written remarks prepared for a business event linked to the summit.

Relations between the world’s two largest economies have been strained in recent years over issues like tariffs, Taiwan, intellectual property, the removal of Hong Kong’s autonomy and disputes over the South China Sea, among others.

In a move that may be seen by Beijing as a provocation, a senior U.S. official said Harris will visit the Philippine islands of Palawan on the edge of the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday.

The trip will make Harris the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the island chain adjacent to the Spratly Islands. China has dredged the sea floor to build harbours and airstrips on the Spratlys, parts of which are also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

At the G20 meeting, countries unanimously adopted a declaration saying most members condemned the Ukraine war, but that also acknowledged some countries saw the conflict differently.

Russia is a member of both G20 and APEC but President Vladimir Putin has stayed away from the summits. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov will represent him at APEC.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is among those also attending the main meeting, while French President Emmanuel Macron is a special guest.

Xi held a rare summit with Japan’s Kishida in Bangkok, the first leadership-level meeting between China and Japan in nearly three years, after which Kishida said he conveyed concerns about peace in the Taiwan Strait.

China’s CCTV reported that Xi told Kishida the Taiwan issue involved the political foundation of ties between their two countries, and territorial disputes should be properly managed.
The meeting came a day after tensions simmered in Bali, where Xi criticised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over alleged leaks of their closed-door meeting, a rare public display of annoyance by Xi. Trudeau is also in Bangkok.

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Climate change-related litigation has more than doubled in the past seven years globally according to a June report by the London School of Economics, and is moving beyond traditionally polluting industries such as fossil fuel production.

At the COP27 climate talks in Egypt, U.N. experts last week warned that many corporate environmental claims amounted to “empty slogans and hype.” This could embolden campaigners to launch more legal cases against climate-action laggards.

Meanwhile litigation against Big Oil continues apace with climate campaigners notching a notable win on the world stage in 2021 when a Dutch court ordered Royal Dutch Shell to drastically cut emissions. In the United States, cities and states remain on course in early efforts to bring Exxon, BP and others to trial, hoping they can get the companies to help pay for climate adaptation measures like sea walls and energy efficiency upgrades. The oil companies say they can’t be held responsible for a global phenomenon such as climate change and that policy change should come from governments not courtrooms.

Below, a look at some of climate litigation’s newest targets.

Companies that make and market plastics, which are derived from fossil fuels, have been defending against a growing set of cases worldwide focused on the waste from the ubiquitous packaging material.

In July, a U.S. federal judge in California granted preliminary approval for a $10 million settlement after single-serve coffee U.S. company Keurig was sued by consumers who accused it of inaccurately marketing its K-Cups as recyclable even though they are not in many localities. Keurig has denied wrongdoing and liability.

Another suit, filed in California state court in 2020 by the U.S. environmental group Earth Island Institute against Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestlé and several other global consumer goods companies, seeks to hold those companies accountable for their alleged contributions to plastic pollution. The suit raises public nuisance, breach of warranty and negligence claims.

The companies have denied the allegations in the lawsuits but have made public promises to work to avoid plastic pollution. In January, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other international brands called for a global pact to combat plastic pollution, including by cutting plastic production.

Internationally, climate activists have targeted plastics makers by challenging government building permits for facilities that produce plastics. A lawsuit announced this year by London-based environmental law firm ClientEarth and other nonprofits is trying to kill a $3.1 billion plastics production facility proposed by British petrochemical giant Ineos in Belgium, claiming approvals by the Flemish government failed to take into account the environmental impact of the plastics production. The facility would convert fracked shale gas into ethylene, a key building block for durable and “single-use” plastics, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Ineos did not respond to a request for comment but has said the facility is the largest petrochemical investment in the area in decades, and would create thousands of jobs.

Climate activists also have targeted the food industry, claiming companies overstate how climate-friendly their products are.

Sweden-based Oatly, which advertises its oat-based milk alternative as the result of a less water-intensive process than that of traditional dairy milk, was hit with three lawsuits in 2021 by investors who claimed in U.S. federal court in New York the statements amounted to “greenwashing,” in which a company touts its operations as more environmentally sustainable than they are. An Oatly spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation.

In Denmark, the European Union’s biggest pork producer, Danish Crown, was hit with a lawsuit last year alleging the company misrepresents its climate footprint through marketing that says its production is “more climate friendly than you think.” Danish Crown didn’t respond to a request for comment but has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in 2030.

A lawsuit filed by indigenous groups in France claims French supermarket chain Casino has systematically violated human rights and environmental laws by selling beef linked to land grabbing and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The suit claims the company is violating a 2017 “duty of vigilance” law in France that demands companies avoid human rights and environmental violations in supply chains. The company has claimed it has a rigorous policy establishing criteria for suppliers to comply with including “zero Amazon deforestation” and no slave-like working conditions.

The world’s financial giants face claims by consumers who say they are failing to reduce environmental harms and are misrepresenting certain investments as environmentally friendly.

A group of environmental nonprofits in October announced they have initiated a legal process in France against BNP Paribas, which the nonprofits called the “largest financier of fossil fuel expansion in Europe.” The group claims the fossil fuel investments violate the French duty of vigilance law requiring corporations to identify and reduce environmental harms. The group, led by Oxfam France and Friends of the Earth France, called the move an “unprecedented legal action.” BNP Paribas did not respond to a request for comment.

A German consumer group in October sued Deutsche Bank’s asset management unit DWS, alleging it misrepresented a fund’s green credentials in marketing materials. The lawsuit claims DWS told investors that it invests 0% in controversial sectors such as coal, but elsewhere indicated revenue from the coal industry accounts for as much as 15% of the fund’s revenue. DWS has repeatedly denied misleading investors.

A China-based financially motivated group, tracked as Fangxiao, is behind a large-scale phishing campaign dating back as far as 2019.

Researchers from Cyjax reported that a China-based financially motivated group, dubbed Fangxiao, orchestrated a large-scale phishing campaign since 2017.

The sophisticated phishing campaign exploits the reputation of international brands and targets businesses in multiple industries, including retail, banking, travel, and energy. Attackers imitated over 400 organisations, including Emirates, Singapore’s Shopee, Unilever, Indonesia’s Indomie, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Knorr.

The attackers use financial or physical incentives proposed via WhatsApp to trick victims into visiting a series of sites owned by advertising agencies.

Fangxiao registered more than 42,000 fake domains used to distribute malicious apps and bogus rewards.

“Users arrive at a Fangxiao controlled site through a link sent in a WhatsApp message. This message has a link to a landing domain which specifies a brand to impersonate. Fangxiao uses well-known, trusted brands to build legitimacy with victims. Attempts to reach the endpoints on the root domain without specifying a brand return a 404 error” reads the report published by the experts. “The landing domain redirects users to a main survey domain.”

These landing sites prompt the visitors to complete a survey to win prizes, and they are asked to tap on a box.

The site can require up to three taps for a “win,” a high-value gift card. To claim the prize, victims are requested to share the phishing campaign via WhatsApp to “5 groups/20 friends”.

In some cases, the Fangxiao landing pages were displaying malicious ads that if clicked from an Android device deliver the Triada malware.

“Another observed destination of this campaign is an app on the play store called “App Booster Lite – RAM Booster” with over a million downloads. It asks for highly intrusive permissions and is full of ads, with every tap on screen resulting in a hard-to-close popup ad.” continues the report.

iOS users are instead redirected to Amazon via an affiliate link, generating revenues for every purchase on the platform.

The presence of Mandarin text in a web service associated with aaPanel and time (China Standard Time) for the registration of the domains led to the attribution of the campaign to a China-linked threat actor.

“We assess that Fangxiao is a China-based threat actor likely motivated by profit. The operators are experienced in running these kinds of imposter campaigns, willing to be dynamic to achieve their objectives, and technically and logistically capable of scaling to expand their business.” concludes the report. “The Fangxiao campaigns are effective lead generation methods which have been redirected to various domains, from malware, to referral links, to ads and adware.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, phishing)

The post China-based Fangxiao group behind a long-running phishing campaign appeared first on Security Affairs.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will convene a meeting of world leaders in Bangkok on the sidelines of a regional summit to discuss North Korea’s missile launch, a White House official said on Friday.

North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday that landed just 200 kilometres (130 miles) off Japan. The official said Harris will be joined by top leaders from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand at the retreat on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.