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Google Founder Gets New Zealand Residency, Raising Questions

Larry Page, CEO and Co-founder of Alphabet, participates in a conversation with Fortune editor Alan Murray at the 2015 Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco, California November 2, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
Larry Page, CEO and Co-founder of Alphabet, participates in a conversation with Fortune editor Alan Murray at the 2015 Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco, California November 2, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
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Google Founder Gets New Zealand Residency, Raising Questions

Larry Page, CEO and Co-founder of Alphabet, participates in a conversation with Fortune editor Alan Murray at the 2015 Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco, California November 2, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
Larry Page, CEO and Co-founder of Alphabet, participates in a conversation with Fortune editor Alan Murray at the 2015 Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco, California November 2, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

Google co-founder Larry Page has gained New Zealand residency, officials confirmed Friday, stoking debate over whether extremely wealthy people can essentially buy access to the South Pacific country.

Immigration New Zealand said Page first applied for residency in November under a special visa open to people with at least 10 million New Zealand dollars ($7 million) to invest, reported The Associated Press.

“As he was offshore at the time, his application was not able to be processed because of COVID-19 restrictions,” the agency said in a statement. “Once Mr. Page entered New Zealand, his application was able to be processed and it was approved on 4 February 2021.”

Gaining New Zealand residency would not necessarily affect Page's residency status in the US or any other nations.

New Zealand lawmakers confirmed that Page and his son first arrived in New Zealand in January after the family filed an urgent application for the son to be evacuated from Fiji due to a medical emergency.

“The day after the application was received, a New Zealand air ambulance staffed by a New Zealand ICU nurse-escort medevaced the child and an adult family member from Fiji to New Zealand," Health Minister Andrew Little told lawmakers in Parliament.

Little was responding to questions about how Page had managed to enter the country at a time when New Zealand had shut its borders to non-residents in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Little told lawmakers the family had abided by applicable virus protocols when they arrived.

Page's residency application was approved about three weeks later.

Immigration New Zealand noted that while Page had become a resident, he didn't have permanent residency status and remained subject to certain restrictions.

Still, the agency on its website touts the “Investor Plus” visa as offering a “New Zealand lifestyle,” adding that “you may be able to bring your car, boat and household items to New Zealand, free of customs charges.”

Some local news organizations reported that Page had since left New Zealand.

Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Forbes on Friday ranked Page as the world’s sixth-wealthiest person, with a fortune of $117 billion. Forbes noted that Page stepped down as chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet in 2019 but remained a board member and controlling shareholder.

Opposition lawmakers said the episode raised questions about why Page was approved so quickly at a time when many skilled workers or separated family members who were desperate to enter New Zealand were being turned away.

“The government is sending a message that money is more important than doctors, fruit pickers and families who are separated from their children," ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden said in a statement.

In 2017, it emerged that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel had been able to gain New Zealand citizenship six years earlier, despite never having lived in the country. Thiel was approved after a top lawmaker decided his entrepreneurial skills and philanthropy were valuable to the nation.

Thiel didn’t even have to leave California for the ceremony — he was granted citizenship during a private ceremony held at the New Zealand Consulate in Santa Monica.

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Varieties

A Herd Stop: Train Kills 3 Rare Bison in Poland

30 May 2016. BIALOWIEZA, POLAND. REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL
30 May 2016. BIALOWIEZA, POLAND. REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL
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A Herd Stop: Train Kills 3 Rare Bison in Poland

30 May 2016. BIALOWIEZA, POLAND. REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL
30 May 2016. BIALOWIEZA, POLAND. REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL

Three wild European bison died on Sunday morning after being hit by a train in Poland's vast UNESCO-listed Bialowieza Forest in the east, the local police told AFP.

According to a police spokesman, a herd of Europe's largest mammals, whose male specimens can reach 900 kilograms (nearly 2,000 pounds), crossed onto the train tracks as a locomotive carrying some 50 passengers between Bialystock and Warsaw aboard was steaming ahead.

"No passenger was injured but three animals perished in this accident, which happened at 7:00 am, near the village of Witowo," spokesman Konrad Karwacki told AFP.

The "Zubr" line train, which takes its name from the Polish word for bison, did not derail and was able to resume its journey around an hour and a half after the collision.

Some 1,200 bison, an emblematic animal in the eastern European country, currently inhabit the Polish part of the great Bialowieza Forest, considered the last primeval woodland in Europe.

The forest, which is divided by the Poland-Belarus border, is a treasure of biodiversity and a giant carbon sink.

Yet several bison fall victim to road accidents in the region every year.

"They are sometimes hit by trains, but these are usually isolated incidents," Professor Rafal Kowalczyk, from a local branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences, told AFP.

"I don't recall an accident where three bison were killed at the same time, run over by a train," the specialist in the giant mammals added.

Devastated by hunting, deforestation and the expansion of agriculture, the European bison nearly became extinct at the beginning of the 20th century.

After disappearing from Bialowieza, its last habitat in Europe, before the outbreak of World War II, the species was saved at the 11th hour thanks to the release of bison reared in zoos back into the wild.

Varieties

Can Nations Save the Shorebird that Flies 30,000 km a Year?

The Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) is one of the world's most remarkable travelers, but its population has plunged 95 percent in four decades due to a complex mix of environmental changes across multiple countries. Luke Seitz / Cornell Lab of Ornithology/AFP
The Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) is one of the world's most remarkable travelers, but its population has plunged 95 percent in four decades due to a complex mix of environmental changes across multiple countries. Luke Seitz / Cornell Lab of Ornithology/AFP
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Can Nations Save the Shorebird that Flies 30,000 km a Year?

The Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) is one of the world's most remarkable travelers, but its population has plunged 95 percent in four decades due to a complex mix of environmental changes across multiple countries. Luke Seitz / Cornell Lab of Ornithology/AFP
The Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) is one of the world's most remarkable travelers, but its population has plunged 95 percent in four decades due to a complex mix of environmental changes across multiple countries. Luke Seitz / Cornell Lab of Ornithology/AFP

Chasing an endless summer, one shorebird species undertakes a grueling annual journey from the Arctic to the tip of South America and back -- a feat increasingly fraught with peril.

The Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) is one of the world's most remarkable travelers, but its population has plunged 95 percent in four decades due to a complex mix of environmental changes across multiple countries, said AFP.

It is one of 42 species proposed for international protection at a meeting of parties to the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) that starts in Brazil on Monday.

Iconic creatures like the snowy owl -- of Harry Potter fame -- striped hyena and hammerhead shark are also on the list deemed in danger of extinction and needing conservation by the countries they pass through.

Migratory birds are facing "rapid and dramatic declines," said Nathan Senner, an ecologist and ornithology professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who has studied the Hudsonian godwit for 20 years.

Scientists are still unraveling the mysteries of the shorebird -- which can fly up to 11,000 kilometers (6,800 miles) in one stretch without stopping to eat, drink, or sleep.

And it is only part of the 30,000 kilometers (18,600 miles) that the godwit travels every year from their breeding grounds in the Arctic to Patagonia where they spend the southern summer.

- Disrupted migrations -

In order to do this "epic flight," they need "really predictable, abundant food resources" at every step of the journey, Senner told AFP.

That predictability is crumbling.

In the Arctic, shifting spring timing attributed to climate change has created a mismatch between when chicks hatch and the peak availability of insects they feed on.

One of the puzzles Senner is currently working on is why Hudsonian godwits have begun migrating later by six days than they did a decade ago.

Something "has either disrupted the cues that they use to time their migrations or their ability to successfully and rapidly prepare for the migration," he said.

In southern Chile, a boom in salmon and oyster farming has led to a build-up of infrastructure and the presence of people in the intertidal zones where they feed.

And in the United States, changes in farming practices are making the shallow water wetlands that the godwits rely on rarer and less predictable -- meaning they spend more time looking for a place to stop and feed.

"I think that is emblematic of lots of species, that most species can respond to one kind of change, but not a whole bunch of them all at the same time," said Senner.

- Essential to ecosystems -

"Climate change is taking a heavy toll on species that rely on a 'geological clock' for their survival; many are disappearing," Rodrigo Agostinho, president of Brazil's environmental agency (Ibama), told AFP.

These are some of the issues CMS parties will tackle at their meeting in Brazil's biodiversity-rich Pantanal, one of the world's most important global meetings for wildlife conservation.

These countries are legally obliged to protect species listed as at risk of extinction, conserve and restore their habitats, prevent obstacles to migration and cooperate with other range states.

Nevertheless, among the species listed under CMS, a report released earlier this month showed that 49 percent now have populations that are declining, up from 44 percent two years ago.

Amy Fraenkel, CMS executive secretary, told AFP that most of the species doing worse were birds, such as the Hudsonian godwit.

She said the situation was also "particularly alarming" for fish species, with 97 percent of those listed under the treaty threatened with extinction.

Migratory species "are essential to healthy ecosystems and a healthy planet," playing a key role in pollination, pest control and transporting nutrients, she said.

In a piece of good news, the meeting will propose removing Central Asia's Bactrian deer from its list of animals needing high protection, due to an increase in its population.

Varieties

Dog Finds Canadian Message in a Bottle on Aberdeenshire Beach

A message in a bottle (Shutterstock) 
A message in a bottle (Shutterstock) 
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Dog Finds Canadian Message in a Bottle on Aberdeenshire Beach

A message in a bottle (Shutterstock) 
A message in a bottle (Shutterstock) 

A message in a bottle dropped from a boat off Canada has been found washed up in the north-east of Scotland, according to BBC.

The short letter, written in French and dated in 2024, was found inside the bottle at St Cyrus in Aberdeenshire.

Having travelled across the Atlantic, it was found by one of Mike Scott's dogs during a beach walk.

The 60-year-old said he was “amazed” by the bottle's journey of about 2,700 miles (4,300km).

The professional photographer from Johnshaven takes his dogs to St Cyrus most days for a walk.

He described the weather as “wild” at the time they discovered the bottle.

“As I was walking, Maggie my dog was sniffing a bottle that was just washing up. It was a really dark glass bottle with a lid and something in it,” he said.

He explained: “I had found a message in a bottle before, but it was just from Dundee, so I was not expecting much. There was a zip bag in it, and a letter in French. I put it in my rucksack and put it on translate when I got home.”

The note - which appeared to be signed 'Annie Chiasson' - said the bottle had been put to sea from a ferry travelling between Prince Edward Island and Iles-de-la-Madeleine in August 2024.

Scott said, “So the small glass bottle has survived two winters at sea, travelling from the east coast of Canada, across the north Atlantic, over the top of Scotland and down into the North Sea for us to find at St Cyrus.”

“The sender was asking to let them know if found,” he said. “We found the woman on Facebook, my wife sent a message, but we have heard nothing back.”

BBC Scotland News has also tried to contact the sender.

Scott said, “It was such a weird thing to find, it's not just our own rubbish that washes up. It's amazing it was not smashed. I do not imagine she thought it would end up in Scotland across the Atlantic.”