Blog

Donald Trump (L) and Apple CEO Tim Cook tour the Flextronics computer manufacturing facility where Apple's Mac Pros are assembled in Austin, Texas, on 20 November, 2019. Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP By Nandita Bose and Kanishka Singh, Reuters Apple chief executive Tim Cook will meet Donald Trump on Friday night (US time) at the US president-elect's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Business leaders have attempted to establish a positive rapport with Trump since his election win in November. Meta Platforms and Amazon have each donated US$1 million (NZ$1.7m) to Trump's inaugural fund. Bank of America, the second-largest US lender, also plans to contribute to Trump's inaugural committee but has yet to decide on the amount. Trump will take office in J...

By David Shepardson, Reuters US President-elect Donald Trump says he will work toward ending daylight savings time (file photo). Photo: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP US President-elect Donald Trump says the Republican Party "will use its best efforts" to end daylight saving time in the United States, which he called "inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation." "The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn't!" Trump said on social media on Friday. "Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation." Daylight saving time - putting the clocks forward one hour during the summer half of the year to make the most of the longer evenings - has been in place in nearly all of the United St...

By David Shepardson and Kanishka Singh, Reuters Photo: 123rf A US appeals court rejected an emergency bid by TikTok to temporarily block a law that would require its Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest of the short-video app by 19 January or face a ban on the app. TikTok and ByteDance on Monday filed the emergency motion with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, asking for more time to make their case to the US Supreme Court. Today's ruling means that TikTok now must quickly move to the Supreme Court in an attempt to halt the pending ban. The companies had warned that without court action, the law will "shut down TikTok - one of the nation's most popular speech platforms - for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users." "The petitioners have not identi...

Philip Stevens had previously enjoyed going to horse races but had always been "careful" with his bets. Photo: PIXABAY / Creative Commons A British man who became a compulsive gambler and shopper after he was prescribed a medication for restless leg syndrome has received a £70,000 (NZ$153,000) settlement from his doctor, his lawyers said on Friday. Philip Stevens, 66, was prescribed Ropinirole - a dopamine antagonist medication - in 2017 but was not warned of known possible side effects such as impulse control disorder. He had previously enjoyed going to horse races but had always been "careful" with his bets. But after taking the medication his gambling "spiralled out of control" and he regularly made bets on his smartphone and even woke up in the middle of the night to place a wager. ...

New Zealand rugby player Rory Grice (R) leaves the court following a hearing at the Bordeaux courthouse, south-western France on 17 June, 2024. Photo: CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP Warning: This story contains details of sexual assault. A court in France on Friday jailed three rugby players formerly with French side Grenoble for 12 to 14 years over the 2017 gang rape of a student. It sentenced Irishman Denis Coulson, 30, and Frenchman Loick Jammes, 30, to 14 years behind bars, and New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, to 12 years in jail. It handed four years in jail, including two suspended, to ex-Ireland international 31-year-old Chris Farrel over failure to prevent the crime. New Zealander Dylan Hayes, 30, received a two-year suspended sentence, also for not intervening to stop it. In the sma...

By Manas Mishra, Reuters Photo: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters via CNN Newsource Mangione and his mother were not UnitedHealthcare customers Woman charged in Florida with threatening her insurer UnitedHealth Group CEO makes first public comment since shooting The suspect in the murder of UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson was not a customer of the health insurer, a company spokesperson said on Friday (US time). Ivy League-educated Luigi Mangione was charged with murder on 9 December for the killing of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel before a company conference, following a five-day manhunt. Mangione suffered from chronic back pain that affected his daily life, according to friends and social media posts, though it is unclear whether his personal health played a role in the s...