Blog

Vanuatu seasonal workers check into a hotel in Nadi to await the resumption of commercial airline services to Port Vila. Photo: RNZ Pacific/Koroi Hawkins While search and rescue crews including a specialist New Zealand team continue to scour rubble in the Vanuatu capital Port Vila, back in Aotearoa, a number of Ni-Vanuatu are working in horticulture or viticulture seasonal jobs. There are 57 at Cromwell vineyard Grape Vision, and owner James Dicey told Checkpoint they had been struggling. "They're putting a bright face on things, but they're struggling," Dicey said. "We've just had our Christmas do and got sung some lovely Christmas carols by them. But when you talk to them one-on-one, soon the reality of the situation, and not being home, and dealing with or helping dealing with the s...

By Max Hunder, Reuters Servicemen from an artillery unit of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, training to use a drone during in December 2023. Photo: Dmytro Smolienko / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP As the future of warfare pivots towards artificial intelligence, Ukraine is sitting on a valuable resource: millions of hours of footage from drones which can be used to train AI models to make decisions on the battlefield. AI has been deployed by both sides on the battlefield during Russia's invasion of Ukraine to identify targets, scanning images far quicker than a human can. Founder of OCHI, a non-profit Ukrainian digital system which centralises and analyses video feeds from over 15,000 drone crews working on the frontlines, Oleksandr Dmitriev told Reute...

By Georgie Hewson, ABC Photo: AFP/Screenshot Breakdancer Rachael "Raygun" Gunn says she has resolved a dispute with a comedian after her lawyers shut down a parody musical based on her Olympic journey. Sydney comedian Steph Broadbridge cancelled her Raygun-inspired musical two weeks ago after receiving letters from the breakdancer's lawyers. Raygun's lawyers claimed her name and the silhouette of her iconic kangaroo pose from Paris 2024 were protected intellectual property. Hoping to put the online saga to rest, Gunn posted a video statement on Instagram on Thursday night. She said her legal team and Broadbridge's had come to an agreement. "Hi everyone, it's been a big couple of weeks," Gunn said in a video posted to Instagram. "I'm not going to lie, it's been a wild ride but I'm re...

Michael Leunig. Photo: ABC News / Jeremy Story Carter Australian cartoonist, poet and writer Michael Leunig has died aged 79. Leunig's death was announced in a statement on social media on Thursday evening. "The pen has run dry, its ink no longer flowing - yet Curly and his ducks will remain etched in our hearts, cherished and eternal," it said. "Michael Leunig passed away peacefully today, in the early hours of 19 December, 2024. "During his final days, he was surrounded by his children, loved ones, and sunflowers - accompanied as ever, by his dear old friends, Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven." Cartoonist for The Australian newspaper John Spooner told ABC Radio Melbourne the loss of Leunig felt "pretty huge". He said working alongside Leunig at The Age in the mid 80s was...

By Andy Sullivan for Reuters US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Republican from Louisiana, speaks to the media during a vote on a revised continuing resolution bill at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on 19 December 2024. Photo: ALLISON ROBBERT / AFP US government services will be disrupted and hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be told not to work if Congress fails to extend funding past Friday US time. Workers deemed essential would remain on the job. All federal employees' pay could be disrupted during a shutdown, though they would receive retroactive pay once government operations resume. Here is a guide to what would stay open and what would shut down, according to agency shutdown plans outlined last year: When and why would the government shut down? Congress writes ...

The building housing New Zealand's High Commission and other diplomatic missions was damaged in the quake. Photo: Dan McGarry The current focus in Vanuatu remains on finding any signs of life under the rubble, but it will soon move to rebuilding, New Zealand's High Commissioner Nicci Simmonds says. Simmonds told Midday Report the death toll from Tuesday's earthquake remained at 16, but people were being found alive. Simmonds said there had been improvements to water supply, power and communications, but the services remained unstable. "Port Vila is the capital of the country, it's the economic hub, so we need the airport, the sea port, the domestic shipping, we need buildings to be able to work out of, and we need tourism back up and running." There had been concerns about rain, and e...

By Julio-Cesar Chavez, Jonathan Allen, Luc Cohen for Reuters Luigi Mangione, suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, arrives at a heliport in New York City with NYPD officers. Photo: SPENCER PLATT / Getty Images via AFP The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson has been charged with federal murder and stalking crimes in a Manhattan courtroom, alongside state murder and terrorism charges previously announced by New York prosecutors. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged Luigi Mangione, 26, with the federal crime of murder using a firearm, two charges of stalking and a charge of using an illegal gun silencer, according to a criminal complaint. The complaint accused Mangione of spending months planning an attack driven by hi...