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By Alayna Treene and Kristen Holmes, CNN Notre Dame Cathedral is still undergoing renovation work, a few days before its reopening to the public. Photo: Benoît Durand / Hans Lucas via AFP President-elect Donald Trump is planning to visit Paris later this week to attend the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral on 7 December, his first overseas trip since his election in November to a second term in office. Trump's team has been in discussions for days with French President Emmanuel Macron's office regarding the visit, and the US president-elect was invited by the French government to attend the reopening, sources familiar with the plans told CNN. "President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so," T...

By Adriane Reardon Kristian White has been found guilty of the manslaughter of 95-year-old Clare Nowland. Photo: 123RF The NSW Police officer found guilty of the manslaughter of a 95-year-old woman in an aged care home in the Snowy Mountains has been sacked from the police force. Kristian White, 34, tasered Clare Nowland at the Yallambee Lodge facility in Cooma on 17 May, 2023 while she was using a walker and carrying a knife. She fell to the floor, fractured her skull and died in Cooma hospital a week later. Last Wednesday White was found guilty by a jury in the NSW Supreme Court of manslaughter. Today, Commissioner Karen Webb announced in a statement that White had been removed from the police force. "Today I have determined that I do not have confidence in the officer's suitabilit...

Photo: RNZ Eligible New Zealanders are now able to apply for a working holiday visa to Japan twice in their lifetime, which was only allowed once before. The new rule came into effect at the start of this month, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Applicants should be between 18 and 30 years age and cannot be accompanied by dependants or children and must meet some health requirements. The programme intended to make it possible for young people from Japan and its partner countries and regions to spend holidays while working to supplement their travel in each other's territory, the website of the Japanese foreign ministry said. "The programmes are designed to provide the youth with wider opportunities for them to appreciate the culture and general way of life in the par...

Memory loss. brain dissolves into water. vector illustration Photo: 123rf One hundred and 62 years after he died, American Philosopher Henry David Thoreau is suddenly having a moment, and it's all thanks to Gen Z and emergent demographic Gen Alpha. It's nothing to do with his essays on political transcendentalism and proto-anarchism, but entirely due to an inconspicuous phrase coined in his 1854 book Walden - a treatise detailing that one time Thoreau went to live in the woods for a couple of years, in order to write a book about living in the woods for a couple of years. That phrase is of course, "brain rot", which has been crowned Oxford's Word of the Year 2024. Technically, yes, it's two words. But who wants to risk getting pedantic with an Oxford dictionary? The term "brain rot" has...

By Jessica Black, Claudia Williams, Grace Whiteside Authorities allege the group attempted to import the drugs into Queensland by sea. Photo: ABC / Nickoles Coleman A Comanchero outlaw bikie gang leader has been charged over Australia's largest ever cocaine seizure, police say. A transnational organised crime syndicate with links to the Comancheros is alleged to have attempted to bring 2.34 tonnes of cocaine into Australia. Eleven men and two juveniles were arrested on Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday morning, in a joint investigation between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Queensland police. The arrests include the vice president of the Comancheros Brisbane chapter, and a patched member. Authorities allege the group attempted to import the drugs into Queenslan...