Blog

By Chris Isidore for CNN A Boeing 737 MAX plane under construction at a factory in Washington state, USA. Photo: Jennifer Buchanan / Pool / AFP Analysis - Cash-starved Boeing, contending with massive financial losses from a crippling strike and years of operational and safety problems, is turning to major banks and Wall Street to raise tens of billions of dollars in cash. In a regulatory filing early Tuesday, the company announced plans to borrow $10 billion (NZ$16.5bn) from a consortium of banks. It also separately announced plans to raise $25 billion by selling stock and debt. The $10 billion borrowing plans would be included in the $25 billion that Boeing filed to raise. The company's debt surged in the last six years as Boeing reported core operating losses of more than $33 billi...

By Brendan Pierson, Reuters Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: AFP Facebook parent company Meta must face lawsuits by US states accusing it of fueling mental health problems among teens by making its Facebook and Instagram platforms addictive, a federal judge in California ruled on Tuesday. Oakland-based US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Meta's bid to toss the claims made by the states in two separate lawsuits filed last year, one involving more than 30 states including California and New York and the other brought by Florida. Rogers put some limits on the states' claims, agreeing with Meta that a federal law known as Section 230 regulating online platforms partly shielded the company. However, she found that the states had put forward enough detail about allegedly mis...

By Byron Kaye and Cordelia Hsu, Reuters So far, no country has rolled out an age-based ban targeting internet platforms. Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Koroi Hawkins Analysis - For Tereza Hussein, a 14-year-old refugee who lives in Darwin, Australia's planned social media ban would mean losing a direct line to the most important person to her: a grandmother she has never physically met. "It's the only way I've ever connected to my grandma before, over socials," said Hussein, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo but lived in a refugee camp in Malawi before settling in Australia when she was nine. "It's going to have a very big change in my life because it's going to be hard for me to talk to the people that I've left behind," she said. While Hussein rarely posts on social media, she ...

Photo: 123RF / Andrey Moisseyev The High Court of Australia has ruled against SkyCity Adelaide in a disagreement over the tax treatment of customer loyalty points used in its gaming machines. The decision on the long-running dispute with the Treasurer of South Australia means the points were gaming revenue and subject to a casino duty of about $14 million (A$13.1m as of 30 June), plus interest to be determined by a single judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia at a later date. "This is a long running matter involving highly technical tax issues regarding the calculation of casino duty," SkyCity chief executive Jason Walbridge said. The penalty could leave SkyCity Adelaide with a tax bill of as much as A$25.3m as of 30 September, with A$10.3 million already provided for in its 2024...

King Charles Photo: Samir Hussein/WireImage Visit revives debate over whether a British royal should be Australia's head of state King is only British monarch who has spent time living in Australia Pro-republic campaigners promoting 'farewell to monarchy tour' King Charles, the only British monarch who has spent time living in Australia, arrives on Friday for his inaugural visit to an overseas realm as sovereign, his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer. The first visit by a reigning monarch in 13 years has revived debate in Australia over whether a British royal should be head of state, although polling shows Australians remain ambivalent about becoming a republic. Concern for King Charles's health has seen the republican movement's founder, "Schindler's Lis...