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Dame Maggie Smith in the 2023 film The Miracle Club. Photo: Supplied / Zephyr Films New Zealand actors are among those paying tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, who died on Friday aged 89. Jennifer Ward-Lealand, an actor and the president of the professional performers' union Equity New Zealand, said Dame Maggie was a rare breed of actor. Jennifer Ward-Lealand. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Her death was "a huge loss to the acting community", both in her native United Kingdom and around the world. "There are not many performers left like her who were part of a really venerable legacy. She straddled live performance and screen works, but also the old world of acting and the new. "When she started in the early '50s and the '60s, there was a real considerable change of style and mate...

Republican candidate for North Carolina Governor Mark Robinson. Photo: GRANT BALDWIN / Getty Images via AFP North Carolina's controversial Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, was sent to hospital with burns following an incident at a campaign event, US media is reporting. CNN is reporting the campaign said Robinson was treated for second-degree burns at Northern Regional Hospital "following an incident at a campaign event." Robinson, the state's lieutenant governor, is doing fine, the campaign said. The campaign has not said what caused the burns. A reporter for the Washington Post reported that Robinson burned his hand while leaning against a truck at a truck show. Mark Robinson attended a truck show in Mt Airy NC tonight. He burned his hand leaning against a truck and w...

Debris left by Hurricane Helene after making landfall are seen in Cedar Key, Florida, on 27 September , 2024. Photo: AFP Tropical Depression Helene brought life-threatening flooding on Friday to wide sections of the US Southeast, where at least 43 people have been killed by a storm that swamped neighborhoods, triggered mudslides, threatened dams and left more than 3.5 million homes and businesses without power. Helene hit Florida's Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday (local time) and left a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbours, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets. A New Zealander based in Florida said she was seeing wind and power outages like never before as the southeastern United States grappled with Tropical Storm Helene. Chloe Hi...

By Trevor Hunnicutt for Reuters Kamala Harris visits the US-Mexico border with a US Border Patrol sector chief in Douglas, Arizona. Photo: REBECCA NOBLE / AFP Vice President Kamala Harris has visited the US-Mexico border for the first time in her 2024 presidential campaign as her Republican opponent Donald Trump doubles down on the message that immigrants pose a danger to America. Harris, a Democrat, arrived in Douglas, Arizona, a border town of less than 17,000 people, on Friday afternoon with a message ripped from Trump's playbook, hoping to convince voters that she can curb the numbers of people illegally entering the United States. Harris will call for tighter asylum restrictions in a speech later on Friday (local time), her campaign said, leaving an asylum ban established by Pre...

By Riley Stuart, Middle East correspondent Allyson Horn in Jerusalem, and Cherine Yazbeck in Beirut People watch as a blaze rages amid the smouldering rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli air strike in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs. Photo: NurPhoto via AFP The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has bombed several residential buildings in southern Beirut, claiming Hezbollah's "central headquarters" were embedded underneath. Massive explosions could be heard across Lebanon's capital about 6.20pm local time. Large plumes of smoke were also visible. Previous IDF strikes in Beirut have been attempts to kill the leadership of the Hezbollah militant group. Multiple media outlets in the Middle East claimed the target of the strike was Hezbollah leader Ha...

By Rich McKay and Joseph Ax for Reuters Debris left by Hurricane Helene after making landfall are seen in Cedar Key, Florida, on 27 September , 2024. Photo: AFP Tropical Storm Helene has brought life-threatening flooding to the Carolinas after leaving widespread destruction as a major hurricane in Florida and Georgia that killed at least 33 people, swamped neighbourhoods and left more than 4 million homes and businesses without power. Helene hit Florida's Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday (local time) and left a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbours, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets. Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states, including in Atlanta, where an apartment complex ha...