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By James Redmayne for Reuters King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a three-day visit to Samoa as part of CHOGM. Photo: AFP King Charles III will be offered the title of high chief in Samoa during a three-day visit starting on Wednesday and be shown the impact of rising sea levels due to climate change. Lenatai Victor Tamapua, a Samoan chief and member of parliament, said he planned to offer the title of Tui Taumeasina to the monarch during a traditional ceremonial welcome to the king and Queen Camilla on Thursday. He will later lead the king through a walkway on a mangrove reserve highlighting the impact of climate change on the Pacific nations and its communities. "The king tide today is about twice that it was 20, 30 years ago, and that is affecting our land, and it's eating away ...

ABBA singer Bjorn Ulvaeus photographed in Stockholm, Sweden, 2023. Photo: AFP / Henrik Montgomery Thousands of artists including ABBA singer Bjorn Ulvaeus, Hollywood actress Julianne Moore and Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro have signed a statement warning about the unlicensed use of artificial intelligence. Some 11,500 stars of music, literature, screen and stage had put their names to the statement by Tuesday (local time), as fears mount over tech companies using existing creative works to train up AI models without permission from their original creators. "The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted," read the brief statement. In Hollywood, studios have been expe...

Most of the people who became ill reported eating McDonald's Quarter Pounder sandwiches (file image). Photo: SCOTT OLSON / AFP The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention issued a food safety alert Tuesday regarding an E. coli outbreak that it says is linked with McDonald's Quarter Pounders. At least 49 illnesses have been reported across 10 states, including one death of an older person. Ten people have been hospitalised, including a child who had haemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious complication that can develop from an E. coli infection. Most of the illnesses are in Colorado and Nebraska. Most of the people who became ill reported eating McDonald's Quarter Pounder sandwiches, the CDC says. The agency says that the investigation is "fast-moving" and that information reviewed by...

Polanski admitted to the statutory rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in a plea bargain in 1977 Photo: AP / Francois Mori Content warning: This story contains details about sexual assault. French-Polish director Roman Polanski, who fled the United States decades ago after admitting to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old, will no longer face trial over an alleged assault of another minor after reaching a settlement, his lawyer said Tuesday. The latest case against the director of "The Pianist," which concerned an alleged sexual attack in 1973, had been due in civil court in Los Angeles next August, but has now been withdrawn, Polanski's US attorney told AFP. The case was "settled in the summer to the parties' mutual satisfaction and has now been formally dismissed," Alexander Rufus-Isaa...

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, right, and Fiji High Commissioner to New Zealand Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, right. The man pictured in the middle is a serving officer of the NZ Police's Dignitary Protection Service. Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Lydia Lewis The intensification of geopolitics between China and the United States is fueling existing xenophobic rhetoric, an expert in Pacific geopolitics says. This follows the Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka's recent visit to Aotearoa from 18-19 October, during which he met with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and attended a Fiji Day celebration in Mangere. In pictures shared by Rabuka's team from the event on Saturday, he was seen with Kiwi-Asian men who were part of his security detail. However, a well-known Pacific journalist shared those ...