Blog

By Tom Bateman and Mariko Katsumura, Reuters The first snowfall near the summit of Mount Fuji is observed above Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures on 7 November. Photo: AFP / Masahiro Sugimoto Japan's revered Mount Fuji finally regained an iconic snowcap on Thursday, setting a record for the slowest snowfall in 130 years, the meteorological agency said. The mountain reached the annual milestone on Oct. 5 last year, making this year's snowcap the latest to form since 1894, when the phenomenon was first recorded. Staff of the Kofu observatory office, which declares the news every year, saw some snow near the 3776-metre summit of the country's tallest volcano on Thursday morning (Thursday night NZT), the office said. The "first snowfall" on Fuji is defined as the point when all or part ...

By Alexandra Ulmer, Gram Slattery for Reuters Donald Trump delivers his victory speech on US Election Day. Photo: JIM WATSON In the weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris's rapid ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket, Donald Trump's allies and advisers urged him to stay on message. Polls showed Americans trusted the former Republican president more on the economy and immigration than Harris. All he needed to do, they reasoned, was stick to those issues. He didn't. In the final months of the presidential campaign, Trump did it his way: diverging from prepared remarks, resorting to personal attacks, spouting anti-immigrant rhetoric, threatening retribution against rivals and ignoring advice from allies to stay focused on the issues. As Trump sealed the presidential election, win...

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN Photo: Nick Monro/RNZ The ripple effect of Donald Trump's election victory is already being felt in Washington, DC, where some defendants charged in the Capitol riot of 6 January, 2021, could soon be pardoned by the incoming president, who has promised as much. One rioter wasted no time in citing Trump's victory to try and stave off a hearing in his case, saying he's "expected" to receive clemency. "Throughout his campaign, President-elect Trump made multiple clemency promises to the 6 January defendants, particularly to those who were nonviolent participants," lawyers for Christopher Carnell wrote in a court filing Thursday. "Mr. Carnell, who was an 18 year old nonviolent entrant into the Capitol on January 6, is expecting to be relieved of the criminal prose...

Donald Trump's stunning victory in the US presidential election has been greeted with tears, anxiety, joy and elation on the streets of the nation's capital Washington DC this morning. The win over Kamala Harris makes Donald Trump just the second President to win a second term after previously losing. Trump supporters spoken to by RNZ in Washington DC were ecstatic about the win saying a new Trump presidency would bring about the change that the country desperately needed. Trump was promising to tighten the border to stop the flow of illegal immigration, introduce import tariffs to help protect the economy from cheaper foreign imports, and end the war in Ukraine. "I feel great about it... I think people underestimate that there's silent majority that comes out on election night for Trump,"...

By Stephen Collinson, CNN Republican presidential nominee, former US president Donald Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Centre on 6 November 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photo: CHIP SOMODEVILLA / Getty Images via AFP Analysis - Donald Trump believes presidents have almost absolute power. In his second term, there will be few political or legal restraints to check him. The president-elect's sweeping victory over Vice President Kamala Harris suddenly turned the theoretical notion that he will indulge his autocratic instincts into a genuine possibility. When Trump returns to the White House in January as one of the most powerful presidents in history, he will be able to take advantage of his own filleting of guardrails during his fir...