Saturday, April 11

Blog

The UK’s best country pubs with rooms
Life Style

The UK’s best country pubs with rooms

As the chill sets in and the English countryside reaches for its russet and ochre raincoat, the traditional boozer beckons with an amber glow. And why not? There’s the honest pub grub, gnarled beams and cosy, crackling fire, but also the smug convenience of scaling an 16th-staircase to bed after a hearty supper. Pubs-with-rooms are also the best way to peer into Britain’s rural soul as cosmopolitan voyeurs, where menus are lined with game and produce from local farms, and flagstones are still trodden by filthy labs and locals’ muddy wellies. Some are cool, with modern art perking up historic walls and furniture blending in with whimsically wonky bedrooms in some Hackney-On-The-Wold. But all cling to the proper pub idyll, where scruffy edges, country walks and a squire-like sensibility endu...
Chemotherapy, radiation for breast cancer may speed up biological ageing: Study
Health

Chemotherapy, radiation for breast cancer may speed up biological ageing: Study

While advances in cancer therapies have greatly improved survival rates for breast cancer, new research on Tuesday showed that common treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, may accelerate the biological ageing process in survivors.  The study led by a team from the University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences in the US suggests that the impact of breast cancer treatments on the body is more extensive than previously thought. The findings, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, showed that breast cancer survivors, regardless of the type of treatment received, had significantly increased markers of cellular ageing -- such as DNA damage response, cellular senescence, and inflammatory pathways. These ageing markers increased the risk of earl...
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ mum speaks out: My son is not a ‘monster’
World News

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ mum speaks out: My son is not a ‘monster’

Diddy (R) and his mother, Janice Combs attend the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on September 12, 2023 in Newark, New Jersey. Photo: Jason Kempin The mother of Sean 'Diddy' Combs says her son is not a "monster" and has likened the rapper's public downfall to a "public lynching". The music producer is currently in a Brooklyn jail awaiting trial on counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution after he was arrested on Septmber 16. He has pleaded not guilty. His defence lawyers tried to have him released on a US$50 million bond, but prosecutors told the judge that Combs was "extremely dangerous to the community" and he was denied bail. His next court date is set for Thursday (local time). Last week, lawyer Tony Buzbee told...
TVNZ signals further shrinkage in new cost-cutting measures
Business

TVNZ signals further shrinkage in new cost-cutting measures

TVNZ in Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Analysis - TVNZ has told its staff of a new cost-cutting reorganisation, which will further reduce the state-owned broadcaster's scope and scale. Mediawatch looks at the background to this - and asks if last year's scrapped media merger was a missed opportunity. On TVNZ's Q+A recently, ACT leader David Seymour said history would show charter schools had been a success. "In a decade's time, you'll be interviewing someone (about that) - and looking exactly the same," he told the youthful TVNZ host Jack Tame. "I think the future of the media is even bleaker than that for politicians," Tame replied with tongue-in-cheek ... sort of. After TVNZ announced big cuts to news in March, Jack Tame told listeners of his Newstalk ZB show "trying to save fr...
Category 5 Hurricane Milton roars towards storm-battered Florida
World News

Category 5 Hurricane Milton roars towards storm-battered Florida

By Gerard Martinez, with Lucie Aubourg in Orlando and Michael Mathes in Washington for AFP Volunteers in Miami fill sandbags as residents prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Milton in Florida on 7 October. Photo: GIORGIO VIERA / AFP Hurricane Milton has exploded in strength to become a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm bound for Florida, threatening the US state with a second ferocious hurricane in as many weeks. The back-to-back hurricanes have whipped up a US election storm, with Vice President Kamala Harris slamming her White House rival Donald Trump and Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis for "political gamesmanship" and for spreading misinformation about the federal response. Milton, which is forecast to batter Mexico's Yucatan peninsula as it churns eastward, tr...
What is Amazon Prime Day and will we ever get Amazon in New Zealand?
Business

What is Amazon Prime Day and will we ever get Amazon in New Zealand?

As Americans go berserk over Prime Day sales, will New Zealand ever get an Amazon warehouse? Photo: Unsplash It's tough with the global force of social media, especially the happenings thrown at us from those cultural imperialists in the northern hemisphere. We think we're having a Brat Summer even if it's the middle of the New Zealand winter. We turn up to vote on Tuesday 5 November and realise it's not our election. And now, our social feeds and US news sites are full of something called Prime Day. It's a ridiculously good sale with online retailer Amazon where prices are slashed on everything from electronics to pet care products to clothing to anything you can think of really. But many New Zealanders can't capitalise on the sale because it requires a monthly or yearly Prime membersh...
Israel-Hezbollah fighting intensifies, Hamas vows to rise again
World News

Israel-Hezbollah fighting intensifies, Hamas vows to rise again

By Steven Scheer and Maya Gebeily for Reuters A Haifa resident inspects the damage following an overnight rocket attack from Lebanon on 7 October. Photo: MATI MILSTEIN / NURPHOTO Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel's third-largest city of Haifa and Hamas has vowed to rise again as Israel looks poised to expand its offensive into Lebanon, a year after the devastating Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war. Israelis held ceremonies and protests on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the 7 October attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas as the Gaza conflict has spread across the Middle East and fanned fears of an all-out regional war. Hamas, which has seen the Palestinian territory of Gaza laid waste by Israel's war, vowed to rise "like a phoenix" from the ashes despi...
Sharesies launches new US500 fund for KiwiSaver members
Business

Sharesies launches new US500 fund for KiwiSaver members

Sharesies' new move gives members direct exposure to the largest 500 US-listed companies across all sectors. File photo. Photo: 123RF Sharesies is offering its KiwiSaver members the opportunity to invest in individual US stocks, or via a new US500 fund - but there's a warning they need to take care doing their own stock-picking for their retirement savings. Sharesies is launching a US500 fund with direct exposure to the Vanguard S&P500 ETF which includes the largest 500 US-listed companies across all sectors. Sharesies KiwiSaver members will also be able to choose to invest in a range of individual US stocks including Meta and Apple. There is a 5 percent limit on investing in a single stock via KiwiSaver and at least 50 percent of the investor's portfolio needs to be in base funds. ...
North Korea: Kim Jong Un wants to speed up becoming a nuclear superpower
World News

North Korea: Kim Jong Un wants to speed up becoming a nuclear superpower

By Joyce Lee, Reuters North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Photo: Supplied/Korean Central News Agency North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will speed up steps toward becoming a military superpower with nuclear weapons, and would not rule out using them if it came under enemy attack, state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday. Kim mentioned South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol by name for the second time in a week in denouncing Seoul for colluding with Washington to destabilise the region to gloss over the fact it does not even have proper strategic weapons. "Yoon Suk Yeol made some tasteless and vulgar comment about the end of the republic in his speech, and it shows he is totally consumed by his blind faith in his master's strength," KCNA quoted Kim as saying, referring to the S...
Do Australians get a better mortgage deal?
Business

Do Australians get a better mortgage deal?

Commonwealth Bank was this week charging 6.34 percent for a variable rate in Australia. File photo Photo: 123RF Do Australians get a better deal on their mortgage rates? If you're part of the small proportion of New Zealanders who prefer a floating rate, the answer is probably yes. But if you prefer a fix, it's probably no. Floating rates across the ditch are lower than what New Zealanders pay. While the cash rate is 4.35 percent, Commonwealth Bank was this week charging 6.34 percent for a variable rate and ANZ was advertising 7.4 percent. But fixed rates don't look so competitive. On Friday, Macquarie was offering a two-year rate of 5.39 percent for two years and Westpac 5.89 percent, while ANZ was offering 6.54 percent. In New Zealand this week, the cash rate was 5.25 percent and ASB ...