Thursday, April 23

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When is the Harris-Trump presidential debate and how to watch it in New Zealand
World News

When is the Harris-Trump presidential debate and how to watch it in New Zealand

By Stephanie Kelly, Reuters US vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and US former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Photo: AFP / Jeff Kowalsky, Charly Triballeau US Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris will square off this week in their first presidential debate since President Joe Biden quit the race. It will be the first chance some 240 million US voters get to hear Trump and Harris explain their policies side by side ahead of the 5 November election, and a rare moment when the two are in the same room. Here are some details about the highly anticipated event: When is the debate and how do I watch it? The debate, hosted by ABC News, will take place on 11 September (NZ time) 1pm in Philadel...
Inland Revenue giving thousands of taxpayers’ details to social media platforms for ad campaigns
Business

Inland Revenue giving thousands of taxpayers’ details to social media platforms for ad campaigns

Photo: AFP Inland Revenue is giving hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' details to social media platforms for marketing campaigns, using an anonymisation tool that top international regulators say is inadequate at protecting people's personal information. David Buckingham, a Queenstown employment relations consultant who spotted the practice, said it was a mass "betrayal" of taxpayers. Buckingham said taxpayers had no choice but to give many personal details and their tax status to Inland Revenue, only for the details to end up with Facebook and LinkedIn, bolstering individuals' profiles that the big tech companies grew and traded. Inland Revenue told him that neither he, nor anyone else, could opt out of having their details provided to the firms, he told RNZ. In a statement, Inland Rev...
At least 48 killed in Nigerian fuel truck explosion
World News

At least 48 killed in Nigerian fuel truck explosion

Haulage trucks drive past fuel-ladden tanker which exploded and fell after a collision. Photo: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP At least 48 people were killed on Sunday in a fuel tanker truck explosion following a collision with another vehicle in north-central Nigeria, the state's disaster management agency said. The State Emergency Management Agency in north-central Niger state said the fuel truck collided with a truck carrying travellers and cattle. Several other vehicles were also caught up in the accident, it said. The agency's spokesperson Hussaini Ibrahim put the death toll at 48 and officials were still trying to clear the scene of the incident. Nigeria's state-owned firm NNPC Ltd last week hiked the price of gasoline by at least 39 percent, the second major increase in more than a year but...
Rising consumption of processed, packaged food in India to affect health outcome
Health

Rising consumption of processed, packaged food in India to affect health outcome

The rising consumption of processed and packaged food in India will likely affect health outcomes and policies may be required to regulate the nutritional content of these foods and promote healthier alternatives, a government paper has stressed.  According to the paper, titled ‘Changes in India’s Food Consumption and Policy Implications,’ by the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister, across regions and consumption classes, “we observe a significant increase in the share of household expenditure on served and packaged processed food”. This increase was universal across the classes but more pronounced for the country`s top 20 per cent of households and significantly more in urban areas. “While food processing is a growth sector and a significant creator of jobs, this risi...
Gunman crossing from Jordan kills three Israelis at border, Israeli army says
World News

Gunman crossing from Jordan kills three Israelis at border, Israeli army says

Vehicles queue at the Jordanian side of the Allenby Bridge crossing between the West Bank and Jordan in 2022. Photo: AFP/ Khalil Mazraawi A gunman crossing from Jordan killed three Israeli civilians at the Allenby Bridge border in the occupied West Bank before security forces shot him dead on Sunday, Israeli authorities said. It was the first attack of its kind along the border with Jordan since 7 October, when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas carried out an assault on southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza that has since escalated throughout the region. The attack took place in a commercial cargo area under Israeli control where Jordanian trucks offload cargo entering the West Bank, officials said. The crossing, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, lies about midway between Amman ...
Is coal mining causing the ‘earthquake swarm’ hitting NSW’s Hunter Region?
World News

Is coal mining causing the ‘earthquake swarm’ hitting NSW’s Hunter Region?

By Bridget Murphy and Alexander Lewis, ABC Glencore's Bulga coal mine in the Hunter Valley. Photo: AFP / David Gray Saturday's 4.5-magnitude earthquake at Muswellbrook, in the New South Wales Upper Hunter, was the latest in a series of moderate-sized events near the town in just over a fortnight. A 4.7-magnitude quake was recorded on 23 August, then a 4.5-magnitude quake rocked the same area the next day. The latest quake happened just before 6am on Saturday (Australian time), with Geoscience Australia receiving more than 1,000 reports from the public - some hundreds of kilometres from Muswellbrook. These quakes have been described by experts as a part of a "swarm". So what is that? And what could be the cause? Is mining behind the NSW earthquakes? Muswellbrook is one of Australia's ...
Elton John dazzles Toronto’s red carpet for new documentary
World News

Elton John dazzles Toronto’s red carpet for new documentary

By Jenna Zucker, Reuters Elton John and David Furnish attend the World Premiere of Disney+ Documentary “Elton John: Never Too Late” at Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall. Photo: Sonia Recchia / Getty Images for Disney / AFP A bespectacled Elton John rolled down the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival in a purple golf cart adorned with stars, displaying a brand of showmanship befitting the world premiere of the documentary Elton John: Never Too Late. Amplified by archival footage and photographs, the film is an intimate look at the singer-songwriter's life and career through the lens of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which culminated with a 2022 performance at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The sun goes down on Elton John with a rhapsodic G...
The New Zealand company that saw its share price jump 900% in a year
Business

The New Zealand company that saw its share price jump 900% in a year

Photo: chatchaiyo/123RF A 916.67 percent investment gain in one year might be difficult to get your head around - but it is the best annual share performance of any company listed on the NZX in the last 10 years. The New Zealand stock exchange has provided data showing the most significant on-year movements over the past decade. The data assumes net dividends are reinvested and adjusts for capital events. Pacific Edge's share price increased 916.67 percent in 2020. It started the year at 12c and ended it at $1.22. It has since fallen away again, to 10c. "It's important to look at everything in context," Devon Funds head of retail Greg Smith said. "While it had a big run in that particular year, look at the bigger picture and it's lost 99 percent of its value from the peak. It was a big-s...
Venezuela opposition candidate Gonzalez leaves for Spain as diplomatic tensions rise
World News

Venezuela opposition candidate Gonzalez leaves for Spain as diplomatic tensions rise

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Vivian Sequera, Reuters Edmundo Gonzalez talks to supporters in front of the United Nations headquarters in Caracas in July. Photo: AFP / YURI CORTEZ Venezuela's vice president says that former presidential opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez has left the country Venezuela claims embassy used to plan assassination attempts Brazil insists on defending Argentine interests until new state is chosen Brazil and Argentina urge Venezuela to respect the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations Argentina's Foreign Ministry asks ICC to issue arrest warrant against Maduro Venezuela's former presidential opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez has left for Spain in the wake of the South American country's contested election, Venezuelan and Spanish officials said ...
Pope Francis delivers medical supplies in visit to remote PNG town
World News

Pope Francis delivers medical supplies in visit to remote PNG town

By Joshua McElwee, Reuters Pope Francis takes part in a meeting with Catholic faithful of the diocese of Vanimo in front of Holy Cross Cathedral in Vanimo, Papua New Guinea, on 8 September 2024. Photo: TIZIANA FABI / AFP Pope Francis flew deep into the jungle of the Southwestern Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea on Sunday to visit Catholics living in one of the most remote areas of the world and deliver medical supplies and other aid. Travelling 1000 km in a C-130 cargo aircraft provided by the Royal Australian Air Force, Francis arrived with a small entourage in Vanimo, a township of some 12,000 people in the northwestern corner of PNG's main island, with no running water and scarce electricity. The 87-year-old pope brought hundreds of kilograms of items to help support the ...