Friday, April 24

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US researchers find probable launch site of Russia’s new nuclear-powered missile
World News

US researchers find probable launch site of Russia’s new nuclear-powered missile

By Jonathan Landay, Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: ALEXANDER KAZAKOV / AFP Two US researchers say they have identified the probable deployment site in Russia of the 9M370 Burevestnik, a new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile touted by President Vladimir Putin as "invincible". Putin has said the weapon - dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO - has an almost unlimited range and can evade US missile defences. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik's strategic value, saying it will not add capabilities that Moscow does not already have and risks a radiation-spewing mishap. Using images taken on 26 July by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite firm, the two researchers identified a construction project abutting a nuclear warhead storage fac...
‘Help us’: Guam’s nuclear radiation survivors’ plea to the United States
World News

‘Help us’: Guam’s nuclear radiation survivors’ plea to the United States

In the Marshall Islands, between 1946 and 1958 the United States detonated 67 nuclear tests and the brutal impacts are being felt today. The radiation spread to the US Pacific territory of Guam and while Washington settled a compensation deal with the Marshallese, Guam survivors have never been acknowledged or compensated. Now the remaining cancer survivors are still pleading that that wrong be made right. Sharing their stories for the first time, they want the world to know how it has devastated their lives and their families. Linda Perez has won the battle against cancer twice. But her family and extended family, did not make it. "My sister passed from ovarian cancer. I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. The last two years I was diagnosed with colon cancer," Linda told RNZ Pacific. "My...
Danish Pratap Sood on fulfiling father`s wish with `Naam Namak Nishaan`
Entertainment, Movies

Danish Pratap Sood on fulfiling father`s wish with `Naam Namak Nishaan`

Danish Pratap Sood had three compelling reasons to join Naam Namak Nishaan: fulfilling his father’s wish to join the army, the script itself, and the opportunity to play the protagonist. In the Amazon miniTV series, Sood portrays Gurbaz Singh Kahlon, an army cadet. “My father wanted to join the army but never got the opportunity despite trying several times,” Sood shares. He adds that, despite completing his MBBS, the opportunity kept slipping further away from his father. While his father never pressured him to join the army, he did want him to experience the life of a soldier. “Several things drew me to the show, like the script, an [unexplored] subject, and the depiction of brotherhood. We often discuss how a war unfolds and how a cadet becomes an officer, but we rarely explore the men...
Kimchi no more? Climate change puts South Korea’s beloved cabbage dish at risk
World News

Kimchi no more? Climate change puts South Korea’s beloved cabbage dish at risk

By Sebin Choi and Hyun Young Yi, Reuters Kimchi. Photo: Flickr user Marcus Buchwald / CC BY-SA 2.0 South Korea's famous kimchi is falling victim to climate change, with scientists, farmers and manufacturers saying the quality and quantity of the napa cabbage that is pickled to make the ubiquitous dish is suffering due to rising temperatures. Napa cabbage thrives in cooler climates, and is usually planted in mountainous regions where temperatures during the key growing summer season once rarely rose above 25C. Studies show that warmer weather brought about by climate change is now threatening these crops, so much so that South Korea might not be able to grow napa cabbage one day due to the intensifying heat. "We hope these predictions don't come to pass," plant pathologist and virolog...
As liquidation numbers soar, businesses ‘can’t hang on’
Business

As liquidation numbers soar, businesses ‘can’t hang on’

Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Retailer members of her organisation are closing their businesses every week, chief executive of Retail NZ Carolyn Young says. "It's incredibly tough," she said. "Part of it is like the culminating factor - businesses hang on, hang on, hang on - April through to September are quieter months in retail. "We've come off eight quarters in a row of negative growth, at some point businesses are going to run out of cash. They've used all their lines of credit, they can't stay open any more. Sometimes it's their choice, sometimes it's forced on them." Data from Centrix shows the number of retail businesses being liquidated was up 36 percent in July, compared to the same time a year earlier. Hospitality liquidations were up 27 percent and were 2.2 times more lik...
Attachment styles are all the rage on TikTok but can they really doom your relationship?
World News

Attachment styles are all the rage on TikTok but can they really doom your relationship?

By Anna Salleh, Sana Qadar, James Bullen and Rose Kerr for ABC's All in the Mind Posts on attachment styles have been proliferating on social media. (file image) Photo: 123RF / pixel-shot.com (Leonid Yastremskiy) Certain corners of TikTok and Instagram love talking about people's "attachment styles" - analysing and dissecting them and giving us dating advice based on them. Looking at some social media comments you would be forgiven for thinking that if you can identify someone's attachment style, you can work out if they are a good prospect, or whether your relationship is doomed from the start. Partners with a "secure attachment style" are seen as the holy grail. "Do these people exist on the dating apps or are they all taken?" reads one comment next to a TikTok post describing this...
Business leaders more optimistic about growth – survey
Business

Business leaders more optimistic about growth – survey

More respondents met their revenue and profit targets than had fallen short. Photo: 123rf.com The improving mood flowing through the business sector is showing itself among the financial heads of companies. A new survey of chief financial officers (CFOs) by recruitment firm Hunter Campbell, tax advisors Tax Traders and economics consultancy Infometrics showed a net 30 percent of the 173 surveyed were upbeat about their growth outlook for the year ahead. Infometrics chief executive and principal economist Brad Olsen said there were economic challenges ahead, but a fair portion of CFOs expected modest to strong growth. "The bulk of CFOs, at 42 percent, expecting challenging conditions but still with opportunities for growth, 12 percent expect similar results as they're currently experienc...
Battered and unloved, Germany’s coalition likely to hang on after regional losses to far right
World News

Battered and unloved, Germany’s coalition likely to hang on after regional losses to far right

By Sarah Marsh and Thomas Escritt, Reuters Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Photo: MICHAEL PROBST / AP POOL / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP The far right's first victory in a German state election in the post-war era prompted soul-searching in Berlin on Monday, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz's battered and unloved coalition looked as if it would hold together. All three parties in Scholz's centre-left coalition suffered painful losses while the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and a new anti-establishment populist party booked record gains in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony on Sunday. Scholz, a Social Democrat, described the results as "bitter" but Finance Minister Christian Lindner rejected suggestions that his neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), who fared the worst of all coalit...
Donald Trump says he had ‘every right’ to interfere in 2020 election
World News

Donald Trump says he had ‘every right’ to interfere in 2020 election

By Jasper Ward, Reuters Donald Trump dances as he leaves a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 30 August 2024. Photo: AFP Former US President Donald Trump, who faces federal and state charges for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden, insists he had "every right" to interfere in the election. "Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it?" Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday. A federal indictment accuses Trump of defrauding the United States by preventing Congress from certifying Biden's victory and depriving voters of their right to a fair election. He faced a revised federal indictment last month accusing him of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election los...
How can we get away with spending less on our cars?
Business

How can we get away with spending less on our cars?

Do you really need to get your car serviced? How often do you need an oil change? Do you know how to check your tyres? Photo: Unsplash While it's tempting to think that your car is going along okay and could skip its service, don't. "When we see significant motor issues or failures, it's generally because people haven't serviced them," AA mechanic Grant Waters warns in the latest episode of RNZ's Thrift podcast. Grant Waters is a southern franchise manager for the Automobile Association. Before that, he ran the vehicle testing workshops for the southern region. And before that, he was a mechanic. Photo: Supplied Sometimes it's up to five years with no oil or filter, he says. There will be almost no oil on the dipstick and "it's literally turned almost like rock inside there". Foll...