Sunday, June 28

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Woman charged in alleged plan to steal Elvis’ Graceland
World News

Woman charged in alleged plan to steal Elvis’ Graceland

By Ana Faguy, BBC News Graceland Memphis Tennessee Photo: By PaddyBriggs - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15041528 A Missouri woman is accused of trying to defraud Elvis Presley's family of millions of dollars and steal the family's ownership interest in Graceland, the US singing legend's family home. Lisa Jeanine Findley, who used a variety of aliases, was arrested for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland, located in Memphis, Tennessee home. Findley, 53, was federally charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft and was expected to appear in court Friday. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison. The Presley family has not publicly commented on the charges. The US Justice Department claims Fi...
The superstorms from space that could end modern life
World News

The superstorms from space that could end modern life

By Jonathan O'Callaghan, BBC A sudden solar superstorm is thought to be behind a devastating bombardment of high-energy particles that happened around 14,000 years ago. (File photo: A solar eruption captured by astronomers in 2010.) Photo: NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Centre/ Solar and Heliospheric Observatory The Sun is going through a period of high activity, but it is nothing compared to an enormous solar event that slammed into our planet 14,000 years ago. If one were to occur today, the effect on Earth could be devastating. The oldest trees on Earth date back a whopping 5000 years, living through all manner of events. They have stood through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the birth of Christianity, the European discovery of the Americas and the first Moon landing. Trees ca...
NZ’s food system in ‘disarray’, scientist says
Business

NZ’s food system in ‘disarray’, scientist says

Photo: New Zealand's food system is in "disarray", with major cross-sector challenges to resilience, a leading scientist says. There was a growing need for a national food strategy to improve the country's food resilience, Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki Lincoln University Professor Alan Renwick said. Food systems needed to withstand shocks from international conflicts or disasters, as well as deal with accessibility and health concerns, he said. One example cited by Renwick was of price shocks during the Covid-19 pandemics. He said food price inflation during that time was more severe and persisted longer in New Zealand than elsewhere. That was partly to do with a food system that was very reliant on imports and a concentrated agriculture system, he said. "The idea to me about food system res...
Gallipoli fire threatening war graves under control
World News

Gallipoli fire threatening war graves under control

A helicopter with water in the fight to put out fires ravaging Turkey. Photo: Facebook / Bekir Karacabey A fire raging on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula may have unearthed the remains of fallen Anzac soldiers, the Returned and Services Association says. The wildfire - one of a number of large blazes that damaged large swathes of the country this week - was brought under control on Friday (local time), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. Images of the site in northwest Turkey showed soot-blackened gravestones in a scorched garden looking out over the Aegean Sea, the Associated Press reported. The RSA's Mark Compain said drone video of the fire damage looked similar to another wildfire there in 1994, which unearthed soldiers' remains. "Bones, you know, littered the area that I w...
The ‘blended’ family behind Kamala Harris
World News

The ‘blended’ family behind Kamala Harris

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff wave as they depart from Philadelphia International Airport on 6 August, 2024. Photo: Brendan Smialowski / POOL / AFP Vice-President Kamala Harris has had to speedily re-introduce herself to US voters, who are now having to size her up as a potential commander-in-chief, instead of Joe Biden's deputy. And during the biggest moment of Harris's career so far - the Democratic convention in Chicago - they will also get to know the family members who will stand beside her, as well as those who helped her get there. Unlike her rival Donald Trump, Harris has only been married once and was a step-parent. Here are the members of her big, modern family. Doug Emhoff, husband Harris met her now-husband, Los Angeles entertain...
Doctors strike in India to protest brutal rape of medic
World News

Doctors strike in India to protest brutal rape of medic

Junior doctors in India hold placards in a government hospital, calling for justice for a doctor who was raped and killed, and demanding safety in the hospital, on 11 August. Photo: AFP/ Sudipta Das Hospitals and clinics across India are turning away all patients except emergency cases on Saturday as medical professionals start a 24-hour shutdown to protest the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in the eastern city of Kolkata. More than one million doctors were expected to join the strike, paralysing medical services across the world's most populous nation. Hospitals said faculty staff from medical colleges had been pressed into service for emergency cases. The strike, which began at 6am local time (0030 GMT), cut off access to elective medical procedures and out-patient consultations, ...
Cruise ship companies that have to wear a sudden fee rise will be turned off coming to NZ- representative
Business

Cruise ship companies that have to wear a sudden fee rise will be turned off coming to NZ- representative

The Silver Shadow cruise ship in Taranaki during the last cruise season. Photo: Supplied Fewer cruise ships could visit New Zealand if border levies are increased at short notice as is planned, the sector says. The cruise industry said proposed changes to the border levy were being made with too little warning, and it could turn companies off visiting. Customs and the Ministry for Primary Industries have proposed the new border fees, to be effective from 1 December. Consultation opened mid-July with calls for public submissions closed on 9 August. Under the proposal, border levy rates reduce for all air travellers and for sea travellers who do not arrive by cruise ship. By contrast, arriving cruise ship travellers would face an 88 percent increase in customs fees, from $11.48 to $21.54....
Bermuda braces for Hurricane Ernesto, billed as the ‘real deal’
World News

Bermuda braces for Hurricane Ernesto, billed as the ‘real deal’

This satellite image obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Ernesto on 16 August, 2024. Photo: NOAA / GOES / AFP Hurricane Ernesto churned towards Bermuda on Friday as a Category 2 storm packing powerful winds and likely to produce life-threatening flooding and storm surges in the British island territory. Ernesto, centred about 205km south-southwest of the archipelago at 5pm Atlantic Standard Time, was producing sustained winds of up to 155km/h and had the potential to drop up to 230mm of rain, the US National Hurricane Center said. The centre of Ernesto was expected to pass near or over Bermuda on Saturday morning, making conditions ripe for storm surges and flash flooding by the afternoon. "Folks, be under no illusion. This storm is the real...
Ask Susan: Isn’t more unemployment what the Reserve Bank wanted?
Business

Ask Susan: Isn’t more unemployment what the Reserve Bank wanted?

RNZ's money correspondent Susan Edmunds. Photo: RNZ If you have a question you'd like answered, email susan.edmunds@rnz.co.nz I feel like I have heard the Reserve Bank saying it wants more unemployment, as part of its efforts to bring down inflation. It seems to be like a broken system if we need more people to be unemployed but then we slap them down when they are unemployed? You're right that the Reserve Bank has been trying to slow the economy to bring down inflation - it talked quite early on about engineering a recession. This week it indicated that the effect of monetary policy has probably been so strong that it's going to have sent us into another one, too. As part of that, unemployment rises. (The government last year removed the Reserve Bank's dual mandate which required it ...
UK’s Heathrow border officers plan four-day strike at end of August
World News

UK’s Heathrow border officers plan four-day strike at end of August

Travellers at Heathrow Airport. Photo: 123RF Hundreds of border force staff at Britain's biggest airport, Heathrow, will strike from 31 August to 3 September - a peak travel period for hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers. The four-day strike by 650 members of the PCS union will be followed by more than two weeks of industrial action, border force staff union PCS said in a statement on Friday. The strike will coincide with the end of Britain's school summer holidays when the airport to the west of London usually has one of its busiest periods. PCS said staff would work to rule and refuse to work overtime until 22 September. They blamed the industrial action on a long-running dispute over changes to terms and conditions including new inflexible rosters. "We know our strike action is li...