Saturday, May 2

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Canada wildfire spreads to popular tourist town, 25,000 evacuated
World News

Canada wildfire spreads to popular tourist town, 25,000 evacuated

In this image courtesy of Le Minh Khue, visitors evacuate Jasper National Park in Canada on 22 July 2024, due to a wildfire. Photo: LE MINH KHUE / AFP A wildfire reached the Canadian town of Jasper today, one of hundreds ravaging the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, as firefighters battled to save key facilities such as the Trans Mountain Pipeline, authorities said. Wildfires burning uncontrolled across the region include 433 in British Columbia and 176 in Alberta, more than a dozen of them in the area of Fort McMurray, an oil sands hub. The pipeline, which can carry 890,000 barrels per day of oil from Edmonton to Vancouver, runs through a national park in the Canadian Rockies near the picturesque tourist town, from which about 25,000 people were forced to evacuate on ...
Typhoon Gaemi sinks freighter off Taiwan, barrels towards Chinese seaboard
World News

Typhoon Gaemi sinks freighter off Taiwan, barrels towards Chinese seaboard

By Ben Blanchard and Bernard Orr A street flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on 25 July 2024. Photo: AFP Typhoon Gaemi swept through northern Taiwan on Thursday, killing two people, triggering flooding and sinking a freighter before barrelling west across the Taiwan Strait towards China where it is expected to dump more torrential rain. Gaemi made landfall around midnight local time on the north-eastern coast of Taiwan in Yilan county. It is the strongest typhoon to hit the island in eight years and was packing gusts of up to 227km/h before weakening, according to the Central Weather Administration. As of 12.15pm (0415 GMT), Gaemi was in the Taiwan Strait and heading toward Fuzhou in China's Fujian province. Gaemi would be the biggest typhoon to hit China's eastern seaboa...
A New Zealand sheep milk company scores a big win in China
Business

A New Zealand sheep milk company scores a big win in China

Spring Sheep chief executive Nick Hammond at the Children, Baby and Maternity Expo in Shanghai, China. Photo: Supplied / Spring Sheep A New Zealand sheep milk company has scored a big win in China - gaining brand registration for its infant milk formula. It is only the second international sheep milk brand in the world to achieve this direct market access. The deal allows Waikato-based Spring Sheep to directly import and distribute infant formula to China - which long term will increase export volumes - and following two very challenging seasons, chief executive Nick Hammon said this deal was "highly significant and exciting". Spring Sheep has 15 suppliers milking 15,500 ewes and 25,000 lambs are expected to be born over the next month. Hammond has been in Shanghai at the country's larg...
Can Deadpool and Wolverine save the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
World News

Can Deadpool and Wolverine save the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

By Karl Puschmann Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in a scene from 'Deadpool & Wolverine.' Photo: Jay Maidment We're used to superheroes saving the day. But who rushes to rescue them in their hour of need? It's a question Disney has been wrestling with ever since Avengers: Endgame triumphantly wrapped up the decade-long box office dominance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in 2019. Endgame didn't just represent the conclusion of the MCU's ambitious and revolutionary 10-year, three-phase storyline. The film also acted as the endpoint of the wider public's interest in spandex-clad superbeings. It may be the second-highest-grossing film of all time but every Marvel movie since has been a box office disappointment or a bonafide flop. One exception to the ...
Australian private equity firm bids up to $590 million for The Warehouse retail group
Business

Australian private equity firm bids up to $590 million for The Warehouse retail group

First Retail Group managing director Chris Wilkinson said that a takeover with The Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall at the helm could help restore the fortunes of the once dominant retail chain. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon An Australian private equity firm has made a bid of up to $590 million for The Warehouse retail group, with backing from the group's founder. The company said a fund run by Adamantem Capital had made an unsolicited, non-binding, indicative offer to takeover The Warehouse Group of $1.50 to $1.70 a share, compared to The Warehouse's closing price of $1.45 on Monday. It said The Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall and interests associated with him, which control close to half the group's shares, supported the bid, but wanted to stay invested in the new company. "Si...
Australian judge dismisses lawsuit claiming Bayer weedkiller causes blood cancer
World News

Australian judge dismisses lawsuit claiming Bayer weedkiller causes blood cancer

A case against Roundup weedkiller's manufacturers has been dismissed. Photo: AFP An Australian judge on Thursday dismissed a class action lawsuit claiming Bayer's Roundup weedkiller can cause a type of blood cancer, a boost for the company which is grappling with a slew of similar cases in the United States. Justice Michael Lee of Australia's Federal Court ruled that on the balance of probabilities, there was insufficient evidence to conclude that Roundup can cause non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL). "It is not proven in this proceeding on a balance of probabilities... that throughout the relevant period use of, and or exposure to Roundup products increased an individual's risk of developing NHL," Lee said. The German pharmaceutical and chemicals company has maintained that Roundup, a glyphosa...
Loan wiped after woman ‘pressured’ into buying car
Business

Loan wiped after woman ‘pressured’ into buying car

The woman had no other way to go home. Photo: 123rf / Katarzyna Bialasiewicz Photographee.eu A woman who was picked up from her home by a car dealer and driven an hour-and-a-half to see a vehicle - but not offered a lift home again, has had her loan balance wiped. The woman complained to Financial Services Complaints Ltd, a financial ombudsman service that deals with complaints that cannot be resolved directly between consumers and financial services providers. She had seen a car for sale in Auckland online but lived an hour-and-a-half away. She contacted the dealership and was told one of the staff could pick her and her daughter up and drive them into the city so she could look at the car. She had thought she would be driven back again but was told that the staff member would not. She...
Enhanced Games: meet the swimmer who thinks athletes should be allowed to dope
Life Style

Enhanced Games: meet the swimmer who thinks athletes should be allowed to dope

Anything taken at the Enhanced Games, Magnussen says, “has to be FDA approved and prescribed by a medical professional”. His drug of choice is testosterone: “something that’s produced naturally in our body and that declines rapidly from our late twenties onwards”. That decline, Magnussen says, is a “leading cause” of “lower libido, lower energy levels, low mood” and “a decrease in muscle and strength”. In short, the male menopause. What the sportsman leaves out, or perhaps hasn’t been told, is that testosterone supplements, when taken over many years, only accelerate the condition he describes. Source link
Tanker with 1500 tonnes of oil sinks off Philippines
World News

Tanker with 1500 tonnes of oil sinks off Philippines

By Annabelle Liang, BBC News Part of the MT Terra Nova oil tanker is seen after sinking off Manila Bay. Photo: Supplied/Philippine Coast Guard A tanker carrying close to 1.5 million litres of industrial fuel has capsized and sank off the Philippine capital on Thursday, causing an oil spill, officials say. Sixteen crew members of the Philippine-flagged MT Terra Nova have been rescued while one remains missing, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said. Bautista said an oil spill has been detected but strong winds and high waves were hampering the authorities' response. The incident comes a day after Typhoon Gaemi intensified seasonal monsoon rains, submerging large swathes of Metro Manila and its suburbs in deep floods. Gaemi has made landfall in Taiwan, leaving three people killed...
‘Really quite annoying’ – Paywave surcharges come under fire
Business

‘Really quite annoying’ – Paywave surcharges come under fire

Paywave's surcharges are catching the eye of the Commerce Commission. Photo: RNZ / Leonard Powell The Commerce Commission estimates Paywave is taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of New Zealanders' pockets each year. It is just a fraction of the one billion dollars a year Kiwis spend on merchant service fees using the Mastercard and Visa payment networks. The commission said Paywave's 2 percent surcharge is particularly high and it has a plan to slash fees. Commerce Commission chairperson John Small told Checkpoint there was a fee inside Visa and Mastercard networks. "It gets transferred from the merchant who sells you something, the merchants bank then passes this fee across to the cardholder's bank. "The effect of that is the merchant gets charged for it and it inflates the fee...