World News

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in 2019. Photo: AFP Then-president Donald Trump secretly sent Covid-19 test kits to Vladimir Putin despite a US shortage during the pandemic, and spoke multiple times with the Russian leader after leaving office, Bob Woodward says in an explosive new book. The famed reporter's opus also chronicles some of President Joe Biden's own acknowledged missteps and his struggle to prevent escalation of conflict in the Middle East, including exasperation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over futile efforts to get Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire. In excerpts of War published Tuesday local time by The Washington Post, where Woodward is an associate editor, he says Trump retains a personal relationship with Putin even as he campaigns for another term and t...

John Farnham, pictured here in 2002, has a new memoir out next month. Photo: GREG WOOD A short audio trailer of Australian legend John Farnham reading his memoir The Voice Inside has been released. It's the first time the 75-year-old singer's voice has been heard since he was diagnosed with throat cancer 2022. "I don't enjoy talking about myself, I really don't. Don't get me wrong, I'm an egomaniac," he says in the audio clip released by the book's publisher Hachette ahead of its release later this month. "But dredging up the past and picking through what has and hasn't been is just not something I've ever really enjoyed. I'll try to share as much as I can, but that's not easy because I've never really been that open. I guess there are reasons for that. Reasons for my reluctance." The m...

Kaya Awhitu hasn't been heard from since Sunday. Photo: Supplied / screenshot The whānau of a young Kiwi woman who went missing while on holiday in Bali say she has been found by tourists, after having not heard from her in days. Kaya Awhitu, a young woman from Papamoa in the Bay of Plenty, travelled with her partner to the Indonesian holiday destination last Thursday, but her family said on Wednesday they had not had any contact with her since Sunday. Concerned whānau took to social media, describing Awhitu's disappearance as "out of the ordinary." "We know there's activity on her Messenger, but we feel that isn't her. She might just be having some downtime, but this is still unusual. Kaya, please just let us know you're okay, mama," a family member wrote. Awhitu was reportedly last se...

Kaya Awhitu hasn't been heard from since Sunday. Photo: Supplied / screenshot The whānau of a young Kiwi woman who has gone missing while on holiday in Bali are calling for answers, having not heard from her in days. Kaya Awhitu, a young woman from Papamoa in the Bay of Plenty, travelled with her partner to the Indonesian holiday destination last Thursday, but her family said they have not had any contact with her since Sunday. Concerned whānau have taken to social media, describing Awhitu's disappearance as "out of the ordinary." "We know there's activity on her Messenger, but we feel that isn't her. She might just be having some downtime, but this is still unusual. Kaya, please just let us know you're okay, mama," a family member wrote. Awhitu was reportedly last seen at the Udara Hid...

First published on The partner of an Australian diplomat has been denied diplomatic immunity after a alleged fight in Wellington. Photo: AFP Australia has waived diplomatic immunity for a man accused of an early-morning assault in Wellington CBD. It comes after new video emerged yesterday of the partner of an Australian diplomat allegedly yelling a homophobic slur at police before loudly claiming he has "diplomatic immunity" during a fight in central Wellington last month. A man was taken into custody following an "altercation" between three people on Dixon St in Wellington about 3.30am on Sunday, 29 September - just hours after the All Blacks played the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup in the capital city. NZ Police had sought a waiver of diplomatic immunity from Aus...

By Max Walden and Fiji reporter Lice Movono, ABC Fiji's coalition government continues to struggle at bringing democratic processes back after 16 years of dictatorship. (Supplied) Photo: ABC/Supplied Even by Fijian standards of high political drama, the arrest of the country's new anti-corruption commissioner on her first day in the job was extraordinary. The government announced Barbara Malimali's appointment as head of the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) in early September. By the next morning, she was being questioned by police after being detained on the direction of her own acting deputy commissioner, Francis Puleiwai. Barbara Malimali says she wants to be able to protect Fiji from corrupt public officials. (X: Fiji Women) Photo: X/Fiji Women Claims ...

Inspector-General Brendan Horsley. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson The spy agency watchdog has rejected a call for an inquiry into whether New Zealand spying is helping Israel's war in Gaza, but is not ruling out one in future. Three lawyers asked the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Brendan Horsleyfor an inquiry last month on the grounds GCSB and SIS may be aiding international crimes. But Horsley said he had already reviewed how the agencies assess human rights risks in their information sharing, which "provide reasonable safeguards". His ongoing tracking of this had found no legal or propriety issues, "for any intelligence sharing that could relate to current international conflicts, including the situation in Israel, Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, and the wider Middle East". H...

Photo: RNZ Explainer - It's a little under a month until the US presidential election, and if you've been paying attention, you'll be hearing an awful lot about the Electoral College. But what exactly is it? RNZ is here with what you need to know. The Electoral College is the key to determining who will be the next US President after the 5 November election - Republican former President Donald Trump or Democrat Vice-President Kamala Harris. What is the Electoral College? When Americans cast votes for Harris or Trump or other presidential candidates, they're also actually voting for 538 electors who, in a system laid out by the US Constitution, comprise the Electoral College - which is actually a process, not a place. Those electors cast their votes for president based on how their state'...

By Julio-Cesar Chavez and Octavio Jones for Reuters Contractors put plywood over windows of a building in Tampa on 8 October 2024 ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall. Photo: AFP Milton expected to grow in size before landfall, affecting hundreds of miles of coastline Evacuations ordered for over 1 million people in Florida's west-coast counties Milton forecast to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday Unusual path and rapid intensification raise concerns for storm-surge impact Huge storm comes less than two weeks after devastating Helene Milton, which exploded on Monday into one of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record, was forecast to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday, threatening a stretch of Florida's densely populated west coast that is s...

By Joshua Boscaini for ABC Photo: 123rf.com A new highly transmissible variant of Covid-19 has been detected in Australia, raising questions about whether it will lead to a wave of Covid-19 cases over summer. The XEC strain has been reported in 29 countries including the United States, United Kingdom and China, according to global health data platform GISAID. Here's what we know about the XEC variant and how many cases have been reported in Australia. What do we know about XEC? XEC is a "recombinant" Covid-19 variant, which means it's a mix of two previous Omicron subvariants called KS 1.1 and KP 3.3. A recombinant variant is created when someone is infected with two strains of a virus that go on reproduce and create another strain. There are conflicting reports about where the strain...