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File photo. A gas rig off Taranaki. Photo: Supplied Spending hundreds of millions on building an liquefied natural gas import terminal will not reduce New Zealand's emissions compared with burning coal, says an energy expert. Falling production from offshore gas fields, along with low hydro lake levels, have been blamed for burning more coal at the Huntly power station and increasing New Zealand's emissions. But Sustainable Energy Professor Ralph Sims of Massey University says by the time gas is extracted, cooled, stored and shipped in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG), any climate benefits over burning coal will disappear. The government on Monday announced steps to address an energy crisis which has seen gas and electricity prices spike for many large commercial users and some c...

The British-flagged Bayesian capsized and sunk on 19 August killing seven people. Photo: VesselFinder Italian prosecutors are investigating two more crew members from British tech tycoon Mike Lynch's yacht, along with its captain, in connection with the vessel's sinking over a week ago, a judicial source said. Being investigated does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow. Lynch and six other people were killed when the British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long yacht, capsized and went down on 19 August within minutes of being hit by a pre-dawn storm while anchored off northern Sicily. On Monday, the boat's 51-year-old captain James Cutfield, a New Zealander, was put under investigation for manslaughter and shipwreck. Cutfield declined to respond to prosecutors dur...

By Ali Sawafta A Palestinian woman in a damaged street at the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarem after an Israeli army raid on 28 August 2024. Photo: AFP Hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters, drones and armoured personnel carriers raided the flashpoint cities of Jenin and Tulkarm and other areas in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, killing at least 10 Palestinians. The assault, one of the largest seen in the West Bank for months, followed a series of smaller raids in the area over recent weeks as Israeli forces sought to crush groups of fighters from Palestinian militant groups. With Israeli forces battling Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and facing a serious escalation of tensions with Iranian-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Wednesday's operation unders...

By Isabelle Yr Carlsson and Tom Little for Reuters A photo taken during the night from August 22 to 23, 2024 shows lava and smoke erupting from a volcano near Grindavik on the Icelandic peninsula of Reykjanes. Photo: AFP / Public Defence Department of the State Police in Iceland A volcano spewed lava and smoke over southwestern Iceland for a second day last Friday raising fears of spreading pollution hours after its eruption forced the evacuation of a spa resort. Fountains of glowing molten rock shot into the night sky when the volcano first erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula on Thursday. The flow from the volcano has since slowed, Rikke Pedersen, head of the Nordic Volcanological Centre, said. "We have a quite intense fountaining and high output in the beginning and it rapidly decli...

Noel Gallagher (left) Andy Bell (centre) and Liam Gallagher, members of the British rock band Oasis hold a photocall in Hong Kong on 25 February, 2006. Photo: MIKE CLARKE/AFP Britpop icons Oasis are reforming for the first time since 2009, with feuding brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher calling a truce to get the band back together. Oasis will headline a series of live concerts in the UK and Ireland next year. It's official! After 15 years of refuting any suggestion they might reform, Oasis have reunited to headline a series of live shows. After teasing fans earlier this week, Liam and Noel Gallagher have confirmed they would bury the hatchet to perform a run of concerts across the UK and Ireland in 2025. What are Oasis's reunion dates? The band will play four shows each at London's Wem...

By James Mackenzie, for Reuters Freed Israeli hostage Kaid Alkadi talking on the phone after arriving for a checkup at the Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheva. Photo: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE/AFP Israeli special forces have recovered an Israeli hostage from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip in "a complex rescue operation", the military said, more than 10 months after he was abducted by Hamas-led gunmen on 7 October. It said 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, had been transferred to hospital and his condition was stable. Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Alkadi had been rescued in an underground tunnel but gave no details of the operation, citing the security of the remaining hostages and Israeli forces. Pr...

Jetstar says the flight was cancelled due to an engineering issue on the same day that the global CrowdStrike outage took place. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon By Kristy Sexton-McGrath, ABC national tourism reporter, and Jessica Haynes, ABC What was meant to be a dream holiday in Japan for Cassandra Nichterlein and her young family turned into a costly nightmare when their return flight was cancelled. Nichterlein, her husband and their three children - all under six years of age - were ready to return to Sydney after a 10-day break in Osaka. But the family's plans unravelled soon after arriving at the airport on 19 July. "There was a sign on the check-in counter telling us the flight had been cancelled due to mechanical failure," Nichterlein said. "That's pretty much where the explanations ...

US prosecutors obtained a new indictment in the 2020 election subversion case against Donald Trump. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP US prosecutors obtained a new indictment in the 2020 election subversion case against Donald Trump on Tuesday, following a US Supreme Court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution. The new indictment dropped allegations that Trump sought to pressure the US Justice Department in his bid to overturn his election defeat, an apparent effort to keep the prosecution alive after the high court found that Trump could not be prosecuted for that conduct. - Reuters Source link

New Zealander captain James Cutfield declined to respond to Italian prosecutors' questions. Photo: VesselFinder The captain of the luxury yacht owned by the family of British tech magnate Mike Lynch that sank off Sicily last week declined to respond to prosecutors during questioning on Tuesday, one of his lawyers said. James Cutfield, a 51-year old New Zealand national, was put under investigation on Monday by Italian prosecutors. "The captain exercised his right to remain silent for two fundamental reasons," lawyer Giovanni Rizzuti told reporters. "First, he's very worn out. Second, we were appointed only on Monday and for a thorough and correct defence case we need to acquire a set of data that at the moment we don't have." Lynch and six other people were killed when the British-flagg...

Trump's approach to the economy and employment was preferred by 43 percent of registered voters compared to 40 percent who preferred Harris's approach. Photo: AFP By Jason Lange, Reuters Donald Trump's advantage over Kamala Harris on the economy and crime is eroding among US voters, a sign the Democratic vice president's campaign is gathering momentum ahead of the 5 November presidential election, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The three-day poll, conducted 23-25 August, showed Republican former President Trump's approach to the economy and employment was preferred by 43 percent of registered voters compared to 40 percent who preferred Harris's approach. The 3 percentage point difference was too small to be significant given the poll's 4 percentage point margin of error. A prior...