World News

Photo: 123rf Bitcoin has more than doubled this year Trump on Wednesday picked pro-crypto Paul Atkins to lead SEC Elon Musk, a major Trump ally, supports cryptocurrencies Crypto-related stocks have surged Bitcoin catapulted above US$100,000 (NZ$170,000) for the first time on Thursday (US time), a milestone hailed even by sceptics as a coming-of-age for digital assets as investors bet on a friendly US administration to cement the place of cryptocurrencies in financial markets. Once it broke US$100,000 in Thursday's Asian morning, boosted by US President-elect Trump's nomination of pro-crypto Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was soon at an all-time high of US$103,619 (NZ$176,000). It last fetched US$101,139 ($NZ172,000), up about 3.2 percent on the day. T...

Photo: USGS/Supplied A magnitude 7 earthquake has hit off the northern California coast, prompting a tsunami warning for a large stretch of the California and Oregon coasts, though it has since been lifted. The tsunami warning was lifted about 9am, when the possible tsunami was predicted to arrive. Some 4.7 million residents of California and Oregon were under the tsunami warning, the National Weather Service said. The quake, which hit at a shallow depth of 10 km, was centred about 39 miles west of the town of Ferndale, a sparsely populated portion of the northern California coast, the US Geological Survey said. The Zoo has closed due to national weather emergency and tsunami warning. Guests have been evacuated, animals secured and staff have moved to higher ground.— San Francisco Zoo &...

By Kirsty Needham, Reuters Five Eyes intelligence partners were being warned about the radicalisation of young "digital natives". Photo: CAIA IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY One in five priority counter-terrorism cases investigated by Australia involved youth, the country's spy chief said on Friday, as the Five Eyes intelligence partners warned about the radicalisation of young "digital natives". Mental health, education and social services needed to intervene in many cases before the behaviour of minors became a police issue, said a research paper by the Five Eyes, which also include the US, Canada, Britain and New Zealand. "Around 20 percent of ASIO's priority counter-terrorism cases involve young people. In every one of the terrorist attacks, disruptions and suspected terrorist incide...

By Dominique Vidalon and Lucien Libert, Reuters Photo: AFP / POOL / JEANNE ACCORSINI French President Emmanuel Macron met allies and parliament leaders as he sought to swiftly appoint a new prime minister to replace Michel Barnier, who officially resigned a day after opposition lawmakers voted to topple his government. Barnier, a veteran conservative whom Macron appointed prime minister barely three months ago, became the shortest-serving prime minister in modern French history after he failed to find enough support for a budget aimed at taming a wide deficit. The Elysee Palace said Macron had asked Barnier and his government to stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed. Three sources told Reuters that Macron aimed to appoint a replacement swiftly, with one sa...

By Mostafa Salem and Eyad Kourdi, CNN Rebels seize vehicles in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, in northwest Syria. Photo: AFP/ Rami Alsayed Syria's army says it is withdrawing from Hama, a symbolic and strategically important central city, marking a second major gain for a newly formed rebel coalition that also captured Aleppo last week. "Over the past few hours, with the intensification of confrontations between our soldiers and terrorist groups and the rise of a number of martyrs in our ranks, these groups were able to penetrate several parts of the city and entered it," the Syrian military said in a statement carried by state news outlet SANA. Rebels said they freed hundreds of those "wrongfully detained" from the central prison. Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city, was recaptu...

By Kirsty Needham, Reuters Research by the 'Five Eyes' intelligence partners is warning about the radicalisation of young "digital natives". (File image) Photo: AFP / Jaque Silva One in five priority counter-terrorism cases investigated by Australia involved youth, the country's spy chief says, as the "Five Eyes" intelligence partners warn about the radicalisation of young "digital natives". Mental health, education and social services needed to intervene in many cases before the behaviour of minors became a police issue, said a research paper by the Five Eyes, which also include the U.S., Canada, Britain and New Zealand. "Around 20% of ASIO's priority counter-terrorism cases involve young people. In every one of the terrorist attacks, disruptions and suspected terrorist incidents in...

An Amnesty International report says that Israel's actions in Gaza meet the definition of genocide. Photo: AFP An extensive Amnesty International investigation has concluded Israel is guilty of a mass and ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza strip, and local representatives say New Zealand should do more. Amnesty International is calling on the New Zealand government to ban imports from and investment in some Israeli companies. The human rights watchdog also wants Aotearoa to do more to accept and support Palestinian refugees. "Our recent report has found that Israel has committed and is committing genocide in Gaza," Lisa Woods from Amnesty International Aotearoa told Checkpoint. "Genocide is defined as certain acts which are committed with the intent to destroy a national,...

By Maytaal Angel, Reuters Experts are predicting yet another year of lacklustre coffee output. Photo: Unsplash Global coffee prices have soared to their highest in nearly 50 years due to poor weather in Brazil and Vietnam, forcing roasters such as Nestle to raise prices and consumers to hunt for cheaper brews amid the cost of living crisis. Spiking prices will benefit farmers with the crop this year, but challenge traders who face crippling hedging costs on exchanges and a scramble to receive the beans they pre-bought. What drives prices? Production problems linked to bad weather in Brazil and Vietnam have seen global supplies lagging demand for three years. That has left stocks depleted and driven benchmark ICE exchange prices to a peak of US$3.36 per lb (NZ$5.84 per 454g). Last tim...

By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel, Reuters People hold flags outside the US Supreme Court, during oral arguments on whether states can ban certain gender transition medical treatments for young people. Photo: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP The US Supreme Court tackled a major transgender rights case, and its conservative justices asked tough questions of lawyers challenging the legality of a Republican-backed ban in Tennessee on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Some of the conservative justices signalled support for Tennessee's position during arguments in the case. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. The arguments were ongoing. Democratic President Joe Biden's administration appealed a lower court's decision upholding Tennessee's prohibition on medical treatments such...

Diver Andreas Schmider Martínez with a glass sponge. Photo: Ian Hawes Follow Our Changing World on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts It's 10pm at night in one of the labs at Scott Base, New Zealand's Antarctic research station. Elsewhere people are winding down - reading books or watching a movie, getting ready to head to bed. But not Dr Jürgen Laudien. He's too excited about what tomorrow will bring: another chance to dive under the sea ice and unravel some of the mysteries of the giant glass sponges found on the seafloor. A deep dive into the life of a sponge Jürgen explains tomorrow's experiment: they will pump a non-toxic green dye into the sponges' barrel-like opening, so that they can visualise how the sponges move water around. A senior scientis...