World News

By Max Delany, AFP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Republican presidential nominee former US President Donald Trump meet on 27 September 2024. Photo: AFP - Ukrainian Presidential Press Service NATO foreign ministers looked set to rebuff a push from Ukraine for progress on joining their alliance ahead of Donald Trump taking power in the United States on Tuesday. The incoming US president has vowed to press for a quick deal to end Russia's war - leaving Kyiv scrambling to position itself ahead of his January inauguration. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said getting security guarantees from the Western alliance and supplies of key weaponry are prerequisites for Kyiv to start talking about halting its fight. Zelensky said on Sunday that Kyiv was hoping NATO foreign...

By Juliana Liu and Sean Lyngaas, CNN The US Commerce Ministry has announced curbs on the sale of two dozen types of semiconductor-making equipment and restrictions on numerous Chinese companies from accessing American technology. Photo: 123RF The Chinese government has slammed America's introduction of a slew of export controls on US-made semiconductors that Washington fears Beijing could use to make the next generation of weapons and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The new measures, unveiled by the outgoing Biden administration, have raised the political temperature between the world's top two economies ahead of the imminent inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made self-sufficiency a major pillar of his economic strategy to make China a ...

By Alayna Treene and Kristen Holmes, CNN Notre Dame Cathedral is still undergoing renovation work, a few days before its reopening to the public. Photo: Benoît Durand / Hans Lucas via AFP President-elect Donald Trump is planning to visit Paris later this week to attend the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral on 7 December, his first overseas trip since his election in November to a second term in office. Trump's team has been in discussions for days with French President Emmanuel Macron's office regarding the visit, and the US president-elect was invited by the French government to attend the reopening, sources familiar with the plans told CNN. "President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so," T...

By Adriane Reardon Kristian White has been found guilty of the manslaughter of 95-year-old Clare Nowland. Photo: 123RF The NSW Police officer found guilty of the manslaughter of a 95-year-old woman in an aged care home in the Snowy Mountains has been sacked from the police force. Kristian White, 34, tasered Clare Nowland at the Yallambee Lodge facility in Cooma on 17 May, 2023 while she was using a walker and carrying a knife. She fell to the floor, fractured her skull and died in Cooma hospital a week later. Last Wednesday White was found guilty by a jury in the NSW Supreme Court of manslaughter. Today, Commissioner Karen Webb announced in a statement that White had been removed from the police force. "Today I have determined that I do not have confidence in the officer's suitabilit...

Photo: RNZ Eligible New Zealanders are now able to apply for a working holiday visa to Japan twice in their lifetime, which was only allowed once before. The new rule came into effect at the start of this month, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Applicants should be between 18 and 30 years age and cannot be accompanied by dependants or children and must meet some health requirements. The programme intended to make it possible for young people from Japan and its partner countries and regions to spend holidays while working to supplement their travel in each other's territory, the website of the Japanese foreign ministry said. "The programmes are designed to provide the youth with wider opportunities for them to appreciate the culture and general way of life in the par...

Memory loss. brain dissolves into water. vector illustration Photo: 123rf One hundred and 62 years after he died, American Philosopher Henry David Thoreau is suddenly having a moment, and it's all thanks to Gen Z and emergent demographic Gen Alpha. It's nothing to do with his essays on political transcendentalism and proto-anarchism, but entirely due to an inconspicuous phrase coined in his 1854 book Walden - a treatise detailing that one time Thoreau went to live in the woods for a couple of years, in order to write a book about living in the woods for a couple of years. That phrase is of course, "brain rot", which has been crowned Oxford's Word of the Year 2024. Technically, yes, it's two words. But who wants to risk getting pedantic with an Oxford dictionary? The term "brain rot" has...

By Jessica Black, Claudia Williams, Grace Whiteside Authorities allege the group attempted to import the drugs into Queensland by sea. Photo: ABC / Nickoles Coleman A Comanchero outlaw bikie gang leader has been charged over Australia's largest ever cocaine seizure, police say. A transnational organised crime syndicate with links to the Comancheros is alleged to have attempted to bring 2.34 tonnes of cocaine into Australia. Eleven men and two juveniles were arrested on Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday morning, in a joint investigation between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Queensland police. The arrests include the vice president of the Comancheros Brisbane chapter, and a patched member. Authorities allege the group attempted to import the drugs into Queenslan...

With an exceptionally hot summer on the cards, concerns have been raised about a new sunbathing trend. Cancer Society prevention policy lead Emma Shields said it was alarming to see teenagers on TikTok promoting the UV Index (UVI) as a tanning guide. The UVI shown on weather and forecasting apps is intended help people know when to use sun protection. Several Aucklanders RNZ spoke to at Mission Bay said they had come to the beach after checking the sun was strong. Eighteen-year-old Anastasia Campos said she made sure to lay in the sun when the UV was high. "I text the group chat 'UV 9 today let's go to the beach'." She said she was not worried about skin damage. "Any tan is a sign of skin damage and long-term skin damage can accumulate to cause premature ageing and increase the risk of ...

By Elizabeth Pineau and Dominique Vidalon, Reuters French Prime Minister Michel Barnier will face no confidence motion. Photo: AFP / Hans Lucas / Amaury Cornu The French government is all but certain to collapse later this week after far-right and left-wing parties said they will vote for a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Michel Barnier. Their move came after Barnier said he would try to ram a social security bill through parliament without a vote as a last-minute concession was not enough to win support for the bill from the far-right National Rally (RN). RN leader Marine Le Pen said her party would table its own no-confidence motion but will also vote for any similar bill by other parties. "The French have had enough," she said. "Maybe they thought with Michel Barnie...

Elton John performs onstage at the 'Elton John: Never Too Late' screening during the 62nd New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on 1 October, 2024 in New York City. Photo: Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images for FLC / AFP Music legend Elton John has told a theatre audience in London he has lost his sight after struggling to recover from an eye infection earlier in the year. The 77-year-old star - famous for 'Tiny Dancer', 'Your Song' and a string of other hits - was in London's West End for the opening of The Devil Wears Prada musical, for which he wrote the score. In an emotional speech from the stage of the Dominion Theatre at the end of the show, he said the performance had sounded good, but he had not been able to watch it. "As some of you may know I have had issues a...