World News

By Luc Cohen for Reuters Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on 6 November 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photo: CHIP SOMODEVILLA / Getty Images via AFP Prosecutors request schedule to litigate Trump's case dismissal Trump's lawyers say case would impede ability to govern Trump faced additional state and federal charges in 2023 Trump spokesperson: 'a total and definitive victory' for Trump Prosecutors who secured Donald Trump's conviction over a hush money payment to a porn star opposed on Tuesday his stated hope to have the case dismissed now that he is president-elect and asked a judge to set a schedule to litigate the matter. Trump, 78, had been scheduled to be se...

Photo: no such thing as fish Ten years ago, four self-described dorks gathered around a microphone to share interesting facts that they had learnt that week. They started as Stephen Fry's elves, digging up facts for his show QI and found they had plenty of tidbits leftover such as the origin of hedges, or wombat poo, or how many times smartphone users touch their phones each day - answer 2617. These tasty leftovers became a hit podcast No Such Thing As A Fish which has notched up more than 500 episodes, half a billion downloads and spawned a sold-out world tour that is currently in New Zealand. Podcasting fact fans Dan Schreiber and Anna Ptaszynski told RNZ's Afternoons, the "secret sauce" of the show is uncovering the kind of facts we love to share at the pub. "Everyone loves it at the...

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Attorney-General Judith Collins made the assessment. Photo: RNZ New Zealand has designated the Iran-backed armed and political group Hezbollah as a terrorist entity. Israel has been waging war on Hezbollah in its base in Lebanon for weeks, in an extension of the war in Gaza. Read more: What is Hezbollah, the Lebanese group trading fire with Israel? The government has also slapped a similar designation on the Houthi movement known as Ansar Allah. The Houthis in Yemen have been attacking shipping in support of Palestinians in Gaza. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and the Attorney-General Judith Collins made the assessment. "For any organisation [to be designated] ... we have to have evidence and we go through a number of tests under our legislation, t...

By Anna Maria Jakubek for AFP US actor Alec Baldwin hugs a member of his legal team at the conclusion of his trial on involuntary manslaughter at Santa Fe County District Court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on July 12, 2024. Photo: AFP / RAMSAY DE GIVE The western Rust will get its world premiere on Wednesday at a Polish film festival, three years on from a shock on-set shooting that killed the cinematographer. Hollywood A-lister Alec Baldwin was accused of violating basic gun safety rules in the 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins, but his involuntary manslaughter trial was dismissed over withheld evidence earlier this year. The late cinematographer's mother Olga Solovey said on Tuesday she refused to attend the festival for the film's promotion "especially now when there is still no justice f...

US women's football team. Photo: Photosport Michele Kang will invest $50 million in US Soccer over five years, making the Washington Spirit's owner the biggest contributor ever to girl's and women's football initiatives through the national program. The donation is the largest ever to US Soccer by a woman. Kang not only is the owner of the NWSL's Spirit, she also is the majority owner of women's teams Olympique Lyonnais Feminin in France and London City Lionesses in England. Investments in women's sports are nothing new to Kang, who donated $85 million in July for women's health initiatives in sports, then donated $7 million to the U.S. women's rugby sevens program after the Paris Olympics, while also creating her own sports science nonprofit. Kang originally purchased a 35 percent stak...

Mehmet Oz and Donald Trump in 2022. Photo: US President-elect Donald Trump has said that he has chosen celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz to serve as administrator for the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Oz, known as "Dr. Oz", unsuccessfully ran for the US Senate in 2022. Trump, who endorsed Oz in that race, said he would work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump said the pair would take on "the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake" as well as cutting what he called waste and fraud. "Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country's budget," Trump said in a statement. The agency runs Medicare, the federal health insurance prog...

Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped Banana entitled "Comedian," is on display during a media preview at Sotheby's in New York, on 8 November, 2024. Photo: AFP / Ken Betancur A banana fixed to a wall with duct tape is once again grabbing headlines as it is set to sell for up to US$1.5 million (NZ$2.5m) when it goes to auction this week at Sotheby's in New York. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian artwork first caused an uproar five years ago, when it debuted as an edition of three fruits at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair. Several editions - or bananas - have since gone on display of the work around the world. Three of which sold for between US$120,000 and US$150,000, according to Perrotin gallery. But the infamous banana has also been gobbled up twice so far - on...

A emotional Rodger Federer with Rafael Nadal after he says goodbye to tennis as he retires, 2022. Photo: PHOTOSPORT Roger Federer paid tribute to his retiring rival Rafa Nadal on Tuesday, telling the Spaniard he challenged him like no other player and that he had made the tennis world proud during a glittering career lasting over two decades. Nadal is part of the Spain side that will begin their Davis Cup campaign against the Netherlands later on Tuesday, with the injury-plagued 22-times Grand Slam champion set to call time on his career after the team competition in Malaga. Federer, who was part of the "Big Three" of men's tennis alongside Nadal and Novak Djokovic, posted a letter on X looking back at his rivalry with the 38-year-old. "Let's start with the obvious: you beat me - a lot....

By Madi Chwasta, ABC Photo: Unsplash / Vlad Tchompalov Two Australian teenagers are fighting for their lives in Thai hospitals after consuming drinks suspected to contain methanol in Laos. Here's how methanol poisoning occurs, and some steps you can take to protect yourself while travelling. What is methanol and why is it used in alcoholic drinks? It's an odourless, colourless and flammable liquid which is the simplest form of alcohol. But it's not for drinking - methanol is used in lots of household and industrial products, like paint strippers, insecticides, inks and dyes, aerosol spray cans, and petrol. In countries with more relaxed liquor regulations, It's illegally added to alcoholic beverages - with potentially dangerous consequences. Professor David Ranson, the head of Monas...

By Andrius Sytas, Barbara Erling and Johan Ahlander, Reuters The C-Lion1 submarine telecommunications cable being laid to the bottom of the Baltic Sea by cable laying ship "Ile de Brehat" off the shore of Helsinki, Finland, 12 October 2015. Photo: AFP / Heikki Saukkomaa / Lehtikuva Two Baltic Sea communications cables have been damaged Germany, Poland, others say cause likely to be sabotage There is currently no evidence of sabotage European powers warn of escalating hybrid attacks Russia has repeatedly denied sabotaging infrastructure European governments accused Russia of escalating hybrid attacks on Ukraine's Western allies, as Baltic nations investigated whether the cutting of two fibre-optic telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea was sabotage. European officials have not...