Author: Press Room

NASA has shared an ‘otherworldly’ Otago cloud formation spotted by one of its satellites.The image of an elongated lenticular cloud near Middlemarch was taken by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on September 7, 2024.NASA then shared the image on X this week where it got nearly 40,000 views so far and comments about the image insisting it was extraterrestrial technology rather than a cloud.”Stop trying to give things that aren’t clouds, cloud names, that you are only trying to hide to cover your butt’s,” one person commented.”Oumuamua,” another person wrote, referencing the first interstellar object to pass…

Austrian nominee Magnus Brunner has received mixed reactions in Strasbourg and Brussels due to Vienna’s history of opposing key EU migration policies. ADVERTISEMENTEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s decision to assign the migration and home affairs portfolio to Austrian nominee Magnus Brunner was one of her most unexpected choices when deciding on the portfolios for her new College.Vienna’s recent tougher stance on EU migration policy, as well as Brunner’s own background, sprung to the fore.Austria was behind a long-standing veto against Bulgaria and Romania’s entry into the Schengen Area, and Vienna also voted against and abstained from some key…

Opinion: NZ could learn from Australia’s example of making wealthier people pay a fairer share of aged care costs, writes Claire Dale.The recent submissions to Parliament’s Health Select Committee makes one thing clear: a crisis looms for the aged care sector in New Zealand.This crisis centres on the funding and staffing of residential aged care (ARC) and in-home care and support services.But to address the problem, the Government doesn’t have to look far. Australia has changed how the sector is funded, calling on wealthier members of society to pay a fairer share of the costs.New Zealanders in aged careLast year,…

New mums and dads will get extra superannuation on their government-funded paid parental leave after reforms cleared federal parliament.Eligible parents with children born or adopted after July 1 will get 12 per cent super for up to six months of parental leave.About 180,000 Australian families are expected to benefit from the new laws, which passed the Senate on Thursday.Women retire with about $51,700 less superannuation on average than men due in part to their caring responsibilities, but these changes will help close the gender super gap, Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher said.Katy Gallagher says the changes will help close the gender…

New, more detailed climate projections show New Zealand is set to get hotter faster than previously thought.The country was already expected to keep heating, but NIWA chief scientist for climate, atmosphere and hazards Andrew Tait said updated and more refined projections showed warming accelerating even faster.He said it was “very important” communities used the latest data to prepare for what was coming.If countries were slow to cut greenhouse gases, New Zealand could be 3C hotter by the end of the century than it was today. Temperatures were on average 1.1C hotter than at the beginning of the 20th century already.If…

Rebels in Indonesia’s West Papua region have proposed the terms of release for the New Zealand pilot taken hostage almost 18 months ago.The armed faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army kidnapped Phillip Merhtens in February last year after he landed a small commercial plane in a remote, mountainous area.The group has tried to use Mehrtens to broker independence from Indonesia.It is now asking the New Zealand government, including the police and army, to escort the pilot and for local and international journalists to be involved in the release process.Both Foreign Affairs and the minister’s office said they are…

The refinery is expected to produce enough lithium hydroxide for 500,000 electric cars per year. ADVERTISEMENTAMG Lithium opened Europe’s first lithium refinery in Bitterfeld-Wolfen in Germany. The refinery was built in just over two years and cost about 140 million euro. Most of the plant’s lithium will come from Brazil. The job of the refinery is to then convert the raw material into battery-compatible lithium hydroxide. The plant is expected to produce 20,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year, which is enough to power 500,000 electric vehicles. Lithium is a key component in the production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.…

Australia’s unemployment rate was steady at 4.2 per cent in August, in line with expectations.Over the month, 47,500 jobs were added to the economy, more than the 25,000 pencilled in by forecasters.Australian Bureau of Statistics head of labour statistics Kate Lamb said the gains in employment were accompanied by the number of unemployed people falling by around 10,000.”This resulted in the unemployment rate remaining steady at 4.2 per cent and the participation rate remaining at its record high of 67.1 per cent,” she said.The growth in employment increased the employment-to-population ratio by 0.1 percentage point to 64.3 per cent, just…

The Transport Minister has unveiled the rollout of new data collection vans in an effort to understand the condition of New Zealand’s roads and prevent potholes. In a statement this afternoon, Simeon Brown said the new Consistent Condition Data Collection (CCDC) survey vans would hit the roads and provide surface condition data “at a scale never seen in New Zealand before”.In June, the Government announced a nearly $4 billion boost to the fight against potholes, which would be doled out to the regions over three years. The areas seeing the most pothole funding are Auckland ($487m), Waikato ($214m), Canterbury ($188m),…

The Warehouse is facing criminal charges over a children’s toy. The Commerce Commission said it would soon file charges in the District Court over the Roo Crew Take-Apart Vehicle toys, which had been sold at the retailer from March 2021. The Warehouse had issued a voluntary recall for the product. Commerce Commission principal compliance adviser Grant McIntosh said it was concerned about the risk the toys could pose to small children and was urging anyone who may have bought them to return them. “Businesses must ensure that the products they supply comply with legal requirements and are safe for the…