Author: Press Room
Ahead of the Irish general election, a manipulated video has been shared thousands of times on X, supposedly showing a migrant mocking a white woman over having obtained social housing. ADVERTISEMENTAs Ireland heads to the polls on 29 November, a manipulated video has been circulating on X, supposedly showing a Black woman, presented as an African migrant, mocking a white woman over having obtained social housing. The edited video tries to incite anti-minority sentiments by reversing the two women’s testimonies, so it looks like the woman who was granted housing is not showing compassion for the homeless woman. The misleading clip…
Aucklanders are being warned to be on the lookout for people selling fake raffle tickets and expired fuel cards.Police said there have been “a handful” of incidents reported in Howick and Pukekohe this month of people falsely claiming to support local sports clubs.Inspector Rakana Cook said offenders were approaching people on the street and entering businesses.”The offenders claim to be from local rugby or rugby league clubs, but the raffles they are selling tickets for have already been drawn or are completely fake.”We have also had a report of an offender entering businesses in the Cockle Bay area selling discounted…
More than 8,400 weapons have been turned in to Danish police this month as part of a nationwide amnesty to tackle violence between criminal gangs. ADVERTISEMENTA man in Denmark who discovered 80 firearms, 140 kilograms of ammunition and a hand grenade likely dating to World War II while cleaning a house has handed over the weapons to police as part of a nationwide arms amnesty. Danish police said people can turn in weapons without risking prosecution during November, in a bid to prevent criminal groups from obtaining unauthorised arms.Violence between criminal gangs fighting over territory and drugs has risen in…
An entire Northland town is knuckling down for a spring clean, ahead of the reopening of its main highway, which has been closed for more than two years.Kaitāia has been cut off from the highway south since August 2022, when a series of massive slips destroyed State Highway 1 through Mangamuka Gorge.A massive, $100-million-plus project by the NZ Transport Agency to rebuild the 13km section of road is finally due to be completed in December.Kaitāia Business Association chairman Josh Kirby described the reopening, scheduled for December 20, as “a nice Christmas present”.”Given it’s been closed for quite a while —…
Elderly Spaniards made up the highest number of deaths after devastating floods hit Spain’s Valencia region. ADVERTISEMENTOver half of the people who died in catastrophic floods in Spain’s Valencia region were aged 70 or over, figures from a data centre set up by the police following the disaster have shown. Of the 216 people who died when a tsunami-like wave of water tore through several Spanish towns, 104 of them were 70 years of age or older, and 15 were over the age of 90. More men died in the floods, with 131 of the victims men, and 85 women.…
An Upper Hutt man who admitted to possessing more than 45,000 images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of children has been sentenced to one year of home detention. Ronald Leonard Ford, 79, said in an interview after being arrested that his offending was “just amusement” and he thought viewing the sexual exploitation and abuse of children was “fairly innocuous”. Ford’s offending was discovered after he uploaded child sexual exploitation and abuse images to a visual search engine, hoping to seek out similar illegal material. Authorities searched his home on August 1, 2023, and seized nine USB drives…
This article was originally published in Spanish Two other people are in critical condition after a blaze broke out in the residence in Spain’s Zaragoza region. ADVERTISEMENTAt least ten people have died and two are in critical condition after a fire broke out at a nursing home in Spain’s northeastern Zaragoza region on Friday.The blaze broke out on Friday morning in the Jardines de Villafranca residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro, which is located about 20 minutes from the city of Zaragoza.There were 82 people inside the nursing home at the time of the fire, including residents, nurses and…
A “very toxic” chemical has been detected in white powder presumed to be MDMA in the Wellington region, says drug watchdog High Alert.The sample was brought into a drug-checking clinic in Wellington where analysis by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) found the sample to contain mercury chloride and no MDMA.”The substance is believed to be circulating in the Wellington region and may possibly be present in other regions,” a statement said.”The concern is people may already have this substance believing it to be MDMA, or that this substance may continue to be supplied as MDMA.”Mercury chloride is…
In the past 15 years, the average Kiwi household mortgage repayment has nearly doubled.The sharpest rise was in the last couple of years — with the average repayment going from $475 a week in 2022, to $606 a week in 2023.Jackson Hapeta told First Up he was one of those homeowners who got caught in the rise when he had to re-fix his loan.The interest rate on his mortgage went from around 2.5% to nearly 7%.His repayments went up by about $1000 a fortnight, and he said it has been difficult balancing the books.”We had to cut back on quite…
The EU institutions have been on hold since the European elections in June. The EU executive was supposed to be up and running on December 1st, but a clash among political groups might delay the start. ADVERTISEMENTDoubts are growing over whether the European Parliament be able to approve the new European Commission, the EU’s arm executive, on 27 November as planned.On Wednesday, the European People’s Party (EPP), set to secure the most European commissioners, threatened to block the appointment of Spain’s Teresa Ribera. They demanded the competition commissioner designate explain in a Spanish court why her government failed to anticipate…