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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern extended a lockdown in the country's biggest city on Friday in response to the first national coronavirus outbreak in months, sticking with a "go early, go hard" approach she said has proven effective. Ardern said genomic testing has shown the latest outbreak is a different strain to the original outbreak in New Zealand earlier in the year, suggesting it was new to the country. The New Zealand leader said lockdown measures in Auckland, home to about 1.7 million people, and social distancing measures across the country that were imposed on Wednesday would remain in...

New Zealand has recorded 13 new COVID cases in Auckland, all of whom will go into quarantine. All of the new cases are linked to the original four confirmed cases from the new outbreak in the city’s south, which was first reported on Tuesday night. One additional person is in managed isolation - a woman in her 30s who arrived from the Philippines. New Zealand’s health chief Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the total number of active cases is now 36. Two of the new cases are children under the age of nine. It comes after three more staff members at...

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand announced on Tuesday it was shutting down its largest city, Auckland, after four new cases of COVID-19 were discovered in the city, the first evidence of domestic transmission after being coronavirus-free for 102 days. New Zealand's successful fight against COVID-19 was hailed globally and the Pacific island nation of 5 million was seen as one of the safest places, as the pandemic raged globally. Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said the four cases were within one family in South Auckland. One person is in their 50s. They had no history of international travel. Family...

According to new sequencing of the tuatara's entire genome - one of the largest on record and 50 percent larger than the human genome - it appears this strange creature is neither lizard, bird, nor mammal. Rather, it's some strange amalgamation of all three. According to the authors of the new study, the animal's genomic architecture is unlike anything previously reported. Found solely in New Zealand, the tuatara - which does greatly resemble a lizard to the untrained eye - is considered a taonga, or 'special treasure' for the local Māori. These nocturnal creatures can live for a century, withstand...

Domino's Pizza has dropped a promotion offering free pizza to women named Karen after it was met with a backlash. In recent years, the name "Karen" has been used as an insult to describe white middle-aged women who are perceived to be obnoxious or racist. The pizza franchise's New Zealand arm initially said it wanted to give "nice Karens" a break from negativity. But some said it was tone-deaf, ignored more important issues, and "rewarded privilege".

Vietnam has suspended 27 Pakistani pilots working at local airlines after 262 of 860 civilian commercial pilots in Pakistan were found to have fake licenses. "All of the pilots are of Pakistani nationality and licensed in the country. These pilots are working at several airlines in Viet Nam," Dinh Viet Thang, Civil Aviation Administration of Viet Nam (CAAV), was quoted as saying by Vietnam News Agency. Minister of Transport of Vietnam Nguyen Van The has asked the CAAV to review the licenses and certificates of foreign pilots who are working at local airlines. The minister ordered ban of fight missions...

The only evidence of collusion found in General Flynn’s phone calls was between the Obama administration and anti-Israel forces at the United Nations. BY BRENT NAGTEGAAL • JULY 2 One month before President Barack Obama left the White House, the United States infamously broke with its historic precedent of supporting Israel at the United Nations, an institution with systemic bias against the Jewish state. Collective applause erupted in the UN hall when U.S. Ambassador Samantha Powers raised her hand to allow passage of Resolution 2334, which called any Israeli settlement in the land occupied by Jordan before 1967 as illegal....

A "shameful" abstention by the U.S. in a United Nations Security Council vote Friday allowed passage of a resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. The resolution was put forward by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal after Egypt withdrew it Thursday under pressure from Israel and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. It was adopted with 14 votes in favor, to a round of applause, after U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power abstained. It is the first resolution the Security Council has adopted on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years. Reaction from U.S. Republicans and Jewish leaders around...

The Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 5:19 p.m. Eastern. The launch was originally scheduled for July 3 but pushed back two days because of poor weather in the forecast, only for the company to move up the launch to July 4 based on a reassessment of the weather. The initial phases of the launch appeared to go as planned, although the vehicle’s passage through “max-q,” or maximum dynamic pressure, appeared to be rougher than what was seen in previous launches. Onboard video taken shortly before first-stage separation showed material...

The European Union on Tuesday extended a ban on travelers from the United States and most other countries beyond July 1, citing epidemiological factors for the decision. Over the past month, the US has seen its number of cases steadily rise after most states eased lockdown measures. A lack of interstate coordination and an uneven response from the federal government has contributed to several new outbreaks across the country. Other countries whose travel restrictions were extended include Brazil, Russia and India, which have seen their number of positive cases surge in recent weeks. The US, Brazil, Russia and India are...

American travelers look set to be denied entry to the EU when the bloc reopens its borders on July 1st, according to reports, while those from Australia and New Zealand will likely to be allowed to return. Europe will reopen its external borders on July 1st but American tourists may not be allowed to travel because the US is still considered a risk due to the high number of COVID-19 cases.Hard-hit countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Russia and India are also facing a continued travel ban. EU officials are reportedly frantically drawing up a list of countries whose nationals will...

Date & time: Thursday, 18 June 2020 12:49 UTC Magnitude: 7.4 Depth: 33.0 km Epicenter latitude / longitude: 33.45909°S / 177.57637°W (New Zealand) Nearest volcano: Volcano W (245 km) Primary data source: GEONET (NZ) Estimated released energy: 7.9*10^15 J (2206 GWh / 1.9*10^6 tons of TNT / 118.7 atomic bombs equivalent)

New Zealand will end its strict coronavirus lockdown rules from midnight after the country recorded zero active cases. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the country had 'united in unprecedented ways to crush the virus'.

Germany under intense pressure to scuttle the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring natural gas from Russia underwater to Germany. That's the assessment of Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The United States behind that pressure. On Friday a White House official told the media that nine thousand US troops were going to be withdrawn from Germany..... A Russian disc jockey arrested in Berlin at the request of the United States...... A Florida judge who has refused to release grand jury records related to the late Jeffrey Epstein has close ties to politicians involved in the investigation of Epstein 15...

IN A MOMENT A SUDDENLY "Pentecost Renewed" A new wind of "ADD " Venture is coming to you , Prepare for the wind that is blowing through , For what is coming is The One and The Three , All in agreement " The All Of Me " , The gates of hell shall not prevail , For what is coming is a HOLY GALE ! Isaiah 43:18-20 18 “ Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?...

Europe’s extensive social welfare net was showing signs of fraying under economic strain from the coronavirus, as protests erupted Friday for a second day in Spain against layoffs by French carmaker Renault, while Italy’s chief central banker warned that “uncertainty is rife.” Elsewhere, New Zealand has all but eradicated the coronavirus with just one person in the nation of 5 million known to be infected. But developments were grim in other nations, with India reporting a record increase in cases, and Pakistan and Russia a record number of deaths. As cases steadily rose across Africa, officials who are losing the...

New figures obtained by RNZ show last year had the highest rates of gun crime and deaths involving firearms for nearly 10 years. But despite that rise, there has not been a corresponding increase in officers taking out or using their guns. The figures, obtained from police under the Official Information Act, show the rates of gun crime went up in both 2018 and 2019. Last year, there were 3540 occasions where an offender was found with a gun. And in both of the last two years, the rate of deadly incidents involving a firearm was the highest it had...

Rep. Lee Zeldin hearkened back to 2016 to remind the nation that the Obama administration was “furious” with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for calling on world leaders to block an “anti-Israel” effort. The New York Republican tweeted Thursday morning about Flynn, who served as Trump’s national security adviser in early 2017, and his efforts to block the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which focused on Israeli settlements in “Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” “Keep in mind Obama admin was furious Gen Michael Flynn was making calls to world leaders helping to block UN Sec Council Res 2334 in...

The core stage of China’s Long March 5B rocket is expected to fall back to Earth unguided after nearly a week in orbit. The Long March 5B rocket launched May 5 with a prototype for a next-generation Chinese crew capsule. As of Saturday, the rocket stage was circling Earth in an elliptical orbit ranging between 94 miles (152 kilometers) and 167 miles (270 kilometers) in altitude, according to U.S. military tracking data. A prediction issued Saturday by the U.S. military, which tracks objects in orbit, forecasts the rocket’s re-entry in a 24-hour period between 2335 GMT (7:35 p.m. EDT) Sunday...

A leaked document from the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance – made up of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand – shows China purposefully hid and/or destroyed evidence about the Wuhan coronavirus. Specifically, the alliance said the Chinese Communist Party's cover-up can be described as an "assault on international transparency." Australia's The Saturday Telegraph obtained a copy of the 15-page report which concluded China put other countries in grave danger by covering up different aspects of the coronavirus, including the fact that it can be transmitted from human-to-human, doctors magically "disappearing" when trying to talk about...