Five-yearly data drive to be conducted on 7 March, the same night as the singer’s Auckland show
Harry Styles will have to take part in the 2023 New Zealand census, which aims to capture the country as it was on the same night as his only show in the country.
The census is conducted every five years and requires everyone in the country, including overseas visitors, to take part. This year it happens to be held on the night of the British pop star’s Auckland show on 7 March.
Continue reading...Papua New Guinea police warn against circulation of fake news as negotiations continue with gunmen
A woman who was taken hostage in Papua New Guinea has been released while an Australian professor and two local researchers are still held captive by an armed group in the country’s remote highlands.
The remaining three captives are believed to be in reasonable health, despite being held in difficult terrain.
Continue reading...Mark Zuckerberg follows Elon Musk’s lead in introducing fee for blue ticks, as Twitter gets set to charge for 2FA via SMS
Facebook and Instagram users will soon need to pay to be verified on the social media platforms, as Meta follows in the footsteps of rival platform Twitter.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, announced in a Facebook post on Sunday that the service would first roll out in Australia and New Zealand later this week.
Continue reading...A week after the storm struck the North Island, police say two more bodies were found in hard-hit Hawke’s Bay area
The death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand climbed to 11 as many people not yet contacted a week later.
The cyclone hit the North Island’s uppermost region on 12 February and tracked down the east coast, inflicting widespread devastation. The prime minister, Chris Hipkins, has called Gabrielle New Zealand’s biggest natural disaster this century.
Continue reading...Residents of Eskdale, in New Zealand, recount fears on night of flooding as they return to salvage belongings and rescuers continue search for bodies
Crouched in the dark, gripping the slick corrugated iron, Michael and Kelly McKendry hauled themselves and their daughter on to their rooftop. A few feet below, the flood moved in a seething brown mass, roiling under the gutters. “I couldn’t feel anything, I was just doing,” says Kelly. “As we went out our kitchen window, we heard a woman go past in the water screaming.”
Almost a week after Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand, the couple have returned to find the green valley where they made their home a moonscape. Orchard vines are stripped from the wires, cornfields are flattened, and everything is coated in a metres-thick layer of iron-grey sludge. Motorhomes and caravans lie tossed across the landscape, windscreens smashed, metalwork caved in, some upside down and stacked on top of one another, others submerged to their roofs in the mud. The railway line running through the valley has buckled in on itself, twisted into looping ribbons. One house has been carried almost a kilometre from its foundations, logs impaled through walls shredded like damp cardboard.
Continue reading...North Island wakes to devastation, as flood waters continue to rise, hundreds rescued from rooftops and more than 10,000 people displaced
New Zealand was attempting to come to grips with the extent of destruction from Cyclone Gabrielle, as the severe weather system moves away from the country, leaving behind high flood waters, widespread damage, more than 10,000 displaced and at least three dead.
As much of the country woke on Wednesday morning to clear skies, some parts of the North Island remained cut off from all access, power and communications, making assessing the damage or reaching those in need difficult.
Continue reading...Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a pilot for Susi Air, was abducted by armed wing of the Free Papua Movement
Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua province have released photos and videos of a man they say is the pilot from New Zealand they took hostage last week.
Phillip Mark Mehrtens of Christchurch, a pilot for the Indonesian aviation company Susi Air, was abducted by independence fighters from the West Papua National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, who stormed his single-engine plane shortly after it landed on a small runway in Paro, in the remote Nduga district.
Continue reading...National state of emergency invoked and thousands displaced as storm devastates large parts of North Island and minister says ‘this is climate change’
New Zealand is in a national state of emergency, as Cyclone Gabrielle batters the country, with floods trapping people on roofs, thousands displaced and landslides destroying homes in what officials have described as an “unprecedented” natural disaster.
“Cyclone Gabrielle is the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen in this century. The severity and the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation,” the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, said on Tuesday. “We are still building a picture of the effects of the cyclone as it continues to unfold. But what we do know is the impact is significant and it is widespread.”
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
New Zealand’s national power grid operator has declared a “grid emergency” and warned that power might not be restored to some for “for days to weeks, rather than hours”.
The widespread power cuts in Hawkes Bay and Bay of Plenty happened after a substation flooded during severe rain from Cyclone Gabrielle.
Continue reading...James Shaw says country is entering ‘period of consequences’ for inaction over climate change as extreme weather wreaks havoc across the North Island
New Zealand’s climate change minister has made a furious speech excoriating parliament for lost decades of “bickering” over the climate crisis, as Cyclone Gabrielle devastates the country.
“As I stand here today, I struggle to find words to express what I am thinking and feeling about this particular crisis,” James Shaw told parliament on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Damaging storm causes wind gusts up to 160km/h. This blog is now closed
Rain and wind expected to intensify
The approach of Cyclone Gabrielle is bringing particularly strong winds, heavy rain and huge swells to Auckland and nearby regions.
The impact of Gabrielle is still in its early stages and further serious and severe weather is still expected for Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) later today into Tuesday morning.
Now is not the time for complacency.
Continue reading...Red weather warnings issued for rain and wind; schools closed and flights cancelled in Auckland
Evacuations were under way and thousands of people were without power as Storm Gabrielle approached New Zealand’s North Island, where the largest city is still recovering from record rain last month.
As the former tropical cyclone barrelled towards New Zealand, the MetService issued a series of red weather warnings for intense rain and gale-force winds, including for Auckland, the largest city, which was hit by flooding a fortnight ago.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Authorities prepare emergency shelter for residents and tourists with fears of significant damage from gale-force winds and dangerous surf
A red alert warning was issued on Norfolk Island with residents urged to take shelter in the strongest part of their homes as Cyclone Gabrielle approached with wind gusts of up to 140km/h and dangerous surf conditions.
Emergency Management Norfolk Island urged residents to stay inside until an all-clear message was broadcast. An emergency shelter was established in a town hall for those who could not make it home safely.
Continue reading...New Zealand city council says ‘you would be seriously injured or killed’ by lamps weighing up to 15kg, like a microwave or bulk sack of rice
New Zealand’s capital is being plagued by hundreds of potentially deadly street lights that have begun dropping without warning and smashing on the footpath below.
Wellington city council spokesperson Richard MacLean said the council was aware of the problem. The lamp heads weighed up to 15kg (33lb), he said – about equivalent to a bulk sack of rice, full-grown border collie or a microwave oven. They were falling from heights of 4-6m.
Continue reading...Weather system off the Queensland coast predicted to intensify to category three, with winds of up to 224km/h
Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle is expected to strengthen to category three as it barrels towards Norfolk Island, in line to pummel New Zealand’s North Island.
The system is predicted to intensify to category three on Friday morning, picking up speed and strength with winds of between 165km/h and 224km/h, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
Continue reading...Researchers say food and energy security boosts prospects for civilisation to continue, along with Vanuatu, Iceland and Solomon Islands
The lucky country can count on one more piece of good fortune, with researchers finding Australia – followed by neighbour New Zealand – best placed to survive a nuclear winter and help reboot a collapsed human civilisation.
The study published in the journal Risk Analysis describes Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as the island countries most capable of producing enough food for their populations after an “abrupt sunlight‐reducing catastrophe” such as a nuclear war, super volcano or asteroid strike.
Continue reading...Unknown patterns found on ceramics from Josephine Willis, which collided with steamer in 1856
The wreck of a mid-19th century sailing ship transporting British people to New Zealand and with a cargo of exceptionally rare ceramics onboard has been listed for protection 167 years after it sank off the Kent coast.
The Josephine Willis wooden packet boat, built in Limehouse and launched in 1854 by HH Willis & Co, foundered four miles (6.4km) south of Folkestone harbour following a collision with the steamer Mangerton on 3 February 1856, with the loss of 70 lives including Captain Edward Canney. The ship lies in two parts on the seabed, 23 metres deep.
Continue reading...Police and military sent to Nduga area after Susi Air plane was stormed and then burned by separatists opposed to Indonesian rule
Separatist fighters in Indonesia’s Papua region have taken a New Zealand pilot hostage after setting a small commercial plane alight when it landed in a remote highland area on Tuesday, a pro-independence group said in a statement.
A police spokesperson in Papua province, Ignatius Benny Adi Prabowo, said police and military personnel were sent to the area to locate the pilot and five passengers.
Continue reading...Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw died in Soledar area while helping to evacuate people from frontline
The bodies of two British volunteers killed in Ukraine while carrying out a humanitarian evacuation have been recovered, a Ukrainian official has said.
Chris Parry, 28, and his colleague Andrew Bagshaw, 47, who held dual UK and New Zealand citizenship, had been trying to evacuate an elderly woman from Soledar when their car was hit by an artillery shell.
Continue reading...Auckland has experienced its wettest January since records began, while temperatures plummet in southern US
Historic rainfall hit New Zealand in the past week with the worst flooding in at least 200 years in Auckland. Auckland airport reported 249mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period on 27 January, with a month’s worth of rainfall in less than an hour. At another station, Albert Park, there was 280mm in one day, with 211mm falling in less than six hours.
These totals are more than 8.5 times higher than a typical January, and more than 2.5 times higher than an entire typical summer. Overall, Auckland has had the wettest January since records began, with more than half a metre of rain falling in places. The rainfall has caused numerous landslips, flooding and damage to roads and properties with four people killed and 350 in need of emergency accommodation. More than 9,000 people are still stranded as flights in and out of Auckland experiencing delays and cancellations.
Continue reading...