The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after January 1, 2009 – and from now on, the minimum age for buying cigarettes will keep going up and up.

In theory, somebody trying to buy a pack of cigarettes 50 years from now would need ID to show they were at least 63 years old. But health authorities hope smoking will fade away well before then. They have a stated goal of making New Zealand smoke-free by 2025.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/12/13/new-zealand-passes-unique-tobacco-minimum-age-law-to-ban-smoking-for-next-generation

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The order allowed doctors to conduct the surgery “without further delay.”

Justice Ian Gault said the court had taken temporary guardianship of the 4-month-old baby from Wednesday until at least Jan. 31 next year.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.laprensalatina.com/new-zealand-court-orders-immediate-heart-surgery-of-baby-of-anti-vax-parents/

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Following the example of the thousands of Canadian truckers protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the capital of Ottawa, truckers in other countries have begun organizing their own versions of the “Freedom Convoy.”

From Leeuwarden in the Netherlands to Wellington, New Zealand, to London to Canberra, Australia, truckers are hitting the road to send a clear message: stop the mandates.

Another group of truckers is planning a protest in the United States, driving to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

“I think you’re starting to see what will become a big global movement to end these mandates,” Brian Brase, co-organizer of the U.S. protest, told Fox News Digital on Sunday. “It’s a violation of your human rights to be mandated to take this vaccine. If you want it, go get it, but being mandated to get it, we’re standing up against that. We think it’s wrong.”

Brase told Fox News Digital that the U.S. trucker effort was “just shy of 140,000 people when Facebook dropped us.” On Feb. 2, Facebook removed a Facebook page called “Convoy to D.C. 2022.” A spokesperson for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, told Fox News that the platform removed the group “for repeatedly violating our policies around QAnon,” which Facebook previously labeled a “violence-inducing conspiracy network.” Brase had disputed that claim, saying, “That’s just not true.”

Brase said truckers from across the U.S. are calling to join the effort. “We’re having trucker companies from all over the country calling us, drivers,” he said. He teased a major press release with details on Tuesday, Feb. 8. “The sheer volume of response… I’m going to say we’ll be just as big as Canada if not larger.”

“Canada has inspired the entire world to stand up,” Brase told Fox News. “We’re so proud of our Canadian brothers and sisters in the trucking industry.” He also said that truckers across the world have called him to coordinate and express support. “Across the world, I’ve had people reach out: Finland, and Switzerland, and Norway, and Germany, and the UK, Australia.”

“The truck drivers are uniting worldwide,” he said.

At least 1,000 people have gathered near Parliament House in Canberra to protest the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and other pandemic restrictions, the Canberra Times reported Saturday. Organizers have called for 5 million Australians to converge on the capital ahead of Parliament’s return on Feb. 8.

Truckers in New Zealand reportedly launched a convoy from both ends of the country. One group departed Sunday from the North Island and another will depart from the South Island, with both converging at the capital of Wellington, which is near the middle of the country, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Jess, who operates the TikTok channel @nztruckies, told the Toronto Star that she and other protesters from the South Island won’t be able to make it to Wellington because they need to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to ride the ferry to the North Island. Jess did not give her last name to the Toronto Star.

Truckers across Europe are also planning convoys.

A World Freedom Convoy group on Signal is planning two separate protests, the Brussels Times reported. In about a week, 40,000 people joined the Signal chat. Truck drivers plan to drive to their respective capital cities on Feb. 7, and the broader European group will drive toward Brussels on Feb. 14.

About 25 trucks, dozens of cars and several tractors gathered in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, to protest COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday, the Dutch channel Omrop Fryslâan reported, according to NL Times. The Freedom Convoy Netherlands is consciously echoing the Canadian effort.

Aram Lemmer, a business owner and organizer in Austria, told the Toronto Star that he and two other organizers have a commitment of 2,500 vehicles driving to Vienna in a convoy on Feb. 13, including cars, trucks, tractors and cyclists. They are demanding that the government give up all restrictions and resign. Austrian lawmakers on Thursday approved a measure forcing Austrians to decide between getting vaccinated for COVID-19 or face a fine ranging from 600 to 3,600 Euros ($680-$4,000 USD). Only pregnant women, those who have contracted the virus within the past 180 days, and those with medical exemptions can escape the mandate.

Jay Cameron, litigation director at the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, which represents the Canadian Freedom Convoy in court, explained why he thinks the protests are spreading across the world.

“There is no mystery as to why protests are spreading: Humanity is objecting en masse to the abuse of bureaucratic tyrants who for two years have suspended the checks and balances which are intended to protect the citizenry,” Cameron told Fox News Digital.

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“People have lost their jobs and their civil liberties: their freedom of religion, speech and freedoms of movement, and their democratic representatives have been largely or entirely sidelined with respect to these arbitrary and often nonsensical decisions,” Cameron added. “And now the people are making their voices heard in peaceful but firm protest against their abusers. They are saying: ‘enough’.”

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/canadian-style-trucker-protests-spread-world

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Otto English dissects the disadvantages that a free trade agreement between the two countries would bring to the UK

Let me tell you the story of the proposed Australian-UK free trade deal. A tale so mad that once you get to the end of it, you will probably find yourself banging your head against the table in front of you in despair. So perhaps don a bicycle helmet before we proceed.

Ready? Good – let’s go.

Now, you might, very reasonably, think that you have better things to do than to read about the Australian-UK free trade deal. There’s probably a wall of paint somewhere that you would perhaps rather watch dry or a sock drawer to rearrange. But the tale serves as a fascinating and depressing illustration of where the UK is currently at with regards to Brexit, international trade, and international relations and the Government doesn’t really want you to scrutinize things. It wants you to go along with the optics and question nothing.

Let’s deal with the numbers first of all.

Whatever you might have been told – or believed – about the ‘failing EU project’, it is the world’s second-largest economy and still, by far, the UK’s biggest trading partner. In 2019, the UK’s exports to the EU were worth £294 billion and accounted for 43% of all of our outward trade. Since leaving the EU, that figure has dipped, fairly dramatically, but it remains our biggest market and is usefully on our doorstep, so that makes sense.

Unfortunately, all of this poses something of an existential crisis for the Brexiters. Because leaving the EU, after all, was in part about ‘making trade deals with the rest of the world’. And, for some, like the Peruvian-born former Conservative MEP, Daniel Hannan, it was about reconnecting with the neglected Commonwealth and regaining our place as a top player in the world.

And that’s why Australia matters.

British people like Australia. Opinion polls consistently rank it in the top three of Britons’ favourite nations alongside Canada and New Zealand. When you say ‘Australia’ to Brits, they think of warm seas, sandy beaches, barbecues, and nice wine; Kylie Minogue, clean-cut soap operas, and the comedy stylings of Dame Edna Everage. Australia also features the UK’s flag on its flag, has our Queen on its money, and drives on the left. Australians speak our language and many – but by no means all – of them are descended from British settlers. Hannan calls them our “kinsmen”.

Boris Johnson needs a Brexit win – and Australia, a nation so beloved of British people, looks like the obvious candidate. It ticks all the boxes and makes for some great Sun front-page spreads. But there is a problem. Actually, there is a whole Pandora’s box of problems.

No deal can replace the one that the UK had with the EU. That’s not ‘Remoaner’ talk, it is plain and obvious fact. And the Government knows that and its friendly stable of tamed tabloid journalists – who pretend otherwise – know that too. It is essential to both camps that you and I don’t work it out – that we are kept in ignorance and instead cheer ‘huzzah’ for the thin gruel on offer.

The free trade agreement with Australia is about optics and, yes, about tapping into those Hannan-esque yearnings for a world in which Britain headed a great big Empire and was top dog. Daniel Hannan and his fellow travellers believe in something called CANZUK, a fetishist nonsense in which Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK unite in a trade deal and sing Rule, Britannia! – or something.

It is not rooted in logic or economic reality – but in whimsy and fantasy. And, in that, we have the Great British Brexit summed up.

For, at the end of the day, none of this makes sense and none of this benefits any of us. Not even the most credulous Brexit believer. It is the politics of Johnsonism – a philosophy predicated on serving the ego and career of the Prime Minister and his acolytes.

The Government needs a trade deal with Australia because it needs a Brexit win. It needs to fuel the fantasy, much as the Aztecs believed that they needed to fuel the Sun with human sacrifice lest their whole world would fall apart. Logic and sanity play no part as long as it thinks it can get away with it – and the Government believes that it can. Depressingly, I think it’s probably right.

Now: permission to bang your head on that table.

Source: https://bylinetimes.com/2021/05/19/the-uk-australia-trade-deal-a-tale-of-brexit-insanity/

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The most powerful was an 8.1 quake that hit some 620 miles northeast of New Zealand on Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Two earlier quakes registered magnitude 7.4 and magnitude 7.3.

Small tsunami waves were seen later Friday, but there were no reports of serious damage or casualties.

Jennifer Eccles, an earthquake expert at the University of Auckland, said the 8.1 temblor was at the top end of the scale for those involving only the Earth’s ocean crust.

“This is about as big as it gets,” she said.

While the quakes triggered warning systems and caused traffic jams and some chaos in New Zealand as people scrambled to get to higher ground, they did not appear to pose a widespread threat to lives or major infrastructure.

Following the 8.1 quake, civil defense authorities in New Zealand told people in certain areas on the East Coast of the North Island on Friday morning that they should move immediately to higher ground and not stay in their homes. They said a damaging tsunami was possible.

John Fitzgerald, left, scans the horizon from high ground for any sign of a tsunami on Friday near Waitangi, New Zealand. Peter De Graaf/New Zealand Herald Via AP

New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency tweeted, “People near coast from the BAY OF ISLANDS to WHANGAREI, from MATATA to TOLAGA BAY, and GREAT BARRIER ISLAND must MOVE IMMEDIATELY to nearest high ground, out of all tsunami evacuation zones, or as far inland as possible,” they wrote.

“Hope everyone is ok out there,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wrote on Facebook.

A tsunami watch, which had been issued for Hawaii, was canceled Thursday afternoon. There was also no threat to the U.S. West Coast.

Officials in New Zealand had issued an advisory for coastal areas after the first shallow, powerful earthquake struck off its northeastern coast Thursday night.

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New Zealand’s borders will remain closed for most of this year amid uncertainty over the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

“We can expect our borders to be impacted for much of this year,” she said. “We will continue to pursue travel bubbles with Australia and the Pacific, but the rest of the world simply poses too great a risk at this stage.”

New Zealand’s success in combating the virus has allowed it to lift restrictions and get its economy moving again much sooner than initially expected, but the closed border is decimating its tourism industry.

While the government said it expects to give regulatory approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine next week, Ms. Ardern said mass immunization will not begin until mid-year and she was taking a “conservative” approach to letting foreigners in again.

“For travel to restart, we need one of two things,” she said.

“We need the confidence that being vaccinated means you don’t pass covid-19 on to others or we need enough of our population to be vaccinated and protected that people can safely re-enter New Zealand. Both possibilities will take some time.”

Ms. Ardern sounded pessimistic on the possibility of a safe travel zone with Australia any time soon. While talks would continue, “it does look increasingly difficult at a country-by-country level”.

Australia began allowing quarantine-free travel for New Zealanders last year but suspended it this week when New Zealand reported one case of covid-19 in the community.

Ms. Ardern expressed disappointment at Australia’s decision.

The case involving a woman who tested positive after leaving managed isolation is “well under control”, she said.

“If we are to enter into a Trans-Tasman bubble, we will need to be able to give people confidence that we won’t see closures at the borders that happen with very short notice over incidents we believe can be well managed domestically,” Ms. Ardern added.

New Zealand aims to begin immunizing workers at its managed isolation facilities this quarter, but Ms. Ardern was unable to say when the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will arrive in the country.

It is expected to get to New Zealand around the same time as it reaches Australia, which is slated for mid-to-late February.

“New Zealand will have its house in order so we will be ready to receive, but ultimately we will be in the hands of pharmaceutical companies’ delivery timelines,” Ms. Ardern said.

Source: https://www.independent.ie/world-news/australasia/new-zealand-may-stay-shut-for-rest-of-year-amid-vaccine-rollout-doubts-40016417.html

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Illustration by Derek Zheng

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A 7.4 magnitude earthquake, which struck off the coast of Gisborne in the early hours of Friday morning, was felt across New Zealand.

The quake was 33km deep, and about 700km north-east of Gisborne.

It happened at 12.49 am, with nearly 9000 reports of people having felt it on the GeoNet website.

A 7.4 magnitude Earthquake struck of the coast on Gisborne on Thursday night and was felt widely across New Zealand

It was felt as far south as Dunedin, with strong shaking felt across the east coast of the North Island.

READ MORE:
* Earthquake felt across North Island
* More than 1000 North Islanders rattled by 5.5-magnitude earthquake off Coromandel coast
* Magnitude 4.3 earthquake shakes lower North Island
* Two earthquakes in two minutes, one of them strong, shake central NZ

The National Emergency Management Agency issued a warning that the quake could create a tsunami, but later confirmed there was no risk to New Zealand.

Some coast areas may experience strong currents and unpredictable surges, and the Waikato Region Emergency Management Group has warned people to stay out of the water.

“Please remember that although there was no tsunami threat in the wee hours, the earthquake south of the Kermadec Island this morning still could cause strong currents so stay out of the water on the east coast this morning.”

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The extra health costs associated with the premature loss of life and admissions to hospitals was estimated to be $2 billion, Professor Fay Johnston, a specialist in environmental health at the University of Tasmania, told the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements.

The estimates, presented in evidence to the royal commission, are based on modeling of the impact of ultra-fine particles – those smaller than one 1000th of a millimeter – in bushfire smoke that lingered over around 80 percent of the Australian population over the summer.

The estimates did not include further costs to society such as loss of time at work or school, the commission heard. Nor did the health impacts include the significant impact of increased stress or the disruption to treatment plans or medication regimes or even of the loss of regular exercise.

The commission also heard that 34,679 insurance claims worth $2.26 billion had been lodged, including 9,004 for domestic buildings worth $1.22 billion. It was told that normally insurers reject about 4 percent of claims but so far only around .66 percent of bushfire related claims had been rejected.

The commission was told that the increasing frequency of natural disasters due to climate change was compounding the psychological impact on survivors, particularly on children, and that this had been even further exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The town of only around 1000 permanent residents lost around 100 homes, he said.

Many of the small school’s students lived outside the town and had only intermittent access to the internet and mobile phones due to the damage to infrastructure caused by fires, making remote learning difficult “for children who had already been through the trauma of the fires,” Mr. Cashmore told the commission in a recorded interview.

Further, the town has been hit with a series of blackouts this year, also due to fire damage.

“It is a double-whammy for us. It is two unbelievable events that have impacted greatly on our small community,” Mr. Cashmore said.

He said that while children in other parts of the country might have enjoyed the novelty of not having to attend school as the pandemic hit, students in Mallacoota wanted to be at school as part of their recovery and to tell stories about their memories of the fires.

See a visual guide to the fires here

Nick O’Malley is National Environment and Climate Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is also a senior writer and a former US correspondent.

Source: https://www.watoday.com.au/environment/climate-change/bushfires-left-estimated-445-dead-from-smoke-and-a-nation-traumatised-20200526-p54wha.html

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