Aotearoa / New Zealand

Home loan borrowers can expect rates to fall throughout the rest of this year and next, commentators say.

The Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate by 25bps to 5.25 percent on Wednesday.

While it was a move that was forecast by several economists, it was a u-turn from the bank's position in May. Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen described it as a "WTH moment" and "the biggest flip-flop ever".

A major update about the meth lollies, something got lost in translation with the police I think, they seem way too relaxed about class A drugs being out there in the community.

A leading scientist is welcoming the end to a gene technology ban, saying New Zealand has missed opportunities because of outdated rules.

Not long ago, I posted a story about someone's dog eating meth on a walk through Auckland, and now this?

Was this a smuggling operation gone wrong perhaps?

Honestly, the fact they even asked is pretty bad, voluntary or not.

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you
• Something humourous that happened to you
• Something frustrating that happened to you
• A quick question
• A request for recommendations
• Pictures of your pet
• A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
• Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

New Zealand athletes have bagged more gold medals at Paris 2024 than at any other Olympic Games in history.

The 10 golds claimed across the two weeks of competition have smashed the previous record of eight won at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

The Kiwis also bagged seven silver and three bronze medals to take the total number to 20 and finish 11th on the medal table, between Germany and Canada.

That is the same number of medals won at Tokyo 2020, which was previously New Zealand's most successful Olympics in terms of numbers. Athletes took seven golds, six silvers and seven bronzes at that competition.

Remember when we were told that privatisation of power generation would lower prices?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18517996

cross-posted from: https://no.lastname.nz/post/739915

WHAKAARI / WHITE ISLAND The Volcanic Alert Level has been raised to Level 3 at White Island and the Aviation Colour Code raised to orange.

Aviation Colour Code Orange indicates that a volcanic eruption is underway but with little or no ash being produced.

On Geonet's website, duty volcanologist Geoff Kilgour said the volcano had produced "a more vigorous plume" on Friday afternoon, moving volcanic ash to the east of the island.

Today, 10th August, Whakaari exhibited vigorous activity at the vent, which maintained a constant plume that was visibly depositing ash into the sea. The latest official information is available from GeoNet at https://www.geonet.org.nz/mbl/news/6C...

Just to clarify, a drone has no sound, from the brief times we could hear the sound it was identical to Dukono in Indonesia. This was the sound used in this video.

3m is chump change

God damn it, not again.

About 2000 parcels have been destroyed after an NZ Post truck caught fire last week.

The truck caught fire in Te Kuiti in the early hours of 31 July, with parcels on board bound for delivery in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taupō, NZ Post said.

I hope no one has been waiting for a delivery.

Croatia and Slovenia are ahead on the Gold medals per capita ranks, but we're top for total medals.

Just wow!

What a psycho.

Told you !!!!

Hayden Wilde had hoped it would come down to this. Just him and his long-time friend and rival, Alex Yee of Great Britain, duking it out on the run leg on the picturesque streets around Paris for the Olympic triathlon title.

Just 400m from the finish line alongside the gilded columns on the Pont Alexandre III, Yee summoned one last push to streak past the Kiwi. Wilde could not respond.

"I was just depleted. I was gone. I was done. I had nothing left and I just had to survive to get to the finish line," Wilde says of that moment Yee ran past him to snatch the gold from his grasp.

The New Zealand Herald’s publisher NZME says it should have employed more “journalistic rigour” when it used artificial intelligence tools to create an editorial that appeared in the Weekend Herald, online and in regional papers recently.

Truncated sentences and repetition of key words appeared characteristic of generative AI applications like ChatGPT.

The Black Ferns Sevens have won New Zealand's first medal of the Paris Games with a 19-12 victory over Canada in the final.

We live next to two kiwi fruit orchards, and have just had messages saying they’ll be spraying Hi Cane soon. They do give us at least 24hr advanced notice. It’s potentially dangerous stuff, we will not go out of the house during any spray time.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18104463

Air New Zealand has abandoned a 2030 goal to cut its carbon emissions, blaming difficulties securing more efficient planes and sustainable jet fuel.

The move makes it the first major carrier to back away from such a climate target.

The airline added it is working on a new short-term target and it remains committed to an industry-wide goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

The aviation industry is estimated to produce around 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, which airlines have been trying to reduce with measures including replacing older aircraft and using fuel from renewable sources.